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As the largest game in FromSoftware's history, The Ring of Law in Eldon is unlikely to have been easy to develop. This time, Fami Tong magazine interviewed Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is the director of "Eldon's Law Ring", and talked about him and FromSoftware's dedication and ingenuity to this game.
FromSoftware "Eldon's Ring of Law" Director Hidetaka Miyazaki (referred to as Miyazaki in this article)
President/Director of FromSoftware. He has led the development of "Demon Souls", "Dark Souls" series, "Blood Source Curse", "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice" and other works.
The game is larger and more complex than expected
| Q: Seeing that this game is about to be released smoothly and smoothly, how are you feeling now?
MIYAZAKI: I don't really feel good during this time, and not only this work, but also before the release of past works. Although it is true that there is a feeling of relief, I think the uneasiness will be stronger than this. At any point, I still can't get used to this feeling.
| Q: You've said before that this game will be an orthodox evolution of the Dark Souls series, can you tell us how you used the development experience of the Dark Souls series?
Miyazaki: The positioning of this game is indeed the king evolution of the Dark Souls series. It was with the accumulation and precipitation of the Dark Souls series as a premise that we were able to produce the Eldon Ring of Law. These accumulations and precipitations involve many aspects, and if you have to give a few examples, the battle-related system architecture, level design, and difficulty balance can all be counted.
| Q: That's the way it is. Mr. Miyazaki has said in public that "this game will have the richest amount of content in history". In this sense, you can also say that you have "devoted all your efforts" to the development of this game, but did you expect such a huge scale from the beginning?
MIYAZAKI: Originally we planned to make this game the largest in history. The reason why we chose to do this is because we have cultivated a group of trustworthy and excellent employees within our company at this point in time. Honestly, the final product was bigger and more complex than I had originally anticipated, but the members of the development worked hard to complete the production in response to players' expectations.
| Q: Is there anything you paid special attention to when directing the development of a work of this scale? Or in the actual development process, have you encountered any special labor-intensive situations?
Miyazaki: Well, in fact, compared to past works, there are a lot more parts that need to be left to other people to be responsible, so this time I will be more conscious of sharing the development policy, thinking methods, and even thinking process in as verbal a form as possible instead of directly giving conclusions about things.
| Q: After actually playing it by hand, I found that in addition to the sense of accomplishment and adventure that FromSoftware has always been praised for, there is also a sense of speed and three-dimensional combat and exploration experience like Only Wolves. From this point of view, this game should be regarded as the "current point in time" of The FromSoftware masterpiece.
MIYAZAKI: Uh," I don't want to say that much (laughs). Since this work is developed in parallel with "Only Wolves", there is not much direct reference from it. However, since both works are supervised by me, they will definitely be affected by each other.
Use Game Play itself to tell the story
| Q: Next, I would like to ask about the worldview of this game. The worldview of The Eldon's Law is based on george w. Bush's R· Designed on the background of the myth written by R. Martin, what kind of stimulation or impact did the myth written by Martin bring to the development of this work?
MIYAZAKI: The background of the myth written by Mr. Martin was already formed very early in development, and it stimulated us in all aspects. These mythological settings are not only full of mystery, but also depict complex character relationships, which adds a sense of historical depth and heaviness to this work. And you can see the design of important enemy characters, the composition of the map, the setting of NPCs, and so on.
| Q: When you asked Mr. Martin to write about the mythological background, did you explain any specific themes? For example, give keywords such as "the story that unfolds around the ring" or "golden tree".
MIYAZAKI: Yes. Although it was simply called the "Ring", we did tell Mr. Martin about the existence of a ring similar to the Eldon Ring and the idea that the shattering of the object should be used as an opportunity for the story to unfold. Having said that, the content of the conversation at that time was still just some abstract concept, and concrete images like the golden tree did not exist at that time.
| Q: In order to understand the plot of this game, does it take the player to spontaneously integrate the fragmented information collection such as NPC dialogue and prop description text? Since you want to tell a more heavy story, have you also prepared new countermeasures to make it easier to organize intelligence? That's something that concerns me.
