Dark Souls 3 Preview - The Lord of Cinder Returns

[Mitchell Saltzman]

Dark Souls 3 Preview - The Lord of Cinder Returns

The godfather of the Souls series Hidetaka Miyazaki, returns to the director's chair for the third installment of gaming's most notoriously difficult series, Dark Souls.

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[Aerosteam]

I'm surprised Miyazaki is enthusiastic about this, you'd think someone who's never worked on a sequel would be hands-off with a lot of a third instalment in a franchise.

Glad he's back.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Wait, post-apocalyptic??

Dark Souls 1 was basically taking place at the heat-death of the universe. How much more apocalyptic can you get?

Well, regardless, I'll always be happy for another Souls game.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

So THATs why there was a dragon added early on in DS2 Scholar of first sin. Because it's Miyazaki's thing. Glad that's all cleared up.
Damn, I got the dark souls desire now.

 

[Areloch]

Wait, post-apocalyptic??

Dark Souls 1 was basically taking place at the heat-death of the universe. How much more apocalyptic can you get?

Well, regardless, I'll always be happy for another Souls game.

There is a LOT of implications sprinkled through the lore that the flame going out wouldn't, in fact, end the world, it would just be yet another change, like going from the Age of Dragons, to the Age of Lords. Only this time, it'd be to the Age of Humans.

However, since no one can predict what would happen if the flame did go out, no one wanted it to. It sounds like they may have gone the angle of the Chosen Undead actually extinguishing the flame to user the Age of Humans in if they are indeed referring to him as the "Dark Hero".

It'll be interesting to see where this all goes.

 

[Dalrien]

So THATs why there was a dragon added early on in DS2 Scholar of first sin. Because it's Miyazaki's thing. Glad that's all cleared up.
Damn, I got the dark souls desire now.

Who doesn't love being roasted alive by a superpowered creature, Way out of your level range?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Why does no one mention the awesomeness of Demon's Souls first before immediately jumping to Dark Souls? I'm a fan of the series, though I felt the lack of Miyazaki in II. But Demon's Souls had the first dragon encounter that made me actually feel like I was fighting one of these titanic beasts of legend. Crossing that bridge right after the first boss fight, with no knowledge of what was about to happen was wicked.
It was b-e-a-utiful. And it overshadows every other dragon encounter since IMHO. Demon's Souls was a gem of a game and that its so overlooked when talking about the series its almost sad. It's the first modern generation game that made me feel like I was back in NintendoHardLand, a place I didn't realize I missed.
It brought back memories of fighting my way through Ghosts n' Goblins as a kid, getting my ass kicked over and over and not giving up, not surrendering to the GAME OVER screen. Determination grit and drive when I got my first true "YOU DIED" screen, Demon's Souls brought that feeling back to me. Dark Souls continued it but I'll never ever forget to give credit to the game that really started it all.
Put it this way, I had a watercooler-esque conversation with a few gaming friends at the school I was attending at the time and I brought up Demon's Souls because I'd got it the weekend before for cheap, having never even heard of it, and the group went silent when I mentioned it. I asked them what the problem was and they all had a response I can sum up as "I hate that damn game because it makes me love it so damn much and punishes me for doing so, but I can't quit."
For weeks we talked about that game, what we'd done, how far we got, if we'd been invaded by some jacktard with a souped up toon... It was an experience that was repeated with Dark Souls but as I said, Demon's Souls did so much to make games difficult without making them feel like a slog.
I'd give anything, anything for a remake of Demon's Souls because I love it that much... and hate it. Dammit From Software and damn you Miyazaki, and also thank you sir.... may I have another?

 

[Post Tenebrae Morte]

Lords of cinder eh? Perhaps the flame itself is sentient and trying to prevent its own death through being a parasite on beings such as Gwynn? Either way, I'm rolling my same character. The lord of ash, Sil.

 

[The_Darkness]

Lords of cinder eh? Perhaps the flame itself is sentient and trying to prevent its own death through being a parasite on beings such as Gwynn? Either way, I'm rolling my same character. The lord of ash, Sil.

Considering that my Dark Souls 2 playthrough ended with...

Spoiler

...my character immortal, thanks to Vendrick, and seeking a way to break the cycle rather than cast herself into the flames...

...then I'll probably be rolling up my previous character as well. Left-handed greatsword-wielding Wolfe shall return...

And yeah, I'm also idly wondering if "The Lord of Cinder" is an intentional misdirection, since Gwyn coming back somehow doesn't feel right. And that last image of the trailer sure didn't look like Gwyn...

 

[Dying_Jester]

From the sounds of it, players will definitely be able to play in either a powerful, but slower style as seen in the Souls games up until now(you can only move so fast in that game), or opt for a faster style probably similar to Bloodborne, if what I'm imagining the short bow and scimitars speed to be like. Grah, I wish there was a video.

 

[Silence]

Seeing the trailer I came up with a theory:

You have the crowns, but that means that the cycle is broken - that also means that it is not reborn. Meaning, you just let the world wither away while you yourself were immortal, leading to an even more desolate world.

I even thought that the girl from the trailer was actually the Dark Souls 2 character. Unlikely, but well ...

 

[runic knight]

So they just outright made the greatsword gutz's sword now? Hell yeah!

Also like that they got rid of the extinction mechanic, I understood why they had it, but when the game gets to the point of farming for materials, it is annoying.

