'That wasn’t the right approach'- Hidetaka Miyazaki on Elden Ring

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is undoubtedly one of the biggest releases this year that has brought back almost the entire player base. Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki sat down with Keza MacDonald from The Guardian at the recent Summer Game Fest to talk about the game and his work and had a lot to say.

One of the most eye-catching talks was about the difficulty in Souls games, which have been a highly debated topic among the gaming community. Software games are known to have some of the most difficult enemies, which have garnered love from many as well as a lot of rage.

However, Elden Ring’s open world and the ability to just pack bags and go somewhere else if you are stuck as per Miyazaki was intentional and gave players more freedom, allowing more to hop into the game. “At no point during the game did we want players to feel claustrophobic or overly limited in the scope of what they’re able to do and experience in that world,” he said.

Souls games are not made for everyone

Many players argue that the enemy's difficulty is one of the biggest reasons why some players are unable to get into games like Elden Ring. To which he said, “If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more. But that wasn’t the right approach.”

Miyazaki says that turning the difficulty down will simply “strip the game of that joy” and take away the sense of achievement players get after defeating an enemy or boss, which is true. Losing to a boss, going somewhere, levelling up and then finally taking down the boss have a different feeling. However, do not assume that simply levelling up will make you the Elden Lord.

BTW, Here's: How to start the new Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

Another statement that Miyazaki made should be an inspiration for the entire gaming industry. The success of their games does not go to their heads. “No decision is based on any assumption that, hey, we did it once, it’s going to happen again. Allowing for this rather conservative forecast gives us room to fail, and that in turn results in better games and better decisions,” he said.