Dark Souls & Other Souls-Likes

finally :3

Die hard: From Software talks Dark Souls 2
"There's no intent to make the game easier"

By Tamoor Hussain for CVG UK

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"We understand that a lot of fans took the word 'accessible' and translated it to 'it will be easier'," he said. "We apologise for casually using the word".

From Software's true intent was muddled in translation. This time, Tanimura and Namco Bandai producer Tak Miyazoe are clear and precise with their words: "There's no intent for us to make the game any easier."

A short gameplay video and trailer are positive proof of this. They show a fur and iron clad Knight meeting his demise in various heinous ways. So, what did they mean then? According to Tanimura, Dark Souls 2 it will be a much "leaner" experience, without compromising the challenge - obviously.

"At the same time, the goal isn't to make Dark Souls 2 more difficult, just more rewarding," he continued. "What we meant by accessibility was streamlining a lot of the so-called tediousness that was in Dark Souls to make sure we can trim the fat and directly deliver the pure challenges and emotional aspects we want to communicate."

Streamlining, trim; more flammable words, but this time better explained: "For example; having to backtrack in Dark Souls and having to do all that travelling. Warping was only available in the latter half of the game, which seemed a little bit useless."

All this is in service of boiling Dark Souls 2 down to its pure, undiluted essence. Tanimura goes to pains to point out difficulty, facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, and then overcoming them is key to that essence.

Given the somewhat disjointed sections structure of our gameplay demo we can't speak to how this leaner, no-less-meaner experience comes together, but all the right pieces seem to still be there.

Our demo kicked off with a slow pan around the aforementioned Knight, who stands in an outdoor environment, at the entrance of a dungeon. Tanimura highlights the improved visual quality. While the distant mountains still use the same low-resolution, painted backgrounds seen in the previous games, the jump in visual fidelity is noticeable in the character model and his immediate environment.

Immersion is key to the Dark Souls experience, and to remove any barriers to it From Software has created a new engine for the sequel. The benefits are obvious, especially in the next room, where the flickering of a bonfire casts a warm glow on a nearby statue, and the Knight's shadow is cast across the wall, bending and shifting believably as he walks towards a ladder.

With the next generation of consoles imminent and a brand new engine in hand, we questioned why From Software targeted current consoles, instead of PS4 and the next-Xbox.

"Discussions of next-gen did actually come up briefly," admitted Tanimura. "But if we were to develop for next-gen we wouldn't be able to deliver the game for a lot longer. We wanted to deliver something to fans as soon as possible.

"We still feel there's potential and ability for us to express a little bit more than what we did with Dark Souls, even on current-gen consoles. We hope to elaborate on what we were able to communicate with Dark Souls."

"We understand that next-gen is coming, it'd be a lie to say we didn't consider it at all, but right now there's no intent to have Dark Souls on next-gen."

The success of Dark Souls came as a surprise to many. Demon's Souls, the PlayStation 3 exclusive spiritual predecessor, enjoyed cult hit status. Few imagined that an equally idiosyncratic, equally punishing sequel would be anything more.

However, driven by word of mouth and evangelised by fans, Dark Souls penetrated the mainstream consciousness. Tanimura admitted there's an element of wanting to capitalise on that.

"We understand that there are still people playing Dark Souls, but we also hear voices saying they want the next version. That's one of the other reasons we wanted to stay on current-gen, to deliver a newer experience as soon as possible."

The first enemy we encounter is an Undead Soldier wielding a spear, and the language of combat looks no different from Dark Souls: locking on is smart, staying mobile is essential, pick your moments, and mistakes will be punished severely. The one thing that did catch our attention is a roll which transitioned seamlessly into an attack. In Dark Souls this wouldn't be possible due to recovery animations after the roll; a new ability perhaps.

Over a bridge above a fire pit and a menacing Salamander, past the sneaky enemy that leaps out from behind a stone pillar, is a pitch black tunnel. Before venturing in we're shown a new feature: the ability to light and carry flame torches. Torches are disposable items, they're great for scoping out enemies concealed in shadows, but carry the penalty of not being able to use two hands, which means no shield or secondary attacks.

Although the core mechanics of combat haven't changed, enemies are far more reactive to player movement and strategies. Emerging from the tunnel, our hero finds himself in a room littered with barrels, benches and pillars. Naturally, also waiting for us a huge, heavily armored enemy with a rather large mace and a shielded back. The knight attempts to circle around and backstab it, but the enemy does a backdrop to crush him and prevent the attack.

After recovering he raises the mace over his head and charges, the knight backs away and the camera spins around to another of the same enemy is closing in from behind. Stuck in an enclosed space, in between the two powerhouse enemies, the knight is battered to death. Another example of reactive enemies is shown in another area, where the knight attempts to close the gap on an enemy for a strike and is met with a boot, throwing him back.

