Q: Will there be any improvement done to Dark Souls III to support the additional hardware power of the PS4 Pro?
A: Currently From Software and Bandai Namco have been communicating on how we should deal with the PS4 Pro. That includes not just whether we’ll support it or not, but also what we should do on a graphics level, what should we do with the frames per second and that kind of things. So yeah, we have been talking about it, but we haven’t yet decided anything officially.
Q: Are you approaching the writing of the DLCs as the end of the Souls series?
A: That’s not actually the case. What we’re trying to do is approaching the big theme from the main games from a different perspective. With a “different perspective” I mean that we’ve been using the painted world as a different perspective in order to describe the main game’s theme symbolically.
Q: Are there going to be more Dark Souls games in the future?
A: Personally, I don’t feel like creating new Souls games, however, I don’t want to completely deny the potential of other developers from From Software bringing back the Dark Souls franchise in the future.
While I’d personally like to end the Dark Souls franchise, I’d still feel sad doing so. While I might not work on Dark Souls games myself, I would bring some of the good things from them, like in-game elements or product development experience to new Dark Souls-like games or franchises in the future.
When I say Dark Souls-like games, they could be dark fantasy-like games with an element of sense of accomplishment due to overcoming difficulties, which is very unique to to the Souls franchise.
Q: Is that because often in Japan a lot of companies tend to make a successful franchise and then they keep making entries in the same franchise forever?
A: It’s very difficult to answer to this kind of question, but whatever the case, I’m not denying the value of bringing new installments to the same franchise. There are a lot of things that can be polished by doing so, or there could be things that can be accomplished just by bringing new chapters to a series.
I’m not sure about other publishers or developers, but at least From Software believes that all the things that we have learned in past titles can be best reflected in future titles only by working on new franchises and new series.
Q: Should Dark Souls III‘s DLCs be considered like a sequel of the main game, or they are completely separate story-wise?
A: The theme of the DLC is actually independent from the main game. The theme of the main game is actually completed within the main game itself.
Q: Why did you choose the painted world for the DLC?
A: Although the DLC takes place in the painted world, it’s different from the painted world in the original game. The theme of the painted world matches other things we’re trying to do with the DLC, and that’s why we decided to bring the painted world back in that sense.
