Podcast Episode 15 - Dark Souls 3

This month I ramble on about Dark Souls 3, and the Souls series in general. When I say ramble I mean it. My thoughts are all over the place. If you want to hear what I think about the series, then this is the podcast for you!

Dark Souls 2: Darker, But With Less Soul

I've been putting off writing about Dark Souls 2 for far too long. Now that the first DLC has been released I feel like today is as good a day as any to finally get all these Dark Souls 2 thoughts off my chest. The reason that I'm not playing the DLC right now is that I'm kind of worried about it. 

I loved Dark Souls. It was an experience that is still fresh in my mind months after playing it. Since Dark Souls 2 came out so soon after I finished the original I was looking forward to it with anticipation. The fact that I'd be able to go through the new game with a sense of discovery was something I was super excited about. Discovering everything with the entire world at the same time was a really cool experience. The issue is that I can barely remember any of it. In order to understand that I had to leave myself to ruminate on the experience for a few months.

Leading up to the game's release info about the new and differing mechanics were being trickled out. Word on the street was that the game was a lot harder, which it was in the beginning. By the end I was walking through the game with little to no issue. 

Darker?

Many people play the Souls series for the challenge it provides. While I liked the challenge in Dark Souls, it was never really my main draw. Yes, I did feel good about myself when I overcame a challenge. I'm just not a huge fan of games being hard for the sake of being hard. Dark Souls was punishing, but it was often my fault if I died. I'm not in the majority with my thoughts though, so people obviously wanted the game to be more challenging.

Initially I found the game to be much harder. The main contributor to that is that when you die, you lose a percentage of your max health. So now you lose all of your souls, and have less health upon death. You can still reclaim your souls, but it's not quite as easy to reclaim your lost health. In order to do that you need to use a consumable effigy. Early on these items are very scarce, so I found myself often walking around with around half my max health. The early game difficulty is exacerbated by the lack of healing available to you. At first you only have consumable healing gems of varying sizes, which are also far and few between for a while.

The creepy old witches give your your first effigy.

Eventually though you get your very own Estus flask, which you can upgrade until you have 11. Unlike the previous entry you don't have to kindle each bonfire. Your upgrades are permanent, and like the previous game the flasks refill at each bonfire. Dark Souls 2 has far more bonfires and areas than its predecessor, so refilling is never a difficult task. It also helps that you can fast travel between all bonfires you've come across right from the start of the game. This had to be added, since you can no longer level up from any bonfire. You need to talk to the cloaked woman near the bonfire in the game's hub city Majula. 

Another change is that weapons degrade much faster. This would make the game more challenging if they didn't get fully restored at every bonfire. If your weapon does end up breaking you'll need to repair it at a blacksmith, but it never costs a whole lot. Your rings can break now as well, and those do actually cost a lot to repair, because most of the time their effects are amazing. They did however, make it so you can wear four rings now, which will net some pretty insane stat boosts. One ring in particular, the cling ring, makes it so you can't drop below 75% max health from death. Needless to say that's a pretty good one to have. 

There are so many more bonfires now.

Leveling in Dark Souls 2 comes much faster as well. By the end of the game I was a way higher level than I was at the end of the original. Granted, the stats are changed up a bit to compensate for the greater amount of souls available, but there was a point where I started to feel overpowered. In this game I took up the slower moving great sword, and sometimes I would also have a shield to block. A lot of people say that this makes the game easy, but I don't believe in sacrificing my enjoyment of a game in order to make it more difficult.

The thing that really made the game harder at first though was the difference in movement. I'm not a huge fan of the movement in Dark Souls 2. To me it feels way less sensitive. You really have to push the stick in order to get moving, where as in the original you could lightly touch the stick and creep along. It made the player character in the original feel much heavier, whereas the character movement in Dark Souls 2 feels kind of light and floaty. This much is just personal preference, but it definitely took me a while to get used to. If you don't know how your character is going to move, it's a huge issue when you need to make precise dodges and attacks.

This was basically me the entire game.

Dark Souls 2 is much different, but it's also largely the same. It's the same franchise that people have come to love, with some differentiating features in order to make it more difficult. It was harder for me at first, but by the end I was crushing everything I came across pretty decisively. There was certainly no Ornstein and Smough moment of sheer frustration in this game. At most I got stuck on a boss for three or four tries.

