Dark Souls II - More Video Interviews

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I managed to roundup two more video interviews for Dark Souls II. The first video is from GamerHubTV were they interview Dark Souls II Producer Tak Miyazoe.



Dark Souls II Producer Tak Miyazoe discusses the new RPG from developer From Software and Bandai Namco Games in this exclusive interview from the launch event in San Francisco.
The second video interview is with Community Manager Joseph Kartje on Spawnfirst.



SlasherJPC: Interview with Joseph Kartje - Bandai Namco Community Manager
These questions were sent to him a couple of days before release.
More information.
 
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I'd rather hear them answer to the Questions raised (and the video pointed at within) here ;)

And yes while Graphics quality is at the Bottom of this game's draws for most of us waiting for it (and I am more concerned about the possible design and atmosphere Downgrade, myself), there is a thing about misrepresenting your product a bit… And not doing as much justice as you could to the stellar art direction…

Pity if the PC version will suffer the same (seems likely) just to not upset the established PS3 fanbase ;)

(Also great pity for a very exciting gameplay feature that was apparently nerfed due to old hardware. I am talking about the Dark areas and need for a torch. Was really looking forward to that)

Ah, well we'll see for ourselves in a month or so. I'll likely be far less understanding for a subpar port this time round though…
 
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I read that link earlier today, and frankly I'm not surprised. They would not be the first developer to promise something, and deliver something different.

Take a look at the Watchdog controversy this week for another example. I learned my lesson long ago to never believe what you see in trailer's.^^
 
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Yeah, its not a huge deal regarding the game's quality, but they should have been more forthright about it.

Something like: "Look guys, we shot too high and the tech just can't support that vision. We know you don't wan't another Blighttown so here is how the game is gonna look now".

If I had a PS3 I would have been totally cool with that.

The needless downgrade of the PC version (if it will happen) is ofcourse a completely different discussion…
 
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Hopefully they have a NG console version and PC version ready without any downgrades... that'd be smart of them in many ways...
 
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I assume that's the PC version. The consoles have lower poly count, lower textures, no High Dynamic Range lighting, etc, etc... But! It still looks awesome!

I've been on the x360 version all day yesterday and all day today. My Bandit is level 80 or so dual wielding a Shortsword +5 mainhand, Fire Longsword +4 offhand. Also have a bow and shield ready to swap to.

Yesterday online wasn't working, but today it was and I've been up to my ears in summons! Put down your sign and you're summoned in a few seconds! Put on your Bell Keeper ring and you're summoned back to defend the bell instantly! Summons always work!! There's so much less lag! The community is giddy with joy and its just an amazing event to be a part of. This is the best RPG I've ever played without a doubt. :D I've just been having the best time! The game is absolutely amazing. I can't imagine ever going back to DkS1 with its broken online.

Ahh, damn, I gotta go pick up the pizza. More rant later!
 
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I am sure the game will look good (Great after the DSfix ;) ) its looks come 95% from its art direction anyways…

I've been on the x360 version all day yesterday and all day today. My Bandit is level 80 or so dual wielding a Shortsword +5 mainhand, Fire Longsword +4 offhand. Also have a bow and shield ready to swap to.

Whoa there how many hours did you play ?! (remember to stay hydrated ;) ).

Is it true that leveling is quite a bit faster ? How does it feel for game balance ?

Keep the (non spoiler!) impressions coming! Much obliged ;)
 
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I assume that's the PC version. The consoles have lower poly count, lower textures, no High Dynamic Range lighting, etc, etc… But! It still looks awesome!

I've been on the x360 version all day yesterday and all day today. My Bandit is level 80 or so dual wielding a Shortsword +5 mainhand, Fire Longsword +4 offhand. Also have a bow and shield ready to swap to.

Yesterday online wasn't working, but today it was and I've been up to my ears in summons! Put down your sign and you're summoned in a few seconds! Put on your Bell Keeper ring and you're summoned back to defend the bell instantly! Summons always work!! There's so much less lag! The community is giddy with joy and its just an amazing event to be a part of. This is the best RPG I've ever played without a doubt. :D I've just been having the best time! The game is absolutely amazing. I can't imagine ever going back to DkS1 with its broken online.

Ahh, damn, I gotta go pick up the pizza. More rant later!

Hopefully the success will spawn more rpgs, I mean more games will try to mimic this rpg game as happened to other renowed rpg game.

I mean if ppl are having so much fun with the rpgs from 2011 to this day there seem to be no need to go backward as predominates the requirement to serve this type of crpg games.
 
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As long as they deliver on the proper K&M controls I'll be happy. I don't really care about the graphics.

I'm also not a big fan of ramping up the difficulty by making it to dark to see. I'd rather difficulty come from AI not environmental tricks.
 
