Hating Dark Souls?

[kouriichi]

1: No reason to be melee.

If you say so. I don't play Magic Characters and while I haven't "Breezed" through anything I've certainly not found myself at a disadvantage. However, you needing the easy-win button for the childs play section of the game (undead burg) begs the question why you're even playing this game to begin with. Dark souls is all about the combat and you seem to be upset that the combat requires more than a single button press, and that you're the one with the disadvantage rather than your enemies. Not being able to rely on super-soldier strength, or regenerating health, or your enemies all being made of wet paper is a huge part of the draw because it actually MEANS something when you beat them. Killing an enemy in COD or battlefield is a hollow achievement because they go down easier than a $10 hooker and present next to no threat to you whatsoever; In dark souls each enemy can kill you and requires more skill than point-and-click to get rid of.

I play melee because it is a perfectly balanced affair in dark souls. All my errors are on me, All my victories are because of my skill, I cannot swing a 10 foot sword without serious effort, I cannot expect to survive an encounter with a 10 foot sword just by holding up a thin sheet of metal - It's all fair and relatively realistic.

2: Constant weapon bouncing.

Use more directed attacks then, stop swinging your sword around in confined areas and expect to not hit the walls. I've never encountered a time when the hit detection over exaggerated the arc of my swing; if i hit a wall it's because, given the same dimensions in RL, the sword would have hit the wall.

I agree that enemies should be constrained by the same wall bouncing.

3: Ledges

bro this is nothing but your own fault; Ledges don't move nor pop out of nowhere. If you fall off one its because you fucked up or its because you weren't paying attention and you can only blame yourself. If you're fighting on the edge of a cliff, how about moving? How about not fighting on the edges of cliffs? How about being aware of your surroundings? Seriously.

Also, another reason why I don't think you have come into this game understanding what it is - If you took the Taurus demon head on as if this was devil may cry where you can just hack away and hope to win...there's a reason you got your ass handed to you.

4: Random Death. Beings you cant kill

Haven't encountered a single random death in 20 hours of play, you didn't even explain what you meant. Being killed by an enemy far greater than your character is not random, it is obvious. And no, there are no unkillable enemies that I know of, CERTAINLY none in the Undead burg. Once again I need to point this out as evidence that this is not the game for you and you sound like you're going into it thinking that brute force should inherently kill everything you come across without nary a thought for tactics or patience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzrQC5hlKOg To illustrate my point, here is someone fighting the first boss without leveling up, without using magic, without even using weapons and winning. No easy button pyromancer, no brute force, but TACTICS and PATIENCE. In this game they trump all.

Dont get me wrong. I love a challenge.

I'm going to stop you there, because you patently don't. Dark souls has presented you with a challenge, a real challenge that takes you out of your comfort zone, No regenerating health or super soldier nonsense and you have given up on the easiest section of the game because it isn't easily beatable straight away without needing any thought.

I don't think Dark Souls is as good as Demons Souls, but It still deserves the praise it gets. It certainly weeds out the "hardcore" gamers from the "I beat Halo on Legendary!" gamers.

No, dark souls hasnt given me a challenge. Its given me 30 lbs of cake, and told me to find the live hand grenade.

List of challenges im proud of.

Completing all G-rank monster hunter quests.
Completing the Diamond Heist in "Payday: The Heist" on the hardest difficulty, never getting taken into custody, without killing any hostages.
Quadra-Kill as Malzahar on LoL using only 2 visions and my silence.
Winning a 1v3 Spleef match on my server for Minecraft.

Those are challenges. Dark Souls doesnt give challenges, it gives you a shovel, and tells you to dig 350+ graves for your massively accumulating pile of corpses.
I have patients. I have lots of it. Its the reason i havent returned this game and demanded a full refund on it. ((I know i wouldnt get it, but its the thought that counts))
I know what a challenge is. This isnt a challenge, its a masochist's wet dream. And i dont have the time, nor conviction to use the nubs i once called hands to break away at the steel casket im buried myself in. xD

 

[Shreddie]

Dont say "oh, its because you suck at it" or "its because you dont like a hard game", let me tell you, ive played Monster Hunter from start to finish since the first one. G-Rank and all.

