MaA lot has changed for Hidetaka Miyazaki in the past decade. In May 2014, he became president of FromSoftware, the Japanese game developer known for the dark fantasy blockbusters Demon’s Souls (2009), Dark Souls (2011), and Bloodborne (2015), all of which he directed himself. At the time, FromSoftware’s games were critically acclaimed and had a devoted following, but they sold poorly, only selling a few million copies each. But in 2022, the company released the gloriously imposing Elden Ring, a collaboration with fantasy author George R.R. Martin. Not only is it Miyazaki’s best work, it’s also his most popular to date, having sold 25 million copies to date. FromSoftware is no longer a niche company that produces cult hits; it’s now a company that produces bona fide blockbusters.

Has this changed Miyazaki’s thinking? Given how unforgiving and ruthless his game world is, it may not be surprising that he’s not the most optimistic person you’ll ever meet. “Elden Ring was in a league of its own in terms of success and critical acclaim, but what we try to do as a company is to never assume that it’s going to happen again in future games,” he told me in an interview in Los Angeles. “We never make decisions based on the assumption that because we did it once, it’s going to happen again. Allowing for this fairly conservative prediction gives us room to fail, which ultimately leads to better games and better decisions. Indirectly, I think that the assumption that we’re not going to make hits anymore, that conservative outlook, inspires and helps our game design.”

Miyazaki and the From Software team Comfortable. And even if they did, it’s hard to imagine they would have made a game as demanding, ambitious, and at times brutal.

Shadow of the Eldtree, a major expansion for Elden Ring, is released today. It takes players to a terrifying land of shadows, filled with amber skies, fearsomely grotesque monsters, and vengeful, forgotten warriors. From Software’s games are notoriously difficult, demanding extraordinary grit, determination, and drive from the player. Shadow of the Eldtree may be the hardest yet. Shadow of the Eldtree will put even those with 100 hours of Eldtree experience on the back foot. But it handsomely rewards persistence with a complex, fascinatingly opaque storyline and memorable battles against fearsome entities, from ghostly, leaf-adorned dragons to giant walking cages of human ash. The sense of accomplishment you feel when you finally conquer the unconquerable in a Miyazaki work remains unmatched.

The harsh nature of Eld Tree feels like a dump of cold water on me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing this game for 15 years, but Elden Ring feels just a little more approachable than other FromSoftware games. If you get stuck somewhere, you can move somewhere else, rather than charging at the same near-impossible boss over and over again. There are more options, and you can always try a different approach. It doesn’t feel like you’re having your face shoved in the dirt, as I said to Miyazaki. all At the time. Does he think this is part of the reason Elden Ring has garnered more fans than Dark Souls or the 2019 ninja fantasy Sekiro?

“That’s certainly part of the intention. Elden Ring gives players a lot more freedom because of its open-world nature and game design,” he muses. “At no point in the game did we want players to feel boxed in or overly limited in the scope of what they can do and experience in that world. It’s not a very gloomy, dark fantasy that we’ve become accustomed to in past FromSoftware games… The same starkness and coldness is still there, but we wanted to create beautiful moments. Conceptually, there’s a bit of high fantasy in there. It feels like you have a break, both in terms of the difficulty and the learning curve, but also in the world setting.”

Every new FromSoftware release brings up a bit of a discussion about difficulty and accessibility in modern games. Some developers choose to offer easier modes for less experienced or time-poor players. Sometimes they even remove enemies from the game entirely.

But this doesn’t suit a game like Elden Ring – difficulty is what the game is about, and reducing the difficulty stifles creativity.

“If you really want people all over the world to play your game, you can just make the difficulty lower and lower, but that wasn’t the right approach,” Miyazaki said. “If we had taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have turned out the way it did, because the sense of accomplishment that players get from overcoming these hurdles is a very fundamental part of the gaming experience. If you lower the difficulty, you take away that joy. I think it ruins the game itself.”

