Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

(assuming you're playing online)

right, onto the high tower. nobody told me there'd be a massive fire breathing dragon!!

i am on PS4 Jordan. I don't have PS Plus, is that what you mean though?

ah no I don't think I can play online alas

Ah yeah, too bad. I love the multiplayer aspect of the game, but it's still totally worth playing through offline.

Verdict on this game so far: Infuriating, addictive, very creepy*, difficult.

Haven't worked out if this is for me yet, but I like how it keeps me in my seat. I seem to make tiny little bits of progress each time; and when it comes to an obstacle such as that boss, I feel compelled to beat him, despite my heart pounding in frustration.

It came bundled with Witcher 3 when I bought my PS4. But other than a few aesthetic similarities it seems to be quite a different thing in terms of gameplay: It's much more of a tactical action game than a story-based RPG. More in common with things like Celeste than other third person adventures,in many ways. I can see why people like to speed run it.

*Altogether I'm finding the setting and design very satisfying, if rather grim. Dank labyrinths of stone and marble, dead-eyed wraiths attacking me, NPCs intoning gnomic wisdom in detached voices. Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

I know I felt this way about Witcher 3 when I was first trudging around Velen, and was thankful for the moments of light relief, especially once I got to Novigrad and later Toussaint. DS3 strikes me as a very serious, unfriendly and unforgiving game by comparison.

There's almost no levity, ever, but what little there is comes almost exclusively from the messages left by other players (if you think things like "tongue but hole" written next to a corpse draped over a railing is funny) and the slapstick-like humor of a well-chosen gesture during cooperation or invasion. The game itself is relentlessly grim

does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

There's almost no levity, ever

fought any skeletons yet?

there's pelenty of humour sprinkled about in these games than it might seem at first, quoting myself from another souls thread

when you are lured to a shiny and fall into a cartoon death pit trap, when you come back and do get the shiny it's probably a dung pie or something

I found that bit hilarious, because it seems like the sort of troll someone would have left you in a message (treasure ahead! jump here! fake wall!) but for once it's the right thing to do.

I liked this game a lot (even if I skipped two DLC bosses, because one was too difficult and/or tedious and the game was over already. Whenever I finish Ratchet & Clank I think I'll dive into Bloodborne.

/does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

There's almost no levity, ever/

fought any skeletons yet?

there's pelenty of humour sprinkled about in these games than it might seem at first, quoting myself from another souls thread
_when you are lured to a shiny and fall into a cartoon death pit trap, when you come back and do get the shiny it's probably a dung pie or something_

press A to dunk head on wax

Yeah, one reason why I've taken an extended break from playing "Alien: Isolation" is because it was so relentlessly stressful. Having played DS1 and 3, there were more than a few places where I would feel safe, say, leaving the game on while I went to the bathroom or off to get a snack or something, without having to worry about returning to find myself dead. Sometimes that's because I killed everything, but other times it was just some place where I could chill and admire the view.

there were more than a few places where I would feel safe, say, leaving the game on while I went to the bathroom or off to get a snack or something, without having to worry about returning to find myself dead

Not recommended if you're playing online ;)

well, yeah. no online for me.

I uploaded some of the clips I'd recorded when I had a really dramatic invasion, usually one where it seems like there was no way I was going to win, and it somehow came together. If anyone's curious why I play this game in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXLS6eMcvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbJkJQQBZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcSiFP0eCQw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUofmeS28qA

And then there's this one, where the phantom was invisible the whole time, but that's the only time I've ever experienced that glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unc_Fxbh0Cg

The first one was a squeaker, but it was fun to see the moment where you go from desperate defense to offense.

Ha that was incredibly lucky, I went in there hoping the elevator was active (it wasn't), and somehow cornered the phantom instead of getting cornered myself. No idea why the host didn't attack then.

"you can't win Anakin! I have the high ground!"

