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From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

DJOGamer PT

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That's really the problem with DS3.

That game's problems go beyond that:
  • The most linear of all the games, less branching options than DeS and even BB. Rehashed areas in an already short game (and a third of the game is a swamp). First DLC was a 1.5 hour long disappointment with a rehashed arena. Second DLC had no end despite being the very last dark souls title we'll get for the foreseeable future. Bonfires out the ass. Overall the less replayable game From has made in the last decade;
  • Filled to the brim with shitty references, nostalgiafagging and pandering out the ass;
  • Armor variety is less than DS2 base game, despite copypasting a 3rd of the armors from previous games. The heavy armors are the heaviest they have ever been in the series, while offering basically no additional defense over medium/light sets (in short they suck). The armor system is in general a horrible imbalanced mess;
  • Too many useless fucking stats. Awful scaling balance. Poise working as intended. Equip load is now done by VIT, which for some reason gives less per level than dark souls 2. Some Ultra Great Swords, Great Axes, and Hammers weigh more than entire armor sets. Some weapons have retarded stat requirements where they don't even scale with said stats.
  • Enemy design is overall catered to Bloodborne R1 spam. Enemies have infinite "stamina". And even simple mobs are more troublesome than most Bosses;
  • No backstep i-frame, but rolls cost next to nothing with extremely fast recovery and many iframes;
  • A majority of the small weapons sped up to bloodborne speed, but most of the Great weapons have been made slower and consume more stamina, while barely doing more damage. Straight Swords and Curved Sword are as fast as daggers. Left hand weapons no longer have full movesets. Weapons in general are 90% quality based. These quality weapons are also usually the best weapons in their class, no redeeming qualities for special weapons resulting in less weapon variety than even BB. This also means Boss weapons are shit. Weapon Arts are mostly just special R2's or Powerstance moves copypasted. Very little moveset variation;
  • Magic needs 2-3 ring slots just to dish out melee level damage. Magic itself does reduced damage for PvP. Removes a shit ton of cool spells from the previous game. FP is the most awful casting management system introduced yet (worse than DeS mana, which had better regen options and more efficient), it's horribly ineffiecent with damage, ends up causing everyone to use 1 or 2 FP efficient spell like Great Heavy Soul Arrow. Miracles suck, the best and most viable ones locked behind the final boss. Hexes are gone and dark magic is shit. Overall magic is garbage;
  • Covenants are stickers which can be changed on the go - also awful covenants (ex.: blue sentinels and darkmoons are the exact same). They also have shitty rewards. No blue eye orb. No arena. Dragon form the worst it's ever been in both aesthetic and practical sense - also no Dragon covenant. MLGS is the worst its ever been. The game punishes invaders and encourages ganking;
  • Lowest Boss count after DeS. Half the bosses are the same roll R1 spam fest, the other half are gimmicks...
 

Lyric Suite

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I think any throwback to BB owns exclusively on the fact they used the same engine and didn't bother changing the code. DS3 is literally a BB total conversion.
 

Verylittlefishes

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I think any throwback to BB owns exclusively on the fact they used the same engine and didn't bother changing the code. DS3 is literally a BB total conversion.

They even had a lot of objects and gowns reused, like that fucking carriages and stuff in the Undead Settlement. And every location is Gothic cathedreal now, because we have sooo much Gothic assets.
 

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and a third of the game is a swamp

what

It's kinda true.

Road of Sacrifices and Farron Keep obviously, but also huge parts of other areas such as Smouldering Lake, Cathedral of the Deep, Irithyll, Consumed King's Garden and much of the second DLC. And none of them are even close to being as intersting as Blighttown.

DS3 really is one of From's worst games. Definitely the worst Souls game.
 
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Lyric Suite

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Which diminishes the impact of those Gothic locations. Nothing like seeing Anor Londo for the first time after walking through undead settlements and sewers for half the game.
 

Silverfish

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Some weapons have retarded stat requirements where they don't even scale with said stats.

Look, there's nothing wrong with asking strength builds to invest in 16-18 dexterity to use weapons that deal less damage and have shit movesets.

This also means Boss weapons are shit.

This is really the only thing from your post I disagreed with. Boss weapons vary wildly, but just off the top of my head, Vordt's Hammer, Yhorm's Great Machete, the Hollowslayer Greatsword, the Profaned Greatsword (best boss weapon tbh), the Dragonslayer's Greataxe and Chaos Bed Vestiges (not really a weapon, but still) are all excellent. Even the Sage's Rapier is a great off-hand choice since it boosts item discovery.

Covenants are stickers which can be changed on the go - also awful covenants (ex.: blue sentinels and darkmoons are the exact same). They also have shitty rewards. No blue eye orb. No arena. Dragon form the worst it's ever been in both aesthetic and practical sense - also no Dragon covenant.

Just to tack on something that 90% of players would never care about, DS3 also, bafflingly, has no decent covenant rewards / bonuses for PVE bros. DS1's Chaos Servants would allow you to skip a huge portion of everyone's least favorite area in the game. The Darkwraiths opened up additional dialogue that gave some context to the game's events. The Forest Hunters provided a unique vendor that sold items that were either rare drops or otherwise unattainable.

DS2 was arguably even better in this regard. The Way of Blue gave a HP boosting ring just for joining, The Rat covenant rendered an entire area non-hostile (boss aside), The Pilgrims had unique NPC fights and even an exclusive boss and the Champions were basically an optional hard difficulty.

DS3 has 7 or 8 flavors of "grind covenant items for a weapon / spell."
 

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What's also kinda funny is how Dark Souls is criticised for Demon Ruins and especially Lost Izalith, when many areas in DS3 are even worse! I guess it's because the rest of Dark Souls is some of the best gaming ever had to offer, compared to the utter mediocrity that is Dark Souls 3 pretty much from beginning to end.
 

NJClaw

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What's also kinda funny is how Dark Souls is criticised for Demon Ruins and especially Lost Izalith, when many areas in DS3 are even worse! I guess it's because the rest of Dark Souls is some of the best gaming ever had to offer, compared to the utter mediocrity that is Dark Souls 3 pretty much from beginning to end.
Which areas are worse than Demon Ruins in your opinion?
 

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Smouldering Lake and Farron Keep.

They're equally uninspired/rushed/unfinished/boring, but take significantly longer to clear/traverse. In my opinon people don't realise it because most of Dark Souls 3 is somewhat boring and uninspired, so these areas don't stand out as much as Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith do in Dark Souls. But in my opinion they're worse, or at least just as bad.
 

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I disagree, they both make me want to stop playing way more than Ruins/Izalith. And both also have copy-pasted enemies without any sense everywhere.
DS3's Catacombs are also utter boring shit. Meh, the whole game is worse than Ruins/Izalith! :p

Edit: You have to realise, when you enter Demon Ruins, you enter from Blighttown, one of the best, most intense levels in the history of gaming. That is one fucking downgrade for sure. When you enter Farron Keep, you enter from the Road of Sacrifices, which itself is kinda meh. Same with Smouldering Lake, which you enter from the Catacombs if I'm not mistaken. And bitch, DS3 catacombs are some monotonous boring shit. That's why these terrible areas don't stand out as much, because Dark Souls 3 level design is shit in general, whereas Dark Souls' interconnected world is probably the best there ever was (and probably ever will be), so Ruins/Izalith are a much bigger contrast in Dark Souls than Farron Keep or Smouldering Lake are in Dark Souls 3.
 
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NJClaw

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I disagree, they both make me want to stop playing way more than Ruins/Izalith. And both also have copy-pasted enemies without any sense everywhere.
DS3's Catacombs are also utter boring shit. Meh, the whole game is worse than Ruins/Izalith! :p

Edit: You have to realise, when you enter Demon Ruins, you enter from Blighttown, one of the best, most intense levels in the history of gaming. That is one fucking downgrade for sure. When you enter Farron Keep, you enter from the Road of Sacrifices, which itself is kinda meh. Same with Smouldering Lake, which you enter from the Catacombs if I'm not mistaken. And bitch, DS3 catacombs are some monotonous boring shit. That's why these terrible areas don't stand out as much, because Dark Souls 3 level design is shit in general, whereas Dark Souls' interconnected world is probably the best there ever was (and probably ever will be), so Ruins/Izalith are a much bigger contrast in Dark Souls than Farron Keep or Smouldering Lake are in Dark Souls 3.
Dude, you don't have to convince me that DS is a good game or that it's better than DS3. But, while Farron Keep, Smouldering Lake, and the Catacombs exist, Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith aren't in the game at all. I mean, there are literally placeholder enemies left there for a lack of time. You might not like those areas from DS3, but you can't compare them to what's essentially just a first iteration of a prototype.
 

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Agree to disagree then. Farron Keep and Smouldering Lake are worse than Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith.
 

NJClaw

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Yeah, let me remind you of what a player can enjoy in Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith:

8yEPLGu.png


an empty area with half a dozen taurus demons that just stand there and wait for you to aggro them one by one. Peak encounter design right there. What's funny about it is that if they were actually t-posing they wouldn't even be out of place, considering the general vibe of the area.

But what comes next is even better:

PHjp2x3.png


an empty corridor with half a dozen capra demons that just stand there and wait for you to aggro them one by one. At From they really outdid themselves with this one.

And to top it off:

oOekYLv.png


a giant empty area full of placeholder enemies. Wow.

The inspiration behind those areas is great, but that doesn't change the fact that 95% of them are, well, not in the game. This is stuff that shouldn't be in a finished videogame at all, regardless of its quality.

Honestly, except for Cathedral of the Deep and The Grand Archives, I'm hard pressed to think of any DS3 areas significantly better than the Demon Ruins or Izalith.
Oh come on, this is too big of an exaggeration. Maybe that's true for the atmosphere, lore, and visual design, but it doesn't make any sense for everything else, considering that Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith have basically no gameplay in them.
 

wahrk

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Yeah, Lost Izalith is just blatantly unfinished. I don’t like Farron or some of the others that much, but they’re nowhere near that poor of quality. In fact I don’t really think there’s any levels in DS3 that I would consider infamously bad. The problem is that none of them really stand out and you spend too much time in levels with themes that feel tired and overdone (assuming you played the earlier games). Then when you do finally get to some interesting levels (Irythyll Dungeon, Profaned Capital, Archdragon Peak), you spend barely any time in them.
 

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Jesus, noone's saying Ruins/Izalith are great, but Smouldering Lake and Farron Keep are even worse. Crabs in the former, some randomly placed Ghrus and Slimes in the latter. Wow. Geographically, Ruins/Izalith are way more interesting, and even enemy variety is better.

The only reason you perceive Ruins/Izalith as unfinished as opposed to Farron Keep/Smouldering Lake, is the fact that the rest of Dark Souls is about a hundred times better, whereas Dark Souls 3 is not. Just take a fucking moment and think about the areas. It's not that difficult.
 

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Dark Souls 3 is a good game compared to the rest of the market, great even, but it's shit compared to the better From Soft games. Weird concept, I know.
 

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