Despite reports to the contrary, Dark Souls III will not act as the final installment in the adorned RPG series – but it will herald a turning point, according to Game Director Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Having taking over as President of From Software last year, the esteemed developer has already shepherded PS4 exclusive Bloodborne to release, though in terms of the aforementioned threequel, it’s understood Miyazaki will co-direct alongside Isamu Okano.
[zerggaming]Here’s what the creator had to say about the future of the Souls series:
“First of all, this is not the final product for the Dark Souls series,” said Miyazaki “However, I believe it’s the turning point for the Dark Souls series. First of all, Dark Souls has a really unique worldview. It’s not a good idea, continuously releasing titles for this series because of that factor. And this will probably be the turning point of From Software as a whole – it’s the last project we started working on before I became president.
It’s basically From Software, they started working on this project when it was an older generation. So it’s a turning point. It’ll be a turning point, but it’s not final.”
What that means will ultimately be revealed in time; fan theories online stipulate that Dark Souls and Bloodborne exist in the same universe, so it’s possible that each franchise will only become more closely aligned. Speaking of this relationship, Miyazaki also noted that while he and “some visual designers” will flit between both properties, Dark Souls III will be developed by a different team than that working on the PS4 exclusive.
Here’s what Dark Souls II Director Yui Tanimura had to say on the matter:
“Miyazaki-san is taking lead on the overall production, the basic game features, direction, as well as the visual design direction,” Yoshimura explained. “Okano-san is basically handling the mass production part as well as the human resource control. The best way to explain how Okano-san and Miyazaki-san is working together is that Okano-san is basically supporting Miyazaki-san’s direction.”
Dark Souls III is expected to loom onto PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in early 2016.