Is Hidetaka Miyazaki the best game director of all time?

I love this board so much man. Taste simply can't be bought.

Also for what it's worth while Miyamoto has made some legendary games he's damaged a fair few IPs in recent times.
 
Little Mac said:
Shigeru Miyamoto Reaction GIF by Mega64
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He's Miyamoto on steroids
 
LakeOf9 said:
I was thinking about this earlier. At this point Miyazaki is the GOAT game director right? His track record since 2009 has been relentless in terms of putting out GOAT banger after GOAT banger. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring… like what other game director has the same batting average? He has no bad games, and his ideas have literally invented a genre while also normalizing the idea of difficulty in video games again. It's not unreasonable to say Miyazaki is the single best game director of all time, right?
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Let me know when he has made a game that isn't Souls-like. He is very good at his niche, but it is just a niche, ultimately. The only game he's made outside that genre was Deracine, which, admittedly, was absolutely amazing. Beyond that though...?
 
Best game director of all time ? No, I don't think so.

Best game director today ? Yes, and it's not even a match considering most best directors stopped making incredibly good games.

Shigeru Miyamoto : An incredible legacy, the best for me overall, but today he doesn't create / make games anymore. Last contribution was Wii Music I think...

Hideo Kojima : Another incredibly talented director, and he obviously knows it since he likes to reference himself whenever he can, but since Konami : Death Stranding and . Not exactly award winning in my book. DS2 will probably be in the same vein. Really excited for Physint though !

Lots of other talented directors but none have the pedigree of these two.

Nowadays, Hidetaka Miyazaki has taken the crown.

Edit : I love how the wiki page of Miyamoto doesn't mention Wii Music in their "Selected Works" :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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I miss this show by the way:

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They definitely would have had an entire episode dedicated to Miyazaki and other modern icons if the series kept going.
 
brenobnfm said:
Demon's Souls - GOTY level
Dark Souls - GOAT level
Bloodborne - GOAT level
Sekiro - GOTY level
Elden Ring - GOAT level

I mean, it's not really close.



Actually, this is the kind of comment i see from people that don't play From games, they think it's not some kind of conspiracy. No, they're just much better than their contemporaries, i only see people hyping up shit like Zelda when they have no experience with From games.
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I enjoyed Elden Ring more than I did BOTW.
 
EDMIX said:
I enjoyed anything more then I did BOTW

It felt like a Ubisoft wannabe type games instead of a actual Zelda game aka bring back normal dungeons you lazy fucks lol
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True, but it was better than TOTK in some ways, but mostly because it came first, the building and flying to discover stuff was crazy awesome and something they messed up on as I felt a more compelling exploration in the dark areas.
 
He's up there for me. And the one souls game that wasnt him (ds2) definitely showed, so he knows his shit. I also respect him doubling down after demon souls' initial failure
 
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Miyazaki's has been making, effectively, one game for about fifteen years. It's an absolute banger, but it is what it is - variations on a theme.

Miyamoto has been the Director of six legendary games:
  1. Donkey Kong
  2. Duck Hunt
  3. Super Mario Bros
  4. The Legend of Zelda
  5. Super Mario Bros 3
  6. Super Mario 64
Branching out to either game designer, concept creation, or senior producer, the man has overseen some of the best, important, successful, and influential games of all time with his fingerprints all over them:
  • Mario Bros (arcade)
  • Excite Bike
  • Super Mario World
  • F-Zero
  • Star Fox
  • The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
  • Pokemon (Red/Blue)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Super Smash Bros
  • Pikmin
  • Wii Sports
  • Wii Fit
  • Super Mario Galaxy
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Sure, Miyazaki made Dark Souls, but there isn't a soul in all of creation who comes close to Miyamoto.
 
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GigaBowser said:
Shigeru Miyamoto, a legendary game designer at Nintendo, has directed several influential and iconic games. Some of his notable directed games include:

