I don‘t think I’m an iconoclast, here or otherwise, for thinking this, but I feel a lot of optimism about From Software‘s future at the moment! And, this is even in the face of the minor if hardy feeling of a lingering filigree of disappointment I’ve felt towards
Maybe I'll address the disappointment towards _Elden Ring_ I feel, which is relevant to this:
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@“yeso”#p96874 maybe this is unfair, but the big budgets seem to be in the way of From being From idk
I think this is a bit unfair, but specifically towards From Software, not unfair in general. If there is a problem, I don't think it's From Software having too much money, but Bandai Namco's influence as a publisher.
Case in point:
- As loathe as I am to give them any goddamn credit for it, I seem to recall that Activision,
- _Bloodborne_ is much the same. Whether you love it or hate it, it was, at least in my opinion, born of a creative vision that was exquisitely, Baroque-ly (lol get it) executed upon. I am not totally aware of how much or how little Sony Computer Entertainment meddle creatively, but if I had to speculate, I think that their deal with the devil there was for the platform exclusivity in order to make _Bloodborne_ a system seller for the PS4, not to impose creative constraints. I mean, it's not like _Bloodborne_ is perfect, but it's definitely the _Bloodborne_ of videogames.
- It's worth taking into account that _Demons's Soul's_ was published by Sony Computer Entertainment domestically, and they also in hindsight fumbled quite a bag on opting out of publishing it outside of Japan. This is where Bandai Namco get introduced to the _Souls_ games by them publishing it in PAL regions (and Atlus for that matter since they published it in North America, but, I guess they don't become relevant to this story again), and I suppose Bandai Namco saw the potential from there since they were the sole publisher for _Dark Souls._
- The rest is history--love 'em, hate 'em, like 'em a lot and just wish they were like 5-10% different, make multi-hour Youtube videos defending their honour, I personally think of From Software's modern oeuvre, _Dark Souls II, Dark Souls III,_ and, despite that 5-10% of _something_ I personally can't help but feel is missing from it, _Elden Ring,_ have the most clear signs of some kind of compromise. The very existence of _Dark Souls II_ and _III_ represent a compromise after all--we know at least at some point Miyazaki has expressed that iterating on games with sequels is not his preferred mode of conceiving of games, even if despite all their flaws they are still beautiful and complex games in their own right. I still have not precisely figured out what kind of a problem I have with _Elden Ring,_ a game I played for close to 200 hours, but if it's anything, it was its reluctance to stray too far from the _Souls_ games.
Combining all of those points, and while admitting it's never really a great idea to speculate too much about what goes on within the black box environment of mass media production (especially when the development/publishing arrangement is so fraught with potential for creative compromise and how there are real and serious pitfalls for developers to speak publicly about the goriest details), I would still put forth that there might be a correlation between Bandai Namco's influence on From Software as a possible contributing force in some of the less inspiring elements of their modern oeuvre. I can deign to admit that Bandai Namco had foresight in choosing to take a small gamble on _Demons's' Soul's,_ and a larger one on _Dark Souls._ And, as schlocky and embarrassing as some of their promotional approaches have been, not even a cynic like me would say that _Bloodborne_ and _Sekiro_ would exist as they do without the commercial success of the _Dark Souls_ games, which, if I am correct and remembering the pertinent details, were potentially as well made as they were due to SCE and Activision getting out of the way. I mean, I'll hear an argument that there are publishers out there primarily dedicated to facilitating the creative visions of developers, but trying to argue Acti-fucking-vision is one of them sounds like a Herculean labour.
Still, I am left unable to disregard the possibility that this last decade or so of _relative_ creative stagnation expressed by this clutch of games perhaps has more to do with pressures put on From Software through the terms of their contracts with Bandai Namco than anything else. Even if the creative stagnation expressed by these games is nowhere near a studio like, idk, Ubisoft, or, ironically, studios touched by Activision's tendrils, the degree to which _Bloodborne_ and _Sekiro_ shine so brilliantly does suggest to me that Bandai Namco intended to get what they paid for. Maybe that does explain some of the feelings I have towards _Elden Ring..._ it being _Dark Souls IV-VI_ or _Dark Souls II: 2: Two_ explains its biggest strengths and its biggest weaknesses, and, well, _Sekiro_ feels like proof From was ready and willing to make a game that both was and wasn't _Dark Souls,_ and at least to me keeping the game in a relatively familiar form sounds more like what Bandai Namco would want than what From Software, Miyazaki, and the team(s) both would want and what they're capable of. I even feel there are loose threads, if not much more, poking out of _Elden Ring,_ suggesting a game with more refined but less Souls-like combat and structure, and certainly _much_ less recycled content, that Bandai Namco might feel represents too much of a commercial risk. Or, at least, it represents that in like 2017 when I imagine the contract was inked and the game's production began, which itself makes this speculation of mine feel a little more plausible.
