From Software’sElden Ring,a forthcoming RPG created in collaboration withGame of Thronesauthor George R.R. Martin,leaked before its announcement at E3 2019, but there’s still little actually known about the project. A brief teaser trailer was shown on stage at Microsoft’s press conference, which established the world to some degree, but many major details remain a mystery. However, Hidetaka Miyazaki, the game director behind the Soulsborne titles, has now given fans a frame of reference for how the game’s story will work.
Specifically, Miyazaki has now made it clear thatElden Ring’snarrative will be more in line withDarkSouls' story thanSekiro’s. This means that the majority of the game’s story will wind up being told atmospherically, placing an emphasis on environmental storytelling rather than pre-rendered cutscenes. This is in contrast to 2019’sSekiro,which still has a healthy amount of environmental storytelling but relies more heavily on cut scenes to tell a story than many of Miyazaki’s other projects.
This emphasis on atmosphere stems from players being able to customize their own character, which lead Miyazaki to make the narrative more about the game’s world than it is about the player character. However, Miyazaki also believes that the game’s NPCs, and world, will have greater appeal than his other projects by offering players more to explore, which should get longtimeSoulsfans excited for the project. If, of course, theElden Ringtrailerdidn’t already accomplish that.
George R.R. Martin’s role in the project has been briefly touched on by Miyazaki, and rumors about the collaboration began circulating months before the announcement ofElden Ring. However, the rumors before E3 lead many to believe thatFromSoftware was working on aGame of ThronesRPG, andElden Ringmay wind up being even better than what fans were hoping for. Martin and FromSoftware are both incredibly skilled at dark fantasy, and the collaboration has a pretty high likelihood of being one of the more compelling fantasy worlds in games, so long as Martin and FromSoftware put out their usual quality.
Elden Ringis currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
