Dark Souls: Initial Thoughts

[Stein Inge]

I really like this game! It sort of appeals to me to just patter around in ridiculous armor (the Fang Boar Helm looks like something out of Brütal Legend), and see what the game will throw at me next...

I have played it for about 7 hrs and I´ve just got to the rooftop gargoyle boss in the Undead Parish.

First time:
"A gargoyle you say? Bring it! This isn´t hard at a... Oh there´s another one? That breathes fire? Bring it!!" followed by horrible burning death while falling off the roof... FUN!

I WILL kill them though.. And it´s gonna be sweeeeet!

Quick question: Does anyone know if the Drake Sword lets me harvest more souls or something? It seems like the enemies are worth more souls if I kill them with the Drake Sword...

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

I have been wanting to rent Dark Souls but at the same time I am worried that it might be way too difficult for me. From what I hear it sounds like the game really punishes the player for dying.

which is a bizarre trait in a game whose tag (and website) is called prepare to die.

This and this alone is the aspect of the game that's a step too far. If you coudl at least fast travel between bonfires, that would be something.

You can fast travel between bonfires...
When you get to Anor Lando you get an item that will let you fast travel.
No idea where though as I haven't managed to get through the trap filled Keep yet.

 

[Googenstien]

Has a hellish day yesterday! Im at a stage where the game amps up its difficulty again so I decided to kill all the things I couldnt earlier. I took out afew Blue Wyverns, 3 Black Knights, Havel the Rock, The Hydra and then the Golden Golem.

I did this to farm up some souls and while I killed all those mobs I lost a ton of souls too and gained no ground soul level wise :-/

I guess I am going to have to stick it out in Blight Town and find a way to cure that disease or whatever those first few mobs give you. I have to use all 10 of my flasks and run back to the Depths Bonfire to restock.

 

[Googenstien]

I notice biggest frame-rate issues only if I skip mobs.. if I kill everything I generally have no issues with from rates thus far other than short hiccups.

I have a feeling the people experiencing the big frame-rate issues are skipping mobs and the game is then stressed more animating all the mobs you are passing and all the ones you are coming up on.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Has a hellish day yesterday! Im at a stage where the game amps up its difficulty again so I decided to kill all the things I couldnt earlier. I took out afew Blue Wyverns, 3 Black Knights, Havel the Rock, The Hydra and then the Golden Golem.

I did this to farm up some souls and while I killed all those mobs I lost a ton of souls too and gained no ground soul level wise :-/

I guess I am going to have to stick it out in Blight Town and find a way to cure that disease or whatever those first few mobs give you. I have to use all 10 of my flasks and run back to the Depths Bonfire to restock.

Golden Golem? Wheeeeeereeeeeeeee??????
I want to beat it!

 

[Googenstien]

Has a hellish day yesterday! Im at a stage where the game amps up its difficulty again so I decided to kill all the things I couldnt earlier. I took out afew Blue Wyverns, 3 Black Knights, Havel the Rock, The Hydra and then the Golden Golem.

I did this to farm up some souls and while I killed all those mobs I lost a ton of souls too and gained no ground soul level wise :-/

I guess I am going to have to stick it out in Blight Town and find a way to cure that disease or whatever those first few mobs give you. I have to use all 10 of my flasks and run back to the Depths Bonfire to restock.

Golden Golem? Wheeeeeereeeeeeeee??????
I want to beat it!

At the Hydra follow shoreline around the left side all the way in the back and he is there. He isnt all that hard either.

 

[krazykidd]

I beat the Capra Demon after a few tries, but that fight was just bullshit. The difficulty in that fight was the combination of the stun-lock inducing dogs, terrible camera angles and really tight corridors. I don't mind difficult fights, but that just really wasn't fair.

I agree that the fight was complete and utter bullshit. After a bit of thinking I came up with a plan. Before I enter the fog, I wield my Drake Sword in 2 hands, kill the two douche-dogs using the special attack the very moment I have free movement, roll through the bastard and run my ass off to the ledge. From there, I lunge him when he's close and I firebomb his ass when he walks away.

Though I killed him, he managed to knock me off of the ledge with just a bit of hp left before he died. I panicked and just attacked him. A single hit from the most basic, armorless enemy would have killed me at that point.

