Elden Ring's Narrative Inspires The Last of Us 2 Director; Will Influence New Games

Naughty Dog's next productions may bet on a narrative similar to that of Elden Ring, with a limited number of classic cutscenes. Neil Druckmann expressed his feelings about the changing ways of storytelling in video games.

January 11, 2023 12:34

The guest on yesterday's broadcast hosted by the Washington Post Live channel was Neil Druckmann, co-president of Naughty Dog and creative director of previous The Last of Us games. The interview provided us with quite a few clues as to what direction the next productions of the studio responsible for the TLoU or Uncharted series might take. Druckmann stated that he is intrigued by games that "don't hold players by hand" in storytelling.

"Recently, for example, I was more interested in Elden Ring or Inside, which don't rely so much on traditional narrative modes to tell stories."

This can be taken to mean that Druckmann is increasingly fond of ambiguity in games and the fact that everyone can discover their storyline in their own way by participating in gameplay rather than watching cutscenes and listening to dialogues. So it's not, as you know, very characteristic of TLoU or Uncharted, which focus on the most cinematic experience possible. Druckmann mentioned at the same time that in The Last of Us, it's best in terms of narrative to learn about the events through exploration of the environment, suggesting that future Naughty Dog games may place a stronger emphasis on this type of experience.

"This does not mean that we will completely abandon dialogue or cutscenes in games. [...] I think there is a way to push this [way of storytelling - ed. note] forward in Naughty Dog games. [...] We never rest on our laurels and try something new and different that may not appeal to everyone."

The fascination with different narrative methods may translate into upcoming Naughty Dog games, but we won't learn how much in the near future. A multiplayer project tentatively called The Last of Us: Factions is unlikely to offer a complex story, such as in the case of The Last of Us: Part II, and we still don't know anything about the studio's second production - and there probably won't be any information about it too soon (due to the decision to delay official announcements, which we wrote about earlier).