yes, two of 2011’s most exciting game design trends have combined to make some soupy cash-in shit
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I played dark souls 2 solo and now I know better and mostly only play these games co-op constantly because I personally get no enjoyment out of 90 percent of my time being frustration and annoyance for some minor satisfaction at finally making it through. I think back on playing dark souls 2 and I can just picture a mass of red rage and for what. I think back on dark souls 1 where I breezed through the entire game with my buddy who knows the game backwards and I have pleasant nice time thoughts. I don’t care about mechanics and mastering them. I cheat to bypass random battles in jrpgs in emulators so I can enjoy the things.
Don’t forget Slashy Souls.
This game has firmly got me in its grip. I’ve been enjoying pretty much everything it’s thrown my way for the past ten hours or so. If you haven’t done it already, I recommend changing the HUD to Auto. It makes appreciating the environments easier, and is one less barrier to taking frequent screenshots, if that’s your thing.
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The Auto hud is implemented very nicely. It’ll only show the parts elements you absolutely need to see at that moment. I did find myself getting a bit screwed up and using items instead of my estus at a few key moments, so I reluctantly turned it back off for now.
Been chipping away tonight at a nasty little area, one of the first where bonfires haven’t appeared at regular intervals. I keep waiting to find that shortcut back but it hasn’t come yet and I keep worrying that I’m missing something as the area goes on. My damage output feels like it could be better. I’m actually getting some enemies so close to dead that their health bar looks empty, but i still need the extra hit. Gotta see what I can do about that.
I’ve been relying on the Uchi and a Fire Red-Hilted Halberd as my main weapons. Fire weapons are surprising useful because they seem to stagger many of the enemies. I’m longing for more of a swordy-sword to include in my repertoire, I really wish I had gotten the great sword from the first boss’s soul instead of the spear.
nedge’s original post really was just “here’s stuff i don’t do”, though. god forbid what’d happen to me* if i told y’all** how i play my first run through these games; my restrictions are in some ways even harsher even though i agree with booj philosophically and leave some wiggle room for that
*i understand that booji probably only responded that way because it was nedge
**i probably still will later because I’m finding some interesting semi-ironic contrast between my experience with 2 and 3 here in terms of perceived “”"“difficulty”"""
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Is there some button or something to make the autohidden HUD appear at will? I quickly turned it back to permanently visible because I do like to glance at it for various reasons, if only to double-check that I’m at or near full health, find out how much estus I have left, and that the right thing is in my item slot, and I don’t trust the autohider’s algorithm to be psychic about my desires on that front.
also yeah i want to have auto hud on but i think it’s too dynamic for its own good. showing, say, only what’s happening to my stamina in a combat situation because I’m blocking and not taking damage right that second ends up being more disorienting than elegant and i’d really rather have it be closer to an all or none proposition when it’s time to scan the screen for information
edit: yeah.
You can just press whatever button you’re using for the shield.
NB I have not played DkS3:
The more I read what you write in this thread and have mentally collected elsewhere about Broco’s D’Souls Opinions the more I think that you approach this series too much as a software designer. The fact that the “lore” of Demon’s and Dark 1 can’t really be put together into a wikiable whole; that the meaning of the multiplayer systems and NG+ cycles is only barely hinted at and also can’t be made entirely consistent with a single holistic reading of the game; that the mechanics are unbalanced with weird rough spots and wacky controls and so forth - all these things are evocative to me, not frustrating. Where you see holes I see wonderful mysteries.
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I do appreciate it, I just feel mysteries are only truly evocative when they’re allowed to take root in a fully realized world.
For an example of real non-lazy evocative mysteries, I’d point to Kafka’s The Castle, which is my favorite novel. That book has the odd quality of extreme mysteriousness despite and because its meaning is extremely crisp and literal from any specific angle, and there is no inconsistency to be found. Yet when you try to absorb the meaning as a whole you find yourself just spiraling around it as it shimmers into a fog (as indeed literally happens to its protagonist – the novel is partly a metaphor for its own creation).
I see honing down inconsistencies as being on the side of fostering mystery by allowing the subtleties in a text to take on more meaning. When all unintentional/lazy inconsistencies and quirks have been carefully polished away, it allows any remaining, intentionally included details or implications to carry a great deal of weight, to act as breadcrumbs hinting at the grander mystery.
An example of this in action in DkS3 is precisely the most mysterious part of the game, the second Firelink Shrine in the depths. The player has the dawning realization that the area they’re traversing is a clone of the tutorial area. This effect depends on the exactness of the duplication. In turn, where the alternate Firelink chooses to diverge, it stimulates thought about why exactly that is – though without any prospect of reaching a final answer (I totally agree with your underlying point, that the existence of a way to contain a mystery entirely within one interpretation is cheapening). It is so precise and so inexplicable at once, I love it and wouldn’t think of criticizing it for “holes”. On the other hand, an example of a somewhat less successful mystery in DkS3 is the dream transition into Archdragon Peak, a rather too obvious coverup for a lack of ideas or possibly production time/budget for getting the player onto a mountain summit – that mystery is too containable within a fourth wall breaking explanation, which in general is the side effect of laziness and inconsistencies on mysteries.
It’s a high bar I’m setting there to be sure and I think the Souls games are actually part of the way to meeting it, but I just think they still deserve a bit of criticism on a few specific points. And judging by the trajectory towards more polish and consistency as the series advances, Miyazaki may agree with me.
oh, huh, I think I’ve got the final boss open
Ah, the wonderful club o’ death. That thing got me past those wretched gargoyles in DS II (I am always bad at DS boss fights against multiple bosses) and in doing so won my heart. I believe it is what I eventually beat the final boss with in an amazingly dumb, glass cannon, “if I can manage to survive for 60 seconds I win” battle.
…I just found the giant club in DS III in my last session. I’m still a strength point short of being able to use it and I hesitate to do anything that drops me into slow roll land, but I think I know what I must do. Forget getting a big weapon to smash things with, I want the big weapon to smash fools with.
is it me or did some of the early parts of lothric castle recall the burg? that was an unexpected touch.
which trends would that be, because this just looks like generic soupy cash-in shit.
Gloomhaven looked like a good ruthless-high-tactics-dungeoncrawl board game but I haven’t even played the demo on it yet
uh, “high profile board games” and “dark souls”
kickstarter high profile board games are always poisonous garbage though: exploding kittens, games with titty miniatures, some racist shit from the people that made Cards Against Humanity. It’s not like the really good kickstarted board games ever qualify as high profile.
Put me in the “I love the cathedral” camp! I’m enjoying this game a lot!
I’m of two minds about Nameless King. Weird that the boss was easier as melee than as a caster though (boss seems to be built around riposting). Also a bit of a shame, as I tend to prefer to beat bosses first time as a caster. Am not a fan of bosses that… I guess the best wording I can think of is “swoop” a lot (cause the camera to go nuts when tracking them because they move so quickly). Abyss Watchers was fast, but trackable, Nameless King is frequently much faster than that, and has AoEs that require pinpoint precision rolls (the lightning AoEs can be dodged but for as much damage as you need to do and as tight as the window is, you’re going to take some hits). Admittedly, I probably beat the boss at a lower level than I should have–still a bit annoyed regardless though.
I think I must be missing at least one hidden area, but my opinion hasn’t really changed from “highly polished but ultimately meaningless echoes of earlier souls” now that I guess I’m at the end. It still ranks far below bloodborne imo but it’s also been 26 hours well spent. and this is leagues ahead of dks2 if not for the sense of mystery that it periodically conjured.
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