[GD] Dark Souls

Supposed details from the magazine that are appearing in the usual sources for early leaks include:

* The difficulty has been increased greatly over Demon's Souls.
* Dark Souls shares the same themes as Demon's Souls: learning from mistakes and the joy of discovery.
* There's no connection with Demon's Souls in terms of story or world.
* As with Demon's Souls, the basic gameplay is based off classic RPGs -- things like character creation, obtaining weapons and items, leveling up, etc.
* The biggest change, according to Hidetaka, is in the area of exploration. The action battle component is an important element, but on top of this, exploration of a large, seamlessly connected field is an important element. You walk to areas that you can see far off in the distance.
* All the maps are connected, rather than having you move to each area from a shrine. This time, you head off on a journey from a large base of operations, and find smaller bases along the way as you progress further and deeper into your adventure.
* There are far more areas with complex land formations of varying height.
* The goal in character development is to get rid of elements that may hinder freedom of play style. This is why there's no job concept during initial character creation.
* Weapons have a great variety of motions and special capabilities, and there are a great number of magic and item types. This will allow players to play in their own style.
* Regarding network play, Hidetaka said that he can't share too many details, but the game will have cooperative and competitive multiplayer elements. You'll be able to call upon people to help you out when you're stuck.
* The game will also have indirect online elements like the original -- seeing the images of other players, messages from the dead, and so-forth. The game will not have its own servers this time, though, so elements like Soul Tendency from the original will not be here.
* There are some other online elements that will be detailed in future updates.

Dark Souls will be released in Japan in 2011. The game's overseas release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is being handled by Namco Bandai. Japan will get just the PlayStation 3 version, published by From itself.

swordsaint said: I'm not worried about difficulty.

swordsaint said: im not saying i'll find it easy, im saying i dont care how hard it is.

jordie84 said: that is one sick announcement video!! Can't wait for its release!!!
played demon souls till NG++ or something and had about 3 characters....such an awesome game, hard but extremely addictive!!!
When is the release of Dark Souls?

Matrix6 said:

When is the release of Dark Souls?

At the end of the trailer it indicates 2011.
Also, the trailer was in English, had an EU rating plus it mentioned Xbox360 at the end as well. [this is exclusive to PS3 in Japan].
I would presume it's coming to us in late 2011 and this time we shouldn't have any distribution delays because Namco Bandai will be handling it instead of Atlus [for the Western regions]. So yeah, another 2011 hit game!