Dark Souls Impressions - The FINAL Update

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Gee thanks guys

I was gonna say naming it gives away its location. But yeah.

Eh, whatever. It's not like I know the exact route to it, or anything.

Naming it doesn't really give away the location though. Havel could be a postman for all Verb knows.

So, out of curiosity, how's Dark Souls III treating you all so far?

I'm enjoying it. There's a nice balance of difficulty with the bosses.

derk sulz

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Yeah verb, you get invincibility frames when you roll as well. It isn't so much about where you are when you roll or where you end up, but about when you roll.

Rolling is hands down the best way to play. Shield up all the time will get you punished later on when the enemies one shot drain your stamina.

Get the timing down for rolling, with your history of fighting games it should be cake for you.

I'm usually just fine with a shield, but rolling is good too.

ayy, 1000

[...]

So next time you play, take a second to look at the corner of your screen when equipping a new piece of armor. It should show your equipment load and carrying capacity (it'll say something like "25/60"). The less you wear, the faster your stamina recovers, the more nimble you generally are and the faster/better you roll (following the 25/50/100% tresholds above). The higher your Endurance stat, the higher your max carrying capacity is and the more or heavier stuff you can wear without it affecting your movement.

All right, good to know. Thanks.

And the best advice I can give you is to play a bit more strategically and creatively, Verb. Sure, you can poke your spear at a knight from behind your shield for a whopping 13 damage a hit and eventually wear him down while losing a fair bit of estus yourself. But it's always worth looking at what else can you do.

Yeah. I went over this before, but the reason I like the spear is because, despite the low damage output against armored enemies, it's still very reliable. The ability to block and attack at the same time is amazing, and of course, the range it has allows me to play keep-away very well. Low damage isn't really a concern for me--it gets the job done.

...Well, I mean, I did end up losing to that knight a couple times, so I guess could stand to use other weapons, too. I'm sure that would be more interesting from a viewer's perspective, as well. But I do have my reasons for sticking with the spear.

For one, you should always consider the type of enemy you're fighting. Dark Souls is very realistic in this aspect. Enemies with exposed flesh are generally weak to things like fire and slashing / thrusting attacks, while heavily armored enemies typically suffer more from blunt strike damage and lightning. Two handing a blunt weapon like a mace is likely to do a lot more damage to a knight than your spear is.

Eh. I wouldn't necessarily call that "realistic," but I do like that mechanic. I think you've already told me about it, too. It's just that, when I'm dealing with a fierce enemy like a black knight, I generally don't like to take a lot of risks. Because I don't like dying, and I still haven't quite reconciled with the fact that I'm going to be dying a lot in this game anyway, I prefer to use "safer" strategies. The Winged Spear allows me to be as safe as possible, both because of its hyper-defensive nature, and simply because it's the weapon I'm (thus far) the most comfortable with.

While I easily could've used my Morning Star, I've already killed black knights with my trusty spear before, so why exactly would I take the risk of using a different weapon which may or may not be very effective? I'm not saying you're wrong, or anything--you're 100% right. I'm just trying to explain my mindset to you.

This game has given me mixed messages so far. On one hand, it encourages experimentation by having this (overall stupid and unnecessary) weapon degradation system. But on the other, experimentation can also lead to your death. It's just... weird. I'd be far more inclined to experiment if death wasn't such a big part of this game.

But yeah, okay, I'll try using my mace next time. There's another black knight I left behind at a tower in the Undead Parish, so I'll test it out against him. Maybe I can finally get a second piece of humanity from him, or something.

Secondly, the environment can often really help you out too. For example, the knight you're fighting can easily be made to follow you a little so you can plunge attack down on him from a higher ledge for good damage. Or, you'll notice that he's close to a deep drop himself. This black knight has a bunch of moves that will send him flying forward or leaping backwards. It's entirely possible to trick him into falling off the ledge to his death without much effort (which is what speedrunners of the game used to do).

That's all well and good, but cheese tactics like that don't necessarily teach me how to play the game. I already feel kinda lame for taking advantage of that bug, because that's just one less opportunity for me to learn how to properly fight a black knight. There might come a time when I don't have access to things like cliffs to plunge down from, so before I start utilizing tactics like that, I'd like to make sure I can handle pretty much anything that the game throws at me first.

Unless you're telling me that being an opportunist is literally the name of the game--in which case... All right.

Also, you expressed concern earlier with me killing black knights in the first place, because they apparently have a rare chance to drop a powerful weapon that may or may not ruin the challenge of the game for me. I dunno. I'm sure it's not a huge deal, is it?

Finally and most importantly, you might want to consider rolling more.

In fairness, you only saw chopped up bits of my first fight with the knight (not counting when he went full retard). In the subsequent fights, I rolled a lot more. Perhaps still not enough, because I obviously didn't succeed, but yeah--I chopped up the footage for the sake of not wasting people's time, and for... dramatic effect? Me rolling around doesn't seem very fun to watch, so I just cut a lot of that shit out.

Normally, what happens is that I fuck up the timing, and I get punished for it. So that's another thing I need to work on. I like to use it as a way of getting myself out of a corner, or an otherwise shitty position. Having control of the environment, like you said, is key, but using it to punish his slower moves is also a pretty good idea that I could take more advantage of.

Anyway, thanks again for the insight. It's always appreciated.


I only have one more week this semester, but I may be able to play a little bit this weekend. We'll see.

How have you not finished the game already?

In three days I spent 21 hours on Dark Souls 3

DARK SOULS 3 10/10 GAME OF THE YEAR

How have you not finished the game already?

because i haven't played it in more than a month

i'll continue playing very soon, but i'm not someone who can afford to go on intense gaming binges these days

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I've decided to play a little bit tonight. I won't necessarily progress--I'm just gonna try to get back into the groove.

People used to always complain about how the PS3's controller is too small, and I never really felt the same way.

Going from PS4 to PS3 again after about a month, though? ...I can finally understand where they're coming from.

Keep that Profile theme

bruh

I'm gonna go ahead and dedicate the rest of this playthrough to Sandtrap. He's been an avid follower since the beginning, and he was one of the guys who kept me motivated the most--along with Flee, Turkey, Luci, and even challenger, among others. When I did that silly prank where I claimed to have beaten the whole game without updating, Sandtrap seemed genuinely impressed and happy with me, as though I had become a bona fide Dark Souls player. Me--a guy who has previously talked so much shit about Dark Souls--is now a Dark Souls fan. I wager it must have been pleasant news. So, when I had to reveal that it was all a joke, I knew Sandtrap's reaction was going to sting the most. Only, he never responded at all.

Whether it was because he was upset with me, or disappointed--maybe he just didn't have the time, or just didn't care. I don't know, but I felt kinda shitty about it. Here's a guy who is further down on his luck than any of us could ever imagine, and all he wants to do on a tired day is visit this website for fun. Beyond the shitposting and the banter, there's genuine communion to be had here, and this thread was just one small part of that for Sandtrap. And I feel like I may have taken some of that away from him. Even his reaction to my joke review seemed incredulous, in a not-so-good way. That was pretty much our last interaction.

Now he's not here. And none of us can really be sure if he'll ever be back. So, yeah--if no one else, I'm gonna finish this game for Sandtrap. It might take me awhile, but I'm gonna get it done. I feel like it's the least I can do.

Sorry to make this awkward, but I've been thinking about this ever since his departure, and I had to get it out.

what the fuck is this

what the fuck is this

have you tried maybe reading the OP

or the title

or anything

what the fuck is this

have you tried maybe reading the OP

or the title

or anything

no

i come back and verbs is a estus chugging, sun praising, bonfire lighting dark souls fanboy.

what a time to be alive

i come back and verbs is a estus chugging, sun praising, bonfire lighting dark souls fanboy.

what a time to be alive

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, I've been having some fun with this game.

I'm still pretty early on (I took a month long break, so I'm kinda behind on progress), but you're welcome to join in on the fun when I start playing again.

Why were you away? Just got tired of it, or what?

i come back and verbs is a estus chugging, sun praising, bonfire lighting dark souls fanboy.

what a time to be alive

Damn it, I'll never surpass your post count now.

i come back and verbs is a estus chugging, sun praising, bonfire lighting dark souls fanboy.

what a time to be alive

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, I've been having some fun with this game.

I'm still pretty early on (I took a month long break, so I'm kinda behind on progress), but you're welcome to join in on the fun when I start playing again.

Why were you away? Just got tired of it, or what?

I was just focusing on college and was at the point that every time I logged in here it was just to be a cunt, even to people i liked. Had a lot of shit going on in my life.

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i come back and verbs is a estus chugging, sun praising, bonfire lighting dark souls fanboy.

what a time to be alive

Offtopic but how's Ty the Tasmanian Tiger on PC?

I don't know I have that shit on ps2

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On Wednesday, finals week will be over for me, so I'll definitely be able to start playing again. I'm pretty excited.

I just had a conversation with a couple of my friends, though--they're all avid Dark Souls players, and for whatever reason, I never bothered to talk about it with them. I finally asked them about it the other day, though, and I started discussing some of my problems so far with the game: the invasions, the netplay in general, the grinding of souls, the lack of a pause feature, and the weapon degradation. Those have been my biggest issues so far, so I brought them up first.

Delightfully, they all saw exactly where I was coming from. They didn't question my skill or whatever--and they even agreed with me on some things.

They agreed that invasions should not be a part of the game at all, and that playing offline is "usually" the way to go--especially if you're a beginner. They see my issue with the whole consent thing perfectly, and they agree with me that PvP should be a consent-based thing. You shouldn't be able to just invade people on a whim.

We disagreed on everything else, though--but again, they understood where I was coming from. I'm a guy who appreciates not having his time wasted, and Dark Souls has no respect whatsoever for the player's time. They see that, but they're a bunch of NEETs who play Dark Souls all day, so of course they don't really mind wasting an hour's worth of souls.

They all gave an interesting point of view, however. They all hate the multiplayer so much--not just the concept of invasions, but the messaging system (which I hate, too, because of the potential to mislead players, which is cheap and anti-fun), and even the co-op. They hate the co-op. Why's that?

They hate the co-op because they consider it "cheating" the game. The game becomes much, much easier if you have someone to fight each boss with you, and that takes a lot out of the experience. So to them, that's why playing offline is ideal--no invasions, no co-op, no hints--it's just you, and the game.

I agree with that outlook wholeheartedly, but I've never met Dark Souls players who've had such a negative opinion of every aspect of the multiplayer before. Most people (e.g. this website) defend shit like invasions and co-op all the time, and a number of people have given me shit for playing offline, because I'm missing out on an "integral" part of the game.

I've argued with people about the invasions system many times before, and that's not what I really want to argue about right now. As a whole, though, the multiplayer in this game looks really bad to me right now. There's really nothing about it that I could say has any redeeming value--if it makes the game less fun, because you have assholes invading you, and the people you summon just make the game super easy for you, is there really anything good about the MP in this game?

I don't know, what's your take on that? Do you think co-op really does ruin the fun?

TL;DR
A couple of my other Dark Souls-playing friends told me that co-op shouldn't ever be done, because it makes the game too easy, and that playing single player offline is the best way to go. To them, multiplayer takes from the spirit of the game, and the invasion system only serves to make the game more frustrating and less fun. What do you make of that?

I understand coop if you're in ng+ and there's a fight you hate playing. Normally I try to solo every boss, but not Rom screw that boss.