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From Software Dark Souls 3

Shadenuat

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You mean the Astora Greatsword? Yeah I have that too but I stopped using it because it was kind of slow for my tastes.

Edit: or do you mean the swords you can transfuse from the Abyss Watchers? I understand those should do extra damage against dark.
If you have good STR, why not use Dragonsplayer Spear? It requires 20 STR which I lack sadly.
Or a Great Lance.

Also, his laser beam attack when he goes into grimdark mode can one shot you
What bothers me is that his prep attack for it is breathing fire under himself. Yet the most logical place to dodge it is to be under him. Very non intuitive.






Speaking of, Old Moonlight is first decent magic sword attack... :shittydog:

although damage is still lacklustre. I guess you must fully invest into magik items to do any reasonable damage with spells eh.
 
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Shadenuat

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I had Pestulent Mercury do most of the damage. The challenging part was making him sit tight on it and inhale the medicine while dodging claws, blocking fire and running under him through my own spell hitting tail a few times, then setting up the medical procedure again. During every set up I made 3-4 estoc hits somewhere under his neck to the head.
These sorta fights are terrible when you need to keep buff on a weapon btw.

It's not so hard.

Stay close to his face and try to bait him constantly. And that's it. It's an endurance fight.
Game could use less of those, especially DLCs. Now there's Gael with his 15000 hp - same as Midir. Good thing 5 pokes with Estoc produce extra 900 dmg due to Frost Weapon.

Makes me wonder what I could do with Ricard's... but I hate farming again.

Tried Pontiff Curved frost sword - awful shit, never touch it or level it up (
 
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Silva

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I miss the interplay of attack types X enemy weakness from BB, specially when you're an arcanist and have the right medicine for every situation. Here it feels very difficult to id what kind of attack goes with each type of enemy.
 

Shadenuat

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Finished everything.

....ugghh I'm spent..

I thought Ariandel was a pretty small but brilliant level. Not the wolves and vikings perhaps, but for how small it was, tightly it was designed, with shortcuts and whole level taking a full spin. Just check that small dead crow village - it's literally 5 houses, but the way you travel around it makes it as long as many bigger levels.
Sure, it's all fanservice, but it's a good fanservice. Mini bosses and optional bosses as sorta phantoms is cheap, I guess not everything can be a giant Hydra or Nameless King, but they're optional, and they're secretive.
Monsters were... well Chris Avellone would love this, definitely. No particular opinion. Again, I think there should have been more quality over quantity. Asassin crows were maddening. I loved the naked crow people though. They were so harmless and sad, yet could still drain your resources or even pose threat by making you fall into somewhere. A monster that makes you pity it and you don't know if you want to kill it or ignore it - that's a dark soul-like idea, I like it.

There are also more NPCs on the road, and they talk more. Locations in original game seriously lack in non face munching inhabitants.

The bosses:
- Dude and wolves, did on 1st or 2d try, they could have worked on it more.
- Chibi Priscilla, loved the idea, hated 3d phase. You see, player has to expect something and make plans. With Ariandel you can see him in the same room, so you kinda expect chibi Priscilla might not just be the end of it. But, if you can just refill boss health bar 2d time, 3d time, there is nothing for player to plan for and there is no more trust between player and game designer.
There is also the whole disparity in speeds and recovery. I think DLCs and that fight, and well as Gael fight, heck even Midir fight, do not treat people who like heavy weapons fairly. Sure, some people deal with it, but when you think about it... my Astora Greatsword did, say, 300-350 damage. My lighter weapon did 200+ damage. Not only do I have more opening for every boss with lighter weapon, but ultimately even my DPS ends up higher with it. That's not great.

