The new open-world action game “Elden Ring” developed by From Software was officially released at the end of last month, and immediately received extremely high reviews. This work continues the style of the “Dark Souls” series, bringing players a very challenging difficulty, and for the first time introducing an open-world design, allowing players to play a “fader” and go to the vast “Dark Souls”. Borderlands” embark on an adventure. However, the popularity of the game also seems to have attracted the attention of a controversial animal protection group.
Just like From Software’s past works, players will face a variety of powerful enemies in the journey of “Ayrden’s Circle” adventure, including wild dogs, wolves, bears, snakes, lions and Birds, and even enemies of animal types like giant crabs and giant lobsters. Even though almost every kind of enemy can bring deadly threats to players, these animal enemies still attract the attention of animal protection group “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA), trying to ride the popular game.
Just on March 13, PETA released a video of the “Ayrdon Circle” gameplay on its official Twitter account, in order to promote the concept of “being kind to animals” and “respecting natural habitats” to players. In this video, PETA provides players with five ridiculous play suggestions, such as “taking the wild dog for a walk by the lake” and knocking down the enemy on horseback, thereby “convincing the cavalry. Don’t mistreat the horses”, or “observe the wildlife from a safe and respectful distance” and sneak through the foggy area. The fourth opinion is “visit animal shelters”, and it also emphasizes that it cannot be the kind that provides “hands-on experience”. As for the last opinion, “spend peaceful time with animals”. At the end of the film, although the subtitle reads “All animals at the border deserve your respect”, it is playfully accompanied by a picture of the player being flattened by a large lobster, and finally the classic “You Died” ” was replaced by “Go Vegan” (change to vegetarian).
Rise, Tarnished, and bear witness to the amazing animals of the Lands Between!
Here are our top 5 things you should do in #ELDENRING. pic.twitter.com/ULPC8RQQDG
— MAP (@map) March 7, 2022
Before that, PETA had often used popular video games to promote the team’s philosophy, and even criticized Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s whaling plot and the Pokémon franchise’s many game. And in 2020, the group also tweeted a message titled “Assemble! “Animal Crossing Friends” themed film, the content opposes the fishing and insect-catching elements in the game, and even put slogans prohibiting fishing or catching insects on the island. As for this new “Ayrden Ring” film, the overall style is more tongue-in-cheek than serious propaganda. Judging from the content of the film, the members of PETA also seem to enjoy the experience brought by this game very much, and even have already played the experience. After all, they can accurately dismount the cavalry through parrying.
“Ayrden’s Ring” is the latest masterpiece from From Software and producer Hidetaka Miyazaki. After the game was released at the end of last month, it has been highly praised by players and the media, and even won the Metacritic website. It achieved an extremely high average score of 96 points, and of course it also achieved outstanding results in sales performance. Although less than a quarter of 2022 has passed, “Ayrden Circle” has become a popular contender for “Game of the Year”. Because of this, it seems that the success and popularity of this work can attract the attention of PETA has become an inevitable result.
