Dark Souls Hasn't Gotten Any Easier

That gaping dragon has got to have one hell of a dentist bill.

@Buckfitches said:

@Protonguy: I'm personally having none of the issues you have described.

I have well over 50 hours in the game now, with at least 30 successful summons, and so far, just one of them failed, at the Bell Gargoyles.

It does seem to be happening more to certain people though, I hope From is looking into this, because the summoning system is absolutely fantastic, and everyone should be able to enjoy it.

Yeah i'm one of the poor sods on the other end of the spectrum where nearly every summon i do fails. Fingers crossed that improves a bit soon. Even with those problems for me I can't stop playing the dam thing. Soo good.

@Dots: Ah, then yes i agree they probably didn't have summoning your friends in mind. Still disappointed they changed what seemingly worked in demon's souls a lot better (and with much the same style of multiplayer outcome) to the current system. *shrugs*

The game can be brutal at points, but I'm always left with a feeling of "just one more time." game never stops putting something interesting and unexpected in front of me.

I gotta say, I went and rented this game at a Redbox last weekend. I enjoyed it to an extent. I got through the first area without dying on my first try. Then I started getting murdered by the first dudes I saw.

But its most definitely not for me. I don't have as much time to play games as I used to (but my job offers me plenty of time to cruise the internet. . .). I don't have the time or patience for trial and error when I could be making "progress" in some other game.

I have about 3 weeks off this winter with nothing planned (except maybe Skyrim). Maybe I'll give it another go at that point.

There's a giant wolf attacking you w/ a sword in its mouth?

@cyberfr3akgamer said:

loool in deamopn soul i lost 1656 times XD and this i will be 100000 XD nic e graphics

What?

@Protonguy: I meant the part where you want to summon your friends.

That dragon was actually quite easy.

The game didn't look THAT good.

@Fram said:

I haven't played Dark Souls (or Demon's Souls for that matter) but I think of the Dark Souls gameplay experience as a protracted version of Super Meat Boy.

I love that analogy, because it's pretty apt. Also, anyone agree that Dark/Demon's Souls might have more survival horror in it's genepool than fantasy RPG? I think it might have more Silent Hill than Fallout there.

Just beat that piece of shit dragon with my bare hands!!

I'd personally give this game a 14.5 out of 18 because it looks terribly un-fun but everyone who bought it likes the score!! :D

@Protonguy: I'm personally having none of the issues you have described.

I have well over 50 hours in the game now, with at least 30 successful summons, and so far, just one of them failed, at the Bell Gargoyles.

It does seem to be happening more to certain people though, I hope From is looking into this, because the summoning system is absolutely fantastic, and everyone should be able to enjoy it.

Yep... Dark Souls. Death becomes your friend.

Having hit the 20 hour mark in Dark Souls, I'm finding it way easier than Demon's Souls. I still die a lot, but there are more things in place to reduce that penalty, while at the same time making your successes more rewarding.

you've got to love any commercial that manages to make "i remember the first time i died" (or, i remember the first time I fucked up) sound like it might actually be fun.

preparetodie.com is a pretty great domain name.

This was a really easy boss fight truth be told. Perhaps the easiest I have encountered yet in the game. Great monster design though. Love how it reveals itself.

Boss looks big time but is way way easy

I haven't played Dark Souls (or Demon's Souls for that matter) but I think of the Dark Souls gameplay experience as a protracted version of Super Meat Boy.

In SMB, you often throw yourself into a jump knowing full well you're going to die. You'll probably learn something about how that disappearing wall works that'll make your next jump easier. You'll leap off a ledge to certain death so you can catch a glimpse of that little bandage that was obviously placed there by a bastard who hates you. Dying and replaying a level is literally a matter of seconds though, so you're always up for another go, and the satisfaction gained from a successful run after the umpteenth attempt is palpable.

In Dark Souls, the REAL kicker is time. Progress is slow, and the SMB strategy of just throwing yourself at the same obstacle again and again cannot be completed in mere seconds, which is why I imagine the rewards are that much sweeter when you actually achieve your goals.

At the moment I don't have the time to dedicate to this thing, but when my slate is cleared (and it will be soon) I will play the ever loving HELL out of Dark Souls.

@NekuCTR: Well if you could wave a pork chop at it, and teach it to herd cows and chickens, they might have something there.

Like Darkcraft, or Demon's Crossings. One demon, multiple crossings.

EDIT: Ooookay I've just spent a couple of hours happily burning my way through essentially the same areas as in Rorie's quicklook. I started this immediately after massacring my way through 1-1 Boletaria in Demon's Souls NG+ at SL 135. Didn't break a sweat. No fear. Did me very well in starting Dark Souls off right, and I didn't have anything slowing me down until....

Fantastic trailer, summarizes the triumph/resolve in Dark Souls to a "T".

I'm seriously becoming tempted by this game, and I sorta hate myself for that.

well, at least they're upfront about how messed up it is.

I fought that dragon once for about 30 seconds. I need to level up some more. Lost 3000 souls this morning accidentally rolling backwards off a ledge.

great game.