  1. Super Mario Bros. (1985) - This game, which Miyamoto directed alongside Takashi Tezuka, is one of the most famous and influential platformers ever created.
  2. The Legend of Zelda (1986) - Miyamoto co-directed this groundbreaking adventure game with Takashi Tezuka. It introduced many of the gameplay mechanics that would become staples of the action-adventure genre.
  3. Super Mario 64 (1996) - This game was a landmark in 3D platforming, and Miyamoto directed its development, making significant contributions to the design and gameplay.
  4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) - Often cited as one of the greatest games of all time, Miyamoto directed this highly influential 3D adventure game.
  5. Pikmin (2001) - Miyamoto directed this real-time strategy game where players control a group of tiny space explorers.
  6. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002) - Known for its distinctive cel-shaded art style, Miyamoto played a significant role in directing this entry in the Zelda series.
  7. Super Mario Galaxy (2007) - Miyamoto directed this critically acclaimed game that brought new dimensions to the Mario series with its innovative gravity mechanics.
  8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) - Miyamoto again directed this sequel, which expanded on the gameplay and creativity of the original.
  9. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011) - This installment in the Zelda series was directed by Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, featuring motion controls and a focus on the series' origins.
  10. Super Mario Odyssey (2017) - Miyamoto directed this open-world Mario adventure, which received widespread acclaim for its creativity and exploration.
Miyamoto's influence extends beyond just these titles, but these are some of the key games where his direction and creative vision were particularly impactful.
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While I'm totally on board with Miyamoto or Kojima being heralded as the GOATs, can we stop acting like pikmin matters? That's the shittiest franchise Nintendo has by a large mile. The games are ass.
 
No.

I can respect the whole souls thing without enjoying any of them.

I find the entire idea of the games antithetical to having fun (and I play real rogue-likes [1 death you're done/start again] for fun so I'm used to 'dying'). I also have huge respect for people who can play these games with dancepads or guitar-hero controllers etc.

But I'll never play them myself.

The idea that you can throw your corpse at a boss many times to learn a set of attack patterns and then "beat" the boss is something that has no appeal at all.

Souls-likes are not the first genre to be created whole-cloth (god-likes from Molyneux back in the day, grand-strategy/civ-likes, 3d platformers, Doom-clones/FPS)

The recency-bias that souls-likes benefit from is amazing.
 
Miyazaki? Hawk tuhh! How about Eric Barone aka ConcernedApe, who made a game by himself and convinced 30 million donuts to role-play a farmer? That's goat level decepticon misdirection direction right there.
 
Maybe but I hope he is willing to branch out more, he sticks to his niche, I personally hope he learns to incorporate more puzzle design in his games at some point. A Miyazaki Souls/Old 3D Zelda blend would be the dream.
 
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brenobnfm said:
lol Miyamoto made a handful of historical important games for kids, he's not top 10.
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Sacrilegious to even joke about. No other game designer has had a tenth of the influence Miyamoto has had. Dark Souls would not even be on the map..
 
Azelover said:
Sacrilegious to even joke about. No other game designer has had a tenth of the influence Miyamoto has had. Dark Souls would not even be on the map..
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But Dark Souls is on the map. Miyamoto's influence ended in the late 90s. He created a bunch of IPs, figured out how to get them from 2D to 3D, then that was it. He's a legend. Hardly relevant today.
 
I don't think anyone has a run sheet on par with Mark Cerny.

Some of his games include:
Marble Madness
Sonic the Hedgehog
Crash Bandicoot
Spyro the Dragon
Jak and Daxter
Ratchet and Clank
Resistance
Uncharted
God of War
Killzone
The Last Guardian
Spider-Man
Death Stranding
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pretty-cool-cerny.gif
 
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PanzerCute said:
I will never get these "best game ever", "best console ever", "best director ever" etc thread.

There is no answer for this kind of questions, just personal preferences.
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We all want to feel that what we feel matters inside. Deep down, we all want sempai to notice us.
 
I wonder, who is the most versatile game director ? Is there someone that has made great games in multiple genres, racing, fighting, rpg, etc?
 
Preferences play a big role. I greatly enjoy titles from FromSoftware, but once I finish them, I rarely feel like replaying them. However, over the past two years, I've found myself replaying FF1, FF5, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Lost Odyssey, FF7, FF9, and Fantasian countless times. So, for me, Sakaguchi is clearly the developer who has had the most impact on me.

Next would be Mikami for his classic Resident Evil games, which I also revisit frequently.
 
He is fantastic, but isn't as good as the greatest of all time, Shigeru Miyamoto. I'd even rate Shinji Mikami above him.
 
He's gotta make more than one singular type of game before I'm willing to put any crown on him.

At that point why not Sakurai, he makes the best smash bros type games so technically he's the best director also.

As many have pointed out in this thread already, it's hard to topple miyamoto when he has that library under his belt of mostly vastly different games.

(Also from soft games don't perform nearly well enough for me to consider him the best, a good director would ensure solid performance)
 
Takashi Tezuka should be above Miyamoto

Director for:
  • Legend of Zelda
  • Super Mario Bros 3
  • Super Mario World
  • Zelda 3
  • Zelda 4
  • Yoshi's Island
 
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Its still Kojima for me.
You need to have a large body of work to be the best. Miyazaki is still a youngling compared to Miyamoto and Kojima. And he cant have a flop like Harvey Smith did with Redfall. Still a ways to go.
 
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