As much as I liked Ariandel... I am not to fond of Ringed City:
- I do not like linear jumping into nothingness and trusting random signs on the floor. Why is it so mindless visceral and popamole? Where is the tension and slow pacing which were present in descending into similar levels in DS (OH YOU KNOW THAT MADHOUSE I AM TALKING ABOUT) and DS2 (the well)?
- I do not like monsters just spawning everywhere and respawning.
- There's some cheap crap again with things dropping out of nowhere and power overhwelming (a magic circle from turtle priest can drain 1000 hp in literally few moments).
- There's a HP bloat on everything. Regular mobs and bosses alike.

While visually breathtaking, as a level, City was like a reversed version of Ariandel. Ariandel looked compact, but used most of it. Ringed City looks like a place of monumental architecture and lush greenery (not usual thing in DS), but ends up as a small street leading into avenue and then a swamp... again... like we didn't have enough of those already.

Lore, was interesting... Miyazaki stealing some inspiration from Mamoru Oshii with sleeping princess, now that would be a funny thing to spell in world of anime.

The bosses:
- Diablo 2. I was really proud of myself when I bursted both down solo on first try with my new build.
Should have learned my lesson on chibi Priscilla, goddamit.
Boss was not easy or hard, and had nothing interesting in terms of looks. Made me upgrade Black Knight shield and I used various fire resistant armor & claymore I believe.
- Purple Candy Kalameet. Literally that, just more agressive and not so cool because he's a cosplayer. Strangely enough for it's size, doesn't have that many openings or weak spots aside from just 1 (head). Even that ugly egg Wood had multiple points of pressure. Which makes fight one dimensional and not very interesting. You can't do anything to it's wings, you can't do anything to it's legs... you just run. For minutes and minutes of that 15k health bar.
It made me think. Was Kalameet good? This one sure like him. Kalameet also had ton of hp and resists. But back then Kalameet was also slower, he waslked slowly to you, whole fight was more in control, more tame. Not godzilla roflstomping and headbutting you literally every 8 seconds. Hmm...
- Gael. I died like shit on this one during 3d phase. But the fight is quite visceral and didn't feel as much a slog as dragon. It was also nice that his health bar never changed. I tried literally everything to ease the pain of going through first 2 phases over and over: light weapons, heavy weapons, a blade made of literally shit (poisoned swamp dagger), until finally I ended up with beaituful damascus sabre with bleed which was just laying somewhere lonely in my backback - I thought it was some weaboo or worse, saracen! (DEUSVULT), but it actually looks cool. After testing both it's innate bleed with bleed item and frozen weapon, I went with frozen weapon. Bleed still managed to proc maybe once per battle but 2-3 hit chill combo did great damage on Gael. Strange it's not as strong against various knights. Guess they are resistant to slash.

So I brought thingy to chibi-chibi Priscilla, didn't get any cutscenes or more dialogue, but oh well. I'm sure VaatiVidya would make something up instead of game devs.

One thing I am still not happy about is... the overall direction of Souls with continious regression of "fairness" in fights. I guess they have to ump the speed and the difficulty every game, but is there no other way but heavy knights jumping in the air, literally dong a sircus level salto there and landing 180 degree smash on you? Should most spells really have in-built tracking, even one-shot ones? Is it impossible for monsters to behave in a more natural and physcially probable way and still be challenging? Back then knights of Anor Londo were walking slowly, and hitting hard, with all the supposed weight behind them. Is that how gameplay of Souls series always will be now, with attacks always landing on you, not where they are supposed to land? And your character will forever be stuck in a slow-mo version of the world? Eh.

And also, weak spots. When was Shadow of Colossus made again? I think autoaim>head might be very slow advancement in giant killing for FIFTH game in the series.
 
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Silva

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Agree that Ariandel felt more cohesive than Ringed. I came to appreciate it more the second time.

Ultimately though, both DLCs felt too peripheral to the main game and failed to live up to the bar set by AoA and OH. I wish Ariandel was in the main game already (like the first game painted world), and the DLCs were used to explore Londor, Prophaned Capital or Angelic Fate/Lothric past more.
 

cvv

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Start the game in the Undead Settlement, yeees, get rid of the stupid coal system, yees, fix the boss weapons, yees, let us upgrade the catalysts too, yees, get rid of the GIMMICKY BOSSES!!!1!1!

