"Elden Ring: Shadow of the Elder Tree" was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of 2024. But it seems we were not the only ones who had been prepping for the game, as director Eitaka Miyazaki also had a pre-release date in mind.

"In preparation for Shadow of the Elder Tree, I played through the full length of The Elden Ring," Miyazaki said in an interview with The Guardian. The freedom and open-world nature of The Elden Ring probably lowers the barrier to entry, and as a player I've probably benefited from it more than anyone else."

Some players may look down on others who use summoned beasts or items that offer salvation to their enemies. They are trying to defeat a god or demigod. I want to thank Mimic Tia for always being on my side.

And while most players don't care how other players approach Eldenring or its DLC, it's really nice to hear that Miyazaki is taking a similar approach. In fact, it's quite compelling.

But apparently Miyazaki doesn't spend much time on new games: "Because I know I'll find something I left on the table or find a problem that will annoy me. Once you become a player, you can't do anything significant to change that. So once the game is out there, I tend not to play it."

"Shadow of the Eldest Trees" doesn't have that many problems so far, except for the minute stutters that plagued some systems (not that they were always minute). Otherwise, every patch released by From Software so far has addressed the few graphical issues as well as slightly buffing the player to handle the difficulty spikes.

Despite continuing to beat players over the head with difficulty, expectations for Shadow of the Erdtree were clearly not misplaced: after the DLC's release, the number of concurrent players on Steam peaked at over 700,000, surpassing the 2022 Elden Ring's release in 2022. But while the success is welcome for From Software, Miyazaki also talks about room for failure.

"The budget, the scale, the scope, everything has grown to the point where there is no more room for failure than I think there ever was in the past," Miyazaki said. From Software has its own way of hedging its risks, so to speak. Most of our projects have partners who provide funding. At the same time, we have to find the right projects that are tolerant of failure. Whether it is small in scope or scale, whether it is a small module within a larger one, there has to be room to allow for failure."