Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed in an interview that he used some company presidents he knew as prototypes for game enemies. After becoming president of FromSoftware, he interacted with more leaders from other companies, and these experiences also became sources of inspiration for his game creation.
From Demon's Souls and Dark Souls to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring, Hidetaka Miyazaki's game design has profoundly influenced FromSoftware. He became the company's president in 2014, before the release of Bloodborne. These remarks about using enemies based on real people come from an interview he gave to The Guardian after Bloodborne's launch.
At the time, Miyazaki stated that his new position allowed him to go places he wouldn't have visited before and encounter different things. He believed these experiences were important, providing new material for creativity. When talking about the other company presidents he met, he described them as "quite eccentric," yet fascinating, and said he would use some of them as enemy characters in his games.
Discussing specific enemy designs, Hidetaka Miyazaki once asked his team to convey the profound sorrow of a magnificent beast when creating the Everlasting Dragon in Dark Souls: it is destined to slowly decay, a process that may never end.
Years later, in an interview with PC Gamer, Miyazaki revisited this design requirement, explaining that what he ultimately wanted to depict was a certain kind of beauty. The meaning of beauty varies from person to person; it doesn't necessarily manifest as an appealing appearance, but can be something within the character that resonates with players on a deeper level.