Dark Souls Discussion [Prepare to Die]

I can't believe that people actually want to be mad. I understand the appeal of difficult games, but if a game is frustrating then it shouldn't be enjoyable.

 

Some of us enjoy a challenge.

 

Something can be difficult without being frustrating.

 

^That. Plus I loved Demons Souls.

Anyway, went in to ask them to hold a rental copy of the game for when it comes out on Friday. And they've apparently never heard of it. This is the first time they've ever not gotten a game I want in.

I really don't want to have to buy it just to play it...

 

I'll be renting dark souls as I did demon souls. Great game I just finish games just to fast.

 

Hate to be "that guy", but there's already a thread about this. Oh well, not even an admin said anything, so it probably doesn't matter.

I do want this game though, but I probably won't end up getting it until next year after I've played Skyrim to death. Don't want to start investing in this game only to abandon it when Skyrim comes out, because I will drop everything for that game. Price will have dropped by then, and there'll be tonnes of those player hint things around as well. I know there's some devious bastards around that will send you into a trap, but most of the players will likely be helpful.

Hopefully.

 

So I rented this.

I played quite a bit of Demons Souls, loved it. It was tough. But holy ****, this game is a whole new kind of ****ing punishing.

Sometimes the game just feels completely impossible, and you feel stuck into a corner. And then you either break out, barely keeping your life, or you find another super special awesome path and try again.

A good example of what I'm like with video games is Enslaved. I bought it weeks ago, and hadn't died the whole game. On the last level, I died. Haven't picked up the game in 3 weeks.

Dark souls- Die, retry. Retry. RETRY. Take a different route. Die. DIE. DIE WHAT THE **** IS THIS SHI-...Wait I got it.
While that doesn't usually sound so good, the game pulls it off. That plus the sheer immensity of both the game world, and all the content in it is amazing.

And the game leaves it to the player to discover EVERYTHING. Your only pointers? Other players. The online experience is magical.

Anyway, great game. I'll probably buy it next week.

 

My only, and biggest gripe with this game: It wont let you be in party chat AT ALL while playing. Which ****ing sucks, because I always talk to my 2 best friends over the xbox while gaming.

 

I wasn't going to buy this game until about midway through next year, but I ended up getting it yesterday. It's pretty good so far, I just got flown over on the raven and went down the secret path elevator right at the start, found a secret door, went over some bridges, amassed about 3000 souls, found, what I thought was, a dead dragon with some corpses in front of if, went to explore. BAM! Dragon woke up, killed me and I lost all those souls. Took me about 5 minutes of timing to get them back from my bloodstain, but it was still fun. Managed to get a better sword in the process too.

Question though, are most of the msgs in the ground from players or did the developer put them there? Because I'd like to place some msgs of my own, but can't figure out how, which is why I'm thinking the dev put them there.

 

Someone doesn't understand the game all too well.

The first few messages are written by Devs and placed in the game. The rest of the messages are written by players. I think the first place you can buy the item that lets you actually write and rate messages is in the merchant up north of the undead church.

Which is the way you're going to want to be heading, the other paths are way too difficult for a low level character.

 

So, I've ended up going along to the Undead Church, and, with some bad advice from some asshole who left a message, I killed the first merchant. After I bought things from him, though. I got the message stone thing and have left a few helpful messages of my own. I did get a cool sword, the Ugitacha or something. Kinda regret it now, because I can't buy bolts from him to get the Drake sword. Not all bad though, killed a Knight monster a little after the first dragon on the bridge and got his massive ass sword that has the same amount of damage as the Drake sword, but it needs 32 strength to handle correctly.

Here's a tip for killing Knights that I found out though, try and fight them on a set of stairs. It is extremely cramped, but their levitation causes their attack animations to go over your head if you are below them. Simply wait for one to attack, move back down the stairs a little so the attack misses you, then run up and slash away. Repeat until Knight is dead.

Note: I've only done this once, but it seems like it's fairly reliable... unless the enemy has a ground-pound attack. May still work, you'd just have to move back a little further. I'll experiment on the Knight in the tower before the Taurus Demon mini-boss on the bridge and post results here.

 

I don't think I've ever liked a game so much that frustrates me as much as Dark Souls. It's so hard to tell whether I just haven't figured out how to kill the enemies in a certain area or if I'm not supposed to go that way. The master key doesn't help this as it seems to only open doors that lead to impossible places for which you later find a key when you are a proper level.

The biggest problem I have with the game is when my sword hits a wall and completely negates my attack. I would think that since the developers allowed this, you could determine which side to swing the sword from or something, but you are forced to either reposition yourself in an area, or move to a bigger area. The ragdoll bodies are also annoying. At first, it's kind of fun to kick around hollows like hockey pucks, but the bigger enemies are just frustrating, as half the screen can be obscured by a giant floppy knight that somehow managed to get stuck between my shield and armor.

The challenge presented by Dark Souls really does provide you with a sense of accomplishment, though. When you finally beat that boss or miniboss, or when you go back through an area that gave you trouble before and just annihilate everyone, you feel like a total bamf.

 

^That's one of the biggest appeals of the game.

Yeah, I killed the merchant by accident yesterday. Smacked the shoulder button just after buying a bow, so I couldn't get any arrows. ****.

Anyone know where i can get that Soul Arrows spell I see everyone using?

 

I just rang the second bell and I'm only lvl 31 (with a fair bit of grinding from dying). Where the heck are you going to get to lvl 40 and +10 armor without going to ring the second bell? Are you just grinding that much more than me? I wouldn't think so since you have such a positive outlook on the game. So, good sir, I ask you: wtf?

 

Speaking of, how long is the game? Like, percentage wise, if you've rung both bells, is there much more to do?