The release day of Dark Souls: Age of Fire It was getting closer and closer.
Ads related to the game had already started slowly rolling out across major websites.
At the same time, overseas Target Software had already begun warming up promotions.
Compared to the domestic market, the overseas push was even stronger.
Because in July, most game companies still weren't ready to release new titles.
On one hand, they had only just announced news at expos earlier, so development time wasn't enough.
On the other hand, Lucas had already announced early on that Dark Souls: Age of Fire It would launch in early July.
As a sequel to a big IP game, and on top of that, the sequel to last year's Game of the Year RPG, once they had clearly stated the release time, basically no other studio dared to challenge it.
For players, though, the wait during this time was torture.
The trailer shown at the expo was watched over and over again by players.
Some hardcore Souls fans even pieced together details from the previous game and made three-hour-long lore analysis videos just from that three-minute trailer.
Of course, aside from those die-hard fans, a lot of ordinary players were also worried that Lucas might suddenly post something on the official account, saying that in order to give players a better experience, they had decided to delay the release.
After all, delays are pretty common in the gaming industry, so players were worried Nebula Games might do the same, even though Nebula had never delayed a game before.
But that was also because, up until now, Nebula Games didn't really have many large-scale titles. If you had to name them, it was basically just Dark Souls and It Takes Two.
As June drew to a close, more and more Dark Souls ads went up, and the price of Dark Souls: Age of Fire It was finally announced. Especially on the Nebula Games platform store, the preorder page had already appeared, giving players peace of mind.
This time Dark Souls: Age of Fire It was cheaper at only 39.9 USD. Like before, there was also a 20% discount for purchases on the Nebula Games platform.
The day of the unlock quickly approached.
Countless veteran players had already preordered early and pre-downloaded the game, just waiting for the moment they could enter.
On community forums and in gaming chat groups, many Dark Souls players chatted with each other, full of excitement for the upcoming journey of fire.
In one group chat, a bunch of people were talking.
"Ben, Zack, have you guys finished downloading the game yet?"
A player with the ID Ben replied, "Of course it's downloaded! Do you even have to ask?"
"Exactly, I can't wait anymore," answered another with the ID Zack.
Zack: "By the way, Ben, what starting class are you picking later?"
Ben: "Do you even need to ask? Obviously the Deprived! As a true firelinker, only the Deprived shows off our skill."
Zack: "Same as me then. How about we make it a race—see who makes progress faster?"
Ben: "No problem!"
As Ben and Zack chatted, their excitement also got the other firelinkers fired up.
"Almost time, almost time, just five more minutes and we can finally play!?"
"I wonder if the new Dark Souls will be harder?"
"Of course it'll be harder, but I don't think it's a problem for us. After all, we're all proper Fire-linkers now."
"Exactly!"
The chat group was full of jokes and laughter.
But five minutes later, it was like the whole group went offline at the same time—total silence.
In a neighborhood in the capital city—
Ben, the same Ben from the chat group, clicked on Nebula Games' platform and opened Dark Souls: Age of Fire It with a face full of excitement.
The opening CG was the same one shown at the gameplay showcase.
Clearly, Lucas kept things simple here, following his usual style.
Cutscenes doubled as trailers, or trailers doubled as cutscenes.
Even though Ben had already watched it countless times, he still sat through it again.
As for the race with Zack, skipping a short cutscene didn't matter.
When the cutscene ended and the game's UI appeared, Ben felt a little nervous.
After all, this was Dark Souls. He had suffered plenty in past games.
And from what Lucas had hinted earlier, the difficulty seemed to be even higher this time.
"It's just a sequel! No way it can stop the steps of a true Fire-linker like me!"
He hyped himself up with a slogan, then entered the game.
The opening was the same as always—character creation and class selection.
At the character creation stage, Ben noticed a special prompt:
\[Save data from Dark Souls detected. Would you like to use your previous character's appearance?]
"Oh, that's pretty nice! So the face I worked so hard on last time can carry over!" Ben was pleasantly surprised, but decided to ignore it and made a new, more unique-looking face.
A Fire-linker's face isn't ugly—that's called character!
When it came to choosing a class, even though he had bragged in the group chat that he would pick "Deprived," he quietly chose Knight instead.
After all, in the previous game, Knight was the best all-around starter class.
Then came the gifts section, and Ben noticed something different.
As before, there were things like Goddess's Blessing, Life Ring, and Black Firebomb.
But there were also new options replacing others, like Twin Humanity, Telescope, Old Witch's Ring, and Master Key—items that weren't in the previous game.
For a moment, Ben had no idea what those things were for.
After thinking it over, he chose the Master Key.
Sure, Black Firebombs were great for fighting bosses early on, but since he had already beaten the previous game, he felt confident in his own skills.
And there was another reason—he knew one of Dark Souls' trademarks: shortcuts hidden all over the map.
Normally they only opened later, but with this Master Key, maybe he could open them right away.
Or maybe it could open special rooms with treasures inside. Or maybe it was tied to rescuing NPCs trapped behind locked doors, like the thief from the first game.
Either way, he figured the Master Key was the most useful choice.
After creating his character, Ben clicked to enter the game, full of expectation.
His journey as a Fire-linker was about to begin.
(End of The Chapter)
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