when i work hard shadow of treenew DLC ring of fireI can’t help but think game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is torturing me.
talk to him Summer Game Festival two weeks ago, Hayao Miyazaki said ode tree is the “biggest yet”, with more than any other FromSoftware DLC before it. But he also said ode tree “Roughly the same volume as the Limgrave portion of the base game,” i.e. the starting area ring of firecontains “a little more content.”
I don’t buy it. While it’s impossible to accurately compare the scale in the game, I’ve played 30 hours of the game and can already find the new areas in the DLC to be more expansive than Limgrave. The map itself is not only huge, but it’s layered, with huge plateaus above, deep valleys below, and islands that require some creative platforming to reach.
I’d say it’s still far away Far It’s bigger than Limgrave and has more to do. shadow of tree Honestly, it feels like it’s big enough to be a game with its own story – an original purpose ring of fire But it was eventually cut back for a while before being added back as DLC content.
ode tree It tells the story of Miquela, the brother of super boss Malenia and one of the demigods vital to the world. ring of fire Knowledge. Miyazaki told me that focusing on Miquela was a tribute to George R.R. Martin’s contribution to the sport. “[He] gave us all these great myths,” Miyazaki said. Packaging Miguel’s story as a standalone DLC is essentially a “closed loop” for Martin’s involvement in the game. “It’s really about completing ring of firecircle,” he said.
But underestimated the size shadow of tree This is just one of the ways Miyazaki misled me. I know he teases me when things get tough.
I was unable to defeat Lelana, the Knight of the Two Moons, a boss hidden in Ennis Castle that could give players a 5 or 50 hour challenge depending on their exploration choices. (I met her when I was about 15 years old.) Neither my strategy nor any of the game’s built-in assistive features (using Mimic Tear Ash, summoning help from NPCs, changing my weapons or spells, inflicting damaging status effects) seemed to work. effect. I’ve tried my best to get her down to half health and I can’t seem to make any further progress. And she is only the second boss.
Miyazaki says this is by design. he said ode tree Contains “10+ boss encounters” – another hilariously ridiculous understatement to be honest, I’ve seen an estimated 55 bosses, with a maximum of 80. required, while the rest are optional.
“And those [are optional] It’s particularly difficult,” Miyazaki said.
Whenever FromSoftware releases a new game, there’s almost always a discussion about difficulty. As for the DLC, other reviewers found its difficulty to be too extreme. “Indeed, this unique type of frustration designed by FromSoft is soul Experience,” Alexis Ong in european players. “However, it feels like difficulty for the sake of difficulty, turned into eleven.”
I agree. but when i want to shadow of tree To better straddle the line between enjoyable challenge and frustrating impossibility, the game has been adapted to Miyazaki’s intentions and represents the lessons the development team learned from feedback on the original game.
“Traditionally, we’ve always favored higher difficulty curve types of games and experiences, but I think that essentially alienated a large portion of gamers,” he said.
This is an oxymoron given his comments in a recent interview protector: “If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could lower the difficulty more and more, but that’s not the right approach. Lowering the difficulty would take away the fun of the game and, in my opinion, destroy the game itself.
He was not wrong. ring of fire If FromSoftware lacked its notorious difficulty, it wouldn’t be the best game of the year. so ode tree It has to be hard, but not so hard that the player loses interest. But it can’t be too easy, because it will break the game. what to do? Hayao Miyazaki believes that the answer is freedom.
“The freedom we give players helps offset the difficulty curve and makes the game more accessible and engaging,” he told me.
I think this works ring of fire, it’s not that important for this DLC. In the base game, difficulty can be circumvented by upgrading – it can be said to be the player’s freedom. But with the addition of new DLC-exclusive consumables that boost your attack and defense, becoming more powerful now depends on your ability to find these rare items. As a result, I often found myself afraid of the simplest enemies, as multiple enemies at once would kill me outright.
“I try to imagine the different ways I want to die or be killed as a player.”
In addition to ensuring a large number of player deaths, Hayao Miyazaki also said how Player death is equally important.
“I try to imagine the different ways I want to die or be killed as a player,” he said, explaining that these ideas manifest in ring of fire The same goes for his iconic Poison Swamp in other FromSoftware games. But for ode treehe admits to curtailing this indulgence—“In the beginning ring of fireI went a little too far.
still poisonous swamp ode tree“But in other parts of the game, there are still a lot of ways to die.”
It seems like too much. I was beaten, bled out, had frostbite, and was burned. I’ve fallen off cliffs that have fallen on top of me – watch out for the fiery rocks spewed out by the furnace golem – and I’ve even accidentally killed myself by eating an item that replenished my health, poisoning me as well.
Despite the ordeal I went through, Miyazaki was like a benevolent god who had faith in me and his crew, giving us only the trials he thought we could endure.
“We really pushed the limits of what players can endure,” Miyazaki said.
He clarified that one of the biggest lessons was ring of fire Enter ode tree It’s the part where the audience finds pleasure in the pressure. “We’re trying to use it as a basis for DLC boss encounters, so hopefully players will find it more engaging and fun,” he said.
“But what if that’s not the case,” he added. “Then I’m sorry.”
