VideoGame_Discussion

bill wrote:

I plan on going back once I finish ER. After a couple of hours of hating Dark Souls, I feel like I'm more ready now that I've learned how to play it.

I hate to be that guy...but I think the Souls fans who say "you're not playing it right", may have been right the whole time

@Admiral - you'll have a new level of respect for the prior games this time around.

While I've played and finished them all to date, I feel like I enjoyed DS3 on my second play through so much more - after I finished Elden Ring the first time. Makes you appreciate how well they constructed the world.

Going from ER to DS1/2 will be jarring. They're so much slower paced.

I think I'm like halfway through Steelrising. Been using the first weapon you can use to counter attack and it's stil pretty fun. Definitely a good souls like Clone despite being a bit on the easy side.

Kommie wrote:

I liked the ball n chain weapon. Had lots of fun with that.

I just really like the counter attack/parry mechanics if a game has them and it works well.

haha, well, never thought I'd have a duck (or two) in my collection ... Praise the Sun!

image

Shadow of the Erdtree in development!

https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-expansion-...

Disappointed its not coming out next month.

Forgot about this

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/163176982323045...

I got the Wo Long steel book ps5. Just need to finish these MH crowns and get to it. I’m excited for more “sekiro inspired” souls.

Haven't even heard of Wo Long... Supposed to be good? I'm a sucker for a steelbook!

I'm skeptical for Lies of P. Definitely gonna gamepass it.

MrBean wrote:

It’s good if you like Nioh / souls like. I love it. It’s on GP too.

Wo Long is actually pretty legit. Only took maybe a half hour to beat the first boss once I got the mechanics down.

Anyone else playing The Light Brigade? It took awhile for it to click for me, but I’m really enjoying it now. It’s my first roguelite in VR. I still haven’t gotten past the second boss, but I’m getting better every run, and I’ve finally unlocked all of the classes and figured out which one I want to work on upgrading, so I think I’ll get there before too long.

I'd like to, maybe but not getting a PSVR2 anytime soon, if at all.

It’s on PCVR too for what it’s worth.

Kommie wrote:

I'd sooner get PSVR 2 at that point. Really hoping Half-Life Alyx gets on it (PSVR 2), PC VR is way too much of an investment/money.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Just picked up Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, not sure when I'll get to it but modern Final Fantasy is so campy and lame that I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

Makes sense. I really like the PSVR2 so far. I just didn't know if you already had a PCVR or not, so I figured I'd throw it out there. I just beat the game. It was solid. I really liked the last few levels.

Kommie wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzYcsD1PKiU

More Lies of P.... looks pretty bad. That first enemy was a sponge, and just like my criticism of the first gameplay video, the second encounter has so many mobs to make it Souls-Like. I'll try it on GamePass but so far it looks like a dud.

Lord of P looked so boring to me from the first gameplay demo. Plus do we really need another Souls-Like game? The market is so saturated with them nowadays.

Kommie wrote:

So update on Wo Long. I'm probably gonna drop it. I admit, it is a good game but the level design/gameplay loop, just like Nioh 2 is awful. Find flags in order to gain Fortitude, beat mid-tier bosses, and usually a boss at the end of the level. Repeat. Side missions are just as half-baked. Is Stranger of Paradise the same way @Feeb ? I may end up just returning my copy to Amazon.

Wo Long levels are pretty awful- mostly because they are longer, enemy dense retreads of Nioh imho. SoP has longer levels but they aren’t usually as convoluted / are straight forward except a few. It’s kinda trash until bosses TBH. Bosses are fun. Wo Long has definitely felt much better since I’ve learned the systems and leveled up magic etc.

I fudging hate Nioh, so Wo Long is gonna be a pass for me. Fired up Sekiro again, had a controller on the fritz when it came out and put it down due to that and never beat it. Going much smoother this go round and having a blast.

theyrhere wrote:

I played all of 20 minutes of Wo Long and realized it was just Nioh 3 and that was that for me.

Same. I played enough of the Nioh games to know they’re not for me unless my friends play coop with me on them.

I remember the lightning genichiro fight taking forever when I played before. Got it out in like 5 tries this time. I'm determined to beat Sekiro and Bloodborne finally this year. Beat all the Souls and Elden Ring, but these I never finished.

I could not beat Great Shinobi Owl.

Some bosses I definitely cheesed. Shinobi Owl was a fight where I just did a poke and run strategy.

The Old Owl in Sekiro I didn’t cheese but took me something around the upwards of 50 tries to topple. It was quite the exhausting fight. The final boss and its 4 stupid phases caused me to break my nice red PS4 controller too. Good times.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

Definitely my favorite boss. New game + final boss was the only one that gave me more trouble.

Ahhh, Sekiro ... I have wanted to replay, what a fantastic game. Sooo much frustration!

MrBean wrote:

It's way more fun when you come in kind of knowing wtf to do lol. Got to the guardian ape I think first time and I'm flying through this playthrough, definitely more in the groove of it now.

theyrhere wrote:

Yeah, I don't doubt it. My recent replay of DS3 and ER, were insanely easier due to simply having more knowledge. Yet, Sekiro definitely a league of its own in comparison. One of the few games that I Sadly cheesed a few bosses on. Be fun to revisit and play legit.

MrBean wrote:

Just clicking with the groove of parrying/combat and knowing to get the mikiri counter first absolutely changes how frustrating the beginning of the game is. Still died at a few points, but it didn't feel like I was bad at the game like last time.

I tried to cheese some of the bosses but most of the cheese techniques were harder for me to pull off than just learning the fights. I think I did something cheesy to the bridge boss though.

So I'm technically further than where I was last time. Still at the Guardian Ape, but have taken down O'Rin and the first Corrupted Monk, which I didn't last time.

This fudgein fight. I mean I feel I can win it (got to 1/2 health second phase), but what an exercise in focus. Haven't felt this burned out from the other bosses so far.

I struggled with the ape but eventually beat it. It was just the usual getting to know its pattern to avoid damage and getting hits in when you can. I'm sure I watched youtube videos that provided advice and encouragement.

Boss invasions for April fools, fantastic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/128t4d...

First Owl fight down, feels good. One prayer bead short of my 8th necklace. Gonna beat it this go round, I'm determined.

2nd ape fight was...a joke? Maybe hitting it so soon after the first gave me more insight, but honestly was expecting it to be harder.

Rolled credits on Sekiro. I did lock myself out of the 2nd memory unfortunately, but gave both frozen and dragon tears. Guess now that I have a PS5 Demon's Souls is next (played a good bit of the original last year, but let's be real it didn't age well)

Also, y'all thoughts on Tails of Iron? Ps+ free this month but I'm iffy on it just with the tutorials.

