Dark Souls series

[edify]

Having recently finished both games I thought I'd make a thread where people can discuss their own Dark Souls experiences and for people who've never played the games to ask questions.

I was a bit late to the party with the first game, picked it up at the end of last year and as a result of hitting several walls with the difficulty early game and putting it down then coming back to it, didn't finish it until about 3 weeks ago. Once I forced myself to take a cautious approach with each new area and stopped trying to rush in with the intention of getting things over and done with, I found it to be a deeply rewarding experience with each area offering intriguing lore (something I thought I'd never say about a game with a high fantasy theme) and a progressively harrowing experience that I haven't found anywhere else.

I don't know if my experience with the first game helped hone my intuition, but I found Dark Souls 2 to be a much more straight forward affair. I played it blind from start to finish and completed it in around 2 weeks of casual play. Although there are theoretically multiple paths of progression, the less challenging areas are thrown in your face and more challenging areas are either made very difficult to get to or are blocked off altogether, something the first game didn't do to such an extent.

So I've finished one playthrough of each game, arguably it gets even more difficult from here on in but after about 5 weeks of non-stop Dark Souls I've decided to take a break and play some other games. I'll undoubtedly come back to the first game though as the open world "descent into hell" gameplay was something truly exciting for me... not so sure about coming back to the second game except possibly for pvp since I never got round to joining either of those two cunty protector covenants (the Belfry one and the Rat King one) and it seems like it could be fun.

[Arnox]

I played Dark Souls and tried to like it but it left me out in the cold too much for my liking in terms of instruction and tutorials. And not just that, I played a Pyromancer but I was forced to use the same spells for way too long before I could finally get some more. There were some other things I didn't like about it I think but on the whole, I'm one of the few people who don't like Dark Souls.

I DID love the atmosphere and the lore though. Base gameplay was pretty good too.

[edify]

I played Dark Souls and tried to like it but it left me out in the cold too much for my liking in terms of instruction and tutorials. And not just that, I played a Pyromancer but I was forced to use the same spells for way too long before I could finally get some more. There were some other things I didn't like about it I think but on the whole, I'm one of the few people who don't like Dark Souls.

I DID love the atmosphere and the lore though. Base gameplay was pretty good too.

I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't get into it since dragons play a significant part in the main story and the lore is that gritty and unforgiving that even I enjoyed it with my hatred of Tolkienesque fiction.

I never used pyromancy but from what I can gather the progression is almost identical to sorcery which I did use but with the bonus that the high end stuff unlocks sooner. I believe you can get the majority of the game changing pyromancies before your a third of the way through the game. In terms of time that's a bit subjective though since I spent about 5 months trudging through the first half of the game then proceeded to cruise the second half in about a week.

It's a very utilitarian game too, once you have your moment of anagnorisis (if you ever do) you'll realise that almost anything can be used as an end game weapon with the right approach. That said, it's just a bloody hard game and it's certainly not for everybody.

[Pseudo]

I played Dark Souls and tried to like it but it left me out in the cold too much for my liking in terms of instruction and tutorials. And not just that, I played a Pyromancer but I was forced to use the same spells for way too long before I could finally get some more. There were some other things I didn't like about it I think but on the whole, I'm one of the few people who don't like Dark Souls.

I DID love the atmosphere and the lore though. Base gameplay was pretty good too.

I personally enjoyed the fact that the instructions were vague, leaving me to figure many of the things out on my own. I was worried about not having a map at first, and now I can pretty much fly through the place.
I too picked a pyromancer, only because after a friend showing me all the classes, I had decided they're not only annoying invaders (especially with the Oolacile pyromancies, dat combustion), but nearly everything is vulnerable to fire. Right before ringing the second bell is where you get a lot of pyromancies, so if you're able to make it all the way through the swamp and past Quelaag without dying, it's very rewarding to pick up all those spells and upgrading the glove. If you're some form of purist and refuse to use a guide to min/max your stats, you're in for some chop.
My roommate picked up Dark Souls 2, but I've yet to play it since I haven't finished 1 yet.

[edify]

I'm now about 3/4 of the way through my second playthrough of DS1 and I'm attempting to visit all the places and do all the stuff I missed on my first playthrough.

After talking to some of the NPC's at length and piecing together the lore I'm starting to get the idea that the player is the bad guy.

Also, there is a dragon covenant that rewards you with items that turn you into a fire breathing dragon. I thought Arnox should know this before he dismisses the game completely 

[Arnox]

Also, there is a dragon covenant that rewards you with items that turn you into a fire breathing dragon. I thought Arnox should know this before he dismisses the game completely 

Don't taunt me with such things!

[Freegamer]

i started with shadow tower.  then picked up kings field ii.  then demons souls and the rest is history.

[constantinople]

300+ hours on both games.

its uh...its pretty good. Looking forward to dropping 469.99 on Bloodborne.


Unless you've put in a lot of hours I wouldn't recommend trying to PVP. You will get rofl stomp'd. Even if you put in the hours you get rofl stompd.  Pvp dark souls 2 is like a whole nother thing.

[Evan]

Playing basically online version of psychopathy and trollism souls.