... Dark souls review?

BLA1NE wrote:-snip-
That lunging attack says it all.

Only way he knows how to express himself

BLA1NE wrote:^I'm not even convinced he's as far gone as people think. This should probably be in the archives... but if the topic ever comes up there, and you agree with me, feel free to steal this (maybe it's even been said already):

The Black Knights are under his command, right? What do you find in the Asylum, when you return? Black Knights! Seems to me they were sent there to investigate after your escape. And there are also BKs in the Burg and Blackroot, either guarding something, or in position to overlook your progress. Seems to me like there was some thought behind their placement. As the person who would've ordered them there, seems to me like Gwyn still has part of his head.

So his reaction as you walk through the fog gate screams desperation and anger, to me. He doesn't want to talk to you. He's probably afraid of you. He's followed your progress throughout Lordran, he knows nothing has stopped you reaching his door, and now he's desperate. That lunging attack says it all.

I think that if they would have had more time they should have implemented covenants/in-game events around Seath and Gwyn.

Drop a Dragon Scale when you first see Seath? Covenant. Do the pray/prostration gesture when you enter the room with Gwyn? Changes the fight/in-game event.

Kind of unrelated, but your very-good point made me think of it.

@eminusx - Hilarious.

@Bla1ne - Really interesting theory, don't know if I totally agree with it though.

BLA1NE wrote:The Black Knights are under his command, right? What do you find in the Asylum, when you return? Black Knights! Seems to me they were sent there to investigate after your escape. And there are also BKs in the Burg and Blackroot, either guarding something, or in position to overlook your progress. Seems to me like there was some thought behind their placement. As the person who would've ordered them there, seems to me like Gwyn still has part of his head.

If this discussion goes too far, it may indeed need to be taken to the archives

I would like to counter by pointing out that according to the description of the Black Knight Armor pieces, the actual Black Knights were burned alive when Gwyn linked the fire for the first time. It also states that they roam Lordran. The Black Knights at this point follow no one, they just wander aimlessly and you run into them wherever they happened to randomly park themselves.

Now for the bits of speculation that help convince me of this. In the opening sequence, take a close look at Gwyn's army. They are all Silver Knights, not a single one of them wearing the charred armor of the Black Knights. This hints that their true form when under Gwyn was of Silver Knights and they are now deformed versions of what they once were. Also, on the stairway in your descent into the Kiln, why are there souls of Black Knights wandering through the ether? This is probably because these souls are the true Black Knights, detached from their bodies yet unable to leave Gwyn's side since souls don't "move on" in Lordran. Lastly, looking at Gwyn himself as you fight him, he clearly has the appearance of a hollow, as opposed to his fully fleshed-out look (see wut I did thar ) he had in the opening.

From what I understood, those Silver Knights that followed Gwyn to the Kiln were turned to Black Knights. Doesn't say to me that Gwyn ever lost control of them, though. Even though they're said to "roam", I choose to think Gwyn ordered them there instead! Their positions are just too convenient to think they ended up there randomly.

I believe what that translates too is, "The game did not give me any back story, plot, or any motivation whatsoever, and I made no effort to figure out if it actually had any." And perhaps I can understand that. Not everyone is as dedicated as finding the plot as we are.

I love Role Playing Games. Dark Souls & Skyrim are classed as RPG's although they are, in my opinion, quite different in terms of gameplay which is fine by me because I enjoy both.

To broaden the argument, Dragon's Dogma is another RPG which is currently making waves and a lot of people on here like it but I don't. The reason I don't like it is because, like Greta Garbo, 'I want to be alone' when I'm playing an RPG and the pawns got on my nerves. That doesn't make it a bad game in my book, it's more to do with the kind of gamer I am.

SlakeMoth wrote:I love Role Playing Games. Dark Souls & Skyrim are classed as RPG's although they are, in my opinion, quite different in terms of gameplay which is fine by me because I enjoy both.

To broaden the argument, Dragon's Dogma is another RPG which is currently making waves and a lot of people on here like it but I don't. The reason I don't like it is because, like Greta Garbo, 'I want to be alone' when I'm playing an RPG and the pawns got on my nerves. That doesn't make it a bad game in my book, it's more to do with the kind of gamer I am.

+1 For not hating on a game which isn't your style
An uncommon thing these days...

+1 For not hating on a game which isn't your style
An uncommon thing these days... [/quote

Well thank you, that's very kind of you. Appreciated.

To me, this review screams "No story was given to me, there was no real in game reason to continue and doing so was too challenging to bother"

All just boils down to the game "not being worth the effort"

I find that this approach is taken by the guys who didn't really prepare to just get killed repeatedly and have to grind out victory slowly and work at it.

When I first got the game it took me 4 hours to get through the burg and kill taurus, and took me up to 15 hours to kill gargoyles.. In the end it's whether people enjoy playing a game for the challenge it brings and overcoming that. There's nothing wrong with the opinion of that person, but it's a review on the other end of the spectrum to infatuated people like us.

Read the back of the case

Acidic_Cook wrote: that's how I feel about bethesda's TES. No real story, no motivation.

Let me clarify what I think and why I said this.

For one, compared to Skyrim, Oblivion, and all of the forms of bethesda games and even fallout franchise... the story was never real to me, it seemed very disconnected, uninteresting, and, somewhat obvious, too... I don't know, too fantasy. i know it is very obvious, as the RPGs are known for being fantasy, even fallout (with it being Sci-Fi Fantasy). When I look at Dark Souls, the fantasy part of it just disappears. I have a connection to it, I have interest in it, and above all the story feels real. Odd, as this game is very fantasy of everything, yet the story, the lore, feels real, and the stories of the bethesda games... they don;t feel real.

