Dark Souls - More like Dark Trolls

[CyberAkuma]

I was watching this [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/juh7kn/gt-countdown-top-10-dark-trolls] and I was thinking that they are quite a few instances in the game where I feel that it is just outright trolling me.

Not just being hard nor unfair; but outright trolling me.
This becomes significantly evident when playing the game in New Game+ where the enemy is so ridiculously powerful that they can one-hit-kill you with little difficulty.
But they are a lot of other moments in the game that really makes the presence of the trollface obvious

* Enemy projectiles can CURVE in mid-air to home in on you

Even though you are using the SAME weapon as they are, their version of the spell/arrow has homing ability to correct their trajectory in mid-air and hit you. This becomes mostly evident against the Silver Arrow Knight c*cksuckers at Anor Londo spamming you with the Dragon Bow - the most powerful bow in the game. Not to even mention the Bloathead Scorcerers in Oocile that can deal insane ammounts of damage with their projectile spell. Oh, and fuck the crystal archers in Dukes Archive too

* Enemy autoaims/glitchy hitboxes

Some enemies/bosses can autotrack you, which means that even if you dodge their attack they can WHILE swinging the weapon; autoadjust its swing so that it hits you anyway. This is particulary true to the behavior of some Dark Knights such as Rock Havel but also other bosses. It means that unless you are doing pixel-perfect timing when doding you are going to take a hit.
There's also some bosses who has some really peculiar hitboxes in the game. It means that even though you clearly manage to avoid its attack you are still going to take a hit. Ceaseless Discharge comes to mind; even if you manage to roll away serveral meters away from his tentacle
you are gonna get hit anyway and Ceaseless Discharge on top of that is one of the bosses in the game that can kill you in ONE hit.

* The Skeleton Dogs in Tombs of the Giants

They are the bane of my existence. These fuckers have a special attack that ignores both your shield and armor that one-hit kills you. Oh, and they use that special attack over and over and over again. The damage these fuckers output is larger than any boss in the game, oh and you are fighting SERVERAL of them... IN THE DARK WHERE YOU CAN'T SEE SHIT... AT ONCE... The troll is strong with this one

* Ornstein and Smough

'Nuff said.
Not only do you need to kill one of them, you will need to kill the other fucker that has enhanced strength and TWICE as much health as before, oh and they can one-shot you with ease.

* Farming

Dark Souls has no grinding thankfully, but if you are to get your gear in top-notch state then you need to farm for tatinite.
I spent hours farming for Tatinite Slabs that only drop from the freakin' Darkwraith for hours, even with Item Discovery maxed out to 410 I've been farming them for hours and yet no Slabs what so ever.
Fuck that shit

People seem to think Knight Artorias is a ***** but I never had much difficulty with him nor Manus, nor with Blighttown except for the shitty framerate.

So, where do you think this game trolls you?

 

[Vegosiux]

Well only the chosen ones are worthy to beat DS in new game plus, so if you have trouble there, you're obviously not good enough, not a true gamer, and should simply hang your head in shame and submit to the ridicule of the aforementioned chosen ones.

Of course they won't ridicule you openly, but around here the standard practice is that if you don't like some things Dark Souls does, its fans will go on and on about how it's all your fault.

Use the search bar for past DS threads to see what I mean.

 

[irishdude]

i found NG+ easy, well not easy but not as hard as 1st playthrough, just wait till u play NG+++

 

[Vivi22]

*snip*

Forgive me, but aren't you the guy who some months ago made another thread for the sole purpose of trying to convince everyone that Dark Souls is a bad game and no one really gave a shit?

So are you actually out to have a somewhat light hearted, good natured ribbing about the game being hard or have you simply dug up that poor dead horse three months later so you can give it a few more whacks?

 

[Kurai Angelo]

Of course they won't ridicule you openly, but around here the standard practice is that if you don't like some things Dark Souls does, its fans will go on and on about how it's all your fault.

