E3 2015: A First Look At Dark Souls 3
Of the things I expected to see at E3, I genuinely did not predict a new Dark Souls game. While an incredibly popular franchise, the last title came out in 2014, and the Scholar of the First Sin edition just hit shelves in April. When I was invited to the Bandai Namco press room, the promised I would see titles like Naruto, Godzilla, and a “newly announced AAA game.” Godzilla was enough to get me there, but I was mostly going to use it as the first show of the conference to warm me up for more pressing acts. The room was in the one of the ends of the convention center, up on the third floor, isolated from much of the rest of the show. It had its own gateway and crew standing outside, and felt like I was walking into another convention. The lights were all red, and there about 10 different game stations with playable demos of unreleased titles.
Along the left side was a conspicuous black wall and a rope partitioning a line. Simple white text read “Dark Souls 3”. Oh shit, guess I’d have to wake up immediately. Probably shouldn’t have spent all night drinking to toast my first real day at E3.
I was among the first there, and sat down in the front row next to a pair of Japanese men looking over notes. At this point I was still a bit hungover and processing the situation, so I attempted to strike up a conversation with the two. It turns out that the one on the right had a hard time with English, but between the bits he picked up and the second man I managed to express how bewildered I was that I was actually here at the first reveal of the Dark Souls 3 gameplay. A huge fan of the series, they could have been handing out blowjobs and handfuls of gold doubloons in the next room and I’d still rather be sitting on that hard bench in a dimly lit room waiting for the game to start.
As it turns out, the man I regaled with tales of my previous night’s lack of professionalism was Hidetaka Miyazaki, the Creative Director of the series starting with Demon’s Souls. As he stood up and introduced himself, I realized that I had been sitting next to my hero, and that I had come off as a lush. Well, he did find my funny, so at least I have that going for me. Still, I felt like I had sat down next to Bill O’Reilly and started cracking wise about racists.
After a brief presentation overviewing their priorities for the game, a hands-off live gameplay trailer kicked off. The footage was eyes only, so unfortunately I can’t link you to a video of what I saw. Here’s a consolation trailer:
In typical Souls fashion, the trailer isn’t telling you much beyond setting the tone for the world. To that effect, Miyazaki stressed that they are going for a more “burned” decrepit aesthetic. While the franchise has always been about the decayed glory of a fallen civilization, the feeling of the third installment is distinct from the creeping darkness lurking just beneath the surface of the first or the quiet stillness of the second. The world is bathed in a ruddy twilight, and ash is seen blowing in the wind. The world is a dirty grey, and even your armor looks charred and singed. The world is filled with mourning undead, prostrate at the feat of burning effigies and dead dragons. The dragons let off an ash that lifts in the wind and coats the world. Your torch flickers and embers follow the breeze. The world is pained, as if just now coming to grips with a great cataclysm.
More so than the other titles, it evokes a sense of loss, sacrifice, and tired perseverance. The gameplay, on the other hand, seems invigorated with a new energy. Though Miyazaki was hesitant to comment on Bloodborne because of its Sony exclusivity, it is clear that he is taking much of what made the combat of that game stand out and using that here. Of the four weapons we saw, all had a special attack type that could be utilized when the weapon was wielded in two hands. Their tagline for the development philosophy was the comically literal “Sword Action”, but it really just boils down to giving weapons more unique attributes to make combat more immersive. The Longsword had a “power stance”, that could either function as a guard break or a gap closer. The dual swords had a spin attack that could be used to dispatch a group of weaker foes quickly. The Broadsword had a “lunge”, which fans of the golf swings from two-handed Greatswords in Dark Souls 2 will instantly fall in love with.
What struck me was the speed of the combat. The Souls series is known for intense combat, but people that play it know that what really makes the combat is the interplay between devastating attacks and recovery time. The most terrifying enemies are the people sized ones that chain attacks and blocks together faster than you can. Any dragon is surmountable if you can keep rolling through its legs, but a Black Knight that shrugs off your power attacks and swings before you can ready your shield is the Antichrist. The enemies in the third installment swung, blocked, flanked, and lunged at a much higher pace. The Knights were particularly terrifying, able to go from a sword swing to a turning shield bash to follow your role in an instant. The improved bow combat drives this home, as players are now able to do instant quick shots out of roles and dodges to pepper a slower enemy. It is a daunting and tantalizing cut above.
So if it wasn’t clear from the previous sentence, the difficulty is still very much an integral part of the third. If people were disappointed at the ease of Dark Souls 2, 3 will bring you back to the stocks for a firm whipping again. The actual demo player died three times trying to show us everything, and couldn’t even get the boss to its second form. Multi-stage bosses will be a carryover from Bloodborne, and what we saw of the giant “Dancer of the Hidden Valley” shows that they are doing not only all that they can with the boss design, but the technology as well. The Dancer, long and lanky with cloth flowing off in strips, moved serpentine and gracefully. Wielding a flaming curved sword, every strike ignited the surrounding area. Soon, the entire westward wall was engulfed in flames that devoured the tapestries and sconces. The attacks were immediate and brutal, and the player’s dodging was insufficiently planned to avoid the sweeping arcs.
It is good to see Miyazaki back at the helm again, and From Software seems to realize the mistakes they made with the second installment. Snippets of backstory are told through small graves you find that act as alternate light sources. The equipment is tighter, with each individual item having more options. It seems that dual wielding is gone, save for specific weapons that come as a pair that are two handed as one in each hand. There are more creative options for dealing with enemies, as they showed player lured a dragon into killing a row of enemies. Multiple paths are back, as the previously mentioned dragon was an alternate challenge all its own. During the Q&A segment, I asked Miyazaki if the worlds would be interconnected again, as one of the biggest criticisms of the second game was that they seemed too separate. He replied, “Yes, this is a huge priority of ours. Interconnected worlds are my favorite.”
The game is still in an alpha state, so there is plenty more information to come. Matchmaking was not discussed, nor how many players would be able to join a single session. Knowing the series’s focus on isolation and loneliness, I doubt there will be a robust party system (much to the dismay of the casuals that want me to power them through bosses). This is a title that I need no incentive to follow. I love the series, and not even the most intuitive of Djinn could possibly have conjured up a more perfect start to the conference. Check in for more info in the months to come, and check it out in early 2016.
Categorized:Horror Gaming News
