Dark Souls (2011)

I have mixed feelings about this game.

I played Celeste and Hollow Knight before. Wanted them serve as a preliminary preparation.

But "Dark Souls" feels like game itself doesn't want you to play it. I know this game supposed to be hard but, sometimes developers designed some stuff just to annoy you.

Dying for no reason simultaneously. Traps. No map. Almost no information about any items. These are okay. You can learn those via searching the net. And searching is also funny.

But why extremely narrow passages. Terrible hitbox. Fiddly controls. Random invades. Minutes long runs to every boss. Bla bla.

I will edit this review when i end the game. So far 30 hours and half of the bosses killed including optionals.

PS.

• Also i saw some Dark Souls die hard fans insulting regular gamers like me on YouTube walkthrough videos. People have lives you know. People cannot spend 2000+ hours into a game. There are tons of other games we play, also jobs, families, pets we wanna spend time with. Mastering one game doesn't make you God, but Asylum Demon at best.

EDIT:

Finally completed. This game is a masterpiece.

Was it all a lie? Have I done this all, for nothing?

Currently trying to unlock all achievements for Dark Souls Remaster. It's a nightmare. Requires three consecutive playthroughs up to NG+2. Have to collect all spells, all miracles and all rare weapons including boss weapons. And gathering all the materials required to upgrade all your stuff to full in every upgrade branch. It's really dumb. Unlocking all achievements on Dark Souls might sound like an impressive task, but in reality it's rather a feat of patience as you spend your time farming slugs in Blighttown for countless hours, trying to get green titanite drops.

I'm completely lost in this game. Frankly, I guess I find this "getting lost" not fun because I've gotten very used to the new games. The only exception I have about this is Hollow Knight. But in Dark Souls it's a bit different because there are several mechanics that converge to intensify your sense of being lost. The main one, in my opinion, is the very difficulty of the game. After you ring both bells and that firelink character tells you where to go, this is when this feeling of "being lost" really begins. You have a LOT of places to try and go, most of you will die like an asshole early on and will try the others. And in all of them you will die like an asshole and you will be pissed. That's what I didn't like about the game. It literally gives you many paths and if you go to all of them, none will give you any clue that this is where you need or can go. And in (almost) all paths you can move forward and see what's in there. In other words, there is no right way in Dark Souls. In Hollow Knight, for example, even with you getting constantly lost, the game has a map where you can place markers on places you have visited and cannot yet access or places you want to do something. This greatly increases the backtracking of the game and every time you get a new power you need to go back to all those markers and see if you can do anything there. Backtracking just isn't so boring because Hollow Knight world is very alive and you unlock fast travel early in the game and all backtracking is compensatory.

Going back to the beginning of this text, I think my familiarity with games holding (but not so much) my hand eventually made me find the game a little loose on this final straight line of nonlinearity. I ended up not getting used to "wasting" time going around and trying to see if that was the goal.

This text is not a critique of the game, it is more of a monologue that I was pissed that I didn't know where to go and even more pissed that I was pissed about it. Anyway, you can give me some tips for this part of the game if you want or just agree with my self-criticism.

Finished it today. Gwyn was a bit disappointing; I was expecting the usual fast paced duel battle like in DS3, but he was slow and and very easy to parry. There was ample room for mistakes too I couldn't believe I didn't even die once, since it usually takes me several tries to beat a final boss and learn their movesets (I still shiver at the thought of facing Soul of Cinder again in NG+)

The level design is great, but some areas are just flawed and feel unpolished. The floor collision in the crystal cave was abysmal, and the tomb of Giants was a bore to go through while being mindful of the darkness. These areas make going through blighttown feel like a walk in the park! Lol.

All the NPCs are lovely. I thought everyone loving Solaire was just a meme, but he really is just that great. Praise the Sun! 🌞

My favorite boss were Ornstein and Smough. Very tough, took me an entire evening retrying the battle just to beat them and get Ornstein's super cool armor. Very fast paced and you really need to pay attention to your surroundings to avoid being pummeled by both of them. Even when you beat Smough it doesn't get any easier - Ornstein can pummel you in two hits if you're not careful! They have great cinematics too.

