The successor to Demon's Souls (previously called "Project Dark") officially has a name.
Demon's Souls Followup Officially "Dark Souls" (andriasang.com, 02.01.2011)
The meat of the article, if you can't visit the site or don't want to or whatever:
The game is scheduled for a 2011 release in Japan, and with Bamco handling localization I assume it will hit the states some time between 2015 and never. According to Kotaku it's supposed to be released in the West in 2011 as well, but I have no faith in Bamco actually managing that.
Demon's Souls Followup Officially "Dark Souls" (andriasang.com, 02.01.2011)
The meat of the article, if you can't visit the site or don't want to or whatever:
Information
- The difficulty has been increased greatly over Demon's Souls.
- Dark Souls shares the same themes as Demon's Souls: learning from mistakes and the joy of discovery.
- There's no connection with Demon's Souls in terms of story or world.
- As with Demon's Souls, the basic gameplay is based off classic RPGs -- things like character creation, obtaining weapons and items, leveling up, etc.
- The biggest change, according to Hidetaka, is in the area of exploration. The action battle component is an important element, but on top of this, exploration of a large, seamlessly connected field is an important element. You walk to areas that you can see far off in the distance.
- All the maps are connected, rather than having you move to each area from a shrine. This time, you head off on a journey from a large base of operations, and find smaller bases along the way as you progress further and deeper into your adventure.
- There are far more areas with complex land formations of varying height.
- The goal in character development is to get rid of elements that may hinder freedom of play style. This is why there's no job concept during initial character creation.
- Weapons have a great variety of motions and special capabilities, and there are a great number of magic and item types. This will allow players to play in their own style.
- Regarding network play, Hidetaka said that he can't share too many details, but the game will have cooperative and competitive multiplayer elements. You'll be able to call upon people to help you out when you're stuck.
- The game will also have indirect online elements like the original -- seeing the images of other players, messages from the dead, and so-forth. The game will not have its own servers this time, though, so elements like Soul Tendency from the original will not be here.
- There are some other online elements that will be detailed in future updates.
The game is scheduled for a 2011 release in Japan, and with Bamco handling localization I assume it will hit the states some time between 2015 and never. According to Kotaku it's supposed to be released in the West in 2011 as well, but I have no faith in Bamco actually managing that.
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