Elden Ring (New From Soft Game)
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Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
The last line is the most intriguing to me since it actually address some aspects of the game itself: large scale danger and discovery, eh? But is it a third person action RPG with a high degree of difficulty!? If so... SOLD! Actually, I found some rumored descriptions of the game from before the official title leaked, when it was just called project Great Rune or GR (take with a heaping helping of salt): An open-world title with horse riding and various kingdoms to visit and abilities to obtain from killing the leaders of those kingdoms. So yeah, it's another Souls game (meets Mega Man? 
)! 
I guess I actually first heard about this when Martin mentioned that among the dozens of other projects he's working on instead of finishing his popular fantasy series was a Japanese video game. That made my eyes roll, but the fact it's with Miyazaki certainly shows some taste if he's at all on board as a fan of his previous work. Hopefully this isn't a case of a collaboration or "super group" being less than the sum of its parts, as is often the case. They just need to get Miura to do the artwork and its certain to not live up to sky-high expectations! I can hear it now, "Their individual works are better."
It should also be mentioned this isn't the first ring themed FromSoft release...
Not to mention the darksign itself, which also features prominently in The Ringed City, and of course runes play an even bigger role in Bloodborne. I'm sure none of this is directly related, but it already speaks to the aesthetic and culture of these games.
)! I guess I actually first heard about this when Martin mentioned that among the dozens of other projects he's working on instead of finishing his popular fantasy series was a Japanese video game. That made my eyes roll, but the fact it's with Miyazaki certainly shows some taste if he's at all on board as a fan of his previous work. Hopefully this isn't a case of a collaboration or "super group" being less than the sum of its parts, as is often the case. They just need to get Miura to do the artwork and its certain to not live up to sky-high expectations! I can hear it now, "Their individual works are better."
It should also be mentioned this isn't the first ring themed FromSoft release...
Not to mention the darksign itself, which also features prominently in The Ringed City, and of course runes play an even bigger role in Bloodborne. I'm sure none of this is directly related, but it already speaks to the aesthetic and culture of these games.
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Yeah Martin mentioned it a few weeks ago right? Anyways, I expect he just acted as a writing consultant after From Software offered him a pile of cash.
Hey thanks for the news.
I know I should keep myself in check but this are exciting news!
God only knows how I would react if Miura was in it as well.
It reminds me of Junji Ito working for P.T. (or Silent Hills).
I know I should keep myself in check but this are exciting news!
God only knows how I would react if Miura was in it as well.
It reminds me of Junji Ito working for P.T. (or Silent Hills).
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Yeah, that tracks, and I doubt it's be a genuine bromance on the level of Kojima/Del Toro anyway; at best it's probably a deal founded on reputation, prestige, and of course money as you say, though it's interesting that they're working together at all, an unlikely though perhaps fitting combination. It's also still fun to imagine Martin at least watching some Souls and liking what he saw. And hey, my dad beat Dark Souls in his 70's, so it's not out of the question. Martin certainly looks like a gamer. =)
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Here's the E3 trailer for anyone who hasn't seen it yet: https://youtu.be/4euIi1JfMqs
Until some pictures of them hanging out on the kerb smoking imaginary ganja will surface we can safely assume there is no bromance going on, but I wouldn't be so quick to say it's all just interest driven either. Based on general impressions of Miyazaki, he doesn't seem like the type of person who would leech off of someone's name and recognition in exchange for money. Both of them, in fact, seem to have a degree of respect for the art and the process. Although, I'm not saying there isn't money to be made as well, naturally.
Funny that you say fitting, judging by their styles of storytelling and exposition it comes off as almost antithetical to me. It'll be interesting to see how they'll adapt to each other, and if the end result will still feel like a FromSoftware game or not.
Edit: There's a recently posted interview with Miyazaki about the game.
It seems like there's no more room for doubt about Martin's contribution to the actual substance of the game. Not much of a fan of his myself, but Miyazaki's eagerness makes me curious.
