Elden Ring fans got their wish with the gameplay reveal trailer during last week’s Summer Game Fest livestream. It was a staggeringly long wait to get there, but Elden Ring seems to be everything fans were hoping for so far. Since then, there’s been a steady trickle of new information about FromSoftware’s upcoming action RPG, including one recent detail out of Japan.
According to Game Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, Elden Ring players can summon “Spirit Bodies” to aid them in battle. This news comes from a recent interview he gave to the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. Note that the following information comes from a machine translation that may not be 100% accurate.
Spirit Bodies are an entirely new mechanic with no real parallels to anything in FromSoftware’s previous games. According to Miyazaki, players can summon friendly Spirit Bodies to aid them in combat. Based on his comments, they appear to be the ghosts of enemies players encounter during the game. They are also each distinct from each other, performing different roles in combat.
He uses the examples of players summoning an archer to cover their advance or a defense-focused Spirit Body to serve as a rearguard. He also suggested the player could use their Spirit Body as a decoy or to scout enemy positions. Assuming the translation is accurate, his comment implies multiple things about Elden Ring’s gameplay. The first is that the players have some degree of control over how their Spirit Bodies operate in combat. At the very least, it sounds like players can give them basic commands such as follow, wait, move, and attack. The second implication is that enemies may attempt to flank the player frequently enough to require a designated rearguard. Whether that suggests improved AI or scripted ambushes is unclear.
According to Miyazaki, players collect Spirit Bodies as items and can swap between them. So, while players may only be able to summon one at a time, they can swap them out freely. He also notes that Spirit Bodies themselves have some manner of progression system. Players can upgrade or level up their Spirit Bodies to make them more powerful, but only one at a time. Players will need to decide which are the most beneficial to their playstyle.
Previous FromSoftware games didn’t usually provide players with many NPC allies. The player was mainly on their own, save for various co-op and passive multiplayer elements. The ability to summon and potentially command a friendly NPC has the potential to make Elden Ring’s gameplay truly unique among FromSoftware titles.
Elden Ring launches January 21, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Famitsu