WEBVTT 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:10.920 There are a lot of memorable moments in Dark Souls, but there’s one very specific part 00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:12.840 that stuck out for me. 00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:18.990 After arriving in Firelink Shrine, you venture into the Undead Berg, fight the Taurus Demon 00:00:18.990 --> 00:00:24.300 on the bridge, narrowly avoid getting roasted alive by a dragon, find your way to the Undead 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:30.880 Parish, fight past giant soldiers in the church, take this random elevator down, and arrive 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:32.860 all the way back at… 00:00:32.860 --> 00:00:33.980 Firelink Shrine. 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:40.320 It’s at this moment you realise that the world of Dark Souls is very different to most 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:41.410 other games. 00:00:41.410 --> 00:00:47.620 It’s not a linear series of zones - but a complex, maze-like world that branches off 00:00:47.620 --> 00:00:53.070 into different areas, then loops back around on itself through shortcuts and elevators. 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:58.540 It seems to snap together like a fancy 3D jigsaw puzzle, and exploring this world feels 00:00:58.540 --> 00:01:02.820 like navigating a Metroid map, or a Zelda dungeon. 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:07.909 Which is why I’m dedicating this special spin-off episode of Boss Keys to the world 00:01:07.909 --> 00:01:09.359 of Dark Souls 1. 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:14.110 I’m going to be looking at how this world is put together, the advantages and disadvantages 00:01:14.110 --> 00:01:19.159 of non-linear world design, and how Dark Souls has even more in common with Zelda than you 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:20.159 might think. 00:01:20.160 --> 00:01:26.460 So, buckle up and come with me, Mark Brown, on a journey to the fantasy kingdom of Lordran. 00:01:29.630 --> 00:01:33.300 To start, we should identify the basic structure of Dark Souls. 00:01:33.310 --> 00:01:37.749 And I think this game fits quite neatly into five distinct acts. 00:01:37.749 --> 00:01:42.359 There’s the intro, in the Undead Asylum, where we learn the ropes and defeat the first 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:44.399 boss: the Asylum Demon. 00:01:44.399 --> 00:01:49.850 Then, for act two, we’re in Lordran proper and must ring the two bells of awakening. 00:01:49.850 --> 00:01:54.450 One can be found after we fight the Bell Gargoyles on top of the Undead Parish, and the other 00:01:54.450 --> 00:01:57.219 is behind Quelaag, down in Blighttown. 00:01:57.219 --> 00:02:01.869 You can do these in either order, but most first time players will do the church first. 00:02:01.869 --> 00:02:07.189 Then, for act three, it’s off to Sen’s Fortress - which is a sort of nightmare funhouse. 00:02:07.189 --> 00:02:12.850 And then we head to Anor Londo, where we fight Ornstein and Smough, and receive the Lordvessel. 00:02:12.850 --> 00:02:18.159 Now, in act four, the game tasks you with retrieving the four Lord Souls. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:23.070 These are collected by defeating bosses who are found in new areas - but ones that are 00:02:23.070 --> 00:02:27.599 just off from places you may have visited before: there’s Gravelord Nito in the Valley 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:33.510 of the Giants, Seath the Scaleless in Duke’s Archives, the Four Kings in New Londo Ruins, 00:02:33.510 --> 00:02:36.239 and The Bed of Chaos in Lost Izaleth. 00:02:36.239 --> 00:02:40.939 These often have other bosses along the way, like Sif and Pinwheel, and all of this can 00:02:40.939 --> 00:02:43.290 be done in absolutely any order you like. 00:02:43.290 --> 00:02:48.609 When you’ve got all four, it’s on to the final area and the last boss, Gwyn: Lord of 00:02:48.609 --> 00:02:50.859 Cinder, for act five. 00:02:50.859 --> 00:02:54.519 So, I think this works really nicely. 00:02:54.519 --> 00:03:00.200 Acts 1, 3, and 5 are very linear and have a sense of forward momentum to them. 00:03:00.200 --> 00:03:03.870 While acts 2 and 4 are more open, and branching. 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:07.430 It’s an accordion like structure that is actually… very familiar. 