From Sleep Arrows to Spirit Summoning: Everything we learned from the Elden Ring Gameplay Preview

With nearly fifteen weeks until the delayed release date, fans got the first extended look at Elden Ring's gameplay today.

Streamed live on Bandai Namco US' Twitch and YouTube handles, the preview highlighted some of the core gameplay elements central to Elden Ring.

The featurette also had its fair share of callbacks to older FromSoftware titles from the illusory walls to critical hits. Other than the unmistakable likeness of classic Dark Souls armor sets like the Master's Set and Herald Set from Dark Souls 3, the familiar weapon classes also return.

There are halberds, straight swords, curved swords, curved greatswords, and greaswords including fan favourites like the Claymore and Large Club for players to look forward to.

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What to expect from Elden Ring's 'The Lands Between'

Players of Dark Souls games will feel the familiar air of a FromSoft title intuitively. The grounded gameplay does away with Sekiro's mobility, the places of grace will replace bonfires, keeping the DNA of the titles intact. Thankfully, the focus of the 15-minute preview was around the newer features that will be a part of the game.

Map and Map Markers

The Lands Between is a vast game world divided into a northern region with a giant swamp at its heart, a central region with diverse topography, and a wooded islet as a southern region. To help players traverse it, Elden Ring will provide players a map, which is a first for any FromSoftware title. The map will also feature a number of different custom markers players can use to mark points of interest.

Resources, Item Crafting, and Sleep Arrows

The various objects and drops acquired in Elden Ring can be put to use in a crafting system on-the-fly with upgradable tiers. The exemplary item showcased in the preview is "sleepbone arrow (fletched)".

Stealth

The aforementioned sleepbone arrow implies non-lethal ways to dispatch enemies, another exclusive feature that we have not seen in SoulsBorne titles before. Stealth in these games consisted solely of equipping rings that could reduce the enemy detection range. Elden Ring, however, implements a new sneaking system that opens up new playstyles.

Magic

In Dark Souls games, magic was a rudimentary division between pyromancies, miracles, sorceries, and hexes (i.e. dark magic). The vast majority of these were different varieties of nukes with their own strengths and caveats, with the occasional healing or camouflage spell to add flavour. The sorceries make a return as an assortment of blue magic projectiles cast from catalysts, but Elden Ring also introduces a summoning magic school to go with it. The chime-weilding summoning class will have a vast number of varying spirits to draw from, much like Ender Lilies.

Mounts, Dynamic Open World, Guiding Wind, and Dungeons

The keyword for Elden Ring's world design seems to be open-endedness, and the dungeons also echo it. Some of the dungeons and garrison areas are, as Bandai Namco proclaims in the preview, "open to different types of approaches suited to a wider playstyle variety." The seamless world also features layers of verticality, supported by mechanics to launch the mount into a super-jump. While the tarnished is free to explore it as they see fit, a guiding wind mechanic, as seen in Ghost of Tsushima, occasionally orients players to the next point of interest.

Characters and Bosses

A major draw for all modern FromSoftware games are their unforgettable cast of colorful characters. In the preview, fans saw Alexander the Iron Fist, who appears to be a stand-in for the Siegmeyer archetype seen throughout the Dark Souls games. The gameplay preview also featured two bosses. The first is a mounted likeness of Gyoubu Oniwa from Sekiro. The second is one Godrick the Golden, a lord obsessed with the secrets of the dragons, like Oceiros from Dark Souls 3, who weaponizes a dragon-head as a flame-spewing arm cannon.

Multiplayer

Elden Ring will also carry forward the hallmarks of FromSoftware multiplayer experience: Co-op, PvP, and invasions. Moreover, Elden Ring has also added voiced gestures.

There are only a few months left until the release of Elden Ring on February 25, 2022, but Bandai Namco has hinted that further disclosures about the game will be made before that.