I have played all but Morrowind and past Bethesda games. let's be honest, there was no drive, no motivation, that the game gave me: I gave myself the drive. i wanted to fill my own ideals, creating characters and explore the world. Never did I feel motivation from the game, more so myself. When I play Dark Souls, I feel like it keeps drawing me in again and again. I play the Bethesda games in the past to waste time, but now I play Dark Souls. Not to waste time, but to make time, to fill in that gap that motivation has filled, and try to fill it up. I want more of Dark Souls, and never have I felt that way of Bethesda Games. I gave myself the motivation to do what I want, but Dark Souls feels different, is different.

of course, to each their own, but the reading of the Review gives me a sense of laughter and somewhat ironic tone to it. So when i say the game has no motivation, no real story, that is what I mean.

I can't believe he said that "if you want to play an RPG go try the Final Fantasy series..."

Now, I like turn based RPGs as much as the next guy, and I can argue that Final Fantasy IV is the best FInal Fantasy in the world, if not the greatest game. But come on! I don't want to offend anyone here, because I know there are DIE HARD FF fans out there, but most of the FFseries of games wasn't that fantastic.

One of the selling points of Dark Souls was the lack of "in your face story"

There wasn't an over abundance of cutscenes; there wasn't any under narration; there weren't road signs saying "Go here because this is why!"; there wasn't anything like that. Dark Souls is true to its word that it is an "open exploration rpg."

I could go on and on but I feel that unless I was at home and not at work I wouldn't come up with anything better that the disjointed arguement I have already hastily typed out in a fearful tremor that my boss might happen by and see me on Dark Souls Fourms, lol.

Anyway, disclamer time.

I don't HATE the Final Fantasy line of games. Some lack *cough*FFXIII*cough* and others shine *cough*FFIV*cough* but they are all great in their own right.

*Deep breath*

Dark Souls is, at its core, no different than any adventure rpg on the market (Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma, etc) but Dark Souls does differ in one major area.

As the player, you need to learn. Learn about the enemies, learn about the enviorment and where to go, learn about the options available to you for level progeression. You need to pay attention and learn about the story. And most of all, you need to learn about your play style and how to make it work for you.

TL;DR

Dark Souls is the perfect RPG and actually teaches the player a thing or two about games.

They msut of hated Half Life then, and their lack of cutscenes

And welcome comrade. I like your eye, fights well. Remember, if you use the eye, you infect people in your level... and if you are summoned as a phantom, or quit and reload, those people stay gravelorded for a good amount of time. If you want to hurt them with black phantoms, or in better terms give them what Dark Souls is meant to be Gameplay wise, you would be known as a saint of gravelords

NPCWhiteMage wrote:-snip-

TL;DR

Dark Souls is the perfect a great RPG and actually teaches the player a thing or two about games.

Definitely need more of that last part in new games, rather than the usual silver platter

I like what Toxic said up there.

I can't believe he said that "if you want to play an RPG go try the Final Fantasy series..."

That's like saying you should play Resident Evil 5 if you want a survival horror experience.

As always, I don't tend to care about reviews at all. I hate the idea of an "internet game guru"; the idea makes no sense when most of the time the game they are talking about is out there to rent.

My problem with gaming journalism started when I tried Dark Souls and realized they are just a bunch of pansies complaining about a game that actually challenges you.

I think to be honest they're not pansies.. It's just they play so many games that because the industry churns out the same crap all the time, when they get given a genuinely different game to what they play day in and out for their job they don't know what to do with it.

^Please, have you ever watched a gameplay video played by games journalists? In general, they are terrible! Their problem isn't that they get used to playing the same types of games all the time (you'd think they'd be good at FPSs by now, but no) it's just that they don't have enough time with the game. They need to review it so fast that they do a poor job at playing the game, and that often shows in the review. And once the review is done, it's on to the next game (to botch another review).

I don't generally watch many game videos lol, only read reviews or maybe watch video review, but that's about it.. I usually trust their judgement to a certain degree

Lol I'd have to agree with BLA1NE 100%. If you ever watch them play... ahhh *shudders* the horror... some aren't too bad but generally the ones with videos are horrible.

I remember one I watched of Soulcalibur V. Literally they mustn't of ever played a fighting game before considering their comments... But even so they were trying to describe how it changed from the previous one without doing any research. Changing their minds every few minutes, and then going "Ooooh what was that... Oh you can do that...."

Meh, generally when I play a game they say is good I also think it's good, so I'm not gonna start complaining really

Except for skyrim.. But the reviewers obviously got a payoff or something to not allow it's bugs and generally hollow feel to not detract from their view of it.

Serious_Much wrote:Meh, generally when I play a game they say is good I also think it's good, so I'm not gonna start complaining really

Except for skyrim.. But the reviewers obviously got a payoff or something to not allow it's bugs and generally hollow feel to not detract from their view of it.

^^ Your opinion.

Except the bugs, and they probably didn't have enough time with it to experience too many bugs. Also a lot were actually introduced by one of their later patches.

yeah, my opinion, 2 cents, my say whatever you wanna call it, just didn't enjoy skyrim, never got into it, though might be because i couldn't stop myself comparing it to Dark Souls.. RIP RPGs for me!

I can't avoid recalling that guy who actually went and defended Dark Souls storytelling as superior to that of Skyrim, then proceding to say that playing the game was the most harrowing experience in his whole life and declaring that trying to play it was a waste of time; time better spent reading War and Peace, by Tolstoi, according to him.

Oh, you card you.

Azran wrote:I can't avoid recalling that guy who actually went and defended Dark Souls storytelling as superior to that of Skyrim, then proceding to say that playing the game was the most harrowing experience in his whole life and declaring that trying to play it was a waste of time; time better spent reading War and Peace, by Tolstoi, according to him.

Oh, you card you.

Wasn't that Roger Ebert?