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:13.430 You see, the basic outline of Dark Souls is near identical to the basic outline… of 00:03:13.430 --> 00:03:16.400 Zelda: A Link to the Past. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:21.220 In that game there’s an intro, and then some early dungeons that can be done out of order. 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:26.560 Then the path constricts for Hyrule Castle, but then branches out widely as you re-explore 00:03:26.579 --> 00:03:31.799 old areas, now with access to the dark world, to tackle the tougher dungeons in largely 00:03:31.799 --> 00:03:33.329 whatever order you like. 00:03:33.329 --> 00:03:36.840 Then the path constricts one final time for the battle against Ganon. 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:41.599 Perhaps it’s not surprising, given how Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has spoken about 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:45.420 his admiration for the Zelda series, but I think it’s a very interesting parallel nonetheless. 00:03:45.420 --> 00:03:49.900 But then again, while this does describe the path that most players take - this isn’t 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:54.209 a completely accurate portrayal of how Dark Souls is laid out. 00:03:54.209 --> 00:03:56.609 You can actually do lots of stuff out of order. 00:03:56.609 --> 00:04:01.550 You can kill Pinwheel at any time after arriving in Lordran, you can kill Sif and the Four 00:04:01.550 --> 00:04:06.430 Kings before ever visiting Anor Londo, and you can kill the Ceaseless Discharge as soon 00:04:06.430 --> 00:04:08.349 as you’ve finished off Quelaag. 00:04:08.349 --> 00:04:10.760 And you can skip some of these bosses entirely. 00:04:10.760 --> 00:04:15.639 If you take a secret route to Blighttown through Darkroot Basin, you can skip the Capra Demon 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:16.870 and the Gaping Dragon. 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:21.000 If you help out Solaire you can skip the Demon Firesage and the Centipede Demon. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.430 And if you choose the Master Key as your initial gift, you can even dodge the Taurus Demon. 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:27.370 There sure a lot of Demons in this game. 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:29.880 They should have called it Demon’s Sou...oh wait. 00:04:29.880 --> 00:04:35.949 Uh, plus, there are also four entirely optional bosses - Moonlight butterfly, Stray Demon, Crossbreed 00:04:35.949 --> 00:04:40.700 Priscila, and Dark Sun Gwyndolin - that have no impact on the structure of the game whatsoever. 00:04:40.700 --> 00:04:42.360 They just give you cool goodies. 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:47.490 So the structure of Dark Souls really looks more like… this. 00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:51.360 Not quite as attractive, is it? But it’s a good visual reminder that Dark Souls is 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.370 a game with lots of branching paths. 00:04:54.370 --> 00:04:59.270 Like, when you get to the Undead Parish you can explore the church, or go fight the Moonlight 00:04:59.270 --> 00:05:04.860 Butterfly in Darkroot Garden, or fight this hydra in Darkroot Basin, or go off into the 00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:07.220 Lower Undead Berg and explore from there. 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:11.419 And right from the very beginning of the game, in Firelink Shrine, the player is expected 00:05:11.419 --> 00:05:17.879 to travel up to the Undead Berg but you can, instead, head to the Catacombs, or New Londo Ruins. 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:22.240 All of this gives Dark Souls a very liberating and adventurous feeling. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:25.770 You rarely get the sense that you’re on a predetermined path - but, instead, you’lre 00:05:25.770 --> 00:05:29.530 making your own decisions and following your curiosity through the world. 00:05:29.530 --> 00:05:33.520 And while some of these areas are complete dead ends in terms of overall game progression, 00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:39.090 there are often items in these late game areas that you can get early if you’re brave enough. 