Dark Souls

Dark Souls II isn't a bad game, really.

In fact it's one of the better games to come out of 2014.

But, the reason I have expressed distaste for it is that it was a major disappointment and a huge step down in every aspect from Dark Souls.

It lacked some of the things that made Dark Souls one of my favorite games, and jumping into it for the first time immediately after finishing Dark Souls left a bad taste in my mouth.
Well, barring the context for knowing the details, because I don't yet have the experience with DkS2 yet, that's exactly how I felt about Dark Souls compared to Demon's Souls. Some nifty improvements here and there, but overall I preferred the predecessor title much more over its spiritual successor. In fact, while I got a lot of fun out of Dark Souls, I felt a huge desire to replay Demon's Souls thanks to it, and that simply gave me MORE awesome times to be had. =)

Granted, it's just not the same when the game's not in its heyday, because the online component is a HUGE aspect of its design. Even still, the atmosphere and gameplay was still a delight.

So, assuming the trend is the same, it's basically that each new title is "good, but increasingly watered down".
 
Good videos I watched on that very subject:




Ah yes, MatthewMatosis's excellent critique, which everyone seems to think is a review....

Really it summed up all my issues with Dark Souls II.
 
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Mathewmatosis is cool, very much a better change if peace to the usual screaming monkey branch of "reviews" that have gotten so popular thanks to the Nostalgia critic.
 
They all fall by the wayside next to wittiness juggernauts like Zero Punctuation and The Jimquisition. When Yahtzee and Jim Sterling collaborated on mutual efforts, that was a golden age. But now no more. =(
 
Never liked Zero punctuation, more emohasis on making quick jokes than any insightful critique.
When I want the former I just watch Alchestbreach or Game grumps.
 
Not at all. His old stuff focused heavily on critiquing the games critically and the humor came from his style. Over the years now that his style is more well-known he goes for metaphors and jokes but he usually spends an ample amount of time highlighting important details about the games just like always. In fact, the only game where he never really spent much time going into detail and spent the majority of the video making jokes was for the previous Wolfenstein game, and that was because he opened the video with his feeling that the game was simply bland and mediocre, and he focused on that point for several minutes before he broke out into limerick.

I even used to hate his reviews, particularly because I played both the game AND demo of Darkness and I never ran into the same frustrations he expressed in his very first video regarding the Demo for that game, so I initially felt like much of his qualms were based on rushed playthroughs and lack of gaming capacity, but he's been much more critical and intelligent about games overall. I probably started to appreciate him more when he reviewed Bioshock because he recognized that people liked him when he didn't praise a game so he got the praise for BS out of the way then spent the rest of the video railing on it, and he was right the whole way. So now I see his videos on games I haven't played I and go by his recommendation on whether I should bother with it, and I use his reviews of games I have played to check how accurate he still is, and he's still got it.
 
Good youtube reviewers:
MathewMatosis
Instig8iveJournalism
Smudboy (story critique only)
Shamus Young (defunct channel)
SuperBunnyHop
MrBtongue
Sequelitis
ActionPoints

Humor:
Fitzthistlewits
MechaGameZilla
Flimsii
JonTron
 
I'm ashamed by the lack of SuperBestFriends in this thread.

Anyway, back on topic....

I'm planning to do a "canon" run of Dark Souls 1 before Scholar of the Sin releases.

I'll be talking to all the NPCs and fufilling as many side quests as possible and will be going with the "default build" (Elite Knight, Crest Shield and Astora Straight Sword.)which is basically an Oscar of Astora build.

I'm wondering how viable the Astora Straight Sword is and whether I should swap it out with the Longsword.

I've got no idea how to make a Straight Sword build, either.
 
In my experience the Astora Straight Sword is great at the beginning, but is very much something you replace mid-game. But then again this is Dark Souls. People play with level 1 characters with tiny wooden clubs. Just make a build that maximizes it's damage and give you all the stamina and hp you need, I guess.
 
Like I keep saying, some of the most fun to be had in this game is with one of the "challenge" builds. You'd think staying SL1 is a challenge, until you get halfway through it and you realize Pyromancy's just broken. But going the extra mile and severely limiting yourself makes for a really fun challenge. That said, what limits a Straight Sword build isn't the move set, as I feel Straight Swords have GREAT closed-quarters attacks, but as always oversized Lightning weapons just outshine anything else. So if you want to make an "Oscar build", go for it. Probably keep the sword Standard upgrade, and you'll be hurting for damage and defense but you'll do fairly well, so long as you're at least competent at the game. =)
 
I think I might swap the ASS out for the Longsword, purely for the fact that it's a better sword and I won't be plinking off of the armor of Artorias for about six hours.

I asked a friend who plays a lot of Dark Souls,and apparently on his Oscar build he was doing around 40-50 damage on the Royal Sentinels in Anor Londo.

So yeah, I'm gonna go with the Dragon Crest Shield and Longsword, still very much "canon" and default, but distinct enough so it's not weirdly identical to Oscar of Astora.

Thanks for the advice though.
 
I just finished newgame+6 which is hardest difficulty with my good old longsword, old knight armor set and Sunbro.
now I'm done with DS1 :V.

Since I'm done with DS1, I'll try either DS2 or Demon's soul but DS2 looks horrible to me.
While watching some playthrough of Demon's soul, it looks better than DS1 with better atmosphere, plot, lore and better stage design.
furthermore, I feel like DS1 is actually kind of remake of self copy of Demon's soul for some aspect.
and while nothing is clearly explained in Darksoul, most things are explained and make sense in Demon's soul.


Talking about ASS, I heard Oscar uses +8 ASS which is impossible for player.
but sadly, even with +8, it can't bearly hurt me.
 
Nope, it goes up to NG+8, that's where it maxes out. So you're not "done" unless you're just sick of replaying the game over and over again. =P

But yes, if you haven't played Demon's Souls, you MUST pick that one up and try it. It's the best in the series, in my honest opinion.
 
I don't think so, experiences I gain didn't changed at NG+7.
beside, difficulty itself didn't changed much after NG+2.

Too bad that Demon's soul is PS3 exclusive...
 
I just got the Prepare to Die edition on steam and I am having a problem.... It just crashes on start up, I already tried all they recommended online and the stupid thing just doesn't want to start, already installed a new version of the GFWL client, changed them to compatibility mode to service pack 3 and ran it as administrator and nothing. Would anybody know what to do?
 
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