Dark Souls creator isn’t sure ‘how or if the series would have continued the way it did without Dark Souls 2’
Miyazaki says Dark Souls 2 was “a really great project for us”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Dark Soulscreator and the president of developer FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has been speaking aboutDark Souls 2’s impact on the series, and says that he’s not sure “how or if” the series would have progressed in the manner it did without the divisive second installment.
For anyone unfamiliar,Dark Souls 2’s reception amongst the fanbase was, and still is, mixed, to say the least. While many love it, it’s also received its fair share of criticism over the years, largely due to its differences from the first game, like the Estus Flask (a replenishable healing item) taking forever to actually heal you, and alterations to the invincibility frames granted by dodge rolls. Notably, it’s also the only soulsborne game that wasn’t directed by Miyazaki, who instead served as a supervisor on the title.
Even so, Miyazaki has a lot of love for the controversial sequel. In a newinterview with IGN, he referred to it as “a really great project for us,” and added: “I think without it, we wouldn’t have had a lot of the connections and a lot of the ideas that went forward and carried the rest of the series.”
Furthermore, Miyazaki believes that having different directors on the game - Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura - meant that the sequel could introduce new ideas that may not have been included otherwise. He added that there’s “really no way of telling how or if the series would have continued the way it did withoutDark Souls 2.”
Given how much more openDark Souls 2’s world was than its predecessor, it’s easy to see how it could have had an influence on FromSoftware’s 2022 role-playing game,Elden Ring, which was released to exceptional critical acclaim.
Elden Ring’s paid expansion,Shadow of the Erdtree,received its first trailer this week, along with a release date. It’s set to launch on June 21.
For more games like Dark Souls, be sure to check out our roundup of thebest soulslike gamesfor your next challenge. Alternatively, if you’re looking to expand your PC gaming library, be sure to check out our list of thebest PC games.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
The PS5 Pro’s PSSR upscaling gives multiple games a huge visual upgrade – can it compete with Nvidia’s DLSS 3 successor?
I’m a Nintendo Switch expert, here are the best early Black Friday deals right now
Scotland vs South Africa live stream: how to watch 2024 rugby union Autumn International online from anywhere
