{"id":359206,"date":"2019-01-02T23:42:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T23:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/359206\/"},"modified":"2019-01-02T23:42:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T23:42:17","slug":"dark-souls-design-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/359206\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Souls Design &#8211; Retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mNQCmzjh1w4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nA Dark Souls Retrospective, specifically looking at Dark Souls Design. I&#8217;ve been slowly writing this over the course of a few months, trying to take my time and think things over\/enjoy the process, so I could really make a good critical analysis of Dark Souls, both with what works and could have been improved.<\/p>\n<p>Sections:<br \/>\n0:00 &#8211; Intro<br \/>\n0:36 &#8211; Character Creator\/Customization<br \/>\n2:06 &#8211; Dark Souls Intro Cutscene<br \/>\n4:37 &#8211; Oscar of Astora and how to lie to players<br \/>\n6:29 &#8211; Undead Asylum and Tutorials in Souls games<br \/>\n10:20 &#8211; Firelink Shrine, sound design, and non-linear game design<br \/>\n13:08 &#8211; Undead Burg<br \/>\n17:21 &#8211; Death penalties<br \/>\n18:55 &#8211; Taurus Demon and Dark Souls Sound Design<br \/>\n20:38 &#8211; The Hellkite Drake<br \/>\n23:20 &#8211; The Undead Parish and shortcuts<br \/>\n25:07 &#8211; Warping vs Not warping in Dark Souls<br \/>\n32:35 &#8211; The Bell Gargoyles, The Darkroot Basin, and non-linear world design<br \/>\n35:39 &#8211; Lower Undead Burg and Capra Demon<br \/>\n37:04 &#8211; The Depths and the curse penalty<br \/>\n38:31 &#8211; Blighttown and poison swamps<br \/>\n39:58 &#8211; Sen&#8217;s Fortress and traps<br \/>\n42:23 &#8211; Anor Londo, the Anor Londo Archery Club, Ornstein and Smough<br \/>\n45:54 &#8211; Branching Paths and design continuity<br \/>\n48:40 &#8211; The Catacombs, Pinwheel, Tomb of Giants, and Nito<br \/>\n53:27 &#8211; The Duke&#8217;s Archives and forced death<br \/>\n54:57 &#8211; Designing non-linear paths in an RPG<br \/>\n56:59 &#8211; The Crystal Cave, Seath, and references<br \/>\n59:01 &#8211; New Londo, Sif, and unique bosses<br \/>\n1:01:29 &#8211; Demon&#8217;s Ruins, Lost Izalith, The Bed of Chaos\/Witch of Izalith, and gimmick bosses<br \/>\n1:05:28 &#8211; Secrets and Exploration<br \/>\n1:07:41 &#8211; Artorias of the Abyss DLC<br \/>\n1:09:06 &#8211; Gwyn, Lord of Cinder<br \/>\n1:10:26 &#8211; Multiplayer design and gameplay integration<br \/>\n1:11:56 &#8211; Outro<\/p>\n<p>Music List &#8211;<br \/>\n0.00 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Menu Theme<br \/>\n0.36 &#8211; Demon&#8217;s Souls &#8211; Maiden in Black<br \/>\n2.06 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Prologue<br \/>\n3.38 &#8211; Final Fantasy VI &#8211; Terra&#8217;s Theme<br \/>\n4.37 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; Palace of Oath Exterior<br \/>\n6.29 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field &#8211; Passage For a Monk<br \/>\n7.37 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field &#8211; The Miner&#8217;s Graveyard<br \/>\n10.29 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Firelink Shrine<br \/>\n11.28 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; The Ancient Dragon<br \/>\n14.08 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; Levels 1 &#038; 2<br \/>\n17.21 &#8211; Demon&#8217;s Souls &#8211; Maiden Astraea<br \/>\n19.19 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Taurus Demon<br \/>\n20.38 &#8211; Demon&#8217;s Souls &#8211; Old Monk<br \/>\n23.20 &#8211; Dark Souls 2 &#8211; Majula<br \/>\n25.07 &#8211; Dark Souls 3 &#8211; Secret Betrayal<br \/>\n27.50 &#8211; Bloodborne &#8211; The Hunter<br \/>\n28.17 &#8211; Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy &#8211; Rock It Pack Attack<br \/>\n31.21 &#8211; The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past &#8211; Dark World Theme<br \/>\n32.35 &#8211; Dark Souls 2 &#8211; Executioner&#8217;s Chariot<br \/>\n33.08 &#8211; Final Fantasy VI &#8211; Phantom Forest<br \/>\n35.39 &#8211; Dark Souls 2 &#8211; Queen of Drangleic<br \/>\n37.04 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field &#8211; Colosseum<br \/>\n38.31 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; The Egg Mines<br \/>\n39.58 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; The Earth Folk Village<br \/>\n42.23 &#8211; Breath of Fire II &#8211; Coliseum<br \/>\n43.43 &#8211; Grandia 2 &#8211; Out For Lunch<br \/>\n44.08 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; The Holy Forest<br \/>\n44.27 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Ornstein and Smough<br \/>\n45.54 &#8211; Demon&#8217;s Souls &#8211; Return to Slumber<br \/>\n48.40 &#8211; A Hat in Time &#8211; Alpine Skyline<br \/>\n49.29 &#8211; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time &#8211; Small Item Catch<br \/>\n52.04 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Gravelord Nito<br \/>\n53.27 &#8211; Dark Souls 2 &#8211; Milfanito<br \/>\n54.15 &#8211; Dark Souls 2 &#8211; Fire Keepers<br \/>\n54.57 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Nameless Song<br \/>\n56.59 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Seath the Scaleless<br \/>\n58.32 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field 2 &#8211; Seath<br \/>\n59.01 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; Title Screen<br \/>\n59.49 &#8211; Super Mario RPG &#8211; Explanation<br \/>\n59.57 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; Village Ruins and East Valley<br \/>\n1.00.31 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Great Grey Wolf Sif<br \/>\n1.01.29 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field &#8211; Cathedral<br \/>\n1.02.15 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; The Old Battlefield<br \/>\n1.04.10 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Chaos Witch Quelaag<br \/>\n1.05.28 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Dark Sun Gwyndolin<br \/>\n1.07.41 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field: The Ancient City &#8211; The Guardian&#8217;s Room<br \/>\n1.09.06 &#8211; Dark Souls &#8211; Gwyn, Lord of Cinder<br \/>\n1.10.26 &#8211; King&#8217;s Field &#8211; Castle Remains<\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoy this Dark Souls Design Retrospective!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Dark Souls Retrospective, specifically looking at Dark Souls Design. I&#8217;ve been slowly writing this ove<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":359207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[212,32558,174133,174484,174485,174482,174483,7193,203,7191,7202,54417,8600,4775,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rpg","8":"tag-dark-souls","9":"tag-dark-souls-1","10":"tag-dark-souls-analysis","11":"tag-dark-souls-breakdown","12":"tag-dark-souls-critical-analysis","13":"tag-dark-souls-design","14":"tag-dark-souls-design-retrospective","15":"tag-dark-souls-essay","16":"tag-dark-souls-remastered","17":"tag-dark-souls-retrospective","18":"tag-dark-souls-review","19":"tag-dark-souls-video-essay","20":"tag-ds-remastered","21":"tag-fromsoftware","22":"tag-rpg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}