Elden Ring is a brand-new IP for From Software, but it is clearly rooted in the developer's past work. That includes its story, which director Hidetaka Miyazaki said takes influence from Sekiro for a greater focus on drama and "human elements.
In an interview with the PlayStation Blog, Miyazaki acknowledged that Sekiro had more direct storytelling than the Dark Souls series, which were often intentionally cryptic and told in odd ways, such as through item descriptions. With Elden Ring, there will be a return to a "fragmented narrative" to give the world more mystery, but Sekiro hasn't been forgotten.
"...there's more focus on human elements and drama than before," Miyazaki said. "We definitely took some inspiration from how Sekiro handled that and tried to apply the good parts to Elden Ring."
Just how far that goes remains to be seen. Sekiro is, assuming you pay attention during the cinematics, not terribly difficult to understand. Dark Souls, on the other hand--as well as Bloodborne--is pretty much (and intentionally) incoherent without digging into the lore the game provides outside of the obvious methods. Even still, not everything would be clear, as Miyazaki likened the approach to filling in a difficult book's gaps with your imagination as a child.
Miyazaki's interview goes into several other aspects of Elden Ring, including why he thinks more players will be able to finish it this time. The game comes to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC on February 25.