Oh look, another Dark Souls is lame thread.

[lapan]

That's the problem. "A bit of farming" becomes absolutely horrendous when you have to do it all over again because you slipped and forgot just how fast that demon could attack you, or mistimed a parry, or went too far afield before heading back to the bonfire, or didn't use a homeward bone the instant you beat a boss, subsequently fell off a very poorly-drawn cliff, lost 80000 souls and five humanity in an instant, and through further mischance died again on the way to reclaiming them. Souls are important, and it's hardly a "little" while before they stop being so; leveling is one thing, but repairs, item shopping, and the all-important equipment upgrades also require increasing amounts. And the worst part is that there's no goddamn reason for it, unless there's a hardware limitation. Why do the souls disappear after the second death? The only way that makes sense is a hardware limitation or to discourage people from grinding, the latter of which can hardly be the case in a game that is basically grinding and rote memorization in purest form.

Humanity is also hardly useless if you want to kindle new bonfires, have any kind of decent item discovery rate, advance in a number of covenants, or do absolutely anything online or summoning-related...in other words, literally pretty much everything involving the covenants. Since humanity is rarely gained spontaneously, NPCs are a limited resource, and only a couple of enemies in the game drop humanity, and because death is omnipresent, humanity items don't last long.

The only thing you require large amounts of souls for is leveling. Upgrading only takes up to ~2000 souls, repairs even less. The game only requires grinding if you want to reach a specific level or have really big troubles with a boss, apart from that you are able to clear it at rather low levels if you desire so.

Souls dissapearing after two deaths is a conscious decision by the developers. It's a similar system as in Diablo 1, only less punishing as in the later you would even lose your equipment. Protip: If you wear a Ring of Sacrifice while trying to pick the souls up the bloodstain won't dissapear if you die.

Humanity isn't hard to come by anymore as rats and the ghosts in the DLC have a rather decent droprate.

Even the masterkey can be picked up as soon as after blighttown if you didn't pick it as starting gift.

 

[Pandalisk]

This thread is not worth the time i could be spending on fighting Kalameet for shits and giggles.

op Drake sword.

Good luck with that...

What isn't running explained in the game? I mean really. Running. Why wasn't there a message for that in the tutorial level? Why did I have to go read about it on a wiki? Thats a pretty shitty thing to do dark souls.

Hate to be that guy, but I am fairly certain there is a message telling you how to run at the first stair case when you leave your cell in the Undead Asylum. Can anyone confirm?

That's a how copy on your 10-4-Niner.

Tutorial pretty much covers everything controls wise except for the running jump i believe(?).

That's the problem. "A bit of farming" becomes absolutely horrendous when you have to do it all over again because you slipped and forgot just how fast that demon could attack you, or mistimed a parry, or went too far afield before heading back to the bonfire, or didn't use a homeward bone the instant you beat a boss, subsequently fell off a very poorly-drawn cliff, lost 80000 souls and five humanity in an instant, and through further mischance died again on the way to reclaiming them. Souls are important, and it's hardly a "little" while before they stop being so; leveling is one thing, but repairs, item shopping, and the all-important equipment upgrades also require increasing amounts. And the worst part is that there's no goddamn reason for it, unless there's a hardware limitation. Why do the souls disappear after the second death? The only way that makes sense is a hardware limitation or to discourage people from grinding, the latter of which can hardly be the case in a game that is basically grinding and rote memorization in purest form.

Humanity is also hardly useless if you want to kindle new bonfires, have any kind of decent item discovery rate, advance in a number of covenants, or do absolutely anything online or summoning-related...in other words, literally pretty much everything involving the covenants. Since humanity is rarely gained spontaneously, NPCs are a limited resource, and only a couple of enemies in the game drop humanity, and because death is omnipresent, humanity items don't last long.

The only thing you require large amounts of souls for is leveling. Upgrading only takes up to ~2000 souls, repairs even less. The game only requires grinding if you want to reach a specific level or have really big troubles with a boss, apart from that you are able to clear it at rather low levels if you desire so.

Souls dissapearing after two deaths is a conscious decision by the developers. It's a similar system as in Diablo 1, only less punishing as in the later you would even lose your equipment. Protip: If you wear a Ring of Sacrifice while trying to pick the souls up the bloodstain won't dissapear if you die.

Humanity isn't hard to come by anymore as rats and the ghosts in the DLC have a rather decent droprate.

Even the masterkey can be picked up as soon as after blighttown if you didn't pick it as starting gift.

