Dark souls 2 is announced and will be on PC.

[Vagrant0]

however its those same Fanboiz that really grind my gears. they seem to think Dark Souls poops gold. that its a perfect game in every way. and it bugs me lol. but i digress.

Not a perfect game by a longshot (control scheme sucks for one), but it does many things right for those who enjoy games with a similar basis and type of difficulty. It took me awhile to figure it out, but many of the reasons why I liked Darksouls were for the same reason why I liked the Kings Field games for Playstation. It kept the world simple, but large and littered with secrets and shortcuts. The storyline was also minimal so that most of the narrative base came about by the player's actions. The difficulty was based primarily on how the player moved and employed offensive abilities, rather than being done with just boosting health or random chance. The death mechanic being one where death still comes at a reasonable loss, but exists primarily to give you a chance to learn from your mistakes, instead of being there only to penalize you for not playing perfectly (see "hardcore" mode).

 

Really though, comparing the two, I think the Kings Field series is a better group of games.

[hoofhearted4]

i dont think the Souls series is as hard as everyone makes it seem though. people make it seem like its a Hardcore Game made for Hardcore Gamers and if you cant stand the heat get out of the kitchen type thing. the game itself isnt all that hard. its quite easy really. its the learning curve that takes a bit. especially for a new person new to the series, it takes a bit to figure out the controlls, and what you should be doing. if/once you know that, the game is fairly easy. Coming from Demons Souls myself, i knew these controlls and whatnot. though slightly different, it didnt take long to figure them out. i think i went through the game with (if i were to guess) around 30 deaths. and at least half came within the first Bell. getting used the game and whatnot. once i got the hang of the new mechanics and stuff, i found the game pretty easy.

 

i do find Dark to be slightly harder then Demons. the enemies attacks are a little more varied, rather there are more enemies in general, with new attacks. but a (good) shield still makes even your first trek through a cake walk. without a shield is some really difficulty, which again, at least for me, i find it harder to go shieldless in Dark Souls then i did Demons, but that may be due to the countless times ive played Demons and also Demons Souls having Second Chance, which imo made taking risks more fun :P

Edited December 14, 2012 by hoofhearted4

[Vagrant0]

i dont think the Souls series is as hard as everyone makes it seem though. people make it seem like its a Hardcore Game made for Hardcore Gamers and if you cant stand the heat get out of the kitchen type thing. the game itself isnt all that hard. its quite easy really. its the learning curve that takes a bit. especially for a new person new to the series, it takes a bit to figure out the controlls, and what you should be doing. if/once you know that, the game is fairly easy. Coming from Demons Souls myself, i knew these controlls and whatnot. though slightly different, it didnt take long to figure them out. i think i went through the game with (if i were to guess) around 30 deaths. and at least half came within the first Bell. getting used the game and whatnot. once i got the hang of the new mechanics and stuff, i found the game pretty easy.

 

i do find Dark to be slightly harder then Demons. the enemies attacks are a little more varied, rather there are more enemies in general, with new attacks. but a (good) shield still makes even your first trek through a cake walk. without a shield is some really difficulty, which again, at least for me, i find it harder to go shieldless in Dark Souls then i did Demons, but that may be due to the countless times ive played Demons and also Demons Souls having Second Chance, which imo made taking risks more fun :P

The controls are more of a PC issue. Partially because of a bad port, partially because it doesn't let you map most of the symbol keys to actions so that you can't really play with WSAD, IKJL or use the numberpad and have enough keys within easy range to press. The fact that menus are hard-locked to default buttons, and that the button hints at the bottom are totally useless only adds to making things fairly cumbersome once you start using more than block, parry, and attack.

 

The difficulty perception comes mostly from how unforgiving the game is compared to most since healing is limited and you can't recover just by standing still for a few seconds. Starting out, you can really only survive a few hits from the weakest opponents, so getting timings and controls right becomes crucial to making any real progress. Most aren't leveled enough, or familiar enough with the controls by the time they get to the first Taurus demon, so what follows is usually 2-3 hours of chain deaths as they rage at the screen and fall to their deaths trying to find alternative routes. It's not the sort of game that most are familiar playing, and since people have this warped belief that death = hard, the hype stuck.

 

Personally, most of my deaths come from falling off ledges or not making jumps, particularly getting through Blighttown, or getting the 3shot crossbow in the library, but most of that was due to camera or control issues. But then again I got bored of the grind and cheated myself levels a little after the second bell, so I played through most of it on easy mode.

[Rennn]

 

The difficulty perception comes mostly from how unforgiving the game is compared to most since healing is limited and you can't recover just by standing still for a few seconds. Starting out, you can really only survive a few hits from the weakest opponents, so getting timings and controls right becomes crucial to making any real progress. Most aren't leveled enough, or familiar enough with the controls by the time they get to the first Taurus demon, so what follows is usually 2-3 hours of chain deaths as they rage at the screen and fall to their deaths trying to find alternative routes. It's not the sort of game that most are familiar playing, and since people have this warped belief that death = hard, the hype stuck.

