Hidetaka Miyazaki Sees Death as a Feature, Not a Bug

From NewYorker: "Anovel’s achievements can elude a careless reader. A film’s themes, or its plot, can be misconstrued by a lazy viewer. Only a video game, however, can punish an audience’s faults. If a player mistimes a jump, falls to an adversary, or fails to reach the end of a level, a game can deny them access to the rest of the work, halting progress until they pass the test or resign in defeat.

The video-game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who’s in his late forties, has punished more players than perhaps anyone else. In Dark Souls, the 2011 fantasy game that made him famous, you play as a loin-clothed wretch, racing through sewers and cowering in forests. You’re attacked by a giant wolf, pugilist mushrooms, mephitic swamps, and a sword-wielding spider. If you fail to parry an aggressor’s lunge, or tumble off a rampart, you’re greeted by a superfluous message: “You Died.” After it fades, you’re reincarnated beside a bonfire, one of a series of checkpoints scattered throughout this mysterious, vaguely medieval world. Every one of your enemies has re-spawned, too."