This isn't even factoring in the fact that you can devour the daemon soul's if you don't want the unique weapons, your practically rolling in soul's at that point. I never needed a single soul because my style is around the Broadsword +15 rapier route so i must've got hundreds of thousands of souls from them by the time i was on Gwyn's front door. (I keep Sif's soul for feels)

You know, I feel like those two got oversold. I beat them on my first try. A very long, very stressful try that ate all my potions and firepots, but my first try nonetheless.

I found Stray Demon much worse for some reason.

I've heard this from others. I can only wish.
Stray demon, I had no problem. I figured him out very quickly.

Spoiler

10 o'clock goto 7 o'clock. And be sure to move away from the telegraphed "spell" - behind is better.

That's a nicely put strategy, mines always been "stick to his ass! then run away when he flies into the air, Then back to the ass again!"

 

[dogenzakaminion]

Oh my god I just spent 30 minutes going over every single post of this thread several times. I have shit to do but just kept thinking..."SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET!" Made myself giggle.

Anyway, OP likes a certain type of game, like Ninja Gaiden, or Dota2, and he doesn't like Dark Souls...so fucking what? He/she obviously isn't suited for Dark Souls complaining about what could be considered a feature forcing creative thinking and an alternative approach. I love Dark Souls, in all it's obtuse glory. Is it perfect? no, because what is. I think we should just respect the OP decision to bash on a game for not being "hardcore" enough for him and let him get back to Dota. The Dark Souls community will be better for it.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Tutorial pretty much covers everything controls wise except for the running jump i believe(?).

Hmmm... I am under the impression it's scribbled on the floor in Undead Asylum, right after the surprise ball/stairs/gate, right before you turn left and encounter two melee hollows and one bow hollow? You know - right around the corner from the first fog gate that teaches you the purpose of dropping down on big bad enemies?

Bear in mind, I was one of those that actually backtracked to the beginning because, at first, I thought I was too cool to be arsed with reading all the scribbles when I first started out.

The only thing you require large amounts of souls for is leveling. Upgrading only takes up to ~2000 souls, repairs even less. The game only requires grinding if you want to reach a specific level or have really big troubles with a boss, apart from that you are able to clear it at rather low levels if you desire so.

Aye, I only started grinding right before going for Gwyn for the first time. To get +15 weapons, to get some of my favourite weapons upgraded to the max and just to give in to the genuine urge to grind when I am pretty much a hater of all things grind since WoW. I enjoyed it. Put on some music, run after giant leeches, try different weapons, snipe them from afar with a nifty bow or some magic... fun.

This isn't even factoring in the fact that you can devour the daemon soul's if you don't want the unique weapons, your practically rolling in soul's at that point. I never needed a single soul because my style is around the Broadsword +15 rapier route so i must've got hundreds of thousands of souls from them by the time i was on Gwyn's front door. (I keep Sif's soul for feels)

While I don't recommend it for first time players on first time playthroughs, this actually speeds things up significantly. It is not a viable option for the obsessive-compulsive players that want to see everything, get everything, collect everything, though. Those will easily require a sprinkle of additional therapy sessions because of Dark Souls. I also kept Sif's soul for far too long because killing Sif felt terribly, terribly bad.

That's a nicely put strategy, mines always been "stick to his ass! then run away when he flies into the air, Then back to the ass again!"

Aye. If Dark Souls teaches you anything you can take away and stick to it for life, it's this. If you see a demon, don't be afraid of going for the butthole, and do try to chop of the tail if there is a tail. Good things will happen if you stick to that plan. First and foremost, you might stay alive... and you might get a surprise weapon out of it.

How a first time player that obviously does not like the idea of checking out the wiki(s) gets the Drake Sword is a bit of a miracle to me, though. My first response to the red drake was to get burnt to a crisp, my second was to get burnt to a crisp trying to run past him, my third response was to get burnt to a crisp trying to fight him with pretty much my bare fists and some stained underwear.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

The Northern Undead Asylum is all the tutorial you need in order to get started. There's a reason there are messages all over the floor throughout that entire area. And it's not because someone's trying to troll with fake tips. Probably a good idea to take a look at those if you're a newcomer.

And the Drake Sword is the embodiment of a Disc 1 Nuke for Dark Souls. It's not a secret by any means, but it takes some searching to find. Yeah it's an extremely powerful starting weapon but that power wears off once you reach Sen's Fortress.

I should probably do myself a favor and not go any further. I read the OP once more and all I saw was:

"Hurr I like Ninja Gaiden and I think it's better than Dark Souls and so it shall be!"

He actually somewhat reminds me of a more mobile version of Demon's Souls' "Adjuticator".
But Orstein and Smough remain as the only bosses I cannot beat without help from Solaire.

