Dark Souls

[Jirohnagi]

Now i've seen some videos and read a few reviews and apparently this is a harsh game, so i was wondering what some of the forum opinions on it were. Please do not comment if you haven't played it, i want to play this game myself but at the same time i don't see the point if i am not going to enjoy it so my question is.

Those that have played it have you enjoyed the game and how hard was it?

 

[Dio]

I've played and completed it. It is one of the hardest games I have played, it is also one of the most rewarding and atmospheric games I have played.
Basically you will die allot but the respawn points are pretty forgiving in terms of location and you have a chance to recover dropped items.
Expect to take a good few hours getting used to how the game works and you will likely need to use a guide for help at some point, there are so many secrets in the world that you wouldn't discover without one and trust me the game is still challenging even when you do look things up.
Its got to be one of my top 10 games. I don't know how mentally strong you are so I can't say whether the game will break you or not but I know people it has broken. I guess I'm just more hardcore than them.
My advice is for you to give it a try, it will be an experience you wont forget regardless.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Managed to waste 100 hours on a game just out of sheer stubborness. I don't like letting games win against me

 

[octorok74]

It is highly enjoyable. I've beaten the DS2 twice, but I'm stuck in Anor Londo on the first one. It can be really hard if you rush your decisions and don't think things out. Luckily you can get help online and can help others to get lots of souls in order to make your character better. You will die a lot, but with each death you will learn what you did wrong and you will learn. But finally learning what to do and doing it is so rewarding. Plus there is the Sun Bro covenant, so yeah it is a god game.

 

[Mercedes]

The original Dark Souls is a pinnacle of game design, honestly. The structure and game mechanics, and how the game world is laid out without fast travel, everything linking up, which really makes you think before using bonfires and your items. It becomes almost a survival game at regular intervals.

Though I disagree with people saying it's hard, I don't think it's actually that hard. And that's not some weird ego trip like some people try and say, it's just that I'd define it as unforgiving, rather than hard. The combat is a pretty simple affair for instance and won't take long to master, enemies tend to have set attack patterns and a few attacks. Once you learn them and learn what to do it's not really that difficult. You can switch armour/weapons to make use of enemies weaknesses (which you'll need to do, if an enemy can't be blocked there's no point keeping your heavy armour on) But! That one time you mess up a dodge or misjudge how much stamina you have, the enemies hit damn hard, you can get chain-stunned and killed very quickly. So that's why I define it as more unforgiving than hard, especially with the survival-like moments I mentioned above. Dark Souls punishes mistakes a lot, but it doesn't go out of its way to make mistakes a likely affair. Fights require more planning than just running in.

But yeah, I love Dark Souls 2, but the original is an incredible game. I think you'll enjoy it once you stop thinking of death as a bad thing; death is how you learn. Once you die, you don't repeat that mistake, and learn from it. I think gamers who are the type to throw their controller down in a rage when they die might not enjoy Dark Souls. If you're a bit more patient, and love RPGs, you'll be hard pressed to find a better one.

 

[the8thark]

Obligitary dark souls comic:

Back no topic I do say this game os very good. It's just one of those game where you get used to dying hundreds of time to progress in the game. If you get used to that then you an you can really enjoy this game. I did. I still have to say an easier mode would have been very nice. As this game only has a very hard difficulty setting. The only hard part is dying before you get back to your corpse to lose all your loot. This happened to me more often then I'd like to remember. So it forces me to progress very slowly in the game and use the same campfires over and over to respawn everything to get max souls. One death and not being able to retrieve your corpse can mean hours of lost work.

It's a great game, just not for everyone.

 

[Snow Queen]

I'm currently struggling through the game. It's actually just as difficult as everybody says, and if anyone you know is saying it's easy, they are literally a liar. It is just untruthful to say this game is easy. Kirby is easy. Dark Souls is not easy. However, it's also a very good game with very in depth combat and incredibly deep lore. It has many unique areas, and every location you go to is interesting. The music, when it's there, is always phenomenal, the boss fights are stellar, everything about the game is great.

High risk, high reward is essentially the theme of Dark Souls' gameplay. Get good or die many times trying, and have a good time doing it.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I'm currently struggling through the game. It's actually just as difficult as everybody says, and if anyone you know is saying it's easy, they are literally a liar. It is just untruthful to say this game is easy. Kirby is easy. Dark Souls is not easy. However, it's also a very good game with very in depth combat and incredibly deep lore. It has many unique areas, and every location you go to is interesting. The music, when it's there, is always phenomenal, the boss fights are stellar, everything about the game is great.

High risk, high reward is essentially the theme of Dark Souls' gameplay. Get good or die many times trying, and have a good time doing it.

