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Thread: WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

  1. #121
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
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    One of these days I'll get around to playing this. I still have never beat anything from the mainline smt series

  2. #122
    Edge7's Avatar
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    I'm actually playing the DS remake of DQV as I'm reading your last two entries. The DQXI hype has inspired me to push through the rest of the third chapter.
    Returners Represent!

  3. #123
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    Definitely the best entry point in the series and a game that is just becoming more and more awesome in my eyes. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of RPGs, mythologt, clever world building, and killing God with the power of friendship

    (okay that last one doesn't really apply so much to this entry since it's very cynical and I love it that way but you get the idea)

    It really needs more love! I'm surprised with how much negativity it has faced on the internet, tbh

  4. #124
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    62.Man if I was simply doing a list of the quirkiest games I've ever played, this would easily be in the top five. Catherine is a platform puzzle game attached to a minor social sim with a horror-comedy plot about love, infidelity, and sheep...yeah. It was created by the Persona team as a test run to learn the ins and outs of the PS3 console. Until recently, this was my favorite game on the PS3. Catherine is told from the perspective of a late night TV show like Tales from the Crypt called the Golden Playhouse, this comes into play as the game has a bit of a narrator to it which makes the game even more amusing. The story is about Vincent, a thirty something programmer in a long term relationship with his college sweetheart who spends his free time hanging out with his old friends at a bar called the Stray Sheep. Vincent's story begins when he gets into an argument with his girlfriend Katherine about the fact their relationship is sort of in a rut and she wants to make the move to the next stage like marriage and starting a family. Vincent doesn't want to give up his freedom and shoulder the adult responsibilities this entails and ends up getting drunk at the bar with his friends. Not wishing to go home, Vincent stays late after his friends leave and meets up with a blonde bombshell of a girl named Catherine who also wants to shirk relationship responsibilities and live freely. The two hit it off and Vincent passes out.Vincent has a weird dream where he is stuck in a bone chilling tower with anthropomorphic sheep who are all trying to escape the tower by climbing to the top where the exit is. Many dangerous hazards are in the way and it becomes easy to see the tower is a sort of punishment for the people there. When Vincent wakes up the next morning, he finds Catherine in bed with him in a very compromising position and realizes he may have slept with her. He hopes to keep it a secret but Catherine decides she really liked Vincent and begins to stalk him and somehow wind up in his bed every morning. She threatens to kill him if he ever tries to cheat on her. Now stuck in a love triangle where he has to sort out his complicated feelings for his long time girlfriend Katherine, and the alluring if a bit psychotic Catherine who is fine with having a more casual if exclusive relationship of frivolity. Meanwhile, Vincent spends every night dreaming about the Tower and the sheep people, and soon his real world problems begin to translate into real horrors within the tower. The story revolves around Vincent trying to keep both girls from finding out about the other, confronting real world problems like a baby scare, and ultimately watching him dig himself into a deeper hole as he tries to fix the situation he finds himself in. The game has a very Hitchcock kind of vibe to it, if he wrote situational comedy sitcoms that is. To say this game is a bit weird is an understatement, but it also happens to be a fun and exciting game in both the story and gameplay department. If I had to use only one word to describe this game, it would be intense. Anyone who has watched me play will almost always leave the room or ask me to play something else because the game can be very nerve wracking. The core game is the tower climbing. Vincent has to climb a tower which loses the bottom floor every minute or so, so you must climb as fast as you can or fall to your death. Vincent can climb up one block space and has the ability to push or pull a block as well as climb around it, though he can't climb up if there is a block above it. The premise of the gameplay is pretty simple, manipulate the blocks to build "stairs" and passage ways to help you climb up until you reach the top. The tower is divided by several sections and each section has a set of stages. Between stages, Vincent can talk with other sheep and buy items. You will also be asked several questions concerning relationships and affairs of the heart which will ultimately determine which of the games many endings you will receive. The final stage usually involves a "boss" battle which involves a giant environmental hazard chasing you up the tower with the intent of murdering you in addition to the tower falling apart on you. Often these bosses are reflections of troubles Vincent is having in his real life and the Freudian imagery is not subtle in the least. As you progress through the game, new stage hazards appear such as blocks that can't be moves, ice blocks, and blocks that crumble as soon as you step off of them. These add new layers of challenge to the basic formula and the stages can become quite the mind bender as you try to figure out how to use all of them to your advantage. Some stages also have fellow sheep on them that will knock you down or in the case of the black ones, murder you. It all becomes a pretty intense experience that feels like Tetris when you have 75% of the screen filled but are still desperately trying to keep the game going. The social sim part is far more subdued and exclusively takes place in the Stray Sheep bar. Vincent can chat with NPCs and story characters which ultimately tie into the games few sidequests (yes, it has them) learn more about the plot, Vincent can drink alcohol which boosts his speed during the nightmare sections of the game. He can answer texts on his phone which also affect which ending you receive, and you can play an old school arcade game called Rapunzel which is actually a slower but longer version of the nightmare world gameplay. There are some interesting elements that go on in this point as you'll eventually notice that several of the Sheep in the nightmare have a counterpart in the bar. Vincent can have up to four drinks per night, and if all four are the same kind (Gin, Vodka, beer, or sake) the narrator will interrupt the story to give you some fun tidbits. The alcohol consumption also affects how Vincent walks around in the bar as well. It's a nice calmness that helps give you some breathing room between the intense nightmare stages and the games actual plot. The cast of the story are well thought out and Vincent's core group of friends are a fun bunch who all offer their own ideas about relationships and marriage, while struggling with their own problems. I feel one of the best aspects of this game is the main topic and how the game kind of addresses the theme of infidelity and moving a boy meets girl relationship into the real reality of marriage, careers, and children. The game is kind of an adult love story, but it's hardly a fairy tale and willing to look at the more ugly side of relationships. It's a nice change of pace, especially coming from a team often accused of just making cookie cutter dating sims. The frantic nature of the plot and gameplay mesh well and ultimately make this game a pretty intense (there's that word again) experience. If none of this has scared you off yet, then I highly recommend checking out this lost gem of a game. I'm still hoping that in between the Persona team making their new RPG and Atlus generally whoring out Persona, we'll eventually get a sequel (likely a spiritual one) to this game.


