Without any doubt, the great bombshell that has been revealed in recent days has been Elden Ring. Hidetaka Miyazaki’s title was one of the most anticipated works by the entire industry audience and we finally got to see it in motion at the last Summer Game Fest.
However, our doubts have only accumulated. Yes, we know the release date, but we do not know exactly what we are going to face . Now, through an interview conducted on IGN, we can already know much better what awaits us.
A vast world to explore
As has been customary in From Software’s Souls saga, Elden Ring is a “dark fantasy IP,” Miyazaki notes. The place we will visit is called The Middle Lands and the name has been adopted by George RR Martin , the famous author of A Song of Ice and Fire who has been especially involved in structuring this world. The director hopes the setting will evoke a “feeling of something that is very mysterious and very ethereal.”
Miyazaki reveals that The Midlands “is divided into six main areas ,” which are dominated by demigod characters. Although everything is composed in such a way that each of the zones would be addressed in a specific order, you do not have to follow a predetermined pattern. Of course, we will not be able to access everything from the beginning, “but there is a lot of freedom as to in what order to approach the different areas .”
“One of our big themes for the development of this new world was that because of its greatness and sense of scale, we didn’t want players to get lost and have no idea what to do or where to go. So there is an element orientation, especially at the beginning There is a main route that you can follow, but at any time you are free to break this route and take the untraveled path.
We wanted to focus on a design that accommodates that high level of freedom, that freedom of progression across the world, what order do you choose to address the different areas, the different bosses, and how you approach each of them as well. You may be sent to a couple of areas against your will, but there are many ways I can explore and address these. “
Much like Lordran and Fire Link Shrine, there will be “a central area that you can access a bit later in the game.” From this point the Elden Ring branches out and each of these paths leads to areas that in turn have “catacombs, castles and fortresses that are interspersed throughout the map.”
For the less patient, there will be fast travel. Miyazaki says that “we want users to enjoy the exploration aspect and discover the map for themselves, but we also wanted to take into account that level of comfort and ease of play.”
Frenzied combat and enemies of hell itself
This aforementioned freedom also carries over to combat, as we will have “a great variety of ways in which you can approach combat and a great variety of skills that you can acquire.” In fact, we will have up to a hundred abilities in total and we will be free to combine them with magic and weapons, which will be mostly hidden throughout the map.
An interesting aspect is related to spiritual invocations. Miyazaki explains that “they are enemy characters, but you can summon them as allies to aid you in battle.” Although they will have their function during battles, the director also believes that “the player may find that they simply like a certain enemy to accompany them, a certain invocation pleases them aesthetically.”
Another great news is that the multiplayer section will be present , so we can summon human warriors to help us in the fighting. A great classic that will not be missing in the Elden Ring is the resistance bar, although Miyazaki indicates that “we think it has less influence on the player in general. We wanted it to feel less restrictive and contribute to that level of freedom more than our previous titles. “.
Finally, he points out that stealth will have “a relatively simple implementation .” We can make the typical move of crouching down, hiding in the tall grass and surprising an enemy from behind to finish him off. Mind you, the unpredictable chest-shaped Mimics won’t be in the Elden Ring, so we can breathe easy.
New world, new lore
Of course, all this must be given a context. And this is where George RR Martin has played a key role, which “brought things to the table that we couldn’t have done for ourselves, in terms of that rich storytelling and that sense of character and drama . So we also really appreciate his participation”.
In the Middle Lands we will find a world that has been blessed precisely by the ring to which the title refers, which reports a golden light in the eyes of its inhabitants . In spite of everything, with time this light disappeared and now they are known as the Faded and are banished from the place. Now, the ring having been shattered, the descendants of these beings return to the Midlands due to the return of that blessing.
The demigods mentioned above, and written by George RR Martin, “inherited the corrupting power of the Elden Ring fragments once it was broken. We wanted to depict these beings not only as hideous creatures and monsters, but they had an element of heroism and an element of mythology. Essentially, they are the old gods of this world. “
“And part of the design of these main characters is that by inheriting the Elden Ring shards, each inherited a different power or element, so to speak, and each was twisted and warped in their own way, bringing a tainted force to it. Each one of them. Each one fell into madness and was ruined in their own way. So while they have heroic and mythological elements, they are also going to have this madness and this deeply ingrained ruin. We hope that players will enjoy discovering each one of them. for themselves”.