Counterintuitively I think the low ground is better in this game! Fighting on stairs is usually not a good idea, but love to swipe at someone's ankles while their sword goes over your head.

yep yep

I love that there are people still working on their *serious dueling skills* in 2020, like on the level of a craft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUa4ODhw038

(I'm not interested in 1v1 duels honor duels, but most invasions eventually end up in a 1v1 situation, so the skills are similar...not the same though, if healing is involved)

Dark Souls = Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts Remake and I claim my fiver

It's nice seeing the game so active pre-Elden Ring. I've certainly played it more than other game, ever.

COVID and "holidays" have had me gaming more than normal, and I'm pleased to say that this game is easily in my top ten ever. I'm flabbergasted, I can't believe how wonderful it is

I struggled around the Dragon Peak area but then I slabbed my main weapon and put five extra levels into my vigour and suddenly the challenge/fun balance was achieved and it was just heavenly

On a whim I summoned a stranger right at the entrance to the Grand Archive and she was an A+ tour guide, we blew through the entire level in one run, she was pointing out the ladders and elevators and making sure I knew what I was doing. I didn't even ask, she just saw what things had been activated and led the way.

I ended up with some 140000 souls as a result and she kindly left the world right in front of the boss gate so I could de-fog the shortcut elevator. I had three Estus left so I went poking around a roof and ran into three flying fat knights who murdered me

And so I hired another stranger to help me with the knights and I got my souls back

At lower levels my PvP experiences were punishing, but by the time I got to Level 80 I was basically trading salvos with every invader until they ran out of Estus

I won, did the Nameless King too (with a stranger's assist), and just have the DLC to look forward to. My boyfriend likes calling them "titty slabs" and "titty chunks". I like cutting off the vendor's farewell dialogue so instead of her saying Ashen One Be Sure To Bring Me More Souls she just says "Ashen One BEESH"

I think Nameless King gave me the most trouble in this game. It even took me forever to even find a successful way to cheese it, which iirc involved equipping a crossbow and just firing away as I slowly backed up for a few minutes. This is after the dragon, which was the easy part.

Trying to remember the DLC, exactly. Ringed City? That DLC rules, but features an (extra-optional) boss that I just couldn't deal with. I think I skipped another boss in there, too, come to think of it, just because I was done and wanted to move on, and the arena was not that interesting. The other DLC is pretty great, too.

Haha YES fgti, so glad you're enjoying it. You've inspired me to put my white sign down and help out once in awhile instead of just invading. Let me know if you ever want a password-summoned sherpa!

DLC is great, that secret optional boss is one of my favorites. It's one of those that seems impossible at first, but really takes learning each one of their moves and ends up being rewarding a la Manus or Kalameet. Also becomes much harder if you summon help, because the moves become less predictable and the health pool is ridiculous. Or, of course you could look up cheese online and use poison or whatever.

If we're talking about the same one, it's got such a PIA path to fight it that I got so bored of even trying. Of course, DS2 is full of PIA paths to bosses, lol.

I'm talking about Midir, who is right down from the bonfire with no enemies in between?

I spent some of my excess souls on the armor I hadn’t been buying and I look fly all of a sudden, too

The Millwood knights are my nemeses. There is a cauldron in the mountains with two basics and a super knight and I’m basically gonna dung pie of couple of them before engaging the super. Later tonight tho. Vacation is over

xpost For Midir, don't you have to run down from a fire, take a long elevator ride, then fall down a long pit each time you want to reach the boss? I can't remember if there is an enemy in between, but even if there isn't, iirc it's a drag to do that again and again.

It's a nice opportunity to breathe and reflect on why you died. :)

(that said apparently Elden Ring will have save points before bosses, which will be pretty nice tbh)

Spoilers if anybody cares:

I had the most thrilling 20 minutes of gaming of my life this evening. I found The Dreg Heap challenging but doable, laughed as I was simultaneously impaled by 76 arrows from 76 phantom archers, dealt with the big summongiant after a couple of tries, made it to a bonfire and started poking my way forward.

I found the Ringed Knights very challenging, but by the tenth time I was murdered by one (no, two? no THREE?) executioners on a wide curving strada, I decided to ember up and summon some strangers for help. I hired one, and then another as we entered Execution Way.

