From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Blaine]

I appreciate that the Elden Ring art department apparently drew its inspiration from artifact photobooks and museum tours.

In general, generic fantasy armor and clothing should be thrown out of the various media subgenres wholesale and replaced with close analogues to actual medieval and ancient armor and clothing—because they're much more interesting.

A lot of the "cool-looking" shit that gets churned out just looks like hockey or handegg gear with doodads and greebles hot-glued all over it, or in the case of clothing, some Halloween costume bullshit.

 

[pakoito]

I appreciate that the Elden Ring art department apparently drew its inspiration from artifact photobooks and museum tours.

In general, generic fantasy armor and clothing should be thrown out of the various media subgenres wholesale and replaced with close analogues to actual medieval and ancient armor and clothing—because they're much more interesting.

A lot of the "cool-looking" shit that gets churned out just looks like hockey or handegg gear with doodads and greebles hot-glued all over it, or in the case of clothing, some Halloween costume bullshit.

Blame Joe Madureira and Warcraft 3 for redefining fantasy to MASSIVE SHOULDERPADS circa 2000.

 

[Blaine]

The one thing that can be said in developers' defense where that's concerned is that there were a lot of growing pains during the mainstream 3D transitional period.

Warcraft 3 was developed smack in the middle of the most awkward patch.

 

[Max Damage]

Warcraft 3 was cartoony looking mad fun game, I'll just blame the rest for being tasteless retards.

 

[Max Damage]

DLC was fun, I wish main game had bosses like that. I also dealt with Gwyndolyn, now only his dad remains. It's funny how one game can have fights like Centipede Demon and Manus.

 

[Lyric Suite]

DLCs refining things from the base game is nothing new.

Don't be disappointed that the last boss is a pushover. The poor guy can't catch a break:

 

[Max Damage]

Yeah, just finished the game, walking in wearing Smough set, wielding +15 Zweihander and buffing myself with Power Within and Sun Blade, Gwyn took about as long as Pinwheel :D Overall, I enjoyed the game, even with its uneven quality past Sen's Fortress. Think I'll check out sequels before moving onto another run/NG+. Also, the music in this game is awesome, including the lovely ending theme

 

[Lyric Suite]

In before long rant about why DS2 is total shit lmao.

 

[Max Damage]

If it doesn't have giant mommy milkers comparable to Gwynevere, I WILL riot!

 

[Lyric Suite]

It has feet?

Also a female NPC you can dress up the way you want lul.

 

[Max Damage]

Ok, here's my review of DS 2: best lighting, totally fair and engaging enemy placement & aggro range, most lenient rolls & hitboxes, top notch world design. If you find Dark Souls too hard, play Dark Souls 2 instead, it's much more approachable and fun. Makes first game feel amateurish and redundant, really.

 

[Wunderbar]

Ok, here's my review of DS 2: best lighting, totally fair and engaging enemy placement & aggro range, most lenient rolls & hitboxes, top notch world design. If you find Dark Souls too hard, play Dark Souls 2 instead, it's much more approachable and fun. Makes first game feel amateurish and redundant, really.

invest some points into ADP, it would increase the amount of i-frames when rolling (and also slightly increase casting and estus chugging speed).

 

[Max Damage]

Yeah, dropping DS 2. Sequels being more difficult than previous game isn't unheard of, unfortunately, this one lacks fairness and polish while being one of the jankiest games I've ever played. Literally every segment of a level is filled with a crowd of enemies, your stamina regenerates slow so after just a few swings your out of breath, then you get fucked because you can't roll or block; there're random exploding barrels that look like regular ones; if you get shot with an arrow or knocked down, you go through long animation before you can do anything; just dropping off a ledge is arcane knowledge if it has a ladder, you HAVE to start climbing before you can jump down. Even opening a fucking chest takes longer than it did in previous game.

