Dark Souls Official Thread - Artorias of the Abyss comes to consoles on 10/24!

Say hello to collectors edition :)

Here are a bunch more screens:

Here's a better version of an old screen:

You can use magic to transform into a barrel and hide from enemies:

You don't want to mess with the blacksmiths in this game:

The Bearded Blacksmith is totally badass! :)

Big improvement on the skinny old guy from Demon's.

these new screenshots look really good.

The name "Dark Souls" keeps on coming up every now and then and then, when I was at Gamestop yesterday, I saw the name yet again, which made me a bit too curious. So I have a couple of questions.

-Is this really the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls?

-I've seen this game advertised for both Playstation 3 AND XBox 360. So this game is not a PS3 exclusive this time around?

-Do I need to play through Demon's Souls in order to understand the storyline or does Dark Souls have a seperate storyline?

-Will it be really that hard to play, even if you turn it down on a lower difficulty?

-Is this game single-player or can I play this with friends via co-op?

The name "Dark Souls" keeps on coming up every now and then and then, when I was at Gamestop yesterday, I saw the name yet again, which made me a bit too curious. So I have a couple of questions.

-Is this really the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls?

-I've seen this game advertised for both Playstation 3 AND XBox 360. So this game is not a PS3 exclusive this time around?

-Do I need to play through Demon's Souls in order to understand the storyline or does Dark Souls have a seperate storyline?

-Will it be really that hard to play, even if you turn it down on a lower difficulty?

-Is this game single-player or can I play this with friends via co-op?

Metamania

1. It is definitely the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. There are some differences in how the world is structured though. Demon's Souls had a hub, called The Nexus, and from there you would venture into five different worlds and beat all of the bosses in them before being able to go and beat the final boss. You could tackle the worlds in any order, but they were somewhat linear. Dark Souls is supposed to be more seamless and open. I wouldn't call it an open world game by any means though. There is no hub, although it sounds like there will be ways to fast travel to places you've been.

2. It is multiplatform. Sony screwed up when the first game came out. They thought no one would be interested in such a difficult game, so they didn't bother publishing it anywhere but Asia. A bunch of people, including me, imported the game in high enough numbers that Atlus approached Sony and From Software about publishing it in America. Namco did the same for Europe. Sony owns the rights to Demon's Souls, so From Software has changed a few things, including the name in order to release the follow up as a multiplatform game. Namco is publishing Dark Souls.

3. Dark Souls has a seperate story. Demon's Souls wasn't a terribly story heavy game. It is more about throwing you into a hostile environment and putting you up against some dark and horrible monsters. There are characters and there is a story, but there are very few cutscenes. A lot of what you learn about the characters and world in Demon's Souls is just stuff you notice as you play through the game.

4. It will be super hard. They say they are making it harder than Demon's Souls was. There aren't different difficulty levels that you can select. If it is anything like Demon's Souls, there won't be a pause button either. The difficulty is different from other games though. I'm not crazy about hard games, and I typically will lose interest if a game is full of enemies that take forever to kill and require lightning quick relflexes to fight. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are hard for more tactical reasons. Your character is as easy to kill as any enemy in the game. That means that there will be some enemies that can kill you in one or two hits and that you have to study each enemy and learn how to fight them so that they don't hit you. Moving slow and luring out enemies one by one instead of charging in and treating the game like a hack & slash game is the right way to do it. There are traps everywhere as well as hidden enemies. This leads to a bit of trial and error gameplay. The developers expect you to die a lot and learn from it so that by the end of the game you aren't just leveled up, but you are a smarter and more careful player.

5. It's a bit of both. You can play by yourself, or you can summon people to play with you. You can also invade someone's game and try to kill them, and they can invade yours to kill you. Playing with a friend in Demon's Souls was hard to do because From intentionally made it that way. The game doesn't support voice chat, and when you put down your stone to get summoned into or invade someone else's world, you can get summoned into anyone's world, not just people on your friend's list. It sounds a bit restrictive, but it makes the game more immersive when you have to cooperate with a total stranger. They feel like another character in the world rather than a good friend that you've played with before.

[QUOTE="Metamania"]

The name "Dark Souls" keeps on coming up every now and then and then, when I was at Gamestop yesterday, I saw the name yet again, which made me a bit too curious. So I have a couple of questions.

-Is this really the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls?

