VideoGame_Discussion

Yeah, a (divine) long sword was what I used last month. Many online recommend it. Good move-set and damage output.

The back Buttons on the Steam Deck are great for Dark Souls. Making a back button also run is very helpful.

I played DS1 remaster on a Switch and it was fine. I was surprised, thought the swamps would be awful, but no real issues.

I'm at the point where I use the janky weapons on purpose now. In Bloodborne I've found everything is mostly actually quite good! DS1 otoh...lol

Can you bind a button to kick? Kicking is hard to do consistently but has some nice uses.

bill wrote:

No, I don't think so.... But it may be possible if you bind it to two commands of up/forward and attack

Every time I play DS1, no matter what build I start out with or try to do. I always end up a str/pyromancer.

Oh boy... Blighttown... This damn place again, ha.

I've typically rocked swords (straight, samurai, great) with casting. This second DS2 playthrough, I went spear (silverback) - amazing. Now in DS1, I've committed to the Halberd (dark knight), incredible!

That reach just changes the game. Feels op/cheating but damn is it gonna be hard to go back to swords!

The PvP in DS1 feels so off coming from 2 and 3 recently. Just the lag and hit boxes. Thankfully the halbred has saved my ass multiple times in ganking attempts (yet some are on point with parries).

It is surprising how active pvp still is. 4 in the damn morning, reverse hollow trying to farm silver knight... 3 mins later invaded. I don't think I've been human for more than 5 minutes in the past 15 hours without being invaded. At this point in the games tenure, everyone invading is typically well built specifically for pvp. I hold my own occasionally but damn if I don't get smoked.

Oooff forgot how bad Lost Izalith was. This clearly feels rushed. Definitely need a DS1 remaster!

MrBean wrote:

Remaster of the remaster? lol

Gypsy wrote:

Remake of the Remaster!

I don't think they would actually rework areas like that, otherwise definitely a good idea.

Gypsy wrote:

The Demons Souls remake didn't do the cut content so I doubt it

Kommie wrote:

That was so disappointing, made so much sense to finish it. Still, given the background of DeS, maybe others will have a chance. Doubtful.

Hope we get the Elden Ring dlc soon.

Why do you think Lost Izalith is bad? I thought it was lovely.

bill wrote:

It feels very incomplete. Three enemy types, all relatively boring and massively copy/pasted.

The big dudes in the lava, serve no real purpose. I killed every single one, only found two divine blessings out there.

The little statue guys are the easiest and most boring enemy in the entire game.

At least the plant thingies look kinda cool and can wreck your gear. Yet their section below with the poison? Felt pretty lame and out of the flow.

Multiple dead end areas that seemed like they could lead elsewhere.

Hell, even bed of chaos was a pretty lame boss. Was definitely more unique compared to others though, just felt a bit cheap and again, not finished. Sadly, many bosses in 1 and 2 are. I've come to realize playing all 4 Souls games as both caster and melee, melee is just ez mode and makes bosses cake.

Truly felt like they spent a bunch of time on it and ran out of time so rushed it to release.

I think similar elements can be seen in the whole second half of feeling rushed (Anor Londo and Demon Ruins are also a great examples of such a big area that just felt like an opportunity. First half of the game is just so much more tuned. The environments, enemy layouts, secrets, shortcuts, etc.

Did some brief Googling. Looks like it's well known this area, and others were a bit rushed due time. They only had 8 months to develop?! Wow! That's impressive if true.

Yeah, a Remake is for sure in order! Wishful thinking...

I did enjoy the painted world though. Short, but better executed. I don't think I knew about this location first time around? I played the original very close to release, no clue if this was even know then.

I'm sad, I only have Dukes Archive left, then DLC, and game over. Then the Frozen dlc for DS2.

Stack of games to move on to, but damn I want another of these!

I’ve always been confused as to why the end of the game is an unfinished walking sim with environmental hazards and bosses etc- and they had time to make dlc. The dlc is pretty meh too. In essence the game is a boss fight with intermissions- but they did better hiding that in early game.

Searching, yeah I can see a lot of players talking about DS1 being "unfinished"...

I think that's BS. You could probably say that about most games or products, in general. If you've ever worked on a product, there are usually a lot of ideas that don't make it to the final release and such. Time pressure is constant and normal; tough decisions get made. Editing down a product to its key elements (cutting the fat/bloat) often makes sense too.

Dark Souls is a great game. It seems wrong to call it unfinished. I guess people just want more of it. But, I think it's got plenty in it, too much even. There's lots of optional areas, items, NPCs, etc. Overall, it's nicely interconnected and balanced at the same time.

