We were lucky enough to attend the Dark Souls 3 Launch party event in Tokyo’s Hulic Hall. This article is mostly an overview of the day, however there are some very interesting quotes from Miyazaki and of course mild area spoilers.

The event was held in a large hall with several booths, some featuring an Estus drinking station, others allowing for Demo gameplay, a separate one where you could obtain a Warriors of Sunlight bodypaint for yourself, and the remainder featuring the Dark Souls themed DOWBL T-shirts for sale.

The Japanese store is featuring a giveaway with pre-orders: Whoever has pre-ordered can apply to win the above statue. Hope he/she has space in their livingroom.

The DOWBL sponsorship features a limited edition smartphone case and bonfire t-shirts among other goods.

Those lucky enough to get in first received an Artbook, comprised mostly of illustration from previous games. A significant and wonderful detail, however, is the included map of the areas of Dark Souls 3 – likely the paper version of the Collector’s Edition map, which reveals a lot of names to the Japanese public.

For the demo play, players received tickets that allowed them to play in the Undead Settlement and challenge the area boss: Curse-Rotted Greatwood.

There was a line of 50 people waiting to play by 3:30pm on a weekday, which is quite impressive and a good sign for the game. In total, there were about 400 attendants, so the tickets run out about 6PM.

It was prohibited to take images of footage, but we can report that the Dark Souls Black Knights are making a comeback! FromSoftware’s PR Director Ogura said on Miyazaki’s behalf:

Dark Souls 3 is a milestone where Demon’s, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne elements will shine.
That is not limited to items and weapons descriptions. It will be on the map. As you walk around you will feel “wait, I’ve seen this place before”.
Those who have played the other games will find themselves smiling, and there’s plenty more to discover after game clear

Indeed, we can see from the revealed information so far that the same skill has slight different effects depending on the weapon it is on. For example the Stance skill: depending on the weapon the moveset provided will change. The objective is to “make low-damage weapons more attractive in different ways”.

And for a surprising and personal touch, it was revealed that series director Miyazaki has been involved in the development process very intimately, not only with the map design, but also he has written many of the weapon descriptions himself!

We asked FromSoftware’s PR director about the reason for a weekday event, and he explained that as Miyazaki must attend GDC and they must organize many events and the NicoNico stream they had to fix the schedule to fit. The launch party was a rather rushed decision as they quickly approach lunch.

At about 2PM, a special event featuring beautiful illustrations by the artists “RenaRena”. Live and in front of the audience, the artist created wonderful Dark Souls 3 scenes in black and white, rendering into beautiful vistas that captivated the audience.

Of course there had to a Dark Souls character collection. It is becoming sort of an annual thing! They played with event attendants and mingled with the audience for some fun reactions.

There was also a photo session, where Knight Artorias and Ornstein dominated the requests.

Towards the end of the party, there was a draft for all attendants based on their entry number. The prizes were very interesting, and are detailed below.

1 place	・4m X 4m Tapestry ・Staff T-shirts ・Dark Souls 3 Poster ・PS4 HDD Cover	1 winner
2 place	・80cm X 2m Standing Tapestry ・Staff T-shirts ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	2 winners
3 place	・Warrior of Sunlight T-Shirt ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	2 winners
4 place	・Staff T-shirts ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	5 winners
5 place	・5x Dark Souls 3 Box Tissues ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	10 winners
6 place	・6x Dark Souls 3 Mineral Water ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	10 winners
7 place	・Dark Souls 3 Mini-Stickers ・Dark Souls 3 Poster	10 winners

Unfortunately we didn’t get any prizes, but at least we made out with a DOWBL T-Shirt. Can’t wait for launch!

 

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