Elden Ring is an ARPG that has a new open-world setting with a greater globe scale and more exploring options. According to Miyazaki, it also has RPG aspects, such as "a broad array of weapons, spells, and ways to confront foes with the strategies that fit you".

Elden Ring is a third-person action role-playing game set in a dark fantasy world centered on the Elden Ring. Legend has it that the ring holds immense power, "that which commanded the stars, giving existence its greatest splendor," and that it has been destroyed by something or someone. This causes the planet to degrade and deteriorate, as well as the sky to burn, and is analogous to the Souls universe's collapsing sun.