00:05:39.090 --> 00:05:43.849 Even a low level player can find the useful Fire Keeper Soul in New Londo Ruins. 00:05:43.849 --> 00:05:45.479 And then run out of there in fear. 00:05:45.479 --> 00:05:50.110 That’s because the area is filled with ghosts that can’t be killed with conventional weapons. 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:54.810 Likewise, the catacombs are filled with regenerating skeletons who will probably kill you if you’re 00:05:54.810 --> 00:05:55.840 at a low level. 00:05:55.840 --> 00:06:00.090 But getting killed is a good way to create a lasting memory in the player’s brain. 00:06:00.090 --> 00:06:03.949 If you go into the Catacombs and get wrecked by skeletons, you’ll spend the next 10 hours 00:06:03.949 --> 00:06:08.180 of the game thinking about coming back to tackle that area when you’re at a higher level. 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:11.220 Which is handy - because that’s where one of the four lords is hiding. 00:06:11.229 --> 00:06:16.789 Now, as i said before, Lordran doesn’t just branch out but it also loops back on itself, with 00:06:16.789 --> 00:06:19.909 connecting points between many of the game’s locations. 00:06:19.909 --> 00:06:23.930 Knock down this ladder, for example, and you not only get to rest at an old bonfire - but 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:29.110 can quickly skip all of this stuff to quickly get from the Undead Berg to the bridge to 00:06:29.110 --> 00:06:30.479 the Undead Parish. 00:06:30.479 --> 00:06:32.289 And then look at Firelink shrine. 00:06:32.289 --> 00:06:36.729 While it initially connects to Undead Berg, the Catacombs, and New Londo Ruins - later 00:06:36.729 --> 00:06:41.199 in the game it will also connect up to the Undead Parish and the Lower Undead Berg. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:44.470 This is achieved through doors that only open from one side. 00:06:44.470 --> 00:06:48.690 So, when you first move through this aqueduct just off Firelink Shrine, you’ll find a 00:06:48.690 --> 00:06:49.820 locked door. 00:06:49.820 --> 00:06:54.030 But later in the game, you’ll permanently open it from the other side. 00:06:54.030 --> 00:06:57.770 This means you’re not overwhelmed with options and branching paths at the beginning - but 00:06:57.770 --> 00:07:01.849 as the game goes on, the world becomes steadily more complex. 00:07:01.849 --> 00:07:06.509 So keeping the connected world of Dark Souls in your head is a difficult job, especially 00:07:06.509 --> 00:07:10.909 because the game has no map screen whatsoever - perhaps a throwback to NES games 00:07:10.909 --> 00:07:12.970 like Metroid 1 and the first Zelda. 00:07:12.970 --> 00:07:17.449 But there’s a quiet satisfaction in being able to navigate this complex kingdom through 00:07:17.449 --> 00:07:18.819 memory alone. 00:07:18.819 --> 00:07:22.789 Whether that’s figuring out the best way to get between two areas, or remembering the 00:07:22.789 --> 00:07:27.750 location of, say, Andre the Blacksmith, or the shopkeeper who sells Purging Stones - and 00:07:27.750 --> 00:07:31.360 then knowing how to get there efficiently and safely 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:36.110 This sort of spatial memory is reminiscent of games like Resident Evil, where a big part 00:07:36.110 --> 00:07:41.100 of the challenge is creating efficient pathways between areas in the Spencer Mansion. 00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:45.909 That sensation is largely gone in the other Souls games, where you can simply fast travel 00:07:45.909 --> 00:07:51.490 between areas, or wrap back to some central hub to find all the shops and upgrade stations. 00:07:51.490 --> 00:07:56.280 I much prefer the way it’s done in Dark Souls 1 because not being able to warp around 00:07:56.280 --> 00:08:02.030 also creates a pretty strong feeling of isolation and, I suppose you could say, homesickness, 00:08:02.030 --> 00:08:04.530 when you venture deep into certain areas. 