From Software IGN thinks Dark Souls is better than Skyrim

[lightbane]

So, I finally finished the game, then the ending was...

Spoiler

My character being burned alive and exploding. WTF???

 

[praetor]

that's the "good" ending. the "evil" ending is better but not by much.. both endings suck in both DeS and DkS from an "epic visual payoff" POV.

 

[Zlaja]

Just had to share this:

This "game" is literally HORRENDOUS. This is one of the worst creative endeavors ever undertaken. I made a metacritic account just to shut all these people up who say otherwise. If you like this game you have a serious ego problem because you are trying to be "mr hotshot" and "mr hardcore gamer" please give it a rest. Anyone could beat this game if they put in the time to memorize the areas and grind their way to victory.

First off the voice acting is horrific, I could have done a more believable job than their hired voice actors, its laughable how bad the voice acting is. Also, the game atmosphere is all dark and lonely. No fun or excitement to be had here. The graphics suck and I dont know why people keep saying they are good and the interface reminds me of old NES or SNES games, sorry I will pass on crappy old japanese video game feel in the year 2012. I would rather play a game like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption where the voice acting is amazing and the world is beautiful and wonderful stories are told. Speaking of story......there is NONE in DS. You run around facing mindless enemies who just come straight at you and swing. Not dynamic whatsoever. This game makes you think its open world but really its not because if you try a certain area you will quickly realize your supposed to "grind" more to get there and then come back later when you have leveled more and it will be easy to defeat the enemies. Some people claim this is how you know you have come along and gotten better. No this is not skill. This is memorization and learning. Your attributes are now better because you grinded. Doesnt mean you are good. Like I said people only like this because they want to feel like they are talented video game players, again WRONG you are just the only losers who waste the time to sit and memorize and replay areas over and over and over. If you want to prove your skill go play MLG halo or starcraft and then come talk to me. I have played in two MLG halo tournaments and have never placed higher than top 84 out of 200 teams and I dominate every multiplayer game I have ever played and have beaten every game I have ever played on the hardest difficulty. Dark Souls is just a terribly made game and one thing I am really sick of reading about is the "great" game design here. This is about the laziest game design I have ever seen. I am all about challenge like the next guy but they dont even teach you how to play the damn game. Everyone is like "thats the beauty they throw you in and you have to figure it out" no thats called lazy design. I need to learn how to play the damn game and I shouldnt have to look at online guides to help me. They teach you a few little things and thats it. Even basic inventory management is not taught. Would you call an Mixed Martial Arts coach good if you walked in and he taught you about wrestling and then threw you into a fight without teaching you any of the other facets of MMA? Of course not you would get your head ripped off standing up and would blame him for not teaching you. But apparently teaching you a few concepts in this game while you figure out this rest is "great" game design. Am I in college now? Where I just teach myself? No thats why we pay you for your game so you teach us how to play it.

In review DS is a horrific game and I am telling you DO NOT but this game and if you buy it for the challenge and to brag I am here to tell you that you are not a skilled gamer just because you beat it so get off your high horse. Please stop. Like I said go play MLG and then come back and tell me how good you are. Any lemming can sit and memorize and grind and beat mindless horribly implemented NPCs. Beat SMART human players...now that takes skill. Re doing areas again and again to learn and level up is how you win in DS. Thats not skillful. Mindless spamming magic spells and blocking and evading dont make for amazing or skillful combat.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Just had to share this:

snip

BTE material

 

[Jasede]

Holy shit I tried to quote the post with the long quote and bold everything that was stupid in it but ended up with a big quote that's all bolded so there was no point.

Well, sorry comrades, I'll need some vodka after this. (Getting more Polish by the minute. Kurwas and vodkas.)

 

[Wulfstand]

I WANT MY PC PORT, WHEN SHALL I RECEIVE IT?!?!?!

 

[Skittles]

Just had to share this:

HOLY SHIT LEARNING!? IN A VIDEOGAME! WHAT IS THIS LOSER BULLSHIT NOSKILL TRIPE!?