Another hardcore souler with the "muh gimmicky bosses" rant. Getting rid of "gimmicky" bosses because of this incessant crying was partly what fucking killed DS3. Fastjumpingknight-fastjumpingknigh-fastjumpingknight-fastjumpingknight......JESUS FUCKING CRIST.

Seriously, sometimes I think developers should not listen to the fanbase at all.
 

Dawkinsfan69

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Not to mention that if you play the game once or twice, instead of obsessing over it and dumping 4000 hours into it like an autist, you probably never even notice half the gimmicks and the ones that you do notice add some variety.

Games aren't and shouldn't really be designed to be played 10 thousand times to the point where you're sprinting through levels naked exploiting and bragging online about how skilled you are.
 

Seaking4

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I think it depends on what you consider a gimmick boss. I don't see how Bed of Chaos or Yhorm add anything to the game. The fights are just boring and every single person is forced to do them the same way. But it is nice to have fights that aren't just 1 on 1 fights. Fights like Undead Chariot, Belfry Gargoyles, Deacons of the Deep, Curse Rotted-Greatwood, etc. do add a much needed change of pace to Dark Souls. They aren't traditional boss fights (by Dark Souls standards) but you aren't forced to fight the same way every other person who plays the game is.
 

Shadenuat

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Yhorm has a backdoor design to fight him as regular boss. All you have to do to fix him is give Storm Ruler only to Siegfried and lower it's damage a bit. And maybe add some more weakspots to bring him on his knees. DS series don't really have gimmicky bosses - DS3 has least of them. Gimmick boss is one you have to solve puzzle to win or full of secret QTEs. When during phase 5 round 2 you need to play tennis with boss projectiles to remove shield or you can't do damage it's gimmicky boss. Like Ys series. The only one that qualifies is Bed of Chaos.

When DS tries to do something like that they just don't seem to put enough effort in it. Like Deacons of the Deep. It has no good arena design, enemies are not unique, it has no good presentation, and not enough unique attacks or phases. Even pretty arena, good presentation and unique animations would do wonders to a boss like that, but DoTD are just that - reused enemy models with a single scripted gimmick. When fighting enemy like that, think cranium rats from Planescape - the more there are, the more advanced spells they use. That would have worked.
 

cvv

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Yeah, problem with many "gimmicky" bosses is not that they are gimmicky but sloppy. The Tower Knight is the founding father of DS "gimmicks" and to this day I can't forget how awesome this fight looked when I saw it for the first time. Demon's Souls have quite a few "gimmicky" bosses that are absolutely excellent. But these types of fights need some extra thought and care, you can't just type in the boss generator "humanoid - fast - jumping - enter" and voila, you got a boss fight the "community" loves.
 

Seaking4

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When DS tries to do something like that they just don't seem to put enough effort in it. Like Deacons of the Deep. It has no good arena design, enemies are not unique, it has no good presentation, and not enough unique attacks or phases. Even pretty arena, good presentation and unique animations would do wonders to a boss like that, but DoTD are just that - reused enemy models with a single scripted gimmick. When fighting enemy like that, think cranium rats from Planescape - the more there are, the more advanced spells they use. That would have worked.

The Deacons kind of have something like that. If you don't keep attacking them they will use a special spell and the entire room will get filled with black gas and you get cursed. But ya they probably should have done a little more to make the fight special.
 

TheHeroOfTime

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Gimmick bosses are great when they are good designed. Demon's souls shows this in a perfect way. Problem is when they are a fucking disaster. And the only boss on the franchise that goes through that dense fog gate is Bed of chaos. Which is a boss based in bad designed trial and error, where the player can die without the possibility of avoiding that death and where the boss fight relies in a poor designed and exploited game mechanic (Jumping). That boss, as the whole Lost Izalith area are the worst things you can find in the franchise.