00:08:04.530 --> 00:08:10.250 Going further and further into the Catacombs or Blighttown, feels legitimately unnerving 00:08:10.250 --> 00:08:14.979 as you’re moving further and further away from safety and familiarity - and if you want 00:08:14.979 --> 00:08:18.389 to return to the surface, you’ll have to literally climb back out. 00:08:18.389 --> 00:08:19.620 You can’t just warp. 00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:24.229 I feel like you also gain a much better understanding of the world by exploring on foot. 00:08:24.229 --> 00:08:25.969 And what a world it is. 00:08:25.969 --> 00:08:31.439 The extremely vertical nature of Lordran lends itself to an initial sensation of going deeper 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:32.439 and deeper. 00:08:32.439 --> 00:08:36.181 The game practically trolls you, giving you a place called The Depths that isn’t even 00:08:36.181 --> 00:08:38.510 close to being the lowest point in the game. 00:08:38.510 --> 00:08:42.770 That area drops down to Blighttown, which drops down to Demon Ruins, and down to Lost 00:08:42.770 --> 00:08:43.780 Izaleth. 00:08:43.780 --> 00:08:50.000 This give the world a real sense of history. Stuff built on top of other stuff. Strata. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:55.400 And then, in stark contrast, Sen’s Fortress and Anor Londo, are are all about climbing 00:08:55.400 --> 00:08:58.600 up, higher and higher, which has a very different feeling. 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:00.380 You get a sense of ascension. 00:09:00.380 --> 00:09:01.380 Rising action. 00:09:01.380 --> 00:09:02.970 It makes you feel heroic. 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:07.190 Miyazaki has said “After ringing the bells and overcoming the traps of Sen's Fortress 00:09:07.190 --> 00:09:09.840 I really wanted to player to feel ‘Yes! 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:11.940 I've made it’.” 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:16.260 It’s worth noting, however, that Dark Souls does not ever suffer from a sense of samey-ness 00:09:16.270 --> 00:09:20.090 - despite the fact that all of the game’s areas must link up to one another. 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:25.390 Each zone still feels distinct - visually, and often from a gameplay perspective as well. 00:09:25.390 --> 00:09:27.780 You’ve got the pitch black Tomb of the Giants. 00:09:27.780 --> 00:09:30.520 The twisting staircases in Duke’s Archives. 00:09:30.520 --> 00:09:33.270 The hazy pathways of Darkroot Garden. 00:09:33.270 --> 00:09:34.480 Traps in Sen’s Fortress. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:35.890 Pitfalls in The Depths. 00:09:35.890 --> 00:09:39.140 Invisible pathways that kinda suck to be honest in the Crystal Caves. 00:09:39.140 --> 00:09:44.630 And then Anor Londo - which is clean, pristine, untouched, and completely different to everything 00:09:44.630 --> 00:09:47.230 you’ve seen before. 00:09:47.230 --> 00:09:52.660 Now, choice, non-linearity, branching paths, and interconnectivity makes for fascinating 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:59.140 world design, but it does pose two significant problems that any game of this sort has to overcome. 00:09:59.140 --> 00:10:01.250 One, is direction. 00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:06.050 If the game isn’t super linear and straightforward, and maybe requires some backtracking, how 00:10:06.050 --> 00:10:07.720 does the player know where to go? 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:11.060 And, I mean, Dark Souls is a famously obtuse game. 00:10:11.060 --> 00:10:15.510 There are no waypoints, no compass, no map screen with a big red X on it. 00:10:15.510 --> 00:10:17.730 You just have to find things for yourself. 00:10:17.730 --> 00:10:23.350 For the first major quest, ringing the two bells of awakening, the execution is… mixed. 00:10:23.350 --> 00:10:25.460 The first bell is very easy to find. 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:29.500 The route to the Undead Parish is largely straightforward, and the top of a church is 00:10:29.500 --> 00:10:31.430 a natural place to find a bell. 00:10:31.430 --> 00:10:35.320 But the second - which is deep down in the ground, is more tricky to discover. 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:38.190 So, the bloke at Firelink Shrine does give you some help. 00:10:38.190 --> 00:10:41.380 He’ll say “There are actually two Bells of Awakening. 00:10:41.380 --> 00:10:43.150 One's up above, in the Undead Church. 00:10:43.150 --> 00:10:47.090 The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown.” 00:10:47.090 --> 00:10:49.960 But the route to Blighttown is hard to find. 