Dark Souls Impressions - The FINAL Update

I'm agreeing with Verb.

Bonfires actually do feel very relieving when going through a long run and you want to hit a checkpoint. The dilemma of going back to replenish estus or pushing on ahead is most certainly a hard one sometimes.

I can't argue with that.

It's not like pausing even actually helps you unless you try playing the game frame by frame like some kind of sperg. It's just like shields. The enemy isn't going away just because you have these temporary tools of delaying yourself from taking damage.

Thank you.

All right, taking a break. Things are going a lot better than last night.

I don't think inventory should pause gameplay. Elder Scroll style inventory management ruins a lot of immersion. I always kind of imagined mid fight inventory diving as rifling through your bag desperately for something you need, which obviously comes at the cost of the ability to use several abilities and if you're not skilled you won't be able to survive long enough, which was fun and should stay.

But things like the settings menu or stats and the like could pause things.

Well there is an issue, because again that would go against the idea the game is built upon directly. The game actively tries to make sure nothing is too overpowered and can exploited.

They were pretty lazy with backstabs.
Which if, the player can freely choose to, devolves the game into an endless spin simulator just trying to loop around enemies with slower turn speed. In DS2 they sometimes created cool solutions to the problem with the turtlebros, but they largely only patched it over by artificially changing the turn speed faster than the animations could compensate for so we have horrible looking sliding in place.

As much as I love how much of a great skill inventory management is in Dark Souls, there is no reason for it to exist.

I feel as if they fixed backstabs in Bloodborne, with you need a charge attack to deal start it.

I feel as if managing inventory without a pause is one of the better examples of why it shouldn't pause, going "oh shit" as I reached to change weapon mid fight was such great fun for me in PvP and PvE. If it were to pause, then you could possibly quickly equip say a flame resist shield as an attack is coming down on you and block in time. However in the current system, you need to get distance before even thinking of doing such a thing, and trying to do it would cost you your life. 

I feel as if managing inventory without a pause is one of the better examples of why it shouldn't pause, going "oh shit" as I reached to change weapon mid fight was such great fun for me in PvP and PvE. If it were to pause, then you could possibly quickly equip say a flame resist shield as an attack is coming down on you and block in time. However in the current system, you need to get distance before even thinking of doing such a thing, and trying to do it would cost you your life.

This isn't what I want, by the way. I agree that the game shouldn't pause when you're shuffling through your items, like in Fallout or something. That would definitely make the game a lot easier, and that's not what I'm arguing for.

I want something more along the lines of what Egg is saying.

But things like the settings menu or stats and the like could pause things.

Stats and settings are still eh to me, although a pause might be okay, I still think it would take a bit away from a wandering enemy to just go fuck you up because you didn't  wait for a safe space. That and when checking your stats normally when I do it I'm by looking at them before I level up, or comparing an item's requirements I just got, and I prefer the feeling of "oh shit I just got stabbed" after something jumps out while I check it out.

I feel as if managing inventory without a pause is one of the better examples of why it shouldn't pause, going "oh shit" as I reached to change weapon mid fight was such great fun for me in PvP and PvE. If it were to pause, then you could possibly quickly equip say a flame resist shield as an attack is coming down on you and block in time. However in the current system, you need to get distance before even thinking of doing such a thing, and trying to do it would cost you your life.

This isn't what I want, by the way. I agree that the game shouldn't pause when you're shuffling through your items, like in Fallout or something. That would definitely make the game a lot easier, and that's not what I'm arguing for.

I want something more along the lines of what Egg is saying.

It was to my impression you were asking for the game to pause while checking the menus. To my response to settings and stats, check my last post.

I'm agreeing with Verb.

