Poll of the Day > I beat Dark Souls for the first time today.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I thought Gwyn was hard as fuck until I started parrying him and then I rekt him

amazing game

im gonna do a new game + run and then buy either dark souls 2 or 3. Ive heard dark souls 2 kinda sucks so Im thinking about just jumping straight to 3. Bad idea or nah?

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I say going to 3 is a good deal, I didn't enjoy 2 *nearly* as much as the other games.

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shadowsword87 posted...

I say going to 3 is a good deal, I didn't enjoy 2 *nearly* as much as the other games.

Okay cool. I think Im already a fan of the series so Ill probably end up going back to 2 after I finish 3.

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2 is by far my favorite. It has the most variation between areas, which other people seem to hate because the areas don't flow together naturally sometimes. I love it and don't care about realistic area flow

2 ups the gank and speed, 3 rolls back the gank a bit but ups the speed even further.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

2 ups the gank and speed, 3 rolls back the gank a bit but ups the speed even further.

elaborate plz

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Gank as in more enemies fight you at once. I don't think 2 is faster than 1 though. If anything it might be a tad bit slower. 3 is MUCH faster. Like the same weapons swing twice as fast as their 2 counterparts. 3 also has weapon arts.

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The problems with DkS2 are primarily finesse, you can feel it's made by the B-team (Not least because the lighting system got dropped last minute).

The areas don't mesh, everything looks harsher than DkS, enemies are increased to make up for piss-poor AI and the plot isn't delivered very well.

DkS3 has a lot more cohesiveness (not quite DkS1 but variance is still good), everything moves more fluidly. It feels more like a direct successor to DkS1 and to some degree DeS.
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For me, the real joy of Dark Souls is the fact that it's a carefully designed world. Everything is interconnected, all of the areas have specific lore bits that feed into each other, enemies are places carefully in reasonable locations with their own insane weird traps. It's a world of monstrous monsters that have to be handled carefully and respectfully when fighting them. It's full of it's own quiet places, I still enjoy just wandering around at the bottom of the world, it's nice.

In Dark Souls 2, I left the poison level to the lava level up an elevator to a fantasy forge lava level with a bunch of traps where I fought a suit of armor as it's boss.

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shadowsword87 posted...

For me, the real joy of Dark Souls is the fact that it's a carefully designed world. Everything is interconnected, all of the areas have specific lore bits that feed into each other, enemies are places carefully in reasonable locations with their own insane weird traps. It's a world of monstrous monsters that have to be handled carefully and respectfully when fighting them. It's full of it's own quiet places, I still enjoy just wandering around at the bottom of the world, it's nice.

In Dark Souls 2, I left the poison level to the lava level up an elevator to a fantasy forge lava level with a bunch of traps where I fought a suit of armor as it's boss.

yeah that was everyone's issue with 2

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And while it's a glaring issue it was explained by the devs. You don't have to agree with them but it was a conscious decision so at least know that.

Gameplay wise it's a great game. Many improvements over DS1 in terms of speed and build variation. It's also easily the longest game in the series with so many areas to go through. And then the DLC is huge too. It's worth it if you like the Dark Souls style of games. DS3 will still be there when you finish DS2

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As much as DS2 gets a lot of hate, it's really not a bad game at all. It's not necessarily as good as the other two, and the disjointedness of the areas is disappointing for people that really valued DS1's interconnectedness, but it delivers the same excellent combat and build variety that the series is known for and is still a thoroughly enjoyable game. Just make sure you understand the Adaptability stat before going in (broadly, it increases the number of iframes on your rolls, and you will need some investment to bring those up to DS1 levels, so playing without ADP investment takes a lot of getting used to), and you should still have a good time.

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I cant even find DkSII anywhere lol

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shadowsword87 posted...

the real joy of Dark Souls is the fact that it's a carefully designed world. Everything is interconnected

Speaking of interconnected, I loved how what looked like a distant background is actually part of the level when you physically get to it.