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:54.610 The main path has you find this key in a location that you never need to visit, and then open 00:10:54.610 --> 00:10:57.900 this rather random door on the bridge with the dragon. 00:10:57.900 --> 00:11:02.110 Look, if you want to seer a door into the player’s memory, make it like the crest 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:06.980 door in Darkroot Garden, or the massive locked door at Sen’s Fortress, where Siegmeyer 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.000 talks about how it’s locked up tight. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:13.880 Those doors are hard to forget, whereas this tiny wooden door is easy to miss. 00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:18.010 There is, at least, another route, but this requires finding a semi-hidden cave in the 00:11:18.010 --> 00:11:22.560 ramp down to Darkroot Basin and then dashing through the very difficult Valley of Drakes. 00:11:22.560 --> 00:11:23.900 Having two routes is good. 00:11:23.900 --> 00:11:28.450 And of course, forcing the player to actually explore, read the item descriptions, and venture 00:11:28.450 --> 00:11:31.060 out into unknown areas is also fun. 00:11:31.060 --> 00:11:35.070 But I’d say this is a tad too obtuse and may send players running to a walkthrough. 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:40.840 A similar thing happens after finishing Anor Londo, when you are given a very brief, vague, 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:45.540 and non-repeatable cutscene showing three orange fog gates disappearing throughout the world. 00:11:45.540 --> 00:11:49.720 Basically, in three random areas throughout Lordran, there are now zones that you can 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.070 get to, so you can go off and fight the Four Lords. 00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:54.710 I hope you’re in an exploring mood. 00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:59.410 Luckily, there are probably lots of places you visited earlier in the game, but ran away 00:11:59.410 --> 00:12:04.660 from with your tail between your legs, like New Londo Ruins, the Demon Ruins, and Catacombs. 00:12:04.660 --> 00:12:07.940 And because you’ve got nothing better to do, and because beating Ornstein and Smough 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:12.090 will make anyone more confident to explore scary locations, you’ll find yourself back 00:12:12.090 --> 00:12:16.690 in these areas - and then naturally stumbling upon the next sections of the game, and the 00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:17.870 four lords. 00:12:17.870 --> 00:12:22.390 But at the same time, I do think some cryptic clues, purchasable hints, and that sort of 00:12:22.390 --> 00:12:24.120 thing could be good. 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:28.680 Wandering around looking for the next area is only fun until you give up and check a 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:32.670 walkthrough, at which point the game’s sense of mystery just falls away entirely. 00:12:32.670 --> 00:12:33.670 Anyway. 00:12:33.670 --> 00:12:37.140 At this point in the game, you’ll have unlocked something very special. 00:12:37.140 --> 00:12:41.690 Just like classic Zelda games, you are eventually given the ability to fast travel, as you can 00:12:41.690 --> 00:12:44.740 use the Lordvessel to warp between bonfires. 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:46.080 In some ways this is good. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.560 As you barrel towards the end of the game, you maybe don’t want to be revisiting old 00:12:49.560 --> 00:12:52.570 locations and backtracking through finished areas. 00:12:52.570 --> 00:12:54.450 You just want to get on with things 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:57.920 But I actually think that this is where Dark Souls can lose some of its magic. 00:12:57.920 --> 00:13:01.820 Where the first half of the game felt like an actual world, where I had to think critically 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:06.250 about how I would traverse it… the second half felt like a bunch of disconnected levels. 00:13:06.250 --> 00:13:10.760 In some ways, the fast travel almost feels like it was stuck on at the last minute, because 00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:15.030 the game already has a good way to get around quickly: the Valley of Drakes. 