Deep in the forest of Mistwood, there's
an unassuming stone building. Inside is an elevator that goes down. And down.
And down. And down further still, until it finally hits the bottom, revealing a secret,
underground city with an impossible night sky. It's one of those moments that makes
you ask... wait, how big is this game? The answer: pretty damn big. FromSoftware
has always made epic adventures that cover a lot of ground, but in Elden Ring, the
studio has been more ambitious than ever. The twisty, interconnected worlds of Dark Souls
and Bloodborne are microscopic when compared to the monster open world of The Lands Between.
This humongous continent will take you from the deepest depths to the highest mountain and
the map just seems to get bigger, and bigger. So, what's it like to actually explore
this giant fantasy kingdom? And how did going open world change the Soulsborne formula? Well, I'm Mark Brown, and this is
the world design of Elden Ring. Let's start with a recap. Our goal at the beginning of the game is to
explore The Lands Between and find our way to the Leyndell Royal Capital. However, the front
door stays locked until we‘ve got a handful of great runes - which we can collect by toppling
key boss monsters within the surrounding regions. So, the game begins in Limgrave
- a lush, woodland region, pockmarked by ruins and underground caves. Up
on the hill we'll find Stormveil Castle - the game's first "legacy dungeon" - aka "a bit
of Dark Souls stuck into the open world". And at the end we can beat up Godrick
the Grafted to get the first Great Rune. Godrick's throne room backs on to Liurnia of
the Lakes, a foggy swamp land that surrounds The Academy of Raya Lucaria: legacy dungeon number
two. We'll need a Glintstone Key to get inside, and then we can lay the smackdown on Rennala,
Queen of the Full Moon, for another Great Rune. The Academy's rear leads to Bellum
Highway, and the Grand Lift of Dectus which is... not operational. We'll need
two halves of a medallion to make it work. One is back in Limgrave, in Fort Haight. And the other is in Limgrave's neighbouring
land, Caelid... a nightmare hell hole with a blood red sky, poisonous swamps, and
desolate ruins. A bit like England, really. Plus, it's the stomping grounds of
another Great Rune holder, General Radahn. With the Dectus Medallion sellotaped back
together, we can take the elevator up to the Altus Plateau - an autumnal highland with a golden
sky, and, finally, the entrance to Leyndell. However, before we head inside, we can swing a left and scale up Mt. Gelmir. Here
we'll find another legacy dungeon, Volcano Manor, and can wreck another
Rune Holder, Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. We can now head back to the Plateau,
enter the biggest legacy dungeon of them all - the staggeringly massive Leyndell Royal
Capital, and face down Morgott, The Omen King. So that's the layout of The Lands Between thus
far: we've got Limgrave, Caelid, Liurnia of the Lakes, Altus Plateau, and Mt. Gelmir. All of
them, bar Caelid, have a legacy dungeon to fight our way through. And all of them bar the Altus
Plateau have a great rune holder to beat up. Now unlike, say, Hyrule in Zelda:
Breath of the Wild, or Skyrim in, well, Skyrim, these areas don't all border
each other in single giant landmass. Instead, they lead from one to the next, like so.
Which means you can't go from Limgrave to Mt. Gelmir without first trekking
through Liurnia and the Altus Plateau. This dot-to-dot world layout is just one
way that Elden Ring is constructed to help players navigate this world. To stop
them from getting lost or overwhelmed. There's also the way NPCs suggest the way
to go. The way the first vista in Liurnia of the Lakes neatly frames Raya Lucaria
in the centre of your screen. And the way certain sites of grace have a wispy golden
line that points you in the right direction. FromSoftware's creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki
says these were put in to help out players who felt stressed by the game's open design, and
just wanted to know where to go. But he also says that refusing to follow the guidance is
supposed to feel, in of itself, like a choice. Because, despite Elden Ring having more order
and structure than some other open worlds, this is definitely not a linear game. For one, you can often reach areas in an
alternative way, and bypass bosses in the process. So, while Stormveil Castle quite naturally leads
on to Liurnia of the Lakes, there's actually a semi-secret path that circumvents
the castle, and goes around Godrick. Caelid is on the border of Limgrave,
so you can just wander in at any time. Though, you might face some...
