Dark Souls II Director: Accessible Does Not Mean Easy

[CyberAkuma]

Still, the series has always been confounding to newcomers, and many are turned off by its insistence on forcing players to figure out most things out for themselves.

I agree with this statement.
They were too many instances where the game explained too poorly the dynamics of the game.
I spent my first 3 playthroughs as a hollow without ever using humanity because I didn't understand jack shit what it was and I was not alone - the developers themselves admitted that they wished people spent less time as hollows and more time as humans in the game.

And don't give me non of that "it's part of the difficulty!"-bullcrap. Even the developers admitted they messed up on that one.

There were things that were a little bit time consuming or a little bit tedious that we wanted to streamline

This in my opinion was one of the main weaknesses of the game. Places like Demon Ruins, Lost Izalith and major parts of New Londo felt like tedious work more than any real level design.

Also one of my biggest gripe with the game is the grinding - i.e farming.
Farming for Tatinite Slabs/Chunks/Dragon Scales whatever made the game just tedious work and the drop rates from enemies where just absurd. You could have your discovery ranked up all the way to 410 and yet spend 3 hours killing things without them dropping what you are farming for.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

A lot of fans are flipping out before they even see what exactly has been changed in the game. I think you can relax for a bit.

 

[A-D.]

Makes sense in general. Part of the fun about Dark Souls is that its hard, but there is no reason that you have to restart 20 times to grasp the basic concepts and controls you know. "Easy to learn, hard to master" actually works very well. Also shitty droprate to increase the playtime needs to..go, like, altogether.

 

[KeyMaster45]

(don't be a pleb and only boost str at the start).

I've never played any of these games so I'm not going to try and argue with you over them. What does drive me nuts is that you angrier fans of the game like to use "pleb" as some kind of insult and don't seem to really know what it means.

pleb
noun \'pleb\
Definition of PLEB
: plebeian

1) ple·be·ian
noun \pli-ˈbē-ən\
Definition of PLEBEIAN

1: a member of the Roman plebs

2: one of the common people

2) plebeian
adjective
Definition of PLEBEIAN

1: of or relating to plebeians

2: crude or coarse in manner or style : common

 

[TheScientificIssole]

I, for one, am happy about this. I'm the first to cry foul when a developer dumbs down their game down to be more "accessible," but the ability for me to play Dark Souls II is a welcome one. Because I honestly suck at these games, and they frustrate me to the point that despite renting both and liking them...until I play it, an easier difficulty or a more gradual learning curve sounds good to me. I still want the game to be as soul-crushingly hard for the fans as the previous games our, but an optional difficulty mode or something would be great.

I disagree with everything you just said. I wan't less accessible but same difficulty. Dark Souls was easy and the most interesting part was strategy and variety. You interact with things for hidden areas and items. Dark Souls continues to surprise me to this day. I found the dragon cult, just recently after nearly a year and a half of owning it. Dark Souls never had "soul-crushing" difficulty. I don't think that was ever the point. The developers are now making that the point, and I'm worried. The are adding more health items, and much more difficult enemies. That doesn't sound like Dark Souls that sounds like garbage. I got that information second hand, so I'm not sure.

 

[Smeggs]

Forcing players to figure things out themselves? You mean basic exploration skills? Because that's all it took to do or find anything in Dark Souls. Wanna kill that Drake? Oh, look, it's tail is hanging off the bottom of the bridge, I can safely snipe him to death now-GASP-AN AWESOME SWORD!"

"Boy, I sure do wish I could get more spells for my mage-OH LOOK THE KEY TO SAVE THAT WIZARD GUY!"

"Wow, I managed to roll over here and reach this crow's nest...Woah, it's taking me back to the Undead Asylum! Hey, look, a good shield to fight that magic butterfly! I wonder what this doll is for?"

Just to be an ass I might become a PK'er in DS2 if there's gonna be a bunch of people who can't play worth salt running around thinking they're so hardcore for killing the first boss.

 

[The_Echo]

Thank you. I've been saying this the whole goddamned time.

The moment someone said Dark Souls II was going to be more accessible, everyone and their mothers jumped to the conclusion that this meant an Easy Mode. And we all know how those threads went.

I'm so glad this has finally been officially addressed.

 

[Smeggs]

Tanimura is absolutely right, and his statement makes me glad to hear that the new director understands what really matters in Dark Souls.