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I_Always_Die posted...

I cant even find DkSII anywhere lol

Steam always has copies.
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DesertPenguin09 posted...

And while it's a glaring issue it was explained by the devs. You don't have to agree with them but it was a conscious decision so at least know that.

Sure, I just think that it's a shit decision and that's not why I play or love Dark Souls.

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At least 2 can stand on its own, 3 couldn't exist without 1.

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

And while it's a glaring issue it was explained by the devs. You don't have to agree with them but it was a conscious decision so at least know that.

Which is why the franchise was taken out of their hands and they were sent to the naughty chair.

Zareth posted...

At least 2 can stand on its own, 3 couldn't exist without 1.

Probably should've had a different Souls name, then.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

Which is why the franchise was taken out of their hands and they were sent to the naughty chair.

Not really but okay...

Kyuubi4269 posted...

Probably should've had a different Souls name, then.

Okay now I can tell that you're just salty.

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

Okay now I can just tell that you're salty.

Because they botched it. DkS3 didn't, B team weren't up to spec.
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It's been 6 years. Get over it.

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so should I do 2 or 3 next, I found a good deal on both for PS4

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If you appreciate the series you should play them in order. Have fun with DS2 and make a thread on the board there to document your progress/ask questions/get advice. The community loves to help out. The reddits are also way more active so if you want summons or trades you'll have better luck/quicker response over there.

Praise the Sun!

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I_Always_Die posted...

so should I do 2 or 3 next, I found a good deal on both for PS4

You might as well just play them in order. Try to ignore the natter surrounding Dark Souls 2, plenty of people (even many of the ones who consider it a lesser entry) like it just fine.

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yeah, Im already assuming the shitty parts of 2 are highly exaggerated. as long as it isnt unfair, im sure Ill like it

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

If you appreciate the series you should play them in order. Have fun with DS2 and make a thread on the board there to document your progress/ask questions/get advice. The community loves to help out. The reddits are also way more active so if you want summons or trades you'll have better luck/quicker response over there.

Praise the Sun!

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thanks. these games definitely have an awesome
community surrounding them.

also, which ending did you guys choose the first time you played dark souls 1?

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They both stand fine on their own, you don't miss anything by playing 3 first and 3 doesn't spoil how 2 plays either.
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I_Always_Die posted...

I thought Gwyn was hard as fuck until I started parrying him and then I rekt him

I could never get the timing down on the parries just right

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Metalsonic66 posted...

I could never get the timing down on the parries just right

that's what I thought but then I realized it's much easier to bait a particular attack animation and then learn to parry that one. The timing is always the same, the animation is always the same and makes things much easier, for me the easiest ones were the lunge which is always the opener and the overhead which is that 3-hit combo starter. I've seen people intentionally blocking certain attacks to setup the parry for the followup

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Metalsonic66 posted...

I could never get the timing down on the parries just right

Same here. I enjoyed turtling around behind a shield in the Dark Souls games, but I couldn't make much progress in Sekiro.

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Sarcasthma posted...

Same here. I enjoyed turtling around behind a shield in the Dark Souls games, but I couldn't make much progress in Sekiro.

I never got to play Sekiro but if it's parry heavy, I'm somehow not as bothered. Once I got the hang of dodge rolls in 3, I never used a shield ever again in 1 or the remaster because rolling and fishing for backstabs was much easier, same-y rewarding and much more forgiving then parrying

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Eh, sekiro's "parry" is much more lenient than dark souls. It's gotta be like twice or three times as many active frames. In the game it's more like your block. Ah, if you played for honor, it's like the light characters block except omnidirectional. Also, contrary to popular belief, dodging is godlike in sekiro, often times optimal.

The truly best style is a mix of dodging and blocking trending more towards dodges early in the fight to whittle down health and blocks later on to whittle down posture. That really mixes up your playstyle and forces you to be more aware of the enemies moveset cause you can't quite just get it down to muscle memory since you need multiple reactions for the same move depending on what health the enemy is at..

