Dark Souls Remastered

[Ry]

Slowly getting there. Finished Anor Londo and onto the Tomb of the Giants which is bar far the most annoying part so far. 

 

Fuck the bonfires in this game. 

[Ry]

Jesus Christ, that Tomb of the Giants is the most bullshit section I have ever experienced in a game. The bonfire being an absolute mile from the boss and the very difficult treck to get to the boss nearly had me giving up. Still I managed to get through it and beat the big lord dude. 

 

Now at the Dukes Castle and working through. 

 

I'm enjoying the game but it's no masterpiece like some make out. There are so many stupid design decisions that I'm surprised it gets the love it gets. 

[Davros sock drawer]

It’s a game of two halves. First half is where I think most of its reputation comes from. For me it was enough to cement it as an all time classic. But the second half of the game has much bullshit, the worst of which you’ve yet to see btw.

 

Duke’s Archives is a great area though.

[squirtle]

1 hour ago, Ry said:

Jesus Christ, that Tomb of the Giants is the most bullshit section I have ever experienced in a game. The bonfire being an absolute mile from the boss and the very difficult treck to get to the boss nearly had me giving up. Still I managed to get through it and beat the big lord dude. 

 

Now at the Dukes Castle and working through. 

 

I'm enjoying the game but it's no masterpiece like some make out. There are so many stupid design decisions that I'm surprised it gets the love it gets. 

When you know it, you can just leg it past most stuff. Oh, and double hand a massive sword and roll out of everything. 

[Sane]

2 hours ago, Ry said:

Jesus Christ, that Tomb of the Giants is the most bullshit section I have ever experienced in a game. The bonfire being an absolute mile from the boss and the very difficult treck to get to the boss nearly had me giving up. Still I managed to get through it and beat the big lord dude. 

 

Now at the Dukes Castle and working through. 

 

I'm enjoying the game but it's no masterpiece like some make out. There are so many stupid design decisions that I'm surprised it gets the love it gets. 

You know what's really hilarious? Managing against the odds to get down there earlier in the game. Without the Lord vessel you are greeted by an orange sealed door. And then, you have to go back up... 

[Ry]

9 hours ago, Sane said:

You know what's really hilarious? Managing against the odds to get down there earlier in the game. Without the Lord vessel you are greeted by an orange sealed door. And then, you have to go back up... 

 

That would have been quitting time for me. 🤣

[Uncle Nasty]

14 hours ago, Ry said:

Jesus Christ, that Tomb of the Giants is the most bullshit section I have ever experienced in a game. The bonfire being an absolute mile from the boss and the very difficult treck to get to the boss nearly had me giving up. Still I managed to get through it and beat the big lord dude.

 

If something is too difficult or unfair in this game it's usually trying to tell you something.

 

In this case, you've missed a plotline/quest item which makes Tomb of the Giants a lot easier. It's obscure as fuck and I couldn't have figured it out myself, but it is there.

 

Spoiler

https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Sunlight_Maggot

 

The Sunlight Maggot emanates light when worn as a helmet, making it useful for exploring dark areas such as the Tomb of the Giants.

 

[Calashnikov]

I wouldn’t say I “figured that out for myself”, but I did follow that lad’s quest line all the way through because why wouldn’t you, and ended up reaping the benefits by the time I got to Tha Tombz 😎 That it all paid off in there was an unexpected bonus. I didn’t really even appreciate at the time going through the place that it was such a massive help.

[Calashnikov]

Reading that wiki, I didn’t realise it was possible to prevent…

 

Spoiler

… Solaire from sticking his head up its arse and going tonto. Wow. I thought that was just the tragic end to his tale.

 

[merrychan]

10 minutes ago, Calashnikov said:

Reading that wiki, I didn’t realise it was possible to prevent…

 

  Reveal hidden contents

… Solaire from sticking his head up its arse and going tonto. Wow. I thought that was just the tragic end to his tale.

 

Yeah and sufficiently obscure too

[Ry]

1 hour ago, Uncle Nasty said:

 

If something is too difficult or unfair in this game it's usually trying to tell you something.

