The Last of Us director is interested in the storytelling approach used by From Software for Elden Ring that doesn’t rely on traditional narrative.
Speaking during an interview, The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann stated that he’s more recently intrigued by games like Elden Ring and Inside, where the storytelling doesn’t rely as much on traditional narrative to convey its plot to its audience.
According to Druckmann, some of the best storytelling in The Last of Us is in the cinematics, but a lot of it is also in gameplay. He explained that players are able to figure things out on their own by moving around the space, and understanding the history of a space just by looking at it and examining it. To him, right now, that’s some of the best joy he’s got out of games. Going forward, he’s more intrigued by the storytelling in games that don’t hold their audience’s hands and trust them to figure things out on their own.
Despite these views, Druckmann said that he didn’t mean to imply that the Naughty Dog’s games will never have dialogue or cutscenes. He still believes that those are viable tools in a storyteller’s toolbox to push the plot forward, at least for the kind of games that the studio makes. Nevertheless, he’s really intrigued, and is, therefore, looking to try something a little bit new and different that not everybody will end up liking, but he feels that’s alright.
Druckmann added that him and the development teams at Naughty Dog are every excited for the different projects they have in store for their fans. To what extent these unannounced titles will draw inspiration from the more subtle and withdrawn approach to storytelling seen in games like Elden Ring and Inside remains to be seen, however.
Previously, Druckmann had shared his thoughts on why Naughty Dog had yet to announce a new PS5 game.
