Dark souls Vs. Skyrim

Jaeke

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Feb 25, 2010
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Oh I just laughed seeing this on the homepage.

a shitstorm's a comin'!

(Skyrim. Not even fair for Dark Souls to compare.)
 

Nuuu

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Jan 28, 2011
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I've only played Skyrim and only Dark Souls let's play on youtube so you can guess which on i choose.

Dark souls. Truthfully i hate skyrim, i feel overwelmed with everything it throws at me, the build choices, traveling, the skills, and all the quests. Plus combat just seems repetative for me. Sneak -> shoot in head -> hide -> repeat.

From what ive seen with Dark souls, it's got fun PvP, a good challenge, and a mix of being linear and explorative, along with a ton of different stat and armor builds.
 

Spacio

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Jun 22, 2011
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Having owned and played both extensively, I prefer Skyrim, simply because the world feels more alive, from all the npcs, to the docile enemies. Dark Souls is just too lonely for my tastes.
 

arnoldthebird

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Sep 30, 2011
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Although I have finished Dark Souls twice I must say Skyrim, I still play it constantly and find something new everytime. Call me easily amused, but Skyrim is just the game for me. And I still remember my first dragon in the wild, sent shivers down my spine
 

kouriichi

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Sep 5, 2010
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Between the two, i prefer Skyrim.

While Dark Souls is a great game, and gives an amazing challenge like no other game out there ((shy of monster hunter, my favorite game series of all time)), the problem i have with it, is that its so linear.
While yes, its "open world" and you can go through whatever path you want, theres only one real path. And theres so little content to it outside of combat.

Thats by no means a bad thing, but Dark Souls is an Action RPG. Combat is supposed to be the most important feature to it.


But Skyrim is as Open Ended as you want it to be. You can do nearly any quest at anytime, or do no quests, and just run around having a good time. Skyrim has more content all around. Its an RPG Action game.

I love them both. But Skyrim is just.... More. Sure, the combat isnt as good as Dark Souls, but it makes up for it in sheer size, number of quests, and the amount of deep content. You can spend all day making jewelry, or reading books! You can travel by the road and meet interesting people your friends have never run into ((it seems like every time i start a new character, i run into the group of Drinking Dudes, by my friends who played longer then me has never met them)).

Skyrim is, to me, the better of the two. They are both great in their own ways. Its just that as far as Open World RPG's go, skyrim is more open, and has more RPG to enjoy. Its bigger, and more in depth. Its got more then Combat, and thats what i want in an RPG.
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
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Stilt said:
Jesse Willadson said:
Which one do you prefer? I know its not entirely fare to compare them, as they aimed to do different things but they do share similar qualities: exploration, telling a story through the environment, and a living breathing world
Dark souls 8 days a week, when I first played skyrim (first 12 hours) I thought "this is the best game ever made", and then the dragons got boring to kill, the enemy variety dropped off a cliff, and the sidequests became more of a chore than a joy. But hey, thats a bethesda game for ya

Nonetheless, this thread is comparing oranges to boranges
ccdohl said:
The weird thing is that Dark Souls ruined Skyrim for me. After playing the tight combat in DS, I just couldn't bear to play with the combat in Skyrim, which is incredibly clunky in comparison.

Also, I have Skyrim on PC and, what's up with the UI in it? I have to select a menu option before I can click on it? If the clunky combat hadn't been enough to ruin it for me, the PC UI would certainly have done it.
There are mods that make all of these problems ([a href= " http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3829"] boring dragons[/a] , [a href= " http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9694"] lack of enemy variety[/a], [a href= " http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863"] UI[/a], better sidequests [there's tons and tons of added mod quests]) a lot more manageable if you're on PC.

OT: I can't really have an informed opinion on this because I haven't played Dark Souls yet, though I will if the port is any good. I love skyrim to death though and have almost 300 hours on it, so I think it's fair to say my answer will be Skyrim.

EDIT: Anyone know why those links are all leading me back to this page? The URLs in my code are right...
 

Thoric485

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Aug 17, 2008
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I think 2011 was pretty balanced in terms of RPGs. You had:

Skyrim - exploration, mods
Dark Souls - dungeon crawl
DE:HR/TW2 - storydriven
Drakensang: RoT - PnP

Dungeon Siege 3, Two Worlds 2 and Venetica also deserve a mention, and all sorts of great indie endeavors like EYE, Magicka, Avadon, Bastion, Dungeons of Dredmor, Frayed Knights.