Much Less Soul

Before I get into this section I want to say that I enjoyed my time with Dark Souls 2. It was a well crafted sequel that was very much meant for fans of the series. They tried to do all the right things and a lot of them worked in favor of the gameplay. So now I'm going to get into exactly why I liked Dark Souls 2 way less than its predecessor. I'm willing to admit that the gameplay is improved overall, but the way the world design was nowhere near on par with the original.

I have come to terms with the fact that I didn't like Demon's Souls, because of its level based structure. I did however, fall in love with Dark Souls because of its open world nature. The entire world was connected in a logical way, and it was even connected in physical space to boot! I loved the fact that you could turn a corner in a new area and find yourself in an area that you had visited hours before. It was truly a well planned out world that felt like so much time had been out into it. I don't want to say that Dark Souls 2 was less thought out, but it certainly was not as well designed from a world building perspective.

This map is not possible if you go by the way everything is laid out in the game.

The town Majula acts as a central hub, much as the Firelink Shrine acted as a hub in the first game. From Firelink you could go to one of a few areas, which were all interconnected. From Majula you can also choose to go to a few areas, but none of them are connected at all. Instead of being a huge interconnected world Dark Souls 2 consists of several spokes that all come to a close in a dead-end. There's nothing less appealing to me than coming across a dead-end in what is essentially an open world game. My issue goes much deeper than that though. In the original you could see everything in the world. You'd be on a mountain top and be able to see other explorable areas. This is not the case in Dark Souls 2, and it bothers me because of how completely different each area is. Yes, it's cool to have a ton of different terrain types, but when you can't see the fiery volcano that's insanely large from anywhere else in the world it really breaks the experience for me. 

The physical world isn't the only issue I had either. Let's take the bosses for example. There are a ton of them, but if you asked me to recall any of them I'd only be able to think of a select few. In the original Dark Souls whenever you came across a boss it was a crazy encounter and each one felt unique. In Dark Souls 2 there may actually be too many bosses and far too many are humanoid. It's like someone saw how much people liked fighting Artorias in the first game and decided to do throw a ton of humanoids in. If they were all interesting it wouldn't be an issue, but many of them are very straightforward fights. There were a few cool ones though like the fight with a giant spider for example. 

Hmmm why can't you see this insane lava wasteland from anywhere?

I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the story of Dark Souls. Finding out about each individual character and boss was interesting. The world was very well built and had a ton of backstory. I feel like a tool saying that Dark Souls 2 isn't as well built, but it definitely seems to be lacking something that the original had. I had barely any idea what was going on with the plot of Dark Souls 2, and I was actively looking for it a majority of the time. Maybe it's something I needed to dig deeper for, but the fact that you just suddenly kind of appear in a new world isn't exactly the best plot setup.

 Perhaps it's the fact that Miyazaki didn't have a direct development role, or maybe my experience with the original game is something that can't be replicated. I just can't help but feel that some of the magic of the first game has dissipated in the second.

On to the DLC

With all of this being said I can't wait to try out the DLC. It will be coming in three episodes, all of which involve looking for crowns. Maybe this will have the interesting story I was looking for in the game, or maybe it will at least fill out a lot of the gaps. At the very least it will be interesting to see if I can get right back into the way the movement works, or if I'll have to get used to the way everything works again. I liked the game, but I just can't help but feel like it could have been so much more.  

Dark Souls 2 was a fun experience. I enjoyed it while I was playing it, but that experience has almost completely faded from my mind at this point, which is extremely disappointing to me. I could still tell you about the story of the original game. If you set me down in the world of the original I could still give you directions and tell you exactly what you need to do. I could tell you where bosses are, and what strategies worked for me. It's an experience that is solidified in my mind, which rarely happens anymore. I just wish Dark Souls 2 could have replicated that. 

The Darkest of Souls

There are so many people who sing the praises of the Souls franchise. Up until a few months ago I truly could not comprehend why. I picked up a copy of Demon's Souls a few years ago and never got into it. I tried so hard, but I felt like the game was actively trying to make me dislike it. Yes, it's super hard, but normally that kind of thing doesn't make me give up on a game completely. For some reason I felt directionless and devoid of all hope, which is why some people like these games in the first place. Hoping that I was just not in the right mindset I tried to get into Demon's Souls multiple times. Each time I'd beat a boss or two and then completely lose interest. This is the reason I was never interested in Dark Souls, until now, that is.