Sidenote, by creative stagnation expressed by _Dark Souls II, III,_ and _Elden Ring,_ I should note that I'm referring quite specifically to a sort of reluctance to stray from established gameplay or structural elements, anyway... I think the visual aesthetics and narrative material of these games are not stagnant at all (insert joke about how the narrative throughline of _Dark Souls_ is societal/cultural/spiritual stagnation)). But, like, you know. I'm still floored at the idea that, despite its wildly different relationship to spatial verticality, the core mechanics for fall damage in _Elden Ring,_ especially the minimum distance to fall from before all falls are 100% fatal to the player character, are boneheadishly identical to _Dark Souls._ It's hard not to feel that that and many things like it is the product of anything of, say, the vast network of creative oversights and overall disruptions in development that surely happened due to the pandemic (not to be too elegiac but Pandemic Games sure have a weird sort of flavor to them huh), or some kind of insistence from somewhere to not rewrite the game's _Dark Souls_ DNA too much. Or both. Or some other reason, idk, again, black box environment.
In any case, I have until now forgotten that I sat down to write this in order to express optimism about the future of From Software's games. To some degree I am compartmentalizing how I really feel about _Elden Ring,_ but also, not really, because I feel I've decided on pretty tangible reasons for why _Elden Ring_ is what it is. Perhaps what I actually mean to express is that _Sekiro_ in particular filled me with an enormous amount of optimism for From Software's future that, even if to me _Elden Ring_ represents a brief if frustrating detour or a pit stop more than it represents further linear progress in creative mastery, it wasn't able to change my mind that they are just getting started. And, I was even somewhat skeptical about _Sekiro_ before I played it and had my expectations blown out of the water. I mean, I was pretty confident it would be another fantastic game, just that, despite my highhorsedness about it in this post, perhaps I wasn't sure if _I_ was ready to move on from the _Souls_ formula. And I was blown out of the water by how refreshing it was to experience something different from them, and something so brilliantly and beautifully executed upon creatively, and something with such pitch perfect, uncompromising gameplay. I also don't know what _Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon_ really represents to all of these thoughts I have either, and don't even know if it's too relevant of a data point that it is being published by Bandai Namco once more. Perhaps it's enough to hope that, at least as far as inking deals with Bandai Namco is concerned, they are no longer in the sort of position where From Software's top decision makers feel compelled to so directly iterate on their games, which, if we read into how Miyazaki has said he is not necessarily always inclined to do so, was a commercial decision for _Dark Souls,_ and perhaps _Elden Ring_ is a product of Bandai Namco allowing From Software to have their No Sequels cake, but still being able to eat the Ok But It's Still Kinda The Same Game cake, too. And, maybe _Armored Core VI_ represents a similar compromise still, it's a sequel and they have been clear that it's not going to stray design and structure-wise too far from what has been established by the series in the past, even factoring how long the _Armored Core_ series has lain dormant. Surely though, at some point, Miyazaki or whoever is sitting down to the table with Bandai Namco can say that Sony or Activision can _probably_ at least match the incentives Bandai is able to offer _without_ expectations as to what the game will play like.
Jeeze, I keep getting sidetracked from speaking on _why_ for goodness' sake I'm actually very optimistic about what From Software will do in the future. I dunno! At this point, I guess it's faith! Maybe this post could have just been one paragraph long. I guess what I'll conclude is that definitely do not think I've got blind faith, though--I've witnessed the miracles of _Bloodborne_ and _Sekiro,_ and can see what (may) have happened with _Elden Ring,_ and, boy, I haven't played an _Armored Core_ game since the first one and that was _extremely_ my shit even before I could competently play it, and MAN that trailer was HOT.
So, yeah, idk, if they're still going to continue their sort of leapfrog development and release schedule, I am very, _very_ interested whatever will come next. Well, whatever comes next that is completely new, anyway... I honestly don't feel much if any anticipating for _Elden Ring_ DLC (I feel I have quite entirely put that game to bed and it's hard not to feel like _Elden Ring_ came complete, but with a healthy dollop of Day One DLC, and I know I had my goddamn fill of _that_ if you know what I mean), and _Armored Core VI_ feels like an equal mix of something new and familiar. There's a shitty little part of me that can't help but wish Miyazaki will break his sequels code and _Blooc**||**ↄorne II_ or _Sekiro 2: Collision in Korea_ will become a reality. It does kinda feel like if they ever do happen it will be for a creatively justified reason, so I'd probably have kittens if they were to choose to do it. But something entirely new will be super exciting to me no matter what it ends up being.
I've referenced it many times on this forum, but I'm still very much in agreement with something Tim Rogers said in his 2019 end-of-decade retrospective on Kotako.com, where he talked about 10 (15? I don't remember how many) of the best games of 2010-2019. And, I think I'm paraphrasing, but I believe when he responded to the idea of what From Software's best game is, he mainly concluded that their best game is one they haven't made yet.
I wholeheartedly agree, I guess!