Chapter 457: The Flame Is About to Go Out, Yet the Throne Shows No King's Shadow |
[The flame is about to go out, yet the throne shows no king's shadow....]
And right after that line that runs through the heart of the whole game’s narration!
The originally dark, somber symphony, with the violin’s entrance, became even more plaintive and grand!
A choir-like hymn, accompanied by thunderous bell tolls, echoed across this gray world!
Dong—!
[When the inheriting flame is extinguished]
[The bell will ring across the land]
[And awaken the ancient fire-kings in their coffins......!]
One by one I got goosebumps! Art! This is effing aesthetic art!
So shocking, even though it’s all shrouded in mist, precisely this style makes the whole trailer feel top-tier!
This trailer is awesome.
An inheriting flame, huh, it feels a bit like some primitive ritual to preserve fire.
It’s probably not a literal ember kind of thing. The fire here should be a very abstract concept, something like the sun.
My guess is similar to the guy above: the world looks like it’s about to die, cold and dark, and to keep a solar-like prosperity going, the king must shoulder the duty of passing the flame.
Old Thief really loves these end-of-era, fallen-empire backgrounds.
Indeed, previously Sekiro was about the fall of Ashina, and this time it’s the flame’s dying.
"The flame is about to go out, yet the throne shows no king's shadow?" Does it mean the world will be destroyed, but the ruler who should pass the flame ran away? So the bell rings and awakens the old kings who were already dead?
Maybe nobody has the qualification? It’s not “becoming king” that grants the right to pass the flame, but only those qualified to pass the flame can be king? Because no one can pass it, they resurrected the old geezers?
“I don’t get it, it’s way too shrouded in mist.”
That’s Old Thief’s usual vibe, mysterious and rambling. I can only say it’s exactly my flavor....
......
As players excitedly speculated!
The once-fire-kings, accompanied by the grand, distant bell tolls, slowly awakened and rose from their coffins one by one.
[The Reclusive Saint — Eldritch]
In a dim, enclosed mountain ravine.
Gray vines crisscrossed everywhere.
The campfire’s ghostly light traced the outline of enormous coffins.
At this moment, the moss-covered stone lid of a coffin had already been flung aside.
Then, in the next moment!
A mass of unknown fluid, as viscous and rotten as tar yet full of sharp, jagged edges, surged and overturned from the coffin!
[The Abyssal Watcher — The Fran Undying Host]
The afterglow of flames streaked everywhere!
Rolling smoke and ash were blown away by a keening north wind!
Among the many standing coffins, figures in mottled armor, wearing tattered cloaks and pointed helmets, each wielding a greatsword half the size of a person, rose up.
Silent and razor-sharp.
The sunset’s afterglow cast on them, giving off an old yet severe halo.
[And...]
[The Lonely King of the Sinful City — Giant Ym]
Boom!
From a colossal coffin the size of a mountain, a blade capable of cleaving mountains slammed onto the earth with a crash, sending up a billowing cloud of dust!
Immediately, a sky-blocking giant wearing chainmail and a hood slowly sat up from the coffin!
Storms and clouds surged!
The giant gazed toward the royal city.
Accompanied by an increasingly stirring and vast symphonic chant, the giant raised its world-cleaving blade and unleashed a soul-gripping, ear-splitting roar!
A sudden gust!
On arms cracked like dry tree bark, a fierce, searing glow emitted!
Like charcoal fully ablaze being fanned by wind, the snapping embers wildly scattered through the air!
Three major BOSSES!
An epic-grade spectacle!
Weighty texture combined with unparalleled imagination!
This time, even the industry peers in the venue couldn’t sit still!
Surprised exclamations rolled like waves, one after another!
“Sure enough! Still that familiar dark fantasy style!”
“Sekiro was like this before, and this new game has the same vibe!”
“Choosing a real-world era, then creating a fictional background and layering in magical elements sounds easy, but making it feel seamless and mesmerizing is not simple at all.”
“This presentation effect is superb, cinematic quality with a heavy epic feel, plus GW’s masterful narrative style...”
“I can only say it’s good CloudPower withdrew in time...”
“Hahahaha... otherwise, it would have been a public execution, right?”
“Sam really knows his strengths, he always brings out his best and delivers a perfect answer.”
“Indeed, one feature of the Golden Engine is its ability to craft grand scenes, and in this title they deliberately highlight large-scale spectacle and epic feeling, especially with the just-announced collaboration with Phoenix... hah!”
.......
Exclamations continued!
After the roster-like reveal of the three fire-kings-as-BOSSES!
The symphony paused!
Then the tone softened and became gentle.
Inside a building that looked like an abandoned church, a girl wearing a black nun-like outfit, with long silver hair, picked up a silver crown-shaped eye-mask from the church table, where a black vortex swirled, and gently placed it over her delicate cheek.