 

In this case, you've missed a plotline/quest item which makes Tomb of the Giants a lot easier. It's obscure as fuck and I couldn't have figured it out myself, but it is there.

 

  Hide contents

https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Sunlight_Maggot

 

The Sunlight Maggot emanates light when worn as a helmet, making it useful for exploring dark areas such as the Tomb of the Giants.

 

I didn't miss that.plus I was kind kicked down a hole by a dude and got two lanterns. It being dark wasn't the biggest issue. 

 

It's the level design that bothers me most. 

 

Just beat the big dragon under dukes archives and making my way through the big lava section. But I ha e been everywhere and don't have a clue what to do next. 

 

I've to kill a bunch of big bosses. Killed two so far. 

 

 

 

 

[Ry]

And finished. 

 

Good stuff. 

[Nick R]

@Ry

 

Quote

Posted 3 hours ago

 

I've to kill a bunch of big bosses. Killed two so far. 

 

Quote

Posted 8 minutes ago

 

You did Bed of Chaos, Four Kings, and Gwyn in three hours?

 

I think the time between those posts was about how long I spent trying to beat Gwyn alone.

 

[simms]

PC version back online exploits forced From to deactivate the online mode

 

Only took them a few hundred years to sort ..praise the sun ☀️

 

 

[Popo]

Damn. It took me fewer attempts to beat Gwyn than it took From to take down this hacker. 

[Kirby]

Seeing this bumped reminds me I need to get back and complete this on switch. I absolutely loved it. Was funny playing through Blight Town which had a reputation for low frame rates etc and finding it smooth as butter.

 

I can see how awful it would have been with performance issues though.

[danbot]

I played Dark Souls unpatched on 360 for at least a couple of runs. I never found the Blight Town frame rate much of a problem. 

The point where you kick the ladder down in New Londo Ruins actually sees frames stop for a moment, but even that just became part of playing to me. Stop, wait, carry on.  😆

[merrychan]

I didn't know this but Remastered allows passwords which gets rid of the level +-10 percent ish matching and I had a great time helping a friend on their first playthrough with my pretty much end of NG level 100 Cleric Knight.

I think I'll be staying here for a while so if anyone wants to do any password games on Switch I can warp to where you are, just bare in mind it'll be a mix of me cutting through things like butter and Leeroy Jenkins-ing my way to insta death

[Nick R]

New video by Illusory Wall on the multiplayer mechanics of the Gravelord Servant Covenant.

 

A really interesting breakdown of how one of the game's most ridiculously obscure systems works!

 

 

 

If you're not interested in watching an hour-long video on this subject, you should know that the section from about 9:00 to 29:00 is mainly a long list of the positions of all the additional phantom enemies, so you can safely skip those 20 mins.

[anewman]

I just completed this a few days ago. I picked it up for the first time after beating Elden Ring (which took me 180 hours in total, and I really loved like 90% of it, and hated 10% of it, but loved it more when I got through the 10% bits, although I still feel like I cheesed it in the later stages with a +10 mimic tear).

 

It took me 60 hours to beat DS remastered. I found the bosses much easier than in Elden Ring. I got a Dark Knight sword quite early, and used that pretty much throughout the game.

 

I loved it. It's a masterpiece and I loved the second half too. I think I just get absorbed in the grind.

 

Also it just seems so influenced by Zelda to me. Maybe that's obvious or not very surprising.

 

Anyway I just wanted to say that. I'm playing DS3 now, only a few hours in. It feels great and looks lovely on Xbox Series S.

[Sane]

11 hours ago, anewman said:

I just completed this a few days ago. I picked it up for the first time after beating Elden Ring (which took me 180 hours in total, and I really loved like 90% of it, and hated 10% of it, but loved it more when I got through the 10% bits, although I still feel like I cheesed it in the later stages with a +10 mimic tear).

 

It took me 60 hours to beat DS remastered. I found the bosses much easier than in Elden Ring. I got a Dark Knight sword quite early, and used that pretty much throughout the game.

 

I loved it. It's a masterpiece and I loved the second half too. I think I just get absorbed in the grind.

