Elden Ring & Bloodborne Creator Says Strict Rules Prevent Games From Being Fun
FromSoftware director Hidetaka Miyazaki shares his thoughts ahead of The Duskbloods' launch.
The Duskbloods, FromSoftware's upcoming action RPG, approaches release, and the studio's president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, shared his thoughts on what ties the studio's games together and what keeps them fresh.
The upcoming fantasy RPG follows a similar formula to FromSoftware's games, like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. Duskbloods aligns with Miyazaki's style while also drawing on extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov and tabletop role-playing games.
According to Miyazaki, the resemblance between the studio's games isn't the result of following some set formula. Rather, he believes sticking to rigid rules would work against creating fun games in the first place:
"There's no intentional FromSoftware [mantra] – 'this is the way we make our games' – because if you start to do that it becomes stale and conservative, and you start having to adhere to a set of rules and philosophies, and it just doesn't become interesting, you can't make anything that's as fun," Miyazaki says (via The Guardian).
The key to successful game development, Miyazaki says, is following what you find most interesting:
"So I feel like at least what's worked for us philosophically is trying to adhere to what we find interesting first. I think that has created a good throughline through our games, and that’s what we concentrate on to [conceive] a new title."
FromSoftware
The Duskbloods, set to launch in 2026, will be a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Before, Hidetaka Miyazaki already reflected on the different structure of The Duskbloods and how it would change FromSoftware's creative approach. The director shared that despite finding the PvPvE structure "very interesting," the studio would not step away from its usual strategy and creating single-player titles. "I'm very nervous," Miyazaki commented on the launch. "With every title we release there is this mounting tension."
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