A new Elden Ring interview has confirmed that the game will include many degrees of player freedom, some of which include decisions that lead to different endings. Elden Ring was announced during E3 2019 as FromSoftware’s next game, just months after the release of its award-winning title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
During the kickoff of this year’s Summer Game Fest, Elden Ring’s new trailer and release date were presented, finally giving players a vaster glimpse at the game’s world and enemies. The similarities to FromSoftware’s famous Dark Souls franchise are fairly immediate, but Elden Ring is poised to truly define its own identity through its lore, some of which was written and created by George R. R. Martin. The author is famous for his role as the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series that serves as source material for the Game of Thrones TV show. In fact, multiple people responsible for the popular HBO series have been involved in the development of Elden Ring’s lore and narrative, making the game even more impressive and intriguing.
With this, FromSoftware was able to make Elden Ring’s story flexible and more decision-based. Famitsu published an interview with the game’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, in which Miyazaki announced an abundance of new information. Reddit user theangryfurlong was kind enough to translate the whole interview for English-speaking audiences. While it’s worth noting that translations aren’t always perfect and can cloud some of the true intentions or meanings behind certain statements, it’s fairly clear that players will be receiving plenty of freedom in how they approach Elden Ring. According to Miyazaki, “the degree of freedom in progressing through the game is much higher than in the Dark Souls series.”
For example, bosses are actually more optional than players originally may have thought. Bosses are typically the biggest battles in games, and they often must be beaten before the game can be completed, but “very few [bosses] absolutely have to be beaten” in Elden Ring. Furthermore, much like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the actual progression of the game “is up to the player in many cases.” This leads to one of the most exciting aspects of Elden Ring: multiple endings. Because of this freedom, “there are multiple endings and many ways to arrive there.”
Assuming FromSoftware made the right design choices and paid enough attention to detail, Elden Ring is shaping up to be a defining game in recent history. The game is set to kick off 2022 with a bang, and fans could not be more excited. There’s even the possibility that Elden Ring will expand beyond gaming by infiltrating the literary, film, and television spheres. As the time ticks away, Elden Ring becomes more interesting and exciting, and it won’t be long before gamers get to experience it for themselves.
Elden Ring releases for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on January 21, 2022.
Sources: Famitsu, theangryfurlong/Reddit