worst images thread is that way
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Well, I might find this difficult to resist.
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I dunno. If it was an artbook or a making-of type thing yeah, but the idea of having a ācompendiumā of Dark Souls lore indexed and color-coded is enervating
The art books are good, too. I have all three of the Dark Souls ones, but Iāve been on the fence about the Bloodborne one because itās not hardcover to match the others.
I have the Future Press Dark Souls 2 guide, and I found it fun to look through in the way that old Nintendo Power guides were fun to look through (and other guides were/are not).
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Huh. Using a paper guide actually sounds like a pretty fun way to revisit one of these games.
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iām making my third attempt to beat Dark Souls 3, and iām up to the same place iāve gotten to every time (Lothric Castle, which i thought was halfway through the game but is apparently more like 2/3rds). This has been the easiest playthrough yet, courtesy of the sellsword twinblades, which is good because i can finally confirm for myself that i donāt dislike this game because itās too hard. Itās just not hard in a way that i find fun or engaging. Itās the one Dark Souls game iāve played that feels as hard as everyone says Dark Souls is. everything is cranked up to 11 against the player in a way thatās immensely tedious to me. Iām pretty over difficulty discourse at this point but man, nothing in Sekiro has made me want to rage quit as badly as DS3 constantly does. so glad that Fromsoft is moving on from this dead-end.
Still some good shit in the level design (Cathedral of the Deep is :chefkiss: ) and everything looks cool as hell, but man, some of these encounters and bosses are a chore
I just beat DS3! Lothric Castle was cake for me and my Greatsword/Drang Hammer antics. I also had just gotten (and subsequently upgraded) Yhormeās Greatshield to block almost everything for very little Stam loss. Tbh, tho, I dont think Iāve ever felt as overpowered as I did with that trio of items.
I was torn between playing DS3 again with a different build or DeS. Iām playing DeS, and the mechanical differences - even just the walking around - are just so much more improved in DS3.
That said, the lore and world building is so bogus in 3. I care about DeS because it tells human stories. DS3 is just another story about weirdly specific ashed people hanging out with a particular kind of undead people murdering really big weird people. Itās just so into itself, but I guess this is what happens when a guy good at making games makes a sequel to a good game.
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Oh god Yhorm. Yhorm! What if we took the coolest boss in this whole series and mashed it up with a really shitty easy Dark Souls 3 boss. Thatās Yhorm. Fuck that guy.
Yeah DS3 is extremely mechanics first, and i legit appreciate that up to about mid-Irithyll. Theyāre trying their damnest to keep this play interesting and i think it basically works until you start fighting those bullshit pontiff knights and the silver knights redux. Once they play the biggest Dark Souls 1 fanwank card, the whole thing just collapses in on itself imo
Thereās a cool meta-read to 3 just like there is to the rest of the series (1 is the cosmic joke of being the main character of a video game and dying over and over, taken seriously, 2 is a game about that main character losing their identity because you got caught up in so much weird side quests and game bullshit that they forgot what their original mission was) which is basically From going āplease god please fucking let us make something else that isnāt a Souls game holy shit let it die alreadyā and thatās fun to think about, at least
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i might also be particularly offended because this is the first time i played through Smouldering Lake, which starts off looking really wild and cool (burned-up Ash Lake! Giant Avelyn shooting at you! Tremors-ass sandworm menacing you!) and then literally narrows into a goddamn chalice dungeon full of obnoxious enemies. Such a microcosm of the whole game for me
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Smouldering Lake was like a place to get XP w a huge anticlimactic end. Fighting the mute was like lol OK sure what why are we doing this?
Its been awhile since I played Demonās Souls (So, I havenāt played it after DkS3). But I felt like DkS1 and 2 were only small refinements. Not large steps. And I actually prefer the faster speed of DeS. DkS3 was nice, for the increased speed, more like DeS.
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thatās funny, Smouldering Lake was one of the first things i saw scrubbing through a ds3 playthrough before picking it up, and i pretty much had that same reaction - āew, theyāre just blatantly recycling a bunch of chalice dungeon assets?ā ā¦ but in context, idk something about randomly plunging into this tight, mazey chunk of DOOM level design was kind of rad? if it were any less tucked away it probably wouldnāt have been memorable but, for me, it was one of the rare moments ds3 felt like it was doing something weird and unprecedented, not just painting by numbers.
Sure, i got a certain measure of appreciation out of it being the most dungeon crawly Souls level imaginable. It also has those big shamans that create turrets, which are fun to fight, and a cool part where you stumble upon a black knight killing some enemies. And the boss is fun and a good sendoff for big smashy demons. So, okay, itās not that bad, but i just found it a letdown after that promising start, and didnāt have a great time actually playing it.
I like the little dungeon chunk in Smouldering Lake, too, and the goal is so beautifully described in a way on Souls can get away with ā a brutally nasty keepaway gate (the ballistae) that you need to play with long enough to understand where to go.
But the dungeon is a little long, although learning the floor dropdowns helps, and I think it ends underwhelmingly ā Iād prefer the boss to be the ballistae themselves, instead of that guy locked in a room off to the side, and itās depressing to return to the Lake after youāve reached the top and see the big empty room. Itād be better if you really never went back once you saw the top.
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Iām replaying Dark Souls 2: Scholar of The First Sin edition. And Iām reminded of something which i never saw anyone talk about, anywhere. Its an addition to the SoTFS version. Not present in the original release and/or the PS360 version. I know people know about it, because its on the wikis.
Invisible Hollows. What a great addition. I remember when I first encountered one, it threw me for a small loop. Especially since I had also played the original version of the game. I at first thought I may be looking at a glitch. A simple thing, which added to the that sort of eery and mysterious atmosphere we love about these games. And subsequently a fun sort of ātreasureā hunt, which forces you to use the torch.
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