From the start of the new Elden Ring gameplay trailer, it was clear that FromSoftware wanted to convey a sense of scale. From the expansive vistas to even just the existence of a giant goat players need to ride across the map, Elden Ring is bigger than any Soulsborne game before it. In an interview with director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the legendary game developer made clear that this is intentional, and could set the stage for one of the most freeform games yet from the Dark Souls team.
After an agonizing two years of waiting, the long-awaited collaboration between director Hidetaka Miyazaki and author George R.R. Martin has been re-revealed. IGN was able to sit down with Miyazaki for an extensive deep dive into Elden Ring. One of the things we learned is how the sense of scale shown in the trailer wasn’t just for cinematic effect, but a core pillar of Elden Ring’s design.
Throughout our interview, Miyazaki talked about Elden Ring’s setting, The Lands Between, and the importance of having massive worlds players can freely explore.
“The Lands Between is actually a name that was invented by George R.R. Martin himself when he was coming up for the impetus for this world and writing its history and its deep mythos,” says Miyazaki. “And we hope that as well as taking away the idea of it being the sort of impetus and the starting place for the world, we want people to feel that it’s really like an invitation to this mysterious new land.”
FromSoft games often feature complex, almost labyrinthine designs where, as players progress, seemingly distinct map locations connect with one another through shortcuts and new paths. This wasn’t always the case though – Demon’s Souls, for example, features five unique worlds. Each world has three unique stages that connect to each other seamlessly, but the worlds themselves don’t intersect.
This changed in Dark Souls and Bloodborne where the entire map essentially functioned as a whole, save for a handful of different zones and dimensions. Elden Ring seems to take both of these concepts and expand them to a scale unseen in past FromSoft games.
The Lands Between is made up of six major areas, each of which is the domain of a major demigod character. Miyazaki says that it will be apparent there is an “order” to how players can tackle these six areas, but you don’t have to follow it.
“We wanted to give a free level of progression and exploration through the Lands Between, so there’s a lot of different ways. You won’t be able to access everything from the start, but there are a lot of different ways you can approach each area. And there’s a lot of freedom as to which order you tackle different areas as well.”
Miyazaki broke it down further, explaining that each of the six areas will “house its own mainline dungeon map,” which seamlessly connects to the Lands Between. There’s even a “hub” – not unlike Dark Souls' Firelink Shrine – which players can branch out from that can be accessed a little later in the game.
The more Miyazaki explains the world of Elden Ring, the bigger it feels. Beyond the main dungeons of the six domains, there are also “a wide variety of catacombs and castles and fortresses which are interspersed throughout the map.”
While there are certainly overworlds that come to mind when hearing Miyazaki explain the map layout of Elden Ring (*cough* Breath of the Wild *cough*) this expansive design signals particularly exciting possibilities.
As I said previously, a Dark Souls game can sometimes feel like a labyrinth, and this does have drawbacks. There are some areas that feel like they exist only to bridge together disparate areas, and there are times the map design can feel unnatural and artificial as a result.
But separating the world into six major domains that function as their own dungeons, while also creating a larger, explorable world with off-the-beaten-path mini-dungeons, Elden Ring could feel like a truly open-world that still keeps the level of map craftsmanship FromSoftware is known for.
https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring ... -of-gaming 