Tails of Iron was okay. Pretty easy from share I remember

Blasphemous 2. Sorrowful be the heart, penitent one.

New Star Wars souls soon. I don’t think I’ll play it until it’s on a service or discounted. Not looking forward to more of that honestly.

Get that Star Wars jank out of here, not souls like at all with that janky ass combat.

Not Souls Like... But FromSoft. Armored Core VI went up for prebuy with a pretty kickass collector's and premium editions! Was excited to pick it up, sold out, damn.

https://store.bandainamcoent.com/games/brands/armo...

Re opened

So, this seems ... interesting. I haven't dug too deep yet, but feels like a reason for a 3rd playthrough!

No idea when. Stupid Zelda, Diablo, and Final Fantasy getting in the way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiuOg0-1RKE&featur...

I was thinking of trying "Tails of Iron", Does anyone like that game?

bill wrote:

It's... Okay. Nothing special. Linear. Don't think it was hard at all.

A Lies of P demo dropped today, Is anyone trying it out? I will, eventually but it looks like a solid 7/10 that I will 100% drop based on gameplay I've seen already.

Kommie wrote:

I honestly thought it released a while back.

Nope. Gonna be on GamePass though, so no need to buy it.

I checked it out. Its okay. I don't like character movement/feeling. Its floaty, yet also clunky. Character has no weight to their movement. Moves like they are not connected to the ground. Yet moves very slow. Dodge has a very odd input delay which makes it almost impossible to use correctly in a fight. I hope this isn't the finished the product. Oh and it has that bad hidden mobs/jump scare attempt enemy placement going on.

Feeb wrote:

I think you are thinking of Steelrising. Another mediocre souls-clone set in a Victorian setting.

Archer wrote:

I liked that one. It was okay enough to beat. Not platinum though.

My issue with this one, from videos they've released is that there's massive mobs everywhere for that artificial difficulty and some enemies were massive sponges.

Steel rising was ok. Weird historically based story though.

Lies of P after a half hour. This is not good. There must be around 20 enemies around the first "bonfire" just to get the artificial difficulty up. Movements feel janky AF. Enemy attacks are super random and hard to gage. But mostly I feel the mob swamp of artificial difficulty.

From Software are the gold standard for a reason.

Kommie wrote:

Yeah, I couldn't get over how bad the movement was the whole time I was playing it.

Kommie wrote:

I’m with you. I didn’t even play a demo or anything to know by the early on gameplay trailers it’s immediately a let down and yet another cookie cutter SoulsBorne knock off. It stinks too cause I was kinda hoping this would be like a dark bloody action/horror esque take on Pinocchio without simply being another inferior Souls clone.

I'll see what reviews say at release but I'm expecting low 70-probably not cracking 80 for this on Meta/Open.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it landed in the low 60’s tbh.

Amazing they’ve floated it as something to anticipate for nearly 3 years- and I’m hearing the same things as I did from reveal trailers. Shouldn’t take this long for a cash grab to come to life.

Seems like a lot of From Software fans on Reddit seem to like it.... I don't get it. Maybe I'll give it another shot on release as I kinda find demos a partial waste of time.

I'm finally playing the Demon's Souls remake. It is good.

bill wrote:

I remember you being really into demons at some point. The remake is great.

The remake is amazing. Blue Point is one of the kings of remasters/remakes.

The music is so great. I listened to it in my car for a bit.

The Dark Souls games are finally on sale (haven't been on sale since Elden Ring came out) on Steam! Just forget Dark Souls 2 exists though.

I got Dark Souls for Switch when it was on sale last month. I played it a little and it seemed good. I'm hoping it will feel fresh playing it on a portable device. I want to finish Demon's Souls remake first.

Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woqus7bKfGc&t=566s

I'm at the endgame of Dark Souls 3 (just Nameless King, Kiln of the First Flame, Ringed City left) and honestly it's fun but worse than I remember. Wanna do a second quick DS2 run next.

And Nameless King down. It's a really, really good fight. Didn't beat it on my launch playthrough, which is the only other one I've completed

I'm in New Game Plus for Demon's Souls Remake, working toward getting the platinum. I still need to beat Fool's Idol without hitting a clone (missed it the first time around, before I got serious about trophies). I have all the rings. I have to kill the Maiden in Black this endgame. Otherwise, just mopping up All Spells/Miracles (will need to finish the game and do some of the next one).

NG+ has been a bit tough, partly because I'm at pure black character tendency to get that ring. I'm getting one-shotted in Depraved Chasm (5-1) by Depraved ones, especially if they gang up on me. But, I just beat the first boss, so I'm past it for now.

Grinding hasn't been bad at all. The gold coin and pure bladestone to get a couple new rings from Sparkly went pretty fast. Maybe I got lucky... though I did invest in the Sword of Searching.

I am a shameless boss cheeser. Poisoned Flamelurker, Old Hero, Allant. Others I've mostly used ranged magic on. I was trying to do a new cheese for Allant where you sort of pass through the fog door while aiming a bow and he never activates, but I either got stuck in the wall or he was active.

theyrhere wrote:

I go back and forth on how good DS3 is. Certainly not without issues but I try not to penalize due to how a game is optimally played.

DS3 actually has the only boss I didn't beat on my first playthrough as well. But for me it was Midir.

DS2 I've actually still only done once and I don't even have it installed. I did not particularly enjoy it but I've been debating another run as the first one was the standard beat it by any means necessary which involved a lot of magic. I kinda want to see what the game feels like with all melee.

Gypsy wrote:

I always do melee, not a fan of magic anytime I attempt a build. I never played the DS3 DLC, just the base game. Hated the first area of Ashes but the rest was great, and Friede is a top tier Souls boss, loved that fight.

My first run all bets are off but I almost always play the crap out of them so I know I'll be doing other runs. Before Elden Ring replays were relatively short once you have the game down.

I loved DS3 DLC the only lame boss was Halflight, Spear of the Church

The first DLC boss and the dragon in DS 3 were pretty rough.

Feeb wrote:

Friede, Midir and Nameless King all take some doing for sure. At this point I have Midir and NK down pretty well but Friede being 3 phases sometimes even now still gives me trouble.

Replaying DS3 for now, or until something else comes out I have a desire to play. Blasphemous 2, Sea of Stars, and Armored Core all next month. I might wait for a sale for Armored Core though

Gypsy wrote:

Friede was so much easier once I discovered Gael or whatever his name is summon sign

Ah yeah for sure. I did that to beat Friede the first time. On subsequent playthroughs I did not.

Remnant 2 came out, I want to eventually give it a go but was very disappointed with the first one.

What didn't you like about the first one?

