In addition to winning the Game of the Year award in 2022, Elden Ring's director and Soulsborne mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki was just named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2023. The continued praise and acclaim bestowed upon Elden Ring all but guarantees that the next project out of FromSoftware will be one with the entire gaming community's eyes on it, which begs the question of where the studio should take the series next. For all the freedom that was afforded to the player in terms of exploration and adventure in Elden Ring's large map, there was still one environmental feature that was incapable of being explored in any significant way: water.
Outside the poison swamps that Miyazaki seems fond of incorporating in the Soulsborne games, water is somewhat of a "final frontier" for the Souls series and Elden Ring. The impressive and varied map of The Lands Between featured an entire area that was a shallow lake, along with outcropping islands housing castles and other buildings just out of the player's reach without the use of a seafaring vessel and only accessible via teleportation. Whether through allowing players to swim or having the next Soulsborne game's setting incorporate maritime travel and exploration, it's time for FromSoftware to take players to the high seas.
Water is Elden Ring's Only Barrier
The impressively large and detailed map of The Lands Between gave players a seemingly endless series of options for exploration and adventure. The one barrier to player traversal was that of water, with only shallow pools capable of being navigated and no options for swimming. Many players were greeted by the death screen the moment they tried to venture into open water in the game's opening moments after seeing an island just off the coast of Limgrave, instantly raising questions of how players were supposed to reach the tantalizing and out-of-reach areas.
Whether the next Soulsborne game is a more linear adventure similar to the Souls series or another massive open-world game akin to Elden Ring, the existence of water features on the map shouldn't be a stopping point for players but instead another avenue for exploration. The controlled and weighty movement of player characters in the Soulsborne games could seemingly easily translate to players having a swimming mechanic. Similarly, further expanding the set of traversal tools given to players in Elden Ring through the incorporation of vehicles, including boats, could make every inch of a potential new map capable of being explored.
Taking Soulsborne to the Age of Piracy and Exploration
One of the key features of FromSoftware's Soulsborne games is that each incorporates a highly detailed and foreboding setting. The high-fantasy setting of both the Souls series and Elden Ring are a stark contrast compared to Sekiro's Sengoku-era Japan or Bloodborne's Victorian gothic horror. If the next title out of FromSoftware is indeed a new Soulsborne game and possibly a new IP, incorporating Southeast Asian mythology and folklore as well as an island setting could prove beneficial to both the game's lore and bosses as well as finally including water traversal in a meaningful way.
The use of an island setting would facilitate the need for players to have a seafaring vessel used for travel between each landmass, with the ship taking the place of Elden Ring's Torrent. Additionally, taking players to the age of exploration and incorporating piracy into the game could serve as inspiration for both a FromSoftware PVP element and hiding plenty of secrets in the in-game map. By making water a central feature of the game, the studio would both move beyond its previous limitations and utilize a thematically relevant setting in doing so. Few can say whether this supposed Wind Waker and Bloodborne hybrid will ever come to pass, but it's likely safe to say that whatever FromSoftware does next will surprise fans.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