[But in fact—]
[The kings will surely abandon their thrones....]
[And the ash left without fire will swarm and arrive...]
[They are unnamed, unfit to become fuel, cursed undead]
[But precisely because of this!]
[Ash]
[Would so crave the remaining flame...]
Rumble—!
With a rest marking the abrupt end of the trailer’s symphony!
The LED screen finally displayed the title of Golden Wind’s latest work—
[DARK SOULS]
[Dark Souls]
Whoa—!!!
In an instant, the whole venue erupted into thunderous applause!
Yes!
This time, what Gu Sheng specially crafted was none other than the previous-life work produced by Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware, Dark Souls 3!
And in the upcoming plan, he would use a reverse-chronology approach, starting from the extinguishing and fall of Souls 3, gradually revealing this bizarre and magnificently vast Souls world.
Of course.
The reason for choosing Souls 3, aside from it being more mature than the first two installments, also contained a small personal motive of Gu Sheng’s.
It was one of the works he had personally participated in producing in his previous life.
He had a special sentiment for Souls 3.
In fact, when he first arrived in this world, the project he most wanted to present was this very Dark Souls 3 that he had once helped make.
But at that time, Golden Wind was still too weak.
Not only was their technical capability insufficient, their funding was far from enough.
Unexpectedly, the delay lasted a full four years.
Now, seeing this title reappear in this world in such a form,
For a moment, Gu Sheng even felt dazed.
The feeling was both strange and delightful.
When the LED went dark, and the venue lights came back up, the cheers and applause in the hall reached their peak.
“Holy crap, sick, sick, sick....”
Meanwhile.
On Shark, in Ayin’s livestream.
Ayin, who had watched the entire first-day GDC presentation, couldn’t help but clap along.
“This is really awesome,”
Ayin nodded repeatedly:
“From the scene setup and world design you can tell it’s very different from Sekiro,”
“But what exactly is different...”
Saying that!
Ayin entered Golden Wind’s developer page on the game platform,
At this moment, with the Dark Souls trailer released, the developer page had been updated.
The DARK SOULS logo was prominently displayed at the top of the page.
Directly beneath the promotional logo was a large, eye-catching line—
[Dark Souls demo officially unlocked]
[Click to load, free to start]
Nice!
With Dark Souls officially announced at GDC, the related demo was also released.
Gu Sheng had prepared an overall demo flow that wasn’t long, from rising from the coffin to reaching the Firelink Shrine, ending with staking the spiral sword.
Perhaps for the full game, reaching the Firelink Shrine would truly be the start of the game,
But Gu Sheng believed,
For players, the monsters and BOSSES they could explore and beat along this stretch were enough to make them sweat blood.
Because Dark Souls in the motion-sensing pod is truly hard!
Far, far harder than with a controller!
As everyone knows!
Originally, Dark Souls and Sekiro are, at their combat roots, two very different games.
If you bring the playstyle of one into the other, you’ll suffer.
Sekiro demands players boldly press forward, fighting to quickly break the opponent’s posture gauge and perform death blows.
Dark Souls requires players to win steadily, not to greedily swing, and certainly not to get lost in chasing raw damage.
Because Dark Souls has a very important, even battle-deciding key indicator—
The stamina bar.
In the game, almost every action ties to this stamina bar.
Whether offensive swings or evasive rolls,
Almost all combat maneuvers depend on that stamina bar.
And once the stamina bar is depleted, you become a walking vegetable, a live target that can be moved left or right.
Although the consumed stamina will recover after a short time,
Many battles are decided by that brief vacuum.
Therefore!
In combat, players must not only dodge damage like in Sekiro, they must constantly monitor their stamina and avoid running out.
They must plan offense and defense—do not blindly charge or blindly flee.
The difference in playstyle is only one aspect of the increased difficulty.
On the other hand, the motion pod’s restrictive viewpoint undoubtedly raises the challenge.
You should know that avoidance in Dark Souls isn’t a sidestep, it’s a roll.
Although the motion assist system helps and enhances movement so players won’t feel stiff or dizzy when rolling,
The problem is—
Whenever you roll, your viewpoint will be affected.
The advantage of third-person perspective vanishes in an instant.
You might have just rolled past, but the boss’s delayed strike lands.
Back on the console version, as a player you could clearly see the boss’s move in third-person and immediately react to dodge.
But the motion pod is different!
Players don’t have eyes on their backs!
If a delayed strike comes from behind, nine times out of ten you go back to the bonfire!
So, although Souls is Souls,
Due to technological progress, the different operation modes make the motion-pod version much, much harder.
God only knows how many times players will be sent back by that terrifying second phase of Master Gudda when they first meet him.