203: An Introduction to Elden Ring

Having broken a Great Rune somewhere in the Shadow Realm, we now head south toward the Cerulean Coast, a beautiful region littered with gigantic stone coffin ships. But the path leading there is anything but obvious.

It's been a week since Elden Ring's expasion, Shadow of the Erdtree, released to everyone. We've been hard at work finishing the game and planning out the next season of Bonfireside Chat, and we wanted to take this opportunity to give you our impressions after we both finished our first playthrough. It's good! We have a lot to talk about. This episode doesn't contain story spoilers, but please take caution if you're extremely sensitive to knowing anything about these games before you play them. We can't talk about the game without talking about the game. Additionally, this episode is free for everyone! Please consider backing our Patreon so you can get not only the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree episodes, but a huge backlog of our other work. If you already back us, please spread this around to anyone you know who might be interested! We will have news about when the season will debut soon. Thank you so much for your support!

This morning saw the release of the first trailer for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion for Elden Ring, and we think it looks pretty neat. So we recorded a little reaction episode and are making it available for everyone to share in the excitement. In this episode we also discuss our tentative plans for covering the DLC. Since it's releasing on June 21, 2024 and we need to play it before we can structure the season, don't expect in-depth coverage until sometime in July. We will likely put up a first impressions episode shortly after release to tide you over, though. Bonfireside Chat will return for what appears to be a lengthy season, based on all of the stuff shown in the trailer. The format of the show will likely remain unchanged, and Real Lich Hours will continue its normal release schedule as well. We're excited to have you along for the ride. Now let's go touch that arm!

In this very special public feed episode, we're talking about late game areas with our audience and special guests Austin Walker* and SekiroDubi (*not pictured)!

This is an unlocked, free-for-everyone version of our second episode about Stormveil Castle. Want more? Check out our Patreon (patreon.com/duckfeedtv). Happy Elden Ring Anniversary and DLC Announcement! We've been in the shadow of Stormveil Castle for the entire game, learning of Godrick's misdeeds... and it's time to make him pay. This episode picks up at the courtyard of Stormveil Castle and goes through the Godrick the Grafted boss fight, and we also talk about activating his Great Rune at the tower.

This is an unlocked, free-for-everyone version of our first episode about Stormveil Castle. Episode 2 will come out next week. Want more? Check out our Patreon (patreon.com/duckfeedtv). Happy Elden Ring Anniversary and DLC Announcement! It's time we finally show that horny bastard Margit what we're made of, so we storm Stormveil Castle and find the horrors inside. This is part one of two, covering the Margit fight, the insides of the castle walls, Sorcerer Rogier, and the grisly grafting kitchens. Next week's episode will take us up through the Godrick fight.

On this first big episode of the Elden Ring series, we go over Elden Ring's mechanics and generalities in broad strokes. What's returning from previous From games? What's been improved? What's brand new? We talk about as many systems and aesthetics as we can, in order to establish a basic understanding before we dive into more lore-heavy parts of the game. In two weeks, we will talk about the Limgrave West portion of Elden Ring's world. This episode will be the first available exclusively at our Patreon page. (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv)

Rise, Tarnished, and attend the first episode about Elden Ring! There's no way to describe the great unclenching that happened when we realized that Elden Ring is, in fact, good. Whether that bears out over the course of the entire game remains to be seen, but we have high hopes. This episode covers our first impressions after about a week of having the game, and we also lay out our current reckon on how the season will shape up. If this is your first time here, we're Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross, a duo of hosts who make Bonfireside Chat. Since 2013 we've talked about Souls games in high detail, in addition to talking about FromSoft's earlier games, their influences, and the whole galaxy of Soulslikes that spun off of Dark Souls' popularity. This show comes out every other Sunday, and it's normally available only to our Patrons (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv). If you back at the $5 tier you gain access to every Premium episode of Bonfireside Chat (https://www.bonfireside.chat/tags/premium), you can listen to hundreds of hours of patron-exclusive content. If you decide to back us, you can check out how to get your content by looking at this post. (https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-redeem-63283880) This episode and the next episode, covering the game's general mechanics and its opening, will be free for all. We really appreciate you listening.

Since we re-launched this show, people have asked us where to find the episodes about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Though we explained it in a few places, it cannot hurt to do so once more here. Bonfireside Chat Rekindled is a show that's exclusive to our Patreon campaign (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv). Main episodes come out every other week, and we will begin doing off-week episodes again shortly. For $5 per month you get a lot in addition to Bonfireside Chat, and we encourage you to check out our network's other offerings. So go become a Patron today to hear us talk about Sekiro, other soulslikes, and other FromSoft games!

Sekiro is different. Sekiro is hard. Sekiro is here! Listen in for our nascent opinions on the game, based on the first few hours. This episode is free and available for everyone, and if you want other episodes of Bonfireside Chat Rekindled, and want to hear the rest of the Sekiro season as it releases, please consider backing us on Patreon. (http://patreon.com/duckfeedtv).