I do hope they fix the soul level and multiplayer issues from the second game. The soul total was just broken from the get go, and the multiplayer was full of good ideas that the gameplay did not actually make use of. The idea of a guardian angel multiplayer faction is cool,. until you realize nearly no one will invade because it is too expensive a time consumption and it doesn't actually earn that much (to say nothing of it getting you more souls and this breaking the total soul level issue from before).

 

[Atmos Duality]

Put it this way, I had a watercooler-esque conversation with a few gaming friends at the school I was attending at the time and I brought up Demon's Souls because I'd got it the weekend before for cheap, having never even heard of it, and the group went silent when I mentioned it. I asked them what the problem was and they all had a response I can sum up as "I hate that damn game because it makes me love it so damn much and punishes me for doing so, but I can't quit."

There's a few genres and supertypes of games out there that do that; roguelikes and romhacks foremost in my mind.
The "[x]-Souls" games do the same, only with better production values.

Cherish them, because once From Software burns out on them, that will probably be the last time we see that unique confluence of design and difficulty occur for a long, long time.

 

[Jak2364]

Wow, it's a weird feeling becoming re-hyped for a series. I enjoyed Dark Souls 2, but this one coming out so soon after made me worried annualization would take the Soul (pun totally intended) from the series. Also, at this point I really want them or Platinum (or maybe a collaboration between them?) to make a Berserk game. That really needs to happen. I wonder if CDProjekt Red could pull that off too?

 

[Willy Rogers]

I'm really hoping I can play a paladin build with divine weapons again. Really missed having a divine sword as a side weapon to my mighty sun spears! All in all this game looks even more depressing than than the first, which makes it all the more engaging IMO, cannot wait to play.

 

[Zak757]

Wow, it's a weird feeling becoming re-hyped for a series. I enjoyed Dark Souls 2, but this one coming out so soon after made me worried annualization would take the Soul (pun totally intended) from the series. Also, at this point I really want them or Platinum (or maybe a collaboration between them?) to make a Berserk game. That really needs to happen. I wonder if CDProjekt Red could pull that off too?

Platinum and Berserk are not a good fit. Berserk is very, very dark with some material that they are not mature enough to deal. CDPR or FROM would be a vastly better fit, ideally with FROM taking care of the combat and CDPR doing the story.

 

[jhoroz]

Wow, it's a weird feeling becoming re-hyped for a series. I enjoyed Dark Souls 2, but this one coming out so soon after made me worried annualization would take the Soul (pun totally intended) from the series. Also, at this point I really want them or Platinum (or maybe a collaboration between them?) to make a Berserk game. That really needs to happen. I wonder if CDProjekt Red could pull that off too?

Platinum and Berserk are not a good fit. Berserk is very, very dark with some material that they are not mature enough to deal. CDPR or FROM would be a vastly better fit, ideally with FROM taking care of the combat and CDPR doing the story.

I'd rather they just get Miura to supervise the story. It's not like he's actually writing Berserk chapters these days.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Seeing the trailer I came up with a theory:

You have the crowns, but that means that the cycle is broken - that also means that it is not reborn. Meaning, you just let the world wither away while you yourself were immortal, leading to an even more desolate world.

I even thought that the girl from the trailer was actually the Dark Souls 2 character. Unlikely, but well ...

I'm in agreement with you. I think that, as a result of what happened in the Scholar of the First Sin, the cycle is broken. The whole point of that was to see what lies beyond light and dark, to go outside the realm of reality. And you end up doing that, where you cannot die, but you don't go Hollow.

Of course, I also think that there might be something else. That Lord of Cider at the end there sure looks an awful lot like a Giant, and as we learn in Dark Souls II, Giants are completely outside of the circle (the Seed says so). So I wouldn't be surprised if the hero from Dark Souls II ended up trying to study the Giants, found something out about the, and then shared it, thus breaking the world.

Either way, I think you're right. The cycle is broken now, which is why the world is not being reborn in a new Age, but is just straight dying.

 

[jurnag12]

Seeing the trailer I came up with a theory:

You have the crowns, but that means that the cycle is broken - that also means that it is not reborn. Meaning, you just let the world wither away while you yourself were immortal, leading to an even more desolate world.

I even thought that the girl from the trailer was actually the Dark Souls 2 character. Unlikely, but well ...

The crown they show in the trailer looks very much like the Ivory crown from 2, so there might be some credence to this. This could also in turn mean that the woman you see in the trailer might be Alsanna. Not sure if the Children of Dark are immmortal or not, but she might still be hanging around.


Hell, the burnt state of the world might be due to the seal on Eleum Loyce finally breaking and the Old Chaos breaking out.

 

[Xerosch]

Why does no one mention the awesomeness of Demon's Souls first before immediately jumping to Dark Souls?

I share your confusion. I'm usually well informed wht I can expect from a game, but this one I bought after reading a review and having never heared about it. After fighting the first Zombies in Boletaria I thought "This takes longer than the usual first level", which turned into "What? I died at the 5th enemy?". Then something clicked and I realized some enemies were trying to hide, which made me smile, because it reminded me of the days when I had to remember the setup of every level in those really hard games.

The concept of changing worlds in Demon's Souls after beating a boss didn't occur to me at all after beating the first boss Phallanx. I got frustrated for days because everything that followed it seemed too hard for my weak character.

I've been playing video games for about 30 years now and the stuff above should illustrate how much I've gotten used to modern game design. I'm glad Demon's Souls remembered how I used to play way back.