From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Kanedias]

Will anyone miss Dark Souls 1 faces?

 

[Kanedias]

I'm sorry about the double post, but I can't edit the last one anymore. Anyways it was confirmed that the preorder weapons are not overpowered and that you will "find better stuff in a few hours"

For example that white knight in the forest you can see in some of the videos drops a weapon that's supposedly better than all of the preorder ones.

Also while respeccing is in the game, "you won't be able to do it whenever you want" and it's apparently going to be a pain.

 

[praetor]

i think i'll prefer DaS2 to DaS1 mechanically by quite a bit, but from what was seen so far DaS1 (and even DeS) beats it to a pulp visually. low-res textures abound, lots of stuff looks quite plasticky (hopefully because From can't take screenshots), and the art direction seems way waaay too cartoony and outlandish (and all those anime hairstyles and faces... fuck you, weaboos)

 

[Kanedias]

I'm sure those screenshots are made in some sort of low-res debug build or something. Everything I have seen of actual gameplay looks far superior, except maybe some textures in the Forest of Fallen Giants (though Darkroot is not much better in that regard and trees look godawful in DKS 1) Those screenshots are too hideous when compared to some of the gameplay videos we have seen. I refuse to believe it.

The art direction looks more colorful (like Duke's Archives or so), which I think is what makes some stuff come off as cartoony. Hopefully there's variety and we have DeS-like areas among those. I prefer the creature and boss designs in Dark Souls, but the areas and armor had a much better aesthetic in DeS, I think. The closer to that aesthetic we got in Dark Souls was probably the Painted World and New Londo.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I'm not worried about ugly faces because I'll just put a big fat helmet on that pumpkin.

 

[Jick Magger]

Yeah, Dark Souls was one of those games in which the character creation options really didn't matter because I'll be spending 90% of the time either wearing a head-piece that obscures my face or shrivelled up in hollow-form. Don't expect Dark Souls 2 to be that different.

 

[praetor]

I'm sure those screenshots are made in some sort of low-res debug build or something. Everything I have seen of actual gameplay looks far superior, except maybe some textures in the Forest of Fallen Giants (though Darkroot is not much better in that regard and trees look godawful in DKS 1) Those screenshots are too hideous when compared to some of the gameplay videos we have seen. I refuse to believe it.

The art direction looks more colorful (like Duke's Archives or so), which I think is what makes some stuff come off as cartoony. Hopefully there's variety and we have DeS-like areas among those. I prefer the creature and boss designs in Dark Souls, but the areas and armor had a much better aesthetic in DeS, I think. The closer to that aesthetic we got in Dark Souls was probably the Painted World and New Londo.

[graphicswhore on] yeah, videos so far definitely look technically better than screenshots, and i'll wait for the final game to pass judgement [graphicswhore off]. even though low res textures and similar technical deficiencies won't mar my enjoyment of the game, the art style could and looking at the available material it will a pity they don't think that the more "restrained" and "inspired-by-real-life" designs in both DeS and DaS were the best (fuck you dbs loving fags ) (edit: and i don't think anything in DaS or DeS looks that colourful, and even when there are lots of colours on screen they're very rarely, if ever, as saturated as in the DaS2 screens and videos... it looks really fake and unnatural)

 

[Invictus]

I am rather curious about the PC version: we know from will probably have the resolutions and different kinds of AA, but will they have hi res textures especialy for PC, maybe dynamic lighting instead of static, ambient occlusion, options for HDR or Bloom etc. We know that for all their great gameplay they are mostly targeting 8 year old hardware and compromises for those consoles will be made but I wonder if we will get something like Lords of Shadow where the PC version was a supped up version 60 FPS Hi Res version of the consoles or will they go Far Cry 3 where the PC got all sorts of DirecX options for lightning MXAA and all that good shit.
I am guessing that From won't be thinking about this but Namco Bandai will probably think about PS4 versions and DLC and all that which could ultimetly be good for PC since of they are thinking of those versions they are probably working with higher specs in mind they could probably implement better options for PC

 

[subotaiy]

It will have probably only the options from Durante's mod; I don't think they're going to bother with much else.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Graphics are overrated.

Some NES games have shit graphics but I enjoy them far more than retarded bloom shit like Oblivion or Failfuck 3.

