Meaning Behind Accessibility

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/12/17/dark-souls-ii-director-on-making-the-sequel-more-accessible.aspx?PageIndex=2&CommentPosted=true#commentmessage



The new director explained a bit deeper on what he means by more accessibility. What I get from it is that more then likely the tutorial will be more explanatory and hold the players hand through that part. As well as perhaps a lot more of the story this game being presented to the player. Doesn't sound like anything that will ruin the experience of the gameplay, thus far.

Oh good. That means I can kill people casually.

Lol. If you can't figure it out, you don't deserve to. The challenge is in learning not doing, the challenge is gone if things are explained for you.

Forum Pirate wrote:Lol. If you can't figure it out, you don't deserve to. The challenge is in learning not doing, the challenge is gone if things are explained for you.

Now that's not entirely true a game telling you that you can parry doesn't mean it makes landing a parry easier. Also is not knowing what poise is really a challenge? no it's more of a annoyance now if you are like me you saw the explanation button and knew what it did right when you started but for people less observant.. But now i do agree i don't want darksouls 2 yelling in your face about everything but i don't think they will do that.

Forum Pirate wrote:Lol. If you can't figure it out, you don't deserve to. The challenge is in learning not doing, the challenge is gone if things are explained for you.

There is no challenge in leaving the game and looking up the info on a wiki. Good game design makes the application of the information a challenge.

A person who is skilled at something is someone who has become very good at their ability to apply the knowledge well.

Thats not dks. Having played demons, dark was a breaze where demons was a b*tch and a half. Call it what you will, but the soul series isn't hard once you know whats going on, unlike say devil may cry 3 on hard+, which is always hard.

Forum Pirate wrote:Thats not dks. Having played demons, dark was a breaze where demons was a b*tch and a half. Call it what you will, but the soul series isn't hard once you know whats going on, unlike say devil may cry 3 on hard+, which is always hard.

Maybe i missed something but i don't think anyone said darksouls is hard...I mean once you know what to do in any game is it really hard?

Yes. If the challenge is in doing, like in super meat boy.

But in general we all agree that most games once you beat it becomes a breeze. and even then Super meat boy is easiER when you have beat it.

Forum, what's wrong with you?
You as a player have the right to know all your basics. It's not like they'll just go in and say "The poise breakpoint for blah is yah". No they are going to say "Poise is for resisting stagger", then you as the player can decide whether or not to research the breakpoints.

You act as if they are going to give us a tutorial on how to fight every single enemy and boss in this game.

I do think that it would not necessarily be a bad thing to have ingame explanations of some of the game mechanics.... explanations of things like poise, covenants, etc will not detract from the experience. If a new player is not actively searching online/a part of the community when they begin Dark Souls, it can be downright hostile. I KNOW that people are already going to say 'yes, its supposed to be hostile', however, I think that having a somewhat firmer understanding of the games mechanics is not going to detract from the intended hostility, ie what the games designers had in mind. The game is still hard even with a basic understanding of mechanics. It should be. The difficulty should not stem from wondering why the HELL you get staggered everytime you get hit, or wondering why the game was advertised as you being able to summon help, and wondering why you cant see any signs cos you don't know that you have to be in living mode to see them. I think the confusion repels allot of players that could potentially improve upon the already great community. Heck, having more people play would only make things better. I know I am not having fun when I invade someone who is obviously a noob. How much fun is it fighting someone with 0 poise and a drake sword at lvl 60+? It can obviously detract from the experience for everybody if elements of core game mechanics are kept to much of a mystery from the player. I think an open mind about the directors ideas with regards to accessibility is the best for now. It could be good, or bad, dependant on how far they take it.

You cab get those description in the stats screen by pressing select, and I'm pretty sure the stats screen even tells you that.

As a general rule, gamers are usually simple enough that simply pressing every button a couple times and exploring the menu will get you the basics, the soul series is no exception. You might miss parries, maybe but thats not really a basic technique so it shouldn't be explained.

I'm so sick of the hour of irritating pandering at the beginning of every game that its not even funny.

The basic information is all there, if you're to lazy to find it then play a different game.

If the game is good I don't care how things are teached to us.

Totally agree with you Forum!

And to be honest, for my first 50-100h of DkS I didnt even know there was auto-lock.But most things in the game are logic even if its hard to get it the first time.

I really hope that you could skip tutorial if it's something major, but I hope he'll do like with monster hunter: Run to the training area if you dont get it. I hate to get forced to do the same things over and over again for choosing "new game"-option in games

Fourm first off you are acting like everyone who is not sharing the same opinion as you want them to completely dumb-down darksouls no that's not what any darksouls fan wants what we are talking about is maybe the game to tell us how to summon phantoms hell maybe it could just hint at you how to summon phantoms but i don't think darksouls does that (Correct me if i am wrong)

Reading the last part of the article somewhat puts me at ease.

Shibuya wants to keep the difficulty and the mytery elements even if he is going to make them more clear. To me that only really suggests more explainations and links within those item explainations....or maybe some dialogues that directly allude to people and events.

Not all that bad IMO.

It doesn't tell you that you have to be human, but they could simply add a status indicator (ie hollow or human) in the stats screen and explain it like they do the other stats instead of creating a tutorial.

As for the cov system, i believe its deliberately vauge to reflect the secretive nature of the covs. One isn't simply told how to find the group of assassins that stalk the land. Conversly, the sunbros/white/hunters are more forward about recruiting

What I did like about the covs things is he said you will be rewarded for joining the various factions.

Thats great. Some of the DKS covs werent even worth joining because they didnt do anything WoW and Princess Guard, were underwhelming Gravelords, or were too beneficial to pass up DM or DW etc.

Oh fourm don't get me wrong i don't want them to touch the secret of the Covs. i mean one does not simply join the darkwraiths. what i like is that they point to you that there is something in the abyss as it is the house of the four kings bosses you need to beat and you can fight them before you get the lordvessel which hints at the being something of secret down there. (KEEP THIS FROM)

Dms are just as secrative. Optional 2 optional areas (the room with the ring and the room with the statue) are necessary to join and the only hint is their name in the indictment description. I want to learn that myself, why should how to parry (just an example) be any different.

Btw Glgsd is amazing, more than enough reason to be a gl if you have faith or int (velkas talismine)

Umm....Dark Souls explained parry in the tutorial...

Oh yeah. The asylum. Forgot thats real. It takes 5 minutes. Thats all the tutorial it needs. (I'd prefer the option to skip that too) Here's the Basic actions, go! is a great approach for most games imo.

The only games I'd do it differently for are games like street fighterXtekken where there are a good 20 mechanics necessary to even finish the game on higher difficulties.

I think Undead Asylum was fine. It had place in the lore and the area is kinda cool + the messages could be skipped (never even read all of them ).

While I don't want something that's unreasonably long, I'm cool with something that's about a half hour to 45 minutes. I just want the freedom to be able to skip it if I want.

To be honest, the first time I play, I will want to play through that part for two reasons:

1. See how well its actually done, and if it actually helps players, or was a waste of resources,
2. It will be a quick way to introduce me to any new features that were not in any of the previous games.

But no, don't explain to me all of the different ways that I can apply a particular mechanic. Just give me the basic understanding of it, and let me explore it myself. That's what depth is about, and depth is what's fun.

Perhaps it can be a place that I can come back to whenever I want to test out a new build, weapon, or armor set.