'We just happened to release it into the market at the right time': Even after Elden Ring's DLC victory lap, FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki still wears the 'soulslike' crown with humility

It's not an understatement to say that FromSoftware changed the gaming industry with Demon's Souls in 2009 and, later, Dark Souls in 2011—proving that challenging, punishing games can absolutely find mainstream success.

So much success, in fact, that it soon spawned a flood of flattering imitators—and so received the honour of creating a genre named after itself: The soulslike. It's a name so pervasive that any soulslike review will, invariably, still use FromSoftware's games as a measuring stick...