  5. #125
    Trial by Wombat Bubba's Avatar
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    I don't get night terrors... but if I did I can imagine them being exactly like this.

  6. #126
    Pinkasaurus Rex Pumpkin's Avatar
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    Me and the bf gon try that game together eventually

  7. #127
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    61. Hello, meet the game that prevents me from liking God of War because it's too slow, holds your hands too much, and doesn't have the common decency to be self aware of how utterly ridiculous it is. DMC3 does none of this. I've always had an odd history with the franchise, and in hindsight, I kind of feel that DMC3 is the only really good one. DCM1 is charming in a special needs kind of way and has aged horribly with bad camera design, cheap enemies, and one of the worst control schemes for an action game I can think of off the top of my head. DCM2 is boring and unbalanced with Dante feeling like a second fiddly to Lucia and his gameplay is ridiculously easy since the guns are overpowered as all hell. DCM4 has some great gameplay, but the plot is more ridiculous than usual, the game basically makes you replay every stage and boss fight twice and frankly, Nero is more fun to play as since his Devil Arm adds something to the gameplay but he's such a whiny bitch it's hard to deal with him. Dante is the better character but his new style switching mechanic breaks the game for him if you even remotely know what you're doing. The less said about DmC the better. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Devil May Cry is set in a world where demons once tried to take over the human world, but one of their strongest generals, Sparda, woke up to justice and single handily defeated the invasion and the demon god Mundus. Afterwards, he sealed the two worlds apart using his demon sword and a magical amulet. He then fell in love with a human woman and eventually sired twin boys, Dante and Vergil, before mysteriously dying off. Demons still trapped in the human world or finding dubious ways to circumvent the barrier eventually found Sparda's offspring and attacked them, resulting in the death of their mother. The boys are still tormented by this with Dante becoming more wild and reckless and wishing to hunt demons, while Vergil grew cold and calculating wishing to embrace his full demon. The series in general usually involves someone trying to get a hold of Sparda's artifacts to open up a hole to the demon world. DMC3 is a prequel to DCM1, and deals with a late teen/early twenty something Dante as he gets ready to start his demon hunting business. In series tradition, a stranger named Arkham appears at his shop and mentions that a demon invasion is underway as the path to the demon world is about to be unlocked by Dante's estranged brother Vergil. Dante fights off the demons accompany Arkham and follows him to the tower to face his brother. On the way, Dante meets a feisty human demon hunter named Lady who is hunting down Arkham to fulfill her grudge against the man. The game takes place in a tower that plays a lot of lip service to Dante's Inferno, with enemies based around the seven deadly sins and other amusing nods. Vergil's ultimate goal is to retrieve his father's sword from the demon realm so he can awaken his full demonic power. The plot has it's nice dramatic moment like Dante and Vergil's first duel on the top of the tower, but the game has no problems poking fun at how ridiculous everything is. There is a sequence in the beginning when Dante meets Lady for the first time and she fires a rocket at him. The game proceeds to do a frame for frame recreation of the famous Matrix bullet time sequence, before Dante instead jumps on top of the rocket and rides it like a surfboard across the room. The game is filled with tongue and cheek nods to it's own ridiculousness which helps move it away from the rather grim second game. Okay, so the plot is pretty formulaic and basic, but let's face it, we're not here for the story. We're here for the hardcore, action gameplay. At this point DMC3 truly shines as the game builds on what actually worked in DMC1, while mostly ignoring DMC2's contributions. Dante can collect demonic weapons and various firearms to help him on his journey and gameplay largely revolves around being ridiculously good at crowd control and juggling enemies in the air. You'll need to get good at it too as the game is pretty difficult with competent enemy A.I. that works pretty well together in groups and some seriously nasty enemy types and bosses. Cerberus and the twin armors alone are the bane for many first time players and the game's first "boss" actually turns out to be a regular enemy later on. Many gamers whined about the game's notorious Story and Gameplay segregation, as Dante can shrug off fatal attacks from the enemy like nobody's business in the cutscenes but can be taken down in three hits by the most basic of enemies. Yet for me, the challenge of the game is getting good enough to make you recreate the crazy action sequences Dante does in the story portions which is pretty easy to do with the newer game mechanics. Like DMC1, Dante can purchase various skills associated with the weapons he collects, what's new is the game's Style system, which allows the player to alter Dante's gameplay focus. At the start of a mission, the player can choose one of four styles: Swordmaster, Gunslinger, Trickster, and Royal Guard. Swordmaster helps expand Dante's move-set with the various melee weapons you obtain over the course of the game. Gunslinger does the same with fire-arms. These often add special moves like using enemies to skateboard around the arena, special attacks that help launch opponents into the air, or being able to disengage the auto-lock on Dante's twin pistols so he can hit different targets with each gun. Trickster expands his mobility, giving you access to dashing moves, enhanced wall jumps and an improved double jump. Royal Guard is the most unique as it gives Dante the ability to actually block and build up energy for devastating counterattacks. Eventually you'll unlock two more styles: Quicksilver and Doppleganger. The first one uses your Devil Trigger to slow down time, the other one summons a copy of Dante that mimics the players actions. The director's cut also allows Vergil to be playable and use his Dark Slayer style which is an enhanced Trickster style that focuses on flash step/teleport spam. You can only use one style on a mission but the mechanic opens up a lot of replayability, especially against the game's wonderful selection boss battles.DMC3 hits that nice sweet spot of having a serviceable story that does a decent job of being both dramatic and very tongue in cheek, it has one of the best casts in the series, some killer music and the best gameplay which offers plenty of replay value. The special edition even let's you play as fan favorite Vergil, who has a very minor story mode, but his own unique play-style and weapon selection adds even more value to the game. If you're looking for a high octane action game to die over and over with, this may be your game, and I personally consider it to be one of the best action games on the market and a title that ultimately ruined my ability to appreciate the rest of the series and in some case, the genre itself.


  8. #128
    Edge7's Avatar
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    DMC3 DEFINED my High School days (along with MGS1-3 and FFVI, but w/e). Spent AT LEAST 70 hours on it
    Returners Represent!

