I don't think any soulslike has really managed the sense of awe/relief you get when you get on that elevator and step out of the bottom into Firelink Shrine.
The only bits in Bloodborne that aren't connected to the rest are the two Nightmare areas and Cainhurst, apart from the Hunter's Dream obviously. You can run from Byrgenwerth back to Iosefka's Clinic if you really wanted.
Byrgenwerth still feels like it should be way farther away. I think DS1 using more vertical space helps a lot, and just having magic as an explanation to fall back on.
Being able to see some parts of the nightmare from other places inside did help a lot. Even when it's all a jumbled dream, it still makes sense within itself.
The tight design of Lordran with everything connected and cohesive is something I feel the later games failed to deliver on (esp 2).
I mean, what I've seen from Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and even Bloodborne tends to make me think that the cohesive nature of Dark Souls' world design is actually the anomaly.
Sort of true, at least in a whole world design idea. Dark Souls 3 at least has some good loopback design individual levels though, like the Cathedral and Irithyl. Dark Souls 2 even lacked that almost completely at least until some of the DLC like Shulva and Elyeum Loyce.
Bloodborne I can't really comment on, I haven't played it myself and I only watched a full LP around when it came out, EpicNameBro's I believe. However, with Horizon coming to PC, I'm really hoping that Bloodborne might still be able to get a PC port. Come on, Sony, do it.
The tight design of Lordran with everything connected and cohesive is something I feel the later games failed to deliver on (esp 2).
I mean, what I've seen from Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and even Bloodborne tends to make me think that the cohesive nature of Dark Souls' world design is actually the anomaly.
it is and it's a darn shame
DS3 came closest but still didn't try to tetris things together tightly in the same spacially believable way, just sprawled it out more flatly with lots of empty void of "you can't go there" space between them, even if they at least remembered to keep the skyboxes mostly internally consistent.
Sekiro is layed out pretty well, but still not as well as DS1. It has a moment similar to the elevator at the top of the windmill from 2 where you start off in a lower area and somehow end up way above where you should be.
I like both Bloodborne and DS3's layout quite a bit. They tend to feel like they connect together into a singular coherent world (albeit some oddities such as how the verticality to Yarnham brings some questions to how the city logically fits together or how close Lordran is to Lothric, respectively). They still lack that single piece that allows shortcuts between areas that make everything feel like it fits together like a puzzle, but with fast travel available from the outset they don't need to.
This is a "for better or worse" situation where you can make arguments for which works better. I still have a strong preference for DS3 and BB over DS1 and DS2 just because the speed of gameplay feels better to me so I'm a bit biased about how the entire games feel.
I like both Bloodborne and DS3's layout quite a bit. They tend to feel like they connect together into a singular coherent world (albeit some oddities such as how the verticality to Yarnham brings some questions to how the city logically fits together or how close Lordran is to Lothric, respectively). They still lack that single piece that allows shortcuts between areas that make everything feel like it fits together like a puzzle, but with fast travel available from the outset they don't need to.
This is a "for better or worse" situation where you can make arguments for which works better. I still have a strong preference for DS3 and BB over DS1 and DS2 just because the speed of gameplay feels better to me so I'm a bit biased about how the entire games feel.
Yeah, Dark Souls locking fast travel until the halfway point (and still only between certain bonfires) necessitated that tighter structure I guess - an accident born of necessity? There's only a handful of dead ends on branches out (there's... the ash lake, Painted World, and Duke's Archives as the only things that truly dead end iirc. Anor Londo is cleanly severed from everything below, so I guess Sen's Fortress a bit?). The DLC even loops back with shortcuts fairly nicely, though it's totally severed off otherwise. I think everywhere else in the game links to places on both ends basically. Oh, the catacombs and all, that's also all a dead end. Has some clear views of Izalith though to keep it grounded in location as I recall.
as much as fast travel is convenient, designing DS1 around the player not having it for a huge portion of the game did certainly force them to make the world way more interesting layout-wise
The only bits in Bloodborne that aren't connected to the rest are the two Nightmare areas and Cainhurst, apart from the Hunter's Dream obviously. You can run from Byrgenwerth back to Iosefka's Clinic if you really wanted.