I was into it for a bit, but got frustrated with it after realizing that all the grinding I was doing to upgrade my character was pointless because the world just got harder at the same time.

So, it seemed impossible to solo or just harder for no reason. Every boss had mobs to just make it seem hard. Also, enemies just seemed to literally spawn out of nowhere and there were just so many mobs it seemed like you had to play co op to really beat it. I'm just not gonna waste my time with all these trash mobs to beat something. And wherever it was I quit, the level design was just so bad/confusing. Supposedly 2 has fixed the trash mob/boss issue with one of the classes.

At first, I thought the generated/randomized levels were kind of cool. But, they had so little detail to them that it wore off fast too.
Yeah, I remember it being annoying that mobs would spawn with a boss. Lots of people complained about that. Other games do it sometimes too, but somehow it was just bad with this one.
I think Remnant had some interesting ideas in it, so I hope 2 is good/better.

Yeah, same feelings bill. Some neat ideas but hampered but issues. I'll still try 2 out at some point

They game felt like a bargain bin shooter to me.

Feeb wrote:

It is... $50 msrp

I also did not care for Dark Souls with guns and gave up on in pretty quickly. I have no interest in the second one. However, oddly, the same people made another game that is a prequel to Remnant that started as a VR only game and then was ported to non VR. And its actually pretty good (not sure about in VR I played the other version). Its called Chronos: Before the Ashes. Its pretty short, simple sword and board combat with some tripy levels. Its way better than Remnant.

This has a lot of promise. Looks the most like a Dark Souls game of any of the clones to date (and way better than their first version of this game). But they hide the UI and its impossible to say how it actually plays/feels without doing it yourself. But this video has me very interested in checking this game out now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7o_WyN43E

Wow this looks way better than the original LOTF. They pretty much said you know what? We’ll just make it Dark Souls nobody will notice but everybody noticed and that’s just fine. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it I guess. Even the music sounded very Soulslike. I may get this now eventually. I hated the original LOTF but this looks pretty much like I’d be playing a Dark Souls 4 or 5.

I have the first LotF ... never played it, worth it?

MrBean wrote:

I mean, check it out to see if you like it. But its very clunky and heavy and slow. Its like playing a Gears of War character in a souls game. Slows as fudge. But I enjoyed it for a bit back in the day. But, as with most all souls clones, I gave up on it and didn't really love it.

I am ready to be disappointed by a Souls clone again. Does look solid.

Gypsy wrote:

I'm always ready for good clones.

Too bad it almost never can be pulled off.

I mean this remake looks like a 1:1 Souls game though. I’m intrigued. Need a demo though to solidify my decision me thinks.

This looks good, watched some. The dual world reminds me of Legacy of Kain, not something I can recall seeing in other games.

Legacy of Kain…Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. A long time…

OH, I love dual-world games.

Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - had a dual world.

I could not get into LotF, but I did enjoy the same developers Surge games.

This Lords of the Fallen is a different developer, it looks like.

Yeah, both this Lords of the Fallen is by Hexworks. Surge is by Deck13. And I guess they did also do the original LotF as well. @bill you were correct.

I decided to give Remnant another shot. The first game, from the ashes. Its been about 3 years since I tried it. And its actually a lot better now. I'm kind of enjoying it. Although I still have a lot of grips and it makes me very angry at times with the insanely slow healing animations. They patched the hell out of it though. You don't move as slow/clunky as I remember. The shooting feels decent. And enemies that used to constantly spawn behind you seem to be very rare now. I've now put in 8 hours and its only happened once. Where as back then it was constantly happening. And the two early boss fights that spawned all the trash mobs, yeah they still do that. But its toned way down and I never felt overrun by them like back then. So they seem to have figured out balance for a solo player. They also seem to have taken player feed back about the world always leveling up with you and added caps/ranges to maps. So now when you enter an area it will spawn/lock that map to a level with a set range. Where as it used to just level up with you infinitely. Still not sure I'll finish it. But I'll give a go. Its getting better as find new guns/armor/mods/perks.

Archer wrote:


I gave it another shot way after launch and I enjoyed it up to a point..... then it got annoying with the mobs and level design.

How far did you get? Second world? Third world?

Can't really recall... Some outside environment that was red sand and a dungeon that just looked the same with annoying flying suicide mobs in close quarters

Archer wrote:

I've had this in my backlog forever it seems. You got me really wanting to try it out. I need to see how bad the Platinum is. I guess I can always check it out on an alt.

Pretty sure the Platinum requires a lot of RNG resets as some items are locked to certain worlds.

Yeah, all bosses and quests are pure rng. The game world is randomly seeded/generated each time you roll it. So you will have to re-roll the worlds over and over to get crap for the plat. And some of them will take a lot of luck to get. So it could take a long time to get the plat.

Each world has a two different end bosses. And one of them is heavily weighted to be given. The other seems to be rare. Each dungeon on a world is randomly selected when you enter the map for the first time. Some are more common than others. And some of them roll a chance to give you a quest inside them. So just because you get the dungeon that can spawn the quest, doesn't mean you will. There is also rings that are randomly seeded to be on the ground that are needed to complete two quests. And the spawn rate of them is very low. All these things are needed to get the rare traits, weapon mods and armor sets.

I've been on such a string of good games, but now I'm stuck on where to go next.

I started Aliens, BG3, Hogwarts, FFXII this week ... but nothing is ... scratching the itch.

I can't help but want to do a 3rd playthrough of Elden Ring, but I think maybe going back to a different game in the porfolio is better. Replaying something I've completed vs. a new game, never a great choice, but I feel like I'm needing something here.

Recently replayed DS3 as pure melee (typically always a caster), had a blast.

I would love to replay either Sekiro or Bloodborne, but playing on PC is more favorable with the upcoming kiddo (upstairs vs. downstairs).

So I'm debating between Dark Souls Remastered, and Dark Souls II. Both of these, only played once, and I barely remember either. DS2 though, I do remember bailing on in frustration and picked it up a year or so later, finished it, enjoyed it.

My gut is leaning towards DS2. Any strong opinion of DSR or DS2?

DS2. The end game and DLC have some of the coolest bosses in the series. I’d play the remaster scholar thing.

Feeb wrote:

This is a good point, I never did the DS2 DLC

I liked DS2 quite a bit. 100% it three times. It’s just different. Still good.

@MrBean - You may be the first person I've seen who has started BG3, that isn't gushing over it and playing it 10 hours a day.

Feeb wrote:

Yeah, everyone loves to rag on it. And rightfully so for most of it. But I still love it. Its just so different from the others. And I like how the world actually changes between NG cycles. There are also so many more weapon choices. And more magics.