I love environmental and level design oriented Puzzles/challenges.

It was a pretty big part of the appeal from #1 and I am eager to see how they have added to it and spiced exploration with it in #2. Simply going from combat piece to combat piece (no matter how nicely done) without challenging me to think about how to traverse the landscape (or approach a specific set-piece encounter that #1 was chock full of) would probably have bored me to tears (in #1 too).

As others have very cleverly said about #1 :
"Its not really an action game but rather a puzzle game with action gameplay" (or something to that effect) ;)

P.S. I would be very surprised if M+K support is not at least decent this time, shocked even…
 
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The second half of DS1 is more platformer than puzzler I'd say. Not my favorite type of gameplay but the other aspects are good enough for me to tolerate it.

I understand many people like the platforming gameplay I'm just not one of those people.

I'm more concerned with the drop off in atmosphere from the begining of the game. Anor londo, dukes archive, even crystal cave lacked the atmosphere built up by the depths and blighttown. For me at least.

I'd also like to see a bit more role playing ability. It seems like they built the game to require you to use all different kinds of weapons and armor to handle different situations. I'm sure many will see this as a plus but I like to play my characters in a certain way and I feel I'm often pushed to use armor or weapons that don't really fit my character.

For example ornstein and smough fight. I spent 5 1/2 hours trying to beat them with shadow armor and bandit knife to no avail. I then switched to stone armor and lightening spear and beat them in 3 tries. Which is good I guess by my thief wouldn't normally wear that.

Seems it's set up like that more and more as I go. Need more poise than the wolf ring gives me then I have to wear different armor, need poison or curse protection is different armor, heavily armored foe then I need to switch to a weapon not suited to my character.

The game is much more slanted toward gaming than role playing. I'd like to see them balance the out in DS2 but I don't think that's something the majority of the fan base would want.
 
The second half of DS1 is more platformer than puzzler I'd say. Not my favorite type of gameplay but the other aspects are good enough for me to tolerate it.

I understand many people like the platforming gameplay I'm just not one of those people.

I think you are taking the platformer analogy a bit ott there. But I guess you just don't like jumping ledges :) (Plenty of puzzle aspects and discovery to be made in Sen's and Anor Londo i.e.)

Every bit of the game is full with pitfalls and enviromental and set challenges trickery though, not just the second half…

I'm more concerned with the drop off in atmosphere from the begining of the game. Anor londo, dukes archive, even crystal cave lacked the atmosphere built up by the depths and blighttown. For me at least.

Couldn't disagree more. But I guess these things are a bit subjective. Come back to us when you do the painted world and the DLC.

For the rest, yeah this is how the game is(*). Not everyone's cup of tea and that is completely understandable. I would not like playing this kind of system exclusively myself either (So I would not particularly like the market to flood with Dark Souls Clones. Dark souls is quite enough ;) )

(* Although not as dramatic as you make it sound. I usually stick to the Gear I have selected for my build and just switch once or twice in a playthrough when a particular encounter is giving me a problem. A couple of boss battles really. There are always ways and strategies if you dig long enough. And also you can go somewhere else until your build is strong enough… i.e I beat Smough and Ormstein with two completely different ways in my Tank and mage runs and in no case did I have to change my gear. Just adjust my strategy and spell loadout)
 
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Didn't really like Blight Town and Depths all that much. Anor Londo and Duke's Archives were a lot better areas to me. Painted World was one of my favourite areas of the game in terms of atmosphere.
 
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I'd rather hear them answer to the Questions raised (and the video pointed at within) here ;)

And yes while Graphics quality is at the Bottom of this game's draws for most of us waiting for it (and I am more concerned about the possible design and atmosphere Downgrade, myself), there is a thing about misrepresenting your product a bit… And not doing as much justice as you could to the stellar art direction…

I also want to know WHAT happened? As a graphics artist myself, I simply cannot fathom how they could rip out so much of the graphics. I mean even many of the normal maps have been removed, which couldn't have saved them much memory.

They took the game from truly a 2014 title to a mid-2007 title or so... if I bought it on the console, I would be greatly upset. And if the PC version also has all the graphics stripped out...rage mode will begin.

Just compare these two shots (no spoilers, ignore horrible image compression). One looks amazing; one is so ugly. Remember, both these were taken on ACTUAL console systems running the game.

Contrast this with GTAV compared to GTAIV. GTAV on the console looks amazing. And yet, FROM told us their "new engine" squeezed out even more power from the PS3/X360. From the looks of it, their new engine is barely better than DS1.
 
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Just compare these two shots (no spoilers, ignore horrible image compression). One looks amazing; one is so ugly. Remember, both these were taken on ACTUAL console systems running the game.

