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The world of Souls games is ever-changing, yet it maintains the same core and fundamentals, thanks to Hidetaka Miyazaki solely handling nearly the entire franchise ever since its inception. The only outlier in this long list of games is Dark Souls 2, which was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura. While it might not have been a success amongst the community, it left behind many lessons to be learnt in the future.

Well, the future is here; after years, the reins of a Soul’s title have been handed over to somebody else. Released today is Elden Ring Nightreign, a co-op survival game directed by Junya Ishizaki, and also happens to be a spin-off to Hidetaka Miyazaki’s most successful title that came out back in 2022.

Elden Ring Nightreign becomes another Souls game not directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki Hidetaka Miyazaki has been directing nearly all the Souls games | Credit: Creator...

Dark Souls 2 might be the most controversial game FromSoftware has ever created. Moreover, fans even view the game as not a true successor, however, Hidetaka Miyazaki doesn’t feel the same towards it. Instead, he feels that without it, the idea of more souls-like games from FromSoftware wouldn’t exist.

No, he doesn’t mean it sarcastically. He actually feels grateful for the sequel. He even says that the game laid the foundation for later games and the Elden Ring franchise as well. How is that possible? The worst game in the Dark Souls trilogy is the reason behind all the masterpieces? Looks like Dark Souls 2 fans saw something others didn’t.

Dark Souls 2 is the reason why players got to play a masterstroke like Elden Ring Who would have thought Dark Souls 2 was that impactful? | Image Credit: FromSoftware

Dark Souls 2 is controversial because it didn’t follow the same formula as its predecessor.

In what may truly be the Dark Souls of movie adaptation announcements, Deadline reported that A24 confirmed today that director Alex Garland is writing and directing a live-action adaptation of FromSoftware's 2022 action RPG, Elden Ring . Bandai Namco Entertainment will also partner to produce the film. Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich of DNA Films are attached to the project as producers along with fantasy author (and Elden Ring main story developer) George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones co-executive producer Vince Gerardis. No further details about the film adaptation were revealed at the time of reporting. Related: Elden Ring Nightreign Trailers Introduce Wylder, Guardian Characters Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and Yui Tanimura, Elden Ring was developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game and its 2024 expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree , are available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC systems. The official website describes the story...

Alex Garland will direct a live-action film adaptation of the hit video game “Elden Ring” film, produced by A24 and Bandai Namco.

Garland, who recently wrote and directed “Warfare” for A24, will also write the coming feature, based on the mythological story by George R. R. Martin. Garland had been previously rumored to be attached to the project. “Elden Ring” will be produced by Peter Rice alongside Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich from DNA, Martin and Vince Gerardis.

The original 2022 role-playing action video game was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, with Yui Tanimura co-directing. Set in an authentic dark fantasy world, “Elden Ring” is a fantasy epic with swathing environments and grim dungeons. Developed by FromSoftware and released by Bandai Namco Entertainment, this game has shipped more than 30 million units worldwide since its launch.

After its release, “Elden Ring” became a sweeping success at the 2022 Game Awards, taking home prizes for game of the year,...

There are only a few directors out there who are as renowned as Hidetaka Miyazaki. However, as refined as his work may be, even the supposedly brilliant man has slipped up once or twice, especially during the production of Dark Souls 1. Fortunately, it was this exact flaw that helped him deliver a better experience in future titles.

Hidetaka Miyazaki learns from his mistakes | The Game Awards

Miyazaki has already admitted that one of his biggest regrets about Dark Souls 1 was its development timeline, or, more specifically, the lack of proper scheduling, which ended up adding unnecessary delays in patches, something he took care of while making his future games from that point on.

Hidetaka Miyazaki’s regret with Dark Souls 1 and how he made up for it later on The director of Dark Souls had this one regret | FromSoftware

The first-ever Dark Souls holds a monumental level of significance for Hidetaka Miyazaki,...

Out of the massively impressive Souls catalog FromSoftware has to offer, Dark Souls 2 often stands out for many fans. Not only is it the sole Souls game not directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, but questionable decisions made by the studio during development have become a cause for wonder even today.

