If you’re looking for something fitting to watch in order to celebrate Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree getting a game of the year nomination at this year’s Game Awards Keighleyfest, you’ll be looking at a bit of a longer wait if you’re planning on it being the Elden Ring anime that got a cool teaser earlier this year.
Yep, a fan-made Elden Ring anime being worked on by a team led by YouTuber Steins Alter has just gotten a new update video, which comes with a revised release date of next year for a “full production” release. In case you missed it, this project got its first proper teaser back in July, and understandably had a lot of Fromsoft-loving folks pretty excited.
This latest teaser, which you can watch below, includes a “director’s cut” version of that initial teaser from earlier this year, with its shots of the likes of Malenia, Mogh, and Miquella having recieved some pretty cool visual and effects updates. There’s a handy side-by-side comparison between the two towards the end of the video, if you’re struggling to tell exactly what’s different.
As well as featuring new Japanese, French, and Brazilian language dubs of the trailer, the video cites summer 2025 as a release date, rather than the fall 2024 window outlined in that first teaser from July. Towards the end of the video, Steins Alter acknowledges this new window, saying that it “was sort of a hard decision for me to stomach choosing”.
“However, us animators are all very busy, and rushing on isn’t within any of my interests,” they continued, “I want to spend all these extra months polishing the animations and style, getting the most out of the animations by these talented animators.” They also added: “This teaser isn’t even the final look, it’s just a work in progress, my original vision being brought to show the talent we’ve got behind me and the studio, and the quality we’re capable of.”
The description the video was initially posted with seemed like it could potentially suggest something separate from this teaser was still planned for this fall, reading: “This is the teaser for our upcoming Anime Project celebrating Elden Ring. The final production is estimated to be around 5 minutes and to drop this fall, this teaser was wip, and not representative of the final product, but showcases the talent we have behind this. The full production will be released in summer 2025, over 5 minutes, filled with sakuga celebrating the game!”
However, Steins Alter has confirmed to VG247 that they and their team have indeed delayed the project’s release to summer 2025. “This was because the scope of the project grew beyond what I planned and to help accommodate the team’s schedule,” they added, “I also wanted to ensure a high quality standard beyond any other fan animation production.”
In case you haven’t heard, the big Elden Ring news today is that Sony is reportedly in talks to potentially buy FromSoftware’s current majority owner, Kadokawa Corporation.