Before we begin, let me grace you with some
breaking news regarding checkpoints. So for a while, we've had this screenshot..of
two pot guys standing around a sliver of gold - but now, we know what that sliver of gold
represents. Recently, the following description was captioned alongside this image in the
Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu". It reads: "Graces will act in a similar manner to Dark
Souls bonfires, acting as a checkpoint/base for the player". So there you go! The word "base" is interesting..and
I really hope these places act as more of a mobile camp, in some way. But what are "Graces", from a lore point of
view?. Well, according to a recent tweet from the Elden Ring twitter, before the shattering,
the Lands Between basked in the pure light of the Greater Will. Slivers of its blessing
yet remain in hidden pockets, where lost graces wait to be found. So these are places where the grace of the
Greater Will remains..and you can expect to set up camp around these places, along your
journey. (Special thanks to Mordecai of Elden Ring News for first reporting on this). 1 Now, back to the trailer. So some people are
going into Elden Ring completely blind..and some are only going to watch the trailer once.
Me? Well I've watched it so many times I'm single-handedly responsible for Elden Ring
being the most viewed trailer over the E3 period. I've also watched it frame by frame,
and you might be surprised at some of the things I've found. Here are all its secrets..big,
and small. First, this gauntlet is the same one worn
by the "Tarnished" character who features prominently in this trailer. He's featured
so heavily here that you'd think he might be a sort of cover character for the game,
but that role is apparently going to this knight, instead. At the very least, it might actually be an
option to start with this armour set. There are 10 starting classes to choose from, apparently..and
this this cutscene strikes me in a similar way to Sekiro's opening, where the maiden
approaches our character, who is left for dead. You can actually see her riding in on Yakul
at the start. If I had to guess, she's passing this mount over to us here. She has a faded scar, or birthmark, and a
ring, on her right hand. She pulls this ring off, and passes it to
us. Now, her lips aren't moving in sync with this dialogue..but it does seem appropriate
for what's going on. "The Tarnished will rise, guided by grace
once lost" 2 I wouldn't be surprised if that line was quite
literal, with the light from the tree guiding you to points of interest on the map. Powerful
items maybe, or checkpoints. Speaking of points of interest, here are some.
A cliffside gate...ruins in the bottom right..small buildings here, and here..and a swamp in the
bottom left. These shallow waters seem to be found in the canyons cutting through the
map..which may or may not have been caused by some sort of cataclsysm? In previous leaks, that bridge in the distance
was unbroken..but now, debris from the bridge appears to be scattered across the entire
landscape, suggesting some thing tore through this area. That castle on the left appears
to be the main Legacy dungeon..and it too is pretty scarred. It's a beautifully ruined scene, made better
when you notice the golden specs flying through the air aren't embers like they would be in
Dark Souls..they're leaves, from the tree. Perhaps its dying? 3 We see more of the shallows in this next scene.
Here, homes and spires seem to have sunk into the earth, more proof that ruin has come to
the Lands Between. In the distance we see a familiar tower, but
it's hard to say which one..because there were multiples of these in the previous scene. Here, birds fly overhead..and it seems to
be a misty morning, which makes me wonder if the mist comes with the time of day, or
with the area. The same goes for the golden leaves, which
are not falling in this morning scene, despite the tree being quite close. 4 In the next scene, we're treated to yet another
skybox, our eyes drawn then to a sort of volcano in the distance. I suggest it's a volcano..because
this rocky texture is seen again in this dragon scene, where magma sits on the ground. (/u/tripledoble) As your eyes travel down, we realise that
this autumnal scene has a different atmospheric affect, with blue white light floating upwards.
