My issue with Dark Souls 2’s DLC was that it was trying to return to the longer, more sprawling level design of Dark Souls 1, which the mechanics of Dark Souls 2 just aren’t built for, instead favouring short trips between regularly placed bonfires.
I did really like that the NPC invaders in those areas significantly stepped up their game, though.
For me personally, the only Dark Souls II DLC that I like in retrospect is Crown of the Sunken King. Just liked the vibe of the place. I do like the Dark Souls and Dark Souls III DLC, though. I hope that the next and final DLC will be a worthy end to the series. Not necessarily in the sense of its narrative (though, I’d be okay with this), I just want some cool areas to cap off the series.
I just can’t stand how much poise everything has in the Dark Souls 2 DLC
Stone ring dexterity build, what’s up. Though it’s only the Sunken King enemies that have an unreasonable amount of poise; single swipes of greatswords and the like should be able to stagger the enemies in the other ones, I think.
Between a new and fresh Dark Souls thread here, and remembering Vicas has an LP (I really loved Geop’s back in 2013), I’m definitely going to return to the first game for a casual replay. There are a bunch of new steam achievements, since it’s no longer GFW when I last played, so I probably won’t put it down until I obtain most of those.
i hated scholar of the first sin. it just felt like kaizo dark souls 2 to me (and i liked 2 less than 1 to begin with).
Scholar was the version I played through, I thought it was fine except for the changes in Heide’s place making it so after you kill the dragonrider you never return again.
Scholar actually toned down quite a few of the shittier bits. It’s in my opinion fairer to the player and also more consistent in its difficulty curve. The one bit that actually got worse was the big open room in iron keep. A very large amount of the other changes actually made the game easier, though.
I just wish that dang wyvern wasn’t in Heide.
I’ve played a decent amount of 2 (specifically Scholar, haven’t played the original), and I just can’t really get into it. The level design feels very simplified from 1; Heide’s Tower of Flame in particular is literally a glorified hallway with a bunch of enemies randomly sprinkled on it. It gives me flashbacks to the latter half of 1, which isn’t a particularly good thing, lol. I’m also not a big fan of the combat in the game; I liked going for fast-paced dex builds in 1, but that’s not feasible in 2 because everything just auto-locks onto your character, making it impossible to go for backstabs and the like.
If there’s one thing I can say I like about 2, it’s that some of the visual design is really nice. I like how they went with a more surrealist approach with it, places like Majula almost feel like you’re walking through a dream world or something. The overall linear design of the world (as opposed to the sort of interconnected hub-like design of 1) also makes it feel like you’re going on a long journey, which is pretty cool.
I had a hard time in Dark Souls and it was complete suffering until I found the claymore.
I had a hard time in Dark Souls II until I was a filthy lucker and got the old knight’s shield to drop. Then I played Dark Souls II wrong and turtled through the game until I found a Gyrm Axe which I instantly fell in love with. I know, I know, it’s so outrageously heavy and unwieldy but I just could not resist the siren’s song of this stupid-looking axe and it’s clunky move set. To the point where I built up my characters strength so I could dual wield them and power stance with them and 
it was beautiful, so beautiful. I am sure you could achieve the same kind of devastation and hilarious rag doll physics with something requiring less of an obscene strength commitment but I don’t care. My character went from turtling behind her overpowered shield and poking at enemies with a flamberge to yoloing with two ridiculous looking axes. :darksouls:
If you haven’t played Dark Souls 3 yet, power stancing is gone but there are twin axes you can dual wield that also have a spin move that turns you into a Bayblade.
Sold sold sold sold sold.
Blooborne disappointed me, but that’s because I was really excited for a hunter/werewolf RPG, and they keep up the werewolf thing for the first four levels or so until they put that down to go deep into Lovecraft. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really, really good, some of the best stuff From has made, but I can’t help but be a little sad that it took a turn from something I think is really cool to something I think isn’t as cool (but was still done very well.)