If you seriously think that a game can only be satisfyingly difficult if they never tell you how to jump or slide down ladders, or expect you to read the wiki in order to experience their heart-wrenching side quests or their fancy new multiplayer features, you don't know anything about modern game design. What's the difference between a direct hit, a critical hit and a counter hit? All of these systems exist in Dark Souls, and none of them appear in the in-game help or the manual, just in cryptic hints in item descriptions.

Or take an easier example. The Internet is full of smart, seasoned gamers like Day[9] who missed the equip burden/poise system. This is the single most relevant information about your armor, yet it does not appear on the main item comparison screen or really anywhere except the impenetrable stat dump on the Status tab. Surprise! You are stuck not being able to run or roll, and you have no idea why, or how much armor you can wear safely. I hope you like using Google on your smart phone, because you'll never figure it out otherwise!

But...you don't have to. At all.

The lore is found through environments as well as item descriptions, along with character exposition. This is why the story was so amazing while being so very minimal, because to uncover the secrets you had to use your own self discovery, and it created a very devoted community through this discovery. Spoon feeding a story is not the way to go at all for Dark Souls 2.

The basic controls for the game-and let me make this clear-how to block, parry, reposte-everything you need, was literally written down in the Undead Asylum. Anybody who runs past big glowing words on the ground is blind or stupid.
Critical hits are nothing new to gaming. They exist in virtually all forms of HP-Bar based combat. Anything else is hardly useful in the main campaign unless you wish to join in PVP, and if you actually intended on making a PVP character, you'd have to look up specific aspects to plan that out anyway as people min/max to high heaven in PVP.

The game rewards logic, not idiocy and suicidal bull-rushing with a big sword (granted, if you turn yourself into a Poise turtle, that's a somewhat more viable option).

Anyone who puts on heavy armor and suddenly realizes they're going slower and can't figure out why...does this really need explaining? Can you really not understand why you can't run all of a sudden wearing Havel's set which specifically states it's the heaviest thing around? When you go to put on armor it takes all but a second to look over, see the words "EQP LOAD" and notice it goes up by a shit ton. It's not like equip load is anything at all new to games, it's been around for years, much longer than Dark Souls. It is hardly the Dev's fault if you don't take the five seconds it requires you to read up on what certain stats like DEX or STR do, which as you stated, is located right on your status screen. That's like if you skipped all of the dialogue in Skyrim and then wondered why nobody ever told you what was going on. The only thing I think needs to be focused on in mentioning is how Stat scaling for weaponry works.

 

[Lord Rothschild]

as long as i don't get a cod style radar, way point markers or a quick save quick load feture I'll be happy.
As for the "easy mode" people are QQing about I would be fine if they just implament it properly, say like a ring of FaP that only works through 1 play trough makes enermys do less damage and you do more then, once you get to the new game+ it's gone, How-about make easy mode not alou you to go into passed newgame+2 so you only get one extra play through with all the weapons you have ernt then it gets you to go on to normal as a fresh characture? there are a few ways i think it can be done fine

THE BIGGEST COMPLANT I WANT THEM TO FIX IS FUCKING HACKERS

and it wouldn't be too hard just match there stats to there LV if some thing seams out of place they get disconected

 

[Smeggs]

There were things that were a little bit time consuming or a little bit tedious that we wanted to streamline

This in my opinion was one of the main weaknesses of the game. Places like Demon Ruins, Lost Izalith and major parts of New Londo felt like tedious work more than any real level design.

Also one of my biggest gripe with the game is the grinding - i.e farming.
Farming for Tatinite Slabs/Chunks/Dragon Scales whatever made the game just tedious work and the drop rates from enemies where just absurd. You could have your discovery ranked up all the way to 410 and yet spend 3 hours killing things without them dropping what you are farming for.

I can agree with this point.

So help your sanity if you haven't gotten the Chaos Covenant to rank two and unlocked the shortcut path. My first time through I had to run through that fucking lava with all those giant dragon asses at least 15 times because super cheapo Bed of Chaos kept either squashing me, one-shotting me with fire, or knocking me into the pit. It became more of a war of attrition, seeing whether I'd give up first or get lucky. Turns out I got lucky. She used her fire attack while I was still on the ramp, giving me just enough time to sprint, leap, roll, and stab her core with my sword before she wrecked me.

I hope they don't make the mistake of putting a boss like her in again. It was cool and all...for the first two deaths. But then when her true nature came through it was all I could do but spend the next thirty minutes repeatedly slogging through lava to reach her. Thank God for that patch that lowered the dragon asses' aggro range to next to nothing, I recall how they used to spot you from miles away.

I mean, there were plenty of challenging bosses, plenty of difficult fights. She and the Anor Londo Greatbow Knights, though, were cheap.