Yeah what this guy said, it's totally your fault

Seriously though, for every cheap tactic an enemy wields, there are equal opportunities for you to exploit the AI and surroundings to your advantage. Ornstein and Smough is an absolute cake walk in this regard: with a decent lightening weapon, Smough goes down in round one, like a sack of shit due to his extreme weakness to lightening. Then Ornstein is very easy to AI loop if you stay close to him. The only attack you have to watch out for is his butt slam. Aside from that, hug the shit out of his leg so his spear impaling attacking can't hit you and you're set.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

*snip*

Forgive me, but aren't you the guy who some months ago made another thread for the sole purpose of trying to convince everyone that Dark Souls is a bad game and no one really gave a shit?

So are you actually out to have a somewhat light hearted, good natured ribbing about the game being hard or have you simply dug up that poor dead horse three months later so you can give it a few more whacks?

Yep, same guy. And I'd bet the latter option, knowing these forums.

 

[synobal]

I've been playing it for a few days now and the game seems stupidly easy. Hell I had a harder time with the witcher 2. I think maybe people are just terrible gamers. They should likely go back to playing planets vs zombies or something. /sarcasm

 

[hazabaza1]

Well since apparently you're just on a Dark Souls hate parade I guess all I can say is lrn 2 paly nub.

 

[Diablo2000]

I was watching this [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/juh7kn/gt-countdown-top-10-dark-trolls]

* Enemy projectiles can CURVE in mid-air to home in on you

* Enemy autoaims/glitchy hitboxes

* The Skeleton Dogs in Tombs of the Giants

* Ornstein and Smough

So, where do you think this game trolls you?

*Yes, Soul Arrows do track you, it's not a enemy thing since yours do the same thing if you are locked. There are other ways to deal with the Anor Londo snipers, you could get poison arrows and a good bow and shoot them from a far.

*Only seen Havel the Rock change his swing in order to hit you, I don't think is a glitch though. And the Ceaseless Discharger is easy if you use the scripted death, after I learned that I always go kill him after killing Quelaag to get some more souls

*You only need to fight one, you can make some jumps and skip most of them.

*Use the fucking pillars, they are stupid and they try to attack you trough them and you get the chance to recover a bit. They "Super" version are jokes, if you are fighting Super Smough you just keep your distance and hit him when you can, and if you are fighting Super Ornstein just go under his legs, he won't be able to do shit about it.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Huh. The Londo archers are really easy once you learn what to do. And Siskel and Ebert ain't so tough if you target Ebert first. Big Siskel is a joke. My big obstacle is The Sanctuary Guardian. He is the biggest troll. "You paid 20$ to access my area? Hahaha. Nope."

 

[TrevHead]

It seems like it's almost as fashionable to hate Dark Souls as it is to love it nowadays.

Yeah NG+ is freaking hard and is what I call a true NG+ with harder difficulty not just slightly more difficult to offset the player characters level and power, alot of players who cheesed the first playthrough and found it to be easy are often in for a shock

While I love Dark Souls I feel that it could quickly become a parody of itself. It seems like Bamco / From are pumping lots of money and staff into the sequel, IE turning it into a true AAA that needs 5 mill to break even game. The fact they ousted the original creator and it is making the same mistakes as SEGA did with 3D Sonic in believing their own PR mantra. Sonic's PR manta was speed. Dark Souls is the deaths and the eye candy. This could very well blow up in From's face if they just boil down the game into 2 or 3 core elements rather than building an allround MINIMALIST masterpiece that the original was imo. Even Miyazaki has gone on record as regretting pushing the "prepare to die" slogan so much and he could be right.

I've been playing it for a few days now and the game seems stupidly easy. Hell I had a harder time with the witcher 2. I think maybe people are just terrible gamers. They should likely go back to playing planets vs zombies or something. /sarcasm

Much of DS difficulty especially in the 1st playthrough is knowledge based especially if you nail dodging, parries etc off the bat, And if you've read a few DS threads here, you will have read plenty of spoilers. It's worth noting that each time the game has been patched in the past it has been made easier, so much so that there is a big difference in difficulty from launch as there is now. My advice is to ignore OP weapons and use a buckler that forces you to parry and dodge, or if you don't mind playing offline, play the game unpatched and you will get alot less drops and homeward bones.

