Dark Souls

SnapSlav said:
And this is any different than all the cut character storylines from Dark Souls? It's different from the alternate Bed of Chaos that would have been an actual boss instead of a gimmick that the game director himself admits was a terrible idea? it's different from all the unimplemented items and enemies and armor and weapons and locations from Dark Souls? It's a finished and polished game and Demon's Souls is clearly an unfinished and unpolished game because... why? Because you just want it to be? Because that seems to be what this all comes down to. Between the two of us, it just seems that the one who wants to hate on one of the games and not for any tangible reasons is you, not me. I like both games, but I recognize that Demon's Souls is the better title. You just seem to be taking every opportunity to fire shots at Demon's Souls, even when those very same criticisms could be levied against Dark Souls, but for some convenient reasons, they don't apply in your eyes.
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You're jumping to conclusions.

I like Demons's Souls, in the same way you like Dark Souls. In fact I'm currently playing Demons's Souls right now.

I'm not trying to say the game is shit at all, I would never say that. Demons's Souls is actually in my top ten, no make that top five games of all time.

What I am saying is that Demon's Souls isn't the flawless diamond that is perfect in every way as you are presenting it as, it has flaws as Dark Souls does.

I'm not trying to start a fight or cause some issue between the two of us, but I simply don't agree with the way you say Demon's Souls is factually superior to Dark Souls and is a flawless diamond with no issues. I can understand why you would think Demon's Souls is better than Dark Souls, but it's an opinion, not a fact.

Anyway, to get back on topic a little more, does anyone think they could repair the damage done by Dark Souls II in a theoretical Dark Souls III?At the moment I wouldn't like to see a Dark Souls III for another few years, five or six at the least, what with Dark Souls II, Dark Souls II: The Scholar of The First Sin and Bloodborne all coming out within the period of a year, the Souls series is getting to the point of oversaturation.

If there needs to be a Dark Souls III, I'd rather have it be upwards of five years away and have it kind of retcon Dark Souls II, and have it be totally removed from both games in terms of settings, no throwbacks or references or even direct stealing of Bosses, a nearly totally different world but with the same iconic Dark Souls features we've come to love.
 
AlphaPromethean said:
What I am saying is that Demon's Souls isn't the flawless diamond that is perfect in every way as you are presenting it as, it has flaws as Dark Souls does.

I'm not trying to start a fight or cause some issue between the two of us, but I simply don't agree with the way you say Demon's Souls is factually superior to Dark Souls and is a flawless diamond with no issues.
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But that's you confusing "less" with "absent". I said it had fewer gripes, not that it was flawless. My favorite RPG remains FO2, but if I were to aim for some kind of arbitrary classification that would make DeS #1 for me, it would be my #1 Console JRPG. Hands down. But as you can see, it necessitated certain additional tags to narrow the field for me to place it at a #1. Absent of any of those narrowing fields would make obvious that the game has issues. Like I've said many a time, Dark Souls improved upon the UI and controls for the most part, which insinuates that the UI and controls of Demon's Souls are inherently in possession of flaws.

But if the ONLY qualifiers used were "Souls series", DeS would top DkS for me. I never said it was an absolute fact, because I highlighted (again, repeatedly) that several of the preferences (operative word) were the result of "one man's meat, another man's poison." That's me blatantly underlining that it's a matter of taste. But I HAVE stated that CERTAIN things were objectively better. Like False King > Lord of Cinder. The entrance was just much more dramatic. The setting was just more epic. The actual fight itself was simply much more challenging. I argued that, based on the evidence I provided, that particular thing was objectively assessable. Among other things. But just as my point of "less is not the same as absent", saying it had objectively assessable heads ups over its spiritual successor is not the same as saying the entirely of the whole game is objectively, factually superior.

But as for "not starting a fight", I wouldn't see a problem with it, even if you had been. To me, all conflicts are a good thing, just like all criticism is a good thing. Conflicts beget resolution, and without one you cannot have the other. It just requires all parties involved to understand these matters. That it's not simply saying things for the sake of upsetting, but saying things for the sake of achieving something greater.
 
You found Old King Allant to be harder than Gwyn, Lord of Cinder?

Huh.

