Jump to content

Hidetaka Miyazaki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 67.253.209.118 (talk) at 18:54, 19 March 2022. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Hidetaka Miyazaki
宮崎 英高
Born1974 or 1975 (age 48–49)
Shizuoka, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Alma materKeio University
Occupations
Years active2004–present
Notable credits
TitleRepresentative Director and President of FromSoftware, Inc.
Term2014–present
Awards

Hidetaka Miyazaki (宮崎 英高, Miyazaki Hidetaka, born c. 1974–1975) is a Japanese video game director, designer, writer, and executive of FromSoftware. He originally joined the company in 2004 as a game designer for the Armored Core series before becoming better known for creating the Souls series. He was promoted to company president in 2014 and also serves as its representative director. Other notable games he has directed include Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Call of duty vanguard, all of which have received critical acclaim and won several awards.

Miyazaki's influences range from the works of various novelists, mangakas, game designers such as Fumito Ueda and Yuji Horii, as well as Asian and European architecture. His games, particularly the Souls series, often invoke the use of high difficulty and a large amount of setting and character information provided through flavor text and environmental cues. Cited as an auteur of video games, his work in the Souls series and related titles have been seen as influential.

Early life

Miyazaki was born circa 1974–1975 and grew up poor in the city of Shizuoka, Japan, stating that he had no life ambitions as a child.[1] Despite his parents being unable to afford him many books, he was an avid reader and borrowed heavily from his local library.[1] He would often read English fantasy and science fiction literature that he did not fully understand, allowing his imagination to fill in the blanks by using the accompanying illustrations, something he later cited was a major influence on his design philosophy.[2][1] He was restricted from playing video games by his parents until he was old enough to attend university, so he instead played gamebooks and tabletop games such as Steve Jackson's Sorcery! and Dungeons & Dragons.[3]

Career

He attended Keio University and graduated with a degree in social science, later getting a job as an account manager for the US based Oracle Corporation to pay for his sister's college tuition fees.[2][4] Upon a friend's recommendation, Miyazaki played the 2001 video game Ico, which caused him to want a career change as a game designer.[1] Miyazaki found that few game companies would employ him at age 29 with no experience working as a designer, with one of the few being FromSoftware. He began working there as a planner on Armored Core: Last Raven in 2004, joining the game's development midway through.[1][4] He later directed Armored Core 4 and its direct sequel, Armored Core: For Answer.[4]

Upon learning about what later became Demon's Souls, Miyazaki became excited at the prospect of a fantasy action role-playing game and offered to help.[1] The project, up until he was assigned to it, was considered a failure by the company. He believed the company's outlook on the game allowed him to take full control of the project as any further failed ideas would not hurt it.[1] Although the game was received negatively at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and sold far under expectations upon release, it began to pick up after a few months and soon found publishers willing to release the game outside of Japan.[1] After the release and success of the game's spiritual successor Dark Souls in 2011, Miyazaki was promoted to the position of company president in May 2014.[5][6] It was considered unprecedented for a person to change careers in Japan and become company president within 10 years.[1]

After the release of the Prepare to Die edition of Dark Souls in August 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment approached FromSoftware concerning cooperative development on a new game. Miyazaki asked about the possibility of developing a game for eighth-generation consoles, and the concept of Bloodborne developed from there. Even though there were no story or setting connections to FromSoftware's previous games, Miyazaki said that it carried the "DNA" of Demon's Souls and its specific level design.[3] Development ran parallel to that of Dark Souls II, which Miyazaki supervised only as he was unable to direct both games simultaneously.[7]

After the release of Bloodborne in March 2015, Miyazaki returned to the Souls series as the lead director on Dark Souls III, which released early the following year.[8][9] After its release, he announced his intentions to personally stop development on the Souls series.[10][11] His next two projects were the 2018 virtual reality game Déraciné and the 2019 action-adventure game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, with the latter winning several awards.[12][13] At the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards ceremony, he was awarded the show's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the video game industry.[14] The award was presented to him by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, two of his design influences.[15] Miyazaki also directed 2022's Elden Ring, written in collaboration with A Song of Ice and Fire series author George R. R. Martin.[16]

Influences and design philosophy

Miyazaki is inspired by architectural designs and often uses them as a part of environmental storytelling in his games. One such example is Anor Londo, a central location in Dark Souls, being modeled after the Milan Cathedral in Italy (left) and Château de Chambord in France (right).

Miyazaki's influences include video games such as Ico,[1] the early Dragon Quest games,[17][18] and The Legend of Zelda[17][19] and King's Field video game series,[20] manga series such as Berserk, Saint Seiya, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,[21] and Devilman,[19] the literary works of H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, and George R. R. Martin,[19][22][23] and gamebooks such as Steve Jackson's Sorcery! and RuneQuest.[19][24] Miyazaki is also inspired by architecture, especially of Europe, and often uses it as a way of environmental storytelling.[25][26][27][28] Psychology, anthropology, and sociology have also influenced his design philosophy.[3]

As a director, Miyazaki usually writes the majority of the story, dialogue, text himself, while having the final say on character, monster, and level designs. The multiplayer mechanics of the Souls series were inspired by his own personal experience of driving up a snowy road as cars ahead began slipping back and were pushed uphill by other people in the area. As Miyazaki was unable to give his thanks before they left the area, he wondered whether the last person in the line had made it to their destination as he was unlikely to ever meet them again. This gave birth to the series' multiplayer systems, with it attempting to emulate that same sense of silent cooperation.[29]

