Elden Ring director says FromSoft doesn't "set out to make a lot of these games and characters funny," it just sort of happens
Feb. 24, 2024Same way happy-crying happens
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Elden Ring, Sekiro, and the Dark Souls trilogy can be darkly comedic at times when grueling boss battles are cut short by unbelievably bad luck or when enemies ragdoll after giving you a fine beating. But the games' creative director doesn’t aim to make these games “funny,” which kinda makes them funnier.
When asked about the unexpected laughs in the studio’s catalog,FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki toldEurogamerthat only “some areas are designed to be funny and with humor in mind.” Despite these intentions, the creative director feels that parts of the games that were made “seriously” or that come from a “dark place” are often misconstrued as humorous. Getting squashed by a giant monkey 15 times tends to elicit a broken, almost defeated smile, after all.
“But it’s not a calculated thing,” Miyazaki continues, “we don’t set out to make a lot of these games and characters funny. I think it is just interpreted this way and is construed in that way due to the player and the environment they’re playing in.”
That phenomenon probably comes from the same place as happy-crying or nervous laughter - where our bodies try to regulate emotions by producing an opposite, also as intense feeling. Sometimes we’re so tense fighting Malenia for the umpteenth time, you just have to laugh it off. “A lot of it is not intentional,” Miyazaki says.
Miyazaki also spilled details about Elden Ring’sShadow of the Erdtree DLC, calling it thestudio’s largest expansion so far. How does the team pump out great games so often?Empowering and retaining talent, according to the famed director.
Miyazaki doesn’t feel pressured by competing Soulslikes either.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
Open-world dress-up game Infinity Nikki is serious business – so serious its devs have already banned over 80 accounts for cheating: “We implore all Stylists to adhere to the game rules”
Hideo Kojima seems to be testing Death Stranding 2, but it’s not going well: “I fell asleep twice while on a delivery and ran the vehicle into a cliff”
On its 10th anniversary, Christopher Nolan reflects on Interstellar’s continued popularity after watching it for the first time in a decade: “It was a very special thing to see”
