Dark Souls 3

[YoshiBlade]

I'm not going to quote all of Neblix, but do yourself a favor and Spoil some of the details and read it, he's really on point....Good form Smee, Good form!  I really think that the Souls series is the portent of what modern story telling ( note: not strictly video game story telling, but story telling in general) can accomplish when the relatively new medium of art (Video Games), realizes that a game is not a book or movie, but a distinct form of art, sharing some origins with film and literature, but needing to convey the plot in other, less established ways than explicit dialogue or framed visual cues. I really think we are witnesses to the evolution of a medium of art, like in the early years of film when people thought cinema was just moving pictures under the same category of photography, but it diverged into it's own subsection of art as a whole. 

[shadow24]

The story is great because it's told in the most flexible way possible. It doesn't show long cutscenes that if we don't care about "pray" there is a skip button (I'm looking at you Metal Gear...). Heck if we don't care about the story we don't have to do anything and it won't rear it's head. Its non-interruptive and won't take us out of the game. If we do care about the story we can search and make assumptions because it stimulates gamer's creative thinking process. Because you are only given snippets of what happened that only fuels our curiosity. The story is told in an addict inducing way. We never get enough to sustain us and if it interests us we are always searching for more. Everyone wins this way except for the instant gratification crowd.

[Brandon Strader]

"I've created for you this genius work of art, this incredible painting"

 

 

 

"...but this is a blank canvas."

 

 

 

"Use your imagination and fill in the blanks; I'm interested to hear your interpretation."

 

 

 

Video game stories, ~2009 and beyond

 

But if you read the paint bottles you can get some good insight into... something.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

"I've created for you this genius work of art, this incredible painting"

 

 

 

"...but this is a blank canvas."

 

 

 

"Use your imagination and fill in the blanks; I'm interested to hear your interpretation."

 

 

 

Video game stories, ~2009 and beyond

 

While I do appreciate Neblix's well-written response, this still sums up my thoughts. Though it's less of a blank canvas and more, I've chopped it up into pieces and hid them about the house - go find them.

 

I like the best of both worlds. I prefer when I can watch the film, play the game, read the book or whatever and still get important details of the story, but it still provides enough ambiguity, symbolism etc. that you can interpret it deeper. I guess it could be said that with Dark Souls, you don't really play through the story as much as you play in it...if that makes any sense.

 

Regardless, I doubt this Dark Souls will approach its story any differently than previous entries. 

[Brandon Strader]

In the case of Destiny it's like, we've thrown the whole deck of cards at the story for our game...... but those cards are only available on bungie.net, not in the actual game

 

For anyone familiar with the Grimoire cards

[Brandon Strader]

THE PRE-ORDERING OF DARK SOULS 3 IS REAL

The sad state of this thread is  

[Bleck]

put it in my body

[Nabeel Ansari]

I'm too busy cultivating my hype in solidarity to talk about it with other people

[Brandon Strader]

To prepare for Dark Souls 3, I redownloaded Bloodborne and have been helping some of my newb friends play the game. I don't like that they're using guides and rushing through and all that. It seems cheap compared to how I played the game.But at least 1 of them is getting Dark Souls 3 with me at the midnight launch (digital) so we'll see what happens and if any of thise translates to "gitting gud"

It still took a bunch of tries to kill Ludwig in their game (DLC). Even though  I was level 166 and scaled down. Man, what a crazy ass boss. Then I shareplayed the guy later and I saw why it took so many tries HAHAHA... He dodge rolled off the map in Research Hall no less than 2 times just during the 10 minutes I shareplay watched him. And he got killed by the exploding book shelf twice

I am excited to see how my gud will need to be changed for DS3, different play style. I hate using shields though. I (f-wording) hate shields!

[Brandon Strader]

Massive improvements to Dark Souls' movement, a lot of inspiration from Bloodborne graphically and control-wise while keeping to the old controls. Things are just faster and more refined, but not as refined as Bloodborne -- that's my opinion.

I take the silence to mean that you all either embraced the darkness, or need to git gud. I'm looking for the 4th boss I think... Interesting places. Actually I may have missed a boss cause I got lost, but I found a bonfire with a couple friendlies at it along the road. 

[Esperado]

Definitely not as refined as bloodborne and the parrying is dumb and clunky compared to bloodborne. Weapon arts is not as cool as was hyped prerelease. Sortof dissapointed so far but im gonna give it a bit to see if i settle into it 

[Kat]

On the third boss right now(tutorial boss included), but taking my time and enjoying the scenery and/or jolly cooperation. Lots of things to discover. Trying out a pyromancer/melee build this time around, compared to the generic melee knight I had going on in DS1.

[k-wix]

Pretty much in love with the game, thus far. I suffered through 1, gave up about 75% through, managed to beat DS2, and only got about halfway through bloodborne.

It kinda feels like Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne had a baby. The frame-locked animation is just a bit faster and tighter, which leads to an almost fighting-game like feel. At some points, it sorta felt like i was playing a less arcade-like Soul Calibur? Everything is faster, but it still feels... paced and heavy?  It retains the feel of being a serious melee action combat game.

Another thing that I love is that the game somehow feels less cheesy to me compared to previous installments. And I'm not really talking about the controls here either, the level design is really great from a playability perspective. I'd recommend this one over ANY OTHER game in the franchise for new players.

Also, the games new mana system and 'tech' style moves for the weapons is freakin' perfect. The fact that Anyone who uses a club/hammer has access to a 'melee damage' buff for mana is brilliant. These abilities are so powerful that they add a new layer of depth to dig into for the combat.