 

[Little Gray]

Sorry to call you on your complete fucking bullshit but there is not a single boss in the entire game that can one shot you. Boss damage scales based on your max health so that can never happen.


You complaints mostly sound like you suck at dodging.

Of course they won't ridicule you openly, but around here the standard practice is that if you don't like some things Dark Souls does, its fans will go on and on about how it's all your fault.

You see it a lot because its always true. The thing about dark souls is that it is designed to never be cheap. It always gives you fair warning for every trap it is about to pull if you pay attention and the enemies all telegraph their moves from three miles away.

 

[Vegosiux]

You see it a lot because its always true. The thing about dark souls is that it is designed to never be cheap. It always gives you fair warning for every trap it is about to pull if you pay attention and the enemies all telegraph their moves from three miles away.

I'm sorry, but that's wishful thinking. Tell me, how did I see "telegraphed from three miles away" that wheel skeletons were going to defy the conservation of momentum and instead of bouncing off my shield, kill me.

Sure, I could dodge them, but I didn't see "telegraphed from three miles away" that blocking them would just get me killed if I decided to do that instead. What was there to "telegraph me from three miles away" that dodging them is the only reliable way to counter them, and blocking wasn't going to work? After all, I could reasonably go "Hmmm, they're rollin' against me, I put up my shield, laws of physics dictate that they bounce off it." Tell me where it was telegraphed that the laws of physics were going to get breached there.

 

[Little Gray]

I'm sorry, but that's wishful thinking. Tell me, how did I see "telegraphed from three miles away" that wheel skeletons were going to defy the conservation of momentum and instead of bouncing off my shield, kill me.

Sure, I could dodge them, but I didn't see "telegraphed from three miles away" that blocking them would just get me killed if I decided to do that instead. What was there to "telegraph me from three miles away" that dodging them is the only reliable way to counter them, and blocking wasn't going to work? After all, I could reasonably go "Hmmm, they're rollin' against me, I put up my shield, laws of physics dictate that they bounce off it." Tell me where it was telegraphed that the laws of physics were going to get breached there.

Well actually as long as your shield isnt complete shit you can block the wheel skeletons just fine.

I dont know why the hell you would expect the laws of physics to always apply in Dark Souls when you are constantly breaking it throughout the game.

 

[Vegosiux]

I dont know why the hell you would expect the laws of physics to always apply in Dark Souls when you are constantly breaking it throughout the game.

Willing suspension of disbelief. It doesn't have to be realistic, but it has to be believable. And unless I have an explicit reason that things work differently in a specific case, I will not find it believable when they don't.

 

[Frozengale]

Honestly if you think Dark Souls is trolling you then I doubt you ever played Demon's Souls where the game actually does troll you quite often.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I didn't bother going into NG+. Everything I learned seemed to indicate that it would be exactly the same but longer. Unless I wanted to try something different, maybe use some of those weapons and armor I'd collected but weren't able to use in my first playthrough, in which case it would have taken much, much longer. Since that was the only thing I had to look forward to, I realized there was absolutely no advantage of NG+ over just starting the game over with a new character.

I did notice the enemy auto-aiming thing, though. Seriously, I hated the Duke's Archives enough as is, without those goddamned archers using heatseeking arrows. My only consolation was that their arrows moved slower than mine, and I could see and shoot farther, but that wasn't much consolation in that godsforsaken hellhole.

 

[Mikejames]

I'm surprised he didn't mention illusory walls. Screw that idea.

 

[Windcaler]

* Enemy projectiles can CURVE in mid-air to home in on you

Even though you are using the SAME weapon as they are, their version of the spell/arrow has homing ability to correct their trajectory in mid-air and hit you. This becomes mostly evident against the Silver Arrow Knight c*cksuckers at Anor Londo spamming you with the Dragon Bow - the most powerful bow in the game. Not to even mention the Bloathead Scorcerers in Oocile that can deal insane ammounts of damage with their projectile spell. Oh, and fuck the crystal archers in Dukes Archive too

No they dont. Ive gone as far as new game+8 and Ive yet to see projectiles curve while in midair. They track you to the position you were at when fired, they dont move while in flight. If you get hit by something after moving then you didnt move far enough or you're experiencing some kind of lag. There are lots of frame drops in the game on consoles or with old PC hardware so this isnt uncommon, though what is uncommon is those enemies would be present in the areas that commonly drop frames (i.e. Blighttown).

* Enemy autoaims/glitchy hitboxes

Some enemies/bosses can autotrack you, which means that even if you dodge their attack they can WHILE swinging the weapon; autoadjust its swing so that it hits you anyway. This is particulary true to the behavior of some Dark Knights such as Rock Havel but also other bosses. It means that unless you are doing pixel-perfect timing when doding you are going to take a hit.
There's also some bosses who has some really peculiar hitboxes in the game. It means that even though you clearly manage to avoid its attack you are still going to take a hit. Ceaseless Discharge comes to mind; even if you manage to roll away serveral meters away from his tentacle
you are gonna get hit anyway and Ceaseless Discharge on top of that is one of the bosses in the game that can kill you in ONE hit.

Again you are incorrect. I suspect what you are experiencing is when you dodge before the attack comes and it hits you. This is not how the game works, you have to dodge/riposte during the attack animation to avoid them and then with some attacks there is dead angling to consider. For some wide swinging weapons like Greatswords, the longsword, and others if you dodge close to your opponent the swing will still connect because youre in its arc.

As far as boss attacks such as the Asylum demon sometimes if an attack has a big enough area it will hit you from behind. This is part of knowing the limitations and abilities of the boss and overcoming them.

* The Skeleton Dogs in Tombs of the Giants

They are the bane of my existence. These fuckers have a special attack that ignores both your shield and armor that one-hit kills you. Oh, and they use that special attack over and over and over again. The damage these fuckers output is larger than any boss in the game, oh and you are fighting SERVERAL of them... IN THE DARK WHERE YOU CAN'T SEE SHIT... AT ONCE... The troll is strong with this one

More myths. Every skeleton dog can be killed in a solo fight if you take your time. Taking your time to observe and plan is one of the key points of the game. They do not have an unblockable attack either, let alone one that 1 shots you. They have a stand up and fall on you attack, that can be blocked. They have a triple bite attack, that can be blocked. They have a normal swing attack, that can be blocked. They dont have any unblockable attacks that Ive ever seen. Video proof or it didnt happen

You can also see fine if you use the skull lantern (although that takes a shield/weapon slot), sunlight maggot (takes a head slot), or with just 14 intelligence and 10 attunement you could use the cast light spell to see fine.

That said they are a pain in the butt. Ill give you that

* Ornstein and Smough

'Nuff said.
Not only do you need to kill one of them, you will need to kill the other fucker that has enhanced strength and TWICE as much health as before, oh and they can one-shot you with ease.

What conditions are you in where you're getting 1 shot? This might, and I stress might, happen during a level 1 playthrough or with base endurance and light armor. Its not going to happen to anyone with decent endurance no matter what kind of armor youre in.

Ive heard this one shot myth before but never seen it happen myself or seen it happen in a lets play. Ive played as far as New game+8 and Ive yet to see normal mobs 1 shot me. You know what? Im just going to throw down the gauntlet, show us this mythical 1 shotting that you say is so prevelant in the game. Make us a video, show us your stats before it happens and go get one shot. Till I see that Im calling that for what it is, nonsense

People seem to think Knight Artorias is a ***** but I never had much difficulty with him nor Manus, nor with Blighttown except for the shitty framerate.

So, where do you think this game trolls you?

I dont. I dont think the game trolls us at all because the entire games design is tough but fair. There are a few questionable design choices like the entire bed of chaos fight but trolling? No, I dont think so

That said, I think youre trying to troll the dark souls community by putting up so many myths and to that I say video proof or this stuff didnt happen

Edit: You know I was curious so I went through CyberAkuma's posting history and saw he made this thread http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.397964-Why-Dark-Souls-isnt-a-good-game-a-Hardcore-gamers-reaction-to-first-playthrough?page=1

In it he lied about being a new dark souls player because weeks later he talked about how he "loved" the game while criticizing its lack of a pause feature. Clearly he just has a grudge against the game but Im still going to call him on his nonsense about the mechanics of the game