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[Shadowhaxor]

Game beaten and all optional bosses down. For me this is probably the weakest souls game, but not by much, it was still a fantastic experience, it certainly has its moments. I didn't quite get the same sense of journey and discovery that i had in the other games, i think it's a mix of design choices and my own personal familiarity and even occasional fatigue with the gameplay systems.

The problem with DS3 is not so much that it's the weakest, but more so that if you're a veteran of the series, it's just more of the same. I think it's up there with Dark Souls 1, but I also made sure I hadn't touched DS1 for a while and ignored any coverage of DS3.

 

[Leezard]

First off, throwing out some speed run time is completely meaningless in the context of this discussion. It's the worst way to measure game length for 99.99% of players.

That said, I don't disagree that quality > quantity. Ideally I'd love both but I have no problem with a dense and tightly designed Souls game. Bloodborne is my favorite Soulsborne game and I could finish that at 20 hours or so on repeat playthroughs.

It's really about expectations based on the previous games in the series. I don't need the game to be Dark Souls II long, I was just hoping it would hit at around 50-60 hours.

I should also mention that I'm really discussing amount of content here; playtime is just a convenient way to get a general measure of it. Helping others and taking your time is fine but those don't actually increase the content in the game which is what I'm concerned with.

One-two hours is definitely too short, but playing Demon's Souls for the first time had me finish the game in 13 hours, give or take one hour. I had played Dark Souls before so I was somewhat experienced, but it was still just really easy and short for a Souls game. This game will take at least double that.

 

[MatthewMungall]

Finished the main quest yesterday, about roughly 30 hours overall. Loved the entire endgame and thought it was a good send off. Hopefully DS4 isn't announced for a few more years.

 

[Unfriendly TimeTraveler]

Last night I was the closest possible to losing my mind because of this game, lost close to 300000 souls in [spoilero]archdragon peak[/spoiler] and I swear it was the game trying to spite me (spoilers for enemies you fight.

Spoiler

after you beat the first boss fight and are at the bonfire next to the room the witch summons people and twice in a row summoned Havel and while trying to get my souls back had to fight him and an invader

so lost over 160000 because of that then lost another 10000 by not being cautious with the drang twinspears move set next to a cliff. Still managed to defeat the main boss fight of that area but holy actual hell is that thing difficult. Took 10+ tries to finally kill with a friend.

 

[J-Skee]

Just had an idea... could I make my character left handed, with sword in left hand & shield in right? It'll require some muscle memory, but I like the idea of having my character left handed like me.

 

[ogbg]

Just had an idea... could I make my character left handed, with sword in left hand & shield in right? It'll require some muscle memory, but I like the idea of having my character left handed like me.

Yeah you could. The only problem is that switching to two-handed takes a little bit longer since you have to hold down triangle rather than tap it.

 

[MrHoot]

The problem with DS3 is not so much that it's the weakest, but more so that if you're a veteran of the series, it's just more of the same. I think it's up there with Dark Souls 1, but I also made sure I hadn't touched DS1 for a while and ignored any coverage of DS3.

I would say my current ranking is Dark Souls 1 = Bloodborne > Demon Souls > Dark Souls 3 > Dark souls 2

All of them fantastic game. But like you said, part of the weakness of Dark Souls 3 is that it's hard to follow up and tell something new and a lot of the game feels like retread. It's the best and the worst thing about the game is that it's a "best of". Also some awkwardly fitted BB design that makes some ennemies and weapon/armor choice sub-par.

 

[Venfayth]

So far I've been playing without a guide or any type of assistance, haven't even checked the GAF thread til now.

Seeing lots of things mentioned in passing I haven't seen, so I'm excited to do a full playthrough on my next run with a guide to do all the npc questlines and whatnot.

I don't think it's a huge deal that the npc questlines are obscure and apparently, random. It seems to me that viewing the goal of playing a souls game as 'maximizing' all the stuff you see in one run might be missing the point of the series a little bit.

 

[TitusTroy]

anyone else experience the issue where the camera gets wacky and your character just starts moving on his own...you can't stop the movement...have to exit and restart to fix it (PC)

 

[ogbg]

anyone else experience the issue where the camera gets wacky and your character just starts moving on his own...you can't stop the movement...have to exit and restart to fix it (PC)

Are you using DS4? If so did you choose exclusive mode in DS4Windows? It's all I can think of

 

[GinoFelino]

So far I've been playing without a guide or any type of assistance, haven't even checked the GAF thread til now.

