Diablo 4 - Was a Souls-like

PCInvasion reports that Diablo 4 initially started development as a Dark Souls like experience.

Kotaku’s Jason Schreier spoke with 11 current and former Blizzard staff members about Diablo 4. All of these confirmed that the game is definitely in development. The current version, code-named “Fenris,” sounds like the wish list of every old school fan. Dark, “gross,” and removed of any “cartoony” aesthetics, the team’s aim is now to make Diablo 4 the Diablo II successor that so many wanted.

What’s more interesting to me, however, is what could have been. The original build of Diablo 4 was shaping up to be an over-the-shoulder dungeon crawler, according to the report. Led by Reaper of Souls director Josh Mosqueira, the impetus of the game was to make an action-RPG much like Dark Souls. In fact, the game looked so “not Diablo,” that Blizzard even considered calling it something else entirely.

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More information.

After my reflections on Bard's Tale 4, and from what I hear from Ultima Underworld, and to a lesser extent with what I know from Pillars of Eternity, it seems that game developers aren't often interested in making the same game time after time with some basic technical improvement, but are themselves interested in and inspired by other games and want to do something different. I think that's fine, but if you are using the name of a well known and very popular franchise, then you need to know what your fans expect, and it might be better to use another name entirely. Musicians runs into the same problem, often desiring to experiment with different sounds. The musicians who have it easiest are those who constantly experiment and whose fans expect something drasticly different with each album. But musicians who have established a certain sound are often blasted by their fans for trying something different. I think managing expectations could help reduce negative reactions, but in our commercially driven world, the pressure to create sales often results in promising too much.

good news then. they didnt listen when we first complained, then darksouls/poe became popular and put them to shame.
designers .. what can you do ) its hit or miss. personalities change, when your values are incoherent, u can downgrade

I don't believe any of it. D4 for certain was a Pokemon Go clone, just as upcoming Warcraft4:
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-is-reportedly-working-on-a-pokemon-go-style-game-based-on-warcraft/

Diablo 4 was a Souls-like. WAS! <phew>

Well rumor now from company insiders it's going to be a full MMO.

Dark Souls was Diablo-like - so it makes sense.

I can imagine the discussion at Blizzard.

Developer1: "Ok, team! Left-clicking for combat. It's boring.

Could we improve the combat in Diablo by copying Japanese console action games like Dark Souls, Nioh, Monster Hunter World? "

Developer2: "Mobile games make more money. Everyone has a phone and it's always with them. Left-click combat translates very well to touch-screen phones. It's pretty much made for phones. We don't want to change what "Diablo" combat means. I think we call the souls-like something else and move Diablo to phones. In fact, cancel the souls-like and get to work on Pokemon GO clones."

Darth Tagnan said:

Dark Souls was Diablo-like - so it makes sense.

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I was thinking something kind of along the same lines, especially in terms of atmosphere (which is something I absolutely loved in the Dark Souls games and D1 and D2). In Diablo you're some nobody and you arrive in this shit-hole of a town (the design of which would look right at home in any of the Dark Souls games) and then you go down into a dungeon that leads into a different dungeon, which leads into another different dungeon, and then you end up in hell. XD That could easily describe several different environments in the Souls games.

As for Diablo 4 potentially being a Souls-like, I don't think it's a good idea. I love me a good Souls-like, but Diablo has its own thing going on and I think they should focus on doing that to the best of their ability.

Either way, hoping Diablo 4 will be more like Diablo 2 or Path of Exile than Diablo 3.

It just seems that Blizzards approach, combined with the ever increasing influence of Activision is just destroying Blizzard. Diablo 3 was literally a much better game in its first Blizzcon incarnation than the mess they released, and the shallow piece of crap they have today. Everything about Blizzard is how to monetize things long term, not to make a good game, or make a lot of money off of selling millions of copies a game, all they want is recurring revenue streams and could really care less about the actual quality of their games. And as their staffs grew, and they placed incompetent people in charge of their games, the iterative process and unlimited development funds eventually completely ruined Diablo 3. Blizzard used to make very complex games that were simple to learn because of brilliant UIs and difficulty curves. But that changed in D3 with their mantra of "my grandmother needs to be able to play it"

Well, at this point I am not sure there is actually any chance of Diablo 4 being any good, because they actually dont really understand the genre, and what to contort it into a revenue stream, but loot boxes and many other monetization strategies do not work for them. They are too big to go the POE route of continuous leagues and upgrades, and their focus on casual gaming saps any depth from their games.

The only chance Diablo 4 has any chance of being good is if they go full MMO with a monthly subscription in an isometric, open world ARPG with tons of content, and deep character development systems. A "World of Diablo" would have a very good chance of long term success, but the fact they even considered a "Dark Souls" Diablo makes me seriously doubt they have any chance to create a good game.

