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Dark Souls II Isn't All About Death, Says Uplifting Trailer

It's both a decent marketing slogan and more representative of the series' game design, anyway.

Feb. 19 2014

Posted by: Patrick

In This Episode:

Dark Souls II

130 Comments

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Eaxis

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Of the trailers I kind of liked this the most. It made me exited for the game by showing stuff from Ds1 and had the best tone throughout in my opinion.

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Zevvion

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Horrible trailer. Who thought, this is a good representation of a Souls game?

I do. Am I the only one who thinks this is a perfect representation of what Dark Souls is?

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Bummlmitz

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Edited By Bummlmitz

Horrible trailer. Who thought, this is a good representation of a Souls game?

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norsedudetr

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Edited By norsedudetr

@lysergica33: I couldn’t agree more. PR team on this thing couldn‘t sell me a glass of water in a desert. I’ll still play it, but if ever there were a bunch of folks in need of a clue, it’s those guys.

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norsedudetr

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I’m looking forward to this game, but I’ll be damned if every single ad, PR statement and trailer I’ve seen hasn‘t made me actually want to skip it (I won’t, but man..).

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PolyesterKyle

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@chris said:

That's right. When you play a video game you're REALLY achieving something.

I'm going to somewhat foolishly put myself out there and say that I don't really appreciate this kind of comment. Sure, it's easy to look at video games as a waste of life or just some dumb hobby or whatever, but for a lot of people it's a pretty large portion of their interests and even their well beings sometimes. This is the age we live in, video games aren't nerdy or dumb anymore. When I beat Dark Souls after trying and failing and learning and succeeding more times than I can count, I felt like I had definitely accomplished something, in terms of learning about myself and my patience and limits as a more understanding human being. Any daunting obstacle, be it physical or mental or emotional or whatever, is still an obstacle, and we learn something by way of persevering, and even if we don't, then at least we had a good day.

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Zevvion

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@nasar7: Why do you think the execution isn't good?

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Nasar7

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@zevvion said:

@nasar7 said:

@darkeyehails said:

It's probably a little corny but no less eye rolling than the "You Will Die" chest-thumping campaigns of old, granted it is so in a different way. I'm not sure why everyone is so down on the trailer since it is only saying what people say in defence of the game.

True, it's just as lame as "Prepare to Die."

I disagree. 'Prepare to Die' was kinda dumb. It was playing of what people who weren't into the game thought about it. At least this represents what the game is about for people who played a bit beyond the first couple hours of the game. I feel it at least says: look, don't be scared of this game. It's not about constantly punishing you.

Yeah, I agree with the message. The execution, on the other hand, isn't all that.

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Zevvion

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Edited By Zevvion

@nasar7 said:

@darkeyehails said:

It's probably a little corny but no less eye rolling than the "You Will Die" chest-thumping campaigns of old, granted it is so in a different way. I'm not sure why everyone is so down on the trailer since it is only saying what people say in defence of the game.

True, it's just as lame as "Prepare to Die."

I disagree. 'Prepare to Die' was kinda dumb. It was playing of what people who weren't into the game thought about it. At least this represents what the game is about for people who played a bit beyond the first couple hours of the game. I feel it at least says: look, don't be scared of this game. It's not about constantly punishing you.

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Icaria

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Edited By Icaria

Just when I thought this series couldn't get any less appealing, they add a motivational pitch. Bravo. About the only way this could be worse is if it ended with 'lol owned fgt'.

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Nasar7

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It's probably a little corny but no less eye rolling than the "You Will Die" chest-thumping campaigns of old, granted it is so in a different way. I'm not sure why everyone is so down on the trailer since it is only saying what people say in defence of the game.

True, it's just as lame as "Prepare to Die."

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HellknightLeon

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Liked it.

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CrocBox

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Lysergica33

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Man, this game has had some really unfortunate trailers. All of them aside from the cursed and reveal trailers have been steeped in American cheesiness and a total lack of subtlety or respect for the vibe of the games. It just goes to show how much more involved Bamco have been with the marketing of this game considering I don't remember any trailers for the first game suffering from this issue.

The trailers for that game were all moody and fit the world of the game and could even be said to be little bits of art in and of themselves. Most of the trailers for this game have been like trailers for Michael Bay films.. Bleh.

Still, I'm not worried about the game itself, I know this is solely down to bamco's marketing department, and considering some of the interviews I've seen and heard with the guy who seems to be heading up the marketing in the West. But still, what a fuckin' bummer.

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Welvax

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Good Gravelord, that stinks worse than basilisk breath.

Really captures that we're-not-an-evil-oil-company-but-actually-a-great-environmental-leader/this-is-not-a-commercial-you-are-watching-on-PBS vibe.

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DarkeyeHails

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It's probably a little corny but no less eye rolling than the "You Will Die" chest-thumping campaigns of old, granted it is so in a different way. I'm not sure why everyone is so down on the trailer since it is only saying what people say in defence of the game.

