I've Waited 5 Years For "Big Dark Souls" & Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Finally Gave It To Me

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Even after was first revealed at E3 2019, virtually nothing concrete was known about it from a gameplay standpoint. The announcement trailer introduced a handful of key characters, but its famous line, "," was hilariously apt. From a handful of interviews director Hidetaka Miyazaki did at the time, a common joke arose which painted as «big .» While the idea was surely perpetuated with some facetiousness, big wasn't an inaccurate description of what was known about the game – a truly open-world rendition of the dark fantasy RPGs that had propelled FromSoftware to prominence via the trilogy.

Following the announcement trailer, FromSoftware went radio silent for two whole years, and the studio's most dedicated fans grew collectively Hollow, their rabid anticipation mirroring the degenerative madness of ' Undead in various online spaces. Funnily enough, I look back on 's protracted marketing cycle with a lot of fondness. Since having my perception of what video games could be turned on its head by playing in 2011, I'd become one of the Hollow Undead desperately hoping for news at every possible opportunity. I didn't necessarily need to know more – only my untimely demise could've stopped publisher Bandai Namco from securing a day-one purchase from me.

On November 12, 2021, in a move that was surely not great for my health, I woke up before sunrise to participate in the first Closed Network Test – essentially a beta to stress test the servers, which let players get a glimpse of West Limgrave. This was my first inkling that might not be the big I expected. In my Closed Network Test impressions, I wrote, "."

How naïve I was.

I likened this sampling of the Lands Between to an open world "," and estimated the Closed Network Test's playable area to be "." How naïve I was. In retrospect, it should've been clear that this was not big ; sure, the combat is essentially lifted straight out of in most respects, but I didn't want big, I wanted big. Not even 's Legacy Dungeons