Dark Souls II

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Proj2501 said:
Walter, you owe it to yourself to play Demon's Souls man. I began playing it last week just for fun, it's totally harder than Dark Souls. At least, I think so.

Oh, I certainly will play it. It's just a matter of when. Same with a bunch of PS3 titles, like Last of Us and Uncharted. I don't mind waiting until I can get a good deal on a PS3. Since I'm only buying it for a handful of titles, I'd rather not pay retail price for it.
 
Walter said:
Oh, I certainly will play it. It's just a matter of when. Same with a bunch of PS3 titles, like Last of Us and Uncharted. I don't mind waiting until I can get a good deal on a PS3. Since I'm only buying it for a handful of titles, I'd rather not pay retail price for it.

This article reminded me of you.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/12/13/returning-to-demons-souls
 
Dark Souls is a wonderful game, but I find multi-player its weakest point and hope they improve on it greatly. I know a lot of people have no problem with it what-so-ever and it is one of the best ways to gain souls. To me it exploits Dark Souls game-play namely backstabbing, dark mage arts, and people who have modded their characters. When you get into higher 200 levels its very difficult not to run into someone who isn't god like. I understand this is expected among any online gaming community, but thats another thing. Invading, summon spirits, alleys, other invaders is altogether a mess.

I never had a multi-player game in recent memory on the xbox where I wanted so long for another character to load. Most of the time, after a few long moments the summoning fails. On top of that you have to be human to summon anything, period. I do understand why this is, but all of this can be balanced out by simply having a separate multi-player mode, rather than having soap stones that allow multiplayer to even be possible. Its just a lot of work, time, and effort to have multi-player. As well, there is no voice chat possible in multi-player. If you having a chat party opened, the game will end and send you into offline mode. Forcing both players to private message each other, leaving them wide open for attack in doing so. Both players have to use simplistic gestures to communicate other wise. There is just very little I like about doing that. I do suppose that the gestures cut down on trolling, and what not. I had a lot of great battles followed by classic moments with gestures but overall doesn't feel right to me. Not having enough tools to and being limited to communicate feel like the developers know you need multi-player but upon using it they are going to make it hard as possible. Which, in Dark Souls is no surprise but I'm going even say it doesn't add to the game for me.
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
I liked it how it was. And most people I let it borrowed has the same issues as you did. They we jus used to the voice on other multi player games and don't like change. I am glad this wasn't the case with DS. Fir me just using the gestures felt like as I only needed to do my part in the game and not be distracted . We will see his much that changes in the new game.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Death May Die said:
Dark Souls is a wonderful game, but I find multi-player its weakest point and hope they improve on it greatly.
It seems as if they're making co-op a much bigger part of the game, based on what I've seen of the network test.

To me it exploits Dark Souls game-play namely backstabbing, dark mage arts, and people who have modded their characters. When you get into higher 200 levels its very difficult not to run into someone who isn't god like.
I agree, the concept of the multiplayer is fantastic, but its actual usage by players is generally exploitative. That being said, that's an inherent problem with most multiplayer games. It's become the expectation from online competition: Players will always choose the path of least resistance to get to the point where they are unstoppable killing machines, whether that's ultimately a fun experience for other players or not. Personally, I always bow whenever I see an invader. Of course, they only bow back like, 10% of the time, instead taking that time to backstab me. That's the Internet!


but thats another thing. Invading, summon spirits, alleys, other invaders is altogether a mess.
I assume you are talking about the means by which to engage with these things--soapstones and eye orbs. Yeah, it's pretty strange but I think it works pretty well for what they're trying to do.

I do understand why this is, but all of this can be balanced out by simply having a separate multi-player mode, rather than having soap stones that allow multiplayer to even be possible. Its just a lot of work, time, and effort to have multi-player.
No thanks. There are plenty of games that offer that kind of experience. But it doesn't have to be tacked on just because it's an expected feature. Dark Souls is a single player game with an _optional_ multiplayer layer on top of that experience.

As well, there is no voice chat possible in multi-player. If you having a chat party opened, the game will end and send you into offline mode. Forcing both players to private message each other, leaving them wide open for attack in doing so. Both players have to use simplistic gestures to communicate other wise.
It's not meant to be something where you and your friends gang up on people or play through the whole game cooperatively. It's meant to be a solitary experience with mysterious strangers sometimes coming into your game. Here's a little background on why this is the case: The base concept for the multiplayer element came from the director's experience stranded on the side of the road when his car was broken down. He waited and waited, and then someone pulled over near him. Was this person going to help him, or cause him trouble? That apprehension formed the base of the Souls' series multiplayer.

Not having enough tools to and being limited to communicate feel like the developers know you need multi-player but upon using it they are going to make it hard as possible.
No, it's just that you're trying to force the system to work against itself to serve a purpose it wasn't designed to do.
 
