Hidetaka Miyazaki has said there is a “high possibility” he won’t be involved in future “Souls-ish” FromSoftware games.
Between Elden Ring and Dark Souls, FromSoftware has become the go-to studio for “Souls-ish” games, with regular director Miyazaki defining the soulslike genre as “those dark fantasy third-person action games with a higher focus on melee combat and sense of accomplishment.” And he knows what he’s talking about, having directed almost every Elden Ring and Dark Souls title.
The exception to the rule is 2014’s Dark Souls 2. For that title, Miyazaki served as supervisor, while Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura acted as directors.
In a new interview with IGN, Miyazaki confirmed he won’t be involved in any future Souls-ish titles. “I think it’s very likely that we’ll see new directors going forward. And I think if we do that, I’d like to step away from that supervisory role and give them full direction and full control over those projects. I think really this is the best way and the easiest way for them to flourish within that environment and with those new projects,” he explained.
“I think a supervisor role for me is just something I’m not used to and just is maybe not quite a good fit,” he added.
With Dark Souls 2 featuring new directors, FromSoftware “were able to have that different impetus and have those different ideas and make those different connections that we otherwise might not have had. There’s really no way of telling how or if the series would have continued the way it did without Dark Souls 2,” he added.
Elsewhere, Miyazaki praised Dark Souls 2 for setting FromSoftware down the path that would eventually lead them to Elden Ring, with its focus on open-world-inspired gameplay over a linear narrative.
“In regards to Dark Souls 2, I actually personally think this was a really great project for us, and I think without it, we wouldn’t have had a lot of the connections and a lot of the ideas that went forward and carried the rest of the series.”
Elden Ring’s massive expansion Shadow Of The Erdtree is due for release in June but Miyazaki is refusing to rule out a sequel.
In other news, NieR director Yoko Taro has apparently begun teasing a third game in the franchise.