I want to talk about sequels in video games one more time. In the last post, I pointed out some positive things about Scholar of the First Sin, the sequel to the first Dark Souls game. I ended it by talking about a popular FromSoft content creator who was pissed as hell that Elden Ring was designed around spirit summons. I’m not naming the guy, but he’s someone I watched casually in the past. A few months after Elden Ring was released, this guy put out a video that said in time, Elden Ring would be considered the worst FromSoft game. Ever.
I laughed in bemusement because one, it was only a few months after the game had come out. Two, who the hell was this guy to be the final arbiter on what was the worst FromSoft game of all time? Three. He was just wrong–and it was sour grapes. Four. It very much reminded me of fans of a hipster band who got angry when that band got big. “I was a fan before they were popular!”
Did FromSoft take a different tack with this game than with their past games? Yes. Did they balance the boss fights around spirit summons/human summons? Yes. More the former than the latter, but they made it pretty clear that the game was very summon-friendly. They also made it harder to get invaded in that you had to be using the multi-player aspect in order to be invaded. In past games, you could get invaded simply by being human–and in the case of Dark Souls II, when you weren’t human, too. I haaaaaaated that about the sequel because I suck at PvP and was mad that there was no respite from being invaded in that game. In fact, I think the more curse you had, the easier it was to get invaded. So, the opposite of the other games.
It’s funny to me how people claim they want something different, but then insist on playing the games in the exact same way. I watched a video arguing that fighting the bosses solo in Elden Ring was playing on hard mode, and it was a choice players made for themselves. Before this game, I was someone who did fight all the bosses solo (with some exceptions, but I’m not going to get into that).
It’s funny how death changes you, though. Or at least it did me. When I came back form the dead, I was grateful to have another Miyazaki world to explore; I did not care about soloing. At all. I mean, I have done all the main bosses with just the spirit summon, which is this game’s soloing the bosses.
Anyway. Here’s my point. We rail at developers for putting out the same game over and over. And then we rail at them when they change things up. This has always been my observation about Dark Souls II. If it had been called something completely different, I don’t think it would have gotten half the shit it did. But as I said in the last post, it was caught between a rock and a hard place.
I want to add that if Demon’s Souls had been as popular on its first release as Dark Souls eventually turned out to be, then Dark Souls probably would have been judged more harshly. But, because Dark Souls is seen as the first game, it’s hailed as being innovative and mind-blowing. I hasten to add that it was, but it was not without its flaws. And it for sure wasn’t perfect. The second half was rushed and very bare bones because Miyazaki ran out of time. There is one area that is so terrible (and with quite possibly the worst boss in all the games), Miyazaki apologized for it. And, what’s more, he put the area in the third game–but the more complete version of it.
Most fans had raised eeyebrows when Bloodborne was announced because it was much faster than the Souls game. And, you didn’t have a shield*. There was an actual gun as well! Granted, it wasn’t used like a gun in other games–it was to ‘parry’ the enemy so you could riposte them. Many hardcore fans loved this game and gobbled it up, even though it strayed quite afield from the original Souls formula. I mean, all the core concepts were there, but they added several very different twists to what they normally did. Plus, the gothic atmosphere was very different, too.
Then, they did the same thing with Sekiro a few years later. They stripped down the Souls formula to the very bare bones and got as close to throwing it away as possible without acutally doing it. This is a pure action adventure game with no RPG elements at all. No leveling up stats. No changing weapons. No cool armors. Nothing. You are the Lone Wolf. You use the one katana throughout the whole game. And if you don’t/can’t parry (deflect it’s called in this game)? Well, welcome to hell. You may not make it out alive.
They are never content to do the same thing over and over again. But, because of the industry, they have to do the same game over and over again. Or at least have the FromSoft stamp on their games. A game has to be recognizable as their game in order to sell. Or so the story goes.
This is all context for why they were never going to be lauded for Dark Souls II. There was no way for them to live up to the expectations, and I think they would have been better off for not even trying. I said two things yesterday that I want to elaborate on. One, they would have gotten a better reception for this game if they had not called it a sequel. And two, it’s a much better game than people give it credit for.
I recently played it through once again, and, yes, there are issues with it. I named some of them yesterday, but no game is perfect. Watching Rory (from RKG) play it underscored some of the flaws. And, there is one area in the last DLC that is utter trash.
The game has lost some of its luster after playing Elden Ring for the ninety-millionth time, I have to admit. But it still stands up! I will say that putting enemies in rooms with bonfires is bullshit. Bonfires are safety. There is one prominent example of a bonfire room with about a zillion spiders, and it is not appreciated. But, you can light your torch at the bonfire and use that to keep the spiders at bay. I do appreciate that the spiders are afraid of fire (which comes in handy in one boss fight), but not that the spiders are in that room in particular.
Another interesting twist is that there’s a boss you can fight who has ridiculous hyper-armor. If you try to fight him without engaging in the secret mechanic, you may not even do enough damage to even get the fight started. Even if you do, you’ll do maybe 12 damage to him. You have to go collect giant hearts and each one will reduce his hyper defense. If you have none, his damage is divided by 32x. If he has one, it’s 16x, and so on. So you want five giant souls to get his defense to normal. And he still hits like a Mac truck at that point. It’s an interesting mechanic, but the fight itself is extremely tedious.
I’ll write more tomorrow.
*Technically, there’s a shield in the game. Well, two (the second is in the DLC). But the lore on the wooden plank (shield in the main game) says something like, “Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.” In other words, don’t be a baby and don’t use a shield.