Dark Souls - expansion, not true sequel?

So I played Demon's Souls and loved it, absolutely wonderful game... But I've noticed something slightly disturbing about the Dark Souls gameplay videos that have been coming out recently: the game looks completely identical to Demon's Souls! The UI is the same, the animations are the same, the combat is the same...everything is the same! They didn't even make the effort to improve the crappy ragdoll physics that had dead enemies flailing about all over the place when you walked over them. It's been my experience that games that are essentially retreads of their predecessors and fail to substantially improve and expand upon them almost always disappoint. Yeah, Demon's Souls was great, but give me something more than just reskinned enemies and new environments! How about some new combat mechanics, more significant ways to level up my character (like how Skyrim added perks), something...

Am I missing something here? Have there been improvements made that I'm unaware of or is this game basically Demon's Souls 1.5?

First off, you have not played Dark Souls. So calling it Demon Souls 1.5 is called jumping to conclusions. Second, you have not played Dark Souls. So you have no idea what changes they made. As I understand the added this campfire feature. So that's something new but I'm sure that's not all. mrmusicman247

It is neither an expansion nor a sequel. It is a whole new game. Supposedly it is about 1.5 times bigger than Demon's Souls and is a more open ended game than the first. There won't be a Nexus this time around and it won't be as obvious as to what you are supposed to do. You will be able to swear oaths to NPCs in the game and this will provide you with sidequests to do, as well as pitting you against other people playing the game who may have an opposing goal. I've got a huge thread compiling just about every bit of info you'd ever want here. It is going to be much bigger and hopefully much better than Demon's Souls and it is set in a different universe.

Y'know what? It kinda does feel like a demons souls 1.5. I too watched all the gameplay vidoes and clips and it just... well, i guess your right in a way, it somewhat like an expansion or something to me.

Like Rag said, it's not an expansion (it's stand-alone) or a sequel (Sony owns the Demon's Souls IP and this one is multiplat, so it's just a "spiritual successor"). It remains to be seen if there are any significant improvements or if it really is just a workaround to be able to release their critically-acclaimed game on the 360 (so they can make more money off the concept). Here's to hoping there's some innovation, but, really, the gameplay is already so highly praised by fans of Demon's Souls that a new story will be enough for most people.

People were saying the same thing when Assassin's Creed Brotherhood came out. But it was a full fledged new game when it came out. So I say again. Wait till the game comes out to play it. Also there isn't really that much they should change. Sometimes sequels don't need that much change. mrmusicman247

It is neither an expansion nor a sequel. It is a whole new game. Supposedly it is about 1.5 times bigger than Demon's Souls and is a more open ended game than the first. There won't be a Nexus this time around and it won't be as obvious as to what you are supposed to do. You will be able to swear oaths to NPCs in the game and this will provide you with sidequests to do, as well as pitting you against other people playing the game who may have an opposing goal. I've got a huge thread compiling just about every bit of info you'd ever want here. It is going to be much bigger and hopefully much better than Demon's Souls and it is set in a different universe.

rragnaar

I beleive the new one is like a spiritual succesor?

I think It's also worth pointing out that Demon's Souls had a LOT of hidden content and features. Reading online guides I found out about a lot of things that were only briefly (and vaguely) mentioned in the manual, or not mentioned at all.

The developers have said they are doing the same thing with Dark Souls. But from the sound of it the game entire model is restructured. Down to level design and layout, and how the online interactions between players works.

They of course aren't going to mess with the core gameplay much, if at all. Gameplay vids they release are mostly going to focus on combat and exploration, so It's likely that any of the more subtle differences from the first game will be lost in these videos.

It is neither an expansion nor a sequel. It is a whole new game. Supposedly it is about 1.5 times bigger than Demon's Souls and is a more open ended game than the first. There won't be a Nexus this time around and it won't be as obvious as to what you are supposed to do. You will be able to swear oaths to NPCs in the game and this will provide you with sidequests to do, as well as pitting you against other people playing the game who may have an opposing goal. I've got a huge thread compiling just about every bit of info you'd ever want here. It is going to be much bigger and hopefully much better than Demon's Souls and it is set in a different universe.

rragnaar

People listen to this user!.

I beleive the new one is like a spiritual succesor?

turtlethetaffer

That's how I'm understanding it myself. It's merely a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls; has all the elements of the first except the name in itself. So I think of it as a spritiual sequel. From what Rag told me, Sony screwed up with Demon's Souls, thinking that it wasn't going to sell well and only was on PS3. But since the game did so well, thanks to importers like him, other companies got involved and somehow got the next game to be multiplatform. So really, Dark Souls is exactly how you described it.

[QUOTE="mrmusicman247"]First off, you have not played Dark Souls. So calling it Demon Souls 1.5 is called jumping to conclusions. Second, you have not played Dark Souls. So you have no idea what changes they made. As I understand the added this campfire feature. So that's something new but I'm sure that's not all. jjccjj92