Dark Souls 3 Q&A [Patreon Exclusive]
Added 2015-08-08 09:56:34 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
So the other day I got the chance to sit down with Dark Souls 3 for about 5 hours in the Namco office. I dedicated that time exclusively to learning as much as I could about the game..and I came away with a lot of info. If you haven't already seen, here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUOlfuEcQsc
If there's anything else you'd like to know - now's your chance! Just ask a question down below, and over the next few days i'll get back to you directly.
Cheers guys!
Comments
Hey Liubo, You hit the nail on the head. The characters in these games are very different. In Dark Souls 1, it felt like those characters were going on the same adventure with you..and that made you relate to them that little bit more. In Bloodborne, the characters exist in the same world..but they're often on completely separate adventures, and have a history with a completely different aspect of the world. So Bloodborne's characters feel quite seperate from your own story, in a sense. I have no more knowledge than you about Dark Souls 3's characters, unfortunately. All I can say is that i'm in the same boat as you - and I hope we get some characters on the level of siegmeyer, solaire, etc..
VaatiVidya
2015-08-10 07:10:40 +0000 UTCDark Souls had characters that were immense and meaningful to the world around us. Your Prepare to Cry videos on everyone we interacted with, from Artorias to Gwyndolin, were always amazing and blew my mind. Bloodborne, on the other hand, has an amazing history; Willem's teachings, the founding of the Healing Church, are all part of something so immense, but the characters themselves, like Alfred and Eileen, feel kind of flat in comparison to how Dark Souls set it up. They might have their own ambitions and questlines, but it doesn't feel as moving as when Lautrec killed Anastacia or when Rhea is betrayed and ultimately hollows. Do you know if Dark Souls 3 will have some truly moving characters?
Liubo
2015-08-10 05:18:32 +0000 UTCWell, as you can imagine, I was barely adapting to the controls (hadn't played Dark Souls itself in a while and never on an XBox controller) and tried around with the short sword weapon art - managed to fight a few isolated hollows and was happy that I never died. I also didn't get to start in the beginning, but where the guy before me left off. Felt very rushed. I found it pretty disheartening that these 5 (or maybe 8) minutes was the only thing that I got for my regular press ticket. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I even got one with such a small channel, but it was still very hectic and rushed. Then again, the queue was insane. It went around the entire boot AND went across two intersections past the lines of other booths. And that was on thursday when it wasn't even the busiest time. :)
Ragnar
2015-08-09 09:45:08 +0000 UTCAlright thanks vaati &Nick
That black guy
2015-08-09 08:17:48 +0000 UTCHey Suirad, There have been no major clues. Here's the dialogue at the start of the trailer, though: "Yes, Indeed. As they say..on pilgrimage..the fire fades, and the lords have no thrones". In the trailer you saw a big "pilgrimage" theme, and in the demo there were a lot of the migrating characters in the trailer trying to climb over a fence, who had died in the process. Almost like they were trying to get to safety. Not really sure what to make of this, though! If it was up to FROM, I don't think we'd know anything about the story until the game was out.
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 07:24:53 +0000 UTCHey Joel! Good question, and not one i've given much thought yet honestly. We know that the world is "post apocalyptic", which is interesting. Perhaps we get to see what happens immediately after the flame is linked and the world starts anew? I'd guess that it happens after Dark Souls 2, since our character got a crown that allows him to ignore the hollowing effect of his curse. Unless of course, they decide to ret con dark souls 2's story..
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 07:20:19 +0000 UTCNothing official, just theories at the moment. Interestingly in one of Miyazaki's presentations, he called our character a "dark hero" facing against the rising lords of cinder, which was interesting use of the word dark.
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 07:19:44 +0000 UTCThere were! As mentioned below, there was the northern warrior..and also a knight-like character, but I didn't take his name. You can see both armours in the trailer footage I believe
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 07:19:33 +0000 UTCHey Procene, Unfortunately there's no information on this front :( Bonfires in the demo just had the option to "leave" once you sat down at them. You're right that other sources hinted we can make our own bonfire - i'm sure they're just not ready to detail it yet. There's still a long time till 2016, I bet they're just trying to pace themselves
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 07:19:07 +0000 UTCHi Vatti, thanks for doing this. Did you get any sense of where the game may fit in the DarkSouls time line? Prequel, Sequel or sometime between DS1 and DS2?
Joel Juen
2015-08-09 07:15:23 +0000 UTCHey Ragnar You're absolutely right, well done on picking that up from such a short play session. I definitely place the pacing of DKS3 somewhere betwen ds1 and bloodborne. I think it's a good decision. After playing Bloodborne, i'm quite happy to see the overall speed of the series increase a little. I was really happy with how I still gravitated towards using a shield too, it's not like Bloodborne where going without a shield is 100% viable. One thing I like about the souls series is the focus on finding your enemies weakness, while keeping your shield up. From what i've played, this didn't seem to be gone. Out of curiosity, how far did you get in your 5 minute gameplay session? That's really quick!
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 05:18:34 +0000 UTCHey Hans, You're right - there were no friendly NPCs in the demo. I'm super curious about them as well. I hope we get better NPCs than in Dark Souls 2. There was no information with a hub, either. There was music in the boss fight, and ambience in the overworld, but I didn't pay much attention to either, unfortunately. I do remember there being reused assets from Dark Souls in a lot of the sounds. When I went into a hall, it was very echoey! Apologies that i can't give you too much information on this stuff, wish I paid more attention to that rather than just mechanics.
