Elden Ring: How involved was George R.R Martin?

I’ve been a Soulsborne vet for a while now, first starting with Bloodborne and eventually working my way through the Dark Souls series. I started up Sekiro and haven’t got back to it anytime soon, but I did enjoy what little I played. The game was an insight into how From Software is gonna evolve post-Dark Souls; it gave me the idea that FromSoft’s games are going to be much faster while retaining the intensity of the Souls series.

I just hoped that speed would have some heft to back it up.

Ancient souls

Elden Ring has shown that I’m pretty right so far. When it was first revealed in 2019, it got every Soulshead excited for what’s going to come in the far future. The initial trailer was dark and brooding, with plenty of imagery that fit FromSoft’s M.O, as it looked like it was going to be some kind of spiritual successor to Dark Souls. What really caught my attention was the fact that Game of Throne’s George R.R Martin was gonna help out with the game.

After getting burned with the whole Kojima and Silent Hills debacle, I didn’t put too much stock into how involved ol’ GRRM was going to be in Elden Ring and its development. According to a Forbes article, Martin’s role was mainly crafting the world of Elden Ring, creating the mythology that the story of the game would be based around.

It is made clear that game director Hidetaka Miyazaki didn’t want Martin crafting the story itself as they would have to change it around later on in development. If you ask me, this was probably for the best given that the scope of Martin’s other works are incredibly grandiose and would definitely require lots of trimming and changing alongside active development.

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Sometimes, always solo

Much like previous games, the main character of Elden Ring would be of the player’s own creation and won’t have any sort of any unique personality. It definitely seems like we’re getting something more akin to Souls rather than something like Sekiro.

What I mean by this is that the journey and story will probably make the player feel more insignificant despite their prevalent role in the story and the world. Whereas Sekiro has more of a heavily curated experience, it seems like Elden Ring won’t be as curated despite having a story and multiple endings. Multiplayer is also going to be included in the game, and it will be a co-op experience as of now but that could be better explained as we get closer to launch.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of Miyazaki and George Martin’s strange and dreary world when it drops on January 21st, 2022.

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