An acclaimed, extremely difficult dark fantasy with graphic gore, grotesque creatures, sorcery and spirit-summoning in an invented religious world, balanced by a restoration quest and lessons in perseverance, which keeps it in the Avoid range and out of reach for children and teens.
Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game from FromSoftware, directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with worldbuilding by fantasy author George R. R. Martin, and published by Bandai Namco. It was released on February 25, 2022 for PlayStation, Xbox and Windows, and a Nintendo Switch 2 version came out on August 28, 2026. It has sold more than 30 million copies, won over 300 Game of the Year awards, and spawned a 2024 expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, a 2025 multiplayer spin-off, Elden Ring Nightreign, and a film slated for 2028.
Players control a customizable character called the Tarnished, an exile summoned back to the Lands Between to repair the shattered Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord. The ring's shards, called Great Runes, have corrupted the demigod children of the land's vanquished queen, and the Tarnished must defeat them. Along the way a Maiden named Melina becomes a guide, the Roundtable Hold serves as a hub, and the story branches into six different endings, from becoming Elden Lord to using the Frenzied Flame to destroy the Lands Between.
The ESRB rates it M for Mature, with descriptors of Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence, as listed by Common Sense Media, which recommends it for ages 15 and up. Plugged In's Bob Hoose rates it Mature and describes it as deliberately dark and extremely difficult, a game that earns its M rating. It is not a game for children. Common Sense lists no drinking, drugs or smoking.
This is the heaviest concern. Plugged In says Elden Ring is heavy on blood and gore: players impale and hack at foes with swords, scimitars, halberds and arrows, blood spurts at every strike, slashed-off limbs appear, and severed fingers and tongues are collectible items. The enemies are often grotesque, from armored knights to twisted creatures such as hawks with swords for talons and spider-like beasts made of severed human limbs. The combat is player-controlled fantasy violence seen from a third-person view and aimed at monsters and warriors, not civilians. Common Sense says the fighting is tough but fair, though the ESRB's gore descriptor reflects how graphic it is.
The spiritual content is the part most Christian players ask about, and it needs care. The Lands Between has its own invented religions: a Golden Order centered on the Erdtree, a Greater Will, Outer Gods, and rival factions, none of which is Christianity or any real-world faith. Players use sorcery and incantations as combat tools and can call on ghostly helpers called Spirit Ashes. Plugged In describes the world as a place "swirling with dark, rancid magic and spirituality," and the Frenzied Flame ending is a chaos path that destroys the world.
We do not claim the game is anti-Christian, because none of the sources we read ties its religion to Christianity, and the commentary linking the Golden Order to Christendom comes from fans who disagree with each other. We also did not credit the claim that players "kill a Christian god," which we could not find in any reliable source. The Gospel Coalition's article on fictional magic is a helpful starting point for Christians: it notes that Scripture treats magic largely negatively but not uniformly, since Daniel is called chief of the magicians, and urges moving beyond simplistic embrace or wholesale condemnation. Some Christians will be comfortable with fictional sorcery in a clearly invented world, and others will not be.
Language is infrequent. Plugged In found a few uses of rough language, including "bloody" and the s-word, and Common Sense says profanity appears infrequently in text and dialogue. Sexual content is limited: the ESRB's descriptor is Suggestive Themes, Plugged In notes glimpses of monstrous female flesh, and Common Sense says one enemy is "partially nude, with only scales to obscure her breasts." We found no sex scenes and no evidence of the intimate NPC questlines that an AI-written summary had claimed.
Common Sense says perseverance and a sense of pride arise organically through play, and the game teaches that failure is how you learn. Plugged In notes that, despite the gloom, its central goal is to bring healing and light to a broken place and that it has a lighter feel than the earlier Souls games. Players can leave messages for each other and help strangers having a hard time, according to Common Sense. These are real strengths, though the story does not present a Christian or even a clear moral framework.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 forbids divination, sorcery, spiritism and consulting the dead among God's people, and some Christians see the game's sorcery, incantations and spirit-summoning as too close to that, even in an invented world. Others read the passage as addressing real occult practice and not fiction. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that our struggle is against spiritual forces and not flesh and blood, which makes a game that dwells on grotesque spiritual corruption worth approaching thoughtfully. Psalm 101:3 says "I will not look with approval on anything that is vile," and Philippians 4:8 calls us to dwell on what is true, noble and pure, so graphic gore and horror are fair things to weigh.
On the other side, Proverbs 24:16 says the righteous fall seven times and rise again, and the game's central lesson, that failure is how you learn, resonates with it. 1 Corinthians 10:23 says that not everything permissible is beneficial, which is the question each Christian player has to answer for themselves, honestly, about this game.
Elden Ring is rated M and Common Sense recommends 15 and up, so it is not for children or most young teenagers. Parents of older teens should know it has online features, including messages from other players and help from others, so check the console's online settings. We have not reviewed the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion or Elden Ring Nightreign, and their content may differ. Adults who play should consider honestly how the combat, gore and spiritual themes affect them.
Elden Ring scores 22/100, Avoid. It is a widely acclaimed work of design, but its graphic gore, grotesque imagery, dark magic and spirit-summoning, and invented religions that never point toward truth keep it in the Avoid range on our scale. This is not a claim that it is anti-Christian, and the spiritual classification and the violence level are judgment calls that we explain in the guide. We do not recommend it for children or teenagers. For mature adults it is a matter of conscience, and we encourage playing, if at all, with the questions above in mind.
For other games people ask about, see our guides to Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda, Halo, Baldur's Gate 3, and Hades. Our Christian video game reviews hub compares the rest, and our Christian discernment guide explains how we weigh a game's content. For the full parent guides, read Plugged In's review and Common Sense Media's review, and see the ESRB's ratings guide for what its descriptors mean.