Anor Londo, the Duke's Archives and the Painted World were all very lovely to explore and go through, probably the best parts of the game for me. Especially the Painted World, it was probably the most fun I had.

The catacombs' sense of pressure was good too thanks to the reviving skeletons. Much better than the area with the bell maidens in Bloodborne imo.

It's a shame the gameplay feels so clunky compared to Bloodborne/DS3, which makes it feel jarring for someone who played the later games first, since I feel this game has merits in the world design specifically and how connected it all is that makes it worth to play through compared to those, but in the end I think my experience with Bloodborne/DS3 felt more challenging and just plain more fun, and had me itching to throw myself into NG+ as soon as I finished them, in comparison to how just done I feel after finishing DS1.

Starting this again on the remastered edition without ever completing it. There's something drawing me to this game although I'm not very good at it. Maybe this time will be better...

That will be my at least fifth attempt and I'm playing the remestar cause it's got xbox one pad support from the get go.

I love it and hate it at the same time but I can't deny there's something that wants me to beat it.

Played the series in reverse order through happenstance, finally getting around to the first so I'm staring into the sun without nostalgia goggles. Very early impressions (At the blacksmith bonfire in Undead Parish) of the first one is that the level design so far is deserved of its reputation as best in series, but the combat is bringing up the rear. I think this is due to the 4-directional dodge roll, and the worse A.I. making it much easier to walk circles around a lot of the early enemies and back stab them. This could change later in the game with more difficult enemies with less exploitable attack patterns. I've had some trouble getting my footing early on, I need to find or buy a thrusting weapon for all the narrow corridors that often have you clanking your weapon against the wall as your enemy eats your health bar, and I've avoided a couple of those imposing black knights with the giant swords out of pure fear. I've been focusing on health/endurance just to survive longer, but the enemies are becoming more intimidating with every turn so I think I'll have to settle on a weapon soon and put some points into whatever it scales with. The trade off between armor and speed seems to be more of an emphasis in this game than its successors, maintaining a fast roll has come at the expense of playing naked, and I think I'm still a while away from getting my equip load high enough to play with both armor and a fast roll. (I really love this element and trying to balance the trade offs or switch between slower/protected or naked/fast for different sections)

The one thing I've missed the most from Bloodborne and then taken to new heights in DS3 are the changing phases for bosses, DS3 in particular had the most memorable/well designed boss fights in the series even if getting from one to the next was more streamlined.

Enjoying it so far and can't wait to progress, slowly adjusting to the slower pace coming off the later entries, and can't wait to further get lost in the labyrinth. The feeling that only a Dark Souls game can bring is still there, one of dread, wonder, fear, hope, nerves, perseverance, relief, frustration, failure, and triumph.

Daughters of Ash Mod - https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls/mods/1524

A couple months ago I played through the Daughters of Ash mod for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition. This thing is absolutely bonkers, apparently it took the dude 5+ years to make it. I have no idea how he did it, considering the game is supposed to be notoriously difficult to fiddle with, requiring mostly assembly language stuff.

The mod includes a bunch of new stuff, new bosses, new enemies, new quests and stories. The whole thing has been jumbled up so you experience the areas in a different order. Items are moved around, new items/consumables. Enemy placement totally restructured. Early game areas are harder and completed later; while some traditional late-game areas are completed first. New strange events, most bosses have been totally reworked. The whole thing was a really delightful experience for myself, and you can tell a lot of work went into it. I took some screenshots. Definitely recommend checking it out.

Firelink Shrine by night:

Siegmeyer new quest/location:

Velka's quest line, hanging out with the bird:

Tomb of the Giants looking completely different and spooky:

I beat this game years ago entirely using mouse and keyboard. Had to download a program to change the key and mouse bindings to how I wanted. I started as a knight, whose starting high encumbrance meant rolling was a bad idea. I never practiced rolling or parry, and my strategy relied entirely on blocking and heavy armor. Upon reaching the firelink shrine, I did not realize there were multiple ways to go, so I ended up going to he graveyard and thinking that was the only way to go. After quite a few deaths to the skeletons there, I eventually learned how to beat them and grinded them so much that I broke my starting weapon. I eventually could clear the entire graveyard. Then I went into the Catacombs and there was just no way.