We may never see another truly good game from Blizzard.

Rhawkas said:

I was thinking something kind of along the same lines, especially in terms of atmosphere (which is something I absolutely loved in the Dark Souls games and D1 and D2). In Diablo you're some nobody and you arrive in this shit-hole of a town (the design of which would look right at home in any of the Dark Souls games) and then you go down into a dungeon that leads into a different dungeon, which leads into another different dungeon, and then you end up in hell. XD That could easily describe several different environments in the Souls games.

As for Diablo 4 potentially being a Souls-like, I don't think it's a good idea. I love me a good Souls-like, but Diablo has its own thing going on and I think they should focus on doing that to the best of their ability.

Either way, hoping Diablo 4 will be more like Diablo 2 or Path of Exile than Diablo 3.

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Well, I've lost faith in Blizzard - so I don't really care that much.

With that said, if I was in charge of Diablo 4 - I would go the Hellgate London route and turn it into a proper visceral fantasy "looter shooter" with tons of depth and complexity.

To me, the Dark Souls formula is very close to the original Diablo - except it has shit coop gameplay.

But, if they did Diablo 4 with a Souls inspiration - and PROPER coop, then that might be fine, but not what I would have preferred.

Seriously, though, Blizzard are a joke.

They spent 7 years with all the money and possibilities in the world and came up with a cancelled game that was turned into a dreary Team Fortress 2 clone.

Bah, they're dead.

For an ARPG isometric mmo I’ll play Torchlight Frontiers.

I think I’ve had this discussion before but can’t quite remember but other than maybe a dark atmosphere I can’t really see any similarities between DS and diablo.

-Diablo has random loot DS is hand placed.
-DS combat is challenging from the start. You have to play diablo a number of times before hitting any difficulty.
- diablo is stat driven. DS is more skill driven.
- story is told differently.
- DS has move sets and relies on dodging,blocking and taking well timed swipes when possible. Diablo is click, click, click, wait for cooldown.
- diablo is about character builds. DS is more about memorizing enemy movement and improving twitch skills.

There’s more to list but I think people get my point.

Anyway, imo combat And difficulty ( at least early) are 2 of diablos weakest aspects so throwing in some DS influences would have been a good thing imo. But I’m a huge DS fan so of course it would be.

joxer said:

I don't believe any of it. D4 for certain was a Pokemon Go clone, just as upcoming Warcraft4:
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-is-reportedly-working-on-a-pokemon-go-style-game-based-on-warcraft/

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So what you're saying is it's soul-less?

This would be interesting. Blizz moving away from WoW cartoonish style and back to mood of first Diablo. And they always have good, satisfying gameplay, crazy addictive with stellar sound design, animation quality and visual effects.
Dark Souls felt like they wanted to strip the game of every damn thing that would make it actually enjoyable to play.

I hate twitch skill based combat with a passion. It would be a disaster if the next Diablo would be anything like that. Dodging, timed swipes etc.

On the other hand I prefer Grim Dawn to Diablo 3 anyways, so I could probably simply ignore it.

I fear that Dark Souls set a standard. Everything HAS to be a Dark Souls like game ...

For what it's worth, despite whiners whining about Diablo 3, while not an rpg, not even an action rpg , Diablo 3 is the BEST hack n slash game / arcade ever. If you like Golden Axe and wanna play a 4 player version of it it's the best thing you can get today.

Sure, it is not the masterpiece Diablo 1 or 2 was, but if you really want to go that path just play Grim Dawn, Path of Exile or even good old Titan's Quest.

As for Diablo 4, I know Blizzard will do everything best. Diablo 3 was a mess on release and after much refining it has been turned into a rough diamond many whiners love to hate while never played again after launch.

KeepitClean said:

For what it's worth, despite whiners whining about Diablo 3, while not an rpg, not even an action rpg , Diablo 3 is the BEST hack n slash game / arcade ever. If you like Golden Axe and wanna play a 4 player version of it it's the best thing you can get today.

Sure, it is not the masterpiece Diablo 1 or 2 was, but if you really want to go that path just play Grim Dawn, Path of Exile or even good old Titan's Quest.

As for Diablo 4, I know Blizzard will do everything best. Diablo 3 was a mess on release and after much refining it has been turned into a rough diamond many whiners love to hate while never played again after launch.

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Guess someone has not paid attention to the news.

Link - https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41295

Thank you, I missed that one, thanx for the link! I'll read it, thanx!

Edit: No it's $%$^#$ Activision.. Thanx for the link, Activision suitcases do it again..