Ah February, a month of blossoming love, the promise of spring and a massive PlayStation Network sale from Namco Bandai Games! Starting tomorrow, Namco Bandai Games will be holding a four-week 50% off sale of selected digital games and downloadable content across the PlayStation family brand of systems.

If you’ve been holding off on riding the high seas with One Piece: Pirate Warriors, unlocking the mysteries of the past in Dark Souls: Atorias of the Abyss, rolling around town in Touch My Katamari or stretching to new worlds in Noby Noby Boy, now is your chance. The sale will start Tuesday, February 5th and run until Tuesday, March 5th. The following list features the games and downloadable content featured in this month’s sale.

PlayStation 3

• RIDGE RACER 7: 3D License Version – $9.99
• NAMCO MUSEUM ESSENTIALS – $4.99
• NOBY NOBY BOY – $2.49
• ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS – $24.99

PlayStation Vita

• RIDGE RACER – $12.49
• TOUCH MY KATAMARI – $12.49

PSP

• SOULCALIBUR: Broken Destiny – $19.99
• TEKKEN 6 – $19.99
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja Impact – $19.99

DLC

• ACE COMBAT ASSAULT HORIZON DLC – prices vary from $1.99 to $7.49
• Dark Souls: Atorias of the Abyss – $7.49
• ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS DLC Pack – $7.49

Luckily, today’s the day. For the viewing pleasure of PlayStation.Blog readers, From Software and Namco Bandai have collected a host of rare concept artwork accompanied by design notes from Miyazaki himself. Miyazaki also wanted to pass along a greeting just for PlayStation.Blog readers: “I am hoping all of you experience meaningful deaths many times in the game. I know that the game is challenging, but I want you to keep trying to overcome any difficulty you face in the game. And please feel a great sense of achievement when overcoming a difficulty!”

Read on for the full gallery. If you do pick up Dark Souls, keep us updated with your character build, equipment, and winning strategies. I have a hunch we’ll be needing all the help we can get…

Hidetaka Miyazaki, Director, Dark Souls: These are the preliminary designs for the Gaping Dragon. The story goes that there were many ancient dragons in this world, and after many of them perished, the few survivors went mad. This is just one of the many designs we came up when discussing how they went mad.

This is the Snake Man. He was designed as another one of the “failed experiments” for obtaining the immortal scales of the albino dragon Seath the Scaleless. It’s referenced in the rings inside the game, but the image of a snake with scales that sheds its skin overlaps with the immortal ancient dragons. Compared to popular snake-human designs, its neck is much thicker, which I like.

This is the Crystal Undead. Like the Snake Soldiers, he was designed as one of the “failed experiments” for obtaining the immortal scales. Snake Soldiers were one of the earlier designs, so they (along with the Crystal series) embody the later designs in the game. Visual allusions to the dragon Seath and crystals are a major theme in the Duke’s Archive and Crystal Cavern.

This is the Sealer. This design was inspired by the theme of “mage of lost rituals.” In the end, it gained the role of sealer, and was assigned with the ritual of curse-breaking.

This is Havel’s Armor. His design came from the theme of “an ancient soldier of stone.” I particularly like his large crested helmet.

This is the Bell Gargoyle. This boss was designed after we decided to include a scene where you fight on a church rooftop. The gargoyle motif perfectly fit that situation, as well as what was required for the game. He’s one of the earlier bosses you’ll fight, but we wanted him to convey the ambiance of Anor London in that he’s the embodiment of the medieval ages in a world of knights and kings.

This is the Egg-Bearer. He came about during a flood of ideas with no one particular theme. His design is without a doubt shocking, and many more ideas came from him.

This is the Embraced Knight. The story went that this knight received divine protection from a goddess, but then we started to think about adding something twisted or unexpected to the design and that’s where we got the idea to have the embracing arms of the goddess designed right into his armor. His armor inspired the creation of the character Lautrec of Carim.

This is a Dragon Zombie. Like the Gaping Dragon, the story goes that after many of the ancient dragons died, the few survivors went mad. This is just one of the designs we came up when discussing how they went mad. We decided to go with the straightforward “descendant of dead dragons” design, but we also wanted to go with elements that felt almost metaphysical.

