2015’s Bloodborne is often cited as one of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s best works to this date. Bloodborne was a fresh approach to the subgenre, but it carried on the Soulslike element of Miyazaki’s Dark Souls series. The game was indeed challenging like FromSoftware’s other Soulslike games but the eerie theme and atmosphere, combined with its engaging combat made it quite popular among the fans.
Players often finish the primary story and the game then rots in their libraries but Miyazaki’s Bloodborne was designed in a way to convince the fans to try out New Game+. As per Miyazaki, the level of difficulty drastically changes with New Game+ so in case you have never tried it out, it’s about time you do.
Hidetaka Miyazaki wants gamers to try out Bloodborne‘s New Game+
In a 2015 interview with the PlayStation Blog, FromSoftware’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, acknowledged the challenging nature of his 2015 game, Bloodborne. During the conversation, Miyazaki explained that there is one major difference in New Game+ that changes the entire gaming experience,
“There is that replayability in the same form for Bloodborne as there was in Dark Souls, but it’s a different game, so even if the feature is similar, you might have a different experience with New Game + or New Game ++ – or however many times you choose to replay – There is no defensive style of play in Bloodborne. That starts to be more apparent the more New Game + playthroughs you go through. So a gamer can experience a different taste of New Game + compared to a Souls game. I’d like gamers to challenge themselves and see what they can get out of New Game +.”
As per Miyazaki, fans will eventually start to realize that there is “no defensive style of play” in the game after trying out the New Game+. The difficulty of the game increases but it is capped at NG++++++ or NG+6. Players can play the game beyond this but there is no difficulty increase beyond this point.
Hidetaka Miyazaki explained the reason why his Soulslike games are so difficult
After Bloodborne, it seems like Hidetaka Miyazaki continued to make his games quite difficult but this feedback from the gamers doesn’t bother him as it serves a purpose. In 2022, Hidetaka Miyazaki appeared for another interview with PlayStation Blog and explained that his Soulslike games are designed in a way to motivate the players to overcome adversity,
“I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes. We don’t want players to feel like the game is unfairly punishing, but rather that there’s a chance to win a difficult encounter and make progress – We try to design the games to make the cycle of repeatedly trying to overcome these challenges enjoyable in itself.”
Many players prefer the Dark Souls series over Bloodborne but both the games are unique in their own ways.
As of now, Miyazaki is excited to give fans the upcoming DLC of Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, which will be released in June 2024.