For Miyazaki, improving through failure isn’t just a game design principle, it’s something of a personal philosophy. As president, he creates a work environment where developers can experiment and ideas don’t get bogged down. No one project dictates a developer’s entire future. His big break came in 2006, when he was put in charge of managing a struggling fantasy project at FromSoftware. The game would become Demon’s Souls. “I thought if I could figure out how to manage the game, I could turn it into whatever I wanted,” he told The Guardian’s Simon Parkin in 2015. “The best part was that if my idea failed, nobody cared. It was already a failure.”

“To be honest, I don’t think it’s that different now than it was 15 years ago when we were making Demon’s Souls,” he laughs when I remind him of this. “What I try to foster in our environment is to make sure that young directors and game designers have the same kind of experience that I had when I was working on Demon’s Souls, that if this game fails, it’s not the end of the world. I think that mentality and attitude helps people grow.”

Mr. Miyazaki is different. The first time I met him In 2011“I’ve always been a big fan of the game,” he said at Tokyo Game Show, just before the release of Dark Souls, the game that would thrust him into the spotlight. Quiet and soft-spoken, his eyes glued to the carpet, he says he used to shy away from being the center of attention. But now he’s much more confident and comfortable talking about both business and game design. When he thinks, he looks up at the ceiling, not down at the floor. He’s now a father to a young daughter and leads a company. And like players of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, he’s emerged as a more capable person.

However, he remains as hands-on as ever as a game designer. “Regardless of my title or position in the company, there is always the joy and satisfaction I get from making games,” he says. “I enjoy helping to nurture and develop young directors who will take the company to the next level. But sitting in an administrative office all day is not my style. I want to really get my hands dirty and continue to make games together, and through that, pass on my process to other generations of talent. I’ve held the title of president for almost 10 years now, but I’d say about 95% of my work and time at the company is devoted to game making and game direction. In this ratio, I’d say I’ve only had about 6 months of actual experience as an executive!”

The world is also very different from when Demon’s Souls was a big hit. I think the reason why more people are resonating with the work of Hayao Miyazaki and From Software is because we’ve become accustomed to a feeling of helplessness. For those who have lived through the last 15 years of pandemics, political turmoil, and looming climate disaster, bleak situations are not so foreign. What Elden Ring gives us is a glimmer of hope that, perhaps, if we are strong and persistent enough, we can triumph against all odds.

“A lot of From Software’s games throw you into this barren wasteland and make it a very harsh, harsh, cold experience… I don’t think what we’ve done in the game has changed, but maybe the world will change. Have “The last few years have been exceptional in terms of what’s going on around us, but even before that I felt the world was a very harsh place. I’ve always lived with that worldview, that value system. So this idea of ​​being cast out into the wilderness and planting the seeds of growth feels almost universal to me. Maybe more people are discovering that now.”

I think what a lot of people miss in From Software’s games is a sense of hope. First Interview In a 2010 email exchange with Miyazaki, he told me about the origins of Demon’s Souls’ unusual multiplayer, in which players can summon anonymous helpers to help them get through a particularly frightening area or boss encounter. He was driving up a hill in the winter when everyone got stuck. It wasn’t until everyone in the back started helping by pushing the car in front to the top of the hill that someone finally made it. He called it a “connection of mutual aid between fickle people,” adding, “Oddly enough, that event will probably stick in my mind for a long time. It sticks for a long time precisely because it was so fleeting.”

Elden Ring is filled with these fleeting moments of beauty and friendship, and they’re all the more meaningful because they’re so rare. In a harsh world, moments of respite are precious.

“If I look deeply into my history, there are definitely experiences that have influenced my identity, the worldview that drives me to make games,” Miyazaki said. “I’ve never taken a step back and thought about what triggered it, but there’s definitely something that’s the reason these are the types of games I want to see and make. If I looked in the mirror and took a hard look at myself… if I went on a soul-searching journey to find out why, I might be disappointed in myself. It would force me to face how boring and ordinary I am. Maybe I’m intentionally avoiding that. That’s what keeps the creativity flowing.”