In the wake of The Duskbloods, FromSoftware‘s Hidetaka Miyazaki says following the exact same rules with every game doesn’t result in fun games.
Dark Souls has inspired a mountain of games, it’s hard to think of any title in the last 15 years that has had more of an impact on our industry. Well, Fortnite did inspire how we approach live service, battle passes, and publishers chasing the next Fortnite, but I’m talking about positive impacts. This extends to FromSoftware itself, as Bloodborne, Sekiro, and especially Elden Ring all take elements from Dark Souls, yet feel like wholly unique games, and despite all being directed by Miyazaki, the similarities are not the goal for FromSoftware.
Speaking to The Guardian, Miyazaki explains, “There’s no intentional FromSoftware [mantra] – ‘this is the way we make our games,'” with The Duskbloods set to imbue the combat of a game like Bloodborne with a multiplayer, almost extraction shooter-like loop. He says, “If you start to do that it becomes stale and conservative, and you start having to adhere to a set of rules and philosophies, and it just doesn’t become interesting, you can’t make anything that’s as fun.”
Miyazaki notes: “I feel like at least what’s worked for us philosophically is trying to adhere to what we find interesting first. I think that has created a good throughline through our games, and that’s what we concentrate on to [conceive] a new title.”
Yes, FromSoftware definitely has a house style in the same way Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games share a ton of the same game mechanics in a different genre, or Sony’s first-party studios being primarily on cinematic-focused third-person action games for a long time. However, it’s undeniable that you are not playing the same game if you play Sekiro and Elden Ring back to back, and that being a mantra from the studio is undoubtedly a factor in its games being the beloved successes they are today.