I had actually bought Dark Souls previously on 3 other platforms before it clicked on Switch. Until the Switch release I was repeatedly giving up after an hour or so.
Very frustrating games but the feeling of accomplishment when you beat a boss or complete the game is unrivalled. Really brings back memories of being 11 or 12 and playing through Mario World and the likes to the end. Back when not spoiled for choice and you felt obliged to persevere and complete games like Addams Family and Jurassic Park on SNES that you chucked Ā£60 atā¦
The ending to Jurassic Park on SNES is hilarious though. Worth checking out on YouTube just to experience how crap it is.
Give Bloodborne a try - itās a tough game but donāt feel ashamed to coop if you get stuck, though there is a real thrill to beating the harder bosses solo. Great action and unbeatable atmosphere.
Sister Friede in the DS3 DLC. She took me soooo long.
Elden Ring does look great (basically looks like DS4) and will almost certainly be buying. I love DS1 and DS3 so much. Havenāt finished Sekiro or Bloodborne yet.
Yepā¦Sister Friede made me quit for a few months.
This pause was a good decisionā¦And after i came back to the game and defeated her, i could cry tears of blood with Midir.
God, itās good.
Just rewatched the opening cutscene for the Friede Ariandel boss battle.
Totally forgotten it because you only get to see it once in the 100+ attempts
So good.
Funny that you say that, to me it had the opposite effect, it finally turned me into a casual/retired gamer. For many years after completing the series, everything I booted was quickly abandoned, because it all palled in comparison to what dark souls made me experience. It took something from me and replaced it with something else.
@xidnpnlss in a lot of ways itās the octatrack of videogames
And since this is a music forum: the music in these games is amazing as well. Even the many unused tracks that didnāt make it into the soundtrack(s) blow my mind.
Thanks for this.
Yuka Kitamura 's scores are so out of this world.
One of my favorite From Soft fight is Dancer of Boreal Valley :
The music is so hypnotic and the pace of the fight feels like being underwater.
Iām a tedious fighter so iām pretty used to loose and loose before victory, but the Dancer is one of those when i wasnāt frustrated by defeat (ā¦and even lost on purpose a few times ) because it meant i could dance with her again and feel this ambiguous mix of beauty, danger, eeriness and grace.
Yea, infact Xbox game pass has a huge amount of subscribers because, to be fair to Microsoft itās super cheap deal as you get access to new console exclusives on release day for free (except you would be paying something like Ā£120 a year for it) but Iām not sure itās sustainable without the price going way up in future. Microsoft has more money than they can spend so they can afford to offer a service at this kinda price. Iām pretty happy with the PSN sub, still get 3 games a month and itās slightly cheaper than game pass, and personally I donāt like halo, or Bethesda as a developer so I donāt feel like Iām missing anything.
Which AAA did you work in, can you give me a hint? What developer even? Iām curious as to what you did as a dev, Iām assuming you worked in audio?
Man, when I beat lady Maria on my first try I was fucking shocked, but it was one of the best duals in the game, then I fought the orphan of kosā¦my god what a battle. Took more than a few attempts but when I finished him off I felt like Iād been hit up with an Immaculate speedball by God himself. Ecstatic adrenaline. Also can we just appreciate how good that DLC is?
Like I said earlier Iāve played all the souls games now in a totally random order. I went on to sekiro which I think has one of the most amazing combat systems out of any game Iāve played, itās also just beautiful to play, wolf handles so well and platforming your way to a stealth hit will never not be amazing. Then I did Demon Souls remake which I think was probably the easiest and funnest when it gets going. Then DS3, and Iām currently playing DS1 atm:
Infact I just beat ornstein and smough!
So should I play dark souls 2? It doesnāt look all that great to me, and j know it was divisive with fans. I just donāt like fighting knights and armoured dudes constantly, itās dull.
Youāre welcome Her work is quite mesmerizing, I fully agree. If you are looking for more (Iām familiar with the urge haha) quite a couple more of (her) unused tracks can be found on that channel and in other places. You might also enjoy the work of Alex Roe https://www.youtube.com/user/RoeTaKa/playlists who as made 2 dark souls tribute albums, 4 bloodborne tribute albums and a hand full of remix albums.
@Vacanthouses Play It! Itās true that it probably isnāt the best in the series, and much of itās criticism is valid, however the community, being the hyper critical bunch that it is, has kind of blown it out of proportion. (Its kind of amazing that it is what it is once you become aware of its crazy development cycle)
Itās probably closest to demon souls structurally speaking, has quite a couple of cool/dope/interesting mechanics not found in the rest of the souls games, has arguably the best pvp in the series and the 3 kings dlc(s) are really realy good. The dlc(s) non-linear level design is much closer to DS1 and totally worth āāenduringāā the main game in order to reach them.
DS2 isnāt a bad game, but I donāt think it reaches the heights of the other games. Iāve been thinking of playing the DLCs but just end up replaying DS3 or Bloodborne.
Iāve noticed itās always super cheap on the PS store, so itās probably worth picking up either way (I think it includes all dlcs etc) Iāve managed to avoid much of theā¦letās just call it what it isā¦mad obsessive and sometimes toxic community, but I kept hearing people complaint about it, Iāll get round to playing It Iām sure as soon as Iām done with number one. Iāve never co-opād any of them yet due to my friends being dull warzone addicts (I mean that in the truest sense, if it was possible they would inject it directly into their eyeballs.) which looks really fun, but enjoyed invasions, and invading in demons souls, I still havenāt done the old monk fight as an invader so Iām gonna have to get back to do it. Iām playing ds1 offline at the min because i keep getting booted off the servers, but Iām gonna hopefully get into pvp in Elden Ring when itās fresh for everyone.
I always found it interesting that the idea of hollowness extends outwards to its playerbase, from the fully hollowed and indeed quite toxic, full-havel-twink-gank-squads spamming exploits from their empty pownage based āgit-gudā culture and mentality, all the way to players of real skill and honor who not only didnāt lose their humanity, but let it shine forth into the world. Players that adhere to a strong unwritten moral code and ethics, even following unwritten dueling etiquette that organically emerged from a game that doesnāt even support basic chat.
Might wanna double check which version you (want to) get
Vanilla
Scholars of the first sin (360, ps3 generation) which is just vanilla+dlcs
Scholars of the first sin (ps4 gen) which has somewhat better graphics but also completely different item and enemy placement among some other changes and additions.
What a great metaphor for the culture surrounding those series, it hadnāt occurred to me but what I really loved about bloodborne (out of the millions of thing I love about bloodborne) is that the main sub Reddit of hunters, for the micro moments is spent asking for help with rom or something, people would always be respectful and genuinely loved the lore and the game but without going fully overboard into gate keeping wankers. I also watched some great BB PvP when I was new to the series, and it was great to watch how these various ideals of being a good sport basically are decided by the community.
As for D2 im not certain which version it is altho im assuming itās the PS4 scholar of the first sin, as itās in their online store.
Thanks iāll check these for sure !
And to add my voice about DS2, i totally agree ! Iāve not replayed any of the Dark Souls yet but the one i am the most curious to experience a second time is this flawed second chapterā¦and i donāt really know whyā¦
Her work is quite mesmerizing, I fully agree. If you are looking for more (Iām familiar with the urge haha) quite a couple more of (her) unused tracks can be found on that channel and in other places. You might also enjoy the work of Alex Roe 
)