  9. #129
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    60.Quite possibly the funniest game Square ever made, or at least that I have played. Brave Fencer Musashi, better known as "that game that came with the awesome FFVIII Demo" comes from the Golden Era of Square and is an experimental 3D Action-RPG that will make you feel nostalgic for Square's awkward 3D model era of games. This game is also unique in that it was the first full 3D RPG Square designed and the first game developed to have voice acting for most of the major story scenes, which is pretty damn impressive considering it came out over half a year later from FFVII and yet, barring Xenogears incredibly limited VA work, Square wouldn't bother with VA until three years later with Final Fantasy X. The story goes that the world once was under threat from a Dark Wizard until the brave hero Musashi was summoned to the world named Musashi using the sword Lumina. One hundred and fifty years later, the Allucaneet Kingdom is being invaded by the Thirstquencher Empire who wishes to obtain Lumina, which is guarded by the Kingdom. Princess Fillet uses the Hero Summon to summon Musashi to their world to save them. Instead they get a kid named Musashi who isn't exactly pleased to be brought to this world and even more annoyed to find out he has to save it. The kingdom for their part, don't even really believe he's the same Musashi as the one in the legend, but considering they used their trump card, they decide to put their faith in him. Begrudgingly, Musashi goes to the Spiral Tower to obtain Lumina and returns to find that Thirstquencher has captured and kidnapped both the princess and most of the inhabitants of Allucanneet Castle. Thus Musashi goes on a quest to save the kingdom and obtain the five magical crests to awaken the full power of Lumina. Musashi is a pretty damn fun and funny game, as one can tell by the names of the kingdom and empire, there is a food name pun scheme the goes across the entire game and some other silly things like Vambees (a hybrid Vampire and Zombie) and eventually Kojiro, Musashi's rival finds his way to the world to finally get that fair duel he's been asking for. The game is incredibly tongue and cheek and while Musashi does prove to be quite the hero, he's also brash, arrogant, and pretty lazy. All quirks that help make him a lovable scamp. Most of the cast is pretty neat as well and this ties into the rescue side quest in the game. As you explore the various dungeons, you'll come across crystals that contain the local inhabitants of the kingdom and freeing them allows them to return to the village, which acts as the game's hub world, where you can open up stores to sell items, buy action figures for Musashi to play with, or even unlock other quest lines. Each towns person has their own quirks and story going for them and you can even go to the castle and have an audience with them to learn more about them. The villains themselves are also quite the treat, feeling like something out of a 70s Tatsunoko anime show or a Team Rocket vibe. In fact, if there is one game that really has a similar vibe to this game, it's probably Mega Man Legends, though Threads of Fate feels like the spiritual sequel to it. The game is an Action/Platformer RPG with a bit of a Zelda vibe to it, where Musashi traverses different locations around the kingdom to find the townspeople, fight monsters and Thirstquencher soldiers, and hunt down the shrines of the Crest Guardians. Combat is a bit unique due to Musashi having a a jump command and he uses two different swords. Lumina is the big heavy broadsword that does some pretty killer damage and eventually unlocks some cool powers as you obtain the Crests. Fusion, his primary weapon is a smaller and faster katana, but has a unique ability where it can be charged up and thrown into enemies. Once struck, the player mashes the attack button until the sword drains all the power from the enemy, at which point, Musashi now has access to the monsters primary or hidden skill. These skills have various effects like powerful projectile moves, making Musashi stink so bad enemies avoid him, or giving Musashi a temporary boost ability. This all consumes MP of course, and you are only allowed to have one move at a time, but you would be surprise how effective they can be as some skills can make a seriously difficult segment of the game a cakewalk, so it's imperative to try and find out what every enemy teaches. You can even go back to former dungeons to give Musashi an old skill that might prove useful in later segments of the game. Musashi can also find the legendary Musashi's Armor, which grants Musashi permanent skills like double jump. Saving some villagers can also reward him with special sword techniques as well, so there is a surprising amount of depth to the game's combat system. There are some interesting boss battles as well, this game actually introduced me to Rhythm games, because one of the boss battles is a Simon Says, DDR battle basically and the music is glorious.With all that said, I wish I could say this game has aged beautifully but that would be a lie. We are talking about a game with heavy platforming being made by a studio that primarily does simple RPGs with text and 2D Backgrounds. Even at the time of it';s release when 3D gaming was still kind of new, it's hard not to notice how clunky the whole game can feel and how aggravating some of the dungeons can become because of it. In fact, as much as people bitch about Xenogears Babel Tower, which is a pretty bad dungeon don't get me wrong, I feel it's safe to say that Steamwood from this game, may be the most obnoxious 3D Dungeon, Square ever made. Clunky platforming with a terrible angle, combined with a timed puzzle, makes this place infamous for frustration. Especially since the game makes you do it twice. Still, if you can get past the clunky design, the combat is pretty fun, the dungeons are interesting and the game is easily one of the funniest and charming titles to come out of Square during the PS1 era. One thing that makes me sad, when I really think about this game is how I really don't feel Square-Enix would ever green light a game like this. Hell, according to wiki sources, Sakaguchi had doubts about the title, and I'm sure that's why it was packaged with the FFVIII demo. Yet, I really feel this game embodies the spirit of Square's more experimental enthusiasm going into the PS1 and 3D gaming, and this title plays with so many gameplay elements that eventually became standard features for later Square titles. It makes me sad that I can't really see SE's in-house developers venture into a game this experimental, knowing it probably would be a cult hit at best. I feel The World Ends with You was probably the last title to do so. Other than that sad thought, I highly recommend this game to people, especially because I would love to talk about it more but no ones here seems to have even heard of it, let alone play it.