Anyone know a good soul farming routine? I can't use the Dragon because he had a sudden heart attack and died after I killed the Capra Demon. Right now I'm killing the trees in Darkroot Garden to get 20k souls for the door key.

Once you actually the the 20k right after the door is possibly the best farming spot , what i sugges is , kill a boss for a massive soul boost , and then run back to the bonfire , if you killled the moonlight butterfly you should have enough and be fairly close , just dont die.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Has a hellish day yesterday! Im at a stage where the game amps up its difficulty again so I decided to kill all the things I couldnt earlier. I took out afew Blue Wyverns, 3 Black Knights, Havel the Rock, The Hydra and then the Golden Golem.

I did this to farm up some souls and while I killed all those mobs I lost a ton of souls too and gained no ground soul level wise :-/

I guess I am going to have to stick it out in Blight Town and find a way to cure that disease or whatever those first few mobs give you. I have to use all 10 of my flasks and run back to the Depths Bonfire to restock.

Golden Golem? Wheeeeeereeeeeeeee??????
I want to beat it!

At the Hydra follow shoreline around the left side all the way in the back and he is there. He isnt all that hard either.

Thanks a lot, on my way to beat him now!

 

[krazykidd]

I beat the Capra Demon after a few tries, but that fight was just bullshit. The difficulty in that fight was the combination of the stun-lock inducing dogs, terrible camera angles and really tight corridors. I don't mind difficult fights, but that just really wasn't fair.

I agree that the fight was complete and utter bullshit. After a bit of thinking I came up with a plan. Before I enter the fog, I wield my Drake Sword in 2 hands, kill the two douche-dogs using the special attack the very moment I have free movement, roll through the bastard and run my ass off to the ledge. From there, I lunge him when he's close and I firebomb his ass when he walks away.

Though I killed him, he managed to knock me off of the ledge with just a bit of hp left before he died. I panicked and just attacked him. A single hit from the most basic, armorless enemy would have killed me at that point.

Anyone know a good soul farming routine? I can't use the Dragon because he had a sudden heart attack and died after I killed the Capra Demon. Right now I'm killing the trees in Darkroot Garden to get 20k souls for the door key.

Once you actually the the 20k right after the door is possibly the best farming spot , what i sugges is , kill a boss for a massive soul boost , and then run back to the bonfire , if you killled the moonlight butterfly you should have enough and be fairly close , just dont die.

 

[krazykidd]

Anyone knows what to do in anor lando? I go there and there a portal thats blocked by the great lord . I have the black eye orb but can't use it .

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

I have been wanting to rent Dark Souls but at the same time I am worried that it might be way too difficult for me. From what I hear it sounds like the game really punishes the player for dying.

which is a bizarre trait in a game whose tag (and website) is called prepare to die.

This and this alone is the aspect of the game that's a step too far. If you coudl at least fast travel between bonfires, that would be something.

You can fast travel between bonfires...
When you get to Anor Lando you get an item that will let you fast travel.
No idea where though as I haven't managed to get through the trap filled Keep yet.

right, so when you're near the end of the game you get the chance to get an item that will allow somethign that should have been in the game from the start.

Why should that even be in the game?
From my personal opinion fast travel ruins the game, throws away your reason for exploring.
Though I still don't get why you are constantly coming here whine about a perfectly fine game. Dragon Age is more ruined than this game.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I'm loving it so far, I'm still in Undead Burg though and I'm just level grinding since that damn Taurus has been kicking my ass.

Not a fan of the targeting system, but everything else is great.

KILL IT WITH FIYAAAAAAAAAAH! No, seriously. Lob a few firebombs at it and it dies in no time.

You act as if the game personally offends you for being difficult. Most of us have progressed smoothly, so the game must not be for you. If you're having this much trouble in the forest, there is no use continuing. You'll throw yourself from a cliff once you start traversing blighttown. No shame in putting the game on the backburner for a while you play rage to cool your nerves/get on with your life.

Honestly, I'm having a blast. Just smoked the hydra boss easily with my new +4 liado, and I'm heading back to blightown. Apparently I'm not even 25% of the way through!

Always with the difficulty isn't it. You just aren't listening.

It isn't the difficulty: it's the tedious retracing of steps from the bonfire while fighting the same mobs over and over.

