[Note: This is an interview with Dark Souls' director Hidetaka Miyazaki about the recently-released DLC content, and contains plot spoilers. Why haven't you played it yet?]
Dark Souls is an all-time masterpiece hall-of-famer, and one that's met with enough success to warrant an extension. The 'Artorias of the Abyss' DLC, now available on all platforms, adds a series of substantial linked areas, plus some superb new bosses and equipment – and also manages that Miyazaki trick of filling in blanks while suggesting a few new ones. The DLC is set in Dark Souls' past, in a kingdom called Oolacile beset by the Abyss, all accessed through the minor detail of a pendant.
“Oolacile is a kingdom of sorcery that had been ruined when the original story unfolded,” explains Miyazaki. “The additional content is set about a hundred years before Oolacile was ruined. In this kingdom, the sorceries are peculiar light spells that are different from the common ones in the original story.” Oolacile spells from the original game tended to be non-offensive and even charming magic – producing light, hiding things, disguising yourself. Tricks.
But in this Oolacile you find ridiculously strong dark magic and pyromancies. Sorceries designed to kill in direct, high-damage ways. “As one of the main themes of Dark Souls is 'fire and dark', these light spells also include darkness that occurred from the gap between them,” says Miyazaki. “The darkness leads to the Abyss, which is a keyword this time.”
The Abyss is your ultimate destination, but before that comes Knight Artorias the Abysswalker – a name that resonates throughout the original game's story. The DLC ties up the Artorias thread neatly, but introduces some seemingly contradictory details about his past. Or perhaps we're taking too much at face value.
As one of the main themes of Dark Souls is 'fire and dark', these light spells also include darkness that occurred from the gap between them.
“There is not a contradiction,” says Miyazaki. “The lore of Artorias that prevailed in the original story is very old, so that it is uncertain.” Things we thought we knew may be false? Argh Hidetaka, don't do this to me! “Hence by experiencing the story of the additional content there's a partial view of new facts, and the newly unveiled lore will show players another dimension. I suppose this is what lore is like and why it is attractive.”
Amen to that. After Artorias the DLC's final stretch goes to the bottom of the Abyss, where its father Manus dwells. This boss isn't just one of the best fights in the entire Souls series, but carries many answers about the nature of the Dark Soul itself – as well as being, at bottom, a human who goes crazy over a pendant. Sound familiar?
When Dark Souls first came out, an answer Miyazaki gave in a Famitsu interview said he'd choose either nothing or a pendant for his starting gift in Dark Souls. The pendant, which has no in-game function, became a focal point for the wilder elements of the community, and the centre of every conspiracy theory going.
I ask Miyazaki whether Manus is a little dig at the series' more obsessive players. “That is a very interesting consideration,” says the devilish fox. “But I suppose I did not include the meaning.” And as for the original pendant speculation, brace yourselves Dark Soulers for Miyazaki's final word: “When it comes to the pendant, I actually had a little bit of an intention to play a prank.”
On that bombshell, perhaps it's time to move onto practical matters. The DLC adds several new weapons acquired in typical Souls fashion, such as the pimpin' sweet tracer set that can be acquired by killing the grieving lover of a guy you also killed. “It is hard to pick up one weapon for players to see but the tracers you point out are good ones I would like them to check,” says Miyazaki. “Since we did all the basic weapons in Dark Souls, these additional ones may look different. Most have a specific image of the user in them, so they tend to be peculiar according to that. I suppose the tracers strongly reflect an image of a particular user – they look like a rare set of weapons, both of which are different in the way they are handled.”
It was at the latter development stage of Demons Souls when I began to think that I would like to try creating a huge connected map, so it was not planned to be adopted for Demons Souls.
There's only one thing you can say to that: gnomic. I asked Miyazaki about some more specific ongoing aspects of Dark Souls play, such as the Gravelord covenant – is it true players can only see the black phantoms in NG+ and above? “That is almost true,” Miyazaki almost answers. “In Dark Souls' design the position of enemies is fixed, so we could have intended to make the effect of Gravelord Covenant a new element seen in the second try after the game's ending. To be honest, I suppose I could have made it better.”
