Dark Souls: Initial Thoughts

[Condiments]

I paid for it, I intend to get my money's worth.

But having reached darkroot garden from the parish bonfire I'm just getting bored.

I'm simply tired of having to retrace my steps, fight the same mobs, and deal with the same gameplay issues just to progress an inch at a time - hopefully!

There really is not enough reward for this at all. We can all fistpump when we beat a boss, but then the cycle begins again. I'm not sure i have the willpower to carry on with such a tedious process, sorry if that offends the l33t crowd, but there's more to life and I have Rage to play as well.

You act as if the game personally offends you for being difficult. Most of us have progressed smoothly, so the game must not be for you. If you're having this much trouble in the forest, there is no use continuing. You'll throw yourself from a cliff once you start traversing blighttown. No shame in putting the game on the backburner for a while you play rage to cool your nerves/get on with your life.

Honestly, I'm having a blast. Just smoked the hydra boss easily with my new +4 liado, and I'm heading back to blightown. Apparently I'm not even 25% of the way through!

 

[AlternatePFG]

So I got cursed by one of those damn frogs in the depths. Aside from that, the whole area doesn't seem too tough. It says something about a healer in New Londo, does that cost souls to use?

Is it easier to buy the item to heal the curse with souls or get to the healer?

 

[V TheSystem V]

Never played Demon's Souls, but am loving Dark Souls now I know where to go. Am still in the Undead Burg, but have invested about 6 hours. Knight, level 18, killed the boar. That boar was a tricky bastard with no reward except the satisfaction of getting him out of the way...but that's all I needed!

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

So I got cursed by one of those damn frogs in the depths. Aside from that, the whole area doesn't seem too tough. It says something about a healer in New Londo, does that cost souls to use?

Is it easier to buy the item to heal the curse with souls or get to the healer?

I don't know of any way to cure it other than paying 4k to the guy in the bell tower for the cure item.

 

[QueenOliver]

Is it me or is the targeting system in this game screwed up? In the first game I could just flick back and forth between enemies but for some reason it's really finicky in this game and will only switch if I don't know the planets align properly or if it's Easter Sunday and I'm wearing mauve.

The camera system controls the same. You just have to jerk the right stick more rapidly to change targets. It's definitely a change for the worst. If you actually controlled the camera while locked on I can see why you wouldn't want to switch targets with the tiniest flick of the stick, but that isn't the case. I got used to it quite quickly, though once in a while it still takes more than one attempt to change targets.

 

[QueenOliver]

So I got cursed by one of those damn frogs in the depths. Aside from that, the whole area doesn't seem too tough. It says something about a healer in New Londo, does that cost souls to use?

Is it easier to buy the item to heal the curse with souls or get to the healer?

I don't know of any way to cure it other than paying 4k to the guy in the bell tower for the cure item.

It's actually 3k. There's another merchant who sells it for 6k if you haven't made it to the bell tower. You can also get two of them by trading a cracked red eye orb to Snuggly the Crow.

 

[ramboondiea]

So I got cursed by one of those damn frogs in the depths. Aside from that, the whole area doesn't seem too tough. It says something about a healer in New Londo, does that cost souls to use?

Is it easier to buy the item to heal the curse with souls or get to the healer?

i think you can get an item which prevents cursing (and an item that gives a temporary curse) from the female merchant in the lower section of undead burg.

 

[QueenOliver]

Never played Demon's Souls, but am loving Dark Souls now I know where to go. Am still in the Undead Burg, but have invested about 6 hours. Knight, level 18, killed the boar. That boar was a tricky bastard with no reward except the satisfaction of getting him out of the way...but that's all I needed!

He actually drops a special helm if you kill him a certain way.

 

[QueenOliver]

Would you care for a tear-flavoured thickshake to wash down your fail burger (with weak sauce) and bitterness fries combo?

No thanks, I have a life.

Then perhaps you should spend it doing something better with it than play video games you don't like. Oh, but of course...

I paid for it, I intend to get my money's worth.

The game was totally honest about what it offered, the critics accurately described the experience, and you didn't think you would like it. But you bought it anyway, and that's how you justify burning through your leisure time on a (7/10?!) experience that you're not enjoying? "I threw away my money and now I must throw away my time as well!" Did you seriously pay full price for it? Because if so you must be doing damn well in this economy to be so reckless with your money.

The targetting system desperately needs a fix.

