EDGE magazine recently published an interview with the producer of Eldon's Ring of Law, in which Hidetaka Miyazaki explained things like the design concept of the Golden Tree, the role of rings in the game, and horseback combat. "Eldon's Ring of Law" is not far from the release date, you may wish to look forward to the old man ring through this interview, understand the overall design framework of the old man ring, solve the problem, let's take a look at it.
Eldon's Ring of Law draws on your past work, do you think this is FarGoreware's best work to date?
Hidetaka Miyazaki: It's hard to answer, we've always tried to break through ourselves and do our best to make the best game possible. It's not just about The Ring of Eldon, it's all of our games. I've also said before that we would never have developed Eldon's Ring of Law without going through the top, without the experience of previous development, and the growing and talented development team. It can be said that with the above conditions, we can make the "Eldon Ring of Law" that appears. In a sense, yes, I believe this is our best work to date.
Earlier this year, a social media post on Eldon's Circle of Law noted that "like the Golden Tree (Erdtree, written in Japanese as a golden tree, as seen in the picture below), the faded man travels up to the branches of heaven and down to the curved underground. "The Dark Souls game world has an astonishing vertical dimension, vertically spanning the lava strip from Arnold Lund to the underground. So would There be a similar design for Eldon's Ring of Law? We noticed that in the description of the item it was implied that our game would have the Eternal City located underground and the Sky Temple in the sky.
Hidetaka Miyazaki: "Yes, these items are indeed the corresponding locations of the game, the game world you can explore 'heaven and earth', we want to create a world full of unknown exploration, so that players can enjoy the fun of exploration." So, we wanted to make a lot of tempting stuff to give players the germ of wanting to take risks. We also want to prepare a lot of mysterious scenes so that players can hear, see, and then go looking, to explore. Diversity is the goal we strive for when it comes to making games, and sometimes, I believe we've managed to do that. ”
Speaking of the Golden Tree, there are very many literal and symbolic images of trees in your game, why is your imagination so attached to the concept of trees.
Hidetaka Miyazaki: In Dark Souls, there is also a theme concept about trees, but fire is the most visually recognizable element of the game. For Eldon's Circle of Law, the tree clearly has a more prominent image in that regard — the golden tree. I don't want to give more details about this, otherwise it will be a spoiler, but the golden tree is really beautiful and very complicated. There are plenty of places to explore, and those who like to explore can unearth something in the game.
First of all, just as it can bring visual impact and seductive pictures through the screen, the world itself has something to attract people, and the tree with the golden leaves represents some of my thoughts about the world. These thoughts can be deeply engraved in your heart, and they also represent the rules and order of the world.
What is there that is not so absolute representation of the order and rules of this world? When I created this image, this question ran through my thinking. And the tree can do that very well, because the tree is a living thing, something that grows, and it's also something that eventually leads to withering and dying. It's a good fit to play the image of giving the world order, controlling and enforcing the rules, because these things will also grow, change, and then wither and die. Therefore, I think the image of the tree this time is very suitable in terms of both visual elements and thematic meaning. But I'm going to stop there, and I'll spoil it.
-- By the name of the game, I was surprised that the ring turned out to be an unwearable item, and that they were important items in Dark Souls throughout history.
Hidetaka Miyazaki: This choice is because we have two considerations. The first is that in many of our previous games, Dark Souls, rings can indeed be equipped. The setting of the talisman chosen this time gives us more and better ideas, bringing a variety of designs. The second reason is that there are physical "rings" in the game, but more as items for the plot and unique missions. We wanted the ring to have a special place in the world of Eldon's Law Ring, and to be different from the design stance of the amulet.
--Horseback fighting is indeed a very distinctive new element. We saw Torrent (the name of the horse in the game) on the web test, so is there a design around riding Torrent to fight the enemy?
Hidetaka Miyazaki: We didn't want players to force horseback to fight. Instead, we wanted to create scenarios that required a horseback ride, and among the various choices of combat strategies, horseback combat was just an optional option, depending on the player's own wishes. They shouldn't feel coerced. The entry of the map design, as well as the battle design itself, depends on the size and structure of the world, and these encourage the player to travel on horseback. If the player wishes, in the choice of different scenarios of the battle, you can choose to fight with a horse strategy, so as to achieve this degree of freedom. So at this level, yes, we've thought this very deeply about when we designed the world.
The open-world action RPG genre has produced many well-known games in recent years, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3, and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. With Eldon's Ring of Law on that level of design, where do you think you'll have the best chance of leaving a strong mark in this genre?
Hidetaka Miyazaki: I don't want to compare it to these masterpieces and say, "That's the mark I want to make in the industry," if I'm playing a game with that mentality, or I have an ideal world, Eldon's Ring of Law is very close to that level. The games I make are my style: intense battles, fantastic medieval settings, explorable dungeons. These are what I want, and Eldon's Ring of Law is perfectly presented.
You know I probably won't play Eldon's Ring of Law by the end because it's a game I made myself. This is my personal guideline, and I can't get the novelty of exploring the unknown in it. As I've said before, it doesn't feel like playing a game. But if you play it, it will be a game very close to my ideal.
I didn't create with the idea of approaching, "This is the open-world game I want to make," which is full of the ideal experience I want to bring. To give some simple examples, if I want to explore the world, I want a map, a proper map. Or, if I see something, I want to go there and explore. I also want to fight dragons in an epic place. While it was a simple job, Eldon's Ring of Law satisfied me, making that a reality, creating a game that was very close to my ideal.