Dark Souls is out today, but there's no review on Giant Bomb. Why? Because none of us have beaten the dang old game! While we try to finish the game, I sat down with Matt Rorie to share our current opinion on From Software's latest release, and discuss what elements of this new release have most stood out. Also, Matt Rorie wears a Dog shirt and Vinny stabs a man with a spear!

Like our discussion? Would you like to see more, similar video conversations about the latest games? Let us know in the comments!

Oh fuck. I thought you were joking. Also Rorie look's like he's drinking cooking oil at the beginning.

Oh God, half an hour of REAL TALK!? You're a saint, Matt.

Whoa, no conversation about Dark Souls is as real as this.

TBH, this is better than a review. Just talking about the game with others gives better insight than simply writing about it.

Awesome, more DS coverage :D Keep it coming Duders.

Yes. More. Yes.

Any particular spoilers for the game? Ah heck, I'll watch it anyway!

Kingzetta's comment below is pretty spoilery and should be approached with caution.

@RockmanBionics: Doesn't seem so, they mainly talk about the core concepts and mechanics and the issues that arise from them.

awesome

Awesome. Keep it real duders.

I love this format, much more informative than a review would be. I wish Rorie was Mic-ed better, hard to hear him on my tiny laptop speakers.

• Having 50 Faith stats on your character.
• Help others as a white phantom in their gameplay. For each successful clearing of the area in their gameplay, the Faith requirement reduces by 5.
• Alternitavley, If you are in human form. You can summon Solaire as an NPC. If he survives through the bossfight, he will award you with a Sunlight's medal.(Not recommended for late-game bosses)
  • For example, if you have 25 Faith, and you helped 5 online players clear their area boss, you fulfil the requirement(25 + (5 x 5) = 50).

• White Soulsign stone is changed to Gold soulsign stone(you will be summoned as a gold phantom instead)
• Upon clearing a boss as a gold phantom, all members(summoning players and other phantoms) are awarded a Sunlight's Medal.
• Players inside this covenant is matched up much easier from other players in the same covenant during online play.

Fuck Dark Souls, lets talk about Rories shirt.

Nice.

You guys need to clone Vinny so he can do this and video things at the same time.

@MattBodega: You have a heart of gold. Don't let them take it from you.

Great video. I can't wait to play this game. Hopefully Amazon gets their shit together and gets my order out soon.

Shirt.

I'm pretty sure I'll get Dark Souls now. Matt should let Matt (Rorie) talk some more though. Good video!

@EuanDewar said:

Oh fuck. I thought you were joking. Also Rorie look's like he's drinking cooking oil at the beginning.

It's how he keeps his coat so shiny.

This was very entertaining and informative! Much better than a written review!

@kingzetta: Thanks for the information! That was useful to me. The covenants almost seem like internet clans or something.

@RuneseekerMireille said:

This was very entertaining and informative! Much better than a written review!

@kingzetta: Thanks for the information! That was useful to me. The covenants almost seem like internet clans or something.

It was extremely spoilery and way too long for a comment, not a fan of posting it here myself.

I agree with Matt that having played through Demon's Souls I feel a lot more prepared going into Dark Souls without resorting to the Wiki (I do know some minor stuff from the early part of the game that might prove useful though..)

Another thing, isn't kicking just a replacement from the "shove" move from the first game? You push forward and press attack with the right timing right?

I also love pushing people off of stuff, that's how I got the Gloom Armor in the first game.

Nice

I like this! More please?

This is perfect. I would love nothing more - Nothing. More. - than to see more of these on Giant Bomb.

So are they making Kessler Review the game? it's better than nothing I guess.

@Jolt92 said:

I'm pretty sure I'll get Dark Souls now. Matt should let Matt (Rorie) talk some more though. Good video!

Definitely. There a lot of times where it looked like Rorie wanted to pitch in but was blocked by Kessler's somewhat long-winded explanations and analogies. Was still a great video and everything that I'm letting myself see (I've actually gone ''Dark'' {ugh} for Dark Souls and haven't even watched the GB QL because I want to experience as much as I can firsthand) thus far only raises the anticipation.

