Zero Punctuation: Dark Souls

[lukesparow]

Thank you very much for this review Mr. Croshaw. The hype for the Dark Souls train has only grown!

 

[Catfood220]

Awwwww, I was hoping for a Demon's Souls style beatdown, one of my favourite reviews he did. This was still funny though.

Seeing as this game gets almost universal praise, I'd want to play it. But I didn't get on at all with Demon's Souls I don't think I'll bother unless it comes free on PS+. Maybe at some point in the future, I will have another go at Demon's Souls, I mean I can beat the first boss, which was fun.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Two hours there too before I realized that oopps, wasn't supposed to be here either. Boy would I like some sort of instruction telling me where I'm supposed to go and why, because at this point I had completely forgotten the entire plot.

There's a general rule that, if the enemies in an area can one-shot shot you, you're not meant to be there yet. I didn't learn this until after I beat the game but I will definitely be applying it to the sequel to save my sanity!

I agree except that none of the 'don't be here' enemies were one-hitting me. At least, no more so than the enemies in the 'go here' sections. That was a major problem and one of the reasons I kept getting frustrated. The enemies in the places I was supposed to go were just as difficult as the ones in the other places. They never changed so I never knew if I was supposed to be there or not.

And all the bosses one-hit killed me, so that didn't help...

Not to mention that your hitbox is apparently four feet across, leading to scenarios where the baddo's sword sails over your head but still kills you.

 

[Thanatos2k]

See, the thing about Dark Souls is it doesn't WANT people playing it that won't suffer through the challenging parts, and the developers don't care about making it more inclusive. A game perfectly targeted at my demographic. I love it.

 

[scw55]

If Monster Hunter lacked the compulsory and depressing gatherer missions at the start of the game, Yahtzee would have enjoyed Monster Hunter too.

Since the Monster Boss fights are brutal but fair. And if you get in the zone, you feel empowered,

 

[scorptatious]

Wow. I was kinda expecting him to tear this game a new one considering his Demon's Souls video.

Glad I was wrong. Dark Souls is a pretty kickass game.

 

[MoeMints]

I'm actually very confused here.

He doesn't like Monster Hunter for dipping you in the kiddie pool first and actually making you pay attention to the world, and slamming you with a rake if you don't understand the mechanics after getting a chance to use them in full.
Even the gathering mission crawl is a non-factor since he admitted to fighting the Jaggi.

While Demon's Souls did the same as Dark Souls.

But he likes Dark Souls.

It just feels like he just made an excuse to not consider they needed an extended time to learn.

Also surprised he never mentioned the forced multiplayer's balance as a human or how wooden the animations are.

Like a LOT of the perceived difficulty is from how slow and meaningful seems.
When in execution, its more mobility and setup compatibility is far more important than anything else.

Like the Capra Demon boss is the epitome of this. You're fighting your lack of knowledge of how the poise system works, the camera angles, and the first ten seconds killing the dogs than the boss itself.

After the first bell, I never got how people got cursed on accident or the stone golems were anything but a shield test drive. Even most of my deaths were being stunlocked from my light armor or beginner traps like the Hydra and Bed death pits.

 

[anthony87]

Fuck that bit with the archers, just fuck it. I wonder how many billions of souls have been collectively lost because of that part.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I had a feeling he'd like it for all the reasons he mentioned. God do I definitely agree about the level of smugness of Dark Souls players though. It is what originally put me off the game more than anything else. I wanted nothing to do with it for fear that such a level of smugness could be contagious.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP.

I hate to be this person, but in my opinion the error was on your gameplay. You already knew there were 2 alternate routes, maybe try looking around for third when you can hardly damage the enemies you encounter? Somehow the completely hidden path was the first one I took, it was after all the one on the same clearing as the first checkpoint.

I think From Software might have done a bit of a disservice to the game by hyping the difficulty so much, since I know a lot of players who just ended up bashing their head against the first wall they come across because "this game is supposed to be hard right?" instead of doing some thinking within the game. Don't get me wrong, it's a difficult game, but I've seen gameplay videos videos where people spend dozens of tries on the first boss instead of escaping through the door that is clearly highlighted by the torches.

I don't know, maybe I'm just used to playing games where exploration and enviroment are important. Speaking of enviroments, I can't be the only one who ended up kinda disliking the world of Dark Souls since it just felt really lacking in detail and bland compared to Demon's Souls? It's hard for me to believe Tower of Latria was designed by same people who worked on Dark Souls.

Oh I don't defend my gameplay, but like you said, the game is KNOWN for being incredibly difficult. I was one of those fools who died a lot fighting that first boss. I'm used to playing games where you're the hero and you fight monsters. It would have never occurred to me to run away from a boss-fight. I've never heard of a game like that. You can't run away from Boss Fights in Final Fantasy, or Bioshock or Resident Evil or Mass Effect or any other game.

