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From Software Dark Souls is very easy

  • Thread starter Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal
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McPlusle

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Dark Souls is hard because Reddit and YouTube idiots. But on a more serious note, the combat can be really tough depending on how you're comfortable playing. When I first played it, I got really frustrated and quit as a sword/shield character. Then I played through Bloodborne, came back, and had a much easier time two-handing and rolling around in lighter armor.
 
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For me light weight and sword + shield was the easiest way to go in Dark Souls 1. Balder Side Sword + Silver Knight Shield -> my favorite combo. In DS II I never used shield past first playthrough because of 8 directional rolling, but in DS dodging isn't always my favored option. Like to have both dodge and block.
 

DalekFlay

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I'm playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time right now. I don't really consider the combat "hard" necessarily. If I don't pay attention enemies will rape me very quickly, like a Piranha Bytes game kind of with the stun-locking, but it's not too bad. What I fucking hate is the save system and backtracking. I've been a 99% PC gamer for 20+ years and I am used to saving anywhere. The Piranha Bytes games mentioned can be difficult but not actually annoying because you can quick-save anywhere, so dying isn't a big deal. Wandering up to the bridge from the undead town to get killed by a boss you're not sure how to fight yet... and that death making you do it all over again... is pretty much a "fuck you uninstall" for me. It's just not how I play games and I find it insanely annoying. I beat that boss the second go, but still.

That said I like the world and style and combat enough I haven't given up yet. Got to a church and finally another fucking save point. Went and killed some big Knight dude to get the thing to upgrade the potions and that was cool. Then got slaughtered by a mage and his 3 buddies as soon as I walked near them and now I have to do it all over again. We'll see how long I can tolerate this shit.
 

Jack Of Owls

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I imagine it would only be considered easy playing against retarded pre-programmed AI, as is any game. Let the OP play against skilled players and see if he reports back with the same gloating and boasts or will he be humbled and made silent like a little girly-man. Skilled DS players will... *clap* PUMP YOU DOWN, OP!
 

Shackleton

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
I'm playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time right now. I don't really consider the combat "hard" necessarily. If I don't pay attention enemies will rape me very quickly, like a Piranha Bytes game kind of with the stun-locking, but it's not too bad. What I fucking hate is the save system and backtracking. I've been a 99% PC gamer for 20+ years and I am used to saving anywhere. The Piranha Bytes games mentioned can be difficult but not actually annoying because you can quick-save anywhere, so dying isn't a big deal. Wandering up to the bridge from the undead town to get killed by a boss you're not sure how to fight yet... and that death making you do it all over again... is pretty much a "fuck you uninstall" for me. It's just not how I play games and I find it insanely annoying. I beat that boss the second go, but still.

That said I like the world and style and combat enough I haven't given up yet. Got to a church and finally another fucking save point. Went and killed some big Knight dude to get the thing to upgrade the potions and that was cool. Then got slaughtered by a mage and his 3 buddies as soon as I walked near them and now I have to do it all over again. We'll see how long I can tolerate this shit.

I really hope you make it to the Capra Demon. :argh:
 

Correct_Carlo

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For me, the Souls games were only hard because the combat system, stat system, and massive amount of weapons were all really opaque. I didn't use Wiki's my first play through of DS1, so I missed out on a lot of quality of life type shit, along with some of the best weapons and armor. Once you know how the games work, they become way easier. I breezed through Dark Souls 3, even though many claim it's the hardest in the series, but my first playthrough of Dark Souls 1 took FOREVER.

What I fucking hate is the save system and backtracking. I've been a 99% PC gamer for 20+ years and I am used to saving anywhere.

Dark Soul's save system is central to its game mechanics. The entire world, stats, and combat system are designed around it. Saying that Dark Souls would be better with save anywhere would be like saying that Super Mario Brothers would be better without all the jumping. Dark Souls would be total shit without its save system.
 
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Gerrard

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Dark Souls' "save system" is a cop out to not have to design a large game, and it's nothing new. It's exactly the kind of thing that arcade games and platformers of the NES era did because they were 30 minutes long when you finally mastered it.
 

CyberWhale

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Capra Demon was probably one of the easiest boss fights on my first playthrough (wasn't overly difficult the second time around either). I was overpowered for that area tho, and by a huge margin (I spent a huge amount of time wandering all over the world). Pretty much the same with Ornstein and Smough. They did ass-rape me on my second playthrough when I rushed to Anor Londo and got crushed by Smough's ass every single time (I dropped it there since I didn't have the patience to push through it or go grinding elsewhere).
 

smaug

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2 & 3 are piss easy because controls are smooth. The first game is hard because it’s so damn clunky.
 

normie

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Lol Dark Souls save system comes from it being shitty game made for shitty consoles, which cannot handle saving at any moment.
it handles it just fine when you quit, guy
2 & 3 are piss easy because controls are smooth. The first game is hard because it’s so damn clunky.
the first game has heft to one's movement, it's one of the many reasons it's the best of the three
 

smaug

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Lol Dark Souls save system comes from it being shitty game made for shitty consoles, which cannot handle saving at any moment.
it handles it just fine when you quit, guy
2 & 3 are piss easy because controls are smooth. The first game is hard because it’s so damn clunky.
the first game has heft to one's movement, it's one of the many reasons it's the best of the three
It's still clunky.
 

