Zero Punctuation: Dark Souls III
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
That's exactly what I thought about the mimics! I thought it'd be an awesome idea if they somehow mimicked other things, such as bonfires, doors, ladders, etc.
DO NOT GIVE THE MIMICS IDEAS!
Really though I know these days to whack every chest I come across before opening. That's kinda the problem I was expecting with Dark Souls sequels, the game expects you to know the series, but if you know the series you don't get the same surprises. That's why I loved the first boss, I thought it was going to be an easy case of just avoid his attacks then hit with dagger a bit, but then he went all resident evil and it was like I was playing for the first time again. Its just unfortunate that, as was said, Dark Souls 3 seems to jump back into Dark Souls 1 all to often.
Really though I know these days to whack every chest I come across before opening. That's kinda the problem I was expecting with Dark Souls sequels, the game expects you to know the series, but if you know the series you don't get the same surprises. That's why I loved the first boss, I thought it was going to be an easy case of just avoid his attacks then hit with dagger a bit, but then he went all resident evil and it was like I was playing for the first time again. Its just unfortunate that, as was said, Dark Souls 3 seems to jump back into Dark Souls 1 all to often.
After playing 3, I've grown to appreciate 2 a lot LOT more. Ultimately, 3 was boring after the initial exploring amazement fell off. I just didn't care and nothing was worth upgrading. I was a destroyer god almost immediately so getting new things, (most of which were shit/useless anyway), was lackluster. And the game was surprisingly grey. There were so many nitpicks and steps backward that I hated it and feelings of fun were fleeting and rare. Pvp is an utter joke with the ridiculous ease of healing and rolling and lack of proper poise. Armor is near useless, especially heavy armor. Many stats are flat out lies and don't do what they say they do.
Art-wise, 3 was pretty spectacular, but without substance, it wore off quickly. I dunno, I can't tell if it was me or the game, but at least one of us is burnt out of the other. It's a huge shame because I have been depressed and this was the one game I was severely looking forward to and even though I've now basically 100% it (except for the atrocious covanent stuff) I didn't feel anything other than emptiness.
Art-wise, 3 was pretty spectacular, but without substance, it wore off quickly. I dunno, I can't tell if it was me or the game, but at least one of us is burnt out of the other. It's a huge shame because I have been depressed and this was the one game I was severely looking forward to and even though I've now basically 100% it (except for the atrocious covanent stuff) I didn't feel anything other than emptiness.
In the sense that it's a meter that you use to cast magic, it is the same, but there are several key differences. First, you won't be carrying around 198 spices for infinite magic, so you have to use magic with forethought or spec for mitigating the cost. You'll only be regenerating it with ashen estus, which you need to sacrifice regular estus for, with the FP on crit ring, which you need to sacrifice a ring slot and practice your parries for, or with certain weapons and only very slight gains with that. Secondly, It's used for weapon skills too.Kyle Winston said:
A resource for using special abilities is nothing new, obviously, but its implementation is a lot better than it was in Demon's Souls. Which is not saying much, because it was outright gamebreaking in Demon's Souls.
Was that who it was? I wouldn't have thought Sterling was a very neutral guy. I thought it might have been a dig at MatthewMatosis who does some pretty long in-depth videos and whose two most famous videos are his hours-long one about why Dark Souls is so great and a shorter one about why Dark Souls II is so lousy. But maybe it was someone else completely.Darth_Payn said:
Dark Souls 3 often times feels like it is trying to joint eh Dynasty Warriors franchise with some of the huge hordes (in one basement there was at least 20-30 inviso-bitches, and the Congregation boss has at least as many dudes as a fort in Dynasty Warriors).
Honestly, it's relieving to me to see other people that think DS3 is a step downwards. Everyone I speak to is like 'Dark Souls 3 is the best souls game, hands down', and I'm just looking at them like they're crazy, because personally I think it's the worst. I mean, it still IS a Souls game, so it's still miles better than most other games coming out these days, but it has a mountain of flaws. It's more linear than any other souls game, coming nowhere close to Dark Souls 1. Even DS2, weak as its level design was in comparison, at least offered more choice still over how to progress the game. The story for 3 is more of a mess than ever. I dislike that the DS2 Twinblades and dual wielding power stance were removed. And the difficulty curve is just all kinds of fucked. A lot of mechanics and enemy types that would normally be reserved for much later in the game are thrown at you right away, which I have to imagine is ludicrously punishing to new players. There's also no unique or interest covenants like the Gravelord Servants from DS1 or the Rat King covenant from DS2. The closest you get is Mound Makers, which isn't nearly as interesting. It's just a huge amount of tiny little things that make the game worse than all its predecessors.
