Dark Souls

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Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Sat Dec 08, 2012 10:53 am

I figured a topic is due considering that not only is Dark Souls one of the best games in this generation (IMO), but they've also announced a direct sequel, Dark Souls II

Hopelessness, Despair, and Impending Doom Arrives With Dark Souls II

SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 7, 2012 – Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today proudly announces that the critically acclaimed Dark Souls™ saga marches forward with Dark Souls™ II, currently in development at FromSoftware in Tokyo, Japan. Dark Souls II will continue a legacy of goading its passionate fan base with unrelenting challenge and suffering that are considered a hallmark of the series; while presenting new devilishly devised obstacles for players to overcome. Dark Souls II will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PCs.

Built upon the foundation established by Souls series creator and Dark Souls II Supervisor, Hidetaka Miyazaki with development helmed by FromSoftware Director Tomohiro Shibuya, Dark Souls II will feature a new hero, a new storyline, and an unfamiliar world for players to survive in while delivering its signature brand of unrelenting punishment that players hunger for. Epic battles with gruesome enemies and blood-thirsty bosses await adventurers as they traverse through a devastated world filled with death and despair; only those who are strong willed or cunning can survive this journey to achieve great glory. Players seeking to share their experience will discover a revamped server-based multiplayer mode that will put a distinct Dark Souls II twist on the concept of playing with others.

“Dark Souls II retains the core essence of Dark Souls while evolving to present new twists and challenges that are sure to please longtime fans and attract new comers to the series,” says Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “FromSoftware is going to take a very dark path with Dark Souls II; players will need to look deep within themselves to see if they have the intestinal fortitude to embark on this journey.”

“This new chapter in the Dark Souls saga presents opportunities for us to drive innovation in gameplay design, develop an entirely new story, and expand the scope of the world in which the player interacts with the game. We have taken these necessary steps with Dark Souls II in order to evolve the overall experience of the Dark Souls series,” says Tomohiro Shibuya, FromSoftware Director on Dark Souls II. “The entire development team is striving to make Dark Souls II an experience that is fresh while not forsaking its roots in presenting players with challenging gameplay. Our goal is to surprise and delight our fans with new experiences and plot twists while enticing new players to join our dark journey.”

More details surrounding Dark Souls II will become available in the months leading to its release. Begin your Dark Souls II journey at www.DarkSoulsII.com or join the Dark Souls II conversation on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/DARKSOULS or follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Filthierich


Official site: http://www.darksoulsii.com/

I cannot wait. As you all know, I love Dark Souls. It's a game that is uncompromising, dark and bleak with tons of atmosphere. Rarely do you play a game and feel so alone and helpless. But at the same time, for all of it's renowned difficulty (and it is difficult, believe me) it is also never unfair and the game does just enough to help you out along the way. More than that, you want to keep playing. You know that as you explore the world, there'll always be something new to find, and there will always be that feeling of "shit, I've ventured too far, these enemies are way more powerful, I shouldn't be here but....the loot!". You fight, you'll die, but you also learn from your mistakes. And there's never a greater feeling than going back to an area that used to give you so much grief in the early stages and be able to plow right through them with your upgraded gear and stats. The game itself is also really innovative in it's multiplayer and you see games like ZombiU now using the messaging system in it's game too.

If you've ever seen the gameplay and think it might not be for you, I urge you to at least try it. None of this 'mash A to win' crap. If you really want to test yourself, knowing that progression in the game is entirely down to your reactions and skills, this is the game for you.

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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Strikeout » Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:20 pm

dark souls is really impressive but i like demons souls more, when demons souls came out 1,5 years after the japan release here in europe i was the first and grabbed my black phantom edition back in the summer of 2010 and beat the crap out of this game, it was soo intensive, something totally new but even something good known and charming like the old action rpgs like diablo.
When dark souls came out, i got my copy, and liked it but i didn't played long and wasn't so addicted like in demons souls... i just killed the gargoyle and the goatman *shame* :lol:

strange i know even though dark souls is one of the very rare gems in the current console generation
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:28 pm

Never played Demons Souls, but I can only imagine it's just as good.

A lot has been made by the fans over a comment from the game's director for Edge magazine, where he reportedly said he wanted Dark Souls 2 to be more accessible. Immediately, fans assume the worst, thinking it might be trying to dumb itself down to go for the Skyrim audience. But it is just that, an assumption. He could very well mean that the story is more directed at the player as opposed to having no narrative drive in Dark Souls ( despite the fact that the world and lore of Dark Souls is incredibly rich and well realised, but a lot of it is obtuse and left to the player/community to make sense of). Or maybe there will be more in-game information to ease players into the game without having to consult a wiki. Terms like reverse hollowing, poise or weapon scaling aren't explained at all in Dark Souls, and it's left to the player to make sense of it. If they helped make that more accessible then I could see how it would help.

At the same time, there's a charm to Dark Souls ability not to communicate information to the player. For this game, perhaps more so than any other game released this gen (other than it's predecessor), really built a community around it. Any secrets players found were shared like gems and the community thrived on finding answers to questions the game had posed. It's a game that doesn't even give you a big huge checkpoint on where to go. At the beginning of the game you're told to go to either one of two places. Thats it. Heading in one direction is absolutely not the way to go for first time players because it has high level monsters that you can't compete with. It's only when the player decides to go the other way and finds easier opposition that they realise that is where they should be going first. It's a game that goes against current game design in many respects, but that is a large part of it's charm and as it shows, there's definately a market for games like that and it's difficulty is part of the reason why it's revered so. It could be a shame if those aspects or the difficulty was scaled back. But I have faith, I can't wait to see more.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby KiBa » Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:26 pm

You should play Demon's Souls. It's great. Great series.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:50 am

I would have done if not for the fact I don't have a PS3 XD
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:53 am

Leaving players in the dark (heheheh geddit?) is what the series does well, no need to really change that, I think in terms of accessibility he might just mean making it alittle easier to pick or making it so you get shops faster/easier.

found it funny that people asked for a WiiU version like the day it got announced, wonder which I'll get if that happens.