I DIDN'T DO ANY LEARNING TO BEAT HALO THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW IT'S A GOOD GAME AND I'M LEET.

LOSERS!

R00FLES!!!1

 

[Grimlorn]

Dark Souls bosses are a cake walk. Not one of them presented any degree of difficulty. Even the infamous Capra Demon wasn't much when those cheap fucking dogs aren't around to block the stairs. Melee was considerably easier, magic about the same.

But there are likely several factors outside of design that make the Demon's Souls bosses seem more difficult.

Were Firelurker and Maneater actually more difficult than any DaS' boss, or was it because my Endurance wasn't up to snuff? (beat them easily once I raised it). Endurance was crucial for those two quick, aggressive bosses. High End AND Vita, and Flamelurker is less dangerous than some of the skeletons in 4 and BPs.

Did having closer "checkpoints" make people bolder with their approaches? I never would have considered not having a shield for most of the bosses in DeS, but that was more viable in DkS. Is that because of boss design, or the low risk (in this case, time getting back to the boss) in trying different methods?

Having that DeS experience definitely plays a part. The Prepare to Die crowd are those who either never played DeS, or never got a handle on it.

Environments have to be taken into account. Capra Demon and Bell Gargoyles are cake out in the open, so I assume the same goes for Firelurker and Maneaters. Of the latter, only Firelurker has the behavior and attributes to cause big problems in the open...but again, not if your End and shield are good enough. Also, a Titanite Demon - which are normally slow and have extremely obvious telegraphs - on a bridge becomes more troublesome to fight than alot of the bosses in DkS...because of the environment.

Bosses wouldn't even be worth discussing in either game if it weren't for the tedium involved in getting to them and widdling down their HP, only to die and have to do it all again. Regular enemies in both these games would be nightmares (for melee builds) under the same conditions.

I never had problems with Maneater to be honest. That fight was definitely harder because you could be knocked off and had to worry about your surroundings. Against Flamelurker you didn't have to, and I'd disagree about high endurance. He still charges you like crazy when he's low on hp. I'd be kind of doubtful you could survive that even with 40 Endurance and PFS. I mean he throws a 5 hit combo and hits harder than he does at full hp. Unless perhaps the shield is fully upgraded. I never upgraded it to max. Level also plays a role since your physical resistance goes up. Even if he doesn't kill you he'll do a lot of damage, and the problem comes from trying to heal that before he attacks you again, because he usually doesn't give you a chance to heal.

I disagree about the having to run to a boss fight again making DS bosses seem more challenging. Almost every level had a shortcut to the bosses. It only took a few minutes once you completed the level to get back to the boss fight if you died. That's in line with DkS. You didn't have to go through the entire levels again. I will agree that having the experience from DS helped. But a lot of these boss fights just were not that difficult, hence the only dying 1 or 2 times on them compared to dying a lot more in Demon's Souls. I'd also count some of the black phantoms in DS as bosses or as challenging as some. I remember having trouble with the BP in 5-2 with the Meat Cleaver, just because of the environment, not being able to roll or move out of the way. DS just had a bit more to offer in combat with more mobs performing combos and better environments. Hell, you could make the world PB making the levels more challenging and play through the game like that. I never got a chance to try this though.

Sure DS had it's share of easy boss fights and once you figured out and beat them they became easy. But compare how many times you died figuring that out compared to DkS. The Taurus Demon, you just have to worry about him knocking you off the wall. Stay by the door you neutralize it. Capra Demon, you just have to worry about the dogs and if you kill them or get to the stairs Capra becomes a cakewalk. Gaping Dragon does nothing except a tail attack. With Queelag you just have to stand close to her left side and attack. Her attacks all miss you there. I could go on. Everything just swings slow and throws one hit in DkS. Compare the Red Knights to the Black Knights. The Red Knights are superior, the black knights are just bigger and I think probably slower than the blue knights. I'd prefer mobs more my size if they are going to make huge trash mobs that move and swing slow with no combos or challenge. They made the combat and challenge easier with DkS. No question. Anyone trying to argue otherwise is an idiot like Praetor.