  10. #130
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    59.
    Man, I don't even know where to begin describing this game. This is probably the first "Art Game" I've had on this list, which for most gamers means it's got a minimalist design, and very simple mechanics, yet everyone and their brother praises it for one reason or another. Most of that is true about this game as well. Journey is a minimalist platformer with limited multiplayer, where you play a mysterious drifter, connected to a former empire that has fallen to ruin. Your character is on a journey to the heart of the former kingdom for reasons never quite explained, but ultimately the game becomes a bit of a spiritual journey for both the character and player. At the end of each stage, you meet a spirit guide who shows off ancient hieroglyphs detailing the rise and fall of their people, which is the extent of any story the game gives you, yet the game actually finds creative ways to combine gameplay with actual story segments, but I really don't want to go any further in detail cause it's a better surprise. In fact, I don't really want to describe anything about this game, because I feel it's best to experience it with as little context as possible. You can play with another character via online, but there is no matchmaking control and you have no means of direct communication, instead, you have to talk through actions. This ends up being an incredibly clever way of doing things as you gain the excitement of multiplayer, without the downfall of playing with an expletive spewing man-child. It never ruins the ambiance the game creates of this world and meeting a stranger is both exciting and intriguing as it simply raises more questions.I keep saying this is a game, but I frankly feel that "experience" is a better word to describe it, especially since the core game is both incredibly simple and short. I finished the title in a single playthrough one evening, maybe three hours at most. Yet the game is filled with such gorgeous art direction and such a powerful narrative, that it's hard not to take away something from this game if you're open to this style of game. I don't have as much to say about this title as I would like, but largely because I feel you need to play it to understand cause on paper, it doesn't really sound all that special; yet it's a pretty powerful game and my favorite from thatgamecompany.


  11. #131
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
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    This game used to be one of my go to games to decompress after classes in college. I'd switch between this and Flower depending on the day. It's definitely a great experience, and I feel it's worth all the praise it gets.