This ethereal atmosphere helps to explain the giant phantom flagpole, which itself has
hints of interlocking rings upon it. On the ground are two encampments, filled
with what surely are enemies. Like the phantom flagpole, one tent also features a design
with interlocking rings, and their banner features a giant tree, suggesting an affiliation
with the Erdtree, and the Elden Ring that is at its source. 5 Considering all this symbolism, it's probably
no coincidence that these scenes are accompanied by the line "The Golden Order is broken to
its core", and this second shot really drives that point home. Here, we see yet another
crest of interlocking rings...and this one looks a lot like the Elden Ring logo, except
with even more circles, and a mess of tendrils running down from it. Below, a person kneels, surrounded by three
wolves. The appearance of beasts here maybe no coincidence..for
this is actually where we fight the beast clad in black and gold armour, later in the
trailer. You can tell, because that arena also features
these same pillars, filled with skeletal remains. Filling your architecture with corpses is
pretty dark for a group called the Golden Order, though there is plentiful evidence
of this sort of immurement within history, and folklore. Lastly, we hear crow noises..but in the background,
we actually see dragons flying by. Apparently, the Golden Order isn't the only thing broken..so
is this flying animation. Preorder cancelled. 6 Next we see a very literal bonfire, surrounded
by people frozen in place, for some reason. There are also what look like red flowers
under these trees - things like this are seen throughout the trailer..and the way they glow
makes me wonder if these are gather-able resources. It's raining in this scene, another obvious
weather effect to be added to the list.. 7 ..and another time of day to add to the list,
might be this sunset. I wonder if we literally get to watch the sun go through the sky, and
how fast the days will go? The character has a horn by their waist, which
we see throughout the trailer. Assuming it's a part of your equipment, I wonder what it
does.. 8 It's definitely not used to call for Yakul.
Instead, that's done with a simple whistle that sounds a lot like the one from Sekiro. Here, the character is actually jumping over
graves sticking out oddly from the wall, which are better seen in this screenshot. Birds
are perched around the place in this screenshot, as well. If you pause here, you can see that Yakul
actually has rings of gold on his horns, something seen even more clearly in this screenshot.
Maybe he has some lost grace of his own. Finally, we clearly see a standard longsword
in this shot. Start that weapon tally. 9 As the camera pans out, you can start to piece
together the geography. For example, we approach this castle and foggy valley from the front
here..but this next scene shows us the castle and valley from the side, meaning we must
have traveled along this rocky cliff face on the right in the previous scene. There's actually a tiny enemy here who is
having trouble loading in.. There's a small house here.. and many other buildings shrouded by fog further
on. Glowing lights can be seen below the bridge..one
blue, one gold..perhaps they're items, or a grace? If I wanted to get down there, could
I jump off this cliff, and double jump on Yakul before I hit the ground? 10 What follows is the scene with the walking
island. Previously, I speculated that you might have to use surrounding geography to
jump on top of it at the right moment..but reddit user /u/Kid_darkness93 seems to have
noticed a jump pad nearby, which looks like a very likely alternative. I'm sure there are multiple ways up there..and
judging by the moss growing on the legs, I'd bet that this island only ever roams this
swampy area. It is going VERY slowly though...so it might take a while to catch it in the right
spot. 11 In this mounted encounter, the enemy has a
curved greatsword wrapped in cloth, seen later on in this clip. In regards to the guarded caravan, well I
always thought it looks like a coffin of some kind..and my favourite theory is that it's
transporting body parts, since that seems to be the trade of this area.. 12 Here, we see a ton of hanging limbs, hooked
so crudely that they're spilling blood onto the floor and dining tables below. Many of
these arms are conjoined, or double-ended, suggesting experimentation. Arms really are a big theme of this area..and
on both sides of the painting, you can make out the lion emblem on these banners..the
same emblem that shows up on this castle, on these soldiers, and on this big bosses
axe. The painting itself is very difficult to make
out - but there's a human figure there - with some sort of fur pelt or animal draped over
his shoulders. Moving on, the flattened face to follow has
something that looks like a third eye on its forehead, and the roots underneath almost
look like tentacles. Speaking of which, the statues to follow,
also in a cave, ALSO seem to have tentacles inside their robes. 13 And what about these pot guys? Do you think
they're hostile, or friendly? After years of smashing pots, is it finally time for pots
to smash us? Personally, I'd hope they're friendly..you do see them around a grace checkpoint,
after all. What will be truly terrifying is if they're friendly AND drop good loot, like
crystal lizards. Their arms do seem like they're made of a similar texture..no..don't make
me do it.. As you continue underground, you might have
noticed that a grill is missing, suggesting you can go further below. Then we come across another many-armed enemy.