Seeing lots of things mentioned in passing I haven't seen, so I'm excited to do a full playthrough on my next run with a guide to do all the npc questlines and whatnot.

I don't think it's a huge deal that the npc questlines are obscure and apparently, random. It seems to me that viewing the goal of playing a souls game as 'maximizing' all the stuff you see in one run might be missing the point of the series a little bit.

The way I see it it's just adding some variability with each playthrough. Assuming you don't use a guide you can try different things each time and see how it changes. It's not like there is a best ending. Also, you think Bloodborne's endings were simple to work out?

Relatively simple, yes! But not just game endings; most NPC questlines were much more forgiving to see through until the end in Bloodborne.

I understand the variability argument of course, but I feel that they've upped the complexity and lack of transparency of every single NPC questline to an extent where figuring out the questlines is for the most diehard of players only.

It's nice for those players to have some obscure stuff to dig up, but in Dark Souls 3 I feel like every NPC questline is easier to fuck up than ever.

It's the biggest negative of the game for me so far.

 

[Kaibutsu]

Someone asked for fashion souls earlier so here is the character I was rocking yesterday morning.

I've since changed my weapon from the Wolf Knight great sword to the Morion Blade you get from

Spoiler

killing Orbeck. I did this after buying all of his spells and getting his two rings of course

 

[_h8bit]

I wonder if they'll make the Greatsword any slower than it already is today.. Hmm...

So far

Spoiler

Dragonslayer Armor

is just kicking my ass up and down. There has been at least 3 times now where I've got him down to 1-2 hits left but he's just so so aggressive and no one I summon can last the whole fight.

 

[Venfayth]

It's nice for those players to have some obscure stuff to dig up, but in Dark Souls 3 I feel like every NPC questline is easier to fuck up than ever.

I'm genuinely curious, why is that a negative?

 

[dealer-]

30 hours in and I just got to Lothric Castle. I've played through every Souls game and they usually take me about 50 hours first playthrough. This game seems like it will be no different, and that includes several hours of standing around trying to summon help to no avail.

I know a lot of people have been complaining about the guide and it definitely has some errors in it but it's been great at helping with the NPC sidequests and locating vital items. I've already completed several NPC questlines. The only one I fucked up was the Pit of Hollows guy and it doesn't seem like much of a loss.

You definitely have to may more attention than you did in Bloodborne. I was checking the guide after every boss to see what I had to make sure to do/not do on the next area so that I didn't fuck up any sidequests.

I've managed to mess up quests even with a guide during my second run, if you don't pay attention shit can soon unravel.

 

[gaugebozo]

"hey,many people experience serious issues with our product. Really bad framerate and even crashes. Should we adress this in the coming patch?"

"NO!!! Weapon Balancing it is"

"But..."

"I said weapon balancing!!!"

To be fair, the way software development works, fixes for framerate and crashes can be much more difficult then balancing. You need copious amounts of testing to make sure the fix isn't worse than the problem. Programs as large as modern games can have things depend on each other in really not obvious ways (see whatever the hell happened to the Master Chief Collection) and so even finding what's wrong might take a lot of work. Balancing just needs to change a number with some minor testing.

From is undoubtedly working on it, and will get the fixes out in the next major patch.

 

[UmbraeCruxis]

Hoping they buff the great sword today. It feels pretty slow and not as much damage increase for the sacrifice imo. They also look really cool though, so I haven't wanted to switch :/

 

[Kaibutsu]

I wonder if they'll make the Greatsword any slower than it already is today.. Hmm...

I'm actually finding the greatswords in this game (using the Wolf Knight Greatsword) faster than any of the previous games. Maybe it's cause I played Bloodborne (Ludwig's Holy Blade), Dark Souls II (Curved Dragon Greatsword), & Dark Souls I (Black Knight Sword) all fairly recently lol

 

[Kenzodielocke]

How do you get an undead bone shard

Spoiler

from the skeleton ball in the catacombs?

 

[Lakitu]

Someone asked for fashion souls earlier so here is the character I was rocking yesterday morning.

I've since changed my weapon from the Wolf Knight great sword to the Morion Blade you get from

Spoiler

killing Orbeck. I did this after buying all of his spells and getting his two rings of course

Which outfit is that?

 

[Korosenai]

What gems are people using for their dark sword?

 

[Brohan]

So regarding

Spoiler

anri's

questline. I have met her once in the

Spoiler

catacombs

and now i see her standing at the second location. Do i speak to her now or do i first need to go down the

Spoiler

bridge ladder

to find

Spoiler

Horace

and speak to her afterwards?