  12. #132
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    58.Meet my favorite PS3 game that isn't a sequel to some other series. I've been putting off checking out this series for awhile, largely due to being too busy to really dedicate any time to it, and it is definitely the type of game where if you want to make any headway on a first playthrough, you really shouldn't play it casually. The other reason I didn't touch it was due to being pretty stubborn about finishing up Demon's Souls first, which itself was a great game I kind of wish was on this list, but perhaps another time. Dark Souls is an Action-RPG and spiritual successor to From Software's previous Demon's Souls. The game works fundamentally the same but has been better refined and in it's design and has had it's combat made into a bigger focus with more involving boss battles and a higher number of them. Being able to have a unified server for multiplayer alone helps to make the games more quirky and original design elements stand out better and the game introduces new elements such as Estus Flasks, a seamless worlds design, and Covenants to add variety for the online multiplayer. Dark Souls takes place in a world that is witnessing the end of an age. At the dawn of history, the world was grey and only filled with massive world trees and immortal dragons, then the First Flame emerged and the gods were born, as well as disparity and death. From the First Flame, four figures obtained Lord Souls, which gave them incredible powers such as the power of lightning, fire, and death, from which three of them used to defeat the immortal dragons and claim the world for their own with the help of a deformed Dragon who betrayed his own. The Age of Fire began and it was a Golden Age for a time, though filled with it's own heartache and scandal. Soon the First Flame began to dwindle and one of the Gods, the Witch of Izalith, tried to reignite it with her Lord Soul only to have it backfire on her and transform her and all her children and subjects into demons. The Demon Wars began and eventually the Gods prevailed but not before undertaking heavy losses and still dealing with the source of their power potentially ceasing to exist. Causing other issues was the rise of the Abyss, a dark power that stems from humanity and may be associated with the fourth god who vanished during the war against the dragons. Finally the King of the Gods, Lord Gwyn of Lordrain, went to link the fire by sacrificing his own life, and thus the Twilight of the Gods began. As time passed, the world began to deal with the Undead Curse. A mark appears on ones body and the person becomes virtually immortal, but the curse also eats away at the persons' souls and eventually drives them insane, so the various lands began to be overrun by crazy undead, until people began to lock them away and scorn those who bear the mark of the curse. Soon a prophecy began to circulate that one day, a Chosen Undead would come to Lordran, who would either save the First Flame and continue the Age of the Gods, or would finally usher in the Age of Dark where humanity would rule.As the game begins, you are one of these Undead, locked away in a prison by your kingdom and waiting until the curse drives you mad, when a knight named Oscar appears and frees you from your prison before being slayed by the demon that guards the prison. Fighting your way through, you are eventually taken by a large Crow, the symbol of the Goddess Velka of Sin and Punishment to the lands of Lordran where you are told to find and ring two bells...
    You start the game creating a character with the game's atrocious character maker, and then choose a class. Classes are not static and only simply change your starting stats and gear, but the customization system is incredibly flexible and you can pursue any type of build. Stats have been better balanced in this game, especially for mage builds as Demon's Souls kind of gave Clerics a better deal than mages. I do still find it weird that Poison Resistance is a separate stat though, and I kind of have issues with Humanity as well. I honestly love how stats work in these games, as they don't simply dictate how good you are at hitting things or casting spells, but also dictate what equipment you can even use which helps to give more focus to the player