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| A screengrab from Demon Souls running on a PS5 console |
For over a decade, the term "Soulslike" has dominated gaming discourse, describing a specific breed of punishing, rewarding action RPGs. The name, of course, comes from FromSoftware's groundbreaking Dark Souls. The studio, led by visionary director Hidetaka Miyazaki, is universally credited with pioneering the genre. But in a revealing new interview, Miyazaki himself pushes back on that narrative, offering a surprisingly humble take on his studio's world-changing influence.
In a deep-dive feature with Game Informer, Miyazaki reflected on the birth of the Soulslike phenomenon. While grateful for the legacy, he suggests that FromSoftware didn't so much invent a new genre as they finally provided the perfect answer to a latent desire that had always existed within the gaming community.
The "Soulslike" Label: A Genre Named by Players, Not Creators
"I know we’ve been credited with inventing the term Soulslike," Miyazaki told Game Informer, "but in terms of the game design, this idea of having death and learning as part of the core game cycle is something that the gaming audience was perhaps ready for. But there just wasn’t the perfect answer for that appetite just yet."
This perspective reframes the studio's success not as a sudden stroke of genius, but as the right idea at the right time. Miyazaki implies that players were already hungry for challenging, unforgiving experiences where mastery came through repetition and observation. FromSoftware, whether by meticulous design or what he calls "luck," simply managed to crystallize that desire into a winning formula.
What we discovered is it is okay to make games with death as part of its core gameplay loop, and our answer happened to land and resonate with various audiences. I don’t necessarily think it’s a new invention per se, it was more the FromSoftware DNA and our game design overlapped with what was perhaps missing from the market.
You can read the full, fascinating interview where Miyazaki details this philosophy and the studio's future over at Game Informer.
From "Armored Core" to "Demon's Souls": The Accidental Blueprint
The journey to creating that "perfect answer" began with a change of pace. After years working on the mechanized combat of the Armored Core series, Miyazaki sought a new challenge. He requested to lead development on a project called Demon's Souls in 2009, aiming to return to the studio's roots.
That meant looking back to FromSoftware's earlier, cult-classic dungeon crawler series, King's Field. By blending the first-person RPG's atmospheric dread and deliberate swordplay with new, uncompromising ideas about difficulty and consequence, the team carved out the essential loop that would define a generation.
Demon’s Souls became the unlikeliest of blueprints. Its DNA—the interconnected worlds, the high-stakes combat, the cryptic storytelling, and the cycle of "die, learn, overcome"—directly spawned the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and the monumental, record-shattering Elden Ring.
The Lasting Legacy: A Genre That Redefined Challenge
Today, the influence of the Soulslike is undeniable. It's a genre tag used to market everything from indie darlings to AAA blockbusters. Elements like bonfire-like checkpoints, stamina-based combat, and environmental storytelling have been adopted and adapted across the industry.
Miyazaki's reflection offers a key insight: the monumental success of Soulslikes wasn't about creating a new hunger, but about finally satisfying an old one. It validated the idea that a significant portion of players didn't want hand-holding; they wanted hard-earned victory. They didn't fear death in a game; they welcomed it as a teacher.
It turns out, the "Soul" of Soulslike was in the audience all along, waiting for a developer brave enough to ask for perfection.
Experience where it all began. Find Demon's Souls on Amazon here.