Some Interesting Trivia From the Dark Souls 2 Design Works Interview

[Lexford]

The interview with the devs about Dark Souls 2 has a bunch of intriguing stuff in it, you should check it out if you're curious about this game's troubled development: http://peterbarnard1984.tumblr.com/post/113163062955/dark-souls-2-design-works-translation Here, I'm posting some of the concepts and ideas that stuck out to me in the interview, and I hope you find these interesting as well. Most of it *might* be by memory, so I may not be right about some of this trivia.

The Iron Keep Being Above Earthen Peak Was Intentional, But Not Conveyed Correctly

One of the easiest things to nitpick about this game is this bizarre vertical transition from a poison tower to a volcanic castle. To people who say that the elevator should've gone down, the Iron Keep is actually a castle *on a higher plane of the volcano*, right in the caldera. I suppose when the devs were designing the Iron Keep, they realized they made the area too wide for it to be believably above the Earthen Peak. Not to mention, the Earthen Peak has no mountain that's close enough to it to house a volcanic fort.

The Things Betwixt Was Originally Gonna be More Unforgiving

This area is a rather composed tutorial spot, and that's because the devs' original idea was much more unforgiving. The original idea was to have the player be thrown right into a super dark place, and have a *dragon* be the first encounter as soon as the player started. They would have to navigate the area and find items to help them overcome the dragon. The devs thought this would be a nice way to welcome players returning from the first game, but they also thought it might be too unforgiving for newcomers. So one of their compromises was a group of small, but deadly early-game enemies that'll take you down if you're reckless enough to pick an early fight with them.

The Game Was Gonna be Way More Ganky

Thought this game was too ganky? Well guess what? The devs originally had more group boss ideas. Najka and Tark were originally gonna be allies, with Tark being the more frisky foe. The Duke's Dear Freja has two heads because she was originally gonna split into two when her health got low (I guess that idea was given to the Darklurker instead). But the scariest concept of all was that the Throne Twins were originally gonna be accompanied by Velstadt... Thank goodness Velstadt became his own boss.

Vengarl's Encounter Was Gonna be a Little Different

Vengarl's body still kept his fury in the early stages of development, but the player was originally supposed to return Vengarl's head to the body. I suppose it would've been a side quest that would grant you Vengarl's gear if the body was given peace (his head).

The Gyrms Were Originally Gonna be Gutter Residents

The Gyrms were originally gonna be a race hired by Vendrick to work in the Gutter, which would apparently have been a waterway system.

Sinh's Poisonous Body

I don't know why the devs didn't have this stated somewhere in-game, but apparently, Sinh's poisonous traits are because he has the ability to absorb surrounding poisons. No one in Shulva knew of that power of Sinh's, but I guess he was deserving of being worshipped, since he was what kept Shulva from being poisoned (until Sir Yorgh came)!

Fume Knight's Appearance is Supposed to Convey Weakness

Despite being one of the most unrelenting bosses in the game, the designer of the Fume Knight wanted to emphasize his weakness and fall in grandeur, and that he isn't entirely in control when fighting you. I guess you can see it with how crippled his armor looks.

There Was Originally Gonna be a Desert Region

To match Najka's scorpion traits, an entire desert region was originally planned. The devs thought the planned desert looked too generic though, so Najka's sandy arena is all they have to compliment her.


Those were a bunch of concepts, both scrapped and realized, that I found really neat to know. It's nice to see how the devs dealt with this game, and I really feel their passion for Dark Souls 2, it's just a shame that the devs couldn't implement or polish everything0 that they wanted due to time constraints and other inconvenient factors. There are other interviews involving this game and I'm sure they present different ideas, so I'm curious if anyone else found some other trivia about the making of this game. If you do have developer trivia to share, please also share a link to the interview you got the info from (I remember someone said that Grandpa Ornstein's the Old Dragonslayer's appearance in the game was for pure fanservice confirmed by the devs, but never linked any evidence of such a statement).

[Lu2]

dark souls 2-2 when?

[Lexford]

Originally posted by Lu2:

dark souls 2-2 when?

Hm? Are you saying you want a version of Dark Souls 2 with all the scrapped features?

[Lu2]

Originally posted by Sir Jackenstire:

Originally posted by Lu2:

dark souls 2-2 when?

Hm? Are you saying you want a version of Dark Souls 2 with all the scrapped features?

no just sequel or something.

[Lexford]

Originally posted by Lu2:

Originally posted by Sir Jackenstire:

Hm? Are you saying you want a version of Dark Souls 2 with all the scrapped features?

no just sequel or something.

Hmm, considering Dark Souls 2 is the most hated in the series, others would just find that a wretched idea. To me though, a sequel to this game would be nice to see more about the curse, rather than focus on the First Flame.