on how to build their character. Helping things out is that base stats only go so far, and in addition to the base stats of equipment, you get actual bonuses from said equipment if certain stats are higher, so even lowly starting gear can hold it's own for long stretches of the game if your stats allow the bonuses to be substantial. This unique marriage of stats and equipment is not something you see to often in console games, but adds asome great layers of customization and strategy for your builds. The game also thankfully dropped item burden, a mechanic from Demon's Souls which was a stat that determined how much you could carry outside of what you were equipped with, which was the bane of any player in the predecessor since it meant you would have to leave behind some items you found due to weight limits. Equipment Load is still here but helps to balance out the character and make stat progression feel like it matters as you finally get enough strength to hold that greatsword one handed or even equip some of the heavier armors. Poise is the newest stat and one that really adds a lot of depth to the game. Basically it's a stat that factors how much damage a character takes before they flinch. This stat is mostly controlled by equipment but gives heavy armor builds more flexibility in combat. All of this helps to make character creation pretty involving and satisfactory. Another element removed from Demon's Souls is the punishment for dying. In Demon's Souls, you had a Body Form and a Soul Form, with Body Form giving you access to all your health, defense, and the ability to summon at the cost of lower attack power and your death affecting World Tendency. Soul Form wouldn't affect WT, but cut your health in half and raised your attack power. Dark Souls drops all this nonsense and death simply puts you in a Hollow state which prevents you from using any of the online components. Using Humanity would return you to Human form, and getting humanity is much easier than trying to get your body form back in Demon's Souls. In truth death is far more trivial in Dark Souls than the other entries.
    Level design is also different from it's predecessor. Demon's Souls utilized a simple level select between five themed areas with three levels a piece. Dark Souls goes for a integrated, almost open world design as all areas are actually connected one way or another and simply grow larger as your skill level and and acquired key items rise. While I kind of like the more tightly designed stages of Demon's Souls a bit better, I also appreciate the quirky, almost labyrinthine layout of DS' world. There is something kind of chilling knowing that just below the peaks where the Firelink Shrine lays both the haunted and flooded city of New Londo as well as just beyond the mountains lies the great city of Anor Londo. Also new to the game are checkpoints in the form of bonfires which is very much a welcome addition after going through the nightmarish checkpoint starvation of Demon's Souls. Another new element added was the removal of standard consummable healing items for Estus Flasks. Basically Estus is a healing item you begin the game with a total of five uses for healing. With certain items you can boost how much it heals you as well as how much you can carry at a time (up to 20) which keeps it a rather useful healing tool. Once it's been used up though, the only way to refill it is to rest at a bonfire which serves as a checkpoint system in this game. The drawback here is that resting at a checkpoint also respawns all but a few unique enemies in the level. Meaning that if you're getting particulary trounced by a particular enemy, you could be effectively remoiving all your progress in beating them. This gives the game an interesting risk/reward mechanic in which you play conservitevely with Estus and possibly take greater risks as you plow through a level. On the other hand, Estus is very convenient, and the whole system is both fair and user-friendly, remooving the need to farm healing items or pay souls to keep them stocked, giving the game far greater focus on exploration and character building. This is easily the one element Dark Souls 1 does better than any of it's peers within the franchise, as the other games often add back in old stanby elements or nerf estus with middling results.

