Dark Souls 2 - (PC, 360, PS3, XBO, PS4)

[FirstBlood]

I just hope no one at Namco is dumb enough to mess with what made the Souls games successful in order to attempt to cater to a crowd that never cared about their games in the first place. But you know... Namco.

But I think there are plenty of obtuse things in both games, especially in regards to the UI/Inventory/Crafting or even just fucking answering yes/no questions that fuck up your game, that could be made clearer without ruining anything. Maybe working the next Tendency/Covenant idea into the progression of the game early on as a heads up instead of just kind of being there would help. Same with summoning & invading. It'd be a win/win as those multiplayer systems are better for everyone involved the more people actually use them.

[Hero]

But at the same time, I don't think there should be things like World Tendency that are so poorly explained (if they bother explaining it at all) that you pretty much have to head to a wiki to make heads or tails of it.

I dunno - it reminds me of a time where gaming wasn't just the game, but the people around it as well. We used to ask each other how to get past point A or where item X was. It was a fun game outside the game that gave games a sense of community. Now, games are so afraid you won't see how awesome and amazing the developers are, that it does everything it can to ensure you can't be confused or *gasp* experiment to find an answer or ask other people for help!

Fez was that way too, in a much more limited sense. Same with Braid. Games that weren't afraid to let you be confused and lost to some aspects, and had faith you would seek out other players to figure things out. It's part of the charm of Dark Souls to me.

[AstroBlue]

The grown up shy guys in the trailer were hilarious.

[sleeve]

I like the short trailer they showed at the VGA's.

Symbolically, the trailer hit the right notes. We see a couple long shots of Anor Londo and a couple scenes of a guy getting killed. So we see some connection to Dark Souls. At the same time we see a couple character closeups that suggest a stronger central narrative. I agree with FirstBlood that there are plenty of opaque systems in DS that could benefit from clarification. And those systems, like PvP, get better the more people actually use them.

And I don't think that a stronger central narrative will ruin what makes DS so great. I never played Demon's Souls, but I understand that DS simplified a lot of the opaque and tedious stuff from that game and made it a better overall experience in the process. I see no reason why DS2 can't improve on the formula further.

[Detour]

FROTHING.

(Also kind of apprehensive about the game being more 'direct'. Half the fun was figuring shit out and speculating with other players on reddit / youtube / etc.)

[Pineapple]

I never played Demon's Souls...

You really should. As far as I can tell the servers haven't been shut down yet, they were extended past the May 31st deadline but for an unforseeable amount of time. You will really enjoy it, there's possibly even more ways to customize than in Dark Souls, with different lore and systems to learn (it's also a little more cumbersome overall, but still excellent). You've got a PS3, right? If this is the case and you want to play it, PM me your address.

[epmode]

And I don't think that a stronger central narrative will ruin what makes DS so great. I never played Demon's Souls, but I understand that DS simplified a lot of the opaque and tedious stuff from that game and made it a better overall experience in the process. I see no reason why DS2 can't improve on the formula further.

Dark Souls didn't simplify much. Humanity is easier to understand than World Tendency, sure, but the multiplayer went in the opposite direction. Then there's the interconnected world which is obviously more complicated than the isolated portals in Demons' Souls. The few mechanical changes between games (like the limited Estus Flask versus infinite grass) are welcome but they're still minor.

In other words, the games are actually very similar.

[Pineapple]

Yeah, summoning and being summoned seemed much more streamlined in Demon's once you understood it. I was able to consistently join with a couple different guys on my playthrough which made it more enjoyable and more interesting.

[No One]

At the same time we see a couple character closeups that suggest a stronger central narrative.

Is this something that has been confirmed, or is it just the usual "assuming the worst" Internet speculation? There was a similar closeup (or two) in the first game's intro. Seems like an awful lot to infer from a CG trailer.

[sleeve]

Is this something that has been confirmed, or is it just the usual "assuming the worst" Internet speculation? There was a similar closeup (or two) in the first game's intro. Seems like an awful lot to infer from a CG trailer.

I'm just inferring this based on what little I've read about the game.

I happen to be a fan of the "sole survivor" school of game narrative, popularized by System Shock 1 and 2 and now Dark Souls. Edge has a good interview with Dorian Hart, one of the original Looking Glass guys, about this style of narration (among other things). He said it was their solution to the difficulty of crafting intelligent NPCs: the only way to have a realistic, immersive experience was to kill off all the NPCs.

Dark Souls really benefits from that approach, and it really does define what it is. At the same time, some minimal NPC interaction could benefit the game if it's done right. I really liked the handful of NPCs in Dark Souls, like Dark Sun Gwyndolyn, and I'd like to see more of them.