Until some pictures of them hanging out on the kerb smoking imaginary ganja will surface we can safely assume there is no bromance going on, but I wouldn't be so quick to say it's all just interest driven either. Based on general impressions of Miyazaki, he doesn't seem like the type of person who would leech off of someone's name and recognition in exchange for money. Both of them, in fact, seem to have a degree of respect for the art and the process. Although, I'm not saying there isn't money to be made as well, naturally.
Funny that you say fitting, judging by their styles of storytelling and exposition it comes off as almost antithetical to me. It'll be interesting to see how they'll adapt to each other, and if the end result will still feel like a FromSoftware game or not.
Edit: There's a recently posted interview with Miyazaki about the game.
It seems like there's no more room for doubt about Martin's contribution to the actual substance of the game. Not much of a fan of his myself, but Miyazaki's eagerness makes me curious.
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Looks lit. It's going to be more RPG than Sekiro so From Software is going back to its roots. And respected writer cooperating with Miyazaki? Sounds very good to me.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Cool, reminds me a bit of Demon's Souls, but not necessarily the others, which isn't a bad thing.
Well, Miyazaki is the head of a company and Martin is basically the same for a franchise that's become a pop culture phenomenon. They both respect their art, but they're also businessmen, so they don't need to be purists or sellouts in this partnership. I'm sure they genuinely want to do it creatively and it makes financial sense. For Miyazaki and FromSoft it's great exposure, he's getting top billing with the "American Tolkien" that authored the biggest show of the decade, and Martin gets to work on and attach his name to something different than normal, though the old GoT RPG he was involved with is supposed to be pretty decent, ala Sword of Berserk.
I meant the dark, medieval fantasy genre, and despite being a novelist Martin might spend more time developing lore than Miyazaki does. He's released like two or three histories, with another one on the way, in lieu of the next novel(s) in the series.
Yep, looks cool, but back to their roots? DSIII came out in 2016 and before that they'd released one at least every other year since 2009; more like back to the well again (and Sekiro, while indeed less an RPG, ain't that different either). As a Souls lover, I certainly can't say they haven't given me enough, though Sekiro has left me wanting because it's basically to defense what Bloodborne was to offense, thus why one's my favorite and the other is... not.
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Yes, I'm talking how they're implementing RPG elements in action game. It was Demon's Souls that made them popular, this is what I consider roots of From Software success - of course it wasn't only RPG aspect, that's just one part of it.
Their "roots" would be the King's Field series. I thought that's what you meant.
I meant roots of their success! It's in Demon's Souls formula, not King's Field.
Well, then sorry for saying so, but that's kind of a ridiculous thing to say, since FromSoft has more or less been making Demon's Souls games since Demon's Souls. Even if you arbitrarily exclude Sekiro from that lineage, that wouldn't be a return. Those are all action RPGs. This will probably be an action RPG as well.
Now if we're talking setting, KING'S FIELD is a high fantasy world, so given that we know very little about this game, I got the impression from the trailer it might have more in common with those roots than, say, Demon's Souls. So I thought you had a good point, even though it was apparently by accident.
It's all pretty much hearsay at this point anyway, because this trailer doesn't exactly tell us much of anything at all.
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Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I can't speak to King's Field, though how cool would it be if they revived it as First Person Souls, but as I said the Elden Ring trailer did remind me a bit more of Demon's Souls, which is tuned a few degrees over toward fantasy in my opinion, than any of the other Souls or Bloodborne (though, as we agree, they never really left this dark fantasy RPG milieu). It's probably because some of those character shots and scenes reminded me a bit of the poses and designs of the Demon's Souls loading screens depicting characters from the game, though those certainly aren't so distinctive (it's just a vibe I got watching).
