Every Game Directed By Hidetaka Miyazaki, Ranked

FromSoftware is a much older company than many people give it credit for. It started back in the 1990’s with the King’s Field series. Over the last decade though, the company has become inseparably associated with the output of Hidetaka Miyazaki, now-president of FromSoftware. And without a doubt, the man has an incredible track record.

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But many of us must start from humble beginnings, and Miyazaki is no different. Dark Souls might be remembered thus far as his magnum opus, but it is far from the first or last game he has directed. So let’s check out every game directed by Miyazaki, and decide just which of them is the best.

8

Armored Core 4/For Answer

Armored Core 4

Systems

Released

December 21, 2006

ESRB

T For Teen: Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes

Developer(s)

From Software

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Beginning his work with FromSoftware as a designer on Armored Core: Last Raven, he quickly became the director of Armored Core 4 and it’s direct sequel, Armored Core 4. It was FromSoftware’s biggest series at the time, and one that was ultimately guaranteed to be a success. That didn’t mean everything the series produced was a golden goose, though.

Armored Core 4 and For Answer were both hit with middling reviews internationally. The game was made more fast-paced and streamlined compared to older titles, and was the first to be multiplatform. It was far from a bad game, mind you, just more lacking in direction compared to previous entries in the series.

7

Déraciné

Deracine

Systems

Released

November 6, 2018

ESRB

Teen

Developer(s)

FromSoftware, Inc.

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Number of Players

1

Launching long after FromSoftware had hit the peak of its popularity with Dark Souls, Déraciné was a complete change of course. Made as an exclusive game for PSVR, it stepped away from combat and high fantasy to offer a more puzzle-based experience with a more fairytale feel to the story.

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There is a lot to love about Déraciné, from the gorgeous, detailed environments to the themes it expresses, though the puzzles themselves teetered between mundane and overly complex. Truly though, the biggest sin of the game is that so few people got the chance to experience it.

6

Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3

Released

March 24, 2016

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

Engine

havok, proprietary engine

Dark Souls 3 marked the end to the Dark Souls series as a whole, and the game itself made it abundantly clear that the series needed to die. Dark Souls 3 is a game that by the pure mechanical depth of the combat is at its strongest in the series. It is also, however, the Dark Souls games with the least new ideas.

Dark Souls 3 is about how no matter how much we try, things must end eventually. You can’t keep beating it and hope for more. You have to adapt and change. And in that sense, Dark Souls 3 is an incredible achievement. But in revisiting areas from older games and turning bosses purely into combat encounters, it feels more like a fanservice concession than a game with a clear mechanical identity of its own.

5

Elden Ring

Elden Ring

Released

February 25, 2022

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

Engine

Proprietary

Miyazaki’s return to the Soulslike formula for the first time since Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring ushered in a new level of fame for FromSoftware, but showed that there was still life to be found in this tried-and-true gameplay philosophy. The combat systems leaned into depth, letting you mix-and-match any weapons and stats you want to create an entirely unique class of your own.

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But what really made Elden Ring excel was its open-world structure. AAA games have done open worlds to death, and yet combining that massive world with a more nuanced approach to combat forced you to explore in an entirely new way. Where the combat doesn’t always offer new systems, moving through the world and admiring its gorgeous art direction is a reward of its own.

4

Dark Souls

Dark Souls

Released

September 22, 2011

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

Publisher(s)

Namco Bandai

Dark Souls is, for many, when FromSoftware became a household name. It is hard to over-exaggerate just how influential Dark Souls is. It took the at times messy and unfocused ideas of Demon’s Souls and refined them. The world was dark but so enticing. Everything connected in a way that felt brand-new. In reality, the original Dark Souls is one of the rare example of a 3D Metroidvania in terms of level design.

For all the good that Dark Souls had, it is the combat that became its selling point. Stamina systems became the norm, stat requirements for specific gear, loss of something upon death that you could reclaim. These are by all means good systems, though few games have managed to make them fit in the same way Dark Souls has. It really is a one-of-a-kind game that knew what it wanted to be.

3

Sekiro

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

4.5/5

Released

March 22, 2019

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

After a decade of Soulslike games, Sekiro felt like a breath of fresh air. Death, which had come to define the general flow of Souls games, was suddenly a core system of keeping the fight going. Tied into a singular character and toolset, Sekiro felt closer to a character-action game than the RPGs that Miyazaki had directed thus far.

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Set within a fictional land by the end of the Sengoku period, Sekiro makes you feel the fear of clashing swords, the lethality of a single missed parry, and the weight of carrying an oath, and the manipulation of self inherent to that. It was proof that Miyazaki could direct something entirely different, and do it damn good.

2

Demon’s Souls

Demon’s Souls

Systems

Released

October 6, 2009

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

Publisher(s)

Sony Computer Entertainment, Atlus, Namco Bandai

Engine

Proprietary Engine

Dark Souls may be what brought Miyazaki to prominence within FromSoftware, Demon’s Souls was the testing ground. It was the home for everything that would become Dark Souls and define FromSoftware’s games for the next decade. Demon’s Souls has so many ideas, and even when they don’t always work, they scream of originality.

Everything in Demon’s Souls is trying something new. Every boss plays makes you think about the different ways the mechanics can be used, the multiplayer is completely seamless, and the whole world is altered based on your actions. It is unmatched in terms of how unafraid it was to do new things, in ways that have only felt tempered in later games to shave away those rough edges.

1

Bloodborne

Bloodborne

Systems

Released

March 24, 2015

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence

Developer(s)

From Software

Engine

Havok

It is easy to see the fanaticism around Bloodborne as, well fanatic, but it’s not without reason. It was the first step away from dark SOuls after its unprecedented success, and was a showcase of how those systems could be adapted to fit a much more fast-paced game with a dramatically different setting. And it is truly a masterpiece.

Every piece of Bloodborne feeds into each other. Insight makes it easier to be frenzied, but harder to become a beast and vice versa. Blood is a variety, so you can run out of healing. The world becomes more nightmarish as the story progresses, and the enemies you fight slowly change as the nature of the world becomes more apparent. It harkens back to the back expression of itself that had felt missing since Demon’s Souls.

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