So I discovered Dark Souls....

[huntsman2310]

My Brother bought a strange package into the house today.

 

It was thin and rectangular, almost like a small picture book, but the sides were green and inside lay a evil, ominous looking circumferical object.

 

Dark Souls.

 

I put it in, and watched as I woke up dead in a Asylum for zombies.

 

I cacked my pants when I saw the Asylum Demon 5 minutes in, cacked them again when I went through the white light and popped out above it. With it looking straight at me.

 

Well now I'm past that, and after meeting a suicidally depressed permanently slouched guy, a fat monk who's too cheap to give me a healing spell for free, and a blacksmith in a cell in the middle of another Dead city.

 

I found myself in the Undead Burg, running across a rampart, when a massive black shape unfurls itself, and drops from the Sky like a fell meteor.

 

Its the Taurus Demon, and its going to splatter me against the wall.

 

I died quickly and violently.

 

This time I came prepared, I had 15 firebombs, full estus, a spear, and some new chainmail armour.

 

I was ready.

 

It dropped down once more, upon which I bravely turned and ran, in desperation for the ladder to the top of the bastion tower. I laughed evilly as I chucked firebombs at it.

 

Then I screamed in all consuming fear as it flew up onto the level I was so bravely entrenched on.

 

But I focused and charged.

 

I rolled forwards when it swept its hammer across the floor, dodged to the side when it unleashed a massive slam.

 

And slowly but surely, I was killing it.

 

OF COURSE THEN IT STRUCK ME WHEN I WAS OCCUPIED, FLINGING ME OFF THE TOWER AND TO MY DEATH, I AM NOW A SMEAR ON SOME ZOMBIE'S FRONT PORCH.

 

DAMN IT'S A RUSH.

[beefsister77]

Dark Souls and it´s prequel Demon Souls are two of the greatest games to ever appear on my screen.

 

And yes, it´s unforgiving. Prepare to die like a thousand times on your first playthrough.

The combat mechanics are a masterpiece. You only succeed with the right tactics, careful observation, evading,blocking and striking at the right time.

But it´s also rewarding. Your gear and customization actually matter in this game, every little progress can be felt in combat.

 

The game world is huge and beautiful, there are plenty of secrets to discover. And there are no DLC´s, this game is complete. That´s also one big positive.

Not many games are like that from the start, I´m almost used by now to get only half a game for my money and have to spent extra to get the rest.

 

Btw, nice approach on the Taurus with the firebombs. I never thought of that. I engaged him in a very tiring sword and shield battle. ^^

But if you think that one was tough wait till you get to battle Smough and Ornstein. Took me a whole weekend to finally get those bastards down.

 

But everytime you beat one of those hardass bosses happiness overflows making you laugh like a child.

Haven´t had that since the old Nes/Snes times.

 

One tip for the Taurus though: If you´re fast enough to get on top of the watchtower after the boss drops in, you can do a plunge attack on him, that causes huge damage and gives you an advantage for the rest of the battle.

Edited February 23, 2012 by beefsister77

[GeohoundJason]

Whenever I have my friends over, I have them play a bit more of both Demon Souls and Dark Souls. I have, and have beaten both of them, and in my opinion, are some of the great games that are released nowadays. As stated above, these have incredible locations, designed in such ways as to convey strong emotions... that is, when you aren't fighting for your life. It's a complete game too, which I love. I get irritated when games leave you feeling unaccomplished, and pissed when they pull out stuff that should have been there just so they can milk more money out of it in 'day-one' DLC. No shady money making tactics here, just a complete package.

 

Firebombs on the Taurus Demon... Definitely a valid strategy to use on it. My first time fighting the beast was spent mostly doing dive attacks, and even that left me feeling extremely satisfied. Second time through, I just used a curved sword, a good shield, and good dodging skills to kill it. A lot of the bosses take a bit of watching and learning, developing a strategy as to how to kill it, and it's something I've been trying to drill into the minds of my friends.

 

Definitely have fun with Smough and Ornstein, and the area known as Anor Londo. The area itself is beautiful, and very deadly. The actual fight is quite rough, and depending on how you approach it, can either increase slightly in difficulty halfway through, or spike up a lot.

 

It's always fun to read people's reactions to the Souls series, in my opinion. Especially the positive ones, with the adrenaline rush. Those make me smile.

[hoofhearted4]

i am of the opinion that Demons Souls >>>> then Dark Souls. ive only played through DkS once and have no desire to really go back, whereas ive beaten Demons Souls like 100 times, platinumed it and everything. i go back all the time just for a quick run through and some fun.

 

Demons Souls is the harder of the two imo. the enemies in DkS are slightly harder and smarter AI thats where all of my deaths happened, but the Bosses in DkS are a joke. i never died once to any of the bosses in DkS even once. none of them required tactics. they were all just hard hitting loafs with a good chunk of health. all you had to do was roll and hit, roll and hit. having limited heals did make it harder and i came close a few times, but still. imo, DS bosses were harder (and no i didnt use Iron Flesh, which has since been nerfed) the fact that its one giant world is both cool and an annoyance. one giant world, no loading times. very cool how everything all comes together. but no sense of accomplishment. i liked going back to the Nexus, seeing people i had met/resced just chillin there. i liked the world of Demons Souls better. not to say the Dark Souls world wasnt beautiful and interesting, i just think the DS worlds have more personality to each one of them, whereas the worlds in DkS feel less developed. i just think i share a bias towards the DS world. i also enjoyed the story of DS better then that of DkS. i felt like all the NPCs were going through a similar struggle as i was. they all had a place and were all slightly interesting with their back stories. NPCs in DkS werent exciting or interesting, and the story was alright, but again maybe its just cause im biased to the game i enjoyed first. lastly, the online for DkS was broken when it first came out. you couldnt play with friends no matter how hard you tried unless you were lucky. i hear its been fixed, but as i said, i really have no desire to go back.

