Why does Nobody talk about Elden Rings Map??? 

The game is a combination of look at that place, go to that place, find dead end, go explore, find the way forward. Liurnia had that too. You feel lost initially, so you explore, then you find the way forward. One of the best game values I've ever purchased.

The teleporter chest near the start of the game that teleports you to the capital and shows the fogged over map was such a breath-taking moment for me when i realised how big the game was going to be.

My gamer instincts go like oh that’s where I need to go let’s go everywhere else first

"Now Stormveil is pretty simple" Not my thoughts when I first got there on my first playthrough...

The game does tell you where to go right from the start: follow the light. The sites of grace lead you to your destination and the game is very explicit about that. That is the "road" players are supposed to follow. The reason why this doesn't work for most players is two-fold: 1) The challenge is too tough. They can't advance through the main quest, so they go elsewhere instead. 2) They get distracted by other interesting areas, enemies or quests. Elden Ring is designed to pull players away from the main quest. It's even designed to pull them away from side quests to other side quests. And then it pulls them back to the main quest. Back and forth all the time.

If I could reset my memory of this game to replay it for the first time again.

This game establishes very early on with the tree sentinel that blindly following the main path forward sometimes isn't the best choice, if you run into a tough spot it can be best to find another way around or come back later, and Margit is a great example of that. The first NPC you meet tells you to follow the grace to Stormveil Castle, that's where the main road lead you to, and that's where the game itself tells you to go through grace. So you're a new player, you run straight to Stormveil, but then you meet Margit and he beats the living crap out of you, and eventually you decide this isn't working and you leave to go explore some place else. You decide to adventure south, you find a bunch of new landmarks you never saw on your way to Stormveil, maybe you get some new ashes of war and some new weapons, then you go even further south and end up in a brand new area, this place starts out with a woman explaining that the servants from her csatle have all rebelled, and everywhere you go you find misbegotten and the corpses of the people they killed, this area has it's own story arc. Eventually you get bored of that and go east to Caelid, everything there is scary, the sky is red and everything is way too strong for you to fight, but you find even more upgrades, suddenly you open your map and realize that Limgrave, what was originally the entire map, looks really small now. By setting up some strategic roadblocks early in the game you are incentivized to go out and realize just how open the world really is, if you could just blitz the first main boss I think some players would end up missing out on some things that they otherwise wouldn't have taken the time to comb through

I mean, it's similar to other FromSoft games. In DS3, when you get to the High Wall, the first area after the tutorial, you can immediately see the Grand Archives and the path to the second to last boss. Lothric can also be seen from most places in the world, and after you beat Vordt in High Wall you also get a peek at most of the aboveground areas. In DS2, Majula lets you peek at Castle Drangleic and Heide's Tower of Flame. In DS1 you can see the walls of Anor Londo and the depths of Blighttown from the main hub. You can see lots of far off areas in the early stages of Bloodborne as well. Many landmarks in Sekiro are also clear...

It’s one of the few games where you can actually walk to everything that you can see from a distance.

I got minor issue with the map (not the world). Is really hard to display vertical scale on paper map, so multiple times I tought there could be path from one area to another and when I got there, I met 100 high cliff.

Probably the best open world environments and weather in any single player RPG made. SO many times I would stop and just pan around to look. From Sofrias well, Redmayne castle and the music/sound ambiance always fit perfectly the theme.

I remember thinking for most of the game, "no way you can go to that place". The answer is yes you can get to at some point anywhere you see in the game which is just amazing. The massive tree is what surprised me the most I thought it was something that's there but you don't go to little did I know you even go there at some point, best map design ever made, you see it you can go there no questions asked.

I adore how at spawn you can see the way forward all the way atop to the Great Brazier, But up there, You cant see Limgrave, As there is no way to return back in time to what once was before you explored and conquered.

I still remember playing Elden RIng for the first time, thinking that Limgrave was the whole map and that Stormveil castle was the end game and still thinking "Huh, this game is actually fairly big". Oh boy, when I realized, it had to be the best realization of my gaming years.