Miyazaki: The basic narrative mode of this game still continues the style of the "Soul" series, and the player will be prompted through fragmented text, requiring the player to connect the fragments in their own brains, or to expand their imagination. The reason for this is that we want to tell the story through Game Play itself. However, content such as NPC dialogue will be designed to be simpler and more straightforward than previous works. That's because npcs in this game will be responsible for giving meaning, direction, and story clues to players' exploration of the vast open world, which in a sense may also have something to do with the impact of Only Wolves you mentioned earlier.
| Q: Not only the plot, but also the golden tree is a very important image for the whole world of "Junction Land". What does the existence of the Golden Tree mean for this game?
MIYAZAKI: The meaning of the existence of the Golden Tree is first and foremost as a symbol on the visual level of this work. Not only does it point us in the direction that we will depict a mythical or painterly world, but it also allows players to realize that this is the world of The Ring of Eldon as soon as they see the game.
| Q: It can even be said that it is a symbol of the Eldon Ring of Law, right?
Miyazaki: In addition, from a gameplay point of view, since this is a huge object that can be seen almost at any time outdoors, the golden tree can also serve as a landmark for players to judge their current location. After nightfall, the unique performance of the golden dead leaves drifting down is also based on the existence of the golden tree. Of course, the Golden Tree also plays an extremely important role in the worldview and storyline of this work. After all, in such a work around the Eldon Ring of Law, the Golden Tree can be said to be the embodiment of the Eldon Ring of Law.
| Q: "Fragment War" is another key word that makes the story interesting. As mentioned in the trailer of this game, the Fragment War seems to be a war between demigods fighting each other for the throne of King Eldon, and what impact will the King of Eldon have on the world after being elected?
MIYAZAKI: That's right, after the Eldon Ring was broken, the demigods gained the Great Rune Rune as the Ring Fragment and began to fight for the throne of the King of Eldon, which is called the Fragment War. As for the question you asked, what happens when someone becomes the King of Eldon, please experience it through the game.
| Q: This is also the goal of the faders played by the players.
Miyazaki: The inhabitants of the junction area were originally bathed in the blessings of the golden tree, and the pupils were inhabited by a golden glow. However, I don't know when people in the world began to appear one after another who had lost their golden light, and they were all banished from the junction by the name of "faded". The protagonist played by the player is the descendant of these people, and in addition to the player, there are other faded people in this world. After the Ring of Eldon is broken, these exiled faded people suddenly possess the ability to not die, and receive guidance from blessings to return to the Junction, find the Ring of Eldon, and become the King of Eldon. This is the beginning of the story of this game.
| Q: The immortal power of the Dark Souls series and the setting of "Blessing" in this game to get resurrection power by losing something is a big thing that the protagonist of the Soul game has in common. So is there any difference between the protagonist of this game and the protagonist of the Dark Souls series?
Miyazaki: The biggest difference between the protagonist of this game, the "Fader", and the "undead" in Dark Souls is that there is a guide called blessing in the Eldon Ring, which will clearly carry the will to guide the protagonist forward.
| Q: In addition to the protagonist, are there any other faded people who have been inspired to become the King of Eldon?
MIYAZAKI: Yes, blessedly guided to the junction, faded people who are trying to become the king of Eldon are numerous in addition to the protagonist.
| Q: Melina, who provides important guidance to the protagonist, is a character who can make people feel a strong sense of personal will, which seems to be different from the "fire girl" in Dark Souls. What kind of character is Melina in this work?
Miyazaki: Yes, There are many details differences between Melina and the Fire Girl in Dark Souls. She is not only a partner with self-will and is in an equal position with the protagonist, but also does not attach so much importance to mystery in design, and will show her face in plain face. Melina's goal is to travel to the Golden Tree to retrieve her lost mission, and she helps the protagonist, hoping to let the player take her there on this condition. As for how this mission is related to the protagonist's story, please experience it through actual play.