Any help clearing this up woud be much appreciated.

I hate messing up questlines.

 

[Ushay]

I went and bought this today no intention of playing it for at least another few months.

Damn need to stop buying games for no reason haha!

 

[konjak]

How do you get an undead bone shard

Spoiler

from the skeleton ball in the catacombs?

I think you just wait and watch the first ball until it breaks aganst the bottom bars?

 

[ogbg]

How do you get an undead bone shard

Spoiler

from the skeleton ball in the catacombs?

Spoiler

Kill the skeleton mage who is in the corridor where it hits the end. Once he's dead the ball breaks on it's next impact

 

[Spoo]

How do you get an undead bone shard

Spoiler

from the skeleton ball in the catacombs?

Spoiler

You need to be really close to where it lands in the hallway near the base of the stairs. Once you're close enough, it should explode on its own, giving it to you.

edit: Or above. Weird, it just gave it to me but I guess that's how it works?

--

Since I finished the game, I started up a character trying to go for dex / faith build but -- low and behold, it appears I basically hate faith and all the miracles, especially their usage. Guess if I go through the game again I'll just build pure dex.

 

[UrbanRats]

Which outfit is that?

Fallen knight set, in the

Spoiler

swamp

area, with the

Spoiler

Giant crabs

.

 

[Bloodporne]

I take my sweet-ass time including returning to earlier areas routinely to see if anything 'changed' or I missed something in any capacity. I always assume it's either the last one of these games or another won't be coming for at least another year so why not dilly dally around.

 

[ElFly]

To be fair, the way software development works, fixes for framerate and crashes can be much more difficult then balancing. You need copious amounts of testing to make sure the fix isn't worse than the problem. Programs as large as modern games can have things depend on each other in really not obvious ways (see whatever the hell happened to the Master Chief Collection) and so even finding what's wrong might take a lot of work. Balancing just needs to change a number with some minor testing.

From is undoubtedly working on it, and will get the fixes out in the next major patch.

This post is waaay too optimist.

This is the company that was happy to ship DS1 PC at a fixed resolution, and then DS2 PC, while a much better port, never got a fix for the framerate-causing-double-degradation issue.

I am not particularly optimist a fix for framerate is coming. Best case, we get a fix for all the crashes, since setting-lighting-low-to-fix-crashes is so weird, it may be easier to fix.

But do not be surprised if the fix is just always forcing the game to lighting = low and taking away the option.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

Some of us like to take our time and explore. I'm 20 hours and just beat my first Lord. Also doing co-op and such. But I enjoy taking my time. These games usually take me 50+ hours, and I like that.

Yep. Also, i play them once every couple years to avoid burnout because the games are so similar to each other at their core, give or take some details. I imagine people who go up to ng++++ in every souls game should be able to breeze through this one with basically no trouble since there's nothing new here. But staying casual keeps the games fun for me.

 

[Roussow]

I have to restrain myself from burning through areas too quickly now. My guard break shenanigans are just obliterating these enemies and this area I'm in (

Spoiler

Irithyll

) looks so cool I don't want to rush.



If you're curious about the area you're in

Spoiler

I found a fairly large and crazy secret area there

. It was neat how I found it too,

Spoiler

I think the ballista broke open a chunk of the floor when I was running around exploring and I dropped down into a whole new place.

Spoiler

That seems fucking absurd, I love it, I turned the ballista off and cleared the area (sans the crab situation). I'll just look up how to get that floor to break -- If I can even access it now, I wonder if the enemies that control the ballista respawn. I'll lookup how to access them once.

 

[MUnited83]

I'm genuinely curious, why is that a negative?

Mainly because it's horrendous design that makes no sense whatsoever, and directly goes against their design philosopies on combat and level design ?
Shit like not being able to complete Siegward's quest without having met him in a kitchen before I got into a dungeon is the most stupidest thing ever.

 

[remz]

Which outfit is that?

Isn't it Fallen Knight set? probably on PC bevause you can actually see the textures

 

[MicSte79]

What level should I be for boss in the catacombs? I am getting nowhere with him. Trying to summons but no-one is using their soapstone by the goblet!

 

[ogbg]

Spoiler

That seems fucking absurd, I love it, I turned the ballista off and cleared the area (sans the crab situation). I'll just look up how to get that floor to break -- If I can even access it now, I wonder if the enemies that control the ballista respawn. I'll lookup how to access them once.