I agree the secondary, late-game (after lordvessel) areas are shorter. Crystal Cave also comes to mind as something you basically learn to run through. But, these shorter secondary areas felt right to me. At that point in the games, I didn't want to slog a big complicated are with tons of mobs to kill.

I think Bed of Chaos was kind of a cool boss fight. A lot of people have trouble with it too. I like the gimmicky ones where it's not just fighting but with stuff you need to do to win. It's kind of cliche in games/genre-fiction that a boss can't be killed until you break some shielding element first (even Harry Potter had it); but it's generally a fun thing to add in. Souls games do it fairly often (Seath perhaps being the most obvious).

This "unfinished" thing seems like whiny gamers complaining again, in my opinion. They always have to think of something to dog about. I bet if From added a lot more, they would complain it's too long.

I mean, you could say the Giant Archstone in Demon's Souls is a sign that it's "unfinished", but it never felt like that to me. It was intriguing, a mysterious lost realm...

I don't disagree it's an all-around fantastic game! It's just when you compare those areas to others it truly does feel like it was rushed. It's hard to say that the overall game is considered unfinished but there's clear evidence that they simply ran out of time. Which in comparison I think most would opt for delays to make sure that it's right but that's unfortunately not the way most of these game companies work anymore.

It's just hard not to think about what more could they have done had they had more time to see their Vision fully develop. The areas you can tell started out with such great intention and there was a possibility those areas could have been much more in depth with the story more bosses more everything.

Regardless the game is fantastic and if anything I'm just sad that I'm almost done with it again.

Did you do the Siegmeyer and Solaire stuff in Lost Izalith? I feel like those 2 things are fairly significant but can also be skipped and if so, the area may feel less.

The bone dinosaur things seem like a kind of feint to me. You see them and it's hard to kill them, but if you're clever, you realize you can just run past them.
The little statue-like things that blow flames are easy but deadly if you rush in and take on more than you should. So, it takes some care until you figure that out.
Kirk and some other mage NPC will attack you there too.
Plus a few goodies you can find if you take side paths.

I should probably let it go, just a matter of opinion, I guess. But, if I compare it to other areas, it doesn't seem unfinished to me. The swamp doesn't have much in it and has some stuff it's best to just avoid entirely. The upper swamp is a pain in the butt with all the poison dart and mobs that jump out... is that better or more "finished"? *shrug* Depths can be almost entirely skipped without much downside. Even New Londo isn't much once you get the hang of transient curses and not letting the ghost overwhelm you.

Demon's Souls has a similar pattern of the last part of each area being shorter than the 1st and 2nd parts. It's just the Souls way.

bill wrote:

Welp, crap ... no, no I did not. Well, I did kill the bug to save Solaire because I needed the helm for Tomb (no casting this time). I haven't gone back to see if he's there? As for Sieg, hrmmm, I didn't do Duke's Archives yet, which looks like I need to go find his daughter there before he shows up in Izalith - not sure if I already screwed this up being that I did Izalith already?

Ugh, in the last ~10 hours, I got too focused on upgrading my gear and just burning content ... kinda forgot about NPC stuff. I also don't think I did their quest lines properly the first time through.

This is probably my single biggest gripe with FromSoft games - the questlines. You really need to read the wiki's before starting them to ensure it goes to plan.

Hell, I screwed up the one dude twice in Elden Ring, even after reading it the second time! The dickhead that turns people into puppets, Biffed that.

In my recent play, I did everything right with Siegmeyer but he still died in Lost Iz for me, very temperamental.
Solaire is arguably more important as he really helps with the final boss.

Yeah, definitely all Souls games are heavy wiki checking for me, so many little things to know,.. and I forgot most of them too.

None are essential, though...

So I found Sieg's daughter just now, will check out Lost Iz after this to see if he's still there.

Here's another area that just feels ... I dunno, not like the others? This huge open forest area in the Duke Archives, before the Crystal Cave. Why is it so big and they put the enemies in corners, serving zero purpose? You legit don't have to fight any of them, they're all just stuck in corners like bad kids. Another oddity in the later game.

I played DS1 back in the day, completely blind, until near the end when the whole dragon head glitch came out. I remember doing that and regretting it. I'm finding I definitely missed quite a bit of the game the first time through. Same for DS2/DS3 on second round.

It does suck that you ultimately have to rely on the internet, but reality is, that should be for NG. Go blind first time, do it right the second time.

