The new Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is already extremely popular, clocking in with over 700,000 concurrent players on Steam, just 200,000 less than the base game right around its height following release in 2022. PC Gamer got the chance to sit down with Hidetaka Miyazaki, one of the game’s directors, to talk about the new DLC. In it Hidetaka pairs some of his Elden Ring experiences with that of his overall design philosophy. Chief among them, Miyazaki doesn’t love to play games he’s worked on. In preparation for Shadow of the Erdtree, Miyazaki played through the main campaign of Elden Ring. In his own words Miyazaki believes himself to “absolutely suck at video games,” and approached the game using every tool at his disposal to complete the campaign.
Miyazaki’s trepidation to play through games he’s worked on stems from a worry he’ll see something in the game as a player that he wants to fix but no longer can. As a player Miyazaki becomes “powerless to do anything significant to change [the game].” It’s a very relatable strategy, like not rereading a school paper after you’ve submitted it.
Miyazaki’s willingness to use all the tools of his disposal also showcases the ways in which Elden Ring has some manner of accessible scaling on it. Not everyone has played a Souls game prior to Elden Ring, which have notorious difficulty and can be grueling in their epicness. Others might be on the opposite end of the spectrum, having played through all the other games, possibly multiple times. As such Elden Ring’s open world nature means that not everything is required to be used and that players can tailor their experiences based on their preferred ways to play. Miyazaki just happens to have helped create the game, meaning he was aware of his options when playing. It’s a lovely sentiment to share about gaming and gaming culture. Games with no “right” way to play tend to be more accessible to all ranges of players, and some of the best.
Besides that Miyazaki shared his thoughts on failure, and how it functions in the creative process as well in the gaming industry. He believes that room for failure has diminished as large scale projects eat up massive budgets. However, this room for possible risk and failure might be what the gaming industry needs to combat stagnation and continual entries in the same few series. Whether that means working with smaller projects, less budget and all that entails, a swing and a miss might be something important to finding the next big hit.