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I won’t sugar-coat things. Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware have conquered the action role-playing genre. In fact, they have done it do confidently that a whole new genre of game has been birthed – the Soulslike. Recently, the Dark Souls creator said that Elden Ring was not his ideal RPG, and in another recent interview, he may have developed on this point slightly.
In conversation with Rolling Stone, Hidetaka Miyazaki was asked about what genres outside of the soulslike is he interested in. He’d mentioned that he’d previously directed a VR game in 2018, though his slate of recent mainstream releases is pretty homogenous, with the exception of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. He then goes on to say that he is ‘interested in making a traditional Japanese role-playing game someday.’
2006 saw the release of Enchanted Arms, a FromSoftware JRPG, although Hidetaka Miyazaki was not involved in this project. Although the game didn’t strike the imagination of gamers as Demon’s Souls would later do, it’s clear that traditional turn-based JRPG gameplay is nothing alien to FromSoftware.
Miyazaki’s interest in a genre outside of the now famous Soulslike isn’t necessarily a surprise. In fact, I think there’s a sense that he might even be done with it now that Elden Ring is done and dusted. In an interview with The Guardian, he said about his next game: “Looking back, I’ve had many chances, and I think I’ve exercised a lot of them quite well. Maybe that would simply be the end of my chapter.”
The JRPG is my favourite genre of game, yet Bloodborne is my favourite game. If there was ever a possibility that Hidetaka Miyazaki began working on a turn-battler – I would dive head-first into it, as I’m sure millions of others would.
Whether it’s going to happen is a different question. Miyazaki has hinted at so many possible new projects in the run up to the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion; a Bloodborne PC port, revisiting Sekiro’s combat, and even mentioning FromSoftware movie adaptations. Of them all, a FromSoftware JRPG could be the most likely, especially with SMTV: Vengeance’s success.
