Dark Souls is the best console game I've ever fucking played. It jumps ahead of even classics like FFVII. I've put some ~400 hours into the game, and I don't regret a single hour. The difficulty is just right, the exploration is challenging and rewarding, and the story is unique. PvP managed to keep me entertained too, despite all the motm + giants + lightning +5 weapon + dwgr dicks around. Fucking time they nerfed that piece of shit ring...

Anyways, I'd have liked a new Souls, but beggars can't be choosers. Yeah, I'm worried about the new director too. More direct? FUCK DIRECT! I WANT COMPLEXITY! We've seen what "more direct" means with games like FFX, FFXIII, DA2 - choke on your mainstream direct, and give me a complex game with depth.

And on that note, rolling a naked pyro ->

 

Yeah, I just made another character as well.

Chose the wanderer starter and thinking about going balls-deep glass cannon build. Absolutely no points at all on vitality and only light armor with no poise whatsoever.

 

There is an overarching narrative - it's just sort of left to you to be paying enough attention to understand what's going on. If you're the sort of guy who likes your explanations in cutscenes you'll probably be disappointed. That said, If you're exploring the world and talking to as many characters as you can then you should get a pretty decent idea of what's going on. Some of the really sad/ depressing stuff requires either a completionist mindset or some serious dedication to exploration.

Dark Souls (and Demon's Souls before it) are the sort of games that tell a story through the environments, limited character interaction and bits and pieces of story dropped as you progress.Very organic.

There are also some story events that will almost always happen on your first play through. My friends and I all experienced them anyway.

On another note: Did someone say From Software wasn't working on this one? Or did the creative director just get changed?

 

Kiln of the First Flame.

Its the same team and I think the first director is still involved with the game even if hes not in the top spot.

Personally I'm very excited, I agree the series will probably change a lot and lose some of what made the first two so good. But it will doubtlessly be a fantastic game, just not the same game. From did a great job in evolving the game for Dark Souls, keeping the core gameplay while updating everything else. I actually hope they go radically different for DkS 2 so we can experience new things with the series, with a pretty much guaranteed standard in both gameplay and story.

 

I too am certain that Dark Souls 2 will be a terrific game, so I'm certainly looking forward to it. But I'm entirely against making the story more direct in Dark Souls 2. If I want to be spoon-fed the history of the world in a game, I can go play...really almost every other RPG game in the market. Directness might be a radical change for the Souls Series, but the intended changes seem like ultimately they'll just drag it closer to the mainstream RPG format that all the others use as a basis. There's nothing wrong with those games, but I don't always want to play them.

The fact that Dark Souls players have to actively search and then fight tooth-and-nail for their right to learn about Lordran or feel shameful and miserable for killing a certain boss is a feature that I've only ever had the joy of experiencing in this game, and I absolutely love it.

And let's face it, Dark Souls is a fantastic game but it's also minimalist. You play Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy and you'll be able to read huge passages of history and world-building lore about where you're playing. Dark Souls doesn't have that; you play as one of the maybe 15 intelligible individuals in a world otherwise filled only with monsters and the insane husks of former humans. Only scraps exist of the lore of Lordran, a great deal of the rest of the knowledge is lost and up to the player to fill in with their imagination. And it's a tremendous amount of fun knowing that you must fight like a vengeful honey-badger to get what concrete knowledge there is.

I've never played another game that's given me the privilege of that kind of experience (having never played Demon Souls), and I'm hoping the differences between this game and it's sequel are going to be minimal. That's my personal take on it anyways.

 

So I've had this for awhile, but stopped playing it after not getting very far into it.

God I'm going to die so many times.

We thought the same about Other M, too. Metroid, done by Team Motherfucking Ninja? How can this not be tits?

By being Other M is how. Jesus Christ why.

 

Dark Souls 2 is made by the same studio, with almost all the same staff and the previous director still on the team.

 

Or in other words, they have a track record of making good games.

So did Team Ninja. So have a lot of studios.

I judge on facts, not hopes. And we have precious little of the first to go along with. Practically none, as a matter of fact. I'll reserve judgement for when the game is out. Fan speculation about the game can no more be trusted than the media hype that will doubtless surround it.

 

Hopefully they will keep in mind what made Dark Souls and Demon Souls as good as they were. The infos I got about how Dark Souls 2 will differ from it's predecessors leave much to interpret, so their isn't much to judge on, but please, don't let them fuck it up.

 

Did Team Ninja make the original games though? I'm pretty sure it makes a big difference.

 

Except most of Other M wasn't TN's fault, they might as well have been code monkeys in the equation of blame. It was Sakamoto's. The guy who was Director on both the originals and Other M.

So Raine is right, just not in the way he thought.

 

Surprised no one has gotten on this yet. IGN released a 12 minute gameplay demo with some developer commentary about a week ago.

I think it's pretty obvious that they're using a high level character (especially seeing as health and stamina are exactly equal). What's most interesting to me is that there seems to be three weapon equip slots on the left and right hand now. I'm digging what we've seen of some of the open environments too. Just looking at dark hallways and catacombs is giving me headaches at this point. I want the sun damnnit.

 

They health/mana bar isn't indicative of level in most rpgs. I know in dark souls 1 they grew, and you could pump enough points into health where the bar would go more than halfway across the screen. They could be trying to do away with that by having static bars that are the same size no matter how much health you have.

Also, I laughed when the guy went for a fattie backstab, and the enemy just jumps backwards onto him.

 

I'm relieved, it seems to be a direct sequel, in style, gameplay and spirit. Also excited, because it looked really awesome. ...Somehow, I'm feeling nostalgic about DS already.

My only concerns are that the storyline won't be as epic - and some of the weapon attack animations left behind some queer red blur.

 

This is most probably a prequel to the original Dark Souls, if only because I doubt the team would really force you to choose a canon ending and the fact that the new director outright stated the game was going to be less ambiguous story-wise.

From what I've seen so far, the game looks great. The added feature of deflecting throwing projectiles as well as being able to move while shooting can allow for some awesome kiting in the game. Also loving the team's humor in what we've seen. "Oh, you thought backstabbing's going to stay easy now? Well here's a fat Koopa who'll shell smash you if you try it. COME AT US BROS."

 

Good point actually. What I was getting at was more that if the leveling up system works like Dark Souls I it's pretty unlikely that stamina and health will be equal. Or at least in my experience that very rarely happened.

I'm really excited for more flexibility with projectiles as others have mentioned. Gonna be some sick shit. Man, I just can't wait. I loved Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Words can't express my joy.

 

Been playing DS on and off, bloody hard but wicked fun. This looks amazing, definitely a great successor. I love the torch idea, absolutely necessary in some parts.