I dunno, I think the Vanguard would be a more comparable enemy. Just like the Stray Demon, it'll swing its weapon and turn at the same time, as well as flying into the air in attempt to butt-slam you. It's been a while so I might be misremembering, but the Adjudicator has a hard time hitting anything that isn't standing right in front of it. And you don't have to knock the Stray Demon on its back to actually hurt it.

 

[Sordin]

Saw the title and thought: Finally someone will declare an end to this boring bollocks! Read the OP thought: Oh so the title was actually serious. Well since nobody else will I shall do it. Can we please stop with the dark souls threads, I understand you maybe want a good debate but this is around the 7th one this month. The game is finished and no amount of anything will change it or give it any easy setting. Everyone has already given their opinion and now we are just repeating ourselves and its getting boring. If you like easy games, play easy games, if you like dark souls, play dark souls, now can we please move on.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I also kept Sif's soul for far too long because killing Sif felt terribly, terribly bad.

I still have Sif's soul too. =(

If From released a "Resurrect Sif" DLC they would make a hundred billion dollars.

Stray demon, I had no problem. I figured him out very quickly.

Spoiler

10 o'clock goto 7 o'clock. And be sure to move away from the telegraphed "spell" - behind is better.

Oh, I don't think there's any question that O&S are objectively the more difficult boss, I just had brain lock when it came to Stray Demon. Something about the fall and my obsessive need to collect my souls before engaging him was throwing me off. I have difficulty with the weirdest foes in that game, then roll through some of the most notorious ones.

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

There isn't really anything to say that has already been said. Dark Souls isn't a bad game. The only thing I might want to add is the fact that NPCs always hint at where you need to go. My favorite NPC, the crestfallen warrior, basically sits in front of the bonfire in the main hub and tells you exactly where to go for the first quarter of the game.

-Ingward hints at Artorias knowing how to cross the abyss, and André tells you his grave is in the forest.

-Lautrec and Griggs both tell you about the right of kindling in the catacombs, leading directly to finding the tomb of the giants, where Nito is.

-The firekeeper in Anor Londo tells you Seath is in the Duke's Archives. And you practically can't miss the Demon Ruins, and Quelana still hints at it.

The only area that hasn't been explained by NPCs or were clearly visible from other areas. The only exception I can think of is the lower undead burg, with the key of it being directly in front of the undead church, with the description "Opens passage under the great bridge in the undead burg". The optional areas are bonuses for vigilant players, so I don't count them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's the problem. "A bit of farming" becomes absolutely horrendous when you have to do it all over again because you slipped and forgot just how fast that demon could attack you, or mistimed a parry, or went too far afield before heading back to the bonfire, or didn't use a homeward bone the instant you beat a boss, subsequently fell off a very poorly-drawn cliff, lost 80000 souls and five humanity in an instant, and through further mischance died again on the way to reclaiming them. Souls are important, and it's hardly a "little" while before they stop being so; leveling is one thing, but repairs, item shopping, and the all-important equipment upgrades also require increasing amounts. And the worst part is that there's no goddamn reason for it, unless there's a hardware limitation. Why do the souls disappear after the second death? The only way that makes sense is a hardware limitation or to discourage people from grinding, the latter of which can hardly be the case in a game that is basically grinding and rote memorization in purest form.

That's why you generally farm in a spot you're familiar with, near a bonfire. I don't know where you farmed, but I never found anything of what you described happening to me when I was farming. And I died loads of times in Dark Souls. Also, farming should make you become more familiar with enemy attacks and weaknesses as you continue farming. To a point where you could almost do it with your eyes closed.

And just as with humanity, you will find tons of souls you can keep in your inventory for a rainy day. Unless ofcourse you use them on the spot. So even if you die and your equipment is in a dire state you can just use one of these big souls to get your stuff fixed pronto.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That's why you generally farm in a spot you're familiar with, near a bonfire. I don't know where you farmed, but I never found anything of what you described happening to me when I was farming. And I died loads of times in Dark Souls. Also, farming should make you become more familiar with enemy attacks and weaknesses as you continue farming. To a point where you could almost do it with your eyes closed.

And just as with humanity, you will find tons of souls you can keep in your inventory for a rainy day. Unless ofcourse you use them on the spot. So even if you die and your equipment is in a dire state you can just use one of these big souls to get your stuff fixed pronto.

Yeah. I have to agree with this. I'm firmly in the "Dark Souls can occasionally be very cheap" camp, but farming is quite safe. You just pick an area near a bonfire and farm your little heart out. You don't plow ahead into mysterious areas. That's not farming. That's adventuring, and it's supposed to get you killed.

