Demon's Souls developer From Software's already had to pull some content from spiritual sequel, Dark Souls that was deemed "too difficult" - and that's for a game aiming to make the player "scream, yell and be frustrated".
Speaking to CVG in San Francisco last week, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki clarified that while the developer wants to make the new Souls "as difficult as possible," it's also aiming for players to actually be able to finish the game.
Miyazaki-san revealed the Souls team has some regulations about the difficulty of the game, itself a follow-up to one of the most challenging action RPGs of recent times.
"We have some set rules that we use to define difficulty, anything that doesn't abide by those definitions isn't included," he explained. "This is to stay with the core ideas and philosophies relating to the difficulties of the game.
"A good example is the player's skill level, reflexes and control, which is something we don't want to make a large factor that contributes to the difficulty."
In the same interview Miyazaki-san claimed Dark Souls is 'not a sequel' to Demon's Souls. Except it sort of is.
Comments
9 comments so far...
STEVONYMO on 7 Feb '11 said:
Listen because of Demon Souls I got divorced, sold my kids into slavery and the dog now strips down the local titty bar! So don't do this to me again...
Imaduck on 7 Feb '11 said:
Wtf Stevo
I think this is a good move frankly. Yes, be really seriously hard, but don't make it stupidly hard. You want people to really fight to get through it, but if they get totally stuck and have to stop altogether, that's not great.
Black Mantis on 7 Feb '11 said:
Dark Souls: Black Edition to release a year later.
STEVONYMO on 7 Feb '11 said:
Yeh I agree a challenge is good but when that challenge becomes a dull grind that saps your will to live, then it's bad! It almost akin to playing a WOW dungeon on heroic, wiping and then having to start the dungeon right back from the start with all bosses and trash back in place. Blizz were smart enough to realise people would have just given up.
I enjoyed Demon Souls but simply gave up because it stopped being fun having to re run old ground to get to the point where I died, only to move 1 metre and then die again. I'm more into pleasure than pain these days.
monkeyd_93 on 7 Feb '11 said:
Just have it as free DLC, that way for the hardcore players who dont get out much, they'll have something to squeal about
8-bit-zombie on 7 Feb '11 said:
again demons souls wasn't difficult, it punished people who ran into fights thinking they were playing call of duty and their character was a one man invincible army, for anyone who moved through the game with patience and came up with an actual plan for how to progress the game was actually quite easy.
Dajmin on 7 Feb '11 said:
I agree. One of the genius things about Demon's Souls is that when you died it always felt like it was your own fault. Like "damn I shouldn't have gone for that extra attack" or "I should've looked more carefully where I was going". Genius bit of design.
The only complaint I really had was the stupid guard guys, particularly in the prison level. They could pretty much one shot kill you, and that's never fun. You make a mistake and get punished, I can appreciate that. But to have full health and then be chain-stunned to death felt a bit cheap.
Oh, and that despite looking like it was all open and sandbox-y, parts of it were very linear. You simply can't do the later levels without doing the earlier ones first, meaning that allowing you to access them is pointless.
But other than that I reckon it was solid. Very bleak, and I hope this one has a bit more variety to the environments, but it did what it did very well.
KippDynamite on 7 Feb '11 said:
Demon's Souls was more difficult than most games I play, but it was fair. The game never cheated me - if I made a mistake then I payed for it. Frankly, the game isn't really harder than many games on their hardest difficulty. Have you ever player MGS2 on extreme? Cripes . . .
FAUNA on 8 Feb '11 said:
From a western gamer: I seriously want to play the SOULS saga (for the art direction, world exploration, atmosphere, etc.), but I think these games will be TOO DIFFICULT for me (& I understand the 'challenge' is why these games have received so much praise). I am a 'core' gamer, but I play games on 'VERY EASY MODE' (I play simply for the experience, not any sort of challenge / headache. I also don't have the time to replay areas, as I always have about 10 games lined up to play next...) I DON'T SEE A REASON WHY EVERY GAME CAN'T HAVE AN ACTUAL 'VERY EASY MODE'?? I mean, you would sell more as well.. FROM SOFTWARE, please incorporate this, so I can experience these art masterworks (& a JAPANESE VOICE TRACK OPTION & FULL-SIZED ARTBOOK!)...