 

[Machocruz]

There were no shortcuts I can recall that made getting back to Firelurker or King Allant not a drag. The one where you drop you had to be careful, so that wasn't really expedient. The time it takes to get back to Allant depends on whether you kill the Blue Dragon or not.

Like I said, out of the two games, only Firelurker and Maneater are a problem for melee builds. And Maneater is only troublesome because of the environment -until you just get a strategy down, then you should never have a problem ever again unless you have bad luck with the camera. I've already conceded that DkS bosses gave me less trouble than DeS bosses, but there other factors that contribute to some besides patterns, power, or speed. Indeed, DkS bosses have too many "sweet spots" where you can avoid their attacks. Oh, and upgraded Pyromancy is way powerful.

Endurance is crucial for those two because I've had them hit me once and blow through my guard, and follow up with the kill while I'm still recovering. It is likely that Firelurker is going to hit you while you are attacking, or while you're moving in, or before you can roll away after attacking, at least in my style of play. Even when he snaps, I just have to have enough endurance to take a shield hit (PFS of course) and move away. I've never seen any 5 hit combo out of him, ever.

 

[praetor]

snip

again a post full of bullshit and misinformation.

i just recently started (and today finished) another run of DeS with a pure dex build. took down FL with a heater shield (+8 or 9. didn't have the str for the PFS) and a +3 crescent falchion (and the flame def ring) and he got down pretty easily. he doesn't take away that much stamina (i didn't have more than 25-28end when i got to him) and when he gets pissed off he just spams those AoE flame attacks that leave him open to rape. easy as pie. now i'm in ng+ right at the armoured spider archstone (with an upgraded PFS) so tomorrow i'll try it with that just so i can laugh in his face (and i'll use a mercury winged spear +4 that takes about 20 hits to kill a fat official just for the lulz)

the blue/red knights are definitely not faster than the S/BKs in DkS. they all have pretty much the same moveset. hell the blues with the longsword even have the exact same "cooldown" animation after the thrust as the BKs in DkS. they're also waaay easier because there's no poise in DeS so pretty much every decent sized weapon staggers/stunlocks them with every hit (tested earlier today with a sharp uchi, tearing kilij, falchion, hiltless, and makoto on the 2 red knights in 1-4). they also have a smaller aggro range

you want easy bosses? how about leechmonger (come on baby light my fire), or dirty colossus (stick to the ass), or storm king (lol), or adjudicator (easiest boss in both games. only seath comes close), or the spider (most boring boss in both games), fools idol (pinwheel you say? this bitch goes down before she can even cast anything), tower knight (like the iron golem except you can't fall. and bring the crescent falchion with you and he dies after the first fall.. or snipe his head from the ramparts), old hero (deaf? more like dumb. you acquire his "counter" (thief ring) in the first goddamn level) or, hell, even Garl (bait and punish over and over again. boring as fuck)? pretty much every boss except for the maneaters, allant and FL (and probably penetrator if you didn't free Biorr) are a walk in the park.

have i also mentioned that you run faster in DeS and that rolling gives you more invincibility frames? oh, and the UI is way slower in DeS. and farming for upgrade stones is more boring due to the over reliance on crystal lizards. and the world tendency is a nice concept (but only for the first playthrough) but it forces you to play in soul form for way too much (i can't really rely on being summoned as a blue phantom... or online play in general since some dumbfuck at From decided it would be a good idea to tie WT to the server median) but the gravelord covenant is a better idea (too bad it doesn't work properly, but when it does... BPs in DeS would piss themselves). oh yeah, almost forgot about this one: Second Chance. makes the game 50% easier and is piss easy to get and requires little stat investment (15int/16fth is nothing.. especially since everybody online uses it)

just take off your nostalgia glasses already and realize that DeS isn't harder than DkS unless you intentionally gimp yourself as much as possible for some retarded reason. dear god you're so dumb and full of shit you make volly look like a Fields medal winner

