Chapter 176: Dark Souls Prequel, Online!
The release of Dark Souls: First Flame is approaching. The advertisements are slowly beginning to appear on the main websites.
Meanwhile, the pre-launch promotions for international software have already begun.
Compared to domestic sales, international sales are more aggressive. This is because, during July, most game developers are not yet prepared to release new titles. On the one hand, the announcement was made at the expo, which leaves time for development. On the other hand, Alex had already announced that Dark Souls: First Flame would be released in early July.
As the sequel to an established IP, winner of last year's RPG award, with a clear release date, few companies hesitated to release it.
For players, the wait was incredibly frustrating. The promotional video from the expo was played constantly. Many Souls experts, based on the content of previous games, have created three-hour long videos with plot and background analyses, based solely on this approximately three-minute trailer.
Of course, in addition to these die-hard Souls experts, many casual players were also worried about Alex's official blog post announcing a release delay to provide a better experience for players. Release delays are common in the video game industry, so these players were wary of Nebula Games doing the same, although they had never done it before.
This was also because Nebula Games had not had any major games to date, other than Dark Souls and It Takes Two.
However, as June approached, more Dark Souls ads were released, along with the price of Dark Souls: First Flame. The game's pre-order page had already appeared on the Nebula platform store, which gave some peace of mind to many players.
This time, Dark Souls: First Flame is available for a cheaper price of only $39.60, compared to its previous price of $53.60. As before, purchases on the Nebula game platform also have a 20% discount.
The price abroad has also dropped slightly, to $39.9.
Due to time differences and regional policies, the game will be released simultaneously worldwide, with only a few regions having a two-day delay.
The release date is fast approaching. Countless veterans have already pre-ordered and downloaded it, eagerly awaiting the moment to enter the game.
In community forums and chat groups, Dark Souls players chat with each other, excited about the imminent adventure to the next level.
In a chat group, a group of people discussed:
"Tom, Mike, have you guys downloaded the game yet?".
A player named Tom replied: "Of course! Of course!".
"That's right, I'm looking forward to it," chimed in someone named Mike.
Mike: "By the way, Tom, what class are you going to start with?".
Tom: "No need? I'll undoubtedly choose someone with nothing. As a qualified Firelink Bearer, only someone with nothing can demonstrate our abilities."
Mike: "Just as I thought. How about we have a competition to see who progresses faster?".
Tom: "No problem!".
As Tom and Mike chatted, the enthusiasm of the other Firelink Bearers was also ignited.
"We're almost there, we're almost there, only five minutes left, and soon we'll be able to experience it!".
"I wonder if the difficulty of the new Dark Souls will increase?".
"It will undoubtedly increase, but I don't think we should stress. After all, we are all qualified Firelink Bearers."
"That's right!".
The chat group was filled with laughter for a moment. But five minutes later, it was as if the internet had been completely disconnected, and not a single sound could be heard.
In a residential complex in the capital, Tom, also known as Tom in the chat group, opened the game Dark Souls: First Flame on the Nebula game platform with great anticipation. The opening animation was identical to the one shown at the previous game expo. Clearly, Alex was being frugal and following tradition. The cinematics served as promotional videos, or vice versa.
Although Tom had seen it countless times since then, he watched it again. The game with Mike would be no different from watching a cinematic.
When the cinematics were over, Tom felt a little nervous looking at the game's interface. After all, this was Dark Souls, and he had already gone through many difficulties. And, according to the information Alex had previously revealed, the difficulty of the new game seemed to be increasing.
"It's just a sequel! How could they stop us, the Firelink Bearers?".
...Tom happily hummed.
The game began with the familiar face creation and class selection phase of Dark Souls. During the face creation phase, Tom noticed a unique prompt:
[It has been detected that you have a Dark Souls saved game. Do you want to select your previous face data?]
"Hey, what a good setting! I can still use the face I worked so hard for!". Tom was pleasantly surprised, but decided to ignore it and create a new, more unique face. 'How could a Firelink Bearer's face be ugly? That's what's unique about it!'.
As for his class, despite pretentiously claiming in the group chat that he wouldn't choose anything, he discreetly chose the Knight. After all, in the original game, the Knight was considered the most versatile class for pioneers.
Then, as for the burial items, or gifts, Tom noticed something different. Just like in the previous game, there were the Goddess's Blessing, the Life Ring, and the Black Flame Jar.
However, quite a few items had also been replaced, such as the Twin Humanity, the Telescope, the Old Witch Ring, and the Skeleton Key; none of them were in the previous game. For a moment, Tom was unsure what they were for.
After thinking about it for a bit, he chose the Skeleton Key. The Black Flame Pot would undoubtedly be useful for the first boss fights, but having completed the previous game, he felt a certain confidence in his own abilities.
Also, having played the previous game, he knew a key feature of Dark Souls: map shortcuts. However, these shortcuts could only be unlocked later. Now that he had the Skeleton Key, could he use it to unlock them?.
Of course, there were other possibilities, such as a room with a valuable item hidden that required a specific key, and his Skeleton Key could unlock it directly. Or perhaps it could be related to rescuing an imprisoned NPC, like the thief from the previous game.
In any case, he felt that this Skeleton Key was a relatively good and useful item.
After creating his character, Tom entered the game with excitement, ready to officially begin his journey of transmitting the flames.
- - - - - - - -
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