Oh, my mistake

It was to my impression you were asking for the game to pause while checking the menus.

oh, hell no, that would be lame

Stats and settings are still eh to me, although a pause might be okay, I still think it would take a bit away from a wandering enemy to just go fuck you up because you didn't  wait for a safe space. That and when checking your stats normally when I do it I'm by looking at them before I level up, or comparing an item's requirements I just got, and I prefer the feeling of "oh shit I just got stabbed" after something jumps out while I check it out.

how about just having the word "pause" on the screen and nothing else, like OG Nintendo games

you could even make the pausing/unpausing animation really slow, to help prevent frame abuse

No offense, but why are all of verbys arguments at the core"I don't like it so it's completely wrong"?

No offense, but why are all of verbys arguments at the core"I don't like it so it's completely wrong"?

because they're not, and that's just how you're taking it, because dark souls fans hate having their opinions challenged

no offense

It was to my impression you were asking for the game to pause while checking the menus.

oh, hell no, that would be lame

Stats and settings are still eh to me, although a pause might be okay, I still think it would take a bit away from a wandering enemy to just go fuck you up because you didn't  wait for a safe space. That and when checking your stats normally when I do it I'm by looking at them before I level up, or comparing an item's requirements I just got, and I prefer the feeling of "oh shit I just got stabbed" after something jumps out while I check it out.

how about just having the word "pause" on the screen and nothing else, like OG Nintendo games

you could even make the pausing/unpausing animation really slow, to help prevent frame abuse

I'd probably be okay with it if you can only do it when enemies weren't around, like if you had cleared them off and the game saw you weren't in any patrol paths. That would be alright to me, I just really don't like the idea of it being when you're fighting enemies at all, as again that goes against the idea of earning your safety. Where as I suppose a safe space in a clear part not near a bonfire wouldn't be, and that would be okay to me.

No offense, but why are all of verbys arguments at the core"I don't like it so it's completely wrong"?

because they're not, and that's just how you're taking it, because dark souls fans hate having their opinions challenged

no offense

I admit I'm stubborn about a lot of games I like, but Souls isn't one of them (not saying I don't like the series)

no offense

oh

I admit I'm stubborn about a lot of games I like, but Souls isn't one of them (not saying I don't like the series)

i'm just saying--i don't think it's fair to say that's all my opinions boil down to, when i could say the exact same thing about anyone who disagrees with me

just seems like a petty jab

I admit I'm stubborn about a lot of games I like, but Souls isn't one of them (not saying I don't like the series)

i'm just saying--i don't think it's fair to say that's all my opinions boil down to, when i could say the exact same thing about anyone who disagrees with me

just seems like a petty jab

Well you've been throwing petty jabs the entire thread, believe it or not.

Well you've been throwing petty jabs the entire thread, believe it or not.

Well, sorry, but I've put up with a lot of DaS fan shit in my day.

It really all boils down to pausing is for casuls and the developer didn't want you to have to take that one on the chin.

If anything he saved you from embarrassment and you should thank him for being so kind.


Also offline mode isn't a separate thing, it's basically the same game that can't load certain aspects because you're not online.

It would seem as though "for casuls" is synonymous with "for people who like good game design" at this point.

Playing again.

It would seem as though "for casuls" is synonymous with "for people who like good game design" at this point.

Playing again.

You can do it verby, show them what you're made of.

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kind of sucks you aren't gunna play online tho
there are some really cool little things about it

like soap jokes or getting free estus when others are fighting in the same area as you

and some other things I can't reveal yet

All right, I think I should probably explain what happened the other day, just to keep this thread moving. Consider this a half-update.

So, to recap: After getting destroyed by the black knight, I discovered that my scimitar was starting to wear down. I wasn't going to move on until I got it fixed, because I didn't feel as though my other weapons were suited for me.

Despite Sandtrap giving me a complete walkthrough on how to find the merchant who'll sell me some repair powder, I'm pretty sure I would've been able to find him on my own. (Still, in the future, I'd prefer it if no walkthroughs were posted at all. Thank you.)

