Elden Ring was the culmination of a five-year development cycle for FromSoftware, and a step in a completely new direction for the storied Japanese developer.
But even though it’s different to their past titles, there’s still some overlap in ideas between FromSoftware’s last game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring. Speaking with PlayStation Blog, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed about how Sekiro influenced their 2022 masterpiece.
Developmental Overlap Was The Main Reason Behind The Influences
Elden Ring‘s development started in 2017 alongside Sekiro, which released in 2019. Hidetaka Miyazaki explained that since they were working on both games at the same time, there were a few cool references that were snuck into the former:
I’d have to say that, considering Sekiro’s development overlapped with Elden Ring’s to an extent, there’s nothing that directly came through from that project. But there were several indirect examples there.
The first is the stance break mechanic. In Elden Ring, you can break an enemy’s stance in a very similar fashion to how you’d use Sekiro‘s successful posture system. However, the gameplay parallels don’t end there.
“We even referenced Sekiro’s player traversal for the horse mounting system and how you traverse the map in Elden Ring,” adds Miyazaki. In Sekiro, you could use a grappling hook to climb up elevated terrain.
This idea carried over to Elden Ring, but instead of the hook, you use your trusty horse, Torrent. Moreover, being able to ride Torrent around the map makes traversal easier and combat strategies more layered.
Elden Ring‘s Storytelling Was Improved Due To Sekiro
The most interesting way Sekiro influenced Elden Ring, though, is the story, as Miyazaki explains:
In terms of the narrative and how we tell character stories, Sekiro was a lot more direct than our previous Souls-like titles. While we’re still maintaining Elden Ring’s world with a sense of depth and a fragmented narrative–we’re still upholding our storytelling philosophy–there’s more focus on human elements and drama than before. We definitely took some inspiration from how Sekiro handled that and tried to apply the good parts to Elden Ring.
In most FromSoftware games, the story is told in a fragmented way. It’s on the players to piece it together by finding textual clues in the world or through in-game items. However, Sekiro‘s story was very different in that regard.
Sekiro was less of an RPG than previous FromSoftware games, as it had a fixed protagonist and a more straightforward story. Elden Ring‘s narrative finds itself somewhere in the middle – it’s still deep and mysterious, but there’s also a heightened focus on the characters and the “drama” of the world.
Learning about Sekiro‘s subtle influences in Elden Ring proves FromSoftware’s tendency to innovate the art of making games, all while remembering what makes their games great.
Borrowing tried-and-tested mechanics and story ideas from past games doesn’t make Elden Ring any less original, just more authentic and rewarding to play.
