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Post by thundercunt on Jun 14, 2024 17:25:16 GMT -5
Some interesting insights for mappers
Dark Souls map visualizer:
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Post by optimus on Jun 16, 2024 16:39:06 GMT -5
Wow, nice. It covers all souls like from Demon Souls to Blood Borne. I had a brief read to understand what these terms wienies, birth canals, etc mean. I remember when in some Doom map you go through some clastrophobic endless corridor and then it opens in a vast space, it creates certain feelings. That must be the birth canal thing. I wanted to replicate it as I've seen it somewhere else.
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Post by Un'Gosoth on Jun 16, 2024 21:04:42 GMT -5
The Souls series has definitely been a major influence on my mapping, so having access to terms like optimus mentioned, as well as measurements of various level design characteristics in inspirational levels, is super cool. I'm a big fan of "fingers" in maps, but often have a hard time placing meaningful or satisfying rewards in them if the level runs-on for a while. It's nice to see some reassurance that an optional battle or minor treasure can still constitute a worthwhile reward for just exploring a level.
I've also played a small bit of King's Field (2), which is a lot more brutal than the Soulsborne games in terms of difficulty and punishment. A product of its time, but I'd be interested to see how an analysis of the KF series' first major zones compare as well. Also not sure how secrets would factor into this; the writers/researchers mention the flaws in their methodology, and it bears mentioning that in the Soulsborne games (I've always hated the word "Soulsborne", and I'm getting tired of typing it so much), secrets such as items gained through murdering NPC's or completing their respective quests could also factor in, with the Flamespewer from Bloodborne coming to mind in particular due to its accessibility entirely through actions taken in Central Yarnham.
Good share, thundercunt!
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Post by optimus on Jun 17, 2024 8:31:28 GMT -5
Great to see someone else played King's Field. They seem more brutal and the clanky controls don't help but they get easier than dark souls later on as if you level up enough things become to easy or you grind at certain places you are OP in some sense. Which didn't happen in DS where even if you level up a lot, you still can lose big chunks of health, it's balanced so that you cannot overgrind and beat the game really easy. Also in KF you can open menu and in pause drink healing, like I was playing KF4 and there was a hard boss, but I could open the inventory menu where everything is paused, drink some healing potions, then unpause and continue. Unlike DS where you need to think when it's time to drink estus during a boss fight. So, having finished KF2 to 4, I can see they are much jankier and awkward controls and punishing, but easier as you grind up levels.
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StodgyAyatollah
Doomer
I'm not here. You're just imagining things.
Posts: 485
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Post by StodgyAyatollah on Jun 17, 2024 15:40:06 GMT -5
I remember playing King's Field a fair amount probably pretty close to release. I always felt that DS had a bit of the same dna in it that also went into survival horror and looking back I think that's probably true for KF as well. The sort of metroidvaniaesque puzzlebox nature of the environments that you slowly chip away at to understand and master, essentially making it the true antagonist of the game.
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