Current Events > Never played a Dark Souls game. Are they really THAT hard?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The whole thing feels like a meme at this point...

No.

Somebody call Marth

It *is* a meme. They are hard, sure, but it's mostly people who like the smell of their own farts faffing about just because they want to be elitist about something.

They're too easy

Them being hard was definitely always a meme

Jabodie posted...

Somebody call Marth

Just turtle behind great shields, bro

They are actually quite easy once you've learned all the enemy patterns, found the optimal builds, and read all the online discussions

The difficulty is definitely overhyped

I think they're a lot more irritating than hard. If you're an old-school gamer, they aren't that hard. It's just "read attack patterns, counter-attack accordingly" type gameplay. I gave up on them because I made one misstep once because of the stupid camera, fell off the ledge, and had to repeat 30 minutes of gameplay. Fuck that.

The thing about souls games is that (for most of them) they're punishing if you look at them like an action game, but once you slow down and look at each encounter like a puzzle they're much easier.

They're not particularly hard, they just require a more careful approach than most games

DS2 and Elden Ring really leaned into the difficulty aspect, to the point of making it obnoxious sometimes.

But DS1 and DS3 are fine.

Ive only played Demons and yeah its hard

It can be hard going in blind especially if you never played any of the games before. Lots of stuff are easy to miss, especially the good stuff that could make you op'ed fast.

Co-op can make things easier, but people can invade you for attempting co op or you can invade other people using the co op mechanics. Regardless of what happens, multiplayer can make or break the game for you as people can use different forms of strategies to defeat you

nah i am a trash gamer and love souls games

ya they're pretty hard imo, but usually you can find some sort of cheesy tactic or do co-op to offset some of the difficulty

Jabodie posted...

Somebody call Marth

MarthGoomba posted...

They're too easy

Them being hard was definitely always a meme

Less than one minute

Theyre pretty easy tbh. Just got to ng 7 the other day

you can cheese the fuck out of everything too but youll have to cashapp me $5 if you want those secrets

The thing is that the game doesnt hold your hand like 95% of the then current gen games.
You can go in like 4 directions after the tutorial. A game like Skyrim would have three arrows pointing at what direction you should go, while Dark Souls shows you where to go by having powerful enemies kill you if you chose wrong.
And even if you pick the right path, you will die because you didnt grind.
Once you have learned the rules, it will be easier, but the game can still easily kill you.

Uh, protip: if you lost to any boss more than five times the game is hard

Even losing twice is a sign a game is pretty hard. Much less if that is normal for the bosses.

they're all about patience and how well you handle setbacks/losing progress

if you're not easily frustrated, i guess you could call them "easy"

Hard learning curve but easy to master. They do a really good job with AI compared to most games.

There are a lot of people that will copy op builds online and claim the games are easy though.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Even losing twice is a sign a game is pretty hard. Much less if that is normal for the bosses.

I knew dark souls was easy, pffffft

_Angel_ posted...

I knew dark souls was easy, pffffft

However, cheesing the game is super easy

Persistence and determination are required. But that's largely it.

Oh, and once you recognize enemies' moves, the game becomes much more manageable. And quite routine.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

However, cheesing the game is super easy

agreeed, thats why I used basic longsword for elden ring

Foppe posted...

You can go in like 4 directions after the tutorial.

This is a bad thing actually

If you go to New Londo Ruins, you can't do anything (the floodgate is closed and you can only access the Valley of Drakes if you have the Master Key) and will get murked by the ghosts
If you go to the Catacombs, a giant arbitrary wall blocks your progress after Pinwheel
The only way to progress is through the Undead Settlement. The game is not any better because its arbitrary progression blocks are after an hour of struggle instead of before them; in fact, it's clearly worse.

they are rpgs so just level up stats and equipment to kill bosses and fodder really quick.