 

[Andrew Andrew]

NPCs always hint at where you need to go. My favorite NPC, the crestfallen warrior, basically sits in front of the bonfire in the main hub and tells you exactly where to go for the first quarter of the game.

I'll have to check that out. I haven't seen them saying anything useful.

Oh my god I just spent 30 minutes going over every single post of this thread several times. I have shit to do but just kept thinking..."SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET!" Made myself giggle.

Anyway, OP likes a certain type of game, like Ninja Gaiden, or Dota2, and he doesn't like Dark Souls...so fucking what? He/she obviously isn't suited for Dark Souls complaining about what could be considered a feature forcing creative thinking and an alternative approach. I love Dark Souls, in all it's obtuse glory. Is it perfect? no, because what is. I think we should just respect the OP decision to bash on a game for not being "hardcore" enough for him and let him get back to Dota.

A mature post on the internet. Huzzah.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's why you generally farm in a spot you're familiar with, near a bonfire. I don't know where you farmed, but I never found anything of what you described happening to me when I was farming. And I died loads of times in Dark Souls. Also, farming should make you become more familiar with enemy attacks and weaknesses as you continue farming. To a point where you could almost do it with your eyes closed.

And just as with humanity, you will find tons of souls you can keep in your inventory for a rainy day. Unless ofcourse you use them on the spot. So even if you die and your equipment is in a dire state you can just use one of these big souls to get your stuff fixed pronto.

Yeah. I have to agree with this. I'm firmly in the "Dark Souls can occasionally be very cheap" camp, but farming is quite safe. You just pick an area near a bonfire and farm your little heart out. You don't plow ahead into mysterious areas. That's not farming. That's adventuring, and it's supposed to get you killed.

My favourite spot was always the jail in the Dukes' Archives with the Cthulhu jellyfish.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

]My favourite spot was always the jail in the Dukes' Archives with the Cthulhu jellyfish.

Come to think of it - by the n-th time you go to Ctulhu jellyfish central (multiplayer hide-and-seek-and-kill shenanigans), evading and abusing them and the serpent guards and the crystal dudes should already be somewhat natural all in the very flow zone of things. One mistake and you're done either way, but as long as one manages to play a nice game of total control it's just sheer beauty; also, finishing off multiple jellies without interruptions or even slow downs does look and feel a bit like Ninja Gaiden, but that's either something you generally find out when playing much later in the game than level 20-30 or it's something you see someone else do and mistake it for Ninja Gaiden.

That's my best effort to bring logic into OP's (mis)perceptions of things.

Dude saw someone else play Dark Souls on teh interwebz, mistook it for Ninja Gaiden, booted it up, felt like a tetraplegic folded into an origami swan.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I've gone on a bit of hiatus on Dark Souls for now. Not because of frustration but merely because it's just so boring!
I do find the gameplay fun and the challenges great and incredibly satisfying to overcome but my main complaint comes from that the story is just complete pants for me. Maybe it's because I haven't played Demon's Souls or maybe it's because I have to search through every mook and granny to find an NPC that doesn't respond to my wild confusion with "I'm here to test the effects of pointy things on human flesh, Hold still!" but I really find no motivation to keep going through all these areas.

 

[Pandalisk]

Tutorial pretty much covers everything controls wise except for the running jump i believe(?).

Hmmm... I am under the impression it's scribbled on the floor in Undead Asylum, right after the surprise ball/stairs/gate, right before you turn left and encounter two melee hollows and one bow hollow? You know - right around the corner from the first fog gate that teaches you the purpose of dropping down on big bad enemies?

Bear in mind, I was one of those that actually backtracked to the beginning because, at first, I thought I was too cool to be arsed with reading all the scribbles when I first started out.

The only thing you require large amounts of souls for is leveling. Upgrading only takes up to ~2000 souls, repairs even less. The game only requires grinding if you want to reach a specific level or have really big troubles with a boss, apart from that you are able to clear it at rather low levels if you desire so.

Aye, I only started grinding right before going for Gwyn for the first time. To get +15 weapons, to get some of my favourite weapons upgraded to the max and just to give in to the genuine urge to grind when I am pretty much a hater of all things grind since WoW. I enjoyed it. Put on some music, run after giant leeches, try different weapons, snipe them from afar with a nifty bow or some magic... fun.