The game's difficulty is more a factor of bad camera and lock on and factors such as being unable to manoeuvre in the forest because there are so many trees everywhere. I didn' tmind the fights with the golems at all. I mind the cost of failure.

The rewards for progress are not enough to compensate the cost.

While the lock on could use a change(like being able to freely switch targets), the camera is just fine. As for fighting in the forest, bad maneuverability is the whole point. The whole place has poor footing and it was made that way to make fighting in the forest difficult, because you would have difficulty doing that in real life. As for the issue of there "being so many trees everywhere", it's a forest, there are going to be trees. I don't know what your deal is, but I could make my way through the forest with ease on my first try, not knowing where I was going. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. It's not like there's a dire need to go into Darkroot right away, anyhow. You complain about bad design and control problems, but all I'm hearing is "wah wah wah, I'm not good enough to play this game so it sucks and it's poorly made." If you're having trouble, then that is your problem, but don't scream bad design over a personal issue because of all the people I play with, you're the only one bitching about the forest.

 

[go-10]

the game's fine its difficult but not impossible it demands exploration and careful thinking before doing anything and lets you feel the weight of your actions. The only thing I don't like are the bosses, I wanted more of a challenge but they're piss easy
I just beat Queelag?(Lava Spider) and went to hell and killed the giant dragon demon thingy and that was WAY too easy, Drake Sword or not the bosses should be more than just giant targets with a lot of HP
and what's the deal with Black Knights? are they really meant to be so weak? once you know how to parry its not even a challenge anymore, and you can even parry WITHOUT a shield equipped! If that ain't fucked up I don't know what is

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

QUESTION: Is there ANY reason to keep the broken sword you start out with? Because the only thing keeping me from dropping it is the though that maybe, just maybe, it's a key component to some awesome master sword you can get later in the game which seems like something From Software would do to fuck with you. "Oh you want this awesome sword? Well it's all yours! You just need that broken sword you started out with and... oh... you threw it away huh? Oh well, sucks for you!"

Someone on another forum I go to who bought a guide answered this for me: "It doesn't have to be that specific one but a broken straight sword +10 or a straight sword hilt +10 can be upgraded to a True Greatsword of Artorias using the soul of the wolf boss. It has 140 holy bonus. You can also use the soul to make a cursed version using an unbroken sword or a shield."

NEXT QUESTION: What's the fastest way to get to the merchant who sells the bottomless box? I know she's in The Depths and there's suppose to be a shortcut from the Undead Burge but I can't for the life of me find it.

 

[Khronas]

I can't get in to this game at all because of the lack of story, from what i played so far it boils down to go here do this don't get killed whilst that was fun it is begging to become repetitive.

I see people say when they beat a boss they are overjoyed at passing a hurdle when I beat a boss I don't care, the game give you no reason to care about killing the bosses other than this ************ will kill you a few dozen times.

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

I agree that the fight was complete and utter bullshit. After a bit of thinking I came up with a plan. Before I enter the fog, I wield my Drake Sword in 2 hands, kill the two douche-dogs using the special attack the very moment I have free movement, roll through the bastard and run my ass off to the ledge. From there, I lunge him when he's close and I firebomb his ass when he walks away.

I beat him at lv20 with a Zweihander+5 ... part of it was getting an early swing in that killed both dogs. Capra was plenty scary, but manageable, with his pets out of the picture.

About difficulty and saves I think trying to get the ghost bonuses and win some of the stupid boss fights in Deus Ex was far harder to pull off than anything in Dark Souls will be, but Dark Souls makes you own up for each and every fatal mistake as compared to "modern" games that let you quick save before committing to anything difficult, and sometimes hits you with a big XP/humanity penalty when you really cock up or decide that it's time to let go of a huge pile of souls in a boss fight that you decide is too much for you at the moment.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

QUESTION: Is there ANY reason to keep the broken sword you start out with? Because the only thing keeping me from dropping it is the though that maybe, just maybe, it's a key component to some awesome master sword you can get later in the game which seems like something From Software would do to fuck with you. "Oh you want this awesome sword? Well it's all yours! You just need that broken sword you started out with and... oh... you threw it away huh? Oh well, sucks for you!"

Someone on another forum I go to who bought a guide answered this for me: "It doesn't have to be that specific one but a broken straight sword +10 or a straight sword hilt +10 can be upgraded to a True Greatsword of Artorias using the soul of the wolf boss. It has 140 holy bonus. You can also use the soul to make a cursed version using an unbroken sword or a shield."

