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[Dark Souls] 3: "Everything is designed to kill you."
Fawst
The road to awe.Registered User regular
The road to awe.Registered User regular
Welcome to the Dark Souls* thread!
* ...and Demon's Souls and Dark Souls... and now Dark Souls 3!
No, really, I'll update this.
Quick hits:
What is Dark Souls?
Dark Souls is a third-person action RPG*.
* Really Pretty Getup (simulator)
So it's kind of like (insert game here)?
Probably not. Most third-person action RPG's tend to be pretty fast with the combat. The thing about Dark Souls is that you need to mean what you do and do what you mean to do. I've heard Monster Hunter is similar, but I've never really played any of those. In this case, if you take a swing or cast a spell, you're committed. Using a big two-handed weapon and you timed it wrong? Yeah, you're gonna get punished.
Punished? That seems harsh.
It is and it isn't. It's more fair than bullshit, but there's plenty of BS moments to go around. Or at least, they'll feel that way until you "git gud."
There are plenty of other games I could be playing that wouldn't be punishing.
Sure are. And not a single one of them will fill you with the same sense of accomplishment that these games will.
That's a bold statement.
I stand by it. I cannot think of a single game where I have ever felt as pumped/relieved/excited to get through something as I have with these games.
OK, I'll give it a shot. What's the setting like?
Dark fantasy. Pretty grim. These are worlds on the brink. Whatever your goal may be, it's pretty likely that you're saving the world by destroying it. Maybe not overtly, but...
Er, spoilers?
No, not really. There is a narrative, but it's not given to you outright. There is a lot of reading between the lines and paying attention in order to put everything together. Some things are open to interpretation. Others are blatant. As for the final goal? Depends on the game and your perspective.
Well that doesn't sound all that interesting. | That sounds awesome!
You're wrong. | You're right! Really, the game lets you use your imagination in a lot of ways. While some things are very clearly laid out, others are not. You can infer so much from simple things such as where you obtain an item and its surroundings, or you can just plow through and not realize that X character died here.
Wait, huh?
Time is ... weird in these games. It's not a guarantee that you are interacting with someone in the "here and now." Rather, you may be interacting with them here and now, but that's not to say they're not already/soon will be dead in another location. At the same time. Yeah...
OK, so it's a punishing, obscure, dark fantasy third-person RPG. What can I do?
A lot. You can be a beefy tank plowing through enemy damage and laughing at how little it affects you. You can be a glass cannon mage, one-shotting the toughest of enemies while praying a stiff wind doesn't cut you down. You can be a sneaky ranged fighter, using gear to enhance your abilities. Or you can say "screw all that" and just punch your way to victory. At level 1. Because you're a masochist.
I take it there are a lot of classes to choose from?
Nope. There are starting classes, sure, but all they do is give you a template to work from. Pretty much any class can become anything along the way. All you're limited by are your stat points and your gear. You assign points to your stats and in turn your stats dictate what gear you can use (effectively).
I hear you die a lot?
Constantly. And while you'll lose progress of a sort by dying, you'll gain knowledge. And knowledge, unlike many other games, truly is power here. So you've rushed into a room and found yourself full of arrows and died? Well now you know now to rush into that room. Now you know that you can probably sneak inside and take out the archer at the back before they even know you're there. You found a strong weapon not that far from the main hub of the game? Now you know that on your next character (you'll probably make more than one) you can rush that spot and focus on getting the stat points you need right away to use it.
So dying isn't that big of a deal?
It can be. When you die, you lose some stuff. Namely the souls you've collected from enemies you've killed and your humanity.
Explain.
When you kill an enemy, you gain souls. These are currency. You spend them on stats to increase them. You also use them to purchase items from any vendors you may find. When you die, you lose all the souls you are carrying. And no, you can't bank them anywhere. On the plus side, you leave behind a bloodstain where you die that contains all the souls you were carrying when you died. If you can reach your bloodstain without dying again, you can pick up all of the souls you lost. Die and they're lost for good.
Is this the punishment you talked about before?
Pretty much. It's going to feel like a punch in the gut the first time you lose "a lot" of souls (it won't be a lot; not your first time through, and not early on). Souls are easy to come by, though. It's more the progress you were making from point A to B that will eventually sting the most.
