Decorated game studio FromSoftware and its president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, have racked up a reputation for games that push players to the limit, due to their excruciating difficulty, which has no recourse for change.
The studio has followed this strategy for all of their games to date, such as the iconic Souls series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Armored Core 6. And according to an interview, Miyazaki doesn’t intend on easing up anytime soon.
Hidetaka Miyazaki Levels The Playing Field For Players
In an interview with GameSpot around the release of Sekiro, Miyazaki revealed why he’s chosen to stick with the fixed difficulty creative choice all these years:
We don’t want to include a difficulty selection because we want to bring everyone to the same level of discussion and the same level of enjoyment. So we want everyone … to first face that challenge and to overcome it in some way that suits them as a player.
The renowned auteur’s approach to game design is clearly centered around putting players on a level playing field. FromSoftware games are made around a singular harsh difficulty, and they leave it up to players to find the path of least resistance.
While this may sound like a chore, it makes their game so much more engaging. It’s no secret that the average FromSoftware game can take hundreds of hours to complete, but every single one of those hours is incredibly well invested.
Challenging They May Be, But The Feeling Of Success Is Worth It
Miyazaki also aims to create a feeling of success shared by everyone who plays. Adding on to his prior answer, he said:
We want everyone to feel that sense of accomplishment. We want everyone to feel elated and to join that discussion on the same level. We feel if there’s different difficulties, that’s going to segment and fragment the user base. People will have different experiences based on that [differing difficulty level]. This is something we take to heart when we design games. It’s been the same way for previous titles and it’s very much the same with Sekiro.
Despite the similarities to FromSoftware’s prior Dark Souls series and Bloodborne, Miyazaki said Sekiro isn’t part of the Soulsborne series, as it took a dramatic turn by ditching custom character creation, and instead leaned harder into the action-adventure aspect.
Published by Activision, Sekiro released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2019. The game’s departure from the traditional Souls format paid off beautifully, as the medieval Japan setting, fixed protagonist, and elevated difficulty garnered heavy critical and commercial acclaim, winning it the 2019 Game of the Year award.
The single-difficulty approach, while maybe not for everyone, rewards players with a feeling of success, for those who stick with it. FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki will stick to their vision of making challenging games, and we couldn’t be happier.