And I consider Cainhurst as a free DLC. Besides being completely optional, it's not really related or necessary to the story but it's also freaking cool as hell and totally worth exploring with every play through.
The only bits in Bloodborne that aren't connected to the rest are the two Nightmare areas and Cainhurst, apart from the Hunter's Dream obviously. You can run from Byrgenwerth back to Iosefka's Clinic if you really wanted.
And I consider Cainhurst as a free DLC. Besides being completely optional, it's not really related or necessary to the story but it's also freaking cool as hell and totally worth exploring with every play through.
Much like the actual DLC the skybox in Cainhurst is not affected by events in the rest of the game- in Cainhurst's case it's always night.
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ShimshaiFlush with Success!Isle of EmeraldRegistered Userregular
I've gotten into DS3 recently and slowly making my way through it. I feel I've hit a bit of a dead end though.
Apparently I need a doll to cross the bridge to Irithyll! Some guidance would be appreciated if possible. I'm playing without online access on PS4 so I don't have notes pointing out secrets and illusory walls so I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff.
I've also got a couple of spell tomes but nobody to turn them in to. An oolacile tome and I think some crystal magic? I've also got a dark pyromancy tome.
I'm definitely missing some areas, still a few locked doors I can't get through. Plenty for me to do on a future playthrough.
I've gotten into DS3 recently and slowly making my way through it. I feel I've hit a bit of a dead end though.
Apparently I need a doll to cross the bridge to Irithyll! Some guidance would be appreciated if possible. I'm playing without online access on PS4 so I don't have notes pointing out secrets and illusory walls so I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff.
I've also got a couple of spell tomes but nobody to turn them in to. An oolacile tome and I think some crystal magic? I've also got a dark pyromancy tome.
I'm definitely missing some areas, still a few locked doors I can't get through. Plenty for me to do on a future playthrough.
Go look for a different path from the upper swamp (the place with crabs before you go down the big ladder guarded by the hefty guys in black armor), heading through the ruined buildings full of hollows. The magic guy is also in those buildings.
After a boss you'll end up in a whole other area that'll eventually get you the doll.
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ShimshaiFlush with Success!Isle of EmeraldRegistered Userregular
So i'm sort of looking at reinstalling DS3, and finally doing the last DLC...
Any thoughts on build? I've always had fun doing pyromancy + weapon, which previously has generally defaulted to a Raw Infused Astorea Straight Sword, pryomancy flame, and rolling a lot.
But i've never been great at finagling the build system, so i welcome suggestions here
For pyromancy+weapon, you're often going to be better off with Dark or Chaos-infused weapons imo. Especially if you're wearing the appropriate clutch ring and/or the headgear to eke out maximum dark glass canon play. Lothric Knight Sword can get well over 500 AR without the dark clutch, 550 AR with it, iirc. Astora UGS can hit 700+ on the same build.
And a weapon with native appropriate scaling, like the Onyx Blade, also works well (it's AR doesn't look super high but it's WA is a self-buff+attack and it's loooooong for a GS, so)
Probably the most flexible build in the game, anything you can equip and infuse with dark or chaos will be good on it.
You can drop the dex for the strength to 1h the Astora UGS or 2h heavy stuff if you want.
Note that that one in particular has the Prisoner's Chain (which is quite good since they made it less suicidal) and Dark Clutch ring (still a meme, you'll get blown up if you get touched) on it, and you can't actually equip those weapons at the same time with equip load limitations.
For pyromancy+weapon, you're often going to be better off with Dark or Chaos-infused weapons imo. Especially if you're wearing the appropriate clutch ring and/or the headgear to eke out maximum dark glass canon play. Lothric Knight Sword can get well over 500 AR without the dark clutch, 550 AR with it, iirc. Astora UGS can hit 700+ on the same build.
And a weapon with native appropriate scaling, like the Onyx Blade, also works well (it's AR doesn't look super high but it's WA is a self-buff+attack and it's loooooong for a GS, so)
Probably the most flexible build in the game, anything you can equip and infuse with dark or chaos will be good on it.
You can drop the dex for the strength to 1h the Astora UGS or 2h heavy stuff if you want.
