This week’s issue of Dengeki has shed a little light on Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to the smash hit Demon’s Souls on the PlayStation 3. In an interview with the magazine, director Hidetaka Miyazaki dropped a few details about the game, including its Oath System, all while cautioning that he doesn’t want to reveal too much, because the game is meant to truly surprise players.
Dark Souls stars a character who has been shunned by society, because he is an undying hero, who always returns to life no matter how many times he has been killed. How exactly this story can be reconciled with the gameplay remains to be seen, as Demon’s Souls was notorious for being controller-smashingly hard and Dark Souls is rumored to be even more difficult.
Since Demon’s Souls impressed so many players with its unique online system, Dark Souls is following in its footsteps with the Oath System, designed to make online interactions with other players fun, meaningful and surprising. Players can make oaths about things to other characters, which can affect interactions with online players by determining where the player stands on certain issues. These oaths can determine which online players turn into allies, and which ones turn into enemies.
Dark Souls has no official release date beyond a vague “2011”, but it is currently under development by From Software, and will be released for the PlayStation 3. The game’s official website can be found here.
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