Dark Souls

[HopefullyAHero]

Let's talk about one of the most challenging difficult ball-busting series to hit the market. Dark Souls.

You see, I bought Dark Souls II on release week a year ago due to a couple of recommendations on another website. At first, I was the idiot that used a +4 Broadsword for the first half of the entire game. I am happy to see how much I've evolved since then. Hand me a Buckler and those monsters in The Old Chaos will be parried. I do consider myself a pro at this game, it's really ironic though.

 

Original Dark Souls-wise, I'm completely awful at the game. Crazy, eh? The farthest I got was the Capra Demon before a "summon-only" playthrough. DS II spoiled me, so I cannot get the awful rolling down in this game. However, the one thing I know Dark Souls did better is the graphics. Oh my Gywn, Anor Londo is as beautiful as it was years ago. I actually allow myself to be killed by Artorias because of how majestic he is. lolno. i suck

When I finally buy a PS4 in the late, late, late future my first two purchases will be Scholar of the First Sin and Bloodborne

 

If there is a thread on this already, my aplogies. I searched for literally 5 minutes, and I have no idea how to search for thread titles.

[sirjabberwock]

I. Love. Dark Souls. I haven't put in as much time into the original DkS game as its "spiritual successor" but they're very fun to play, and I enjoy the challenge they bring to the table. Secondly, HEXing makes DkS2 easy-mode which is also fun in its own right to do 

[HopefullyAHero]

I. Love. Dark Souls.

And I love you. 

[sirjabberwock]

Heh, join the club~

[Mugi]

I only own the first one. And I got as far as beating the Asylum Demon, and then getting to that black knight guarding the door to a chest in the first area. Couldn't kill him, so I stopped playing. One day..

[Deep Blue]

dark souls 2 was a complete let down specially the dlc they were really bad and repetitive...

I still play dark souls 1, one of my fav games for sure. (and demon souls too, havent played bloodborne yet.)

[Turnip Sensei]

Dark Souls 1 is masterpiece. I've played that game so much and in so many different ways. Definitely one of my favorites.

I used to be really good at this game, I did soul level 4 runs, owned at PvP and parried Anal Rondo archers for breakfast, but it's been a while.

 

Dark Souls 2 is also a good game, but it lacks the soul that the first one had. The level design is not consistent and doesn't make sense, things are not connected how they should be and are just placed randomly. The enemy variety is better, but the overall placement and usage of enemies is cheaper. They like to ambush you with unpredictable hordes of enemies which is most of the cheap.  

Though the game mechanics are better, Dark Souls feels pretty clunky after playing DkS2. 

[Zenophilious]

Only played through part of the first one.  It was really fun, I just wanted to play a different game and forgot about it.  I love how the Souls games brought back that old-school difficulty that so many modern games are lacking.  It's nice not to be spoon-fed once in a while.

 

Relevant:

 

By the way, would anyone happen to have a good up to NG+ Knight build?  I was using one for a while, then I realized it didn't go through to NG+ and my will to play fizzled out.

[Deep Blue]

I have a save file for the xbox360 NG++++ it was I think, I bought it on steam but I only beat it 1 just for fun

 

Dark Souls 1 is masterpiece. I've played that game so much and in so many different ways. Definitely one of my favorites.

I used to be really good at this game, I did soul level 4 runs, owned at PvP and parried Anal Rondo archers for breakfast, but it's been a while.

 

Dark Souls 2 is also a good game, but it lacks the soul that the first one had. The level design is not consistent and doesn't make sense, things are not connected how they should be and are just placed randomly. The enemy variety is better, but the overall placement and usage of enemies is cheaper. They like to ambush you with unpredictable hordes of enemies which is most of the cheap.  

Though the game mechanics are better, Dark Souls feels pretty clunky after playing DkS2. 

dark souls 1 was designed around shields while dark souls 2 forced you to not rely on them all the time, to roll around to evade attacks, you can almost beat dark souls 1 only using a shield even for lord gwyn if you have buffs (but it is much simpler to parry him), this is not possible in dark souls 2, even with most of the enemies your shields are useless, where in bloodborne they took them off completely.

[Turnip Sensei]

dark souls 1 was designed around shields while dark souls 2 forced you to not rely on them all the time, to roll around to evade attacks, you can almost beat dark souls 1 only using a shield even for lord gwyn if you have buffs (but it is much simpler to parry him), this is not possible in dark souls 2, even with most of the enemies your shields are useless, where in bloodborne they took them off completely.

In my experience DkS 2 was even more painful to play without a shield than DkS 1 because there's so many enemies with cheap attack animations. Especially the horde bosses and some delayed hitboxes on attacks gave me cancer. With shield it was easier, but even more boring. The game almost forces you to do bit of both.

[Zenophilious]

Been playing Dark Souls a lot recently.  I had around 28 soft humanity and 90k souls when I fell through the floor in the Undead Asylum and that fucker Stray Demon sat his fat ass on my head and killed me, and I never did manage to beat him and had to just give up and promise to murder him later.  Still salty about it.  Anyway...just about to go into Blighttown since I cleared out the Hydra and stripped everything of value from Darkroot Basin.  Gonna farm up some poison curing items first, though, because I know what's ahead of me.  My mind is ready but my body is not.

 

I've been really liking Sunbro'ing for people.  I must've helped people kill the Capra Demon almost 15 times before I finally leveled out of the range for co-op in that area.  Invasions are fun, but helping people is great

[XionsProphecy]

Have been playing the soul's games since the release of Demon's Soul's.

I just love how the game punishes you for trying to be clever in a tight situation.

