With Sekiro, FromSoftware seemed to be pushing the boundaries of the Soulslike genre that it introduced, making some significant changes in the development process. Hidetaka Miyazaki has been at the helm of titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and the games showcase his vision and the fact that he put a lot of his own input into them.
However, although Miyazaki’s artistic style is unique and appreciated by the masses through the likes of his magnum opus Elden Ring, there’s always the risk of repeating some of the older ideas that have already been implemented, leaving little room for improvements.
For Sekiro, Miyazaki Took a Necessary Step Back
A couple of months before Sekiro was scheduled for launch, it was revealed during an interview that Miyazaki stopped himself from making too many contributions to the writing process of the game, although he was still overseeing everything. “As someone who’s written the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games, to have that again here would feel like a repeat,” answered the FromSoftware boss when asked about the benefit of taking a step back.
Miyazaki realized that “users are going to get bored or tired of this approach,” which paved the way for new concepts to get attention, as the studio “wanted a fresh approach.”
Although Miyazaki calls his way of writing “quirky” and he knows that it may seem peculiar to some, the Sekiro director put more faith in the rest of the team’s mindset, giving more room to them to come up with ideas. This resulted in a positive change within the studio, which allowed for narrative details to be shared more easily between the internal staff, leading to a wide array of perspectives that were taken into consideration in the game’s development.
FromSoftware titles are known for having deeply layered lore, and according to Miyazaki, the “overwhelming” aspects of it got drastically reduced thanks to the new approach, which the Elden Ring creator called “refreshing.”
FromSoftware’s Change in Approach Made Things Clearer for Miyazaki
Miyazaki continued that before the development of Shadows Die Twice, he “didn’t have that need to fully communicate to the division of the story,” but thanks to the change in FromSoftware’s approach, the boss started to see his work “in a clearer light” as the other staff gave their opinions.
That allowed for a more “fresh and interesting look at that content,” which is why the 2019 action adventure Soulslike stands out as a highlight in the developer’s portfolio.
“It allows us to get a better bead on the story as a company,” stated Miyazaki regarding trying something that FromSoftware had never done before, which led to a highly “coherent” final product.
Where does Shadows Die Twice rank for you in the FromSoftware portfolio? Let us know in the comments!