NEXT QUESTION: What's the fastest way to get to the merchant who sells the bottomless box? I know she's in The Depths and there's suppose to be a shortcut from the Undead Burge but I can't for the life of me find it.

He* is right between the door that leads to the boss battle with the Gaping Dragon, and the gate that leads to Blighttown from the Depths. And as soon as you enter Underburg(unofficial name, I mean the ground level of Undead Burg with the thief hollows and the dogs) from the door on the bridge with the Hellkite, take an immediate right and go up the stairs. That's the shortcut, but it's a door that opens one way, so you can't take that shortcut from Undead Burg until you've already opened it from the Underburg side.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I'm loving it so far, I'm still in Undead Burg though and I'm just level grinding since that damn Taurus has been kicking my ass.

Not a fan of the targeting system, but everything else is great.

level grinding won't help you.

I'm fairly sure level grinding WILL help.

I'm loving it so far, I'm still in Undead Burg though and I'm just level grinding since that damn Taurus has been kicking my ass.

Not a fan of the targeting system, but everything else is great.

KILL IT WITH FIYAAAAAAAAAAH! No, seriously. Lob a few firebombs at it and it dies in no time.

I noticed that when I was fighting him the last time, too bad I was murdered right before I could finish him off. I guess I should be glad I picked pyromancer for my class.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The camera stinks. It gets stuck behind all sorts of environment details ebcause the devs don't know their jobs.
Objectively this game is a tired, plotless, ropey looking hack and slash. It's a slow paced Diablo clone except without the loot or even the plot. IT has no atmosphere because there's nothing to create one and everything resets anytime you interact with the bonfire system. If it wasn't for the fact that it's a fanboy favourite people would see this crap for what it is; a game that's too anachronistic to deserve any praise whatsoever relying on the 'gimmick' of being difficult. But that difficulty is merely poor design choices and cheap gameplay: here's a guy hdiing behind the door you didn't know about that kills you in one move.

The fanboys just make me laugh: dragon age 2 got criticised for being locked in Kirkwall. yet this game, which has even less content, is exactly the same. not only that the environments are ugly and characterless. If i see the undead burg ever again, it will be too soon. What a dreary boring tedious affair playing this was. Some of you need to move into the 21st century where games are playable and fun. Not this austere masochistic rubbish.

bad manoeuvreability is the whole point? What a joke. IF you can't move then you are going to die! That's, again, cheap gameplay. Unfortunately this sort of crap is what the game pulls all the time. At first you might think it's fun or even a challenge. BUt after a while you just get tired and give up; there's more to life than sitting in front of a screen trying to secnod guess what some idiot thought would be a challenge while trying to also figure out what it is you are meant to be doing in the game other than the same fights with the same mobs ad fucking nauseum.

The rewards are too few and far between to make the penalties incured worthwhile. This is a massive step backward in almost all areas of game design and should be relegated to the dustbin of history before anyone else gets the notion that piss poor unrewarding overly punitive gameplay is what we need. Even COD is better than this old crap.

Are you just trolling now?

Because this post is nearly identical to the several other attempts to critise the game.

You confuse your own lack of skill with poor game mechanics, the camera is absolutely fine, I've had no problems with it whatsoever. I'll admit that the lock on is rather finnicky, but nothing unmanageable. Defence is a toss up between maneuverability and being built like a brick wall. Heavy armour allows you to shrug off attacks (you won't flinch), so if you're trying to go for a backstab, even if an attack manages to hit, you should still be able to carry on moving to get an attack in.

Everything else you've stated it purely subjective, and not evidence of poor game design.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

The camera system controls the same. You just have to jerk the right stick more rapidly to change targets. It's definitely a change for the worst. If you actually controlled the camera while locked on I can see why you wouldn't want to switch targets with the tiniest flick of the stick, but that isn't the case. I got used to it quite quickly, though once in a while it still takes more than one attempt to change targets.

Nope, it's busted. No matter how hard I jerk the thumb-stick the targeting reticule stays firmly attached to some inoffensive rat or potted plant way in the background and I have to unclick and click it again to target the 8 foot tall night bearing down on me, and even then it only works half the time.