I've seen so many people be reductive about ER's world design. I think because they dont know what to look for and they just enjoy it in ignorant bliss. They dont realize the the developer's invisible hands pushing and pulling you. The geography isnt just for asthetics. That forest isnt there to look appealing. The literal terrain facilitates exploration. The fact that the trees obscure the gatehouse when you first step out into the world makes exploration possible. The thrill of discovering the gatehouse ruins is made possible by you being unaware of it. But the developers havent left you to wander aimlessly. They uses "satellites" or breadcrumbing to pull you THROUGH the forest. They're called satellites because they orbit the major content. And lure you towards it. As important as what you can see is what you cant. Look at their use of sheer cliffs and rises and mountains and ravines and you'll start to see it. Not to mention the scale of things and the distinctness of assets allows for great use of landmarking. It makes possible for the world to work without icons. Try finding your way without icons in a different open world like Ass Creed. To make this point. The painting you find in ER and you have to find the location it depicts for the reward. I was able to figure them all out without having to google them. Now... if I took 5 screenshots of AC Origins. Do you think you could pinpoint them? Or even get close? I couldnt.

I believe the intended path of progression at the capital gate is to assume you cant enter yet & follow the road out, straght to Mt.Gelmir. where the player will likely take up the quest to hunt down other Tarnished, this quest naturally leads the player back towards the capital.

I was too busy exploring every nook and cranny to notice that the map was directing me anywhere. Very nice.

The sites of grace literally point you in the direction you're supposed to go 😂 it's a huge map but pretty tough to get lost.

Elden Ring is one of a handful of games that made me drive to explore based solely on map design. Like, its ridiculously beautiful. I shouldn't expect anything less from the creators of DS. A masterclass of game design, they use Monolithic Architecture to invoke a sense of insignificance in the player, allowing a sort of terror in the sheer magnitude. Approaching and entering these structures puts them into perspective, giving you the sense that they are old, perhaps eternal even, and not just based on their classical, gothic, or renaissance designs. If you throw on a good ReShade preset and go with the First Person mod it takes it to another level.

The map (I mean the UI map) itsfelf is extraordinary well design, it's a map with a language and when you learn how to read it you can know what could be a point of interest or not. For example the gold aura around a cave entrance => mine. It's the first open world where I actually use the map as a real map to explore, and not just mark point to another.

Finding the alternate path to Altus was also really cool! I did know where the dectus medallions from watching runs before I played but I did find the ruin strewn precipice and makar organically just exploring Liurnia. That alternate route to the plateau and the real door to the capital are both in interesting spots on their respective maps. There's a valley splitting off of Liurnia? Wonder if there's something cool over there. Is that another door to the capital? I wonder if I can get in that way. This game in so many ways does the open world so perfectly. And I feel like I enjoy the game more than some other people, as a newbie to souls like gameplay in general I think the boss design in this game is like nothing else I've ever played. In no other game have I died so many times and not been filled woth seething rage lol. Every time I died I thought "yeah I shouldn't have attacked... why didn't I use my ash there... maybe I shoukd try this physick... i wonder if this weapon would work better etc." I'm not even done with my first playthrough and I really feel like this is one of, if not my favorite game of all time.

From the start of the game I was trying to get to the tree, and I indeed ended up in stormcastle. Great map design.

I miss being lost in the Lands Between during my first playthrough

The tree reminded me of the huge statue of Kannon in Sendai my father took me to when I was a kid (look it up). He made me walk all the way up to the foot of the statue, and that massive landmark would grow bigger and bigger as we got closer. My first time playing the game, I didn't know anything about the capital. I pretty much ignored the story and just looked into every corner, so I ended up in the Altus Plateau via the other path, coming from the area with the wormfaces and passing by the village with the Godskin. I thought the lift was the end of the game and only later realized what the medallions were for. I even found the sealed path to the mountaintops before even finding Morgott.

The erdtree being the landmark of the game also breaks the 4th wall. It fucking gates your gaming devices lmaooo.

There's actually two types of starts for new players. I also took this route.. I looked at the castle, then the tree, then turned around and went the opposite way lmao I went to the dragon burnt ruins and got dropped in scilia cave. Best start ever, lmfao... I eventually did everything in weeping penisula and limgrave before the castle (staying well away from caelid), then went back to caelid just before altus.

That first playthrough was something else for me. I had barely got surgery so I stayed home recovering while playing.