00:13:15.030 --> 00:13:20.500 This is an underground network of paths and bridges that connects New Londo Ruins, Blighttown, 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:23.600 Deeproot Basin, and a path that will take you to Firelink Shrine. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:28.270 The difficulty of the enemies means it’s largely inaccessible to new players, but experienced 00:13:28.270 --> 00:13:30.540 players can use it to speed between areas. 00:13:30.540 --> 00:13:34.080 However, by the time you’re strong enough to fight these drakes, you’ll have unlocked 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:38.550 fast travel - making the area pretty much useless outside of one trip to collect a few 00:13:38.550 --> 00:13:39.940 scattered goodies. 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:43.530 The designers could also have introduced some more shortcuts and connection points, such 00:13:43.530 --> 00:13:47.010 as some speedy way to get from Anor Londo to the main world. 00:13:47.010 --> 00:13:52.140 This fast travel also removes a key part of Metroidvanias, which is the thrill of revisiting 00:13:52.140 --> 00:13:55.090 old spaces with new abilities and skills. 00:13:55.090 --> 00:13:59.560 Now, on my first playthrough, I did have to re traverse Blighttown because the warpable 00:13:59.560 --> 00:14:04.490 bonfire near Quelaag is hidden behind an illusionary wall, and I completely missed it. 00:14:04.490 --> 00:14:08.470 So I needed to backtrack on foot to get down to the Demon Ruins. 00:14:08.470 --> 00:14:09.490 And you know what? 00:14:09.490 --> 00:14:13.410 Beasting my way through an area that once gave me real trouble was a pretty brilliant 00:14:13.410 --> 00:14:16.870 feeling that can otherwise be lost in Dark Souls’s second half. 00:14:16.870 --> 00:14:21.120 I should note, however, that this can also be accomplished by having old bosses return 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:22.850 as normal enemies. 00:14:22.850 --> 00:14:28.830 Taking down Capra Demons in two hits, and the Taurus Demon in four strikes feels pretty good. 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:33.080 At least not every bonfire is a warp point, which still allows for some navigation of 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:37.860 the world, and also strategy as to which bonfires you spend humanity on for kindling. 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:38.860 Okay. 00:14:38.860 --> 00:14:43.350 So the other challenge designers have to overcome when making non-linear games is dealing with 00:14:43.350 --> 00:14:44.760 difficulty curves. 00:14:44.760 --> 00:14:50.660 In Dark Souls, the Four Lords and their respective areas are roughly the same level of difficulty. 00:14:50.660 --> 00:14:54.690 Which means you can happily tackle them in any order - but it also means your character 00:14:54.690 --> 00:14:59.450 will keep levelling up to the point where the lords you tackle last will be pushovers. 00:14:59.450 --> 00:15:02.100 But I, mean, what are the other options here? 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:06.160 You could make the bosses have different difficulty levels but then the player may randomly stumble 00:15:06.160 --> 00:15:10.510 up on the hardest boss first and get frustrated, and this basically just creates a largely 00:15:10.510 --> 00:15:15.720 linear and expected path through what is supposed to be a completely non-linear act in the game 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:19.840 You could theoretically scale the bosses in relation to the player’s current level. 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:24.170 I talked about how Uncharted: Lost Legacy does something like this in its non-linear 00:15:24.170 --> 00:15:28.790 Western Ghats chapter, where no matter which order you climb the three towers, you’ll 00:15:28.790 --> 00:15:33.950 always face this puzzle in harder and harder variants, because Naughty Dog magically swaps 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:37.190 in the correct puzzle before you get to it. 00:15:37.190 --> 00:15:39.260 Maybe something like this could work for Dark Souls. 00:15:39.260 --> 00:15:44.210 But whatever the case, the actual game keeps the difficulty curve of this act quite flat: 00:15:44.210 --> 00:15:47.470 though some areas are arguably a bit tougher than others. 