 

this may have changed as well, since theyve done balancing since the last time i played, but there were no use for character builds. lightning weapons were so OP and Stat scaling was so UP that it took the fun and took out the point out of doing a Faith Build or a Strength Build. every time youd get invaded it was by a lightning spear and Tranquil Walk of Peace.

 

but ill admit, i am slightly biased towards Demons Souls. i think it was a better game overall. DkS was fun, but for some reason it didnt pull me back like DS did 100 times over.

 

 

EDIT:

 

just took a look at the most recent patch notes, some good things on there. seems they buffed stat scaling weapons and nerfed lightning weapons. they also nerfed some of the stronger Magic spells (which i never used) as well as nerfing Pyro as a whole.

 

you now not only gain more souls per enemy, but skeletons and ghosts give souls as well. should make leveling in the early game, and in general easier (essentially making the game slightly easier)

 

Humanity not only drops more often, but bosses drop them too! which is huge, as well as dropping Homeward Bones, so you can get back to your last bonfire. also huge! ....also, they made it so you know how many souls till the next lvl. small thing but very very nice to see.

 

seems they also fixed online a little bit, in that its easier to summon/get summoned now. which is also nice. i may have to go back with a friend of mine (from Demons Souls) we tried back when the game came out, but we couldnt get it to work consistently. so thats good news.

 

Overall, i would say the game is slightly easier. and thats not just me, thats pretty much the general consensus of the opinions ive been reading of people who played before and after. the OP Magic/Pyro spells were nerfed and that sucks, but the weapons as a whole do a lot more damage, and its easier to lvl up now (esp in the early game with the skellies and ghosts). also more humanity means more Estus Flasks, but also correlates to more summoning (which is why i like it)

 

but reading that some of the small things that made me hate the game (summoning, knowing how many souls till the next lvl, more humanity) were fixed, i might have to give a round 2 a try sooner or later.

Edited March 2, 2012 by hoofhearted4

[Rennn]

People who aren't scared of dated games may want to look into King's Field 4, for the PS2. Of course the graphics are pretty bad, and it's very slow (though trancelike may be a better term for it), but it has that same creeping ambience. That's not really surprising, considering it was made by FROM Software as well. It works a lot like an old, more deliberate version of Dark Souls actually. It's in 1st person as well, which is always nice, and the secrets and lore are top-notch. There are secrets or items hidden everywhere, and the level design is superb despite the dated graphics.

[RubikNight]

Game like Demon Souls but more Dark Souls on Playstation Vita with a Monster Hunter format?

 

Check out Lord Of Apocalypse.

 

Each boss is piss-asss hard. You will die a lot.

[EckoShy]

I played Demon's Souls at least seven times and loved the hell out of it.

 

Dark Souls doesn't feel like quite as fun of an experience to me but still an amazing game. And one I haven't beaten yet. Playing the first time I ended up make a really bad character. Then accidentally killed the blacksmith.

 

So yeah, I've started over when I had gotten all the way to Four Kings. D:

[hoofhearted4]

haha just thought since this popped up, id say i just platinumed Dark Souls the other day. i have now platinumed the two self proclaimed hardest games on Ps3....though ill admit, it was much easier to platinum then Demon Souls...not counting the pain in the ass grinding you had to do to get Pure Bladestone in Demons Souls, but the simple fact you have to beat Demons Souls 4 times to platinum, whereas you only had to beat Dark Souls 2.5 times.

[Beriallord]

I'd like to add that Dark Souls is still sorta broken, as far as being a legitimate competitive PVP. I had a SL 125 build that almost never lost. I pumped VIT and used pyromancy (mostly great combustions) and a Chaos +5 Balder side sword and Chaos +5 Estoc for backstabs. Very high HP, Poise. I could afford to get hit. What made it overpowered was the backstabs with the hornets ring, and riposte damage. I could afford to risk getting hit for the chance to 1hko riposte someone. Also roll canceling allows you to roll out of a combo, which makes a VIT build even harder to kill, and can conveniently put you in a position to back stab your opponent. I also used power within sparingly, which made the damage even more ridiculous. But I mostly used that while hosting so I had estus for backup. I'd usually not show that I had the estoc at first, because that basically gives away the intention that you are going to go for backstabs, so I'd approach with a Balder Side sword, then swap the estoc on them. Also the balder side sword is the best all-round low requirement sword in the game, bar none. And I was using it long before most people realized how solid of a weapon it was. Edited June 9, 2012 by Beriallord

[hoofhearted4]

i never PvPed in either of them. in DS i did for like 2 days then got bored. in DkS i did it long enough to get the talisman for the trophy

 

so far, my personal favorite weapon was the Demon Great Machete. just liked the moveset and strength of the weapon. was fun to use.