 

[DragoFireheart]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/210699/Quest_undying_Understanding_the_appeal_of_Dark_Souls.php

Quest undying: Understanding the appeal of Dark Souls

February 13, 2014 | By Gamasutra Community

3 commentsMore: Console/PC, Design, Business/Marketing,Exclusive
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Dark Souls is a very interesting game.

One thing that interests me about it is that two years later, as its sequel is about to launch, people are still playing it.

I see them talking about it on Twitter; my husband booted it up this week to play it some more -- he's already played it extensively -- and before long another player joined his session. That seems remarkable, for what's mainly a single player console game, and one that hasn't been promoted much at all of late.

In an era when we constantly hear that the window is smaller and smaller for premium packaged titles to find audiences and that DLC, multiplayer modes, and grind are necessary to keep it jammed open even an inch, that's an achievement. The game has little grind, very idiosyncratic multiplayer, and only one DLC pack, which you need to progress far into the game to even access.
Prepare to Die
Of course, when you talk Dark Souls, you must discuss its notorious difficulty.

I recently had a chance to speak to Brian Hong, director of strategic and digital marketing at Namco Bandai Games, about how the publisher's initial discussions of the game went. "A lot of people said, 'Well, this game's really hard, but you don't want to talk about how hard it is, because it's going to scare people away!' But as we kept going through and stripping everything down, I realized that this is actually the most defining characteristic that puts its first step forward."

Those people, whoever they were, were obviously wrong: Rather than shying away from Dark Souls' difficulty, Namco Bandai highlighted this facet of the game, and it went on to be a great success because of this.

I think they were not simply wrong in the idea that a difficult game would scare players off, though. They were wrong because the game's motto, "prepare to die" -- and the PR, press strategy, and marketing as an extension of this motto -- set expectations for those players before they even booted it up.

The trend this generation was to try and make triple-A games into amusement park rides, where players ever moved onward, seeing new things all the while -- stuck for moments, maybe, but not long. Developers put tremendous effort into creating situations that seemed challenging -- but weren't.

Dark Souls forces you to learn how to deal with its challenges to progress. There is no other option. "Prepare to die" thus communicates not just "it's hard" but also its creative ethos: Try, fail, learn, and try again. Its success reinforces the efficacy of learning as a core principle of game design, of course.

Even grinding doesn't work in Dark Souls. Yes, you can get stronger, but that won't help you understand its challenges or uncover its secrets. You're more likely to survive a tough boss battle by trusting your wits, not your stats.

(If you want to learn more about the game's design, Gamasutra has two excellent pieces fromCthulhu Saves the World creator Robert Boyd: 9 things we can learn about game design from Dark Souls, and Exploring the design of Dark Souls.)
"This game is hard, and we're not going to apologize for it"
Faced with a game like that, says Hong, "I said, 'You know what? I want to go out hard, and say this game is hard, and we're not going to apologize for it. If you're a hardcore gamer, you're going to love this game.'" That strategy helped win it an initial batch of fans that could be converted into evangelists, he says:

"The message that we try to get out to all the folks out there is that if you try this, if you just invest some time into it, you're going to find this pot of gold you could not have imagined before. And there is just legions of folks out there that personally give testimony to that very fact, and all we can say is, 'Listen to your fellow gamer, please.' When they say with utmost earnestness, 'Try this game, please! You're going to love it if you give it a chance,' don't listen to us, listen to your fellow gamer."

An interesting insight from Hong is how the game's difficulty affects community-building, which is something we're seeing in challenging but popular (and somewhat obtuse!) games from DayZ andRust to Monster Hunter, too. Players help each other -- because they need each other -- and that's how communities form.

This hasn't done much to hurt its longevity.

In fact, this community is what informed Hong's approach, not the other way around. Before Dark Souls came Demon's Souls, a PlayStation 3 exclusive which had a small but passionate fan base. Hong scouted it for clues into how to market Dark Souls to a wider audience. "They said, 'Look, if you can get past the early difficulty, if you can just dig a little bit deeper and invest some time in this, you will find out how ridiculously deep and awesome this game is.' These were the voices telling me how to talk about the challenge of the game..."
Growing in its own way
Another interesting facet of the game is its innovation in player communication and multiplayer. Players can leave messages inside the game world for others to find; this idea has already traveled around the industry (in the form of Nintendo's Miiverse service, and in Ubisoft's ZombiU, among other places.) The perversity of Dark Souls, however, means that these can be hints, or they can be intentionally misleading. Sometimes, they're lifesavers. Sometimes, you'll hurtle off a cliff to your doom at an anonymous suggestion.

