From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[gabel]

So I finished two times the first Dark Souls, which entry in the series should I play next ?

Dark Souls again! :3 Try a SL1 run for example, or some other relatively simple challenge runs.
Or Dark Souls 2. Give it a fair chance though, too many people who haven't got a clue have given it a bad rep. But it's up there with the original.

 

[janior]

if you go into DS2 fresh after DS1 playthrough you gonna bounce off the game pretty hard, happend to me when it came out, played it for the first time last year

 

[Falksi]

So I finished two times the first Dark Souls, which entry in the series should I play next ?

I like Dark Souls 2, but I'd jump to 3 first then back to 2.

 

[gabel]

It [DS2] takes some getting used to after the original. But if you give it a chance and accept that it's different, it's worth it.
I bounced off Dark Souls 1 at first. Then retried the series when DS3 came out, and played that to death; then got back into DS1, was blown away by how much better it was than 3, wondered how I could have dismissed it so easily earlier, and then turned to DS2, which is fantastic once you get over the different feel. Dark Souls 2 is From's second best title.

 

[janior]

DS3 is my least favorite, seems like they went with the safest route with that one, love the soundtrack the most from it though

 

[gabel]

I loved the Abyss Watchers soundtrack.



Elden Ring is worse than DS3 btw.

 

[janior]

Didn't play elden ring and i don't think I will.

 

[gabel]

Well, it's From's take on the open world formula, and it's still better than most other games. But the decline is there in the form of copy-pasted stuff and reused assets everywhere, and an unnecessary open world to stretch everything out. Bosses are also worse than ever, with 2/3rds of them being banal/shit/boring (and reused over and over), and the other third being bullshit difficulty if you aren't overleveled.

Still, there's a smidge of FromSoft left, but the bad is starting to outweigh the good.

 

[janior]

I just don't see how possibly they could pace the character progression with a massive open world where you can do so much in any order, its bound to be a mess and ruins the best part of those games.

 

[gabel]

Agreed.

 

[Steezus]

What is Codex's obsession with Dark Souls 2?

DLCs are 10/10

They're good, some really good even, but all of them also have some really bad sections. Ivory King has what is possibly the worst area ever created in a Souls game.

Still, even if all 3 DLC's were geniune 10s, they're still wrapped in Dark Souls 2 movement and gameplay.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Fucking hated DS2 DLCs lol
But yeah the game itself has it's merits, doesn't deserve it's commonly given rep.

 

[TedNugent]

Well, playing Dark Souls 3 and this was the first Souls game that I actually tried to finish. Not sure if I did? I killed the two princes and the out of shape dragon monkey and then I got dumped into an afterworld version of the beginning of the game?

Okay. Is this the new game + or something? Champion Gundyr? Kinda getting tired of this.

May be time to take a break or do the DLC, I guess.

Gotta say, longsword really ended up being pretty good late game with refined infusion. Solid DPS and efficient stamina drain.

I really didn't use any of the items or any of the magic, other than estus. Neat game, great atmosphere, a bit tedious, to be honest. The targeting system is truly dogshit. For some reason I decided to try it on PC just to see if it was unplayable with keyboard and mouse, ended up playing the whole game with keyboard. Not sure why I can't keybind kick or get backstab to proc reliably, but oh well, I just played the game without them. Died a lot. 7.5/10

 

[mediocrepoet]

Well, playing Dark Souls 3 and this was the first Souls game that I actually tried to finish. Not sure if I did? I killed the two princes and the out of shape dragon monkey and then I got dumped into an afterworld version of the beginning of the game?

Okay. Is this the new game + or something? Champion Gundyr? Kinda getting tired of this.

May be time to take a break or do the DLC, I guess.

Gotta say, longsword really ended up being pretty good late game with refined infusion. Solid DPS and efficient stamina drain.

I really didn't use any of the items or any of the magic, other than estus. Neat game, great atmosphere, a bit tedious, to be honest. The targeting system is truly dogshit. For some reason I decided to try it on PC just to see if it was unplayable with keyboard and mouse, ended up playing the whole game with keyboard. Not sure why I can't keybind kick or get backstab to proc reliably, but oh well, I just played the game without them. Died a lot. 7.5/10

Uh... no. That's like the end of the main part of the base game, just before the end game. You're pretty close to the end if you want to power through it though.

EDIT: Just don't start a new journey (new game+) before playing the DLCs if you intend to do it during your current playthrough.

 

[Kruyurk]

The targeting system is truly dogshit.

With heavy weapons, which are slow but hit a large area, it is often best to not use the targeting system.
For a longsword I would still lock on single opponents most of the time, unless it is huge enemy, but versus multiple opponents it can be best to not lock to be able to hit several in one horizontal blow.
Toggling the targeting depending on the situation becomes second nature at some point, and I honestly don't see how the system could be improved. What I like is that it does not assist you in any way, besides making your character face the target, so you still feel in control of your movements. I really don't like combats in games like Assassin's Creed where targeting is automatic.

 

[TedNugent]

Uh... no. That's like the end of the main part of the base game, just before the end game. You're pretty close to the end if you want to power through it though.