Hey Rorie, or Matt if you know the answer to this:
 
Which NPC died 40 hours in to mess up your game?  How did it happen? 

This is too good an idea to be relegated to a Youtube channel.

I'd definitely like to see more videos in this format.

Of course Rorie's wearing a dog shirt.

I like this feature quite a bit. Seems like a cool thing to do when multiple Whiskey folks are playing a game, to rouse up the MOST REALEST TALK. I found this especially interesting since I've been playing the game for a while this evening. Been playing a pyromancer, which I'm really enjoying! I pretty much didn't use any magic in Demon's Souls, so it's a nice change of pace.
 
The lack of explanations for things in both this game and the previous title is still a bit of a mystery. And I'm not talking about leading the player along with directions on where to go, or things like that; I think the exploration and finding things out for yourself (usually by getting super murdered) is a great part of the game. I'm talking about explaining some of the key systems like humanity (which I'm glad it's not just me that's confused about it). It's strange that there's not much of a penalty anymore for being non-human - it seems to mainly prevent one from using some the PvP and PvE features, making you unable to kindle, and lowering your drop rate - sadly the game doesn't tell you for sure, but it seems like you guys came to the same conclusions. It's kind of silly that the manual for Dark Souls is like 4 pages long; the original game (or at least the first-run copies of it) came with a 140 page guide, explaining everything in great detail, which was insanely helpful for playing through Demon's Souls. Luckily, a good portion of that knowledge carries over, as you guys mentioned in the video.
 
I already ran into the situation you guys mentioned of having multiple bosses that could both kill me pretty quick, and having to pick one to just tough it out with. I got murdered by a butterfly, so I had to find something easier to do :P The open-world nature of the game is definitely a big change, but I think I prefer it. The lack of a map is not a big deal at all, I find. You get pretty acquainted with the areas pretty quickly, especially after re-treading them a couple times, either through dying or passing through via shortcuts.
 
There seem to be multiple good weapons you can get from cutting off the tails of enemies - you guys mentioned the rat-tail thing, and I already got a pretty good sword from someone else. I'm still pretty early on, so that should give you a good idea of which enemy it is ;)
 
Somehow, I think the targeting in Dark Souls is actually worse than Demon's Souls, mainly because it seems like you can't switch between enemies by flicking the right stick once you've already locked onto a different enemy. Am I crazy, or did that feature get taken out? I've had to unlock and re-lock the targeting to switch enemies so far.
 
Anyways, sorry for the wall of text. A lot to respond to in your 30 min video, plus I think the Souls games are super interesting to discuss. Keep the coverage coming, great job!

Sweet vid, dog.

Awesome great insight!

Great stuff, and yes more please Matt B., especially on this monstrosity that is Dark Souls. :)

Not a big fan of this video.

@MattBodega: Dog shirts and man-stabbing? Sign me up!

I want more of this. SO much more.

Can someone post the "famous" gif that Rorie refers to in this video and the QL too i think, please?

Love it. Thanks, Matt!

Glad to hear a conversation about dark souls that isn't completely negative we get it Ryan and Jeff don't like the game

wish Kessler wasn't holding the camera. Need to turn up vol to hear Rori...Ahhh too much Kessler volume!

Well, I have my collector's edition on the way this week. I'm a little nervous that the pace of combat will become frustrating and relentless in a way that Demon's Souls wasn't. But some of the insights they shared makes me a bit more confident at least. I think if I was already on my NG+ of Demon's Souls I would be a lot better adjusted to what the challenge seems to be. It sounds like even though the gameplay is very similar, the underlying systems have been tuned and improved.

I'd also appreciate a "progression path" guide with a good world route and spots to level. I made one for myself in Demon's Souls as I gradually found the path (basically the world order) that is working best for me. Let's just say all roads lead to Poison Cloud. ;) Then the game opened up pretty quick after that.

@HerbieBug: They spent a bit of time talking about Yurt, so it's possible one of the trainer NPCs that Yurt kills early on. Otherwise I can't think of another important Nexus NPC who can be killed without player involvement.

Giant Bomb needs more real talk, yo! Especially with Rorie. Preferably in the dog disguise...