Dark Souls II Director Confirms Its High Difficulty

[Earnest Cavalli]

Dark Souls II Director Confirms Its High Difficulty

Don't worry guys, Dark Souls II is going to hate you as much if not more than its predecessor.

With the recent deluge of information on the upcoming Dark Souls II fans have been clamoring for an answer to one very important question: Will the game be as difficult as Dark Souls and Demon's Souls? Most modern games are inarguably easy affairs, but the Souls series has attracted a rabid cult following by directly bucking this trend and offering players a title in which success can only be achieved by those willing to put in a ton of effort and actively improve their own abilities. Sometimes luck also plays a part, but more often than not that ethereal concept, like everything else in the Souls games, seemingly wants you to die in the most horrific fashion possible.

Cutting to the heart of the matter, Siliconera recently asked Dark Souls II director Yui Tanimura about the game's difficulty, and his response should come as good news to fans. "I personally like difficult games myself, so if I had the opportunity to make a bold difference, it would have been to make the game even more difficult," Tanimura states. "But obviously this is a sequel to a series, so I have no intentions of turning the tables 180 degrees. So no, there is no intent by myself to make [Dark Souls II] easier at all."

"I plan to add onto the perfection that was Dark Souls and try to carry on the core essence," he adds. "Which is the satisfaction of overcoming these incredibly tough challenges, but to also enjoy the deaths, to enjoy the hard times. That's something I want to maintain."

There you have it: Dark Souls II will improve on its predecessor and offer the same kind of frustrating difficulty that becomes ever-so rewarding once you finally eviscerate that gigantic boss creature who'd spent the last week murdering your dumb human face over and over and over again.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/04/11/dark-souls-ii-director-no-intent-to-make-the-game-easier/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+siliconera%2FMkOc+%28Siliconera%29]

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[Church185]

I'm super excited to hear that at least one of the director's thinks the game should be hard. I wonder if this was their initial intention or if it was because of pressure from fans? It looks like "making the game more straight forward" might just mean a better explanation of all the games different systems.

and to that I say:

Spoiler: Two thumbs way up!

 

[Church185]

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

Certain parts of the game were hard if you didn't know enough about how the games systems work. I know that everyone I've met IRL who played and enjoyed the game had to start over halfway through their first playthrough because the game finally clicked with them. I wouldn't say the game is TOO HARD, but I would say it takes a lot more patience to play than most people have.

 

[Fractral]

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

Maybe it doesn't seem hard because you've beaten it and you know how to play it? That's not really something you can lose easily. I'm still playing it through- just defeated Quelaag on the nth try- and it seems hard enough to me.

 

[hazabaza1]

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

It's just nice to have a game that requires you to pay attention. I think I'll probably have an easier time my first time round with DkS2 considering how much I played of DeS and DkS1 but this still pleases me.

 

[StriderShinryu]

That is very good to hear.

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

True, though that's a far cry from what you get in the vast majority of games these days. It's much harded than most games available simply because it does take patience, player growth and effort. It's also built around a community that helps eachother to expand the experience. It's a different sort of difficulty.

 

[Frostbyte666]

I dunno this franchise is starting to sound more and more like a one trick pony of 'hey it's hard.'
Well ok i's hard. what else are you bringing to the table? why would I want to buy this other than it's hard? Is the story good? are the gameplay mechanics intuitive? What type of hard are you delivering? Technical, playable or just controller breaking frustrating with lots of cheap shots.

Now don't get me wrong games with high difficultly are good for the challenge but to make it the entire selling point just seems kind of like they are glossing over the rest of what can make a game good.

 

[grey_space]

What can I say? Good?

Hope it's out on next gen as well. Blight town looked terrible and I generally don't notice graphics.

I really enjoyed DS1 halfway through second playthrough.

 

[chikusho]

I dunno this franchise is starting to sound more and more like a one trick pony of 'hey it's hard.'
Well ok i's hard. what else are you bringing to the table? why would I want to buy this other than it's hard? Is the story good? are the gameplay mechanics intuitive? What type of hard are you delivering? Technical, playable or just controller breaking frustrating with lots of cheap shots.

Now don't get me wrong games with high difficultly are good for the challenge but to make it the entire selling point just seems kind of like they are glossing over the rest of what can make a game good.

And.. why are you assuming that would be the only selling point?

