Dark Souls and Elden Ring Studio FromSoftware Was “Worried” About How OG RPG King’s Field Would Be Received, but Refused to Be “Constrained by Existing Games”

[wasabi]

FromSoftware’s early approach with King’s Field really shows how their design philosophy has deep roots. They intentionally dropped players into a world with minimal guidance, not because they were trying to be cruel, but because they genuinely didn’t know how players would react. Shinichiro Nishida’s comments highlight that this was partly due to practical constraints—eight months of development, no tutorial, some unfinished sections—but also a deliberate choice to evoke a feeling of loneliness and exploration.

The design ethos was about natural responses and immersion rather than following RPG conventions. Monsters and NPCs shared the same internal rules, interactions weren’t hand-holdy, and players had to figure out the mechanics themselves. This “ignore the rulebook, focus on experience” mindset set the stage for the Souls games decades later, turning FromSoftware’s early idiosyncrasies into a formula that would eventually define an entire genre.

It’s fascinating to see that what started as experimental, borderline-ignorant design ended up creating a legacy of deep, rewarding difficulty that players still crave today. It’s the perfect example of risk and intuition creating something iconic.