Elden Ring Director Hidetaka Miyazaki Reveals His Favorite Souls Genre Boss

Elden Ring’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki and multiple PlayStation Studios developers have revealed their personal favorite bosses from the Dark Souls series, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

While Miyazaki had previously shared that the Old Monk boss from Demon’s Souls was his favorite, he discussed a bit more as to why he made that choice with PlayStation.Blog.

“If we’re talking about a boss that I’m ‘most proud of’ (to use those specific words), it would probably be the Old Monk from Demon’s Souls,” Miyazaki said. “The reason being is there was a lot of pushback against that design and what we were trying to do with it. But it was something I really, really wanted to do. I wanted to get that boss concept into the game, both from a visual design perspective and gameplay perspective, including the multiplayer element.

“From both the implementation and fun factor, we got a lot of pushback, and no one believed in it at the time. But in the end, we came through, and I think it turned into an intriguing boss that the fans appreciated. With Demon’s Souls, there were a lot of mechanics throughout the development that were difficult to design. For instance, the asynchronous online features were complicated, but I think the Old Monk encompasses those tribulations and how we pushed through and made something we were proud of.”

Insomniac Games’ associate community manager Thomas Hart also chose the Old Monk, saying that the revelation that he wasn’t simply fighting an A.I. but an actual player was a “mind blown” moment.

You can check out all the other bosses that made the list and the developers’ reasoning behind their choices in the slideshow above, including Great Grey Wolf Sif, Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, and Knight Artorias.

For more, check out our look at the 10 Best Dark Souls Bosses According to Fans, our hands-on preview of Elden Ring’s closed network test, and why Miyazaki thinks that more players will finish this new game despite it not being easier.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.