I recently watched a indie devlog by thatFain where he talks alot about Elden Rings level design and map, and how hes using that in his own game! Was a pretty cool insight as well

this is the main thing i like about elden ring i could be told nothing and go to a seemingly random hut on the map which turns out to be the entrance to a massive level

I went to caelid first (worst mistake of my life)

Reflecting on my first play through so far…. It’s like a series or movie, alternating scenes between different events taking place… creating confusion, discovery, and, connecting things together.. love it

one great and very overlooked detail, if you start at the place where you first enter the open world and walk directly towards the Erd tree, it leads you to the road that leads to the castle

The area that has the 3 teleporters that require sigil keys is probably one of the best moments to get a feel of how huge and immersive the world is, from your spwan point, to farum azula, and finally Nokron. it also places enemies to show you how much you need to reach their levels and defeat them

Its the classic fromsoft signature, when you play sekiro your first legitimate duel/scripted death, you're fighting genichiro in the end game area.

Side note: that's not water in Lower Leyndell but an abyss. That's where the Nameless Eternal City fell from, hence you can't pass through it as usual.

The main door doesn't hold up water. You can observe that it's in fact a huge chasm there, where map draws "water". That chasm in right where the Deeproot Depths are. Most likely, some part of the city have literally gone underground in the past.

I wish I could have played Elden Ring as a kid in the 80's somehow. Before the internet, before Twitch, before any of that. I played as blind as I could the first time through, and didn't look at the wiki and tried to avoid spoiler videos, but a lot just seeps in unless you shut down RU-vid, Twitch, and all social media completely. And after my first run, I broke down and looked at the wiki. It would have been so awesome to have slowly and serendipitously learned the NPC questlines and the locations of all the caves and catacombs and so on. Some of the most powerful items in the game are subtly hidden... but the map is a key to finding out so much. Not only is the overall design great, but the in-game map we open up and look at is just an awesome tool and powerful storytelling aid.

The view when you leave the tutorial, and the sight of the tree for the first time….. man, I knew it was something special and unrivalled

the only place where the erdtree is invisible is consecrated snowfield. But thats probably due to the lower elevation than mountaintops of the giants, so the rock formations cover it. Not to mention the constant blizzard covering half of the region.

Fromsoft have always been wizards at map design and just game design in general. They had to have sold their souls to be able to make games this fantastic

Elden Ring is a masterclass in “show, don’t tell”

my first playtrough i ended up in caelid because a box kidnapped me

That Dragon Quest 1 experience... you can see the castle, you're not going there directly

i remember when the game came out everyone was talking about the map. I think the conversation has just shifted but im glad you brought it back up :)

This is basically a eldin ring boss guide in disguise

One small thing is that if they find that bridge, they mostly likely check what’s at the edge, where they will see they can cross, and they most likely will And that gives them a different journey than most who find themselves at Margit

The placement of Malenias tower. Makes me think there was either a bridge that connected Caelid to Mountaintops. But it could also be to contain the rot in an isolated area.

Dragon Quest 1 is another game that also implemented the fact you can see the end of the game from the start of the game, and the whole map spirals toward that goal.

I was a little lost at capital, but it was cool to find that side back entrance.

i think it is pretty clear where you need to go on the gates of leyndell. If they want to get to the tree they will just circle around the wall preventing them from going to the tree and find a way in. and if they do they will find the draconic tree sentinel.

I love how this suddenly got into my youtube tab.great video.good insights for such a basic production quality

also at the start of the game new players don't have torrent, so they will not likely pursue the erdtree after reaching gatefront. They'll end up fighting Margit way sooner, that's how it was with me.

After renala u follow the bridge and the finger lady says to go to the lift

Me thinking I missed the melania fight because I was already at the Elden tree

Man i wish i could restart this game over to the first time i played it. One of the best feelings ive had in gaming

When melina said to bring her to the foot of the erdtree and I saw that the "foot" is burried in water, I thought there's a way to find a boat and sail there.

Great video! I'm also surprised that other people haven't talked about the map. However, I don't agree that the Altus gate area is lacking. It forces you to explore more and I think that's Fromsoft's way of saying "hey we know you're following a linear path, but we made this game open world for a reason, so go explore!" If you follow the side path, you'll naturally end up at Mount Gelmir, opening up the player to experiencing Volcano Manor. Eventually the player may have explored all of Altus, and through that exploration I think it makes sense that players would eventually figure out the way into the capital. Sure, it does mess up the linearity that the main quest had so far, but I don't think that makes it lacking, because it forces the player to explore, and exploration is kinda the whole point of the game. You could just not explore at all and only go to the main required areas, but Fromsoft wants players to see the whole map, and I think the Leyndell gate scenario is them trying to encourage exploration. And plus, from the site of grace near the Leyndell gate, you can see that there's still more to explore off road because there's a staircase in the rock as well as trees and a troll on a cliff. At some point, the player would likely be intrigued and go that way, leading them to DTS and the entrance to the capital. Anyways, this was a fun watch. Subscribed!

