FromSoftware Boss Uses Every Elden Ring Advantage: ‘I Absolutely Suck at Video Games’

In what probably shouldn’t be surprising news, but somehow still is, FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki claims to not be very good at video games. Responsible for more gamer frustration, rage, and eventual triumph than any other developer working (probably), Miyazaki says that when it comes to Elden Ring, he takes every advantage and scrap of aid the game offers.

Almost certainly an evangelist of the Mimic Tear, Miyazaki spoke to The Guardian and explained he rarely plays his games post-launch: “Leading up to the release of any game, I’ll be very hands-on playing it and getting as much time on it as possible. But after the release, I tend not to want to touch it because I know I will find things I left on the table or issues that will bug me.”

With Shadow of the Erdtree separating the journalists from the gamers, the difficulty discourse that follows FromSoftware games once more reared its familiar head, and Miyazaki himself finally put the easy mode discourse to bed, once and for all. As for how he approaches the challenges in Elden Ring, the director says he takes every advantage that he can get; it is how the game was designed to be played:

“I want to preface this by saying I absolutely suck at video games, so my approach or play style was to use everything I have at my disposal, all the assistance, every scrap of aid that the game offers, and also all the knowledge that I have as the architect of the game. The freedom and open world nature of Elden Ring perhaps lowered the barrier to entry, and I might be the one who’s benefiting the most from that, as a player, more than anyone else.”