Dark Souls III Review Thread
- Thread starter HoJu
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BB's map philosophy is the same as DS3. . .the game whose reviews are being discussed.
Utter nonsense. BB's greatest weakness was it's replayability both in terms of builds and content.
DS3 could be literally zero optional areas and one linear path and it would still have more replayability than BB did. The gem system and lack of build variety killed the replay value in that one, DS3 doesn't suffer from that issue.
Oh I understand the topic, but you quoted me on points I was making about ds2 to another poster so I was confused, my apologies.
I certainly don't mind BBs map style but I hope the ds3 replay ability is better than BB
FairXchange
Member
Happy to hear this.
Ardenyal
Member
Every weapon in BB is actually unique though. In DS3 weapons within an archetype all share the same moveset with biggest change between one another being reach, stamina usage and scaling.
You can pew pew magic in BB too but you need the DLC for that.
I knew it! Though to be fair, Bloodborne is like 50% optional... it should honestly be a 15 hour game if you just played through the main game, but the optional areas are some of the best in the game. I remember people criticizing Bloodborne for lacking secret areas... truth is, a quarter of the game literally was secret. Its just with the advent of the internet and being part of the Souls zeitgeist basically spoils all of that. I would have never found Cainhurst and Upper Cathedral Ward if it weren't for the internet.
This is disappointing to here though, and does confirm my fears that in structure Dark Souls III will be similar to DS2. That's a shame, and the lack of inter connectivity doesn't help... never again will I feel the "mind=blown" moment of climbing down that tower in Undead Burg to get to Darkroot garden, then going through the Parish to find myself in the same place, or getting to The Valley of Drakes from New Londo....RIP.
Still have the game on pre-order, I love SoulsBorne, (except 2, that game was legitimately trash) and that's why hold it to such scrutiny.
Oh I understand the topic, but you quoted me on points I was making about ds2 to another poster so I was confused, my apologies.
I certainly don't mind BBs map style but I hope the ds3 replay ability is better than BB
The big thing with BB seemed to be builds which this should be better with.
...though hopefully they, uh, REALLY buff magic.
The weapons are unique but the builds aren't. Quality build and high damaging gems works for like 90% of the weapons in that game.
Builds based around guns aren't viable, and arcane isn't really that useful until the end of the DLC.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
I read only truths in this post.
Ardenyal
Member
Dont you dare cancel that preorder! DS3 is still an amazing end to the series and the first playthrough is one that you want to experience. And im sure the DLC will address some of the complaints.
More nonsense. Have you actually played the game or are you just going off videos? Legit question. For both games.
Orthogonal
Member
Looks like DS3 is going to hit all the notes I want for a Souls game. I am anticipating this to possibly be my favorite.
I only hope that Sorc/Miracle gets buffed to be viable options and hopefully the DLC can flesh them out further. Would love to do a magic only run on a 2nd playthrough.
I only hope that Sorc/Miracle gets buffed to be viable options and hopefully the DLC can flesh them out further. Would love to do a magic only run on a 2nd playthrough.
Ardenyal
Member
I have platinum in Bloodborne and I have played NG on two characters, NG+ on one character in DS3. Legit answer.
Intelligence and Faith builds are completely viable. Anyone however thinking the ridiculous offensive spells are back in DS3 are going to be disappointed. Sorcery does not need to be buffed. . .at all.
Given the amount of hyperbole in some of your statements I just find this hard to believe.
The problem is that Intelligence builds have always been so freaking strong that as soon as they are toned down to a reasonable level people complain.
Would like to be able to PvP for once without being at a massive disadvantage for not running a weapon buff of some kind.
Abstrusity
Member
Yeah, just imagine traveling without the Master Key, leaving Blightown or finding the elevator in Darkroot after hours, finding yourself, after plenty of exploration, back at Firelink. No warp, no sequence break...just mind blown.
So, like VS in Planetside.Trace said:
Or VS in Planetside 2...
Or energy efficient generators in Armored Core...or scaling in general in Souls...
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
My favorite build in DSII was a pure caster. It's impossible to do so in DSIII. It's removing variety from the game and needs to be fixed. BB's biggest problem was that every build still played the same. Yeah the Trick Weapons had different movesets but, the actual weapons had more personality that the actual Hunters we played. Every Hunter was essentially the same. not matter the stats you maxed.
Dark Souls is all about having the widest breadth of builds possible. Right now in DSIII, every Int or Faith builds play like every knight/warrior build. There's no more variety on that front. No more wild pure mages builds are possible. Everyone is the same sword and board character, with different maxed stats. You need an enchanted weapon to do viable damage as a Int build. That's not being a sorcerer.
This is unnaceptable. DS1 and DSII allow magic to be used as the primary offensive tool. DSIII doesn't. How you can say that Sorcery doesn't need to be buffed, I have no idea.
Its a great feeling, truly. This was augmented by bonfire placement, whereas now bonfires/lanterns are pretty much checkpoints, in DS1 they felt like safe zones that you would go to and fro, always debating whether it was worth leaving your place of comfort to do business elsewhere. Dark Souls is post-apocalyptic after all, and DS1 was the only time I felt that sense of dread leaving the bonfire... and Demon's Souls maybe just because you had to re-start the level upon death.
If the spells really are this weak I completely agree with this post
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
There's a variation of Soul Arrow, that does single number damage on non-magic resistant enemies. Like 7 hp damage per cast. Enemies have hundreds of HP if not thousands of HP. You get like 20 casts max with the FP system.
Orthogonal
Member
You're the first I've heard say this. All I know is many have said it needs work and a few videos have been posted showing its ineffectiveness.
Oh great the ds2 lightning bolt level of bad... Yeah that needs buffs, or else what's the point of even having it in the game? And that takes out three major builds!