I've been hearing the praise of Dark Souls since it came out. I even started watching people play it somewhat frequently to try and see if I could glean some kind of enjoyment out of it. I didn't really end up enjoying it at all though and would often not pay very close attention. Something clicked in my brain a few months ago though that made me want to try it out. People always talk about it as if it's some kind of rite of passage, which in some sense it is. It's a truly difficult game, but if you're willing to put in the time and figure it out the game's not nearly as impenetrable as people make it out to be. In a way me trying out Dark Souls was like me trying out Monster Hunter. I just had to know why everyone thought it was so great. Turns out, I think Dark Souls is great too.

The silver knight looks so cool!

Yes, the game is difficult, but not impossible. I think that people make Dark Souls' difficulty out to be much more than it actually is. I see it as delayed gratification. In most modern games you're killing something every few seconds, and powering up as you go along. People like fast paced games that make you feel powerful. Dark Souls isn't fast paced and really makes you work in order to truly feel powerful. Sure, you can eventually get strong weapons and armor, but those won't necessarily make the game any easier. In order to truly get better you need to learn the ins and outs of the game's clunky systems. You need to approach every encounter with caution, because even basic enemies can strike you down at a moment's notice. Your character's movements are slow, deliberate, and filled with animation priority. You don't get thrown constant power-ups in order to keep the endorphin stream to your brain going. Souls, the games currency and experience, need to be earned through hard fought battles. 

Dark Souls makes you take time to think. It makes you value what you have earned. When you fall in battle you lose your souls. As long as you don't die again before returning to where you died, you can reclaim them. However, if you do die before reaching the blood stain your corpse left behind they're gone forever. The first time I lost a ton of souls I was devastated, but it taught me to be much more careful. It's cool, because you actually learn lessons in Dark Souls. You actually have to adapt in order to continue on. In some cases though you just have to persevere. 

The super heavy Havel armor helped me through to the end.

I try my hardest not to get angry with video games, but sometimes I just can't help it. Mid-way through the game Dark Souls decides to throw two bosses at you simultaneously. Those two bosses are Ornstein and Smough. During that fight I was literally screaming obscenities at my television. My rage was palpable. Ornstein kept flying across the room and impaling me with his spear, while big Smough and his fat self butt slammed me all day long. I fought those two for hours on end, until finally I had killed them both. The elation I felt when those two were beaten cannot even be described. I had a strategy that I knew would work, because I could get so close to winning every time. I kept running straight back into the battle until I won, which as I mentioned took hours. Dark Souls is a game of both learning and perseverance and that makes it unique.

In a lot of ways Dark Souls reminds me of Monster Hunter. They both seem impenetrable from the outside, they both have communities filled with elitist assholes, they both have clunky systems, and they're both inexplicably popular. Monster Hunter is more of a Japanese thing, while Dark Souls has a huge following both here in America and Japan. There are so many obscure things in Dark Souls, but passionate fans have figured all of them out. The wikis out there for the game are very in depth and you can learn anything you could possibly ever need to know about the game.

Just seeing these two fills me with rage,

I'm writing this the day before Dark Souls 2 comes out. I'm going to be picking it up at midnight and diving right in. What's scary is that there's hardly any information about the game on the internet right now. It's also a very exciting thing. Playing through Dark Souls I needed a lot of information in order to understand what was going on in the beginning. Without that I probably wouldn't have kept going, because some of the things the game does seem obtuse just for the sake of being obtuse. Kindling at bonfires for example made no sense to me and the broken English describing it didn't exactly help. Going into Dark Souls 2 I will be carrying my basic knowledge, but if I get stuck I'm not necessarily going to be able to find help. Going through the game at the same time as the rest of the community will be a completely different experience than I had with the original Dark Souls and I couldn't be more excited. 

I understand now why people like this series. It makes you work for everything. Hell, it doesn't even really tell a story unless you really go searching for it. You can go through the entire game and have barely any clue why anything is happening. That's quite a ridiculous notion, but somehow it works. For a lot of people exploring an open world and defeating enemies is enough, which just goes to show how well put together the game truly is. 

The DLC is pretty good too.

As a person who plays quite a few video games I'm proud that I was able to see Dark Souls through to completion. It's crazy to me how popular the franchise has become and I hope that it continues on, because there's really not a whole lot else like it out there.

     -Manny