Note that that one in particular has the Prisoner's Chain (which is quite good since they made it less suicidal) and Dark Clutch ring (still a meme, you'll get blown up if you get touched) on it, and you can't actually equip those weapons at the same time with equip load limitations.
If i want to max out my Iframes, what's the best approach? I'm most comfortable rolling like crazy in these games (What is "Blocking")
For pyromancy+weapon, you're often going to be better off with Dark or Chaos-infused weapons imo. Especially if you're wearing the appropriate clutch ring and/or the headgear to eke out maximum dark glass canon play. Lothric Knight Sword can get well over 500 AR without the dark clutch, 550 AR with it, iirc. Astora UGS can hit 700+ on the same build.
And a weapon with native appropriate scaling, like the Onyx Blade, also works well (it's AR doesn't look super high but it's WA is a self-buff+attack and it's loooooong for a GS, so)
Probably the most flexible build in the game, anything you can equip and infuse with dark or chaos will be good on it.
You can drop the dex for the strength to 1h the Astora UGS or 2h heavy stuff if you want.
Note that that one in particular has the Prisoner's Chain (which is quite good since they made it less suicidal) and Dark Clutch ring (still a meme, you'll get blown up if you get touched) on it, and you can't actually equip those weapons at the same time with equip load limitations.
If i want to max out my Iframes, what's the best approach? I'm most comfortable rolling like crazy in these games (What is "Blocking")
Anything under 70% equip load has 13 iframes in any direction whether you're locked on or not(around EW+5 in MHW terms), though sub-30 you gain a faster, longer-distance roll and faster backstep. And it has minimal downtime even sub-70. It's probably the strongest dodge in any Souls or Soulslike (BB lock-on dashes lose a ton of iframes, for example).
Speaking of DS3, I recently picked up the special edition with all the DLC. Roughly when during a normal run should you head in? Around the end of the game? Is it complicated to get to like DS1/Bloodborne or just another thing to warp to at the bonfire?
Speaking of DS3, I recently picked up the special edition with all the DLC. Roughly when during a normal run should you head in? Around the end of the game? Is it complicated to get to like DS1/Bloodborne or just another thing to warp to at the bonfire?
You're almost guaranteed to run into it and accidentally start it and have to leave in a normal playthrough. It's balanced for you to head in near the end of your playthrough, but you can get in there and do some damage and get some goodies as soon as you gain access, if you don't mind struggling a little.
Or, like me, you can use heroic strategies like 'run past everything' and 'shove this guy off a cliff' to painlessly(?) get almost everything interesting in the first DLC.
It's worth noting that pyromancers can struggle a bit in the final DLC for DS3, because everything is either strong against fire or strong against dark.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
People are recommending a mod called PvP Watchdog because hackers can apparently inject cheat items into your inventory, which the normal cheat detection then detects and bans you to the cheater servers for (without banning the cheater). PvP Watchdog prevents that and informs you when it was attempted.
It's still weird to me that such a thing can be a common problem that you need a solution for it. Just people going out of their way to be cruel to strangers when they receive no benefit for it.
Although since the only penalty is going to banned servers, which will include a ton of normal players, various modders and non-destructive cheaters, etc., then it probably doesn't matter. I've personally never encountered this kind of cheater in the wild, just invincible and one-shot PvPers (and only, like, two of those ever).
At some point the people injecting hacked items to get you sent to the cheater server become the good guys, liberating new players from the vacant non-cheater servers so that can enjoy online co-op.
it's a total overhaul mod, new weapons, new spells, new fashion, boss mechanics and a whole bunch of quality of life improvements like the fact that spell casting is now viable.
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
I've heard of it, and I've also heard that you can no longer family share DS3 because of modding it.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
I tried it over the weekend. I only explored a bit of Lothric High Wall and the Undead Settlement so far but it seems promising. I was not expecting the new Gundyr battle...
How much does it skew towards being difficult? I have the perception in my head that anyone into Dark Souls enough to do an overhaul mod is also one that worships nightmarish difficulty.
I'm hypothetically open to a different DS3 experience though.
The progression order is also completely different and you can access areas differently too. Archdragon Peak can be accessed straight from High Wall of Lothric.