My only real drawback so far has been the bosses. (Seen 4 so far) Coming from Bloodborne, they don't feel nearly as inspired. So visually, they are neat.. but every single entry into the series has left me more satisfied conceptually with the bosses. Also, the difficulty in general doesn't seem quite so insane for some of the bosses. Maybe its my build? weapons? Familiarity with the series? Idonno, but I remember the old bosses as being some impossible task to overcome, where as so far in #3, they just seem.. pretty hard? idonno.

Overall - arguably the best Dark Souls so far in my opinion, and one that I'd recommend to new players.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I find the game panders to me a little too much. I go "I really wish there was a bonfire coming up..." and then look at that, there it *actually* is in the next 30 seconds.

I didn't *mean it*, you twats. I played DS1 and DS2, I can handle it; don't treat me like a child. The risk and reward build-up isn't hitting me as hard as I want it to.

 

Anyways, really pleased with the game. New combat feels butter, the punishes are brutal as enemies have more difficult and faster attack patterns. I like we've returned to singular contiguous level design instead of branching paths from Majula. Really interested in the narrative here, too. Spoilers: I saw a Giant Tree near the beginning of the game, I wonder what's going on there.

[Bleck]

20 hours ago, Esperado said:

parrying is dumb and clunky compared to bloodborne.

you mean bloodborne's system where you're supposed to stand in place and shoot an enemy at completely random points in their attacks

the system where whether or not it even works on a particular enemy is something that you can only find out through trial and error, error in this case meaning basically death

the system where you use a ranged weapon to enable a parry but it only actually leads to a riposte if you do it at melee range

what a smart and streamlined system, such design, well done

[Esperado]

Im probably just an imbecile then.  It just feels like a better looking dark souls 2 and is somehow comepletely unplayable for me. I could somehow beat the hell out of bloodborne and cant make it thirty feet without getting shit on by a basic enemy in ds3. Im glad other people enjoy it though 

[Brandon Strader]

It's because your instinct is that you're gonna want to parry. I beat DS2 without ever parrying. It's really kind of stupid. I tried parrying in PVP earlier because a friend and I got invaded, and I kept parrying and the guy just kept hitting me and it didn't seem to do jack squat. Soo.... no... not too useful. And visceral attacks were cool in Bloodborne but DS is all about the back stab, which is arguably a more convoluted system than Bloodborne had. You gotta be right perfect behind the dude, hit the button and not any other button at the same time, and it has to be someone you can backstab.. not always clear which enemies that is going to be. Though obviously not dudes with big wooden planks on their backs. 

90% of battle -- combos and rolling away, the other 8% is using your shield

[Bleck]

3 hours ago, Esperado said:

Im probably just an imbecile then.  It just feels like a better looking dark souls 2 and is somehow comepletely unplayable for me. I could somehow beat the hell out of bloodborne and cant make it thirty feet without getting shit on by a basic enemy in ds3. Im glad other people enjoy it though 

[Nabeel Ansari]

I don't know dude, maybe adjust your playstyle? Try different things, if you're going for a first playthrough as a parry-maniac you're not going to have a good time. This isn't Bloodborne, it's Dark Souls. Pulling an incredibly risky maneuver like a parry isn't supposed to be easy or fluid. I don't think I've even attempted to parry once in this game. I haven't found a 100% physical shield yet, so it's not even practical to do a standard patience-and-hold-shield defensive strategy that's needed to learn the timing of the attacks to parry them. Going for backstabs and poise-breaking instead, having way more luck. 

[Esperado]

someone just reminded me that you cant stun lock people as hardcore anymore, in addition to the lack of rally. I can see how that would throw me off. That and the need to git gud  

[Nabeel Ansari]

That catacomb boss is gonna give me nightmares

[Brandon Strader]

I find pvp really funny in this game. People are as bad at it as usual, just hiding under enemies and healing, but using the Dried Finger is the funnest thing of any Souls game. Getting 4 versus 2 and having mad phantoms running around... Spamming hello carving and "call out" gesture. Clapping after every kill even though it's so unfairly stacked against them. But it's their own fault for being bad and also invading unsuspecting (or not so much) adventurers. My favorite place to do this was at smoldering lake boss door but now I can't do it anymore cause the boss died. 

 

Leave snake alive and try it

my only complaint is with the frequent crashes from using dried finger

i give the game a 5/10

It crashed so many times that  I got penalized for quitting and had to use my white circlet to get back on. You only get 1. So my time with the game might be limited. Makes me wish I got it physical so I could sell it if I do get locked out

[Brycepops]

2 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

my only complaint is with the frequent crashes from using dried finger

i give the game a 5/10

It crashed so many times that  I got penalized for quitting and had to use my white circlet to get back on. You only get 1. So my time with the game might be limited. Makes me wish I got it physical so I could sell it if I do get locked out

According to this, you can go and grab another one every 12 hours of character time. If the finger is making you crash, I would suggest you stop using it until they fix it.

[Brandon Strader]

I think I can confirm that it doesn't work, though maybe it's a fluke. I had around 10 hours into the game yesterday (Don't judge me). And a total time of around 36 hours, and I couldn't find a new circlet anywhere. Scoured every inch of the starting area. 

I didn't use the Dried Finger anymore and I didn't get any crashes, so maybe it won't be an issue, but I'd really like to use the Dried Finger. It was the best part of the game IMO.  Hopefully they either patch the finger or add a better way to get circlets. 

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I don't have this game, I'll give it a go when it's not $80, but I started playing the original Demon's Souls.

I thought I was a badass until I made it past the Phalanx boss. That's when the real game starts...