The “hub” kinda feels special to me for some reason. The whole game feels like a DS theme park. It’s just fun and awful all in one. Lots of cool bosses.

Archer wrote:

I'm only like ... 30 minutes into it? haha, I spent over 3 hours creating a character (after starting over multiple times). I still think I'm gonna play it, just in a weird debate mode about what to invest into next.

There's just something about the Soulsborne itch, it always shows up it seems.

This is fun though. When I took apart my Alienware laptop recently to re-apply thermal grease (had some overheating issues), I broke my internal WiFi antennas. I didn't care, I'm on ethernet, and I had a spare USB WiFi adapter.

Yet, when trying to play DS2 just now, both the PS5 and Xbox Elite controllers ... keep randomly disconnecting. Mother f'er, I think the WiFi and Bluetooth connection is shared.

Christ, I do not want to take this thing apart again. To replace this, requires pulling the screen off too.

I've been building my own gaming PC's for ... 20 years. This was the first time I went laptop, because I was lazy, and more and more regretting it.

Ugh.

You could probably buy a usb bluetooth/wifi adapter to use instead of the built-in(broken) one.

I've been playing Dark Souls Remastered on Switch. It's good and nice to have it portable and easy to pause instantly.

bill wrote:

Yep, just ordered a BT 5.3 adapter ... sucks to have another stupid dongle, but ... yeti hands don't play well inside a laptop

Actually, crap, looks like there are combo WiFi/BT dongles, hrmmmm

@Kommie I've beaten Elden Ring, ftr. Do I need to prove it?

No. Added a double quitter to the list.

Yep, DS2 is a dick. So many unnecessary enemy placements, hiding everywhere!

Yup, it's a gank fest of epic proportions. You think you just killed all the enemies? Think again, they'll jump from above you or below you just to gank you and up the artifical difficulty up!

I mean, I'm having a blast ... 10 hours in, and I'm amazed at how much of this I remember. Thought I forgot it all, but this happens with any game I revisit.

I don’t remember ever thinking there were too many mobs- the point is to farm them anyway? A few runs of each area and you should remember where they are unless you’re just daft.

DS2 let you repair rings of sacrifice, right? That made DS2 a relaxing romp.

It has more builds and weapons. And that power stance thing too. It’s EZ mode DS.

Found out today about a game that instantly made me think of Dark Souls: Mortal Shell.

Had a cool feature implemented, where when you die, instead of going back, part of you hangs around and you move slower, but you have one more chance to defeat the enemy you were facing when you died, and if you defeat it, you can simply continue on as you were.

What I saw of the game had a lot of souls-like vibes.

Mortal Shell, to me is one of the best Souls like games out there.

It's short and does a lot of cool stuff without being too long.

I couldn't get into it. It was too slow. Movement was sluggish and the combat was super clunky and slow. I think I gave up after 30 minutes.

Same. Couldn’t get into Mortal Shell for the life of me. Felt way too clunky. Reminded me of the original Lords of the Fallen and I turned it off a sold it in about a week.

Archer wrote:

Same. I wanted to try it again, but haven't...

Mortal Shell is slow, definitely at least a 2 hour learning curve or so, but the game is pretty short if you can get over some issues.

DS2 ... the damn chariot boss, what a crap show. If you die, the run back is a giant pain in the dick because as you're zoning in, the aggro'd mobs beat you to death. Forgot about this guy.

Just keep trying. The mobs in DS2 eventually stop respawning.

I may have to start giving games I initially don't like another shot at later dates more often. Because as I posted a few weeks ago I gave Remnant from the ashes another shot. I completed it, and enjoyed it. It has issues, but I had fun with it. And this honestly isn't the first game I've tried to go back to later and liked after initially hating it. I liked this one so much I actually bought Remnant 2 with some xbox credit I had. And I really enjoyed that, far more than the first one. They added classes, called archetypes. That have skills. And you eventually unlock the ability to use two at once. Creating a hybrid and using skills from each one. They really improved the melee in it as well. Melee in the first was horrific. The RNG was tonned way down. And they got rid of the "every boss spawns a billion adds". Most of them still spawn adds, but they are only a couple at time. And that is a good thing. As they drop ammo. However, one world does have the enemy spawn behind you b.s. But only one of them, and its only on the first open over-world map segment. The enemies are flying robots, and they are annoying. But easy one shot kills that don't do any real damage to you. So its not as bad. And there is a really cool world that is 100% Yharnam, with a twist. I enjoyed that world so much I ran it on adventure mode a whole bunch.

DS2 ... is vastly easier than I remember it being. Reality is, none are truly 'hard' (I'd say I had the hardest time with Sekiro), but I had it in my head that DS2 was the hardest of the DS series. I just remember putting it down upon release as I got stuck in a stupid water area with casters pegging me from a mile away, that I just couldn't pass. Came back like 6 months later, and made it right past. No clue what that was all about.

Yeah, there's a lot of cheap crap, but once you know the areas, not overly difficult. The bosses are a joke (so far). 18 hours in, at Earthen Peak (with I think everyone done up to this point, and even some stuff after), but overall it's generally been a breeze. Still a damn good time though, really excited to see the DLC. No idea where/when it is or how to get there. Figure at some point I may look that up.

Level 95, went Hexer this time as my last few Souls games I've been melee. Yet, even though my stats are more focused on spell casting, i'm finding that melee'ing mobs and bosses, is easier. Just a few minutes ago, the last boss (lame ass worm thing?) + a recent dark knight (drops twinkling), I died casting ... yet, smacked with my lame fireword, never got hit. Debating a respec and going heavy str, but fun having a bit of both worlds. I have to assume I'm gonna need a new melee weapon soon as I'm still rocking a Flame Longsword (+5 atm).

I definitely want to go back and play DS1, as I never did the remaster - no clue what if anything is different? Just graphics?

Wonder when/if we'll get Dark Souls 4.

Dark Souls 2 is a step up in everything except world and story imo- if there is any clarity to the lore of DS it went out the window with 2. Rose colored glasses - folks are so defensive of Demons and DS 1 they just gotta ignore this.

I think DS1 remaster is mostly about better resolution/framerate and porting to Switch/ps4. I guess it has some minor changes (much of it online stuff). It's definitely not as pretty as the Demon's Souls remake was.

I had played the Demon's Souls remake as a magic-user/Intelligence. I'm playing DS1 remaster as a Cleric/Faith. The mage still had to use weapons often, but it has some powerful magic attacks. My Cleric is mostly melee with some ability to use miracles (some ranged lightning and a close AOE).

I'd say playing mage is harder because you're more of a glass canon, powerful ranged attacks but killed easily up-close. My cleric can facetank most stuff and doesn't die so easily.

