Highlights

  • Elden Ring has exceeded sales expectations, selling over 20 million copies in its first year, making it FromSoftware's biggest success to date.
  • The game's open-world RPG exploration spreads over 80+ hours, showcasing FromSoftware's combat and narrative expertise.
  • Elden Ring's fantasy aesthetics, thanks to George R.R. Martin's involvement, solidify FromSoftware's status as the face of the Soulslike genre and have influenced other games in the genre.

While few expect a FromSoftware title to sell badly at this point, Elden Ring has surpassed even the Soulsborne community's expectations. Selling over 20 million copies in its first year, Elden Ring is the greatest breakout success that Dark Souls and Armored Core developer FromSoftware has ever seen. Given that it's practically the length of another Dark Souls trilogy, it's not hard to see why. With all of FromSoftware's combat and narrative experience spread across 80+ hours of open-world RPG exploration, Elden Ring is a feat for the humble Japanese developer.

It isn't over yet, either. A paid expansion titled Shadow of the Erdtree will hit Elden Ring in the near future, potentially in early 2024. Even as the game approaches its second anniversary, Elden Ring still has plenty of players, and it's renewed FromSoftware's status as the Soulslike genre's face all over again. The game did everything right, and even players who can't reach its end still enjoy journeying across its landscape. One could even make the argument that Elden Ring's world proves a particular aesthetic is a core part of the Soulslike genre, both in the range of experiences it allows and in how it captures players with its otherworldly beauty.

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Elden Ring Embraces Soulslikes' Fantasy Aspects

Elden Ring Skeleton Enemy Wielding Grossmesser Curved Sword

Thanks to the stylings of backstory writer George R. R. Martin, co-director Hidetaka Miyazaki, and FromSoftware's long-term relationship with the genre, Elden Ring is dripping with fantasy aesthetics. From the word go, players can become an undying medieval knight, receive a magical spirit horse from a mysterious maiden, and ride into a swamp to slay a fire-breathing dragon. Elden Ring may be the most traditional Western fantasy title FromSoftware has produced since Demon's Souls, which itself was roughly as traditional as a few of FromSoftware's prior games.

FromSoftware's History With Fantasy RPGs

Fantasy has been a part of FromSoftware's DNA ever since the studio got its start in game development with the first three King's Field games. The similarities between said titles and the eventual third-person Soulslikes have become well-known, and the fantasy genre was in use throughout the projects separating them. From traditional Western fantasy settings in FromSoftware games like Lost Kingdoms and Eternal Ring to the Japanese mythology used in Otogi and Shadow Assault: Tenchu, FromSoftware has experimented thoroughly with the genre. Even Bloodborne's mishmash of Victorian technology, gothic horror, and cosmic horror was preceded by the even more anachronistic guns and magic of Shadow Tower: Abyss.

Fantasy Will Remain A Core Part of the Soulslike Genre

It makes sense that long-time fantasy developers would imbue their own line of action-RPGs with consistent fantasy elements. The effect this has had on the wider Soulslike genre is already apparent, with games like Hollow Knight, Salt and Sanctuary, Lords of the Fallen, and Mortal Shell all sharing some form of fantasy aesthetic alongside their Soulslike trappings. With Elden Ring achieving the success it has, it feels like this established part of FromSoftware's identity has become the default look of the Soulslike formula.

FromSoftware certainly isn't abandoning fantasy anytime soon. Besides its upcoming Elden Ring expansion, a rumor for the studio's next title that's been building steam indicates it could be FromSoftware's most high fantasy game yet. Said to be titled Spellbound, this action-RPG will supposedly emphasize the magic systems from the Soulslike games even more than Elden Ring did. Regardless of whether this is true, the twin genres of fantasy and mech-focused science-fiction are deeply intertwined with FromSoftware's work, and any games emulating its style will inevitably have to adapt or remove the genres that come with it.