The second Dark Souls title had a really challenging development | FromSoftware

For those unaware, due to Miyazaki’s primary involvement with the making of Bloodborne, he was only able to join the Dark Souls 2 crew as a supervisor. To ensure the game still came out fulfilling fans’ expectations, FromSoft then decided to assign the title to 2 different directors, and that’s where everything went downhill.

The challenging development of Dark Souls 2 and what could have been The director of the second Dark Souls title has even called the development ‘arduous’ | FromSoftware

Dark Souls 2 had a lot of stakes riding on itself.

All the games made by FromSoftware are truly revolutionary in one sense or another. However, it takes more than just a few hundred hours of development time to be done with a title, and with a game like Dark Souls 2 that has such high-stakes riding on it, the problems become more unpredictable and harder than one can imagine.

Dark Souls 2 was one of the biggest challenges for the studio | FromSoftware

When a game director calls their own project ‘arduous’, you know something went terribly wrong. Dark Souls 2 was the infamous middle child of FromSoftware’s legendary franchise that embraces the Souls formula and had one of the most turbulent development cycles in gaming history.

Dark Souls 2: And why the absence of Hidetaka Miyazaki was a big problem Hidetaka Miyazaki (via GameInformer)

The biggest red flag for Dark Souls 2’s development was the absence of Hidetaka Miyazaki, the genius behind...

There are many times in the gaming industry that a studio’s vision won’t align with what the players expect out of them. It is at moments like these that however the studio decides to proceed, whether it be FromSoft, Netease Games, or anybody else, it would decide how much respect they get to hold in the industry.

Game studios respond differently to players’ complaints | Netease games

Taking an example, the creators of the famous Souls genre have always been persistent on never changing their formula, even if it ultimately meant losing a few players in the process. A step like this allows the studio to even experiment without anything holding them back, a step that Netease Games doesn’t seem to be too ready to take yet.

FromSoft: Sometimes stubbornness equates to industry success FromSoft has always sticked to one single formula | Dark Souls

When you look at...

Bethesda and Todd Howard have brought tons of features to the Fallout franchise that have ended up revolutionizing the gaming industry. However, one of the most important features we’ve seen in the post-apocalyptic series is undoubtedly the manual save.

Fallout is one of Bethesda’s crown jewels. (Image via Bethesda)

You might be laughing and thinking that this feature is such a basic one, and how on earth does it contribute to the game? Well, it’s all thanks to manual saves that you can backtrack a bad decision or escape sketchy situations in Fallout. It’s a critical feature in any game, but Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls 2 decided to move away from it.

FromSoftware doesn’t like Fallout‘s manual-save feature Dark Souls 2 wanted to be a challenging game. (Image via FromSoftware)

Before the launch of Dark Souls 2, game director Yui Tanimura sat down with Forbes and...

Japanese designer and writer Hidetaka Miyazaki has several created award-winning video games as the director of FromSoftware. His Soulslike games, in particular, are very popular among the gaming community, but almost everyone agrees that one Soulslike game was butchered due to Miyazaki’s negligence.

Dark Souls 2

Miyazaki did an outstanding job setting up the Dark Souls series with 2011’s Dark Souls, but unfortunately, for the second game, Miyazaki wasn’t completely involved because he was more focused on 2015’s Bloodborne. As a result, Dark Souls II (2014) just couldn’t meet the expectations. While many fans believe that Dark Souls II doesn’t fit in, Miyazaki once explained how crucial the game was in setting up the future of the series.

Hidetaka Miyazaki explained how Dark Souls II shaped his future video games

Hidetaka Miyazaki (via GameInformer)

Since 2009, FromSoftware’s president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has served as the director of every Soulslike...

While FromSoftware’s Dark Souls game was revolutionary in every sense, its sequel Dark Souls 2 just couldn’t strike the right chord. The first game was acclaimed as one of the greatest video games ever made by many.

Dark Souls

When it comes to its 2014 sequel, it did win quite a few awards, including Game of the Year. However, true loyalists of the franchise were left underwhelmed with the sequel. Although the issue wasn’t largely addressed, the creator Hidetaka Miyazaki may have revealed the reason and no one noticed.

