Dark Souls 3: Prepare to Drei

[Sir T]

Diablo Souls?

[schild]

Don't say that. Makes me want to play it.

[lesion]

No, still definitely Dark Souls. Just the fashionest of souls.

[Xuri]

If... I've never played a Dark Souls game before... should I jump straight to Dark Souls 3, or start somewhere else? Assume I only have a PC, and that consoles don't exist. :X

[Falconeer]

You can start from this one, no problem. As said an infinite amount of times, Demon's Souls is the best one, but you need a PS3. As a PC gamer, your options are limited to the three Dark Souls and while cases can be made for which one is the best, they are all awesome games so pick whichever you want. Note: 1st was a bad port unless they patched it somehow, and 3rd has the best graphics. 2nd has probably the best expansion which raises the overall value, and that has to be taken into account if you are buying the "Scholar of the First Sin" edition.

[Velorath]

I appreciated what Demon's Souls was doing back when I played it.  It was very hard but rewarded mastery.  The atmosphere was perfect.  

I ended up getting to the point where I could do pretty decent, but overall, the frustration of learning every new encounter, memorizing monster placements and dealing with the control scheme (which is fine for the game) wore me down.  I don't really want to play a game where I need to continually improve over the course of the game.  20 year old me would probably love it.  37 year old me wants to relax at some point and just faceroll.  

I think I got to the first bonfire in Dark Souls 1 and never got much beyond.  The game doesn't offer me anything at this time in my life that's worth the skill climb.  That sort of need for continual improvement only really appeals to me in a competitive PVP environment where at least my baseline to carry me to a comfortable place in many instances.

tl:dr I don't want to get gud.  

The series has gotten less and less about mastery, memorizing enemy placements, and encounters that have little margin of error. You can farm souls without fear of losing them on death by putting down your co-op sign and getting summoned into someone else's game. You can't pick up items or progress in the game while you're doing it, but you get souls at the rate you normally would when killing enemies. You can summon people to help you even when you aren't at a boss enounter. Dark Souls 3 is in a lot of ways as easy or as hard as you feel like making it.

[Cyrrex]

You can start from this one, no problem. As said an infinite amount of times, Demon's Souls is the best one, but you need a PS3. As a PC gamer, your options are limited to the three Dark Souls and while cases can be made for which one is the best, they are all awesome games so pick whichever you want. Note: 1st was a bad port unless they patched it somehow, and 3rd has the best graphics. 2nd has probably the best expansion which raises the overall value, and that has to be taken into account if you are buying the "Scholar of the First Sin" edition.

I re-bought DS1 for PC two weeks ago.  I already have it on the PS3, but didn't want to bring out that old dinosaur.  I had heard about it being a bad port, and when I first fired it up...the graphics are just terrible.  As in "they literally just ported this thing and did nothing to improve it" and it probably ends up looking worse than the original if you are trying to view it in 1080p.  Luckily, it took no time at all to figure out there is a must-have patch (called DSfix or something).  Apply that sucker and it makes a world of difference, all sharp and shiny.  Bad port becomes Great port, and worth every bit of the 5 or 10 bucks I paid for it.

[Jeff Kelly]

I second the recommendation for DSFix. It turned the PC version from being a very poor port into the definitive version of the game.

[Falconeer]

I was looking into ways to emulate the PS3 and re-play Demon's Souls on my PC but due to the Cell processors on PS3 that is not gonna happen. Eventually, I'll get the PS3 back to form as I will need a Demon's Souls fix in a few months.

I really don't care about bad graphics but I would care if for any reason the controls or the reaction times were 1 milliseconds different from the originals, and that's true for Dark Souls 1 too. It's good to know the port has improved over the years, as I am seriously considering to replay all the four games (minus Bloodborne, I'll do that in a few years, after Bloodborne 3) in the next few months.

This series started as a darkest horse in the history of gaming, and it has somehow evolved into a semi-mainstream sensation that a lot of people like to dislike. The legends about its difficulty are vastly exaggerated though, because as Velorath said it can be played (and cheesed) in so many ways that it can be pretty much whatever you want. As Schild also said, these games are amongst the fairest ever made but they don't really force the player to be fair too. And Demon's Souls was definitely the hardest, the most impenetrable and the least forgiving. Since the Dark Souls era, things have become "friendlier" with every iteration. Luckily though, the overall quality is still stellar.

[Nija]

Lots of hindsight when people talk about Demon's Souls.

I replayed it recently at Halloween. I played three entire sessions (~8 hours?) without dying once. I wouldn't discount the later games because of difficulty. The reduced difficulty perception has to do with everyone getting used to the systems.

The camera problems and accidental moves are way more prevalent and frustrating in Demon's Souls as well.

I mean, I have played an entire game of the whole series since October. It's somewhat fresh in my ancient mind. The only thing that stands out as being difficult to the point of being a cock punch is Ornstein and Smough.

I'd suggest that you pick up a PS3 on craigslist and see how you fare. You may be surprised.

[Falconeer]

I agree with pretty much all you said. My reasoning behind Demon's Souls being less forgiving was mostly about the fact that "save points" were less common than any of the following titles. Hence, a tendency to lose all the souls much more often. Also, a lot of stuff was completely obscure, like the separated world and character tendencies that made, among other things, the mobs easier or harder. You could effectively crank the difficulty up without even knowing. Now THAT was punishing.

[jakonovski]

Man, they really did nerf magic in this one. I went high int and I'm still a melee dude most of the way. Crazy high requirements if you want something else than bog standard spells too.

Also, currently fighting loads of skeletons. Their mightiest weapon is standing on ledges and fucking up the camera.
 

[Thrawn]

I second the recommendation for DSFix. It turned the PC version from being a very poor port into the definitive version of the game.