I'm trying to make it past the slimey things on the roof in the deopths, but because the lock on will not allow me to target them except in one case only I can't bring them off the roof.

No wonder this game is considered difficult.

Epic fail. You don't need a lock-on to hit them, either with arrows, or magic.

I'm sure they do. But that's not really a solution. This is just crappy game design. 42000 souls? fuck that.

Oh noes! My actions have consequences! Damn you From!

Got to the garden and that's me done. I can't deal with mobs that can just take off 90% of your health with one move you can't see coming, and when they spawn multiples at once you are just too slow to get a move inbetween all their attacks.

Are you talking about the bushmen? Epic fail. You only ever have to fight one, occasionally two, or in one single instance three. That is unless you are recklessly charging throughout the level alerting them. And they are far from difficult to defeat. And 90% of your health? Are you talking about their bite attack? Epic, epic fail. You can see that attack coming from a mile away. They do a distinctive animation before they attack where they raise their "arms" above their "heads" before they attack, and it's very easy to dodge.

 

[QueenOliver]

You act as if the game personally offends you for being difficult. Most of us have progressed smoothly, so the game must not be for you.

Guyz! Guyz! I just played the worst game evar! It's called poker. It's a card game where you wager your money based upon how good your hand is. If someone else?s hand beats your hand you lose your wager! I lost $500 last night! And if you want to win your money back you have to start ALL over again with a new hand. And your opponents will bluff that they have a good hand when they don?t! Unfair! Whoever thought this game up doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, and anyone who enjoys this game is an idiot.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I'm loving it so far, I'm still in Undead Burg though and I'm just level grinding since that damn Taurus has been kicking my ass.

Not a fan of the targeting system, but everything else is great.

 

[Dansen]

Try a new class, and a new set of weapons, when ever I get frustrated it helps me relax.

I found the Zweihandler great sword and I have devoted my knight character to mastering this weapon, it is weaker than the Flying Dragon Sword but is still amazing. The light swing is enough to stager any regular enemies. The heavy swing face plants any regular enemy and is enough to stager full blown bosses. Even though each swing leaves you wide open your enemies will be to busy recovering from your hit to even attack, and the reach of the blade ensures that almost all the enemies in front of you will have been hit. I love this sword!

 

[Dansen]

Oh, and where do you first find special ember?

 

[ultrachicken]

None of the "uber strong guys" are mandatory, unless you count bosses. The metal bull, the black knights, the dragon, etc. can and should all be skipped. Basically, if you're getting completely stomped by any enemy, find a different route. It's kind of like the red eye knight in 1-1 in Demon's Souls. I would say that Dark Souls is actually more fair than Demon's Souls, because there are fewer one-hit-kill booby traps that are activated by a contraption that looks exactly like the scenery.

I strongly disagree. Demon's Souls at least made it obvious which areas were for the low levels, unlike Dark Souls which is in the same genre as Metroid and Castlevania 2 (a Where-The-Fuck-Do-I-Go RPG). The Red Eye in 1-1 (not the SMB 1-1, I don't think he was in that 1-1.... or was he?) was well out of the way.

Keeping in line with the Red Eye Knight example, it was not out of the way. Unless you're in the habit of routinely skipping enemies, you're going to kill the archer near the entrance to the bridge that has the red eye knight, very possibly before you even see that there's fog in the other direction. With Dark Souls, the only enemies that are placed on the main path who are way above your level are the dragon and the bull. Dragon's appeared in a very similar fashion in Demon's souls multiple times, and the bull is right after you get a shortcut back to the bonfire, so the punishment is not that intense for death.

I also disagree that the game is designed to have you just wander around the levels ? or at least, forces you to wander around the levels. For example, you get the information very early on that you need to ring a bell in the undead church, and in blight town. The undead church is up above, and is also a church, so you know you're generally headed upwards, and that you're looking for a church building. If you find yourself dueling to the death against a Dark Knight on top of a small tower, with no path to anywhere, and you're getting destroyed, just run as far back to the nearest checkpoint as possible to lose him and then continue. Definitely takes some getting used to to play in that mindset, but it's nowhere near as difficult to do so as you make it out to be (at least for me).

 

[Jadak]

I'm loving it so far, I'm still in Undead Burg though and I'm just level grinding since that damn Taurus has been kicking my ass.

Not a fan of the targeting system, but everything else is great.

level grinding won't help you.

Level grinding helps everything. Might not help "enough", but it'll help.