-I've seen this game advertised for both Playstation 3 AND XBox 360. So this game is not a PS3 exclusive this time around?

-Do I need to play through Demon's Souls in order to understand the storyline or does Dark Souls have a seperate storyline?

-Will it be really that hard to play, even if you turn it down on a lower difficulty?

-Is this game single-player or can I play this with friends via co-op?

rragnaar

1. It is definitely the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. There are some differences in how the world is structured though. Demon's Souls had a hub, called The Nexus, and from there you would venture into five different worlds and beat all of the bosses in them before being able to go and beat the final boss. You could tackle the worlds in any order, but they were somewhat linear. Dark Souls is supposed to be more seamless and open. I wouldn't call it an open world game by any means though. There is no hub, although it sounds like there will be ways to fast travel to places you've been.

2. It is multiplatform. Sony screwed up when the first game came out. They thought no one would be interested in such a difficult game, so they didn't bother publishing it anywhere but Asia. A bunch of people, including me, imported the game in high enough numbers that Atlus approached Sony and From Software about publishing it in America. Namco did the same for Europe. Sony owns the rights to Demon's Souls, so From Software has changed a few things, including the name in order to release the follow up as a multiplatform game. Namco is publishing Dark Souls.

3. Dark Souls has a seperate story. Demon's Souls wasn't a terribly story heavy game. It is more about throwing you into a hostile environment and putting you up against some dark and horrible monsters. There are characters and there is a story, but there are very few cutscenes. A lot of what you learn about the characters and world in Demon's Souls is just stuff you notice as you play through the game.

4. It will be super hard. They say they are making it harder than Demon's Souls was. There aren't different difficulty levels that you can select. If it is anything like Demon's Souls, there won't be a pause button either. The difficulty is different from other games though. I'm not crazy about hard games, and I typically will lose interest if a game is full of enemies that take forever to kill and require lightning quick relflexes to fight. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are hard for more tactical reasons. Your character is as easy to kill as any enemy in the game. That means that there will be some enemies that can kill you in one or two hits and that you have to study each enemy and learn how to fight them so that they don't hit you. Moving slow and luring out enemies one by one instead of charging in and treating the game like a hack & slash game is the right way to do it. There are traps everywhere as well as hidden enemies. This leads to a bit of trial and error gameplay. The developers expect you to die a lot and learn from it so that by the end of the game you aren't just leveled up, but you are a smarter and more careful player.

5. It's a bit of both. You can play by yourself, or you can summon people to play with you. You can also invade someone's game and try to kill them, and they can invade yours to kill you. Playing with a friend in Demon's Souls was hard to do because From intentionally made it that way. The game doesn't support voice chat, and when you put down your stone to get summoned into or invade someone else's world, you can get summoned into anyone's world, not just people on your friend's list. It sounds a bit restrictive, but it makes the game more immersive when you have to cooperate with a total stranger. They feel like another character in the world rather than a good friend that you've played with before.

Thank you for the massive wealth of info you provided for my questions, Rag! It sounds like a game that I could enjoy, but only if I could tolerate the harshness of the difficulty. I'm one of those gamers that would like to progress at a steady rate without dying too much and it seems like it's one of those games that's completely opposite. Add to the fact that there aren't any difficulty levels you can't select, so if I decide to either buy or rent the game, then I have to keep in mind that the game will be extremely hard from the get-go. Of course, I've heard that Demon's Souls DID reward you a lot of times if you are patient enough to go through everything, so it seems like a game that I could enjoy once those rewards are earned. I may have to give this game a shot somewhere down the road. I love action/RPG games, so this could be right up my alley. But with the difficulty turning out to be so punishing, I'm not sure if the effort of buying it is worth it at all. A rental would be better for me, I think...

I am very tempted to get a collector's edition of this.. JustPlainLucas

Dark Souls PS3

Dark Souls X360

Promo code:

EMCYTZT654

I am very tempted to get a collector's edition of this.. JustPlainLucas

Not just at Newegg, but other stores, it looks like, are going to be selling Dark Souls as a collector's edition for $59.99, such as EBgames or Amazon. I saw it today while I was looking up more info. So I think you'll be fine if you pre-order from any of the places that Rag or I mentioned.

