Elden Ring, one of the most anticipated works of the year, is about two weeks away from release. Before release, Elden Ring held a demonstration for about 4 hours with the domestic media, and curiosity about the game arose even more as if eating salad made me hungry more and more. To answer these questions, we had a video interview with FromSoftware’s Marketing Manager Yasuhiro Kitao.
Q. Looking at the demo version, the entire map was rectangular. Is this the full map?
The first map you see is not the entire map, but it gets wider. When you obtain a map fragment, the map expands.
Q. There are many fans who want a photo mode, is there any possibility of it being introduced?
We used all our development resources to make the game, so we couldn’t create a photo mode.
Q. I heard that you can grow a spirit body that helps the game progress. Specifically, what type of growth?
The spirit body does not lift weapons or impart attributes. If you throw items at the enemy, you can solve the battle by making the enemy attack intensively. There is a separate material to grow the spirit body, and depending on the event, it is also possible to unlock a new spirit body.
Q. Compared to the previous Soul series, I felt that the difficulty of paring was increased. Instead, I was able to solve the game by actively using defense, but I am curious as to why it implemented a combat system that is subtly different from the Soul series.
It wasn’t that parrying was made difficult on purpose. In the past, there were many cases of avoiding using rolling, but Elden Ring can also use jumping to roll, so there are more evasive actions. In addition, I made a guard count because I wanted to have fun using the shield. That didn’t make paring any more difficult.
Q. There are a lot of attacks that track rolling, so it’s not easy to avoid them. Is it to destroy the characteristics of the Soul series, which relied heavily on rolling?
There was no functional adjustment to weaken the rolling. It is the result of adjusting the difficulty by diversifying the enemy’s performance more in terms of expanding the fun and giving them a slow entry rather than showing an attack motion. Again, it didn’t weaken the rolling performance.
Q. In the beginning, there was a trap to go to a difficult area. was it intended?
It’s not a bug, it’s intended. The device was prepared as it suddenly moved from the beginning to the second half on purpose. The position of the trap is fixed, but it was not made with the speed run in mind. It is unknown whether this can be used for speedruns, but from the point of view of the development team, I would like to be surprised to see players using this trap after release.
Q. Is the round table part separate from the general field?
hit. In the past, it was possible to kill NPCs in a similar space in other works, but this is not the case.
Q. I was able to collect pictures in the game. Is there any other function such as decorating a round table with this?
The picture functions as a hint for a specific place.
Q. Can I make other recovery items other than the Holy Grail by crafting? Other than that, I wonder if there are any special consumables.
Recovery items cannot be crafted by crafting. The purpose is to allow the adventure to continue. For example, when an arrow falls, you can pick it up and use it immediately without having to go to the store. The reason why I couldn’t make recovery items was because I thought it had a lot of influence on the difficulty balance. If you fight while eating recovery items to your heart’s content, it seems that you will not be able to fight the intended battle. Instead, he made it possible to replenish the Holy Grail by defeating a group of enemies.
Q. In the case of The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, it was possible to go straight to the final boss, is it possible to proceed in such a non-linear fashion?
It’s not that far, but the focus was on making local movement as free as possible.
Q. I wonder if horseback riding can be used in the latter half of the game. Is there any content only for horseback battles?
In the second half, the same things that cannot be used in dungeons and boss battles are the same, but in other areas, you can enjoy horseback battles until the second half. I made it possible to do everything whether riding a horse or not, but I felt that there were certain elements that would make it comfortable or fun when waking up from a horseback battle.
Q. How many field bosses will appear in total?
It depends on the field, but there are about three to five for each field.
Q. Is there a growth route that improves the stats of the spirit horse?
There is no way to grow a spirit horse itself. However, the weapons and magic that can be used on a spirit horse become more colorful towards the second half.
Q. Elden Ring also has fragmented narratives like existing from software games. Following the guidance of the blessing, to what extent can you understand the worldview with information that can only be obtained from the main route?
As with other Soul series, the main route alone does not clearly convey the story. It is difficult to say exactly what percentage of the story you will be able to understand just by proceeding with the main route. This is because it is possible to draw your own conclusions by aggregating multiple pieces of information, or, conversely, it may be difficult to understand even after gathering all the information.
Q. What are the stories and themes that Elden Ring wants to show?
I hope you enjoy various adventures, such as solving numerous riddles and meeting NPCs in the wide world. In terms of the story, I think that the will of the characters was revealed stronger than in other games from From Software. To put it bluntly, if the simple story of coming to a place unknown to the player, falling into a crisis, and fighting against it was the old Soul series, in this work, a character like Melina who is sure of her expression or a boss who has a large background and talks a lot appears.
Q. How much use the PS5 Dual Sense function?
It supports haptic vibration, but does not support adaptive triggers.
Q. Sekiro ended with the main story, but are you thinking of releasing additional content after release?
The expansion of the Elden Ring is yet to be considered. In fact, I didn’t think about the next step because I was concentrating on the development of the main story right before the release.
Q. I think it will be the most popular action RPG from From Software. Is there any effort to approach the game grammar to strike a balance between open world and combat?
It was the same with Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but I thought it would be nice if more people could somehow enjoy the game we made. First, we considered the good and fun aspects of being enjoyed by the public, and then we thought to apply them to our game. After that, I struggled a lot to get the balance right. I referenced other open world games in many ways, and reviewed the placement of enemies and hidden elements a lot. In particular, since jumping is included this time, I thought about how to apply this to the level design.
Q. In addition to the world view, the characters appearing in the Elden Ring were designed by George RR Martin himself. What was the most synergistic part of your collaboration with him?
To be precise, the part George provided was an article about what the niche land in the game was like, what the Elden Ring was, and what kind of hero Demigod used to be. Thanks to this, I think the bosses have been completed with characters that are humane and contain their own thoughts and will. George RR Martin did not supervise the game himself, but rather sent the settings as text and asked them to make them freely.
Q. Lastly, would you like to say a word to the Korean players?
When I visited Korea before the release of Sekiro, I realized that Korean fans were very passionate and enjoyed our game a lot. I hope you enjoy this work as well.