The merchant sold some neat stuff, I suppose, but all I needed at the moment was some repair powder. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough souls for even one helping, so that means I have to do my absolute favorite thing to do in video games: Grind. I continued to shift through his wares, however, to discover that he also sells a repairbox, something Flee mentioned in an earlier post that would permanently solve my issues with the durability system. Awesome.

Too bad it's 3000 souls--six times as costly as a single helping of powder. I had to make a choice.

I said to myself, you know what? Maybe the box will be worth it in the end; once I buy this thing, I'll never have to buy it again, so I should just make the grind for it. Better sooner rather than later, right? I used up two of my consumable souls--one small, one large--just to see how much of an increase they would be. Ended up being 600 total. That was enough for some powder--but I wanted that box. I went to the bonfire, filled up my Estus, and began grinding.

Worst mistake in the playthrough so far.

Started out okay--I ground until I dropped, and made 1000~ souls for a total of 1500~. At first, I had a scummy strategy in mind--I would just kill the first two or three zombies outside of the bonfire, and then refill my Estus, over and over--but that got very boring very fast, so I started wandering off a bit. Got careless and died--but it's all right. I can recover that shit.

...THEN my sword breaks. In the middle of a five-zombie fray.

oh

No shit, right? Yeah. Duh. That's what I'm fucking grinding for, after all. Now my scimitar is completely useless, and... I'm just fucked. I'm not gonna recover from this. With 1500 souls on the line, I make a mad dash out of the Undead Burg, but ultimately, with about twenty or so zombies chasing me, I died an embarrassingly stupid death.

See--and I don't wanna get into this whole durability rant again, but--this is why I hate the durability system in the first place. This whole mess only happened because I'm just trying to get my fucking weapon fixed. The weapon degradation system only exists to halt progress and extend the game in a fake, artificial, synthetic way. I'm not saying it's the game's fault I died--it's my fault, but the point is that I shouldn't have to worry about fixing my weapons in the first place--because it has nothing to do with the rest of the game.

Sigh.

So, at this point, I'm back to the drawing board--no souls (well, not at the time of typing this, but you know what I mean), no weapon (again--as far as I knew at the time), and no motivation to play (I stress once again--at the time). I had ragequit.

I'll talk about how I ended up resolving this problem later; it's actually pretty cool. Well, I think so, anyway.

kind of sucks you aren't gunna play online tho
there are some really cool little things about it

like soap jokes or getting free estus when others are fighting in the same area as you

and some other things I can't reveal yet

I've contemplated jumping online towards the end of the playthrough, just so I can have something to say about it in the review, but I'll worry about that when it comes.

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kind of sucks you aren't gunna play online tho
there are some really cool little things about it

like soap jokes or getting free estus when others are fighting in the same area as you

and some other things I can't reveal yet

I've contemplated jumping online towards the end of the playthrough, just so I can have something to say about it in the review, but I'll worry about that when it comes.

That would legitimately be a mistake. If you don't like online at the start of the game, you'll like it even less at the end of the game.

Primarily because that's when you'll meet people with high tier equipment or pursuers and you'll just get fucking melted by them.

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kind of sucks you aren't gunna play online tho
there are some really cool little things about it

like soap jokes or getting free estus when others are fighting in the same area as you

and some other things I can't reveal yet

I've contemplated jumping online towards the end of the playthrough, just so I can have something to say about it in the review, but I'll worry about that when it comes.

That would legitimately be a mistake. If you don't like online at the start of the game, you'll like it even less at the end of the game.

Primarily because that's when you'll meet people with high tier equipment or pursuers and you'll just get fucking melted by them.

By now everybody's high level. He should try dueling when he's at least level 125.

DS1 works with level ranges, not soul memory.

That said, people at all levels in PvP are probably minmaxed and basically going to wreck him. I made a cheese build right now at lvl 20 and am going against cheesers of equal merit running around with Furysword maxxed out.

This thread has inspired me to give this game another shot.

So I'm downloading it on my 360 now. I'm surprised it's only 3GB, I'd expect it to be a lot more.

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