This isn't even factoring in the fact that you can devour the daemon soul's if you don't want the unique weapons, your practically rolling in soul's at that point. I never needed a single soul because my style is around the Broadsword +15 rapier route so i must've got hundreds of thousands of souls from them by the time i was on Gwyn's front door. (I keep Sif's soul for feels)

While I don't recommend it for first time players on first time playthroughs, this actually speeds things up significantly. It is not a viable option for the obsessive-compulsive players that want to see everything, get everything, collect everything, though. Those will easily require a sprinkle of additional therapy sessions because of Dark Souls. I also kept Sif's soul for far too long because killing Sif felt terribly, terribly bad.

That's a nicely put strategy, mines always been "stick to his ass! then run away when he flies into the air, Then back to the ass again!"

Aye. If Dark Souls teaches you anything you can take away and stick to it for life, it's this. If you see a demon, don't be afraid of going for the butthole, and do try to chop of the tail if there is a tail. Good things will happen if you stick to that plan. First and foremost, you might stay alive... and you might get a surprise weapon out of it.

How a first time player that obviously does not like the idea of checking out the wiki(s) gets the Drake Sword is a bit of a miracle to me, though. My first response to the red drake was to get burnt to a crisp, my second was to get burnt to a crisp trying to run past him, my third response was to get burnt to a crisp trying to fight him with pretty much my bare fists and some stained underwear.

I didn't even bother going near that section of the bridge till i had taken out Seathe and Nito, then i beat the ever loving hell out of the Drakes foot until he caved in. Lots of hiding in that bridge cellar was involved too. I wasn't aware of the Drake sword on my first playthrough until my friend mentioned it, people seem to think its OP but too be honest i'm not a fan of it. It's special attack is pretty good but its durability isn't worth a goddamn and i'm pretty sure the thing can't scale with your character unlike + 15 weapons

 

[StriderShinryu]

I didn't even bother going near that section of the bridge till i had taken out Seathe and Nito, then i beat the ever loving hell out of the Drakes foot until he caved in. Lots of hiding in that bridge cellar was involved too. I wasn't aware of the Drake sword on my first playthrough until my friend mentioned it, people seem to think its OP but too be honest i'm not a fan of it. It's special attack is pretty good but its durability isn't worth a goddamn and i'm pretty sure the thing can't scale with your character unlike + 15 weapons

That's pretty much the long and short of it. The Drake Sword is OP... if you're comparing it to other weapons you are likely to have at that point in the game. Once you've advanced a little, or really started upgrading a preferred weapon, the Drake Sword very quickly becomes near worthless due to it's lack of scalability. Also, leaning too much on the Drake Sword at the near start of the game can cause you to develop bad habits, or just not learn how to play properly, because it's such a powerful crutch in the crucial early learning part of the game.

 

[blackdwarf]

I love the game, but to be fair. The tutorial is not enough. It explains the basics of movement and attacking. Yes, they do they part pretty solid, but menu's and the equipment stats are never explained. not even in the in the manual. You have to go on the internet or read a guide to actually get it. That is not good and my main issue with the game. Sure, I get it no, but that took way too long. If they can fixed that in the sequel, I would be a happy undead.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Admittedly, I did not. Mostly because all that was worth is 'bragging rights' and I couldn't give less of a fuck about 'gaining bragging rights', I pursue unlocks for the most part.

Ether way, bring a MOBA or even a Spectacle Fighter like Ninja Gaiden into it smacks of missing the point of the game.

Very hard and master ninja were most definitely about bragging rights and I never beat those modes, but hard was well crafted and it puts a new spin on the game without the normal bullshit difficulty tampering methods like just increasing damage. Enemies became better at countering some of your powerful moves and often performed more coordinated attacks. They revamped several enemy classes to make them more capable and interesting eg the galas became the ogre, black ninjas became bast fiends.

sounds like 'Son of Sparda' mode, least I think its that one, though, the enemy AI doesn't change there, you just run into the upper tiered enemy's earlier, which can be a cold hard ***** when your not expecting Hell's Vanguard(DMC3) or a Blitz(DMC4)

course, we have Heaven or Hell and Hell and Hell modes, HoH sets every things HP to 1, bosses, enemy's, even player character, 1 HP. HaH, sets only the players HP1 one, and I think, has the enemy placement of SoS. Been awhile since I attempted ether mode, so I'm not 100% sure.

I've never heard the term spectacle fighter but I don't think that applies to ninja gaiden. According to urban dictionary that term (coined by yahtzee) refers to a game that focuses on the visual aspects of game play. That is most certainly not ninja gaiden as ngb focuses on extensive combat knowledge and reaction in a way similar to Dark souls.

I'd say it applys, much like DMC, which pretty much invented the term, it's still incredibility easy to 'put on a show of pure badassery' when you know what your doing. Just cause it doesn't have 'flashy' as a combat theme doesn't really change that's the side of town NGB hangs out in