'Elden Ring' Trailer: New Video Game From George R.R. Martin And The Creator Of 'Dark Souls'

When HBO's Game of Thrones came to an end, author George R.R. Martin shared a message on his personal blog about the show's finale...but it contained a fascinating tease about something else he was working on (aside from The Winds of Winter, that is). Martin teased that he "consulted on a video game out of Japan" – and now the trailer for that game has arrived.

It's called Elden Ring, and Martin's influence on this high-fantasy game is extremely apparent. Check out the trailer below, which debuted yesterday during Microsoft's E3 presentation.

Martin teamed up with Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki to create Elden Ring, an open world third-person RPG which "will include a wide variety of weapons, magic, and ways to engage enemies, that make it possible to provide users with a style of gameplay and strategy that suits them" and features plenty of "unique and horrifying bosses" for players to battle – which should sound familiar to anyone who's been repeatedly pummeled by the difficulty of Dark Souls. But Elden Ring will provide even more variety than the Dark Souls games for players to "tweak their tactics when facing enemies."

According to an interview with Miyazaki, Martin crafted "the overarching mythos for the game world" that's "full of interesting characters and drama along with a plethora of mystical and mysterious elements", including "intricately designed, multi-layered castles and such" for players to explore. And just once glance at that trailer shows several visuals Martin fans may recognize from his A Song of Ice and Fire novels: a severed hand, a blood-red sky, golden armor, etc.

Miyazaki's company, FromSoftware, makes games known for extremely in-depth, complex lore. The Dark Souls series and games like Bloodborne all have secrets and histories that players still debate and examine years after the fact...which sounds like the perfect fit for someone like Martin, who has legions of readers theorizing and debating his own work. And hey, I get it: as someone who's eagerly anticipating The Winds of Winter, seeing Martin working on a video game is a bit of a bummer. But his book is clearly giving him some trouble, and a detour into a separate fantasy world like this (one that looks influenced by Tolkien, of whom Martin was a big fan) could result in a creative spark that finally allows him to unravel his "Meereenese knot" in A Song of Ice and Fire and finish those books once and for all.

Aw, who are we kidding? That probably won't happen. At least the game looks cool.