Dark Souls (PS3/360)

[Flawless]

Project Dark is for Demon's Souls Fans

Sony revealed during its media briefing at the Tokyo Game Show a new working title from the creators of Demon's Souls called Project Dark. A press release sent out afterward confirmed the game is being published by Namco Bandai and will be released for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

FromSoftware director Hidetaka Miyazaki said the game is for those who "enjoyed Demon's Souls, those who like From's dark fantasy games, and those who just like games will enjoy the new game."

The game will be released in 2011 in Japan. No word yet on a North American or European release date. We hope to bring more to you on this title soon. Demon's Souls, released in 2009 for PS3, today became part of Sony's Greatest Hits lineup in North America with a new price point of $29.99.

[Flawless]

re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Details from Famitsu:

• Dark Souls is the title. 2011 release.
• 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 as 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 a dungeon 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".
• 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.
• 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.

[LingeringRegime]

re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Sounds awesome. Love difficult games.

[42]

re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

<embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:moses:video:gametrailers.com:710098" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowfullscreen="true" align="middle" height="391" width="640">

Video Games | Dark Souls | Debut Trailer
Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Can't wait!!!!

By the way, Demon Souls just made it to the PS3 Greatest Hits Collection. $30 from now on.

[42]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Can't wait!!!!

Whenever I hear somebody say that now, I think of this:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D7KSkZxt_zo" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

[Skyboxer]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Loved Demon's Soul's....
First day buy.........
It really feels more old school which is why I love it.

[mgoblue]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

I'll probably try it, but man was the first one brutal. After a while I'd just get too pissed off at having to redo everything again lol

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/projectdark/news.html

Demon's Souls follow-up detailed - Report



By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Feb 1, 2011 10:54 am PT


Famitsu said to have first word on From Software's action RPG successor Dark Souls; open world, increased difficulty, more.



Demon's Souls typified the meaning of dark horse in 2009. After Atlus imported the From Software-developed action role-playing game to the US, it sold more than 250,000 units and won GameSpot's Game of the Year. At the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, Namco Bandai said that it had secured the rights to publish the game's successor, which is due on the PlayStation 3 in Japan later this year and both Sony's system and the Xbox 360 internationally.



Dark Souls will arrive in Japan this year.



Today, Andria Sang reports that Famitsu will have the first details on what gamers can expect from the Demon's Souls follow-up, confirming also that the game will be titled Dark Souls. The website also gleaned a handful of details concerning Dark Souls from a variety of sources that are said to have gained advanced access to the Famitsu article.



Notably, the sources indicate that Dark Souls will be substantially more difficult than Demon's Souls, itself a game that was widely considered to be extremely challenging. As such, the game will share Demon's Souls' emphasis on trial-and-error gameplay, as well as its use of standard action role-playing game gameplay.

[mikenoob]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Wow I forgot about this game... That's another game added to the list I want this year.... I need a job!

[Skyboxer]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Wow I forgot about this game... That's another game added to the list I want this year.... I need a job!

Get a job!!!!

[Flawless]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Dark Souls Q&A:

Actually, we intend to increase the difficulty of the game. (Sid: !!!) But not simply by making the game harder, but by giving players the freedom to strategize freely and conquer that difficulty, and to be rewarded accordingly.

This is an analogy we often use: We are trying to create a game that is spicy. And we want to make it as spicy as possible. But it is edible, it tastes good, and it leaves you wanting more.

SS: How do you keep a difficult game from becoming overly punishing, and drive the player to quit in frustration?

HM: Good question. We can’t tell you all of our secrets, but there are a few ways we prevent users from drifting away. Number one, the difficulty is not dependent on the skill level of the user. We have not created a game where players who react faster or press buttons faster are better than others. Second, when a player dies, we try to leave a sense of “maybe if I try a different strategy I can succeed.” Things that you lose in death can be outweighed by the rewards of trying again. We try to give players lots of freedom to design their own gameplay style, and we’ve implemented enough content to enable users to continue challenging themselves and continue making progress.

One more aspect is the difficulty based on repetitiveness. We don’t want users to have to constantly carve away health from enemies. We’ve created all characters — including enemies and the player — to have high attack power but low defense. We don’t want users to hack and hack and hack away to defeat an enemy. It’s more strategic. We want users to think, “if I avoid this enemy, maybe I can overcome him.” We don’t want players to be frustrated by doing the same things over and over.

SS: Death was a part of life in Demon’s Souls. But it required that you replay the entire level from scratch with enemies in identical locations. Will Dark Souls force players to restart levels? Will levels be less repetitious to replay?

HM: The main concept has not changed: You try something, die, learn from your mistakes, and eventually overcome those mistakes. In Dark Souls, we’ve added the ability to players to choose their recovery point — essentially respawn points. If you die, you won’t be taken back to the beginning of the level. And as you explore the world, you can carve out your own territory and retry quests you failed. That’s a big difference. It’s an aspect that we want players to use to strategize their approach to the game.

SS: What’s the single addition to Dark Souls that you’re most excited by?

HM: Probably the Beacon Fire. It stands for a lot of things. It serves as a recovery point; when the player’s health is low, the Beacon Fire helps you recover. It serves as a respawn point as well. So it’s powerful from a gameplay perspective. Secondly, the Beacon Fire will be used to share experiences with other players. It’s a place where players can gather together and communicate — not verbally communicate, but emotionally communicate. Third, it’s probably the one place in Dark Souls where users can relax just for an instant. In this cold, dark world, the Beacon Fire is a place of warmth. It’s one of the few locations in the game that is heartwarming. It expresses this dark fantasy world I’m trying to create.

[Flawless]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

Hidetaka Miyazaki Discusses Dark Souls

The map isn't just expansive, Miyazaki noted. They've prepared a variety of situations. There's more than just Dark Fantasy. You'll also find High Fantasy areas, hell, and other varying maps.

Dark Souls is expected to have about 60 hours or so play time, said Miyazaki. Demon's Souls, in contrast, expects 30 or 40 hours.

In the area of content, the major point of increase is in enemies. Demon's Souls had around 30 types. Dark Souls has close to 100.

Of course, they're also readying an appropriate quantity of weapons, armor and such. There will be new magic. An example is the ability to turn yourself into objects, which could lead to coming across jars in odd places during multiplayer.

Weapons will have different motions, and some players may choose to keep using weaker weapons because they match their play style rather than switch to more powerful weapons when obtained. The weapons actually see changes in speed and recovery time depending on your character's parameters.

There will also be weapon fortification system in place, an area that Miyzaki felt Demon's Souls failed with. Overseas players in particular said that this area of Demon's Souls was difficult to understand.

While not getting too specific, Miyazaki highlighted two concepts for Dark Souls' online play.

First is "shared play experience." Miyazaki wants players to feel that they have friends who are challenging this difficult game along with them. Players will have gradual effects on one another. The goal of this system is to recreate the feeling of playing the old Dragon Quest games, where even though everyone is playing individually, they exchange information and feel happy that someone else is struggling with them.

The other concept is referred to at From Software as "mutual role playing." This involves instances of cooperative and competitive play as an extension of the individual's role playing experience.

We're going to have to wait for details on this area of the game, it seems.

[tanis38]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

I absolutely loved Demon's Souls, so I am definitely interested in this game. Can't wait!

[Flawless]

Re: Dark Souls (PS3/360)

New trailer:

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eqaysjKcw-g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>