There's a lot more you're not telling me, isn't there?
Yes, a ton. If you're just kind of interested in the series, play Dark Souls first. If you want to dive in head first and have a PS3, play Demon's Souls. While the two are similar, Demon's Souls is a more raw experience. It's not quite as refined as Dark Souls, but it has plenty of fantastic systems in place. I personally wouldn't start with Dark Souls 2 over either of those two games, but it's better than not playing any of them.
Fawst on
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Wish I could play more but I need to get some sleep before work tomorrow.
roll in the hole
Meh...not bad, but not great either. It's more of the same, but not much of it. There's only two or three things/items I missed/have yet to check out, but I doubt they'll change my mind.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
How big would you say it is? The size of two or three regular game areas?
lost about 100k souls thanks to not discovering the bonfire right before him until just about depopulating the latter half of the keep
left a warning just before the boss door
"try rolling but hole"
accidentally triggered a BoB duel in full PvE regalia
i actually managed to almost win, despite taking a Wrath of Gods to the face
but no characters in a good spot to start it
time to go kill the Rotten
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
There is a sign in front of the gate saying something like "ahead is a challenge fit for a monarch", leading me to believe it is balanced for an endgame character.
https://medium.com/@alascii
3-4 hours, maybe more if you like exploring and taking in the atmosphere.
I did it just before entering castle Drangleic (Soul level 106 or so) and had a fair challenge. Wouldn't advise going much beyond that, that might make it too easy.
However! Tying into this:
There is one thing the DLC adds that ties into the lore that you can ONLY access endgame-ish. You don't have to beat the final boss but it's close enough as makes no matter.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
i've gotten a bunch of bellbro invasions, a ratbro summon, but i'm not sure i've been just normally invaded at all
No one Blood Bro's because there is no inherent advantage to Bloodbroing.
Get a spell. decent weapon.
But since summoning help actually WORKS in this game, there is a good 40% chance that you'll be invading right into a dude and his two buddies.
And now, later in the games lifespan, this is going to be NG+ and higher invasions where everyone involved knows what they're doing.
You can keep a low-level SM character, but eventually you'll obtain enough Soul Memory to move out of that bracket, and even then you won't be inherently more powerful then the person invading.
Also, FRIENDS. CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH.
So all your trolls and former Dickwraiths don't bother with it, leaving Bloodbro'ing for MANLY MEN AND WOMEN OF ACTION.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
I find that there are certain zones where I frequently get invaded
Just in front of Velstadt, the bridge in Iron Keep, and sometimes the... Shaded Woods (? place with the lion dudes - odd, not a place I'd expect to be well invaded at).
Because the servers are being hit with a million connections because the new DLC just released. :P
That one's there in NG as well, and just as serious.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
If one is on NG, they're relatively safe from invasions. From killed NG PvP stone dead by heavily curtailing the supply of CREOs. There used to only be about a dozen or so out in the world (with an additional 5 added to the Majula mansion in the June patch), and the only reliable way to get more is to win duels in the BoB arena, which seems to have no problem matching a level 10 against a level 800. Because of this, players can sometimes go through the entire game and not get invaded once.
Raises the question of if Soul Memory to prevent twinking was really necessary.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
I might be getting ahead of myself.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
my reward is apparently getting to fight all the royal swordsman in the planet in the dark
fak
Lot of fun overall. More fun, I think, than any individual area in the main DS2 campaign. Good bosses, although nothing to Artorias level.
Honestly I think that, aside from it not containing the best Souls boss, it is a superior DLC to the DS1 release in almost every way. Loads more fun than Oolacile, and more interesting hooks and gimmicks.
New weapons seem cool but since I'm running full on punches, I haven't tested any of them yet. I don't really know enough about the DS2 meta to really be able to tell anyway.
Managed to solo the dragon, extremely fun, balanced encounter. Easily the best boss in DS2.
Hardest encounter in the damn place was the Jester, holy crap. It took me more tries to down the dragon but wasn't half as tense. On the other hand, huge amounts of fire resist will trivialize the fight.
I am super pissed he didn't drop anything, and am not happy either no cool item from the dragons tail.
All in all if they can manage to pull off something this fun 2 more times in 3 months I will be fucking astounded.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA