Need Humanity: Dark Souls 2 will never be as difficult to a ‘Souls’ fan

GameZone writes, "I’m going to go ahead and say right now that Dark Souls II is my most anticipated game of this fine year. There, I said it. There's no taking it back. March can’t come soon enough, and I know I will play the ever living piss out of it. While screwing around in Dark Souls over the holiday season (nothing says cheer quite like Dark Souls), I was killing Capra Demon and nostalgically thinking about the absolute dread I felt the very first time ever defeated this boss. I don’t recall the amount of times he killed me my first playthrough, I’ll ballpark over ten – I have no shame. This recent time though, as the “You Defeated” text flashed on the screen the first bout, I came to a frightening realization that things felt different. What if some of this magic is gone from Dark Souls II?"

[MestreRothN4G]

"You defeated"... That will be missed.

Praise the "you defeated".

-

On topic, actually this is the feeling every Demon's Souls fan already had. Don't worry. You'll want to know what lies behind that damn trap or shines after that overpowered early knight.

[Irishguy95]

Agreed, once you get by learning how to play Demons souls...thats it. To the author -> You learned 'how' to play Dark souls before you even get near the Capra demon. Don't worry about your issue. Objectively Dark souls was a more difficult game that Demons souls. Yet alot of people who played Demons first seem to think that was harder. I don't know why, but it's probably due to the learning curve associated with a souls game. Also, replaying a game is never as good as the first time you play it. Souls series has a certain 'knowledge' factor that comes into how hard something is or how good going to a new area is.

Anyhow, Demons was hard for me, Dark was also hard for me. Dark souls 2 is going to be just as hard.(Although the devs said harder...)

TwelveBitHero, if you played and beat Demons you owe it to yourself to play Dark. Imo it's better overall. Although the Online was a letdown compared to Demons...it was better in a lot of aspects.

@Lawson

Yeah, Dark souls managed to throw me off alot more than Demons did. After I learned how to play the game, Demons became quite easy where I would hardly die. I played Dark souls after and the game managed to get me quite alot. I was surprised. You had to be more precise and even more careful in Dark. Although the game had 2 or 3 'cheap deaths'. In the form of those treasure chests, the rest of the game other than those was fair like Demons but harder still

@ Ziggurcat

The accessible comment means exactly what it means. If they were making it easier they would say easier. No, they're just explaining how the games works better this time around. Half the people i've talked too don't even know what the hell the statue clan things were in Dark souls. And you literally had no explanation on how to do the missions for them.

[ziggurcat]

Dark Souls wasn't nearly as difficult to those (at least in my own experience) who had alway gone through Demon's Souls, and no precedent is precisely why people think Demon's Souls was more difficult.

Edit: but that's a big part of the souls series - figuring things out for yourself without the hand holding. In the context of this series, being told how things work is just as bad as dumbing down the difficulty. That's part of the appeal for me - not knowing what the hell everything is/does, and discovering it all on your own. Had the people you know played Demon's or was Dark Souls their first experience?

[Retard]

I do miss saying to my buddies "red eyes!"

[torchic]

@ziggurcat

figuring things out for yourself only works when the game allows you to experiment. in the opening 0hrs-30hrs souls are very difficult to come by, and when things are as poorly explained as the different stats that can be levelled up (faith, vitality, strength etc.) it just becomes a very frustrating experience. you keep dying, losing souls at the same time while everything is expensive in the beginning. being more coherent in explaining things for newcomers can only help the series.

like I still don't get parameter bonuses and they're meant to be an important stat for consideration when choosing weapons for your character/play style.

I'm not saying the game should give people answers, but just one or two more sentences of explaination would go a very long way.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Well, Dark Souls was easier than Demon's Souls, so it's not like the trend of getting easier is anything surprising...

To be honest, part of the difficulty was due to wonky level design, physics, and the controls (like walking those narrow planks) so if the game gets "easier" because it reduces cheap-o deaths, I'm fine with that.

[Xer0_SiN]

dark souls will never be as difficult to a demon soul fan, let alone dark souls two.

[SixtyNine]

After beating demons souls.. I was never compelled to play dark souls. Its just more of the same. I might get around to it. . the little that I played was alright.

[MestreRothN4G]

It is more and better in a lot of aspects. Not all aspects, since the story, setting and atmosphere sound like a lullaby in comparison, but the diversity is so much bigger...

[ziggurcat]

Go play it. You'd be a fool to continue avoiding that game.

[LAWSON72]

I found Demons Souls to be very easy for the most part of what I played so far, with a little over 50 hrs into Dark Souls though I have yet to beat it. I can tell it is just as challenging sometimes more so than Dark souls but I rarely die. It is a game you adapt to and start to not make mistakes to often.

[ziggurcat]

Dark Souls II probably won't feel as difficult as the previous simply because of the experience of having played Demon's, and Dark Souls.

My worry, though, is the part a while ago where they said it was going to be "more accessible." Usually it means dumbed down difficulty, which would ruin the whole essence of what a souls game is about. It would even borderline ruin the game if they had a tutorial...

[LAWSON72]

Demon Souls had a tutorial, and a pretty detailed one if you read the messages

[TheRedButterfly]

*sticky white stuff ahead*

[itisallaboutps]

Dark souls will never be as hard as playing demon souls for the first time on halloween

[Dannycr]

It's because, if you completed Demon's Souls and then played Dark Souls, you already knew how to approach it. Demon's Souls seems harder because no one knew what to expect, where to go or how to approach a lot of the challenges, but by the time Dark Souls 1 came out, most of us knew how to approach the challenges, areas and we already had some sort of strategy coming from Demon's Souls

I have no doubts in my mind that DS2 will be a great adventure as well. I don't care if it is easier or not, as long as it is not painfully dumbed down and the sense of challenge and reward from beating a seemingly impossible boss is still there.

[Nes_Daze]

Question....to defeat that Knight early on in the game, did you have to grind or what? I remember finally getting their and lasting like 10-15 seconds.. and no I never finished the game, I went on to that second level and also got my ass handed to me.

[greatcrusader44]

Yeah I did it backwards, Played dark souls then Demon souls, and while It was ridiculously hard the first time, game wasn't as hard when subsequent times since I knew the mechanics.

Demons souls was then a much easier experience (and IMO a funner one).

You can't recreate your first Souls experience, half the difficulty is finding out how it works mechanically.

[Veneno]

It'd be nice to go into Dark Souls 2 as a virgin.

[Agent_hitman]

Darks soul's difficulty was so hard as fvck.. I didn't even bother to finish the entire game at all.. But tha doesn't mean that the game sucks, its actually great but difficult to finish.

[Grave]

I don't know if I agree with this article. I think the developers really understand what their fans want - a challenging, yet rewarding experience. They also know that if you are a fan you'll have a "toolkit" based on past experiences with the Souls game(s). I fully expect Dark Souls II the be the hardest of the three because they will want to test what we have learned thus far and also give us new, fresh challenges that will push us to the edge.