With Elden Ring releasing on January 21 next year, FromSoftware has been keeping relatively quiet since the last previews in August. Producer Yasuhiro Kitao gave a few brief comments to Famitsu during Tokyo Game Show, though, and reaffirmed that Elden Ring is in the "final stages of development" and that FromSoftware is "moving forward quietly."
Via an automatic translation posted to the Elden Ring subreddit, we've got just a few more tidbits of information about the game and how it'll shake up the FromSoftware formula.
We've known for some time that Elden Ring takes place in an open world map, with lots of freedom for how and when individual players can approach certain challenges. Kitao added that Elden Ring has a "very unusual map structure" and that players can expect to see things never seen before in a FromSoftware game.
If you're worried that Elden Ring having an open world map means it'll be a dull checklist of things to do, Kitao told Famitsu "there are no errand quests."
As for other details, Kitao summarized Elden Ring's map as "a system that lets you go anywhere you want, but also tells you when you're in trouble." As someone who struggles to know whether I'm up against a wildly OP boss or if I just suck at combat, I appreciate it when games encourage me to just look elsewhere.
Physical map fragments will also be collectible on the open world field, which will let you mark where you want to go and create a beam of light in the sky to guide your way. Checkpoints in the open world will offer some degree of guidance that you're going the correct way, but what form that takes (I imagine signposts or the rare NPC), we don't know yet.
It's a very small and somewhat obvious update to one of 2022's most anticipated games, but Elden Ring fans will take anything they can get for now. If you're eager for more, check out everything we know about Elden Ring, including gameplay details, story and world lore, and more. Here's 14 things we learned from the last round of previews of Elden Ring.