Enhance the fun of exploring unknown places with maps and spirit horses
| Q: Judging from the screenshots of the scenes of the junction areas that have been released so far, the golden trees that have gradually faded away, the trees that are difficult to hide the signs of withering, and the peaks covered by thick fog all give people a strong sense of loneliness.
MIYAZAKI: As I mentioned earlier, it's about pursuing a sense of mythology, fantasy, and painting. Other themes may be more abstract in words, such as loneliness itself is not a kind of romance?
| Q: I can feel this emotion very well (laughs). When exploring the "Nim Suit" in the closed network beta, the game has already shown a variety of scene designs, and this is only a part of the "Nim Suit". In addition to the "Ningmu Gefu", how vast is there to explore in the entire junction?
MIYAZAKI: Yes, the online beta only opens up a part of the Nimkaku area. Although the exact number cannot be revealed, there are indeed many unique areas like "Nim Gefu" in the junction area.
| Q: Does the new area need to challenge the relic dungeons and defeat the demigods in them before they can go? Since the official has mentioned before that this game provides a variety of ways to guide the game, it is quite interesting to whether it can go to a new area without defeating the demigods and whether there is a special means of teleportation.
MIYAZAKI: It's true that you can unlock the path to new areas by raiding the ruin dungeons and knocking down demigods who are big bosses, but that's not a rule that applies everywhere. The conditions for traveling to new areas vary from areas that need to be reached using special means, including teleportation, to areas that can be reached by following the map normally.
| Q: Sounds pretty exciting.
Miyazaki: This game attaches great importance to the freedom of the raiders, and players can choose the order and method of visiting each area according to their own ideas to a certain extent. In addition, we have specifically reduced the frequency of the situation that the big boss is on the way to advance the progress of the game.
| Q: The existence of the "Spirit Horse" is also of great significance to expand the freedom of the game. In addition to making it easier and faster to move, the addition of elements such as the two-stage jump and updraft also greatly enhances the fun of exploration. What was the idea of the spirit horse being installed in the game?
MIYAZAKI: The reason is actually very simple, that is, if you want to venture out in the vast fantasy world, you really want to own a horse, right? Now that you've painstakingly designed open-ended scenes, there's certainly no reason not to. At the system level, this also improves the ease of moving and exploring in open areas. As for the characteristics of the design, we believe that we need to pay more attention to the three-dimensionality of movement than simply speeding up the movement speed, and the two-stage jump and updraft were born under the impetus of this idea. With the addition of the Spirit Horse, players can effortlessly traverse bumpy roads, encounter cliffs with less steep slopes, and even jump straight to their destination.
| Q: The simple summoning method and smooth control experience are also a big charm. In this way, the spirit horse is really an absolutely indispensable partner for the player.
MIYAZAKI: We designed the ride with more emphasis on its feel as an action game than the authenticity and reduction of the riding experience. Therefore, in this work, not only will there be no situation where the horse does not listen to the rider's call, but the whole process from summoning and riding to galloping and dismounting has also been carefully adjusted to improve the comfort of the experience. It can be summoned as soon as it is needed, and disappears immediately when it is no longer used, and it can be said that even the setting of the spirit horse itself is in the service of the goal of not adding additional pressure.
| Q: I would like to ask a question about the map. Why is it that this time, instead of opening up the area gradually as the player moves, it uses a system that exposes some of the information after obtaining the "map fragment"?
MIYAZAKI: Before getting the map, the player will explore in completely unknown circumstances, and after getting the map, they will be able to explore further based on certain clues, which is probably the feeling. Of course, not all important intelligence will be displayed on the map, so this element will not hurt the fun of exploring the destination on the ground.
| Q: By the way, can the game be played through without getting map fragments?