What followed was insane. I didn't realize there were SIX executioners all told. And then we we had to deal with two Ringed Knights at once on a bridge. And then there was another summongiant in the middle of a lake. Piles of talking murder bugs. We approached a fallen church and were beset by THREE Ringed Knights and took them down. I was catching my breath and grabbing some loot and feeling very overwhelmed, and cast around to see where the summons were, and found them fighting an inexplicable giant armoured thing by a cliff. One stranger died and the other guided me up to a gate, and then to a bonfire. I had one heal left and the stranger was making some weird moves in front of a Humanity door that I didn't understand so I sent him home and used the bonfire and smoked two cigarettes.

I cannot imagine how a person could attempt all this solo, but I get it, this is some final challenge end game stuff, but it was so thrilling to cruise through it for the first time, having no idea what lay in store, seeing ordeal after ordeal that would've surely caused me to ragequit over and over, and yet we just handled it all. I am shaken at how good this game is

lol, that's great. I had totally forgotten about that level but looked it up and yeah, did solo it but it was hard.

Ah, memories. Way to do it blind! I did it solo too, but I've played way too much of these games I guess.

Have you looked up what the humanity thing by the bonfire is about? That's one of those secrets that I never would have figured out on my own.

I did! and I've moved on. I forgot to mention but that run I described above net me half a million souls and I levelled up six times in the 90s bracket all at once, ha. I beat the Halflight boss first try and I quick look-ahead on the cheat sheet would indicate that I'm home stretch, just a dragon and a final boss. I think I will win it tonight, spend the next week casually ranking up every covenant, murder all the NPCs, re-spec for a strength build and then do an NG+. I'm jealous of all these people with giant weapons and huge armours and want a taste. Also I enjoyed NG+ on DS1 as a kinda high-speed closing credits recap of the game, taking four hours to accomplish what previously took 40, so I'm looking forward to the same on this game. I used summons on about half my boss fights and I'd like to do some solo attempts on easy mode

Did you get Halflight (npc version), or a player summoned as Halflight? I was reaaally hoping for the latter as it's one of the coolest features of the dlc, but not a lot of people hang around waiting to get summoned as the Spear of the Church these days so it was probably the npc. :(

What weapon are you running?

(also the dragon might take some time, it's pretty summon-resistant but worthwhile imo)

I just played over my lunch break. I did get PvP Halflight but won it first try, I lucked out, I guess. Attempted dragon a few times and failed failed failed. Brought in a couple friends and won it on the fifth try.

I'm playing a very-high dexterity build with a sharp Lothric straight sword. I play two-handed with a Grass Crest on my back and I rely on my Pharis bow maybe too often with certain beasts. I have maxed sharp Sellswords on hand too in case I come up against something very fast.

I ate my lunch while waiting for Church summons. A thrilling time fighting somebody who had brought along two friends. I couldn't Estus, which I didn't understand, but I figured was the result of a spell or a Lloyd or something. I murdered the two friends, danced around the main opponent waiting for my Estus to reset, it didn't, so waited until a Painting accomplice rushed her and then went in for the kill. Beat three people in one round with no Estus, very satisfying!

sharp Lothric straight sword

Ah, a person of taste. As much as I try I keep this on every build I make, it's just too good -- the sweeping range that nearly hits behind you, the thrust, the two-handed moveset, the guard break. My main pvp character is sl44 with this in the right hand and a Great Scythe in the off-hand for range (secondary weapons are caestus for parries + perseverance with the straight sword, and a fire dagger for quick step in swampy areas).

Nice! Yeah as a boss you don't get any estus, but you do get Dark Souls 1 level poise. A lot of people bring blessed regen items and healing miracles as the church boss.

After I got handily dispatched in PvP by one, I switched over to a sharp spiked mace and I'm so happy with it. Finished NG. I don't think I can recall a better series of final bosses than there are in this game... Midir and Gael especially feel like some kind of high-water marks

One of my favourite moments in DS1 was the first time I won NG and plowed through the first half of the game in NG+ in a couple of hours. I started doing the same in DS3 and it's just amazing how small the world is compared to how it felt the first play through... how I had to carefully strategize every section, remember every enemy's location. It doesn't feel as if the ease with which I play is a product of "higher stats, better gear" so much as it is "Man Of Pus doesn't scare me any more"

Consistently the most overpowered enemy on the second play through is the evangelist. It feels like they levelled-up their spiked mace to match my own

I read up and understand now what they mean by "meta level" and I am halting my character's development at SL 128 to hopefully enjoy some PvP. I intend to keep running my high-DEX setup but will likely switch to mage-mage if my patience permits me a NG++ run

Congrats!

