Suddenly, a light in the darkness.
It's been one year and five months after Elden Ring's reveal at the Xbox E3 showcase in June 19. One year and five months without a scrap of news. But finally, the Elden Ring subreddit can breathe again. The latest update? FromSoftware replying to their own tweet to remind everyone that, yes, Elden Ring still exists.
It's getting closer guys! from r/Eldenring
Sure, we waited far longer for a peep about another Half-Life game. Cyberpunk 2077 was announced eight damn years ago. I'm still not convinced Metroid Prime 4 will ever happen.
So Elden Ring enthusiasts can and should chill—it hasn't been that long. But I get it. Dark Souls 3 came out in 2016, and Sekiro, while great in its own right, was a big departure from the dark fantasy RPG action of the Souls series.
Besides, it makes sense that games with such an eye for detail would breed a legion of players making star charts of the stuff. Souls lore and cut content YouTube is its own cottage industry, still alive and well over a year since Sekiro came out. They're scrutinizing Dark Souls 3 four years on. There's arguably no modern fanbase more obsessive than FromSoftware's.
The story so far
Elden Ring promises something more familiar, but aimed higher than From ever has before. Billed as a spiritual followup to the Dark Souls series with a more open world and creative contributions from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring immediately won the hearts and minds of the hungry fanbase FromSoftware has accumulated over the last decade.
A single cinematic trailer spawned endless fan art, lore theories, and even a fan game. FromSoftware games attract a certain type of player, and the Elden Ring subreddit quickly flooded with them: a legion of meticulous, earnest information scavengers. But as time passed without any update on the status of Elden Ring, madness slowly took hold.
E3 2020. No trailer.
Tokyo Game Show. No trailer.
Gamescom. No trailer.
Event after event came and went without a word on Elden Ring. To pass time, the subreddit began making cute memes about the lack of info, dug deeper into lore theories, and even created their own lore and characters.
But what started out as cute coping mechanisms began to bend and refract reality. The subreddit was flooded with lamentations about losing hope and going hollow. More recently, /r/rEldenRing unofficially decided it would become a Bugsnax subreddit for the foreseeable future.
The subreddit became unrecognizable from one week to the next, fueled by the collision of ongoing despair, love, and impatience, and distorted by the layers of irony and reference inherent to the internet's accelerated culture.
But for now, things are looking up.
Hope has returned to the Elden Ring subreddit. For the first time in a long time, the irony isn't purely sardonic and nihilistic. I'm reminded of the early days of the subreddit and thinking about the future of what will likely stay a vibrant, good-humored place when Elden Ring eventually comes out.
I hate that I find this so uplifting, but light found its way into the deepest well, and just in time.
Yesterday was a good day from r/Eldenring
Coded message in From's Twitter feed? Is this a sign? from r/Eldenring
OoooOOoOooOOoOHhHHhHhhHhhHhh from r/Eldenring
Huh? from r/Eldenring
When a hollow becomes a game journalist from r/Eldenring
The Game Awards is under two months away. It couldn't possibly disappoint. Right?
