Do you enjoy Dark souls? And if so why?

[MrGlide]

Do you enjoy Dark souls? And if so why?

[june gloom]

I do. I'm terrible at it, but I do.

I like that it's uncompromising, but generally fair, and makes no hash of what kind of game it is. I like that it intentionally hearkens back to an older fashion of game (see: King's Field series, itself taking obvious inspiration from things like Ultima Underworld) while still doing its own thing. I like the atmosphere, I like the setting, I like how wonderfully designed Lordran is. I like how despite being a Japanese game it's just so utterly Western in affect (Moonlight Butterfly aside.) I like how weirdly creepy everything is, even the scattered NPCs. I like how fucked up the plot is once you start actually digging for it.

In short, I like it because it's the dark fantasy survival horror game I never knew I've been wanting for years.

[Azuruish]

Yep. Awesome design. Great and challenging fights.
Even if PC port (which i use) sucks ass and always there FPS drops, it still plays great.
Only one thing bothering me:
1) No matter how create appearance of your character - you will play by a corpse anyway. It is so silly.

[thedeadgmr]

Azuruish said:

Yep. Awesome design. Great and challenging fights.
Even if PC port (which i use) sucks ass and always there FPS drops, it still plays great.
Only one thing bothering me:
1) No matter how create appearance of your character - you will play by a corpse anyway. It is so silly.

Install DSFIX, turns pc port to 3/10 to 10/10

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

You people only like Dark Souls because you weren't around for eggplant griefing on Demon's Souls.

[Avoozl]

Well I did enjoy it for a bit but it gets to be very repetitive having to backtrack to the campfires, oddly enough I didn't find backtracking much of an issue with a game such as Diablo 2.

[MrGlide]

dethtoll - "I like how despite being a Japanese game it's just so utterly Western in affect " I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by this.

Azuruish - "Even if PC port (which i use) sucks ass and always there FPS drops, it still plays great." Blighttown? it stutters on console as well, comically one of the best places for a fight club is the bonfire done at the bottom.

Azuruish - " No matter how create appearance of your character - you will play by a corpse anyway. It is so silly." There are alive and hollow states and they tie into the gameplay quite a bit, also you apperence is different even if you hollow, I personally like to make Gobliny looking charactors.

Fisk - "You people only like Dark Souls because you weren't around for eggplant griefing on Demon's Souls." That was anoying, Demon souls was really good but I didn't have as nearly as much time into that as I did DarkSouls 1, 250h for demon souls and 1000h for darks souls 1.

Avoozl - "Well I did enjoy it for a bit but it gets to be very repetitive having to backtrack to the campfires, oddly enough I didn't find backtracking much of an issue with a game such as Diablo 2." Comically I'm the opposite, I felt Diablo 2 was repetitive and dark souls entertained me almost to no end. Especially DS1, the way the map tied into itself and the amount of true options you had that you could progress though the game was really amazing to me.

[Azuruish]

thedeadgmr said:

Install DSFIX, turns pc port to 3/10 to 10/10

Tried. Have some glitches with water and reflections... This is more annoying than low FPS.

[Cynical]

Azuruish said:

Tried. Have some glitches with water and reflections... This is more annoying than low FPS.

It also screws the controls up, because the input buffer is tied to the framerate and the code for handling inputs isn't designed to work correctly at 60Hz.

DSFix's popularity can only be explained if most of the people who champion it don't actually play videogames, but would rather just watch pretty movies.

[Pencil of Doom]

Never tried it, but i saw some videos and by looking at it, it sounds like i wouldn't enjoy it much as i enjoy Armored Core, because mechs are more interesting and bcz favorite game series by From Software.
Don't get me wrong, Dark Souls looks cool and that, but lacks that fun factor that Armored Core has.

[mrthejoshmon]

I love it because of the fun combat and even funner Co-op and PVP.

I also love the crazy crap that can occur in a game session.

And what other game allows me to stun lock another player into oblivion with a rapier?

Not many.

[Use]

I'm a fan since Demon's Souls, which was the first game I owned on my PS3. I play them with my best gamer friend of many moons, so we have a great time. If I had to play them solo or with strangers it wouldn't be as fun, so I guess I like them for the great co-op. Can't wait for the third installment...aside from Doom4 and Deus Ex, it's the other game I'm looking forward to.

[HorrorMovieRei]

It's a great game. I controls great, it's chalenging, the lore is interesting, and I specially love the design of the monsters and places. Even something as simple as a minotaur in Dark Souls looks fucking sick.

[YukiHerz]

I love the challenging difficulty of the game, it's not truly hard but you spoof and you can kiss your ass goodbye.

Also exploration, Drangleic and the other place i forgot the name of, they're somewhat unique from other fantasy settings.

Gavlan Wheel Gavlan Deal.

[june gloom]

MrGlide said:

dethtoll - "I like how despite being a Japanese game it's just so utterly Western in affect " I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean by this.

So read it again and again until the meaning sinks in, because I was pretty clear the first time.

[negke]

It gives a great sense of accomplishment. You gradually improve your playing skills and overcome ever-increasing challenges as you master each enemy and environment, all of which feels very rewarding in the end. Initially, the world is a big hostile place that smashes you mercilessly, but after a while you've learned how to conquer it.

Looking forward to DS3 (released in April); really hope it makes up for lazy job that was DS2.

[Phml]

Love it, it's exactly what I want from video games. Exploring an atmospheric world, figuring things out slowly but surely.

Dark Souls 2 lost some of that in becoming more gamey, but going through the whole thing with a friend made it great too.

It also screws the controls up, because the input buffer is tied to the framerate and the code for handling inputs isn't designed to work correctly at 60Hz.

DSFix's popularity can only be explained if most of the people who champion it don't actually play videogames, but would rather just watch pretty movies.

This has to be the strangest argument ever. It's the people who are pro movies who champion 30 or 24 FPS for that "realistic" feel. Framerate does nothing if you want to watch things, as it only improves responsiveness, not graphics.

People are taking the contrarian bullshit way too far these days. Dark Souls was locked at very low resolution for years after release, this is the main reason DSfix got so popular as most people don't even know/care enough about 60 FPS.

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

Really? Nobody's going to even address how fucking stupid it is that the game's input code depends strictly on the game running at 30FPS?

Dark Souls was locked at very low resolution for years after release, this is the main reason DSfix got so popular as most people don't even know/care enough about 60 FPS.

If nobody cares/knows about what "60 FPS" is, then why would you assert that DSFix is popular? These seem to be two directly contradictory ideas

[HorrorMovieRei]

It runs at silky smooth 15fps on my toaster of a computer, so I didn't even notice that.

[Captain Red]

One word: Gesamtkuntzwerk

[Philnemba]

Love this game to pieces but sadly for nearly 2 years I still can't beat ornstein and smough :(

[Cynical]

Fisk said:

Really? Nobody's going to even address how fucking stupid it is that the game's input code depends strictly on the game running at 30FPS?

Correction -- the game's input code and world simulation both rely on the game running at either 30 or 15 FPS (this is why, without DSFix, the bottom of Blighttown always runs at 15FPS; From hardcoded that area to always have a 15 FPS cap, since it couldn't hold a steady 30 FPS on consoles, and since running at any value between 15 and 30 screws the engine up).

I don't think anyone needs to point out that this is a bad coding practice, but it does mean that DSFix ultimately makes the game prettier but worse.

@Phml -- Framerate *definitely* affects visual smoothness. A lot of "movie buffs" hate it because it's not what they're used to, but you can definitely see the difference modern high-framerate movies vs. old 24FPS movies. In a videogame, though, having your controls actually work correctly, instead of inputs having the chance to randomly get scrabmbled in the input buffer, is more important than smoothness, though. The absurd length of DSouls 1's buffer is bad enough as it is (lol @ mistiming a roll, getting staggered, and then the roll comes out on its own at the end of the stagger animation over a full second later), it doesn't need the possibility of inputs having their order changed because the buffer is so screwed when running at 60FPS.

EDIT: Since it's come up here a couple of times, I'll also just say that Dark Souls 2 is miles better than Dark Souls 1. It's not even close.

[Shanoa]

It's a great serie, challenging at times but always give a sense of satisfaction once you overcome a difficult fight or area. Replay value is pretty high if you enjoy testing different builds.

Anticipating Dark Souls III, while it's a shame this will be the last Souls game i hope one day FROM will make another one.

[Linguica]

Cynical said:

Dark Souls 2 is miles better than Dark Souls 1. It's not even close.

This is an odd opinion. Dark Souls 2 is fine, but nearly everyone agrees that it's not as tight and coherent as its predecessor.

[Cynical]

I realize it's a rare opinion, but it's also correct.

Dark Souls 2 has a better-balanced character system (lol@Endurance in DkS 1), better level design, a better 'feel' thanks to the faster movement speed, better combat design thanks to weakened shields, more engaging combat scenarios thanks to the shared aggro (no more tediously pulling one enemy at a time), and is even less linear (Dark Souls 1 has a ton of "fake-nonlinearity" with its loop-backs, but if you don't take the Master Key as your gift, the only place where you have any actual choice on what path to go down next for the entire first 2/3rds of the game is whether you want to get to Blighttown via lower Burg -> Depths or Darkroot Basin -> Valley of Drakes).

Oh, and death also actually means something in Dark Souls 2, which is a nice change.

[Jimothy]

The entire Souls series is one of my favorites of all time; the only one I haven't played is Demon's Souls and that's because I can't be arsed to buy a PS3 just for the one game lol (I say this yet one of my chief reasons for getting a PS4 was for Bloodborne. Hypocrisy, ahoy!)

When I got Dark Souls in 2013, I was looking for a hard-as-hell game and it delivered. Once I got my Man-Serpent Greatsword and started tearing things up, I got hooked and it all snowballed from there. Now I'm waiting excitedly for April to come about so I can get Dark Souls III and get my head smashed in a few hundred times.

To me, though, I feel like Dark Souls and Dark Souls II are about equal when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. On one hand, they've both got shoddy hitboxes and good ones alike (a common argument from Dark Souls "elitists" is to constantly crap on Dark Souls II for having bad hitboxes; e.g. awkward enemy backswings hitting you for full damage when Dark Souls itself wasn't free of this), and on the other they're genuinely fun, if challenging games that demand the most out of the players lest they keep getting their asses handed to them, and even then it'll probably just flip them off and kill them anyway for fun.

As for which one's my favorite, I'd probably have to say Bloodborne is my personal favorite Souls title. Even though it doesn't reference Souls in the name, many of the same mechanics are still there, and it was still developed by From Software, so ultimately I'd reckon it still counts as part of the series, even if it is an offshoot of sorts. The level design feels way better than Dark Souls did with actual shortcuts helping out a ton and being sprinkled throughout the game, the boss fights can get pretty challenging, and the artstyle is great.

I reckon that's enough preening over Bloodborne, though. Dark Souls and Dark Souls II are tied for a close second when it comes to favorites. Here's hoping that Dark Souls III keeps up the trend of being a fantastic game as its predecessors have.

[Buckshot]

hated dark souls..

But love bloodborne. Just felt like it was a bit more "well rounded", from design to gameplay, to audio, to detail.

[june gloom]

Jimothy, it's worth buying a PS3 just for several other PS3-exclusive games as well IMO.

[Shanoa]

Jimothy said:

The entire Souls series is one of my favorites of all time; the only one I haven't played is Demon's Souls and that's because I can't be arsed to buy a PS3 just for the one game lol (I say this yet one of my chief reasons for getting a PS4 was for Bloodborne. Hypocrisy, ahoy!)

I'm sure you'll have a chance to experience Demon's Souls on PS4 as teased here by FROM back in November 2015.

I already have it on PS3 but i'd double dip for a potential 60FPS version on PS4 and perhaps some extras.

[Varis Alpha]

know about the series, never played it myself. mostly because the PS3 is not my console and in my brother's room, so i've basically never bothered to play it because of that reason. that, and i've heard bad things about the PC port for the first game at least, so i haven't bothered checking it out there. not that i can do it now since my desktop is on the fritz, anyway. so i don't have any opinion on the series aside from "it's a thing that exists and is massively popular."