EDIT: Just don't start a new journey (new game+) before playing the DLCs if you intend to do it during your current playthrough.

What is the end of the base game, anyway? And what exactly is the "end game."

I don't have any desire to replay the same shit over again, I'm over it. I barely have enough desire left to go through the DLC at this point, I just want to finish the main arc.

I burned up all the Lords of Cinder, what now?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Uh... no. That's like the end of the main part of the base game, just before the end game. You're pretty close to the end if you want to power through it though.

EDIT: Just don't start a new journey (new game+) before playing the DLCs if you intend to do it during your current playthrough.

What is the end of the base game, anyway? And what exactly is the "end game."

I don't have any desire to replay the same shit over again, I'm over it. I barely have enough desire left to go through the DLC at this point, I just want to finish the main arc.

I burned up all the Lords of Cinder, what now?

The Soul of Cinder. You port to the area, run up a hill and fight the final boss, basically. fin.

 

[Silva]

 

[Silva]

Uh... no. That's like the end of the main part of the base game, just before the end game. You're pretty close to the end if you want to power through it though.

EDIT: Just don't start a new journey (new game+) before playing the DLCs if you intend to do it during your current playthrough.

What is the end of the base game, anyway? And what exactly is the "end game."

I don't have any desire to replay the same shit over again, I'm over it. I barely have enough desire left to go through the DLC at this point, I just want to finish the main arc.

I burned up all the Lords of Cinder, what now?

The Soul of Cinder. You port to the area, run up a hill and fight the final boss, basically. fin.

Seeing how convoluted DS3 development was, I would say the DLCs are more cohesive lore-wise and more relevant to the series' finale than base game proper. Specially The Ringed City.

 

[TedNugent]

Okay, I switched gears and went over to Dark Souls Remastered which I had purchased previously for my Switch, and I honestly really dislike this game, lol.

The Switch analog sticks have huge deadzones on them with very little space to get into the "walking" zone. It is a lot better for target swapping than the mouse, but the movement is actually worse than WASD. I should've known better after forcing myself to beat the DOOM game on Switch, but god damn. By the way, Nintendo, a company famous for their platformers, really has got to make better analog sticks next time around, this console is really miserable for playing anything that requires a modicum of precision. That's probably why Mario feels so floaty on this console, but I actually enjoyed that a lot. I know people liked to shit on the Dualshock controllers, but they actually had a lot more real estate and control on those joysticks (on top of the analog face buttons with pressure sensitivity).

I don't know if this game is trying to shoehorn a really, really awful platforming game in (complete with the ridiculous pendulum blades), but everything from Sen's Fortress on to Anor Londo has been balancing on narrow catwalks. Dying far more from slipping off the edge and other such cheese than actual enemies. Be honest, does anyone enjoy this? The platforming shit?

I know this is probably part of the appeal for grognards, but it would be really nice if there was more information (even if just on the Wiki) as far as stamina drain, how weight ratios affect it, etc. It really should be on the datasheet. Armored Core has a lot of basic stuff missing too, like reload times/cooldown times, etc, which is IMHO not reasonable considering the size of the datasheets.

I am still, at this point, skeptical of Elden Ring, but I despise open world games due to their very nature. If the appeal of Souls is level design, open world seems to shit a fat brick right on top of that.

 

[Silverfish]

Be honest, does anyone enjoy this? The platforming shit?

Yeah. It's part of why DS feels like an adventure and DS3 feels like one never-ending 20 hour fight scene.

 

[Steezus]

Sen's Fortress is like the best level, lol.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

The Switch analog sticks

You are using an actual controller, right? If not, the Hori one is good and cheap:

Spoiler

 

[TedNugent]

The Switch analog sticks

You are using an actual controller, right? If not, the Hori one is good and cheap:

Spoiler

Nah I bought the Switch Lite, not even sure if regular wired controllers are compatible. But I wasn't about to spend $300 on a handheld that is bigger and heavier.

Be honest, does anyone enjoy this? The platforming shit?

Yeah. It's part of why DS feels like an adventure and DS3 feels like one never-ending 20 hour fight scene.

How? I'm talking about the platforming mechanics. Having platforming as part of the game is fine to break up the monotony, sure, but this game handles the controls extremely poorly. There is 0 vertical movement and the jump is baked into the sprint button. It's not good.

Platforming games are like Crash Bandicoot, Mario, etc. This game doesn't have enjoyable platforming, it's just balancing on a catwalk/timing jumps/drops.

I think this game would have been far better served by more interesting puzzles or exploration, which admittedly it does have a lot of exploration and secrets. I'm cool with the odd few jumps on a level to access a secret area, but just to traverse a zone, with these rudimentary area traversal controls? I'm also perplexed as to why you can't separately keybind kick, for example, or separately keybind a leap. Admittedly the separate keybind on keyboard+mouse for walk was a mercy. As per the above, it's really hard to pull of a walk with the huge deadzone on the Switch's left analog stick.

Side note, in the Duke's Archives. Taking a break. Oof. Jesus, this game is taxing.

 

[Silverfish]

but this game handles the controls extremely poorly.

Does it? Is holding a button, letting go and then tapping again a big deal?