Dark Souls Director Discusses Favorite Areas, Twitch Plays Dark Souls

GameInformer’s promised Dark Souls III coverage for the month has turned out to be pretty anemic, apparently in large part because From Software refused to discuss aspects of the game that Bandai Namco had promised would be part of the coverage. That said, there are still a few interesting pieces that are worth reporting on, largely because of an extended conversation between GameInformer’s staff and Hidetaka Miyazaki, From Software president and game director on Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Dark Souls III.

First of all, Miyazaki discussed his favorite and least favorite areas in the series. As surprising as his work can be, his answers on this topic are actually extremely predictable, and mostly seem to match the fan consensus:

The first area probably won’t be a shocker to many Souls fans, as it’s certainly one of my favorite zones from the From Software catalog The Tower of Latria’s first map (Demon’s Souls). The twisting and disturbing prison filled with mind flayers and other terrors is a fan favorite, and its creator was particularly hands-on during its genesis. Miyazaki conceptualizes the vast majority of all the zones players encounter in the franchise and its offshoots (Bloodborne), but for this particular stage Miyazaki took a more hands-on approach.

…

Since I had the opportunity, I had to ask what Miyazaki’s least favorite zone from the franchise is as well. The answer should come as no surprise to fans of the series it’s the lava/dinosaur nightmare known as Lost Izalith in Dark Souls. Miyazaki comments (Don’t want to elaborate on this very much. There was a different person assigned to this area, and although I was involved, I don’t want to pose very many negative comments for his sake. It can be a learning experience for all of us.)

GameInformer also had the opportunity to show Miyazaki the ongoing Twitch Plays Dark Souls livestream-cum-social-experiment, which turns Dark Souls into an almost turn-based title and lets the chat decide on which commands to input, and also toured the Japanese studio’s offices.

Furthermore, they have also quizzed one of Miyazaki’s oldest colleagues on his desire to stay away from the media spotlight. As it turns out, Miyazaki would much rather prefer for his audience to focus its attention on the games he’s worked on, which I found to be an admirable sentiment. That said, I very much doubt he’ll stop being the subject of memes and endless fan adoration.