Demon's Souls developer's next action-RPG goes multiplatform

Prolific developer From Software is perhaps best known for its mech combat franchise Armored Core and last year's action role-playing game Demon's Souls, winner of GameSpot's 2009 Game of the Year award. This year's Tokyo Game Show has been a busy one for the developer, as new From Software games in both those genres were announced, though neither of them bears the names of those series.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled From Software's Xbox 360 Kinect-enabled Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, a new entry in Capcom's already established mech series. That was followed up with From Software and Namco Bandai Games today announcing Project Dark (working title), a new action role-playing game set for launch next year.

Namco Bandai said the dungeon-crawling game will feature some new networking features, but details will have to wait until early next year. Demon's Souls' online features were particularly novel, as the game allowed players to journey into other players' games to help or hunt each other but included no chat functions. Instead, players could only communicate through gestures and short, preset messages that could be left throughout levels.

Project Dark is set for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 internationally. However, the official site indicates that it is only set for Sony's system in the developer's home country of Japan.

Demon's Souls may be From Software's biggest title of late, but it is far from the only one. Not all of its titles have made it to the West, but the list of ones that did includes the King's Field series of first-person RPGs, Ninja Blade, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Armored Core, Chromehounds, Otogi, Lost Kingdoms, Enchanted Arms, and Tenchu: Shadow Assault.