Gaming 'Dark Souls', Formerly known as Project Dark

[Lance Uppercut]

The spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, Project Dark, has been detailed and renamed.

Moving it closer to the Demon's Souls name, Project Dark will now be called Dark Souls.

The new info has been translated on NeoGAF:


- This is the official title of what was previously Project Dark

- This time they want to increase the amount of field exploration in the game.

- All fields are seamless, so whatever you can see, you can reach and explore. If you see a fortress or castle walls in the distance, you can eventually get there.

- There will be no map display in the game, just a position display marker.

- They aim to make the game just as challenging than Demon's Souls, but also just as rewarding when you succeed. The sense of achievement is important.

- The gameplay will be similar to Demon's Souls in concept, where it's about trial and error and learning from your mistakes to play better.

- The game does not share the same world and story as Demon's Souls.

- The game will not use the same format as Demon's Souls in terms of having 5 worlds connected via a hub.

- Instead all maps in the game will be linked seamlessly in a connected world. The pace of the game will feel more about exploration and discovering locations, which you can then go inside into a dungeon or whatever and explore the interior further.

- There will be more complex level designs in the game using more vertical design in areas and such.

- The world setting is based on medieval dark fantasy, and will contain themes like "high fantasy of kings and knights", "death and the depths of the earth", and "the flames of chaos".

- The character creation process will not be class based.

- The play style of the player character will have much more freedom this time.

- There will be many more spells and items, and the animation and uniqueness of weapons will also be increased.

- The online elements are very similar to Demon's Souls. There is cooperative and PvP.

- You can still leave messages, and see players who died at various places.

- There will be no Soul Tendency this time because they don't want to have to use dedicated servers.

- Instead this time there will be more features allowing players to engage in "mutual role playing" which they say are still under wraps. They'll reveal more when it's time.

Project Dark was revealed last September and is set for a PS3 exclusive release in Japan this year. Let's hope it makes its way over here too eventually.

CVG.

The very fact that it is being called the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls has me interested in this. That said, I am still not sure what it actually is. Anyone have more info on it?

I still hope we get an official Demon's Souls 2, featuring the same story/world.

 

[Red_Aaron]

there was an article in Games or Edge (i forget which) a month or so about this that said very much the same thing.

From what i've heard the makers of demons souls have completely ruled out a direct sequel and as a result are putting any ideas they had for it into project dark instead, making it more of a spiritual successor

its a shame as the world, the characters and the levelling system they created for demons souls was near pefrect and i'd love to be able to revisit it

lets just hope project dark, sorry, dark souls doesnt end up a poor imitation, some of those points above make me worry it'll end up stuck between two games and not actually do either concept justice

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Thanks for the info. However, I am now crushed by the "no official sequel" news. feck.

That said, wasn't Demon's Souls itself, said to be the spiritual successor to another game?

 

[Ekeke]

I just hope there's a bit more emphasis on storytelling than Demon Souls

Its good to hear there will be more scope for player style though as Demon Souls really pushed you towards using certain things and away from whatever original idea you might have had for levelling your character... Unless your original idea was to use a magic based caster and ignore most of the miracles except second chance, or to have a ranged character with a bow.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Demon's Souls' spiritual sequel, Dark Souls, will be released on Xbox 360 as well as PS3, it's been confirmed.

The news comes in the extensive preview of the game, formerly Project Dark, from Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, which spilled forth a bunch of details earlier.

Demon's Souls was about as difficult a PS3 exclusive as you could find, and a Sony fan favourite. Sheer reader power led to it taking the No.10 spot in a recent CVG list of The Best PS3 games of all time.

According to Famitsu's write-up, Dark Souls' "overseas release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is being handled by Namco Bandai".

However, the report clarifies that Japan will only get the PlayStation 3 version, published by Developer From Software itself. The title is noted as being due for release in the territory this year. No European or US release date is been given.

According to a translation from Andriasang, the "difficulty has been increased greatly over Demon's Souls" - which sound absolutely tortuous to us - and although the pair are related, there will be "no connection with Demon's Souls in terms of story or world".

 

[Ekeke]

The difficulty line could mean a number of things, considering almost every boss in the game has a cheap way of being defeated

 

[WeasteDevil]

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I am allllllllll over that.

 

[Xander45]

Oh boy, i was shockingly bad at the first game. Although i shall get this as i'm a glutton for punishment.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Going by the trailer, I don't think anyone could complain if they had called it 'Demon's Souls 2.'