 

[Lunar Templar]

hopefully they'll drop GFWL from this one so some of us can enjoy it this time

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Dark Souls wasn't even close to as hard as everyone says. It was just more like average. It is just that everything else nowadays is a faceroll. I care a lot more about it having a solid PC release and a better camera.

 

[Shjade]

hopefully they'll drop GFWL from this one so some of us can enjoy it this time

This so very, very much.

Regarding difficulty: I agree that the difficulty of Dark Souls is generally overstated. That said, it is still a difficult game not only by comparison to most modern games, but simply because of the margin for error. I can't think of a whole lot of games in which basic enemies can and will kill you quite effectively if you aren't paying attention or get lazy for a few seconds, as is the case in Dark Souls (particularly if you're in NG+ and/or in low-poise armor). It's not "zomg this is impossible" hard; I'd say it's "hey, if you're going to play this, take it seriously" hard.

And difficulty is, of course, subjective. I know people who find about 90% of Dark Souls to be a cakewalk but always get hung up on X encounter or Y area, with common X's and Y's being the Four Kings, Smough & Ornstein, the silver knight archer balcony run (you know the one), Blighttown as a whole and the Bed of Chaos. I mean hell, Emarrel makes a level 1 NG+7 run look like a breeze...except for Smough & Ornstein which, even with all the knowhow and execution at Emarrel's fingers, had to be cheesed.

It's not a punishingly hard game unless you don't know what you're doing. When you know what you're doing, assuming you're good enough to do what needs doing, it's reasonably challenging. I wouldn't call it easy, no.

 

[Colt47]

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

The way I've heard it was that you solved the game by trial and error, and once you knew what to look for:
http://video.tvguide.com/Robot+Chicken/Hall+of+Memory/336456

That's basically it. The game wants you to learn via the death mechanic what works and what doesn't. The difficulty is generally in the later stages involving timing movements properly, such as in Dark Souls with the library involving the crystal weapons. I will say that Dark Souls does have some cheap shot moments, namely in the ghost ruins.

I still need to get back to that game and try and finish it. University ate my time up.

 

[josemlopes]

...The game wasn't hard? Am I the only one who thought that it wasn't hard? That is like calling Monster Hunter hard. As long as you pay attention, you shouldn't have any issues.

The fact that you have to be constantly paying attention does make a thing hard, if it was easy you could do it like you can do in most other games (completing most of the things on the first try and even when you fuck up you have a lot of forgiveness).

The game is hard if you dont know what you are doing, after learning what is going on it gets easier. Photoshop is also easy if you know whats going on.

 

[Closet Superhero]

I'm a little concerned that the guy calls Dark Souls 'perfection'. I personally hope it's closer to the 'perfection' of Demons' Souls than that of Dark Souls. Difficulty was about the same in both, but Dark had more cheap moments, less interesting boss fights (mostly of the roll-around-and-attack-the-back-of-their-foot variety), and a tedious/pointless open-world layout.

 

[Frostbyte666]

And.. why are you assuming that would be the only selling point?

*shrugs* because when dark souls is talked about difficulty seems to be the only issue.

 

[Little Gray]

I dunno this franchise is starting to sound more and more like a one trick pony of 'hey it's hard.'
Well ok i's hard. what else are you bringing to the table? why would I want to buy this other than it's hard? Is the story good? are the gameplay mechanics intuitive? What type of hard are you delivering? Technical, playable or just controller breaking frustrating with lots of cheap shots.

Now don't get me wrong games with high difficultly are good for the challenge but to make it the entire selling point just seems kind of like they are glossing over the rest of what can make a game good.

As long as you pay attention and use common sense then the game is not actually hard. If there is a boulder at the top of the stairs you can guarantee its going to come rolling down at you or if there is a dark corner or a lot of closed doors there is a good chance of an ambush up ahead. People consider it hard because they act like idiots and dont pay attention to where they are going.

There is only a single part out of both games that could be considered cheap and that is the New Londo Ruins in Dark Souls. You either need a cursed weapon or to be cursed to harm any enemies in the first half and unless you are really paying attention you wont know that.

Difficulty is not the only thing the games have going for them though. They both have amazing atmosphere, exploration, and tell the story is really interesting ways. Almost nothing is straight out given to you you have to figure it out on your own through conversations and item descriptions. For most people that I have talked to the main appeal is all the secrets and exploration. Even with the internet and wikis people were still discovering new things about the game months after it was released.