What USGamer Wants from Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

USGamer’s Bob Mackey has penned a wishlist/editorial on the upcoming Dark Souls II’s update re-release Scholar of the First Sin, that focuses largely on ways in which the game’s storytelling could be improved by it. It includes some interesting insight from Bonfireside Chat’s co-hosts Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross. No disrespect to Mackey then, but I’m going to quote a couple of words from Butterfield, as I feel his coincise request succinctly sums up many of the points touched on by the article:

While the individual bits work and the overall theming is sound, Dark Souls 2 doesn’t tell as satisfying a story as its predecessor. Rather than give us definitive answers and leave us to figure out which questions to ask, Dark Souls 2 leaves so many details inconclusive, mistaking vagueness for mystery, that it becomes hard to square the circle completely.

The most obvious way to do this, in my mind, is to overhaul the item descriptions and item/enemy placement. Make item descriptions relevant to the game world and the mysteries at foot rather than riddled with one-off references to faraway lands and long dead heroes. And if an item or enemy shows up in an area, it shouldn’t feel random. It’s a storytelling opportunity. If we know something about the area and we know something definitive about the item or enemy, we can put on our sleuthing hats and get to work.

What I want from Scholar of the First Sin is connective tissue. Toss out the contradictory lore and oblique nods to unreliable history and give me dots to connect. Dark Souls made me feel like an archaeologist. I hope Scholar of the First Sin gives me a taste of that.