Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread

@HallowMoonshadow @JohnnyShoulder @Yousef- As someone who uses Fextralife, YouTube, and isn’t opposed to taking advantage of cheeses and broken mechanics in the games, I was happy to see that quote from Miyazaki, so much so that I saved it (I’m a collector of quotes anyway):

“I want to preface this by saying I absolutely suck at video games, so my approach or play style was to use everything I have at my disposal, all the assistance, every scrap of aid that the game offers, and also all the knowledge that I have as the architect of the game. The freedom and open world nature of Elden Ring perhaps lowered the barrier to entry, and I might be the one who's benefiting the most from that, as a player, more than anyone else.” —Miyazaki

It validates some of the practices I’ve employed over the years. More power to those who do all the blind-folded speed runs, but I’m just not good enough. 😄

Welp, I’m not sure if this is what you were referring to but I’ve been “enjoying” the wonderful Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak. 😅 I guess each of the Souls games has to have one of these annoying poison swamps that you have to trudge through and accept being poisoned the whole time (and simultaneously get pelted from above by a pyromancer that you can’t even see much less kill); and don’t dare break any jars because you’ll get poisoned; and then if you fall into one of those underground poison caves, good luck seeing anything and you just have to hope that you stumble around and find a ladder before you run out of healing items… Exceedingly annoying, indeed. 😭

@Th3solution ha ha yep FromSoftware do sure like their poison sections of games! 😂 You are almost there to what I was referring to...

The poison sections in Elden Ring are made a bit more manageable as when you are on your steed, you don't get poisoned. Which is fine for out in the open world... not so much for dungeons/caves and you are not allowed on Torrent (the aforementioned steed).

Sorry it’s been half a week and I haven’t came back to you on that yet but I plan to. I forgot some stuff I wanted to say but I’ve been contemplating this topic for a while and have a pretty firm stance. To avoid the suspense, no there is absolutely nothing wrong with you using a guide at all and I shall explain in excruciating detail why that’s the case, so yes really funny you mention it. You’re giving me a phenomenal opportunity to lay down my stance on this and the arguments I have and how I’d back them up.

@JohnnyShoulder @HallowMoonshadow If it’s not the poison bog with poison clouds so thick you can’t see where you’re going, I’m scared what this might be!

@Yousef- Excellent! I look forward to your detailed explanation, if you’re up to it. If not, no pressure — I’m happy and satisfied by your brief opinion you gave there. But I am definitely interested to read a deeper dive into your thoughts on the matter.

@HallowMoonshadow also this is why I firmly believe Miyazaki is in LOVE with swamps.

Hmmm…. I’m through the Iron Keep now, which had its own annoying aspects, with the fire, collapsing walkways, archers you can’t reach, etc. And those Alonne Knights close in at ridiculously fast speeds. It’s almost humorous how quickly they can close a gap, like they’re The Flash or something. But despite all this, I don’t think it’s necessarily worse than the average Souls area, so I’m not sure that’s it. In fact, this has been a fantastic farming area. I can run a route through and with a boosting ring I can easily get 10,000 souls in 5 minutes or so. And once you learn the patterns and how these Knights attack, I can usually do a one-two attack with Dark Orb followed by a quick lightning rapier stab and they are dead. I’m up to about soul level 120 now.

@HallowMoonshadow @JohnnyShoulder

My week late reply will become two weeks late… what’s funny is that I basically jinxed myself with this paragraph in my script. @Th3solution

Yes, Pastsef, that was a very clever thing to write to yourself. How was that weekend by the by? And what you about that sleep deprivation you thought you were gonna recover from? Silly past me…

Oh you are in the place we were referring to @Th3solution!

It's not so much how difficult the area is, although it has proven to be a stumbling block for many. I'd argue that at your current level, I would be surprised if you struggled! 😂

It is more to do with how you get there and how the geography of the Keep makes no sense for it to be located where it is! 🤣

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, from a sheer quantity of aggressive enemies, it’s maybe the toughest so far, but it does have some tricks to deploy to help make navigation easier. Definitely one of the areas where you can’t just rush in or you have 4 Knights on top of you and two shooting great arrows into you all at once… if you don’t get knocked into the lava.

