Dark Souls II Director Apologizes For Calling Game "Accessible"

[Michael Epstein]

Dark Souls II Director Apologizes For Calling Game "Accessible"

Contrary to what you may have heard, Dark Souls II has been designed to crush your spirit into dust, just like the original.

Dark Souls II co-director Yui Tanimura is very sorry. He's very sorry for the pain he's caused Dark Souls fans upset by the idea that Dark Souls II might be "more accessible" than the original. With the game only a few months away from hitting store shelves, he and his team are very concerned with making sure everyone knows that exact terminology was a tragic mistake:

"First of all, we apologise [sic] for using the word 'accessible' and misleading the fans," Tanimura told Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/dark-souls-2-co-director-apologises-for-describing-game-as-accessible-promises-better-pc-version-for-fans/]. "By 'accessible', what we mainly meant was going through the process of streamlining and carving away the fat to more clearly communicate the true essence of Dark Souls."

Tanimura used the a-word in a series of interviews shortly after Dark Souls II was first announced one year ago. The statement, which runs counter to very core of the Dark Souls experience, was not taken well by fans. Tanimura has since attempted to difficult game [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125388-Dark-Souls-II-Director-Accessible-Does-Not-Mean-Easy].

Tanimura specifically notes that Dark Souls II will retain the original's forceful approach to exploration: Dark Souls not only avoids helping players find where to go or what to do, it rarely explains anything at all. Tanimura says that kind of gameplay is part of developer From Software's DNA:

"A main theme in all games developed by FromSoftware is to not fully explain all the elements of how to play and challenge players to figure it out for themselves. We would like to encourage players to conquer the elements they face by paying attention to the surroundings and also being creative in strategising [sic] [about] how to overcome the difficulties."

Dark Souls II will start making PS3 and Xbox 360 players tear their hair out March 11.

Source: Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/dark-souls-2-co-director-apologises-for-describing-game-as-accessible-promises-better-pc-version-for-fans/]

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[Church185]

I have the collector's edition preordered. Dark Souls is my favorite game of all time.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

The only issue I have with the original Dark Soul's game play is that it doesn't explain at all what the stats do. That was a big problem not only because there were so many, but because the first character or two was almost guaranteed to be a waste due to vitally mis-allocated points. Smashing your head into problems is fun and all, but having to restart characters multiple times because you built them incorrectly is just frustrating. Hopefully DS2 will let me fight the game's monsters for once and not just the mechanics.

There's a big difference between not explaining things too thoroughly and being purposely over ambiguous, so if there was anything that they did to make things more 'accessible' I hope it is stat tooltips, in any tiny shape or form.

 

[Worgen]

"First of all, we apologise [sic] for using the word 'accessible' and misleading the fans," Tanimura told Edge.
Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130686-Dark-Souls-II-Director-Apologizes-For-Calling-Game-Accessible#rqCOpA3UgTlqEOHg.99 "In an effort to reach out to our hard-core fans we have implemented a controller made of razor-blades so that only the truly dedicated are able to even play Dark Souls 2."

 

[lacktheknack]

What a bizarre thing to have to apologize for. Fandoms cause strange things to happen on a really regular basis.

 

[Pipotchi]

The only issue I have with the original Dark Soul's game play is that it doesn't explain at all what the stats do. That was a big problem not only because there were so many, but because the first character or two was almost guaranteed to be a waste due to vitally mis-allocated points. Smashing your head into problems is fun and all, but having to restart characters multiple times because you built them incorrectly is just frustrating. Hopefully DS2 will let me fight the game's monsters for once and not just the mechanics.

There's a big difference between not explaining things too thoroughly and being purposely over ambiguous, so if there was anything that they did to make things more 'accessible' I hope it is stat tooltips, in any tiny shape or form.

Indeed I loved demons/Dark Souls but I still don't have a clue how half the covenents work. Same for keeping those characters alive. I don't mind failing a mission but I'd like to know I was at least on a mission.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

The only issue I have with the original Dark Soul's game play is that it doesn't explain at all what the stats do. That was a big problem not only because there were so many, but because the first character or two was almost guaranteed to be a waste due to vitally mis-allocated points. Smashing your head into problems is fun and all, but having to restart characters multiple times because you built them incorrectly is just frustrating. Hopefully DS2 will let me fight the game's monsters for once and not just the mechanics.

There's a big difference between not explaining things too thoroughly and being purposely over ambiguous, so if there was anything that they did to make things more 'accessible' I hope it is stat tooltips, in any tiny shape or form.

I really don't get this. When you are allocating points into stats it shows EXACTLY what effect those will have on every aspect of your character before you accept. It tells you how much more damage you'll do with your equipped weapon, how much more you can carry, how much more health you get... All before confirming the investment.

Every weapon clearly states what stats are required to use it and has a rough estimate of how effective certain stats are at improving the damage it does. A majority of the stats are standard RPG stats anyway. Strength, Dex, Int... Granted Resistance was useless and shouldn't exist but apart from that it all seemed very straightforward to me.

---

Dark souls 2 looks very promising to me, I'm now on feature blackout because I want the blindest possible first experience. Seems fitting to the series to be honest. From what I have heard of the beta (the vaguest of things) it sounds like it'll be just as unforgiving as the first, for which I am grateful.

 

[Church185]

snip

snip

In addition to what TheEvilCheese said, pressing select (console players) in the stats menu allows you to highlight stats and show a tooltip with a brief explanation of what the stat does.

 

[kailus13]

My question is: Does it still make you lose everything when you fall to death, thus making exploring very much not fun? I might actualy enjoy Dark Souls if it let me explore.