Miyazaki: While it's possible to beat the game without getting map fragments, the process of getting a map and the exploration based on the map are interesting. It is also for this reason that we have lowered the difficulty of finding map fragments as a whole.
| Q: Maybe the topic is a little off the way, but when it comes to exploration, I have another point that I really care about... There seems to be a "church" everywhere at the junction, so what is the place where religion is in the worldview setting of this work? Is there any special significance?
MIYAZAKI: The churches in the junction are basically derived from the Golden Tree belief, which is also the most common and dominant religious belief in the junction. But in addition to the Golden Tree faith, there are other religions in the junction, such as the ancient faith that was born before the golden tree belief was popularized and has survived to this day, and the new religion that emerged after the decline of the golden tree faith.
| Q: The experience of collecting story fragments while paying attention to these details will feel interesting.
Item crafting system that greatly improves the ability to continue the battle
| Q: Next, I want to talk about some interesting things at the game system level. The first is the prop production system, which feels that the connection between the presence or absence of props in this work and the game strategy is stronger than that of previous works. The design that props can be made at any point in time makes the system very high in both frequency and versatility, and the reason for installing this system is that?
MIYAZAKI: There are several reasons, but the most important of them should be to improve the player's ability to continue to play while maintaining the tension of the game to a certain extent. Due to the open-ended scene design of this game, if the duration of a game (one life) is too short, it may make the player feel more stressed. In addition, the experience of "running out of props and having to return for the time being" will be even more unpleasant than in the past, so we want to try to curb this as much as possible.
| Q: In addition to returning to the Blessing Points, the game also provides other holy grail bottle recovery methods, such as starting with the Teardrop Scarab or knocking down a certain number of enemies, is this also a strategy to make the game strategy smoother?
MIYAZAKI: Yes, it's also for the same reason that in order to make a play time not too short, it is necessary to improve the player's ability to continue to play.
| Q: This is great news for a wide range of players, and it also makes it easier for beginners to understand the gameplay of the game. However, from the perspective of a novice, this game provides 10 origins for players to choose from, what if you feel confused about choosing a origin?
MIYAZAKI: You just need to choose based on whether it is good to bring in the character's unique background settings or simply whether the appearance is good or not. Because at the game level, no matter what origin you choose, there will be no restrictions on subsequent play. For example, even if you choose to be a "wandering knight", you can grow up to be a magician in the future, and even if you do this, you can write a story that belongs only to this character. Ah yes, only "useless people" are more special, and this is not a background for novices who don't know what to choose (laughs).
| Q: Choosing this origin from the beginning, I guess I am either a master of operation or a very hardcore player. Whether you've played previous FromSoftware titles or not, I think when exploring in an open area, there will be players who are confused about where to go next, and the "Blessing Guide" exists to deal with this situation. Is it possible to push the story to the minimum extent by following the guidance? In addition, is there a place in the game that does not give any hints at all, and must be discovered through in-depth exploration?
MIYAZAKI: Well, as long as you follow the guidance of blessings, you will not be confused about the most basic direction of the strategy. But this is only a minimal level of guidance, in addition to guidance, there are many stories and discoveries in the game waiting to be explored by players. Although some content may need to be played repeatedly to experience, this game is originally a game with a high degree of freedom. While the Blessing Guidelines are elements added to avoid the player's "don't know what to do now" problem, players can also deliberately go against the intent of the Guidelines and make their own choices.
Every weapon and combat technique is a weapon that can defeat the enemy
| Q: I'd like to ask more questions about combat. Mechanisms such as "Bird's Eye Mirror" have been specially added in this game, and it seems that "observation" will become more important for combat.
MIYAZAKI: Yes. Especially in open scenes, players are often able to spot enemies in advance. Under this premise, how should these enemies be overthrown? This is something we take very seriously when designing our combat gameplay. For example, first knocking down a reconnaissance enemy with a horn is a way to attack. In addition, mechanisms such as stealth and spirit summoning are actually new elements conceived when we imagine the process of finding enemies, observing, and thinking about strategies.
| Q: Why divide the magic we often say into two systems, "magic" and "prayer"? Moreover, in "magic" and "prayer", it seems that there are different factions such as academic schools and royal schools...
