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Hidetaka Miyazaki: "I absolutely suck at video games"

GrayChild

Member

"In preparation for Shadow of the Erdtree, I played through the main story of Elden Ring," Miyazaki says in an interview with The Guardian. "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."


Designing too much barefoot characters and poison swamps finally got to our boy Hide-chan, bros. :(
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
People have been playing his games for a while yes there’s frustration about souls and elden rings difficulty that’s not unknown.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
If I remember correctly from the Elden Ring coverage in Edge back at launch. He doesn’t replay his games. He said he puts a lot of himself into the game during development. A lot of his inspiration from fantasy novels he’s read throughout his lifetime (Fighting Fantasy).
 
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Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I’m surprised to learn this honestly. I would’ve thought a lot of his team, himself included, play the game during development to insure they can beat the boss or not they create with multiple ways.

I think after this it really is true he wanted players to use all the cheap shit at the disposal of the player lol. 😂
 

SHA

Member

"In preparation for Shadow of the Erdtree, I played through the main story of Elden Ring," Miyazaki says in an interview with The Guardian. "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."


Designing too much barefoot characters and poison swamps finally got to our boy Hide-chan, bros. :(
We get it, this game isn't meant for parents, you can't parent and be good at this game at the same time.
 

AJUMP23

Member
Yamauchi at Nintendo never played the games, but he could watch and say, that is good or fun. You don't have to be good at games to see what is a good game.
 

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Just give us difficulty settings and that's it. (i'm ready to be burned for saying this.)
No, not everyone has problems with emotional tolerance. Some of us enjoy the constant setbacks to keep going back to the drawing board to see what new formula can be used and gaining small victories and accomplishments that propel you forward to the next set of challenges.

Games like Elden Ring or this specific genre can illicit a wide spectrum of emotions like frustration, fear, anxiety, and move into accomplishment when you figure the right way to take down an area or a boss.

Overcoming difficult and seemingly impossible tasks helps a person with determination which leads in to persistence.

Anyway, before I go on any more, we do not need an easy mode. The challenge is the game.
 
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Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
No, not everyone has problems with emotional tolerance. Some of us enjoy the constant setbacks to keep going back to the drawing board to see what new formula can be used and gaining small victories accomplishments that propel you forward to the next set of challenges.

Games like Elden Ring or this specific genre can illicit a wide spectrum of emotions like frustration, fear, anxiety, and move into accomplishment when you figure the right way to take down an area or a boss.

Overcoming difficult and seemingly impossible task helps a person with determination which leads in persistence.

Anyway, before I go on any more, we do not need an easy mode. The challenge is the game.
He has so many tools here to overcome to make it easy that it already has one.

Summon a mimic? Easy mode.
Summon a mimic and a NPC summon? Very easy mode.
Summon a real person to do the boss for you? Hellblade 2 watching simulator mode.
 

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
We get it, this game isn't meant for parents, you can't parent and be good at this game at the same time.
Grandpa checking in. Raising two grandchildren fulltime since I retired from the Marines and I platinumed the game recently. Some 10-12 hours into the DLC.

Start game, get killed by tree sentinel 4 times quickly, change diaper. Beat boss, going to read item description, yeah no papa I want to ride my bike, go to the beach, go to Parris Island to see the Marines, go get bandaids because he jumped off top bunk, you know the drill and keep moving on.

I love absolutely love the challenge of playing and juggling children.

Edit: ok I don’t love it as I usually goes months without the time to play. Let’s go with like.

Edit: ok like was also a strong word meaning that I have some enjoyment being constantly interrupted. I don’t.
So maybe, I put up with is better. Yeah that’s it.
 
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Reactions: SHA

SSfox

Member
I mean I'm not surprise, just look and Harada and Murray when they play Tekken, even my mom can have a good chance to beat them lol
 

Miles708

Member
A lot of designers are bad at their own games.
I think i remember some very old interview where the designer of Space Invaders never got past stage 3.
 
Animated GIF
 
Just give us difficulty settings and that's it. (i'm ready to be burned for saying this.)
Any person with a healthy amount of gamer pride (something every gamer has, casual or hardcore), wouldn't feel the need to burn you for suggesting an option.

For anyone that doesn't know, an option is something you don't have to choose yourself. You can make the choice to choose it or not choose it.
You can choose the Ball Breaking option, if the Baby Poopoo mode isn't for you.

But people with a unhealthy gamer pride, get deeply offended by the thought that someone had an easier time beating a game that they beat "for real".

Even though the games in question have no rankings or tournaments related to it.

