Dark Souls director says difficulty serves satisfaction

Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki says his game's notorious difficulty is a means to a more satisfying end. The From Software developer told Metro about his game and how fan demand for a PC version eventually led to the creation of the Prepare to Die Edition.

"I personally want my games to be described as satisfying rather than difficult," Miyazaki said. "However, I suppose gamers do not particularly prefer easy games. What they want is interesting and worthwhile games to play, so I think it is natural that hindrance or stress that does not attribute to such interesting and worthwhile elements will be removed in the end."

He said the game's PC version, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, was not planned during original development. But a successful fan petition was one of the "main factors" that pushed From Studios to release on the platform in August.

Miyazaki remained non-committal about a sequel to Dark Souls, itself a spiritual successor to 2009's Demon's Souls. Dark Souls' console versions sold 1.19 million copies as of the end of March, pushing publisher Namco Bandai to its strongest fiscal year since 2008.