Elden Ring, the long-awaited FROM SOFTWARE game, has finally been released to rave reviews, and it appears that everyone in the game industry is talking about it. Let’s take a look at the Cinematic Trailer campaign to see how it went. We wanted to look closely at the trailers because we were surprised at how little we knew about the game’s hooks and design pillars until late in the campaign.
The Elden Ring, in general, has an open-world structure. While the levels in previous games were known for being intricate and labyrinthine, the open-world structure is a HUGE departure from Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Based on the few hours we have spent playing Elden Ring and reading coverage, the key selling points appear to be:
- Game with an open world
- World co-created with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin
Another major talking point has been that this is a more approachable game because more generous checkpoints result in less lost progress and the need to replay difficult sections.
Otherwise, all of the other features that fans enjoy in FROM SOFTWARE‘s games appear to be present:
- Dark fantasy setting with intricate and one-of-a-kind world building
- Combat is difficult but fair, rewarding mastery and perseverance.
- RPG game systems that are somewhat obtuse but have a lot of customization
- Excellent animation and art.
- Interesting NPC, enemy, and boss character designs
- Storytelling that does not adhere to the traditional rules of informing the audience through exposition, character development, and so on.
Overall, Elden Ring appears to be a smart way to iterate on the formula that FROM SOFTWARE has been working with for many years. This is why it took us so long to figure out Elden Ring’s differentiators (other than it being another Dark Souls-style game in a new setting).
>>>Read more: How to Make a Cinematic Trailer: 5 Amazing Tips for Cutting Your Own Trailer
First E3 Cinematic Trailer in 2019
Its reveal was a cinematic trailer shown during E3 in June 2019, as has become customary with FROM SOFTWARE game trailers. This trailer has received over 2 million views to date.
This trailer cleverly begins with a title card referring to a new world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, which is a great hook given the pedigree of both creators, Miyazaki for game design and Martin for his Game of Thrones novels. The rest of the trailer doesn’t reveal much more than the existence of a powerful artifact known as the Elden Ring, which has been shattered.
The only other thing we can conclude is that the game takes place in a medieval setting, as evidenced by the use of the traditional anvil and hammer. To be honest, all FROM SOFTWARE needed to do to get its fans excited was to say Miyazaki is working on a new game, but this is a good start to the campaign.
>>>Read more: Why Game Cinematic Is Made? What are its functions?
The Gameplay Cinematic Trailer in 2021
The first Gameplay Trailer was released two years later, in June 2021, and has received approximately 526,000 views to date.
This trailer combines both story and gameplay. A “real gameplay” trailer is a significant milestone for AAA games, which are typically revealed with pre-rendered CG cinematic trailers; people want to know what the actual game looks like when played. There’s very little in here that appears to be captured using in-game camera angles; most of it is captured in cinematic camera angles enabled by debug camera tools.
The story is difficult to understand, as it is in most FROM SOFTWARE games. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of the dialogue uses unfamiliar proper names. The only story we can piece together is:
- The Tarnished is making a comeback.
- The Golden Order is a shady organization.
- The Tarnished is on the hunt for the Elden Ring, and they will fight and die a lot along the way.
- There will be the birth of a champion or lord.
- The Tarnished is challenged by the voice to display The Elden Ring.
The problem with relying on proper nouns in trailers is that names alone rarely indicate who the characters are, what their roles are, or what their relationships are. We don’t know whether The Tarnished or The Golden Order are protagonists or antagonists, for example. The story could really go either way, especially since it’s unclear how much we should assume the voiceover’s words directly connect and reference the visuals.
In terms of what the trailer conveys, most of the visuals appear to be emphasizing the core Dark Souls-style gameplay, which involves the player fighting epic bosses and enemies.
Aside from the setting, the main new game mechanic appears to be the horse, which appears in only a few shots and does not explicitly indicate that it is an open-world game. While it’s true that horses are more common in open-world games, only a few commenters believe it’s an open-world game.
While the cinematic capture is superb, the medium to medium-wide camera angles makes the shots feel intimate and unremarkable in comparison to previous games. As it stands, this appears to be another fantastic entry in the FROM SOFTWARE catalog, but the trailer focuses on similarities rather than differences.
