Elden Ring began development in early 2017 following the release of The Ringed City, a piece of downloadable content for Dark Souls III.[4] As with Miyazaki's Souls games, Elden Ring will have the ability for players to create their own custom characters instead of playing as a fixed protagonist.[3] Miyazaki also considered Elden Ring to be a more "natural evolution" to the Souls series, as the game will be much larger in scale compared to them, featuring an open world with new gameplay mechanics such as horseback riding and combat.[3][4] However, unlike many other open world games, Elden Ring will not feature populated towns with non-playable characters, with the world having numerous dungeon-like ruins in place of them instead.[3] When asked about the possibility of the story being novelized, Miyazaki stated that he would rather have players experience it themselves by playing the game, as he thinks that the game's secrets and mysteries would be spoiled otherwise.[3] The score is being written by Yuka Kitamura, who has composed for many of Miyazaki's previous games.[5]
