Why is this so difficult!!! Hidetaka Miyazaki's Elden Ring

    Hidetaka Miyazaka is a Japanese video game director and executive of FormSoftware. In his time at FormSoftware, he has worked as a director on many games: Dark Souls, Sekiro, Bloodborne, etc. These games are popularly known for being very difficult. My first experience with Miyazaka has been through his newest game Elden Ring. 

    Looking into his creative process for Elden Ring, Miyazaka collaborated with George R. R. Martin, who is most famous for writing the Game of Thrones series. Miyazaka worked with this other creator and both had an immense impact on the product. In an interview with Miyazaka, he stated that he prefers collaborators who are relatively disconnected from the video game world. In doing this, he is challenged and is able to explore new avenues that someone in his line of work would not come up with. Their differences in occupation also led to that difference of roles we see in the creative process. Martin focused on creating the concepts of the story and characters of the game while Miyazaka took those in and worked with his team to create the game. 

    In Elden Ring, you play as a "tarnished" in a land in which the Golden Order has been broken. This has led to a major power vacuum in the world which, in turn, leads to chaos from multiple sides. Seizing this power vacuum, aka becoming the "Elden Lord," is the main quest of the game though there are thousands of things to do before you get there. 

    The multifaceted aspects of Miyazaka's games are what sets him apart from other creatives in the video game field. In looking at video games, Miyazaka notices a common trend in games. He notices that most games focus on quest after quest in a rigid setting. Even games that have open worlds have clearly set and rigid missions and play barriers. In his creative process, he points out the problem, or rather an observation, of current creatives and presents his solution of a truly open-world game. 

    Now I will say, I had never experienced anything like this. Elden Ring starts out with a couple small missions that introduce the world and gameplay to you but then the map opens up. No clearly pointed out tasks, no one saying explicitly where to go. While it is nerve-racking, It works. While it is more difficult to navigate, players over time form an intimate connection to the map, knowing exactly where a cave is, knowing which places to be careful of larger enemies, which places to shop for a new spell or incantation. This is what Miyazaka wanted with the game. Not for strict, clear tasks, but for open-ended ones that allow players to play at their own place while offering them the ability to explore every nook and cranny of their world.

    Another problem Miyazaka had with the current world of games was the level of satisfaction players would feel while playing the game. Miyazaka contributes this to the amount of difficulty in his games. When a player easily defeats a boss, there is satisfaction but it does not last, especially if bosses are continually being beaten easily. Instead, a boss that is just the perfect amount of difficulty can generate much more satisfaction. Finding the perfect amount of difficulty, however, is a difficult thing to do. when fighting a boss, if you get killed by but you bring its health down to 10%, something in you says to try again, or level up and try again. This aspect of his games allows for constant bettering of the player and ultimate satisfaction when a boss is beaten. On top of this, the player is forced to employ new tactics which allow them to see what works and what does not.

    

    With this creation of difficult bosses, Miyazaka also felt the need to balance grotesqueness, or otherworldliness, with beauty. He does this specifically to add more dimension to these powerful enemies. It's very difficult to despise an enemy that constantly kills you. Above you see Godrick the Grafted. He is one of the first bosses you see in the game and he is extremely difficult. I did not like him. Anyways, he is described in the lore as a hero. A hero that lost his way because of the shattering of the Elden ring and his newfound search for power. In providing this backstory, along with the beauty in the actual picturing of this previously heroic character, these characters are no longer one-dimensional. Not only is this a very difficult boss, but this is a very difficult boss that used to be a hero. A hero that everyone loved and would have lived a beautiful life if the shattering of the Golden Order did not occur. The gravity of the situations in the game can be felt. 

    This begs the question of why. Why put so much work into this? Why spend hours on things people may overlook? What is Miyazaka's motivation? Is it extrinsic or intrinsic? I would say both. Actually making a game could have extrinsic motivators such as money. But when he spends time actually making the game, creating these backstories, I think it can be more intrinsic. Why focus on the beauty of one of the major bosses at the beginning of the game that most people, like myself, would not notice unless they wrote a blog post about it. Miyazaka says that he does this because he wants to feel he made something beautiful. There is more than just money, there is confidence and happiness in the product. On top of this, working with a writer like George R. R. Martin may also be a facet of this intrinsic motivation because this challenges Miyazaka to focus on what's being said and create something beautiful out of it.

Sources:

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/01/28/an-interview-with-fromsoftwares-hidetaka-miyazki/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidetaka_Miyazaki

https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/elden-ring

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/06/hidetaka-miyazaki-dark-souls-deracine-fromsoftware