Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread

Yeah, I think that’s what the implication is but there nothing concrete to know for sure. In all honesty, it may well just be Miyazaki being fast and loose with the lore and in terms of details that even he hasn’t got clear in his own head. Your interpretation is what I take from it though 👍

@colonelkilgore Come to think of it there is a significant area of Demon’s Souls that also has a significant hollowed out giant tree… Another possible clue that there’s something to this.

@Th3solution 🤔 yeah that’s a good point too. Maybe we should’ve been calling these games tree-likes all along 😉

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore I'm not sure any of that means anything like that the games from different series are tied to each other. But there things which you notice that can pop up in the games which you notice as play through more of them. It is more like a Miyazaki stamp or signature. Or something. 😆

Finally finished Dark Souls Remastered. What a wonderful journey.

I’ve said a lot about the game and so I don’t think I need to carry on too much more. The DLC area was really good and quite difficult. Especially the DLC bosses. Both Knight Artorias and Kalameet were really challenging, but I was so overleveled and equipped to the gills that I got by both of them on the first try, but it was close. Especially Kalameet. Doing the DLC made the main game final boss feel like a complete joke. Especially since I went ahead and summoned Solaire. Literally didn’t even have to heal once and I smashed him in about 4-5 hits while he had his back to me fighting Solaire.

Regardless, just such a fun and rewarding game. It makes me want to jump right into the next From game, but I’m going to cleanse my palate first for a while. I did go to GameStop looking for a copy of DS2, but couldn’t find one. If I find it cheap I might go ahead and get it. We’ll see

Tagging @TheBrandedSwordsman since you were interested in how I ended up. Really loved the game. I’d say it’s a better game than Demon’s Souls, but not quite as good as Bloodborne, to compare to the two other From games I’ve played. It’s a game I could see myself playing again with a different build to see some of the things I missed.

Incidentally, I save-scummed to get both endings. I liked the Dark Lord ending better, tbh.

I've played through DS1 three or four times across the Switch and PS5, but never done the DLC. I've also never used pyromancy so decided last week to start another run, a pyromancer build, on which I will do the DLC. I read today that the DLC bosses all have high resistance to non-physical damage....

@woollypump I never really relied on pyromancy, but I did dabble in it for my playthrough. It was useful in some situations and there’s a couple of the latter spells that are quite devastating.

I hope you enjoy the DLC! If you’ve played the game 3 or 4 times then you must really like it so you’ll certainly love the DLC. 😄

I finished the DLC last night (apart from not bothering with Kalameet - I'll do the DLC again some time on the playstation I think). Manus was a great final boss.

I'm thinking about having another attempt to get into DS2 sometime soon. It just hasn't clicked for me so far.

I did a SL1 pyromacy build and pyro was pretty much the only way I could do it as my dodging/rolling skills are not really up to snuff (no I haven't got gud).
Pretty good fun tbh although you do need to get the jump attack move down to a tee.

(Moved the discussion here just in case we want to go into further detail…)
@Black_Swordsman 😄 Well… I feel like I need to at least try Dark Souls II. I think I will have it on a short leash though if it doesn’t click with me. But I figure I might as well go: DS2 —> DS3 —> Elden Ring, I that order. My obsessive compulsive tendencies push me to do the series sequentially. I understand that DS2 is out on an island somewhat as a different experience from DS1 and DS3, but I plan to at least try it. I’m not expecting to like it as much as DS1, BB, and DeS (as you are correct, those are my From games completed so far), but every now and then I hear a Souls fan say that DS2 is their favorite. So I’m curious about it.

Interestingly, as I recently finished up FF16 and then Inscryption, I came really close to booting up DS2 as my next game, but I grabbed Spider-Man 2 instead; I felt like I needed some lighter Marvel style narrative and laid back comic action for a while. DS2 is on the short list for next up though. If it follows form, SM2 isn’t a very long game, so I might be able to knock it out over a couple weeks. And I haven’t ruled out the possibility of playing another game (like a Souls game) alongside in parallel.

I’m tempted by Dragons Dogma 2, since it’s the new and shiny headline right now, but I should probably work on my backlog instead. I’m bad about falling victim of FOMO though so it’s not off the table for me to get DD2 and just push everything else back a notch.

If I go for DS2, do you have some advice for me? It sounds like your advice would be to skip it entirely 😂, but if I do play it, is there something I should prepare myself for? A good build that you know of? And what was it about the game that turned you off? (Apologies if you have mentioned reasons in the past and I’ve forgotten)

@Th3solution There is something called the Covenant of Champions, I believe, or something similar to that iirc. Joining it increases the difficulty slightly but if you ,as you may have indicated in the past, are very much a person who likes to farm souls in order to level up before difficult bosses, I suggest you join it because otherwise the regular enemies will stop respawning after you have killed them a few times, I think that is a feature that is unique to Dark Souls II.

@Black_Swordsman Oh, interesting! I was unaware of that. Thanks, buddy!

The version I got is the Scholar of the First Sin edition, which I understand made some subtle changes to the base DS2 game. One of those changes was to change enemy placement and numbers. I read some online reviews that said Scholar of the First Sin was more difficult than the base game because of this. I wonder if the SotFS edition changed that about the enemy respawn?

But yes, you are correct — my preferred approach is to over-level some, what I call “the FromSoft easy mode” to make the game a little less frustrating. The combat is fun and satisfying that I don’t get bored of grinding out a few levels just to keep things more approachable. If DS2 takes away that possibility then that’s a concern, indeed. But if joining that Covenant is the workaround then I’m glad to know it!

@Th3solution I know that I’ve mentioned this before… but it’s worth mentioning again as it’s just so important, when you start Dark Souls 2 focus on getting your Adaptability stat up to 25 or so straight away. The dodge-rolling is very different in the sequel and will really effect your enjoyment if not remedied fast. By getting that stat levelled to 25, it will feel more like it does in Demons Souls and Dark Souls 👊

@colonelkilgore Thank you colonel! I have forgotten that so it’s a good reminder. And it’s possible I’ll forget again by the time I start the game so don’t get frustrated if I have to be reminded again. 😂

But as I said above. I think I’ll probably get to it within the next couple months, and potentially within the next couple weeks. So I think my memory isn’t quite bad enough to forget by then. 😜

@Th3solution yeah no worries, I’ll pop up again as and when I see that you’re about to make a start 😉.

Also, be wary of weapon degradation. Basically, the games weapon degradation was tied to the frame-rate, so when the Scholar of the First Sin was released on PS4 at 60fps (the original Dark Souls 2 on PS3 release was 30fps), it doubled the rate at which weapons will degrade. Iirc you can carry portable repair hammers with you, so always carry a few of those… and try to have two weapons that fit your build and have been upgraded in accordance with your progress. That way, you can switch to your alt weapon prior to your main breaking if you have no repair hammers left.

@colonelkilgore Another nice nugget to stick into the memory bank. 👍🏼

@colonelkilgore @Th3solution I'm pretty sure that weapon degradation was fixed in an update. I played the game on ps4 way a few years after launch, and don't recall too many any issues in regards weapon degradation. It is probably a bit more noticeable than in other games however.

@Th3solution I've debated on whether to grab DS2 or not, given how hated it seems to be by the Souls community. Then again, some of my favorite series entries are hated by their respective fanbases, so yeah, I'd appreciate the impressions.