For the primary time in years, we do not actually know what FromSoftware is as much as.
Sekiro was introduced in 2017, simply months after the Darkish Souls 3 DLC The Ringed Metropolis marked the tip of the trilogy. Simply three months after Sekiro launched, FromSoftware introduced Elden Ring, and Armored Core 6 popped up through the improvement of Elden Ring’s growth. However now Elden Ring is completed—at the least for now, as Miyazaki has actually left the door open to a sequel. And Armored Core 6 appears achieved, with no indication that an growth is coming, although I would not be shocked to see one pop up absolutely shaped earlier than the tip of the yr. However possibly FromSoftware goes darkish for awhile. Possibly its subsequent announcement is a yr or extra away. A horrible thought!
Endurance is just not my biggest energy, and I do know I am not the one one questioning what FromSoftware’s subsequent recreation will likely be. As extra of the PC Gamer staff wrap up Shadow of the Erdtree, we have began speculating about what the studio would possibly do, and likewise sharing what we actually need it to do. This is what we’re hoping comes subsequent, recorded for posterity so we are able to look again on how fully off the mark we had been when FromSoftware proclaims it is taking up improvement of Past Good & Evil 2 so we are able to all put it behind us.
A full-on co-op recreation
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: I’ve performed each Souls recreation like a co-op expertise, even when they weren’t really meant to be performed that method. In Darkish Souls: Put together to Die Version I used a mod that prioritized the summon indicators of my Video games For Home windows Dwell associates checklist. In Darkish Souls 2 and three I performed all through with associates, every of us successfully beating the video games twice by summoning into each other’s worlds. Co-op does make these video games simpler which I am actually not going to complain about, however the greater draw for me is solely occurring these journeys with a companion and experiencing these triumphs, discoveries and PvP invasions collectively. The Souls co-op expertise is as messy as it’s thrilling.
Within the Darkish Souls days I admired the way in which FromSoftware caught to its odd summoning design and eschewed the extra conventional co-op expertise of different video games, however over time they’ve made co-op simpler and simpler with out absolutely embracing it. It is odd how frictionless summoning is in Elden Ring, but with large limitations like not having the ability to experience your horse and even cross the edge from the world map to a cave. It feels much less like intentional design and extra like restricted know-how. Once I interviewed Hidetaka Miyazaki about Shadow of the Erdtree, I needed to deliver up the implausible Elden Ring Seamless co-op mod, and was heartened to listen to him say that he wasn’t against the mod, and will even contemplate “whole co-op” for a future recreation. That is gentle years away from a assure, after all, however at this level it is what I really need in FromSoftware’s subsequent recreation. I need co-op to be core to the expertise, even when it bums out the Souls obsessives who need to 1v1 each boss with out getting hit. Gimme FromSoftware’s model of It Takes Two and I will be the happiest Tarnished within the land.
Armored Core: Senary Silent Line of Verdict Reply
Ted Litchfield, Affiliate Editor: The numbered Armored Cores are like Last Fantasy video games in that they every have distinctive settings with shared components carrying over. As an alternative of moody fairly boy swordsmen, summons, and Tonberries, the throughline for Armored Core is rad mechs. However FromSoftware has an nearly 30-year historical past of creating growth pack-slash-direct sequels for its numbered Armored Core video games, like For Reply and Verdict Day, and as we have already established, expansions are the perfect.
I would be shocked if such a remedy is not already on the way in which for Armored Core 6, our favourite motion recreation of 2023. With its a number of endings, there are a ton of various instructions issues may go: The layup would in all probability be a direct continuation from the Liberator of Rubicon ending, however my hope is that we as a substitute get some form of prequel. AC6 is the primary recreation within the sequence to go interstellar, with an extremely wealthy lore of company conflicts to mine.
The prequel route would additionally allow us to keep away from the intestine punch of getting to kill off C4621 and Ayre—these expansions uniformly have you ever taking up a special pilot and as soon as had us homicide the bottom recreation’s protagonist. It’d additionally allow us to spend extra time with a number of the lovable characters from AC6. I need some extra tacky “ask the previous soccer coach” grumpy patter from a younger G1 Michigan!
This appears like some primo territory for From to cowl within the subsequent one to 2 years, however farther afield, considering the continuation of Soulsborne, I believe I desire a smaller, Sekiro or Bloodborne-flavored recreation subsequent. This would possibly simply be my Elden fatigue, making an attempt to wrap up a second Erdtree playthrough as I strategy the 100-hour mark with the growth, however a extra out-there setting and brisk runtime appears like simply the factor proper now.