I'm glad you mentioned this. It seems that anytime I bring up a flaw that I think the game has it's met with a response about how I must not be good enough and should just stick to "casual" games.

I can't say I necessarily agree with your other points though. Personally I've found melee to be rather easy but screw up constantly with pyromancy and other spells. That's one of the things I like about Dark Souls though. For the most part it's possible for different people to be equally successful with different equipment/methods.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

There's a reason for heavy armour.

It affects your poise. The higher the number, the more damage/hits you can take without flinching.

Poise is essential for players who use huge weapons, because without poise, anybody can poke you out of an attack.

Oh. And I disagree with all your points. Good luck being a ranged character in PvP and the later stages of the game.

Weapon bounce? Don't use a fucking halberd in a corridor.

Ledges? Not a problem. Avoid fighting near them. Lure an enemy if you have to.

Random deaths? No such thing in this game. Every death happens for a reason.

 

[Burst6]

I love the game (Probably my favorite of the year) but I think it has some issues. I don't agree with the ones you pointed out, I mostly agree with the reasons with the people above. Except for the "You suck at the game" ones.

My issue with the game is that PvP is absolutely broken. The level scaling is kinda fucked up, so it sucks to be invaded by a random Soul Level 100 guy and instantly be impaled by a giant spear, even though you're level 40 or so. Not to mention with bullshit items like the Fog Ring.

I found this game much less frustrating than Demon's Souls, for one reason: Checkpoints are so much more abundant than they were in Demon's Souls. Moreso later on, but if you get passed a difficult section, more likely than not there will be a bonfire waiting for you if you look for it. (Not to say that some aren't hidden in bullshit areas

Where are you getting attacked by lvl 100 guys? You have to be around 10% of each others soul lvls to fight each other, unless you

Spoiler

kill Gwynnevere and make anor londo dark. Then blades of the darkmoon of any lvl can invade you.

Also for those cheap tactics online, i like to bring wide sweeping weapons and the iron skin spell. If they go invisible my weapons wont have a problem, and if they cast a slow spell ill just cast iron skin and keep fighting. If they want to make me slow ill make them work for the damage.


Also my captcha had FROM in it. Awesome.

 

[TheBritishAreComing]

In the 12 hours of game time I have logged, not once have I been killed by a cheap death or an unkillable enemy. Every one of the many deaths I've seen I can pick apart and find the error that got me killed. Most of the time it's blatantly charging in without foresight or patience. Dark Souls is refreshing, infuriating yes, but still refreshing game design that encourages patience and tactics and rewards you for having these traits.

Not once have I fallen off a ledge randomly or had my weapon constantly clank against a wall. If your weapon is constantly clanking in that narrow hallway then USE A DIFFERENT ATTACK or SWITCH WEAPONS, simple as that. You wouldn't swing wildly or use a halberd in a hallway in real life would you? Of course not!

I have not played a ranged class yet so I can't say whether they are OP or not, but I have gotten through the first areas with a melee class, and so have lots of other people, I don't see why you can't.

 

[kyogen]

Most of the critical praise for Dark Souls seems to compliment it for being very good at what it intends to be while admitting that it's not for everyone and that it has some technical flaws, especially frame-rate issues. That strikes me as fair. So, no, I don't think that it's getting undeserved praise. Gushing fans will gush; I wouldn't worry too much about that.

1. I only play melee because magic classes confuse me, and it works just fine.
2. Weapon bouncing makes perfect sense. I love how much the game forces me to think about the environment and my weapon choices.
3. Ledges don't bother me. Again, they help make it worthwhile to pay attention to the environment.
4. You mean the NPCs with many more hit points than you have at your disposal? You absolutely CAN kill them, but in a world of severe consequences for every action, try it at your own risk. Also, don't tap the controller carelessly. They generally won't attack you on the first blow anyway, but it pays to be cautious.

