Dark Souls III Interviews
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We have rounded up a number of interviews focused on From Software's latest fantasy action-RPG, Dark Souls III, which is slated for release on April 12 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Game director and company president Hidetaka Miyazaki himself, the man behind all Souls titles except for Dark Souls II, replied to plenty of journalist's questions at a press event.
VG247 discusses the game's story, Miyazaki's own preferences for the title when compared to Dark Souls 2, and difficulty:
(First of all, yes, there is a perfect storyline in my head,) Miyazaki laughs right away when I ask about the title's narrative design, which continues to be light on dialogue and cinematics but heavy on in-world flavour text and very purposeful map design. (However,) he's quick to add, (I have no intention at all of enforcing that storyline to the players out there.)
(Only those storyline elements that actually make it into the game are something that I need to force players to accept as a base for building up their own interpretation of the world. There are things in my head that aren't in the games, after all so after that, it's all up to the players. I have no intention in forcing any of the storyline upon any of the players out there, and there will be no official statements made about the '˜true' story of the game.)
In many ways, one can't blame him. At one point Miyazaki tries to explain how the series timeline might not be all that it seems, but the lengthy explanation ends up truncated as it spirals into complexities too large to cover in our short interview slot and too nightmarish to translate on the fly. (It's very difficult to explain via translator,) he says, his translator nodding along and laughing exasperatedly. (But even in terms of the perspective of time and when things take place, there's a lot of vagueness.)
As the Dark Souls franchise is renowned for its challenging difficulty, Miyazaki himself would provide feedback to the design team if an obstacle was going too out of control. With a humoured laugh, he described his feedback to the team as (avoiding anything too unreasonable), with a good balance between challenge and frustration for the player.
Judging by his body language at the question, Miyazaki-san was genuinely concerned that while Dark Souls III should be hard, he tempered it with a good amount of fairness that a player could overcome with time.
VICE:
"Particular areas, notably at the beginning of the game, are 'classic' to the franchise," Miyazaki tells me, at a preview event held in Hamburg, Germany. "We've made it to resemble what players may have seen in the past." And so it plays out: red dragons, maidens with unspeakable power. Seen it, done it, got the blood-stained T-shirt, thanks. So what's new, here?
"As you progress through the game, players will see the development of an 'end of days'," Miyazaki explains. "This is evoked through the sadness and melancholy of enemies in the world. We will be featuring a variety of new enemies, while still keeping memorable ones from earlier instalments."
Finally, Fextralife has a Q&A with Bandai Namco community manager J. Kartje. Most of the answers are pretty evasive, but there's still some new info to be found:
Q: Are the majority of encounters designed with the assumption that players will be using a shield? (Blitzkeir)
A: Some Weapon Skills require you to 2-hand a weapon. You will see a wide variety of tactics and weapons in Dark Souls III and you will have an even greater challenge ahead within the world.
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Q: Are the (Weapon Arts/Skills) different from weapon to weapon or are they the same for each weapon of the same type? (Castielle)
A: Weapons Skills differ from weapon to weapon.
Q: Will the game mechanics yield any definite benefits for light armor and rogueish gameplay this time around? (Thief)
A: Weapon Skills offer a variety of new maneuvers and attacks that will assist all different types of characters.
