Naughty Dog Reportedly Taking Inspiration From Elden Ring for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was revealed at The Game Awards 2024 in December.

Written by Manas Mitul | Updated: 19 March 2025 18:26 IST

Naughty Dog Reportedly Taking Inspiration From Elden Ring for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Photo Credit: Sony/ Naughty Dog

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is story-driven sci-fi action-adventure game

Highlights

Elden Ring won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022
Intergalactic will feature deeper gameplay than Naughty Dog's older games
Naughty Dog has been working on the game since 2020

Naughty Dog is reportedly taking inspiration from Elden Ring for its next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. At the time of the reveal, the studio promised its newest franchise for the PS5 would offer the “deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog's history.” An industry insider, however, has claimed that Intergalactic will take notes from FromSoftware's action-RPG phenomenon that won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022.

Naughty Dog Taking Inspiration From Elden Ring

According to Ben Hanson, founder of independent games media outlet MinnMax, Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is inspired by Elden Ring, providing more choices to players.

“At some point on the podcast a while ago before the reveal trailer happened, I teased the idea of like ‘I've heard Naughty Dog's next game is very inspired by a game with a lot of player freedom.' I think it's fine to say now: that game was Elden Ring that it was compared to back then,” Hanson said on the latest edition of The MinnMax Show last week.

Naughty Dog's Next Game Is a New Retro Futuristic Sci-Fi Franchise for PS5

“If I would have said 'Naughty Dog's next game is like Elden Ring' and then that reveal trailer came out, I feel like we would have been lit on fire. But now that idea of, okay, it's taking place on one planet, kind of uncovering the history of this world, you can kind of see a little more where they might be going with that,” he added.

Before Intergalactic was revealed at The Game Awards 2024 in December, Hanson had claimed on his show, citing a source who worked on the title, that Naughty Dog's next game would feature “a lot of player freedom”.

Neil Druckmann on Intergalactic

Following the reveal, Naughty Dog president and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet director Neil Druckmann said that the game would be the studio's “wildest, most creative story yet.” Druckmann also promised the game would feature an “emotional, character-driven” story typical to developer's games and the “deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog's history”.

Naughty Dog's Next Game Will Reportedly Focus on 'Player Freedom'

In fact, long before Intergalactic was revealed, Druckmann said he was interested in games like Elden Ring and Inside that delivered their stories through environment, exploration and gameplay, rather than through a traditional linear narrative and cinematic cutscenes.

“I'm more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside that doesn't rely as much on traditional narrative to tell its story and is--I think there's some--some of the best storytelling in “The Last of Us,” a lot of it is in the cinematics. But a lot of it is in gameplay and moving around a space and understanding a history of a space by just looking at it and examining it,” Druckmann had said in an interview with The Washington Post in 2023.

Naughty Dog hasn't revealed a ton of details about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but from the reveal trailer it does seem the studio is going for a different approach with the gameplay from its previous releases. Both Uncharted and The Last of Us are third-person action-adventure games that primarily centre around shooting. Intergalactic, however, seems to be adding melee combat to the mix as well, with the protagonist seen wielding a sword in the trailer.

The game is also set on a remote planet where exploration will be key to discovering secrets about the planet's past and guiding players forward. Here, Elden Ring's approach to open-ended and largely unguided exploration of its world, the Lands Between, could act as gameplay inspiration for Intergalactic.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet does not yet have a confirmed release date, but the game has been in development since 2020 and will be released exclusively on the PS5.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Modes Single-player

Elden Ring

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre RPG

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

PEGI Rating 18+

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Intergalactic The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog, PS5, Elden Ring

Manas Mitul

Email Manas Mitul

In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about footbal... more »