I have a two week vacation coming up and this is the game i ruin it with.

Yeah skyrim is the reason I don't buy an xbox just for this

I totally want to watch someone else play this game for me.

~40h into the game now, and loving it even thought it pisses me off sometimes :p I'd personally give it a 9.5/10, only downside so far has been tech issues like framerate and input lag every now and then, hopefully patched up soon. This game is definitely my GOTY!

@Jethuty: I believe that's the armor wraiths wear.

what was the armor the bandit/thief was wearing? the one with the claws

So it's just like Super Meat Boy then. Cool, I'll play that.

I git sucked in, I rented it from Redbox because of the quick look and now I want to buy it.

I want this game and I fear this game. I own Demon Souls and it kicked my ass all over. I don't like really hard and brutal games and I know I won't love this game. But I still want it a bit, I must be mad ;)

i could really go for some more giantbomb gameplay of this game. not sure i want to play it with skyrim coming, but it looks freakin' awesome and i'd love to see more.

@frankiebeanz said:

The game is actually not as hard as people think, you just need to have patients and thats something that people today dont have because 95% of you play Call Of Duty and just run run run to get as many kills as you can before the 5 min is up. I play Call Of Duty also but I have patients and am already half way threw new game+. Its kinda like giving the 16 yearold that plays call of duty today and telling him try to get threw the first level without dying as fast as you can and i can bet it wont happen because the dont want to wait for the goomba to move out the way they just want to run and jump lol.

Patience is but one thing that has to do with the difficulty of the game. Punishing death penalties have very little to do with simply being patient; it's something far beyond. A prison inmate isn't impatient because they miss their freedom, nor a burn victim because they miss being healthy. This game isn't about patience, it's about endurance; how much are you willing to endure get that feeling that comes with success?

This doesn't mean it's a bad game, that's what most people misinterpret. I have played plenty of games with harsh penalties and still enjoyed them (for some reason I'm blanking on specific titles).

@frankiebeanz said:

The game is actually not as hard as people think, you just need to have patients and thats something that people today dont have because 95% of you play Call Of Duty and just run run run to get as many kills as you can before the 5 min is up. I play Call Of Duty also but I have patients and am already half way threw new game+. Its kinda like giving the 16 yearold that plays call of duty today and telling him try to get threw the first level without dying as fast as you can and i can bet it wont happen because the dont want to wait for the goomba to move out the way they just want to run and jump lol.

I have lots of patients. I'm not a doctor or anything, but people believe I am. I just kind of run with it.

To completely diverge from the topic of DS, I'd like to throw out that I hate this method of thinking, that Call of Duty is some sort of soul consuming monstrosity that makes people appreciate games less.

ALL HAIL FROMSOFT, KINGS OF GAME DESIGN AND DARK FANTASY!

loool in deamopn soul i lost 1656 times XD and this i will be 100000 XD nic e graphics

@Dots said:

@Protonguy: Yeah, uhh, dude... It's supposed to be like that. =/

Broken you mean? Where you summon 90% of the time and fail? Where finding anyone (let alone your friends) is just pure luck depending on what lobby you get into and what its current population is and where those people themselves are located in the whole massive world. That's not as it was intended i assure you.

Edit: to clarify, having summoning failures so consistently wouldn't be intended. Whether they wanted people to get onto low population lobbies and not find anyone, well, maybe they wanted that i don't know.

@Buckfitches said:

@Protonguy: I'm not trying to sound like a broken record here, I really don't.

But try to realize that you are expecting something that this game never promised to deliver.

It's not a co-op game, never was. It's a completely passive multiplayer layer, pretty much completely unique, and it's only there to add some variety to the mix and a certain "community feel" to your personal quest to slay demons. I think it's unfair to talk down on this game because you expected it to be something else.

And it's broken. Go read the boards anywhere. 90% of the time you fail to summon or be summoned. That on top of a system that was actually better implemented into Demon's souls and you have something that isn't working. They promised multiplayer, what we got was a broken mess.

The game is actually not as hard as people think, you just need to have patients and thats something that people today dont have because 95% of you play Call Of Duty and just run run run to get as many kills as you can before the 5 min is up. I play Call Of Duty also but I have patients and am already half way threw new game+. Its kinda like giving the 16 yearold that plays call of duty today and telling him try to get threw the first level of mario without dying as fast as you can and i can bet it wont happen because they dont want to wait for the goomba to move out the way they just want to run and jump lol.

I REALLY want this game now, dammit, to have claws like Kilgore? Looks fuckin awesome, gonna wait a while so there can be a guide out to help me cause I have never played Demon or Dark Souls so I would be lost. Fantastic trailer

Fuck, I want this game sooo bad but it's so close to Skyrim time. I thought i could wait for Skyrim to get my fill of fantasy but it's still a month away.

Man the people playing in that fuckin trailer were awful at dark souls yo

I REALLY want this game now, dammit, to have claws like Kilgore? Looks fuckin awesome, gonna wait a while so there can be a guide out to help me cause I have never played Demon or Dark Souls so I would be lost. Fantastic trailer

i haven't even beaten the 2nd level... i have no business playing it lol