The one true king retains his place.
Feet in media have had an incredibly strong presence over the last three decades or so. Thanks to the legendary Quentin Tarantino, we’ve had the not-so-amazing opportunity to see so many female feet smack dab in the middle of every other shot in his movies, and eventually, that sort of trend leaked into the world of video games as well.
And it’s been particularly heavily featured in the works of Hidetaka Miyazaki. It seems that every time a female character is on the screen in a number of Souls and other FromSoftware games, they tend to be barefoot, with their feet, whether we like it or not, prominently displayed for the player to see. And it’s not just some random, edge-of-the-screen-you-need-to-focus-to-see-it kind of thing. No, it’s very much an intended part of these characters’ designs.
Ever since the days of Demon’s Souls, Miyazaki has had this tendency to display his love of feet. Turns out, though, the man doesn’t love feet at all. According to a new report by The Guardian, Miyazaki said people should not “believe the rumors” about his alleged foot fetish. What’s funnier, he wasn’t even prompted or asked to comment on this; he just straight up said it.
What the real question was about was the prominent use of peripherals as imagery in FromSoftware titles. In Elden Ring, for example, we can fight giant many-fingered hands, and extremities as a motif tend to have a recurring appearance in many things Miyazaki and his team worked on.
“It’s not necessarily something I’m consistently aware of—maybe it’s something subconscious coming through. Take a look online, and there’s a rumor that I have a bit of a thing for feet, but I’m not honestly sure where this comes from. I feel like I’m trying to depict some side of human nature or the human existence that is difficult to describe,” Miyazaki said.
“I don’t like feet,” he laughed, “don’t listen to the rumors.”
So, with this illusion dispelled, Japan, and by extension the gaming world, remains with one true foot king: Hideo Kojima. And I’m not even going to talk a lot about his well-accounted-for penchant for female lower extremities. No, I will just post this video here and let it do all the talking that’s necessary (specifically, everything from second 28 onward).
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.destructoid.com/miyazaki-foot-fetish-does-not-exist/