Playing Dark Souls for the first time (PC), installed DSFix and all it did was cause my game to crash, a LOT.

[Gimfain]

I ended up adapting my gamestyle for this one, I have gone from UGS and hiding behind a sturdy shield to quicker swords and relying far more on dodge. Abyss watchers and the pontiff forced me to play better which is nice. There has been a few gimmicky bosses which i generally dislike and a few that turned into the usual, hit their back leg. Hope the late ones are good.

So far the biggest problem has been finding a weapon I like and a proper build. My current build so far is mostly about trying to test all sorts of weapons. Also, not enough material to upgrade all the nice looking boss weapons.

[Yegolev]

Traditionally requires multiple plays to get all weapons and to even upgrade the ones you get the first time.

Demon's Souls has a few bothersome quirks, like how the arrow always goes to the right of the crosshair.  Also I will often waste arrows on invisible geometry.  I'm wasting arrows because I don't know how to aim Soul Arrow.

[Falconeer]

Dark Souls boardgame reaches goal within 3 minutes. Asked for $70000, it's at 1.3 million (1875% of goal) after three days and with twentyfive to go.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamforged/dark-soulstm-the-board-game

[Yegolev]

Dude on cover is giving "thumbs up" gesture.

[Falconeer]

That's the official cover of all the Dark Souls 3 things. I hate it because that is exactly what I see. Instead, he's letting some sand/ash drop. Very shitty cover/picture for this year's game if you ask me.

[Gimfain]

This one grew on me, found it better than both dark souls 1 and 2. Some really good fights and I definitely cursed my slow reflexes at times but still doable without relying on summons or other cheesy stuff. Felt like a good ending of the series.

[Druzil]

This might end up being my favorite as well.  I'm not done yet but slowly getting there.  Just finished Aldrich which was a really fun one.  Screw that second form arrow attack though 

[Falconeer]

It's a very very solid iteration. My only complains so far are about the backstabs (too easy to perform), and the unreliable net code at least on the PC. And maybe it could have used a bit more gloom, but that's just me. It's as great as any Dark Souls game should be. I am taking it super slow, checking every nook and cranny and refusing to advance until I have killed everything in sight in every zone. It doesn't have that my build is a deliberate self-gimp: ranged is forbidden, magic is forbidden, miracles are forbidden, co-op and summons are forbidden. And I refuse to over-upgrade my weapon (so far a Claymore +3) to avoid trivializing the content. And I started as a Deprived. So after 41 hours of /played I have only just killed the fifth boss. But hey, I get one of these games every 12 months, so I want it to last.

[Khaldun]

Went back to Crusader Kings II for a week. Still haven't bought the later DLC--I don't like what I've read about what they do to the game. There are definitely some hilariously appropriate unpredictable things that can happen over time. I also really enjoy the strategic problems it throws in your face now and again--how to hold out against a superior force of rebel nobility long enough to have the cash for mercenaries, etc.

[K9]

I seem to have settled into a groove and I am now playing the well known Stealth-Muscle-Wizard class; good times.

[Gimfain]

Fiddled around with a new character to see how things were if you used all advantages and knowledge on beating things and most things become a cakewalk. It wasn't until fourth boss that I upgraded my weapon on my original playthrough and what was really tough stuff the first time became really easy now. There is no doubt that you can ruin your early enjoyment if you optimize yourself early.

However, it got bit crazy when I was at the road of sacrifice. Was going to fight a giant crab when I get invaded by an npc, backtrack and aggroed another giant crab and then I get invaded by a player as well. Figured that I would die fairly quick so I ran to the bonfire where the crabs can't reach me. Player comes and I beat him quickly, kill the npc invader, and then beat the two crabs. It helps that I was already at the health softcap, nice stamina and had a decent shield but it was still a pretty crazy sequence.

[Falconeer]

That area is a joy for PvP. I am a Watcher of Farron so I get summoned there to defend it from players all the time, and two times out of three there's already a red player trying to kill the host. It usually ends up in a weird three-way thing, but sometimes me and the baddie team up to kill the host as that's why we are both there in the first place. Good times.

[Soukyan]

This might end up being my favorite as well.  I'm not done yet but slowly getting there.  Just finished Aldrich which was a really fun one.  Screw that second form arrow attack though  

Same here. Taking my time and having a blast. Killed up through Aldrich, and then proceeded to get seriously rolled by the jailers in Irithyll Dungeon (), so I decided to spend some time doing PvP in Anor Londo. Extremely fun. I'm really loving the game.

[K9]

The Grand Archives are a fun place, Archdragon Peak not so much.

[Jeff Kelly]

I guess you've already heard of the exploit that enables scumbags to softban other players in PvP?

Apparently cheaters found a way via deactivated code in the DS 3 engine to give opponents in PvP hundreds of thousands of souls simply by hitting them. Basically by activating the souls+ "spell" that's also used to give a player souls from enemies. This huge amount of souls then leads to a softban for the affected player because of Bamco's anti cheat mechanism.

If you dig on youtube you will find lots of dickbags using this exploit to grief and ultimately ban lots of players already.

[Falconeer]

This is almost as bad as Poise -my favourite stat- not working.

[Yegolev]

I was convinced to buy DS3 and immediately after I relented and purchased it, the guy tells me that Poise doesn't work.  Fucking shit.  Without poise, might as well just play whip bitch in Bloodborne.

[Nija]

Use a dark sword.

[Druzil]

Finally finished.  A few of those last bosses are real treat.  Mainly    All of them have easy first forms then just drill you with their second forms. 

Feels good to be done. 

[Yegolev]

I made it past the first boss.  Do you people have jobs and families?

[Nija]

Yes. htfu

[Falconeer]

Hey, I clocked 55 hours so far. But it has been out for a month. Come on.