MIYAZAKI: Magic is really divided into a number of different types in this game, and we actually wanted to design a little more faction or a richer variety of catalysts at the beginning. But the more types of catalysts there are, the more limited the richness of character builds becomes, and the whole system becomes too elaborate, eventually having to be roughly classified into the two categories of magic and prayer. So magic and prayer must contain a number of different factions, each of which is unique. These spells first differ in how they are set and used, and then can be enhanced by specific catalysts, and some even have different associated attribute values. Therefore, the magic-related character Build in this game will be more diverse at the RPG level, which is very worth looking forward to.
| Q: Depending on the type, there are also obvious differences in the special effects performances when using different magic or prayers, which makes people very eager to gather each type of magic. The attack special effects of this game, including combat techniques, seem to be gorgeous.
MIYAZAKI: We didn't design just to create a gorgeous effect. However, in this work, whether it is weapons, combat skills, magic, or prayer, they are all mythical beings, or props used to challenge mythical heroes, so the results will be more or less gorgeous.
| Q: This is also a kind of motivation that prompts players to go and collect. The types of weapons in this game are also very rich, and it should be quite difficult to increase the diversity of weapons while giving each weapon exclusive characteristics, right? After all, the player's reaction to the characteristics of the weapon can be said to be quite sensitive. Do you have a principle similar to "weapons should do this" when designing weapons?
MIYAZAKI: Whether it's weapons or combat techniques, we don't have such tough guidelines. I think that if I do that, it will limit the imagination of the development members and lead to too conservative design, which is something I want to avoid. But having said that, if I had to cite a similar rule, "something that must be used" would be counted as one. No matter how amazing this weapon or combat technique may seem at first glance, I hope that it will become a prop that users are willing to entrust their lives to it and seriously use it to defeat the enemy.
| Q: The design of the armor I feel also adds a lot to the RPG experience of this game, such as the samurai and hunter style armor as close as possible to the player's inherent impression of "I want to be like that".
MIYAZAKI: Exactly. When designing, we attach great importance to the role-playing properties of armor. The premise, of course, is that it is controlled within the scope of not destroying the overall worldview of The Eldon's Law.
| Q: The addition of combat strategies such as anti-reaction and jump attack makes the process of thinking about how to defeat enemy posture more interesting. Why is the element of posture so important?
MIYAZAKI: As mentioned at the beginning, I hope that this game will evolve the kingship of the Dark Souls series and make the original sword and sword combat experience more profound. The chemistry that arises between the new elements of using jump attacks to more easily defeat enemy postures is also something I'm very happy to see.
| Q: If you want to talk about the unique combat elements of this game, you can't avoid the "spirit body". How do I choose the right spirit according to the battle situation? How to maximize the role of the spirit body? The presence of the sense of spirit does greatly enrich the diversity of combat strategies.
MIYAZAKI: Regarding the spirit summoning system, I think different people should have different expectations of this. You can either summon the right spirits based on the characteristics and configurations of your enemies purely strategically, or you can always fight alongside your favorite spirits. Since spirits also come with a certain amount of collecting fun, I personally like this element very much, and I hope that players will be satisfied by then.
| Q: Another thing that has to be mentioned is the system that uses "war ash" to change combat skills. The addition of this system can be said to allow players to customize weapons according to their own play style.
MIYAZAKI: As I mentioned briefly earlier, the combat techniques in this game are not so much used to show the characteristics of weapons, but rather closer to the existence of myths, or to challenge the heroes in mythology, which is very different from previous works. Considering the "degree of freedom" that is one of the core themes of this game, the war ash system that can freely replace combat techniques came into being. As a result, the customizable space of the weapon should be greatly expanded, so this is also an element that we would like players to pay more attention to.
| Q: By the way, Mr. Miyazaki, what was your favorite fighting style when playing?
