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Elden Ring Release Date, Trailer, World, Gameplay Details, and Everything You Need to Know


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Check out all the details on Elden Ring, the upcoming action-RPG made in collaboration by FromSoftware, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin.

After the E3 2019 reveal of Elden Ring, nothing was virtually revealed about the game in 2020. We knew that the RPG was coming, but FromSoftware didn't show anything, not even a piece of concept art. But thankfully, Elden Ring reemerged in 2021, and although it's not going to be released this year, expect it to arrive in early 2022.

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Credit: EldenRing

The trailers released so far are loaded with fantastic gameplay footage, and it's clear that Elden Ring is a Souls-style game. It has also made its way to the top of Steam's most wishlisted games.

Here's everything you need to know about Elden Ring, including its release date, trailer, gameplay details, and more.

Elden Ring Release Date: When will this epic RPG be released?

Elden Ring
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Elden Ring

Elden Ring is scheduled to release on February, 25, 2022. Fans have been anticipating for the release of Elden Ring since E3 2019, and its initial November 2021 release date had been pushed, and now, we finally have a release date that's only months away.

Originally due to release in January 2022, Elden Ring has already gone gold and shouldn't see any delay from its release across PC and consoles on Feb. 25.

In the video game industry, "going gold" means that the master version of the game has been finalized and it's ready for mass production, distribution, and packaging of digital and physical copies of the game.

Thankfully, its development doesn't seem to take as much time as George R.R. Martin's writing pace for the next A Song of Ice and Fire book, The Winds of Winter.

FromSoftware also revealed that Elden Ring is getting a Day One patch.

"Elden Ring was originally slated for release in January of this year, and it has been pushed back once to February," said FromSoftware producer Yasuhiro Kitao during the aforementioned broadcast. "But please be assured, the title will be ready for sale on February 25th. The master version has already been submitted, and right now, the team is working on a day one patch, to make sure everything in the game is just so."

You can watch the mention of Elden Ring's Day One patch at the end of this video from the Taipei Game Show 2022:

"Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware are aware of the technical difficulties players have experienced with the Dark Souls suite of games on PC," the publisher said in a statement.

FromSoftWare also revealed Elden Ring's Global Release Schedule that showed when PC and console players will be able to begin their adventure in the game.

The official Elden Ring Twitter account posted an infographic revealing the exact times Elden Ring will be released digitally, and PC players will have a bit of a headstart over those who decide to play on console.

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PC players can start Elden Ring on February 24 at 3pm PT/6pm ET/11pm GMT. If you're in Australia, that translates to 10am AEDT on Feb. 25.

Most players across the globe will be able to start their Elden Ring adventures on console at midnight in their local time zone. If you're on Central Time or Pacific Time, you will be able to begin a bit early on Feb. 24 at 9pm PT/11pm CT.

Elden Ring Trailer: Watch epic gameplay footage of Elden Ring

Watch the first Elden Ring gameplay trailer that premiered at the Summer Game Fest event hosted by Geoff Keighley, right before the rest of E3 2021.

The three-minute trailer reveals a lot of action-packed gameplay footage with familiar Souls-style art design and action. It looks like the game will feature a lot of the series staples as well, such as giant bosses, backstabs, and bonfires. There are also some new things like mounted horse combat.

On December 9, a new story trailer for Elden Ring debuted at The Game Awards 2021, and it focuses on the lore that A Song of Ice and Fire (a.k.a. Game of Thrones) author George R.R. Martin helped create with game director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

You can watch the story trailer on YouTube:

Elden Ring 2019 Trailer & Initial Description

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Bandai Namco and FromSoftware released an announcement trailer for Elden Ring in 2019, and it teased the game's dark atmosphere but it didn't show any hard details.

"I doubt you could even imagine it. That which commanded the skies, giving life its fullest brilliance. The Elden Ring. Shattered, by someone or something. Don't tell me you don't see it. Look up at the sky. It burns."

According to FromSoftware CEO (and game director) Hidetaka Miyazaki, Elder Ring will have an open world "ripe for exploration", but we expect the RPG to have a lot of gameplay elements similar to the Souls games. Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin collaborated with the game developers to create the lore and world for Elder Ring.

On Feb. 22, Bandai Namco released a new launch trailer for Elden Ring, which featured a look at the surprising new bosses and locations in the game.

The trailer teases the awakening of your character, the Tarnished, showing that a mysterious light finds and revives them, and we get to see more of the world of the Lands Between - a dark, fantastical world populated by dangerous monsters.

Elden Ring World: What is the setting of Elden Ring?

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Following the announcement of Elder Ring, Miyazaki explained how GRRM was involved with the game. Miyazaki described what he envisioned to Martin.

"This allowed us to have many free and creative conversations regarding the game," Miyazaki said, "in which Mr. Martin later used as a base to write the overarching mythos for the game world itself."

"This mythos proved to be full of interesting characters and drama along with a plethora of mystical and mysterious elements as well," Miyazaki explained. "It was a wonderful source of stimulus for me and the development staff. Elden Ring's world was constructed using this mythos and stimulus as a base. Even I myself find it hard to contain my excitement from time to time. We hope that everyone else is looking forward to the world we have created."

In the latest story trailer, a character known as the Storyteller shares a brief history lesson about the Elden Ring, the Lands Between, and the rising conflict that players will experience when the action role-playing game releases next year.

