LTTP: Dark Souls (PS3)

LOL

Saw a few videos of that "game" and immediately realized why Souls became such a hit. Hardly anyone is making real games anymore. RE6 seems like a series of interactive cutscenes.

For what it's worth I'm really enjoying RE6, but it really does a terrible job at telling you how to play the game. If it wasn't for the people in the OT crowdsourcing the discovery of the game's mechanics I probably would have had a miserable time playing through it. Once you figure it out the combat system is actually pretty good and fluid.

But back to Dark Souls, I am staying away from this game unless I get it for free. I get very easily turned off by games that are punishingly hard, since I play games to enjoy myself not to test my limits as a gamer. I have Demon's Souls, and while it feels satisfying to clear a level that previously stumped you, I don't enjoy the act of actually bashing my head against a wall until I finally figure out what I'm doing wrong.

As long as we're comparing it to RE6 though, I will say that Demon's Souls was a much scarier game for exactly those same reasons: one mistake and you were dead, so you dreaded every encounter.
 
I thought the game was absolutely amazing. Dark Souls is easily one of my favorite games this gen period.

Good man, you have fine taste.

I'm getting ready for my next playthrough, figuring out which build I want to try this time. Maybe this?

jmAPg.jpg
 
For what it's worth I'm really enjoying RE6, but it really does a terrible job at telling you how to play the game. If it wasn't for the people in the OT crowdsourcing the discovery of the game's mechanics I probably would have had a miserable time playing through it. Once you figure it out the combat system is actually pretty good and fluid.

But back to Dark Souls, I am staying away from this game unless I get it for free. I get very easily turned off by games that are punishingly hard, since I play games to enjoy myself not to test my limits as a gamer. I have Demon's Souls, and while it feels satisfying to clear a level that previously stumped you, I don't enjoy the act of actually bashing my head against a wall until I finally figure out what I'm doing wrong.

As long as we're comparing it to RE6 though, I will say that Demon's Souls was a much scarier game for exactly those same reasons: one mistake and you were dead, so you dreaded every encounter.

Respond to me too! I'm interested in what you think.

lol

Linear gameplay.

And I read the thread describing what Capcom doesn't tell you, and watched a couple videos the OP recommended. The mechanics seem pretty simple from what I read. You stun, hit the buttons it tells you too to melee, and dodge when you get surrounded...doesn't seem terribly deep at all.

There are literally on screen prompts for what to do, when to do it. If you think that game is deep, or confused by what Capcom doesn't 'tell' you, than you might have trouble as soon as you get dropped into Dark Souls.
 
Should you really consider a game 'easy' if it takes some effort to make it easy? I mean, when I think easy I think a game that takes no thinking or effort or dexterity or skill whatsoever. A game you can bulldoze through with little concern of what you're doing the first time you play.

At the very least Dark Souls is a challenging game.

However, personally I think the game is pretty hard.

Currently playing a Thief and I loved walking slowly up to the Dark Knight in the hallway and stabbing for 1/4 damage and then parry and riposte, parry->riposte till it's dead! Of course that was AFTER dieing like 20 times to it, but it was still fun!

Hope I can think of way to kill that red dragon on the bridge, but it seems it regenerates and taking it head on is instant death for me.
 
Dark Souls is one of the best game's I've played in my life, and it will probably be for a long time. I originally got it for 360 but it was barely unplayable when I got to Blighttown so I decided to wait for the PC-version.

And I waited. And it was so worth it. Not only could I actually play the game - it looked absolutely amazing. I know it isn't a technical masterpiece but with From's fantastic design it really shines when it's bumped up to 1080p with AA and SSAO.

iyiXKFANK4hGl.gif


I certainly hope the next Souls-game will launch on PC simultaneously.
It absolutely blows my mind that the game was never intended to be seen that way, yet they still went the extra distance to render that incredible detail.

Hail Durante.
 
With the exception of O&S and maybe Bed of Chaos, you can easily 'cheese' the game with a good shield, at least on NG. It's generally pretty easy to lure enemies one out a time with a shield up at all times.
 
Respond to me too! I'm interested in what you think.

