Hidetaka Miyazaki

It's quite obvious that the 'Dark Souls' franchise is reaching a turning point, and I'm happy that I have a greater budget for the third game, as well as the creative freedom to make my own decisions. But if there were some restrictions about what I was creating, I definitely wouldn't want to work on it.

I, as a gamer, understand passion to discuss favourite games.

I personally want my games to be described as satisfying rather than difficult.

Our strengths or maybe our characteristic as a developer firm software used to maybe be known as a studio that put out unexpected, almost, like, quirky, very unique titles. Not that we've lost that charm in recent years, but that's something that I really, really liked about our studio.

'Deracine' is French for uprooting, or someone who's been displaced from their natural environment.

I enjoy the process of adding elaboration into games and like to communicate with users through the details I create.

One of my favourite Japanese cartoons is 'Yasuragi no Yakata,' written by the famous Fujiko Fujio.

From Software believes all the things we have learned in the past titles can be best reflected in the future only by starting work on a new franchise or series. That's the philosophy behind us trying to make a decision about leaving the 'Dark Souls' franchise.

The main concept of 'Dark Souls III' is the first flame and its successors; the world has been in this cycle of reigniting the flame since the first game, but now it seems to be disappearing, almost dying. We're trying to draw out the aspects of this withering flame.

'Dark Souls' is my life's work; everything I came up with for 'Dark Souls III' is based on my personal preferences.

We always look back at our back catalogue for inspiration for new titles, but when it comes to very old things like the 'King's Field' series, I'm concerned about just mimicking the style of what Naotoshi Zin, the founder of FromSoftware, created for the PlayStation original. I would rather not go back to it simply out of respect.

I'm not necessarily a fan of horror genre of movies or books.

There was a board game called 'Sorcery,' which is one of my favorites, and I would often revisit the game. It's not a video game, but it definitely stands out in my mind as a game that impacted me.

Growing up, I was restricted at home from playing video games until I reached university.

Being a director, I've had the privilege of heading a PS3 launch title. Looking back, I think the PS4 has made the development cycle much easier.

The grappling hook allows for versatile and dynamic movement through the map, while a variety of shinobi-esque tools allow for all sorts of tricks and finesse. These are very important elements of 'Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice''s gameplay and the protagonist's nature.

From the initial design stages of 'Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,' we had the idea of the player being able to move dynamically through a detailed, multi-layered map. We found that a 'shinobi' type character was the key to achieving this in a way that was both realistic and cool.

The construction of 'Sekiro''s world is based on that of traditional Sengoku, or medieval Japan. To that end, we made sure to reference a lot of written materials on that period as well as actually visit several locations.

Everybody knows what the core of 'Dark Souls' is - the dev team does, the fans do, the media does - and that will never change.

Development of 'Bloodborne' and sinking into the battle of the hunter and the unique horror world was not only an exciting experience but it also allowed me to re-acknowledge the charm of a fantasy world and the intrigue of 'Dark Souls' for me.

I am very happy if those who played 'Bloodborne' are interested in 'Dark Souls III' too.

I believe that 'Dark Souls III' must be developed as its own individual series.

For me, 'Dark Souls III' is the end, but that doesn't mean the end for 'Dark Souls.' If someone other than myself, like another staff member, wants to make a 'Dark Souls,' then I don't want to deny others from making future installments.

I believe I can do both the 'Bloodborne DLC' and 'Dark Souls 3.' This isn't the first time I've had to work on two projects at the same time.

I believe that From Software has to create new things. There will be new types of games coming from us, and 'Dark Souls 3' is an important marker in the evolution of From Software.

I'm considering 'Dark Souls 3' to be the big closure on the series. That's not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future.

I don't think it'd be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating 'Souls' and 'Bloodborne' games.

In 'Demon's Souls,' we tried to implement some features in a kind of experimental way, not being sure whether or not it would be popular, but we did it anyway so that we could see how people reacted.

It's true that I'm sad about not being involved in the development of 'Dark Souls II,' because I've worked on 'Demon's Souls' and 'Dark Souls'' development for the past five years.

I'm not one to restrict the potential that 'Dark Souls' has by insisting that only I can work on the titles.

Games are a media that relies on technology to be innovative and forward thinking and interesting. Personally, I love being at that forefront when something new comes out.

Dark Souls is in some ways an incomplete game, and I like to think that it has been completed by players, by their discoveries, as they moved along. I'd love to say that the nature of this incompleteness was completely deliberate, but it is both deliberate and by accident in different ways.

I am conscious of that when I make these games: I try to make a game that has beautiful open spaces, gaps, room for players to enjoy it in ways that were not authored. I never want it to be where you have to follow the rules completely, where you have to do things exactly as the designers intended.

Often, I hear my ideas are more incomprehensible than not.

In order to produce the satisfaction of comprehension, there first needs to be the process of comprehension. Furthermore, the overarching idea at hand needs to be something that is actually comprehensible.

I love throwing down the gauntlet and trying our hand at that new tech.

I'm not very good at action games in general and find most action games to be hard.

Utilising wit in the thick of battle will be your key to victory.

When I was working on the first 'Dark Souls' - as far back as 'Demon's Souls,' actually - I didn't expect the player community to come up with speedrun contests or any of the strange new ways to play the games.

To be honest, I'm really not interested on how I'm viewed as. The only thing I'm interested in is to keep creating something special. Whether that something is synonymous to me or not is really none of my concern.

We do need this diversity in the industry. Regardless of what From Software is doing, we need people making battle royale games and live services, and we need people making single-player focused experiences. We feel that this diversity is what will keep everyone going.

If the number of easy games is increasing nowadays, I guess it is because difficulty is not related to interesting and worthwhile game elements in many games among players.

I've been familiar with western fantasy novels since I was a boy.

If you had a game that said, 'Oops, you're dead. Now switch off the game,' it wouldn't be very successful. So you do need to have something to teach and be there to learn from, and we feel that death in video games is a positive experience.

Ever since 'Demon's Souls,' I've really been pursuing making games that give players a sense of accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds.

The more time I spend working on 'Sekiro,' the deeper I sink into this zone of blood and gore and conflict. But if I want to get out of it, I can walk over to the other side of the studio and ease myself into a completely different feeling when I work on 'Deracine.'

Unlike most kids in Japan, I didn't have a dream. I wasn't ambitious.

Now I'm president. I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They're such weird people. I'm fascinated by them. I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.

To feel fulfilled, you must first have a goal that needs fulfilling. At the same time, it must actually be possible to fulfill said goal.

I think death is a crucial element when designing games around the theme of the satisfaction of overcoming overwhelming odds.