If they mess us around with a release date again, I will import it again.

 

[WeasteDevil]

Going by the trailer, I don't think anyone could complain if they had called it 'Demon's Souls 2.'

They can't though, Sony owns the name.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

They can't though, Sony owns the name.

Right. Do you think that is why they are going down the "spiritual successor" route? You believe they would have preferred to use 'Demon's Souls 2?'

 

[WeasteDevil]

I'm sure that they would, but they can't, and Sony was seemingly uninterested in funding another one. So they went down this line instead.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

This pleases me.

 

[WeasteDevil]

Japan Studio has been a bit of a disaster this generation. More like PSP Studio. There's only really ICO working on anything significant. Polyphony isn't actually part of Japan Studio, it's a law unto itself.

 

[Xander45]

As long as they make this, last guardian and a quality Ape Escape 4 i don't care what they do.

Although i wish they'd put a bit more time into making White Knight Chronicles less slow, Level 5 were probably busy finding more puzzles for Professor Layton sadly.

 

[Member 39557]

Every time I see the thread title, I think of Perfect Dark.


I will now leave this thread. Sorry for the interruption.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Namco has taken on European and US publishing duties for From Software's highly anticipated Dark Souls and confirmed plans to release the PS3 and Xbox 360 action RPG in 2011.

 

[Snow]

Great news. Just finished Demon's Souls 1st playthrough yesterday. About 20 sec into my second playthrough I get invaded. Needless to say, I still keep learning what that game is all about. Expecting great things from Dark Souls now.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

New Dark Souls information has gushed out onto the internet detailing things like game length, online play and demo availability.

Let's get the possibility of a demo out of the way first; there won't be one.

According to an interview by 4Gamer, Dark Souls director and From Software developer Hidetaka Miyazaki said that there won't be a demo to download because he's 'not that great at making demos' and 'the appeal of Dark Souls can't be conveyed in a short play experience'.

There are also no plans for DLC at the moment although it hasn't been completely ruled out.

The full game, however, will clock in at around 60 hours and Miyazaki also outlined online "concepts" in the interview, which was usefully translated by Andriasang:

"First is 'shared play experience.' Miyazaki wants players to feel that they have friends who are challenging this difficult game along with them. Players will have gradual effects on one another."

"The goal of this system is to recreate the feeling of playing the old Dragon Quest games, where even though everyone is playing individually, they exchange information and feel happy that someone else is struggling with them."

"The other concept is referred to at From Software as 'mutual role playing.' This involves instances of cooperative and competitive play as an extension of the individual's role playing experience."

As far as minor details are concerned, you can also expect Dark Souls to have 100 enemy types as opposed to Demon's Souls 30, and weapons will have different motions which may make players favour weaker arms because they suit their style of play.

You can read more about the game in our Dark Souls preview from our trip to San Francisco last week. It's shaping up nicely.

CVG

 

[Red_Aaron]

that trailer is 'kin awesome
and it doesnt leave any doubt at all about what game this is a sequel to, Dark-Schmark this is Demons Souls 2 and I can't wait for it

 

[Lance Uppercut]

The Dark Souls world will be one and a half times bigger than Demon's Souls.

When asked how the game's overarching map would compare to its predecessor, Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki said,

"For simplicity of explanation, as compared to Demon's Souls, the map will be approximately 1.5 times the size. It may feel even bigger to the players."

Going into a bit more detail, Miyazaki talked about how the now seamless world would be structured:

"To clearly pose a sense of achievement to the players, we will most likely maintain the 'one map plus boss' format, he told 1UP.

"However, the game will not completely be structured in this way."

"There will be areas that are hidden away that are not critical to game completion. In regards to side quests, they won't be stated as specific quests, but we will implement small events to encourage players to create their own mini objectives."

CVG

Any chance a mod could remove the "formerly known as Project Dark" from the thread title?

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to notoriously difficult role-playing game Demon's Souls, is guaranteed to be even more punishing. So says Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who also reveals that players—not just giant wolves and zombie dragons—will be inflicting more pain on each other.

Miyazaki explains in the new issue of Edge magazine that the game's messaging system that lets players leave helpful tips and warnings to other Dark Souls players can also be harmful. That was true of Demon's Souls, in a sense, as some players dropped disinformation from time to time.

But Dark Souls will reportedly feature a "keener competitive edge," with players seeing real benefit from actively tricking their fellow players. "It's how you play with people's minds, how you help or trick other people," Miyazaki tells Edge. "It's not necessarily about how skilled you are, but how smart you are."