00:15:47.470 --> 00:15:52.550 And while this absolutely allows for open exploration and player choice, in my experience 00:15:52.550 --> 00:15:58.900 I quickly lost sync with the game’s challenge and was rampaging through Lost Izaleth like a boss. 00:16:01.380 --> 00:16:05.160 So this video is mostly about the global level design of Lordran. 00:16:05.160 --> 00:16:07.720 About structure and non-linearity and direction. 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:11.530 But I do want to touch on more local design for a spell. 00:16:11.530 --> 00:16:15.330 I think the defining design philosophy of Dark Souls is that the designers just want 00:16:15.330 --> 00:16:18.160 to mess with you at every opportunity. 00:16:18.160 --> 00:16:19.720 Look at Undead Berg. 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:24.290 This enemy snipes you from afar, forcing you to either be defensive or aggressive. 00:16:24.290 --> 00:16:28.410 But too aggressive will see you walking into a trap, as this dude bursts out from behind 00:16:28.410 --> 00:16:29.410 a wall. 00:16:29.410 --> 00:16:32.560 Then there’s a section where you have to dart along a bridge and into a building to 00:16:32.560 --> 00:16:35.880 avoid firebombs, but then you’re right in the middle of multiple guys. 00:16:35.880 --> 00:16:39.240 Then there’s a building where an enemy is hiding behind a corner. 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:41.420 A flaming trap rolling down a staircase. 00:16:41.420 --> 00:16:43.550 An enemy that can shoot you from atop a tower. 00:16:43.550 --> 00:16:44.670 It’s a nightmare! 00:16:44.670 --> 00:16:49.760 The ideal way to play Dark Souls is to move slowly and carefully, and fight enemies in 00:16:49.760 --> 00:16:52.290 one-on-one bouts where you have lots of room to move. 00:16:52.290 --> 00:16:57.950 But the level design and enemy placement does everything to mess with this, using thin walkways, 00:16:57.950 --> 00:17:02.450 archers and spell casters, traps, narrow corridors, and more. 00:17:02.450 --> 00:17:06.510 The other consideration that the Dark Souls designers have to consider is the placement 00:17:06.510 --> 00:17:08.100 of bonfires. 00:17:08.100 --> 00:17:10.480 From is quite generous in the early game. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:14.669 but makes you wait longer and longer as you get deeper into the game. 00:17:14.669 --> 00:17:19.159 Having zero in New Londo Ruins is a bit of a bummer, and only having one at the very 00:17:19.159 --> 00:17:25.549 top of Sen’s Fortress makes the whole ordeal even more perilous and tense. 00:17:25.549 --> 00:17:28.049 The world is also dotted with secrets. 00:17:28.049 --> 00:17:32.490 Pretty much every push to explore will reward you with some new item, and the glowing white 00:17:32.490 --> 00:17:36.680 markers challenge you to make tricky jumps, or lure you into an ambush. 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:39.860 One of the biggest secrets though are the illusory walls. 00:17:39.860 --> 00:17:43.000 These look like normal walls but then fade away when you hit them. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:47.419 They actually work a lot like the bombable walls in Zelda 1, in that they are genuine 00:17:47.419 --> 00:17:50.450 secrets and not clearly signposted “secrets”. 00:17:50.450 --> 00:17:52.809 But we’ve come a long way since 1986. 00:17:52.809 --> 00:17:56.840 So you don’t have to waste bombs - but at the same time, the fact that hitting walls 00:17:56.840 --> 00:18:01.480 degrades your weapons will stop you from having to hit every wall you see. 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:03.450 Also, everything is optional. 00:18:03.450 --> 00:18:06.950 You don’t need to whack a single illusory wall to finish the game. 00:18:06.950 --> 00:18:10.909 And the clever note system in the game means other players will be able to point out these 00:18:10.909 --> 00:18:14.370 walls, though often with some good-natured trolling. 