Yes today Hidetaka Miyazaki, father of the Souls genre and designer/president of FromSoftware, appeared in an interview to say that he is actually an ancestral being and that he feeds on our suffering, I would believe him without the slightest doubt. Creating a video game franchise that literally takes months and years off your life would be a master plan on par with Dalton Russell in Hidden Plan.
“And the why, apart from the economic motivation, is that simple: because I can. Which leaves us only with the how. And, gentlemen, that’s the thing… as Shakespeare would say,” Russell says in the opening monologue. I’ve always imagined it as Miyazaki’s answer to any questions regarding his crazy stuff in Souls.
Let this introduction not be misleading: FromSoftware’s Souls are absolutely wonderful pieces (some more and others less) and the captain of this ship has not always gotten the recognition he deserves. Luckily, that changed when Elden Ring won the 2022 GOTY award.
Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Infested Wells: Tradition for One, Torture for Others
To say that Hidetaka Miyazaki enjoys the suffering of all the lost souls we leave behind in Souls is clearly hyperbole. However, it reflects the feeling we all have when a boss plunges his weapon into our chest for the twentieth time or when we reach an area where the desperation of our predecessors can be chewed.
All FromSoftware Souls (and others that don’t) share several common denominators: difficult bosses, good level design, a very particular narrative, etc. There is one that stands out for the traumatic experience, especially when it comes to new and inexperienced players: poisonous swamps. They are large extensions of whatever crap Miyazaki came up with for the occasion that drain the life out of our character… and ours.
Surely you remember some additional area that includes a swamp and any type of altered state similar to a poison. And as if their mere existence were not already torture in itself, most have hidden enemies and several are the prelude to a powerful boss. The thing goes further Elden Ringbeing able to find dungeons full of poison with horrible secondary bosses.
This has an explanation and we met it in an interview with Game Informer to Miyazaki (2022): “While making this game, I rediscovered my love for creating poisonous swamps. […] I know how people feel about them, but I suddenly realize I’m in the middle of making one and I can’t help it. “It just happens.”
If you didn’t see the interview then, I’m sure you’re now starting to rethink whether Hidetaka Miyazaki really enjoys (even just a little) watching us suffer. She Almost admits that she loves it! She knows very well that they are horror for us, but she still does them because she simply wants to and can. I’m sure you now also understand my quote from Hidden Plan at the beginning of the publication.
The worst thing about this matter is not all the infected pits that it has thrown in our faces and through which we have had to go through, but those that remain to come. Not to mention all those he has inspired in Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen, for example. The Elden Ring DLC feels imminent and I’m sure it’s going to include another swamp filled with poison and hellbugs. It’s taken two years of development to come up with the most horrible poisonous hell possible.
And speaking of horrible things that may come in the DLC, I’m sure FromSoftware has made certain enemies and even a major boss katana-proof and bleed-proof. Taking into account how much we players have abused these builds, I wouldn’t be surprised if Miyazaki wants to return the favor in duplicate.
An infected pit and revenge for katanas, mark my words. I am convinced that it will happen again and that it will be as horrible as all the previous ones… if not more so. What do you think? Do you think you will remember this post to see if my prediction was correct?
In iGamesNews | The design of Elden Ring is more masterful than I imagined: they have opened my eyes with a great detail and I can’t stop thinking about it
In iGamesNews | Five areas of Elden Ring that you may have missed and that you should explore before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC arrives
In iGamesNews | Elden Ring: what does the first image of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion hide?
