Hidetaka Miyazaki On Elden Ring: “In Life, Death Is A Horrible Thing. In Play, It Can Be Something Else”

Elden Ring is out and it’s unanimous: the game is awesome. Hidetaka Miyazaki, FromSoftware’s president behind the game, sat down with Simon Parkin at the New Yorker to talk about Elden Ring, its player’s experiences, and himself. In the typical team-centric world of game design, it is not too often that an individual name stands out. Furthermore, most games are generally seen as product of a collective input rather than a single person’s volition. While all FromSoftware games are certainly a collective showing, Miyazaki stands to be an exception to this generality. So much so that his breadth and depth of influence prompt many to call him an ‘auteur‘. Coincidently, he has dubbed his method, “total direction”. With his divergent approach and seemingly enigmatic persona, many are interested in Miyazaki almost as much as his games! If you are interested in the backstory behind Demon Souls’ head designer, take a look at this nice cartoon rendition of his story.

Miyazaki told Parkin that he would not use, “grandiose terms,” to interpret his life’s effect on his designs but instead, “to look at it [as] problem-solving.” He went on to empathize and say, “We all face problems in our daily lives. Finding answers is always a satisfying thing. But in life, you know, there’s not a lot that gives us those feelings readily.” Whether one agrees with this or not, we all can definitely turn to FromSoftware games and play towards those feelings. Probably like us, Miyazaki says he enjoys, “the process of solving problems that I know can be fixed.” Some of us though would prefer to not solve problems as hard as the ones his games present. If you have ever played Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice then you understand.

But you should not feel that bad because Miyazaki is right there with you. You’d think that a game’s mastermind would be a master at playing the game, but Miyazaki said plainly that, ”I die a lot”. He went on to say flat out that, “I’ve never been a very skilled player”. This similarity between the struggles in games and life eventually led Miyazaki to seek out answers to the questions,

If death is to be more than a mark of failure, how do I give it meaning? How do I make death enjoyable?

An interesting question no doubt, but it leads to the next logical question of what is the answer? For Elden Ring’s bearer, it comes down to the how of our death. When Miyazaki finds himself thinking about it he says that,

This is the way I’d want to die—in a way that is amusing or interesting, or that creates a story I can share,” he said. “Death and rebirth, trying and overcoming—we want that cycle to be enjoyable. In life, death is a horrible thing. In play, it can be something else.