But yeah, the explanation from the NPC (the vendor, I forget his name) as to why the castle is sunken into the middle of a sea of lava was an interesting attempt to create a storyline for its existence. But in short, I’ve discovered that in the Souls worlds most things don’t make sense. I go to a talking cat to abandon my covenants for goodness sake. 😅

JohnnyShoulder Yeah, from a sheer quantity of aggressive enemies, it’s maybe the toughest so far, but it does have some tricks to deploy to help make navigation easier. Definitely one of the areas where you can’t just rush in or you have 4 Knights on top of you and two shooting great arrows into you all at once… if you don’t get knocked into the lava.
But yeah, the explanation from the NPC (the vendor, I forget his name) as to why the castle is sunken into the middle of a sea of lava was an interesting attempt to create a storyline for its existence. But in short, I’ve discovered that in the Souls worlds most things don’t make sense. I go to a talking cat to abandon my covenants for goodness sake. 😅

Bizarrely enough, the original DS2 is still on steam. So, whenever the urge arises, I can go and verify how low the enemy count was in that version.
(No ping because I’m a nice individual and never double ping (well that’s an effing lie))

Edit: @Th3solution you know what no never mind I do have to ping you to show you this extremely real image from the Dank Soles Wiki

I think I might’ve leaked Dark Souls IIII final boss

@Th3solution I think even by video game fantasy standards, it is a far reach lol.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief up to to a certain point, but if you think about it there are mountains. Iron Keep is surrounded by other mountains. Therefore it is an lava area surrounded by mountains.... on mountains. 🤣

And don't get me started on the lift to get there... 🙄 😂

@JohnnyShoulder True. And now you’ve got me thinking about some of the narrative and setting issues I have with the Souls games [rant incoming…] —
One of the disbelief moments in the Souls games for me is the NPC locations. Sometime it makes narrative sense, such as when you come across someone trapped in a cell or cowering on a ledge asking for help, but many of these NPCs are stashed away at random places on the map that are fairly nonsensical. Like the merchants especially - why would they just being hanging out and setting up shop in the deep dark recesses of a place surrounded by enemies, traps, and environmental hazards? Gavlan for example, although he looks like a guy who could handle himself in a fight, so far I’ve run into him up in the corner of a room high in a dilapidated building at No Man’s Wharf where I had to get through creepy shadow monsters and multiple ninja enemies to get to, then I run into him underground in a poison cave back in a corner hidden away there at Harvest Valley. The ladder dude is another example (I forget his name), where you have to literally break through some wooden railing (which apparently NPCs can step over waist high railings but I, the player, can’t 😅) to walk across a high narrow ledge in the building at Earthen Peak to get to him, where for some reason he’s just hanging out there.

Although I really dislike the stone NPCs that you have to use those frustratingly rare Fragrant Branches of Yore to reanimate, but at least they make more narrative sense to have been frozen in stone where they’re located. These other NPCs have no business just chillin’ out in a poison swamp or a lava field. 😂

@Yousef- A Donut Drake crossover seems like a perfect idea. Especially since “drake” is a type of dragon. We need to get Naughty Dog and FromSoft collaborating on this asap. 😄

Referring the OG DS2, I am curious how much easier it could be. The enemy count is supposed much less and often the sheer gang crowding is the difficulty issue in Scholar.

Of course I’m way overleveled, but most of the bosses have been reasonably easy so far. Old Iron King was really a joke once you knows 3 or 4 main moves and you learn to steer clear of the edges because of the one-shot death into the lava. I died to him once due to that. Probably the hardest boss I’ve encountered so far is Ruin Sentinel. Although Belfry Gargoyles were tough too.

@Th3solution alrighty, once I find the time I’ll come back and verify to you what the game is like.

Should be easy around my next salary as I don’t have any games I plan to get besides my monthly switch physical purchases (26 and counting)

@Th3solution also I’m not ashamed to admit I would totally use donut drake as my April fools avatar. In fact i don’t mind being reminded of this and be asked to hold my end of the bargain.

You shouldn’t worry about Dark Souls II not being open world, they already fixed that with the sequel; Dark Souls II 2, but renamed it to “Elden Ring” for whatever reason.

Gonna have this as a separate production since it’s all post-production. I’m really happy with how this turned out. Delaying finishing the script ultimately turned out to be a good thing as I was able to add stuff I like and add more and more of my little flair. : D

To further clarify, the portion of the script before the GTA V gif was written last week. The rest was written today.

And now with this I’ve tied up all loose ends. : ))))
Max Payne : They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark on everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger, and it was over.
Uhhh ignore that last part.

@Yousef- I’m speechless… 😄
Thanks for your exceptionally thorough inspection and exploration of the subject! Wow, I really appreciate your time and effort.

And I love how you deconstructed the age-old question into the core parts and then, in the end, made it conclude logically. The Thor picture and caption are a perfect pair too. 😂

One of the other points that really stuck out to me, even though I’ve been an advocate for using guides to help me, is that simple exchanges and advice from peer gamers is essentially using a guide. YouTube video and detailed Fextralife tables and walkthroughs are what we think of but simple exchanges on forums like this are at their core, guide usage.

Well, in the end I have come out feeling like a real gamer again, because even though I sliced through Old Iron King with ease because I knew to hide behind the wall and that he was weak to lightning, I still beat the behemoth with my own controller and my own two hands. And that’s more than the other 52% of people who played the game can say. (According to trophy data) 😄

Anyway, thanks again my friend. Take a breath and a nap. You earned it. 😅 And whenever your HP and Stamina bars have fully recovered, you can complete the DW8 dissertation.