A moment’s lapse in concentration, in even the simplest encounter, can prove fatal. A duel with a knight must be approached differently from a brawl with a pack of wolves, or a skirmish on horseback with a soaring dragon. Each foe has heft and intelligence their attack patterns must be carefully observed and countered, your stamina managed. You cannot mash the buttons and force your way to triumph. ![]() Games often flatter their players with childish power fantasies, but Miyazaki’s work relies on the virtues of failure, patience, and hard-earned precision. The average player will return to the firelight hundreds of times. ![]() Every one of your enemies has re-spawned, too. 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. You’re attacked by a giant wolf, pugilist mushrooms, mephitic swamps, and a sword-wielding spider. 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. The video-game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who’s in his late forties, has punished more players than perhaps anyone else. 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. Only a video game, however, can punish an audience’s faults. A film’s themes, or its plot, can be misconstrued by a lazy viewer. A novel’s achievements can elude a careless reader.
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