Elden Ring's "distorted" world may leave George R.R. Martin "a bit shocked", says Hidetaka Miyazaki

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"I hope he gets a kick out of that"

Elden Ring
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Director and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has revealed that he expects George R.R. Martin – who helped design Elden Ring's lore and worldbuilding – to be "a bit shocked" when he sees the final game. 

Although the Game of Thrones creator recently took to his personal blog to call the action RPG "incredible", Miyazaki now says he suspects Martin may have been "envisioning something a little bit more human" than the game's deviation from "traditional human drama". 

"So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, 'how did they become such inhuman monsters? And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?'" Miyazaki recently explained to GameInformer (thanks, PC Gamer).

"So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not.

"And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that."

Miyazaki has revealed he expects more people to complete Elden Ring than FromSoftware's previous games.

In a recent interview, Miyazaki emphasized that Elden Ring is more flexible and welcoming compared to FromSoftware's usual games, and because of this, he thinks that "more players will finish it this time". For reference, just over 23 per cent of Steam buyers – that's less than one in four players – have reached Sekiro's most common ending.

Elden Ring recently became Steam's most wishlisted game. All last year, Dying Light 2 has topped the chart – it reportedly knocked Cyberpunk 2077 off the perch in December 2020 and had remained there ever since – but earlier this month, From Software's eagerly-anticipated action RPG has claimed the top spot, just a few weeks ahead of the release date of both games.

Elden Ring's final launch might be just a few weeks away on February 25, 2022, but there's still plenty more to learn about the new game.

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.