Dark Souls Six: Darkest Souls

[krazykidd]

I think it's very misleading that the Souls games are portrayed as being so difficult. Sure, you'll die, but if you move cautiously and stay focused you can get through just about anything. It doesn't even take any special skills, I have a friend who was introduced to gaming through Dark Souls, and they love it. It just doesn't work if you take the strategy of charging through everything that works in most games.

That a pretty big "if". Because , as we all know, gamers are known for their patience. Hold on while i check my pre-orders for an early access alpha to a game on steam.

OT: really good point . i really hope they don't get to 6. They'll probably make a reboot at 4 .

I honestly dont think they will get to 4.

maybe 3, and that's a big maybe.

if anything afterwords it might be a different game but with the same mechanics.


OT: I kind of dislike people that use the argument "people only like it because it's hard" for why they hate the game. Partially because it's true.

I'm probably going to pick up the PC version when it gets released, and the only reason I want to play it is because of the so called "difficulty".

Its rare to find a game that is actually difficult these days. hell, I went back and played an Elite fan-made game and forgot just how unforgiving it really is.


think its hard fighting against enemies that can three-shot you fairly easily if you are not careful? try crashing into a space station because you forgot the entire thing rotates and even the slightest scrape of your side will destroy your 5 million credit space ship and cause you to restart from the beginning because the save menu is hidden away inside said space station that now has your face smeared over the front of it.

The should just call the next one " Demons souls 2" and call it a day. Just to confuse the hell out of people.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Poison face darts?

What are you, a fukin kasul?

Get on mah fukin level scrub.

Pfah. If you're not on "sledgehammer to the knuckles every time you blink" difficulty, go back to Hello Kitty Adventures.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Dark Souls V Expansion: Balls of Darkness (comes with optional testicle vice addon)

Optional? Newbs, in my day we had to hammer our OWN balls, or else the game makers would take a country hostage.

 

[Grach]

Poison face darts?

What are you, a fukin kasul?

Get on mah fukin level scrub.

The true 1337harkore plays with sarin *****

 

[orangeapples]

Poison face darts?

What are you, a fukin kasul?

Get on mah fukin level scrub.

Pfah. If you're not on "sledgehammer to the knuckles every time you blink" difficulty, go back to Hello Kitty Adventures.

It is clear to me that you haven't played Hello Kitty Adventures 3. That game makes me wish I was playing Dark Souls 8 Pins in Eyes for Breathing mode again.

 

[CelestDaer]

I'm currently co-playing Dark Souls 2 with the roommate, just to get an idea for how the games work... I'm better at spotting things that might be useful, but the roommie has the dexterity to play. A couple days after Yatzhee's thread on Dark Souls, I started to want to try it at least, and that came to a head after we started DS2. It's fun to just wander along at a stroll through the first game, with bits of knowledge about the world of 2, and just... explore?

 

[t850terminator]

Please..... poison darts?
PHf...casual nubs, try shotguns shells....
But in all seriousness... Dark Souls 2 is very fair, and very very harsh, its really easy if you take it slow and keep a steady pace (slow & steady wins the race)...
As a knight, I just tank 90% of attack with a shield... then whale in after the attack pattern is done...
Yahtzee praising atmosphere got me into this, and I'm loving it...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I just don't get it.

Yes, the game is difficult.
IT ALSO HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE GOING FOR IT.
No good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all. It's the blandest, most generic game I've ever seen.... but it's frustratingly difficult due to poorly implemented gameplay. So? What makes it so enjoyable?

If you already think it has no good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all, what's the point of anyone trying to argue any different?

 

[Denamic]

I don't "think" it. I know it. Having played the actual game....

Or would you argue the game has good story, characters, etc.?

Wow, bait harder. Since we're doing the completely unsubstantiated argument thing, I'll just say that you're wrong. This is an indisputable fact, because I said so.

 

[garjian]

I just don't get it.

Yes, the game is difficult.
IT ALSO HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE GOING FOR IT.
No good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all. It's the blandest, most generic game I've ever seen.... but it's frustratingly difficult due to poorly implemented gameplay. So? What makes it so enjoyable?

If you already think it has no good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all, what's the point of anyone trying to argue any different?

I don't "think" it. I know it. Having played the actual game....

Or would you argue the game has good story, characters, etc.?

Many fans of the game (me included) will tell you that it's not such a difficult game.
If there were nothing else going for it, why would they be fans?

Oh, by the way, that comment on "poorly implemented gameplay"... No.

