There is no gamer who has not heard of Hidetaka Miyazaki. More than just a game creator, his legendary works like Bloodborne and Dark Souls among others demonstrate how he is a visionary and someone who truly thinks outside the box.
During an interview, the creator revealed that he wasn’t always this way. The creator of complex gothic fantasies known to be the best titles of the last 20 years, revealed how he was a bookworm, but was financially unable to even buy books. Today, Hidetaka Miyazaki sits on a high chair as the company president of FromSoftware.
Miyazaki says he was a difficult child
Miyazaki, in an interview with The Guardian, shared instances from his childhood and how he was asking a kid. Ironically, the iconic game creator describes himself as a difficult child. He says,
“Unlike most kids in Japan, I didn’t have a dream. I wasn’t ambitious.”
He shares that he found himself pursuing a degree in social science without any direction at one of the well-respected universities, Keio University. Gradually as he inched closer to his graduation, Miyazaki considered the option of applying to a game development studio.
However, life then had different plans for him as he drifted into a job at the US IT giant Oracle Corporation.
Ico inspired Hidetaka Miyazaki
Miyazaki shares that several years later, the bug of video games stung him once again. He then caught up with some former college friends who suggested newer games to play.
One of the games suggested by his friends was 2001’s game Ico. It is a mystical fairytale wherein the players take on the role of a boy who must lead a waif-like girl by the hand throughout the castle’s craggy ramparts, chased by their ghoulish captors. He shares he was so in awe of the game that it inspired him to make a game of his own.
He says,
“That game awoke me to the possibilities of the medium. I wanted to make one myself.”
However, the biggest obstacle in front of him was that at the time he was 29 years old and thus, too old to apply for graduate positions. On the other hand, he was too inexperienced for anything else related to games. “Not a lot of places would take me. From Software was one of the few,” he shares.
Miyazaki’s script editor, Ema Kodaka, believes that Miyazaki’s career change also meant a considerable drop in pay, which might be a reason why his staff revere him so much.
She says,
“He is a unique talent. In Japan, even today, people usually join a company as a graduate and stay for life. For Miyazaki to change career and, within 10 years, become company president – that’s unprecedented in Japan. It’s inspiring.”
Miyazaki’s journey is nothing short of an inspiration for everyone. After all, going from an aimless student in college to leading and guiding one of the biggest game studios globally is no ordinary feat.
