Director Unleashes Wealth Of Dark Souls Information

Dark Souls

It's bound to be a role-playing experience for the hardcore and if you were excited to hear about Dark Souls, you'll want more details.

Thanks to a Japanese interview with director Hidetaka Miyazaki (as translated by Andriasang), we now have a wealth of information to go along with the new game announcement. As you can see, Miyazaki talks about everything from the enhanced size and scope to the online play to downloadable content.

Firstly, "various things" prevented Demon's Souls 2 from happening, so they moved forward with what is essentially a new IP, and Miyazaki says that now, he can use a lot of new ideas without being tied down. As for that bigger world we've been hearing about, the game will present us with a seamless map setup; this doesn't mean an open-world format like Oblivion but rather, "a full dungeon." Furthermore, the team is working to increase the level of variety: it isn't just about "Dark Fantasy," said Miyazaki. There's also "High Fantasy areas, hell, and other varying maps."

Perhaps the most appealing new detail is the confirmed length. While one could easily invest many, many hours into Demon's Souls, the story could be completed within 30-40 hours. They're upping that number to 60 for Dark Souls, and instead of the 30 enemy types in its predecessor, the new title will boast close to 100. Weapons will have different motions and movements and depending on your character's parameters, the speed and recovery time for that weapon will change. The last interesting tidbit we'll talk about is the subject of overseas development:

Miyazaki isn't necessarily creating Dark Souls for the overseas crowd but there are three elements where the Western markets were taken into consideration-

"First, the interface and control methods are being made to match up with world standards so long as they don't go against the gameplay ideas the team is considering. Second, they're making it so that localization work will be simple. Third, they're avoiding cultural taboos (see below)."

Miyazaki believes that it'll be much like Demon's Souls, in that it'll appeal to both Japanese and Western tastes. He noted that Japanese players thought the first game was very "Western" in style while the Westerners...well, they thought the opposite due to the game's "graphics, monster design and game design." In the end, I think we all want a fantastic RPG that appeals to those who love the genre, rather than those with specified East/West tastes. Right?

There's plenty more to read through the link above, too, so feel free.

Related Game(s): Dark Souls

Tags: dark souls, demons souls 2, from software, atlus

2/10/2011 9:40:40 AM Ben Dutka

Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter