Dark Souls - I played it and wish I had my time back...

[D-Railer]

So uh... I gave it about 45 minutes, I guess? Just got to the first boss, got my ass handed to me, and was not struck in any way that I should get all addicted and try again. I was mostly struck by the fact that I had "learned" controls by having them texted to me from ancient game manuals inscribed in the ground (that had impressively archaic words like "LB" complete with a carefully chiseled button shape...) anywhere from one to four at a time, without much in the way of context. "Here's a bunch of shit we hope you remember." No thanks.

Also the audio was HORRIBLE. What the hell is that walking through grass noise? Why does that arrow sound like it is hitting metal on metal when it hits the stone wall?

Can somebody who has played this a bit sell me into it?

[Chronik Pest]

original Dark souls or Dark Souls II?

either way... it's great because staying alive through each step of the game takes the same patient learning that mastering one of the classic fighting games took. The controls are tight, for the most part and nothing's given to the player without having earned it.

some people feel the challenge is more of a grind than a building progression, but I loved 'em both. they've each delighted me for hundreds of hours.

[Ollie C]

Watch a video about defeating the first boss -- I think once you recognize "the pattern," you might recognize that the entire game is a fighting-game of pattern recognition.

Might not be your thing. I didn't get it until about 2 hours in and my combat started to "click".

[D-Railer]

original Dark souls or Dark Souls II?

either way... it's great because staying alive through each step of the game takes the same patient learning that mastering one of the classic fighting games took. The controls are tight, for the most part and nothing's given to the player without having earned it.

some people feel the challenge is more of a grind than a building progression, but I loved 'em both. they've each delighted me for hundreds of hours.

Original.

@Ollie - Cool.

I uh... I dunno... I don't have any problem stringing moves together in any game, and I don't expect to be "given" anything other than a proper introduction to the controls. I was told to click some buttons to do some moves, but not anything about the moves other than what each move is called. I might as well be playing it in Chinese. I was cool with attack weak, attack strong, lock on, roll back... all that stuff. The shield? Hey awesome, they GAVE me a shield, and then put me up against a guy with a bow... THAT made sense to me. But then I come around this corner and it is like "flipdidoo and yabbadabba ding dong are these two buttons..." (moments later) "Oh hi, me again... watoosi and macarena are these two other buttons." (moments later) "Did you want to enter the light of boss fight? y/n?" Uh... n.

I'm not mocking the people that like it, just not liking the way this stuff is introduced, I guess. Maybe they felt this was important in a "look, we plan on destroying you later, let's get used to it now" kind of way.

[Ollie C]

Original.

@Ollie - Cool.

I uh... I dunno... I don't have any problem stringing moves together in any game, and I don't expect to be "given" anything other than a proper introduction to the controls. I was told to click some buttons to do some moves, but not anything about the moves other than what each move is called. I might as well be playing it in Chinese. I was cool with attack weak, attack strong, lock on, roll back... all that stuff. The shield? Hey awesome, they GAVE me a shield, and then put me up against a guy with a bow... THAT made sense to me. But then I come around this corner and it is like "flipdidoo and yabbadabba ding dong are these two buttons..." (moments later) "Oh hi, me again... watoosi and macarena are these two other buttons." (moments later) "Did you want to enter the light of boss fight? y/n?" Uh... n.

I'm not mocking the people that like it, just not liking the way this stuff is introduced, I guess. Maybe they felt this was important in a "look, we plan on destroying you later, let's get used to it now" kind of way.

Step 1: Don't string together moves. Trying to recklessly combo will get you killed. The best way to practice/warm up is follow the mantra: "hit and move." The quickest way to die is to try to add an extra strike to one or two successful ones. Failure comes when you overcommit, which is pretty much unlike most hack & slashers that have ever existed.

They do an extremely shitty job of explaining this.

Step 2: The lack of hand-holding is completely intentional and harkens back to an earlier era of video gaming. If you really want to understand, the level of depth and complexity falls outside of what could possibly be conveyed via tutorial. For example, not all classes start with that shield. And honestly, you should be rolling for arrows anyhow.

This isn't explained anywhere. Hell, most of the mechanics are never explained and honestly only a fraction of them pertain to any given character until ~SL 200. I had to look up what a "power stance" was the other day because I main a magic-user. Then I found out that you need a certain extra combination of str/dex beyond what's normally required to wield the weapon. THEN I find out that there's special weapon combinations that strike much faster while power-stanced, and that explain what that asshole with the axe managed to screw me with. This is all information that hasn't been relevant to me for about 100+ hours of game time.

But that's part of the appeal as well -- very few people know all of the mechanics. You may not need to experience those mechanics on a given playthrough. It actually winds up keeping things fresh.

Yeah, the entire game is opaque. There's no notification of how to build a character's stats toward a particular goal, no explanation that your starting class is largely meaningless, no explanation of how brutal the min/max'ing can be. There's no direction given to the player -- the order in which you tackle challenges is up to the player, and largely dependent on skill and whether or not you can survive a particular area at your current power levels. You can easily wander into something that's too challenging for you. The game never explains that you'll need to grind the hell out of some areas to continue in others. It only gets more opaque as you move along.

As a general rule, I tool along on my own until I find something insurmountable, then I check the Wiki. It's like being 12 with a Nintendo Power splayed out on my lap. It's a relic of a lost era.

But if you need your explanation to come in-game, you're (unfortunately) going to continue to be disappointed. Then again, that's what the white chalk messages on the ground are for. Then again...well, some of those are quite trollish, and we'll leave it at that. (HORSE BUT AHEAD)

All that said, it's stupidly demanding. This is the first game that's caused me to utter the words "invincibility frames" or engage in language from fighting games like "spacing" or "footsie". I think people get addicted to the feeling of accomplishment when they finally successfully beat what appeared to be an insurmountable foe.

[Ollie C]

(and if you plan on leaving your console plugged in, you're going to have to at least read up on the PVP meta -- that has huge implications as well)