Miyazaki stated that the difficulty of the Souls series had no intention of being that way compared to other games. Rather, the difficulty was a part of the process that gives players a sense of accomplishment by "overcoming tremendous odds", while also incentivizing players to experiment more with character builds and weapons.[26] He stated that death in his games are used as a trial and error learning tool, adding that the idea became accepted by the public following the success of Demon's Souls.[30] Miyazaki stated that he does not dislike direct storytelling but prefers players to interpret it for themselves, as they get more value from it when they find out hints of plot from items or side-characters.[26] Many journalists and critics have cited him an auteur of video games, noting his influential work in the Souls series and related games.[31][32][33]

Personal life

Miyazaki has a son who was born sometime in the late 2010s.[34]

Works

Year Title Role
2005 Armored Core: Last Raven Planner
2006 Armored Core 4 Director
2008 Armored Core: For Answer
2009 Demon's Souls
2011 Dark Souls Director, producer
2014 Dark Souls II Supervisor
2015 Bloodborne Director
2016 Dark Souls III
2018 Déraciné
2019 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
2022 Elden Ring

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Parkin, Simon. "Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki: 'I didn't have a dream. I wasn't ambitious'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 3, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Parkin, Simon (February 25, 2022). "Hidetaka Miyazaki Sees Death as a Feature, Not a Bug". New Yorker. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Silva, Marty (February 5, 2015). "Inside the Mind of Bloodborne and Dark Souls' Creator – IGN First". IGN. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Gantayat, Anoop. "Hidetaka Miyazaki Discusses Dark Souls". Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  5. ^ Duwell, Ron. "Dark Souls' Hidetaka Miyazaki Promoted to President of From Software". Techno Buffalo. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  6. ^ Karmali, Luke. "Dark Souls Director Hidetaka Miyazaki Made President of From Software". IGN. Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  7. ^ "新しいハードで新しいゲームを――PS4専用タイトル「Bloodborne（ブラッドボーン）」とはどんなゲームなのか。ディレクター・宮崎英高氏インタビュー" (in Japanese). 4Gamer. June 19, 2014. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  8. ^ Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 is Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 23, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  9. ^ Scammell, David (June 17, 2015). "Dark Souls 3 is being developed by a different team to Bloodborne". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  10. ^ Hillier, Brenna (April 27, 2016). "Dark Souls 3 director already working on a new IP". VG247. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  11. ^ Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 Interview: "It Wouldn't Be Right to Continue Creating Souls"". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  12. ^ Yamagiwa, Masaaki. "Déraciné: Japan Studio X FromSoftware's PS VR Debut". blog.us.playstation.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  13. ^ McWhertor, Michael. "FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice coming from Activision". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  14. ^ Sullivan, Lucas. "Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki takes the Lifetime Achievement award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2018". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  15. ^ Ruppert, Liana. "'Dark Souls' Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  16. ^ West, Josh. "Elden Ring had its 'overarching mythos' written by George RR Martin, reveals Hidetaka Miyazaki". GamesRadar+. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  17. ^ a b "Dark Souls' grand vision". Edge. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ^ Nunneley, Stephany. "Dark Souls online play to bring back the feeling of old Dragon Quest games". VG247. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  19. ^ a b c d Mielke, James. "'Dark Souls' Creator Miyazaki on 'Zelda,' Sequels and Starting Out". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  20. ^ Cook, Dave. "From King's Field to Bloodborne: the lineage of Dark Souls". VG247. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  21. ^ "Dark Souls Design Works Translation: Weapons and Equipment Part 1/2". Giant Bomb. Archived from the original on May 22, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  22. ^ "[Bloodborne] Exclusive Interview with Jun Yoshino!". playstation.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  23. ^ Krabbe, Esra. "Elden Ring Is an Evolution of Dark Souls Says Creator – E3 2019". IGN. Archived from the original on June 22, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  24. ^ Hussain, Tamoor. "Dark Souls 3 Interview: "It Wouldn't Be Right to Continue Creating Souls"". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 22, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  25. ^ Otsuka, Kadoman (2012). "Dark Souls Interview". Dark Souls Design Works. UDON Entertainment Corp. pp. 114–125. ISBN 978-1926778891.
  26. ^ a b c Kamen, Matt. "Dark Souls 3 director: it's about 'accomplishment by overcoming tremendous odds'". Wired. Archived from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  27. ^ McMullan, Thomas. "From Dark Souls to Manifold Garden: How games tell stories through architecture". Alphr. Archived from the original on June 16, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  28. ^ Stanton, Rich. "The Real Dark Souls Starts Here: 13 Real-Life Inspirations for Lordran". IGN. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  29. ^ MacDonald, Keza (May 27, 2010). "Souls Survivor". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  30. ^ "A journey into the mentality of Dark Souls with director Hidetaka Miyazaki". Archived from the original on April 26, 2018.
  31. ^ Hosie, Ewen. "The Architects: Video Gaming's Auteurs". IGN. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  32. ^ Hetfeld, Malindy. "Auteur Theory and Games". Unwinnable.com. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  33. ^ Avard, Alex. "Dark Souls + Game of Thrones anybody? George R.R. Martin and FromSoftware have apparently teamed up to work on a new game". GamesRadar+. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  34. ^ Pedro Scapin (October 9, 2019). "BGS 2019: Hidetaka Miyazaki diz o que mudaria em Bloodborne, elege jogo favorito, conta o que faz no tempo livre e muito mais" (in Portuguese). Gamespot.com.br. Archived from the original on January 5, 2020.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hidetaka_Miyazaki&oldid=1078078152"