Hey guys, I'm pretty new to the forums. I'm a Dark Souls addict, so I feel right at home.
I have had a very distinct feeling lately that this DLC was supposed to
be in the game to begin with. This is not a rage thread or anything though, I'm quite happy to have spent 10 pounds for this, as I love Dark Souls and meeting Artorias and co. and having new stuff to explore was pretty cool. Still, I'm convinced this material shouldn't have been sold separately. I'll be mentioning a couple of points where I think the evidence supports my theory, but I warn you, wall of text ahead. (Disclaimer: This is merely my opinion, just wanting to share my thoughts)
a) I said in another thread I had read an interview with Miyazaki about DLC and I found it. Link is here.
It reads:
Sure, it doesn't rule out the possibility. But this is the guy who has his will with creating the game, he is in charge of it and his opinion seems to be that he's not a fan of DLC. He favours complete packages as mentioned. You can argue things change, but I have the impression that this man wouldn't change his principles, which at the end of the day I think is what this is about. DLC is rarely if ever done to add new, unforeseen content that was brought up through game popularity and demand. DLC is done for capitalism' sake and planned months before release date. Worth remembering nowadays we have DLC season passes... A whole bunch of content not included with the initial package so it can be profitable from later on and passed in as extra work, except it was done during game developing time. Anyway, I digress...
b)
The content isn't late game. Its access is not granted after we've gone past the finale of the game, but in the middle of it. So it's not so much extra content, using the word extra as a continuation, but more of an extra area if one fully explores the game once you have said DLC. When the player encounters this area the design seems as if it's supposed to be a surprise, and a reward for exploration, just like Painting of Ariamis. PoA exists in a very similar manner to the DLC, you find an item through exploration, you stumble on to the area, which you've been previously, with said item and a new interaction occurs bringing you to your reward - new area with more loot, etc. If you were making new content, would you add content for the middle of the game? Not saying it's absurd, but at least, less sensible to me anyway.
c) It doesn't make a lot of sense business wise, from my perspective, that one would add extra content for a port version of the game which was released based on a petition. This petition had a lot of signatures, thankfully, but they still didn't know how well this version would sell when you consider that a lot of signers might not be interested in playing the same upon its release, some might pirate it, and 90k signatures isn't a lot when you need to sell a game; so why would you spend extra money with programmers, designers, etc. on producing new content for a version of which you wouldn't know how well it would succeed? Again, you can counter argue this just as easy, but to me it doesn't make a lot of sense. Specially since your original platforms sold pretty well.
d) Strongest evidence I found so far:
I was looking through the artwork book the other day, I got it because I pre-ordered the game at the time. Well, first thing that I thought was slightly weird was that in the Stone Giant's artwork, it also seemed to show the Giants of the Royal Woods in their armour. A couple of pages after, I found the Chester fella artwork. And finally, before Gwyn's artwork, is the Sanctuary Guardian one. And let me tell you, they look exactly the same as in game. Again you can argue... maybe they dropped it and then thought it was cool to use them afterwards. To me, it sounds like they may have ran out of time to implement it. Remember, these artwork pictures are old. They are done before, or during game developing time, so at least these things were on their mind back when they were developing the game. I can post these pictures if people are interested in seeing them.
e) Not very strong evidence, just a theory really. The pendant. The pendant that has no effect or use, but is supposed to have a secret effect since the director itself said it did, on more than one occasion. However... so far, no actual use has been found. Without delving into the existing pendant theories, I only wanted to mention the idea that the item that lets you into the DLC is a 'broken pedant'. The difference between a person who has the DLC bought and a person who doesn't is the fact that the golem drops this item. The question is simple, could the original pendant be the originally intended portal to Oolacile? Was that its original intent? Two items called pedant, one is new as is a portal, one is old and has no use. Food for thought here.
Now I want to state again... I love FROM. I love the Souls' games. I don't blame FROM even as I truly believe this DLC content should've been in the game to begin with. Miyazaki is a stand up guy who keeps taking risks with gaming which nowadays is unbelievably rare. I can only hope more games from FROM are released. I believe the publishers are the ones to blame, they are the ones who push the developers to hurry up and shut up when it's time to make money. After all, it's side content, nobody will really miss it.
Thanks for reading.
