The Dark Souls creator doesn’t know “how or if the series would have continued as it did without Dark Souls 2.”

Dark souls the creator and president of developer FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki, spoke about Dark Souls 2‘s impact on the series, and says he’s not sure “how or if” the series would have progressed in the way it did without the divisive second installment.

For anyone unfamiliar, Dark Souls 2The reception from fans was, and still is, mixed to say the least. While many love it, it has also received its share of criticism over the years, largely due to its differences from the first game, such as the Estus Flask (a refillable healing item) which takes a eternity to heal yourself, and changes to invincibility frames. granted by dodge rolls. Notably, it is also the only Soulsborne game that was not directed by Miyazaki, who instead served as a supervisor on the title.

Despite this, Miyazaki has a lot of love for the controversial sequel. In a new interview with IGNhe called it “a very good project for us” and added: “I think without it we wouldn’t have had a lot of connections and a lot of ideas that moved forward and carried the rest of the project.” series.”

Additionally, Miyazaki believes that having different directors on the game – Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura – meant that the sequel could introduce new ideas that might not have been included otherwise. He added that there is “really no way to say how or if the series would have continued as it did without Dark Souls 2.”

Given how much more open Dark Souls 2The world of was superior to that of its predecessor, it’s easy to see how it could have had an influence on FromSoftware’s 2022 role-playing game, Ancient Ringwhich was released to exceptional critical acclaim.

Ancient Ringthe paid extension, Shadow of the Erdtree, received its first trailer this week, as well as a release date. Its launch is scheduled for June 21.

For more games like Dark Souls, be sure to check out our roundup of best soul games for your next challenge. Alternatively, if you want to expand your PC gaming library, be sure to check out our list of best PC games.