Hidetaka Miyazaki, the head of FromSoftware, has openly stated that if it weren’t for Fumito Ueda’s ICO game, he wouldn’t have joined the studio working on the Armored Core series two decades ago.

Yesterday, we commemorated the 20th anniversary of ICO (admittedly, it was the Japanese launch, while Ueda’s game was available for PS2 in North America from September), and it was not a bad game at all. Without it, Ueda wouldn’t have had the chance to create Shadow of the Colossus, which came out in autumn 2005 on the best-selling console in gaming (Europe had to wait until February 2006…). Then, after years of agony, The Last Guardian was made for PlayStation 4, followed by a new genDESIGN project.

VGC translated an interview that Miyazaki gave Famitsu, a Japanese publication, regarding ICO’s 20th anniversary. “On a personal note, after graduating from university and starting a new job, I was away from games for a while when I happened to play ICO at a friend’s house on a recommendation. It was a beautiful, untold experience and story that I had never imagined, and I’m very sorry to my friend. I was quietly moved and silent.

And that’s when I left the company I was working for and started working for FromSoftware. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the game that changed my life, and I’m proud that it was ICO and it was Mr Ueda’s game. Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of ICO, Mr Ueda. As a fan, I’m looking forward to your new games. The mythology that runs through your games, including ICO, has always been a goal of mine,” Miyazaki said.

So ICO had a significant impact on the gaming industry. Think of the butterfly effect: if the game was never made, would FromSoftware have ever made Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and now, Elden Ring (which might reach Miyazaki’s goal of mythology, as George R.R. Martin wrote its lore; just think of Game of Thrones!).

Source: PSL