Topic: Dark Souls - Demon's Souls Follow up!

[idolminds]

Interesting

Looks to be Demons Souls 2 in everything but name. Why? To go multiplatform.

[Xessive]

I can understand their desire to go multiplatform and change the franchise, so I guess it's more a spiritual successor than a direct sequel.

I can think of a few games that should have dropped the name completely since they had nothing to do with the originals e.g Far Cry 2.

[K-man]

I need to finish the original.  I've read that Atlus will shut the servers down in March 2011, so I'd better get on it sooner than later.

I can't fathom how difficult the game will be without the help messages and death views.

[iPPi]

Awesome.  Can't wait.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I can't fathom how difficult the game will be without the help messages and death views.

It's doable, the death views are only really useful on areas with traps and I personally only ran into a small handful of super helpful messages for parts that I probably would have figured out on my own.  Either way though, you should finish it before the servers go down so you can get the full effect of the game.

Cool news on their next game though, can't wait!

[K-man]

Yeah, unfortunately it lost out to Uncharted 2 as far as play time was concerned.  Then came the wave of holiday releases.

Not to mention the untold fear I felt every time I played it.  One of the few games that ever struck me like that.

[idolminds]

There is a new thread on neogaf talking about a Famitsu article about the game. Name revealed!

There's a preview on the game in this week's Famitsu. The official title is now Dark Soul. Some info from the preview:

- This is the official title of what was previously Project Dark

- This time they want to increase the amount of field exploration in the game.
- All fields are seamless, so whatever you can see, you can reach and explore. If you see a fortress or castle walls in the distance, you can eventually get there.
- There will be no map display in the game, just a position display marker.

- They aim to make the game just as challenging than Demon's Souls, but also just as rewarding when you succeed. The sense of achievement is important.

- The gameplay will be similar to Demon's Souls in concept, where it's about trial and error and learning from your mistakes to play better.

- The game does not share the same world and story as Demon's Souls.
- The game will not use the same format as Demon's Souls in terms of having 5 worlds connected via a hub.

- Instead all maps in the game will be linked seamlessly in a connected world. The pace of the game will feel more about exploration and discovering locations, which you can then go inside into a dungeon or whatever and explore the interior further.
- There will be more complex level designs in the game using more vertical design in areas and such.

- The world setting is based on medieval dark fantasy, and will contain themes like "high fantasy of kings and knights", "death and the depths of the earth", and "the flames of chaos".

Edit: More details added.

- The character creation process will not be class based.
- The play style of the player character will have much more freedom this time.
- There will be many more spells and items, and the animation and uniqueness of weapons will also be increased.

- The online elements are very similar to Demon's Souls. There is cooperative and PvP.
- You can still leave messages, and see players who died at various places.
- There will be no Soul Tendency this time because they don't want to have to use dedicated servers to handle that shit again.
- Instead this time there will be more features allowing players to engage in "mutual role playing" which they say are still under wraps. They'll reveal more when it's time.

[ScaryTooth]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/02/01/dark_souls/

Can't wait. One of my favorite games ever.

[Pugnate]

WTF 360 as well?

[Cobra951]

Interesting

Looks to be Demons Souls 2 in everything but name. Why? To go multiplatform.

"The difficulty has been increased greatly over Demon's Souls."

Huh?  I thought one of Demon Souls' claims to fame was its high difficulty.  They're going to make the spiritual sequel much harder?  Yikes.

[Pugnate]

Hell yes. I think they should make it harder, but the game's mechanics easier to understand.

[iPPi]

http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=7065.0

[Cobra951]

Yeah, hence my quote above.  Clicking on the "idolminds" line does the same thing.

[iPPi]

Debut Trailer

[TheOtherBelmont]

Debut Trailer

Fuck yeah, that was awesome!  Definitely going to be getting this on release date.

[ScaryTooth]

Oops, didn't see that.

[ScaryTooth]

I can not wait to play it!

I'm on my third play through of Demon's Souls.

[W7RE]

I'm excited about this, because of it coming to Xbox 360 also. I missed out on Demons' Souls due to not having a PS3, but kept hearing it was so good.

[Quemaqua]

Trailer took a minute to get going, but once it did... awesome.  I think it probably would mean a lot more to someone who played through Demon's Souls too.  Looks freaking fantastic, though.

[PyroMenace]

I just watched the trailer and it was sick, also kind of scared me. I want to play Demons Souls now.

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> More info on Dark Souls.

60 hours approximate game-time
NO Demo planned.

DLC - there likely "won't be any based on current plans."
Though, if there is DLC, it'll have to do "something interesting" w/ using "online functionality".

[idolminds]

Anyone else hear see something like "We have no plans for DLC" and think...yay?

[Quemaqua]

Absolutely.

[MysterD]

Anyone else hear see something like "We have no plans for DLC" and think...yay?