 

[L. Declis]

I just don't get it.

Yes, the game is difficult.
IT ALSO HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE GOING FOR IT.
No good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all. It's the blandest, most generic game I've ever seen.... but it's frustratingly difficult due to poorly implemented gameplay. So? What makes it so enjoyable?

If you already think it has no good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all, what's the point of anyone trying to argue any different?

I don't "think" it. I know it. Having played the actual game....

Or would you argue the game has good story, characters, etc.?

I would say that the game has a very nice atmosphere, very dark and oppressive, with large castles that have been abandoned haunted with horrible monsters and everything is dead or dying. As a Brit, I find this gels with my day to day life and as such, enjoy it.

Also, the combat is unusual, being careful without being slow, where you get your health bar cut in half for a single mistake. Punishing, yes, but it encourages a fighting style of being a badass who simply waits for the perfect moment before BAM! Cutting down a bloke. So it is as rewarding to win as it is punishing to play.

Graphics? That all depends on your PC, surely. Did you get the mods? There are an awful lot of them. Tailor to taste.

Ultimately, I think it's a nice game that just feels so different than anything else I've played.

 

[DocZombie]

Anyone else remember Yahtzee's Extra Punctuation article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9276-Context-Challenge-and-Gratification] on how to categorise a game?

As far as I can see, the Souls games score extremely high on the Challenge and Gratification axes, but many players find it difficult to engage with the story (Context).

It's fair to say that, on first playthrough, it's pretty difficult to focus on anything other than "why is this demon thingy trying to eat my face, and I hope that merchant sells clean undies" aspect of the story, but revisiting the games allows you the chance to dig a bit deeper, since you now have the skillset to kill the demon thingy and take the time to run through the merchant's dialogue reel... These games are RPG's after all!

For those who don't want to bother with digging for information, there are some good Souls walkthroughs and "lore" videos on YouTube (from AGermanSpy [https://www.youtube.com/user/EpicNameBro] to name but two)


OT: Dark Souls VII : Eternal Darkness of the Spotless Soul will have full support for the Oculus Rift and Sony VR headsets - and will make them laser the shit out of your retinas during the tutorial...

 

[Stabby Joe]

I have yet to play Dark Souls II yet I completed both the first and Demon's Souls and loved them for they art style, atmosphere, strange mythology, soundtrack, pacing etc...

...oh wait no, IT IS THE HARD GAME THAT IS DIFFICULT!!!

 

[garjian]

Many fans of the game (me included) will tell you that it's not such a difficult game.
If there were nothing else going for it, why would they be fans?

Because they can brag by saying the game that only has the difficulty going for it is not such a difficult game.
They're SO PRO!!!

Yes, that's clearly why some people are literally fanatical about this franchise. Bragging rights. Of course.


I would say that DS2 has a minor issue with showing you where certain areas are. Almost half the game is behind a tiny, little pull-switch that I didn't see until a message pointed it out.
Beyond that though the game is fantastic so far and I'm getting very close to the end I'm sure. If you're struggling, my advice would be to try and manage your stamina better... never run yourself dry, so you can always dodge... oh and that, learn to dodge.

(These ad captchas are really starting to annoy me...)

 

[Casual Shinji]

If you already think it has no good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all, what's the point of anyone trying to argue any different?

I don't "think" it. I know it. Having played the actual game....

Or would you argue the game has good story, characters, etc.?

Again, if you are so sure of why the game totally sucks, why are you asking what makes it enjoyable? Unless the only reason for your post was to stick it to fans of the game.

 

[cliff excellent]

Hm, i've always wondered how hard is DS compared to Ninja Gaiden or the easier Binding of Isaac or Super Meat Boy?

I've always seen it as dark souls being slow, methodical and plodding, punishing you for rushing and not taking the time to completely take in your surroundings and possible hiding places for enemies. Whereas Ninja Gaiden is twitch reflexes to the max, both are difficult in different ways. I have much more trouble in Ninja Gaiden than dark souls just because of the sheer speed of everything coming at you all at once. Meat boys pretty much the same as Ninja Gaiden.

 

[Bindal]

I disagree. Saying that Dark Souls has a plot is like saying that Halo as a plot. Sure it does... outside of the actual game.