[Deep Blue]

In my experience DkS 2 was even more painful to play without a shield than DkS 1 because there's so many enemies with cheap attack animations. Especially the horde bosses and some delayed hitboxes on attacks gave me cancer. With shield it was easier, but even more boring. The game almost forces you to do bit of both.

from what I've seen in the gameplay video of ign, dark souls 3 is a mix of bloodborne and dark souls 2, so meh

 

 

Been playing Dark Souls a lot recently.  I had around 28 soft humanity and 90k souls when I fell through the floor in the Undead Asylum and that fucker Stray Demon sat his fat ass on my head and killed me, and I never did manage to beat him and had to just give up and promise to murder him later.  Still salty about it.  Anyway...just about to go into Blighttown since I cleared out the Hydra and stripped everything of value from Darkroot Basin.  Gonna farm up some poison curing items first, though, because I know what's ahead of me.  My mind is ready but my body is not.

 

I've been really liking Sunbro'ing for people.  I must've helped people kill the Capra Demon almost 15 times before I finally leveled out of the range for co-op in that area.  Invasions are fun, but helping people is great

praise the sun  \[-]/

[Zenophilious]

Just stumbled on a Dark Souls fan video made using Source Filmmaker.  It might have some spoilers, so if you're like me and still haven't finished the game, be forewarned.  I'm pretty sure they're just references to things that happen, and aren't full-on spoilers, but I thought I should have a spoiler warning anyway.

 

[Deep Blue]

http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplaysdarkxD

[Funyarinpa]

had to drop because I had to cut down on my gaming, but this was still a pretty nice experience (stopped after ringing the first bell)

[kyrt]

Honestly my favorite thing about the first Dark Souls game is the reference to Beatrice from Umineko.

 

I own the first game and I beat Demon Souls but I've yet to find the time to properly beat Dark Souls or check out any of the sequels or spin-offs. 

[Deep Blue]

Honestly my favorite thing about the first Dark Souls game is the reference to Beatrice from Umineko.

 

I own the first game and I beat Demon Souls but I've yet to find the time to properly beat Dark Souls or check out any of the sequels or spin-offs. 

not so sure about that I think she is schierke from berserk there is even a child version of breatrice, I mean even Hidetaka Miyazaki said that he took a lot of inspiration from berserk and he is even going to add some combat stances that guts do in berserk in dark souls 3

[Tawm]

not so sure about that I think she is schierke from berserk there is even a child version of breatrice, I mean even Hidetaka Miyazaki said that he took a lot of inspiration from berserk and he is even going to add some combat stances that guts do in berserk in dark souls 3

The Souls games are definitely heavily inspired by Berserk. There are countless references throughout the games. Dark Souls 2 even has Guts' mounted crossbow and a sword nearly identical to the Dragonslayer. The wheel enemies in the Catacombs in DS1 and Artorias himself are the most obvious homages. I'd agree that Beatrice being a Schierke reference is most likely the case.

 

Dark Souls 3 is looking good from what I've seen. The return of Demon's Souls' magic system is very welcome.

[Funyarinpa]

Honestly my favorite thing about the first Dark Souls game is the reference to Beatrice from Umineko.

 

u

wat

[kyrt]

u

wat

I'm pretty sure Beatrice is an alternate incarnation of Yuria from Demon Souls. So yeah probably not a reference to umineko's Beatrice even if there are a few comparisons that could be drawn if one wished to confirm their bias.

 

Dark Souls III actually looks quite good just not sure if it would be worth  skipping the first two games.

[CruelN1N1]

Beat demon soul,dark souls,dark souls 2 and bloodborne

For me dark souls 2 was harder...

I was using black knight sword and havel armour most time (i got the black knight sword very early(the first knight dropped it) tried to do it without it... it was hard

[Helvetica Standard]

I bought Dark Souls recently. I'm quite green (just killed Taurus) and yeah the game is indeed a modern classic. It's hard but in a good way. It lets you learn from your mistakes and 99.9% of the time deaths are your own fault.

I still don't think the game is that unforgiving but I'm sure I'll feel it soon enough when I get to the later bosses and the elite mooks. I'm pretty sure those thousands of hours in Monster Hunter really helped. Tough games are fun if the challenge is well planned instead of just adding fake, cheap difficulty. This is why I love DS, it's tough but fun.

[Turnip Sensei]

Yeah, the difficulty in Dark Souls is almost perfect. It's challenging and fair enough to feel satisfying even after you've mastered the combat system and it supports self-inflicted challenges extremely well. But it's also fairly forgiving and because the game is relatively simple on the execution level, you can overcome every challenge with patience and by learning from your mistakes. And there's usually a some sort of safer way to handle things, if can just figured it out.

 

This also applies to Dark Souls II most of the time, but it and especially the Scholar of the First Sin-version also suffers from some really unfair moments. The combat system in Souls-games works best when you're facing against one or two enemies, maybe little more if they are not clumped together, but when you're surrounded by hordes of enemies it's just frustrating. And Dark Souls II likes to do just that. Even if you can separate the enemies, most of the time it involves luring them outside their agro-zone one by one and it's not that fun either.    

[Zenophilious]

I dunno, the Stray Demon felt kinda unfair.  I didn't know that there was a trap when I returned to the Undead Asylum, and I spent over and hour trying to kill that bastard before just giving up and leaving.  I'm going to come back and murder him towards the end of the game, because I just couldn't do it then or now.  I even looked up tips to killing him and I still couldn't do it.  Might be my build (not using a guide, so I probably have crappily allocated stats), but I can't imagine it would be much easier if I just increased a few stats.