The difficulty is comparable to Ninja Gaiden on the xbox (not the terrible sequel) where it is always challenging but the more you play and learn the game the easier it gets. But you will die quite a bit getting there. If they say they are making the sequel harder, be afraid. Id say renting it first if you are unsure is the wisest move.GodModeEnabled

Yeah, the more I read about this game, it more it reminded me of Ninja Gaiden in terms of its punishing difficulty. I almost broke my TV because of that reason, so I think I'll be wiser and renting Dark Souls instead. I've been reading up more on Rage and I like what that game has to offer, so I think I'll be going after that instead of Dark Souls.

[QUOTE="GodModeEnabled"]The difficulty is comparable to Ninja Gaiden on the xbox (not the terrible sequel) where it is always challenging but the more you play and learn the game the easier it gets. But you will die quite a bit getting there. If they say they are making the sequel harder, be afraid. Id say renting it first if you are unsure is the wisest move.Metamania

Yeah, the more I read about this game, it more it reminded me of Ninja Gaiden in terms of its punishing difficulty. I almost broke my TV because of that reason, so I think I'll be wiser and renting Dark Souls instead. I've been reading up more on Rage and I like what that game has to offer, so I think I'll be going after that instead of Dark Souls.

[QUOTE="Metamania"]

[QUOTE="GodModeEnabled"]The difficulty is comparable to Ninja Gaiden on the xbox (not the terrible sequel) where it is always challenging but the more you play and learn the game the easier it gets. But you will die quite a bit getting there. If they say they are making the sequel harder, be afraid. Id say renting it first if you are unsure is the wisest move.rragnaar

Yeah, the more I read about this game, it more it reminded me of Ninja Gaiden in terms of its punishing difficulty. I almost broke my TV because of that reason, so I think I'll be wiser and renting Dark Souls instead. I've been reading up more on Rage and I like what that game has to offer, so I think I'll be going after that instead of Dark Souls.

Watching that video and seeing you play it, it looks easy as a magic-user, doesn't it? And I know I don't expect either game to be like NG or DMC in terms of its fast pace and frantic action. I expected either game to be its own, where patience is rewarded far more often then chargiing into the battle with swords blazing. I still am unsure of it as a whole, so I'll have to rent Dark Souls when it comes out, see if I find it to my liking. If I do, I may get it around my birthday or something...

Those are some sweet screenshots. Cant wait to get my copy that I preordered.

[QUOTE="Metamania"]

The name "Dark Souls" keeps on coming up every now and then and then, when I was at Gamestop yesterday, I saw the name yet again, which made me a bit too curious. So I have a couple of questions.

-Is this really the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls?

-I've seen this game advertised for both Playstation 3 AND XBox 360. So this game is not a PS3 exclusive this time around?

-Do I need to play through Demon's Souls in order to understand the storyline or does Dark Souls have a seperate storyline?

-Will it be really that hard to play, even if you turn it down on a lower difficulty?

-Is this game single-player or can I play this with friends via co-op?

rragnaar

4. It will be super hard. They say they are making it harder than Demon's Souls was. There aren't different difficulty levels that you can select. If it is anything like Demon's Souls, there won't be a pause button either. The difficulty is different from other games though. I'm not crazy about hard games, and I typically will lose interest if a game is full of enemies that take forever to kill and require lightning quick relflexes to fight. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are hard for more tactical reasons. Your character is as easy to kill as any enemy in the game. That means that there will be some enemies that can kill you in one or two hits and that you have to study each enemy and learn how to fight them so that they don't hit you. Moving slow and luring out enemies one by one instead of charging in and treating the game like a hack & slash game is the right way to do it. There are traps everywhere as well as hidden enemies. This leads to a bit of trial and error gameplay. The developers expect you to die a lot and learn from it so that by the end of the game you aren't just leveled up, but you are a smarter and more careful player.

I respectfully disagree.

I never encountered an enemy that could take me out in a single hit. But then again I was almost never in ghost form thanks to never dying and having a decent amount of vitality, Enemies took me out in 2-4 hits and enemies were redicilously easy to evade and defeat thanks to a low life pool, slow movements and one of the worst AIs ever. Not only that, but the enemy damage is dramaticly decreased if you cast warding, which pretty much makes you invincible. The projectiles are really slow as well, so avoiding enemy ranged attacks is really easy. Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.

Dark Souls is promised to be harder though, so hopefully it will be challanging enough to make up for Demons Souls complete lack of difficulty. It was punishing if you died however as soul form had only half of your life and the game only has checkpoints after you defeat a boss. Dying resets the entire area except for environment changes.

Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.

Maroxad

Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.Maroxad

Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.>Maroxad

The game was delayed a week in Japan. It now comes out on the 22nd over there. Hopefully we don't get a delay here. Also... new screens!

Love the screenshot with the red dragon! :D

Those are some nice screenshots, I sense the atmosphere already. Hopefully the game wont be delayed anywhere else, but cant be fun for those living in Japan looking forward to the game.

[QUOTE="Maroxad"]Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.>AzelKosMos

I played plenty. ;)

Demons Souls was easy because of the terrible AI, penalty/restrictionless healing (no cooldowns or diminishing returns or anything like that), warding, enemies that died really fast, slow enemy attacks, overpowered roll, overpowered rispote and general lack of balance. Sure, you enter soul form when you die and you go back to the beginning of the area since your last boss. But that is IF you die. And dying was quite hard. Dont take my word for it though, explain all the players who intentionally put their health down to 35% and never used healing items put their health above that to take advantage of increased damage.

I died 4-5 times on my first playthrough (one of them was being punched at the end of the tutorial in a cutscene. I never died on my second. Died 3 on my third. Demons Souls is not a hard game, if you avoid being reckless. However, difficulty is a subjective thing.

Here is the Gamescom trailer for Dark Souls. It looks so good.

Those are some nice screenshots, I sense the atmosphere already. Hopefully the game wont be delayed anywhere else, but cant be fun for those living in Japan looking forward to the game.

[QUOTE="AzelKosMos"]

[QUOTE="Maroxad"]Demons Souls was one of the easiest games I have played in the last 5 years.>Maroxad

I played plenty. ;)

Demons Souls was easy because of the terrible AI, penalty/restrictionless healing (no cooldowns or diminishing returns or anything like that), warding, enemies that died really fast, slow enemy attacks, overpowered roll, overpowered rispote and general lack of balance. Sure, you enter soul form when you die and you go back to the beginning of the area since your last boss. But that is IF you die. And dying was quite hard. Dont take my word for it though, explain all the players who intentionally put their health down to 35% and never used healing items put their health above that to take advantage of increased damage.

I died 4-5 times on my first playthrough (one of them was being punched at the end of the tutorial in a cutscene. I never died on my second. Died 3 on my third. Demons Souls is not a hard game, if you avoid being reckless. However, difficulty is a subjective thing.

cool that they took out soul mode didn't like losing point or whatever they called it. Hopefully they make it easier to join your friends i had a hard time.metal_zombie

[QUOTE="Maroxad"]

Those are some nice screenshots, I sense the atmosphere already. Hopefully the game wont be delayed anywhere else, but cant be fun for those living in Japan looking forward to the game.

[QUOTE="AzelKosMos"] Was it the only game you played?

AzelKosMos

I played plenty. ;)

Demons Souls was easy because of the terrible AI, penalty/restrictionless healing (no cooldowns or diminishing returns or anything like that), warding, enemies that died really fast, slow enemy attacks, overpowered roll, overpowered rispote and general lack of balance. Sure, you enter soul form when you die and you go back to the beginning of the area since your last boss. But that is IF you die. And dying was quite hard. Dont take my word for it though, explain all the players who intentionally put their health down to 35% and never used healing items put their health above that to take advantage of increased damage.

I died 4-5 times on my first playthrough (one of them was being punched at the end of the tutorial in a cutscene. I never died on my second. Died 3 on my third. Demons Souls is not a hard game, if you avoid being reckless. However, difficulty is a subjective thing.

Is it possible to pre order it in Portugal using amazon uk? It should be.

Here is the Gamescom trailer for Dark Souls. It looks so good.

rragnaar

I preordered this months ago. It's great to see a worthy sequel/successor to Demon's Souls!

That video was awesome, the monsters were hideous. And good thing too.

Those are some nice screenshots, I sense the atmosphere already. Hopefully the game wont be delayed anywhere else, but cant be fun for those living in Japan looking forward to the game.

I agree up to a point that it wasn't anywhere near as hard as people made out, I found it moderately challenging largely due to either surprise attacks or error on my part but to talk against dying in one hit which is entirely possible and claiming it's one of the easiest games in the last 5 years you've played does take credit away (at least to me) regarding your other points. Out of curiosity more then anything what games have you played that you found harder in the said time period? :PAzelKosMos

Pretty much any roguelike. Not only can you die from thirst, starvation and a truckload of other ways, but also, if you die, the game deletes your file. A recent roguelike is Dungeons of Dredmor.

