A New Yorker interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki about Elden Ring

I love learning more about how these games are developed. I enjoy how they play, even if I can't consistently override the part of me that quits in frustration (I'm only in Dark Burg, with like 2 hrs of play). I especially enjoy that Miyazaki never comes across as sadistic. He doesn't want us to suffer as players, he wants us to revel in our hard-earned triumphs. It's great that he also appreciates the one pitfall if his games' design.

I caved and bought Elden Ring because I desperately want to see how the *Souls style translates to a fully open world (I swore off buying games at full price). I especially like that Miyazaki designed it partly to address the issue of access beyond bosses: there aren't any zones locking you out of the game if you don't have the patience, temper, or whatever to go on. I haven't played yet, but a streamer I watch got to level 50 just "running around and screaming" as he put it, which is amusing, while another just beat a giant horseman people are typically told to run away from at a low level.

I chuckled at the bit about the games possibly revealing something bad about himself because they're very grim.