LogFAQs > #967480901

Elden Ring really nailed the idea of a living breathing game world incorporating popular visual indie elements, a little Nintendo magic, a lot of D&D/LotR stuff, a careful mix of anime vibes with Disney vibes, and etc.

It almost reminds me of a Minecraft world, you know? Kind of a hodgepodge of all this great familiar stuff unified under a "new" style. Very tongue-in-cheek, but also very advanced as far as game design goes. You can travel to almost any location you see in game, real time. As far as certain video game styles and conventions goes, Elden Ring gets it. Somewhere between Journey and Shadow of the Colossus, I think you can find that same spirit here, plus some.

I don't think it's hard to see the G.R.R. Martin in it. The Breath of the Wild. The Okami. The King's Field. The Ghibli. Etc. My enjoyment from this might have come from bouncing off the idea that Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice was just a big ice level lol, so when I play Elden Ring I see like the polar opposite of that genius, maybe leaning in a bit on the idea of Dark Souls III being "faded beauty" and to the extent I explored Dracin which definitely plays with the idea of creating a beautiful western anime world rooted in hues of haunting nature intertwined with dry scholarship. So, I also feel as though I kinda "get" it which definitely increases my appreciation for and perception of Elden Ring being a "living" world.

but anyway

You can go pick all the plants, and enter most of the buildings, there's huge fallen blocks everywhere XD It might not be as animated or as functional as some other games, but a lot of thought and understanding went into creating the world of Elden Ring. That's on top of the interlaced online system which constantly creates new events, the updated NPC/quest mechanics they created for Elden Ring (like chasing phantom footprints around, and being able to find more random puzzles due to the freedom of open world maps coming in from Souls which is more restrictive to quality over quantity, and so on and so forth) ~ all makes for a top notch experience. Thus far could be said it's to be seen that Elden Ring is the peak Souls experience, as far as it being a genre or whatever. What's more living and breathing than that?

Many games have tried, even Dark Souls, but Elden Ring really has a great sequence where a large monster like a dragon can swoop in on you out of nowhere and just demolish the small building complex that your character was exploring. You might find yourself on horseback all of a sudden weaving and jumping through falling bricks and debris as some dragon or staff-wielding mad giant birdman tears apart the houses and roads around you. Peak video gaming. Totally destructable environment, via boss.