fantasy game hit video-game consoles last February, it landed like a block-buster film. FromSoftware, the game's Japanese developer, sold 12 million units (starting at $60) within two weeks, and the release profile of the game's creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is known for taking players into magical kingdoms that are anything but fairy tales. Over the previous decade, Miyazaki had established a reputation for punishingly difficult games with and , in which you might take the role of a knight or magician to battle through labyrinths of lethal enemies. Along the way, the ghosts of other players who've died might warn you of what's around the bend … or trick you into an early demise. For his new game, Miyazaki enlisted author George R.R. Martin to help create the core mythos of the universe. The game preserves the grueling challenges and eerie sensibility of Miyazaki's previous games, but expands their scope by dispersing its monsters across a vast landscape of ruins, mountains, beaches, caves, and even swamps of blood and protruding bones. (And yes, because Martin is involved, there be dragons.) As in both the and games, you can expect to suffer hundreds of “deaths” before successfully navigating to the end, but makes one merciful concession, allowing you to tag in a friend to better you r odds, adding an extra social dimension to Miyazaki's latest fun house. With , FromSoftware found success by bucking the gaming industry's decades-long trend toward easier play You won't find any wimpy bots to practice on, nor a “dad mode” to lower the level of difficulty asks players to find meaning in their failure. The challenge is the destination.