So then I went back and found the way you were supposed to go. Wow what a difference. I used the winged spear and zwiehander early on, pumping str just enough to use the zwie 2 handed. I later replaced the spear with the halberd, and my 2nd weapon as a great scythe. Most of my stat points went into endurance and vit to maximize my survival. I found the lack of stat scaling on those polearms and the great variety in attack animations to be very valuable. I also invested in a shortbow, which seen alot of use. By Anor Londo, I found a demon spear and fell in love with it. It was at this time that I learned you could block and attack at the same time using a spear, which is the best playstyle ever; that and shooting things from far away. I still had the option of going all out offense with my great scythe though. I did not find this game particularly difficult or frustrating though I did have my fair share of deaths.

By the start of NG+ I had a full set of giant's armor +5, demon spear +5, great scythe +15, composite bow +15, greatshield of artorias, havels ring and a ring of favor and protection (which allowed me to be just under 50% encumbrance with medium mobility). Sometimes I used magic; healing or a buff such as great magic weapon. My stats were something like: 40 vit, 40 end, 26 str, 20 dex, 24 faith, 16 int, none spent in attunement or resist, and around level 120. I have no interest in pvp, and I played the latter part of the game offline to avoid it. I was only invaded 3 times. The first 2 were in Anor Londo before I found the demon spear, and my halberd + great scythe combination worked amazingly well against fast rolling curved sword gankers (sarcasm). The final time I had all my gear maxed out and the guy did not know how to deal with me. I blocked his attacks and poked him with my spear while he was attacking me. He kept trying different weapons and that fight went on for over half an hour. He must have used over 30 humanities to heal himself before finally giving up and trying to run.

I recently decided to play again. I started a new character to experience the game from the start now knowing how to play. So I started a knight again and used the estoc to just before the gargoyles, then cleared the graveyard for the winged spear. It was much easier than my first time, though the estoc does not have enough reach to fight large enemies. I only went as far as the end of the depths without any optional content or grinding before stopping. I then finished NG+ on my main. Only thing new is I maxed out my heavy crossbow +15, black bow of pharis +15, dragonslayer bow +5, and found the mask of the child (since I killed the bastard that sells them on my first playthrough and did not know they could be farmed). Loving that mask. Vit was upped to 50, dex to 40, str is going to 40 next.

I will play through NG++ at some point in the future when I forget how to play again. Might also be interesting to try a different type of character.

So, don't laugh, but 1 year after starting DS1, I've finally finished my first play through having clocked around 135 hours!!! Dark Souls is probably one of the finest games I've ever played (although I think Bloodborne, as my first ever souls game remains my favourite).

I must say though, I am completely lost regarding the lore and underlying story. I went into the game "blind" avoiding wikis and spoilers, and even though I read every piece of information on every item and talked with every NPC, i never really managed to get any real idea of what on earth was going on! (having just started to watch some lore stuff on youtube now, it's clear now that I really had no idea!).

Favourite boss = Knight Artorius. One of the toughest, but one of the most rewarding when he finally goes down. Kalameet was really tough (but not quite as fun).

Think I need a break now, and try playing something else before I return to DS2, DS3 or DS1 remastered (although I do feel that everything else now feels somewhat "light" and shallow in comparison).

I realise I'm totally late to the party on this one, but just in case anyone missed the fanfare, Dark Souls Remastered is coming in a couple months! I pray that they fix up Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins but I'm guessing it'll really just be some bug fixes, texture adjustments, resolution up-scaling, basically all the stuff we already have on PC with Durante's DSFix mod. However never underestimate Miyasaki, perhaps they might go beyond the call of duty and really make it new and special, bring it over to a new engine, up the poly count on models, improve animations, remove Bed of Chaos (just kidding, sorta), who knows. Regardless I'm excited and I'll be buying it on release at full price even if it's trash.

Anyone have any thoughts on it, or can direct me to an earlier thread where I can gush like a rabid Dark Souls fanboy?

Also, somewhat-related, I updated my "best games over all time ever" list on Grouvee. Dark Souls still gets the #1 spot but I've definitely juggled stuff around, added some, removed other titles. The list is here: https://www.grouvee.com/user/Torgo/shelves/44739-favourites/