Dark Souls director and producer, Hidetaka Miyazaki, recently sat down with 4Gamer.net for an extensive interview on the recently announced RPG. During the session, Miyazaki reveals bits on downloadable content, improvements over Demon’s Souls, multiplayer, and more.
Miyazaki admittedly originally wanted to create a Demon’s Souls sequel. The reason this new RPG is titled Dark Souls, rather than Demon’s Souls 2, is because it allows the developers to explore, expand, and be more creative in changing things, without the feeling of being confined to the definitions of an established franchise.
Namco Bandai is publishing the game; Miyazaki was asked whether or not this meant the game would receive downloadable content. He’s yet to think about it yet, he told the site, but doesn’t rule out the possibility. If they were to release additional content, Miyazaki said it would never be paid cheats (ex: an item that, when eaten by the player, gives them a 10 level boost). Instead, they’d release content that fits the game’s online design and engine. I’m not quite sure what this means.
Dark Souls is lengthy, even more so than Demon’s Souls. Where Demon’s Souls took players an average of 30-40 hours to complete, Dark Souls will take around 60. There’s also close to 100 different enemy types, in comparison to Demon’s Souls‘ 40 or so.
The weapon customization and upgrade system in Demon’s Souls was a failure, admitted Miyazaki. He said that while Japanese players were able to put up with it, he received many complaints from overseas players saying it was much too complicated. Dark Souls will improve upon the system; the team is taking a very careful approach with developing it.
Regarding multiplayer, Miyazaki shared details regarding the game’s “sharing of experiences”. He said he wants the feeling of players helping each other through difficult segments integrated as a part of the game. To compare, Miyazaki mentioned how, back in the day, people would share their Dragon Quest strategies and talk about their different experiences, helping players through difficult areas in the process.
Miyazaki also wants to create a multiplayer presence within the single-player game. Demon’s Souls does this with its player messages and holographic figures walking about. For Dark Souls, he wants to take it a step further. He provides an example. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo finds the ring and is tasked with protecting it. However, there are black riders out there who want to obtain the ring. If a black rider defeats Frodo and obtains the ring, then the black rider is the fortunate player who obtained what he desired, and Frodo is the unfortunate player for failing to protect the ring. I’m not quite sure what he means by this bit, either.
Dark Souls will not only release simultaneously worldwide, but its online servers will be worldwide, as well. He said it was a pity that players in Demon’s Souls weren’t able to play with gamers from different countries. Luckily, that issue is fixed.
A demo for Dark Souls is probably not going to happen. Miyazaki believes its not a game that can easily be grasped or explained in condensed period of time. Therefore a demo would more than likely be a waste of time for both the players and the developers.
Dark Souls wasn’t always titled Dark Souls. From played around with a few titles before deciding on the final name. The game was originally named Dark Race, or the name of those who were cursed in the game. They ended up nixing it as they realized it could imply some sort of racism overseas. They wanted to keep the word “Dark” in the title, however.
Their next two titles were Dark Lord and Dark Ring. Dark Lord was already a registered trademark, so that was out; Dark Ring they realized was British slang for “anus”, and had to toss it as well.
Finally, they decided to go with Dark Souls, which is the title we know and love today.
Dark Souls is out worldwide this fall for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Thanks, NeoGAF.