Elden Ring Gameplay Development Explained by Hidetaka Miyazaki

The latest issue of Famitsu featured extensive coverage of Elden Ring to mark the game’s global launch. It also included a lengthy six page interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki. The director talked about some of the decisions made in the gameplay systems during the game’s development, such as item crafting and free exploration. [Thanks, Ryokutya!]

Here are some of the highlights from Famitsu‘s Elden Ring interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki:

• “The production went in parallel with Sekiro, so there was not a lot of direct feedback from Sekiro. However, they did indeed influence each other.”
• “To proceed into new fields, you can do things like clearing dungeons or defeating large bosses. But those are not the entirety of the rules.”
• “There are various requirements. There are multiple methods that look like warps. Some of the regions will have you simply walk on the ground.”
• “We’re emphasizing the degree of freedom in playthroughs. You can have a somewhat free order on which regions to visit.”
• “We are refraining a lot from making large boss destructions into unavoidable checkpoints in game progression.”
• “There are no features where the horse would not listen to the rider’s instructions.”
• “If a playthrough is too short in a game with open world, there is a tendency for people to get stressed. They would think ‘I ran out of items so let’s head back at once,’ and that would make it more uncomfortable than usual. We wanted to reduce that by implementing the Item Crafting system.”
• “Being able to use things other than Blessing to fill the holy grail is intended to raise the abilities for continuous battles so that a playthrough won’t become too short.”
• “If you are hesitating in choosing your origin, you can just choose based on the background and looks that you like. We designed it so that picking specific origins would not lead to restrictions later on.”
• “The Wretch is the only one that’s totally different. (laughs)”
• “The Guidance of Blessing is the minimum level of guidance. There are also discovery and drama if you stray away from it.”
• “I want you to enjoy [the game] by not fearing death and including it in trials and errors.”
• “I’m not good at mentioning gameplay hours, but this one definitely has a larger volume than the Dark Souls series.”

Elden Ring will release for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on February 25, 2022. Bandai Namco has shared the exact global release times for the upcoming title.