我希望面对挑战玩家能迎难而上,能享受与强敌斗智斗勇和在地牢里晕头转向的过程。我们想让玩家在游戏过程中攻坚克难,享受克服每道难关后所带来的成就感。
I would like players to conquer the difficulty and enjoy taking on formidable enemies and going back and forth in dungeons. The process of overcoming the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment brought by breaking through each difficulty is the value we would like to offer to them.
Hidetaka Miyazaki
《黑暗之魂》制作人Hidetaka Miyazaki,
Dark Souls' director
与大多数动作 RPG 相比,《黑暗之魂》的战斗难度可以说不容小觑。不像类《暗黑破坏神(Diablo)》游戏的一味堆怪,《黑暗之魂》的敌人数量虽然稍少,却更加危险;另外,尽管《黑暗之魂》没有像纯动作游戏一样设计了许多复杂的连招系统,节奏相对缓慢,但仍然需要玩家细加思考。在每一次遭遇战中,不管是审慎把握敌我站位,还是仔细挑选备战武器、灵活选择作战地点,都和提高自身反应速度同等重要。
战斗系统中最核心的机制是精力条(Stamina)。攻击、格挡、翻滚和施法时都会消耗精力,而精力会自动回复。要想推图顺利的话,玩家必须注意绿条消耗,做好精力管理。
为了体现在不同环境中战斗的不同体验,游戏系统围绕此进行了仔细的构建。比方说,如果你在狭窄的过道里使用长柄武器,武器与墙壁会产生碰撞,造成弹刀,所以极不推荐如此选择。战斗以外,玩家在探索时也会深切感受到小心谨慎方为上策,细心推图往往收益更大。
游戏地图的设计实乃上乘,大背景与每一关卡的融合天衣无缝,埋着无数秘密,藏着致命陷阱。地图之间的捷径也让后期的跑图变得越来越省心。到这里就不得不提到《黑暗之魂》充满特色的非实时联机模式。
Battles in Dark Souls are quite a different affair compared to most other ARPGs. They don't at all fit with the Diablo clones and their hordes of enemies, opting for a smaller number of more dangerous foes. Neither are they trying to emulate pure action games with their complex systems of combos. Instead, they are comparatively slow and thoughtful affairs, where careful positioning and choosing your weapons as well as the field of battle wisely for each encounter is at least as important as having fast reflexes.
A central component to the system is Stamina, a replenishing resource used up when attacking, blocking with a shield, evading and casting spells. Managing Stamina is essential to being successful in battles.
Many of the game's systems are carefully designed in order to enhance the situational nature of battles – e.g. using a polearm in a confined tunnel is inadvisable, as collisions between your weapon and level geometry are actually detected. This focus on rewarding careful approaches is evident in another major strength of the game: its exploration.
The world and its levels are deeply interwoven, filled with secrets, deadly traps, and shortcuts which make deeper forays from each bonfire easier. In this context, Dark Souls' asynchronous multiplayer features need to be mentioned.
