Elden Ring inspired Harvestella developers to double the damage done by floors

From floors that collapse beneath your feet, to floors covered in goo and crystals that deal damage just by walking on them, anyone who has played Harvestelle knows how important it is to watch your step. It turns out that the game’s floor gimmicks (or at least their intensity) were influenced by none other than FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.

Square Enix and Live Wire’s life-simulation RPG Harvestella released in November 2022 (eight months after Elden Ring), offering a compelling mix of farming simulation mechanics, exploration, combat, and storytelling. As you progress through Harvestella, you’ll face boss enemies and FEAR, but the game’s level design itself is often there to attack you and your party—namely, the floors.

Damage floors should be avoided or, when unavoidable, traversed as quickly as possible using items. However, it seems that these gadgets were originally intended to be much more moderate, as revealed by Miyamoto, Harvestella’s lead planner and level designer. In a post on his personal X account, Miyamoto recently commented: “A Harvestella detail: After playing Elden Ring, I doubled the damage dealt by floor gadgets.”

But this isn’t a meaningless act of evil, as the developer explains that increasing the difficulty was a way to increase the importance of items like apple juice and other dishes that protect you from ground damage, thus increasing the player’s sense of satisfaction after successfully preparing and overcoming the challenge. Looking back on this decision, Miyamoto says that he’s personally glad he implemented the change.

While he doesn’t go into detail about what specific elements of Elden Ring influenced him, it’s easy to imagine that the developer drew inspiration from FromSoftware’s iconic swamps and traps that plague the player with Crimson Rot and Poison effects. Elden Ring’s high difficulty is a key ingredient in the cathartic feeling players get after overcoming its challenges—and that aspect has been unexpectedly adopted by Harvestella, a game of a very different genre.