Elden Ring Director Hidetaka Miyazaki Was Influenced by Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Elder Scrolls, and Witcher 3

Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki said that while Elden Ring doesn't take inspiration from any one game in particular, he himself has been influenced by other open worlds including Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Elder Scrolls series, and The Witcher 3.

Speaking to Xbox Wire Japan (independently translated by IGN), Miyazaki was asked if he took direct inspiration from any other open world games.

"I don’t think we took specific inspiration from any particular game," he said, "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.

The 10 Best Open World Games 10 Images

"These include The Elder Scrolls series, The Witcher 3, and more recently The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," he added.

Elden Ring's world was built with bosses in mind first, however, typical of developer FromSoftware and its series of games including the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

"Our first step when designing the map was to decide where the bosses would appear, especially the important ones," Miyazaki said. "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 design system certainly worked as Elden Ring has proven somewhat of a cultural phenomenon since it was released in February with players interacting with the game in a ton of different ways. One player, for example, got the Fisher Price toy controller working with the game, while another has made a VR version.

Someone has also beaten a boss using the Nintendo Switch Ring Fit controller, while others completed the game without taking damage or dealing damage.

In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."

To make those choices with the best available information, check out our guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.