FromSoftware's frequent director Hidetaka Miyazaki has acknowledged his 'making poisonous swamps' addiction, and although the upcoming Elden Ring DLC was a moment of "introspection" for the developer, he's not stopping any time soon.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Miyazaki revealed that Shadow of the Erdtree will once again feature a poisonous swamp, an area that has since become a FromSoftware stable after bullying players in Sekiro, Demon Souls, and the Dark Souls trilogy.
"But this was actually a point of introspection for me after creating the base game. It was only after creating it that I realized I really like to create poisoned swamps," Miyazaki explains, presumably with a sadistic smile on his face. "And this was a little place of introspection and reflection for me," he continues. "So maybe, when players reach the poisoned swamp in the DLC, they will feel a little bit of this retrospection."
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I'm very excited to see what that retrospection looks like in Shadow of the Erdtree. Callbacks to previous games? Subverting expectations of players who have suffered through the other ones? A swamp that heals instead of poisons? Blasphemy. We'll see for ourselves when the expansion, which is said to be the studio's biggest yet, launches on July 21.
Poison swamps have become something of a masochistic community joke, with players excited for another extra tough challenge in these soggy areas. Miyazaki previously stated that the team doesn't set out to make these "games and characters funny," even though they're frequently construed as comedic. But maybe the poison swamp craze slots into the game's humor - it almost feels like someone playing a big fat joke on you.