Not sure which vid Dar Klink tried to link to, but maybe it was the new Dark Souls II official trailer? Hot off the Presses:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/14/5309580/dark-souls-2-trailer-cursed
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
maybe it was the new Dark Souls II official trailer? Hot off the Presses:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/14/5309580/dark-souls-2-trailer-cursed
Drangleic.
praise_the_sun1.gif


There's really nothing that gets me as excited in this industry like the Souls series. So of course this is an exciting moment for me.

The trailer is a mishmash of yet unseen concepts and images, so not much to dissect right now (nor would I really want to do so...). But one of the voices we hear does sound like he mentions The Abyss...
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Oh yeah, it was the trailer. Didn't expect it to be taken down since it seemed to be through Game Informer's official youtube page... in any case, I share your sentiments Walter.
 
K

krzykoopa

Guest
I didn't like the trailer it didn't amp me up or make me feel any awe but at the same time it didn't make me less excited for its release.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
I learned through tweets today that EpicNameBro, a pretty okay Dark Souls youtube guy, got to not only play through and beat Dark Souls 2 already, but also got to work on the strategy guide for the game. It's pretty awesome that they're willing to hire people that got big in the fan community to do stuff like that.

He had very high praises for the game too, which is good. I hope I agree with him.

mGswqqR.png
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Yep, I'm familiar with his videos. He's full of insights, but I find his sense of humor cringe-worthy. Glad he was able to put his extensive nerdy information to profitable use somehow. I also understand he was given some exclusive access to story information for the guide. Now if only there were a way for me and Aaz to do that for Berserk... :beast:

Really surprised that he liked DkS2 even more than the first. In another tweet he said he even likes it more than Demon's Souls. Of course, we're taking his word for it, but it sounds like good news for hardcore Souls fans.
 
K

krzykoopa

Guest
Walter said:
Yep, I'm familiar with his videos. He's full of insights, but I find his sense of humor cringe-worthy. Glad he was able to put his extensive nerdy information to profitable use somehow. I also understand he was given some exclusive access to story information for the guide. Now if only there were a way for me and Aaz to do that for Berserk... :beast:

Really surprised that he liked DkS2 even more than the first. In another tweet he said he even likes it more than Demon's Souls. Of course, we're taking his word for it, but it sounds like good news for hardcore Souls fans.

While I was in Japan I met ENB. In all honesty he is one of the biggest enthusiest for the souls franchise. He has video that span play through to tactics on how to get just about every item to story and lore theory and timelines. Him saying he liked it more then Demon souls and Dark souls is a very good sign.
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
This most recent set of trailers has me going bonkers with anticipation. Here's hoping the community sticks around as long as they have for Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. I'm going to be in Japan for 14 months starting in February, and it's unlikely I'll get to play it during that time :judo:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Uriel said:
Here's hoping the community sticks around as long as they have for Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.
Given how much larger the audience for the games has become, I don't think that will be an issue.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
After watching that trailer, does anyone else feel like DkSII is leaning more towards horror than fantasy this time around? Sure the first one had horror elements, but man, some of the enemies in that trailer are really terrifying.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Delta Phi said:
After watching that trailer, does anyone else feel like DkSII is leaning more towards horror than fantasy this time around? Sure the first one had horror elements, but man, some of the enemies in that trailer are really terrifying.
I didn't think so. Likely just what they chose to show in the trailer. One shift that I did notice was far more voice overs happening--particularly that one with the woman in red holding the Human Effigy. Seems as if there will be more cutscenes with talking instead of the eerily silent scenes in Dark Souls.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
In a recent interview, the game's director said voice chat will be implemented in Dark Souls II. Before you start screaming, it can be turned off. Whew...

From the interview:
What reaction do you anticipate with voice chat being implemented now?

I'm not sure actually, I'm interested to see the reaction. I think, me personally, that a lot of the more hardcore players will turn it off.

So you can turn it off?

Yeah, yeah. I think people will turn it off because it is that loose connection of not really knowing what kind of player the opponent or ally is, that's kind of the magic of the game.

That's part of the appeal of it.

I think so, I almost feel like the gestures are enough to try and communicate with others.

Why the decision to implement it then - is voice chat more for new players?

I think it was a lot to do with fan feedback. There was a lot of requests for voice chat and friend summoning and those more multiplayer-type features. We obviously didn't want to put in friend summoning or voice chat throughout the whole game, but it was FromSoftware's unique way to take on some of the fan feedback.


Full interview: http://m.oxm.co.uk/71109/features/dark-souls-2-xbox-360-namco-talks-covenants-the-engine-key-enemies-and-more
 
Top Bottom