I played it basically until morning, and got up to the Cathedral of the Deep first big boss area I think. (So these spoilers are for something like the first four bosses and areas. I'm gonna block out the names, but I will have to describe a couple of areas). Although at that point I was tired and running past everything. It's great! I'm liking it a lot, certainly more than I liked 2, just from the feel and art design.Overall, it feels very fanservicey. It outright states references in item descriptions to older stuff that Dark Souls 2 only alluded to. I've met NPCs that are super similar to older guys or ARE those older guys, which is a thing you can do with undead that they never did in 2 either. I got a warm fuzzy feeling from seeing them all in Firelink, and also really enjoyed my meeting with Siegward at the tower. On one hand, I kinda hate the "cyclical" nature of the lore that they introduced in Dark Souls 2. But I'm inclined to forgive that when I get new and exciting enemies mixed with blatant fanservice. There was even an item description I saw on a loading screen that hinted that I could save the life of The Crestfallen! I gotta get that ring! This is the first time I'm playing without using the wiki or watching streams first, so both exploring the environment and interacting with the NPCs is tense. I feel certain that I'm gonna mess up and either ruin myself or get someone else killed. Should I ask one of the merchants to go and pillage for me? Should I accept the "true power" of the sorcery guy? I have no idea where stuff like that is gonna end up.
You can really tell it's Bloodborne's engine. I never played it because I got a PS4 just recently and wanted to save my Souls enthusiasm for this game, but I've watched a lot of streams. Playing through the Undead Settlement second real area feels entirely like the village area from Bloodborne(which feels like RE4). There's one place in that spot with so many undead stuck to torture devices, in cages, hanging from the ceiling and attached to roofttops that it all looks very silly. The significant new enemies feel like references, too. There's an enemy that looks like the clown dudes from Demon's Souls. The knights of the Boreal Valley all act like FROM slapped some armor on the beasts from Bloodborne. I think the boss was wonderful, but I met a common one with a sword later on and was very frustrated by its speed and frostbite effect. Human NPCs are a bitch. I've died more times to those than most other enemies, I believe. They are optional though. It's my fault for attacking the master swordsman outside Firelink relentlessy. But I would have felt better if I didn't beat him just by abusing the forward heavy attack, which he doesn't know how to deal with at all if timed right.
I'm playing a knight, by the way, which was super easy for the first hour or so on account of the shield. Need to remember to use the special attacks more, they absolutely destroyed that hollow with a sludge stand/dragon out of his back. I played solo for most of the time, but summoned and got summoned for both the village area and the swamp. The village boss is great fun to fight in a group, and I did so a couple of times. Other than that, I think the Undead Burg-like area was the best one so far and the forest path was by far the worst. I hate those enemies, they were very beastly in their combo attacks. Lots of these areas remind me of older ones, and that one reminded me of the Shaded Woods shit. I like how the areas seem sort of reversed. The first real area is rather Anor Londo. This is really how every Souls game is, but because it's the last one I feel like it's the final hurrah for these concepts and don't mind. I wish the graphics were a little more colorful. Dark Souls 1 had a ton of greens. This game isn't all red, but it's certainly more ashy and red than that game was.
I want to give props to whoever decided to add a giant enemy crab. They are terrifying!
Anyone want to give me a heads up on whether the level up woman has the crown you get from doing all the Dark Souls 2 DLC? I never did beat the ash knight. Also, if anyone can tell me how to reverse my perceived hollowing, let me know. I can't tell if my stats get worse, but I certainly LOOK worse and the embers don't seem to make me look human again.
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