No, he's actually--krebons12 said:
Oh. Well, there you go. Glad someone else knows this though. I've seen a lot of people thinking it was the same guy and I've been like, "No, they're DIFFERENT! Opposite personalities and everything!" They may have the same speech style and look the same, but their methods are completely opposite of each other and their names are different.Obbi said:
I can try, from an in-universe point of view, if you want...Maphysto said:
In Dark Souls III, it gives a few hints as to why Ornstein is where he is in II. The first clue comes from Smough's Hammer and his armor. Both say that Smough was the last knight to stand guard at the cathedral. So that means one of two things. Either Ornstien died first in the fight according to the official story, or Smough was alone. Seeing as I doubt they'd tell Smough's tale as being the "last knight" if it just meant that he died slower, it's safe to say the the second one is more likely. Ornstein was gone.
Next clue comes from Ornstein's armor, saying that he left his post to search for the nameless king. So we know that he was gone now. You were probably fighting an illusion of him, knowing Gwydolin's power. But why was he there in II? Well, people say he was looking for THE Nameless King, as in that boss by the same name, but note that the name isn't capitalized. I think Ornstein actually went looking for Vendrick first, hearing that he was strong and hoping he could help put the world right--link the fire and whatnot. After all, Vendrick's shield in III, Shield of Want, says that he no longer has a name in this age. But Ornstein crossed paths with Nashadra first, and much like Artorias, got his butt handed to him by the Abyss. He managed to escape, but was corrupted with Dark, which is why he can use Dark in II and why he looks the way he does. The Chosen Undead from II smacked him around, possibly purging the Dark from him, and he was left to wander the world again. Eventually, he heard of The Nameless King (capitalized now) and went to seek him out, knowing who he was. However, seeing as you find Ornstein's armor pretty close to The Nameless King, odds are things didn't go well for him. He was, after all, a feared Dragon Slayer, and Nameless was loyal to the Dragons...
Next clue comes from Ornstein's armor, saying that he left his post to search for the nameless king. So we know that he was gone now. You were probably fighting an illusion of him, knowing Gwydolin's power. But why was he there in II? Well, people say he was looking for THE Nameless King, as in that boss by the same name, but note that the name isn't capitalized. I think Ornstein actually went looking for Vendrick first, hearing that he was strong and hoping he could help put the world right--link the fire and whatnot. After all, Vendrick's shield in III, Shield of Want, says that he no longer has a name in this age. But Ornstein crossed paths with Nashadra first, and much like Artorias, got his butt handed to him by the Abyss. He managed to escape, but was corrupted with Dark, which is why he can use Dark in II and why he looks the way he does. The Chosen Undead from II smacked him around, possibly purging the Dark from him, and he was left to wander the world again. Eventually, he heard of The Nameless King (capitalized now) and went to seek him out, knowing who he was. However, seeing as you find Ornstein's armor pretty close to The Nameless King, odds are things didn't go well for him. He was, after all, a feared Dragon Slayer, and Nameless was loyal to the Dragons...
Anyway, that's what I've come up with in terms of story. In terms of real life, it was the B Team going, "Hey, everyone liked him! Let's put him in our game just because! Oh, but be sure you don't give them the chance to get his armor." And Dark Souls III just kind of smacked its forehead and went, "Great, now we have to try and explain this..."