Well, since you asked so nicely.

lol

Linear gameplay.

And I read the thread describing what Capcom doesn't tell you, and watched a couple videos the OP recommended. The mechanics seem pretty simple from what I read. You stun, hit the buttons it tells you too to melee, and dodge when you get surrounded...doesn't seem terribly deep at all.

There are literally on screen prompts for what to do, when to do it. If you think that game is deep, or confused by what Capcom doesn't 'tell' you, than you might have trouble as soon as you get dropped into Dark Souls.

The mechanics are pretty deep, and things can get pretty hectic when there's a ton of enemies on screen. Yes, the basic gist of it is stun -> melee, but that process is a lot more complicated than it might seem. You can stun enemies by shooting them in the head or the arm, for instance. However, an arm stun will flip the enemy around so his back is facing you, and a head stun will not, both of which set up different melees. You can also stun by doing a melee combo, by sliding into the enemy, or by doing a dashing shoulder charge. Doing two in a row will also set up different melees that have different properties.

I could get into much further detail, but it's probably better to just refer to the RE6 thread. My point is that the combat is a lot deeper than most people give it credit for, but the fact that Capcom doesn't explain any of it to you has really pissed a lot of people off. I find it interesting that people praise Dark Souls for making you discover all its mechanics for yourself and then turn around and bash RE6 for doing the same, but when a game is supposed to be mainstream then people expect it to hold your hand. That's actually the reason I really like it - we're still discovering things in the OT about the combat mechanics and how to fully exploit it to maximize your score in Mercenaries.

But yes you are correct, if you have trouble with RE6, then I imagine you will most definitely have trouble with Dark Souls. The combat in RE6 is definitely a lot more forgiving than it is in Dark Souls though.
 
One of my favorite parts about the PC version that is rarely talked about is the UI fix that Durante made.

The original UI is honestly unplayable once you're used to this.

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And a couple more cool pics for fun

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At least as far as JRPGs go.

I wouldn't even give it that qualification.

I can't think of any other game this generation that holds a candle to either this or Demon's in sheer brilliance of game, level, story, and atmosphere design. Both the games are on a league of their own.
 
Painted World wasn't anything worth playing the game again for. It's extremely short, as well.

Man, we couldn't disagree any more it seems. Painted world was probably the highlight of Dark Souls for me, perhaps because it reminds me of a Demon's Souls stage in its layout and how it's isolated from the rest of the game. But i also like Demon's better, so that's probably why i feel that way.
 
I was watching this parody music video earlier today and it reaffirmed my decision never to play this game. It just doesn't seem like fun playing through something that pointedly difficult.

The video is pretty misleading (only skimmed through a few seconds of it), since the guy died from being ganged up by a few enemies or misdodging, which you could easily avoid by just carefully fighting them one by one, and using the environment to your advantage.

If you're familiar with other action games, you should be fine with dark souls, you have options to make the game easy anyway. Dark souls is pretty fair when it comes to combat, attacks are slow for the most part and the animations does give you proper visual cues for dodging, the set ups are just more dangerous because attacks does quite a lot of damage to you and it's much harder to get out of being cornered due to stamina management.
 
I'm looking for a challenging game, but I'm still not sure if I'd like Dark Souls.
The pace of the game isn't really fast, for the little bit of gameplay I've watched.
 
Best game I played last year but I'm still not sure if I like DkS more than Demon's Souls.

Anyway, both games are amazing.
 
I hope there weren't too many people who never even tried the game for the reputation it got for being overly hard. There's a significant difference between something being hard like Bayonetta on infinite climax, and something being hard like Dark Souls. In terms of pure gameplay, there aren't too many people out there who wouldn't be able to finish Dark Souls. It's more a game of being patient and learning from your failures than a game of dexterity.

I can't wait for the DLC.
 
antitrop said:
If you played it on consoles and have a decent gaming PC, 1080p and 60fps is, however
Has the 60fps patch gotten any better? I tried it briefly and it had lots of issues, and even when it worked it hardly ever hit 60fps for me (Radeon 7950, I7), so it just seemed better to keep steady 30fps instead.
 
