Why Lost Izaleth is so unfinished?

[crack smoker2014]

The first boss of the location is the easiest boss in the game, the second one is a reused Stray Demon, the third one is incredibly unfair, annoying yet still easy and the Bed of Chaos is the Bed of Chaos. Were they running out of time this much?

[Dexter]

Aye

Imagine them having resources, time and marketing needed to properly finish the game but greed tells you to just slap new fx on effect, lmao

imagine

[Call Sign: Raven]

Why don’t you email the devs, then you’ll probably get an actual answer!

[garballax]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Why don’t you email the devs, then you’ll probably get an actual answer!

smart-ass, there's things that team will never tell. Games mold and take new shape a lot during their creation, everything from technical challenges to storyline overhauls. There's evidence of course shift without touching unused or cut content (Painted World, King Jeremiah), so time constraints mixed plus overly ambitious ideas probably all contributed to the second half collapsing in on itself.

Though... just keep it simple and blame Bandai-Namco ;)

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by garballax:

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Why don’t you email the devs, then you’ll probably get an actual answer!

smart-ass, there's things that team will never tell. Games mold and take new shape a lot during their creation, everything from technical challenges to storyline overhauls. There's evidence of course shift without touching unused or cut content (Painted World, King Jeremiah), so time constraints mixed plus overly ambitious ideas probably all contributed to the second half collapsing in on itself.

Though... just keep it simple and blame Bandai-Namco ;)

Not being a smart-ass, I'm being smart. I personally think it's a waste of time asking the general user-base about something in-game that they didn't even participate in. Unless someone comes in from the development team and specifically says something, all our speculation, no matter how well thought-out we think it is, is pointless. So, go to the source and see if they will tell you.

[ɮɛǟ ♛]

It was one of the last areas they where making and they run out of time as far as i am concerned. It is a big shame, because it is one of my favorite areas, even unfinished. It had deep lore and they were planning a much more different fight than this crap.

[crack smoker2014]

Originally posted by Delta593:

Yeah, it was basically unfinished and left that way. I think From Soft ran out of time and money, and weren't able to finish Lost Izalith. Tomb of the Giants and Crystal Cave have similar issues. Crystal Cave looks super bad.

Tomb of the Giants isn't nearly as bad. I actually think it's the best area of the second half the game has. The darkness mechanic is pretty good and i wish DS2 didn't fck up it that hard as it did

[crack smoker2014]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Originally posted by garballax:

smart-ass, there's things that team will never tell. Games mold and take new shape a lot during their creation, everything from technical challenges to storyline overhauls. There's evidence of course shift without touching unused or cut content (Painted World, King Jeremiah), so time constraints mixed plus overly ambitious ideas probably all contributed to the second half collapsing in on itself.

Though... just keep it simple and blame Bandai-Namco ;)

Not being a smart-ass, I'm being smart. I personally think it's a waste of time asking the general user-base about something in-game that they didn't even participate in. Unless someone comes in from the development team and specifically says something, all our speculation, no matter how well thought-out we think it is, is pointless. So, go to the source and see if they will tell you.

The thing is that i thought the dev team had answers and that i just didn't find anything. But no, noone knows

[Jake]

Two words:

Namco

Bandai

[nugdolf]

miyazaki said (in an interview) that they were out of inspiration when they started making this area . he also doesn't like the bed of chaos boss fight

[patrixilentius]

A question people have been asking for 10 years now.
As John McClane famously said: "Welcome to the party, pal!"

[patrixilentius]

Originally posted by incolhoz:

Tomb of the Giants isn't nearly as bad. I actually think it's the best area of the second half the game has.

I personally hate it, but I would never say it's bad, it's just difficult and frustrating at times. (Especially those freaking skeledogs.)
It's a hard area of a hard game and I just have to deal with it, instead of calling it "unfair" and "unfinished".

[crack smoker2014]

Originally posted by Delta593:

Originally posted by incolhoz:

Tomb of the Giants isn't nearly as bad. I actually think it's the best area of the second half the game has. The darkness mechanic is pretty good and i wish DS2 didn't fck up it that hard as it did

The problem with Tomb of the Giants, is that it's gimmick is easily addressed and removed. You either cast a spell, use the Lantern or use the Chaos Bug light. After that, it becomes a somewhat boring zone of cliffs and caves with a bunch of skeletons. You can challenge yourself to not do that, but you're going to be dying a lot to cliffs if you do.

The lantern solution isn't that good since you need to use it instead of your shield or weapon which can cause trouble. Not everyone can cast light and and not everyone will go to Izalith first to get the Chaos Bug so i think it's alright

[patrixilentius]

Originally posted by Delta593:

Originally posted by incolhoz:

The lantern solution isn't that good since you need to use it instead of your shield or weapon which can cause trouble. Not everyone can cast light and and not everyone will go to Izalith first to get the Chaos Bug so i think it's alright

Which is a trade off, but the Skull Lantern still functions as a shield (just not a particularly good one), and can eat a hit before you smack the offender to death with your primary weapon. Cast Light is just one of the options, but the Sunlight Maggot also exists, and it isnt terribly hard to find (if you're an explorer, that is).

I mean, obviously not everyone is going to be able to easily trivialize the area like that, but I can almost guarantee that they'll abandon the zone to find something else to do in the meantime.

I must admit I was trembling with fear in the Tomb of the Giants only until I've found the shortcut between the first bonfire and the ledge path to Nito, where Leeroy invades. (Well, someone on YouTube showed me, I'm not that perceptive.) It quite significantly simplifies the boss run. Not to the point of trivializing it, but it's close. Now that area is just a slightly irritating detour on my character's journey.

[Call Sign: Raven]

People are complaining about the Skull Lantern, which literally lights the way with blue orbs to guide your path? That's a new one.

[The Great Brambino]

The entirety of Lost Izalith is the only area in the game where enemies are copy+pasted all over the place, making it pretty obvious the dev team was rushed or completely uninterested in the area.

My two cents is that Bandai Namco rushed Fromsoft to complete the area to meet some deadline. Bamco is known for stuff like this, and it's no wonder they would rush a small developer like Fromsoft before the Souls series really took off in 2011.

Another big factor is the team's experience creating these Souls games. Demon's Souls took 3 years to complete, and they were only given about 2 years to finish the original Dark Souls without the DLC. Compare that to Dark Souls 3's 2 year development cycle, which is a much more polished release.