We need a dedicated place for discussion all things Dark Souls.
It appears that we don’t have a dedicated Dark Souls series thread, despite having them for Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, and Sekiro. I think there may have been a Dark Souls one a few years ago which has since been locked.
Given that the series is oft discussed in other threads and has a way of prompting a lot of in-depth discussion, having it all in one place seems prudent. So, regardless of which console or gaming ecosystem you play it on, feel free to discuss the series here.
May this be a place for newcomers and veterans alike. Share your experiences, your thoughts, your debates about which is the best of the series, and above all — your questions and advice as we all try to navigate the frustratingly wonderful world of From Software’s flagship series.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Now that I don’t have to worry about constantly bombarding the other threads with my thoughts and questions on my Dark Souls playthrough… 😄
@JohnnyShoulder@HallowMoonshadow@Ralizah
Regarding character build and attribute leveling — I was able to slay Havel (I think his name is) last night finally, after about 10 attempts, and so I have his ring now. I figure the equipment burden boost will help me get away with less stamina/endurance for a while, but I guess I’ll need to eventually prioritize it too. Fextralife says to leave resistance alone. Any reason why? The game says it helps defense which is enticing to me, but maybe it doesn’t really have much effect? Better to just upgrade armor?
I killed Taurus Demon last night as well. He went down extremely easily with my current set up and with the very over-powered jump from above and stab him on the way down move.
Also, any advice on crystal lizards? There was supposed to be one in the room before Taurus Demon, but I destroyed all the barrels and didn’t see him. I read that the lizards will continue to respawn indefinitely until killed, unlike Demon’s Souls. Hopefully that’s correct and the fact I proceeded ahead and went through the boss door didn’t lock me out of that lizard. Can anyone confirm?
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution how you finding it anyway? Obviously it plays very similarly to Demon’s Souls but has an interconnected world rather than separate areas connected to a hub area etc. The lore is also an area where I feel that From Soft levelled up… I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time researching a games lore as I did with the first Dark Souls.
@HallowMoonshadow Thanks, that’s a relief! Apparently I need whatever it drops to do some important upgrades.
@colonelkilgore Some of my initial thoughts are buried in other threads, but suffice it to say I’m totally enamored at this point. As I said earlier, despite playing the Remastered version on PS5 at 60 fps, there is a very large visual downgrade compared to Demon’s Souls Remake, but it’s not big enough to ruin the experience. I’m just a bit of a graphics snob.
Speaking of (and I didn’t mention this earlier) I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the 3D audio either. I subconsciously rely on it in these games to locate things behind and beside me that I can’t see. Unfortunately DS1R audio is also showing it’s age.
Nevertheless, outside of those issues, the game has been great so far. I feel like I’m going to do okay with it and having the Demon’s Souls under my belt this time really helps. There’s a lot of overlap.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I'm pretty sure @Ralizah if you press load game on the main menu rather then continue it shows you your game time per save slot/character so you can look your game time up whenever Ral
And yeah I do remember that feature from the 3DS was pretty cool. I remember being quite surprised at spending over 200 hours in Pokemon X!
Funny you mention Twilight Princess as that's the only home console Zelda I've actually played (The handheld one being Phantom hourglass). Good to hear you enjoyed Sen's Fortress though. I kept falling off the ledges and tried going for everything so it meant a lot of falling on tight beams or to the ground floor and having to fight all those damn titanite demons
You got very lucky with the dynamic duo there. Any reason you went for Ornstein first or was that just pure coincedence?
I should clarify that I mean main diverging paths for DS3. So it's not like in DS1 when you get to Firelink & there's like 6 different places you can go and most of them are a bad time. There's still various paths, dead ends and the likes in DS3 but you won't find yourself in an area you shouldn't be til 30 hours in or whatever 😄
Shields are still very useful in DS3. I don't actually use shields all that much though in any of the games though personally besides stopping projectiles. I mainly do dex builds and dodge roll a lot
Yeah that was Lautrec. The guy you might've found in the jail cell in the undead parish and released? You can find his armour somewhere near Gwynevere if you're interested. His ring is REALLY useful though thanks to it's multiple effects but unequipping it once makes it break forever so be careful!
Oh, I had no idea! Seems like I've clocked about 40 hours since the fifth of November.
Twilight Princess seems the most comparable in terms of atmosphere and game progression. The dungeon that immediately came to mind was the Arbiter's Grounds.
Those titanite demons are insane. Like, after I killed a few, they went from being manageable to harder than some of the bosses.
If I have to do with one of the pair being superpowered, I'd rather it be the slower and bigger one. Also, Ornstein is more dangerous to ignore during that first phase.
No, I get you. It wouldn't be a Soulsborne game without branching paths. It's just nice that you can play the game and not easily stumble into a late-game area like in DS1.
Movement seems significantly clunkier in DS1 in general, so I wouldn't be able to spam dodge roll to avoid damage like in Bloodborne. I guess you could parry enemies as well, but I've only successfully parried once or twice in this game. Also struggled with the timing in Bloodborne, where it's MUCH more necessary.
Good to know about that ring. I imagine it breaking when removed is why I've ignored it until now. I've had on a ring that dramatically improves stamina regeneration times since early-ish in the game. Also have on a ring that increases the number of souls collected, and am wearing a mimic headpiece that boosts the percentage of Souls collected in return for slowly sapping your life while I'm grinding outside of the crystal cave to make up the Souls I lost when I fell off one of the many invisible paths there (worst dungeon so far, ugh).
