Dominating in its opening week both in sales and reviews,Elden Ringlived up to the hype it generated pre-launch. After bug fixes and balancing patches following its release,Elden Ringhas continued to show high player numbers in the month and a half it has been on the market.
The game’s dominance is in no small part due to its departure from traditional FromSoftware game design, specifically in its open-world gameplay. While the game is similar to others in that it has some open-world quirks likeElden Ringgargoyles jumping on players to kill them, what the open world did bring was an influx of players who had steered clear of FromSoftware titles in the past.
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The butterfly effect of an entirely new group of players surging into the game directly caused another trend: the creation of artwork by fans. Between FromSoftware veterans and fresh newcomers, fantastic creations like ananimated version ofElden Ring’s box arthave gone viral on social media sites, showing fan appreciation as well as further boosting the popularity of the game. Recently, another masterpiece was shared online, depicting Leyndell, The Royal Capital as an acrylic artwork.
Reddit user MapleFoxArt1 posted the stunning piece to Reddit in a slideshow that showcases the process required to create the piece as well as highlights the art from different angles. The result is a post that not only shows off the incredible artwork but also instills further appreciation from users through the pictures showing the piece in different stages of the creation process. Much like the multiple steps it took an artist to create3-D printed living pots fromElden Ring, MapleFoxArt1’s slideshow helps envision not only the beauty of the piece but the effort it took to create.
In this way, the piece itself is not only a direct reference to the game but also an analogy for it on multiple levels. For example, FromSoftware’s painstaking development process forElden Ringwhich took over 4 years ended with what will surely be one of the biggest releases of this year. Or, in terms of the game itself, the piece could be an antithesis to the game’s story; as opposed to MapleFoxArt1’s effort to recreate Leyndell, The Lands Between are falling apart, with characters like Radahn, Malenia, and others slowly rotting away. However, like MapleFoxArt1 restoring Leyndell to glory on their canvas, certain endings likeElden Ring’s Age of Order endingcan bring beauty to The Lands Between.
Endings and analogies aside, MapleFoxArt1’s acrylic artwork is a breathtaking tribute to the game and is just one of many FromSoftware pieces they have created. Much like apainting ofElden Ring’s Radahn festival, this painting of Leyndell captures the lesser-felt beautiful side of the mostly dangerous and unforgiving Lands Between.
Elden Ringis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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