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Throughout the game, players will encounter non-player characters (NPCs) and enemies alike, including the demigods who rule each main area and will serve as the game's main bosses. These main areas are interconnected through a central hub that players can access later in the game's progression - similar to Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls - and will be explorable using the character's mount as the main mode of transport, although a fast travel system will be an available option.
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Director Hidetaka Miyazaki explained that players start with a linear opening but will eventually progress to freely explore the Lands Between, including its six main areas, as well as castles, fortresses, and catacombs scattered throughout the vast open-world map. Gameplay Įlden Ring is an action role-playing game played in a third-person perspective and features elements similar to those found in its predecessor, the Souls series, with gameplay focusing on combat and exploration. As a Tarnished - exiles from the Lands Between who lost the Ring's grace - summoned back after the Shattering, players must traverse the realm to ultimately find all the Great Runes, restore the Elden Ring, and become the Elden Lord. Once graced by the Ring and the Erdtree which symbolizes its presence, the realm is now ruled over by the demigod offspring of Queen Marika the Eternal, each possessing a shard of the Ring that corrupts and taints them with power. Elden Ring takes place in the realm of the Lands Between, sometime after the destruction of the titular Elden Ring and the scattering of its shards, the Great Runes.
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