MrBean wrote:

They've been saying for a while they don't want to make another souls game anytime soon. They don't want to just be the souls dev. They want to do other projects. So if there ever was a dark souls 4, it probably wont be for a long time. They are about to release a new Armored Core game, people seem to be hyped about that. I've never been a fan of those games.

I assume Elden Ring 2 is much more likely. Dark Souls is so last week.


p.s.

I just beat 4 kings on the first try, lol. I recall being so frustrated trying to kill them in the past.

After beating Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe on Switch with my Little, 2D Kirby games are a PG version of Elden Ring with all the Mini and Major Boss fights. The levels simple then Boss fights of varying difficulty. Most of the time Multiple per stage.

Kirby kinda a Nintendo Badass.

Ahhhh, made it back to the zone that made me bail last time on DS2 -- Shrine of Amana. Infinitely easier this time ... because I have a damn bow, and I stocked up on poison arrows.

Overall, having a blast, way easier this time. Leveling is happening way too fast. Level 145 after 33 hours.

Can't wait to get to the DLC's. Anyone recommend doing them sooner? I was gonna wait until right before end game to do them.

I've only beat the base DS2 once. I'm trying Scholar now but I'm really not enjoying it. Never really enjoyed Forest of Fallen Giants in any try with this game.

Two people playing DS2 DLC for the first time?

image

Yah, it's rare I do DLC's in most games as once I'm done with them, always a challenge to go back. Best way to do it though, is years later, to replay the game vs. only doing the dlc. Yet ... I still haven't done Forbidden West DLC and I don't foresee replying that in full, I'll just do the DLC there at some point.

I really had a blast revisiting DS3, and and now 2. DS1 is definitey on the horizon, followed by Bloodbourne (didn't do DLC on either).

Sekiro didn't have DLC right?

Hopefully Elden Ring will be soon!

DS2 Scholar was my first Souls game. I have fond memories of it minus the last boss fight which was easily cheesed. Bloodborne was my first SoulsBorne game though that got me into the series and it’ll still be my all time favorite. Gothic atmospheric horror at its finest. Ya just never forget your first.

my favorite content of all games in souls series including BB is the DLC. Some of it is… challenging.

Feeb wrote:

I've heard this ... I loaded up my original BB save, and didn't recognize like any of it. It's insane how that happens. Yet as soon as I start playing old games, everything comes back. I've remembered damn near most of DS2, which was a decade ago. Yet now I'm in areas that I'm not properly remembering.

Anyway, yeah, I think BB may be next for the replay games. I've wanted to play the DLC for quite some time. Shame that it's still not on PC.

The Bloodborne DLC was incredibly challenging. Especially the one boss by the beach. I forget the name but I think it would be a lot more manageable with a remaster because playing the game now without a steady framerate is rough. That’s the main reason for me and my friend dying so much when we played the DLC coop. Those damn inconsistent eye frames.

Orphan of Kos is rough.

It took my awhile to get that fight figured out.

Nearing the end of DS2. Have the final zone to go (Throne of Want), Darklurker (I don't remember if I fought him last time), and then DLC.

My God there's an insane amount of gear and optional stuff in this game!

I'm pretty interested in checking out AC6 at some point. It's sounding pretty good.

https://www.engadget.com/armored-core-vi-fires-of-...

Yeah AC6 is on my list hit too. Looking forward to it.

Well, of all Souls games ... that may have been the biggest kick in the balls.

Fudging invaded enroute to Aldia, got cheese dicked, and lost 225k souls ... great way to roll into end game pre-DLC's.

Son of a dog.

I'm in Ringed City on my first DS3 DLC playthrough. This crap is brutal

theyrhere wrote:

That was a blast going back to that years later! Love that armor set.

Wow, sooo ... DS2, was pretty damn easy the whole way through. Got to the first DLC ... and it really steps up the game! I'm questioning my whole build at this point!

MrBean wrote:

I remember rolling into the DS2 DLC for the very first time at like level 240 something. Pure magic user. And getting my ass handed to me by every single enemy. I couldn't do any damage, and everything was 1-2 hitting me. I had to go respec into a pure melee build. I also remember having the exact same experience with the DS3 DLC as well.

DS3 DLC was awesome, but on my replay as I was pure melee and it was pretty easy.

In DS2 I'm hybrid (hex + melee). After I got situated, it got better, but still much more challenging. I do debate rerolling heavy strength, gonna keep pushing though. Haven't had a lot of time.

Still, I have no idea how the dlcs rank. I think I'm in sunken king? The one with all the poison mobs and ghosts. Made it to a boss this morning, died twice, hopefully revisit tonight.

I'm just glad this is actually a challenge. Hoping maybe I can upgrade change gear at some point. Been rocking the same setup for too long.

Release order was pyramid /caverns (sunken king), fire (iron king) ice (ivory king)

The first one was the hardest for me by far. Lots of ranged to get through it easier. Layout of the areas was confusing and often labyrinthine. Quite a few optional bosses too.

Yah I'm in Sunken then. There's tons of small areas, been trying to navigate all of them but found myself running through a bit too. The ghosts are dickheads. I made it the boss at the bottom of a bunch of platforming... Crap what was her name (I'm at the hospital with the kiddo). She summons skeletons and another big dude. Got her down to about 10%.

Iron King DLC way easier/quicker.

I thought for sure Fume Sword was gonna be one more weapon to use ... but nope, doesn't seem to be that great. Gdamnit, feels like I've been rocking the same gear for more than half the game. Hard to change it out, especially with so little left in the game.

- Dark Sunset Staff + 5 / Dark Silverblack Spear + 10 / Dark Crypt Blacksword + 5
- Defender's Shield (debating swapping for King's Shield) / Dragonriders Bow / Lightning Bow of Want
--- Haven't upgraded the bows, really just use them for pulls and/or poison procs.
- Black hood (recently got Chaos Hood, may swap and upgrade)
- +10 on Lion Mage set

I've picked up so many awesome weapons, traded in tons of boss souls ... but this combo just works. I debate swapping out the Crypt Blacksword for something with more reach (Fume UGS maybe), but the thing just hits like a tank ...

Ah well, almost done, might as well just plow through and stop worrying about gear.

Wow, Sir Alonne (Iron King DLC) - by far hardest boss in game! I'm feeling really poorly specc'd for this fight!

bill wrote:

I played through it, and then dipped back to the PS3 game. I think I like the original music a lot better ("worse" but more memorable), but it's pretty incredible how these games feel just about identical.

I probably turned the music off for both (I do this with all games), so didn't notice that.
Yeah, I was impressed how it was the same game, but much nicer looking.
I played the Dark Souls remaster after Demon's remake and it was just the same game without looking nicer.