Very soon enemies start getting placed in such way that you're punished for trying to fight them in first place: there's a room where "dead" lies in a corner. He won't get up when you're fighting someone else in this very room, but as soon you run out, he'll stand up and sprint across the fucking level after you if he has to. If you try to prevent this scenario by killing him beforehand, you'll hit wall, get stunned, then the guy will hit you for almost all your health. This is also soon before you meet turtle knight next to exploding barrels, a bomb thrower standing on rooftop where you can't hit him at all in melee, then ballistae ambush, THEN closing gate behind you while a crowd runs out of door. This is just the beginning, and I'm already feeling more exhausted than running through Catacombs and Tomb of Giants combined, and not in a good way.

From what I understand, this wasn't developed by DeS/DaS original team, and it really shows from the very moment you start playing. I really don't know why, but even first conversation you have with those old ladies, they laugh about how "you'll die over and over again, and lose your souls", Jesus Christ. This only makes me appreciate effort and care put into Dark Souls even more, just comparing Undead Burg to Forest of Fallen Giants. What a joke.

 

[Multidirectional]

Filtered by Forest of Fallen Giants, hahaha. Too bad we won't see you rant about Shrine of Amana or Black Gulch.

 

[Ryzer]

And then Dark Souls 3 which straight out takes everything fun about Dark Souls and turns it boring, dull, casual and uninspired.
Play Bloodborne instead.

 

[pakoito]

Yeah, dropping DS 2. Sequels being more difficult than previous game isn't unheard of, unfortunately, this one lacks fairness and polish while being one of the jankiest games I've ever played. Literally every segment of a level is filled with a crowd of enemies, your stamina regenerates slow so after just a few swings your out of breath, then you get fucked because you can't roll or block; there're random exploding barrels that look like regular ones; if you get shot with an arrow or knocked down, you go through long animation before you can do anything; just dropping off a ledge is arcane knowledge if it has a ladder, you HAVE to start climbing before you can jump down. Even opening a fucking chest takes longer than it did in previous game.

Very soon enemies start getting placed in such way that you're punished for trying to fight them in first place: there's a room where "dead" lies in a corner. He won't get up when you're fighting someone else in this very room, but as soon you run out, he'll stand up and sprint across the fucking level after you if he has to. If you try to prevent this scenario by killing him beforehand, you'll hit wall, get stunned, then the guy will hit you for almost all your health. This is also soon before you meet turtle knight next to exploding barrels, a bomb thrower standing on rooftop where you can't hit him at all in melee, then ballistae ambush, THEN closing gate behind you while a crowd runs out of door. This is just the beginning, and I'm already feeling more exhausted than running through Catacombs and Tomb of Giants combined, and not in a good way.

From what I understand, this wasn't developed by DeS/DaS original team, and it really shows from the very moment you start playing. I really don't know why, but even first conversation you have with those old ladies, they laugh about how "you'll die over and over again, and lose your souls", Jesus Christ. This only makes me appreciate effort and care put into Dark Souls even more, just comparing Undead Burg to Forest of Fallen Giants. What a joke.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I raged too about DS2 but finished it twice and I have a SL1 run planned.

Despite the jank, it is still a Souls game and that was enough for me. Also, DLCs were excellent and PvP was also fun.

DS3 is more polished but also more bland and in places almost insultingly rehashed. Cool bosses though.

 

[Caim]

Filtered by Forest of Fallen Giants, hahaha. Too bad we won't see you rant about Shrine of Amana or Black Gulch.

Black Gulch isn't as difficult as it is annoying. Shrine of Amana is difficult because of how annoying it is.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Said in another way, Black Gulch is annoying if you die a lot while Annara is annoying because you die so much

 

[Caim]

Nah, Black Gulch is annoying because you'll be poisoned most of the time even when wrecking the statues and Amana because things are trying to kill you all the time. One will have you dying the same speed at all times while the other one needs you to go full monkey mode to avoid dying.

 

[Multidirectional]

I don't remember going monkey mode once in Amana. I do it slow and methodical and most playthroughs past first one it was done in single try.

 

[Gromlintroid]

Any news when theyre going to put the servers back up?

 

[Lyric Suite]

They STILL haven't fixed that shit?

 

[Multidirectional]

They must be keeping servers offline to force Souls online player base to get Elden Ring.

 

[Max Damage]

If it wasn't for general japdev incompetence with computers and Elden Ring wasn't selling like hot cakes, I'd say they're deliberately taking it as slow as possible.