Dark Souls is NOT a Metroidvania

[samuraigaiden]

People seem to be confused about this apparently.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

We already had this discussion in the other thread man:

Dungeon Crawler's/Metroidvania's is the more correct term as exploration is their focus and not the combat (although this changed with Bloodborne)

I dispute this notion. Dark Souls only rewards combat. It doesn't have any exploration focused power ups and and even items are mostly either dropped by enemies or bought with the currency you get from combat.

I agree that the game heavly relys on combat to "create" difficulty, but I still would say the game is more of Dungeon Crawler than a proper Hack 'n' Slash like Severance or NIOH are.
For starters both DeS and DS are King's Field spiritual sucessors - a game that itself is a spiritual sucessor to Ultima Underworld (only difference being in 3rd person); secondly the world design and it's mysteries are clearly the aspects of the game that got more focus and not the combat - also when you compare DS combat to that of other good hack 'n' slash games you realise DS combat is not remarkable in any way; and lastly (and this is something DeS does very well), the game just has to many damn unconvential design decisions and "curveballs" to feel like a tradional action game (just think on the amount of non-bosses DeS has).

Also the power ups (the itens and spells) are only gained if you explore the game's locations, and alot of them even require you to partake in quests and factions.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Its soulsbornevania.

 

[Catacombs]

lmao what?

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

I've never played it, so I wouldn't know. Kinda wish this forum supported null voting (or abstention, or whatever) 'cause I'm nosy and wanna see the results anyway.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

I've never once heard of Dark Souls being called a Metroidvania game until now.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Catacombs]

I've never once heard of Dark Souls being called a Metroidvania game until now.

/thread

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

If you shoot a gun even once in a game, it is a Doom clone. Everyone knows this.

 

[Villagkouras]

Of course, it's a dungeon crawler.

 

[Zarniwoop]

every game is an RPG

Fixed

 

[samuraigaiden]

Whether you like it or not, clearly Dark Souls spawned a subgenre of it's own.

However, if we were to situate it in a pre-existing genre, it's got a lot more in common with third person hack and slash role-playing games, such as Severance Blade of Darkness and Enclave.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

If you can jump, a game is Mario-like.

 

[Ysaye]

Dark Souls is also clearly metaphysics because as Wittgenstein (would have) said, saying you "You died." has no linguistic meaning, as those that are dead cannot understand it's meaning outside of it referring to the language of those that haven't.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

dark souls is an edgy cat mario clone

 

[CyberWhale]

Yes it is. In fact, it's much closer to it than any 3D Castlevania titles.

 

[Viata]

every game is soulslike and metroidlike

 

[Cholo]

actually it is r*tard

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Whether you like it or not, clearly Dark Souls spawned a subgenre of it's own.

However, if we were to situate it in a pre-existing genre, it's got a lot more in common with third person hack and slash role-playing games, such as Severance Blade of Darkness and Enclave.

Demon's Souls/Dark Souls 1:
>Spiritual Sucessor to King's Field, which is a spiritual sucessor to Ultima Underworld a Dungeon Crawler and game with huge similarities in terms of design phylosophy to System Shock 1 and even Super Metroid/Metroid Prime. Like...
>Open World - or rather large interconnected areas that are gated off by natural obstacles that can only be unlocked by exploring and acquiring the items and power-ups that unlock it. There's a big deal of backtracking because of this;
>Locations are built like real places - for example look at shortcuts, they aren't inexplicably one sided gates or needlessly complicated elevators they are blockades to keep intruders out or mechanisms to transport materials (basically they are not presented like the world was built for your convienence or like a "gamey" level). Enemy and item placement (plus the enemy design) are also carefully made to suit the area in question in regards to it's design and story, and not it's combat challenge;
>There's a lot of liberty in building in your PC;
>Focus on the exploration, athmosphere, narrative, combat and specially the level design;
>Good combat system but in no way remarkable, complex or very tighly designed. It mostly serves to create the difficulty of the game, a way to garantee the player can't use strong items/abillities early in game and reinforce the death/hollow themes of the story. It's not the core of the experience;
>Gameplay consists of combat, exploration and completing quests;
>Narrative is very rarely told through cutscenes. In fact the story behind the game's world and plot can be completely missed. The player discovers it by examing the enviroment, reading lore, talking to NPC's and completing quests;
>The game's have alot some unconventional design choices. Some which completly go against what an hack 'n' slash game is and how it should be designed - a very good example, non-bosses like King Allant and Maiden Astrea. And even some of the more traditional bosses reward more quick thinking and clever tactics than actual skill with the game - for example: Tower Knigth, Phalanx, Leechmonger, Fools Idol, Old Hero.


Severance:
>Mission based;
>Locations and item/enemy placement is built like a videogame level;
>There's small liberty in how you build your PC;
>Very high focus on enemy design and combat mechanics. Level design serves to make enemy encounters more challenging and not to enchance the athmosphere/story. Plus it's progression is mostly linear, so all in all it isn't a very focused aspect of the game;
>Very good and remarkable combat system that makes the core of the experience;
>Gameplay loop consists of killing anyhting that moves and key hunting;
>Narrative is told solely through cutscenes;
>All bosses function as a test of your skill with the combat. There are no non-bosses or other unconvential design decisions.


Yeah, these 2 games are really very much alike indeed.

 

[aweigh]

everyone knows metroidvanias are just king's field clones

 

[Viata]

At the end of the day, it's all pong's clone.

 

[Somberlain]

It's the Dark Souls of metroidvanias.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

Dark Souls always sounded like a ripoff of some coalburner porn title. Coalburnvania.

 

[Machocruz]

I've never once heard of Dark Souls being called a Metroidvania game until now.

They do over at RockPaperShitgun

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

Dark Souls always sounded like a ripoff of some coalburner porn title. Coalburnvania.

You think about african-american penises too much.