Game Informer also provided a new Elden Ring gameplay video for FromSoftware’s upcoming game.

The PlayStation Blog has a new interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki, but we’ll get back to that later. There’s a comment from Yasuhiro Kitao, the game’s producer, who said the following during a Taipei Game Show presentation: “After clearing the game the first time, you can carry across your character data and play the game again, against powered-up enemies. This has always been a feature of our games …; with the world being so vast, the game is designed to be cleared without necessarily experiencing everything. Some players will prefer to try and explore the entire map the first time, while others will leave some areas for exploration in second or subsequent cycles.”

Miyazaki said on the PlayStation Blog that new players (with no experience in the Souls titles) shouldn’t worry, while he expects more people to finish Elden Ring than the studio’s previous games: “I’d like new players to feel unpressured and that they can approach the game at their pace. I realize that while we offer games with a high level of challenge, we design them in a way that feels fulfilling to overcome. But I don’t want new players to worry or stress about that difficulty too much… They can come back to something later when they’re at an impasse so that they can have this freedom of progression and not have to bang their head against a wall over and over.”

He then explained that it doesn’t mean the game’s difficulty got toned down: “It’s a good discussion [about game difficulty]. I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes. We don’t want players to feel like the game is unfairly punishing, but rather that there’s a chance to win a difficult encounter and make progress. We understand that Souls-like games are regularly associated with impossible levels of difficulty with high barriers to entry. But we try to design the games to make the cycle of repeatedly trying to overcome these challenges enjoyable in itself. So we hope that with Elden Ring and the new options it provides, it will be a success in that respect.” He believes the open-world freedom and the multiplayer will help players reach the end.

Miyazaki also told Game Informer that swamps will also be present in Elden Ring: “While making this game I rediscovered my love for making poison swamps. I know how people feel about them, but I suddenly realize I’m in the middle of making one, and I can’t help myself. It just happens.” There won’t be only poison and (the more severe) toxic effects. A third tier called Scarlet Rot steps in, possibly an even deadlier category. The video below by the site showcases a mini-dungeon called the Mourne castle.

Elden Ring will launch on February 25 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: WCCFTech, PCGamer, PCGamer