It's actually easier because of things like scaling and levels being completely reworked. They're linear now instead of on a curve so you can get to Extreme numbers.
At its base, cinders mod makes changes but doesn't really make things HARDER. It gives you a lot of options to make the game harder if you want though.
It also adds FP regeneration at base so magic and weapon arts are like, actually usable now, along with adding a TON of new spells.
Speaking of DS3, I recently picked up the special edition with all the DLC. Roughly when during a normal run should you head in? Around the end of the game? Is it complicated to get to like DS1/Bloodborne or just another thing to warp to at the bonfire?
You're almost guaranteed to run into it and accidentally start it and have to leave in a normal playthrough. It's balanced for you to head in near the end of your playthrough, but you can get in there and do some damage and get some goodies as soon as you gain access, if you don't mind struggling a little.
Or, like me, you can use heroic strategies like 'run past everything' and 'shove this guy off a cliff' to painlessly(?) get almost everything interesting in the first DLC.
@Kamar - thanks for all your advice. Running past things has been a great help too to get stuff (i need to do so to go get me the Parting Flame). I'm using something pretty similar to what you outlined - the main changes are no shield at all, and going for 30 attunement (Goal is to have enough attunement slots for Great CHaos Fireball, Chaos Bed Vestigies, and black Flame). Thinking i might enchant my weapon with dark rather than chaos, just to give me some flexibility on damage. I suppose really i should get a second sword and enchant both.
I'm also wearing the Sage's Ring, because that casting speed boost is slick.
Currently i'm just rocking a LKS with Fire enchant, as i haven't yet got the coal to let me do dark or chaos infusion. Soon, though.
Seems to generally be working pretty well, other than the bit where i nearly murdered the Shrine Handmaiden testing out CBV. Whoops.
Posts
DS3 has bits and pieces as well, and at least gives you the brief handwave of the lands moving closer together.
DS2 is just ridiculous.
Being able to see some parts of the nightmare from other places inside did help a lot. Even when it's all a jumbled dream, it still makes sense within itself.
Sort of true, at least in a whole world design idea. Dark Souls 3 at least has some good loopback design individual levels though, like the Cathedral and Irithyl. Dark Souls 2 even lacked that almost completely at least until some of the DLC like Shulva and Elyeum Loyce.
Bloodborne I can't really comment on, I haven't played it myself and I only watched a full LP around when it came out, EpicNameBro's I believe. However, with Horizon coming to PC, I'm really hoping that Bloodborne might still be able to get a PC port. Come on, Sony, do it.
it is and it's a darn shame
DS3 came closest but still didn't try to tetris things together tightly in the same spacially believable way, just sprawled it out more flatly with lots of empty void of "you can't go there" space between them, even if they at least remembered to keep the skyboxes mostly internally consistent.
PSN:Furlion
This is a "for better or worse" situation where you can make arguments for which works better. I still have a strong preference for DS3 and BB over DS1 and DS2 just because the speed of gameplay feels better to me so I'm a bit biased about how the entire games feel.
3DS FC: 2234-7230-2712
Battle.net: Kriese#1709
Yeah, Dark Souls locking fast travel until the halfway point (and still only between certain bonfires) necessitated that tighter structure I guess - an accident born of necessity? There's only a handful of dead ends on branches out (there's... the ash lake, Painted World, and Duke's Archives as the only things that truly dead end iirc. Anor Londo is cleanly severed from everything below, so I guess Sen's Fortress a bit?). The DLC even loops back with shortcuts fairly nicely, though it's totally severed off otherwise. I think everywhere else in the game links to places on both ends basically. Oh, the catacombs and all, that's also all a dead end. Has some clear views of Izalith though to keep it grounded in location as I recall.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
hoo boy
ludwig is the easy part
And I consider Cainhurst as a free DLC. Besides being completely optional, it's not really related or necessary to the story but it's also freaking cool as hell and totally worth exploring with every play through.
Much like the actual DLC the skybox in Cainhurst is not affected by events in the rest of the game- in Cainhurst's case it's always night.
Apparently I need a doll to cross the bridge to Irithyll! Some guidance would be appreciated if possible. I'm playing without online access on PS4 so I don't have notes pointing out secrets and illusory walls so I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff.
