Dark Souls II To Have Slightly Larger World; Won’t Be Open World

Siliconera - In an interview, former Dark Souls director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and new director, Tomohiro Shibuya, discuss their new roles and plans for Dark Souls II.

[-Mezzo-]

If would have been better if they went with the open-World, but looking forward to it anyway.

[Godmars290]

Open world's overrated.

[-Mezzo-]

Says You. :P

[Mounce]

Not even Dark Souls was 'open-world' really....

Dark Souls had multiple-path choices, which was pretty awesome and funny since you had to find out which path was realistically even possible as soon as you got to the starting point.

Skeletons....WHY SO STRONNNG! -run-

Sewer system...MAN, pretty easy! Ghosts?...OH GOD IT DOESN'T WORK!!!

Oh hey! This path seems like its possible enough! lol

[ThanatosDMC]

Skeletons so strong... Holy @#%%! Big skeletons even stronger!! Let's run to that cave for safety! Catacombs... wtf? It's so dark. ::Gameover::

Sums up one of the first things I did in the beginning of that game.

[SilentNegotiator]

*Edit: Well, I guess I had a different definition of "open world"....I consider any game that isn't a LITERAL path of no-back-pedalling linear levels to be "open world"

So long as it's like Dark Souls, I'm fine.

[brish]

This talk about open worlds, and skeletons in Dark Souls reminded me of this:

http://skillless-profession...

I still get a chuckle out of it.

@ThanatosDMC

Are you the Dark Souls speed run guy who had the world record for a while?

The first thing I did when getting to firelink was head straight to the catacombs. It wasn't pretty.

[Godmars290]

Here, have a bucket over your head while I rob your house - you wont notice a thing ;p

[dedicatedtogamers]

Open world isn't the be-all-end-all. Neither Demon's Souls nor Dark Souls were technically "open world", yet they felt more interesting because of that. Dishonored is another game that COULD have been open world, but because they simply made large, well-crafted levels, it made the game far more interesting.

[Irishguy95]

I prefer good level/world design like Dark souls that what Skyrim was.

[MysticStrummer]

Open world games haven't reached their full potential yet, mainly because the industry focuses on making the visuals better instead of things like AI. If I got my way, graphics wouldn't necessarily change much at all next gen, but AI would make a huge leap in quality.

[Just_The_Truth]

Demon souls had a better format IMO

[Mainsqueeze]

I personally liked the huge labyrinth feel of Dark Souls compared to choosing levels to go into like Demon Souls.

[PygmelionHunter]

Not only that, the Nexus is still one of the most atmospheric places I've visited in gaming, truly fitting the isolated style of the game!

But Dark Souls' way of doing things isn't bad at all, I just hope they fix that lagstabbing BS that made it look like a broken game...

[SilentNegotiator]

I agree. I didn't like how you didn't have teleportation from the start, at least. I was actually STUCK in the tomb of Giants because it was harder going backwards through the room of wheel skeletons....there should have at LEAST been an option to teleport to the first bonfire (outside of the prison) from another bonfire.

[Blackdeath_663]

it doesn't matter if its not openworld as long as the areas you visit are large and allow exploration rather than linear corridors or paths. also if there is some back tracking it will feel like and open world even though the areas are not all connected together

[MysticStrummer]

Demon's Souls was less open than Dark Souls, but Demon's was a slightly better game. Dark Souls wasn't "open" either. It's admittedly concerning that the main Souls guy isn't involved anymore, but all the knee jerk negativity about Dark Souls 2 is pretty silly. I'd say it's most likely that the game won't change very much at all. I highly doubt that "more accessible" means "easier gameplay", but rather "easier to understand" in terms of mechanics, which means a more detailed tutorial, and story, which probably means more cinematics.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

It cuz pc is holding back the 7 yo consoles? j/k

Or maybe we need this next gen...

[ShoryukenII]

I think that it is better for this new director to not be too ambitious. He may take the franchise in the wrong direction, we wouldn't want him straying too far from the path.

"Shibuya believes that the most important thing is to stay true to the original game, which already has many fans. Rather than making something completely different as the new director, he’d like to see what he can do to make it better."
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2...

That makes me pretty comfortable.

[the_zero]

Just in case anyone's confused by the misleading title, Dark Souls II WILL be open-world, just not completely open like Skyrim. Basically, it will be the same kind of structure as Dark Souls.

[god_mode]

I previously in another post said the only game i was looking forward to was Bioshock:Infinite. I was mistaken, this game also I am really hyped for. 2013 looking good so far.

[Vladplaya]

Not open world? W..t..f.. Well that's one opportunity to make the game slightly more engaging, missed.

[MoonWheel]

The structure of the world is just like dark souls. Dark souls wasn't really open world it just had multiple levels connected together.

[thezeldadoth]

good. open world games are becoming cheap. lots of land to walk, but boring side quests and missions, and dull gameplay. They hit a perfect open world style with dark souls, and i love demon's souls style as well.

[MizTv]

How about a smooth frame rate

[BananaEatingSquid]

I don't mind no open world for a game like this. I just hope they don't lower the difficulty :P Love a good satisfying-to-finish challenge now and then

[Summons75]

Going back to the nexus mode like demon souls?? I really hope so.

[Getowned]

I liked Demons Souls nexus :P

[camel_toad]

Yep and that's what always gave it the edge over Demon Souls for me. Felt like one giant connected world instead of World 1-1, World 4-2 etc.

[YoungPlex]

"Shibuya decided to stick to the original Dark Souls map style, instead of opting for an open-open world."

Thank God! I really like the level design in Dark Souls. I was worried that they were going to make it an open world like Skyrim which isn't a bad thing it just wouldn't be Dark Souls. Dark Souls reminds me of (SNES) Metroid and (PSX) Castlevania: SOTN "Metroid-vania", in 3D were the entire world is intertwined and parts open up after you unlock certain areas. ZombiU also uses this method via manholes where your safe-house is the central location. I feel that this is one of the main features that makes Dark Souls so unique and enjoyable!

[VsAssassin]

Dark Souls 2 can keep the persistent world instead of open world. To be honest, open world, aka sandbox, once you ventured the sidepaths and empty areas of the whole game world, chances are you just tread the shortest path anyway the next time around. That, or do fast travel. In Dark Souls, even if you fast travel, you still need to think of the correct/fastest route to the location you want to go next from that Bonfire.

Besides, how the locations are connected and mapped out in Dark Souls really make the game expansive. And if you are hardcore enough, you can beat the game with minimal, or no load screens (provided you skip cutscenes.)

I'm betting From Software will show us an outstanding gameplay video for this game at E3!

[Hassassin]

IMHO one of the best aspects Dark Souls had was its level design, comparable to super metroid (I love metroid btw) and cleverly unified as a whole big world.

[Swiggins]

Agree'd. The hub world of the Nexus was great, but it kinda broke flow.

The connected world make the whole world seem more alive.

[Spacemagic]

So if firelink was the nexus, dark souls would be way better than Demon's Souls??