Hidetaka Miyazaki of FromSoftware is interviewed in the PlayStation blog talking about Elden Ring. In the interview, he discusses the game, its open world design, the accessibility question, and more.
When Elden Ring had its network tests, feedback was positive, but Miyazaki mentions that by the time the feedback comes through the rest of the team to him, it’s a more holistic view of the picture. He mentions things the players found difficult that the team wouldn’t have noticed without playtest feedback. However he says that there wasn’t anything that was particularly troublesome for players. And he emphasizes again wanting everyone to go exploring this open world at their own pace and go in fresh.
In deciding to make an open world game, freedom was extremely important and done with care to not wind up with the commonly criticized problems of open world games, including a feeling of emptiness and balance. Combine that with FromSoftware's legendary boss fights and events, with some of the darkness too, of course.
He emphasizes that they try to create beauty in the design as well as grotesque and that you’ll find both light and dark in the world of Elden Ring. This was a deliberate design choice taken along the way, both to make people want to play a game meant to be played at a player’s own pace without just being grim and dark or one thing or the other. It’s both, intentionally.
Miyazaki also mentions that there are multiplayer elements but with lower barriers to entry to make it more open to more players across the platforms. As for multiplayer, he says that the team hopes that “players embrace that idea of receiving help from others” with the system here..
The interview touches on the ongoing conversation about accessibility and the Souls games’ difficulty as an example. After acknowledging the discussion, he notes for Elden Ring says that there was no intention to lower the game's difficulty but he believes more players will finish it since there’s a lot more freedom and you play at your pace.
Elden Ring will be out on February 25th. Read the full interview over at the PlayStation blog.