 

 

You speak the truth. When you know what you're doing, most deaths won't be from enemies. I made it all the way to the bell of Awakening near Quelaag in NG+, and took 4 hits since starting the playthrough. I literally haven't levelled my health at all from the very beginning of NG, and I use the gear that looks cool imo (in this case, Gwyndolin's stuff), and it has almost no physical defense. I get two-hit by hollow soldiers in NG+, and one-hit by almost anything else. I beat the final boss fight with Gwyn in NG, only taking one hit. That hit was a grave error on my part, but fortunately it didn't kill me instantly. When I reach him in NG+, I certainly won't be able to afford even a single hit from him.

 

The last two black phantoms to invade me didn't land a hit, as I closed the distance fast and took off most of their health with Dark Bead. After that, I chased one around until he jumped off a cliff, and the other I skewered with Velka's Rapier from behind my shield. The one before them was in regular NG instead of NG+, and he one-hit me with a buffed claymore.

 

So yes, I took four hits and died two of those four times in NG+. I died once to a black knight, and once to Quelaag, and ofc both killed me in one hit. That's two kills from enemies, and I died between 3-5 times from falling off high areas in Blight Town. Once I fell off a tower fleeing a black knight, and I survived that with only a tiny fraction of my health left. The black knight then landed near me and killed me.

 

The moral of the story is that the game is really not terribly hard once you know what you're doing. Even a tiny mistake though, will get you killed, so while it may not be that hard, it's unforgiving.

And the secondary lesson is that Velka's Rapier +5 with an int+dex build is great, at least in NG and NG+. I haven't tested past that yet. Without it, I would have been hit far more often. As it stands now, I survive with my pathetic health and defense because I never have to drop my shield to attack. And, my ultra light gear ensures that I can always roll with minimum encumbrance.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Rennn

[K00L]

I agree. Once I finally got the hang of it the game seemed much easier. Edges tend to be a problem for me in every game though. And in Dark Souls edges and I did not get along... At all.

 

I am looking forward to the next one even though it seems like quite a few people are worried.

[Rennn]

I agree. Once I finally got the hang of it the game seemed much easier. Edges tend to be a problem for me in every game though. And in Dark Souls edges and I did not get along... At all.

 

I am looking forward to the next one even though it seems like quite a few people are worried.

 

The collision detection is a bit dodgy in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Still better than most rpg's, sure, but in an action-focused game like Dark Souls, precise character motion is a necessity. While like 95% of the collision detection is solid, you slide off an edge or stand on an invisible piece of mesh just often enough to make it annoying. It doesn't normally effect the gameplay, but if I had to choose one thing to improve in Dark Souls 2, forgetting all other changes, I would hope that collision detection was revamped.

[Rennn]

Not a perfect game by a longshot (control scheme sucks for one), but it does many things right for those who enjoy games with a similar basis and type of difficulty. It took me awhile to figure it out, but many of the reasons why I liked Darksouls were for the same reason why I liked the Kings Field games for Playstation. It kept the world simple, but large and littered with secrets and shortcuts. The storyline was also minimal so that most of the narrative base came about by the player's actions. The difficulty was based primarily on how the player moved and employed offensive abilities, rather than being done with just boosting health or random chance. The death mechanic being one where death still comes at a reasonable loss, but exists primarily to give you a chance to learn from your mistakes, instead of being there only to penalize you for not playing perfectly (see "hardcore" mode).

 

Really though, comparing the two, I think the Kings Field series is a better group of games.

 

I've only played KF4, and I was already on PC gaming by the time I finally picked it up. It quite impressed me... It was the last PS2 game I sank more than an hour into. I think I almost finished it, but I stalled out around the area with the crypts, where the four-armed guys and pterodactyl-esque creatures are located. I do really miss the first person camera. I understand it might not have worked for the combat in the Souls games, but I still would have preferred the option.

 

It occurs to me that Skyrim is the perfect game for a mod of that type, due to its first person camera, cumbersome combat, and open world oriented engine.

[hoofhearted4]

I agree. Once I finally got the hang of it the game seemed much easier. Edges tend to be a problem for me in every game though. And in Dark Souls edges and I did not get along... At all.

 

I am looking forward to the next one even though it seems like quite a few people are worried.

 

The collision detection is a bit dodgy in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Still better than most rpg's, sure, but in an action-focused game like Dark Souls, precise character motion is a necessity. While like 95% of the collision detection is solid, you slide off an edge or stand on an invisible piece of mesh just often enough to make it annoying. It doesn't normally effect the gameplay, but if I had to choose one thing to improve in Dark Souls 2, forgetting all other changes, I would hope that collision detection was revamped.

^This. in both Demons and Dark Souls, if rolled to a ledge and ive hung there for a second as the game tried to figure out if i made it or not, only to slide off the edge and fall to my death.

[hector530]

some more details

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/12/17/dark-souls-director-miyazaki-working-on-new-game?abthid=50cf12b1083e47300a000028

[hoofhearted4]

some more details

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/12/17/dark-souls-director-miyazaki-working-on-new-game?abthid=50cf12b1083e47300a000028

 

would be amazingly cool if that separate project was a Demons Souls 2 (though it would be a PS3 exclusive im sure) but i bet its something entirely different from the Souls Series.