In general, very impressive game presentation. A few of the fun quirks of the original being missing aside, definitely a nice standard for remasters. One of the reasons I like the re-polishes of stuff like Quake (just finished for the first time the other day) and Diablo is that they take the literal "just polish it up" take, but stuff like D2 Remaster and DeS PS5 when handled properly are totally solid. As opposed to the GTA Trilogy re-crap.

DS Remake seemed more like it was done to get the framerates up for the masses, the much smoother presentation was definitely welcome, but I can appreciate that too, price being appropriate. I think DS was mostly fine as is, just sorta stuck on bad platforms and not running very well, which is mostly fixed now.

This actually got me interested in seeing how nice I could get DeS looking on PC, turns out pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q54xoiSUFO8

1440p60, very enjoyable smooth DeS experience.

Well, since I can't get to my DS2 save on the Ally, decided to start DSR.

Wow, the memories coming back! Again, haven't played since release, never did DLC. I always think I've completely forgotten games, but as soon as you're back to it, it's like riding a bike.

Hate that you can't fast ascend/descend ladders.

Pretty sure you can fast ascend/descend. Hold the run button+up or down.

Also pretty sure it also doesn't have Cloud Saves

Kommie wrote:

Well maybe I'm dumb I'll go back to it at some point today but when I was playing it wouldn't let me fast move up or down the ladder. Also yes it does appear to have Cloud saves from what I just read. I hope that's true because I don't want to spend a few days playing and have to start over.

You can slide down by holding the run button without any direction button being pressed. But you can not speed up moving up a ladder in dark souls remastered.

You tap the O button while on a ladder to slide down.

I also had that odd feeling of the game being familiar, but not fully remembered. I walked right into a few traps that I should have remembered better, for example.

It was fun to replay. I skipped a lot of stuff, though.

Haha, the f'ing Capra Demon. My God I remember absolutely hating this fudgeer before!

Fighting the Capra Demon in that little tight ass area was all kinds of rude.

Ugh, didn't realize black knights don't respawn and I needed humanity to raise drop rates. Rocking the drake sword at the moment (from killing the tail of the bridge dragon), but woulda loved to have gotten the black knight sword. Bummer.

You need that covetous ring from Sen's to properly farm.

Did some save scumming late night. Got halberd and sword. Sif was much easier as melee.

Not yet sure what to do with the hydra. Pretty sure I cheesed him with spells last time.

I totally skipped Hydra. I think I read you can just punch it or something.

They actually fixed the hydra cheese in the remaster. Both at the lake and the ashen lake.

There are many cheese videos for DS1 remaster on youtube.
They are kind of funny (some seeming harder than just fighting the boss).
I saw one for Capra that involved throwing tons of firebombs at just the right spot (using bow aiming) from outside the boss fog door. Honestly, it seems like it might be more fun to try the cheeses since they seemed tricky to do.
I guess I just like cheesing bosses.
Boss battles are not why I like Souls games... I love poisoning them the best, fudgeers.
isn't that ironic? Don't you think?

Playing both DS1 and DS2 at the same time, many years later... Really makes you appreciate the world design of 1. I'm only like 10+ hours into 1, and in the last DLC of 2, but man is 1 just better regarding the network of areas. Loving this all over again!

I have no clue what or when the DLC is for 1, but looking forward to it.

Also, the Rog Ally was totally designed for a Souls game. Absolutely perfect platform to play on when away from home.

bill wrote:

Haha, I laughed, needed that! =)

I don't want to look too far ahead but torn on weapons. First play through of DS1 I was primarily caster. Going heavy str/dex this time. Loving both Black Knight Halberd and Sword. I can do an initial upgrade (twinkling) but don't wanna blow my mats. Quick Google looks like Halberd is the superior choice but I do prefer swords more. Just not sure if these will be replaced soon or not.

I always do this in these games. Hoard mats, then later find out they're plentiful and I was handicapping myself for hours.

Gdamn do I love these games.

I think you need to pick str or dex to focus on. Ultimately the upgrade path you pick will be based on 1 stat.
You can blow twinkling on a weapon you are using. Commit to one until mid-early-late game, then you'll need to do the upgrade path for the stat you like to do better.

I did a Faith build when I played last month. I started with Astoria's straight sword. I think I took it too +4 (using twinkling I got from the crow and from a couple early lizards or something). No regrets, worked well for me. I think the Drake sword can be similar for early/mid game.

Then, I started going after divine, so did the locations to get the first ember then the next one (butterfly in the forest then ToG via catacombs). I went a bit nuts setting things up to get the maggot helmet thing and saving Solaire (plus I was sun bro for faith miracle lightning). But I had to do the spider covenant to open the shortcut, etc.

I remember for magic-based character, my priority for location was different to get the magic embers and such.

But also, you want the lordvessel just to get the travel stuff too, so yeah...

Honestly, I didn't do Sif until late game and he was easy by then.

I agree DS1 was just put together well in so many ways. The connections between areas and the upgrade paths being tied to locations and such all made it interesting (and different depending on stat focus)...

MrBean wrote:


Look it up or you'd be probably like 90% or higher to miss it tbh

bill wrote:

Yeah I never do the cheese stuff or even really look it up. So like the thing you guys mentioned about the Hydra, I had no idea that was even a thing you could do lol.

bill wrote:

Agree unless he is really going to overlevel but I find that boring. I think the game is actually remarkably balanced around natural progression. The world connectivity is definitely nice for this as well. If you are struggling somewhere you can often try another area. I also think DS1 is probably the best balanced around SL1 runs but maybe that's largely because it's the easiest game. I'm not fully sure but this is something I think about way too much.

I usually just grab a long sword to fully upgrade with whatever scaling / element I want. Very balanced weapons for casters and at the end of the line I feel like I get more out of normal weapons than special ones. If I’m using a heavy armor melee build I always want the prettiest lights.

MrBean wrote:

What about the rog ally is designed for a souls game as opposed to the switch or steam deck?

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.

Hrm, 12 years ago was clearly a bit ago, but I don't remember Gwyn being so easy in DS1. Maybe it was because I was full blown caster back then, or that the Dark Knight Halbred is a bit OP'd, or both? Either way, 3 flasks later and he dead ...

Didn't use any boss souls, didn't kill Gwyndolin, and didn't get all Etsus upgrades (I hate killing NPC's).

Time to go finish the last DLC in DS2, then hopefully onto AC VI before Spiderman.

The real final boss was in the DLC the whole time :p Gwyn was a pushover, long as you mastered the shield parry (you know... to farm the Black Knight Sword!) he poses no threat

DarkFact wrote:

Pretty much. I'd say multiple DLC bosses are more challenging.