While I think that for all its flaws Demon’s Souls is probably one of their best games in terms of holistic experiences, I’m pretty glad that From gradually got better at teaching people how to actually play their games. I bounced off of Demon’s Souls despite investing a lot of time in it because I didn’t grasp the upgrade system–and continued not to until someone actually told me that upgrading your equipment is a good idea. Until then I was treating it like other RPGs, where you don’t want to waste upgrades because you’ll find a better weapon in the next level.
I think a pretty big reason people felt that Souls games fail to teach their mechanics or don’t resonate with some people is is because people tend to view them as action RPGs, rather than what’s predominantly a slow- paced action game with some RPG mechanics (leveling, more of a one-way difficulty slider than anything, moreso than in other games that let you gain power over time). Of course, there’s also some convoluted stuff, like DeS upgrade system which is just inexcusable but can be more safely ignored than in other games, at least.
I’d go as far as saying that people would have a much better time with the games if they simply forgot that it’s commonly described as an action RPG and focus more on the action aspect of it. Because that’s simply what it is to me: An action game. Maybe I just played these games way too much. The first person that I noticed shared this sentiment was Hbomberguy (I think the relevant video is linked in the op).
You’re not wrong, but even later Souls games do a much better job of explaining to players their mechanics than early Souls games. Having the blacksmith right in your hub area and having the player encounter upgraded equipment early on really helps tell the player “hey, upgrading your equipment is important.”
There’s still a bit of that in other games, but consider how the first chest you find in Dark Souls 3 (is a mimic, but) has an infused weapon in it, and in the very next area, you’ll find an infused and upgraded shield. Or the way that the lack of weapons to be found in Bloodborne encourages you to focus on one in particular, and so you’re more encouraged to invest in upgrading that weapon. It helps that they did away with the complicated systems of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls in 2, 3, and Bloodborne, even if I did think the system of “evolving” your weapon was neat.
Okay this axe is really great.
I’m now married to axes. We’re pregnant. The ultrasound shows that our baby is more axes. They will be assigned axe at birth but I will still love and support them if they self identify as a rapier.
Edit: I really love this ridiculous fucking axe but I gotta admit it is not as obscene or insane as my beloved Gyrm Axe. It has reasonable stat requirements and does not require me to go off the fucking deep end to live out my zany axe dreams. How dare it not enable me.
I’m gonna be a butt here about Dark Souls 3:
I don’t like Siegward.
I don’t like how much a carbon copy of Siegmeyer he is.
I don’t like how he’s introduced rising on a platform as if to say “HEY REMEMBER THIS GUY!”.
I don’t like how the interesting parts of Yhorm’s plot is tied to his easily missed quest near the end.
The Sieg’s are cool & nice folks but I just really didn’t enjoy this weird not-Sieg coming back and having a mostly similar quest line to DS1.
Yeah, I feel if they wanted siegmeyer in the game they flat out shoulda just brought him back(He /can/ survive ds1, right?) instead of using what is essentially a clone. I hate his vague questline because aside from the first playthrough, I’ve never been able to proc him in the Yhorm fight because i always accidentally miss 1 last line of dialogue from Irithyll Manor.
Sorry for double post but I recently started a new playthrough in 3 in preparation for Ringed City(As I did with Ariandel) and am having a blast trying a weapon type I’ve never used before.
The Greataxe is absurd. Like ACTUALLY. It feels so extremely powerful and fun to use. Lots of stamina drain but at +6 and heavy infusion with the Sword Ring it’s doing 550(or close) one handed and without its weapon art. I two-hit the Pontiff Knights with it and since one staggers its basically an instakill for them, it feels nice after them destroying me every other playthrough. Only downsides are the extremely small range(But can still stagger outside its range!) and the very easy counter attacks from people.
That weapon art though, jesus. Two Handed warcry strong attack does around ~800.
Tempted to respec into a strength/mage character though, never really used magic in ds3.