Elden Ring details revealed by director Hidetaka Miyazaki

More Elden Ring details have emerged from FromSoftware president, Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Speaking with IGN, Miyazaki shared some quotes for parts of the Elden Ring trailer we saw revealed last week during the Summer Game Fest. Additionally, he's shared some specifics in a Famitsu interview, revealing what in-game content players can expect to see when it launches next year.

Speaking with IGN, Miyazaki talks about the world, explaining that while players won't be able to access every location from the start, there are a lot of different ways to approach each of the 6 areas. There's also freedom in how the player decides what order to tackle different areas and that each area is linked by a hub. 

Each area has its own dungeon as well, which is reportedly "connected to the lands between itself," he told IGN. In the Famitsu interview, he calls these "large-scale three-dimensional" dungeons "Legacy" but also reveals that there are medium and small-scale dungeons, forts, catacombs, caves, and tunnels to explore.

Miyazaki also confirmed that there is a fast travel system in place, but his preference is that players explore the map and uncover it for themselves. To encourage exploration, he confirmed that skills and upgrades are obtained through finding them on your travels. In the interview with Famitsu, he clarified "Only one combat maneuver can be attached to one weapon. However, you can freely change the combat maneuvers, and we have about 100 in number."

With Elden Ring encouraging players to have their freedom, encounters in the world can be approached in different ways. Stealth is an option that can apparently allow you to bypass certain areas if you're sneaky enough, or even reach what could be a vantage point to observe an area. Miyazaki told IGN that FromSoftware "wanted to create these opportunities for players to see what lies ahead of them and below them and around them, and to assess how they're going to confront that, or not as the case may be."

Players will still be able to summon spirits to aid in battle in Elden Ring, like the Dark Souls games, but the difference is that enemy characters can also be summoned as allies. Miyazaki told IGN that there will be online summons available to enable co-op play.

"We want to retain that sense of the player discovering things for themselves and enjoying uncovering the world both in terms of action and narrative," Miyazaki said, "We don't want to force anything on the player."

Speaking with Famitsu, Miyazaki confirmed that Elden Ring will have a character creator that will allow players to customize their appearance as well as being free to choose their weapons, armor, skills, and magic. He also explained that the game would have multiple endings to discover and while there are a limited number of bosses in the world, the order they're defeated is entirely up to the player.

Miyazaki talks about difficulty and says that he believes Elden Ring's difficulty is lower than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodbourne. He compares it to Sekiro, but clarifies that there are options to "challenge a certain threat after raising the level" and with multiplayer allowing players to bring someone in to help.

In addition, there are real-time changes that take place that impact the game; at night, for example, Miyazaki explained that both players and enemies will change their aggression due to a decrease in visibility, and there'll also be creatures that only come out at night.

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