From Software’s Souls series isn’t like most games. Following the lead of its predecessors, Dark Souls 2 provides some basic exposition to establish the context of your actions and then cuts you loose. Here, you’ll attempt to find your own way, experiment with various elements and encounter the flora and fauna of its world, much of which will try to kill you.
“There were some elements like that in Dark Souls and while Dark Souls 2 won’t explain everything to you – in fact it will hardly explain anything to you – it’s about being able to offer that faint light of hope that makes you want to find more information about something and then giving you the tools to do so. Maintaining that mystery is an important part of Dark Souls 2 but it’s just about streamlining that process a little bit and reinforcing player choice.”
One area set to benefit from this reinforcement is the notion of role-playing and how that ties to your choice of character class, covenant affiliation and your interaction with other players. Going back recently to the original Dark Souls, I was struck by how far I’d moved away from the class that I’d chosen at the outset of the game and how, one hundred hours later, my initial choice of thief had basically boiled down to having a particularly high dexterity stat. While it’s great for my thief to be afforded the freedom to be standing adorned with Ornstein’s armour, an Iaito+15 and the Sunlight Shield, it occurred to me that she hadn’t done a whole lot of thieving and I felt that that I could have ended up at this point regardless of my starting class.
“So, the classes are a little bit more defined this time around,” Miyazoe confirms. “As you highlight, in Dark Souls you could pick a class and turn it into something different and while we haven’t restricted players from playing the way they want to, there is some better definition.
“For example, the dual-wielding class has its own motions, animations and play style, so I don’t think anyone would really pick a dual-wielder and play it as a sorcerer. We want to emphasize the role-playing in the game a little bit more, not just in the classes but also in the covenants, which will also promote role-playing a little more.”
This will be good news to those who found the whole notion of covenants impenetrable and, consequently, expendable. Or who flitted between them for the immediate benefit that membership might convey in the short-term or while inhabiting a particular area. Miyazoe has previously touched on some of the examples of the changes to the covenant system but is keen to highlight that as well as being easier to understand, they’ll also play a bigger role in the game.
In the first instance, this will be achieved by having a number of the covenants promote a specific way of playing. So, while the Way of the Blue is geared towards promoting a play-through in which players don’t invade others and whose members will automatically receive aid from their covenant brethren if they themselves are invaded, The Brotherhood of Blood is the obvious choice for those looking to cause mayhem in other players’ worlds.
“I think in Dark Souls you could read about the covenants online and the descriptions in-game but still not get a full grasp for what the covenants actually did,” says Miyazoe. “An element of that mystery is still there but in Dark Souls 2 we want people to take part in a certain covenant because it means something to them.
“There’s a stronger focus on good and evil with covenants like the Way of the Blue and Brotherhood of Blood, but alongside these you also have roles such as Bell Keepers, who aren’t necessarily good or bad but have a certain role in the world.
“Dark Souls 2 hasn’t suddenly become about good and evil, there’s just more opportunity to pick a side, if you want to, and it’s about facilitating a greater degree of meaningful player choice.”
One of the key choices to be made by any Dark Souls players is whether or not they are going to play the role of invader. Personally, it’s something that I tried a couple of times but derived no real pleasure from, preferring instead to work collaboratively in multiplayer against the fearsome bosses or to fight off invaders that strayed into my world. However, in Dark Souls 2 From Software is attempting to leverage its popular invasion mechanic and implement a degree of parity by having PvP matches take place in specific locations.
