To Link the Fire: Episode 2 - Illusory Wall and Dave Control

Aug. 31, 2015

To Link the Fire: Episode 2 – Illusory Wall and Dave Control

Back in June this year, I had the amazing fortune of being interviewed in an Edge magazine articlealongside Hidetaka Miyazakiabout online communities filling in the blanks for games they love. The journalist, Ben Maxwell, asked me: “Why is it important for you to do this?”.  My reply was:

Back in 2008, whenDemon’s Soulsfirst launched, Japanese fans were lost as to what to do, or where to go in the game world. The stubborn amongst us decided not to give up, and started recording our findings on the Livedoor-hosted Japanese wiki.Slowly but surely, we created a resource that took a difficult and mystery-shrouded game and documented the whole damned thing. I find myself 7 years later with an accidental mission: That any gamer can feel welcome in the RPG they want to try, and they feel there’s a community there for them with ideas, support and simple or in-depth explanation to complicated or obscure concepts.

In these 7 years I have been introduced to, discovered and met amazing individuals and teams who create exceptional content around the games we love. Fextralife would like you to meet them too.

In this series we will be showcasing members of the Souls community, who through their passion, dedication and hard work have become a bigger influence than most. Some of these individuals are already well known and others have been operating quietly behind the scenes. We hope you’ll get to know all of them, learn some things about them and gain some insight into the pillars of the community. You can find Episode Ihere.

Click on the tabs above (or watchthis video) to get started meetingIllusory WallandDave Control.

Fexelea

Our first interview is Illusory Wall. A fan of the series since Demon’s Souls, he is best known for his dedication to investigating obscure mechanics within the games. You can find him onTwitteror on hisblogto keep up with his research.

Cas: Tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from? What do you do when you’re not reverse engineering the souls games ?

IllusoryWall: Sure. My name is Patrick, I go by Illusory Wall on the internet. I’m from West Virginia  and, when I’m not creating souls content, I’m usually working at a mundane retail job or as a percussion instructor at high school. I try to occupy a lot of my free time doing music related stuff.

Cas:What sort of music do you like?

IllusoryWall: I like all sorts of stuff. On the nerdy videogame side of things, I used to have a blog called Retro Game Audio, where I analized sound design in classic video games. I’m a big chip music nerd.

Cas:Whats a typical day like in the life of Illusory Wall?

IllusoryWall: Lately, I’ve been working like 7 days a week. I wake up, do some music related stuff, then I go to my other job. Any free chance I get I am out watching movies, going out to the movies, playing videogames… I try to fill up all my free time consuming some kind of media.

Cas:So what sort of movies do you like?

IllusoryWall: Oh, all sorts. Right now I’m looking forward to The Revenant and cautiously optimistic about Star Wars. I try to see a little bit of everything.

Cas:How did you first get into the Souls series?

IllusoryWall: The first time I heard about it was in a forum discussion about Demon’s Souls. The one thing that caught my attention was someone saying it was the closes thing to a 3d Symphony of the Night, my favorite game. I didn’t have a PS3 at the time, so I sort of filed that away as something I would not get to play.

Some months later, a friend of mine invited me over and he said “Hey I have this game, I’ve given up on it because it’s really hard and it’s really weird, but it’s actually still really cool”. I fell in love with the game right away.

A lot of people have this period, that they don’t enjoy the game until they get past the learning curve. But with Demon’s Souls, even when I was bad at it, when I started, I was enjoying the game right away. One thing that sticks out is back when I was in Boletaria 1-1, when you get to Executioner’s Miralda pit, I fell and died and it was a stupid mistake. The next time I went back I died, again, just trying not to get killed by the dreglings there and that guy with a crossbow.

When I died and the loading screen came, it kinda clicked: I was playing out different scenarios in my head: “When I go back the next time what do I have to do to not die?”. It was apparent to me that whenever I died it was my mistake. It wasn’t the controls or the game was cheap. I just had to learn how to overcome the obstacles and keep going. That sort of souls experience clicked right away for me.

Cas:What is your favorite thing about the Souls games?

IllusoryWall: I really appreciate the relatively simple combat mechanics. There’s a lot of nuance to it, where you might have little combos you might not know about, parrying and different damage systems. But for the most part when you compare Dark Souls to other action games, it’s relatively simple. You don’t long have long complicated button combos, it’s pretty much press one button to do one attack, press another button to do a stronger attack. That sort of reminds me a lot more of classic video games than other action games do. If you’re playing Megaman or Castlevenia, its one button for attack, one button to do other. So you feel you are more in control of every little move you do. If you compare and contrast that to the newer Castlevania games, the action are are more button combo-heavy so it feels more like you’re linking attacks and linking movesets it feels a little less like doing one whip attack. I think it has something to do with how intimate the controls like and I really appreciate that.