Here’s why Dark Souls 2 lacks Miyazaki’s touch

In a 2017 interview with Future Press for their official collector’s guide about Bloodborne, Miyazaki mentioned he was not actively involved in the making of Dark Souls 2. Miyazaki was generally asked if he was interested only in creating something new. To this he replied,

“That’s a difficult question and I...

FromSoftware’s Dark Souls 2 was indeed a profitable game for the franchise as the game was well-received by the fanbase as well as the critics. Hidetaka Miyazaki, who served as the director of Dark Souls, chose to serve as a supervisor for the second game which was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura.

Although the game played a key role in building up the franchise, there were many issues that were reported at the time of its release. Miyazaki has stated in the past that Dark Souls 2 was very crucial for the franchise but lacked some important elements that ruined the overall gaming experience:

Hidetaka Miyazaki may have neglected Dark Souls 2 Dark Souls 2

Indeed, Hidetaka Miyazaki was involved in Dark Souls 2 as a supervisor. However, he was more focused on Bloodborne at the time so obviously, the game was neglected during its production. Bloodborne won several awards and has...

In an interview with IGN, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki reflected on the 2022 Game of the Year. To the surprise of many, Miyazaki reveals that he attributes part of Elden Ring’s success to a seemingly unlikely source: 2014’s Dark Souls 2.

“In regards to Dark Souls 2, I actually personally think this was a really great project for us, and I think without it, we wouldn’t have had a lot of the connections and a lot of the ideas that went forward and carried the rest of the series,” Miyazaki says. “We were able to have that different impetus and have those different ideas and make those different connections that we otherwise might not have had…there’s really no way of telling how or if the series would have continued the way it did without Dark Souls 2.”

It’s a notable bit of praise that comes almost exactly 10 years after Dark Souls 2’s debut.

Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is a very well-known figure in the gaming industry right now. Gamers everywhere can’t help but appreciate his efforts over the years. He gave gaming a brand-new genre, which is now commonly known as soulslike. And to take things even further, FromSoftware is now almost synonymous with the term soulslike. And this popularity was established long before the Elden Ring was a thing.

Ever since his first game, Demon Souls, Hidetaka Miyazaki has worked primarily on soulslike titles, barring Sekiro. Fans do not see Sekiro as a soulslike. But does he get pressured by his fans to keep working on these games, or does he still want to work on soulslike games?

Hidetaka Miyazaki reveals his opinion on soulslike genre after the success of Elden Ring A still from Demon Souls

When he was working on Demon Souls, no one was expecting that title to be successful.

A game director is as important for a video game as a director is important for a movie. The game director decides how players will play it, how the story will be presented, and much more. And over the years, video games have seen a number of legendary directors such as Hideo Kojima, Hideki Kamiya, Shinji Mikami, and Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki, etc. All of them bring their own distinctive style to the games that they work on.

Hidetaka Miyazaki has mostly worked on the Dark Souls series, and through his work, he has given the industry something huge to care for. A whole new genre of games. But it looks like he might step down as the director for future games, and players might start seeing new faces in the director’s seat.

Hidetaka Miyazaki suggests new directors might work on new games post-Elden Ring

A still from...

Kadokawa Corporation has announced on Feb 26, 2024, the they will adapt the critically acclaimed action RPG, Elden Ring into a webcomic. Titled Elden Ring Become Lord, the webcomic will be drawn by Hand Punch and is scheduled to begin serialization on March 29, 2024.

The webcomic will be available on Tatesc Comics website and other Japanese e-book stores. No details have been disclosed on English and other translations of the webcomic.

Hand Punch, the artist behind the webcomic adaptation, expressed his enthusiasm on the project, stating, “We are honored to be entrusted with the comic adaptation of such a prestigious work, but at the same time, we feel significant responsibility and pressure. Elden Ring is not just a game; it is art itself. While we have poured passion into the creation process without reservation, we faced numerous challenges along the way. However, just as this game has taught us, we believe that light...