FromSoftware CEO and game director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has shared details of how he and his team are inspired by games that tried their hardest to replicate the success and progression of newer titles like Elden Ring. The video game industry is a tough avenue to find a good footing, especially when other developers have cracked the code for the perfect formula.
Ever since the success of Dark Souls, more and more gaming companies have taken the Souls-like genre and given it their own original and creative spin. Miyazaki then took advantage of the poor and successful attempts made by various developers and used it to his advantage whenever he was working on a new original game.
This strategy is quite beneficial and saves time by identifying what is lacking and how it can improve what fans want.
Souls-like Copycats Are The Inspiration For Elden Ring’s Success
In an interview with Kotaku, Miyazaki was humble and very tight-lipped regarding details of how he and his team would develop games. He also gave simple answers like where the inspiration came from.
My sources of inspiration come from various venues. The media you mentioned are sources of inspiration, but if I was to bring one item up in particular, I would say books, especially text-based books. I’ve brought this up before, but my pastime is to imagine and fantasize from reading text-based books.
Seeing copies of the genre the devs pioneered wasn’t enough to inspire greatness; the director’s roots for fantasizing worlds came from his passion for reading as well. The ambition and scope of each FromSoftware title grew, which also gave Miyazaki the courage to collaborate with other creatives from different media, like George R. R. Martin, for the development of Elden Ring.
Martin wrote the novel A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones. Miyazaki showed his willingness to adapt when he deviated from their formulaic development progress with this title and utilized Martin’s skills accordingly.
The Genre Inspired More Dark Souls-like Games And Hidetaka Miyazaki Was Thrilled
Inspiration from great games to develop greater games is a win-win situation for both developers and players. Each project is a learning experience, which is a significant asset that can shift the direction of a studio. Team Ninja had their share of Souls-like games and their latest title, Rise of the Ronin, proved FromSoftware’s proof of concept that this genre is compatible with co-op.
Paving the way for more games to utilize the multiplayer feature for difficult titles will boost the notoriety of the genre even more. Players will likey be encouraged to try other options, while developers like FromSoftware and Team Ninja have enough time to learn and implement mechanics from other games into their own.
Director Hidetaka Miyazaki showed how creative he can get with Dark Souls and Elden Ring from the inspiration of other Souls-like games and media, and his passion has generated significant hyped for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC coming this June.
What do you think of the strategy of learning from copycat Souls-like games? Let us know in the comments below!
