Dark Souls

[BradCarsten]

Okay, so I know I'm a little late to the party, but I just started playing dark souls about a month back. What do you guys think of it? I had always heard that it was this brutal game that will make you lose all your hair and sanity, but I'm really not finding it anything like that. yes, you have to concentrate for sure, but it's not nearly as bad as people make out.
Man, I'm enjoying it though. I've spent hours looking up everything and researching the best weapon combos etc.

[Slaykomimi]

I didn´t like it, I think the leveldesign totally contradicts the engine, there are tons of narrow spaces where dodging, focus or fair fights are nearly impossible. Also I often witnessed how enemies just jump and make sharp turns in midair just so they can hit you, it looked extremly obnoxious. What I really liked (I only heard about it but never tested it myself) is that no matter what class you pick at the beginning, you can just skill whatever you want with the level ups, like you pick warrior but find out you want to wield spells instead of fighting with a sword, that is sadly very rare and I don´t like it that many games just brandmark you with a class.

I can see why people enjoy it, I can´t see why people call it hard (they should try some battletoads, ninja gaiden on the nes, double dragon or any bullet hell on highest difficulty), the only things that were challenging I encountered are beginners traps and bad level design, but not the fights itself.

I am extermly picky with my games, especially in the RPG genre, from 100 games I maybe finish 5, I grew up in a different time of games and never really grew out of it so please don´t feel offended due to my opinion, that´s also the reason I often deny playing videogames when I meet new people.

[BradCarsten]

I was going to bring up those NES games as well. Ninja Gaiden was brutal, and Battle toads had those twitch levels, not to mention that you only got so many lives and then it's game over.

I haven't played DS2, but from what I hear you can even refund your points and reassign them to different abilities, so yeah you can take any path you want, no matter who you pick in the beginning. That is pretty cool.

I started with a dexterity character, then restarted with a mage, and as people have said before, that's like playing on easy mode. It's so ridiculously overpowered. Most of the bosses I take down on my second try. Sometimes it only takes 4 shots to kill them from a distance. It's quite funny.

[Justan Henner]

I really enjoyed Dark Souls, mainly for the atmosphere and combat. I was caught up in it for a good few months.

I didn't actually find it all that buggy, and I actually liked the awkward character movements. I likened it more to a feint rather than poor game design.

I think the difficulty varies with the playstyle. The first time, I played through as a melee agility character without looking up any guides or stat optimizations, and it was certainly a lot harder than replaying as a strength character  with stats optimized to be able to take hits and also use of the most op damage buff spells.

I'm sure @Yora can share some of his dark souls love.

[Neveesandeh]

I just started playing it a while back. I'm stuck on the third boss now. I'm going to go back to it today and see if I can get past it. I seem to be uniquely bad at the game. I've played it for almost thirty hours and beaten two of the twenty six or so bosses. And people complain about taking 100 hours to beat it!

But I'll keep n playing even if it takes a thousand hours. I like the world and the story. Although it's pretty demoralising to finish a youtube video that's ten minutes of some guy ranting about how he hates the Moonlight Butterfly fight because it's so easy, only to be killed by said butterfly ten times in a row.

It took me over a hundred attempts to beat the Taurus Demon. I gave up in frustration, went off to play Skyrim for a few days, then went back to Dark Souls on a whim and beat it easily on my first go. I've been trying and failing to recapture that success with the next two bosses ever since.

The only flaw I feel able to point out with game design is that I try not to use certain items. On a lot of walkthroughs, people used the gold pine resin to beat the Taurus Demon. I refused to, because I knew I would just die anyway and it would have been wasted. I haven't used summoning yet because I don't want to waste humanities. That and that the path you're supposed to take up to the Undead Burg from Firelink Shrine is really, really difficult to find.

But I'm glad you brought this game up because I've been obsessed with it for a while and I can't lecture my family about it. At last I have somewhere to talk about Dark Souls!

[Neveesandeh]

I finally beat the Moonlight Butterfly! Yay!

I feel that Dark Souls, for me anyway, isn't a game I can play for long periods of time. It's easy to get stuck and for frustration to build, which only makes the game more difficult. Patience and a level head are a must in boss fights or areas you are unfamiliar with. It's a very rewarding game, and I'm very glad it exists, but I'm glad most games aren't like it.

[J.R. Darewood]

The atmosphere was a little too hellscapey for me. But I'm all about the roleplaying stuff so for pure combat I prefer pvp with the exception of shadow of Mordor I liked that one.

The real reason is that it's not Skyrim and I can't really stop playing Skyrim long enough to play another game

[JRTroughton]

Brilliant game. Excellent combat, a world worth delving into, and well-pitched difficulty.

I adored Dark Souls. Sif and Artorias in particular. <3

[BradCarsten]

I just started playing it a while back. I'm stuck on the third boss now. I'm going to go back to it today and see if I can get past it. I seem to be uniquely bad at the game. I've played it for almost thirty hours and beaten two of the twenty six or so bosses. And people complain about taking 100 hours to beat it!

