this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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I'm still bouncing on DS. I've tried about 4 or 5 times now, getting farther each time, but honestly... Hating it more each time. The last time I just full on started cheating with Cheat Engine after a lot of frustration and I... Still ended up frustrated and exhausted by the gameplay.
I've tried Dark Souls so many times and I finally just accepted that it's just not my kind of game.
If you want a "lite" kind of similar game. Jedi Fallen order had a similar kind of thing going on but I was able to play all the way through it. It wasn't quite as punishing when you died.
Sorry anyone that doesn't appreciate my comparison, that was just my thoughts on it. I know they are very different games overall.
Funny, I tore through Fallen Order. I didn't see the similarities you did though.
It was the checkpoint thing and the combat that made it seem similar to me. Where you proceed through parts of the map before it lets you save and later you can open up shortcuts. Obviously Dark souls has more options for weapons but fundamentally they felt similar to me. I did not get very deep into Dark Souls.
That's about where I'm at with it. The way people talk about it makes it feel like a stepping stone I'm supposed to experience at least once, but it's not enjoyable for me. It's just unrelenting punishment for the entire game.
There's no list of must play games. You do you.
I bounced off Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and it wasn't until I played Bloodborne that I finally got it.
Don't worry about souls (XP) and losing them when you die. Stick early XP into health for a bit to give you more chances to learn, and stamina for more rolling about. Your damage will come mostly from weapon upgrades.
Spend your first runs in a new area learning the enemy attacks and layout, and what you can block or have to roll away from. This is the main thing you're levelling by playing. The old "gitting gud". And it will happen, because honestly it's not that hard for the most part. It's just uncompromising, and will punish you when you stop paying attention.
Shortcuts are everywhere. Just about every area has something to unlock to make getting back to the boss faster.
Too much armour will be a hindrance. It's heavy and makes it so you can't move or roll as fast.
I totally get all of that, but like... It's not fun? And I'm really REALLY bad. It took me way too long to get the timing down for even Undead Berg and other lower level areas. Like, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to even get out of the starting area. I just panic in games too much as soon as anything goes wrong. ๐
Yeah, I get you. I think some of the disconnect is because it looks like a standard hack and slash action game, but it kind of isn't.
I dunno, it's hard to explain. It's like a lot of the difficulty is just understanding what it wants you to do. And you can hardly go look at how "good players" do it, because they're running past everything in their underpants and parrying which is stupidly hard in DS1. The only place I needed to parry was the very last boss.
I found a good start in DS1 for most enemies was to put your shield up, walk in really close, and try and get behind them to stab. It's kind of cheesy, and there's a few things it won't work for, but it served me pretty well until I got the hang of it more.