I have had a very distinct feeling lately that this DLC was supposed to
be in the game to begin with. This is not a rage thread or anything though, I'm quite happy to have spent 10 pounds for this, as I love Dark Souls and meeting Artorias and co. and having new stuff to explore was pretty cool. Still, I'm convinced this material shouldn't have been sold separately. I'll be mentioning a couple of points where I think the evidence supports my theory, but I warn you, wall of text ahead. (Disclaimer: This is merely my opinion, just wanting to share my thoughts)
a) I said in another thread I had read an interview with Miyazaki about DLC and I found it. Link is here.
It reads:
Namco has previously stated that there are no plans for Dark Souls
DLC, and you similarly did not do downloadable additions for Demon’s
Souls. Is there a reason that you don’t think DLC works well for the
Souls games or could you see that being a possibility in the future?
My point of view for DLC is as follows: Items such as strong weapons,
spells, and armor are rewards for players for being able to overcome a
difficulty. So I am not going to provide those items as DLC. Also, I
wanted to create a complete package of the game without adding any DLC.
That is the reason why I am not planning any DLC for Dark Souls.
Sure, it doesn't rule out the possibility. But this is the guy who has his will with creating the game, he is in charge of it and his opinion seems to be that he's not a fan of DLC. He favours complete packages as mentioned. You can argue things change, but I have the impression that this man wouldn't change his principles, which at the end of the day I think is what this is about. DLC is rarely if ever done to add new, unforeseen content that was brought up through game popularity and demand. DLC is done for capitalism' sake and planned months before release date. Worth remembering nowadays we have DLC season passes... A whole bunch of content not included with the initial package so it can be profitable from later on and passed in as extra work, except it was done during game developing time. Anyway, I digress...
b)
The content isn't late game. Its access is not granted after we've gone past the finale of the game, but in the middle of it. So it's not so much extra content, using the word extra as a continuation, but more of an extra area if one fully explores the game once you have said DLC. When the player encounters this area the design seems as if it's supposed to be a surprise, and a reward for exploration, just like Painting of Ariamis. PoA exists in a very similar manner to the DLC, you find an item through exploration, you stumble on to the area, which you've been previously, with said item and a new interaction occurs bringing you to your reward - new area with more loot, etc. If you were making new content, would you add content for the middle of the game? Not saying it's absurd, but at least, less sensible to me anyway.
c) It doesn't make a lot of sense business wise, from my perspective, that one would add extra content for a port version of the game which was released based on a petition. This petition had a lot of signatures, thankfully, but they still didn't know how well this version would sell when you consider that a lot of signers might not be interested in playing the same upon its release, some might pirate it, and 90k signatures isn't a lot when you need to sell a game; so why would you spend extra money with programmers, designers, etc. on producing new content for a version of which you wouldn't know how well it would succeed? Again, you can counter argue this just as easy, but to me it doesn't make a lot of sense. Specially since your original platforms sold pretty well.
d) Strongest evidence I found so far:
I was looking through the artwork book the other day, I got it because I pre-ordered the game at the time. Well, first thing that I thought was slightly weird was that in the Stone Giant's artwork, it also seemed to show the Giants of the Royal Woods in their armour. A couple of pages after, I found the Chester fella artwork. And finally, before Gwyn's artwork, is the Sanctuary Guardian one. And let me tell you, they look exactly the same as in game. Again you can argue... maybe they dropped it and then thought it was cool to use them afterwards. To me, it sounds like they may have ran out of time to implement it. Remember, these artwork pictures are old. They are done before, or during game developing time, so at least these things were on their mind back when they were developing the game. I can post these pictures if people are interested in seeing them.
e) Not very strong evidence, just a theory really. The pendant. The pendant that has no effect or use, but is supposed to have a secret effect since the director itself said it did, on more than one occasion. However... so far, no actual use has been found. Without delving into the existing pendant theories, I only wanted to mention the idea that the item that lets you into the DLC is a 'broken pedant'. The difference between a person who has the DLC bought and a person who doesn't is the fact that the golem drops this item. The question is simple, could the original pendant be the originally intended portal to Oolacile? Was that its original intent? Two items called pedant, one is new as is a portal, one is old and has no use. Food for thought here.
Now I want to state again... I love FROM. I love the Souls' games. I don't blame FROM even as I truly believe this DLC content should've been in the game to begin with. Miyazaki is a stand up guy who keeps taking risks with gaming which nowadays is unbelievably rare. I can only hope more games from FROM are released. I believe the publishers are the ones to blame, they are the ones who push the developers to hurry up and shut up when it's time to make money. After all, it's side content, nobody will really miss it.
Thanks for reading.
Last edited by sinspaw on Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:10 pm; edited 1 time in total