The Creators of Dark Souls II Want to Make The Series More “Understandable.” What Should They Do?

Kotaku - In an interview in the December issue of Edge Magazine, one of the new directors for Dark Souls II says that the sequel will be more "understandable." In Edge's comments section, initial reaction to that word has not been kind.

[MariaHelFutura]

The only thing I want is an actual pause button.

[Max Power]

Boo, that's my favorite part of the game that makes it difficult. No breaks. No breathers. No "Oh crap! I am going to die with this layout, let me change it real quick, and lets heal why I am at it."

[MariaHelFutura]

No. No. No. Keep the inventory the way it is. I have children, sometimes I have to pause the game. I need a pause button. Kids don't care if you're playing Demon/Darksouls or not. When they need you, they need you.

[dredgewalker]

I do hope that "understandable" doesn't mean "more casual" cause my own dark soul will rise from my body and wreak havoc in my neighborhood if it did. I also hope that Mika isn't one your children :P

[RickHiggity]

What MarialHelFutura said. As much as we would all love to sit around all day and play games, some of us have responsibilities.

[pixelsword]

"I do hope that 'understandable' doesn't mean 'more casual'"

No, it actually means "How do I get more people to buy the game who like stories without shelling out a ton of bucks on dialogue?"

[Temporary]

Add a pause button and I wouldnt enjoy it as much anymore. It's one of its defining characteristics.

[Opiumunkey]

You dont need a pause button, just quit the game, it saves automatically and goes back to the title screen. When you want to continue load up your character and you're at the same point you left. Quick and easy.

[PhoenixRising37]

Dark Souls had a big underlying story that had to be discovered through the NPCs. In Dark Souls 2, i think it would be cool if designers had a bigger story that was given to you up front. If the designers manage to make the environments as impressive as 1, I will be blown away. Dark Souls 1 will be very hard to top in terms of environmental design. I didn't have a map but still knew where i was going even though i had only been through the areas once.

[TopDudeMan]

As far as environments go, I'd just be happy if they kept the same sort of variation in levels. You could play anywhere from a war-torn city to an abandoned library/prison to an underground city to fake snowy mountain. There was just so much variation in setting crammed into dark souls.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. They don't necessarily need to change the format or add a bunch of crappy cutscenes, but if the dialog with the NPC's could be fleshed out a bit I think that would help a lot.

In fact I think if the NPC's were fleshed out in general, it could help a lot. There were a lot of really creepy, weird characters in Dark Souls that didn't get to spread their wings beyond the purpose they served within the game (ie, merchants, blacksmiths, fire keepers, etc.).

[TopDudeMan]

I've just been arguing that exact point on my blog. :)

[ZBlacktt]

Check points?

[PhoenixRising37]

If From Software adds checkpoints then the whole gaming world is gonna explode and riots will ensue. From would never hear the end of it.

[TheDivine]

Both Souls games had checkpoints. DS had archstone stuff with the sword in 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 exc. DkS had the bonfires which people bitched about until they acually played it. I say trust them as theyve done right by us so far. If they casualize it then we'll go from there.

[MysticStrummer]

What do checkpoints have to do with being understandable?

[ZBlacktt]

People would be less frustrated and more interested in continuing on. Can't understand when you have to replay over and over.... then say forget it.

[Godmars290]

Oh boy. Sounds like they're want to make it more "accessible" to the general public.

Hope they don't do like many have before this gen and forget about/insult their fanbase. The people who'd buy a sequel automatically.

[Nexgensensation]

then maybe you would get an idea of what dark souls 2 should be about?

also; should an artist trust in himself for artistic suggestions or should he/she rely on the internet to see what the next story is going to be about....

idkmaybe the developers just doent see video games as art

[pixelsword]

Yeah; I wanna access that broken pillar with the Giants.

[Nexgensensation]

its like dark souls copy demon souls and made a good game. noow dark souls is at front for there next game and tsk tsk tsk.... they have no idea!

if the developer want an idea that will truly stand the test of time send me a private message cuz this is ridiculous

the new director for dark souls is a mit romney he dont know anything about being a gamer!

[Knight_Crawler]

Not sure but what ever you do please do not add QTE...god I hate games with QTE's in them, what the point of pressing a certain button at a certain time anyway.

[Ben_Grimm]

The only thing that wasn't crystal clear was the actual story. But this isn't a bad thing. A little investigation and attention to detail made the story and game that more interesting and fun. I would rather have this than a flat out narration.

This is what made Silent Hill 2 so grand. Everyone could interpret the story for themselves.

