Dark Souls Difficulty Won't Rely On "Reflexes And Control"
Dark SoulsDemon's Souls was hard. It just was. And when Dark Souls was unveiled and the rumor was that Atlus' fresh follow-up would be even harder, well...some gamers experienced high blood pressure.
But in truth, developer From Software has actually had to yank certain over-challenging content from Dark Souls, just because it was deemed "too difficult." ...this coming from the same team that wants you to "scream, yell and be frustrated." Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki told CVG that while they aim to make the game "as difficult as possible," they also want to create a title players can actually finish.
"Yes, actually there was a lot [of content] that was too difficult and we had to pull. You may not believe it but there are things that are a bit too spicy, aspects that prevent you from eating (laughs), we're trying to avoid those."
It's good to hear the team has some self-imposed "regulations" concerning the new project's difficulty, though. Added Miyazaki:
"We have some set rules that we use to define difficulty, anything that doesn't abide by those definitions isn't included. This is to stay with the core ideas and philosophies relating to the difficulties of the game.
A good example is the player's skill level, reflexes and control, which is something we don't want to make a large factor that contributes to the difficulty."
I like that last bit. That means it's a true RPG. One of the reasons I - and many other fans of the genre - became involved in RPGs in the first place was because we didn't have to worry about "reflexes and control." That, along with unparalleled storylines, different styles of gameplay, and overall depth, kept us riveted. No, I don't want to play an RPG if I have to play it like I would play God of War.
But it shouldn't be a surprise. Atlus knows how to take care of their fans.
Related Game(s): Dark Souls
Tags: dark souls, demons souls, atlus, demons souls sequel
2/7/2011 10:45:40 AM Ben Dutka
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Comments (33 posts)
Oxvial
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:29:32 AM
1 up, 0 down
Kiryu
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:15:58 AM
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Dark Souls hope it's more like Demon Soul's
2 up, 0 down
Rogueagent01
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 2:24:54 PM
1 up, 0 down
coverton341
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:18:22 AM
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1 up, 0 down
shadowscorpio
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 3:08:48 PM
1 up, 0 down
Oxvial
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:27:49 AM
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2 up, 0 down
coverton341
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 12:01:50 PM
1 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 12:48:48 PM
1 up, 0 down
coverton341
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:11:08 PM
1 up, 0 down
Oxvial
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:16:49 PM
Last edited by Oxvial on 2/7/2011 1:17:11 PM
1 up, 0 down
FullmetalX10
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 4:08:54 PM
But when you defeat him after so many failures, with just a tiny bit of hp left, that feeling of conquering that seemingly unbeatable demon, THAT is the true appeal of Demon's Souls.
The game really opens up after you beat Tower Knight, which isn't even that hard. At a certain point I found that I made things way too hard on myself -_- I just removed a bit of armor and the Fake King was done for :D which just wasn't possible for me without running -_-
In the end I find Demon's Souls relying a lot on skill after all, depending on how you play of course. Playing with nothing but a shield, a sword, a bunch of health potions and skill makes the game fun for me.
It's why I like the bosses like Fake King Allant, Penetrator and the Tower Knight, they can give you a real challenge, but when you defeat them, you just get this tremendous sense of accomplishment.
I hope Dark Souls keeps this vibe going.
3 up, 0 down
Alienange
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:58:39 AM
Reply
0 up, 1 down
Oxvial
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:17:50 PM
0 up, 0 down
BeezleDrop
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 12:35:03 PM
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0 up, 0 down
shadowscorpio
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 3:15:37 PM
But I trust these guys, I really think this one is going to be fun. Actually, the fact that they are taking a different approach to difficulty means that we who are familiar with DS won't have an upper hand because we will have to learn a new way of playin through a new type of difficulty.
It being different from DS means we won't know what to expect.
Last edited by shadowscorpio on 2/7/2011 3:16:40 PM
1 up, 0 down
aaronisbla
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 12:44:17 PM
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4 up, 0 down
Lotusflow3r
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:05:54 PM
3 up, 1 down
Scarecrow
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:48:58 PM
I mean this is not like Final Fantasy.
This is more like Zelda...
Demon's Souls takes its roots in the Zelda-like gameplay more than in does in the original FF/jrpg gameplay.
From the trailer I saw there's definitely reflexes and strategy involved.
I think what they meant about not so much about reflexes might be that there are MORE ways to approach a fight.
There's this new thing where you can hide yourself inside/behind a vase and avoid enemies. So maybe that's what they're talking about.
So there's probably more stuff like that now.
Last edited by Scarecrow on 2/7/2011 1:49:17 PM
1 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 3:14:47 PM
And I never said anything about Demon's Souls playing like God of War; it was a general comment.
2 up, 0 down
NazzyQ
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:15:29 PM
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1 up, 0 down
Scarecrow
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 1:42:25 PM
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I'm sorry, Uncharted 3 will be great, but this will be...out of this world.
My god, everything I've heard and seen so far looks to be amazing!
By the way there's a trailer and interview at the Playstation blog
0 up, 2 down
Lotusflow3r
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 8:41:36 PM
I don't think it'll be GOTY, simply because TLG comes out and LBP2 has pushed the biggest boundaries.
...but, yeah, i share your enthusiasm big time.
0 up, 0 down
FullmetalX10
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 4:12:55 PM
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Anyways, I hope they make this a good one, it's already sounding real good and I hope they won't get held back by the 360.
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 6:44:02 PM
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I'm not looking for another ghouls n ghosts experience.
1 up, 2 down
Temjin001
Tuesday, February 08, 2011 @ 2:19:55 AM
0 up, 0 down
sirbob6
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 7:05:50 PM
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0 up, 0 down
RX78Zero
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 8:45:59 PM
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I really like Demon's Souls and i will be getting Dark Souls at mid night when it realeases as well. But this game is going mutiplatform, meaning that the deveoplers are now catering to other people who aren't to good with the type of challennging gameplay style Demon's Souls offered.
It just has me a bit worried about how the finish game will be like for everyone.
By the way, King Doran is the hardest person to kill without any poisn or plauge. Funny thing is he isn't a boss you have to kill. He's just a guardian protecting an old sword waiting for a worthy person to wield it. He could save the world if he wanted to, but doesn't for some reason.
And we want to see the Sixth Archstone world before people move on.
Last edited by RX78Zero on 2/7/2011 8:54:51 PM
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___________
Tuesday, February 08, 2011 @ 2:00:28 AM
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i wont be playing this, tried to get into daemon souls but i dont have 30 minutes to do something, than have to redo it because i made a tiny mistake!
i got better things to do than do the same sh*t over and over and over and over and over again!
1 up, 0 down
Axe99
Tuesday, February 08, 2011 @ 3:07:40 PM
If the game did have checkpoints before major fights, it would be clear that the game wasn't hard, but rather really punishing. I thought the game had a lot of potential to be more widely appreciated, and think they'd be mad not to include a "for gamers that aren't sado-masochists" option in there for the rest of us. Their call though - there's plenty of other games out there that I like, so if they want to do to Dark Souls that Team Ninja do with the Ninja Gaiden series (make it deliberately inaccessible, when there's no real reason to), then they can go ahead.
Interesting comments on the combat - I always thought the combat in Demon's Souls was a strange mix of turn-based and real-time (although always got sledged when I suggested this) - now I know it was :).
0 up, 0 down
Clamedeus
Tuesday, February 08, 2011 @ 3:37:46 PM
1 up, 0 down
Rogueagent01
Reply
Monday, February 07, 2011 @ 11:04:32 AM