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In what probably shouldn't be surprising news, but somehow still is, FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki claims to not be very good at video games. Responsible for more gamer frustration, rage, and eventual triumph than any other developer working (probably), Miyazaki says that when it comes to Elden Ring, he takes every advantage and scrap of aid the game offers.
Almost certainly an evangelist of the Mimic Tear, Miyazaki spoke to The Guardian and explained he rarely plays his games post-launch: "Leading up to the release of any game, I'll be very hands-on playing it and getting as much time on it as possible. But after the release, I tend not to want to touch it because I know I will find things I left on the table or issues that will bug me."
With Shadow of the Erdtree separating the journalists from the gamers, the difficulty discourse that follows FromSoftware games once more reared its familiar head, and Miyazaki himself finally put the easy mode discourse to bed, once and for all. As for how he approaches the challenges in Elden Ring, the director says he takes every advantage that he can get; it is how the game was designed to be played:
"I want to preface this by saying I absolutely suck at video games, so my approach or play style was to use everything I have at my disposal, all the assistance, every scrap of aid that the game offers, and also all the knowledge that I have as the architect of the game. The freedom and open world nature of Elden Ring perhaps lowered the barrier to entry, and I might be the one who's benefiting the most from that, as a player, more than anyone else."
Knowing that the guy who designed the game engages with its mechanics and uses them, do you think franchise elitists will follow suit? Or is Miyazaki wrong, and the correct way to play the studio's games is to use the latest broken meta-build? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source theguardian.com]
Comments 28
He may not be a type of "god gamer", but his mind is godly with the way he goes about designing his games.
> Miyazaki way of thinking: I'll find every exploit i can get in game to help me beat this game
> Review bombers: This game sucks!!!! Let's review bomb this game and ask for a refund!!!! 😭😭😭
I think he totally exaggerates, given he can at least solve the game, which is probably better than most of the passionate gamers in the world.
There are gaming gods out there, speedrunners and people who use Donkey Kongas etc., and their videos are very prominent (which often show one success after dozens of hours of failure, btw). So if they are the benchmark, and you are a humble person, you cannot feel but being intimidated and pretend to suck in gaming.
Nice to know that even though he's the creator of the game he sucks at it. That should give hope to those gamers who feel that these games are too much for them to take on.@Max_the_German the guys being honest and open about not being very good at the game and uses all the help he can get and yet you still pour scorn on him? Would you have preferred he just said "git gud" and blew raspberries at everybody?
Elden Ring is only hard if you ignore all the things that make it easy. Most players ignore anything they don’t need, giving everyone the feeling of being taxed to the limit, but if you want an armchair ride it’s there for you.
Good to have Miyazaki confirm he did put all those things in deliberately, and you are supposed to use them. It’s a very clever and well executed design that should get more praise for its accessibility. It delivers the feeling of conquering the impossible to players of a very wide skill range.
This is like how the person in charge of directing the original RE despite not being able to handle horror was picked for the job because they thought someone who’s easily scared would know exactly the best way to scare others.
@Northern_munkey Maybe it got lost in translation: I think he is a very humble person who sells himself short. And he wants to encourage players to use all the means the game offers, because this would be the way the game is designed. You shouldn’t feel ashamed to be reliant on that, as he is as well. I like his attitude and message!
Already beaten 2 bosses, they didn't take more than 3 tries each. If you're in a hurry and aren't going to test out the millions of weapons, level up and read item descriptions, you're going to suffer.
Well for us that DO use things like Mimic Tear I feel the DLC was very uneven. A couple of bosses went down on first try thanks to mimic tear: dancing lion, Twin Moon Knight etc. And some only took a couple of tries. The problem lies with the bosses that almost seem designed to prevent you from even summoning a spirit ash: Commander Gaius, Messmer and Last boss. If you DO choose to use spirit summons and its intended to be uses as Miyazaki says, then WHY do you design bosses that charge you and almost makes it impossible to even summon them? Not very good design. All in all a very good DLC, almost felt like Elden Ring 2 due to all its content. But its far from perfect. PS. Favourite boss: Bayle the dread, OMG the spectacle, so awesome!
@Northern_munkey "Would you have preferred he just said "git gud" and blew raspberries at everybody"
Yes. That's exactly what he designed the game to do so he should follow suit 😊
I was about to kill the Dancing Lion first try (with Mimic) when the game stuttered so badly I got killed. And this is PS4 version on Ps5. I hope they fix the issues. But yeah you need help when the game chooses to ***** you.
