Speaking of DLCs, don't forget that Ivory King DLC brought us the Bone Fist, its possibly one of the silliest weapons to ever exist, but its so fun to use, especially in powerstance, i've made a character just for it.
I feel like Dark Souls 3 was a quagmire with a couple of kernels of gold mired in amongst the crappier levels, with active spoonfeeding of regurgitated crap from Dark Souls 1 to make people pop boners over that game. I love DS1 but when "ANOR LONDO"came on screen I
actively told the game to fuck off and it never regained my attention again. It put me in such an angry funk that they were so creatively bankrupt and so limply trudging through the motions of a Souls game that I feel like the whole experience was soured. I beat the game, but after it I wished I hadn't.
I remember the first time I got there in three "hey this looks a lot like Anor Londo". Screen: ANOR LONDO. "oh...huh"
Is this the thread where everyone realizes that DS2 actually wasn't as bad as people make it out to be?
Don't get me wrong, some things about DS2 aren't that great, but overall, I still really enjoyed my time with it. Hell, it's probably the Souls game I played the most.
I did enjoy DS3, but I guess at that point fatigue with playing these games was starting to set in, so I just essentially dropped it after beating it.
What??? You guys hated Anor Londo in DS3? I loved that moment. And somehow I literally didn't even see the huge castle until I was just coming up the elevator. It took me by surprise and it was really fun running around the area seeing how much has changed since DS1 and how corrupted that place had become.
I'm pretty sure I even beat aldrich on my first try after a grueling battle. I don't get how people can be upset about them technically re-using DS1 assets. Like it's fan service, it might not make much sense but it's a fun throwback. Like I wouldn't have minded if they had remade the whole friggin DS1 environment adjacent to DS3's and let us explore it all again after its been atrophied and overrun with even more fucked up undead.
I tried to go back to DS2 after playing DS3 and Bloodborne, but I just couldn't get back into 2. The game just feels like such a slog, and the slower gameplay and actions just don't help.
The last games have their problems to be sure. DS2 was cobbled together from different ideas, due to them not being fesable. DS3 suffered form being rushed out the door, more so than any of th eother games.
DS2 is full of half-baked or cut idea and story, and levels hacked together in a nonseniscle way as bridging areas were cut due to the pseudo open world they originally envisioned not being possible on the hardware. Then the various story ideas being cut or changed late in development due to the change in direction. Areas were poorly stitched together, and often stripped down to meet the weak hardware of the systems it was on. The game should have been delayed into the next console generation. DS2 was developed as a big, ambitious game, where most of that ended up being lost.
DS3 was rushed, and ended up having all the interesting systems and mechanics cut out or scrapped, and the levels being smaller and more linear. Many of those DS1 references likely came to be just as a time saving method. The rushed world design relaly shows in all the geometry holes, out of place proprs, and geometry errors. It just looks like the world never got time to be polished. THe Anor Londo Elevator just goes into the ground and doesn't have any sort of mechanical illusion to it, and it looks really bad. DS3 was a lot more abitious of a game if you look back at the earlier alpha stuff and the recent videos.
In short, DS2 suffered from being two different game ideas forced into one due to changes in direction and hardware limitations, while DS3 was just plain rushed out the door. Thye claim DS3 began development in 2013 (one year after Bloodborne began development), but it seems more like it began in late 2014, and didn't go full steam until Bloodborne was done.
In terms of game developmenttime, Dark Souls was made in around 14 months, DS2 had between 24 and 30 months, And while DS 3 says it had around 24 months of dev time, it seems more like it was really only around 12 to 14 again. Bloodborne also had between 30 and 34 months of development, and had the most work done on it of any of the Souls type from games.
Some references in ds3 were pretty egregious but it's not like DS2 didn't have bizarre shoehorned DS1 references that didn't make sense. Plus either way I don't understand why the second or third game in a series having references to an earlier game is something people get up in arms about. Like yeah they're all thematically connected and set in the same universe, did you expect all of them to just exist in a vacuum apart from each other?
Dark Souls 2's references irritated me but it didn't have to wholesale reference the level that everyone (purportedly) loved from the first game But With Snow. Irithyll was a breathtakingly beautiful level and in my eye having to connect it to AL just sort of cheapened it.
Honestly I think DS3 had a lot of half assed callbacks that annoyed me, but I don't think Anor Londo is a good example of it because they put care into making it significant. So many other things are just sort of there for the heck of it, mainly NPC's and equipment, where I would have much rather seen unique items instead. I think it also bothered me more because it came after Bloodborne, which felt completely unique.
How did they make Anor Londo significant lmao they just copy pasted the cathedral next to a far more interesting area. It's just sitting there awkwardly.
In terms of literal location it's not significant. Story and lore-wise it's pretty beefy. It shows what happened to the area and a few characters between games, expands on a few things you learn in the Cathedral of the Deep about Aldritch and the deacons, etc.
