Who doesn't love a good rumour, now and then, eh? Especially at a time when Actual Video Game News is pretty darn thin on the ground. So, what with us all in agreement that, sure, a rumour or two's fine for the here and now, here's a rumour.
WCCF Tech reports that FromSoftware's forthcoming George R.R. Martin collaboration, Elden Ring, will feature dynamic wildlife that will react and respond to the player in a naturalistic fashion - presumably with plenty of danger involved, this being a FromSoft joint. The site cites ResetEra poster Omni as the source of this particular rumour, whose post on Elden Ring's features reads as follows:
"Dynamic day/night cycles, lighting, weather, I'll even throw you a bone and say wildlife, enemies out in the open world that change their positioning, both big and small. Things that make the world feel like it lives and breathes and doesn't just exist as your playground and while they're relatively minor when looked at as singular elements. You start to take all of these elements and put them together and ultimately what you have is something that again, shares the same DNA as past games, but culminates into something different."
Omni adds that Elden Ring is similar in design and presentation to Sony's all-time classic (which is now on PlayStation Plus), Shadow of the Colossus, but also that "doesn't really tell the whole story". Omni says that SOTC's "vastness, the openness, the freedom, the clever funneling of player pathing" is all present and correct in Elden Ring; but the emptiness found in the PlayStation essential isn't so much of a feature. FromSoft's game will, apparently, have a greater focus on player freedom - i.e., it won't lock you into killing monsters, or bosses, in a set order. Maybe.
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And of course, the shadow of Dark Souls hasn't vanished from Elden Ring - again, apparently, because for all we know for sure, this is outright guesswork. So, salt suitably pinched, Omni writes:
"Yes there are elements of Dark Souls, which is to be expected given that again, this is a FromSoftware medieval action role-playing game. But it's taking the design elements of past games and taking them in a different direction and, like (director Hidetaka) Miyazaki said, doing things they couldn't before."
Interestingly, the post also adds that, perhaps, players shouldn't expect anything too startling from Elden Ring. "You're not getting 10 million NPCs with 30 million lines of dialogue, or Breath of the Wild-style exploration, Sekiro combat depth or anything that is all that revolutionary," says Omni. Which may come as a shame to anyone who's, like, expecting something that truly breaks the mould for fantasy adventuring.
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Elden Ring's story won't be written by Game of Thrones creator Martin, though - he's on board to flesh out its lore and general world-building. Just so you know what to expect, there. That, and all those animals trying to tear you limb from limb, obviously.
Elden Ring was officially announced at E3 2019, and is currently being developed for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, with no talk yet of next-gen version(s) being in the works. Its release date is strictly TBC, but we imagine we'll be seeing more of the game via everywhere-but-Japan publishers Bandai Namco in the near future, certainly at or around E3 in June - assuming E3 even happens, of course. Cross your hopefully properly washed fingers, yeah?
Featured Image Credit:Topics: FromSoftware, Elden Ring