Quick Pro tip for Dark Souls, you can chop the tail off some enemies (i think they are all bosses) and you get a unique weapon for your troubles. I won't say which ones, as I don't wanna spoil it. But Ral has already beaten at least one of them.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
My first DS game was DS1R for the Nintendo Switch 3 months ago. From that moment I had to beat all other DS games and then I started playing Bloodborne and Elden Ring.
Now for the DS trilogy, each one has something special for me.
The first one had a world that was connected perfectly and it was interesting. Also with each defeated boss I became so confident that I died to normal enemies after that
DS2 was good. It was hard because you had to do stuff in order to farm places (burning incenses or crap like that) also the weapon durability was not good just like in BotW Also the normal enemies were the real threats Also the world was designed very differently ... like the areas were just put next to each other with very little thought.
DS3 was good! The bosses were challenging or at least some of them! Also the world was strikingly beautiful. You can see the desperation and the decay in every little detail!
Cleared the crystal cave and took down whatever that crystal dragon was, which was an unusually easy fight. Now begins the real game: continuing to farm these murder clams next to the bonfire for the upgrade ore they drop with surprising regularity .
@Th3solution In my experience, armor upgrades are the best bang for your buck in terms of defense increases. Although I've saved those for last and focused primarily on leveling up strength, dexterity, and especially endurance, and have focused on making sure I'm always using the best shield available at that point in the game (relative to its weight, anyway). Defense passively increases as you focus on other stats anyway. If you're worried about survivability, then vitality is probably a better stat to level up.
@JohnnyShoulder I noticed. Very Monster Hunter-y of them. Although Souls games have always felt heavily inspirired by that particular series.
Thankfully, circling around and attacking the butt is just second nature to me.
@Ralizah The crystal caves is when I finally gave up the game when I played on the 360. I breezed through it when I played the remastered version on PS4 though.
Will you be attempting the DLC at all?
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder Probably not. I'm hoping to wrap up Dark Souls this week so I can focus on other games. I actually never planned on playing it this year: I booted it up after buying it to see how it looked and... just sorta kept playing, lol.
More importantly, there's just nothing here besides the strong gameplay loop to keep me engaged long term. Aside from my issues with getting lost (which, admittedly, has happened less here thanks to the more diverse environments), I actually didn't hate Bloodborne when I first started playing it. I just sort of... got tired of it and lost interest, and I know I'll be in that headspace soon with Dark Souls as well.
I may come back to it to do a more relaxed and thorough playthrough at some point, and I'll definitely look up how to access the DLC then.
That sounded a bit more negative than it should have, tbf. One doesn't play a game for 40+ hours in little over a week if they're not enjoying it. My experiences with DS1 and ER have definitely made it much more likely that I'll give their other games a go in time, including giving Bloodborne another shake.
@Kairu I was concerned that playing Elden Ring first would ruin the Dark Souls series for me. Having only played Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls Remake, I think playing DS1 has been a nice progression so far. Especially playing Demon’s Souls has helped, as there’s lots of shared DNA between the two I’m finding.
A lot of people really dig the lovecraftian backdrop for Bloodborne, but i actually prefer the traditional fantasy setting. That said, between the two, so far BB combat is better, but I’m still early yet in DS. I do think I like the more kinetic gameplay, but like I say, Demon’s Souls got me accustomed to the slower and more tactical style.
So perhaps it boils down to what it was you liked about the other From Games. Setting and lore, combat, deep leveling mechanics, loads of hidden content, large spectacular bosses, etc, etc?
For me I think it’s the exploration and the satisfaction of cracking something and figuring out how to make a thing work despite not being a very good gamer. Clearly you can see from my consistent low showing in the GT7 TT each week that I’m just average to below average at this stuff, so when I suss out a boss or an area, it brings me satisfaction. It’s why I’m not sure if I’ll play Sekiro. I think it seems more skill based rather than tactical.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Kairu Yeah, see my post above. I gave Dark Souls a fair shake when I first played it on 360, but for whatever the reasons it wasn't for me at that point. I only played the remastered version and finally completed it after I played the other games in the series (except for Demon's Souls). I then had a greater appreciation for the game.
@Kairu So my order of Souls games completed goes like this DS3, DS1, DS2, Demon Souls , BB, ER.
Over the weekend I tried DS1 and DS2 again and just couldn't get into them, DS1 was just too slow and ponderous so I loaded up DS2 and just couldn't be bothered with it.
@Kairu Yeah, that’s fair. Sometimes it’s just about one’s mood at the time. We all have games that didn’t click the first time but did the second time (for me DS1 is turning out this way), or games we like at first but burned out and then came back to and liked after a break (for me Horizon Zero Dawn, Persona 4&5) or games that we didn’t click with and still haven’t (I have too many of these to even count). But I still hold out hope that I’ll eventually enjoy some of these highly rated games which didn’t gel the first of second try. (For me Witcher 3, the Hitman games, Akrham Knight, …to name a few)
But yes, the fact that the Demon’s Souls Remake is arguably the most beautiful and well-crafted PS5 game might make you motivated to play it first. Even if you aren’t completely enamored with the gameplay or structure, it’s almost worth it for the beautiful world, visuals, and sound design. Then if you make it through that, Dark Souls might be more enticing. If you have PS+ Extra (or already own the game outright) then it might be worth a try first before going back to Dark Souls. But in the end, you should definitely just play what you want to play — no pressure! 😂
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Kairu Yeah like Sol says, it's quite OK for some games not to click. I probably have more games left unfinished due to this reason! 😂 I thought Nioh would be guaranteed hit for me, but I ended finding it a total drag to play.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
So, I went through the last six or so bosses without dying once... until I got to the final boss. He's a parrying skill check, which means, if you're competent at parrying, the dude probably goes down in ten seconds, but for someone like me who SUCKS at parrying, it's just miserable.
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Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread
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