Although it was fairly obvious to everyone who played Elden Ring, FromSoftware have officially confirmed that the open-world setting of Elden Ring was designed based on where its bosses would be.
The game’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki gave an interview for Xbox Wire and this is what he had to say:
“Our first step when designing the map was to decide where the bosses would appear, especially the important ones. Therefore, the map was really designed on the basis of boss gameplay, then we adjusted the boss gameplay based on their location on the map.”
This is exactly how FromSoftware designed some of their previous games like Bloodborne and Demon Souls.
Miyazaki also went on to conclude:
“I don’t think we took specific inspiration from any particular game. But I’ve personally played a lot of open-world games that are considered classics of the genre, and I’ve been influenced by all of them. These include The Elder Scrolls series, The Witcher 3, and more recently The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”
Elden Ring is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.