But I'll keep n playing even if it takes a thousand hours. I like the world and the story. Although it's pretty demoralising to finish a youtube video that's ten minutes of some guy ranting about how he hates the Moonlight Butterfly fight because it's so easy, only to be killed by said butterfly ten times in a row.

It took me over a hundred attempts to beat the Taurus Demon. I gave up in frustration, went off to play Skyrim for a few days, then went back to Dark Souls on a whim and beat it easily on my first go. I've been trying and failing to recapture that success with the next two bosses ever since.

The only flaw I feel able to point out with game design is that I try not to use certain items. On a lot of walkthroughs, people used the gold pine resin to beat the Taurus Demon. I refused to, because I knew I would just die anyway and it would have been wasted. I haven't used summoning yet because I don't want to waste humanities. That and that the path you're supposed to take up to the Undead Burg from Firelink Shrine is really, really difficult to find.

But I'm glad you brought this game up because I've been obsessed with it for a while and I can't lecture my family about it. At last I have somewhere to talk about Dark Souls!

what build did you take?

summoning people makes the game so much easier. My brother and I are playing coop at the moment, and we normally take the bosses out on the first try. (And that's not because we're good.) The summoners take a lot of the attention off of you, so you can slip around the boss and hit them from behind. The moonlight butterfly is especially easy if you summon help, because the help shoots back. So you literally just have to dodge the occasional shot while she takes off most of the health for you. You can farm humanity later on in a few places. I needed 30 for one of the quests and I got it in about half an hour.

Do you have the drake sword? If not, I recommend getting that as soon as you're past the Taurus Demon. That kicks ass and will carry you right through to Ano Londor.

A few tips that you may or may not know:
Get the firekeepers soul in new londo ruins. it will be a death run, but that's fine, because it will allow you to up your estas flasks. Then save up for the crest of Artorias from Andre the Blacksmith. With that you can farm souls in the dark root garden. You literally run in a circle, lead them back to the cliff and watch as they drop off. Each run gives you 6000 souls+, and there's a hidden bonfire right there. That way you don't need to worry about using things, because you can just buy more.
I would also recommend the pyromancy glove. you can upgrade that to level 15 almost right away and that does insane damage against bosses, and it doesn't scale with your level, so you don't need to be high level to use it.

But man, you must see the sorcerer. That makes the game seriously easy. I killed Smough and ornsteen on my second attempt. I got qualaag without losing any health. My guy is so overpowered now that I'm doing over a thousand damage everytime I shoot. It's ridiculous. I can one shot the taurus demons haha

[BradCarsten]

Brilliant game. Excellent combat, a world worth delving into, and well-pitched difficulty.

I adored Dark Souls. Sif and Artorias in particular. <3

I haven't reached Artorias yet, but I hear he's brutal. I actually hated killing Sif, especially when he starts limping at the end like that.
I think the boss we've struggled the most on, believe it or not was the Ceaseless Discharge. In coop We've killed almost every boss on our first or second try, but that bugger took us about 15 tries!

[Neveesandeh]

I just started playing it a while back. I'm stuck on the third boss now. I'm going to go back to it today and see if I can get past it. I seem to be uniquely bad at the game. I've played it for almost thirty hours and beaten two of the twenty six or so bosses. And people complain about taking 100 hours to beat it!

But I'll keep n playing even if it takes a thousand hours. I like the world and the story. Although it's pretty demoralising to finish a youtube video that's ten minutes of some guy ranting about how he hates the Moonlight Butterfly fight because it's so easy, only to be killed by said butterfly ten times in a row.

It took me over a hundred attempts to beat the Taurus Demon. I gave up in frustration, went off to play Skyrim for a few days, then went back to Dark Souls on a whim and beat it easily on my first go. I've been trying and failing to recapture that success with the next two bosses ever since.

The only flaw I feel able to point out with game design is that I try not to use certain items. On a lot of walkthroughs, people used the gold pine resin to beat the Taurus Demon. I refused to, because I knew I would just die anyway and it would have been wasted. I haven't used summoning yet because I don't want to waste humanities. That and that the path you're supposed to take up to the Undead Burg from Firelink Shrine is really, really difficult to find.

But I'm glad you brought this game up because I've been obsessed with it for a while and I can't lecture my family about it. At last I have somewhere to talk about Dark Souls!

what build did you take?

summoning people makes the game so much easier. My brother and I are playing coop at the moment, and we normally take the bosses out on the first try. (And that's not because we're good.) The summoners take a lot of the attention off of you, so you can slip around the boss and hit them from behind. The moonlight butterfly is especially easy if you summon help, because the help shoots back. So you literally just have to dodge the occasional shot while she takes off most of the health for you. You can farm humanity later on in a few places. I needed 30 for one of the quests and I got it in about half an hour.

Do you have the drake sword? If not, I recommend getting that as soon as you're past the Taurus Demon. That kicks ass and will carry you right through to Ano Londor.

