In today’s episode JM8 dissects the designs of Elden Rings open world, why it works where so many others fail.
If you want to see more game design content a new Anatomy episode will release every other week, or you can subscribe to JM8s personal channel for similar content: https://www.youtube.com/c/JM8GameDesign
Join YouTube Memberships and support our content for Early Access to new videos, exclusive Discord perks & more for just $2 per month ►► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqg5FCR7NrpvlBWMXdt-5Vg/join
Join our growing Discord community: https://discord.gg/A6T2gKrDwB
Subscribe to Escapist Magazine! ►► http://bit.ly/Sub2Escapist
Want to see the next episode a week early? Check out http://www.escapistmagazine.com for the latest episodes of your favorite shows.
—
—
The Escapist Merch Store ►►https://teespring.com/stores/the-escapist-store
Join us on Twitch ►► https://www.twitch.tv/the_escapist_official
Like us on Facebook ►► http://www.facebook.com/EscapistMag
Follow us on Twitter ►► https://twitter.com/EscapistMag
#EldenRing
source
I'm about 40 hours in and really taking my time with Elden Ring. I haven't really progressed the main storyline very far, because I just keep finding new things around every corner. Jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery. New enemies. New puzzles. Every single location seems to have an obvious way to attack it, but then if you dig a little deeper and look around, you'll find alternate routes, secret areas, or awesome gear to help you with an upcoming boss. I really adored the interconnectivity of DS1 and Elden Ring seems to pull from that, very tastefully, from time to time.
One of my favorite things so far, is that even low leveled players are rewarded for exploring beyond where the player is expected to be at any given time. Wanna run to your death through Caelid for a cool staff or a few Golden Seeds? Go for it. Wanna hop onto Torrent and just go as far as you can and until your map is littered with new fast travel spots? Go for it. I've had so many awesome moments where I was just lost in the world and had no idea what I was doing that ended up ultimately making my journey easier for the rewards that I was given, while having a great time along the way. Even if I died in the process.
Exploring Elden Ring's world really does feel like an adventure. I have never been particularly modivated to simply explore any open world game like this one.
the cheese storyline was the saddest
Miyazaki is a Genius and that’s that. First crack at an open world and absolutely smashed it. Who knows they may never make another open world game again why would they they’ve already mastered the genre lol
As someone whose first souls game was ds3 then I bought and played all them including sekiro and games like the surge just the game being a FromSoft title I knew it was going to be a masterpiece there’s comments I’ve left on other channels from 2 years ago saying “ER will be one of the best games ever made and will change gaming forever” my fear now is if open world devs will get the right idea from Elden ring hopefully they’ll see what actually makes it great instead of going “oh you guys like hard I’ll just take my enemies and pump up their HP and damage” which I’m kinda expecting them to do..
What's the armor that's in the thumbnail?
Outward
Elden ring rewards exploration, whether if it’s an amazing equipment, an NPC quest, or another WTF moment, they are equally rewarding and keeps you want to explore more.
No meaningless quests.
I would personally love to see a breakdown of the improvements From Soft made to the boss AI in Elden Ring, as well as breakdowns of of the individual regions beyond Limgrave, like how Caelid is such a high level area, but you can just run straight there, die to the rot, and find upgrades you can't even make use of, and how that affects the mentality and psychological aspects of play, rewarding bravery, and inspiring fear/hopelessness, yet they hide a major needed story item there. One point of contention I would like to see your take on personally is how the multiplayer was integrated into open world, as one major detractor for me personally was how defeating a major boss took away the ability to summon players in an area for the other optional bosses you might have missed in the open world. I personally feel like they should have kept the ability to summon in the open world a constant possibility considering the scope of the game as compared to the previous titles more segmented compartments. It's a near perfect game though, and one I will be replaying for many many years to come.
Hey can we knock it off with, "this is the greatest Open World ever," comment & then compare to just Ubisoft games & that other one. Ubisoft mass produces open world games on pretty much a yearly basis so of course it's better. I can get saying it's the best in awhile, but you can't say the best without bring up New Vegas, Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, the Witcher 3 & maybe GTA. Not saying it's an easy comparison, but at least talk about it.
I have yet to talk to anyone who regularly plays open world games, just Soulsborne fans & people who don't normal play open world games.
Other people have touched on this, but the exploration of the world is enticing because of the mystery of what might be there. Other open world games tell you that quest marker is there or some collectable or whatever, and for some games that's fine, but it removes the mystery of it.
I think Arin Hansen put it best in his Zelda Sequelitis video that the best adventure games work because they respect the player's natural drive to explore and discover wonderous things, not tell you what they think is important for you to do and try to hold your hand through it like your on a tour at Disney World.
In the souls series, including Elden Ring, if you want help or direction then you need to listen to the clues left by other players, which in itself feels like discovering something rather than being led by the hand.
Wonder. Mystery. Discovery. These are the things I need in an adventure game, and Elden Ring delivered.
when I played Skyrim ten years ago I couldn't help but think "this is cool, but it would be so much more fun with Souls combat and level design" and finally here we are, the awe and freedom of an open world with my favorite dark fantasy rpg studio at the helm (there's also some George guy involved), i'm in videogame heaven, 60 hours into it and only beat two of the main story bosses since I'm having too much fun exploring.
Having beaten it twice, and having given up a third time, I have to say that the open world format is at best a good FIRST experience, but utterly tedious on subsequent playthroughs. Even knowing where to go does not alleviate how tiresome it is to travel over long stretches of empty terrain. The world is as empty as any other open-world game. It is Dark Souls 3 spread over a vast map; more quantity, but same quality. Bloodborne is superior. It is also less tedious to play, boss-wise. Once people play it a second time they will see. And that they named all of the gods after GRRM (Godfry, Ranni, Malenia, etc.) does not mean he contributed much to the plot or lore (except namesakes). BB has superior lore and gameplay.
