Topic: You Died. The Dark Souls Series Discussion Thread

Welp, that's Dark Souls Remastered cleared. Since parrying wasn't doing the trick, I just turtled up, increased my fire resistance, and had a fairly easy time beating the last boss that way. Ending was underwhelming, to say the least, but I enjoyed my time with the game overall.

@Ralizah Very nice. Glad to hear there was some enjoyment to be had. I’m really slow with the game (well… with most all games) so I can’t pass my own final judgement for a while. I’m spending a lot of time up front building the character for maximum ease of progression for the long haul.

It sounds like the game clicked but fell short of Elden Ring for you. So the inevitable next question for you would be: Was it a good enough experience that you will continue with the series or perhaps take that second stab at Bloodborne? I don’t think any of the others in the DS series have made their way to Switch, unless I’m mistaken and I know you said the option to play in handheld mode was a real perk for this game. So it would have to be on PS or PC. If memory serves you played Elden Ring on PC I recall.

Shame the ending was anticlimactic. I think the cryptic nature of the From games’ narratives does pull the air out of any sort of dramatic ending from a story standpoint. And the fact that these games have a parade of bombastic bosses throughout makes any final boss fight tough to distinguish itself. At least that’s what I’ve experienced in BB and DeS. Although I think the way each of those games end contains some diverging decision so as to make a couple different endings possible and that adds to some of the spectacle.

@Th3solution I think so. My plan is to eventually give Bloodborne another shot, since I own it anyway, and maybe play Dark Souls 3 at some point. Probably not for a while, since two Souls-y games in one year is a lot, but I'm much more motivated off the back off my positive experiences with these games to try out the rest of their modern catalogue. If I ever happen to snag a PS5, Demon's Souls will probably be a game I'll try out at some point, if only to appreciate the gorgeous, next-gen aesthetic. And should I happen to own hardware powerful enough to run it, I'd definitely buy an Elden Ring 2 in a few years time. I'm MUCH more open to the idea of playing their games now than I was just a year ago.

Yeah, I played Elden RIng on PC. Technically for free, since I share libraries with someone else on Steam. Interestingly, despite reports of disastrous PC performance, my rig (which still houses an ancient video card from 2015 or so) consistently ran the game at 40 - 60fps. There was some stuttering along the way, since From Software can't releasing a polished product to save their life, but it ran surprisingly well.

ER utilizes Soulsian level design for its dungeons whilst drawing heavy inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for its open world structure (down to the interactive map that let's you set waypoints), which turned out to be a brilliant design cocktail.

The world design in both ER and DS1, IMO, heavily falls off near the end, and both have really disappointing final acts, but overall, ER did a better job of engaging me and keeping me immersed throughout. And while the narrative isn't great, Elden Ring managed to have a more consistently interesting cast of characters, as well as a better hub area.

@Ralizah Hopefully hiring GRR Martin did some good, although I think the rumor on the street was he barely contributed anything except his name in the credits. But given the way Game of Thrones limped over the finish line (at least the TV show), perhaps he’s not an author to count on for a good ending anyways. I think I recall Brandon Sanderson throwing his hat in the ring to do a From Software game. Or maybe I dreamed that. He did the writing for the mobile game Infinity Blade, including a companion novel.

Bloodborne’s latter segments is well done and there’s some unique elements to how things conclude. The final boss and last narrative threads are solid, but left me wanting just a little more. And Demon’s Souls ending was even less developed and is more conventional, in a dark fantasy sort of way. Nothing bad, but also nothing particularly awe-inspiring.

I look forward to experiencing Dark Souls full journey. Hopefully will have a smidgen more free time during Thanksgiving week, if I’m lucky.

@Th3solution GRRM seems to have contributed almost nothing to the game, from the sound of it. It sounds like they essentially paid him to use his name in connection with the game and little more, which was, to be fair, probably a brilliant decision from a marketing standpoint.

I've read somewhere that he made few contributions when it came to writing the last three seasons or so of the HBO show, which has had to branch out to original territory thanks to the unfinished nature of the series. The funny thing is that he just stopped writing these books back in 2011, so it's increasingly looking like he lost interest in the series semi-permanently, much to the consternation of his fanbase.

I can't even say Dark Souls has a conventional ending. It's just... wildly underdeveloped. Like From Software got bored and totally phoned in the last story area, boss fight, and ending cinematic.

Elden Ring is a little better in that regard, but my complaint is more about the final boss itself, which is a miserable slog of a fight.