A few tips that you may or may not know:
Get the firekeepers soul in new londo ruins. it will be a death run, but that's fine, because it will allow you to up your estas flasks. Then save up for the crest of Artorias from Andre the Blacksmith. With that you can farm souls in the dark root garden. You literally run in a circle, lead them back to the cliff and watch as they drop off. Each run gives you 6000 souls+, and there's a hidden bonfire right there. That way you don't need to worry about using things, because you can just buy more.
I would also recommend the pyromancy glove. you can upgrade that to level 15 almost right away and that does insane damage against bosses, and it doesn't scale with your level, so you don't need to be high level to use it.

But man, you must see the sorcerer. That makes the game seriously easy. I killed Smough and ornsteen on my second attempt. I got qualaag without losing any health. My guy is so overpowered now that I'm doing over a thousand damage everytime I shoot. It's ridiculous. I can one shot the taurus demons haha

Mostly I'm going for a lightly armoured dex build with a sword and shield, but I also started using a bit of sorcery when I found out how overpowered magic is. I wanted to upgrade the pyromancy as well, but then I found out I accidentally sent the first pyromancer you meet off to his death and I'll have to wait until I get to the Demon Ruins before I can find someone else to upgrade it.

I've just got past the archers on Anor Londo and I'm on my way to Ornstein and Smough. I'll probably die to them about a thousand times before giving up and summoning.

But I beat Quelaag without summoning and that's probably my proudest achievement yet.

Also, mimics terrify me. It's not that they ambush you, I can tell them apart from real chests by their breathing, but that giggling noise they make is just unnerving.

[BradCarsten]

Mostly I'm going for a lightly armoured dex build with a sword and shield, but I also started using a bit of sorcery when I found out how overpowered magic is. I wanted to upgrade the pyromancy as well, but then I found out I accidentally sent the first pyromancer you meet off to his death and I'll have to wait until I get to the Demon Ruins before I can find someone else to upgrade it.

There's another pyromancer at the bottom of blighttown who can upgrade your glove, and even ascend it to level 5. She's at the hut closest to the big wheel.

I've just got past the archers on Anor Londo and I'm on my way to Ornstein and Smough. I'll probably die to them about a thousand times before giving up and summoning.


But I beat Quelaag without summoning and that's probably my proudest achievement yet.

Also, mimics terrify me. It's not that they ambush you, I can tell them apart from real chests by their breathing, but that giggling noise they make is just unnerving.

How did it go with S&O?
Quelaag can be really difficult. It took me about 20 times to get past her with my dex build.

Those mimics are terrible. I look at the chain alongside the chest. if it loops back, it's legit. I just chuck a lloydstalisman at them to open the chest without disturbing them.

[Neveesandeh]

[/quote]
How did it go with S&O?
Quelaag can be really difficult. It took me about 20 times to get past her with my dex build.

Those mimics are terrible. I look at the chain alongside the chest. if it loops back, it's legit. I just chuck a lloydstalisman at them to open the chest without disturbing them.
[/quote]

I had to go back to uni before I could beat them. The closest I got was bringing big Ornstein down to half health after summoning Solaire. What I got stuck on wasn't so much the boss itself, it was the two sentinels outside. It takes ages to kill those things even when they can't blast you with an AoE or heal themselves.

I'm planning to have a bit more practice fighting them before I try and attack the boss.

Personally, I've found it easier so far to go for Smough first, because I can never dodge super Smough's AoE and super Ornstein also has less health. That said, I got super Smough stuck behind a pillar once. If I had any firebombs on me, I could have kept throwing them at him and ended the fight then. I didn't, so I had to try and move around the pillar to fight him and got killed.

[Neveesandeh]

Beat O & S a while back. I took out Ornstein last because giant Ornstein had less health and I wanted it to be over quicker.

I got started beating bosses on my first and second attempts then I got stuck on Artorias. I picked up Dark Souls 2 and played it for a bit to practice without a shield. Then I picked up Bloodborne.

Bloodborne is like a game that was tailor made just for me. It has everything I love. It's phenomenal.

I'm going to go back and try Artorias again at some point, but right now Bloodborne has consumed my life.

Even though O & S and Artorias are both really hard fights, I vastly prefer Artorias. The fight is fun and engaging and tense. O & S only really got good for me after I took out Smough and had to fight giant Ornstein.

[BradCarsten]

I got started beating bosses on my first and second attempts then I got stuck on Artorias. I picked up Dark Souls 2 and played it for a bit to practice without a shield. Then I picked up Bloodborne.

Bloodborne is like a game that was tailor made just for me. It has everything I love. It's phenomenal.

I'm going to go back and try Artorias again at some point, but right now Bloodborne has consumed my life.

Even though O & S and Artorias are both really hard fights, I vastly prefer Artorias. The fight is fun and engaging and tense. O & S only really got good for me after I took out Smough and had to fight giant Ornstein.

My Brother couldn't get past Artorius, but I didn't really battle with him that much. I'm using a strength build, so I could stand there and soak up all his hits with the Havel armour set and the great shield of Artorius- The stability is so high, even that triple spinning hit, after he had charged up, didn't touch my health.