The difficulty of Dark Souls, like Demon's Souls before it, stems from the rigorous insistence on attentive and methodical combat. It may not be your sort of challenge, but that doesn't mean that it's genuinely unfair. Personally, I think Demon's Souls is the more polished game of the two, but Dark Souls is fantastically ambitious, so I can excuse a few glitches.

 

[DarkShadow144]

I'm taking Dark Souls slow and steady. When I played Demon's Souls for the first time, I tried to rush through it and I just got too pissed with the game and traded it in. The next time I tried I played for 2 hour intervals (unless I was doing really well) and if I stared to rage, I would stop. This let me get through with the least amount of raging, so I'm using the same strategy for Dark Souls.

 

[Dansen]

A nicely put argument. I've not played the game and even I am annoyed with the excuse that if you don't like it you must just suck. So, the difference between being good at it and being bad at it comes down to whether or not you're enjoying your constant death?

This game emphasizes patience, forethought, and awareness. Don't take it seriously for a second and you'll find yourself on the wrong side of a double edged blade. Melee isn't absurdly hard(pyromancy is easier, I'll give you that), but did you ever stop to consider that your success with subsequent playthroughs was through the knowledge you gained through your first characters?

Yesterday I started a new character on a new PS3 I got for my brother, and I BREEZED through the entire beginning portion of the game. I've downed the Tauras, Boar, Gargoyles, and I'm about to fight the Moonlight Butterfly with 1 death on a THIEF. Dark souls is very uncompromising with its difficulty(if you don't get good, you won't finish the game), but its not cheap. All the problems you've listed are symptoms of lack of qualities I've listed above. You will die a couple times, and you don't have to let that bother you.

If you end up dying a lot and getting frustrated, just turn off the game and give it some time. You'll be surprised how well you do with a clear head.

Weapon assession man, its a beautiful thing, maybe you should try it.

 

[Watchmacallit]

No reason to be melee? How far are you into the game? Really, how far? I'd love to see you take on the Giant Lava Spider without swinging a stick or 2.

Also, you being knocked off edges is because you have no poise. Go get the Wolf Ring and put on some armor so an attack doesn't knock you. Also, I rarely die from ledges. No idea what you're doing wrong.

Armor is useful, yes a shield will block 100% melee but it will not do the same for magic and fire. So armor helps and armor boosts your poise.

If your knight wasn't doing enough damage get a bigger sword. The BKS or Claymore are accessible early on.

If you don't like hallways equip a rapier...

A masochists wet dream? I've defeated most bosses on my first go. Stand and block for a while and figure out the openings and then go for it.

HOW DID YOU FALL OFF THE EDGE AGAINST THE TAURUS DEMON!!!! LOL...Dude, wow. Just wow. There's one gap that any sane person would do well to avoid.

This game is a proper challenge. Enemies do damage but everything (Except for this one boss: spoiler) is beatable. I really don't get how you can't see that. I'm sorry but you really must suck at the game. Half the things you complain about are fixed with 3 seconds of thought.

Ledges are not that bad! Dying doesn't get easier, it gets harder because if you play properly you learn. You learn not to rush into a room, to pull enemies out of their groups with a bow. For example I killed the Lava Spider and then used the same tactic to finish off Sif the Wolf in one go because I realised both of them could be killed from underneath.

You complain about the game just wanting to torture but I started a second character and was able to get through a large chunk of the game in 2 hours because it wasn't a challenge anymore.

EDIT: I'm not raging, I'm just annoyed that you're putting a game down when you just seem to give up when things don't go your way, for example.

Everything is impossible to dodge unless you're a pyromancer? You do realise dodge is dependent on the weight of your armor and the amount of END you have, yeah? There is no inventory limit and if I'm versing a boss I know armor will be useless against I put on a lighter option to increase my overall speed. So, ANY class can increase dodge speed.

