From its gameplay style to its storytelling to its horrifying bosses, Elden Ring is taking a lot of cues from FromSoftware’s own Dark Souls games- but there are many ways it’s paving its own way too. For starters, it’s a fully fledged open world title, a first for the developer- and just as the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne leveraged their interconnected Metroidvania design to their fullest, so too will Elden Ring be doing with its own much more expansive environments.

Speaking in an interview with IGN, FromSoftware boss and Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki said that the game has been designed with its vast and open world in mind, and that its gameplay mechanics are made to be able to leverage that and play to those strengths.

“While the narrow and complex dungeons of our previous games were indeed interconnected, Elden Ring’s environments will be much more open and vast,” said Miyazaki. “The more extensive world will form the base of Elden Ring’s gameplay, and its mechanics are designed with that type of environment in mind.”

One example of this are the dungeons themselves. While previous FromSoftware games had dungeons that were interconnected, in Elden Ring, these dungeons are placed within a vast, open world environment (a field). This environment will encourage greater exploration, and show the game world’s larger scale- just don’t expect it to be a very cheerful one.

Elden Ring is out some time next year for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Read all about how it allows co-writer George R.R. Martin to unleash his creativity through here.