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 05:12:49 +0000 UTCHey Drew, Two handing does work the same way as in previous souls title. Unfortunately I didn't do too much testing with it..I should have tested all the movesets, but I didn't. Weapon arts in particular would have been interesting - if we can use weapon arts while two handing, then perhaps you can still use a weapons weapon art if you have a parry shield equipped. While i'm not sure about this, I bet it's the case! One interesting change is that two-handing now seems to be "dual wielding" for certain weapons as well. For example, one weapon found was called "legion scimitars" - plural. When two-handed, your character simply wielded two of them as opposed to one. I like this change.
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 05:10:19 +0000 UTCEven if Life Gems seem to be gone, they may replace it with another healing item. Life Gems basically got replaced for Humanity between Dark Souls 1 and 2. But I'm kinda hoping that they get rid of all healing except Estus.
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-09 02:08:02 +0000 UTCFrom what I've heard, Power Stance from Dark Souls 2 is gone and they replaced it with "stacked" weapons like the dual-wielding from Bloodborne. And yea, because of this, I'm also curious if all other weapons are two-handable.
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-09 02:06:07 +0000 UTCI heard from someone doing Q&A with Oroboro is that one class name was called the "Northerner" or the "Northern Warrior" and he looked like a Viking
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-09 02:03:17 +0000 UTCMy theory, since both Dark Souls 2 and 3 started development around the same time is that Dark Souls 2 was the Frampt ending sequel and Dark Souls 3 is going to be the Kaathe ending sequel.
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-09 02:01:59 +0000 UTCInteresting. I didn't notice that. But I hope that there's more variety that just shooting faster/average....Like, that would be sweet for the Long Bow but what about Short Bows or Composite Bows? I'm wishing for something like shooting multiple arrows at once for the Composite Bow and shooting on the run for Short Bows.
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-09 02:00:02 +0000 UTCAh, I see. I shall continue to hold out hope until more information surfaces. Thanks for the reply. (dreams of staves with weapons arts and charged spells...)
BlitzAceRush
2015-08-09 01:36:50 +0000 UTCDoes 2-handing weapons work the same way as they did in previous souls titles? If so, can you use your weapon arts while 2-handing if you do not have the proper shield to do so?
PlagueOfBeasts
2015-08-09 01:26:42 +0000 UTCHey Presley, There was no information on magic in the demo, save a fat enemy knight who used an aoe soul-like attack. Since there's more emphasis on weapons and playstyle..i'm hopeful that they'll finally make a mage / archer a viable archetype for play. I'm in the same boat as you! They always say that they'll change it in some way, but so far very few mage classes have been viable..
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 01:10:25 +0000 UTCHey Morten! There were no life gems in the demo, which makes me hopeful that they're gone. Estus healing is faster at the start, and recovery is slower - so you'll always find it easy to heal, but difficult to survive AFTER healing because your character stands still for a while. As Hans mentioned, I go into more detail in the video :)
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 01:09:10 +0000 UTCHey Nick! There were no bows / crossbows in the official demo..but I'm absolutely sure that they do have weapon arts. You know how in the trailer the character shoots incredibly fast? I'm 99% sure that THIS is a weapon art for the bow. Slow firing will be normal R1, and L2 will enable lightning fast firing.
VaatiVidya
2015-08-09 01:08:39 +0000 UTCi'm assuming you didn't meet with any friendly npcs in the demo, or you would have mentioned it. that's what i'm most anxious to know about. if you came across the hub world please say something about that. was there any location with music, like in firelink shrine? and how was the ambiance? was it really *THERE* as in being loud or particular, or was it more like unnoticeable standard background noise.
hans
2015-08-08 18:39:09 +0000 UTCthey are gone as far as we know, i believe he mentioned it in the video.
hans
2015-08-08 18:24:14 +0000 UTCWhat about healing, are life gems gone? Please say that they are..! :)
Morten Mosen
2015-08-08 16:52:35 +0000 UTCDo bows/crossbows have weapon arts?
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-08 16:45:33 +0000 UTCIf there is magic, is there weapon arts for wands/staves?
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-08 16:30:13 +0000 UTCMore specifically (for me) is there closure for things like, how do you get the Dark Sign and who is the Crow?
Hollow Invasion
2015-08-08 16:28:14 +0000 UTCAny word on magic? My one gripe with Bloodborne was I couldn't be a mage, my preferred play style, (I'd of settled for some kind of alchemist or occult doctor) I know they said classes would be making a return, but I've found little to no info on magic or being able to play a pure mage like in previous entries.
BlitzAceRush
2015-08-08 15:02:26 +0000 UTCIs there any info or clue as to what's going on story wise on whats going to be happening now?
Suirad Smailliw
2015-08-08 12:42:24 +0000 UTCMy 5-minute gamescom impression was that Dark Souls 3's pace is deliberately aimed to be somewhere in between DS1 and Bloodborne. Would you agree with that and if yes, do you (personally, subjectively) think it's a wise decision for the overall engagement?
Ragnar
2015-08-08 11:32:58 +0000 UTCso how does the bonfire mechanic work? from the footage in your video and from early sources it hinted that we could make our own bonfires, is that the case or is it just another way of activating a bonfire?
Procene
2015-08-08 10:46:55 +0000 UTCHas there been any word or hint who the main character is? Are you the same undead from Darksouls 2 due to the fact he or she became a true immortal with the Kings Crowns?
Logan John Marshall-Medlock
2015-08-08 10:19:46 +0000 UTCWere there specific class names for the bulids you could play in the bulid your few hours and any "oddly named " ones? (I.E. Royalty /Pyromancer/ Explorer)
That black guy
2015-08-08 10:01:29 +0000 UTC