Also, you go on about pyromancers when pyromancers aren't anything special. As soon as you find the teacher ANYONE can be a pyromancer. Your knight for instance, but I guess you didn't get far enough to realise and you didn't realise that INT doesn't increase fire damage.

 

[gigastar]

1: No reason to be melee. Ive played 3 different classes, and so far, ive noticed a trend. I pick Knight, and the game is.... Difficult. Your weapon feels like it does nothing to anything but basic undead, theres no real point to armor when your shield blocks 100% physical damage and you can dodge everything else, and nearly every enemy has a combo that can almost insta-gib you. But then i play Pyromancer. The game is absurdly easy now. Why? Because nothing gets within 20 feet of me. And if it does, its already at less then half health. Every challenge i ran into as a knight, i instantly blew through as a Pyromancer. Armored battle boar? No problem! I have fireballs for days!

Pyromancers have it a bit easier because all of thier spells have no useage requirements, thier spell catalyst being easy to level up, and everything being more or less weak to fire damage. Though if you happened to run out of spell charges im certain that skeleton warrior over there would be happy to send you back to the last bonfire you rested at.

2: Constant weapon bouncing. Nearly all of the melee weapons have a habit of bouncing even if half a pixel grazes anything solid. I do like a game where hit boxes are well made, but theres a limit to it. I find myself bouncing off of every surface within 10 feet, while im being beat on by something immune to wrath of walls. ((Or poisoned by rats i cannot hit))

Theres 2 solutions, first and most obvious is to stop trying a swing while standing near a wall.
The other is to switch to a weapon that doesnt have a wide swinging animation, such as a spear.

3: Ledges. Everywhere. Nearly all of the deaths i befell were because of ledges. Anything stronger then a rough breeze and your character either recoils like an electric car hit him, or sends him flying. I take no damage from either of these, yet im dying. Why? Because every ledge and its grandmother want me to die. This was a massive pain in the Taurus demon fight where every swing he took either sent me flying, or was impossible to dodge because i chose a class other then Pyromancer.

Youll love Tomb of the Giants then...

Back on topic, a common proceedure to make sure that you dont die from falling off a ledge is to either not get hit by whatever attack came your way if the fall is not avoidable (several cases of this in Anor Londo) or simply dont step near a ledge whenever youre facing an opponent that can inflict knockback of any kind.

4: Random Death. Beings you cant kill, and you accidentally drew agro because you bent a piece of their beloved grass. They come rushing at you, and well, you die. Running is a decent option except they chase you far beyond what i would call an area boundary, and will 2 hit kill you unless you block every attack they throw at you.

This just sounds like you ran into the skeleton warriors at Firelink Shrine or (somehow) skeleton warriors within the Catacombs. For the former, you need better weapons and/or levels, for the latter, you require better levels and the required choice of bringing a divine weapon or hunting down necromancers with a dozen skeleton warriors dogging you.

Or if i somehow missed my mark then youve encountered the ghosts and banshees in New Londo, they can be damaged temporarily after you use an item called transient curse, or by attacking them while under the curse status.

Dont get me wrong. I love a challenge. Every game i own, ive beaten on the hardest difficulty. And i consider myself more then a hardcore gamer. But whenever i hear about Dark Souls i hear, "You never feel cheated, you always learn something from your deaths", when really, all ive learned is, Hallways suck, ledges suck, 1 pixel of fire igniting your entire body sucks, Giant knights with weapons larger then you suck, and being melee sucks. Almost every death i encounter, i feel cheated on, either because of ledges, wall bounces, or random boss level baddies stabbing me in the back when i didnt even know they were there.

Just saying i beat the game as a melee focus character and the only times i died to anything was when i was either distracted or facing something new and full of murderous intent.

Oh, and those silver knight archers in Anor Londo, youll know the ones im talking about.

