sobaka770
Banned
I see a lot of people complainig about the interconnectedness of the world. Here are my thoughts (didn't finish the game yet).
Dark Souls 1 has amazing interconnectedness, it was mind-boggling. However, this all stems from a very vertical world design. Things are basically sitting on top if each other like in a tower. Even the separate level of Anor Londo is visually placed on top of the rest of the map. Discarding Dark Souls 2 which is a shameful mess, Miyazaki is slowly moving to less vertical but more horizontal worlds.
We can see it already in Bloodborne where Yharnam has only 3 levels of verticality (Old Yharnam/New Yharnam/Cathedral Ward) but the city feels larger. We also get to explore the surrounding areas such as the forest, Byrenwerth and Hemwich Charnel Lane. In Dark Souls 1 even the garden level was vertical and had 2 layers.
Dark Souls 3 continues that tradition and the interconnected areas form a more horizontal sprawling map
. The benefits of such design is that the world does feel much larger and in a way more believable. If you think about it, most of the lords of Lordran lived eerily close to each other. Lothric's map makes a bit more sense spatially as if it is the real kingdom and not things piled up on each other. However, obviously once we deal with a horizontal map the amount of interconnected areas is drastically reduced.
I think in Dark Souls 1 players were lost vertically at first with the levels twisting up and down and that's why it was so suprising to find the shortcuts. The areas in Lothric can be easier understood spatially and the "wow" of finding a shortcut is lessened. Moreover there cannot be a central in-world hub anymore as the levels veer away too much. All in all, however both designs have their pros and cons, I found that within the same level the designs are awesome and some connections are still providing the sense of amazement. (
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Dark Souls 1 has amazing interconnectedness, it was mind-boggling. However, this all stems from a very vertical world design. Things are basically sitting on top if each other like in a tower. Even the separate level of Anor Londo is visually placed on top of the rest of the map. Discarding Dark Souls 2 which is a shameful mess, Miyazaki is slowly moving to less vertical but more horizontal worlds.
We can see it already in Bloodborne where Yharnam has only 3 levels of verticality (Old Yharnam/New Yharnam/Cathedral Ward) but the city feels larger. We also get to explore the surrounding areas such as the forest, Byrenwerth and Hemwich Charnel Lane. In Dark Souls 1 even the garden level was vertical and had 2 layers.
Dark Souls 3 continues that tradition and the interconnected areas form a more horizontal sprawling map
and all of it is located under Lothric Wall which you can see from almost any location
I think in Dark Souls 1 players were lost vertically at first with the levels twisting up and down and that's why it was so suprising to find the shortcuts. The areas in Lothric can be easier understood spatially and the "wow" of finding a shortcut is lessened. Moreover there cannot be a central in-world hub anymore as the levels veer away too much. All in all, however both designs have their pros and cons, I found that within the same level the designs are awesome and some connections are still providing the sense of amazement. (
Farron Wolf shortcut rising back to the bridge comes to mind
I also don't mind the idea of linearity in the beginning of the game. To be fair for 99% of people, Undead Burg - Parish - Sweres - Blighttown waas the only path anyway. The game does open up later on and I don't feel like it's limiting in any way. I also like how we basically start at the top and then gargoyles bring us down to the rest of the interconnected world, like an inverse Anor Londor from Dark Souls 1
No problem.