So an easier mode, would be as offensive as a cute cat.
But again, for unhealthy people, there's a need to burn you for this.
 
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SHA

Member
I’m a dad with two kids. Soloed it all except the final dlc boss.

Based Dad over here.

Did I mention my wife hasn’t let me hit it in over a year? 😔
Not all jobs created equal, but still not a concrete argument, you could get good at souls games before joining the parenthood.
 

Hudo

Gold Member
Yamauchi at Nintendo never played the games, but he could watch and say, that is good or fun. You don't have to be good at games to see what is a good game.
afaik he liked to play a Mahjong game on NES (or was it on SNES?)
 

thief183

Member
Any person with a healthy amount of gamer pride (something every gamer has, casual or hardcore), wouldn't feel the need to burn you for suggesting an option.

For anyone that doesn't know, an option is something you don't have to choose yourself. You can make the choice to choose it or not choose it.
You can choose the Ball Breaking option, if the Baby Poopoo mode isn't for you.

But people with a unhealthy gamer pride, get deeply offended by the thought that someone had an easier time beating a game that they beat "for real".

Even though the games in question have no rankings or tournaments related to it.

So an easier mode, would be as offensive as a cute cat.
But again, for unhealthy people, there's a need to burn you for this.
Well, a developer can choose if they want an easy m9de or not, if I want the players to experience something like I want to, I would totally not put there a difficulty slider, it is their game and they can do whatever they want. It is like a long movie having a shorter version for ppl with adhd...

Not everything need to be for everyone.
 
Been playing these games since Demon's Souls and it annoys me when people denigrate others for using summons, spirit ashes or particular builds to make it through the game.

These systems were purposefully integrated into the game so you can play it however you want.
 

MiguelItUp

Gold Member
It's amazing that the man behind these games is awful at games. It's as if he tries to create experiences that are still enjoyable, but its players feel awful at games too, lol.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Been playing these games since Demon's Souls and it annoys me when people denigrate others for using summons, spirit ashes or particular builds to make it through the game.

These systems were purposefully integrated into the game so you can play it however you want.
Dont listen what any anyone says, Its there to use it....devs dont put systems thats not meant to use.
 

jimmypython

Member
I think his point might be: there are a lot of tools you can use in game to help you get through tough things, do not feel somehow ashamed to use them
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Yamauchi at Nintendo never played the games, but he could watch and say, that is good or fun. You don't have to be good at games to see what is a good game.
I was gonna post this. Yamauchi tried to play Go on a Famicom, but ended up handing the controller to an employee. And yet, look at what he did. Gaming as we know it wouldn't exist without him, and yet he had no first hand experience with gaming.
 

Mozzarella

Member
Gamers have this weird obsession with Japanese game directors, they think Miyazaki does everything in this game single handedly by himself, when in reality he is just managing the project from above and tending to meeting and overseeing some final projects and ideas, im sure he is not the lead gameplay designer here, i mean he said he doesnt play the games so i dont know why people think he is behind every little detail in the game, its silly.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Gamers have this weird obsession with Japanese game directors, they think Miyazaki does everything in this game single handedly by himself, when in reality he is just managing the project from above and tending to meeting and overseeing some final projects and ideas, im sure he is not the lead gameplay designer here, i mean he said he doesnt play the games so i dont know why people think he is behind every little detail in the game, its silly.
brittnee.jpg
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Gamers have this weird obsession with Japanese game directors, they think Miyazaki does everything in this game single handedly by himself, when in reality he is just managing the project from above and tending to meeting and overseeing some final projects and ideas, im sure he is not the lead gameplay designer here, i mean he said he doesnt play the games so i dont know why people think he is behind every little detail in the game, its silly.
Not only this, but he literally gave away the exact secret to making the game easier:

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

Going from this it sounds like he recommends the usage of any shields and magic spell possible to get the job done, no matter how cheap or cheesy. People will still ignore this, try and play it more like Sekiro, and try using 1-2 weapons physical only with dodging.

I'm not sure why, but I feel like only Demon's Souls managed to effectively communicate the usage and importance of tools and items to the people who played it. Dark Souls 1 to a somewhat lesser degree. Nearly every other game afterwards, especially with games Sekiro and Bloodborne, people ignored this over time and it became all about using limitations to 'git gud'.

Maybe the fact that the community is trending in this direction, might be a reason why I'm not against difficulty options being added in the future.
 
If he sucks at games does that make his entire gameography the equivalent of the guy with a tiny dick driving a huge/fast/expensive car?
 
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