在游戏中玩家可以在地上留言,体现为发光的字符模样。留言可以指出隐藏道路、宝箱、陷阱和敌人,当然也可以写误导性内容,诱骗新人玩家去送死。[3] 而玩家死亡后会在其他玩家的世界中留下血迹,触碰血迹就可以看到玩家在临死一刻奋力拼搏的灵体残影。
《黑暗之魂》是一款出色的单人 RPG,不过多人模式也是深受玩家喜爱。联机时玩家可以选择作为灵体进行合作或入侵,成功绕开了在单人游戏中加入多人模式时可能出现的连贯性问题和设计漏洞。
战斗严苛无比,关卡精巧细密,boss 招招致命,死亡代价惨重,《黑暗之魂》在这些机制上的创新对后世产生了巨大影响,催生了公司的后续作品,包括《黑暗之魂 2》(Dark Souls II,2014)、《血源诅咒》(Bloodborne,2015)、《黑暗之魂 3》(Dark Souls III,2016),也推动了一个游戏类型的诞生,如《堕落之王》(Lords of the Fallen,2014)、《盐与避难所》(Salt and Sanctuary,2016)、《仁王》(Nioh,2017)等。玩家在《黑暗之魂》里饱受折磨,却又乐在其中。这是因为所有的困难都是公平的。只要摸透游戏的各种机制,熟悉每一张地图的环境,推图时小心翼翼审慎决策,这些艰难险阻终将成为传火之路的垫脚石。
模组:[4]
DSFix:这个模组解锁了游戏的分辨率和帧数上限,也做了其它改进。上线时间和《黑暗之魂》糟糕的 PC 移植版是同一天。强烈建议安装。
再次受死(Prepare to Die AGAIN):这个模组改动了篝火、敌人和道具的位置,老玩家能从中体会到第一次玩《黑暗之魂》时的曲折与心跳。很适合装上打一遍新周目。
敌人攻击欲望强化(Hyper-Aggressive Enemies):这个模组中的敌人的仇恨范围更广,而且会追你追到天涯海角。想要挑战极限难度的话,可以和墓王模组(Self Gravelording)搭配着玩。
The game allows players to place messages in the form of glowing runes on the ground. These can point out hidden paths, treasure, traps, enemies – or they can be false and made to lead trusting players to their deaths. Similarly, player deaths result in bloodstains in other players' worlds, and can be touched in order to see the dying player's last moments as a phantom.
On the topic of phantoms, while Dark Souls is a fantastic single-player RPG, it also features a multitude of popular multiplayer options based on the concept of phantoms visiting – or invading – the world of a host player, neatly circumventing the plethora of continuity or design issues which might occur when trying to fit multiplayer into a single-player RPG.
Dark Souls' combination of challenging battles, exquisitely designed levels, deadly bosses and punishing death mechanics had such influence that it gave birth to its own sub-genre, with Dark Souls II (2014), Bloodborne (2015), Dark Souls III (2016) and several others that followed, such as Lords of the Fallen (2014), Salt and Sanctuary (2016), Nioh (2017), etc. It's a punishing but rewarding experience, as all these dangers are almost invariably fair and can be mastered – by learning the game's mechanics, carefully studying each environment and always proceeding with caution.
Mods:
DSFix: Released the same day as the game’s lousy PC port, this mod unlocks the game’s resolution and/or frame rate, among other improvements. A must-have.
Prepare to Die AGAIN: This mod aims to give veteran players the excitement and mystery of playing Dark Souls for the first time by changing the location of enemies, items and bonfires. Great for a replay.
Hyper-Agressive Enemies: Makes enemies able to see you from afar and chase you anywhere. Use it with the Self Gravelording mod for the ultimate challenge.
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3 译者注:《黑暗之魂》系列的留言系统是让玩家从固定的短语列表里选择若干进行组合,而不是直接输入任何内容,不过短语列表本身相当丰富,包含了大多数游戏内的概念和术语,以及一般的功能词,另外可以选择显示某一肢体动作。在玩家社区中已经成为知名梗的留言有在实心墙前留下的“前有隐藏道路”,在悬崖边留下的“此处需要跳跃”,以及在宏大场景或建筑前留下的“赞美太阳”、“前有绝景”等。
4 译者注:《黑暗之魂》的模组社区非常有名,自游戏发售以来汇集了许多充满热情、创意和能力的模组制作者。从早年旨在改善游戏体验的画质帧数优化 mod到还原废案和删减剧情的故事 mod,从自创 boss 战并且提升难度的挑战 mod 到结合进不同游戏玩法的恶搞 mod,可谓五花八门应有尽有,让这款老作时至今日依然保持着旺盛的生命力。目前在社区中比较知名的 mod 包括但不限于:灰烬之女 mod、武器/敌人/道具随机 mod、fps mod等等。