>>>Read more: 3 factors that make an attractive Cinematic Trailer
The Gameplay Preview in 2021
Following that was a 20-minute Gameplay Preview, which was released in November 2021 and has received over 445,000 views to date.
This in-depth look at the game solidifies Elden Ring as an open-world game with more “raw” gameplay. The trailer shows the world map, which is new to FROM SOFTWARE games and a clear indication that it is an open-world game. At nearly 20 minutes, this is designed for die-hard fans who want to learn everything they can about the game before it is released.
However, because it is only 20 minutes long, the more casual audience may miss one of the key messages that this is an open-world game.
In general, the longer the trailer, the fewer people will watch it, because people don’t devote enough time to something in which they are only mildly interested. A video that long is more like mid-funnel content than top-of-funnel content. This look covers a lot of ground in terms of gameplay and design.
The Story Cinematic Trailer in 2021
The Story Trailer, which was released in December 2021, has received 229,000 views.
This is another pre-rendered CG cinematic trailer that appears to be the game’s intro. It’s similar to Cate Blanchett’s narrated introduction to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but without context for who is who, their roles, and their relationships to one another.
We know that some people are killed, The Elden Ring is broken, there is a war, and a major character battles a minor character with flowing red hair. It’s all very pretty, but the voiceover and the way proper names are used make it difficult to take anything away from it.
We believe that making the story clear and understandable would be a better choice when marketing.
The Overview Trailer in 2022
We get another good look at them in the Overview Trailer, which was released on February 19, 2022, and has received approximately 168,000 views to date.
Again, in a shorter, 6.5-minute trailer, this trailer does a good job of showing the gameplay in a cinematic manner. It recaps many of the previous trailers’ story and gameplay ideas, but in a much more stylish package. It takes about three minutes for them to emphasize the open-world format. Though there isn’t much time spent discussing how and why the open-world setting differs from previous FROM SOFTWARE games in terms of gameplay.
The majority of this trailer still feels like it could be describing any of their other games’ features, such as how you can do quests for characters, play different character classes, level up your character, and play with friends.
On February 22nd, 2022, they released the launch trailer shortly after this one. This has received approximately 146,000 views to date.
The Final Cinematic Trailer
This final trailer combines story and cinematic gameplay capture. It has an unusual structure. The plot remains a mystery, but because the dialogue in the first half is limited to only a few characters, something about it feels slightly more understandable.
When it comes out of the darkness, it reveals a grotesque monster, followed by a disjointed montage of dialogue and visuals. It’s a confusing series of images and dialogue, and it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining to watch if the visuals and music weren’t so good.
Again, not much in this trailer emphasizes the game’s open-world nature. There are a few shots on horseback, but the capture feels similar to previous trailers with the cool, intimate angles that nicely frame the player and enemies. This trailer doesn’t appear to be very different from the previous ones.
After rewatching all of these trailers, we feel like there could have been more done to explore the hook of Elden Ring. It’s a game industry cliché to compare something to Dark Souls, but Elden Ring’s elevator pitch is “It’s Dark Souls, but in an open world.” It’s perplexing that the trailers didn’t make this abundantly clear at every turn.
The die-hard FROM SOFTWARE fans didn’t need convincing to buy the game; they were already on board. Their comments show that as long as it’s a new FROM SOFTWARE game, they’re in. The marketing opportunities were aimed at attracting fewer hardcore players, whose ears perk up when they hear the game is a little more approachable.
As long as the trailers communicated to the die-hard fans that it’s still a very difficult game, there wouldn’t have been much harm in addressing the concerns of everyone else who might have skipped the previous games or only heard about them from others.
Conclusion
Elden Ring has been a smashing success so far. Having said that, we still think it’s odd that the trailers don’t emphasize the game’s key differentiator more. This point is somewhat moot because, based on the amount of coverage, we are sure most people already know it’s an open-world game.
An AAA cinematic trailer operates in a different realm than an indie game trailer because its production value and pedigree can often be sufficient to sell a game. When talented capture artists and trailer makers are put in charge, incredible epic and exciting trailers like these can be created.
–
Animost – Vietnam 3D Animation Studio
hello@animost.com