Not bored. They did probably run out of time though Ral

FromSoft only had 8 months of development for Dark Souls apparently...

The enemies in Lost Izalith for example are the back end of the zombie dragon you see in the Valley of drakes just shrunk down and copy pasted 20 times.

There's also swathes of cut content in the game too from what I understand.

There is a second ending you can get in the game and it's quite well hidden. You have to beat the 4 kings before you get the lordvessel I believe and give said lordvessel to the serpwnt Kaath in the Abyss. You'd probably find it just as underwhelming though

There's also quite a few areas you've missed from the sounds of things like The Great Hollow, Ash lake, The Painted World of Ariamis and a number of boss fights too... Not to mention the DLC (Not that I thought much of it at all personally).

Congratulations on beating Dark Souls though. Especially in such a small timeframe (How long is now according to the save time in your file? Must be in the 50's right?).

Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 have much better finale's/boss fights in my eyes (even if I'm not that big of a fan of BB overall).

Though I quite like the lore/story too which you don't seem to be as interested in judging from comments like "Whatever that Crystal Dragon was"... Poor Seath the Scaleless

So, I’ve been able to down a couple bosses today, which makes 3 total. Today it was Stray Demon and Bell Gargoyle. Died once against Gargoyle due to a gravity death fall. Died probably 5-6 times to Stray Demon, that was pretty tough until I remembered that the best tactic sometimes in Souls games is to roll toward the enemy, rather than away. So that worked out quite well to get under and behind it.

Still really loving the game. I intended to just play a couple hours and then put some time into RE4 but I ended up playing 6 straight hours of Dark Souls and finally had to go get some chores done.

I’m pretty happy with my character so far. I’ve gone heavy strength and some dex and now putting a little into stamina and faith so I can use the healing spell.

The question is, now that I’ve rang the first bell, where to go now? 🤔

@Th3solution Wow, I didn't fight Stray Demon until 40+ hours into the game! I hope you picked up that rusted iron ring in the Undead Asylum. You'll be wanting it for certain parts of the game.

@Th3solution if you go and talk to the bloke sitting by the bonfire in Firelink Shrine, I'm sure he will give you some hints where to head to next. Or he might have moved. 😂

@Ralizah Yes, I did get the rusted ring. I was wondering why it was such a hassle to get since the description of what it does isn’t all that impressive. Good to know it will be useful at some point.

@JohnnyShoulder Nah, the whiney guy is still there. He didn’t have a whole lot of direction he gave, just said he was impressed I rang the first bell and that I’ll surely die while trying to ring the second one. 🙄

But I did find my way to Capra Demon. Holy moly, he was hard! Definitely the hardest fight so far. He doesn’t have much health, but with the dogs and the tight quarters it’s pretty ridiculous. Fortunately I’m overpowered and so it didn’t take but 2-3 hits to land before he died. There was actually still a dog left after I killed him, which I know the best strategy is to clear them first, but I was just swinging and hitting whatever was in front of me when I crossed the fog gate! 😅 But it took me about 6-7 tries and I lost 6 points of humanity and 8000 souls. 😤

So I have a key now and I guess maybe that’s how I get to the next area for the next bell…? I also am confused if I’m supposed to do anything at the bridge with the red dragon. I’m ignoring it for now as it seems like I have no chance to get past him and since I’ve done a complete melee / tankish build so far I don’t have very good ranged options besides my basic bow.

@Th3solution Capra Demon fight was terrible. They took the Mario Maker route to difficulty with that one by piling a bunch of enemies in a small space and having them jump you before you even know what's happening.

In terms of the key, well, if you want a hint: check out the doors around the area with the bridge dragon.

As for the dragon itself... you don't need to kill it. Just trigger its flame attack and hide behind a wall or something for half a minute. It'll give you the opening you need.

You can also get a pretty good sword by attacking the dragon's tail. Although its not optimal for late game and relies on heavy investments in STR.

@Ralizah Sounds good. I’ve been reluctant to do a potential suicide run over the bridge because I always seem to have a reasonable stock of souls and/or humanity and don’t want to lose them. But I’ll try that after exploring around the area.

One thing that I like better about Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne is that those games usually have a “bonfire” checkpoint (archstone or lantern, respectively) that spawns at the site after killing the boss. It’s feels weird in this game to go through a tough fight and you’re still a trek away from a bonfire to use the souls and heal up.

