According to Hidetaka Miyazaki, Elden Ring is still not the ideal fantasy RPG he wants to make, but he believes he is very close…

PCGamer interviewed Miyazaki about the Elden Ring expansion, Shadow of the Earth Tree. The base game itself is definitely reminiscent of 80s RPGs (especially tabletop ones like Dungeons & Dragons). The FromSoftware games that Miyazaki worked on as a designer can be seen as an absolute passion project, and the interview shows that.

“You could say that trying to capture the excitement of those old tabletop games and game books was one facet of making Elden Ring. I think more than anything, it’s just my personal preference when it comes to RPGs and exploring these fantasy worlds, so you might see some of my personal idiosyncrasies come into play with Elden Ring. I think the excitement, at least for me, comes from seeing that world map and putting that world map together. So when we finally got to do that and start piecing that together in making Elden Ring, that was a really nice moment for me personally.

Back when I was doing interviews about Elden Ring, I think I mentioned that I’m still in the process of making my ideal fantasy RPG. And while Elden Ring isn’t quite it, it’s pretty close. It’s getting close. It’s hard to say without spoiling my next idea or our next games. But I think one thing that’s not necessarily missing, but makes it difficult to achieve my ideal, is that when I play it, I know everything that’s going to happen. I already know everything that’s going to happen. So in terms of enjoying the game from a player’s perspective, I’d like to not know that and have someone else make my ideal fantasy game, if possible. Then I can just enjoy it as a player. It would be a dream to have self-induced amnesia and enjoy the game I’ve created. But I might get really angry and break the controller or something. Maybe it’s not a good idea,” Miyazaki said.

So Elden Ring is not even his magnum opus…

Source: PCGamer