Long story short, the game never really gets better, dying never gets easier, and F*CK LEDGES.
So what does everyone else think about Dark souls and its random moments of jerk-mode? Anything ni particular grind nails against your chalk board?

Well to quote a reviewer from IGN (of all places);
"Truth is, Dark Souls isn't fun 95% of the time. It's the other 5% that you play for. Things are so incredibly difficult that even the tiniest victories bring you close to tears of joy and relief."

You talked about beating every Monster Hunter title thus far, then you should know that as a action RPG Monster Hunter is not fun most of the time either, Dark Souls is just further down the spectrum from where Monster Hunter stands.

And to answer your closing question, Anor Londo and The Tomb of the Giants stood out as areas that were out to get me. The former due to theese two greatbow archers that attempted to snipe you from thin walkways and thier arrows causing as much knockback as you exaggerated earlier in your post. The latter due to more ledges and the fact that the first half of the area is pitch black in lighting terms, and given plenty of giant skeleton warriors for me to worry about.

 

[SextusMaximus]

I've never played the game, but just want to comment on how well put your argument was. So many times I see people raging at nothing, but this was very sensible - just nice to see it every so often!

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Snipped for brevity.

Dark Souls does indeed have an open world, as far as the definition of an open world goes. It's definitely a lot more linear than we were lead to believe, however, given the skill, you can do whatever you want. You can take any character you want anywhere in the game, and you can fight just about every boss, give or take a couple of them. Those angry skeletons in the catacombs, or even outside the catacombs? Given the endurance for a long, hard, and arduous battle, you can take them down, if you have the skill for it. I do have a gripe about a couple of your points, though.

1. In my own experience, being a purely melee character isn't nearly as difficult as you're naming it to be. I can easily wipe out swaths of enemies no problem. I can deal large amounts of damage to bosses even with weaker weapons. I can take a Black Knight Greataxe into tiny corridors and skill come out unscathed. You have to adapt to the situation and react accordingly. Anyone can cast magic and wipe out hordes of monsters in 1 hit. That's what magic is. It has always been, and always will be, absurdly powerful. Almost all of the time, however, magic will be much, much slower than a melee combatant. That's the trade-off for that kind of power, is speed. As for armor being useless, try swinging around a large weapon with no poise. If you're going to toss around a massive weapon, you need to prepare for the fact that you're going to get hit every once in a while. The higher your poise, the less likely you are to flinch at an enemy's attack.

2. I don't understand how you're having such a difficult time with weapon bouncing. I can take a Black Knight Greataxe, or a Greatsword of Artorias, and I can fight even tight quarters, because more than half the time my weapon simply slides right through the wall as if it wasn't even there. I have a harder time swinging around smaller weapons, those are the ones that like to tell you the walls are actually there.

3. Ledges are not a problem. Stay away from them unless absolutely necessary. If you're having such a hard time not getting knocked off a ledge, then perhaps you should try taking the fight away from the ledge. If you're going to block an attack that will send you backward, don't block it with a ledge behind you. That's a surefire way to get yourself killed.

4. There are no undefeatable foes in the game. Everything can be killed. Every monster, every trainer, every blacksmith, every monster, every boss. There's nothing in the game that can't be killed right away. If you're going to take on a more powerful foe while you're still a low level, prepare for a difficult fight. As I said before, given the endurance to handle a long and arduous fight, you can overcome anything in the game with a certain level of skill.

You claim to like a challenge, but clearly, Dark Souls has shown that either:
A) You do not like a good challenge, or
B) Dark Souls has more challenge than you can handle

You need patience, perseverance, and a certain level of skill in order to overcome the challenges presented to you.

I don't care if you want to hear it, because whether you like it or not, it's true:

You just aren't good enough to take down the monster that is Dark Souls.