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Hef

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@falx This is the most erotic commercial I've ever seen

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Metavahn

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It was so sad when tincanman #1 looked at tincanman #2 walking away

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Nate

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Really looking forward to this game, but what a BAD trailer.

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ahab88

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Yeah, it's weird and cheesy, but I think its great in a dumb way.

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Falx

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donaghy_luke

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What an awful trailer

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IndustryApologist

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If I don't find a mimic bonfire/NPC/furniture/door/whatever that kills me out of nowhere, I'm going to be slightly dissapointed in FROM.

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plaintomato

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Edited By plaintomato

fer the casuls...come, be comforted

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Benmo316

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@oobir: Holy shit that is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

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iBushido

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@meatsim said:

@el_derrico said:

@fonkymucker said:

Sounds like a truck commercial.

It isn't about dying. It's about a Hemi V8 engine with multi-valve fuel injection and best-in-class towing.

Dark Souls 2: Prepare to die again for the savings on these Ford Trucks!

Wow, I swear I didn't read enough of the comments to see that you guys said this and I said the same thing. It must really be this obvious. Why couldn't they just actually get a voice-actor and not a voice-over commercial guy? Who thought this was a good idea?

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iBushido

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Edited By iBushido

Yeah, this trailer doesn't change how incredibly excited I feel about DS2 coming out soon, but I do worry about their choice of direction with the marketing. I want it to be successful, but the trailer felt more like an educational video that borrowed the voice-over guy from truck commercials.

The message made sense and I'm glad they're trying to reassure newcomers that there's something great here and it has a lot more to offer than just seeing yourself dying a ton, but the delivery was totally off and... did I see the guy actually fist pump? Sooo not something that happens in a Souls game. That was just off.

Dark Souls II: Built Ford Tough

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Tryptophan

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This Ain't No Game

I do kind of wish that DSII didn't have those gimmicky pre-order items. I could care less, but it's a horrible trend for those "gotta have somethin' others don't" kind of folks.

BTW if I didn't know to take this tongue-in-cheek I'd call it cheesy-as-shit.

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Budwyzer

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Edited By Budwyzer

All I gathered from this trailer is that a Dragon's heart is apparently in its ankle, or at least a major artery. Otherwise, I'm not sure how smashing its foot area with an axe is supposed to bring it down. A definite design flaw in their DNA.

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Tidel

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The tone is cornball, but the message is right. The series is aspirational.

This trailer seems like outreach -- come, gamers who have been turned off by the perception of difficulty; it's not cheap, there's meaning behind it.

I'm down with that. As long as the game stays the course, I'm down with anything that will invite and intrigue people to try it.

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JimmyPancakes

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I felt like the last line should have been

"Actually it IS about death. Of course it is."

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Nentisys

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GE HYPE

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Carlos1408

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I'm mega excited about this game. However, the trailer was a very cheesy, even though it did describe the essence of Dark Souls somewhat accurately the feel, the music and the VO were off by miles.

Also I want to pre-order the Black Armor Edition on amazon but they have none left. Anyone know if they'll be offering more of those? I'm in the UK btw.

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Y2Ken

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Edited By Y2Ken

Really does sound sorta like a truck commercial haha. I enjoyed it though, good to see at least some of the promotional material acknowledging that the game isn't just about dying. I mean, I died a bunch playing Dark Souls, but probably less than a I did in a lot of other games. It's more a test of patience and understanding than outright reactions and such, which are things I am more capable of.

@golguin Yeah, was interesting to see that. I guess that was always the implication though - they conveyed in the original DkS that linking the fires would only prolong the Age of Fire, and that eventually the cycle would repeat and one day the fires would die and the Age of Dark would begin. Definitely intriguing that they actively included that ending sequence in there though, that feels like it has to be a nod to something important right?

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akeripper4

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Edited By akeripper4

@meptron said:

I'm looking forward to watching other people play this game.

+2

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gutterkisser

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I'm not sure why everyone's so cynical about the trailer (realistically I do; these are Giant Bomb user comments after all), but I liked it. It's kinda corny, but it actually speaks to the mindset of playing Dark Souls.

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Chris

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That's right. When you play a video game you're REALLY achieving something.

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Hollowschematic

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Damn this send chills, I am so excited!

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Edited By TournamentOfHate

Hopefully this game won't start out as easy as the first one was after they put all those patches in. I don't know how they can beat what is to a lot of people their favourite game of the generation, like is it even possible?

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Cronstintein

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So many cynics, I actually liked it.

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thatfrood

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@fonkymucker said:

Sounds like a truck commercial.

this is spot on

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drstrawberry

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Edited By drstrawberry

@bicycle_repairman: I know what you're thinking. "Did I drink 9 flasks or 10?" Now, to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But this being Dark Souls II, the most dangerous video game in the world and will break your thumbs clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?

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Edited By Oobir