Cas:When did you get into gaming? What are some of your favorite games?

IllusoryWall: I grew up with an Amiga computer so I have a weird thing where a lot of the games I grew up with are not very well known. There’s some well-known games like a port of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Marble Madness, so I grew up with a lot of really frustrating and difficult games and maybe that’s a reason why I liked Demon’s Souls as they hyped up the difficulty but to me it never felt unfair. One of the first videogames I played was a version of NET Hack, I would play that all day long, never made any progress… For those who do not know, it’s an RPG game with Ascii Art graphics and it was easy to attack your own dog and kill it. I grew up with games you couldn’t get anywhere so to me it was normal.

I then had a second wave. I didn’t grow up with consoles in my house, then my brother in the late 90s picked up a NES and that was the golden era for buying retro games, they were still dirt cheap and they would cost 20 cents not 5 dollars. I spent a lot of time catching up on classics like Castlevenia.

Cas:What made you want to delve so deeply in the Souls games? What inspires you to do this?

IllusoryWall: When I played Demon’s Souls, I had no concept of mechanics not being understood so I played, I loved it and it quickly became one of my favorites but I did not get into the testing of mechanics at all when it was out at the time. Soon after Dark Souls came out, however, I noticed forum discussions online and so much confusion about how things worked and that really caught my attention.

Sometimes you would have a conversation about something that seemed relatively simply yet nobody would have a consistent answer for it so it sort of set a lightbulb off: “Maybe I can figure this out”.

Cas:How do you decide what you’re gonna figure out next?

IllusoryWall: At the current time I sort of jump around. When a game is new, I focus on that one more than anything else. Although, recently Dark Souls had its debug version accidentally released on Steam, so that pulls me back more than usual because I have more access to poking around in that game.

As far as how I go about picking mechanics to test, sometimes I’ll see a discussion online and see people don’t know how something works it catches my attention, other times I just poke around or get a random idea of something that I don’t know how it works and it sort of gets added to my general list… I don’t keep an actual list [laughter]… but you know I may get to it a year later.

Cas:What’s your favorite discovery?

IllusoryWall: My biggest project and the one most personal was figuring out how vagrants spawn in Dark Souls. It was a really fun one because it spanned over a long period of time. Being able to figure it out came in waves, at first before Mega Mule existed I knew I had no way of testing, no PC, and the vagrants were a total mystery, with a bit in the game manual that gave us the basics. There was a bunch of community testing going on, along the lines of “let’s drop a bunch of things and spawn a vagrant” and none of those ever produced any results. We had no idea what was going on so I started bare-bones.

I stalked reddit and every time someone would post a picture of a Vagrant I would add it to a photo album on my computer and if they had killed a vagrant I would ask what it had dropped. I build up a big list of what other people had found and just by doing that I started to get theories of what items could spawn them and how it would work. So by chipping away at what documentation I started to figure out how it worked

In retrospect it looks kind of crazy but it was a casual thing. It was like “hey this guy posted a picture of a vagrant and he said it dropped twin humanities” – After a couple of times it started to make sense, I could sort of see a pattern.

Cas:What do you think your role is within the souls community? What part do you feel you play in it?

IllusoryWall: I try to be someone who helps. When I’m not testing mechanics and such I read around on the forums and if someone is confused about mechanics or has questions I try to help. It’s my overall goal, before I had the blog I was editing the wikis and posting in the forums. I try to figure out how things work and post the information out there to help the community.

Cas:What are you looking forward to the most in Dark Souls 3? Is there anything in particular that youhope makes a return?

IllusoryWall: I definitely want to see weird online stuff. I want the game to confuse me and surprise me a lot. About the things that we know are coming, I’m curious about the Souls Arts. I’ve been very happy with the last two souls games about how they… how to put this: Dark Souls didn’t have dual wielding at all, but Dark Souls II brought power stancing and Bloodborne weapon transformations and I have no preference between the two, each in their respective games I thought were very good. Soul Arts seem to be Dark Souls III version of that, so I’m excited to see how that works out.

Cas: Miyazaki did say that there would be unique online features, but he didn’t specify.

