FromSoftware is without a doubt a trailblazer when it comes to designing excellent soulslike experiences. And it’s not like they have just started with this stuff; they have been doing it since 2009 with games like Demon Souls. All that has led to them making a massive blockbuster like Elden Ring all these years later.
But these kinds of incredible experiences can only be crafted when developers are focused. Not just on making a good game, but also on making sure their vision translates as it is to their games, so fans can get it as it is. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has obviously made sure his vision remains uncompromised, as his games are usually full of incredibly inventive design choices. Recently, he opened up about how he went about achieving that vision.
Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki discusses his favorite boss design over the years
From Demon Souls to the Elden Ring FromSoftware has always hit it out of the park with their incredible game design. Their games are such that fans find it hard to keep the controller down once they start playing them.
There are a lot of aspects that make these games so good. Combat, level design, and the engaging core gameplay loop—everything in these games is special. So much so that even though many have tried to design similar games, they have hardly succeeded.
This success usually comes down to not backing down from your decisions. If a game designer makes a decision, they have to stand by it. That’s what Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has done all these years. Hence, he has developed a number of soulslike games full of insanely well-designed bosses.
This has led to him being responsible for creating numerous bosses over the years. Some are gruesome, others glorious. From blood-starved beasts to incredibly glorious Ludwig in Bloodborne, bosses of FromSoftware’s soulslike games have been very well designed.
But there have been times when Hidetaka Miyazaki had to fight his co-workers to keep a design. especially when he was just starting his career. One such design even ended up being his favorite; it was none other than Demon Soul’s Old Monk.
“If we’re talking about a boss that I’m ‘most proud of’ (to use those specific words), it would probably be the Old Monk from Demon’s Souls. The reason being is there was a lot of pushback against that design and what we were trying to do with it. But it was something I really, really wanted to do. I wanted to get that boss concept into the game, both from a visual design perspective and gameplay perspective, including the multiplayer element.”
It is surprising indeed, as some would say that Old Monk is not a very special-looking boss. He is basically a frail guy with twig arms; he flails them around, giving orders to a minion, who then fights the player character.
Demon Souls had a bunch of better-designed bosses, such as the Storm King and the Adjudicator, but the fact that he loved Old Monk the most says a lot about him. Because he loved the technicality of that boss more than its design.
What makes Old Monk stand out?
For those unaware, Old Monk in Demon Souls started a different kind of boss challenge for players. Usually, players fight weirdly designed, powerful creatures in soulslike games. But in Old Monk, they fight a monk who is not very powerful at all.
Hence, he invites an outsider for this fight; he invites other players to be his champions, who then fight the player in the host game. This means players are actively playing a 1 vs. 1 multiplayer match in Demon Souls. It was so successful that they even followed this kind of boss with similar bosses in other games, such as Looking Glass Knight in Dark Souls 2 and The Spear of the Church in Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City. This is why it can be easily said that Miyazaki was not wrong in fighting for Old Monk.
