Brandon Sanderson, the fantasy and science fiction author that Soulsborne fans have been hoping could team up with FromSoftware in the future, has been trying his hand at Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, adding a bit more fuel to the fire to the hype of those hoping for a collaboration.
Sanderson is arguably best known for his Mistborn series, but his bibliography is enormous – he's also the author behind The Stormlight Archive series, as well as the final three books in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. FromSoftware fans really started talking about his potential involvement with a future project shortly after Elden Ring's launch, when he revealed that publisher Bandai Namco had reached out to him with some Elden Ring goodies, and a note to say "they are interested in perhaps doing something together." At the time, he confirmed "I am as well," and even revealed that he had a pitch ready to go in his head.
With that in mind, it's pretty cool to see Sanderson playing through Shadow of the Erdtree, and doing a really solid job of it, too. He streamed almost four hours of the expansion over the weekend, in which time he was able to beat the notoriously difficult optional boss that's giving Elden Ring veterans everywhere trouble, as well as the first major story boss in the DLC. While the latter took him around an hour to beat, considering he went into the DLC with a level 80 character (in our guide, we recommend starting at around level 150), that's some seriously impressive progress. He's confirmed he'll be back to play more of it, too, so it sounds like more streams are on the way.
Live Elden Ring DLC Playthrough with Brandon Sanderson https://t.co/w18mIrnWCTJune 22, 2024
While Sanderson playing through the DLC is obviously no confirmation of any FromSoftware collaboration actually happening, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki recently spoke about the potential of the studio working with other major creators on future projects in a new GameSpot interview. Elden Ring itself was, of course, built in collaboration with A Song of Fire and Ice author George R. R. Martin, who was the mastermind behind the action RPG's worldbuilding. Miyazaki spoke highly of him in the interview, and went on to say that the studio would "definitely be open to exploring" working with other creators in the future, although didn't mention Sanderson by name despite the fact that he was brought up in the question.
If a FromSoftware collaboration was to happen with Sanderson, it wouldn't be the first time that he's helped out with a game. He teamed up with the Subnautica devs, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, to create the lore and universe of Moonbreaker – a turn-based strategy game which was released earlier this year on Steam. Clearly, as hinted before, the author already has ideas when it comes to what he'd do for a Soulsborne game, so we'll just have to wait and see if they ever come to fruition.
Be sure to check out our guide on where to find Scadutree Fragments in Shadow of the Erdtree to make your time in the Realm of Shadow a tad more manageable.