Players will also be encouraged—perhaps forced—to attack other players online. Miyazaki explains that we "may be tasked with hunting down a certain item that another has in his or her possession."

"It's usually posed a bit like a competitive version of Lord of the Rings in which one player has the ring and the other characters must find him, attack him and attempt to claim the ring for themselves," he says. Demon's Souls put players in the position of player-versus-player combat during a fight in which players assume the role of a major boss, the Old Monk. But it appears that Dark Souls will explore this notion even further.

Still unexplained is how some of the content that requires players to be online will work for players without an in-game internet connection (read: Xbox Live Silver members).

Dark Souls' difficulty will be ratcheted up with another new aspect: the degradation of the player's mind. Characters will mentally suffer to the point where they may devolve into a "zombie or monster" in Dark Souls.

There's more information in the pages of the latest Edge, including Dark Souls' unusual approach to an ending, which is out at newsstands this week.

Dark Souls is coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year, courtesy of From Software and publisher Namco Bandai.

Kotaku


I hated having my game invaded in Demon's Souls, because it was usually by assholes wielding the scraping spear. That piece of shit just smashed your armour to bits.

Still, this is sounding better and better.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

 

[Lance Uppercut]

E3 trailer. Mother of god.



The only game I have pre-ordered months in advance.

 

[Xander45]

Damn that looks good, that last line couldn't be more true either. I died a lot in Demons Souls and this is meant to be harder!? Christ on a bike.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Demon's Souls was tough, but fair. We are veterans now, Xander.

 

[Ekeke]

It was tough but almost all the bosses were easy if you know how. Would be nice if you couldnt kill all the bosses in Dark Souls from safe spots as long as you have a bow and a lot of arrows.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

It was tough but almost all the bosses were easy if you know how. Would be nice if you couldnt kill all the bosses in Dark Souls from safe spots as long as you have a bow and a lot of arrows.

I don't recall anyone forcing you to do that.

 

[Ekeke]

I don't recall anyone forcing you to do that.

A lot of people wont put in the effort if theres an easy mode. Those people will reap the rewards and get further into the game and metagame of the pvp before those who spend countless hours trying to beat a boss with for example a cleric or one of the other characters who are a lot harder to progress with than bow users and offensive casters

It shouldnt be in the game.

If this is reputed as a really tough and unforgiving game then it simply shouldnt have areas where you can pepper a boss with lots of arrows, with a character class who doesnt even main a bow and still win the fight without being able to die. There will always be people who abuse that and get further into the game than they should do if it really was as tough as people say. Make sure that stuff isnt in the game and then it really would be hardcore.

 

[Solius]

I keep reading this as 'Dark Solius'.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Gamescon trailer:



feck, this looks good. I think I see Black Phantoms in there.

 

[Snow]

 

[WeasteDevil]

This should have been released today in Japan.

 

[kps88]

IGN's done a pre-review thing. Can't be arsed to find the link now. Basically the poor sod who's been assigned to review it going on about how terribly hard it is and how he's spending days on end trying to finish it. Its apparently harder than Demon Souls.

 

[Ekeke]

Hopefully it stays that hard then and in a few months we dont find out you can just stand at a certain distance from the boss and he glitches and you can pepper him with arrows till he dies or something. Because that'll be the true test of how hard the game is. If Demon's Souls didnt have that issue it would have been a lot harder for people to progress.

 

[Red_Aaron]

Out on Friday, placed my pre-order last night

Looks absolutely immense, I fancy this to blow away all the upcoming big hitters

My knob is just completely out for this game

 

[WeasteDevil]

It did really good numbers in Japan in its first week, outselling the entire lifetime sales of Demons Souls, and in Japan it's PS3 exclusive. Will be interesting to see if XB360 players are interested in this sort of thing.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

I pre ordered mine months ago. Game of the year, baby.

 

[Red_Aaron]

i'm just looking forward to a proper adult game. the batmans and assassins creeds are all well and good but tend to be piss easy, finished in a week jobs. Dont like the term 'hardcore game' but thats exactly what i expect from this, thank god my dog can't talk as she's gonna have some brusies to explain next week

i dont usually do preorders as i prefer to pick them up in store during my lunch break, i liked the look of the preorder art books and such though so picked it up off shopto - I've never used these guys before, is there any chance i'll get it a day early ?