Point is, comparisons are useless. There's far too much variety in the genre.
 

Burst6

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Mar 16, 2009
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The way i think about it is the two games are different sized pieces of bread both with the same amount of nutella on them.

Dark souls is the smaller bread. Everything has a lot of depth, but there's not as many things.


Skyrim is vice versa. Big bread. There are a ton of things to do, but the game is shallower and more diluted than dark souls.
 

00slash00

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Dec 29, 2009
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skyrim has far more lasting appeal. NG+ in dark souls is easier for me than NG was. dark souls is the better game, overall though. skyrim is a great world to explore but everything about dark souls is more fun
 

bullet_sandw1ch

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Jun 3, 2011
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Eddie the head said:
Skyrim has a much better world if you ask me and better NPC interactions. As well as more varied game play. Dark souls is a game I play if I am bored of everything else I don't think I have finished it yet. Overall I would say Skyrim.
im genuinely curious, what is so varied about skyrim? not trying to crap on your corn flakes,but to me, its just hike, kill, hike, kill.
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
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bullet_sandw1ch said:
Eddie the head said:
Skyrim has a much better world if you ask me and better NPC interactions. As well as more varied game play. Dark souls is a game I play if I am bored of everything else I don't think I have finished it yet. Overall I would say Skyrim.
im genuinely curious, what is so varied about skyrim? not trying to crap on your corn flakes,but to me, its just hike, kill, hike, kill.
you can play as a stealthy thief and never touch any heavy armor or even kill anyone. You can play as a huge OP 2H sword wielding werewolf, or a mage vampire. There's so much variety in how you can approach your character and what you can do with your character.
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
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Stilt said:
lotr rocks 0 said:
Stilt said:
Jesse Willadson said:
Which one do you prefer? I know its not entirely fare to compare them, as they aimed to do different things but they do share similar qualities: exploration, telling a story through the environment, and a living breathing world
Dark souls 8 days a week, when I first played skyrim (first 12 hours) I thought "this is the best game ever made", and then the dragons got boring to kill, the enemy variety dropped off a cliff, and the sidequests became more of a chore than a joy. But hey, thats a bethesda game for ya

Nonetheless, this thread is comparing oranges to boranges
ccdohl said:
The weird thing is that Dark Souls ruined Skyrim for me. After playing the tight combat in DS, I just couldn't bear to play with the combat in Skyrim, which is incredibly clunky in comparison.

Also, I have Skyrim on PC and, what's up with the UI in it? I have to select a menu option before I can click on it? If the clunky combat hadn't been enough to ruin it for me, the PC UI would certainly have done it.
There are mods that make all of these problems (boring dragons, lack of NPC variety, UI, better sidequests) a lot more manageable.
Yea i have every mod under the sun, first off, its such a chore going in and modifying my files, i know this sounds pedantic but I really hate having to follow a billion different instructions for each mod, often times its hit and miss on whether or not the thing even works. Then theres the problem of the mods being hit or miss in quality themselves. I mean, sure its amazing what amateurs can do but at the end of the day the mods only add marginal enjoyment for me with this iteration of ES. Who knows, maybe its just because I'm getting older, but the mods just dont hold my interest as much.

I have to say I was in the camp of "Skyrim is THE Elder scrolls game and all other are now obsolete" camp for the longest time, but after a couple months the game just lost its appeal entirely, to the point where even the thought of starting up a session of skyrim is draining. The 2012 mod for morrowind is pretty cool though, might want to check it out.


Also, the only real problem i have with the dragons are their flight patterns, and how clunky and animatronic they look in their various animations
Use the steam workshop or the nexus mod manager with BOSS. They make managing mods actually pretty easy, and most good mods are compatible with one or the other.

I'll have to check out morrowind eventually too. I have it but I havent gotten around to it in the huge shuffle of games I have going.
 

Reaper195

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I've always preferred fun over challenge, and I knew nothing about Dark Souls when I got it. Five hours later, and the annoying realisation that the thing that recharges your potions (Or whatever the equivalent) also respawns the enemies I had just killed, I returned the game and went back to Skyrim. Then when that crashed on my PS3, I went back and played Hitman: Blood Money again for three days straight.
 

