The Last of Us Director Says Future Projects May Be Influenced by Elden Ring

Neil Druckmann, the director behind PlayStation titles such as The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, has recently found inspiration for future projects through FromSoftware's Elden Ring. Despite being such a massive release, Elden Ring is a game that doesn't have much in common with titles that Naughty Dog tends to release. This is especially true on a storytelling front, as most of Naughty Dog's recent games are highly cinematic. Despite this, Druckmann has explained that Elden Ring has helped shape how the director might look to work on new projects moving forward. 

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Druckmann opened up about how his views on storytelling in games have changed in recent years. Specifically, Druckmann invoked titles like Elden Ring and Inside that tell nuanced stories, but don't do so in traditional methods, mainly through cinematics. And while it might seem like Naughty Dog would never look to spin a narrative in this same manner, Druckmann seems quite interested in embracing different methods. 

"I'm more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside that doesn't rely as much on traditional narrative to tell its story," Druckmann explained. "Some of the best storytelling in The Last of Us is in the cinematics, but a lot of it is in gameplay, and moving around the space, and understanding the history of a space by just looking at it and examining it. To me, right now, that's some of the best joy I get out of games that trust their audience to figure things out. [Games] that don't hold your hand, that's the stuff I'm really intrigued by going forward."  

Although Druckmann admitted to being pulled in by games like Elden Ring, he also made clear that Naughty Dog as a studio isn't going to completely abandon many of the other storytelling devices that it has used in the past. 

"That doesn't mean we will never have dialogue, or cutscenes, I think those are tools in your toolbox. And I think there's a way to push that stuff forward, at least for the kind of games we make at Naughty Dog," he went on to say. "I'm really intrigued, again, never resting on our laurels and trying something a little bit new, a little bit different, that not everybody's going to like, but that's okay."  

For now, it remains to be seen what Naughty Dog might look to do next. While it's already developing a multiplayer title set within the world of The Last of Us, Druckmann has admitted that there's another project kicking around the studio right now as well. It's believed that this game will end up becoming The Last of Us Part 3, but we'll have to keep waiting to see if this is true. 

[H/T IGN]