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Hidetaka Miyazaki (Japanese: 宮崎 英高, Hepburn: Miyazaki Hidetaka, born September 19, 1974) is a Japanese video game director, designer, writer, and president of the game developer FromSoftware. He joined the company in 2004 and was a designer for the Armored Core series before receiving wider recognition for creating the Dark Souls series.
1 day ago · After the success of Bloodborne and Elden Ring, FromSoftware and Miyazaki took on the reins for Armored Core 6. After the success of that game, the studio is reported to be looking to make more titles in the Armored Core series, possibly Armored Core 7. Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Studio Could Be Following Up on Armored Core 6 Soon
The latest posts from @miyazakitweets
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By Mitchell Saltzman
Updated: Jun 17, 2021 9:31 pm
Posted: Jun 14, 2021 2:00 pm
The gameplay reveal for Elden Ring has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of our Summer of Gaming so far, finally answering some of our many, many questions about the FromSoftware open world RPG's gameplay, story, and more.
But, as with any game created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, that gameplay trailer has left even more mysteries to be solved. Thankfully, we were lucky enough to sit down for an hour with the legendary game developer, and talk through our biggest questions about the game after its first true showing – and we learned a lot more, from how George R.R. Martin's involvement worked, to its almost Pokemon-like spirit summoning mechanic. What follows is the full transcript from that discussion.
This translated interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
IGN: One of the things that really struck me in the trailer was the enemy designs – some of the wildest designs I've ever seen, really. I wonder if there's any sort of unifying theme or inspiration that you use when coming up with the enemies and the bosses for this game, and if you can elaborate a little bit about them?
HM: I'm glad you picked up on that. There are several themes to the enemy designs. One main theme of the main bosses of the game, in particular, are that they are essentially demigods – and characters who are written, again, by George R.R. Martin – and they inherited the mad tainted power of the Elden Ring shards once it was shattered. We wanted to depict these beings as not just creatures and horrible monsters, but have an element of heroism and an element of mythology to them. Essentially, they are the old gods of this world.
And part of the design of these major characters is that in inheriting the shards of the Elden Ring, they each inherited a different power or element, so to speak, and each was twisted and warped in its own way, and it brought a tainted strength to each of them. They each fell to madness and fell to ruin in their own individual ways. So while there is heroic and mythological elements to them, they are also going to have this very mad taint and this deep-seated ruin to them. We hope players enjoy discovering each of them for themselves.
IGN: This is a very personal question. Mimics are very, very scary to me, and Dark Souls' Mimics are the scariest of any Mimics in any video game I've ever played. Are there Mimics in Elden Ring?
HM: You probably won't find Mimics in that exact same form. It's a different world to Dark Souls, but we hope to give you surprises in some way, let's put it that way.
There is a mainline route through the open world, but at any time players are free to break off this route and take the untrodden path.
IGN: I guess this is similar to what you're saying, but obviously with the Souls games and Bloodborne, you've gained a reputation for a very specific type of storytelling that's told within the margins of the actual game. That changed a bit with Sekiro, where it's a little more traditional. I wonder, do you find your approach to storytelling as something that's evolving, and how do you describe that style of storytelling as it pertains to Elden Ring?
HM: I'm not sure if we'd personally call it an evolution, we feel like we might get laughed at for that, but what we want to do is retain that sense of the player discovering things for themselves and enjoying uncovering the world both in terms of action and narrative for themselves. We don't want to force anything on the player. That much has not changed.
There are two things we wanted to really concentrate on with this topic you brought up. One is the ease of understanding, the level of understanding the players have of the story and the narrative and we feel like, because this is a game that's based around its characters, this is a lot easier to understand, a lot easier to approach in that sense. So it's less abstract. While the player-character themselves is, as you might be familiar with other games, a little more nameless, a little more of a blank slate for the player to project themselves onto, other characters will provide that sense of depth and that sense of color and multifarious motives and ulterior motives that are going to keep them engaged and keep them second guessing as they explore through the world.
We hope that that level of understanding is easy to access, but then again there's a lot more depth there as they explore. And this depth, again, this idea of uncovering the world as you go, picking up its many little pieces, it's multilayered, it's complex, it's very fascinating. This is something I myself enjoy a lot in these games, and in other RPGs I play. We had the greedy approach of wanting to make these two elements stand together, of wanting it to be easy to understand, but also give it a lot of depth. But we feel that with the help of George R.R. Martin and the story base that he provided for us, this has been not only attainable, but very successful this time.
IGN: I think that wraps up all my questions. Thank you so much.
HM: I hope it was OK. This is actually our first interview for Elden Ring, so we really appreciate your time. In a single interview, it's very hard to go into a great deal of detail and to answer all of your questions. I imagine there's a lot that's difficult to imagine, difficult to grasp, but as far as I'm concerned, after my 10 years or so of directing games, this really feels like a culmination of everything that I've enjoyed about game development and everything I've brought to this point. I really, really hope that as a fan of the games, you'll enjoy it.
Feb 22, 2024 · With the first trailer for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree revealed, director Hidetaka Miyazaki reflects on future Souls games, remaining secrets, and Bloodborne.
Feb 21, 2024 · You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit. Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki shares tons of new Shadow of the Erdtree details following the release of the Elden Ring DLC gameplay trailer.
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May 27, 2022 · We recently had a chance to speak with Hidetaka Miyazaki, the longtime From Software Director who has been instrumental in bringing games like Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring to fans all over the world.