“Knowing that the guy who designed the game engages with its mechanics and uses them, do you think franchise elitists will follow suit? Or is Miyazaki wrong, and the correct way to play the studio's games is to use the latest broken meta-build?”
No, and no. Those are not mutually exclusive. The “right” way to play Elden is what you personally make it to be, not what someone else feels it is. If that’s playing the latest meta builds, great. If that’s enjoying it blind, great. If that’s going through it at rune level 1, great. If that’s playing co-op and using ashes, great. If that’s using status spam or deleting the boss in seconds, great. What matters is the person having fun and not actively trying to impact other people’s enjoyment with their opinion of “the right way”.
"so my approach or play style was to use everything I have at my disposal, all the assistance, every scrap of aid that the game offers, and also all the knowledge that I have as the architect of the game."
So this confirms my theory that Boss cheese strategies are either implemented on purpose for players to find, or purposefully left in once found.
I believe in a Soulslike game, any strategy (inc cheese) is valid and is all part of the game.
For example, IF Elden Ring was an actually reality, I would certainly try to trick Radahn to drown into the sea if I thought i was an easier way to despatch him then face getting chopped to pieces.
Its like saying David 'cheesed' Goliath with his slingshot instead of fighting him toe to toe.
@Futureshark As a fan of enemy cheesing, I totally agree and I’m happy to see Miyazaki give me some gamer validation.
I’ve always said that in the Soulsborne games the player is getting “cheesed” all the time, so why is turnabout not fair play? I’ve been playing Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and for example, last night I was a Belfry Luna and I went to the edge of a pathway to pick up an item and was immediately ambushed from behind by a common enemy, who one-shotted me pushing me off the ledge and into an instant gravity death. It was clearly a set up. If you want the glowing item, you’re going to get pushed off the edge unless you know to immediately roll backward after you pick it up. So why is it not a legitimate tactic for me to push enemies off ledges for easy wins, hide around a corner and cheese some hits through the wall, snipe an unsuspecting enemy from a distance, summon an NPC to help me gang up on a boss, kite enemies through a choke point so I can manage a crowd better, overlevel my character to make myself stronger and more survivable… the game is doing all these things to me, so I should be allowed to do the same to it.
I been playing video games since the 1980s and i been playing a lot of hard video games.im used to playing hard games.come one son.word up son
@Max_the_German fair enough bud 👍
@Th3solution
I couldn't have put it better myself, spot on!
@breakneck Why playing the PS4 version on PS5? The upgrade is free.
Miyazaki: No difficulty settings, ever, just git gud.
Also Miyazaki: I suck at Soulsborne, I just summon sweats to beat it for me.
I somehow suspect if he didn't have that advantage of being the architect and knowing what cheap tricks he put in, avoiding half the trial and error design, he just might have a different take on the frustration levels of his games and why people may not agree with him.
#TeamMimicTear
@Futureshark Exactly. In these games each boss is a puzzle to solve. In Demons Souls it was very gimmickal, and it went more and more subtle to Elden Ring. It's impossible to beat the DLC bosses with a narrow minded build and unique play style. It's like Shin Megami Tensei games, you have to exploit the weakness of the boss and do not expose yours.
@B0udoir performance is more fluid at 60fps in the PS4 version on next gen.
As much as I dislike the "give me easy mode waaah!" crowd, I dislike the "My way is the only real way to play the game" crowd even more.
On social media, people have found that the perfume bottle weapon with the Rolling Sparks ash of war can cheese any boss in a couple of seconds. "DLC is too hard I want a refund blah blah blah" they were saying....
@Perturbator
Two sides of the same awful, entitled coin.
@Yousef- "You can't make something scary if you don't have any fear."
Love FromSoftware output since Demon Souls (and completed everyone since). I just had to react to his comments about not playing as he sees things left on the table. Clearly frame stutter isn’t one of them 😂
That makes sense. I don’t enjoy souls games (or monster hunter games either) because they feel clunky but the “system” feels fair. In a way they remind me of fighting games (a genre I live for) where if you invest the time and learn the system you can mow down the opposition. The difference for me is fighting games give me a dopamine hit the entire time so I will throw myself at the wall until I improve. Souls games feel so cumbersome that it isn’t worth that investment for me. But that absolutely explains why those that love those games adore them so.
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