In order to position Dark Souls 2 as the next blockbuster in Bandai Namco’s deep catalogue, developer From Software has to make the game a bit more accessible to the general audience. That means listening to fan feedback, which has included a desire to use voice chat during the cooperative gameplay sessions. It’ll be beneficial for those who need some additional direction during tricky portions of the game, but Namco's Takeshi Miyazoe believes that the core players won’t even make use of this helpful addition.
"I think, me personally, that a lot of the more hardcore players will turn it off,” he told OXM. “I think people will turn it off because it is that loose connection of not really knowing what kind of player the opponent or ally is – that's kind of the magic of the game.”
If few people are going to use it, why would From Software take the time to add voice chat?
"I think it was a lot to do with fan feedback,” Miyazoe continued. “There was a lot of requests for voice chat and friend summoning and those more multiplayer-type features. We obviously didn't want to put in friend summoning or voice chat throughout the whole game, but it was From Software's unique way to take on some of the fan feedback."
It might be friendlier to new players, but Dark Souls 2 is still going to test the patience of millions of players when it launches this spring.