[landog]

I truthfully hope they keep it just the way it is, its obscurity is part of its charm.

The alien landscapes and odd characters, the foreboding structures and dark atmoshphere are what make the game so beloved. A sense of ominous dread, souls clinging to a dead world, monsterous energies and shadowy spirits....this is what makes a souls game!

Please, I implore you, change nothing inherent to the game!

[Xer0_SiN]

i say, dont do a gadamn thing. they already watered down the heck of it when it went from demons to dark. still a good game but not up to its full potential.

[TopDudeMan]

I'd like it if they went back to the "stage" system they had in demon's souls. It still felt open world, but had that arcadey thing going, which was really cool.

[Xer0_SiN]

lol at arcadey. i agree with you though. the whole central hub thing was pretty cool. i do want to go through the broken archstone though. CMON FROMSOFT! get with the program. do not forsake the ones that was with you from th start of this awesome IP.

[thorstein]

"What should they do?"
Not a thing. The series is perfect. Too bad for people that don't understand how to read a narrative through the game play. ICO was an amazing game and the tale was told through interaction.

What if James Joyce made Ulysses more "understandable." We would have a pile of crap rather than a masterpiece.

Same goes for the following:
Lord of the Rings
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Odyssey
The Iliad
the numerous plays of Shakespeare
the amazing stories of Poe

The point is, we would not have any of those amazing works. Gaming needs amazing works. Leave the dumbing down for idiot games where players can drool while pressing A button.

[Summons75]

Don't change anything. You already said you are going to have dedicated servers like Demon Souls so the multiplayer is back to perfect. Just make the bosses puzzlely like in demon souls, that was the only thing that made dark souls rather disappointing. All the bosses were the same (hit, hit, dodge) Demon Souls had great puzzles and challenges with it's bosses.

[SlowBurn]

White/black tendency system was superior imo,bring it back.
Develop various play mechanics and events that are results of such

[MysticStrummer]

I agree, but that has about as much to do with being understandable as the comment about checkpoints above. To bring back the tendencies would most likely mean going back to a hub world system, which is fine by me though I did enjoy the Dark Souls world. Instead of tendencies, they could also do a day/night cycle and have certain creatures, certain NPCs, and certain events only appear at certain times.

As for being understandable, I would assume that means the story, unless they mean people didn't understand the gameplay mechanics. Either way they could change the way that information is presented, as long as they didn't make it too generic and straightforward. It needs to be weird. lol

[bloodybutcher]

yes, make it more accesible!please.i want regenerating health, pause button so you could use the inventory and heal yourself anyway, infinite magic, linear gameplay and chest-high walls.
edit: oh,oh, definitely the difficulty settings so we can play on very easy!

[Williamson]

Ive never played this or demon souls but im going to pick it up either today or tommorow. What can I expect from this game? I enjoy action rpgs and im aware of the difficulty of these 2 games.

[MysticStrummer]

Expect to die a lot... and expect to have an amazing time doing it, unless you're easily frustrated. Eventually you'll adapt to the game and you won't die so much, but then about that time someone will invade your game and kill you anyway, assuming you play online, which you should. The Souls games are my top two favorites this gen. Hope you enjoy.

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Expect to slay some epic monsters if you're good enough and don't let the difficulty get the better of you.

[Xer0_SiN]

if youre seriously going to pick up both demons and dark, play dark first. dark souls was like any rpg released this gen, lot going on not enough substance. demons was more old school, throw you to the wolves and learn to survive kinda deal. also, because the two games are not linked, you can save the best for last ;).

[Raoh]

Sigh, yeah make it more mainstream, that always makes a game better.

See Resident Evil games and Movies. Wash Rinse Repeat failure.

[StrawberryDiesel420]

I would like to see the devs add some loot that can only be acquired through beating the game the maximum number of playthroughs. Some kind of godly sword that can only be crafted after the max difficulty is conquered. Actually, there should be a ton of loot that can only be crafted once the game is fully beaten, that means 8 playthroughs.

[Saucyknight]

They should have a pause button but one that just says "pause" across the screen. Don't allow for any inventory to be affected and the select button can be used for inventory or something. The level platforms and enemy difficulty should be increased. Perhaps a bit more information not on the story but on the actual gameplay aspects. It took me a couple of playthroughs before I realized weapon upgrading and stat scaling(maybe have the blacksmith npcs give more info when you talk to them) and it took me awhile to find out that you can do a running attack. I like the lack of direct story telling and hard difficulty.

[Coach_McGuirk]

yay, dumbing down for the masses