I beat Allant on my first try in my first playthrough of Demon's Souls, his attacks were very predictable and he had lots of pauses to allow you to regen your stamina and make some breathing room between the two of you (This was with Fluted Armor, Longsword +8 and a kite shield, just so you don't think I was playing some OP greatsword build.), Gwyn provides you with no such opportunities and will tirelessly attack and pursue you until you are dead, there's no breathing room save for the volcanic pillars in the arena, which even then only provide rudimentary protection.

I will agree that Allant had a more exciting and "epic" setup, looking over all of Boletaria from the Mountain Palace and fighting Allant was very cool, but I preferred Gwyn's more melancholy and (arguably) more challenging fight (Assuming you don't exploit him by parrying, which was about as fair as killing the first maneater with a bow outside the fog gate.)
 
For cut contents, I think Darksoul suffered a lot form them.
two stages lost it's function and some npcs lost it's function too.
while stage itself is awesome, the meothod to enter Painted world is non-sense.
there's no reason to go back to prison and take a doll from chosen undead's cell which wasn't there at escaping. and there is not much reason (for plot ) to enter there.

and for Ash lake, why this place exist? there's only one event occurs.
I know it's the place to show world without fire is like but there's nothing we can do in there. oooh.. we can join dragon covenant which allow player to transfor into dragon.
but WTF is dragon anyway? I really can't understand WTF is dragon since there aren't much description about dragons in Darksoul.

For gaping dragon and the Everlasting dragon, for gaping dragon, I don't think it's original dragon. the game says it's distant descendant of the Everlasting Dragons, not Everlasting dragon itselves.

and for the Everlasting dragon in Ash lake, Zena says
"Hmm... You are a fine trading partner. Rumour it may be, but I have heard of a surviving ancient dragon who resides in this land. A coterie of Undead serves the dragon, as they train to become dragons themselves. Sounds unlikely, but you never know, do you?"
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this makes me think it's not original dragon but artificial dragon.

Maybe one thing that makes me think Demon's soul's world and plot feel better than Darksoul is similarity between two games. too many things are similar.
Ostrava-> Oscar(both uses knight's armor and magical sheld and sword, Satsuki->Shiva(came from Orient and seeking magic sword), Biorr-> Tarkus(has armor which has strong fire resistance), Yurt-> Lautrec(uses shotel and assasinates npcs), etc.
maybe they are just hommages but feel like Darksoul is kind of copy of Demon's soul.

I don't know how tough Allant is, since I haven't played Demon's soul but just watching.
but Gwyin is hard for some people and easy as pie for some people.
if you summon Solare or good at parrying, he's easy as pie.
but if you can't summon Solare and poor at parrying, he's quite hard boss because he doesn't give enough time for player to heal.
 
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Ash Lake and The Painted World are supposed to be hidden areas, they're secret rewards for people who thoroughly explore the world.

Dragons in the Dark Souls world have lots of classifications and can get a little confusing.

So, you have the Ancient Dragons, they have Stone scales and whilst they have those scales they are totally immortal and closer to a Mountain than they are an actual living thing. They ruled the world in the Greylands before the First Flame. Gwyn and the other Lords rose up against the Dragons, Gwyn's lightning bolts peeled off their stone scales, which were the source of their immortality, then Nito unleashed plague and decay on their open wounds and the Witches of Izalith burned down the strongholds of the Dragons.

All the original Ancient Dragons are dead, except (possibly) the one in Ash Lake.

It seems that the Ancient Dragons had the capability to breed, possibly just a useless biological function like the Apendix in Humans or maybe a backup organ since they are mortal when their scales are removed, and would need to reproduce to survive.

Drakes and the like (Possibly the Ash Lake Dragon too) are the results of generations of Dragon breeding, and are "imperfect" as a result, they're essentially the Dragon versions of mutant inbreeds. The Gaping Dragon was of this type, but it's body was obviously also twisted by it's hunger and all the sewerage it had been consuming. Un/fortunately, they are the only remnants left of the Ancient Dragons.

I'm not sure how you find Ostrava to be better than Oscar,I found him to be very irritating as a character, he was naive, helpless and demanding, I suppose that was the point of his character but I preferred the somber stoicism of Oscar, and I found his role in the story was infinitely more important than Ostrava.

Lautrec and Yurt is a bit of a tough one for me.

