The Real Reason Elden Ring Has So Many Poison Swamps

FromSoftware studios is known for two things in its games: challenging combat and eerie, atmospheric landscapes. In fact, one of the things that sets games like "Dark Souls" apart from most other RPGs is the way it uses its vast, mysterious (and often creepy) world to convey its narrative. This sort of environmental storytelling often encourages the player to take their time and explore each new area so that they can find nuggets of information about the mythology of the series. There's one type area in every "SoulsBorne" game that most fans are not eager to explore, however: the swamps.

For whatever reason, every game the studio has developed, from "Demon Souls" to "Sekiro," has featured its own take on a poisonous bog, some type of location where the very air is deadly. "Elden Ring" arrives Feb. 25, and it promises to offer a similar experience. According to the game's page on the Bandai Namco website, players can "traverse the breathtaking world on foot or on horseback ... and fully immerse yourself in the grassy plains, suffocating swamps, spiraling mountains, foreboding castles and other sites of grandeur on a scale never seen before in a FromSoftware title." So the swamps will be bigger – cool – but why does FromSoftware feel the need to put one in every game? Well, it turns out that game creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has a pretty hilarious explanation.

In an interview with Game Informer, Miyazaki admitted that he loves making swamps, even though he knows players aren't always the biggest fans of them. "When making the game I rediscovered my love for making poison swamps," he stated. "I know how people feel about them, but you know, suddenly I realize I'm in the middle of making one and I just can't help myself. It just happens." 

Love them or hate them, it's undeniable that these poisonous and toxic fields of bubbling goo add a unique layer of difficulty to these areas. Players have to juggle worrying about any negative status effects from the swamps in addition to whatever monstrous creature they find themselves battling.

Swamps in "Elden Ring" might be even more deadly than previous iterations, in fact. "In terms of Elden Ring's story and setting there is something that is especially horrible that exists and persists in this world," Miyazaki claimed. "It's called the Scarlet Rot[.] This is something that is separate a little bit from poison or toxicity but I hope you look forward to it." So not only will these swamps be larger in scale, it seems they will come with a new status effect that will make them the most treacherous ones yet. Hopefully the in-game store sells waterproof pants.