But can i connect with my friend who is a hardened Dark Souls veteran, to help and guide me through the game having fun times along the way?

I honestly don't mind attacking a hard game, just don't force me get trolled by strangers in a game which is clearly better played online, except you can't even talk to your flipping friends in xbox party chat when you are.

I believe I read somewhere that they're revamping it and actually allowing you to invite specific people for bosses and such from now on. It's ludicrous how many summons fail in this game.

 

[Tanakh]

THE BIGGEST COMPLANT I WANT THEM TO FIX IS FUCKING HACKERS

and it wouldn't be too hard just match there stats to there LV if some thing seams out of place they get disconected

It's not easy, at all, especially because the game is designed to have zero protection and allow any and all forms of hack, you can do everything from texture changes, wall hacks, memory injections, you name it.

If they even bothered to ban reported players, sigh, but TBH i don't think the devs nor MS (which ran the xbox and pc versions) cared at all about the PvP; which would be fine if they didn't forced it down the throat of players wanting to play non solo.

 

[Quazimofo]

Forcing players to figure things out themselves? You mean basic exploration skills? Because that's all it took to do or find anything in Dark Souls. Wanna kill that Drake? Oh, look, it's tail is hanging off the bottom of the bridge, I can safely snipe him to death now-GASP-AN AWESOME SWORD!"

"Boy, I sure do wish I could get more spells for my mage-OH LOOK THE KEY TO SAVE THAT WIZARD GUY!"

"Wow, I managed to roll over here and reach this crow's nest...Woah, it's taking me back to the Undead Asylum! Hey, look, a good shield to fight that magic butterfly! I wonder what this doll is for?"

Just to be an ass I might become a PK'er in DS2 if there's gonna be a bunch of people who can't play worth salt running around thinking they're so hardcore for killing the first boss.

That's not what people want made more accessible, what they want is the Devs to do a better job of explaining core mechanics (like what exactly being human means rather than hollow, what the dried finger does, stating that the top slot of the little d-pad interface where it shows what's equipped in either hand/item slot is for spells, and that you need to have a catalyst/talisman/flame is needed in hand to use them).

I don't personally know how to feel about the idea that they do a better job of marking the "hidden" areas. The asylum I had to look up because it didn't occur to me to jump off to try to land on the supports to run into the tower, that could have been a little more obvious, but the great hollow and the painted world were pretty brilliantly hidden. "Hmm, big picture, wonder what's going to happen? Nothing.. huh. (come back with the doll without realizing it). Hmm, lets see if it's anything different this tiOH SHIT IT'S SUCKING ME IN.
And then for the hollow you probably would have stumbled across it attacking the chest checking for a mimic. Clever stuff that's easy to miss but not hard to find.

If they "Streamline" exploration and make it more linear, yeah that'd suck somethin' fierce, but I doubt they'll do that. I'm always cautious about streamlining, because the menus weren't obtuse enough to be streamlined, the areas were pretty well paced (even with some places where more frequent fires would've been nice, like the descent to blight-town swamp). I fear this means things like reducing the number of stats or making the weapon progression shorter for a similar power buff, which would need to be balanced with crap drop rates which are just damn infuriating, but if they shorten the progression AND increase drop rates, then it becomes too easy to get a max-power sword and just cleave through the next 3 areas with impunity and 1 hit KOs.
I hope they are wise about this, I really do, but I can't help but be afraid that the need/desire for more sales (greed) will make them worsen the experience so that people don't get scared off at first.

 

[piinyouri]

Mmm, sounds promising. Being cryptic and not telling how things work was a bad design idea in the 80's and it is now.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I've never played any of these games so I'm not going to try and argue with you over them. What does drive me nuts is that you angrier fans of the game like to use "pleb" as some kind of insult and don't seem to really know what it means.

pleb
noun \'pleb\
Definition of PLEB
: plebeian

1) ple·be·ian
noun \pli-ˈbē-ən\
Definition of PLEBEIAN

1: a member of the Roman plebs

2: one of the common people

2) plebeian
adjective
Definition of PLEBEIAN

1: of or relating to plebeians

2: crude or coarse in manner or style : common

And vulgaris means common in Latin. See where this is going?

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm gonna clarify some things I've noticed. Dark Souls 2 does not need "more checkpoints", the game saves about every 3 seconds and you can just plain shut it off and have everything saved. One does not "lose an hour of progress". Some of the rewards of that progress may be lying on the ground, so it means be careful and ponder on what killed you in the first place so that you can successfully pick them up.

