UNCHARTED

The map design of the original is one of the factors that assured the game its number-one spot in our 100 Greatest Videogames special edition, its cunning construction making such an impression that every release by FromSoftware is obsessed over from this perspective. And so we turn to its new game. If world felt like a puzzle whose pieces you collected as you went along, while the experience of playing

was more like following the branches of a tree, what’s the worldbuilding philosophy for “I’m doing the map design, so I think it will be close to the first

Miyazaki explains. “There is a hub [area], but imagine it in the style of the rest of the world is still all connected.” And with that, the topic is closed, leaving us to discover the finer details when the game arrives in April, which is probably just as it should be. making anything that had such an effect on people. It is a surreal experience.

I suppose for a creator that’s a wonderful thing, to have people who’ve been so affected by it, but I almost have trouble believing that it’s true… I wonder why, if all these people are getting married because of my game, why haven’t I been able to get married? Demon’s Souls was a very small-scale release back in 2009. How does it feel nowadays, given that it’s spawned this entire franchise? It certainly is surreal. The first week that Demon’s Souls came out in Japan, I think it sold 20,000 units. I thought, at that point, that I’d never be able to make an original game ever again. I certainly didn’t expect any of this at that moment. It’s hard to believe.

Not too much has changed about the place where we make the games at FromSoftware’s offices. The sales numbers have changed. We hear a lot from fans. But it feels like a mirage. I prefer it that way, because I feel like if I were to believe that this was deserved, that it was an affirmation of my own or FromSoftware’s talents, we’d get complacent. It would go to our heads, and we won’t be able to do what we always have so well. So I’m leaving it as a wonderful mirage, and keeping at it.

There’s this expression in Japan: in political relations or business success, when the situation changes, people can change their tune very quickly. They can sound quite the opposite of how they did just a day previously. I always keep that fact in mind. Whether it’s the game business or in wider life, one’s fortunes can reverse very quickly. I always remain cautious, and remember that things can change fast, for better or for worse.