I hope there weren't too many people who never even tried the game for the reputation it got for being overly hard.

I have a feeling there already are people that skipped it because of that, I was turned off by the game for quite some time even when I had the urge to buy and play it from time to time, most people's comments usually were very discouraging.

Thankfully I picked it up and had a blast with it.
 
Even though I haven't done it, I can't imagine SL1 would be that difficult once you have a good weapon and shield.

Try a dual caestus build, that will really test your limits. Beat Capra with this build and it was freaking intense. And it's so awesome finishing off a boss with a falcon punch to the face.

I demand modders make a parry/riposte animation for fists or fist weapons the Fedor/Rogers Falcon Punch to the face.

Then I'll do a entire Let's Play where I try and KO all available opponents!
 
Man, we couldn't disagree any more it seems. Painted world was probably the highlight of Dark Souls for me, perhaps because it reminds me of a Demon's Souls stage in its layout and how it's isolated from the rest of the game. But i also like Demon's better, so that's probably why i feel that way.
I didn't say I didn't like it, I said its not worth playing the game again just to see. I mean unless you really, really want to play the game again.
 
Has the 60fps patch gotten any better? I tried it briefly and it had lots of issues, and even when it worked it hardly ever hit 60fps for me (Radeon 7950, I7), so it just seemed better to keep steady 30fps instead.
It's probably because of your graphics card. Dark Souls hates AMDs.
 

And? Nothing about the basics of controlling your character is buried in Dark Souls. You fully understand that once you've left the opening area. Everything else about the game can be quite obscure, but that's all for a reason. RE6 just doesn't tell you how to play the game.

Tom Chick fully understood the mechanics in RE6. He even praised some of them on his podcast. He also thought the game was complete trash.
 
Fantastic game. Got the platinum trophy for it. But Demon's Souls was and is better.

Btw whats up with the graphics talk? I'm happy that you played it in higher resolutions, but playing it on the consoles did not ruin my experience at all.

Perhaps thats why From didnt bother with graphics enhancements for the PC version.
 
While im half way through Dark Souls and enjoying it.
I have to say I much preferred DS Nexus and Level Select over the open world.

Can't really say why just thought it felt better.
 
I got to blighttown. All the enemies are really strong. God damn archers everywhere shooting poison at me. And the game runs like crap.

I don't like where I am. I want it to end...
 
Yeah, I preferred the Nexus and level select system too. Not to mention the online.

Agreed.
THe way someone explained to me how Dark Souls works left me sort of sad.
I'm alive a lot of the time and never see anyone offering help.

While back in Demons Souls even a few years after while I was playing TONS of markings were everywhere for me to beat the game. Hell I beat the last boss because I summoned like 3 people to help.

Dark Souls i've gotten 1 guy so far and the rest are the summons the game just gives you.
 
Fantastic game. Got the platinum trophy for it. But Demon's Souls was and is better.

Btw whats up with the graphics talk? I'm happy that you played it in higher resolutions, but playing it on the consoles did not ruin my experience at all.

Perhaps thats why From didnt bother with graphics enhancements for the PC version.

Games looks good in consoles with proper upscaling and viewing distance we play on despite whats the screenshot of 360 show.

Sure with pc its better with better frame rate.

Anyways the console DLC thread were always crapped with such comparisions.


______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@tc

glad you loved, its still the best game of the generation
 
Agreed.
THe way someone explained to me how Dark Souls works left me sort of sad.
I'm alive a lot of the time and never see anyone offering help.

While back in Demons Souls even a few years after while I was playing TONS of markings were everywhere for me to beat the game. Hell I beat the last boss because I summoned like 3 people to help.

Dark Souls i've gotten 1 guy so far and the rest are the summons the game just gives you.

I forgot to mention the map layout in Demon's is better than Dark, but thats my opinion. :p I hope From ever get to make Demon's Souls 2, or just lend assistance to a Sony studio. I don't see Sony not using the IP.


@Pranay: I'm happy for the people that played it on the pc, but I find the graphics talk strange on a console thread.
 
