@milo#19021 I have always secretly hoped that somehow Nintendo would get so fed up with the progress of Metroid Prime 4 and just rip the IP away from Retro and hand it off to From…
My absolute dream game would be a dark, moody souls-like take on the Metroid universe. I personally haven’t felt that any of the games in the series have quite captured the lonely, desolate vibes of Super Metroid. I think I was somewhere deep in Lost Izalith when it hit me that there were so many features of Dark Souls that would make it an amazing template for a Metroid game.
First of all, the world design is pure Metroidvania to me...this felt to me like the first time a 3D game had truly captured the interconnected worlds from those 2D progenitors. Second, it just had the right atmosphere...there was just too much bombast in games like Other M and too much pop-sci-fi style over-explaining in basically all of the games. To me, one of the defining aspects of Samus's journey is that she is alone and fending for herself in a vast, unfamiliar world. I would love to pick up pieces of lore organically (or not at all!) instead of being inundated with explicit worldbuilding--I have no clue what is going on in the Souls game most of the time and heck I like it that way! Finally, I think about that quote from Miyazaki about "dignified" design all of the time and I really feel like it would bring back some of the gravitas to the Metroid universe.
Anyway...so that's my rant about my ideal video game that will never exist!
I got into From all “wrong”, bouncing between Lost Kingdoms, Echo Night: Beyond, and their cat-based village 'em ups. I sort of fell into what would be considered their mainline output by accident after trying out Shadow Tower via PSN, falling in love with it, and then not stopping until I‘d cleared the whole thing. That was the game that helped me understand what they were trying to do with their first-person RPGs and how to approach them, and thanks to that I’ve been able to thoroughly enjoy King's Field II and IV, and feel a bit disappointed about Shadow Tower Abyss*
Wow you made me realize I want exactly this too. That sounds incredible and like it could work really well. Gleaning the lore from computer entries was one of my favorite parts of Metroid Prime. That combined with a more dark, brooding atmosphere with third person souls like controls..... Oooooh.
@milo#19058 Yeah, the main sticking point for me would be figuring out how they would handle the controls…the souls games aren't exactly known for their projectile-based weapons. Its actually kinda funny to imagine Samus using her arm cannon only to stagger enemies at point-blank range like in Bloodborne! I guess there would have to be some generous usage of lock-on.
I think lock on would work perfectly, as prime 1 and 2 are played primarily through locking on to stuff. Give samus a dodge roll with third person lock on shooting and we're set!
@donrumata#19028 This could end up sucking but I was sold once I saw those giants pulling the cart. That shit rocks.
Yeah this is exactly what crossed my mind.
I mean, sure, shit looks like Dark Souls 4 to the point of recycling spells, animations and the whole aesthetics in a very shameless way ("An all new fantasy action RPG franchise" my ass, and let's not even talk about how greedy it sounds calling this a franchise upfront). But on the other hand just imagine how DOPE it would be having Dark Souls 4 with Breath of the Wild style exploration and encountering those eerie and weird things like the weird giant carriage, the giant stone face, or just seeing the entrance to a tomb on the distance, getting off the horse and doing a fully fledged Dark Souls area that you discovered yourself.
@JoJoestar#19084 A lot of smart folks have talked about how an open world From game is a bad idea because the meticulous encounter design and level geometry of the soulsborne games is exactly what makes them good.
@treefroggy#19013 Agreed to the King‘s Field controls being exactly what the game needs. If it’s homogeneity and all games controlling and feeling the same and having the exact same systems (hello current open world trend) then yes, King‘s Field is very anomalous and different to a lot of real time combat videogames. But if we appreciate coherence, and each game using the systems they require to boost the whole package, then King’s Field combat is catalyst for the sense of immersion, pace and atmosphere as much as the art direction and the first person camera.
@CidNight#19085 That takes out of the equation a trick that game designers have been pulling off from as far as Ocarina of Time at least (and it‘s probably even older) consisting on, sure, you have a huge open area or hub or whatever, but at the end of the day, when you enter a zone, you basically shift to an old school linear game. I mean, even the recent Batman and Spiderman games do this, it’s an extremely natural way to handle things for this game I believe, and in that sense I'm all but wary or scared.
@JoJoestar#19088 I think this is exactly right. It brings to mind some criticisms of BotW, which of course eschewed this in favor of a (mostly) seamless open world experience. I appreciated their gall and loved that game, but I do remember absolutely loving the couple of times that the game puts you in something like a traditional Zelda dungeon and wanting more.
BotW changed the landscape and expectations around open worlds, but I really don’t see why a company with the cache of From can’t ignore that and just make an open world game circa 1998.