 

[Rag Doll]

Here are some translated exerpts frrom the full press conference:

"We are deeply sorry for misleading our customers into thinking the game would be accessible to new players. the game in fact has no tutorials for any of the mechanics from the past games in the series, and all tooltips have been removed. On one of the difficulties the item images have been swapped around, so that each image and name corresponds to using a different item. No, we won't tell you which one. To further alianate any filthy casuals, we have added a "beginner" difficulty setting, in which players start naked, and will be repeatedly mauled by slimes, rats and kobolds for 2-3 hours before being transported into the actual start of the game. Furthermore, the printings of the game subsequent to the already produced will be modified to crash the game and implode the console or PC, if they cannot find previous dark soul data in the memory"

"we hope that you will forgive us our unacceptable use of language"

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I guess you could say it might've been...

[a href=http://cow.org/csi/]Lost in Translation[/a]

Good to know, but I personally want to know how much effort they will be putting into the PC Port, even if the game was easier, the universe still seems interesting enough to me that I might get myself into the series some day.

 

[piinyouri]

*sigh*

I know I should keep my mouth shut about this but....
There's making a game difficult, giving it some umph and having players do a little homework to figure things out, and then there's, well, this.

If someone buy's this and doesn't have internet, they are screwed. Pure and simple.
Old games were hard, true enough. Know why?
To drive sales of Nintendo Power mostly. (And also to keep our young butts planted for as long as possible)

I just...I can't really condone this personally. People today love jumping all over something when DLC comes out that held back bits of the game.
How does this not infuriate people the same way?
"Buy our guide or have a shit time stumbling around trying to figure stuff out."

"Want a new cool area with new enemies? Buy our DLC!"

I know how the voices here work, and I'm going to pre-empt you and clarify that no, that previous statement does not mean I don;t think the game should be super casual easy or whatever hyperbolic nonsense jargon is used to describe an easy game.

There are points in the middle of that scale. It's not just hardcore and casual, and my point is I feel there would be nothing wrong with making the game brutally hard, the punishment even worse, but the player should know what's up and shouldn't feel like they'd have been better off with a guide or a wiki.

And lastly, what an outrageous thing to apologize for. Really.


*sigh*
Shouldn't have posted pi.

 

[Church185]

snip

I disagree, I think the game gives you enough information to get by. Most people just don't bother looking for it, and then complain that it wasn't handed to them (not necessarily you). Game just feels like a more modern Legend of Zelda to me. Dumped in the game with no clue where to go, so exploration and experimentation are the name of the game. I will admit that the online portion of the game definitely could have been explained better though, but it wasn't necessary to complete the game.

 

[shadowxvii]

Dark Souls II will start making PS3 and Xbox 360 players tear their hair out March 11.

What about PC ?

 

[Michael Epstein]

Dark Souls II will start making PS3 and Xbox 360 players tear their hair out March 11.

What about PC ?

I've heard they will bring it to PC and that they are determined to do a better job this time. That said, I'm pretty sure the PC version isn't going to be available on day one.

 

[milijanko]

My question is: Does it still make you lose everything when you fall to death, thus making exploring very much not fun? I might actualy enjoy Dark Souls if it let me explore.

Well it seems to me you are talking out of your arse. One of the core concepts of that game is exploration. And when you die you hardly loose everything. Anything you pick up you still have. Souls and humanity points can be recovered. Or you can just farm some more of them. Only thing you loose is your human form, because, well, you died.

 

[milijanko]

All I want is that feeling of being completely lost when I start the game. Not knowing where to go, who to trust, who to kill, what skills to invest in,... To be guided by just my own instincts and morality.

You can't get me any more invested and immersed in a game than by simply spawning me in the game world, explaining to me the basic controls and leaving me to figure out everything else on my own. If my in-game avatar is a complete stranger to the world around him I do not want any wallhacks, aimbots or any of that "all-mighty invisible guiding hand" bullsh*t telling me where to go and what to do. I want to feel lost, scared and helpless until I figure out where am I, who are my enemies, who are my friends and who am I. And because of it my sense of achievement will be that much greater when I finally come to the point where I can in one hit slice off the head of that monster that made me run for my life at the beginning of the game.

 

[DaViller]

snip

Amen brother.

The best thing about dark souls was defying that feeling in your gut that tells you "don't go there whatever is there will kill you and you'll lose all your souls".

 

[Fractral]

It's all very well to extol the virtues of the game after you've spent the time figuring out how the damned thing works. For players new to the game its a tedious and offputting slog since very little is explained about how to play. By all means, put secrets in the game- I love finding clues and working things out as much as the next souls fan- but deliberately making the game a ***** to play isn't endearing yourself to me.
And now here's the necessary disclaimer when being negative about Dark Souls: I have played through the game with three characters and very much enjoyed it and died umpteen million times and yada yada...

 

[Ishal]

I wonder why Tanimura-san is apologizing, I didn't think he was the one who said that way back at the beginning of the year. I thought it was Shibuya. Oh well. From what we know about the game now, this fear has been alleviated. I agree with what he was saying though.

I love the Souls games and I love the community, but some things were seriously wrong with those games. Trimming the fat and streamlining isn't dumbing down. Having heard multiple interviews with Tanimura and Shibuya, I think they know what they're doing.

Though, to be fair, while I don't think he needs to apologize, I'm glad he did anyway. At the time, we had just found out that Bamco was throwing tons of money at FROM and wanted to turn it into another big hit, and dropped the name Skyrim in the very same press release. With what happened to the Dead Space series and a few others, Souls fans had every right to be worried.