I was was writing my previous blogpost about DS2 weapon durability, this thought started to form.
Dark souls 2 released with lots of broken promises, and issue but there was a deep problem within the Darkouls community at the time, remembering the comments on the groups about how cheap and shitty it was, weapon durability is bullshit, enemies are bullshit, getting back stabbed more easily ( but you an backstab more easily so it can go both ways )
Darksouls 1 had a tagline " Prepare to Die " this tag line was super important, it gave perception to the player that this game is going to destroy you. Darksouls 2 had nothing and when the complete version release it was " Scholar of the first sin " more towards lore.
I think if it had a tagline such as " you are never safe " that would have shifted Player expectation and perception towards all the " cheap deaths " that were actually teaching players lots of mechanics, core mechanics that can be used such as striking a gun powder barrel with a fire sword causes it to explode,
that teaches fire makes things go BOOM! which results in strategy shift of looking for those barrels in the environment and how to utilize it by hitting it with a fire arrow or a grenade,
weapon durability forced un expected players to shift strategy and a change weapon in the middle of a heater battle, getting ganked by an enemy that chased you from Far away in the level,
and my mortal enemy, the pursuer just showing up when you think you are safe or got out of the frier into the fire.
A simple marketing tagline that might have not save the game from its shortcoming but it might have shifted perception enough for the player to look at the game in a different lens...
The problem wasn't only that DS2 had questionable design decisions. It was that the game didn't adequately communicate the design philosophy behind those decisions.
what do you think?
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