Elden Ring: The Way to the Mother Tree, the comic manga you don't expect

Elden Ring

Describing Elden Ring in a nutshell is not easy. We could choose terms like mammoth, epic, varied and dramatic, but we would feel like we are leaving something behind. This is not a surprise since we still find ourselves talking about works such as Dark Souls (2011) and Bloodborne (2015), a sign that Miyazaki's games are so layered that they cannot be taken and described in a few moments, but they need years and years of study.

What we can most easily do is say what Elden Ring is not: it is not a comedy, it is not a work that aims to make us laugh and smile; except maybe when we defeat the fearsome boss on duty, but that's a different smile. Well, somebody doesn't have to like it because what we're going to talk about in this article is a comedic version of Elden Ring that goes out of its way to get you a laugh.

Elden Ring, just in case you missed it, it has in fact become a comic manga - Elden Ring: The Way to the Mother Tree - and we read the first two chapters to be able to talk about it. In Italy it will be published by Panini Comics. Who is this product for? Is it really funny? Should it be read or not? Read on to get to know what our thoughts are.

Comic Lore

In the Elden Ring comic manga even Melina makes jokes What story does Elden Ring tell The Way to the Mother Tree? Ours, in a sense, that of the Lightless destined to become the Ancestral Lord. More to the point, the main character is the one who would likely play a new player who clearly has no idea how Miyazaki's games work.

The character is first of all a Unfortunate, one of the initial classes that start without any armor and with a club. Normally it is the class of experts or undecided, but within the manga it only indicates that the protagonist is an outcast, an unfortunate soul who has nothing with him. Above all, he has absolutely no idea what is going on.

As in any comic isekai, our Unfortunate seems to have been transported into the Interregnum all of a sudden and has no idea what is working things around here . The idea of ​​Elden Ring The Way to the Mother Tree is to strike us with the seriousness of the original work and then break the rhythm with the interventions of the protagonist, who always seems completely out of place.

Enough for example see the meeting with Varré White Mask: the man performs in his own dialogue, known to gamers, but the Unfortunate does not accept being told that he is without a virgin and destined to death, he tries and so he starts to cry and attacks him. In the next chapter, however, Varré reappears and we see him gardening with a wooden cart.

The lore of the Grafts becomes part of fashion, in the Elden Ring manga The thing repeats itself with the meeting of Melina or the appearance of Godrick. The two appear in their own seriousness and then everything ends in a comical way, with jokes and knockdowns of the fourth wall. The interesting part, however, is linked to the fact that the comedy of Elden Ring The way to the Mother Tree is not completely random, but at least partly based on lore.

Godrick, for example, is looking for new grafts, just like in the game, but instead of receiving the mutilated and rotting limbs of the Lightless, he asks his court to propose artistic fusions of arms and legs, in search something cute and trendy to impress the capital. However, this means that Elden Ring The Way to the Mother Tree is first of all a manga intended for those who know Elden Ring, perhaps even in detail.

References to the game world, to the lore and to the typical problems encountered during the gameplay phases (such as being massacred by the Sentinel of the Tree as soon as you enter the open map) will be understandable only for those who know Elden Ring.

With only two chapters we cannot know how in-depth future references will be, but for now we have already seen a good amount of details that will be appreciated by fans and perhaps only by them. At the same time, we are more than sure that for a certain slice of players this version of Elden Ring will be a ridiculous product that has nothing to do with the video game. Unfortunately, it all depends on personal taste and how much of it is able not to "take it too personally".

The Elden Ring manga also breaks down the fourth wall In the few pages available there was no shortage of ideas and if Elden Ring The Way to the Mother Tree will be able to continue on this path will be a fun and interesting work. It does not seem to be a work suitable for those unfamiliar with the game, but with about 17 million players we really believe that the potential audience is more than wide.

We also remember that Elden Ring The Way to the Mother Tree will be distributed in Italy in free format (but only temporarily) by Panini Comics digitally starting from 12 September 2022. If you have enjoyed Miyazaki's game and are used to reading manga, there is no reason not to give this strange one a chance but pleasant alternative version of the videogame work, it being understood that you have to accept the idea of ​​seeing the epicness of Elden Ring ridiculed.

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