Spoiler

If you turned it off you were already there. There are 2 ways in

 

[Carlius]

wtf man..why is

Spoiler

archdragon peak

so hard...

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Spoiler

Kill the skeleton mage who is in the corridor where it hits the end. Once he's dead the ball breaks on it's next impact

thanks, will try that.

 

[Kaibutsu]

Which outfit is that?

Fallen Knight Helmet, Armor and gauntlets. I forget which legs I'm wearing, I think the Lothric Knight legs, also I think that's the Dragon Crest shield?

 

[Roussow]

Spoiler

If you turned it off you were already there. There are 2 ways in

Spoiler

Oh, is the other place you mean the Demon Ruins?

 

[ogbg]

Spoiler

Oh, is the other place you mean the Demon Ruins?

I wasn't the original poster but yeah that's what they meant

 

[Daante]

"Dark Souls 3 launch sales up 61 per cent over Dark Souls 2 in UK"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-sales-up-61-per-cent-over-dark-souls-2-in-uk

According to the steamspy link, http://steamspy.com/app/374320 , it seems over 600k have already bought it

 

[Brick]

"hey,many people experience serious issues with our product. Really bad framerate and even crashes. Should we adress this in the coming patch?"

"NO!!! Weapon Balancing it is"

"But..."

"I said weapon balancing!!!"

You do know that's not even remotely how game development works, right?

 

[Spoo]

wtf man..why is

Spoiler

archdragon peak

so hard...

To prepare you for the hardest boss in the game

 

[Kaibutsu]

Isn't it Fallen Knight set? probably on PC bevause you can actually see the textures

Nope, PS4 screen grab using the share function lol. The game looks surprisingly good on consoles

 

[Vital Tundra]

Holy shit A

Spoiler

ldrich

is kicking my ass. Get so close every time but he just 1 shots me. Any tips?

 

[GinoFelino]

I'm genuinely curious, why is that a negative?

Because I won't replay the entire game for every time I make a tiny mistake that perma-fails an NPC questline.

I'm totally okay with missing out on stuff; I know I can't see it all in one go anyway.

To give you an example (Onion Knight)

Spoiler

He wouldn't show up at Cathedral of the Deep because I encountered Patches at Firelink before I encountered Siegward in the well, even though I helped out Siegward at Undead Settlement only ten minutes before. Perma-fail ahoy

or another (Anri/Horace)

Spoiler

Doing everything right with Yoel and then Yuria and killing Horace at the Lake but telling Anri afterwards about him being at the lake still fails the questline because it apparently 'turns her mad' at the end of the game. Special ending perma-fail ahoy

Those failstates are illogical, obscure and unnecessarily harsh in a game that's plenty harsh already. I had no issues with these questlines in every other SoulsBorne so far and this is the first time I feel they're nearly impossible to get right without playing the game like I'm assembling IKEA furniture.

Mainly because it's horrendous design that makes no sense whatsoever, and directly goes against their design philosopies on combat and level design ?
Shit like not being able to complete Siegward's quest without having met him in a kitchen before I got into a dungeon is the most stupidest thing ever.

More harsh than I'd put it, but yeah, I agree with the dissonance between the combat design philosophy and NPC questline philosophy being way more obvious than perhaps it should be. If anything, they shouldn't have doubled down on it like they did for DS3.

 

[Brohan]

So regarding

Spoiler

anri's

questline. I have met her once in the

Spoiler

catacombs

and now i see her standing at the second location. Do i speak to her now or do i first need to go down the

Spoiler

bridge ladder

to find

Spoiler

Horace

and speak to her afterwards?

Any help clearing this up woud be much appreciated.

I hate messing up questlines.

Anyone?

 

[sora87]

Lol summoned someone for

Spoiler

Oceiros

and he was just trying to use a longbow and died instantly, why even bother

 

[Spoo]

Holy shit A

Spoiler

ldrich

is kicking my ass. Get so close every time but he just 1 shots me. Any tips?

Spoiler

The arrow move is the most likely one to get you if you are getting the boss down and going in for a final attack. I recommend chain-rolling away in a circular path, where the end of the circle will be right where Aldrich is so you can get in your attack

.

 

[Mupod]

Is there any Balder Side Sword equivalent ?

Lothric Knight Sword my man. Got mine at +7 and I'm apparently about halfway through the game, I've switched to other weapons to try them out and keep going back to it.

It's not quite as annoying to farm as BSS and I think an early vendor sells it.