    Dark Souls is probably better known for it's reputation than anything else, and like many games with a rep, while there are some truths to it, I feel the reality is a bit different than the expectations. Dark Souls is a hard game, or more correctly, it's a hard game for anyone who hasn't played either anything released before the 2000s or any genre afterwards that are generally more challenging like fighting games, shmups, or RTS titles. Yes, you die a lot, but death is kind of a slap on the wrist in this game, and coming into this game from Demon's Souls, it's obvious the devs went out of their way to make this game way more user friendly. To say the game is always fair is another misnomer, unless you're the type of person who feels difficulty based on pattern memorization through repeated trial and error gameplay is legitimately fair. I feel the reality is that it varies from area to area. Recognizing enemy placements or boss patterns are fine in some places, but the game has cheap sections like Sen's Fortress which is filled with booby traps, difficult to stagger enemies with ridiculous attack range, plenty of pits to fall to your death, and more nooks and crannies for invaders to hide in than you can shake a stick at which will eventually skyrocket the amount of times you see the "You Died" logo to the point of being more frustrating than fun.. So yeah, the game will definitely cheese you until you memorize the layout and the tells of enemy attacks, and sometimes it's gratifying, other times it can be really frustrating, but it does have that Mega Man feel where it does get easier as you adjust your expectations and becomes pretty rewarding after awhile. Again, I would almost argue the game is actually more user friendly than similar games of it's caliber. The plot of the game is more lore based than actually story driven, there are some minor NPCs with detailed plots you can follow just like it's predecessor, but it's also very easy to screw up the quest line and never see it completed until NG+. I love the more lore based story because I feel it really pushed this idea that you're living in the final days of a historic era. In fact, I feel Dark Souls really feels like a game that makes you feel like you're playing a video game version of some great mythological story like Ragnarok, or classic Greek Myth. It helps the game borrows heavily from these types of stories to really build up it's world and large cast of characters, many of whom you met probably at their lowest points. Speaking of which, I wish to give this game kudos for having some of the best DLC I've ever seen for a game, largely because it's pretty high quality in design, doesn't hand you game breaking items that distort the game's careful balance, and actually feeling like something that was neither grafted onto the game by force, nor feeling like something that I felt should have been in the game proper. I find it's usually really difficult to do this, so kudos to From Software for pulling this off. If I had to really nail this game with any cons though, it's that the second half of the game isn't as strong as the first half. Ringing the two bells and raching Anor Londo is a tightly paced and designed adventure that will live with you forever. Teleporting around to hunt down the Lord Souls isn't quite as fun since not only are they some of the weaker boss fights in the game, but the level design of their areas also feel kind of half-assed. Izalith and the Cave of the Giants are more frustrating than fun, and while the Duke's Archives were pretty snazzy, the Crystal Cave afterwards is just annoying and feels a bit more gimmicky than it should. It's kind of here that I eel the game resorts more to cheesing the player or throwing some luck based nonsense in the form of the Bed of Chaos that Dark Souls starts to run out of gas. It'sa shame too cause the game is fantastic otherwise and while these areas are hardly deal breakers, they did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth at the end which is likely why it's lower on this list. I may change my mind once I play the rest of the series and come back to this one.

    Overall, this turned out to be a great game that has really changed how I view what I want out of games, and that's always something to appreciate. I'm sure this game will slowly climb it;'s way up my list as time goes by and I have more time for subsequent playthroughs. I plan on playing the sequels in the future as well, but I kind of want to complete half of my backlog before I start adding more games to it. I highly recommend this game and it's spiritual brethren like Demon's Souls and Bloodborne as well.


  13. #133
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    Very likely would be in my top 10.

  14. #134
    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    Could never get interested in this series. I spent my youth playing super hard NES games all day every day so I'm sure this wouldn't be too bad, but I think I've just had enough 'pattern memorization through trial and error and repetition' games for my lifetime.

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    That isn't actually what Dark Souls is about but that's alright

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