Too bad because Izalith had waifu potential. But Muhzaki wasted it thanks to leaving to a random codexian the task of designing the endgame of Dank souls.
 

Ezekiel

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I have probably 2500 hours in Dark Souls, 320 in Dark Souls II and over 400 in Demon's Souls. But I stopped playing Dark Souls III after just two playthroughs partly because the side quests were extremely confusing. In order to get that one lady in black to appear and finish her quest, I had to level myself up for the dark sigil and do a few other related quests in the right order. I had to read multiple wikis just so that I wouldn't miss those events and have to level myself up for the dark sigil again on another playthrough. I was also fatigued of the series by that point. I kind of want to get back into Dark Souls III and play some of the DLCs, but I dread those convoluted quests.
 

Ezekiel

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I could keep playing these games on and on and on if they kept changing things up and making bigger improvements. Dark Souls III was lazy, phoned in. This shouldn't have even been a series. FromSoftware's work is most interesting when they make completely new worlds. See Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

I did get sixty hours and two playthroughs out of Dark Souls III, so I can't complain too much.
 
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CthuluIsSpy

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Gimmick bosses are great when they are good designed. Demon's souls shows this in a perfect way. Problem is when they are a fucking disaster. And the only boss on the franchise that goes through that dense fog gate is Bed of chaos. Which is a boss based in bad designed trial and error, where the player can die without the possibility of avoiding that death and where the boss fight relies in a poor designed and exploited game mechanic (Jumping). That boss, as the whole Lost Izalith area are the worst things you can find in the franchise.

Too bad because Izalith had waifu potential. But Muhzaki wasted it thanks to leaving to a random codexian the task of designing the endgame of Dank souls.

Funnily enough, Aldia is probably what Bed of Chaos would have been like had it been a proper boss fight.
I mean, he is basically a tree monster with chaos fire.
 
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Fenix

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Hi guys, I want to buy DS3, and have question - played DS1 with mousekeyboard back then, but camera moved so sharply (?) that I has headache, was this problem solved or mitigated in DS3?
 

Vorark

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My mouse clicks had a weird lag in DS2, even disabled the double click feature or whatever it was called and it still felt laggy. In the end, had to pick up an old Dualshock2 controller, whereas I completed DS3 with kb+m, no problems.
 

AMG

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In DS2 you have to disable the double click every time you start the game, the setting stops working after a restart.
 

CthuluIsSpy

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My mouse clicks had a weird lag in DS2, even disabled the double click feature or whatever it was called and it still felt laggy. In the end, had to pick up an old Dualshock2 controller, whereas I completed DS3 with kb+m, no problems.

You have to disable double click and then open up the menu everytime you start the game. Once you get that done you should have no problems. I found the Mouse + KB controls to be pretty solid in DS2. Unlike DS1, you can actually make all of the changes you need in the game itself.
 

Vorark

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In DS2 you have to disable the double click every time you start the game, the setting stops working after a restart.

You have to disable double click and then open up the menu everytime you start the game. Once you get that done you should have no problems. I found the Mouse + KB controls to be pretty solid in DS2. Unlike DS1, you can actually make all of the changes you need in the game itself.

FFS, that's why it was unplayable with kb+m. Trust in From to fuck things up. :argh:
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Hi guys, I want to buy DS3, and have question - played DS1 with mousekeyboard back then, but camera moved so sharply (?) that I has headache, was this problem solved or mitigated in DS3?
You need DSFIX for Dark Souls methinks. DS works like a charm with that.
 

Raghar

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Hi guys, I want to buy DS3, and have question - played DS1 with mousekeyboard back then, but camera moved so sharply (?) that I has headache, was this problem solved or mitigated in DS3?
I played both DS and DS3 to the finish keyboard only. DS was better keyboard only, DS3 is fine when you use mouse.
 

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