Arcadian Rhythms announces shameless pursuit of new demographic

That’s right, folks. We’ve come to the conclusion that in order to remain borderline relevant, it’s time for Arcadian Rhythms to harness its ramshackle carriage to the video bandwagon. What do you call it these days? Vlogging? Clogging the YouTubes? Optimal monetisation strategies?

Whatever it’s called, we want in. Therefore over the coming weeks I’ll be doing an intermittent series of videos based – but of course – on From Software’s Dark Souls. The plan is to create entertaining tutorials that explain some of the gameplay basics of Dark Souls, and help disabuse some of the misconceptions around how difficult/cruel/inaccessible it is to play.

Now, way back in the day I shared a gameplay video of my attempt to play Super EDF on the SNES, and I was justly mocked for my appalling shmup skills. I’m not that much better at Dark Souls – only a little – but I think this makes me the perfect person to introduce dubious but curious potential Dark Souls players to the game. You don’t have to be that good to handle Dark Souls. Common misconception.

The first test video is below. Future videos will probably aim to be of equivalent length or shorter – bite-sized nuggets of induction to gameplay rather than sprawling ‘let’s play’ type affairs.

As it says beneath the YouTube vid, this is a proof of concept/tech effort so it doesn’t include any real tips. The game/voice audio will be better in the first actual video. I’ll also sort out the visible area (not sure where those black borders came from), and I’ll also try not to suck air in between my teeth every two minutes.


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5 responses to “Arcadian Rhythms announces shameless pursuit of new demographic”

  1. @RuthlessCult Avatar

    Good luck with the new string to your bow :-)

    I have to admit, I feel distinctly uneasy about the growing social dimension of these types of games. When I played Demon Souls, I did so with my console unplugged and I found it gloriously incomprehensible and difficult. While I think that the very social way of playing the game is probably closer to how the designers intended but I've always used gaming as an excuse to do something by myself and 'stream this, watch that, talk about this' rubs me the wrong way. I actually shivered when GiantBombCast were talking about invasions and summoning other players to come and help you out.

    1. ShaunCG Avatar

      Oh, for fucks sake. WordPress has bollocksed the paragraph spacing again. And I'm drunk. So now I'll go fix that!

      Being a DS newcomer in the face of Dylan and AJ I'm not sure I'm in the best position to comment vis-a-vis the multiplayer components of these games, but I'm of the impression just from my limited experiences that a small amount of it is an almost essential agreement to actually progress… unless you already know the game intimately well. E.g. to defeat the gargoyles of DS I had to summon a friendly character – NPC, admittedly, but still.

      I also wonder just what the game's multiplayer components mean thematically in the face of the otherwise utterly bleak and solitary experiences of these games. Again, I feel I've yet to plumb their depths but I've enough respect for From Software that I suspect it's been taken into consideration and designed around.

      1. badgercommander Avatar

        I do have a ton of thoughts on the MP – namely that the way I played Dark Souls versus the way I am playing Dark Souls II is very different.

        Will post something longer when I have the time

      2. badgercommander Avatar

        So, yeah.

        I originally played a large portion of Dark Souls when I had no internet connection and I was terrified right up until fighting the Gaping Dragon.

        When I revisited it after being called a poser, the experience was very different. There were signs every where, people I could call into my game (even 3 years after the title's release) and the whole thing changed in terms of how I felt.

        It was still fairly terrifying but not at the level that the original solace had been.

        Likewise, the change in the way that Dark Souls II works I don't have the fear anywhere near as frequently (although there are moments when the white soapstone cannot be used and you feel utterly helpless) and the first playthrough seems to be more emphasised on 'Jolly Co-operation' .

        Dylan has words on how that all changes in NG+ but I can alreday envisage some of the side area stuff being delightfully frantic in a whole new way.

        Being baffled is still present in Dark Souls and Dark Souls II – you just have to avoid the wiki for Dark Souls and with II, people are still trying to figure out what is going on.

        As for the video, some classic Shaun comments as he gets murdered.

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