00:18:14.370 --> 00:18:20.220 These walls generally hide bonfires and treasures, but also an entire area; The Great Hollow, 00:18:20.220 --> 00:18:22.110 and its nearby Ash Lake. 00:18:22.110 --> 00:18:26.020 To be honest, one of the most remarkable things about Dark Souls is that it is happy to hide 00:18:26.020 --> 00:18:30.530 huge amounts of content in areas that some players will just never find. 00:18:30.530 --> 00:18:34.919 Take the Painted World of Ariamis, which is one of the most intriguing areas of the game 00:18:34.919 --> 00:18:40.460 but to get there you need to roll off a moving elevator, make a difficult jump, and roll 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:42.460 up in a ball in a bird’s nest. 00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:46.809 This lets you fight a secret boss, get a special item, and then present it to a painting on 00:18:46.809 --> 00:18:48.549 the other side of the world. 00:18:48.549 --> 00:18:52.730 I mean ultimately you’ll just find out about it on the internet - but still, it’s cool, 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.960 and lends the world a sense of mystery and surprise. 00:18:59.090 --> 00:19:02.900 So the world of Dark Souls 1 is pretty special. 00:19:02.909 --> 00:19:06.240 Branching paths let you explore by following your curiosity. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:11.259 Non-linearity lets you create your own adventure, and is perfect for second playthroughs and 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:12.409 speedruns. 00:19:12.409 --> 00:19:16.291 The interconnected pathways encourage you to memorise the geography 00:19:16.291 --> 00:19:18.029 and architecture of the world. 00:19:18.029 --> 00:19:21.450 The lack of fast travel makes every journey feel more perilous. 00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:26.100 And the game’s accordion structure offers both moments of exploration and moments of 00:19:26.100 --> 00:19:27.100 forward propulsion. 00:19:27.100 --> 00:19:32.060 But this sort of world design creates interesting problems for designers when it comes to difficulty 00:19:32.060 --> 00:19:36.779 curves and direction: and Dark Souls isn’t perfect in either regard. 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:41.490 Plus, the late game switch to fast travel takes away from one of the game’s most interesting 00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:42.590 factors. 00:19:42.590 --> 00:19:47.090 Instead of trying to perfect this structure in future games, though, From Software largely 00:19:47.090 --> 00:19:51.500 ditched this sort of interconnected world design in the Dark Souls sequels, and Bloodborne. 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:55.190 I mean, these games do still thrill with their level design. 00:19:55.190 --> 00:20:00.129 The sequels are arguably more complex from a local perspective, as an area like Yarnham 00:20:00.129 --> 00:20:06.029 is a loopy, branching maze-like miniature Lordran - even if the overall world map is 00:20:06.029 --> 00:20:07.029 more linear. 00:20:07.029 --> 00:20:11.120 And there are also lots of shortcuts that take you back to Bonfires and Lamps, which 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:14.360 provides that warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing where you are. 00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:18.870 Plus, there are still many optional bosses, moments of non-linearity, and opportunities 00:20:18.870 --> 00:20:20.259 for backtracking. 00:20:20.259 --> 00:20:23.409 But it’s never been quite the same as Dark Souls 1. 00:20:23.409 --> 00:20:27.100 It’s not like using your brain to figure out the quickest way to get from Darkroot 00:20:27.100 --> 00:20:29.190 Garden to New Londo Ruins. 00:20:29.190 --> 00:20:33.570 Or stumbling down some random cave and accidentally skipping two boss fights. 00:20:33.570 --> 00:20:40.879 Or taking an elevator from the Undead Parish, and suddenly finding yourself back in Firelink Shrine. 00:20:40.879 --> 00:20:46.070 So here’s hoping that, one day, From Software might revisit this very special flavour of 00:20:46.070 --> 00:20:49.120 world design that it showed, in Lordran. 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:51.920 Hey! Thanks for watching. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:56.320 This is a one-off episode so please don’t expect future videos on the world 00:20:56.330 --> 00:21:00.400 design of Demon's Souls or Dark Souls 3 or Bloodborne or whatever. 00:21:00.409 --> 00:21:02.889 Never say never, but it’s not something I’m planning right now. 00:21:02.889 --> 00:21:07.720 Instead, I’ll be tackling a different franchise for Boss Keys season 2. 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:11.869 I’ll see you then. Thanks so much to my Patrons for making this sort of content possible.