More than half of the things that have been claimed to be "unexplained" are explained if you hit select in your menu screen. The bottom of the screen has a section that states "select (with a picture of select) - Information". I sincerely hope that we haven't reached a point where things need to change because menus containing information aren't actually read. This fear of misunderstanding is what leads to 3 hour tutorials, your gameplay freezing so that a box can pop up and jam information down your throat, and overtly streamlined inventories (lookin at you, Mass Effect). I understand and agree that jumping/ladder sliding was not explained, and that was a mistake. But the orange soapstones in the asylum explain all your attacks, running, backstep, rolling, parry/riposte, how catalysts/flame works if you picked sorcerer/pyromancer, and every item has lore and functional information attached to it.

All of that said, I kind of agree with Tanimura here. Covenant masters need to rather clearly explain what's going to change if you join their covenant, and what some (but not all) of the base benefits are and how PVP might be affected. This can be done without breaking immersion/fourth wall through voice acting easily. Blacksmiths (if there's still blacksmiths) should explain what weapons they specifically upgrade and enchanting/upgrading could be less obtuse. I can understand making a lot of things more clear while maintaining the spirit and focus of the series, though I do hope that there's still things that are outright hidden to reward those who want to spend the time to find them regardless. Wikis exist, but somebody found all those secret things and figured out this stuff in order to have the knowledge to write the wiki, so even Dark Souls 1 wasn't impossible. But if they think Dark Souls is "their Skyrim" or whatever, this is a good way to go about that without alienating and driving away everyone who got you here. The last thing they need is to lose the million+ base that they have while constantly advertising a game that most see as "that super difficult obtuse thing that loves to kill you".

Based on all the gameplay, interviews, and articles I've read though, day one purchase. Super collectors edition if they have it. Even though I'll have a 1 month old baby at that point and my wife will kill me before some drake will : )

 

[NeutralDrow]

"The reason why we used the word accessible was not to say that the game is going to be easier by any means," Tanimura tells Game Informer in a recent interview. "We're maintaining the difficulty and we think the challenges are required."

"What we meant was, there are certain aspects of the game where it didn't really have a direct connection to the sense of satisfaction of overcoming. There were things that were a little bit time consuming or a little bit tedious that we wanted to streamline - sort of carve away all the fat so we could really deliver the lean pure expression of what Dark Souls tries to communicate, which is the sense of satisfaction of overcoming."

"In terms of accessibility, what we meant was a more streamlined experience to deliver the more pure essence of Dark Souls," Tanimura adds.

You mean I won't have to alt-tab to the wiki every ten minutes like it's fucking Minecraft? Score!

Now, since it's too much to hope the death mechanic has been fixed, I just have to hope the story has also become more accessible, and I'll have a winner.

 

[Dogstile]

All Dark Souls 1 needed to be more accessible was to actually describe in menus what things did. What are the clear base stats? What do they do? What is weapon speed? What are damage types? How do they fit together? The games give you bits and pieces of these things, but no clear picture. The problem I have with RPGs and these hybrid action games isn't the soul crushing difficulty, but character creation/building. Some do it well, others not so much.

If I have to stop playing and use the internet just to start the game (wiki/character creation) then I think that's a clear indicator of inaccessibility, and fixing that would in no way affect the actually gameplay. Make it easy to learn, impossible to master. If mechanics are needlessly hard to understand, we aren't really fighting the monsters in the game, we're fighting the game designers.

Yes because pressing start bringing up the status page then pressing back/select is way too hard for most gamers.....This will be a watered down pile of shit if they cater to the modern day gamer who can't even be bothered to read what is on the screen. Maybe they should of put a two hour long tutorial in there and held everyone's hand all the way through the game with hints at all times. Such as (press Rb to attack) (use b to run) (read the fucking manual) (use souls to level up) (don't be a pleb and only boost str at the start). Yeah makes the game so much better or much more annoying?

Or you could not be a dick and realise a lot of the game wasn't really obvious. Its like people who defend their shitty browser based game that doesn't have a wiki or much in the way of in game help. They've learned it, so anyone who gives up because it takes ages and its more fun to play a game that does actually explain shit is totally lower than them.

Get over yourself. I love dark souls and no, having to work out what every little thing you did meant by backtracking was tedious as fuck.

 

[ciancon]

To me that sounds like they're going to reduce the distance between checkpoints and big bads....not sure how I feel about that. Sure it's the most frustrating thing about the game but I definitely wouldn't be half as chuffed with myself if I was able to go straight into a boss again and again each time I died.