Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has revealed which of the action-RPG's many bosses is his favorite, along with his thoughts on some of the game's other characters and design principles.
Speaking about Elden Ring in an interview posted on Xbox Wire (Opens in a new tab) (IGN (Opens in a new tab)), Miyazaki was asked which of the game's bosses was his favorite. Although he had a hard time choosing, he chose one of the most recognizable final enemies in the game.
"It's hard to decide," Miyazaki said, "but I have to say Radahn. As an individual character, he's very appealing, and I really like the Radahn Festival situation. There's a literal sense of festivity and exuberance, but also a unique tinge of sadness. and loneliness."
He went on to say that when he first came up with the idea for the Radahn Festival, a choreographed piece that activates when you face off against Radahn, "no one on the team took it seriously." They must have been brought in when he was added to the game.
Miyazaki added that Godrick, the Graft and Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy are his next favorite bosses. The Fingercreeper, the gigantic disembodied hands that scurry around Caria Manor like spiders, while not a boss, is also high on his list.
"Spider Hand is one of my favorite designs," said Miyazaki. "It's something you don't even want to see because it's horrible.
"I wonder if the way to overcome your problem is to face it head-on and beat it," he added, responding to the interviewer's fear of the monster.
Inspiration and iteration
Elsewhere in the interview, Miyazaki was asked if other open world games inspired the design of Elden Ring. Rather than single out a single title, he said he has played many open world games that provided him with a certain level of inspiration, naming The Witcher 3, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and The Elder Scrolls series as standout games. in the genre.
As for how this open world was designed, Miyazaki describes an iterative process. The position of the Elden Ring bosses on the map was defined at the beginning of their design. From there, the team took a dynamic approach, designing the map to suit boss gameplay and adjusting boss gameplay based on the map environment.
Finally, Miyazaki said that he was pleased and surprised by the extent of Elden Ring's success, but did not seem to attribute it to a change within FromSoftware. The studio, he said, has always tried to create new and interesting games, and hasn't changed its attitude for its latest release. Elden Ring is just the latest statement of that vision.