This one is exuding green fumes, made of skull textures. Interestingly, he's wearing a crown..just
like the other many-armed character we see later in the trailer. That's an interesting
trend - maybe this kingdom's habit of experimentation with limbs goes back quite a ways. 14 Finally leaving the underground, we enter
the castle, which has diagonal gashes here, and further on. This boss blocks our progession, and a golden
fog gate appears behind him, blocking our progression. His robes, and magic weapons, mark him as
a sort of sorcerer. Design wise, he looks a lot like the Ghru of Dark Souls 3, who have
similar twisting horns on their head. He also has these same horns on the end of an enormous
tail. At first, it looks like these horns are ALL
there is making up his head..but you can actually see his face hidden below. Interestingly, he also has a similar mess
of grey hair, like we do. During the fight, you can see a sort of obelisk
with a blue light - the same sort seen later in the trailer, when the character summons
help. These summons also have a similar blue light - so I bet these stones mark the areas
you can summon at. Another summon is seen in this area - a spirit bird, which..has prosthetic
legs? I'm so intrigued by this summon..it seems like there's so much variety here. When the boss knocks us back, we get a good
view of our characters longsword, which is imbued with a blue tint around the hilt, marking
it as a sort of magic weapon. The magic effect also appears around the weapon, marking it
as a sort of weapon art..and I wonder - can magic weapon arts only be applied to magic
class weapons, like this longsword? 15 In the tunnel, there are some very brightly
glowing flowers that I bet we can loot.. Followed by some enemies, one of which has
a conical hat, or helmet. 16 I love the weapon and armour of the character
in this scene. The enemy here has the lion crest on their
armour, and is also wearing a mask as a part of their helmet, which we'll talk about later. They actually change the enemy during this
cut, and a golden glow heads towards our character after their death, giving us a hint at the
type of golden soul currency we can expect to receive. 17 It's similar to these golden leaves that fall
from the tree in this night time scene, which look stunning against the blue sky. An enormous moon is visible, as are a couple
of crude tents. Now that graces are confirmed to be where our checkpoints lie, I'm less
convinced that we'll be able to set up camp in the open world..but still kind of hopeful
that something like this might be in the game. One cool thing to note is that the grass and
trees are blowing rapidly in the wind, which might mean they're reacting dynamically with
the weather, which is cool. You can see the same sort of thing happening
to the trees in this stormy scene with the wolf
knight, who, as many have pointed out before me, is an obvious Berserk reference. Sekiro
is a shinobi named wolf, Artorias was a wolf knight..now we have this character, completing
the transformation. He even has a greatsword, like Guts..I love the design. The way he's stepping off the edge of this
cliff in this animation means it must be the player character..and the long grey hair helps
to convince me of that. I'd imagine this is something akin to the Dragon covenants of
Dark Souls, except we become a beast here instead? Perhaps this sort of transformation
is a path that tarnished can take..and if that's the case, can we turn into dragons
as well? This dragon has a spine of grey hair as well..just saying. 18 This cube item is clearly the item we use
for summoning, and here it summons two helpers which..both seem to be the same enemy model,
but equipped with slightly different gear? This one has a giant knife, and the other
has a sword..no wait it's a whip! aand you can see it snap back into being a sword again!