As for the substance of this trailer, one part that did remind me of Sekiro, and was seemingly a recurring theme, was the old(?) person holding an arm, perhaps even over their own like a gauntlet, and all those other hands seemingly holding it on as well (shades of the shinobi prosthetic, but grosser). We also see someone else seemingly attaching a working limb onto their armor and the character that's wielding that mallet or rod has a body that's literally crumbling like it's made of clay. So, it would seem the alleged aspect of gaining the powers and abilities of those you slay could literally be tied to attaching their limbs or specific, perhaps enchanted, parts onto your own body, Frankensteining yourself in essence. Is that the power of the Elden Ring?
If it's a true Mega Man homage and gaining the parts/abilities in a certain order gives you an advantage over the next boss I'll lose my mind. =)
That's pretty cool, a couple of lorephiles that found each other half way across the world conversing and exchanging ideas; maybe it's a real bromance after all!
As for the substance of this trailer, one part that did remind me of Sekiro, and was seemingly a recurring theme, was the old(?) person holding an arm, perhaps even over their own like a gauntlet, and all those other hands seemingly holding it on as well (shades of the shinobi prosthetic, but grosser). We also see someone else seemingly attaching a working limb onto their armor and the character that's wielding that mallet or rod has a body that's literally crumbling like it's made of clay. So, it would seem the alleged aspect of gaining the powers and abilities of those you slay could literally be tied to attaching their limbs or specific, perhaps enchanted, parts onto your own body, Frankensteining yourself in essence. Is that the power of the Elden Ring?
If it's a true Mega Man homage and gaining the parts/abilities in a certain order gives you an advantage over the next boss I'll lose my mind. =)
That's pretty cool, a couple of lorephiles that found each other half way across the world conversing and exchanging ideas; maybe it's a real bromance after all!
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Feeblecursedone
"This hammer has broken Daemons on my anvil, Elf.
The scene with the ( god?) smithing something with his hammer awfully reminds me of slavic god Svarog and his creation of the world :
https://preview.redd.it/u78qvgc7gi3...bp&s=4990d10cfa14082e85ff3b92f53dc1b9a15d879b
There's even that line in the trailer: " Don't tell me you don't see it. Look up at the Sky. It Burns. "
I sincerely hope this game is going to incorporate various indo-european mythologies and not just norse. With that said, I hope the game will rely on its old checked formula of story-telling, finding scattered pieces of lore throughout the world is what made Dark souls story so engaging in first place. I simply can't even imagine playing a game where I have everything delivered straight into my face, that's what souls games have done to me.
https://preview.redd.it/u78qvgc7gi3...bp&s=4990d10cfa14082e85ff3b92f53dc1b9a15d879b
There's even that line in the trailer: " Don't tell me you don't see it. Look up at the Sky. It Burns. "
I sincerely hope this game is going to incorporate various indo-european mythologies and not just norse. With that said, I hope the game will rely on its old checked formula of story-telling, finding scattered pieces of lore throughout the world is what made Dark souls story so engaging in first place. I simply can't even imagine playing a game where I have everything delivered straight into my face, that's what souls games have done to me.
As someone who actually played King's Field long ago I'll say that you could probably trace a vague lineage between it and the Souls games. The difficulty, the very deliberate style of gameplay (or in the case of KF: horrendously slow), the weird enemies, the stamina bar, the "go die in this area you're not yet ready for if you want" level design, the fact you can kill important NPCs...
Anyway, for what it's worth I expect Elden Ring to be in line with Dark Souls 1, just with a bigger world and a slightly more generic fantasy setting.
What about a Kirby homage? Yum yum.
Still just sounds like a writing contractor to me.
From Software had no big success before Demon's Souls in the western countries. Roots of their success is in Demon's Souls action RPG formula + its hard difficulty which is based on few aspects. I'm not excluding Sekiro totally from this, Sekiro sold well, but it's not action RPG and I'm talking how they're going back to their basic formula - their last two games are Sekiro and Deracine and they're going back to typical Demon's Souls formula ( probably ). Their last two games weren't 100% what made them successful.