I actually opted out of meta-level pvp a long time ago, the damage is so high that you can die in three hits, and everyone's got everything on their builds (hornet ring, tears of denial, chaos bed vestiges, etc).

I've got a sl44±4 character that I use in the Cathedral through central irithyll, a sl66+6 for Pontiff, and a sl77+7 for Grand Archives. I've found a lot more groups actually trying to get through the levels that way, and for me it's more fun to fight a group of players who maybe aren't pvp experts than dueling one person who is (although they can be fun too). But groups at meta level who are just trying to crush invaders, I burnt out on that.

Also lower-level pvp is fun because the damage to health ratio is more forgiving. You can take a bunch of hits, make mistakes and learn from them, and also need to apply pressure instead of playing passively and waiting for that one big parry or whatever.

I def. feel like I missed out not playing online, but I don't feel like I missed too much. It almost sounds like a different game.

It kinda is! Certainly a completely different set of skills. You don't have to worry about pressuring or roll-catching the AI, or playing parry mind games.

Yeah, I was reading something about the mirror knight in DS2, where it can summon another player, and a lot of people pointed out that it summoning an NPC is not too bad, but if it succeeds in summoning a player the player could be a lot more trouble than the boss.

Same for the spear of the church in DS3, and the Old Monk in Demon's. I guess they just skipped the 'player as boss' in DS1 and BB.

I really lucked out I guess with my Halflight PvP moment. I went in solo and beat the guy solo. Since then I've "been the boss" about twenty times, each time there were 1-2 accomplices, and I've only managed to hold my ground against them.. 25% of the time?

Also you're not kidding about "meta PvP". I'm getting destroyed. Nosomuch because I can't go toe-to-toe with an invader, and more because there are clearly some tactics involved. I've had invaders suddenly backed up by one or two identically dressed helpers. Invaders making a bee-line for the most dangerous part of the area and letting a mob of enemies do the job. I've been playing Darkmoon as my covenant and I get summoned most often to late-stage DLC areas (Dregs, Ringed City) and my SL 130 character, weakened by the summon, is definitely struggling with Ringed and Haldar Knights that I would otherwise not have issues with. One Dark Spirit cleverly led us into the death from above area of Ariendel and I didn't even have time to roll away between the thunderbolts from the tower.

One particularly nasty summon found me and the Dark Spirit in the entry zone of Ringed City with the 100 phantom archers. I was able to murder the dude in a Saint Sebastian fever dream

I went back to DS3 pvp last night (Pontiff, sl65 I think) and ended up fighting the same extremely good player like 10 times. I would invade him, and if I waited a few minutes he would invade me, because literally no one else was playing this game.

I lost every time except once, and still enjoyed it more than winning in Elden Ring because the fights were long & tense, and felt more strategic than based on who had the better build with the more apocalyptic ash of war.

I seem to have a habit of giving up on Soulsborne games right at the very end:

- I got to Micolash with Bloodborne, but then Elden Ring came out
- Dark Souls 1, I completed, but I just couldn't beat Kalameet

And more recently with Dark Souls 2, I got so far but gave up on the Fume Knight. The snowfield level after him looks gruelling, so maybe I'll come back to it one day.

So I've fast-tracked to DS3, and blimey! The difference between DS2 (which I have a lot of love for) and this one is marked. You can really feel the quality jump from PS3 to PS4 - but even from Bloodborne. Amazing to think those three games came out within a two year gap from each other...

There's a real sheen to this one. Everything is silky smooth, beautifully rendered, exquisitely detailed. The inherent "jank" that made the earlier games quirkily endearing is largely gone, save for the continued insistence on keeping the NPCs as uncanny as possible.

