Dark Souls II Interview

While EDGE decided (probably wisely) to put the “next-gen version” line of questioning in the spotlight for their recent interview with Dark Souls II’s co-director Yui Tanimura, I’m personally more interested in the mechanical tidbits, so I’ll quote from there:

Miyazaki isn’t directing. Has his distance from the project changed the way Dark Souls II is developed?

The basic thinking behind how Dark Souls II is developed has not changed. Team structures and members have changed a little bit, and we may think a little more together to bring ideas together. But because we are aligned in regards to what has to be communicated with the game, we have not faced any major changes internally. Miyazaki is still involved as a supervisor, and I seek advice when necessary.

There are small things here and there [that Mizazaki might not have chosen], perhaps, but whenever we go back to the core elements of the Dark Souls experience, I feel that the thinking behind the game development is similar. I do want to state [there are] some differences between Dark Souls I and II, so I think the players can also look forward to new elements when they pick up the game.

Players can no longer hide from invasions by staying Hollow, and are punished for doing so by having their HP affected by death in this form. How are you balancing this shift in thinking? Being invaded on your way to a boss that you wanted to summon help for is one of Dark Souls’ most irritating moments and appears to be contradictory to greater accessibility.

First off, my main intention was to have players play with the idea of wanting to stay as a living [human]. [That’s] when players immerse themselves more into the character; we wanted players to strive and grasp onto life, and sense the sorrow, remorse and loneliness when playing the game. For this, when players play as a living, we have implemented methods to help the player out, such as The Way Of Blue Covenant and other items that will not make the player completely vulnerable to being invaded. The invaders will also have their risks when invading and so there will be a strategising element for invaders to determine whether they want to invade or not.

What are the biggest challenges in balancing a game of two very different components PvP interactions that permeate a PvE world? Many of the beta changes seemed to be aimed at tweaking PvP, but is there not a risk that catering for one group of players risks upsetting the others?

For the sake of the network beta test, we wanted to encourage PvP gameplay in order to fully understand the impact on the servers, and also learn patterns of how players around the world play and enjoy the game. The final game will obviously prioritise PvE, but at the same time [it will] make enhancements to the PvP systems.