"We understand that a lot of fans took the word 'accessible' and translated it to 'it will be easier'," he said. "We apologise for casually using the word".
From Software's true intent was muddled in translation. This time, Tanimura and Namco Bandai producer Tak Miyazoe are clear and precise with their words: "There's no intent for us to make the game any easier."
"At the same time, the goal isn't to make Dark Souls 2 more difficult, just more rewarding," he continued. "What we meant by accessibility was streamlining a lot of the so-called tediousness that was in Dark Souls to make sure we can trim the fat and directly deliver the pure challenges and emotional aspects we want to communicate."
Streamlining, trim; more flammable words, but this time better explained: "For example; having to backtrack in Dark Souls and having to do all that travelling. Warping was only available in the latter half of the game, which seemed a little bit useless."
In our interview we raise the point that some might find backtracking and the predictability of enemies important to the experience. Retreading old ground, for example, might be considered as a flabby part of gameplay by some, but to others the familiarity may be essential to building the confidence needed to tackle new challenges. Similarly, learning patterns to the point where battling enemies requires little effort also feeds into building comfort. Is it wise to tinker with such things?
"The balance we have to achieve is very fine," agrees Tanimura. "We understand that there are certain aspects that fans will like, that others may feel are tedious, it's my job personally to find that balance. We understand that within the tedium and other things perceived to be negative, there are fun aspects. If we do decide to cut those portions or clean them up, we want to make sure the fun element of it is carried over in a different way.
"We will make sure that we don't just cut away, we'll figure out what's critical to the essence, what needs to remain, and what we can cut away to deliver a pure experience."
"One thing we do focus on is that no matter the kind of deaths they experience, players should understand the reason they died. Killing players is easy, you can just make an enemy strong or use surprise attacks, but it's important to allow the player to learn about their deaths. That is a fine balance, but we always keep in mind that it isn't unfair, we make sure to add a reason to each of the situations in the game."
The next area we're in is outside. In the distance is a castle, but to get to it the knight must cross a lengthy rope bridge. Dozens of wyverns circle in the sky above, but with no options apparent, crossing seems to be the only choice. Of course, a few steps in and a wyvern crashes onto the bridge and tears it off. The knight falls to his death.
"The bridge instance is actually a surprise feature," explains Tanimura, "we want to express the 'oh my god, what do I do now, how the hell do I get past this part?'
"We want the player to start thinking about what to do next and come up with strategies to conquer that area. Obviously we don't want to have a situation where, if you try and cross that bridge, you die no matter what. We'll leave hints and clues to allow players to anticipate what's going to happen. If they try and cross the bridge, they'll probably die, but the death will have meaning. That's the emotional takeback we want from each of the situations, like the bridge."
Our eyes-on demo ends with a quick visit to the Torture Chamber, where a boss riding a silver chariot appears and promptly runs the knight over. The purpose of this display of cruelty is to show that some bosses in Dark Souls 2 can be taken out in ways other than one-on-one combat.
The demo felt like it was very much designed to assuage fears that Dark Souls 2 would be an easier game, perhaps to parlay its recent success into reaching a broader audience. But Tanimura made it clear that From Software is under no pressure to do such a thing and, in fact, has been given complete creative freedom by Namco Bandai. From what we've seen, Dark Souls 2 is shaping up to be a worthy successor.
ed up. It was listed LIKE NEW. lol[/QUOTE]
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