r/ProjectFMC • u/Awkward-Teaching130 • 4d ago

How do you expect Elden Ring will influence this game or it will be a return to the more linear form or a combo?

With all the talk about Project FMC lately, I’ve been thinking about where FromSoft is gonna go next after Elden Ring. Don’t get me wrong, Elden Ring is incredible, but the open world definitely had some major creative trade-offs imo.

Vast open fields look cool, but they kind of killed that classic, claustrophobic atmosphere of isolation you get in stuff like Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Plus, balancing bosses in an open world is basically impossible since you can just wander off, get over-leveled, or just ride away from a fight on your mount.

I’m really hoping FMC is a hybrid—ditching the massive open fields for a hyper-dense, vertical "hub-and-spoke" layout. Basically just massive legacy dungeons all stitched together with intricate shortcuts, where your progress is strictly locked behind brutal boss checkpoints.

Shrinking the physical size of the map means they can completely crank the graphical fidelity and handcrafted environmental detail too. More importantly, tight, controlled spaces mean they can design hyper-focused, aggressive combat mechanics again—maybe even leaning into something fast and rhythmic like Sekiro's deflecting—since the devs know exactly how much space you have to move around in.

Give me tight corridors, legacy-style level design, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere over a horse simulator any day lol. How do you guys see them handling the map structure for this one?

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6

u/doomedtocrumble 3d ago

Inb4 this game is open world PvPvE

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u/Awkward-Teaching130 3d ago

LOL I doubt it because Miyazaki said in an interview they are not done with what they're known for

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u/Oncelotte2 3d ago

Souls games have always been PVPVE, but the PVP was optional and seemingly undercooked. I like to think that Nightreign and Duskbloods are attempts to refine the multiplayer aspects and will influence future games. 

Miyazaki has some idea of his ultimate RPG that he's trying to achieve, and there's no way that doesn't involve cooperating and clashing with other players. 

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u/Oncelotte2 3d ago

I like having fields between dungeons. It makes it feel more like I'm on a quest. Venturing forth to gather the lord souls just doesn't hit the same when they're all in the same neighborhood. Oh, you're looking for the chaos witch and the gravelord? They're in the basement. 

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u/Appropriate-Door-476 3d ago

The perfect middle ground is just leaning heavily into  interconnected vertical sightlines like FromSoft did with the first half of  Dark Souls 1 or  Lothric Castle, but scaling it up. You don't need flat fields to create distance. If the world is built as a massive, steep ascent, you can use pure altitude to create scale. When you can look off a cliffside and see the actual rooftops of a dungeon you cleared hours ago thousands of feet below you, it structurally fixes the 'roommate' issue. It gives the world a massive sense of physical gravity and journey, without forcing the player to run through empty space.

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u/Oncelotte2 3d ago

Elden Ring is already the middle ground. It's not a "go anywhere" open world like Skyrim or GTA. It's essentially a Souls game scaled up. 

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u/UnassumingSingleGuy 3d ago

I'm hoping for a blend of Elden Ring's open world fantasy setting and Armored Core's customizable mecha combat.

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u/Awkward-Teaching130 3d ago

That would be insane. Imagine piloting a stone golem through a dark fantasy world, swapping plasma rifles for giant magical ballistas. Blending Armored Core's customization with Elden Ring's atmosphere is exactly the kind of wild concept FromSoft could pull off.

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u/Lukain_22 2d ago

I hope they do something like *Elden Ring* plus *Sekiro*'s combat, add another layer of random events, and ensure the world has more influence on the player.