Elden Ring surprised fans by dropping an expansive new gameplay and story trailer last week as part of the kickoff to E3. The trailer expanded on the open-field concept that fans had learned about previously, showing off some landscapes that are enormous compared to previous From Software games. Fans received another surprise soon after when Hidetaka Miyazaki released even more details about Elden Ring and the ideas behind the game. Part of those new details talked about the full breadth of the game world and a way to entice players to fully explore it, a plethora of skills to be obtained around the game's map.
A full skill system is evidently being implemented into Elden Ring. This in and of itself is a big departure from previous games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne. This tracks with comments from Miyazaki though as Elden Ring is meant as an evolution of the Dark Souls. Fans got a taste of some of the skills in the new trailer, including backflip slash attacks, magical blasts, and an elongated magical blade attack. Apparently there are more than a hundred of these skills to be acquired as players trek through the world of Elden Ring, and that could be a great way to encourage exploration.
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The open-field concept is one of many big changes in Elden Ring. Traditionally, From Software titles have players exploring cramped castle corridors and claustrophobic dungeons. There are exceptions to the rule of course, like the Forbidden Woods in Bloodborne. Those areas are still small in scale when compared to other games, but that design worked well for those games. Elden Ring is looking in the other direction though, with its wide-open ranges that are interspersed with dungeon environments. These dungeons are likely to be more cramped like some environments shown in the trailer.
Elden Ring's Land Between is huge for a From Software title. Six main dungeons are intermixed with open areas that are full of other encounters and bosses for players to engage. Enticing players to explore is something critical to any open-field environment and Elden Ring will utilize another of its new features as a large incentive. The different weapon skills and magical spells are going to be one of the main rewards for digressing out into the games' much more open world. Skills themselves are another big change to the formula for Elden Ring.
Based on Miyazaki's explanations about the trailer, obtainable skills will be split between weapon and magic abilities. Worth mentioning is that evidently the spirit companions in Elden Ring are a separate mechanic where players can summon the "spirit body" of fallen enemies to aid them in combat. Discussion about whether the ethereal companions were a skill of some kind or what other players might look like in co-op had cropped up online. Knowing that all three of these new abilities are separate means that Elden Ring will likely have a staggering amount of things for players to acquire.
While not much is known yet about what the other skills will look like, knowing how they'll be used as incentive is interesting. From Software has a dedicated following of fans that were likely to fully explore the new game anyway. New fans on the other hand might more coaxing to fully explore the game's world. Now that Miyazaki has expanded on Elden Ring and its design further it seems that From Software will be banking on the obtainable skills as the best way to encourage exploration of their new world when Elden Ring releases.
Elden Ring is set to release January 21, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.