As for my own personal gripes with the game itself, my biggest issues with the game are as follows:

Enemies are not susceptible to the same rules of combat that you are, such as not being restricted to walls, terrain that would slow you down, do not slow the enemies down, and enemies that shoot a bow have heat-seeking arrows. And my biggest gripe is actually a bug that I would really love for them to fix: Input lag. I am playing offline. There is no reason that I am hitting a button, doing absolutely nothing, and then attempting to perform the action I tried to do, ~5 seconds after I hit the button.

 

[Westaway]

Good arguments. I'm having fun as wanderer. I agree, alot of the challenge is bullshit, the normal combat is easy as hell, but the a flaming barrel comes from the sky and eats your balls all the while saying " YOU ARE BAD YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING LULULULULUL"

 

[Watchmacallit]

There's nothing in the game that can't be killed right away.

There is that one enemy that you lose to the first time no matter what. But yeah, then you go back and kill the spamming bastard. Love your argument, glad to see I'm not the only one that sees this as the player's fault and not the game's.

 

[Dogstile]

Honestly, I think your deaths are in this case caused by you not playing properly. I say this purely because I tried it for a day as a friend lent me his copy (and i'm desperately awaiting payday) and I ran through as a melee guy. Its not actually that cheap, ledges don't move, bosses have strategies and I actually like that in melee if i just mash i'll get owned.

Just, timing and learn what weapons do what, give it another try man, melee is actually quite fun. What this game doesn't do is fuck you over on purpose, my entire time of playing i've been thinking "surely this should be harder".

 

[Itsthefuzz]

Snipy

I wanted to present my own argument, but this summed it up quite well. There was only thing I may add on is that I only died to ledges mostly due to impatience. Also:

Spoiler

There is only one time in the game, unless I missed more, where you die with no option of living, and that is to a late game boss. The point is for you to die then be locked up deeper in the level and progress backwards. I had a friend who warned me of this so I just used a ring of sacrifice like a loser

 

[3LANCER]

I haven't yet got my copy of the game but from what i've heard DS is just hard hack'n'slash with no backstory, not many RPG elements, with simple attacks (saw some gameplay where the character can only swing sword left or right) but always overpowered enemies. I'm not sure what people see in that game, if it's just "Super Meat boy hard" then it sounds ok and almost fun, but if it's constant insta-deaths without any visible clues of countering monsters then screw that.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

There's nothing in the game that can't be killed right away.

There is that one enemy that you lose to the first time no matter what. But yeah, then you go back and kill the spamming bastard. Love your argument, glad to see I'm not the only one that sees this as the player's fault and not the game's.

If you're referring to the Asylum Demon during the tutorial, you can kill him with your fists. I know, I did it. It's not a preferable way to fight him, but I did it simply so I could say I did.

Now, if you're referring to Seath the Scaleless, the first time you battle him, that fight is a scripted event. You can't advance the Duke's Archives without losing to Seath the first time, because the corridors will be blocked by bookcases.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Not trying to make myself sound 'teh awesomez' or anything but I honestly didnt find Dark Souls to be that difficult or unbalanced.
Ofcourse there are exceptions, Gargoyles had me screaming in rage until I realised you could summon an assistant at which point they fell the next attempt. Other then those two though the bosses were generally a piece of cake, did them all solo, even the fiery chap at the end who unleashes constant sword barrages which strip your defence in a second was easy once I'd activated ironskin + Havel's armour.

The crystal area + Tomb of giants are rather tedious, but it's just a case of trial and error, learn from your failures then strip naked and sprint back at full pelt.

The only truly random death I've suffered from was from falling through the world after passing through a fog barrier, other then that every death has had a perfectly rational explanation, which is normally "you done fucked up, son".


Just incase anyone's vaguely interested I ended up using: Gravelord blade +4 or the Greatsword of Artorias, Havel or Ornstein's armour, black iron greatshield, that +20% ring the other dependant on encounter, Healing miracle + Ironskin. So melee is perfectly viable, hate being a caster. Thief style play on the other hand is HARD, really, truly, HARD.

