Dark Souls fans hyped by 'strange and chaotic' new trailer

A new trailer for an extremely goofy-looking Dark Souls-inspired game just dropped, and FromSoftware fans can’t quite decide what to make of it.

Riven Crown, an upcoming Soulslike from the developer and publisher Intima Leaf, just got a new trailer and… look, maybe you should just watch it for yourselves.

Alright, let’s cover the good stuff first.

The 3D models and the general atmosphere look on point. The vibe is kinda giving me some kind of mix between Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, and I genuinely don’t think there’s a greater compliment I could give a game.

Combat looks fun. Some big, chunky bosses to cut through, and there are a couple of fancy-looking moves it seems you can pull off.

Also, that kick ability looks amazing. Splatting enemies against walls and yeeting barrels at mobs sounds like so much fun. Reminds me of En Garde!, an incredible game that I wish more people would play.

However, there is one little issue: what is going on with that blood framerate?

It seems all over the place in the trailer. Some scenes are a silky smooth 60 FPS, whereas others look like they’re somewhere around 20 FPS. So, is performance that inconsistent, or is something else going on here?

Well, potentially it’s the latter. That’s if you believe the developers behind the game, as I found one of their comments regarding the framerate over on the r/pcgaming subreddit.

“Unfortunately, that’s a risk we took. The main reason for this decision is that if even one shot is out of frame while the others look good, it can negatively impact the entire trailer,” commented one of the devs.

“For example, if some frames run at 60fps and others at 24fps, the discrepancy will be very noticeable. However, if we cap the frame rate at 30fps and then drop to 24fps, the transition can be more forgiving.”

Hmm, not quite sure I’m 100% sold on that explanation, but I hope it’s true. I think Riven Crown could be a lot of fun, so here’s hoping that the devs take their time and release a polished product. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, after all.