@CidNight#19090 Lots of modern games use this template as well tho! 2018's God of War (a year older than BotW) does this to the letter, you also have Darksiders 1 and 2, the already mentioned Batman and Spiderman games, even LEGO games shifted from a linear level-based structure to an open world framework that contextualizes everything.
I mean, it's all but a dead or old trend and that is precisely why I'm not super concerned, I think I would be if I had to trust the right judgment on reviving a twenty something year old formula that has never been used since.
@Kimimi#19044 Beautiful serendipity here because I stumbled upon your entries about Shadow Tower and Abyss a couple good years ago and liked them so much I shared them with my editor, who is into obscure games and FromSoft as well. Then recently, precisely after finishing KF1 I wanted to re-read those and couldn't find them (and I admit I had your stuff confused with http://gaming.moe/). So it's delightful to finally find those texts again and realize the author of those is a fellow member of these forums, and to become aware of it precisely on a thread dedicated to FromSoft as well!
I don‘t think it’s possible for Elden Ring to “suck” in a true sense. Even if it‘s the worst game in the series, it would still be a good game. Also when viewing the trailer you gotta remember it’s a leak…. Similar to the FFXVI trailer, but they haven‘t released it: things could improve greatly. That’s why they don‘t wanna show it yet… You gotta look at and understand From’s history… They made 4 King‘s Field games, and countless spin offs. King’s Field is to Souls as Bloodborne is to Shadow Tower, Elden Ring could very easily be the Eternal Ring of the series… That should be obvious to everyone in this thread. Dark Souls III was good in the hands but I didn‘t like many of the choices. If this is more Dark Souls III but with better lore and stuff, I’ll be satisfied.
Also, it sucks that "open world" means "flat and samey" to y'all / most people. Dark Souls was always open world. The only reason this one seems like it will be flat is because, well, **horses**
Whatever choices they make, I think it will be a great game.
Also real quick, I should say I skipped Sekiro. I had Souls burnout, but also the main thing I enjoy about Souls is that it's a **Role Playing Game** where I get to make my plucky little character, start out super weak, and make my own stories as they become stronger. That's what I get out of Souls and why I find it so addicting in the first place. As long as I can have my plucky little witch, the environments I take her through is just whatever challenge she's facing today. From Soft is one of the only big companies that has stayed small and kept their Old Garde intact. The map designers are still making stuff in the same style as they've been using since King's Field.
Overall my point is that at this point you can really count on From Software delivering something that is befitting of From Software. They're somewhat predictable, even in the way they like to subvert expectations. If you only like one single element of their design, then yeah you may not like every game they deliver.
That said, watch Elden Ring release totally broken and be unprecedented levels of bad for From Software. Even then, it'd be pretty entertaining lol
What if the leak is fake and it's from some extremely clever modders with some kinda Dark Souls 3 driven machinima thing with elaborate added assets lol
@Gaagaagiins#19173 Insiders have appeared saying that the trailer is real but it was also shown closed doors like 1-2 years ago so apparently is kinda oldish and the game may not look the same once it finally shows up in official capacity.
@treefroggy#19133 I generally agree with almost everything you said. After playing King's Field, Shadow Tower and being in the middle of King's Field 2 I'm very inclined to say that the only game in which I see true lineage with the Souls games is actually Shadow Tower, and even that one is a experience of its own. I have the feeling that the comparison has been overstated a bit because both of them being fantasy action-RPGs by the same developer. I don't know, King's Field and Shadow Tower put me in a different headspace and mood than Souls games I would say, but that could be subjective I guess.
It surprises me you say Dark Souls is open world tho, I would define that game more as a 3D metroidvania than anything else. And while I would agree that I find most open world games boring I would put forward Xenoblade and BotW as open world games that I do find interesting. I guess you would count Ocarina of Time and Hollow Knight as open world, then? Not trying to make fun of you here, I'm genuinelly curious about your point of view here.
@JoJoestar#19199 Gaagaagiins Insiders have appeared saying that the trailer is real but it was also shown closed doors like 1-2 years ago so apparently is kinda oldish and the game may not look the same once it finally shows up in official capacity.
I feel like dark souls is a closed open world. There's no linear progression per se; the world is open to you in different directions from the get go, but some are locked off or unreachable because of how strong the enemies are. Once you progress in the game it becomes more open world because the world has become open and you can go anywhere you want.
I get Dark Souls is less restrictive than the average vania in the sense that in a lot of ways it‘s your skill and/or level and equipment what acts as the main restriction defining progression and exploration, instead of a specific sequence of skills or power ups determining the order in which you traverse through the game. But I don’t know, Hollow Knight does that as well and it feels super strange to call it an open world game. Less linear metroidvania feels more natural denomination in both cases. Although at the end of the day who cares how we call the stuff, I guess…
