One of the key appeals of video games, in my mind, is that you get to live vicariously through the characters you play. Whatever they feel, you feel, and whatever they do, you feel as if you did it yourself. That’s why, if the game is well-made, it doesn’t have to be difficult for me personally - if it was difficult for the character, and they succeeded, I feel the same level of personal achievement as if I had overcome the difficulty myself. Gaming is first and foremost intentional self-delusion. Know what I mean?
That would be because it is not, in fact, a single-player game ;). You can summon other players for help as well as get invaded by hostile players. As well there’s a constant stream of ghostly shapes of other players you can glimpse as they’re playing on their own side of the world ; and a messaging system to leave/get hints (or misinformation. Or HILARIOUS jokes you definitely haven’t read a million times and memes that will never ever be run into the ground
)
I’ve only played the first Dark Souls, but at least in that one you have the option to turn off the online function and play it entirely as a single-player game.
Well, I pulled the 15 minute figure from nowhere. And I was actually thinking of the final mission from GTA: San Andreas when I talked about having to replay a whole section after failing; you have to fight through a bunch of enemies (easy for me), kill a boss guy (still relatively easy), and then drive through a bunch of obstacles at high speed without crashing (very, very difficult for me). I never did finish that game either.
And the place where I gave up on Dark Souls wasn’t a boss: it was that narrow flying buttress you have to walk up while enemies are attacking you. Googling it, it seems that you can kill all the enemies before walking up the buttress, but I never figured out how to do it and I have no real interest in going back and trying it.
Nope. You can only find a safe spot, like an area cleared/devoid of enemies, to investigate the menus and options. Most bonfires you spawn at are a good place. The intent, I think, is a sense that you are never quite safe.
In actuality, it leads more to resigned annoyance.
I’m guessing this game is for video game experts. I would have liked it better if it had save points and it let you keep the items you used before you were killed.
I heard there was a Dark Souls 2. So congratulations Bandai/Namco, by making it so hard you just lost a future customer.
One of the most interesting things you end up discovering in the end of Dark Souls 1 is that it is actually 100% fair. The boss isn’t stomping you because of tricks or cheats. He/she’s wrecking you because they are actually that strong/tough/fast. It’s like a baby trying to fight a grown man. But in this case you’re an undead baby so you keep getting back up and getting stronger. And you can become just as strong as they are. By the end you become a boss fighting other bosses; laughing off damage, blocking anything, knocking others off down with a single hit.
If this sounds attractive to you then try playing through the original DS1 before going on to others. If not then yes, find another genre.
They’re one of DS1’s most well known (and reviled) “because fuck you, that’s why” bits of level design that really doesn’t give the player much in the way of options : you either perfectly do the entire run up to the buttress + dodge arrows on your way up + roll into the right one + kill or push him off the ledge ASAP and without getting zapped in the back by the other one ; or you cheese it by using a bow, a fuckton of poison arrows and exploiting the level geometry so that your shots go through the fence but theirs don’t. One’s incredibly punishing, the other is boring as hell.
All the more infuriating that not only are they located at the end of a relatively long & dangerous play “segment” ; but the next bonfire is pretty much right behind them…
One of the legit game design mistakes of DS1 IMO (and the devs know it too - the whole setup and location is called back in DS3 but in a much more forgiving manner)
That, and it’s a constant source of tension even if you’re the type of UTTER COWARD who only plays offline (:D, I do too a lot of the time, especially when I’m playing “fucking around” builds and don’t particularly care to be interrupted by superoptimized murder machines).
Ohshitmyswordjustbroke (which would barely register if you could pause the game to shuffle your inventory). Ohshittheseguyspoison (next time, keep some antidotes on your quickbar, or practice frantically searching for them in the inventory menu). OhshitohshitIalmostgotthatboss (no, you can’t take a breather and calm down before tackling the next phase of the fight). OhshitIhadn’tseenthatguy (no pausing to think about the best next course of action. Think fast).
And I mean, how often do you need to check the controls of a game, fuck with the audio or change the resolution, really ?
I the first hour or two of any game? Constantly. You may have photographic muscle memory, but it takes me a while to figure out what all the buttons do.
And also, I’m a grownup. I have a family, a job, a life. If something more important that video games - which, objectively speaking, is *everything *- comes up, I need to be able to pause the game. That’s not an unreasonable request, is it?
The Dark Souls series is tragic. They could’ve taken their extraordinarily interesting concept and world and made the best Zelda-clone since Okami but instead they got lost in their awful “Dark Souls hard” mechanics.
You can watch someone who knows what they are doing in Dark Souls beat it at level 1 with a broken sword without dying once. What’s the difference between that person and a normal player who struggles with a far more powerful player character? Tedious memorization.
Dark Souls isn’t better because it is hard. It is good inspite of it because everything else is so good. That’s why all of the Dark Souls clones that copy its combat mechanics and difficulty are awful. An awful camera and janky combat aren’t fun. Replaying areas because of an instant-death surprise isn’t fun. Seeing the world slowly open up before you as you trek through it is fun.
Remind anyone who tells you to “git gud” that all single-player games are casual.
“How dare developers create a brand new genre instead of just copying some other game? Gaming doesn’t need any new ideas, games should be functionally identical like all MOBA games ever.” Is that about the gist of your complaint? You know they still make Zelda games, right? Go play one of those and stop whining. Not every game is made for you, and most other people are happier for it.
No, yes, of course - but that’s kind of what I’m saying : it’s a (minor IMO) hurdle early on, and part of that steep learning curve I talked about ; but once you’ve moved past this discomfort - and have become comfortable with the game and its controls - I think the lack of “true” pause enhances the game. Despite the sheer cliff it presents in its first few hours, the game(s) are really worth sticking with IMO. YMMV obviously.
And the tutorials + early zones are “forgiving” (comparatively :)) and level segments short enough that getting creamed isn’t really penalizing : the bonfires are close to each other, the enemies die fast and don’t hit too hard which lets one practice dodge, parry, block timings etc., the amount of XP they give (and that you risk losing via death) are very small… These zones are, in DS1, designed to be forgiving, experimentation-friendly areas that nevertheless non-explicitly teach the player important lessons for the rest of the game.
Thousands of words have been written and spoken about it, but the elegance with which DS1 teaches itself to the player is almost poetry in its efficiency and economy. Bloodbourne as well.
Not at all, but then you can just quit or alt+F4 out - you’ll resume the game exactly where you left it (give or take - I think it pops you back out of boss rooms).
There’s definitely some tension between that (and the reason(s) why they did it that way) and a simple pause button, and obviously the way they resolved that tension has its downsides.
Again, absolutely not. Granted, knowing the game inside and out, the shortcuts and so on is instrumental to most SL1 runs (the overall strategy of a run, the order in which levels & enemies are tackled or avoided) ; but the gameplay loop itself has nothing to do with rote memorization. The difference is genuine skill at and understanding of the game and the way it works.
The same is true of, say, going through Super Mario Bros on a single life or speed-running through Mirror’s Edge in less than 20 minutes. Or playing Bach’s 5th symphony on a piano, or baking a soufflé. Gittin’ gud has nothing to do with frame-perfect memorization or rote repetition.