It's rare to find a game series that keeps true to its roots, especially when it doesn't exist in a first person shooter world. Often game developers will take a series that successfully appeals to a very specific game audience and try to capitalize on its success by pandering to the lowest common denominator of gamers. Recently, Namco Bandai
announced that it will be going for an "all guns blazing" marketing approach to their titular sequel. If you aren't familiar, Dark Souls was a modest game from back in 2011 that was able to generate a bit of additional buzz thanks to
an article IGN's Casey Lynch wrote contrasting it to Skyrim. Unfortunately, this amazing game didn't get nearly the marketing that Skyrim did. Both games had a medieval setting, and both had dragons. However, while Skyrim appealed to a much larger and what some might consider "casual" audience, Dark Souls unforgiving game design appealed to a niche group of hardcore gamers looking for a challenge. This type of specific game construction is the starting point for a lot of famous franchises over the years that have since become bastardized versions of their former glory. This has the folks over in /r/darksouls a bit on edge, and for good reason. In a perfect world this sequel would provide good exposure to a game series that harkens back to old-school methods of adventure/action gaming. Dying is no longer a pause in your gameplay where you can just load back to a recent save. Every massive swing of your enemies' weapons causes genuine fear of losing everything you've worked for up to this point. The responses the game pulls from you are both visceral, and refreshing. However, so were your responses to the events in Resident Evil. And Deadspace. And Tomb Raider. All three of these games started as a very specific type of experience. However, as they progressed and accumulated some money and fame, the studio heads seemed to drool over the idea of a larger audience, bigger numbers, and more sales. To accomplish this goal they removed the very aspects of the games that made them fun. Tomb Raider's most recent incarnation emulated Uncharted. Deadspace tried to turn itself into a Gears of War, and Resident Evil became -- well -- the Fast and Furious of "horror" action; where each title had to try and out-action the previous installment, sacrificing the horror aspect in exchange for explosions and more characters. The Resident Evil series can't get a universally positive game review to save its life; Deadspace was panned for its departure from the survival horror that it had once previously excelled at, and Tomb Raider had almost nothing to do with raiding tombs. With enough examples to create an industry case study, it would seem as if another title is about to go the way of the industry dodo.
However, if done correctly, this also has the possibility to be one of the best things to happen to the game industry in a long time. Dark Souls has one of, if not the best combat systems ever created. Its minimalistic story allowed each player to create their own adventure, without being confined by shoddy writing or overly-ambitious narratives. The visuals were gorgeous, the load times were confined only to respawning, and the multiplayer system was creative and innovative. The game didn't talk down to its players by holding their hand throughout the missions and story, and it was a game in every sense of the word, as opposed to a movie you play through. Now imagine that these concepts don't change moving into Dark Souls II. Imagine also it has the marketing budget of Skyrim, or Call of Duty, or Uncharted. It would show that the game industry
isn't stale; that there are fresh ideas out there that, when given some exposure, can thrive. It has the possibility to be a flagship of content and niche market growth to show that you don't have to pander to the lowest common denominator in order to make a successful franchise; you just need the right kind of marketing. An aside: if you have any doubts about how important marketing is to a game and its success, take a look at Dead Island. Their first marketing video created a story that people wanted to see. Most of the game's initial success can be attributed to the timeliness of the zombie content, and the video that they were marketing around. Dead Island wasn't an amazing game, and was more annoying than it was fun in many areas. Then they decided to promote their new expansion pack. It was
a disaster, caused the company tons of bad PR, and pretty much tanked the title. Heres hoping Namco Bandai stays true to their souls (get it?), and ignites a digital renaissance to the often stale mainstream video game market.