I really hope the PCversion doesn't look like that second jpeg, even if it does have a higher resolution.
 
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They really traded graphical quality in the immediate environment for the quality of vistas and the sky especially. If you got your nose in the environment playing the game, it looks great. When you stop, for instance, to check out the fact that your current zone actually jutting out of the sea with the sun setting in the distance, but it looks like an NES background that was blurred to seem like you have 20/200 vision, then the atmosphere is kinda lost (Lost Bastille area). It's a great game, but don't peak out of bounds or it will ruin the atmosphere it has going.
 
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if I bought it on the console, I would be greatly upset.

Yeah, but you wouldn't. What would be really upsetting is trying to pump any more graphics quality out of this hardware.

I can't comment about the PS3 version as I'm on 360, but that ps3 hardware is rubbish. It couldn't even handle the physics calculations when you smashed barrels in Demon Souls without dropping to 10fps.

Those two screenshots are utter non-sense and you should be embarrassed linking them. They're both captures of youtube videos blown up to full screen and neither represent the real in game quality. As I said earlier - it looks awesome! They've hit a perfect balance between quality and performance and it's held a solid framerate the entire time! Of course the PC version looks better.

I think that the xbox version looks better than the PS3 version and even has some fancy shader effects going on. It's got FXAA and some manner of AO, for sure. I think we can finally say the 360 hardware actually was the superior console of the generation!

@JonNik

I must have played about 25 hours so far? Yep, plenty of cups of tea going on. I'll survive. :)

Leveling is a little bit faster for the early levels, but its more steady than dks1. That's probably because there's way more to kill. If you're into co-op you'll gain levels super fast.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by game balance.... So far I've only lost a handful of PVP fights but I like to put that down to my build and skill. :) I've never seen anyone pull off a backstab in PVP, let alone a classic dks1 lagstab. Also not seeing a lot of magic users. It seems like most people are going for melee builds.

There is a LOT of gear! So far no two people look the same. The Drangliac chest piece is pretty popular with its smart little cape, but the helm slot once again acts as a sort of secondary ring slot. The explorers set can be bought early on too, but Id highly recommend starting as explorer because I still haven't found where to get his magic resist ring and theres a pyromancer chick who sells the other 3 elements. That said, I started as Bandit because the 1 INT is best for min/max. I did level his Adaptation first tho. Still getting a feel for this new stat, but faster potion drinking and shield raising speed is priceless. You want to keep your END and ADA at the same level because you get bonus Poise equal to the lower of the two.

I'm loving the dual wielding but I think it might almost be too good. I found my two swords at the very start and I've been upgrading them as I go and consequentially every new weapon I find doesn't quite match up. To dual wield you need 1.5x the STR/DEX stats so when you find some of the more powerful weapons you generally don't have the stats to dual them. I found the Twinblade and thought I'd become a twinblade user, but it was kinda silly to me. Lots of flashy looking spinning it around doing lots of little hits with each swing. It's too showy for me. I'm just really loving the shortsword this time around. Since the longsword lost its R2 stab while 1handing it, the shortword now acts much like the Balder Side Sword and does two stabs. The range on it isn't that good but the stamina cost, attack speed and overall damage between them works out very well. I only wish I could find a second shortsword! Also, while I still haven't found where, apparently bleeding and poison are now weapon enchants so you can add bleeding to your shortsword. :D I was aiming for a dex build but I've still leveled by STR to 20. Your first respec stone is actually in the starting town and its nice to not have to worry about gimping your build.

The exploration and environment is fantastic. You'll be thinking alright, don't worry about that. The world is massive and there's so many locked doors! It's an amazing game for exploring and they even have an explorer class. It's very atmospheric so don't worry about any lack of immersion. You'll feel this game! The sense of reward has never been stronger in a souls game and that's at least partly due to how much harder it is. I'm a souls veteran. I've won the game with a level 1 darkwraith. Well, I've already died 111 times, it tells me! :D Just you wait! It's got some surprises in store for you. You'll be wanting to go online and summon some friends some some of these fights. You really do want to be online. Some areas don't seem to make a lot of sense until you get invaded in them and then you see why they put those holes in the ground. :)

Also, if youre afraid of invaders then I assume its just because its your first time being invaded. I remember my very first invader and I was freaking out. But now I'm all like... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipWoX9xL2No

@igor

It's funny you mention going back to RPG roots for ideas because I've always felt that the souls games had a lot of classic Dungeons and Dragons in them. You got your Longsword +1 and your shield and platemail. Clerics use blunt maces, etc.

*minor spoiler ahead*
There's this part in DkS2 where the enemy throw Flasks of Oil at you. Each time you get hit they do no damage but you get more and more black and oily, which isn't so bad on its own.... It's the other guys sniping you with flaming arrows that cause you the grief.
 