This is a disingenuous argument and it comes across as pretty dumb. Déraciné was a minor side project and Sekiro is just the latest installment in the wider Souls series, like Bloodborne before it. From Software isn't going back to anything, they're just continuing to iterate on their core concept while mixing things up so it doesn't become tired and lame.
^ Doesn't really matter. Sekiro isn't latest installment in anything that FS made, it's not action RPG and Deracine is their game in the end, doesn't matter if minor side project or not. And yes, after Sekiro and Deracine, From Software is going back to action RPG formula that made them popular in western countries.
Derecine was a one-off VR project, why are you including that as some indication they were STRAYING from their one true purpose?
And I've gotta say, it's very cool that you're so hard headed about this genre distinction stuff. Because for the uneducated, it would appear that Sekiro is actually pretty much the same type of game that Dark Souls is. But in actuality because of clothing and equipment being different, they cannot be compared, and it is good that FromSoft is giving up any further evolution in their game types and FINALLY returning gloriously to the well with Yet Another Action RPG. I am with you!
Sekiro is pretty different game, more action like, very fast. I'm not against evolution, I would like to see RPG elements and hard difficulty but if it's not like Dark Souls and still have those elements then I'm all for it. And of course, I'd like to see multiplayer implemented in a way similar to Dark Souls because this is part of what made Souls games unique.
You're wrong and clearly would rather hunker down rather than admit things are more subtle and not as clear cut as you made them out to be.
Think what you want to think. I'm happy they've said it's action RPG but I have my hopes very high for multiplayer especially.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Sure, if you care about what this game may be about, but how dark vs generic fantasy are we talking, and how action vs how RPG? These are the questions I want to be debating endlessly in this thread, not the plausible substance of the game based on what we've seen.
Kidding aside, considering the development of this game and depending on its size, Sekiro may ironically be more of a "side project" than we thought, as well...
What about a Kirby homage? Yum yum.
How dare you! Mega Man was absolutely tearing the limbs or busters off those Robot Masters and putting them on himself. It's a 1:1 comparison!
Still just sounds like a writing contractor to me.
Yeah, and that contract payout: friendship for life!
Miyazaki is such a fan even he's surprised by the work their doing! Does that sound like a sales pitch to you!? No, just some buds, tired of their 9-5, working on an exciting new project together. I bet they exchange sake and American beer during all the big meetups before playing the latest build together all night long!
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It is guaranteed to be a third-person action RPG.
Miyazaki said the game was initially planned to be a more classic type of fantasy (which is also apparent from the somewhat generic name they chose), but it will still lean towards eerie, dark themes, as is the FS spirit.
Still just sounds like a writing contractor to me.
The scope of your cynicism went from "writing consultant" to "just a writing contractor", so that's at least an improvement.
We know they are going for "their own approach" to an open world with this one, so there's even more potential for exploration than before, but it all really depends on how loquacious Martin's script is. I don't even worry about it, to be honest. I just trust they know how to do their job.
I tend to agree with the opinion that Sekiro is different from Souls, and not just because it had a different name and is more of an action-adventure with limited RPG elements. I feel like the vision for it was different as well. That being said, it shares too many similarities with the FromSoftware (Souls) formula to be considered a totally different thing for many people, and I can understand that.
Déraciné on the other hand was more like an experiment going into the PlayStation VR environment. While technically one of their titles, the amount of time/resources that went into it and its overall impact is not comparable to their other games (for reference, it sold 3.085 copies in the first week, while Sekiro for example sold well over 2 million). Bringing it up in this context really serves as more of a distraction from your original argument about them going back to the "roots of their success" or typical formula that made them popular, which I have to agree with everyone else, isn't valid. In retrospect, none of their big releases so far have genuinely ventured away from what you would call a characteristic FromSoftware game.