Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the most influential game directors of the last generation, but he’ll never tell you that. Director on Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne

During our IGN First trip to Tokyo for Bloodborne, we spent a day at From Software and sat down with Miyazaki himself. Our discussion traveled from Bloodborne’s inception, to the rise of speed runs and streaming, and even to which games he’s looking forward to in 2015. Sit back and relax, this one’s a doozy.

On How Bloodborne Came to Be

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“To speak precisely on the timing, it was just about when we were wrapping up Prepare to Die when Sony approached From Software," Hidetaka Miyazaki told us. His response to Sony? "Why don't we start talking about next-gen?"

But of course, the world of Bloodborne was something that Miyazaki had been thinking about for quite some time. “...the game mechanics, or the gothic theme for example, those were some areas or concepts that were always brewing, and one of the areas that I always wanted to achieve in my career, and I knew that when that trigger was pulled, this was it.”

On Inspirations for the Setting

The world of Bloodborne is brimming with influences from our own history. From the aesthetics of Victorian London, to the mass hysteria of the Black Plague, it feels familiar while still maintaining an air of mystery.

When I asked Miyazaki about his history with...well...history, he responded, “The short answer to your question is...not necessarily did I really study the history during my student years. However, it has always been an area of interest, naturally as you can see with my games. One thing I'd like to emphasize is that because they are areas of interest, and because they have significant roles in human history, there isn't really a specific element that I'd like to pursue or I would like to connect to as an inspiration, specifically because if I did, I would dig too deep into that particular angle of history or incident, and it's more or less a hybrid. I touch these points lightly, intentionally.”

On Reading Books Before Playing Games

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Miyazaki’s love for reading is immediately apparent when you hear him speak. He explained to us, “Growing up, as a kid, I loved to read. I liked to read books that were above my range. I always tried to aim higher and read difficult books. What would happen is, although I could read them, sometimes -- because I was so young -- I couldn't read TOO deep into them. Maybe I would understand half of the story? What would happen is that my imagination would help fill the other half, and that imagination element would just blow up. That's kind of the part I enjoyed as well, filling the gaps of where I didn't understand the readings, where my imagination took me eventually to think that I understood what I was reading.”

He elaborated, “It kind of relates to what I'm doing in my creations. In addition to that, I studied Sociolology and Psychology, and, after school, I revisited those themes, and this is the fruit of what you're experiencing now.”

When asked if he played games a lot as a kid, his answer surprised. “Growing up, I was restricted at home from playing video games until I reached University. This is a reason why I stumble when I'm asked this question. There was a board game called Sorcery which is one of my favorites and I would often revisit the game. It's not a video game but it definitely stands out in my mind as a game that impacted me.” Unsurprisingly, he elaborated on another physical game he enjoyed, “I've been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, and for them to have come this far is very meaningful to me.”