It's a manga drawn and written by Nikiichi Tobita and it's an officially licensed product by Bandai/FromSoftware, published by Yen Press.

I say that because many might come to think that it's some fan-made nonsense, because the tone of the manga will probably take most Elden Ring fans by surprise.

It's a comedy/gag/parody manga. It featured a single real fight in 11 chapters and it basically lasted 2 pannels.

I expected and would have liked it to be an actual canon and serious manga, but it's not the end of the world.

I give it a 7/10 because I personally don't like comedy adaptations and you'll see why it plays such a big role (unfortunately for me), but it's otherwise surprising.

I'll state the pros and then the cons.

Pros:

Art

• The art is 100% faithful to the game (below is an actual picture I took ingame, versus the first pannel).

• The quality and detail of some shots are impressive.

• There's a nice "sketch-like" quality to the drawings. It's a bit difficult to describe but sometimes the lack of crispness in the image gives it a nice feel, especially in the context of Elden Ring. You can almost see the pencil smudges.

• It also has this nice movement effect it uses sometimes to portray shaking (first pannel).

Reference to source material

• You basically follow the real quest of Ranni and the references that are made along the way are very accurate. It takes you by surprise a bit. They even left in the funny/weird way of how Blaidd is initially summoned (when you need to snap your fingers when you hear howling) and also the fact that Ranni shows up at night only

• There's actual references to gameplay strategy (i.e. using soap consummable) and building your character (building strength or int).

• There are references to the items the NPCs actually give you ingame (i.e. Margit giving you the pouch for expanding your talisman slots or the crafting kit and cookbook you get from the first merchant) and it also explains what it does. There's like an embedded tutorial.

Cons

Fighting is lacking and purposefully left out in exchange for more humorous ways of approaching confrontation. I'll give 2 examples that should make it clear.

• Margit spares the main character because he pities him that he has no armor or clothes, and is using pathetic wolf mimic to fight him.

• Blaidd and the Bloodhound Knight from the Evergaol fight by comparing the dolls they made of Ranni

Humor is not befitting of Elden Ring, for my personal taste. Seeing fights reduced to doll contests is not my cup of tea, especially when we're speaking of a lore as "godly" (as in, very religious and serious) as Elden Ring's. I'll give 2 examples of how they basically mock Godrick.

• Godrick's "grafting" was turned into a joke attribute that makes him a sort of feminine american girl fashion diva

• Godrick holds a "grafting contest", with the jury being knights and Melina and whatnot

Maybe Pro, maybe Con:

The fact that they made the main character a player, I don't know if it plays in favor of or against the manga. They break the 4th wall and make it clear that the tarnished main character is a player like us. He doesn't know why he's here and wants to "level up", etc., yet there's no indication that it's a game. I don't know how to feel about it, maybe it'll tie well with the game, but I'm sure it'll make people feel more immersed in some sense because it reflect actual player thoughts during the game.

Summary

If you would like an Elden Ring adaptation to be faithful to the game's tone (serious), you might be disappointed as I am. However if you like how something very serious can be turned into light-hearted banter, you'll probably like it a lot, especially if you played the game yourself.

I found it somewhat amusing at first, but overall disappointed of it being adapted into a comedy.

This motivated me to start modding the game instead of just spamming NG+X with a new build everytime.