Miyazaki: I prefer the tough guy type of meat and bone cutting, brutal and rough character, that is, the type of onslaught against the enemy's key point. However, because of the combat style and the free build space for character development, I am still trying various things myself, and I feel that I should be able to find a more favorite fighting style in the future.
| Q: Next, I would like to ask about the boss battle of this game. Demigod bosses like "Pick-up Greg" are fantastically designed!
MIYAZAKI: What the demigods have in common in their design is that they are all legendary heroes. Of course, this is just the hero we define in a broad sense, and these heroes who once were now transformed into aliens because of defeat, degeneration, distortion, and degeneration.
| Q: The unique attack moves that are completely different from other enemies are also one of the elements worth looking forward to in boss battles, do you have any special attention when designing boss actions?
MIYAZAKI: In addition to not being too unreasonable at the game level, we also attach great importance to adding a sense of oppression and killing to the boss's actions. Therefore, even if the high damage value is ignored, these attack moves can make the player feel a huge threat. Only in this way can the player harvest a strong sense of joy and peace of mind after defeating the boss.
Take advantage of the openness and freedom of the scene to lower the barrier to entry
| Q: In a previous interview, you mentioned that this game lowers the threshold for multiplayer play, can you tell us about the purpose of this?
MIYAZAKI: Whether it's from the "degree of freedom" level that I often refer to, or using multiplayer play as a means of overcoming difficulties beyond a purely action experience, raising the threshold for multiplayer play is contrary to this.
| Q: The asynchronous online mechanism limited to the group is also a unique element of this game, what is the reason for installing the system?
MIYAZAKI: In a word, it is to lower the threshold for playing together, and I hope to update the definition of this mechanism. Compared with the asynchronous online mechanisms such as phantoms, blood stains, and messages in the past, these contents in this game will change from "left by some other player in the world" to "may have been left by someone I know in the group", the meaning of the two is completely different, and may even lead to a new way of playing. Taking the message system as an example, the original player's attitude towards the system may be "I don't know who will read my message, and maybe even no one will read my message", but now it has become "there is a great chance that someone I know in the group can read this message", so that the motivation and meaning of writing a message will not change completely?
| Q: In other words, by changing the player's position when playing online, it is likely to spawn a new way of playing. Well, this interview is almost at the end, do you have any tips for players who are new to FromSoftware works on their way?
MIYAZAKI: Don't care too much about whether you're suitable for this game, just experience it with ease. Don't be afraid of death, because trial and error, including death, is inherently one of the funs of the game. And this experience is originally what we deliberately pursue, and it is also the most kingly way to play this game. Compared with the works we have developed in the past, such as the Dark Souls series, the map design of this game will be more open and free, so the barrier to entry will be lower.
| Q: It is said that if you only play the main line, the time to clear the level is about 30 hours, so if you want to explore every corner of the map, how long does it take to clear the level?
MIYAZAKI: Uh ~ It is difficult to quantify the time required for a specific clearance, after all, according to each person's playing style, adaptation, and knowledge reserves, the clearance time will vary greatly. But it can be clearly pointed out that this work is definitely richer than the Dark Souls series.
| Q: Will the development experience of this game have any impact on Mr. Miyazaki and for future game production by FromSoftware?
MIYAZAKI: Although the future is not known, I think there are most of them. As I mentioned before, it is precisely because the company has cultivated a group of excellent talents that this game has been able to meet with you, and these development members will certainly challenge the game production in the future.
| Q: Finally, please say something to the players who are looking forward to the release of this game.
Miyazaki: A world of unknowns, threats, mysteries, encounters, stories, and myths; a free-spirited adventure; intense battles that make your palms sweat, and an unparalleled sense of accomplishment after defeating your enemies, we want to create these most direct gameplay experiences that we hope everyone will be able to enjoy.
Compile | Bluestoon