 

Also it just seems so influenced by Zelda to me. Maybe that's obvious or not very surprising.

 

Anyway I just wanted to say that. I'm playing DS3 now, only a few hours in. It feels great and looks lovely on Xbox Series S.

Don't forget to play the second game, it has it's peculiarities but it's far from a bad game. 

[Anne Summers]

22 hours ago, anewman said:

I just completed this a few days ago. I picked it up for the first time after beating Elden Ring (which took me 180 hours in total, and I really loved like 90% of it, and hated 10% of it, but loved it more when I got through the 10% bits, although I still feel like I cheesed it in the later stages with a +10 mimic tear).

 

It took me 60 hours to beat DS remastered. I found the bosses much easier than in Elden Ring. I got a Dark Knight sword quite early, and used that pretty much throughout the game.

 

I loved it. It's a masterpiece and I loved the second half too. I think I just get absorbed in the grind.

 

Also it just seems so influenced by Zelda to me. Maybe that's obvious or not very surprising.

 

Anyway I just wanted to say that. I'm playing DS3 now, only a few hours in. It feels great and looks lovely on Xbox Series S.

 

Yeah, why did you skip two? Sure some people hate it so it occasionally gets slated online but they are bad, wrong people. It's basically different in a couple of ways that don't really matter, more of the same in lots more important ways, and has one of the best settings to explore. I prefer it to 3 to be honest (and 3 is still in my top 10 games of all time ever). 

[jonny_rat]

Counterpoint from a former DS2 apologist after a fairly recent replay:

 

• It can be great fun in parts and very interesting but it should be the last one you play, unless you have a surfeit of time on your hands.
• You might have fun with it, and a lot of people did - I was one of them! But long stretches of the game are just very dull, very brown, very odd, very ugly.
• Skipping it is also fair and correct. It is a slog.
• The best way to play it - in technical terms - means that you're playing the Scholar remix, which should have been left as optional changes. They make the game worse for a first timer, and even more of a slog.
• All the interesting stuff in it has been done better since. It's a fascinating museum piece though.
• The combat mechanics are a bit of a mess in it unfortunately which is a kiss of death of a souls game with other issues.
• There are a few things/bits in it I adore. I don't think I'd advise anyone to put themselves through the rest of it to experience those in 2023 however.
• Oh, one other thing - it's littered with areas that were designed with multiplayer (co-op and or invasions) in mind. Super interesting idea but a few of them fell a bit flat even on release, and they're obviously not populated these days if you try to do that stuff.

[anewman]

I just jumped to 3 because I heard it was great. I had DS: Remastered already so that seemed like a natural next one after Elden Ring, and I just started it and got hooked. If I ever have time I'll play DS2. I also downloaded and tried Sekiro (felt great, with the parrying - much more satisfying than DS parrying - but I just want to play DS at the moment).

 

Also I don't have the time to fit more than one big game in before Tears of the Kingdom 😎

 

Anyway I defeated the Boreal knight boss thing last night. On my 4th or 5th go. I had the moves down and he didn't hit me once in the fight in which I beat him. Very satisfying.

 

I always thought these games were just too difficult for me to enjoy them, but at least for Elden Ring and Dark Souls they are not really difficult in the sense that you can't beat them, they just require you to grind, which I sort of get hooked on.

 

I've used the internet a lot for guides and tips, and I think it would feel quite different to play them without access to that (and probably much more satisfying to discover stuff yourself), but again, I don't have the time to do that.

 

 

[Benny]

I think this is how I would rank all the From Soulslikes these days, with a "current" lense, not just taking nostalgia into account:

 

Elden Ring

Bloodborne

Dark Souls 3

Sekiro

Dark Souls

Demon's Souls

Dark Souls 2

 

If you take all of their DLC into account though it's more like:

 

Bloodborne

Dark Souls 3

Elden Ring 

Dark Souls

Sekiro

Dark Souls 2

Demon's Souls 

 

Souls.