My best guess is that this is either a whip sword like the puzzling stone sword, or that
turning a sword into a whip is a type of weapon art we can give it for extra range. Bit of
an odd one! This enemy has a cool greatsword, and our
character is doing the short bow dodge attack which will help make ranged play viable. 19 Next, the dragon. It has four legs, four wings,
and a rocky texture..all things that would mark it as one of the greater Archdragons
of the Souls series. Another familiar souls trope is summoning lightning - and since it
comes from the heavens, I bet the lightning is a divine miracle here, similar to how it
is in Souls games, and Sekiro. If this Dragon is being blessed by the gods..man, that would
give Gwyn some serious conniptions. We, as the tarnished, are also being graced
again as well, remember..and even the dragon has a hint of grey hair running down its spine..so
maybe it's no different. As mentioned in another video, our character
is performing a double jump..not to avoid the lightning per se, but instead to avoid
the ripple that goes along the ground from its point of contact. But look around the dragon this time..as mentioned
earlier, the rocks in the background match this smoking volcano, and we can even see
magma on the ground, underneath the flames. Look around some more..and here here, here,
here..piled up, and left discarded..are coffin carriages identical to the one the two giants
are hauling earlier in the trailer. For some reason, it seems these coffin carriages are
being dumped in this volcano. Why? This volcano also doesn't seem like the only
place we find the dragon. The next scene shows it back in the open field, with no hint of
the rocky formation I just mentioned. Here we get our first side profile of the
sorcerer knight, holding an ornate staff sword thing. They're fighting near the Erdtree,
but with a red sky. I wonder, is this burning sky a special event, like the blood moon in
Breath of the Wild? Or is it a stage of the game that changes the skybox, like we're used
to in previous games? Finally, there's a strange corruption on the
ground here, that suits the red sky.. 20 The next shot reveals a more feline beast
knight, also with long white hair, like us. His armour is black, trimmed with gold. In this scene, our character dual wields a
dagger and a short hatchet..two items that would have the quickstep weapon art in Dark
Souls 3, and they seem to have it here as well. The other way they avoid an attack is by jumping
this low sweep here, just like Sekiro would. 21 As the trailer goes on, scenes pass faster..like
this one with the Valkyrie. Pausing the frame, we see two things - first, the clear corrosion
on her face..and second..a prosthetic..leg? It's reflecting the light, showing a pattern..and
there's clearly a sort of bolt here keeping it in place. (ty to discussion with menaslg) As we get impaled - note that we're fighting
around the roots of a great tree. I wonder if she's some sort of protector. 22 In this scene, the bosses hand has six fingers..and
it's stroking the maw of a great, dead black dragon. This is its nostril, and here is a giant horn.
It's actually the same head we see sewn onto him at the end of the trailer...and the same
dragon seen briefly in the open world of the leaked footage. So..does he attach the head halfway through
the fight? Is it a sort of phase 2 for him, or is fighting him with it a sort of dynamic
event? He does do the roar cutscene in the same place as the smash cutscene, after all.. In this cutscene, the tarnished draws his
sword slowly. Now..it's rare for a Souls game to have the player interact with their weapon
in a cutscene. The reason it's weird, is that different characters have different weapons,
and drawing something like a greatsword, from the hip, wouldn't make sense. So..what's happening
here? Will this cutscene look the same regardless of weapon? Did they come up with a unique
animation for each weapon type? Or is the game pulling from a set of weapon drawing
animations? This one baffles me, honestly. On the bosses back, you can actually see Sekiro's
lost ar- just kidding. Though if I had to guess, this would be the guy who took the
Valkyrie's arm, or at least is somewhat responsible for the arm theme throughout this area. He
also takes legs as well, you can see a couple hanging..and while his left leg seems to be
that of a giant..his right foot is a mess of toes. Eugh. There's some serious body horror
going on in this trailer. Finally, there's a lion crest on his main
axe, marking him as a lord of this castle, and region. According to the official twitter,
he's a Lord clinging to his ruined Legacy..the ruler of a husk wrung dry by war. The word "Legacy" is capitalised..and legacy
dungeons were said to be the main levels within each open world, each containing a demigod.
Therefore, he's the main boss of this area. Man, the longer I hold off on making my story
video, the more scraps the Elden Ring twitter bestows upon me. I'll just wait a liiitle
longer... 23 Here come the quickfire part of the trailer.