I really hate to do this, but like Arkham City and Yakuza 4 as sequels to great games,Dark Souls was a freaking huge downgrade from Demon's Souls in almost everything,still a good game but not in the same galaxy as Demon's Souls and its greatness.

Boss Fights and unlike Demon's were boss fights are mostly "fair" and epic, most of the fights in Dark are "cheap" and full of bullshit shots against you ( Moonlight butterfly is a joke, with Stray Demon you must fall down and take a hit,Capra Demon is in tiny place and hit you after you enter the fog,Ornstein and Smough is also full of bullcheapcrap) the only one that felt "epic" and fair and Demon-ish is the last one.

The game structure itself was all over the place and the area felt disconnected even when they supposed to be one place,and well Lordran sucks bulls , from Undead Parish to Anor it feel "soulless" unlike the great Boletaria and it's fantastic areas,the level design and environments are just bad Blighttown and Tomb of the Giants for some examples are crap and who designed that should be ashamed of him/her self, Also the backstory itself is weak compared to what was in Demons,I didn't give a flying poop about anything here and didn't want to save the world,it was that bad.

Difficulty..well I wont say it was easier than Demons but it wasn't "as good", here was mostly cheap enemies and your luck,there is serious lack of polish everywhere with enemies locations sometimes and and Unlike Demon's Souls when you should care about you health crap, the Estus Flask system just make the game super easy.

Still a decent game and sequel,but before Souls 3 I want From guys to return and play Demon's Souls and learn from it ,take their time and make the next game more like Demons and not like Dark.
 
I really hate to do this, but like Arkham City and Yakuza 4 as sequels to great games,Dark Souls was a freaking huge downgrade from Demon's Souls in almost everything,still a good game but not in the same galaxy as Demon's Souls and its greatness.

Boss Fights and unlike Demon's were boss fights are mostly "fair" and epic, most of the fights in Dark are "cheap" and full of bullshit shots against you ( Moonlight butterfly is a joke, with Stray Demon you must fall down and take a hit,Capra Demon is in tiny place and hit you after you enter the fog,Ornstein and Smough is also full of bullcheapcrap) the only one that felt "epic" and fair and Demon-ish is the last one.

The game structure itself was all over the place and the area felt disconnected even when they supposed to be one place,and well Lordran sucks bulls , from Undead Parish to Anor it feel "soulless" unlike the great Boletaria and it's fantastic areas,the level design and environments are just bad Blighttown and Tomb of the Giants for some examples are crap and who designed that should be ashamed of him/her self, Also the backstory itself is weak compared to what was in Demons,I didn't give a flying poop about anything here and didn't want to save the world,it was that bad.

Difficulty..well I wont say it was easier than Demons but it wasn't "as good", here was mostly cheap enemies and your luck,there is serious lack of polish everywhere with enemies locations sometimes and and Unlike Demon's Souls when you should care about you health crap, the Estus Flask system just make the game super easy.

Still a decent game and sequel,but before Souls 3 I want From guys to return and play Demon's Souls and learn from it ,take their time and make the next game more like Demons and not like Dark.

I'd happily take this "downgrade" over Demon's absurd loading time. Seriously it killed the game for me. Also there's nothing bullshitty about those bosses in my opinion, terrain is part of the boss fight and you should always keep on your toes.

As to your complaints about level, I honestly don't see it, how does one quantify soulless? Your story poo-pooing is all on you, that's your problem not that story is that big a part of the game, it's there if you want it.
 
Neogaf: Where Dark souls is easy.

this is like that post in the ME3 forum where someome said Platinum was easier than gold because "all you have to do is fight loads of bosses"

We get it. YOu are good at the game.

Difficulty depends on how impatient you are, I feel. And the game will do its darnedest to make you impatient. If you feel yourself getting angry, shut off the game since you'll start rushing more and then die to something you really should've seen coming. And then you'll get even more pissed.
 
Unlike Demon's Souls when you should care about you health crap, the Estus Flask system just make the game super easy.