You're the kind of person, that needs a giant, black screen with white text stating "THIS IS THE STORY SO FAR" every 5 minutes, right? Otherwise, you would know that Dark Souls has a story and Halo has a story. All you need to do is actually pay a minimum amount of attention. As it "actually be awake"

 

[Clovus]

Claiming Dark Souls is not "hard" only makes sense when considering the game in a vacuum. Yes, you can definitely get really good at the game and easily defeat it. You don't actually need amazing reflexes either. I quickly figured out that I was terrible at the timing of the parry and riposte system. I'm not much better a hitting the invincibility frames of the roll. So, I switched to using gigantic halberds and swords. Now the game is just about watching attack patterns and figuring out when to drop the hammer.

Having said that though, this game is hard compared to almost anything else. You can definitely find harder games in terms of twitch like Super Meat Boy. But compared to, like, 95% of other games, Dark Souls is hard. Some people will argue that it is super-obvious you shouldn't go to a certain area because you're getting one-shotted. That kind of thing is hard. Most games simply don't allow it, because those games are specifically designed to make sure that most players can eventually finish the game with a handful of deaths. Dark Souls players die over 200 times per playthrough on average*. That's hard.

Although it doesn't have perma-death, you can lose a ton of progress (in souls) through death. That's hard. Normal difficulty in a modern game is to have almost a zero death penalty or to even avoid death altogether. You can savescumm in most games, especially on PC. At worst you just have to go from one short checkpoint to another. The "checkpoints" in Dark Souls are often far apart. They are even sometimes hard to find or outright hidden. That's hard.

Most games have a very clear explanation of how to build your character and get/make better loot. Dark Souls completely hides the methods for upgrading equipment. Can you figure this stuff out by paying close attention? Definitely! But simply requiring that makes the game hard. Most games now do not require anywhere near that much work to understand basic mechanics.

Just look at the magic system. If you don't start with it, picking up certain types of magic requires finding specific characters. Not many games will lock players out of magic schools like that. That's hard compared to most modern games.

Note: I'm not saying any of this stuff is "bad", I just think the game is definitely "hard" compared to the majority of modern games. Also, I don't care about the difficulty. I would have given up on the game at the Taurus Demon if not for how interesting the world is. I really love Dark Soul's story-telling techniques. I can't stand sitting through pages of fantasy-nonsense dialogue. Dark Souls has interesting lore, but, more importantly, tells everything about it's crazy cast of characters through images, gameplay, and small snippets of text. Great stuff!

*You can see some stats about the PC playthroughs of Dark Souls at this site: http://darksoulsdeaths.com/index.html

 

[Griffolion]

You didn't dodge the darts? Lol GTFO scrub.

Seriously though, Dark Souls is great.

 

[Ishal]

I just don't get it.

Yes, the game is difficult.
IT ALSO HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE GOING FOR IT.
No good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all. It's the blandest, most generic game I've ever seen.... but it's frustratingly difficult due to poorly implemented gameplay. So? What makes it so enjoyable?

If you already think it has no good graphics, no good story, no good characters, no good atmosphere, nothing at all, what's the point of anyone trying to argue any different?

I don't "think" it. I know it. Having played the actual game....

Or would you argue the game has good story, characters, etc.?

I would argue that, and I would argue that it does so better than most games because it is aware that it is, in fact, a game.

Shocking revelation I know, but it's important to be said when there are games out there with ~8.5hrs of cutscenes. Games that try so hard to be movies. Well, actually it's more like 3 or 4 movies with that ridiculous length. Looking at you MGS4.

I'm not going to try and convince you, your mind seems made up. I'll just expand on what Grey said below the comic. It treats players with respect by involving everything with the gameplay and mechanics. There are stories, quite a few of them, there are characters that have arcs. There is lore. But not much of it is fed to you, as a player you have to find it if you want to know what is going on. If you don't, then you don't have to. It's not going to force anything on you the way other games do. It also doesn't take control away from the player and break it's own rules. In FF when that chick dies, aeris or whatever, there is an item that can bring other ones back to life. Yet, it can't be used on her... why?

In DKS II there is mysterious sorceror that you can pass right by without even knowing he's there. If you free him depending on your state, hollow or human, he'll have different dialogue. Depending on that, he might even invade your world later and make an attempt on your life. You could pass through and not even experience it, and your game wouldn't be lesser or better because of it. It's these things that give the game depth.

Diagetic storytelling is something games do better than anything else. The Souls games excell at this type of storytelling by involving the player directly. It's not for everyone, I get that. Different Strokes for Different folks, but it's all there.

Grey is right. Difficulty is important to the Souls games, immensely so, but it's only part of the larger picture.