Voltigeur

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It's neither SUPER HARDCORE difficult nor piss easy.

It's a perfect example of a medium game. Most environment-related deaths can be prevented if you pay attention, and most boss and enemy patterns can be easily read.
The constant back-tracking because of their shit-tier save system makes the game a goddamn sludge to play though. Replaying the same fucking area over and over again because you get stuck on a boss is just shitty, and the threat of back-tracking if you don't manage to defeat the boss does not increase the tension for me, it just makes me shut off the game because I value my effing time.
 

ultra loser

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What I fucking hate is the save system and backtracking.
Yeah the game is more annoying with that NES-like bullshit than hard. That and enemies rotating mid animation and hitting you even though they shouldn't, this is some mmo stuff. I know soulsdrones respond to every criticism with "git gut" but this is the prime example of artificial difficulty.
I couldn't tolerate that bullshit and the game was fucking boring anyway (I'm a storyfag, inb4 but muh item descriptions, fuck off, your whole "lore" is just a fanfic) so I dropped it.
If the game was really that hard then every zoomer wouldn't brag about beating it. Elex was way more difficult (and it had quicksaves, imagine it with dark souls system) yet you don't see any of those hardcore gamers playing it.
 
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Lol Dark Souls save system comes from it being shitty game made for shitty consoles, which cannot handle saving at any moment.

Such a knowledgeable guy you are. Except that it is saving at any moment. Even if you ALT+F4 out of the game you will load in same place you stopped last time. Bonfires are not actually "save points".
 

Gerrard

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2 & 3 are piss easy because controls are smooth. The first game is hard because it’s so damn clunky.
The games would be also easier if they didn't have the shitty 8-way movement that forces you to use the lockon which is 100% console and gamepad caused issue.
 

Divine Blessing

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parry the world - soulsborne integral is Zen, aka becoming one with the combat flow.
first lesson is to master movement - roll (i-frames) and roll length (encumbrance), parry and weapon movesets, plunge-, running- and step-back attack, backstab-fishing (end roll close to back), kick (->+R1). Parry is not mandatory, but a ballet move, a Greatshield-Spear turtle will also be sufficient.
second is build mastery.
third is encounter knowlegde - patterns, area and weaknesses.
last one is timing - attack/parry/action windows (know movesets and patterns). Estus at the wrong time will result in a You Died.


easy as verdict without any objective comparisions is too relative, simply subjective. objectively, as in comparison to other ARPGs (Lords of the Fallen, the Surge etc) Dark Souls is demanding, it forces focus and awareness, its not a brain-afk game.
Soulsborne may have the most responsive character progression in gaming history, as player progress translates directly into character progress. therefore it is as ez as the player skill developed.
but ofc most players r naturally soulsborne with Zen-like reflexes and jedi-foresight on first tries...
 
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smaug

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parry the world - soulsborne integral is Zen, aka becoming one with the combat flow.
first lesson is to master movement - roll (i-frames), parry and weapon movesets, plunge, running and step-back attack, backstab-fishing (end roll close to back), kick (->+R1). Parry is not mandatory, but a ballet move, a Greatshield-Spear turtle will also be sufficient.
second is build mastery.
last one is encounter knowlegde - patterns, area and weaknesses.

easy without any objective comparisions is relative, cuz subjective. objectively, as in comparison to other ARPGs (Lords of the Fallen, the Surge etc) Dark Souls is demanding, it forces focus and awareness, its not a brain-afk game.
Soulsborne may have the most responsive character progression in gaming history, as player progress translates directly into character progress. therefore it is as ez as the player skill developed.
but ofc most players r naturally soulsborne with Zen-like reflexes and jedi-foresight on first tries...
Are you high?
 

Wunderbar

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What I fucking hate is the save system and backtracking. I've been a 99% PC gamer for 20+ years and I am used to saving anywhere. The Piranha Bytes games mentioned can be difficult but not actually annoying because you can quick-save anywhere, so dying isn't a big deal.
lack of manual saving increases opressiveness of the game, prevents savescumming, forces you to learn how to quickly run around trash mobs while avoiding damage, and also makes every decision permanent (you can't just fuck up the game and then load back).

That said I like the world and style and combat enough I haven't given up yet. Got to a church and finally another fucking save point. Went and killed some big Knight dude to get the thing to upgrade the potions and that was cool. Then got slaughtered by a mage and his 3 buddies as soon as I walked near them and now I have to do it all over again. We'll see how long I can tolerate this shit.
as you probably already noticed, there are non-respawning minibosses (like warpig in the undead parish, or big knight dude in the church). They act as sort-of soft checkpoint, because killing them makes subsequent tries easier.
 

smaug

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I enjoyed DS when I played it. But it being an ARPG, was boring as fuck.
 

DalekFlay

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Dark Soul's save system is central to its game mechanics. The entire world, stats, and combat system are designed around it. Saying that Dark Souls would be better with save anywhere would be like saying that Super Mario Brothers would be better without all the jumping. Dark Souls would be total shit without its save system.

I mean, they made it central to the game mechanics, but why is that a good thing? The tension of being low on potions in a hard game could have just as easily been achieved by having potions be rare. The combat being engaging and difficult doesn't require doing the same areas over and over. Obviously you couldn't just patch in quicksave because the game is balanced for and built around the save system employed, but there's no reason whatsoever that it couldn't have been achieved at the design stage. I think people are just used to this kind of bullshit from "Metroidvania" style design and don't question it, but really it's just a product of the games which popularized the style being designed for old consoles.

All that said my only real problem with it is repeating content. Just like checkpoints in a shooter or stealth game, it drives me nuts when I do a section, then die on a later section, then have to redo both sections. It's especially annoying in this game since it's not easy like most modern shooters are and you also often die to shit you had no idea was there. "I went right instead of left and there was a surprise massive black knight who killed me before I even thought about what to do and now I have to repeat 20 minutes of shit." If you like that kind of fuckery then I'm happy for you, but to me it's just annoying.
 

Wunderbar

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I mean, they made it central to the game mechanics, but why is that a good thing? The tension of being low on potions in a hard game could have just as easily been achieved by having potions be rare.
estus is a great system because it allows you to always have a replenishable supply of healing items without farming. Making estus rare will punish weak players, since they can run out of healing. Making estus farmable will break balance.

The combat being engaging and difficult doesn't require doing the same areas over and over. Obviously you couldn't just patch in quicksave because the game is balanced for and built around the save system employed, but there's no reason whatsoever that it couldn't have been achieved at the design stage. I think people are just used to this kind of bullshit from "Metroidvania" style design and don't question it, but really it's just a product of the games which popularized the style being designed for old consoles.
usually there is no need to run through the area over and over, some stretches like before capra demon are exceptions and not the rules. There are shortcuts too.

All that said my only real problem with it is repeating content. Just like checkpoints in a shooter or stealth game, it drives me nuts when I do a section, then die on a later section, then have to redo both sections. It's especially annoying in this game since it's not easy like most modern shooters are and you also often die to shit you had no idea was there.
there is no way to fix this without allowing save-scumming.

"I went right instead of left and there was a surprise massive black knight who killed me before I even thought about what to do and now I have to repeat 20 minutes of shit." If you like that kind of fuckery then I'm happy for you, but to me it's just annoying.
then watch where you're going, don't run around like a headless chicken.
 

smaug

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I mean, they made it central to the game mechanics, but why is that a good thing? The tension of being low on potions in a hard game could have just as easily been achieved by having potions be rare.
estus is a great system because it allows you to always have a replenishable supply of healing items without farming. Making estus rare will punish weak players, since they can run out of healing. Making estus farmable will break balance.

The combat being engaging and difficult doesn't require doing the same areas over and over. Obviously you couldn't just patch in quicksave because the game is balanced for and built around the save system employed, but there's no reason whatsoever that it couldn't have been achieved at the design stage. I think people are just used to this kind of bullshit from "Metroidvania" style design and don't question it, but really it's just a product of the games which popularized the style being designed for old consoles.
usually there is no need to run through the area over and over, some stretches like before capra demon are exceptions and not the rules. There are shortcuts too.

All that said my only real problem with it is repeating content. Just like checkpoints in a shooter or stealth game, it drives me nuts when I do a section, then die on a later section, then have to redo both sections. It's especially annoying in this game since it's not easy like most modern shooters are and you also often die to shit you had no idea was there.
there is no way to fix this without allowing save-scumming.

"I went right instead of left and there was a surprise massive black knight who killed me before I even thought about what to do and now I have to repeat 20 minutes of shit." If you like that kind of fuckery then I'm happy for you, but to me it's just annoying.
then watch where you're going, don't run around like a headless chicken.
A majority of the game is running through areas over and over. I’m not a masochist who likes that type of gameplay. And the running around like a headless chicken is basically “Git gud.”
 

DalekFlay

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estus is a great system because it allows you to always have a replenishable supply of healing items without farming. Making estus rare will punish weak players, since they can run out of healing. Making estus farmable will break balance.

I'm not talking about patching anything here, I'm talking about at the design phase. Also if you run out of potions on a save and have to suffer for it isn't that part of your "lol git gud" philosophy? Or no?

then watch where you're going, don't run around like a headless chicken.

The one was at the top of a tower where you had no idea what was there until you saw him. What the fuck are you talking about?
 

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