Do I feel foolish for playing so long and getting nowhere? Yes. But I'm not going to apologize for assuming the game wanted to be played. If you're not supposed to ever fight anything and just sulk around in the shadows, I can turn the game off and go outside.

Maybe someday I'll puck it up again. But not for a very very very very very long timee.

 

[Aeonknight]

I hate dark souls for the simple fact that you can't pause. Fuck whoever thought that was a good design decision.

Name one online RPG game with pvp that has a pause button.
And while you're at it figure out a way for it to be implemented without being abused.

Seriously. Open the menu, click quit. It's not fucking hard, you start up again in the exact same spot with the exact same monsters killed. That is your damn pause button.

 

[IFS]

Now back to hoping that Dark Souls 2 doesnt suck, and has a decent PC port.

I believe the developers have said that for Dark Souls 2 they're developing for PC first and are working hard to make sure its a good port this time around. Of course you can't say for sure if it'll be good until its out, but its sounding promising so far.

Awwwww, I was hoping for a Demon's Souls style beatdown, one of my favourite reviews he did. This was still funny though.

Seeing as this game gets almost universal praise, I'd want to play it. But I didn't get on at all with Demon's Souls I don't think I'll bother unless it comes free on PS+. Maybe at some point in the future, I will have another go at Demon's Souls, I mean I can beat the first boss, which was fun.

Demon's Souls was free on PS+ a while back, I don't know if it still is though.

 

[chrystallix]

I...really don't agree about the sharing information part. I won't deny that sharing information is important, but I just...I never really found Dark Souls all that hard. I died to the Asylum Demon once, spotted the door ran, I actually was able to get through the graveyard of skeletons and only stopped exploring when I realized the skellies in the catacombs would just keep rebuilding themselves...and I didn't even know how to parry or backstab. Dark Souls is a challenging game, but you just have to approach it...well, tactically. I never looked up any guides or anything, I was just a warrior, who had found the Zweihander, and who just blocked and slashed, I killed the first Black Knight, after two previous tries, by just blocking and slashing.

Dark Souls is challenging but I just...I can't consider it difficult. I even went through the DLC and took down those bosses, I think Manus took me...what three tries? and Kalameet took me five...maybe, I can't quite remember I just know I solo'd them, because I didn't have Xbox live gold at the time. Maybe it's just because I grew up on games with heavy exploration like Metroid or Castlevania, and these are definitely games about exploration but I just...I even found Havel's Armor without looking anything up in guides, so maybe I'm just a really, really weird case.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

I enjoy his reviews so much more when he likes a game because he talks about all the different parts that make up the whole game and not just the shitty bits he hates, like in his other reviews

-M

 

[greyden]

3 years late and not a moment too soon.

I've never agreed with Yahtzee so much in my life! From the Symphony of the Night comparison, to the smug players(I was very liberal with looking stuff up myself). Even down to the games I played after it being so much easier.

Y'know, I guess this is the right place I wrote a 57 page comic of my entire Dark Souls playthrough. [http://clockworkpandas.com/comic/the-dark-souls-adventures-1/]

The game was THAT good.

 

[Alarien]

I've honestly never played Dark Souls, even though I feel like I would enjoy it quite a lot.

Although I did hear there were problems with the Steam version...is this true?

Yep loads of problems with the PC version, it's one of the few games where I would advise people to get the console version if possible. Control scheme is much better too.

I heard that From Software made it mostly to run on the PS3 and then ported (PC version is definitely a port, not sure about xbox 360 version)

There are problems, but they are almost entirely fixed with 5 minutes of research. Look up DSFix and that should solve any major PC problems.

Basically, make sure that in-game resolution is set to where you want it. Make sure in-game AA is turned off. Install DSFix. Tweak DSFix .ini settings for resolution and anything else you want to mess with: Play the game.

It looks a lot better on PC running at higher res than it does on the standard console resolutions.

I started with Demon's Souls on PS3, went to Dark Souls on Xbox360 and then bought Dark Souls again on Steam. I prefer the PC version, once fixed.

 

[Innegativeion]

Super relieved that Yahtzee gave this game the review it deserved. It's absolutely one of my favorites.

At any rate, I'd like to point out that absolutely nothing in Dark Soul's environments seems to have been put there by accident.

Yes indeed, Yahtzee! It does seem as though everything was made for someone twenty feet tall 'for some reason'. Actually, It WAS made for people like that; those humanoid boss characters that are 8 to 20 feet tall. It is, after all, the realm of ancient lords, a race that is comprised literally of giants.

 

[Antsh]

Love that Drown Out has become a sounding board for Zero Punc

Got Dark Souls cheap on Steam at some point... trying to get into it. God, I have so many unplayed, unknown games in my Steam library.