Thanks to a Guardian interview we know that Miyazaki views Elden Ring as "the limit" for FromSoftware and that they're focusing on smaller projects in future.
The verticality is absolutely the best part. My biggest gripe with Elden Rings world is that it's an "open world" game in kind of the same way Ubi games are. Traversal is largely trivial, so you stop paying attention to the map after you've reached major areas.
In my opinion, Dark Souls I is also an open world game, but instead of a 2D map all the zones are tangled up together in a confusing but interesting web.
Shadow of the Erdtree brought some of that back by having zones stacked on top of each other to a much heavier degree than the base game, while also segmenting off geographically close regions.
I wanted to be a level designer for a lot of years, so this is admittedly a bit of a soft spot for me, but I absolutely loved having the game world come at you as as a challenge, almost a character to be fought and bested, outside the legacy dungeons.
I bought the DLC a month ago and chip away at the game whenever the kids are asleep. I've spent 80 hours already and nearing the finish line. It's crazy.
Was it really? I've seen this figure thrown around a lot and why we can ignore the layers upon layers I still thought it to be bigger. At least the size of Limgrave + Weeping penisula
I hope we will see more smaller scale games from them in the future. Elden Ring is fantastic, but I want them to make another take on Sekiro’s combat.
I think it’s unlikely we’re going to get Sekiro 2 because the IP is under Activision. If anything, we’ll probably get a spiritual successor under Namco.
Fantastic, I'm sure it was a hell of a slog for them. I'm really looking forward to their next games, their one offs like Bloodborne and Sekiro are my favourites.
They embarrassed EA, but more importantly Ubisoft. Open world games are pretty much all Ubisoft is known for these days.
I certainly think they can compete with Rockstar. Elden Ring is just a different genre from RDD or GTA. Had Elden Ring not been so difficult and had all the normie garbage like quest markers and other hand holders, it likely could have outsold GTA. But because From makes hard games (even though Elden Ring is their easiest game) and because they didn't hold the players hand, people passed on some sales.
Same. Elden Ring's biggest weakness is its open world, in my opinion. It makes the first playthrough great, but it makes subsequent playthroughs a chore. Especially when you're aware that 90% of dungeons/side areas have completely worthless gear and runes. Your subsequent runs just end up being you riding Torrent for long stretches of time from point A to point B.
My disappointment isn't with the enemy variety or gear drops. It's with the dead world. My first hours in the game I saw a wolf walk through a herd of deer both ignoring each other. When you've just come off RDR2, seeing wildlife as decorations running 2 scripts that both depend on player interaction is lame.
Even FarCry3 had emergent game-play through enemy/wildlife AI.
In the DLC, it's still open world and extremely flexible in how you explore it, but there's less wasted space.
It's very tightly knit and the pacing is better as a result.
It's like Elden Ring was watching masters of their craft cut their teeth on something new, and then the DLC was them applying everything they learned in that process.
Can't wait for their next game in that same vein (especially not held back by last gen consoles).
Good! Elden Ring felt too large at times, especially some DLC areas. Where I had the most fun was contained dungeons and castles. I think that's really where their level design shines best.
I'm not sure why you think every interaction in an open world game is supposed to be completely hand crafted from scratch.
The scale is part of the point, and Elden Ring nailed the sense of exploration of a huge, open world that maybe hasn't happened since Skyrim. It's that rare to capture that sense of awe.
Because when I explore I want to go see something new and interesting. Half the time in Elden Ring I’d just run into something I’ve seen before. It made it not feel good to explore.
I don’t blame them for this, but this is the reality of making a project this big in scope. You can’t possibly fill it with good content. They made one of the like top 3-5 best open world games, but it’s still stuck with all the same drawbacks as open world games.
I just want them to go back to making more focused content.
After some 200+ hours in the game, this alleged issue hasn't even crossed my mind once. The world is absolutely gorgeous, and the sense of exploration is unreal