This topic is all about Dark Souls and any game in the Souls series. This is a place to ask for help or advice or just to discuss your favorite souls games.
The souls series is renowned for its unforgiving difficulty, intense combat, outstanding creature/enemy design, and rewarding gameplay experience.
Feel free to discuss any of the following games:
Demon's Souls
For the PS3 only, this is the first game in the souls series. All levels are accessed via a central hub in the Nexus unlike Dark Souls which is open world. Although to be fair, once you get the Lordvessel in Dark Souls, you'll be warping back and forth anyway.
The game features some different movesets for weapons and a few different game mechanics.
Notable differences:
Soul form: health penalty, more stealthy, other subtle effects
Magic: pyromancy is part of magic, a magic stat is used in addition to intelligence
Faith weapons regenerate health
Grass is used to heal and can have 99 of each
I consider this game better than Dark Souls in a few ways. One, the multiplayer is a bit more fair and challenging. In Dark Souls, it usually boils down to poise-fests and lightning weapon spam. There is still some cheese to be had here, but overall I like it better.
I also think Demon's Souls had a bit more charm.
While I do find myself missing some of the Dark Souls improvements, Dark Souls will never replace Demon's Souls for me, and I will continue to play both.
Next up, the follow-up game:
Dark Souls:
The second souls game, Dark Souls, now makes its way to Xbox 360 and PC in addition to PS3. With new features and improvements, Dark Souls is basically a sequel to Demon's Souls whether they want to call it a sequel or not. The game does reuse some sounds and weapons from Demon's Souls with a few changes here or there.
So, call it a "spiritual successor" call it a "sequel," call it what you want. The main thing is, does it live up to the original? My answer is...YES!
It is by all means a worthy successor to Demon's Souls. Like I said, there were a few changes I didn't like, such as some things that can be exploited in PVP, but overall they added some nice changes.
New additions:
New weapons, armor, enemies, environments, and movesets
Can slide down ladders and jump while running
Plunging attack added
New "open world" design
Bonfires added to create sort of a checkpoint/rest area
Estus flasks replace grass and are always refilled at bonfires
New types of weapon upgrades
Covenants added
Armor poise
Soul form no longer gives health penalty
Things I wish they didn't add:
Elemental weapons are way too easy to exploit (though there were still fire weapons in Demon's Souls)
Pyromancy scales outside of character level (can be exploited in PVP)
Certain weapon moveset changes (I liked some of the movesets in Demon's Souls better)
Some weapon/item balance skewed (though some were fixed in patches)
Overall, both Dark Souls and the DLC are very well done and lead to some intense gaming sessions. It's nice to see a developer stay true to the game series and not dumb it down for casuals.
Dark Souls 2
The upcoming multi-platform game Dark Souls 2 looks to continue the pain and excitement of the souls series. Will it stay true to the series and become a worthy successor? So far, it looks to be that way!
I will not be posting much about Dark Souls 2 since I am trying to avoid spoilers and surprises. However, feel free to discuss the game if you hear anything worth posting. Please use spoiler tags if we have them.
I will edit this post to make it more in depth when I get more time.
The souls series is renowned for its unforgiving difficulty, intense combat, outstanding creature/enemy design, and rewarding gameplay experience.
Feel free to discuss any of the following games:
Demon's Souls
For the PS3 only, this is the first game in the souls series. All levels are accessed via a central hub in the Nexus unlike Dark Souls which is open world. Although to be fair, once you get the Lordvessel in Dark Souls, you'll be warping back and forth anyway.
The game features some different movesets for weapons and a few different game mechanics.
Notable differences:
Soul form: health penalty, more stealthy, other subtle effects
Magic: pyromancy is part of magic, a magic stat is used in addition to intelligence
Faith weapons regenerate health
Grass is used to heal and can have 99 of each
I consider this game better than Dark Souls in a few ways. One, the multiplayer is a bit more fair and challenging. In Dark Souls, it usually boils down to poise-fests and lightning weapon spam. There is still some cheese to be had here, but overall I like it better.
I also think Demon's Souls had a bit more charm.
While I do find myself missing some of the Dark Souls improvements, Dark Souls will never replace Demon's Souls for me, and I will continue to play both.
Next up, the follow-up game:
Dark Souls:
The second souls game, Dark Souls, now makes its way to Xbox 360 and PC in addition to PS3. With new features and improvements, Dark Souls is basically a sequel to Demon's Souls whether they want to call it a sequel or not. The game does reuse some sounds and weapons from Demon's Souls with a few changes here or there.
So, call it a "spiritual successor" call it a "sequel," call it what you want. The main thing is, does it live up to the original? My answer is...YES!
It is by all means a worthy successor to Demon's Souls. Like I said, there were a few changes I didn't like, such as some things that can be exploited in PVP, but overall they added some nice changes.
New additions:
New weapons, armor, enemies, environments, and movesets
Can slide down ladders and jump while running
Plunging attack added
New "open world" design
Bonfires added to create sort of a checkpoint/rest area
Estus flasks replace grass and are always refilled at bonfires
New types of weapon upgrades
Covenants added
Armor poise
Soul form no longer gives health penalty
Things I wish they didn't add:
Elemental weapons are way too easy to exploit (though there were still fire weapons in Demon's Souls)
Pyromancy scales outside of character level (can be exploited in PVP)
Certain weapon moveset changes (I liked some of the movesets in Demon's Souls better)
Some weapon/item balance skewed (though some were fixed in patches)
Overall, both Dark Souls and the DLC are very well done and lead to some intense gaming sessions. It's nice to see a developer stay true to the game series and not dumb it down for casuals.
Dark Souls 2
The upcoming multi-platform game Dark Souls 2 looks to continue the pain and excitement of the souls series. Will it stay true to the series and become a worthy successor? So far, it looks to be that way!
I will not be posting much about Dark Souls 2 since I am trying to avoid spoilers and surprises. However, feel free to discuss the game if you hear anything worth posting. Please use spoiler tags if we have them.
I will edit this post to make it more in depth when I get more time.
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