Rhystic Cast #12 - Elden Ring Postmortem (with Ken Baumann) (Patreon)

Today, I'm speaking with Ken Baumann to reflect on our experiences playing through Elden Ring. It has taken me over a year to complete this game, and yet I feel just as enchanted now by the Lands Between as when I first stepped foot into Limgrave last March. Our discussion touches on that wonderful moment, as well as the many others that involve leaving (or entering) the proverbial hole in the ground.Ken and I both share an academic and poetic love for games. In 2014, he wrote a history-memoir of EarthBound, one of his all-time favorites, and I'm secretly hopeful to see a similar project on Elden Ring come to fruition one day.Before we started recording, I asked Ken to make a list of three places, three bosses, and three moments that spoke to his experience. Our conversation opens with Ken describing how the lumbering sounds of a wandering mausoleum gave an immediate credulity to the world, then meanders from there, focusing always on the magical spell that this elaborate and expansive video game casts on its players.

This episode contains major spoilers for the game.

Music in this episode:Elden Ring Main ThemeElphaelLimgraveThe Final Battle