What kept me going was how Fromsoft expertly branched out the world into different paths with the player naturally finding them. For example, what started as a journey towards a dungeon I was pointed towards by an NPC ended up branching into three more dungeons, a locked tower with a puzzle, a fort that ominously stands in the backdrop of the road and an open field boss I accidentally stumbled on at night. That sense of natural discovery and the subsequent thinking process of planning out which ones I'll approach first is what kept me constantly going.
The thing I appreciated about Elden Ring the entire time I was playing it was simply that it wasn't all that big. I felt compelled to explore, because exploration wasn't daunting. This was doubled by the fact that the map is uncovered as you explore, and then filled out with the fragments. You're not limited to any area at any point, but the game still makes an effort to have different areas that are clearly visually defined. It made it easy to explore whole sections without burnout.
I have noticed that if the game isn't open world it doesn't get any recognition, like elden ring world is fine but it's nothing special. Just the same dark souls experience stretched over some negative space, even looking at the comments you can see that these are some ubisoft fanboys finally getting a good game even though it's more of the same. Honestly I'm surprised the casuals haven't felt the fatigue yet despite playing on piece of horse ass for a decade now. Edit: spelling
I have watched lots of other people play Elden Ring and they are using the same things I found to tell a completely different story. With other games it’s very much ‘which bit are you on’.
I thought I’d like the idea less than a Bloodbourne style wiggly line, but frankly with those sections still available having the rest of the options too is fab.
I was in the arse corner of weeping peninsula and opened a random chest in a ruin. Got teleported to a spot I that wasn’t play area for another 40 hours! A special moment that surprises is better than 10 that have expected outcomes
I think where most open world games fall flat is that everything feels the same and the rewards are most often not worth the trouble, take some of the worst offenders the AC or Far Cry games for example, you do a side mission that takes you to different places and seems interesting at first only to have you kill X amount of enemies or fetch something for someone and for going through the trouble you get some weapon or item that becomes obsolete shortly after making you feel much less inclined to do more, it becomes more like a job than a game.
With Elden Ring everything has meaning and use, even if you don't see it right away and half the fun is finding something new and figuring out what it's for, if you get an item in a game like AC they will tell you exactly what it is and what to do with it usually with a on screen guide leading you to whatever it wants removing all mystery from it but with ER it's far more organic and the payoff all the more worthwhile when you solve the mystery.
I really hope that other developers learn something from the success of Elden Ring because AAA games have become so stagnant lately just recreating the same experience over and over with a new coat of paint and expecting the world to applaud them for doing so and it's not surprising to see the developers of those kinds of games upset at the praise ER received for doing things they see as wrong when fundamentally they don't understand what gamers want, they only do what they think is a safe bet seeing what everyone else does and copying them ad nauseum leading us to where we are now a medium saturated with games that feel the same with most AAA games flopping on release or being forgotten about shortly after like Halo or Dying Light 2 and Indie games taking all the awards and praise as they rightly deserve with titles like Inscryption or Omori that give you a fun and new experience that makes you think and feel in a meaningful way,
The most amazing thing to me in the game is how many times I've went back to an area later on I thought I completed (usually Limegrave) and find something I missed or even a passage to another full level.
It's amazing how much content their is and how willing From was to risk you missing it. I only come across some of these bc of cryptic npc questlines, looking for specific loot, or hearing about it randomly on the internet and I go check it out.
I'm entirely sure when I finish I will have missed some great things, and that's awesome. I'll possibly look it up but this whole concept is what makes the world genuinely rewarding to explore.
I got really frustrated after Limgrave, since that area had many catacombs and caves to explore. When I went outside of there, those became harder to find and less abundant. But now I realize that it made them more rare, and thus much more exciting when coming across them.
What I love most about Elden Rings design is exploring the comments from contrarian armchair experts desperately trying to find flaws, failing because they have no idea what they’re talking about, and inevitably make shit up to appear smart.
“From Soft games aren’t even that good, guys! Doesn’t even have quest markers! C’mon, please tell me I’m smart!”
Classic.
What keeps me exploring is the fear of missing something. When playing other open world games you are told exactly what there is in the area and so it’s just a matter of checking it off that list. In Elden Ring you can miss so much just because you weren’t looking hard enough. It keeps me searching for the next thing, wanting every possible advantage before the next legacy dungeon.
Variety is a key element I think, even the smaller castles have some uniqueness to their design and backstory. The Ruins, Catacombs and Caves are the closest to truly repetitive the game gets, but most still have unique mechanics and because they are almost entirely optional can serve as pace-breaking diversions rather than grindy boring dungeons. Also, might only be speaking for myself but the way it frames the castles, palaces, etc in the distance just speaks to the curious kid in me that just HAS to go there and see it up close for myself
Apart from the constant threat of death, Elden ring's world honesty makes me wanna live there
Mysteries of exploring an extremely dangerous unforgiving world with some of the best atmospheres in any video game. Genuinely a high intensity adventure
I think the part that open world games fail at most often is meaningful rewards. The number of times in fallout 3/4 that I received something worthless like generic gear or money at the end of a quest or even quest chain is waaay too often. Even otherwise excellent games like Breath of the Wild would have vast portions of the map that instantly become worthless loot-wise if you accidentally walk into an endgame area and grabbed some items off the ground. The fact that every weapon and piece of gear discovered in Elden Ring is unique, with little in the way of visual or mechanical reskin, is absolutely massive.
I think the reason Elden ring's world design is so good is bcs it feels like there's barely any wasted space. every inch of the map is filled with new enemies, rewards, dungeons and NPCs while a lot of other games only gice the illusion of scale by making you ride 4 kilometers through an empty field