Hidetaka Miyazaki is possibly one of the most acclaimed game designers of the past five or six years. That's mostly thanks to the overwhelming success of his Souls series, which proved to be incredibly influential throughout the entire gaming industry. Now it's trendy to make challenging games again, for starters.
After the release of Dark Souls 3 in April, which proved to be another hit both commercially and critically, Miyazaki will concentrate on doing something else than Souls games after a long time. When asked by Kotaku if his new position of President at FromSoftware would potentially drive him to safer design decisions in future projects, he replied:
No. It’s actually the opposite. If we avoided risks, we wouldn’t have positioned this game to be a turning point in the series and an end to the current storyline. I believe the new projects we will be announcing will show our stance and direction we’re headed to.
He also weighed in on the evergreen topic of player feedback against a designer's vision. Interestingly, he said that feedback from players helps him bring these visions to reality.
I don’t think I get everything right with my decisions, but I do have faith in the decisions I make based on the visions I hold. In order to make my vision come to reality, I place importance in various feedback including those coming from test players. The reason why I have faith is because I like games, and because I’m creating games to those who like games.
Dark Souls 3 is a "turning point" for the franchise, but not its end. Miyazaki clarified that much once more while talking to Gamespot, while reserving himself the chance to return to it at some point in the future.
I keep referring to the series as a "turning point," and I'm avoiding use of the word "finish," since saying it would completely "finish" the series.
If someone says they want to make a Dark Souls game using the latest in technology, and if it is sufficiently attractive, then it wouldn’t be fair for me to just finish the series.
To add, I can't deny the fact that, maybe down the line, I want to go back to the series and make one more game before I retire. I don't want to be branded a liar if that happens [laughs].
It may be a while since we find out what his next project will be, but rest assured that we'll report on it here on Wccftech.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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