IllusoryWall: Before Dark Souls II came out, there was some press talking about the Mirror Knight demo. People were saying the candles would light up on the wall depending how many times you had died, or how many times others had died. It’s something we didn’t get in the actual game, but curiously in that hallway before the boss there’s a mural in the hallway. That same mural was used in the Far Fire official website on the page that displayed online statistics of how many people had died and where. So there’s that vague promise of that hallway keeping track of online statistics or activity and then the actual asset was used for that purpose. So you get the sense they have these weird ideas beyond online and pvp, but that was a missed opportunity with Dark Souls II and again Bloodborne didn’t have any of that kind of stuff so I hope we see that kind of stuff come back.

Our next interview is the very well known Dave Control. HisYouTube Channelboasts over 60,000 subscribers, featuring a healthy mix of lore and comedy productions. A gamer since age 2, Dave started making videos in 2007 and is a fan of working out. Find him onTwitterto get in touch.

Fex:Tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from? What are your hobbies? What do you do when you’re not making videos?

Dave: I’m from a suburb north of Chicago – Deerfield, Illinois. I say this because I actually really love my hometown, although I live in LA now. My hobbies outside of gaming are bboying/acrobatics/tricking/calisthenics (I’ve been really into pull-up variations), exercising, and guitar. I’m actually really into exercise and being healthy – even though I consider myself a huge gamer. Some of my idols growing up were heroes in RPG games, and they were always in shape (and had awesome hair), so I guess I always wanted to be like that in real life. Dancing and acrobatics have really helped me in my personal confidence and are very important to me. I didn’t start these until college, but having an understanding of how my body moves, and feeling like I have control over it is an incredibly rewarding feeling. This is usually what I do in my free time – which I guess isn’t very exciting, haha

Fex:What is a day in the life of DaveControl like?

Dave: It’s changed drastically in the past month. I used to freelance production jobs and work YouTube as full-time as possible. Which meant I’d be working 40-80 hour weeks on YouTube while occasionally getting a freelance job to help make ends meet… (which usually consist of 12-hour days for about a month). But, in the past month, I started working full-time at Polaris. So, here’s my robotic schedule I try to stick to:

Fex:When did you get into gaming and what are some of your favorite games?

Dave: I started playing games when I was 2 years old, my dad brought home an NES and I was immediately hooked. I beat Mega Man 2 when I was 4 (and it was the first game I ever beat). I honestly love most genres of games, but if I were to give you a top 10:

There’s so many great games, though. My top 10 list is pretty SNES heavy, but I grew up with 2 brothers – and we’d collectively buy every Sega/Sony/Nintendo system growing up, an aspect I’m very lucky in. So, trust me, I do enjoy other systems! Honorable shout out to Grandia 2 (Dreamcast) that game deserves more love.

Fex:What Games are you playing right now?

Dave: Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (PS4), Splatoon (Wii U), Adventures of Pip (Wii U). I’m downloading Journey right now (which I never played), and I’m keen to download “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter”. It looks great! I’m also playing the (secret) game for my next Super Show.

Fex:How did you first get into the Souls series?

Dave: I saw the Bartholomew trailer for Dark Souls 1 – and thought: “This looks like my kind of game”. At the time, I had just finished an internship at G4tv – and asked one of the staff reviewers if I should get it. He said: “No, the game is incredibly unfair and frustrating.” I decided I didn’t care, and made it my number 1 game to buy – then my roommate randomly came home with it and… well… I fell in love.

Fex:When did it click for you?

Dave: My favorite moment was in the Darkroot Basin. Somehow, I didn’t notice the Hydra when I first ran through to grab the Grass Crest Shield. So – I used the Crest of Artorias to go through the upper path in the Darkroot Garden, and found the ladder to climb down to the Hydra. At the top of the ledge, when you stare out and see the Hydra – I remember just looking at it and thinking to myself: “Are you joking? I seriously have to face that thing? There’s just no way. How the hell will I ever beat that?”

Fex:What is your favorite thing about the Souls games?

Dave: I bounce between the combat and level design – but overall, I suppose I have to go with the combat design. The moment-to-moment fighting is invigorating, and every encounter is exciting. Enemies don’t just feel like random mobs – nor are they tedious to fight. Each encounter is exciting – and the Souls titles manage to make every little moment stand out by this. But – to cheat – it’s the fact that every mechanic works in such harmony of one another. These are truly complete games where every aspect compliments the other. Environments/Lore/Gameplay/Design all work in unison to complete the picture.

Fex:What made you want to make videos about the Souls series? Why is this series so special? What were some of your inspirations for that?

Fex:How would you describe your channel?

