Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann Is Intrigued by Elden Ring's Storytelling

Naughty Dog's games are famous for their cinematic storytelling, however, the studio's co-president Neil Druckmann is apparently getting more and more interested in more minimalist storytelling such as the one happening through gameplay rather than directly through cinematics.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Druckmann shared that he has recently been "intrigued" by unconventional storytelling methods in games and cited Fromsoftware's Elden Ring and Playdead's INSIDE as examples.

The head of the studio explained that while Naughty Dog delivers important plot points through cinematics, Elden Ring and INSIDE do it without any cutscenes, trusting players to figure it out certain things themselves as they play.

"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 said. "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 a space, and understanding the history of a space by just looking at it and examining it. And 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."

Druckman added that he would like to try something similar in terms of storytelling like including storytelling through environments and easy-to-miss details but stressed that he is not going to completely abandon dialogues and cutscenes.

You can find the full interview with Neil Druckmann here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann Says He's Intrigued by Elden Ring's Storytelling

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