Fatigued Souls (Part 1)

When I say jacquayed dungeons this is fully as important a half as internal loops and shortcuts. This is why that forbidden forest to iosefka shortcut feels so disappointing compared to how good it sounds on paper. A series of nested loops arent compelling without visible landmarks and enough visual info to intuit how to get to them (the best doom levels are the best dungeons because they use that basic horseshoe shape design pattern and asymmetry along with viewing angles to show off landmarks)

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I quite enjoyed what I played of the dlc last night, and even if it is just a rehash of the same old souls stuff I feel like it still has that certain intangible something that Nioh feels to be lacking in.
Agree that the bosses are just too much though, I managed to beat the demon duo on my second try and figured it wasnā€™t too bad, then it came back to life because of course it did.

As for Bloodborne being less interconnected than dark, I feel it makes up for it by having certain vantage points where you can stand and look out at other levels that you will be visiting later on. A lot of the distant scenery is not just a backdrop, but actual places you will go. So it can maintain the feel of an interconnected world, without actually being one so much

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I did the sameā€¦ except I fell most of the way without any kind of torch or light source. The climb back up was certainly a unique challenge.

But

  • the woods/village are not a dungeon
  • the shortcut is meant to be a complete surprise
  • I only found it during my second playthrough and it owned
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My character is Lv 199 on mere New Game with all the gear I could reasonably need and Iā€™m still finding the whole mission feels like theyā€™ve quite deliberately pumped the difficulty with a mind to jolly co-opping the whole run for best balance

Entirely possible that Iā€™m just being old and shit though

I pushed a big dragon down a bigger well

Souls games filled the chink in my leisure time that Metroid games were cleansed from when they started to get pish

Whoever does the format next has their work cut out for them

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Iā€™ve never touched a Soulsborne DLC in my life, and Iā€™m still interested to play whatever they do next with the formula, so maybe thatā€™s the key?

Yeah. Youā€™re gonna get 3 DLCs-worth of content into the next Souls game and just immediately get sick of it.

No one could say Souls combat interactions are free from jank at all times but it has also been relieving cool to play action game that accommodates being a plodder where all commands seem like a risky commit

More of that plz

Looks like everyone hates this once it becomes a boss and I donā€™t blame them. All youā€™re doing is chasing it around the arena half of the time and most of its attacks have super questionable hitboxes. 2ā€™s ancient dragon is still the worst, just a huge miserable piece of shit, but this one does do an admirable job at attempting to wrest that title

Honestly I didnā€™t really feel the need to play any Souls games after 2. Iā€™d had my fill, weā€™d had some good times together, but it was time to move on.

The games are at their best when theyā€™re being mysterious and hinting at things you donā€™t know. Theyā€™re at their worst when youā€™re following a path to more monster closets. Itā€™s like the inverse of Doom.

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Yeah pretty much any boss with ā€œdragonā€ in the title is sure to push my frustration buttons.

I am playing on Ng+ and those regular zombie enemies with the spears can kill me in two shots

genuinely curious why you donā€™t think it is a dungeon? Does it go beyond texturing in any way? The layout is basically indistinguishable from a souls dungeon that is textured as such.

For all the attractive use theyā€™ve made of greater resource access to decorate their spaces, other things been trending distinctly Warhammer by the end

I miss the guys whoā€™d raid the Leeds Armoury for inspiration


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Since iā€™ve only played up through DkS2, i still have room in my heart for these games. Iā€™d really like to give Bloodborne a go, if i ever get the chance. The setting looks thrilling to me, and though iā€™ve basically already spoiled the plot to myself, iā€™d still love to experience it firsthand as it sounds like my absolute jam.

3 i am less excited about. I know it plays better than 2, but from what i hear itā€™s much worse about retreading ground from 1 while pointing at everything and going, "Remember this?? Remember how good it was when you did this??!"
Like, yeah, i remember. i still play through the first game a couple times a year, i could go do it right now if i wanted to. Please give me something that feels new?

I do think Demonā€™s Souls will forever be my favorite. First time i went from 3-1 to 3-2 was like the game set off a targeted explosion in my mind. Thereā€™s a lot of details about DkS1, large and small, that set them at about even quality, but thereā€™s something holistically satisfying about that first entry. Something to be said for getting it nearly perfect on your first try.

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i spent so much time here as a kid, my dark souls love all makes sense now

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Something that I never tire of and the new DLC continues to do well is the way these games present such a hostile, mysterious environment on the first encounter.

Each new area is so intimidating (in a good way) and I enjoy the stage at which I have no idea how Iā€™m going to progress. And I remember that later when Iā€™m breezing through that now-familiar area (often helping some other player) and I like that comfortable stage as well.

I never engage in multi-player in a new area until Iā€™ve been through it alone, though I almost always summon help on the bosses even if I havenā€™t made much of an effort to fight them on my own.

I guess these games have always frustrated me to an extent. It took me two years on and off to finally beat demons, and that was during a white world event. I got real close on dark 1 and semi-close on 2 but the repetitive grind eventually wore me down.

The fact that I had put ā€˜beat Aldrichā€™ on my to-do list Monday, alongside fixing my carā€™s tail light and doing my laundry, speaks volumes.

(And guess which of these didnā€™t get crossed off the list)

Speaking of world tendency events, those kept me engaged in demons a lot longer than I would have been otherwise. Bringing those back in someā€‹ form would sell me on a new game in the series.

Itā€™s a forest/village, so Iā€™m not going to call it a dungeon. Maybe thatā€™s overly simple, but thatā€™s how I think about it.

I also like the shortcut for building on the concept in Dark Souls of returning to the first area and fleshing it out in a way you didnā€™t expect. My qualitative considerations go beyond discrete thoughts on connectivity into what a navigational reemergence does for a given areaā€™s sense of expansiveness, imaginative and actual (this is why I like ā€œsubjunctiveā€ as a term for describing the effect these gamesā€™ best areas have on you)

I loaded this up but it froze on me twice. Truly the most challenging Souls yet.

Edit: It also felt weird that I couldnā€™t climb. :cry: