I’m not saying it’s not, but a lot of other developers have tried to copy the map design along with the other mechanics from Souls games and most of them fail pretty badly.

Elden Ring, on the other hand, still captures a lot of that same feeling even with the open world. There are a bunch of spots where you can look back and see the scale of the area you just spent x hours battling through.

It seems like they just have a lot better understanding of space than a lot of others do to me.

the director, who goes by the moniker ‘Soulframe,’

Makes me think of Mr. The Plague from Hackers.