This is the Titanite Demon. He was the product of a lot of brainstorming when we weren’t able to narrow down the theme. From the game perspective, we needed “an ore demon that forges weapons,” and he was ultimately selected for that role.

The Black Knight. At first, he was designed to represent an evil spirit. We pictured it as the grudge of fallen soldiers amassed together to become the hollow Black Knight. That idea ultimately didn’t take shape, but it was such a cool idea that it we eventually tweaked it for King Gwyn’s knights.

This is the Gravelord Nito. He was designed with the theme of “Lord of Death.” I remember his first drafts being approved without many revisions. A rare treat!

Fans of 2009’s PS3-exclusive RPG Demon’s Souls are sure to have questions about Dark Souls, which is being produced under the watchful eye of Demon’s Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki. Though the game was formally revealed just days ago, I had a rare opportunity to speak directly with Miyazaki about his plans for Dark Souls. We discussed the game’s soul-crushing difficulty (it’s going to get harder, not easier), his favorite new feature (a new form of “emotional communication” via Beacon Fires), and the games he’s most excited to play in 2011 (hint: UNCHARTED 3).

Sid Shuman: Would you describe Dark Souls as a sequel to Demon’s Souls, or a spiritual successor? Does Dark Souls reside in the same universe as Demon’s Souls?

Hidetaka Miyazaki, director, Dark Souls: Dark Souls is not a sequel to Demon’s Souls by any means. However, it’s created by the same producers and director and so the ideologies, concepts, and themes have carried over and are similar. It’s a totally new game with similar concepts.

SS: Demon’s Souls is infamous for its difficulty. Will Dark Souls be as difficult?

HM: Yes, Demon’s Souls was known for its incredible difficulty [laughter]. With Dark Souls, there is no intention to decrease the difficulty at all. Actually, we intend to increase the difficulty of the game. (Sid: !!!) But not simply by making the game more difficult, but by giving players the freedom to strategize freely and conquer that difficulty, and to be rewarded accordingly.

This is an analogy we often use: We are trying to create a game that is spicy. And we want to make it as spicy as possible. But it’s edible and tastes good and leaves you wanting more.

SS: How do you keep a difficult game from becoming punishing, and drive the player to quit in frustration?

HM: Good question. We can’t tell you all of our secrets, but there are a few ways we prevent users from drifting away. Number one, the difficulty is not dependent on the skill level of the user. We have not created a game where players who react faster or press buttons faster are better than others. Second, when a player dies, we try to leave a sense of “maybe if I try a different strategy I can succeed.” Things that you lose in death can be outweighed by what you gain by trying again. We try to give players lots of freedom to design their own gameplay style, and we’ve implemented enough content to enable users to continue challenging themselves and continue making progress.

One more aspect is the difficulty based on repetitiveness. We don’t want users to have to constantly carve away health from enemies. We’ve created all characters — including enemies and the player — to have high attack power but low defense. We don’t want users to hack and hack and hack away to defeat an enemy. It’s more strategic. We want users to think, “if I avoid this enemy, maybe I can overcome him.” We don’t want players to be frustrated by doing the same things over and over.

SS: Death was a part of life in Demon’s Souls. But it required that you replay the entire level from scratch with enemies in identical locations. Will Dark Souls force players to restart levels? Will levels be less repetitious to replay?

HM: The main concept has not changed: You try something, die, learn from your mistakes, and eventually overcome those mistakes. In Dark Souls, we’ve added the ability to players to choose their recovery point — essentially respawn points. If you die, you won’t be taken back to the beginning of the level. And as you explore the world, you can carve out your own territory and retry quests you failed. That’s a big difference. It’s an aspect that we want players to use to strategize their approach to the game.

SS: Will Dark Souls have a less intimidating control scheme than Demon’s Souls?

HM: In Demon’s Souls, when you finally get used to the controls, it feels pretty good. So for Dark Souls, the controls and feel won’t change too much. However, we are adding a tutorial so players don’t have to fight to learn how to play. We don’t want to take the players step-by-step, we just want them to get past the first step.

But generally, for Dark Souls, learning commands and controlling your character is probably a little bit easier. But to counter that, we’ve added a lot of aspects that users must learn beyond the controls. The amount of magic, the number of weapons, the types of weapons, the moves attached to the weapons…there is a lot more that players must learn in order to conquer the challenges.

