Dark Souls inspired Destiny's tough early enemies, ex-lead says

Niles Sankey, Destiny world design lead, says one of the game's early challenges was inspired by Dark Souls. While working on the Cosmodrome he deliberately placed the "skull health bar knights" to hide mysterious areas behind high-level foes, echoing Dark Souls' lesson about where not to go.

He fought to keep the enemies in the game when colleagues thought they were a bug because they were too powerful. "There were situations where other devs would say 'These knights are too high level, this must be a bug. Delete them.' and I would say 'Nooo!!! Please leave them please, it's by design.'" Sankey says he’s glad players still have fond memories of the knights and teases a "really tragic but also funny development story" for another time.

The knights, noted by a fan as the Hollowed Knight from the Destiny beta, reflect a design approach that lets players learn by taking tough hits.

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