I think he meant more how the areas themselves were designed aesthetically rather than the strange ways they connected to each other. After all seamless world is all nice and all that but you've got to have some variety in the areas themselves. Not that I entirely agree with him about DS2Kitsune Hunter said:Wait a minute, DS2 had level design?.... Really? That's news to me, because it looked to me B team had no idea what they were doing. Just look at the transition from Earthen Peak to Iron Keep, it's nonsensical
Also that ending analogy about the DLC was brilliant
I think the only time I got excited going into a new area was when I first arrived in Irithyll. Otherwise, he's totally right about the level design, it gets very bland very fast (although the labyrinthine layouts are still great). The lack of colour certainly doesn't help, excluding the FABULOUS PINK invaders of course. Still having a lot of fun with it, but the only ways it feels like a step forwards is basically what it ripped off of Bloodborne.
Personally I always felt like DS2 was sort of "official fanfiction" in its story because Miyamoto was working on BB instead of DS2 at the time so they had to make do without the head designer. I felt like I was pretty correct on that feeling after finishing DS3 and there were almost no nods towards any plot element that was unique to DS2. There was a giant tree that sometimes dropped Seeds outside Firelink and one of the bosses was a Giant similar to the Giant King in DS2 and that's kind of all I could see.Maphysto said:
3 was definitely what 2 should have been i'm with you there. There were no areas that made me want to just kill myself like trying to beat Shrine of Elara (or whatever it was called, the bit directly after the Mirror Knight) with a heavy armour melee build. I think the thing with DS2 was that the design team were coming at it slightly wrong, looking at the game and saying "how can we make this fight hard?" instead of "how can we make this fight fun/interesting whist also challenging?"
Look at Royal Rat Authority as a boss example and Shrine of Elara as a full area example. Easy boss with a few rats that inflict Toxin in a few hits to make it just frustrating as hell and a massive water area that makes your walking speed slower and it's full of magic users who can hit you from the other side of the map.
But yeah I beat DS3 with a Heavy Broadsword +10 and I REALLY wanted to use some boss weapons... It's cool how in theory you can take a weapon you like and beat the game with it all the way through but come on, there's no boss version of a Broadsword that is strictly better than the regular one? (inb4 I missed it like a scrub) Make the upgrade materials super rare even, i'd work for it.
The self referencing is one of my problems with DS3, I know a lot for people got excited that you go back to
When DS3 was announced and before it was revealed to be last one I was thinking that this would probably be the last DS game I buy and even though I do enjoy these games immensely and have been playing 3 constantly I still feel that way.
DS2 gets shit and did do some things badly but I got more of an impression that they were at least trying to do things a bit differently.
Anor Londo but when I entered that area I was actually disappointed. They even pulled the exact same trick with the silver knight snipers. Why are they even there? I can't imagine they serve Aldrich.
DS2 gets shit and did do some things badly but I got more of an impression that they were at least trying to do things a bit differently.
There's also some references to Lucatiel (you can get her mask from Pickle-Pee and her sword is one of the Transposed weapons) and the Goddess Caitha.The Wykydtron said:
The level/enemy/boss design is easily one of my biggest beefs with DS2. It all felt so phoned in.The Wykydtron said:
"Okay, here's, like, a a big mansion. What, you wanted to explore it? Sorry bro, we just made it a big long hallway with monsters and shit. And most of the monsters are just dudes. But at the end of the hallway, you fight a DRAGON! Won't that be cool?"
Most of the areas were just purely linear paths, with none of the sprawling, inter-connected layouts of 1 and 3. And don't even get me started on how the separate areas were apparently just mashed together at the last minute (like the fact that the Iron Keep exists in impossible space).
And as Yahtzee mentioned, most of the enemies/bosses could basically just be described as "Person In Armor and/or With Weapon." The few really memorable bosses (Flexile Sentry, Demon of Song, and The Rotten to name a few) were way too easy. I feel like DS2 could've had a lot going for it if they'd just gone a little farther with some of their good ideas/designs.
Regarding being unable to find a better weapon than your starting sword - I'm guessing you started as a Knight. And as a Knight, you got a lovely Longsword, the most vanilla member of the Straight Sword category. Well, as it turns out, Straight Swords in general are probably the best weapon category at the moment. Sure, larger weapons do more damage, but they just don't seem to fit into the game mechanics anymore. The faster combat means swinging a massive Ultra Greatsword becomes a very risky proposition. The bigger weapons tend to do more damage, but not enough to justify the drop in speed, and when you factor in the speed, Straight Swords out-DPS them easily. Basically, the balance is kinda fucked right now.