This is exactly what i think of it ^^ takes awhile to learn from some mistakes mainly RAISE YO DAMN SHIELD but meh tis a good game.

 

[DoomDash]

I was recommended this game over and over by a friend, and I know it has a lot of positive opinions about it. I gave it a shot rather recently, and I must say I have almost no drive to get anywhere in the game. I played about 3 hours but it just wasn't fun to me. Maybe once I gave it time and mastered it, it would become rewarding, but the transition to that point was straight up tedious. That is how I would describe the game, tedious. I don't know if I'll ever bother finishing it to be honest, again, lack of drive.

Oh and I like hard games sometimes, but it has to have the right delivery.

 

[Iridescence]

Dark Souls is a really well designed game all around. It's just not my type. I'm too much of a casual and while I like deep games, I personally prefer ones that ease the player in gradually rather than giving them a rude awakening on the 2nd level.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Well i finished the game (at least base game and not DLC) and i gotta say it is one hell of a brilliant game, granted it penalizes you for not knowing what to do and there are some "beef gates" (points you can't go to yet cuz the monsters are beefy as hell), but i love the fact the game doesn't actually tell you much you have to speak to the NPCs to find out the lore and story which is awesome, the combat can be rather sadistic sometimes especially with what seems to be enemies who know your moves before yourself (screw you bed of chaos), but if you can find a weapon you are comfortable with such as the Uchigatana for those who like speed or the Black Knight Sword/Greataxe/Halberd for those who prefer to inflict a lot of damage at a slower rate then you can in general breeze through the fights.

The Bosses from that ever annoying Asylum Demon all the way to Lord of Cinder were awesome some required strategy (Hydra/Bed of Chaos/Seath), others you could just run up and smack them around as much as you like.... providing you can dodge and or shield well (Bellfry Gargoyles/Nito/Four Kings)

I like the range of weapons and items as well as the armor option, you can literally play as what people call the "fashion souls" or you can choose your own armor ^^ (i prefer tankiness), the weapons especially are my favorite, you literally have a massive and somewhat diverse choice of weapons from the Talisman and it's miracles to the heavy as hell Dragon Great Sword or the Pyromancer Hand, the game literally has a weapon for everyone (my case an uchigatana cuz man does that wreck crap with enough dex).

The only letdown i've had was the fact that not all the stats are apparently relevant at all i speak more specifically from the Resistance stat, from everything i've read/seen/actually statted, Armor will always be a better choice than putting any points into Resistance in fact one of the various wikis even go as far as to say don't bother with it you get better from armor. Which makes me wonder why it is there at all..... me being a completionist i just threw stats into anyway.

Now onto the map/cinematics/Music. I gotta say i enjoyed them all granted there are maybe a few too many cinematics, the developers seem to think every boss needs one (Gaping Dragon deserves his cinematic) but they are still some of the best parts of the game (Nito springs to mind arising from his coffin, just so cool).

Anywhere you turn in Lordran, you can see the world was well designed and the fact that you can visit almost everywhere from those parts is great. Everything Connect and in some spots you can sometimes see other spots (such as demon ruins/ash lake from Tomb of the giants) which kinda gives the illusion that it's an open world. each section is massive as well (who needs a freaking church that big anyway?) And in many case when you look at the area the music blends with the surroundings to quite often give you an accurate summation of each locale. Whether it's the fact that the water looks so well watery ^^ or that the monsters are so damn detailed the game was designed to be both beautiful looking and to hit you in the kidneys because no joke some monsters are just nasty in all their detailed glory (really dislike those damned Hollows/Slimes)

The Music is arguably the best part of the entire game, just the way it can accompany the boss fights alone is well worth running from the boss' across the map just so you can listen (i spent a few minutes running around Gwyn just to see what the music was like, didn't regret it once) Or the simple ambient music in areas like Firelink, they really did the music well for this game. It just seems so seamless though of course it's occasionally punctuated by the "YOU DIED" Tune that happens (yea i gotta learn not to stand still near stuff and listen to the music it's how i got killed twice at bed of chaos T.T)


All in all i'd say to anyone it's well worth getting the game, it has excellent rewards and quite often forces you to think on your feet. Yes it's not easy and can and shall rain the wrath of the Gravelord upon you for every mistake (usually when you fall/get knocked or fireblasted) But the fact that game tends to break you far more than you can break it can lead to some interesting results. People who have not gone very far in the game will think it's awful and unfair just for the fact it's an uphill battle after the 2nd boss progression is MUCH MUCH smoother but still a damn sight tougher (anyone for Orn and Smough).

I'd rate it being 9/10