What Kind of Game Is Elden Ring?
Luckily, Miyazaki was not the secretive soul master I had imagined him to be. He was open and friendly and seemed eager to tell me all about his new game and the meaning behind the Elden Ring.
"Elden Ring is a third-person action RPG with a fantasy setting," he said. "The gameplay is not so far from Dark Souls. That doesn't mean that the gameplay will be identical, but you could say that Elden Ring belongs to the same genre."
Genre-wise, the same can be said for Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, two of Miyazaki's more recent works. However, both titles brought a lot of fresh elements to the table. Bloodborne allowed the player to snatch back lost health with a quick counterattack, had transformable weapons and introduced firearms to counter an enemy's attack. Sekiro came with a unique sword fighting system focused on parrying attacks, literally brought exploration to new heights with a grappling hook and the ability to jump, and fundamentally changed the flow of battle by getting rid of the stamina gauge.
But according to Miyazaki, Elden Ring goes beyond simply bringing new twists to the formula. By adding larger and more open environments, he believes that the game will evolve on a larger scale.
"With a larger world, new systems and action mechanics inevitably become necessary," he said. "In that sense, I think that Elden Ring is a more natural evolution of Dark Souls."
