Stars around 15 minutes in! Yep, sure looks like a souls game. There's no UI in this footage, which is interesting since it's supposed to just be a few months out.

Interesting that there seem to be so many more mobility options. Jumping? Horse riding? Horse combat?! I really did not like Sekiro, but I'll gladly take the movement options from that game (and hopefully nothing else - blech).

Other than that, I'm glad they seem to be getting closer to a "core" Souls game with a lot of stats, different weapon types and armor, and creepy enemy designs. The games were always best when they focused on the world and exploration over combat, which frankly, has never been all that great.

I loved Sekiro so to me this looked like Dark Souls, but fun, with a few hints of Dragon's Dogma. Really looking forward to it now.

I like almost everything I am seeing however I still am not sure I like the open world format. I guess as long as the encounters are still varied and challenging I'll be happy. Its always been about the boss fights for me. Bloodborne and Sekiro are my favorites in that regard. Sekiro's final boss might be the most epic boss fight I've ever done.

I kinda welcome the openness. Sekiro was good but at it's very specific lane. I want to feel powerful again.

It seems fairly obvious they were inspired by Breath of the Wild, which, combined with the world design and combat mechanics of the Souls series, is very promising. I'll be curious to see how well From handles open world gameplay and design. Part of what has made the souls games such a consistently superb series is how well the world designs flow, and is also why Dark Souls 2 gets so much flack. You can also see elements of every game that has come before it, which I think is a really cool representation of iterative game design.

I wasn’t that floored by it, but seeing as this is a cross-gen game that was to be expected. I’m sure it will be just as fun as all of these are - I’m a fan - but I’m also pretty certain the same ol’ problems like bad camera angles in boss fights or backstabs not triggering properly on stairs etc will still be present.

It looks good but the whole time I was watching it I couldn't help thinking it would be cool to see From Software take a crack at LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE besides souls or souls-adjacent gameplay.

While this bit of gameplay didn't do much for me, I'm excited to see some less heavily edited gameplay in the future.

I'm still looking at this with cautious optimism. Though I still like Bloodborne, I have mixed feelings towards Sekiro, and Nioh 2 has made Demon's and the Dark trilogy feel antiquated these days.

But Armored Souls, though.

I'm surprised how much this looks like Dark Souls... like, this could run on a 360 Dark Souls... well hey if you wanted more Dark Souls this sure is that, though if the open world lacks in variety it might end up feeling shallow.

@bakoomerang: Yeah well besides a VR and a 3DS game the last proper full game they made that wasn't a Souls game was a mediocre Armored Core in 2013, assuming the studio has grown a lot since then they could make something really cool... or maybe they're too afraid to step away from the formulae that works.

I see giant club, and that makes me feel fine. Very much looking forward to this release!

Definitely not hiding their elder scrolls influence (I guess it's in the name lol). Looks like there is no fall damage so it shouldn't be as frustrating to navigate in an open world with clunky souls controls.

Looks cool, I didn't play there last game so I don't know if that was open world or not, but it will be an interesting combo.

I found the dichotomoy of how much it was/wasn't Souls very strange. You open with the big open-world with vibrant colors and slightly cartoonish graphic-style, where you ride a magical horse and have "random" open-world encounters. But then you start hearing Souls sound effects and start seeing re-used animations and models, and it's just... weird.

My first thought after seeing some of the combat is that it looks like a typical "less is more" situation. While adding all these new features and stuff sounds good on paper it also removes a lot of what make Souls games good in the first place. But then they showed how there are specific "dungeon" areas in the game, which basically just seems like designated areas for traditional Souls game design.

Honestly, I wish they'd taken more of a clean slate approach to this. After Bloodborne and Sekiro I don't get why they felt the need to go back to the Souls well. Not saying they needed to do something completely different, but at least let the game be its own thing. Hell, it's been over 10 years since the first game now. Even if the base features and mechanics stay more or less the same a fresh coat of paint would be nice.

I think this will do me until release. It looks like the open world framing is going to come with all the crafting and foraging the genre loves to dabble in. I guess they'll fence you off in the dungeons and boss arenas to get it's Souls on.

As someone replaying Dark Souls 3 at the minute, it's really odd to see that game taken in this direction. Hell, Dark Souls combat but with a different kind of grind might work out well.

Friend of the site and Borne to Run coach, Tamoor Hussain, did a write-up of his time with the network test, in case anyone's interested.

I haven't watched the Nextlander video yet, but I'm encouraged by Tamoor's comments. Sounds like there's enough in the open world to make exploration interesting. Personally, I'm glad the combat design is more in line with a traditional Souls game as I never quite clicked with Sekiro, but he also describes encounters which require new tactics from the player. Maybe this will be the Souls game I stick with. I recognize their influence and respect their design, but I haven't been able to finish one yet.