There's a delicacy to the design of Dark Souls and, whether by design or not, a balance to it. Even the slightest changes risk upsetting it, in some ways its very much like a fighting game.

In our interview we raise the point that some might find backtracking and the predictability of enemies important to the experience. Retreading old ground, for example, might be considered as a flabby part of gameplay by some, but to others the familiarity may be essential to building the confidence needed to tackle new challenges. Similarly, learning patterns to the point where battling enemies requires little effort also feeds into building comfort. Is it wise to tinker with such things?

"The balance we have to achieve is very fine," agrees Tanimura. "We understand that there are certain aspects that fans will like, that others may feel are tedious, it's my job personally to find that balance. We understand that within the tedium and other things perceived to be negative, there are fun aspects. If we do decide to cut those portions or clean them up, we want to make sure the fun element of it is carried over in a different way.

"We will make sure that we don't just cut away, we'll figure out what's critical to the essence, what needs to remain, and what we can cut away to deliver a pure experience."

Mind the Gap

The second time around we're taken along a different path, to an outer wall where a huge sword has been plunged into the stone building. The weapon, which has a severed hand attached to a hilt (maybe there's a battle against a one handed colossus demon in our future), is large enough to walk along. On the blade awaits a troll who throws axes from a distance. The first attack is batted away with a well timed sword swing, but the second lands square in the knights head - instant death.

The demo then jumps to a cathedral-like environment. Apparently the building was used to conduct experiments on dragons, which explains why there's a huge dragon skeleton lying in the middle; here we're shown environmental traps. At the mouth of the bone dragon is an item, picking up activates the trap and the dragon snaps in the direction of the player.

Dark Souls 2 places a greater emphasis on killing the enemy using the environment. There are Temple of Doom type areas which feature little or no enemy encounters, but lots of insta-kill traps that, more often than not, will just require you to die and learn from failure.

"One thing we do focus on is that no matter the kind of deaths they experience, players should understand the reason they died. Killing players is easy, you can just make an enemy strong or use surprise attacks, but it's important to allow the player to learn about their deaths. That is a fine balance, but we always keep in mind that it isn't unfair, we make sure to add a reason to each of the situations in the game."

The next area we're in is outside. In the distance is a castle, but to get to it the knight must cross a lengthy rope bridge. Dozens of wyverns circle in the sky above, but with no options apparent, crossing seems to be the only choice. Of course, a few steps in and a wyvern crashes onto the bridge and tears it off. The knight falls to his death.

"The bridge instance is actually a surprise feature," explains Tanimura, "we want to express the 'oh my god, what do I do now, how the hell do I get past this part?'

"We want the player to start thinking about what to do next and come up with strategies to conquer that area. Obviously we don't want to have a situation where, if you try and cross that bridge, you die no matter what. We'll leave hints and clues to allow players to anticipate what's going to happen. If they try and cross the bridge, they'll probably die, but the death will have meaning. That's the emotional takeback we want from each of the situations, like the bridge."

Our eyes-on demo ends with a quick visit to the Torture Chamber, where a boss riding a silver chariot appears and promptly runs the knight over. The purpose of this display of cruelty is to show that some bosses in Dark Souls 2 can be taken out in ways other than one-on-one combat. Though we aren't given any details, Tanimura says the Silver Chariot Rider can be defeated before the traditional boss encounter moment, much like The End in Metal Gear Solid 3.

The demo felt like it was very much designed to assuage fears that Dark Souls 2 would be an easier game, perhaps to parlay its recent success into reaching a broader audience. But Tanimura made it clear that From Software is under no pressure to do such a thing and, in fact, has been given complete creative freedom by Namco Bandai. From what we've seen, Dark Souls 2 is shaping up to be a worthy successor.

‘Dark Souls 2’ box art revealed, new features detailed

Namco Bandai Games have released images of the official box art for “Dark Souls 2” on April 11.

Similar to the original “Dark Souls” box art design, the box for “Dark Souls 2” shows a lone soldier walking bravely into a murky environment with sword at the ready.

Developed by From Software, “Dark Souls” was well received by critics and gamers when the title saw release on PS3, Xbox 360, and later on PC.

Coming off the success of “Dark Souls,” Namco Bandai and From Software announced “Dark Souls 2” during the Spike TV Video Game Awards Show in Dec. of last year.

“Dark Souls 2” has been announced for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. There has been no mention of intent in bringing the title to next-generation consoles like PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720 at this time.

"Dark Souls 2" features:


An official release date is expected to be announced at E3 2013.

