Hidetaka Miyazaki

Hidetaka Miyazaki
Native name 宮崎 英高
Born Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan
Occupation President of FromSoftware, game director
Known for Souls series
Bloodborne

Hidetaka Miyazaki (宮崎 英高 Miyazaki Hidetaka, born in Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan)[1] is a Japanese video game director and current president of the video game development company, FromSoftware.[2] Miyazaki originally joined FromSoftware as a programmer in 2004, and after directing Armored Core 4 and Armored Core: For Answer, he became widely known for creating the Souls series.

Although Miyazaki had directed the first two games in the series, Miyazaki took a supervising role for Dark Souls II, due to the parallel development of Bloodborne, which made him unable to direct both titles simultaneously.[3] After the release of Bloodborne, Miyazaki returned to the Souls series as the lead director on Dark Souls III.[4]

Early life

Miyazaki stated that he grew up "tremendously poor" while living in the city of Shizuoka, Japan. He was a keen reader, but since his parents couldn’t afford him books or manga, he had to borrow "whatever he could find in his local library".[1] The books he read at the time were sometimes beyond his reading capabilities, with parts of text he couldn't understand fully. Miyazaki used his imagination to fill in the blanks using the accompanying illustrations, which later inspired some of his ideas for game design.[1]

Career

After graduating, Miyazaki went to work doing account managing for the U.S. based Oracle Corporation.[1][5] Upon a friend's recommendation, Miyazaki began playing the 2001 video game Ico, causing him to consider a career change to a game designer.[1] At age 29 however, Miyazaki found that few game companies would employ him,[1] one of the few that would was FromSoftware, where Miyazaki began working as a planner on Armored Core: Last Raven in 2004, joining the game's development halfway through.[1][5] Miyazaki later became the director of Armored Core 4 and it's direct sequel, Armored Core: For Answer.[5]

Upon learning about what later became Demon's Souls, Miyazaki became excited at the prospect of the title and offered to help.[1] Although the game sold poorly at first, it began to pick up after a few months and soon found publishers willing to release the title outside Japan.[1] After the release of the game's spiritual successors Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, Miyazaki was promoted to the position of president in 2014.[2] After the release of the Prepare to Die edition of Dark Souls in August 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment approached FromSoftware concerning cooperative development on a new title. Miyazaki asked about the possibility of developing a game for eighth-generation consoles, and the concept of Bloodborne developed from there. There were no story or setting connections to FromSoftware's previous titles, even though Miyazaki conceded that it "carries the DNA of Demon's Souls and its very specific level design".[6] Development ran parallel to that of Dark Souls II, which Miyazaki simply supervised as he was unable to direct both titles simultaneously.[7]

After the release of Bloodborne in March 2015, Miyazaki returned to the Souls series as the director on Dark Souls III, with assistance from Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor and Dark Souls II directors Isamu Okano and Yui Tanimura, respectively.[4][8] Dark Souls III was released in Japan in March 2016, and worldwide the next month. In April 2016, Miyazaki revealed that he and FromSoftware would be working on a new intellectual property, unrelated to the Souls series.[9]

Influences

Miyazaki's influences include video games such as Ico,[10] the early Dragon Quest games,[11] and the King's Field series,[12] manga series such as Berserk, Saint Seiya, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,[13] and gamebooks such as Sorcery!.[14] Mizayaki has also been influenced by European architecture, incorporating various styles of it into his games.[15]

Miyazaki stated that the notable difficulty of the Souls series had no intention of being "more difficult than other titles on purpose". Rather, the difficulty was apart of the process that gives players "a sense of accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds", while also having a certain level of difficulty incentivizing "players to experiment more with character builds and weapon load-outs".[15]

When asked about his style of storytelling, Miyazaki stated that despite what people believe, he doesn't dislike direct storytelling, but prefers players to interpret the world for themselves, stating that the "player gets more value from it when they themselves find out hints of plot from items or side-characters they encounter in the world."[15]

Works

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Parkin, Simon. "Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki: ‘I didn’t have a dream. I wasn’t ambitious'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 Duwell, Ron. "Dark Souls’ Hidetaka Miyazaki Promoted to President of From Software". Techno Buffalo. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Karmali, Luke. "Dark Souls Director Hidetaka Miyazaki Made President of From Software". IGN. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  4. 1 2 Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 is Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki". GameSpot. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Gantayat, Anoop. "Hidetaka Miyazaki Discusses Dark Souls". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Silva, Marty (2015-02-05). "Inside the Mind of Bloodborne and Dark Souls' Creator - IGN First". IGN. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  7. ↑ "新しいハードで新しいゲームを――PS4専用タイトル「Bloodborne（ブラッドボーン）」とはどんなゲームなのか。ディレクター・宮崎英高氏インタビュー". 4Gamer. 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  8. ↑ Scammell, David (17 June 2015). "Dark Souls 3 is being developed by a different team to Bloodborne". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Hillier, Brenna (April 27, 2016). "Dark Souls 3 director already working on a new IP". VG 247. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  10. ↑ Parkin, Simon. "Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki: ‘I didn’t have a dream. I wasn’t ambitious'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Nunneley, Stephany. "Dark Souls online play to bring back the feeling of old Dragon Quest games". VG247. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Cook, Dave. "From King’s Field to Bloodborne: the lineage of Dark Souls". VG247. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Dark Souls Design Works Translation: Weapons and Equipment Part 1/2". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 Interview: "It Wouldn’t Be Right to Continue Creating Souls"". GameSpot. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  15. 1 2 3 Kamen, Matt. "Dark Souls 3 director: it's about 'accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds'". Wired. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
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