resistance. More on that in a bit. And you don't actually need the Dectus Medallion
to reach the Altus Plateau. There's a hidden path through the ruin-strewn precipice that skips
the lift and routes around Rennala. Or, you can get eaten by this one specific baddy in Raya
Lucaria, and get burped back out in Volcano Manor. NPC quests can also open up
other avenues. So, typically, Radahn's festival is inaccessible
until we've touched at least one site of grace on the Altus Plateau. But doing
Ranni's quest can grant us earlier access. Fia's quest lets us enter Leyndell without
fighting the Draconic Tree Sentinel roaming around outside. And doing a quest for Varré
will grant us access to Mohgwyn Palace, so we can fight a surprise fifth great
rune holder, Mohg, Lord of Blood. All of this means that pretty much
everything up to the front door of the Leyndell Royal Capital can be tackled
how you see fit, and all of the areas, legacy dungeons, and bosses in these zones
can be done in whatever order you like. Or, not at all, as the case may be. Getting
into Leyndell actually only requires you to hold two Great Runes, out of a possible
five. That means Godrick, Renalla, Radahn, Rykard, and Mohg can each be skipped, as
long as you've beaten two of their mates. And so if we look at the achievements on Steam, we'll see that while 50% of Elden Ring
players made it to the Leyndell Capital, only 43% lifted the great rune from Rykard
in Volcano Manor, and just 38% defeated Mohg. But, I mean, this is a game with over 150
bosses... and you only need to fight 12 of them to see the credits. You don't even need
to fight the chick from all the trailers! Then again, FromSoft has never worried too much
about players missing content - they know full well that it just makes it so much better
for those who do stumble across this stuff. And that certainly carries over
into exploring the individual areas. Set out on your trusty spectral steed and
you might discover underground catacombs, crumbling ruins, mages' towers, dusty
mining tunnels, and ailing villages. There are also mini dungeons, like Castle
Morne, Caria Manor, and the Shaded Castle. Oh, and there's even a pretty massive underground.
That includes Siofra River beneath Limgrave, Ainsel River below Liurnia, and if we kill
Radahn, a star will literally fall out of the sky and punch a hole through Limgrave's surface -
revealing a secret path to Nokron, Eternal City. And there's always something exciting
to discover around each corner. Whether that's some handy loot, an NPC quest,
a surprise boss fight in the field, or something else to give you pause. You won't
soon forget the time you saw a titanic stone turtle with a building on its back, or
the time you opened this unassuming chest, only to be knocked out and woken up
in a mining tunnel in central Caelid. But, unlike most open world games, these
points of interest aren't exhaustively catalogued for you. There are
no question marks on your map, no towers to climb, no quest logs to
follow, no checklists to check off. Instead, you're left to explore by following your
curiosity, and that innate sense of intrigue about what's over the next hill. Like Breath of the Wild
- and Miyazaki has listed Zelda as an influence on Elden Ring - you mainly explore by scanning the
horizon for interesting landmarks and structures. And so by trusting that the
player will want to explore, and being okay with the fact that huge amounts
of stuff will be missed in the process, Elden Ring allows for a more organic style of
exploration, and a true sense of discovery. You’re actually investigating a world - not just
cleaning up a messy map filled with activities. So, the Soulsborne games have always had a lot
of freedom in how you tackle things. They've always had optional bosses and non-compulsory
zones, to make your playthrough unique. And they've always offered a sense of mystery and
discovery about what's around the next corner. But in going open world, Elden Ring can
really capitalise on that experience - on that grand fantasy of going on an epic adventure. In fact, Miyazaki has said that
Elden Ring is pretty close to the dream game he's been trying to make since, well, Demon's Souls - "the open world enriches this
ideal experience I'm trying to achieve," he says. But, that being said... I think there are
other ways that the open world actually diminishes the Souls experience. Where
the size and scope of the world - and the way you consume it - doesn't gel
so nicely with what has come before. So, for starters... most of the Souls
games have been more or less linear in how you approach them. At least when
compared to an open world like Elden Ring. And so in those games, the player tends to level
up their character in line with each new area, providing a pretty consistent level
