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Yui Tanimura has a degree in psychology, which, in the context of his childhood dream to become a professional baseball player, could be considered a failure and, in the context of his subsequent career as a video game designer, could be considered irrelevant. And yet, it's training that has served him well in his current task: crafting the sequel to From Software's unlikely 2011 hit, Dark Souls. For one, his background has provided him a few theories on why that curious game, which so forcefully eschewed mainstream fashions with unrelenting challenge, unfashionable style and a mere whisper of a storyline, has sold more than 2.3 million copies to date. "It's about the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge," he says. "When you see somebody clenching their fist in happiness at some victory over defeat: that is a peculiarly human reaction. And it's something that games are well placed to tap into. People claim that Dark Souls is a difficult game, but the difficulty, if you want to call it that, is only a means to amplify the elation."
The 'difficult' tag - if you want to call it that - has long been attached to Dark Souls and, if early demos of Tanimura's sequel are representative of the whole, will be similarly and somewhat unthinkingly applied to its sequel too. But it is something of a misnomer (even if it's one perpetuated by the original game's accompanying advertising campaign, which issued the bleak warning: Prepare to Die). But in truth Dark Souls' character is one of unrelenting fairness. The feeling as you set out time and again to penetrate a little deeper into Dark Souls' world with its cliff tops patrolled by skeletons and valleys guarded by hydra is one of banging a weak fist against overwhelming odds. But this is a game that simply demands its player improves their skills in order to progress - and the rewards for those who persevere are as lasting as the muscle memory gained along the way.
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