Dark Souls

[Scruffington]

I know this is nearly a 2 year old bump, but it was the most active thread I could find.

Finally playing through Dark Souls. I have to say...it's quickly becoming one of my favorite games. Everything from the deep gameplay mechanics to the incredible level design make this game really special.

Now if only I can beat Ornstein & Smough, I'll be able to appreciate more of it.

[Spuuky]

It's an incredible game. And despite what the kids say, Bloodborne is simply not as good.

[Scruffington]

It's an incredible game. And despite what the kids say, Bloodborne is simply not as good.

I actually played Bloodborne before I played Dark Souls, and I really liked it. I didn't beat it, but I'm incredibly excited to get back into that world.

[Vyk]

I much MUCH prefer Bloodborne. Dark Souls has way too many "gotcha" moments that punish new-comers where the only way to get through something is to have previous knowledge, either from previous playthroughs or being warned about something. It's also way too slow and plodding for my taste. Even lightweight dex characters feel to slow and heavy. And even though they expect you to play defensively and reactionary, the controls are not precise enough to encourage that type of play style. Dodging is generally more about timing memorization rather than skillfully blind reaction time. And the fact that you lose the ability to roll at a diagonal as soon as you lock on is ridiculous.

So while I appreciate the existence of the Dark games, Bloodborne will always be my baby. Fast responsive combat. Far less "I'm going to push you off the edge for blocking" moments, I never end up dodging into an attack because diagonal movement was stolen from me. It's actually designed around my preferred playstyle. I feel like I'm actually playing as a dexterous character. So even without mention of the rally system making the experience more bearable, or the parry and visceral systems having less quirkiness on timing and placement than Dark Souls (it's also easier to master, therefor making the game easier), I can say I would probably still prefer Bloodborne without those mechanics. Plus not a lot of good Victorian style games out there, nor anyone else doing any worthwhile Lovecraftian games

However, it is not my intention to bash on Dark Souls, just to explain why some of "the kids" may prefer Bloodborne :P

[Spuuky]

The kids prefer Bloodborne because it's much easier and more linear. That's fine. That's why I don't prefer it.

[Vyk]

I'll personally grant you that, even though it's got like 8 optional bosses and 2 optional areas, you'd be silly to bypass all of that. And I found it easier simply because it meshes better with my playstyle. But I recall when it came out even a couple people here and on the internet as a whole had hard core sword and shield Dark Souls veterans' panties in a bind because they never learned how to properly dodge or parry or backstab in the first place, or they ONLY learned the Dark Souls way of timing and specifics, rather than reaction and skill. But initially there was a huge backlash on how broken and difficult Bloodborne was

[Wolf Kanno]

So in the downtime I've had for the last few months, I finally took the plunge and decided to beat Demon's Souls once and for all. Rolled a new character and everything. About the time I had beaten the fourth Arch Demon, I decided to pick up Dark Souls because I always said I wouldn't touch it until I beat Demon's Souls and I was well on my way. After finishing Dark Souls last week, I'm now about what I'm guessing is a third of the way through Bloodborne.

Been a blast and I'm a bit sad it's taken me so long to get around to the series. Course that's all of my games at the moment. I need to finish Bloodborne soon so I can jump into Persona 5 which is giving me googly eyes when I'm gaming.

For those wondering, here's a quick rundown for all three games for me.

Demon's Souls
Starting Class: Knight, so I can start with the ever useful and iconic Fluted Armor.
Final Build: Tank/Strength build
Favorite Boss battle: Tower Knight, Old King Allant, or the Old Hero
Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!
Favorite World: Boletaria Castle or Tower of Latria
Least Favorite World: Valley of Defilement which is still my least favorite area in the Souls/Bloodborne franchises.

Dark Souls
Starting Class: Knight, why break with a good thing?
Final Build: Speedy Strength/Dexterity build.
Favorite Boss Battle: Artorias the Abyss Walker, holy hell it was the most memorable fight for me.
Least Favorite Boss Battle: Probably any battle with the Demon Race, including the Stray Demon, Bed of Chaos and Queelag.
Favorite Area: Anor Londo and the Painted World.
Least Favorite Area: New Londo and Tomb of the Giants
Covenant of Choice:

Bloodborne (Still in Progress)
Starting Origin: The Professional
Current Build: Skill based with Strength or possible Bloodtinge as my secondary.
Favorite Boss Battle so far: Father Gascoigne or Darkbeast Paarl
Least Favorite so far: The Giant or the Watchdog of the Lords.
Favorite Area so Far: Central Yharnam and Cathedral Ward
Least favorite area so far: Forbidden Woods or the prison district you go to when the Abducters/snatchers beat you.

Also, I had to share this, though I'm sure it's probably already been posted in this thread.
WARNING NSFW

[Pete for President]

Good to see Dark Souls still getting some love! Bloodborne would be the only game I'd get a PS4 for, so alas I haven't played it yet. So keen though!

[Wolf Kanno]

Good to see Dark Souls still getting some love! Bloodborne would be the only game I'd get a PS4 for, so alas I haven't played it yet. So keen though!

