Chapter 593: Isn't the Whole Point of Playing This Game to Suffer?
A *Dark Souls* enthusiast suddenly realized something: "Right, little fatty, didn't you say the *Dark Souls* prequel was super fun? Then why don't you hurry up and keep playing? We're all waiting for you to put out a guide!"
Another player chimed in: "Yeah, get back in your game pod and keep playing. You're the only one who can play it right now, and you're still slacking off outside?!"
Zou Zhuo: "???"
He was practically surrounded and shoved back to his game pod by a group of *Dark Souls* fans.
Zou Zhuo wished he could slap himself. Why did he have to run his mouth and say, "The *Dark Souls* prequel is really fun"? Wasn't he just screwing himself over...
Now he was trapped at the entrance of his game pod by a crowd, and there was no way he was getting out today without maxing out his playtime in the pod...
...
As for the *Dark Souls* prequel, the main content was based on the content of Chen Mo's previous life's *Dark Souls 1*, of course, mainly referring to the story and level design.
In terms of the combat system, Chen Mo retained some of the more distinctive weapons and spells from the first game, rebalanced them, and made some adjustments to weapons like the greatswords and the halberd.
At the same time, he also considered making it closer to the weapon system of *Dark Souls 3*, making it easier for players to pick up.
Additionally, since the scenes and models had to be converted to a VR version, the art resources were essentially completely redone. While maintaining the art style of *Dark Souls*, the model precision, animations, and physics collisions all saw a qualitative leap.
In the VR version of the *Dark Souls* prequel, Anor Londo would be a massive city. When players walked through it, they would definitely feel a sense of being in another world.
Furthermore, what *Dark Souls 1* was most praised for was its excellent level design. The levels were not only filled with puzzle-solving elements but also traps and schemes everywhere.
The most crucial point was that the entire scene map was crafted into a huge, perfect whole, divided into upper, middle, and lower layers. The Firelink Shrine happened to be right in the center of the entire map, radiating out in all directions.
Regarding the issue of not being able to teleport from bonfires, Chen Mo made no changes. Because the entire gameplay design of *Dark Souls 1* was highly mature, and changing one thing would affect everything else; it would be easy to create problems by altering it.
In *Dark Souls 1*, bonfires could not be teleported from. Only after entering Anor Londo and obtaining the Lordvessel could players freely teleport between bonfires.
If this were *Dark Souls 3*, this situation would definitely be a huge pain, with players having to run a lot of unnecessary paths. But *Dark Souls 1* didn't have such a serious problem, precisely because of its outstanding level design.
The entire map was filled with many shortcuts. The Firelink Shrine, as the center of the entire map, was well-connected, making it very convenient to reach many places.
Combined with the ability to upgrade bonfires and repair weapons, basically, any operations players needed to perform at the Firelink Shrine in *Dark Souls 3* could be done at a bonfire here.
Moreover, the fact that teleportation was only possible after obtaining the Lordvessel was also a very key highlight for players in the mid-game.
So, although not being able to teleport was especially annoying, this design had its internal logic. If it were changed to allow teleportation, it would affect the entire gameplay, so Chen Mo chose to keep this design.
For skilled players, whether they could teleport or not didn't make much difference, because they would calculate the optimal routes. For newbies... well, next topic.
Additionally, in the previous life, *Dark Souls* was limited by budget issues, and many storylines weren't fully realized, such as Oscar's storyline. In the original design, Oscar was supposed to escape the Undead Asylum with the protagonist, grow together with them, and eventually arrive together at the First Flame.
But due to insufficient funds, this storyline was completely cut. Oscar, after giving the player the key, was knocked off the roof by a demon, and before dying, handed the Estus Flask and key to the player, becoming a guiding NPC.
When the player returned to the Undead Asylum, Oscar had already become a Hollow and very cleanly met his end.
For Chen Mo, budget was never an issue, and this storyline wasn't too difficult to implement, so he completed Oscar's storyline according to his own ideas.
Of course, the biggest difference between *Dark Souls 1* and *Dark Souls 3* was the atmosphere.
All players who had played *Dark Souls 1* shared the same feeling: *Dark Souls 1* was more oppressive than *Dark Souls 3*.
The oppression came from multiple aspects: a lonelier atmosphere, darker environments, more and stronger enemies, and so on. Strictly speaking, *Dark Souls 1* was indeed very difficult, and from a design perspective, it wasn't a very crowd-pleasing design.
*Dark Souls 3* had many designs aimed at reducing the difficulty, yet there were still so many players who chose to give up, which was enough to show that it was a truly hardcore game. Obviously, Hidetaka Miyazaki also hoped that *Dark Souls* could become a game more accessible to the general public, allowing more newcomers to cross that threshold.
Strictly speaking, Chen Mo faithfully recreating the content of *Dark Souls 1* in the *Dark Souls* prequel was a "regressive" move. Clearly, making games easier to pick up was the trend of the era, and hardcore games requiring a lot of practice and memorization were inevitably destined to become niche.
But Chen Mo didn't care. For him, making the *Dark Souls* prequel wasn't about sales; it was about completing *Dark Souls* and making it a classic game that would leave its mark in the history of world VR games. In other words, he wanted to maximize the unique characteristics of *Dark Souls*.
*Dark Souls 1* was like a perfect work of art. Although it was very brutal, its level design, game difficulty, and storyline were all classics. For Chen Mo, even if it meant sacrificing some sales, he had to bring out the essence of this game.
As for whether players would suffer...
Come on, isn't the whole point of playing this game to suffer?
...
Three days later.
The topic of the *Dark Souls* prequel had already been stirred up online. On the eve of the prequel's release, many players were incredibly excited.
Over these three days, many veteran players had already gone to Chen Mo's experience store to try out the *Dark Souls* prequel. Among them were many top-tier players who could clear most bosses in *Dark Souls* without taking damage.
But over these three days, Chen Mo's experience store was practically a scene of wailing and despair...
The players who tried the *Dark Souls* prequel had all already played *Dark Souls*. They originally thought that with their skill level, having cleared *Dark Souls* so proficiently, playing the prequel would be a piece of cake, right?
But they quickly realized they were wrong, and terribly so. Those players who felt good about themselves were all getting brutally beaten in the game...
Besides reasons like more malicious levels, more complex maps, and stronger enemies, there were also other design reasons, such as the Humanity mechanic and the inability to teleport from bonfires, which drove many *Dark Souls* players almost to the brink of collapse.
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