[Anne Summers]

31 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

Counterpoint from a former DS2 apologist after a fairly recent replay:

 

• It can be great fun in parts and very interesting but it should be the last one you play, unless you have a surfeit of time on your hands.
• You might have fun with it, and a lot of people did - I was one of them! But long stretches of the game are just very dull, very brown, very odd, very ugly.
• Skipping it is also fair and correct. It is a slog.
• The best way to play it - in technical terms - means that you're playing the Scholar remix, which should have been left as optional changes. They make the game worse for a first timer, and even more of a slog.
• All the interesting stuff in it has been done better since. It's a fascinating museum piece though.
• The combat mechanics are a bit of a mess in it unfortunately which is a kiss of death of a souls game with other issues.
• There are a few things/bits in it I adore. I don't think I'd advise anyone to put themselves through the rest of it to experience those in 2023 however.
• Oh, one other thing - it's littered with areas that were designed with multiplayer (co-op and or invasions) in mind. Super interesting idea but a few of them fell a bit flat even on release, and they're obviously not populated these days if you try to do that stuff.

I disagree with most of this! But each to their own. 

Specifically thought, which parts do you think are very dull, brown, odd and ugly? I know the whole map pretty well and I would only say that parts of Brightstone Cove Tseldora fit that description, where there are certainly some very brown sections with odd textures. It also suffers in 23 from being the only game that isn't native or remastered on a PS4-gen console. But if you can handle the aesthetics in Lost Izalith or Tomb Of The Giants you're probably going to be alright in most of Drangleic. 

[Benny]

I played Dark Souls 2 on PC on release and it had the benefit of being a genuinely smooth 60fps and very sharp, which despite the sightly janky combat on its own made a huge difference to playability, even compared to Dark Souls on PC with the DSFix mod.

 

It's undoubtedly the weakest in the series, but it's absolutely huge and I loved it anyway.

[Anne Summers]

My list would go:

 

Elden Ring

DS1

BB

DS2

DS3

Sekiro

 

Says a lot that Sekiro is still one of my favourite games of all time. I only rate it lower than the others because it's much more simplistic than the others having all the magic, miracles, weapons, armour etc stripped out. Makes it a much more streamlined action game and I'm totally glad they experimented with this style but it's not quite such a complete package as the others, in my opinion. 

 

 

 

[Anne Summers]

8 minutes ago, Benny said:

I played Dark Souls 2 on PC on release and it had the benefit of being a genuinely smooth 60fps and very sharp, which despite the sightly janky combat on its own made a huge difference to playability, even compared to Dark Souls on PC with the DSFix mod.

 

It's undoubtedly the weakest in the series, but it's absolutely huge and I loved it anyway.

I think what makes 3 slightly lower on my list is that it's a bit too much of a slickened-up version of DS1, that just basically tried to take everything that made 1 great and improve on it. Whereas 2 tried to do something new.

 

Just realised I forgot Demons Souls from my list. Which I would place at the bottom. It's still a fantastic game in every respect but it's just quite a bit shorter and more limited in terms of the play styles it offers. I came to it late though and fully realise that if it had been my first experience of  Soulsborne gaming it probably would be higher on my list. 

[FalconGR]

I think the most interesting thing about DS2 is how much of it seems to have served as the prototype for Elden Ring. I enjoyed my play through but it has some of the same flaws - especially far too many bosses. 
 

My personal list would currently be:

 

1. Bloodborne 

2. Dark Souls

3. Elden Ring

4. Dark Souls 3

5. Dark Souls 2

6. Demon’s Souls

7. Sekiro

 

I go back and forth on the top two but increasing think Bloodborne is the best one.

 

I have to say the last few From games feel to me like they have been leaning into aspects of their games I don’t enjoy so much - boss fights, scale, a get gud mentality (Sekiro especially). I always think the appeal of From games is more in the exploration of the environments and how cohesive they are. I can take or leave boss fights, it’s the difficulty in fighting normal enemies that for me is the key - the slow pace and need for repeated play throughs forces you to explore areas and you are richly rewarded for doing so with the remarkable interconnected levels. One criticism of ER I had is it encourages you to just run past things, and the world is less intricate as a result.