of challenge throughout the game. But an open world is a very different story. Each area in Elden Ring has a predetermined level
of difficulty - dictated by the power of the enemies and bosses in each zone. Something you'll
know all too well if you wandered, early on, from Limgrave into Caelid and got bodied by
basic enemies who hit like a freight train. And this static set-up can have some
negative effects on how you tackle the game. For one, this does ultimately
constrain the game's sense of freedom. Like, if we take those five key bosses. And
if we rank them by the number of runes they drop - a pretty representative guide to their
relative strength - we'll see that while they can indeed be fought in any order, the game
certainly does seem to suggest one for you. Luckily, in practice, it's not too
egregious. The different enemy levels aren’t so spiky as to make out-of-order progress
impossible. And because it's only a soft gate, you can absolutely - say - sneak
into these dangerous zones early on, scoop up a few handy items, and
then fast travel back to safety. Plus, having some bits with ridiculously
overpowered bosses can actually add to that adventurous feeling. This makes the world
feel dangerous, menacing, and inhospitable. And it provides a goal to come
back to when you've got more power. I mean, typically in a Souls game, if you
can't beat a boss you just have to... try again until you do it. "Git gud scrub",
and all that silly billy nonsense. But with Elden Ring you can pop a marker on your map and
explore elsewhere. Maybe find a better weapon, level up a few times, improve your
armour, power up your health flask, get some more friends to summon, and then
come back and show that boss who's boss. But... you might find that you've actually
explored too much, and are now over levelled. You can find yourself heading back to a
boss, hoping for a fair fight - only to find that you can now knock him out with
little more than a fart and a light shove. This makes the world feel far less menacing,
it can spoil the satisfaction of certain boss encounters, and it makes going
back to earlier areas kinda boring. Ultimately, Elden Ring puts the
onus on the player to, essentially, balance the game themselves.
To make sure they're always at the perfect level to keep the game at a
satisfying level of challenge. Except, without ever telling you what level the enemies
actually are, like you might see in other games. And, look - other games have found
ways to keep enemies challenging, even if you do things out of order or come
back to an early zone later on in the game. RPGs like Skyrim and Assassin's Creed use
a level scaling system to make certain enemies beef up in tandem with your
own personal power growth. Likewise, in Breath of the Wild, after you
kill a certain number of enemies, more powerful baddies will be dropped
into Hyrule to keep you on your toes. And in Hollow Knight, the first area - The
Forgotten Crossroads - later transforms into The Infected Crossroads, and is now filled
with more difficult enemies and new obstacles. And FromSoft itself has experimented
with ways to change a game's world in relation to the player's actions and
progress - like the cryptic karma system of world tendency in Demon's Souls, the way your
level of Insight changes the land of Bloodborne, and how enemies can stop spawning in Dark Souls 2
if you kill them too often, to prohibit grinding. In this instance, though, Elden Ring
has doggedly stuck to the same-old Soulsborne formula - despite completely
changing the way you explore its world. Now, sure, you can certainly find ways that
From has changed the formula to better fit an open world - like the addition of
a map and the introduction of a horse, having a dedicated jump button, and offering
infinite stamina when you're not in combat. But when it comes to something as
fundamental as enemy balancing, I reckon more could have been done
to suit this supersized world layout. The first time you discover a catacomb
in Elden Ring is a really cool experience. Here's an underground area with living
gargoyles, fire-breathing totem poles, and ghostly flowers. There's an imposing stone
door, locked up tight, and you'll need to find a lever to make it budge. Inside is some
terrifying boss monster, and a handy reward. But then you'll find another catacomb. And
another. Stormfoot Catacombs, Murkwater Catacombs, Deathtouched Catacombs, Impaler's Catacombs. And
so on. And much like the shrines in Breath of the Wild... while each one has its own gimmick
or puzzle, they do feel remarkably similar. This is another example of how Elden Ring suffers as a result of going open world -
the sheer amount of reused content. Elsewhere, there are multiple tunnels with miners
digging out smithing stones. Loads of ruins, each with a secret basement. Every
mage's tower has a memory stone. Every church has a sacred tear. Every
Erdtree Avatar has a crystal tear. Plus, iconic, zone-specific enemies
start to show up again later on in the game. Those bonkers walking
mausoleums reappear. And even the bosses repeat. You might first fight
this spooky weirdo, the Godskin Apostle, in the Divine Tower of Caelid. But then he shows
up again in the windmill village on Altus Plateau, and again in a cave later in the game, and again
as a mandatory boss in a later legacy dungeon. Now, to be fair, it's not like previous
Souls games are completely immune to copy-and-paste content. And Elden Ring has
better variety in its loot and enemies than, basically any other game of this scale. But this level of repetition
really hurts the game's sense of mystery and discovery - which
I praised so highly a minute ago. Because as soon as you start to see the
patterns and formulas that make up a world, the artifice is shattered, and the game is
revealed. A catacomb is not a mysterious archaeological find but a formulaic chunk of video
game. It becomes predictable, familiar, content. Perhaps FromSoft simply bit off
more than it could chew. Because, going back to our recap... well, the game
certainly ain't over once we reach the centre of Leyndell. In fact, we’re only about
half way through the game at this point. So, with Morgott dead we can take a
quick hike through the Forbidden Lands, and then it's up the Grand Lift of Rold
to reach the Mountaintops of the Giants. This is... technically another open world zone,
like Limgrave or Caelid. But your path is a lot more constrained, and there's a lot less to
explore here. If we go by the number of sites of grace, the Mountaintops of the Giants
has half as many as Liurnia of the Lakes, simply because there are fewer catacombs,
graves, and other interesting landmarks to find. Okay, so there is one big thing to discover.
With another medallion - one half can be found on the Mountaintops, and the other's back
in Liurnia - we can ride Rold to another, secret stop: the Consecrated Snowfields.
Here we'll find a teleporter to Mohg's palace, and a hidden path to Miquella's
Haligtree - another legacy dungeon, and headquarters of Malenia, Blade
of Miquella. Have fun with her. So, it's cool that the game still
has significant secrets to find in this late game zone. But, beyond
this, the game really closes in. After toppling the Fire Giant, and setting
this lady on fire for some reason - sorry, I'm bad at following the stories in these games -
we can pop to the last legacy dungeon - Crumbling Farum Azula. At the end of this, we can
then thrash Maliketh, The Black Blade, and we're back to Leyndell for a conveyer belt
queue of big boss bastards: Sir Gideon Ofnir; Godfrey, First Elden Lord; Radagon of the
Golden Order; and the Elden Beast. Phew! So Elden Ring's extremely freeform first half
folds in for a much more linear and constrained second half. There's less to explore, we're
given far less freedom in how we tackle things, and we're back to just beating our head against
the wall in order to fight these bosses. Now it's only natural for an open game to pinch
in tight at some point - but that's either right at the very end, or perhaps a mid-game moment
before the game opens back up again. Elden Ring, instead, feels more like a funnel, where half the
game is an open world adventure, and the other half is... well, it's just Dark Souls. Which
is... you know, still better than most games. When Miyazaki was asked why Elden
Ring has such a massive landmass, he said that he wanted to give
players a “sense of adventure”. That giant world was essential to delivering
the fantasy of being able to hop on a horse, and freely explore a complete
continent of titanic boss monsters, secret dungeons, and towering mountains. And, in many ways - and especially at
the beginning of the adventure - Elden Ring absolutely delivers on Miyazaki's goal. You can see it in the way players get near
total freedom in how they roam the Lands Between. In the way only a tiny amount of
content is mandatory, so every play-through is unique. And how From eschews typical open
world design, to make exploration more organic. But there are other ways that going open world
actually hampered the Soulsborne experience. Static enemy levels don't work
so well when you give the player complete freedom to explore - and
From did nothing to address this. And that oversized ambition forced From
to repeat and reuse content - which makes every subsequent discovery feel less
special. And it may be the reason why the end game ends up feeling
rather rushed and restrictive. Thanks very much for watching. If you're
still jonesing for Souls-like stuff, then check out this video for a
look at the world design of Lordran: the twisty world of Dark Souls
1. Until next time, see ya.