SS: Does that mean we can expect a lot of new weapons with unique functions?

HM: The simple answer is yes. But we’re not just increasing the number of weapons; we want to improve the uniqueness of each weapon. Each weapon will have characteristics that are vastly different from other weapons in the game. As an example, the player starts with a Long Sword. Eventually he might find a Holy Sword, which is far more powerful but is used very differently. Some players will choose to continue using the Long Sword simply because they’re more comfortable with it.

We want to give players many options, even if that means they use the sword that ‘fits best in the hand.’ We want you to become emotionally and physically attached to the weapon you’re using. Perhaps the Long Sword, after you’ve used it for so long and taken such good care of it, is the real Holy Sword. [laughter] The real Holy Sword, though, might be very hard to master despite its power. And some players will say, “This is difficult to use? Leave it to me, I’ll master it!” [laughter]. The mind games and strategizing — that’s the most fun aspect of the game to me.

SS: How will dual-wielding two weapons impact combat? Is dual-wielding a successful strategy, or more of an “expert’s mode”?

HM: Dual wielding is an option, but it’s a very difficult choice for novice players. The default fighting style is holding a shield in one hand, a weapon in the other. And the shield adds a lot of protection, it’s quite effective. If you see another player dual wielding, we want you to think, “Oh my god, this guy is special!” Dual wielding is a way to challenge yourself, but it has a lot of downsides and makes the game much harder. When you’re in trouble, you’ll want to return to your shield and sword.

We want to keep dual wielding special. It’s a very unique strategy that will hopefully give a new experience to the player as well as those watching him.

SS: Like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls will include online co-op and competitive play. Are you planning any broad changes to the multiplayer?

HM: Yes. Throughout the game, there will be both cooperative and competitive play with other players. Each user will enjoy a unique single-player game; at times, they will cross paths with one another. Depending on the situation, the time, and the players’ goals, those players may cooperate or compete against each other. The multiplayer system we’re creating will envelop the single-player mode. Multiplayer will enhance single-player, make it more unique, compared to other games that emphasize traditional multiplayer co-op or competitive play.

SS: What’s the single addition to Dark Souls that you’re most excited by?

HM: Probably the Beacon Fire. It stands for a lot of things. It serves as a recovery point; when the player’s health is low, the Beacon Fire helps you recover. It serves as a respawn point as well. So it’s powerful from a gameplay perspective. Secondly, the Beacon Fire will be used to share experiences with other players. It’s a place where players can gather together and communicate — not verbally communicate, but emotionally communicate. Third, it’s probably the one place in Dark Souls where users can relax just for an instant. In this cold, dark world, the Beacon Fire is a place of warmth. It’s one of the few locations in the game that is heartwarming. It expresses this dark fantasy world I’m trying to create.

SS: How will character creation work? Are there still classes? How can I augment and customize my character?

HM: The basics are quite similar to Demon’s Souls, but you can customize the physical build of your character now in addition to his face. There’s a lot of customization in terms of gameplay styles and parameters. It’s very open, and there are many more options than in Demon’s Souls. You can create any type of character you’d like to create.

SS: What’s your philosophy regarding monsters in Dark Souls? Are you going for really grim, grotesque creatures?

HM: Calling it a “philosophy” is probably overstating it a bit [laughter]. I want to expand the range and variety of all the enemies, whether they’re hideous or beautiful or strong. I don’t lean towards any particular type, but [high-level enemies] will be pretty disgusting. And you might not believe this, but all the monsters I design — from Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls — are “beautiful” to me, no matter how gruesome their appearance.

SS: What games are you looking forward to playing in 2011?

HM: Politically this is sort of a difficult question to answer! [laughter] I’m a big gamer. But to be honest, right now I absolutely love Magic: The Gathering Online. For 2011, I’m really looking forward to UNCHARTED 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

UNCHARTED 2 came out around the same time as Demon’s Souls, so it was a big competitor for us at the time. But UNCHARTED has done so well, and now I’m really excited for UNCHARTED 3. I’m quite interested in Skyrim because the fantasy world is something I really look forward to in games.