‘Elden Ring’ will let you summon the spirits of dead enemies as allies

Many players can’t wait to get their hands on , the next game from Bloodborne and Dark Souls developer FromSoftware. The gameplay trailer that debuted last week offered a first proper look at what’s in store, . In interviews with and , director Hidetaka Miyazaki has revealed much more about what players can expect when they dive into this world in January.

There are six areas linked by a hub. Not all of them will be accessible at the outset, though you don’t have to tackle them all in a specific order. Each has a main dungeon, and there are smaller dungeons, forts, tunnels, caves and catacombs to explore.

The main bosses “are essentially demigods,” according to Miyazaki, and they’re written by A Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who helped . The bosses “inherited the mad tainted power of the Elden Ring shards once it was shattered,” Miyazaki said. “We wanted to depict these beings as not just creatures and horrible monsters, but have an element of heroism and an element of mythology to them.”

This is the largest world FromSoftware has created to date and Elden Ring includes a “to take into account that level of comfort and ease of play.” However, Miyazaki hopes players will roam the world and hunt for abilities and upgrades. You’ll have a double-jumping horse that can help you traverse the landscape faster than you can on foot.

Elden Ring players will be able to customize their character’s look and loadout. You can swap between 100 or so weapon arts, seen in Dark Souls 3, but you can only attach one to a weapon at any given time. One other tool you’ll have is the ability to jump. What a concept.

It seems FromSoftware drew from the stealth aspects of . You can sneak your way to vantage points to draw up a battle plan or perhaps even avoid combat encounters entirely. That will give you more freedom in how you play compared with the studio’s previous titles.

As with other From games, there are asynchronous multiplayer elements and you can summon others for co-op play. You can also summon the spirits of vanquished foes as allies, the blue ghostly creatures seen in the trailer. That’s handy, since “you will be fighting for a longer time than before,” as the fantasy RPG’s director told IGN.

Miyazaki estimated that the game takes around 30 hours to complete, though he hasn’t been taking too many “side trips,” according to Famitsu. There also are multiple endings for you to discover when Elden Ring drops on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and PS5 in seven months.