I know a lot of players consider the map layout of Dark Souls best in class, and although I appreciate more and more the inter-connectivity of it all, I think I like the hub world concept of the other two games.

Other minor observations — I do appreciate the fact that the inventory doesn’t count against you and you can just haul around a thousand tons of equipment with no penalty. I invested in the “bottomless box” to help with organizing all my duplicates but it honestly doesn’t help that much. I’m holding on to all these extra longswords axes, helms, etc. because I thought I saw somewhere that you can eventually sell items…?

Another difference I’ve noticed is the relative lack of soapstone messages in this game compared to what I saw in BB and DeS. I’m not sure if it’s because of lower concurrent player counts or the fact that the mechanics of leaving a message are worse (having to buy the soapstone and equip it and then select it in your item slot…). There were tons more useful messages in the other From games

@Th3solution Actually, come to think of it, you're talking about the key to the depths that you get from the Capra Demon, right? nvm my last comment.

Take a right before the area where you enter to fight the Capra Demon. I believe that's how I be accessed the next area I needed to go. Got my keys mixed up.

In terms of selling items, a new NPC will show up later in the game at Firelink.

Can't speak to a lack of player messages, since, like Elden Ring, I played the game almost entirely in offline mode. The online gimmicks don't add much to these games for me.

@Ralizah Ok, yeah - that’s the key I meant. I think I missed that passage so I’ll go back there. No worries, I’m not far. Thanks! 😄

As far as messages, I kinda like the asynchronous online aspect. Every now and then this game has had a kind person’s message pointing me toward a secret or warning me of an ambush ahead, but there’s definitely been some secrets and some ambushes where there was no messages (so I’ve left a few myself to contribute to the online community) and there’s been a higher percentage of practical joke messages and deceitful ones. (Ex. “Hidden wall here” and then after banging my weapon along the entirety of the wall for several minutes I realize it must be just a ruse from some online jokester. Not to mention all the double entendres people message about “thrusting” 🙄). Usually I would expect to see a bunch of warning messages and advice messages right before a boss fog-gate and so far it’s been pretty non-existent. Every time I go through a fog-gate I need to just assume it’s a boss, I guess.

So… Dark Souls does have a rather ingenious interconnected map layout, but it’s doing my head in. I get so disoriented and confused. I’m frequently thinking things like, “Ok, I should go back to that blacksmith and upgrade. How the heck to I get there again?” Or “I’m ready to go back and fight that demon now… if I could find it again”
I think I’m going to really like having a fast travel system in Elden Ring.

@xeofate Good luck! I succumbed and summoned a random for the last fight. Think taking on and defeating The Nameless King took it all out of me and I kinda had enough by then.

Still went on to play the DLC eventually, which is highly reccomended, but couldn't defeat the final bosses from The Ringed City unfortunately.

@xeofate I saw you were wanting to tackle all the FromSoft games and I assume Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring are the only two you’ve played so far? At one per year, in 5 years time you’ll have at least one more, probably ER2, if not more. 😅

For me I’ve only completed 2 of the 7 (BB and DeS) and am maybe a third of the way through DS1. Maybe I can finish it before 2023, although it probably will spill over into January at the rate I’m going. I’d like to get to DS3 by mid 2023 and maybe ER by next fall if all goes well. I’m not sure if I’ll go for a full 7 out of 7 and hit the whole From catalogue. The two I’m considering skipping are DS2 and Sekiro. DS2 because it’s often cited as the weakest (although still apparently very good) and Sekiro because it’s often cited as the hardest. All of that is debatable though. Everyone seems to struggle with different games and bosses and enjoy and rank them in different orders. What everyone seems to agree on though is that Sekiro has the most disparate gameplay. They say you have to unlearn a lot of what the Souls games have taught you and relearn how to do all the parrying centered combat mechanics. For that reason I’m leaving it alone for now until I can clear DS1, DS3, and ER.

@xeofate Yeah I feel ya, it took an age for even me and a mate to defeat The Nameless King.

@xeofate To put text behind a spoiler, just put it between the following tags, but with square brackets [ ] instead. (spoiler) Enter text here (/spoiler)

Hope that works for you!

@xeofate I save scummed Bloodborne to get all three endings on one playthrough. It takes a little planning, but it’s fairly easy to do it in that game because the diverging decision occurs at the end and the work to get all the collectibles for the hidden ending was reasonable to save the last one until the end, as I recall. You just have to disable the auto backup save feature and reload the save from the cloud after getting each ending.