DARK SOULS 2 - NEW ENGINE, RUNS AT 60FPS ON PC, 30 FPS ON CONSOLE NO DROPS


Dark Souls, while a fantastic game, did suffer from a particularly not-great PC port. Nothing was inherently broken, but the resolution had to be upscaled to 1080p and frame rate was locked at 30fps, leading many PC fans to consider it a bad port.

Great news for Dark Souls PC fans awaiting the sequel, though. A number of foreign language sites are reporting that Dark Souls 2 is being developed on an entirely new engine with PC as the lead platform. As a result, Dark Souls 2 will allegedly run at 60fps on PC. The gameplay footage that was released the other day was also running on PC, and it looked fantastic, which is very promising.

It’s not just good news for PC players. For console owners, Dark Souls 2 will run at a steady 30fps with no drops, FromSoftware are claiming. If this eventuates, and it just might with the new engine, then there will be no repeats of Blighttown’s atrocious frame rate issues.

Yes.. Blighttown was a lag fest lol

Try playing together with a friend in Blighttown, it was so horribly slow at times

Implying I have friends :(

Well, fine then. ;-;

You.. you mean your my friend?!

I'm on PS3 too. >:3

Not going to post a google translate news post, I'll instead link it if anyone wants to read it. This is the recent Dark Souls II press conference.

All you really need to know from this is that Dark Souls sold 2.36 million copies of the game worldwide, and that Japan will get the Xbox 360 release of Dark Souls II.

lolGoogle Translate

So, I'll post the pictures.


In the first actual demonstration, the player knight scene operations, entering into the building and open the door, and light a fire in the bonfire, that ... or fight the enemy character was presented

Am I being horrible at the game or is this completely wrong? "Roll => attack"s are a distinct different kind of attack, right? I'm not just going crazy? Been awhile since I played.


I am the friendliest of people

as long as I'm your co-op partner


I also like this - A LOT.

There are rolling attacks yes but they leave you vulnerable so they don't get used much... Having said that they can be more effective then they have any right being against other players because they tend to be unexpected.

I know I loved using them on the Great Scythe (as well as Backstep => R1).

BioWare Is Not Afraid Of Either ‘The Witcher 3′ Or ‘Dark Souls 2′


It seems that a lot of Dragon Age 3 fans are a bit worried about BioWare’s upcoming RPG. After all, Dragon Age 3 was announced a while back and we have not seen it in action. We do not have any screenshots for what BioWare is planning, and we don’t even know much about it. If you were a common fan, you’d think that BioWare is a bit ‘afraid’ of two upcoming RPGs that everyone is mentioning these days; The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 2. However, BioWare is confident and according to Blair Brown, the company is not ‘afriad’ of anyone as Dragon Age 3 is ‘definatly’ going to be released and at BioWare’s ‘usual high standards’.

Did you spot the typos? Well, those were not made by us but by BioWare’s employee. This is exactly what makes this story great, because it seems that the fans have touched a nerve.


According to Brown, BioWare decides when it is ready to reveal information about Dragon Age 3 and not the game’s publisher, EA. But why are they delaying the game’s first media? Well, it seems that BioWare is are waiting for the perfect moment and promises to blow everyone away. Okay, we’ve heard that before so we are not sure that the ‘current’ BioWare team is able to achieve what the old team built.

Dragon Age 3: Inquisition is currently planned for a late 2013 release on PC, X360 and PS3, and will be taking advantage of DICE’s Frostbite 3.0 engine.

Don't let him fool you. He bites hard.

Maybe not in Dark Souls but I know how you are!

I have the screen shots to prove he will do more

The Most Stunning Dark Souls 2 Shield Designs Submissions
Here are the best designs from the Dark Souls 2 shield design competition.
by: Ian Miles Cheong18th Apr, 2013

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A few days ago, Namco Bandai launched a contest to invite players to design a shield that, if chosen, would make it into Dark Souls 2. The contest is a lot like HBO's shield design competition for Game of Thrones.

The winning designs (there's going to be more than one) will receive copies of the game, and have their creations featured within the title as shields that players will be able to equip. Additionally, shield creators will also be fully credited for their creations.

With that in mind, fans of Dark Souls 2 have compiled their favorite creations on Reddit, with shield designs from North America, Europe, and Japan. Here's some of our own favorites:

NA Region

(20 entries)

EU Region

(65 entries)

JP/Asia Region

(18 entries)

What 3 shields are your favorite? (one from each region)
or 6, w/e

My favorites are:

Tower Shields:


Round Shields:


Kite Shields:


My favorite out of the 6 I picked would have to be he first round one, the gold with claw marks. I think this shield can tell a story on it's own without knowing the specifics just by looking at the damage.

Basically, BioWare was like 'Yall just jealous cuz haters make me famous'. Real mature. . . Why don't they just release a playable game instead?

Idk... plenty of people killed solaire off or played his stoy out the wrong way in wheich you have to kill him...