Here, a tarnished dual wields curved swords. Like in the previous scene, these are different
weapons..meaning we might be seeing a return to the more dynamic way to dual wield multiple
weapons, like in Dark Souls 2. The bramble knight also has a unique greatsword
that I'm sure he drops.. and we're fighting him at night, under the
light of the Erdtree. 24 Next, the dragon drive by. It's likely the
black horned dragon I mentioned earlier, though it's hard to say for sure. Here, the character carries a huge, two handed
spiked mace..and the same armour better seen in this screenshot. 25 Next, lordvessel smough sends out a cascade
of flames, as he stands off against the sorcerer knight, wielding the same wrapped greatsword
mentioned previously. We also see a hint of his giant mace, which
I hope he drops..alongside that helmet. 26 The giant has one arm, meaning it's probably
going to show up somewhere else in the game ..and he has a flame smoldering deep within
his chest. His weapon is a sort of axe staff, double
ended..and our weapon is a short blade with blue runes. It's the second time we've seen
a sorcery-themed sword with a blue tinged base..so I really do wonder if these are a
class of magic weapon now, or if magical properties can be bestowed upon the weapon..at a blacksmith,
perhaps? 27 Next, the castle..like Bloodborne crossed
with Irithyll. I love it. The gargoyle statues are seen again in this next indoors scene,
showing that they're the same place. Here, our character wields a sorcery-halberd,
the enemies wield crossbows, rapiers..and the main enemy has a simple sorcerer's staff.
His headpiece is already the focus of many burger king memes. Lastly, there's a bird in a small cage here
on the side here. 28 Speaking of animals, around the great stag,
visible even before it spawns, are many smaller, brighter ones wandering and grazing upon the
field. The masked player character in this shot is
the same as in this screenshot, except this time wielding claws, instead of a flail. 29 Speaking of masks..that's a bit of a theme
for the entire trailer. This character we kneel at has a mask..the woman beside the
giant knight has a mask..there's a giant masked cart, this enemy type has one too..masks.
They're a good way to prevent your animators from having to animate mouths in cutscenes,
so I bet that's why From are such fans of them here. That Demon's Souls remake is a
tough act to follow.. 30 In this next scene, we see that limbs aren't
the only body parts being repurposed..this guys helmet and upper body armour features
a ton of ears..all the better to hear those books with? 31 Next, this hand has way too many fingers..and
gives me a real body horror chill, reminding me of those terrifying hands from the early
Zelda games. The middle finger has many rings, and one
ring has a giant purple gem. The player character here seems to be using
a black flame spray attack against the hand, to little effect. Behind the hand, we see a giant head..which
actually looks a lot like Void, from Berserk.. And behind that, the Erdtree is still seen,
even though this is a snowy area. This tree must be pretty central to a lot of the open
worlds, I imagine. 32 This next scene happens fast, but it's a masked
carriage with three flamethrowers on each side. The character has a spear, and a greatshield. 33 The eye seems to be that of a cyclops, since
you can see the bridge of a nose here..and the 8 other marks are..more pupils? 35 The winged knight here is the same one we
saw standing next to the masked woman, with a flat helmet and horned greatshield. 36 And finally, there's a giant tree on the tower
in the final cutscene, along with the same diagonal marks on the towers seen earlier.
I can't wait to learn about the history of this place. Let's end today with a snippet of an interview
featuring George R. R. Martin, where he finally talks about Elden Ring. Enjoy. Now, before you start saying Elden Ring is
a sequel to Dark Souls - no. I seriously doubt he accidentally revealed that it's a literal
sequel..he obviously just meant that it's But thank you for watching and supporting,
and enjoy watching the channel for the next few weeks, as we discuss this game to death.
I'll see you soon.
I want to watch this so badly, but I also want to go into the game as blind as possible..
ye
To Anyone that has watched this.
Does this video give A LOT away?