Dark Souls 2 director Yui Tanmura on the importance of challenge and surprise in the sequel to the cult-classic.
Dark Souls II is going to be hard.
According to From Software's Dark Souls II director, Yui Tanimura, challenge is one of the things that made the original game so satisfying.
But as word of a push toward more 'accessibility' in the new game spread across the internet, fans began to worry. News that creator Hidetaka Miyazaki was not directing the sequel only made matters worse.
Would the sequel be dumbed down? Would it be made easier? Would it go for the "Skyrim audience?"
"I would like to clarify here that we do not have any plan to make the game easier," Tanimura tells me. "As Dark Souls focused on giving a sense of satisfaction to players, Dark Souls II is also pursuing to provide this sense. We cherish Dark Souls fans’ voices and would like to improve this game based on their voices to let them enjoy a highly challenging game."
Along these lines, the developer has no plans to include options within the game to make it easier for more casual players.
"We do not plan on having an Easy Mode," says Tanimura, "since we are creating this game with a thought that challenge and difficulty are core elements of the game."
No Easy Mode should certainly come as a relief to many Souls fans.
When the idea was floated last year---accidentally, or as the result of a poor translation---there was a huge backlash online. The notion of an easier mode for some players in a game so tightly built around a multi-player experience that was supposed to be, at its core, very challenging rubbed many people the wrong way, and with good reason.
But Tanimura says that the "sense of satisfaction achieved through challenges is a great feeling for players."
The very success of the game depended on that challenge, Tanimura notes. "Dark Souls succeeded because more players than we expected welcomed this thought and there were not many games offering this same sense of accomplishment at the time. What we have to do for Dark Souls II is to stick to this consistent stance."
Making a sequel to a cult classic isn't easy. From Software had a hit with Demon's Souls and followed that PS3 exclusive up with Dark Souls, which debuted on both PS3 and Xbox 360 and later saw a PC port.
This time around, Dark Souls II will appear from day one on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, though according to From there are no plans to release the game on next-generation consoles.
"Just listening to fans’ voice is not enough to create a great game," notes Tanimura, "though I said that their voices are important." He says that as a game developer, From Software needs to go beyond what fans expect and surprise them in a way that has a real impact. "However," he adds, "there is no answer of how to do this except for discovering a way by myself. This is the greatest challenge for me."
While From Software is being cagey about level design, the core elements of an interwoven world should remain the same, though more vertical exploration is likely. Delving into darkness in true, good old fashioned dungeon-crawling fashion will be a big part of the game. Hence the torches.
Tanimura adds that the design should give players even more freedom than before, however, though how this plays out is anyone's guess.
As yesterday's big gameplay footage revealed, dual-wielding will be an integral part of combat in Dark Souls II. "Dual-wielding is a new feature in Dark Souls II," Tanimura says. "Unique action can be performed by combining particular weapons."
This should add a neat level of character customization of play style, especially since it may create an incentive to go without a shield. Meanwhile, the added encumbrance of a torch should create an extra challenge for players who rely on two-handed weapons, dual-wielding, or ducking behind a Tower Shield.
Along with more character customization options, crafting options, and even more attention to tailoring weapons to specific player style, From is spending a lot of time on how players will bring death to one another.
Tanimura says that combat in general should basically remain the same as Dark Souls, and that the team is currently "concentrating our attention to improving battle strategies and balance in PvP."
I asked Tanimura about changes to the souls system---souls function as experience and currency in previous games---as well as what changes we might expect to Humanity and the bonfires, but he demurred, saying he'd rather not spoil it for fans. After all, a huge part of the Dark Souls experience is learning for yourself.
As Tanimura points out, the "stance of storytelling in FromSoftware titles is not a drama style that explains A to Z as if it was a movie. What we are focusing on is to provide active user experience achieved through getting into the game universe and trying to freely discover and understand. This stance has not been changed."
Neither has From's stance on pausing and saving. The game will "auto-save" just like Dark Souls but there won't be save files to go back through to fix your mistakes. Neither will you be able to pause the game. As in Dark Souls, both the challenge and the multiplayer rely on players existing in the game in real time. Menus will be accessed while the game goes on around you, making it at once more perilous and more immersive.
The framerate issues seen in Dark Souls should also be a thing of the past, with a reconstructed engine designed to handle the improved graphics and environments without stuttering. If there was one challenge in the original game that nobody enjoyed it was the frames-per-second in Blighttown. Preparing to die is one thing; preparing to die because of frame rate drops is quite another.
Dark Souls II will also feature more horror elements, especially in the first half of the game where players won't encounter as many enemies. The fear and anticipation of an attack should make the first half of the game more suspenseful. Meanwhile, the second half of the game will feature more fighting and action. Maybe this is to give the sequel a better difficulty curve, and maybe it's a way to make the gameplay reflect the rising action in the story itself.
Lots of maybes still, including when the game will release to the public. Still, we have far more answers than we did two days ago, and a whole bevy of screenshots to feast our eyes upon.
Some of these screenshots I've seen floating around the internet already, but some of them---so far as I can tell---are new.
We see the chariot running down a character dressed in the Thief's outfit, for instance, rather than in the armor we saw in yesterday's gameplay footage.
There's a great shot of a checkered balcony with some sort of dark sorcerer looming near the banister. It may not be the absolutely most gorgeous game ever made, but these screenshots have me hungry for more:
You can see higher resolution images of the screenshots, plus a tiny bit of analysis, here.
