Elden Ring's release date is now less than a month away and From Software is sharing deeper and deeper looks into the action-RPG's world. Extended gameplay clips and preview coverage of Elden Ring has provided a substantial look into the open world that awaits in the game. As a perfect example, a new video was recently shared delving into one of Elden Ring's dungeon areas. The area is named Castle Mourne, and players enter the region following ruinous events.
The video preview is shared via an exclusive from Game Informer and begins from Elden Ring's open world. That early minutes of the video show some of Elden Ring's mounted gameplay, with the player hopping up and down cliffs with their mount's mid-air jump. They then encounter a giant wielding an enormous bow guarding Castle Mourne's entrance. This mini-boss fight is clipped, and followed by the player entering Castle Mourne and establishing a respawn point at its entrance.
After entering Castle Mourne proper, it should be made clear that while the area is a dungeon, a separate explorable area split off from the main explorable world, it's still very open to for exploration. The next several minutes of the trailer show the player exploring the parapets and inner workings of Castle Mourne, where a battle between the castle's soldiers and a mysterious troop of beast-like creatures is ongoing.
The end of the video, naturally, sees the player discovering a mysterious fog-filled doorway. Once passing through, they encounter what's likely Castle Mourne's final boss -- a large lupine creature with glowing red eyes that wields a broadsword. The scene of the fight is suitably dramatic, as it looks like a small island graveyard found behind Castle Mourne. Corpses and gravestones litter the small island. There's clearly something the beast wanted to find here, but what it is won't be shown until Elden Ring eventually launches.
What the video does particularly well is convey the size and scope of these tucked away areas in Elden Ring. It isn't clear whether adventuring into Castle Mourne is driven by Elden Ring's story or if it's more of a side adventure, but either way, it's a small-to-medium sized area with some exploration, a story told largely through environmental narrative elements, some unique rewards, and a boss fight at the end.
The question that makes this Castle Mourne gameplay video so exciting is that if this is an Elden Ring mini-dungeon, then how big and exciting with the game's larger dungeons and areas be? From Software fans won't have to wait much longer to find out.
Elden Ring releases February 25 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