Of course thats playing optimally. On a first playthrough you can just spam the parry button with no timing and beat almost everything with no effort. It's so much more fun to play well though and giving back the charm does a pretty god job at enforcing that for subsequent playthroughs.

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Metalsonic66 posted...

I could never get the timing down on the parries just right

I only did it on the slow attack he does when he swings from the right.

he killed me like 10 times before I started parrying, I would be impressed to see someone beat him without parrying at all

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I_Always_Die posted...

I thought Gwyn was hard as f*** until I started parrying him and then I rekt him

Yeah he's really hard until you figure out you can parry him to death and knock him over.

The thing about that game is that as soon as you win it you want to immediately start playing it again. At least I always have. It helps that the first half of the game is also the best designed.

I_Always_Die posted...

Ive heard dark souls 2 kinda sucks

It's not bad, but definitely worse than the other 2 overall. The magic in that game is really awesome though so I'd suggest playing with at least some sorceries.

I_Always_Die posted...

also, which ending did you guys choose the first time you played dark souls 1?

I only realized you could walk out of that room recently. I'd always light the bonfire figuring you had to (plus you'd already been doing this after lord soul boss fights the entire time).

Metalsonic66 posted...

I could never get the timing down on the parries just right

Practice on the black knights leading up to Gwyn. I was terrible at parries overall but those will really help you get good at them. You can even parry the greatsword one (the 2nd one you see) which was surprising.

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Black_Crusher posted...

I'd always light the bonfire figuring you had to (plus you'd already been doing this after lord soul boss fights the entire time).

The game does this to you to lull you into a sense of comfort and familiarity in having a constant in a world of variables. There are stories of people playing the game when it first released, not knowing Gwyn was the final boss and lighting the bonfire like it's just the next one.

I always let it go out, because even if it sucks for a bit, the Age of Man has arrived and its time for Gwyn's age to let it go already. They had their time.

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

The game does this to you to lull you into a sense of comfort and familiarity in having a constant in a world of variables. There are stories of people playing the game when it first released, not knowing Gwyn was the final boss and lighting the bonfire like it's just the next one.

I always let it go out, because even if it sucks for a bit, the Age of Man has arrived and its time for Gwyn's age to let it go already. They had their time.

Now I'm curious: Can you homeward bone out of there and skip the whole darkwraith kaathe scene? Does it only happen when you walk out of Gwyn's arena?

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No, you reload back in the boss area. There are only two endings. Linking the fire or not.

DS2 was the same way. DS3 is the only one to have some cool options because they involve quest lines as you play

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

No, you reload back in the boss area. There are only two endings. Linking the fire or not.

DS2 was the same way. DS3 is the only one to have some cool options because they involve quest lines as you play

Cool, thanks for the info!

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I_Always_Die posted...

I only did it on the slow attack he does when he swings from the right.

he killed me like 10 times before I started parrying, I would be impressed to see someone beat him without parrying at all

I'm pretty sure I have fought him way more than 10 times lol.

I think part of why I keep putting it off is because the sprint back to him after you die takes so long.

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

There are stories of people playing the game when it first released, not knowing Gwyn was the final boss

How? The whole plot points you to Gwyn being the big bad.
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Maybe that, but they didn't know there was nothing after him. For all you know going in blind, there could be something after him

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DesertPenguin09 posted...

Maybe that, but they didn't know there was nothing after him. For all you know going in blind, there could be something after him

That applies to every game though.
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Yea, so imagine lighting the bonfire and thinking you'll get the usual animation when it automatically jumps to a cutscene.

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this game isnt exactly super clear on anything so its definitely reasonable to assume its not the end

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completely stuck on Ornstein and Smough on NG+

what an insane spike in difficulty

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someone help me :(

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no you guys have to help me

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Lock on to whichever one you plan to kill first, then try to keep both of them in view as much as you can (not always easy or possible lol). Try to pick at your target little by little and learn the attack patterns and warning signs.

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