It's been pretty good so far, though the learning curve is a bit annoying in the beginning due entirely to the game's early sections being designed to punish anyone trying to use pure defensive Dark Souls tactics. The two fights I mentioned in my favorite fight section both curb-stomped me until I realized I was being way too defensive and needed to just be aggressively offensive.

Other than that, I'm enjoying it immensely if only because the setting, story, and lore are far more up my alley. If Demon's Souls was a Lovecraftian story in a Heroic Fantasy Setting, then Dark Souls was a Heroic Fantasy set in a major mythological epic and Bloodborne went full Lovecraftian Horror.

While I'll probably taking a break from the franchise and its spiritual kin after Blooborne (Persona 5 is calling me), I've been reconsidering picking up Dark Souls II and III. Though the whole "no real multiplayer features unless you have a PSN+ account" is a bit of a deal breaker for the PS4 entries.

[Vyk]

Surprisingly I've been summoning and getting summoned for a while now and my PS+ has been up for a month. You may be locked out of the arena matches or something (I don't know, I haven't gotten to them in either of the DLC), but I first noticed I could be summoned without PS+ on Bloodborne, and now I'm doing it on Dark Souls 3

Maybe it's because they work more on a peer-to-peer syestem than an actual dedicated server. I think the servers are just used to match people up rather than play on them. Either that or there's a weird glitch where because I had PS+ it still thinks I have it. In which case you'd only have to buy one month of PS+ to make it think that

Persona 5 has online features similar to golden where you can see what people did that day to get an idea of what you could/should do and that's not locked out by PS+ either

[krissy]

very close to platinum of demons souls

but those friggin rare pure stones are holding me back

currently griding dual katana skellies for pure bladestone

if...anyone has a character around 400 that has the stone... holla

[Wolf Kanno]

Surprisingly I've been summoning and getting summoned for a while now and my PS+ has been up for a month. You may be locked out of the arena matches or something (I don't know, I haven't gotten to them in either of the DLC), but I first noticed I could be summoned without PS+ on Bloodborne, and now I'm doing it on Dark Souls 3

Maybe it's because they work more on a peer-to-peer syestem than an actual dedicated server. I think the servers are just used to match people up rather than play on them. Either that or there's a weird glitch where because I had PS+ it still thinks I have it. In which case you'd only have to buy one month of PS+ to make it think that

Persona 5 has online features similar to golden where you can see what people did that day to get an idea of what you could/should do and that's not locked out by PS+ either

Possibly, I simply just don't play in online mode anymore because the initial time I tried it jumped into the PlayStation store's PSN+ purchasing section when I tried. Frankly, the Souls/Bloodborne series is probably the only one I would bother picking it up for because it's one of the few franchises that I feel does online mutliplayer well. I might reconsider getting it if I decide to pick up DSII and III later on.

very close to platinum of demons souls

but those friggin rare pure stones are holding me back

currently griding dual katana skellies for pure bladestone

if...anyone has a character around 400 that has the stone... holla

Wish I could help but I neither have Pure Bladestone nor a Soul Lv. of 400. I think my character is around Lv. 100 and I would still need to beat Phalanx in NG+ to get access to multiplayer.

Though you are absolutely right, weapon crafting in Demon's Souls is a lot more difficult to achieve than later entries. Hell, in Dark Souls, I think the only weapon crafting trophy I'm missing is for Crystal Weapons, and that was partly due to screwing up Seigmeyer's quest-line and getting too bored grinding the Dark Wraiths for Titanite Slabs. I think I'm only missing five trophies in DS1, and two of them can't be done until NG+ anyway.

Man, the katana-wielders drop pure bladestone... ugh that is going to be a pain to farm.

[Slothy]

Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!

I glitched and cheesed that smurfer. No shame at all would do it again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!

I glitched and cheesed that smurfer. No shame at all would do it again.

Oh I abused his troutty tracking ability and glitchy A.I. to finally beat him. My beef was the fact that he was the original roadblock for me the first time I played the game because it's damn near impossible to tank his blows on a first playthrough. He also set up the fact that I just flat out suck against bosses with long combos, absurd stamina regen and super aggressive A.I. I had to cheese Manus in DS1 as well because he's basically Flameluker 2.0. I'm actually surprised I'm doing as well as I have been in Bloodborne to be honest.

I'm not ashamed to say I cheesed the Maneaters as well by abusing the arrows through the Fog Door glitch to beat the first one. I'm glad I did cause taking one direct hit from the other one in the one moment I didn't have the Magic Shield spell up nearly one-shotted me, and I probably poured more Souls into Vitality in this game than I should have.

[krissy]

Man, the katana-wielders drop pure bladestone... ugh that is going to be a pain to farm.

oh man yeah
closest the internet can calculate, the drop rate for pure is 2.5% on pure dark world tendency
though some say it's closer to 0.5%

anyway i've definitely killed about 100 of them now and still nothing
they're not hard with firestorm and at my level

edit: FLAMELURKER

that dbag i actually couldn't figure out how to cheese him at first so i had to do it for real with lots of rolls in ng
much better at cheese these days so i did it that way ng+ upwards

discharge was also really easy to cheese

i also did the maneater trick
the fight area is so tight that it doesn't even feel bad tbh
it's not like in dark souls on the chapel roof where you actually have space to move around with the multiple disneys gargoyles cast members