During an interview with Game Informer, director Hidetaka Miyazaki talked about the mythological lore that George R.R. Martin had created for the game, which sets up the world before its catastrophic Shattering event.

“When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story, that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started," Miyazaki explained.

The Shattering is an event in the RPG's pre-game history. Elden Ring's location, The Lands Between, was once a kingdom blessed by the titular ring, and the Erdtree at its centre. However, a war called The Shattering saw the ring broken, and the land's inhabitants changed.

"So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters," added Miyazaki. "And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not.”

Elden Ring Gameplay Details: What gameplay details have been revealed so far?

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Credit: FromSoftware

Elden Ring is an open world action RPG but unlike The Witcher 3, there won't be a lot of NPCs roaming around its world.

"Creating a new type of game is a big challenge for us," Miyazaki told IGN. "If we would add towns on top of that, it would become a bit too much, so we decided to create an open world style game focused on what we are best at." He says you'll be able to traverse Elden Ring on horseback."

As the gameplay trailer revealed, Elden Ring looks faster than the original Dark Souls game.

Unlike Sekiro, which featured a named protagonist, Elden Ring will let you customize your hero in traditional RPG fashion.

Recently, we learned that Elden Ring has a stealth system as well as a weather/time system. Instead of hollow, you're considered "Tarnished", and that there are characters "with their own unique motivations for helping or hindering the player's progress."

Elden Ring will also have multiplayer, with players seemingly appearing as blue shades similar to Dark Souls.

According to Bandai Namco, Elden Ring is an RPG "with a wide variety of weapons, magical abilities and skills found throughout the world".

Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki told the PlayStation Blog that while he doesn't think the game is necessarily easier than previous FromSoftware games, he does believe more players will be able to complete it this time around.

Miyazaki was asked about the "ongoing discourse" that surrounds the accessibility and challenge of FromSoftware's titles, if the team was more mindful of these conversations when developing Elden Ring, and they've impacted the way the team "tailored and maintained FromSoftware's trademark difficulty" for the game.

"Yes, we have," Miyazaki replied. "It’s a valid discussion. I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes. We don’t want players to feel like the game is unfairly punishing, but rather that there’s a chance to win a difficult encounter and make progress.

"We understand that Souls-like games are regularly associated with impossible levels of difficulty with high barriers to entry. But we try to design the games to make the cycle of repeatedly trying to overcome these challenges enjoyable in itself. So we hope that with Elden Ring and the new options it provides, it will be a success in that respect."

From Software introduced the character classes of Elden Ring: The Warrior, Enchanted Knight, Prophet, Champion, Bloody Wolf, and the Prisoner. The weirdest of them all is the Prisoner. "A prisoner bound in an iron mask," the Twitter description states. "Studied in glintstone sorcery, having lived among the elite prior to sentencing."

FromSoftware also revealed the Confessor and Samurai classes. The Confessor is skilled at using the sword and incantations while the Samurai is going to be more physical in combat.

Spoilers for Elden Ring have been leaked ahead of the release, with many fans sharing screenshots on Reddit (don't worry, we won't be sharing them here).

Additionally, by simply searching for "Elden Ring" on YouTube, one of the first videos that show up is the opening cinematic of the game, and there were also reports of extended gameplay footage being revealed online, but it looks like Bandai Namco have taken them down already.

Elden Ring Soundtrack: Who's composing the music?

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Unsurprisingly, veteran FromSoftware composer Yuka Kitamura, who was involved in Sekiro and Dark Souls 3, confirmed that she's working on the soundtrack for Elden Ring.

Veteran FromSoftware composer Yuka Kitamura is also working on Elden Ring. Kitamura was also involved in Sekiro and Dark Souls 3.

After changing her Twitter handle to her professional name (instead of her favorite Golden Sun character) a fan asked Kitamura if she's working on Elden Ring. Good news, she is!


Elden Ring Collector's Editions and Pre-Order Bonuses: What's included?

Elden Ring Collector's Edition
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Credit: Bandai Namco
Elden Ring Collector's Edition

Update: The Collector's Edition of Elden Ring is now available in major retailers.

The standard version of the game has been available to pre-order for quite some time, and now, fans can buy the Collector's Edition and Premium's Edition.

If you buy from Best Buy and Walmart, you can get exclusive free art cards and free SteelBook case. Note that the Collector's Edition and Premium Collector's Edition versions are limited, so they might not be available in some retailers.

Gamestop is offering an exclusive Digital Adventure Guide and bonus gesture with the preorder.

Elden Ring Collector's Edition Details ($189.99):

  • Physical copy of the game
  • 9-inch statue of Malenia – Blade of Miquella
  • Exclusive SteelBook featuring the Elden Ring
  • 40-page hardcover art book
  • Digital Soundtrack

You can buy the game on Amazon.

Elden Ring Minimum Specs: How much RAM do I need for the PC version?

On Feb. 14, Bandai Namco revealed Elden Ring's full PC system requirements for minimum and recommended hardware.

The specs confirm the earlier listing for the minimum required on Steam, including the bigger-than-expected 12GB of RAM. The recommended specs are higher, of course, asking for 16GB to run the RPG as intended, alongside Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 56 graphics card, and an Intel Core I7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X processor.

They included the note that these specs are "valid for launch day and may be updated in the future."

These specs surprised PC gamers because it's higher than expected, and it's higher than the minimum specs of previous FromSoftware's titles.

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