Over the next two weeks, Dark Souls veteran Rich Stanton will be documenting his thoughts and experiences as he plays through the game. Join him as he enters Drangleic for the first time...
AN UNEASY BEGINING... Dark Souls is my favourite game ever. So much so that, aside from a 20 minute hands-on, I studiously avoided every possible detail about the sequel until that magical disc was in my hands. My PS3's been waiting for this moment, and so have I.
My first impressions of Dark Souls II are not good, and it's nothing to do with the mandatory install or PS3 system update. The original's epic but mysterious opening has been replaced by a gummy old lady, mouthing threats and making little sense. In the opening area, before acquiring any weapons, I discover the first threat – a kind of cyclops monster that looks straight out of the EDF playbook. Things are looking grim, and not because it just back-slammed me to death.
Thankfully things soon improve. I work through to the equivalent of Firelink Shrine, Majula, and promptly head off in a random direction – making the crucial mistake, I'll later learn, of omitting to speak to the Emerald Herald. She gives you an Estus Flask and lets you level up.
Instead I head into the Forests of the Giants and beyond, relying on a limited stock of lifegems and thinking 'ooh this is a bit tough isn't it.' It is. The attack patterns of Dark Souls II's enemies are familiar, but this time around there's a much greater emphasis on group combat – you'll often unavoidably aggro two or three enemies at the same time. The combination of this and the new hollowing mechanic, whereby your health bar reduces a little with each death, soon has me at half a life bar and close to IRL hollowing.
But I'm made of sterner stuff; after all, am I not the conqueror of Lordran? Two hours, three bottles of beer and around twenty deaths later I've reached my very first boss: the Last of the Giants.
This solidifies my feeling of uneasiness about Dark Souls II. It's not that this boss fight is bad – in fact it's super-tough, because the dude's one-shotting me and his limbs seem to do AOE damage that constantly fools me with its impact zones. I'm dying a lot. I can forgive these things. But the design... man.
There's a quote from Masanori Waragai in the Dark Souls Design Works book that did the rounds, about something Hidetaki Miyazaki said to him with regards to the design of the undead dragons in that game:
'I submitted a design draft that depicted a dragon swarming with maggots and other gross things. Miyazaki handed it back to me saying “This isn't dignified. Don't rely on the gross factor to portray an undead dragon. Can't you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?”'
The Last of the Giants, when you think about, has a similar kind of theme to the undead dragon. But this design is like a big papier-mache doll, with axes and swords stuck in its back and a giant wooden pole through its stomach. Halfway through the fight, it pulls off its own arm to attack you.
It does not feel, to me, like an elegant or refined design. As it finally falls to my blade, I feel the wrong kind of sorrow. Has Fromsoft got it wrong? I'm feeling uneasy. But I'm not giving up yet, not by a long shot.
Rich Stanton is a freelance writer and Dark Souls fanatic, taking his first steps in Drangleic. Check him out on IGN or Twitter.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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