Dark Souls and Elden Ring mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki “wouldn’t necessarily say” that FormSoftware invented the Soulslike genre

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Ever since Demon’s Souls dropped back in 2009, everyone’s called FromSoftware the kings of ‘Soulslikes’ – you know, those games where you really explore, build your character up, and have to be super strategic because they’re brutally hard. But honestly, Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director behind most of these games, doesn’t really think they deserve all the credit. It’s kinda surprising, but he’s a humble guy!

He told Game Informer that the term ‘Soulslike’ came about because FromSoftware simply recognized what players wanted. While often credited with creating the genre, he explained that the idea of challenging gameplay with death and learning as central mechanics was already desired by gamers. He believes there just hadn’t been a game that fully satisfied that desire yet.

Miyazaki initially worked on the Armored Core series, but he asked to join the development of Demon’s Souls, a new project that FromSoftware wasn’t fully confident in. He brought concepts from King’s Field, an older action-RPG series the company created in the 90s, and combined them with online play. This eventually led to the game’s defining mechanic: losing your progress upon death and having the chance to recover it by returning to where you fell.

This idea became central to all games in the SoulsBorne series – including Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and everything that followed – and has continued to influence all of Miyazaki’s work since. As he puts it, they realized it was acceptable to build games around the concept of dying, and that approach surprisingly connected with players.

He clarified it wasn’t really a brand new idea. Instead, he explained that their game design, which shares a lot with FromSoftware games, simply filled a gap in what was currently available.

No matter how you approach them, FromSoftware’s games have consistently grown in scope and ambition. A key part of that experience is the sting of losing a large amount of progress in a surprising encounter, only to be defeated again by a common enemy you thought was easy. True ‘Soulslike’ games aren’t defined by difficulty alone, but by that specific, frustrating cycle of loss and repeated attempts.

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2025-12-29 23:10