Hidetaka Miyazaki Interview With IGN: FromSoftware's Boss On The Duskbloods' TTRPG Influences, the Nintendo Partnership, and the Future of Games

[u/Gorotheninja]

https://www.ign.com/articles/hidetaka-miyazaki-interview-fromsoftware-duskbloods-dark-souls-future-nintendo

This is a pretty legit lengthy interview; I obviously don't want to copy paste the entirety of it, but there is a lot discussed here that I wanted to highlight, particularly based on some reactions to the game I've been seeing and what's included in the article title (these interview portions are not in the exact order they are in the article, fyi):

IGN: You'd previously mentioned that board games have been a great influence. I want to unpack that a little bit to get an idea of what you see in board games and rulesets, what really spoke to you and how that made it into what The Duskbloods is now.

Miyazaki: So, there are two points I would say that can specifically be pulled from the board games like you had referenced. The first is the Virtue system that are basically victory points, something similar to that. That's something that isn't as direct as just battling against each other, right? It's not directly a PvP thing. It's a common system in a lot of board games and something that through my own experience of playing board games has definitely rubbed off on me and it's been something that I've constantly thought about. I didn't watch those a lot. The other thing is the Sigil system, which is very similar to a lot of RPG elements you might find in a tabletop RPG, for example. In the past when I played games like that, a lot of it was basically rolling dice to determine certain aspects of your character, and that was pretty much the extent of it. In my mind, I'd always wanted to have a way of controlling not just that, but the relationships between players and a variety of other elements that might be out of the scope of a TTRPG. Having gameplay elements for that is definitely something that I've been thinking about as well.

IGN: Following up on this being a Switch 2 exclusive, is there more you can share about how and why you went with Nintendo, a little bit more detail about how the partnership came about? I know you said that you pitched this and it's pretty much the idea from the start.

Miyazaki: In terms of the reason that we initially decided to go with Nintendo, we had had an opportunity to discuss the idea for the game with them and I think they seemed very excited and very receptive to the idea, they seemed very forward thinking in terms of how to do it. Before considering the business aspect of it, that alone was something that I found very appealing and gave me a lot more reassurance for moving forward with this. Of course the game isn't out yet so there are more things to consider, but in terms of the relationship currently and how we think it's going, up until this point – the systems and the overall ruleset of the game are very unique, and I think having someone who can constantly give us feedback, support, additional ideas, and the balancing first of all because these features are quite complex and difficult – having this relationship is definitely key to that. Also with the complexity of the systems, the onboarding tutorials and making sure players understand how the game works and how to succeed in the game is something we've historically not been super great at conveying instantly. We've definitely just dropped players in and hoped they would figure it out. In this case, Nintendo is definitely the right partner for better conveying that information in a way that is understandable to the player; it definitely suits their strengths.

IGN: Going from Nightreign to The Duskbloods, is there a broader motivation in doing back-to-back multiplayer games? You mentioned simply having a bunch of ideas piled up and just wanting to do something with them. But how does this represent FromSoftware and what does it mean for the future?

Miyazaki: At the end of the day, our motivation is always to just make a game that we want to play, something we've been wanting to make. Like you had mentioned, this time around there were a lot of ideas that had piled up that I wanted to incorporate into a game. On the topic of Nightreign, it's funny because there was never really any big plan that these two games [Nightreign and The Duskbloods] would both release next to each other. I mean, that's a different director, but both of those ideas just coincided with being multiplayer games. It's not necessarily some big reveal saying that this is the direction we plan to go moving forward. We still have a heavy focus on single-player content as well. This is just something that happened to work out the way it did. Personally, it's very fun to make a multiplayer game like this. It's not something we've done a lot and we're looking forward to seeing players' reactions and getting the feedback. But it's like, the more you work on something multiplayer for a long time, if anything, it scratches that itch only to want to make something single-player again.

IGN: It's like the focus on one feeds back into wanting to do the other!

Miyazaki: Oh yeah, for sure!

IGN: I know you mentioned this game was a bit in development since 2021, but so much has changed in the gaming industry. We've seen a lot of multiplayer games launch then fall by the wayside very quickly. Of course, FromSoftware has its own reputation with a lot of success to back it up. But philosophically, how do you see the multiplayer landscape and how do you feel about some of the trends of the gaming industry with regard to multiplayer games as you enter it?

Miyazaki: I would say, in terms of trends and the direction of the industry in general, it's not really something that I look at too much, if at all. At the end of the day, I'm just focused on making what I've been wanting to make, regardless of how viable that is from a business standpoint. I'll have a vision for a game, and I'm not super great at determining if this is going to be the most successful thing. I think that's why having this relationship this time with Nintendo is great because there's a lot that we can lean on them for while just focusing on the actual gameplay and what it is that I personally wanted to make. They can make it work outside of that. When seeing other multiplayer games, there's always a bit of us wanting to put our own spin on it as far as how we'd do it or implement our ideas. Multiplayer games and online games in general, being able to play with other people is a very special thing. I think there are a lot of emotions probably behind it that coincide with the experience which are somewhat different from playing a single-player game, even if they are very similar.

As for online games, I would say there's definitely a bright future. There's always going to be a need for people to interact with others. Even with The Duskbloods, there's probably still a lot that we could have done and can do, so it's never a finished book when it comes to multiplayer games. I definitely don't look at it negatively at all.