New Dark Souls details emerge from Japan mag

By Debabrata Nath

The new issue of Dengeki Playstation magazine’s carrying a preview of incoming RPG Dark Souls and an interview with director Hidetaka Miyazaki. There’s plenty of new stuff here.

It’s all been translated by a NeoGaF mod.

Here’s the lot:

• The team received a lot of feedback from Demon’s Souls fans, and Miyazaki’s really excited to be working on a game which is eagerly expected by so many people, but it also means he feels a lot of pressure. After working for a long time on this game, the team’s nearing the final stages of development, and he’s pretty happy about it.
• Miyazaki said it’s tricky thing to market this game properly, and the release of information is something that the team’s trying to get just so. Because the nature of the game is such that it’s meant to surprise the player, the developers don’t want to give everything away. At the same time, if they don’t reveal much at all, it feels like they’re not communicating with the fanbase. He’s trying to find a balance.
• Dark Souls is not a narrative-driven RPG, even though it has a story. The setting is one where the main character is an “Undying” who comes back to life even after being killed. He has cast himself out from normal society.
• There is a new Oath system. This is one of the elements of the mutual roleplaying system previously reported. Basically, as the player explores the world and plays the game, there will be certain discoveries which allows the player to make an oath to a person or on a specific subject. Some of these discoveries can be pretty rare.
• When an Oath is made, it determines the player’s position on that topic, and will impact the player’s interactions with other players online. This could mean that making an Oath for something could make you allies with another player, or deadly enemies. The Oath system is not an all encompassing fixed alliance like a MMO guild; instead it should be thought of as a system which serves as a guide for active roleplaying.
• The director also said that one of the most important things in terms of designing the game is emphasizing the importance of healing items and how useful they can be. Because of this, a lot of effort has been put into placing healing items around the world in the right places, so when the player works a little to look for stuff, there is a genuine feeling of satisfaction when such items are found.
• Because of how important healing items are, the Campfire system being used in part to create healing items is something put in so beginner players will not find themselves completely stuck when playing the game.
• Dark Souls is going to be a pretty hard game, but the director feels it’s a positive thing because the challenge gives the game value. Miyazaki wants Dark Souls to be considered an “intriguing game”, and the team’s keeping that in mind as it finishes the project.
• So far, information released constitutes about a fifth of the total amount of details the team plans on revealing before release.

From Software’s confirmed that Dark Souls will last up to 60 hours, and that no DLC or demo is being planned for the title.

You can read previously released details for the game over here.

Dark Souls, the spiritual successor of Demons’ Souls, is slated to release by end of this year for PS3 and Xbox 360.