Now, if you're referring to the Asylum Demon during the tutorial, you can kill him with your fists. I know, I did it. It's not a preferable way to fight him, but I did it simply so I could say I did.

That must have taken quite some time.

I wanted to present my own argument, but this summed it up quite well. There was only thing I may add on is that I only died to ledges mostly due to impatience. Also:

Spoiler

There is only one time in the game, unless I missed more, where you die with no option of living, and that is to an late game boss. The point is for you to die then be locked up deeper in the level and progress backwards. I had a friend who warned me of this so I just used a ring of sacrifice like a loser

Lost ~20k souls to that bastard, was not impressed.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

1: No reason to be melee. Ive played 3 different classes, and so far, ive noticed a trend. I pick Knight, and the game is.... Difficult. Your weapon feels like it does nothing to anything but basic undead, theres no real point to armor when your shield blocks 100% physical damage and you can dodge everything else, and nearly every enemy has a combo that can almost insta-gib you. But then i play Pyromancer. The game is absurdly easy now. Why? Because nothing gets within 20 feet of me. And if it does, its already at less then half health. Every challenge i ran into as a knight, i instantly blew through as a Pyromancer. Armored battle boar? No problem! I have fireballs for days!

There's no reason to be any class, all the starting classes do is determine your starting armour and stats. If you wanted you could have made that knight a pyromancer eventually. My main character is a knight and I have no problems playing it, I'm actually starting to make mine a Pyro/Knight combo. Not all shields block 100% physical damage, some only block 95%, some only 70% it depends on the type of shield it is, if armour was useless everyone would run around naked for max speed, but they don't. Not to mention dodging and blocking depend on your stamina bar, if you run out of stamina then you can't block or dodge, so if that happened and you weren't wearing armour because you thought it was pointless, then you would get fucked.

2: Constant weapon bouncing. Nearly all of the melee weapons have a habit of bouncing even if half a pixel grazes anything solid. I do like a game where hit boxes are well made, but theres a limit to it. I find myself bouncing off of every surface within 10 feet, while im being beat on by something immune to wrath of walls. ((Or poisoned by rats i cannot hit))

This is simple to avoid, choose the right weapon and use the right attacks for a situation. For example the rats you mentioned, if I'm correct you're meaning the 3 that run in the narrow tunnel. If this happens, don't swing the weapon, do a straight thrust with the long sword or use a spear and do quick jabs from behind your shield. And saying that half a pixel grazing the wall makes your weapon bounce is a total exaggeration. I've scraped the tip of my sword along a wall plenty of times only for it to scrape along the wall and finish the swing. The weapons only bounce if the middle to the bottom of the blade connect with the wall.

3: Ledges. Everywhere. Nearly all of the deaths i befell were because of ledges. Anything stronger then a rough breeze and your character either recoils like an electric car hit him, or sends him flying. I take no damage from either of these, yet im dying. Why? Because every ledge and its grandmother want me to die. This was a massive pain in the Taurus demon fight where every swing he took either sent me flying, or was impossible to dodge because i chose a class other then Pyromancer.

No offence, but this one is simply your own fault for not watching your footing. I think I've only fallen off ledges maybe 5 or 6 times during my whole playtime. It happens often, most of the bloodstains I touch show someone falling off a ledge, sometimes it's clearly on purpose, sometimes it's clearly because they weren't paying attention.

4: Random Death. Beings you cant kill, and you accidentally drew agro because you bent a piece of their beloved grass. They come rushing at you, and well, you die. Running is a decent option except they chase you far beyond what i would call an area boundary, and will 2 hit kill you unless you block every attack they throw at you.

Everything in this game is killable eventually but some enemies are way beyond your abilities at the start. Also bear in mind that every enemy in this game is out to kill you, they are undead and demons and all that they are there for is to kill anything they get a whiff of they don't like. Of course if they saw you they would rush you and try and kill you, that's what enemies do. I do agree that sometimes they chase you pretty far, but there is always a point they run back.