They aren't and the post is more hyperbolic hand wringing.
The squeaky wheel get's the grease. There are people who want to have immediate access to Soul Spear and doing 1K damage in PvP before level 40. Boohoo. It's back to DS1 levels.
If you are talking about Soul Dart, it combos and is meant to be spammed. With an apporpriately leveled catalyst and build I was hitting 20-30 per cast.
I've seen that as well, but I'm on complete blackout for anything past very early game.
I'm assuming magic builds become more viable the further you get in the game?
What about the single damage comment?
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
DSIII lightning is worse than post-patch DSII lightning. Straight up.
Abstrusity
Member
It's some sort of dart and appears to be primarily used for pulling, if I'm seeing it right. Might have longer effective range?
That would make sense, but surely we would see a demonstration of an offensive spell? Not utility spell for damage?
Edit: shoot sorry double post
Sanctuary
Member
So you expect us to believe that you platinumed Dark Souls 2 in 40 hours blind (or does "around" mean 49)? Because most people talk about completion times when they aren't using spoilers.
More people commenting on what they've seen and not played. That spell is not meant to do massive damage per cast. It is meant to be quick and cost nothing for FP and Stamina.
Orthogonal
Member
It doesn't make any sense why they would make magic so bad. What was it's purpose in the game then?
Ahh ok, so there is still the equivalent of soul arrows for pure casting builds?
Abstrusity
Member
That would make sense, but surely we would see a demonstration of an offensive spell? Not utility spell for damage?
Edit: shoot sorry double post
The poster is right regardless. It does plink-worthy damage, and Soul Arrow proper is pretty bad off, too. It's clearly all undertuned.
So it's primarily for pulling, ya?
But how undertuned we talking? Just a bit weaker? Or ds2 Lightning of "this is literally unusable in any situation?
I played the japanese version and so I couldn't experience anything about the lore and I also avoided multiplayer because of lag. Despite that DSIII is already my favorite game in the series. It takes the best of DS1 and the best of DSII and combines it in a game that looks like a tribute to its fans rather than a commercial product.
Orthogonal
Member
To be fair, the DS2 platinum is by far the easiest of them all. I haven't bothered getting them on any other game. You can "earn" the hardest achievements by rushing through NG+ and halfway through NG++ in a few hours. There was liberal use of Sunbros to power through and get the boss souls needed for Spell trades.
I'm almost sure all spells from past are in plus a lot more.
Abstrusity
Member
Well, where the dart was doing 8 damage or so, soul arrow was breaking 100. Between poor or broken scaling, slow cast times, even with dex boosting it, and menial damage to begin with, it seems underpowered. It needed a nerf, but not like this.
Not like this.
So you want a fast casting, no mana/stamina cost spell to do what kind of damage? 50 per cast? Why not 100.
It's clear you don't know the purpose of the spell, and are just relying on second hand experience.
Case in point.
Ahh ok well hopefully they bother tuning it a little more then.
Abstrusity
Member
But...but I literally just said "it's used primarily for pulling" up there. I don't want any of those things.
Sanctuary
Member
I wonder how many of the "magic was OP" espousers actually ever even played as a caster in any of these games. Probably not many, or else they would realize how ridiculous parroting that is. Melee has always been superior aside from a few instances where ranged is more beneficial. In that event, bows exist. Dark Souls 2 had the most spell variety of them all and gave more options, but in the end most of the projectile attacks resulted in very similar gameplay. Most of the time it's someone who thinks they are awesome at PvP that gets killed by a spell that they could have easily dodged or blocked, so they insist that magic is broken. Or, they love citing Soul Geyser (a spell you get extremely late game, has a single charge by default, has very high requirements to use and also has positional requirements for max damage) as the example.
The only other time magic was "broken" was when abusing Firestorm, but it's not like that was something you used as a primary attack for most of the game. It was mostly for boss cheese, or PvP. Similarly with Dark Souls and Wrath of God/Tranquil Walk of Peace (which got majorly nerfed quickly). For PvE the only truly broken ability was Iron Flesh, and that was patched out soon too. Otherwise, elemental weapons > everything else early on. Magic didn't start getting good in Dark Souls until mid-late game for PvE and you still had to use melee more often than not. In Dark Souls 2, after rescuing Straid, you could have enough Dark Orbs to spam your way through most areas between bonfires, without having to use melee (with exceptions), but it was dreadfully slow compared to just using the fire longsword or virtually any of the other, more powerful melee weapons. Alternatively, you could just start as a Sorcerer, buy 30 more Soul arrows at the start, and another 30 pretty early on in the game. Too bad they did piss all for damage thanks to the early shit itemization for Sorcery, unless you got supremely lucky getting a rare drop from a total of four special enemies, two of which didn't respawn, and the other two were part of a boss fight.
On top of that, offensive miracles got completely gutted by mistake, and FROM never fixed it. That's why I am dubious they'll even bother fixing the current state of magic in Dark Souls 3, even if it is a bug.
JeTmAn81
Member
Oh good deal. I was a little bewildered after checking all the other games and finding no reviews. I know they were really down on the games in the beginning, with the exception of Vinny.
Most of my recent buys are because your reviews. Very well done indeed!
Except. . .it's not? If you can't find a use for a fast casting lost cost spell like Soul Dart in PvE/P other than for "pulling" you might need to get a bit more imaginative. It is clearly there as a long range combo'able finisher.
GametimeUK
Member
There was a boss I simply couldn't beat by using spells. The lock on just didn't allow it for me. My damage was quite low too with my crystal weapon. Probably because the boss was resistant to it on top of me having to hit a certain part (that I couldn't hit with spells ).
I had to roll my stats to dex for that one fight. Maybe I'll find a solution, but sorcery seemed really underpowered for that particular fight. I got through the rest of the game with it.