Elden Ring can be finished in 30 hours, says producer Yasuhiro Kitao, but there are ‘many dozens’ of hours of optional content for fans to sink their teeth into. And no, you won’t be able to see absolutely everything in one playthrough.
As part of a new interview on the game during the Taipei Game Show, Kitao spoke further about the game’s length and what fans can expect from the action RPG when it launches next month. “This will differ significantly by player,” Kitao explained when asked how long Elden Ring would take fans to complete.
“But in terms of the targets set during development, the idea is that the main route should be able to be completed within around 30 hours. The game as a whole is quite massive, and contains many dozens more hours worth of gameplay, but if we are talking about the main route only, it shouldn’t take much longer than that.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kitao spoke about the additional ways that Elden Ring will look to stretch out its experience for players. Similar to other previously developed FromSoftware games such as Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Elden Ring will feature a New Game Plus mode, which will allow players to play through the campaign again, with extra challenges.
“Like our other titles, the game features replayability features,” explains Kitao. “After clearing the game the first time, you can carry across your character data and play the game again, against powered up enemies.” Kitao added later that you’ll take equipment with you back to the start of the game in New Game Plus.
Although many players will likely look to take their time during a first playthrough in order to soak in the game’s beautifully designed environments, Kitao went on to state that “technically it’s impossible to reach 100 percent [of seeing everything in a first playthrough]” because of the branching nature of the game near its end. That being said, for those of you hoping to see as much as possible during your first run of the game, the producer did confirm that you’ll be able to get “pretty close” to seeing the whole thing the first time around.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kitao notified fans that Elden Ring has finally gone gold – meaning that the game shouldn’t receive any delay from its release across PC and consoles on February 25. Asked if development was going smoothly, Kitao said, “It is. Elden Ring was originally slated for release in January of this year, and it has been pushed back once to February.”
“But please be assured, the title will be ready for sale on February 25. The master version has already been submitted, and right now, the team is working on a day one patch to make sure everything in the game is just so.”
For more from Elden Ring, be sure to check out this piece detailing how the game’s character creator recently leaked and how fans were impressed by how in-depth it is.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.