I went around the castle to the lakes and I was so lost I spent like 5 hours getting no progress on the story

My first goal in game was to make it to the erdtree I b-lined for it to find out it wasn’t that easy.

since you can access this new DLC by defeating Radan and reaching the egg....is mostly like this part is in the middle of the game and maybe can reach a new ending by what you choose in the DLC

I think the entrance to the Capital is fairly logical. The huge door is closed but i need to get there, lets explore around it to find something

I think the only flaw with the map design is that there's nothing blatantly encouraging you to go to The Weeping Peninsula, the actual beginner area you should tackle before heading to Stormveil Castle. Seemingly the only thing encouraging you to do so is Margit gatekeeping the castle proper.

Its an intentional effect, the game alters distant landmarks, distorting the distances between them, you, and each other. It was partially to create the many gorgeous vistas, and also exactly what youre talking about with this video: an ingenius method of encouraging the player to explore the world without needing to explicitly tell you. The vague guidance at the start is just to get you started, with the idea being that by the time you're finished in Raya Lucaria, the player will have learned the importance of exploration, using major landmarks as general points of interest you should work your way towards. I didnt find the map design for getting into Leyndell was flawed; it might seem confusing on a first playthrough, but its very intentional that the door youre guided towards is a dead end. It clearly used to be the way in, but as you can see when you get the area map, that door opens to a huge pool of water. It obviously wasnt always this way, and so the mystery of why, how and when a large chunk of the city was replaced with water is one of the many questions the game wants you to be asking and trying to find answers for. It also forces you to explore an area of Altus Plateau that otherwise most people would totally skip in favor of going straight to the capital. And that would mean no fresh crab meat courtesy of our best buddy, blackguard boggart

I went straight for the tree becase i wasnt payingb attention and thought the grace of the erd tree was the tree itself lol.

Actually there is a road to skip stormveil, and it’ll bring you to hyetta’s site of grace

My first thought when I saw the erdtree was "I'm clearly under level for whatever is around that shit so I won't even bother going there"

There are lore theories that suggest the remains of the eternal city used to sit right where that watery moat is behind the Lyendell capital front gate and just like many other places we find throughout the game, it was cast underground by the greater will, that's just speculation, but who knows?

it pretty easily has the best open world map ever imo. it uses big, eye catching landmarks as visual 'anchors' for a zone, and then they put a lot of effort into hiding the side stuff while giving you just enough details that if you're observant you can notice.

the first time i played this game was off 2.5 tabs at a homies house and i just could not get over the fact that you could go to the structures in the background and they aren’t illustrated backgrounds for the area, he was right outside of leyndell and then just walked in and i was so amazed

You look into the distance and think "That's a big tree, but it's pretty close. I can make it there." and the further you ride, the quicker you realise "Oh, it's not close, it's really really big." Same with the giant forge.

Miyazaki said that he makes the team remake the level when they failed to guide the player's line of sight properly. That's the point most of the soulslike games couldn't mimick well.

In the Capital area I found my way in by looking at the map , I explored a lot & than by studying the map clearly I found my way in

My first 3 hours of this game were of me getting teleported into a cave in Caelid and getting stuck there even before getting the first site of grace you're supposed to get, and torrent. Finally, escaping the cave and realizing Im in video game hell and having to hoof it all the way back to Limgrave because I didnt know you could teleport in this game.

Yesterday I thought about the EXACT same things you mention here. This game really is a masterpiece!

When the game first dropped, you couldn’t see the entire map through well placed fog by devs which I actually liked because you had to guess what are the other places look like.

As I play this game as I haven’t burned the world, I’m still making hella discoveries

Well I am an absolute weirdo, in my first playthrough. one of the first things I found after some random dungeons in the starting area, was the passage to Liurnia. I was in Liurnia and Caelid before finding Margit

Mountaintops of the giants looks so stupid from everywhere else on the map though, the actual map shows all these outskirts and valleys coming off the mountain (like an actual mountain) and then you look at and it's just a cube. Once you go up there it looks really cool though.

