Ever since Super Mario Bros. on the NES, it has been a common trope for games to take place across multiple themed levels. Modern open-world games usually need to be more subtle than this in separating their different areas. However, Elden Ring still hits all the classic areas that would be seen in a retro platformer, including a luscious green starting area, a snow-covered mountain, and even a lava castle. Elden Ring’s open world is so well-connected that it could be easy for players to not notice how visually distinct each area is until they think back on their playthrough.
The theme of in-game areas can be defined by different aspects. FromSoftware games like Dark Souls often have their areas defined by difficulty, but the best tool in a game designer's arsenal for making a level feel distinct is the color palette.
Elden Ring made the most of its colors in designing the game’s huge open world. Not only could players recognize any location from the map by being shown the landscape of the area, but it's also likely they could guess the area just by being shown the color palette. Many players are doing exactly this when looking at Reddit user jonbristow’s Elden Ring color wheel, that they made using all the frames from a recorded playthrough of the game.
The wheel may initially look like a mess of nondescript colors, but when Elden Ring players begin to recall their playthrough of the game and the order in which they explored the different areas, they will begin to recognize the patterns seen in the color wheel. The third image is the best for following a timeline of the game, where the innermost circles are deep greens and browns from Limgrave. Venturing out from there, the player was hit with luminous pale blues reminiscent of the magic and important glintstones found surrounding the Raya Lucaria area of Elden Ring.
Many distinct locations can be seen clearly sticking out in the color palette. The purples in the center are the underground cities, and the large wedge of yellow is Leyndell. It's interesting to notice clear and distinct story points just from a color timeline, such as the end the large segment of white and blues being punctuated with a sudden streak of bright orange. This is from the end of the Mountaintops of the Giants area, when the player reaches the Forge of the Giants and proceeds into Elden Ring's endgame.
The Reddit user's color wheel does show how well-designed Elden Ring is and how distinct its areas are when they can be recognized only by their prevailing colors. However, jonbristow’s playthrough of the game was very cleanly played in order, and each area was completed one at a time. As Elden Ring is an open world game with many regions to freely explore, most players' playthrough color palettes probably wouldn’t be so easy to track.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Reddit
