Wait, I don't know if anyone's ever said this to you before, but did you know that FromSoftware games are actually considered extremely difficult? Yeah, I've been trapped in a Smithing Stone mine for the past three years and wasn't aware. This is a phenomenon invading the globe like wind – even beloved composer Yuka Kitamura, whose music encouraged FromSoftware bosses to be at their most soul-crushing for 12 years before she left the developer in 2023, has trouble playing the games she helped create.
"During composition, I would often watch the gameplay in debug mode," Kitamura says in a new interview with French site PlayStation Inside, translated by the publication, "partly because I couldn't beat the boss myself! Experiencing the game directly like that helped me time the music in a way that felt more authentic and emotionally synced with the player."
Kitamura has worked on a number of landmark FromSoftware titles, including Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. It seems like, the whole time, she sensed you might have trouble with some of the monsters she made music for – Malenia, the magisterial, health-regenerating Blade of Miquella being one of the more notorious examples. But while she says "I always try to create music that follows the player's experience closely," Kitamura also thought the average player's experience with FromSoftware was similar enough to her everyday life.
"To be honest," she admits, "I'm also someone who struggles to defeat bosses in games, so I genuinely empathize with the frustration and difficulty players experience. That sense of 'I understand' has always been at the core of my music.
"During the creative process, I often found myself facing challenges as well – going through revisions or feeling stuck creatively. In many ways, I was also in a position of persistence and trial. I think that natural sense of resonance with the player's emotional journey may have found its way into the music."