DarkFact wrote:

I mean, Artorias was decent, died once ... definitely a bit harder than the others, but overall the DS1/DS2 bosses are incredibly easy with a strong melee build. I remember having a much more difficult time on these bosses as a caster.

Parry and Riposte are just so insanely overpowered. Prior playthroughs as magic, I had no idea how amazing these were!

Gypsy wrote:

I'd say this was especially true with DS3.

Hoping we get this with Elden Ring and now just more re-skins!

I thought the dragon in the DS DLC was much harder than the pit boss etc.

Feeb wrote:

After you have the giant shoot him down? He's super easy, all the moves are predictable and easily dodged or blocked. I spent too much damn time just trying to cut his tail off. Had to keep baiting him, pain in the ass!

Kalameet is beefy. Overall all the bosses in DS1 are pretty easy but a lot of the DLC was a precursor to the harder bosses in 3. Artorias almost feels like a DS3 boss just in terms of the movement.

Wasn’t the demon guy in the awful pit area the last boss of the DLC? I remember there was a range cheese for it.

Feeb wrote:

Manus? Yah he was super disappointing for being the last boss of the DLC, cool boss though. I still don't know if I understood the story of why that woman was on the ground at the end of the fight. The story in these always confuse me. Gotta rely on YT to treat me like I'm 5.

Feeb wrote:

Yeah. If you don't do the cheese method then you really need to get the item that repels some of his attacks.

MrBean wrote:

Lmao what? Manus is an insane boss fight if you don't find that item. Or at least he was when I played it ~4 years ago. Got me wanting to run through DS1 again, dammit.

Manus was a first attempt boss and quite easy.

Just looked it up. The silver pendant? I had the item but didn't use it. Manus only used the black hex spell thing once and I rolled around it if memory serves.

MrBean wrote:

Oh he was spamming the crap out of the attack you need the pendant for in my attempts.

I one shotted a few bosses last time (Nito, 4 kings for sure I remember being proud of)

theyrhere wrote:

Interesting. I just watched a video of him and comments made mention that their attempt he wasn't as aggressive. Perhaps it's a RNG?

I stayed on his ass and he went down really easy. After I've moved away from casting to melee in most of my recent playthroughs, I've to appreciate that just playing aggressively, is so much easier. Stay on them, at all times, and typically roll into their attacks. I do realize the Black Knight Halbred is definitely OP'd, but the fight was not difficult regardless.

You boys got me thinking about another SL1 run. Maybe some extra stipulations.

Gypsy wrote:

I debate this. Never done one myself, but seems like it'd be fun and actually challenging.

I think DS1 plays really well on SL1. Definitely worth doing if you really enjoy the game. There are general strats that get you pretty damn powerful as well. Actually insane some of the things you can do at level 1. Also worth mentioning though it may be obvious, only Deprived is actually level 1, so you have to chose that.

OK, this recent run of starting DS2, taking a break for DS1, now back to DS2 ... is ROUGH.

I have such little left of DS2 to do (in Iron Passage now, have the Smelter Demon to kill - the run to the boss is fudging stupid), then onto the Winter DLC.

Everything feels ... slugish, and crazy weak. I'm more than 2x my level from DS1 in DS2, and I'm just a big floppy turd in DS2.

Well Dark Souls 2 blows. That's why

It felt a lot better starting at DS2 a month ago though, I was really enjoying it, now ... I'm not enjoying it nearly as much. Just want to finish it, but this fudging run back to the Demon is insane where you either have you to fight a fudge lot of enemies (that massively slow you down, so you can't roll), or you try to dash through a fire shooting bullcrap contraption while multiple dickheads swing axes at you. It's like a 1 in 10 success rate. This is dumb.

Well crap, I never knew what those white circles were. Pretty cool concept for something that was probably never really realized or utilized.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=svCZ2iatmKc

Welp, that was fun. Second run, years later with DLC, done for both DS1 and DS2. It was fun playing them in parallel and seeing the differences. All in all, DS2 isn't that bad. Biggest gripe is stamina management.

100+ hours between the two, don't feel ready to go back to other games. Debate a 3rd DS3 run, or possibly a 3rd Elden Ring adventure. I'm no ta big fan of NG's vs. a restart/rebuild. Probably best to hold out for Elden Ring's DLC at this point.

Time to go check out Armored Core before this next wave comes out (Mario, MK, Spiderman, Lords of Fallen).

Armored core is a breath of fresh air. BG3 has pulled me away this week. Cancelled my preorder for physical blasphemous 2- won’t be playing that for a long while. Not many souls like on my radar as of now.

I found my old copy of Lords of the Fallen and fired it up just to see.

I mean, I didn't get to play much, but the beginning shows a loooot of promise. What I played was awesome lol

Who else up in Lies of P

theyrhere wrote:

I downloaded it, but haven't checked it out yet. I was not impressed with the demo.

theyrhere wrote:

I have the original, never played. Hoping new one is awesome!

Archer wrote:

I mean I'm kinda busting one rn but if you don't like it, that's fine. Parries (or perfect guards) are not as easy as they make it out to be, and the combat has a flow I haven't quite gotten used to yet, but really liking it

Lies of P seems to be exceeding expectations in most reviews.

I played some Lies of P. The Perfect Guards are annoying as the attacks are so delayed. I beat the first boss though. Once I beat Sea of Stars I'll focus on Lies of P.

But one thing I do not like is how it's trying to focus on a story, can't stand it when Souls likes try to force a story and not have it be a background thing. And you can't skip cut scenes, which makes it worse.

Damn, I thought Lies of P wasn't supposed to be good ... GameStop had a Deluxe Edition that's now 3x price, of course.

Found a ps4 copy of Lies of P at best buy. A few hours in. It’s not much different than steelrising so far. All of these games look the damn same.

Yeah which is why I’m kinda over them. I mean good for Lies of P for being decent but I’m all kinda tuckered out with Souls clones at this point. Wake me when it’s time to play Elden Ring 2.

Something just feels slightly *off* with Lies of P. I think the biggest difference between it and a From game is it really lacks the same atmospheric sense of dread. Somewhat hard to explain but did the best I could there. Would rather just play Bloodborne instead out of 10.

It wants to be sekiro but that scheme felt so flawless. This feels off. Timing issues etc. the starting weapons have a pretty big balance issue etc.

I’m confused why this one cooked for so long…

Lies of P feels very jank, again I'm going go back to it but it's so weird seeing people be all "it's good!' just cause it's a not-so-awful soul-like-ish clone.

The dodge is odd, the perfect guard is timing is jank. The game definitely wants you to always perfect guard.