Coming relatively late to the Soulsborne series, I'm in the unusual camp of rating DS1 the least favourably. Not that it doesn't have some incredible highlights (Sen's Fortress), but there's so much about the art and playstyle that I feel was improved in later games. I think the "coiled" interconnected world is a bit overplayed for a start: People say you can see Blighttown from Firelink Shrine, but I've never seen it?! And by the (significantly weaker) second half of the game, that whole interconnected thing gets defenestrated anyway.

There are a lot of quality of life and mechanical aspects to the game that I think got ironed-out in later games too. And that goes double for DS3, which dispenses of most of the cruel, frustrating quirks in DS1, gets rid of the ADP from DS2, introduces the FP Estus flask, has a very cool and useful hub area, and just generally makes the play experience more manageable than before.

I really like the fact there are much fewer areas than DS2's neverending buffet-style medley of shorter zones. Excpet these areas are much MUCH bigger than before. It edges the game into semi-open world territory. High Wall of Lothric has to be up there with Stormveil and Boletaria for one of my favourite level designs of all time. I can't get enough of levels like this full of branching paths, hidden rooms, hard-to-reach items, stealthy approaches that really make you think hard before you go running in - that's what I live for. And being able to stand on a tower and look around at the world, spotting areas you've visited and are yet to reach - I can't love that more!

I love that feeling of "Wait - that's clearly the critical path, but where does this tunnel lead? Will I regret going down here?" I'm currently in the Undead Settlement and this feeling is happening frequently. The slight niggle tht I need to go back and check I haven't missed something is palpable.

I'm yet to encounter any real issues with this one so far. I did hear people complaining that the story is a little convoluted and hard to follow (mind you, this is Souls - I don't think I fully understand the story of any of them).

And also that there are some elements thrown-in that read like unnecessary fan service. I kind of get that: The cut scene of the demon creatures that carry you to Undead Settlement as an explicit callback to DS1 is cute, and I did laugh. But it also left me wondering why? Like, in DS1 you've fought your way all the way up to the top of Sen's Fortress; there's seemingly nowhere left to go, but these demons show up and take you even further on to the magnificent lost city of Anor Londo. Here, you just beat a boss and they take you down to a grotty shanty town. It's not a big gripe, but it makes me wonder why they couldn't have just had the Undead Settlement joining straight onto the High Wall - there's no realy reason for this not to have happened beyond "Hey, it's me Miyazaki - I'm back and to prove it, here are these guys from the first game!"

But no, that's a very minor gripe. I'm really enjoying this one. One of the fun things about going through and playing all these games is to see how much DNA they share with the others. And DS3 feels like a "greatest hits" or victory lap of sorts. But it also has enough original stuff going on that would eventually influence parts of Elden Ring. Notice how the pilgrims in DS3 resemble the character Hornsent in Shadow of The Erdtree, for example.

Anyway: Wonderful game so far. I'm only on the second area, but already I'm very impressed.

Bloodborne to DS3 is an incredible 1-2 punch, peak From imo.

Love this, it's still my favorite in terms of the combat mechanics and just feel, and after playing hundreds of hours of pvp (which I still come back to, because it's that fun) I know most of the areas like the front of my hand. Not Undead Settlement though - I didn't do much low low level pvp, and some of the twists and turns there and in the poison swamp still confuse me.

Yeah, I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this as much as the others, but so far it's a standout, and a clear precursor to Elden Ring. Can't believe it took until this game to introduce battle arts. They also revive a bunch of things from Demon's Souls which I think worked very well and was surprised that they got rid of, like the FP Estus, weapon upgrades etc.

Interesting that they more-or-less flipped the whole hollowing mechanic on its head: Becoming "kindled" is now considered a buff and a bonus rather than the other way round where if you were hollowed it was considered a penalty. Personally I like DS2's gradual hollowing mechanic the best. I also liked DS2's ability to slowly wear down a difficult area to the point where enemies would stop spawning. Of the mechanics in DS2, I'd keep those, but perhaps they were only useful in that game.

An amusing moment. Bear in mind this was my first time walking down this path and encountering this enemy type

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYDUvAc-bY