WHAT? Spamming those healing grasses made Demon's Souls super easy. Have you really played it? Through the half of the game i was carrying 99x of most of the healing grasses.
Limited Estus flasks gave much more depth to Dark Souls. You couldnt just spam them in a boss battle.
 
The game isn't hard. It's actually quite easy.
Yeah, no it isn't. It's one of the hardest games this gen.

To say, "the game isn't that hard, it just gives you full control" would be cool, but to then go on to say, "its actually quite easy" is just lunacy.
 
I really hate to do this, but like Arkham City and Yakuza 4 as sequels to great games,Dark Souls was a freaking huge downgrade from Demon's Souls in almost everything,still a good game but not in the same galaxy as Demon's Souls and its greatness.

Boss Fights and unlike Demon's were boss fights are mostly "fair" and epic, most of the fights in Dark are "cheap" and full of bullshit shots against you ( Moonlight butterfly is a joke, with Stray Demon you must fall down and take a hit,Capra Demon is in tiny place and hit you after you enter the fog,Ornstein and Smough is also full of bullcheapcrap) the only one that felt "epic" and fair and Demon-ish is the last one.

The game structure itself was all over the place and the area felt disconnected even when they supposed to be one place,and well Lordran sucks bulls , from Undead Parish to Anor it feel "soulless" unlike the great Boletaria and it's fantastic areas,the level design and environments are just bad Blighttown and Tomb of the Giants for some examples are crap and who designed that should be ashamed of him/her self, Also the backstory itself is weak compared to what was in Demons,I didn't give a flying poop about anything here and didn't want to save the world,it was that bad.

Difficulty..well I wont say it was easier than Demons but it wasn't "as good", here was mostly cheap enemies and your luck,there is serious lack of polish everywhere with enemies locations sometimes and and Unlike Demon's Souls when you should care about you health crap, the Estus Flask system just make the game super easy.

Still a decent game and sequel,but before Souls 3 I want From guys to return and play Demon's Souls and learn from it ,take their time and make the next game more like Demons and not like Dark.

No way, boss fights are much better in Dark because they have less health on average but much more vairety in attacks, weaknesses, and encounters. Stray Demon is fine, the fall can be mitagated by magic or you simply deal with the challenge of one less flask. Flasks and bonfires by the way, are much better than the archstones and grass. Ornstein and Smough is perhaps the best fight in the game.

And the level design in Demon's is much worse overall. 2-1 is a confusing mess. All of world 5 is bad, worse than Blightown. Levels are usually longer and much more painful to navigate, with less shortcuts.

Boletaria might have more charm, because the atmosphere of Lordran is very opressive and heavy at times. But its lore is stronger.
 
Boletaria might have more charm, because the atmosphere of Lordran is very opressive and heavy at times. But its lore is stronger.


I thought Boletaria was much more darker. Especially Tower of Latria and that stormy level(4?).

When i mean Acitivision milking i mean yearly releases and zillions of DLCs!
 
I like this game, but recently rage quit at O + S. I found the game to be challenging, but mostly fair (minus the part I'm stuck at). I enjoyed the combat system, but didn't find it quite as deep as many people made it out to be. It certainly suits the game though and I wouldn't mind seeing more games using this style of fighting. The world building is also pretty incredible, there is a lot of nuance and subtlety. You can tell the developers really wanted to give an amazing amount of attention to detail in the smallest things.
 
Except for the Anor Londo archers, that's just complete bullshit.

Eh, not really. They were probably one of the more annoying enemies in the game, but it wasn't exactly difficult to run past their shots. The hardest part was killing whichever one you ran up to without falling off the ledge.
 
I've only invested about 25 hours into the game so far, but feel I'm ready to hold up Dark Souls one of the best games I've ever played and easily one of the standout games of this generation. I might not have finished the game, but I've seen enough from my 25 hours to say I absolutely love it, and I'm slowly pressing on forwards with it too.

Not sure if I'll ever complete the game, but it's been an incredible experience up to now so anything from this point on is a bonus. Just reached Anor Londo.

Such a fantastic example of great game design and construction. I had a really hard time getting into Demons Souls but I'm a big fan of the more connected and logical design of Dark Souls.
 
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