DLC does get bloody tiresome.
I don't mind paying for more content, if priced appropriately.
Most times when it comes to DLC, though - it isn't priced appropriately.

Often, DLC mania causes me to NOT buy games upon release, so I'll wait for an Ultimate Edition w/ everything MUCH later.

[iPPi]

I don't think I've purchased any DLC before.  If the DLC is released for free I will get it, but otherwise I don't feel like spending $5 to $15 for just another 2-3 hours of gameplay.

[Pugnate]

I am a sucker for DLC if it is a game I really love. So far I've bought DLC for Dragon Age and Civ5. Well, that's not a lot I guess.

[idolminds]

I bought some addons to Oblivion and Borderlands. Are they still DLC when you don't download them?

Announcing DLC ahead of time before the base game is even released just makes me feel....meh. If I've bought a game, played it, loved it, and then they announce some new content I'd be excited. But before the game is even out its like they are saying "We want to squeeze more then $60 out of you! Isn't that great?"

[sirean_syan]

I'm surprise more companies haven't learned that lesson (along with announcing sequels before the actual game is released). I guess it could be cool for more modular games like fighting or competitive shooters where you say that you want to add maps or characters at a later date. For something competitive like that, there's actually something to be said for having new additions come out periodically that people haven't been able to completely learn and sort of reset the playing field. While the pricing of most of these things are suspect, the idea itself isn't terrible.

As for stuff that's more adventure or story based, keep that shit under wraps until your game does well enough so people get excited about the prospect of more time with the game. Otherwise you just have the scenario Idol mentioned.

[MysterD]

Expect Dark Souls to be MUCH harder than Demon's Souls.

Namco demonstrated the punishing difficulty of Dark Souls at Gamescom today, pointing out that yes, it is in fact far more difficult than Demon's Souls due to the fact that more complex tactics are required to traverse the various areas in the game -- not just an affinity for the game's demanding combat system.

[K-man]

So what was initially a pretty decent CE has basically been turned to all-digital content.  For those who aren't aware, any preorder of this game automatically gets you a CE.  It was initially supposed to include an art book, game guide, and a download of the soundtrack.  Now it's all digital content.  My interest in preordering has declined substantially.  Now you can ask "But K-man, since it was free content anyway why does this change your mind?"  The short answer is that I can wait for a deal on the game rather than paying full price.

[sirean_syan]

Really? I put in a preorder because the set looked sweet. Now... maybe not. I might cancel and wait for a deal.

[TheOtherBelmont]

So what was initially a pretty decent CE has basically been turned to all-digital content.  For those who aren't aware, any preorder of this game automatically gets you a CE.  It was initially supposed to include an art book, game guide, and a download of the soundtrack.  Now it's all digital content.  My interest in preordering has declined substantially.  Now you can ask "But K-man, since it was free content anyway why does this change your mind?"  The short answer is that I can wait for a deal on the game rather than paying full price.

This probably would not have happened if Atlus was publishing it.  I still wonder why Atlus is not publishing this considering how well they handled the publishing of Demon's Souls.

[Quemaqua]

I didn't realize Atlus wasn't publishing. What gives?

[K-man]

I think it just got bigger than Atlus, which is great for From Software.

I've been diving back into Demon's Souls, and actually giving it some decent face time.  Before I was really reluctant to venture beyond the first few stages because I was just flat out afraid of losing my souls.  I was also worried about triggering some things that were irreversible.  I found a pretty good farm spot in 4-1 though, so I'm going to do that, level my stuff a bit, and go kick some ass (or die lots).

Atlus is only promising the servers will stay open until October.  So now is the time to play it as it was meant to be played.

[PyroMenace]

Quicklook of Dark Souls is up on Giantbomb. Its fun to watch I think, it makes me want to try the first one... but I just dont have time for it right now.

[MysterD]

GameSpot -> 9.5 = Video Review; Written review.
IGN -> 9.0 = Written Review; Video Review.
Edge Magazine -> 9.

[TheOtherBelmont]

So Amazon botched up a lot of the collector's edition pre-orders for release date delivery and I am one of the unlucky ones that is affected by this.  My copy was set to come today but now it is not set to come until Thursday, some people are getting theirs tomorrow that got the same shipping method as me.  I couldn't wait until then so I went to Best Buy and grabbed a copy and canceled my Amazon order.  First time Amazon has fucked up one of my orders.  Glad I got the game now though and will be playing heavily on my next 3 days off from work.

[K-man]

Did they have CE's in store?

[TheOtherBelmont]

Did they have CE's in store?

No, but since it all went digital anyways, it doesn't seem like too much of a loss.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Holy crap, I cannot put this game down!  So much fun.  Just killed one of the bosses that had killed me like 5 times in a row and opened up a new area with the key he dropped.  This is worthy of all the praise it has been getting so far.  From Software has done it again.