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I think you are taking the platformer analogy a bit ott there. But I guess you just don't like jumping ledges :) (Plenty of puzzle aspects and discovery to be made in Sen's and Anor Londo i.e.)

Every bit of the game is full with pitfalls and enviromental and set challenges trickery though, not just the second half…



Couldn't disagree more. But I guess these things are a bit subjective. Come back to us when you do the painted world and the DLC.

For the rest, yeah this is how the game is(*). Not everyone's cup of tea and that is completely understandable. I would not like playing this kind of system exclusively myself either (So I would not particularly like the market to flood with Dark Souls Clones. Dark souls is quite enough ;) )

(* Although not as dramatic as you make it sound. I usually stick to the Gear I have selected for my build and just switch once or twice in a playthrough when a particular encounter is giving me a problem. A couple of boss battles really. There are always ways and strategies if you dig long enough. And also you can go somewhere else until your build is strong enough… i.e I beat Smough and Ormstein with two completely different ways in my Tank and mage runs and in no case did I have to change my gear. Just adjust my strategy and spell loadout)

Yes, I'm using a very liberal interpretation of "platforming. I mean, It's not Mario or anything but it does seem to have a bit more than I'm used to in other ARPG's.

I've already done the painted world but not the DLC. The painted world was pretty good and seemed to have a little bit of everything. I just like the dark, gritty areas better than the clean buildings of Anor and Duke's.

I do stand by my statement though that the game is designed more to use different armors and weapons for different situations rather than role playing a typical class.

I'm sure there are people out there who can beat the game naked armed with only a butter knife but for most that's not the case. There are definite advantages given by different armors or weapons. If your in Blighttown you want poison protection, the depths or fighting seath the scaleless then curse protection, O&S then lightening and physical protection, etc. etc.

It's not necessarily a bad thing I'm just finding it hard to stay in a thief role but I don't think the game was really designed for you to pick a class and stick to it.

Maybe give O&S a try with shadow armor and a bandit knife and you might see what I mean but maybe not.:)

Anyway most of my complaints are merely quibbles or me thinking out loud how the game would be for me but maybe not necessarily better overall. I'm still enjoying it very much as my 150 hours in the past month or so would indicate.

I have 80 hours on my current play through and just beat O&S recently and then seth the scaleless. still don't know how people beat this game in 50 hrs on their first play through.

If what Sir James is saying is true about dual wielding then maybe my stealth thief build will be more viable in DS2.:) We will see on the 25th as I will be preordering.
 
Yeah, but you wouldn't. What would be really upsetting is trying to pump any more graphics quality out of this hardware.

…ps3 hardware is rubbish. It couldn't even handle the physics calculations when you smashed barrels in Demon Souls without dropping to 10fps.

Your comment…it is made out of ignorance. Much ignorance. If you want to see the power of the PS3, just play The Last of Us. Or play GTAV which runs great on both platforms.

But you won't derail my point with some nonsense console war talk. I am the PC Master Race and all consoles are garbage compared to PC!

Those two screenshots are utter non-sense and you should be embarrassed linking them.

Ha, that's funny. Who are you anyway? The Dark Souls 2 Defender? Why is it some people are so blinded that they refuse to acknowledge DS2 got a major visual downgrade compared to the PLAYABLE demo they released?

Is it wrong to release a demo that isn't an actual DEMONSTRATION of your final product? Yes, it is wrong. And yes, we should be angry… but as I said, I'll be playing it on PC… so here's hoping it looks all purdy on PC.

PS: I will NOT be preording DS2 because preordering is unwise in general...but especially in this case, I will wait to see if DS2 delivers on the visuals it promised...otherwise, Steam Sale!
 
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Here is some information on the potential PC Downgrade.

Link - http://www.dsogaming.com/news/namco...bout-dark-souls-2s-downgrade-ation-next-week/
There is no doubt – at this point – that the retail version of Dark Souls 2 looks awful and lacks the lighting system that was advertised when the game was original advertised. In fact, we’ve been saying how horrible the game was looking on our galleries, but that’s irrelevant at this point. Thankfully, Namco Bandai will make an announcement about this whole thing really soon.

NeoGAF tried to pressure Namco’s PR and according to ‘jschreier’, Namco PR is working with Japan in hopes of saying something next week.

“In case anyone’s curious, Namco PR told me today that they’re working with Japan in hopes of saying something next week. It’ll be on Kotaku whenever I get it.”

NeoGAF also aims to find out whether the PC version will also be downgraded or not. Here is hoping that Namco will justify its decision of using an inferior lighting system, and that the PC version will not be affected by this.
So fingers crossed, but I have a feeling the PC will also be downgraded. :fingerscrossed:
 
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