FromSoftware puts a lot of work into making their games stand out, and they mostly succeed too. From Demon’s Souls to Elden Ring, they have made some very distinguished games that have stood the test of time. They took the biggest leaps of their lives with two games, Elden Ring and Bloodborne. With Bloodborne, they shifted their tone, and with Elden Ring, they made the biggest leap yet, going into the open world.
And it paid off in a big way; Elden Ring quickly became the fastest-selling game for its developer. It even won unmatched critical acclaim. After multiple Game of the Year awards and heaps of praise from every direction, this game today stands as one of the biggest Soulslike games ever made. And director Hidetaka Miyazaki doubts they would be able to recreate this success again.
Elden Ring director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, says he doesn’t understand what made it so successful
There’s a lot in a video game that makes it a success—things that come together and make it an excellent title worth trying and sticking to. Years ago, Rocksteady Games gave fans this kind of experience with Arkham Asylum.
It was a game with an excellent and addictive core gameplay loop. Its basic combat was the definition of easy to learn, hard to master. If someone even got defeated in a combat scenario, it was pretty easy to jump back and get into action.
Similar is the case with Soulslike series: players die a lot, but its core gameplay loop is mostly what players decide on their own. If they want to fight with swords, they have swords, or they can hurl spells at their enemies.
Elden Ring took this and dropped this idea into a large open-world area. Full of massive, hard-to-combat bosses, this game had a lot to offer its fans. They could explore, uncover new locations, find and talk to NPCs, and complete the tasks they give in exchange for exciting rewards.
Such a huge game with so many things to do, and it was all done by one developer who had never even tried their hands on an open-world game before. The director was heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and its inspiration showed how players could explore the world any way they wanted.
After achieving so much and winning with this game to such an extent, director Hidetaka Miyazaki made one thing clear, he does not know what clicked. He even suggests that it would be hard for FromSoftware to match this success ever again.
“Honestly, I haven’t analyzed it much, it’s true that sales were higher than those of our previous games, but I have no idea what the reason was. So even if I wanted to reproduce that success, I wouldn’t be able to,”
He then went on to say that he does not go about thinking about it too much. He would rather work on his next project, which is Elden Ring’s upcoming expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.
Let’s see what comes after that. One thing is for sure: Hidetaka Miyazaki is probably just being humble here, as a game is always made after making some very difficult choices. He knows how to make that choice, and he knows how to implement things in his games to make them successful.
What is next for the studio, though?
There has not been much news on which direction FromSoftware will take next. They previously developed Armored Core VI while simultaneously working on Shadow of the Erdtree. Fans are hoping the studio gets back to Soulslike genre with their next game.
Would it be Bloodborne 2? Or Dark Souls 4? Or maybe Elden Ring 2; the answer would only be revealed after the studio chose to talk about it.