I've also got a couple of spell tomes but nobody to turn them in to. An oolacile tome and I think some crystal magic? I've also got a dark pyromancy tome.
I'm definitely missing some areas, still a few locked doors I can't get through. Plenty for me to do on a future playthrough.
Go look for a different path from the upper swamp (the place with crabs before you go down the big ladder guarded by the hefty guys in black armor), heading through the ruined buildings full of hollows. The magic guy is also in those buildings.
After a boss you'll end up in a whole other area that'll eventually get you the doll.
Any thoughts on build? I've always had fun doing pyromancy + weapon, which previously has generally defaulted to a Raw Infused Astorea Straight Sword, pryomancy flame, and rolling a lot.
But i've never been great at finagling the build system, so i welcome suggestions here
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
And a weapon with native appropriate scaling, like the Onyx Blade, also works well (it's AR doesn't look super high but it's WA is a self-buff+attack and it's loooooong for a GS, so)
Probably the most flexible build in the game, anything you can equip and infuse with dark or chaos will be good on it.
You can drop the dex for the strength to 1h the Astora UGS or 2h heavy stuff if you want.
Note that that one in particular has the Prisoner's Chain (which is quite good since they made it less suicidal) and Dark Clutch ring (still a meme, you'll get blown up if you get touched) on it, and you can't actually equip those weapons at the same time with equip load limitations.
If i want to max out my Iframes, what's the best approach? I'm most comfortable rolling like crazy in these games (What is "Blocking")
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Anything under 70% equip load has 13 iframes in any direction whether you're locked on or not(around EW+5 in MHW terms), though sub-30 you gain a faster, longer-distance roll and faster backstep. And it has minimal downtime even sub-70. It's probably the strongest dodge in any Souls or Soulslike (BB lock-on dashes lose a ton of iframes, for example).
You're almost guaranteed to run into it and accidentally start it and have to leave in a normal playthrough. It's balanced for you to head in near the end of your playthrough, but you can get in there and do some damage and get some goodies as soon as you gain access, if you don't mind struggling a little.
Or, like me, you can use heroic strategies like 'run past everything' and 'shove this guy off a cliff' to painlessly(?) get almost everything interesting in the first DLC.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/geoom2/dark_souls_iii_is_now_unable_to_be_used_on_family/
...
God dammit From.
Alright, it's probably Bandai-Namco's call in this case, but still.
It's still weird to me that such a thing can be a common problem that you need a solution for it. Just people going out of their way to be cruel to strangers when they receive no benefit for it.
Although since the only penalty is going to banned servers, which will include a ton of normal players, various modders and non-destructive cheaters, etc., then it probably doesn't matter. I've personally never encountered this kind of cheater in the wild, just invincible and one-shot PvPers (and only, like, two of those ever).
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
The cut mechanics from DS3 are super interesting to speculate about
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
it's a total overhaul mod, new weapons, new spells, new fashion, boss mechanics and a whole bunch of quality of life improvements like the fact that spell casting is now viable.
more info here:
http://ds3-cinders.wikidot.com/
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
I'm hypothetically open to a different DS3 experience though.
At its base, cinders mod makes changes but doesn't really make things HARDER. It gives you a lot of options to make the game harder if you want though.
It also adds FP regeneration at base so magic and weapon arts are like, actually usable now, along with adding a TON of new spells.
Oh also they turned on poise.
@Kamar - thanks for all your advice. Running past things has been a great help too to get stuff (i need to do so to go get me the Parting Flame). I'm using something pretty similar to what you outlined - the main changes are no shield at all, and going for 30 attunement (Goal is to have enough attunement slots for Great CHaos Fireball, Chaos Bed Vestigies, and black Flame). Thinking i might enchant my weapon with dark rather than chaos, just to give me some flexibility on damage. I suppose really i should get a second sword and enchant both.
I'm also wearing the Sage's Ring, because that casting speed boost is slick.
Currently i'm just rocking a LKS with Fire enchant, as i haven't yet got the coal to let me do dark or chaos infusion. Soon, though.
Seems to generally be working pretty well, other than the bit where i nearly murdered the Shrine Handmaiden testing out CBV. Whoops.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891