Katsuhiro Harada, who is no longer involved with Tekken, spoke with surprising honesty about Hidetaka Miyazaki, FromSoftware’s most celebrated creator.
Over the years, FromSoftware and its president have become some of the most respected figures in Japanese game development. The enormous success of the Dark Souls series created an entirely new action-RPG subgenre across PC and consoles.
No one disputes that these games are remarkable works. Hidetaka Miyazaki nevertheless does not seem like someone fully aware of his own importance.
Katsuhiro Harada recently wrote a long post on X explaining that the Elden Ring director sincerely feels his knowledge of games remains shallow compared with that of other developers.
From my perspective, Miyazaki is a rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer.
His career did not begin in the game industry. In fact, he didn’t become a game developer until he was almost thirty years old.
Even among developers of my generation (those of us born in… https://t.co/YjgDysT9u1
– Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) July 5, 2026
“From my perspective, Miyazaki is a rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer. His career did not begin in the game industry. In fact, he did not become a game developer until he was almost thirty years old.”
“Even among developers of my generation, those born in the 1970s, I find it remarkable that someone who was not even a game developer at the dawn of the polygon era eventually became one of Japan’s most distinctive game creators.”
“Compared with the rest of us from the same generation, including myself, his career path is exceptionally unusual. Most notably, unlike many of us, he did not work at one of the major development studios that held a significant technological advantage during the early polygon era. That is what makes his career so unique.” Harada wrote.
Harada then shared his impressions of Dark Souls. In his view, people often focus on the game’s difficulty, while Miyazaki’s real creativity is expressed more strongly through the world he created.
“Personally, I think Dark Souls has fairly simple action mechanics, and I do not consider it an especially difficult game.”
Harada also noted that, as a publisher-side executive director, he was involved in overseeing development and marketing processes for the Dark Souls series and Elden Ring. He stressed that he was not part of the development team, but he observed closely how FromSoftware’s success was built.
“Dark Souls did not suddenly become a massive success overnight. It was the result of what Miyazaki and his team had built through their earlier titles.”
Harada says Miyazaki now receives offers from around the world, but many come from people who only know his present-day success. He feels some of these attitudes are almost complete reversals from those who did not appreciate FromSoftware’s journey during its more difficult years.
“I had grown tired of people who compare games simply by saying that one title cost X billion yen to make and sold Y million copies, then use only those numbers to compare it with other games.”
“So many people could not appreciate the developers’ journey or growth. Anyone can look at today’s numbers. Whenever I heard opinions like that, I thought: that is exactly what you would expect from someone who has never developed games.” Harada wrote.
He also shared two particularly memorable stories about Miyazaki. The first happened when Harada was working on an early VR version of Summer Lesson, a project receiving significant attention at the time.
Miyazaki came to try the game with representatives from several other game companies. While everyone else laughed, talked, and had fun, he played with extraordinary seriousness.
Once everyone had finished and started discussing their impressions, Miyazaki remained silent and stared intently at the preview monitor. Eventually, the others asked what he was thinking about.
“He suddenly smiled and said that he had become completely absorbed in thinking about what he would do if he were making this, and what kind of game he would create.”
“What he talked about afterward was completely insane in the best possible sense. It was one of those rare moments when I caught a glimpse of what I would call his mad-scientist side, his deeply serious and obsessive approach to creativity.” Harada recalled.
The other story concerned Miyazaki’s relationship with video interviews. According to Harada, the director generally does not enjoy video conversations or live streams.
“I once asked him about it by email, and he replied with a rather long explanation. After reading it, I completely understood where he was coming from. Simply put, he does not like watching himself move around on video.”
Harada says the issue is somewhat more complicated psychologically, but Miyazaki’s other reason is even more interesting. The FromSoftware president believes many people in the industry know games far better than he does.
“When he listens to those people, he realizes that his own knowledge is still shallow, and it makes him feel he is not yet in a position to talk about games.”
“Whenever someone like him says that, my reaction is always: come on, if you say you have not reached the goal yet, then the rest of us do not feel qualified to talk about games at all.” Harada wrote.
That is one reason why video interviews with Miyazaki are extremely rare. Longer on-camera conversations involving him are rarer still. At least this personal story brings us closer to understanding what the father of the Souls games may be like in everyday life.
Source: WCCFTech