Dave: Comedic Gaming Retrospectives, Comedy One-Offs, Lore (Serious), Gaming History (Serious) – with a large chunk of content devoted to From Software.

Fex:How do you decide what videos you want to make? How does that creative process work for you? (decide a challenge, etc)

Dave: It’s evolved overtime – but, overall, I just want to make videos I think I would enjoy watching. I definitely do care about what my audience thinks (now that I have one), but at the end of the day – my main goal is to make a video I would actually watch. I think that’s the biggest test I tell people who want to get into YouTube: Make content YOU would want to watch. And be honest with yourself. When it comes to making videos, though, the process very much depends on the video I’m making.

Fex:What is or what are some of your favorite videos/streams you’ve made and why?

Dave: My Super Shows, as I mentioned before, are what I’m most proud of. There’s a couple moments in myBloodborne Super Showwhere I have TerraMantis acting as a door to door healing church evangelist, and I really enjoy the jokes that play out with this. Overall, I put around 100-200 hours into each episode, and try to make each one the best thing I possibly can. There’s so many moments in these I’m excited about… and they’re always the most nerve-wracking videos to post as I care so much about them and do care what people think.

Fex:What are you looking forward to the most in Dark Souls 3? Is there anything in particular that youhope makes a return?

Dave: After having a chance to play it, I’m very happy with the way combat feels. I’m definitely looking forward to how combat and enemies will play out, and can’t wait to see what From Software has in store for us!

Fex:How do see your role within the Souls Community? What part do you feel you play in it?

Dave: I feel like I’m pretty all-around. I tackle lore but make a lot of comedy videos, as well as community videos. I like to think I’ve helped bring the community together a little closer, and feel so honored I’ve been able to work with content creators whose videos I enjoy and respect. It’s also been amazingly cool being able to be in some of SunlightBlade’s videos. He’s a super talented editor. I also hope that I bring a light-heartedness to the franchise. I love the lore and Vaati’s “Prepare to Cry” series, but I also like to point out that it doesn’t have to all be serious, and I think that’s best reflected my Let’s Plays where I try to infuse knowledge and humor.

We hope you were thoroughly entertained and that you learned a little bit about those two wonderful people. Stay tuned for the next episode in the series, where we will bring you two different members of the community on our quest to get to know them all.

Check out Episode Ihere.

Fexelea

MMO raider by day and guide writer by night, Fex enjoys multiplatform gaming, good books and animes, and streaming with a cold beer.

Most of the interviews are done, and the dks3 question is the one right before the last one for each interview so you can’t skip it from the start. There is certainly a pause as we ask the question and that should give you time to pause or scan. And the included footage is also skip able if you are watching via the player.

The amount of things we know about dks3 is minimal. The specific thing you mentioned is not a hidden mechanic but something as prominent as an action button, or as well know as the weapon transformations for Bloodborne. I understand wanting a sense of wonder and discovery but I think that particular thing is not really a secret.Either way, best that can be done is to be mindful and when the dks3 question comes just fast forward. It lasts less than a minute or two and often has nothing to do with the game as its speculation and I wish we got.

That is true, but one of the answers was a about specific feature that will be in DkS3Sword Arts and the video had DkS3 gameplay footage.

I mostly listen to the interview and not watch the video because of the environment I’m in when I have time to check it out, so I wouldn’t normally see the title screen. Even when I am watching, I wouldn’t know how far ahead to skip to avoid possible spoilers.

I realize it’s not really fair of me to ask you guys to change up your format and I don’t want you to. But if there are more questions related to DkS3 in further episodes, maybe you could put a spoiler alert annotation in the video so we can skip ahead to safely avoid any DkS3 content?

These are great. Looking forward to the next one.

We are asking what people are looking forward to, not necessarily a spoiler… But either way it’s just one question and it gets a title screen so you can skip it when it shows up

Like the series, but can you guys please steer clear of questions about Dark Souls 3 and not show any footage from it? I’m trying to go dark into this game. If you can’t or wont, I’ll guess I’ll just have to watch this video series next year.

The various test and finds made by Illusory Wall are always valuable. Good selection Fex.

W-Well there’s always episode 3!… Or 4..

This was episode two…episode 1 is here

Lel

Watched the entire thing, glad their outside lives were covered as well. Always interesting to hear what the community does for a living!

Oh, and Fex, my agent is expecting a call from you soon. I’m always open for episode two

Great to see the series picking up!

Hope to read more interviews soon

I always support lllusorywall’s efforts for the souls community, and I’m glad he gave the time to be interviewed. 10/10.