Friends, it turns out that Hidetaka Miyazaki and I are basically the same person. We both react with a kind of bemusement, almost a kind of happiness, when people like our work. Miyazaki, the director of "Dark Souls," has no idea why "The Elden Ring" was such a success, much the same way I was once surprised to get a good score on an essay I wrote the night before a deadline. Sort of. Just a little. Hey, give me some of that.

Miyazaki was asked to explain the phenomenal success of the Elden ring during a Q&A session at the Playstation Partner Awards (via IGN (opens in new tab)). Miyazaki's guess seems to be correct: "I haven't analyzed it too much," Miyazaki said, "It's true that it sold better than [FromSoft's] previous games, but I don't know why." Perhaps the Pope Tortoise (open in new tab).

This is because Miyazaki seems determined to continue directing his games according to his own tastes, rather than incorporating whatever seems popular. Miyazaki says that he tries not to think too deeply. He believes that "it is not good to analyze something too deeply and consciously try to recreate it in another game." So don't expect another open-world epic from FromSoft just because "The Elden Ring" did well.

In fact, it seems that Director Miyazaki definitely does not want external factors to dictate the direction of his game design. Miyazaki said that he intentionally avoids being overly exposed to player feedback as a lesson we should all take to heart. Miyazaki said that he tries to avoid "too much direct exposure to feedback," because "it could affect our future decisions as developers, and that's rather unsettling."

That's a very admirable philosophy, and one that seems better suited to creating innovative and interesting games than designing for each focus group. Still, is this the most recent time that Miyazaki has embraced this way of thinking? In particular, "Dark Souls 3" seemed to have been created in direct response to the countless criticisms thrown at "Dark Souls 2" by players. Then again, perhaps Miyazaki had someone who could do that for him.