It definitely forces the perfect guard- and that sucks because it doesn’t feel like the timing is on. The dodge and even block almost feel like they are dropping frames to work at times- the windows are so narrow- I’m warping into a block / roll- yikes. It’s very hard to judge boss hit boxes and range of your attack as well. I swung at nothing for a bit thinking I was getting hits on a few bosses. Boss patterns also feel very random. I’ve never been one to memorize a boss but I’ve always relied on the obvious patterns. I love the improv but it’s weird as well.

Man, never saw a vagrant in DS, didn't even know this was a thing. These, gravelord, resonance... DS1 did things no others in the series did that is a shame. Wish they'd bring some of these mechanics into Elden Ring.

https://youtu.be/Xqg6FeRe0I4

Surprised to hear all the dislike for Lies of P. I'm absolutely loving it and can't put it down

BJB wrote:

It’s still got that addictive souls formula. It’s scratching that itch.

Someone sell me their Deluxe Edition!

So 3 hours into Lies of P and the same stuff I criticized about the shown gameplay footage is still there. Enemy mobs are in lots of cheap places. Hey, look an enemy I can backstab! Nope cause there's a hidden out of sight enemy around the corner you can't see. Enemies on rooftops throwing crap at you. Enemies hanging off a ledge to jump up. I went around a corner and saw a item on the end of a plank. But guess what! An enemy above, behind and slightly out of sight that throws crap at you. It's very similar to the stuff I don't like about Dark Souls 2. There are mini bosses who are sponges and have the most janky movements.

Steelrising was way better than this and was way less talked about on release. It's like people are desperate for another Souls like and are forcing themselves to like it..... I don't think I'm gonna continue with this one.

I'm probably in the last 1/4th of the game and personally have not had any difficulties with enemy mobs or blindside flanks. It helps to be methodical with your advancing. I've found Lies of P to be much more linear than other Souls games and not nearly as hard. Certainly don't feel like I'm forcing myself to like it, but to each their own

I'm slowly going through Lies of P, not a ton of time now, but I'm loving it. Just beat the donkey head dude. His attack patterns were a little hard to block but the flow was nice

Aw damnit, just got notification that Lords of Fallen CE ships next week. Debate if I should cancel but if the game is great, will be bummed not to have the CE. The little I've looked at it, seems pretty damn solid.

I was on the verge of a third DS3 run, but gonna hold out to see how this is. Then there's Lies of P too. Gah, when will Spiderman 2 have time?

Started lies of p. Has my interest. Just got to first boss and had my first death (killed him on round 2).

Love the dummy to test attacks on, being able to pick up your ergo outside of boss fight, and ability to refill a potion. Nice changes from Souls games.

Combat feels a bit blan so far but only assuming this gets better.

MrBean wrote:

I’m not sure why they decided to gate most of the best skills with 4 main bosses. But give it a bit to get going. The first 3 bosses or so are pretty rough because you’re very bare bones combat wise. It gets much better and varied.

So, I'm really bad at Armored Core VI. I'm like 2 hours in and still can't quite beat the tutorial boss. It is (not that I'm surprised) completely different from Elden Ring. I actually appreciate the quicker movement options, but dodging bombs and bullets is much trickier in some ways than dodging swords, etc.

Returnal was like that for me. I liked it, but I sucked at dodging the projectiles.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Try to get up in his face with your rush and melee occasionally. Get hits in while you’re hovering and falling then get behind the buildings. Repeat.

I actually didn’t realize you could melee the helicopter lol. That might help. Thanks!

Feeb wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Early game that melee is devastating. I moved away from it pretty fast but if you can handle the motion and don’t get disoriented it’s good.

Lies of P is pretty solid so far. Love how you can reassemble weapons but so far the starting dex (rapier) is still winning for me.

About to take on Puppet of the Future.

Hope I can knock this out before Lords of Fallen.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Hide behind a building during the missiles, then go melee. Took me a few tries till I realized this and it cake afterwards.

I was super interested in this until I saw the price, damn.

https://store.bandainamcoent.com/elden-ring-messag...

MrBean wrote:

Now if it said, "Finger, but Hole", or "you don't have the right; O you don't have the right", then maybe.

Archer wrote:

Haha absolutely!

12 hours into Lies of P - it's better than anticipated. I finally moved away from the starting Rapier to a boss ergo weapon - Etiqutte. Hard to say if it was worth as If I kept upgrading my original (was only at +3), I think it would hit harder - even though I used a crank to get Etiqutte to S rank. Perhaps I just need to start focusing more stats into Technique. May need to stop and find a farming spot at some point, but haven't yet.

All in all, good game though. It's relatively easy, which is nice for time consumption, but a bummer from a challenge side. Trying to play completely blind - minus kinda peaking at head for weapons to determine when/if to upgrade current.

The special weapons outclass the normals pretty substantially imo. The scythe is nuts.

I played through the vast majority of the game with the Electric Coil Stick and the Salamander Dagger while randomly sprinkling in some of the Two Dragons Sword and the Acidic Crystal Spear. And then the final boss I defeated with the Uroboros' Eye

I didn’t figure out that the move set of the scythe and the seven coil spring sword were ridiculous OP until my second run. The sword has a crazy running jump heavy attack that is almost a guaranteed hit- and a ranged fable art wave / beam- the scythe charge attack has ridiculous wide and long range and can take out a whole screen.

I played my first run with saber blade on the great sword of fate handle. Definitely much more difficult than it had to be.

I'm salty that I wasted cranks on the etiqutte. The damn salamander blade on acid spear is legit the star. Got the scythe recently and it's cool, but the aforementioned is still superior.

I like the scythe better because of the scaling. I don’t use advance at all.

I think I used a single crank my entire playthrough on the Electric Coil Stick. I don't believe they stack by the way. Only one can be attributed to a weapon at a time

Yes. They also reduce other scaling. If you watch the damage it only changes drastically if you’re ridiculous in one stat versus others.

Yah my 25 technique with an S etiqutte doesn't out damage my other B/C weps. I keep having to dump more into capacity. Gotta focus on tech now to actually take advantage of the crank but by the time it's worth it, I'll have the twin swords which seems to be the best technique weapon.

So yah, wasted a crank.

Cranks are plentiful later. I think you can buy as many as want at one point.

Lords of the Fallen honestly looks really good.

Grand Exhibition all of the sudden feels like a big jump. I hit like a wet noodle now and getting my ass handed to me. Wonder if I need to respec.

Kommie wrote:

Yah, I'm hopeful this is awesome. Really don't want to start until done with Lies of P thiugh. Couple late nights ahead for me!

MrBean wrote:

Be sure to use the grinder for fire or elec. and use the quartz to get more uses. Throwables help a bit too. If you don’t have the puppet string? Launch move get that too. It’s great.

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