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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:23 pm

^ Don't see why not, but considering it would be the first time doing something like that for the Wii U I can't see it coming out until after the releases for 360/PS3/PC

This is pretty hilarious. TARKUS!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHtRggFsNA[/youtube]
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby OL » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:32 pm

You know, I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I still haven't played this. As much as I love From Software, as much as I love how bleak and dark (heh) it looks, it's just weird that I still haven't taken the plunge.
Soon, I think. Might want Demon's Souls first.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:33 pm

Its a greatest hits game shouldn't be more then like 25$ now.

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Re: Dark Souls

Postby OL » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:38 pm

Yeah, I've seen the gawdy red case at the store. :lol:
I'm weird. I want the original clear case. Might stop by a Gamestop or something today and see if they have any clear case ones available.
I know, stupid thing to keep me from playing the game, but it shouldn't be hard to find either way.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:47 pm

OL wrote: You know, I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I still haven't played this. As much as I love From Software, as much as I love how bleak and dark (heh) it looks, it's just weird that I still haven't taken the plunge.
Soon, I think. Might want Demon's Souls first.


Definately do. Just know what you're getting into cause you will die a lot XD But it's all a learning curve and part of the fascination is pushing yourself into unknown territory and finding new enemies. You get out of the game from what you're willing to put into it and it can be very rewarding as a result.

Sure, if you ever need Dark Souls related advice you know who to ask! :D

Like I said, you get out of Dark Souls from what you put into it. And this video shows it doesn't have to be as dark and oppressive ad you'd think.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76iPvmAclM0[/youtube]

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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:57 pm

Demon Souls is alil easier and alil harder. Unlike Dark Souls which throws a great weapon at you in the first hour of playing, Demon Souls makes you work a bit harder for good equipment, while the bosses in Demon souls are mostly a cakewalk (most of them you can totally glitch into dying) actually getting to them is a pain in the ass. You can't bank souls cause you can't sell stuff in Demon's souls and getting your life back is a bit harder. What makes it easier tho, is that Demons souls offers you way more warp points so getting back and resupplying is pretty easy.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Tuffty » Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:27 pm

Segata Sanshiro Jr. wrote: Demon Souls is alil easier and alil harder. Unlike Dark Souls which throws a great weapon at you in the first hour of playing...


You talking about the Drake sword? I would hardly say the game throws it at you, the only way you could possibly know about it and where to get it is with a walkthrough beforehand and even then you can only acquire it in a very specific instance.
Nobody would even really think of standing in that spot and shoot a shitload of arrows into the dragons tail on their first playthrough and without a walkthrough to guide them. Just like you wouldn't think or even risk attacking the Stone Dragon's tail in Ash Lake to get the Dragon Greatsword if you didn't read up about it first.
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Re: Dark Souls

Postby Segata Sanshiro Jr. » Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:40 pm

Actually I did it instinctively. Thats how I killed the Dragon in the first game. and I noticed there was a reticule on his tail as well as his main body (which the drake in the first game didn't have, but then again in the first game, the easiest way to kill him is to stand in one spot and shoot tons of arrows, about 230-240, every time he reaches the top of his climb while flying around.) A lot of situations are pretty similar like the fight with the gargoyles in dark souls is basically the same fight as the one with the chimera between the two towers in demons souls.

But yea, I went into Dark Souls completely blind, I didn't do that with Demons Souls tho, I got the SE that came with the guide. Most of the tricks I use to make Dark souls easier was stuff I learned playing Demons souls and Kings Field.

its kinda funny, people just kind of assume that the only way to find cheats/easter eggs these days is the internet, but sometimes you just stumble across stuff, or you try something you learned in an old game. Like everytime I get a new fighting game I always test to see if my old bread and butters still work.

I mean yea its not like "HEY LOOK ITSA SWOOOOORD!" but nothing in the game ever does quite do that. I meant more if you knew what to look for you'd be able to find it pretty easily, like seeing that first rat on your way through the mountain. If you don't know what he drops you might not realize he's a goldmine. (i kill just about everything 5-10 times to see if it drops anything good)

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Re: Dark Souls

Postby OL » Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:30 am

Been playing a few hours. Went in completely blind, since you guys were talking about how well the game handles that kind of thing (and it really does; didn't know anything at first, but learning everything for myself feels pretty good). Then, after sort of getting a general handle on things (it does take a while), I started a new game again.
I'm absolutely loving it. It really is addicting. I've only ever played a little bit of King's Field and Shadow Tower on PS1, but I'm really getting that vibe from Dark Souls so far. Despite my relatively limited exposure to those older games, I'm still getting a nostalgia jolt from it.
One thing people rarely say in plain words about it is that this may as well be classified as survival horror. Seriously, it feels scarier than most expressly "horror" games I've ever played. It really gets the heart pounding. And it's not just a matter of intensity; it really does give you an unsettling feeling when you start exploring new areas, never knowing what's around the next corner.
And the funny thing is, it's practically required that you die. And keep dying. A lot.
It's a survival horror game where you have to stop surviving so you can learn how to survive. :lol:

And it might just be me, but I'm also getting a bit of an Echo Night Beyond vibe from it as well, pretty much just when it comes to character interaction. It never feels like NPC's are talking to you; it has this really odd quality that almost feels like they're talking to themselves. Hard to explain why that is, but I got that from Echo Night, and I'm getting it here too.

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