Mount and Blade: Warband is also a lot harder, assuming you play at 100% settings or above. Lose a battle and the enemy loots you, there are no overpowered rolls, enemies attack faster, parries will also have to be in the direction of the attack (if the enemy does an overhead attack you have to parry upwards), shields break after getting hit a few times, if you get wounded it can take days to get back to full strength, especially if you have no doctor, defeated non-heroes stay dead meaning you have to recruit tier 1 characters again, oh and archers can one shot you with arrows that fly way faster than they do in Demons Souls.

I wasnt challanged by Demons Souls. But then again, I am used to not having checkpoints everywhere, health regeneration, no handholding, ect so the game fit me like a glove. I dont play a lot of mainstream games, and stick to mostly niche and indie games. Niche games like Demons Souls and Dark Souls.

Have my copy pre-ordered and payed for in full. Only other game I'm looking forward to as much this year is Human Revolution. raven_squad

The newest Famitsu has some details on the character creation system. Siliconera was kind enough to translate.

Before you can fight gargoyles and dragons, you have to make an immortal character. Famitsu has a few details about the character customization system in Dark Souls. The initial cIasses you can choose from are: soldier, knight, vagrant, thief, bandit, hunter, magician, shaman, jobless, and cleric.

The character maker lets players select a gender, design a body type and face, and select an initial pack of items to start the journey with.Siliconera

I may be caving in and pre-ordering Dark Souls after all...

That video was awesome, the monsters were hideous. And good thing too.

[QUOTE="AzelKosMos"]

Those are some nice screenshots, I sense the atmosphere already. Hopefully the game wont be delayed anywhere else, but cant be fun for those living in Japan looking forward to the game.

I agree up to a point that it wasn't anywhere near as hard as people made out, I found it moderately challenging largely due to either surprise attacks or error on my part but to talk against dying in one hit which is entirely possible and claiming it's one of the easiest games in the last 5 years you've played does take credit away (at least to me) regarding your other points. Out of curiosity more then anything what games have you played that you found harder in the said time period? :PMaroxad

Pretty much any roguelike. Not only can you die from thirst, starvation and a truckload of other ways, but also, if you die, the game deletes your file. A recent roguelike is Dungeons of Dredmor.

Mount and Blade: Warband is also a lot harder, assuming you play at 100% settings or above. Lose a battle and the enemy loots you, there are no overpowered rolls, enemies attack faster, parries will also have to be in the direction of the attack (if the enemy does an overhead attack you have to parry upwards), shields break after getting hit a few times, if you get wounded it can take days to get back to full strength, especially if you have no doctor, defeated non-heroes stay dead meaning you have to recruit tier 1 characters again, oh and archers can one shot you with arrows that fly way faster than they do in Demons Souls.

I wasnt challanged by Demons Souls. But then again, I am used to not having checkpoints everywhere, health regeneration, no handholding, ect so the game fit me like a glove. I dont play a lot of mainstream games, and stick to mostly niche and indie games. Niche games like Demons Souls and Dark Souls.

Here are more details on the character cIasses, including a better translation for the cIass names than what I posted earlier.

Warrior – a fearless warrior and weapon expert with high strength, and dexterity.

Cleric – casts healing miracles and wields a mace.

Knight – a low-ranking knight with high HP and solid armor that is not easily toppled

Bandit – a savage bandit with high strength and wields a battle axe.

Deprived – unclothed and starts the game with a club and old plank shield.

Hunter – a bow-wielding hunter who can handle close-range combat, but is vulnerable to magic.

Pyromancer – casts fire spells and wields a hand axe.

Thief - a guilt-ridden thief who deals high critical hits and has a Master Key.

Wanderer – an aimless wanderer with high dexterity that wields a scimitar.

Sorcerer – casts soul sorceries and from the Dragon School.

Is there anything like a warrior monk or battlemage (wields swords and magic)?

Is there anything like a warrior monk or battlemage (wields swords and magic)?

BranKetra

I'm choosing the sorcerer, maybe the pyromancer. Because looks similar to royalty.

Deprived? Wow...that class certainly sounds like a challenge, especially if the game's going to be very hard right at the beginning!

Deprived? Wow...that class certainly sounds like a challenge, especially if the game's going to be very hard right at the beginning!

Metamania