I actually skipped the Stormwill😀 came back there later when my friend told me there is Godrick 😀

I completely agree that people should talk about the map more, and you make a lot of good points here, however, you didn't even mention my favorite part of the map; Siofra River and the underground. Going down that long well elevator and seeing the crumbling ruins filled with these unnatural beings who move so oddly (I had never seen claymen in my playthrough yet) took my breath away on my first playthrough. I wasn't strong enough to progress, but I was so excited to return and explore this mystery that seemed to follow different rules than the land I had explored so far. And then when I did return and progress further, seeing the space open up, and seeing the false sky and the ruins took my breath away again. And then when I defeated Rahdan and entered Nokron, only to see what I assumed was set dressing was actually a new region, and I looked down to see Siofra from above.... words can not describe how I felt. I had no clue these spaces would connect in such a unique way. The cherry on top being that you can also see Mohgwyn Palace from this area, another piece of what I assumed was set dressing. The interconnected underground regions are easily my favorite region in any game I have ever played. The regions by themselves are beautiful, but how they connect to each other, and the mystery surrounding it all, is truly a work of art in my opinion.

A stretch... most of the people will not assume the tree is a place they can actually walk on.

Took me 4hours to reach greyoll yesterday…..no complaints just wow lol

On my first playthrough I went everywhere so it took me 115 hours to finish it.

Bleak falls barrow felt more revolutionary and the throat of the world being seen for all around the world. But what elden ring has is the world story telling of dark souls to accompany these elements when you get there, like the damage to the castle, and the mangled arms everywhere, as well as the occasional flesh abomination made in the castle. By the time you get to the demi god you get an idea of him and the wars been fought at his door.

elden ring may be open world but its just like all souls where you're on a path

First time Skipped stormveil.then i saw liurnia and realized it was a next area so i went back

When i first played it i felt its kinda nice, after a while i found it boring for the small rune drop and hard to kill enemies for those runes, the map was small, very few (interesting for me) weapons etc. Then i found the lake area going around stormhill (couldnt progress it) and realized the map expands which blew my mind (played through 3 DS games before) and hooked me. Tried to get down on the slabs behind godrick, failed miserably untill i managed, battled my way through academia outskirts. After hours and hours i managed to level up enough to comfortably beat stormveil and starting area, everything without any wiki. It took me over 150h to reach Altus through the wyrm area and then virgins. Ended up not even reaching capitol when i deleted my first character and started anew with all my knowledge and im having a blast up to today with all sorts of characters and my (second) main entering ng++

I thought tree was just part of the background design 😭😭😭 when i first played elden ring

You can also see the divine towers all over.

3:50 - to the place they are supposed to be, which is mortgage

someone tell this man about guidance of grace. The game literally points toward the biggest point of interest at almost every single grace. It IS the MAIN method of guidance whenever you're slightly stuck

I start every game murdering the tree sentinel cuz I'm a stubborn bastard. Then I either go straight to Margit or comb through Limgrave. My first playthru was sentinel > beastman of farum azula > attempt at margit then just exploring Limgrave.

I skipped the castle my first run through the game, totally on accident I just liked exploring lmao

I have always loved that Fromsoft respect players intelligence, Miyazaki and his team know that if you really want to play ElldenSoulsBorne games you are smart enough to find the way yourself, no pointers, no UI arrows pointing you to the next "objective". It makes you want to explore the world and find your own interpretation of what it all means. Incredible worlds.

Great video, i agree that the best part of the game is the map or environment itself. Though I would like to make a point about Lendell. Story wise the city was under siege so they wouldn't want any easy access in.

This one tip is about to nake my first playthrough a lot easier. Thank you.

On my first run i thought the final boss is in stormveil castle cause the elden tree was just so distant and huge. I was like there is no way they created a map so big you can get there…

9:52 idk the first lift was allot less obvious than this, how would you know where to get the medallions without googling it and the forts aren’t big enough to be an eye catching land mark

yeah right my first playthrough i never went to the stormviel i took the path to Caelid

I havent had any issues knowing where to go, especially due to the guiding light. It's a very linear game with wide paths.