The multiplayer is also worth discussing: If you open up your single-player game, hostile players (who gain a big resource bonus for killing you) can invade (fair's fair: you get a big bonus if you repel them.) There's also more traditional co-op, but there is no method to pick and choose who you play with. It's whoever's available, and it's all but impossible to arrange multiplayer sessions with friends. This is both thrilling and enlivening of the single player game in a very original way, and frustrating for players who want a more traditional co-op experience.

Further on from that, this approach is both indicative of how innovation can come out of developers treading their own path and ignoring trends and best practices, and it also shows how an isolationist mentality can keep features that would enhance the play experience from being included.

I've heard time and again from the publisher, both on the Japan and U.S. side, that developer From Software is mainly left to its own devices. Namco Bandai has a surprising amount of trust in the studio. It's based on esteem. Says Hong, "From Software, I find them to be an incredibly passionate and earnest group of individuals... So you can see what they put into this game, and the outcome of it is nothing but their desire to realize a vision."

This means, however, that they are not as open to feedback as many studios reflexively are in this age of uncertainty. "The From Software guys are truly artists, in the sense that when we talk about the success of Dark Souls, they say, 'You know what? We're not going to hear really too much about what you're saying. Just let us make the game.' And you can actually really appreciate that," says Hong.

Is it better to get out of the way, or to enforce industry standards?
The road to understanding
"We're not going to hear really too much about what you're saying. Just let us make the game." That's scary for any publisher to hear, but amazingly, Namco Bandai seems to give the studio a lot of leeway. That's because it has paid off, so far.

Hong honestly feels it's necessary -- or otherwise the franchise could lose its identity, and its fans. Publisher machinations could only harm the game, he says: "You try to stay as much true to the vision and the heart of the game, because ultimately the gamers are very sophisticated, some of the smartest consumers out there. You try to do a cash grab by watering something down, making it easier -- whatever you think that they want -- they will instantly pick up on that and just kick you to the curb."

That hands-off approach, and Dark Souls' growth as a Japanese game that is unconcerned with many of the tropes and conventional wisdom of the Western triple-A space, has actually allowed it to thrive, and carve out its own niche.

Hong is leery about the idea that you can even easily measure the success of Dark Souls against other games: "Well, it is a unique type of property. And it is not the type of game where we can treat or apply the typical market forces and say whether or not it's a success. For us, the business stuff aside, we know that this a game you pick up and you try, and you may put it down and not try it again -- sometimes for a long time, sometimes ever."

That uncertainty, baked into Dark Souls' very design, seems to have given the publisher a unique view of the title's potential, its developer, and gameplay. It's not just the players who strive to understandDark Souls, then, but everyone who encounters it. If you have to work to understand something, you'll respect it once you do.

In fact, the key to the success of Dark Souls is understanding: The developers understood the game they were making, and didn't waver. The publisher first understood to trust the developer and then that being honest about the game would connect it to an audience. And finally, players understood what they were getting into, and then as they slowly came to understand the game itself, they loved it all the more.

If Dark Souls has taught Hong any lessons, he says, it's to trust in the community to help build the success of the games he works on. "Well, the lineup of properties we have, whether they be Naruto, Dragon Ball, Tales, or even Armored Core -- I've worked on many, many franchises here, they all have their own personality and group, and that's the most interesting thing of all. We reach out and seek out the community leaders for all of these different groups, and they're all different people, but the one thing they share is crazy passion for this stuff."

In essence, then, his job is to learn from them, enable them -- and to let the developers make the games they want to make.

 

[Jasede]

If I have to hear about how 'hard' the game is I think I'll throw up.
Filthy casuals; you give them a normal game and it's hard.

And yes, I died a lot. That's normal. Especially if you don't use any shield or armor, huehuehue.

 

[Visperas]

Yeah, Dark souls was very hard on its first playthrough but after that not so much. I'm afraid that being experienced in DS will take some of the magic from DS2 away.

 

[Invictus]

Guys take into account what the mainstream media considers "hard" I mean playing Decline Effect on hard is their idea of a hardcore experience or look at virtual playgrounds like Skyrim
Great atricle btw

 

[DragoFireheart]

You know what's hard?