 

[Antagonist]

Among all this friendly chatter between DeS/DaS fans I would like to announce that I have finally managed to finish the the game with my very first character in a record 91 hours. I really don't know why I required so much time, my first time in DeS took my only half of that or even less. I guess it was partly caused by completely avoiding any online resources to hunt for useful hints and playing blind so to speak and due to playing the game over a course of many months due to other commitments. Yet I don't remember having been ever bored during all that time.
The very last part of the game was a bit of a letdown including the map design, the somewhat uninspired final boss and the barbecue ending which didn't even bother with a small explanatory voice-over. DeS was far more impressive in this regard with the gigantic Old One on a pure white beach and the mindfuckery with the true king Alant which completely broke my expectations in a positive way. Overall I thought DaS was somewhat easier than its predecessor due to a more lenient map design (hello Giant Depraved Ones on narrow catwalks or tiny islands, hello silver skeletons on cliff sides while being shot by flying mantas) and some cheese weapons like the lightning spear which raped most enemies even in its out-of-the-box standard level and which persuaded me to build a lightning winged spear + 5. In combination with a eagle shield + 15 melee combat became mostly trivial. I reckon that the feeling of less challenge is also due to the intimate knowledge of DeS and the knowledge of the overall similar mechanics and being familiar with how the developers think and expect to the player to approach problems.

 

[deuxhero]

adjudicator (easiest boss in both games. only seath comes close)

I'm assuming this for someone who isn't a mage fucked up the ass by the fact that he pretty much ignores magic?

 

[praetor]

hello Giant Depraved Ones on narrow catwalks or tiny islands

what narrow catwalks? the one in 5-1 after the old lady? if you don't lure it in the room you're just dumb since he's very easy to spot. tiny islands? you mean the 4 that guard worthless loot so far off the main path in 4-2 that going there after the first time (when you realize how pointless it is to go there) is just a gigantic waste of time? or the 2 with the shaman that can be easily sniped and lured one-by-one?

hello silver skeletons on cliff sides while being shot by flying mantas

oh, you mean the 2 in 4-2 that suicide after one arrow each (the farther one is a 100% suicide, the 2nd ~95% after he rolls up to you and you hit him once)? ever heard of the thief's ring, the thing that you get in 1-1? it's not like DeS has so many useful rings (especially for PvE)... or do you mean the 2 gold ones that can be easily lured and separated and fought on that much wider space with a fence?

i guess that's more lenient than giant swinging axes on tiny ledges while being shot by lightning (yes, you can snipe them), or being shot at with spear-sized arrows on tiny ledges (yes, hidden body/RoF and poison arrows make short work of them), giant mushroom men on ledges, black knights on ledges (and yup, i totally agree that the Kiln was a huge disappointment), fighting infested ghouls on ledges while being shot at by toxic darts, mini capra demons in pairs in relatively tight spaces (yes, you can snipe them), ghosts on ledges, titanite demons on narrow bridges (yes, totally optional unless you want to farm demon titanite and/or unlock the shortcut) or small enclosed spaces (yes, mostly optional but they actually guard/drop useful stuff), crystal golems on narrow ledges, the whole of the Tomb of Giants etc...

again, i'm not saying that DkS is harder, just that it isn't easier than DeS (i'd say the level of challenge is roughly equal if you don't use magic in DeS, because if you do, DeS is much easier to the point of becoming almost trivial). in my recent playthrough of DeS (to finally get that platinum trophy... i still have no idea why i wanted it ) after hundreds of hours of DkS i was almost surprised at how easy and short DeS is

and some cheese weapons like the lightning spear which raped most enemies even in its out-of-the-box standard level and which persuaded me to build a lightning winged spear + 5. In combination with a eagle shield + 15 melee combat became mostly trivial.

yeah, in in ng PvE lightning weapons and the eagle shield are pretty OP, as is magic (although to a lesser degree than in DeS), although lightning becomes much less viable in ng+ and pvp because of the split damage. oh, forgot to mention that quelaag's sword is maybe even more OP in PvE than the lightning spear

anyway, i think the difficulty in both games is "a bit" overhyped. i'm pretty sure Blade of Darkness would be just as difficult (if not more so) if you could save only at the beginning of each level

edit:

I'm assuming this for someone who isn't a mage fucked up the ass by the fact that he pretty much ignores magic?

goddamn, man. if you have the patience, he's so slow you can beat him naked with fists just by sticking to his left (your right) tentacle and whacking away. no attack will ever reach you there (except for a bit curse build-up from some crystals if you're not careful). not to mention quelaag's furysword has stupidly low requirements so there's really no excuse

 

[Antagonist]

I wrote a rather detailed answer. And then I the wrong keyboard shortcut and navigated away from the page. Afterwards I realized that the text is gone and Textarea cache (Firefox extension which usually saves my ass in such situations) didn't save for the first time ever (the quick-reply box does apparently only look like a textarea) . Anyway, I'm not in the mood to write all this stuff again. TL;DR: My description was from the point of view of a non-spoiler first-time player, thus using after-the-fact knowledge is not useful in the discussion and that playing DS2 after DS1 will be almost always easier as you start the game with a huge knowledge of proven strategies and insight how the developers think. Used great hollow as an example of the more lenient level design where you almost never fight on the treacherous branches but on conveniently placed platforms, caves or mushroom heads and the Blighttown swamp with its large pillars which made moving around almost a non-issue.
I also don't get why you are so defensive about DS2.

 

[praetor]

I wrote a rather detailed answer. And then I the wrong keyboard shortcut and navigated away from the page. Afterwards I realized that the text is gone and Textarea cache (Firefox extension which usually saves my ass in such situations) didn't save for the first time ever (the quick-reply box does apparently only look like a textarea) . Anyway, I'm not in the mood to write all this stuff again. TL;DR: My description was from the point of view of a non-spoiler first-time player, thus using after-the-fact knowledge is not useful in the discussion and that playing DS2 after DS1 will be almost always easier as you start the game with a huge knowledge of proven strategies and insight how the developers think. Used great hollow as an example of the more lenient level design where you almost never fight on the treacherous branches but on conveniently placed platforms, caves or mushroom heads and the Blighttown swamp with its large pillars which made moving around almost a non-issue.
I also don't get why you are so defensive about DS2.

i'm not defensive about DkS (i'm perfectly fine if someone prefers DeS to DkS for more or less reasonable reasons like atmosphere, lore, storytelling etc..), i'm just tired of reading bullshit about DeS being somehow harder. i don't like bullshit in general, and i like it even less when it's repeated ad nauseam

the 2 things you mentioned about DeS being less lenient (the silver skeletons and giant depraved ones) are perfectly reasonably "avoidable" (i.e. what i wrote earlier by luring them one at a time to favourable terrain) for a first time spoiler-free playthrough unless you're totally dumb and completely unaware of your surroundings.

it's also pretty unfair to compare "spoiler-free 1st playthrough of DeS" vs "spoiler free 1st playthrough of DkS but with previous knowledge of DeS" when you're trying to argue which one is more or less difficult because, believe it or not, DkS is not a sequel of DeS.

and the great hollow would be a pretty bad example considering it's a completely optional area almost devoid of enemies (there's what.. a dozen or so basilisks, 3 big mushroom men and 5-6 small ones at the very bottom). and for every great hollow, there's a sen's fortress, tomb of the giants, anor londo or new londo ruins

 

[Palikka]

EDIT: Seems like it's been posted to grpgd already, nvm!

The backcover of an Australian PC powerplay magazine

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