This leads us to the murkier waters of Dark Souls' entire online experience, a rather partial realisation of its wonderful concepts on which Miyazaki politely declines to comment. He's much happier talking about general principles than concrete information, the big ideas rather than the tiny details – like the difference in world design between the two Souls games. “It was at the latter development stage of Demons Souls when I began to think that I would like to try creating a huge connected map, so it was not planned to be adopted for Demons Souls,” he says. “But at the first development stage of Dark Souls I drew up a plan to implement the huge seamless map.”
I wonder about how fleshed-out some of the Dark Souls world is – do these names on the wind like Salaman have a specific history, did they ever even exist in some form? “Salaman is a character that has an important role, along with the witches of Izalith, in the story of pyromancy rather than in the story of Dark Souls,” says Miyazaki. “Salaman’s story was created to introduce a concept of pyromancy but, as you say, only his name appeared in the original story. His visual image has actually been created and he is one of my favourite characters. I have many favourite characters related to pyromancy as well as him.”
One of the few cheerful faces in Dark Souls is a pyromancer, Laurentius, but it's kind of interesting that there are any at all. I ask Miyazaki why he puts jolly characters in such a grim world, and with such grim endings. “As the creator of them I am very happy with your description of 'jolly characters',” Miyazaki says. “I think of serious characters like seedlings scattered over waste lands, hiding sorrow in their minds. But if I try to draw such characters, sometimes the seeds bloom unexpectedly. Having said that, I believe that some of the endings were what the characters hoped.”
I placed giant-sized women in the world since I am attracted by motherhood and 'huge women' as an expression of generous motherhood.
The man's a poet. We move onto Dark Souls' iconography and specifically its veneration, in a traditionally religious sense, of femininity and the associative bounty, fertility, etc. It's the main reason Gwynevere's such a good gag, I think. Then there's that strange female-only role of the Firekeeper, one that seems to be pretty crucial but is never fully explained, in a game about fire.
“I placed giant-sized women in the world since I am attracted by motherhood and 'huge women' as an expression of generous motherhood,” says Miyazaki. “Also, one of my favourite Japanese cartoons is 'Yasuragi no Yakata' written by the famous Fujiko Fujio. A huge woman appears for a little in that scary story. When it comes to firekeepers, I assume that there is a kind of illusion for women in my mind.” You ain't seen nothing yet. “Finding a reason why I am attracted by huge women would be possible but I would not like to do it so far.”
Perhaps that is it. There's always a reason for everything, it's just whether you're prepared to look – the Souls games put enormous care and attention into details that only a handful of their players will ever see or think about. I ask Miyazaki if he likes this idea or not. “I am glad if users think so,” Miyazaki says. “I would like Dark Souls to be a broad exploration game filled with so many veiled things and details. A broad map that lacks details cannot be attractive for users who want to explore it in depth. Having said that, the reason why I put a lot of care into details might be much more simple. I enjoy the process of adding elaboration into games, and like to communicate with users through the details I create.”
The success of Dark Souls suggests a new entry in the series should be cooking away in From Software's wonder factory – we can only pray. I ask if the Artorias of the Abyss DLC finishes things for Dark Souls. “We are not planning to release more additional content so far,” says the gnomic Miyazaki, gnomically. Come on then, is the next game called Dragon's Souls or what? “This is also a very interesting thought,” says the probably uninterested Miyazaki. “But so far I can not say anything about sequels. I am sorry but it is uncertain whether I can get involved in the next sequel yet. I would also like to avoid giving confusion by saying something wrong at this stage.”
Well, you can't say fairer than that.
One does not really interview Hidetaka Miyazaki so much as temporarily observe him. The director of both Demon's and Dark Souls is that rarest of things in videogames – a creator that, like his works, remains something of a mystery. When you play them it all makes sense. Miyazaki's games do anything but give the player answers, slowly unfolding their few concrete details into even more questions. Straight talking from Miyazaki, in other words, would in some way betray his creations. And what creations they are.
Source : ign[dot]com
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