Elden Ring movie director reveals how he's getting through his 7th playthrough, 'It's like monkeys and typewriters—you just keep doing it'

I couldn't even imagine being on a seventh playthrough of Elden Ring. I'm not only a slave to my own completionist desires, which can turn a simple task into an obsessive marathon. But I just don't think I have what it takes to be stuck in what is essentially the world's worst Groundhog Day; a skill issue that Alex Garland, director of the upcoming Elden Ring movie doesn't seem to have.

Garland revealed to IGN that he's not only on his seventh playthrough of Elden Ring but that one of the game's most notable enemies isn't all that. “I thought Radahn was quite easy," Garland says. “As long as you activate the people who can assist you in that fight. They get on with fighting him, and they take off half his energy, and you finish him off. It's all about activating those little summon signs dotted around.”

Fantastic advice that rings true. Now some of you may be shaking your heads, muttering how that's no way to fight a FromSoftware boss, as if to say it's cheating because you had some help. If it wasn't allowed then FromSoft wouldn't have put it in the game! That goes for mimics too!

But you don't get help with every boss in Elden Ring. This is where some hurdles start to pop up. “It's Malenia who's the tough one”, Garland continues. “I'm now on my seventh playthrough of that game. I've levelled up, I've got lots of juice, and a cool sword, and stuff like that, and I just throw myself at them again, and again, and again, and again.

“That was the technique I learned with Dark Souls. It's not that you get better, it's more like monkeys and typewriters—you just keep doing it, and eventually, one day they're dead.”

I feel that. I don't know if it's pride, stupidity, or just plain stubbornness, but once I get it in my head that I want a boss dead I'll keep banging my skull against that wall until it finally cracks (skull or wall, both apply). The smart move would be to go away and level up first, but that's also the coward's move, so it's a good thing I'm not that smart.

Unfortunately, Garland didn't take this chance to discuss any details about what is to be included in the upcoming film. But combine the fact that the director is on his seventh Elden Ring playthrough and the fact that George R.R. Martin is noted as producer, and you have a very excited, possibly concussed, Elden Ring fan.