My dick going into some casul mom's ass.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

that sea footage, those waves, that roman armour

Spoiler

Vaati sucking gamestops dick hard in this video

 

[abija]

but will they have hi res textures especialy for PC

Didn't DS have pretty high texture size on file just the engine was using lower mips?

 

[Surf Solar]

that sea footage, those waves, that roman armour

Spoiler

Vaati sucking gamestops dick hard in this video

I really like the aesthetics of the new landscapes, the desert and those waves indeed look beautiful. But why most the character look so anime like....

 

[AngryEddy]

that sea footage, those waves, that roman armour

Spoiler

Vaati sucking gamestops dick hard in this video

Oh wow! Remember when people told me he was just a rabid fanboy? Turns out he really was a marketing plant. Yay for me.

EDIT:

Reading the comments where people are trying to defend Vaati is hilarious. "SO WHAT HE SOLD OUT! HE'S DOING IT FOR THE COMMUNITY!!"

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

[–]VaatiVidya 108 points 5 hours ago

I'd like to give my take on this video, since someone at GameStop must have leaked out the unlisted link before I could release my own version of the video on my channel. I'm also now realizing that perspective is important too, so this might look differently to you than it does to me.

This video was written by me, using my own opinions about the Souls Series. I wanted it to serve as a quick introduction to the series, and also to tell people that you can get into this series at any point. I don't think it's a difficult game, and I think everyone should give it a go! I'm sure you guys feel the same way. This may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but dark souls is actually my favorite game. Crazy right..I know..

Secondly, this video was made for me, and for you guys. It fits my vision for the channel. I want to see Dark Souls 2 sell. I have footage of Dark Souls 2, and I wanted to let you guys see some more of Dark Souls 2. This was a way to do it! Simple as that really.

Most importantly though, and now we come to the crux of it - these videos were allowed to be hosted on GameStop's channel and webpage. I don't think it's completely fair to even say they were made FOR GameStop, because i'm not getting paid for them and these are videos I plan on making anyway. I was the one who pitched the concept for each one.

The reason they exist is because Namco said "oh hey we'd love for you to create some videos for GameStop's new "community video vault" and I said, sure -I have some videos that i'd love to make with Dark Souls 2 footage. It's as simple as that really, and I hope we all understand that. After making these videos I kind of realised, oh wait..everyone's going to see this differently..and so I'm telling you telling you what happened now

I'm not tied to these videos in any other way than me doing a favor for Namco, and i'm also fairly happy that GameStop wanted to get people to create content.

Anyway, please keep giving me feedback on this and everything else I do, whether it's positive or negative, so I can figure out what's right or wrong on YouTube. And i'm perfectly fine with being proven wrong, because what my viewers think is really important to me. You're the ones that are watching, after all.

You'll see my version of the video on the 19th (AU)

byebye

his post on reddit.

i dont give a fuck about some youtuber slurpping gamestop dick and namcos cash but i find interesting namcos approach to promote this game. they invite blogers/lplayers/youtube personalities, let them play exclusive content and than post it in internet. they concentrate on "communities" rather than random consumer thats kind of strange if they want to sell a lot. i mean ds sold around 2.5 million units and its obvious that hardcore fans and people who played first game will buy second one. so why not try attract new customer? strange.

or maybe i know shit about promoting product and we will be suddenly under constant attack of ds2 ads/trailers/banners for next 4 weeks until launch

 

[Mortmal]

Those video footage are so awesome, i feared the worse , but it looks like its a true dark soul game we are getting now .I only hesitate between getting it on consoles and avoiding hackers or get the superior pc version with maybe a broken multiplayer part...

 

[DragoFireheart]

The movements look more sluggish. Seems like the souls games are getting slower and slower.

Compare Demon's Souls to Dark to Dark 2.

 

[Mortmal]

maybe but i am aging so i am getting more and more sluggish anyway .

 

[DragoFireheart]

maybe but i am aging so i am getting more and more sluggish anyway .

It actually makes the game harder. You'll be punished for trying to mash attacks.

It's pretty easy to mash attacks and stunlock enemies in Demon's Souls. Not so in Dark Souls.

 

[Invictus]

Oh no evil Vaati sellout, how dare he continue to do what he has always done from day one on his channel which is recommending and pushing the Souls series so everybody tries it and enjoys it. Nobody would have raised an eyebrow if this was just standard content on his channel but he has the Gamestop backing and suddenly he is a sellout?
I rather have a true fan that those retarded bimbos from IGN pushing the game