A Tenchu reboot
Jake Tucker, PC Gaming Present Editorial Director: They tried this earlier than and it ended up changing into high-speed stab-’em-up Sekiro, however as somebody obsessive about Tenchu Stealth Assassins and its many sequels, I would like to see FromSoft dive not simply again into the world of Rikimaru and Ayame, but additionally a barely extra grounded stealth recreation punctuated with excessive violence.
Frankly, I believe Fromsoft is the perfect wager to make a ninja recreation in your complete trade. Quick, fluid and deadly fight is the studio’s specialty at this level, and I’d like to see a number of the fantasy worldbuiling from Elden Ring turned to fleshing out some extra mundane settings: a fishing village oppressed by a bizarre lord, or a bodyguard known as Myrmidon of Loss or one thing.
Sci-fi Souls
Fraser Brown, On-line Editor: FromSoftware has given me a few of my favorite fantasy realms to mess around in, steeped in wealthy—if generally inscrutable—lore, depressing and enigmatic characters, and essentially the most placing structure I’ve ever died subsequent to. Now I would wish to see it do one thing related in a sci-fi setting. Armored Core, although great, does not really matter, since it is so far faraway from the soulsy expertise and aesthetic. What I need is extra of the ludicrously bizarre shit. Gross strolling jars stuffed with viscera. Monsters with too many limbs. Magnificence corrupted. The complete soulslike style has spent lengthy sufficient mining fantasy, however I do know if FromSoftware took a step into the long run, different builders would inevitably observe go well with, enriching the entire style.
I believe the consequence could be one thing not 1,000,000 miles away from Warhammer 40k. Grim, grotesque, corrupted, however maybe not fairly as further. Warhammer is knowingly over-the-top, however FromSoftware video games are a bit extra restrained and considerate. I would be very down for that.
A wholly new factor
Tyler Colp, Affiliate Editor: At this level, I’ll play something FromSoftware makes. I began with Darkish Souls and have performed every little thing, together with Demon’s Souls, since then. Sekiro is an ideal instance of a recreation I in all probability wouldn’t ever play once more as a result of pure motion video games aren’t my type, however I like that it exists. It’s a historic fantasy that focuses totally on extraordinarily satisfying and quick fight, and Elden Ring’s fight was in all probability closely influenced by what FromSoft pulled off in Sekiro.
Now that Elden Ring is completed, it’s going to take some time to make one thing that large once more, and I’d wish to see the studio veer off in one other route to discover new concepts within the meantime. FromSoft has labored on all kinds of genres and it could be rad to see it attempt one thing with out tons of brutal fight. We’re speaking in regards to the studio that made The Adventures of Cookie & Cream. Something is feasible, and Miyazaki looks as if the form of man who’d be down for any recreation with a extremely clear imaginative and prescient. I may see From dropping a straight-up 3D platformer or possibly a Japanese horror-infused survival recreation. It doesn’t matter what it’s, I’m assured it’ll retain the studio’s sensibilities in terms of mixing gameplay and themes in a method few different video games can pull off.
Really, hear me out: A nautical journey recreation with procedurally generated settlements and spooky islands to discover. A haunting Sea of Thieves the place Patches kicks you off the plank.
Elden Ring 2
Sarah James, Guides Author: Should you’d requested me a yr or so in the past, I would in all probability have stated Bloodborne 2 with out lacking a beat. Now although? On this post-Elden Ring DLC period, I want solutions.
Whereas I am firmly sat within the “Shadow of the Erdtree is nice” camp, the growth opened up so many extra lore questions than I can comfortably stay with. I have to know what occurred on the Night time of the Black Knives, and why Godwyn was focused. I have to know who the gloam-eyed queen was, and I have to know the right timeline of all these occasions as a result of, proper now, it does not make any sense. Or quite, it makes sufficient sense to ship me again into the sport within the small hours of the morning, peering at issues with a telescope within the hope of discovering solutions, however not sufficient to present me a satisfying decision.
I do know, I do know, it is what FromSoftware has all the time achieved—it is what makes me fall in love with these video games. I simply assume it could be cool to see the Lands Between at a special time in its huge historical past. The world is so wealthy, it simply appears like an actual disgrace if the DLC is the place they depart it.
Additionally, I must be saved from the ocean of lore-filled Google Docs I will inevitably find yourself drowning in over the subsequent few months. Ship assist?