Yeah, I think Irithyll was way better to play through and a lot better aesthetically. But having the chapel there being ratty and gone to hell basically gives you a big signpost saying 'hey remember this pristine bright area well now everything fucking sucks, half the people you've been fighting are the direct cause of this, good luck.' It's kind of like the Mass Effect 2 mission where you explore the wreckage of the original Normandy - the actual mission is boring but seeing something familiar just totally wrecked is supposed to ping your brain and contextualize how bad everything is
It obviously didn't work for everyone, but there's definitely parts of it I can appreciate it.
I think Oneiric explained it better than I could. For me it was a good experience, possibly aided by how it was deliberately hidden and made so you would slowly realize on your own before the text pops up, plus the expectation of finding out what has happened to things within the area. In any case, if you claim that it's an awkward and unnecessary callback I might agree - I just don't think it's anywhere near the best example. Things that bothered me way more were things like not-Siegmeyer just being there and acting exactly like Siegmeyer, Ornstein's full pristine armor just lying on the floor, the perceived high ratio of rehashed items to unique items, Havel's back again, etc.
Anor Londo isn't the only thing that bothers me and to be honest its the physical positioning of it that gets me the most, it just seems lazy. The game just feels shackled to DS1 and there are a few moments they show you some shit unique to DS3 that just doesn't get built on because they're tripping over themselves to throw another DS1 thing at you.
The Profaned Capital seemed like such an interesting concept and it was wasted so bad and The Ringed City felt like bad fanfiction that kind of retroactively shits on the lonely "all the gods are dead" atmosphere DS1 had because GOTTEM there was actually a whole city of them elsewhere just chillin
DS2 and DS3 are two different types of sequel, two different ways to take the series that don't mesh together particularly well
DS2 is more of a spiritual continuation, where most of what was in the first game is now gone and forgotten or perhaps lives on in a different form with the same themes
DS3 is a more direct sequel where you can still feel the direct effects of DS1 with some of the same characters and factions still hanging around
This may have made more sense if they were switched around, but it feels like you're jumping far forward in time just to jump back... but it's actually later in the timeline, with characters from DS2 turning up
I liked Anor Londo in 3 because it makes sense for the new world to be built upon the ruins of the old and it was cool seeing that in action. It's like driving from the new part of town full of fancy apartment blocks to the bit just down the road that's all hundred year old rundown houses.
The issues I have with Anor Londo's cameo (because let's not try to sugar coat it, that's just what it is) in Dark Souls III are that the only part of the original area which survived "the passing of the various cycles" is, accidentally, the single area housing one of the most infamous boss encounter from the original game, with nothing else attached, and that the whole new layout can be best described as a glorified hallway between the local bonefire and the new boss, so it's just there for the sake of being there. It doesn't even count as a nostalgia level of any kind.
The Irithyll of the Boreal Valley coming before it is a much more original and fleshed out area, but there's a reason why many refer to it as "It's Christmas in Yharnam"
Well one of the things in DS3 is also time is beginning to fold into itself. Bits of times and places long past have begun to show up without much explanation. The Highwall of Lothric appeared suddenly and cut off the undead settlement from where ever it originally connected to. The world is slowly rolling into itself, centered around the first flame. At leaast that serves as their excuse for many of the DS1 references.
Recently been playing Bloodborne again. My 4th playthrough now, and it's my first time using threaded cane throughout the game. I think it's incredibly strong against certain bosses, you just need to have a defensive mindset and use that spacing to your advantage.
I absolutely love this game. I still consider BB to be the best Soulsborne game hands-down.
The canes whip mode does extra against beasts like all serrated weapons so its real good against most of the early bosses. The long range is a bonus
I kind of agree. Dark Souls 3 feels like a hodgepodge of Bloodborne and the first game without really having an identity of it's own. I liked seeing Anor Londo again but Siegward really annoyed me. Admittedly he turned out to be a great character, even greater than Siegmeyer in my opinion, but his presence is still a cynical attempt to exploit the player's nostalgia.
2 isn't a perfect game but at least it had some personality. I personally rank it higher than 3.
https://youtu.be/zziY68RdKK4
Anybody try out Ashen yet? Watching a stream and it seems like one of the better souls clones.
i never thought about it but i was talking with a friend about the lost kingdoms games and i never knew they were made by from software and that actually makes a lot of sense.
Was gonna ask about this aswell, same question
Ashen is only available on the Epic Games Store, so most haven't played it yet. I watched LobosJr play it on stream a while ago and it looks pretty good. Though like many Souls-likes it doesn't seem to be as precise as I would like.
Yeah, I'm going to wait for it to drop on steam (if it ever does) before picking it up. Ironically, I found it through a facebook ad...
i got a king's field tattoo on my leg
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110593/9a28293f-427c-426c-ae2c-25668014a5b3/Screen Shot 2018-12-13 at 3.51.35 PM.png
https://youtu.be/DjDpk4sTFsA
Seems like the lore would have better if we got that alpha stuff. Baby smashing probably didn't go over well with rating boards though.
Wow, I was aware of Ocelote being crushed getting cut and thinking it might have been pretty brutal yet still fitting for the series
But shit the fact that he survives it is pretty horrifying + the crunchy walking animation sounds... goddamn
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