I would say the end of Dark Souls feels more rushed than unfinished; talking about Lost Izalith specifically, I think the area feels well thought out design wise, but suffers from re-skinned bosses(Taurus and Capra Demons as regular enemies, and Asylum Demon again as a boss)in the first section, and just hordes of the same easily skippable enemies(first the giant Dino things, then the little yellow fire breathers) in later sections. I also think the Bed of Chaos is also easily the worst fight in the game.

I just replayed Demon's Souls and Dark Souls for the first time in about a decade(just finished Dark Souls yesterday). I actually played the Remastered version of Dark Souls, and really appreciated how much better the performance was, compared to what I remember it being like on PS3. I still really enjoy both games, and Demon's Souls is still one of my favorite PS3 games.

The whole “right side” of the world in DS feels empty and unfinished to me. The lake, canyon area, back door to blight town etc. it definitely has a low res / filler type of vibe.

Bloodborne remaster would be fantastic

https://gagadget.com/en/playstation/306802-another...

Kristala, haven't heard of this. Hopefully worthwhile. Seems like last several Souls-like have been disappointing.

https://www.gamesradar.com/tired-of-waiting-for-bl...

MrBean wrote:

Do not toy with my emotions please !

Ahhh so much discussion. @Otaku100 that sounds about right to me. Rushed is a good way to put it and yeah Bed of Chaos is garbage. Even knowing how to easily handle it, it's just a stupid boss. And yeah the remaster is a lot smoother, all I play unless I'm looking to try a really weird run that needs to be unpatched.

@bill I love DS1 but I can't really defend Bed of Chaos. I do think the game is a GREAT length overall. Once you have the game down it's pretty easily in the 10-15 hour range. I love the contrast vs a first playthrough without looking anything up. I also think it's the best one to SL1 (I think I mentioned this in here somewhat recently but eh).

As far as Lost Izalith I'm not trying to change your opinion but this is an interesting article: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/20...

"Since I had the opportunity, I had to ask what Miyazaki’s least favorite zone from the franchise is as well. The answer should come as no surprise to fans of the series – it’s the lava/dinosaur nightmare known as Lost Izalith in Dark Souls. Miyazaki comments “Don’t want to elaborate on this very much. There was a different person assigned to this area, and although I was involved, I don’t want to pose very many negative comments for his sake. It can be a learning experience for all of us.”"

I would say the other areas you mentioned feel better than Lost Izalith imo. My personal favorite is Sen's Fortress, which isn't mentioned in that article.

Bloodborne remaster right before Bloodborne 2 I'm sure. COPIUM.

Gypsy wrote:

" “I like when you first enter Anor Londo, but unfortunately the impact and excitement felt when you first enter Anor Londo didn’t last through the whole gameplay experience, so this is more of a regret in the design.”"

Asbolutely. The zone had so much potential and instead, it results in primarily remembering the butt-hole archers! haha

Cool ... another NPC I had no clue existed then, or now, and totally missed and can't get till NG now: https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Quelana+of+I...

Random YT recommendation that showed up for me today, an interesting watch about the relation between Souls games and helping people with mental challenges.

Can't say I've really looked at the psychology of the games but, it makes sense and is well done. For me, it creates a mass short term addiction!

https://youtu.be/keIWG6hSD7Q

Well, that sucks ... can't finish Siegmeyer's quest line because I already killed Bed of Chaos. Just ran back to Lost Izalith, he's not here

These questlines suck.

I typically do NG3+ on my playthroughs. Usually to clean it up and that’s when I have to over level to beat some bosses. Good stopping point.

Wait no, he was in Lost Iz ... just on the other side of the broken floor.

HOW IN THE HELL ... would you know NOT to fight those mobs when you fall down there? That's exactly what I did. Now the quest ends because he didn't help me fight them?

Ugh, love-hate this crap. I shouldn't need to rely on the internet to complete quests, but alas, they love to fudge with us.

Damn

+5/6/7 is definitely a slog.

Well, the DS1 DLC is quite good so far! Feels really big, but only just started.

Artoria's armor looks so damn cool, but man does it suck giving up fast rolling. I was Crimson set most of game, then moved to the gold hemmed.

I'm already at 50 endurance, and looks like I'd probably need another 10-15 to get back to fast roll. End of game ... is the grind worth it ... ugh.

Gypsy wrote:

I think both Ariamis and Undead Parish are good areas, as mentioned in the article, but my favorite area from Dark Souls is also Sen's Fortress. I prefer Demon's Souls to Dark Souls, and Sen's Fortress feels more in line with the areas in Demon's Souls to me; it's more linear with a lot of tight areas, and only connects to the rest of the world at the beginning and the end.