Jesse Willadson

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Jan 14, 2012
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Thoric485 said:
I think 2011 was pretty balanced in terms of RPGs. You had:

Skyrim - exploration, mods
Dark Souls - dungeon crawl
DE:HR/TW2 - storydriven
Drakensang: RoT - PnP

Dungeon Siege 3, Two Worlds 2 and Venetica also deserve a mention, and all sorts of great indie endeavors like EYE, Magicka, Avadon, Bastion, Dungeons of Dredmor, Frayed Knights.

Point is, comparisons are useless. There's far too much variety in the genre.
I am not really trying to compare them (though the thread name doesn't help) but just wondering as to what the community prefers.
Also, I've been trying eye, but I just don't seem to have the time to get into it
 

1nfinite_Cros5

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Mar 31, 2010
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Dark Souls. By all means, both are very great and distinct in their own rights. But I edge out in favor of Dark Souls.

Here's my reasoning. Dark Souls has NEVER broken my immersion. When I play the game I feel like I'm really that character on the screen. I'm really in this world, really adventuring, really pushing-forward through the hardships, really trying to uncover the mysteries of the world. I REALLY am molding my character how I see fit, and I really have control over how I fight my enemies. I also, really have to fight for MY life. Dark Souls from start to finish feels like a WORLD, not just a game.

Skyrim on the other hand, has yet to keep my immersion for more than a few minutes. The intro scene really hooked me in! After I made my guy...I felt the tenseness of everything going on around me, everything was great.

Then I fought some enemies.

We swung swords at each others and we both took hits like a boss. No flinching, no damage felt, I barely took any damage to begin with. It was ALL IGNORED. Every fight after that felt the same way. No fear of enemies, just mash and spam shield bash and win. Seriously Bethesda?

I mean look at this combat video of Skyrim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV4tFpupWSQ

VS a RANDOM combat video of Dark Souls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy__xdOfIAQ

There's all sorts of weird things in Skyrim...like when Giants hit you, you fly into space. People talk to you through walls, Mammoths fall down from the sky and die spontaneously...all sorts of nonsense.

To sum up, though, Skyrim has great exploration. I love the bits where you are walking towards your next objective and something along the way distracts you. It could be a couple people down the path you are taking, or a funnily-shaped hill. It stimulates your instinct to find out more about this engrossing world you're in, and that's what I appreciate about it.
 

Lunar Templar

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The7Sins said:
Skyrim is currently on PC. That alone makes t the superior game.
lol,
was wondering when I'd see this comment, took longer then i though


OT: going off past experiences with other TES games and Demon's Souls

Dark Souls, by a VERY WIDE margin. last TES i played i was basically bored the whole time, sure the environment looked nice as i wondered the country side, but there's 2 massive problems that they STILL haven't fixed from what i've heard.

1) fuck all happens: like i said, there's a lot of country side to wander but there's really nothing to do out there, sure there's dungeons and such but nothing really 'worth while' in terms of ... keeping me interested i guess, which has a lot to do with ....

2) there are NES games with better combat mechanics: what i mean by better, is satisfying. there's not been a TES i played that gave any kind of 'weight' to combat, it just feel really shallow and empty to me, and as some one who looks apon combat in any RPG as one of the main things, this is a massive problem.

granted, Demon's Souls was a cold hearted, murderous *****, but the combat feel good, there's a satisfaction in parrying a running a guy through the no TES game will every match, and even though the levels where pretty much linear there was still lots of room to explore even if the only reward was not coming down with a bad case of the 'dead'

so yes :) that's basicly why i think TES games are shit and why i look forward to Dark Souls do very bad things to me when it hits PC
 

Kahunaburger

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Joseph Alexander said:
Kahunaburger said:
Depends on whether you prefer psychotically difficult action JRPGs or hiking sims with RPG elements.
the souls games aren't JRPGs, despite being from japan.
Action JRPGs, man (or Japanese ARPGS?). The hardcore difficulty, emphasis on precise mastery of the mechanics, focus on learning enemy attack patterns, and even the outsize weapons are all things you see in this sort of Japanese game. Compare From Software's earlier Otogi, which nobody would call a WRPG - similar design philosophy (but little lighter on the difficulty haha).