Mistborn author Brandon Sanderson thinks you could apply Elden Ring storytelling to novels, comparing it to Dune and Watchmen
Prolific fantasy author and number one Ranni stan (“I'll pick the ending where my character gets a waifu”) Brandon Sanderson has been thinking a lot about how to apply Elden Ring and the Souls games' signature storytelling approach to novels. During a recent playthrough on his YouTube channel, he was asked if he thinks there’s a way to replicate Souls-like descriptions in books. “I’ve wondered that. I really have,” Sanderson replies.
“I think you could do some interesting…” Sanderson starts, before describing Souls’ method of storytelling, and possibly getting distracted by a collectable cookbook in the distance. He talks about the reserved use of NPCs and cutscenes, and the item descriptions that tell snippets of the game's overall stories. “They don’t want to hand you the story. You gotta piece it together.”
He goes on to compliment this approach for videogames specifically. “It doesn’t stop the action, you get to stop it when you want. Games are about playing.” Sanderson reckons that having to work to piece the mystery together aligns with FromSoft’s approach to mood. “There aren’t a lot of answers, so it creates a game on top of the game.”
“Can you replicate this?” he continues, referring to writing traditional fiction, “I think you possibly can. It’s like how we use epigrams as a supplementary storytelling style.” A supplementary storytelling style to stealthily slide the Souls series’ signature storytelling into Sanderson’s softbacks? Do go on! “Obviously, Dune is the great big pioneer of this. Watchmen’s the other really great example.”
Sadly, we’re denied more of Sanderson’s insight, as he immediately gets distracted by a gnarled tree with strung up corpses. “I bet those guys fall down and attack me,” speculates the big 34 million copy-selling nerd, before going to investigate.
Sanderson has been vocal about his love of FromSoftware’s work in the past, and Bandai Namco seem keen to work with him, having previously sent him a care package containing an
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