On one hand, Yurt was a lot less obvious in his intentions and his deception had more serious consequences. On the other hand Yurt was simply an Evil Guy with Evil Motives that does Evil Things for Evil Reasons, not much complexity other than him being villainous. Whereas Lautrec has a very odd and tragic backstory and motives in that he is maddeningly in love with the Goddess of Favor and is willing to do any matter of degeneracy to appease her, whether or not he has any actual communication of the Goddess is unknown and ultimately irrelevant: He is obsessed and willing to do anything. He also sports the idea that he's just trying to survive and prevent hollowing, and his motivations and actions push the question of whether we would do the same as him in his position, kill innocent people and pillage their Humanity and Souls, to stop ourselves from Hollowing.
 
I didn't say Ostrava is better than Oscar.
I just said Ostrava remind me of Oscar thanks to his equipment and possibly his goal: ringing bell and meeting or defeating Allant are goal for player too.
 
My mistake then.

Yeah, it's no secret that there were character carry overs, but they did that to reaffirm it's position as a "spiritual successor" and to welcome audiences from other platforms (since DeS was exclusive and DaS wasn't.)


As to why they recreated the same characters again in Dark Souls II.... well, that's just From Software's B-Team trying to desperately make a good souls game.
 
Both Ash Lake and The Painted World happen to be two of my favorite places in the whole game. At first because they looked amazing and were fun to explore, but more so when I picked up on the lore connected to them. And that's exactly how lore and story work in Dark Souls. Complaining that bits of it are unnecessary and badly designed because they contain no story and offer "nothing to do" really makes me scratch my head. The game is about exploration. It's not about completing level after level by defeating the area boss and getting further in the story. Yes, at a glance that's how you play the game. But it has so much more content and so much more to do. Hell, I love the combat system and the challenging bosses, but what really stuck with me is finding and exploring all these amazing places and then discovering how they fit in with the world and its characters.

Ash Lake may not offer a boss, well except for the hydra mini-boss, but it offers a pretty popular covenant. It also offers a glimpse of the world before the age of fire, which to me is HUGE in terms of lore. And this is after hearing mention of a surviving actual dragon that trains undead to become dragons, and after decending that pain-in-the-ass hollow tree. Pretty good of a reward if you ask me.

The Painted World is a place where the gods hid things they were ashamed of and things better left untouched. It offers so much more depth to the land we're exploring. Priscilla is maybe one of the most depressing and yet intriguing parts of the entire story of Lordran. She's not just another boss at the end of a level for you to kill and be done with.

And this is largely what Dark Souls 2 is missing. It went back to a much more strict level-by-level, boss-by-boss design with little depth and sense of exploration and mystique. I still love the game and don't consider it as badly handled as most seem to do, but maybe that's why I didn't expect it to be this completely new beast without trying to live up to the Dark Souls name. It was bound to contain loads of fan service. I still think they made an interesting story with bits and pieces to put together, and enough left unanswered to allow for speculation. But it's pretty generic and dull in the end. In Dark Souls I didn't feel like anything was there without reason. Well, maybe at first playthrough. But I'm still fascinated by how every little thing has a reason for being there. In Dark Souls 2 a majority of the areas, bosses and enemies didn't make me feel that way at all, but rather gave me the impression that they wanted something cool so they threw that in. The games area design by the core seems to follow this pattern. "So yeah, we need a lava level, we need a toxic level, we need a dark level with wooden plank shacks that you descend into..." and so on. Story/reasons tacked on later. I'm aware that's probably how a lot of Dark Souls 1 was built as well, but it's evident that there's way more thought and care put into it and every little part of it is turned into something meaningful that makes you think that it's supposed to be there.
 
Ok so I am having a huge issue. I was playing the game like normal, it suddenly crashed when I alt exited it. Pretty normal there, I relaunched the game but now it keeps crashing on start up, I already verified local content integrity and even opted out and in of the beta to make sure, still won't launch.
 
Well I just reinstalled DSfix and that solved it, In any case now I have a new problem, input lag, and I am not even playing online. I notice a very obvious delay between pressing buttons and the action taking place, like even just running it will take a full second for the character to even start running and the same with stopping.... I guess this game just doesn't like me....
 
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