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Dark Souls 3, Am I Weird?
9 years ago
General
Hey all, I've been wanting to write this for a little bit now and I just feel up to it right now. This journal might be a little rambley but here goes..
I recently got my copy of Dark Souls 3, for those who don't know the souls games are a collection of difficult dark fantasy rpgs that are notorious for being hard and requiring the player to "git gud" as I hear on the internet a lot. (fuck you guys :P )
I loved -and- have beaten Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, Dark Souls 2 while fun here and there had poor level design (windmill elevator up to bowsers castle?) was bug ridden and liked to have enemies outnumber the player a lot and have "hyper armor" compared to older games.
Anyway beside the point, I am now nearing the end of the game. I have to say I am disappointed so far.. and there are a number of things that annoy me. I'm probably going to get criticized for these.
For the record I am a quality build (str/dex) in medium armor using sword+board, very basic.
1. The Enemies:
From improved the AI and aggression of the enemies in this release and while I can understand it should make for a more exciting romp through the game since you never know what the enemies are going to do it also makes them very hard to deal with especially if you're a ranged character.
I've not had much fun at all dealing with these enemies, perhaps I just suck but I always felt combat in souls games is a dance between you and your foe watching their motions and learning their pattern so future encounters become easier. In this game they are so erratic that it just becomes kill them before they kill you. (or just get good at parrying..which I'm not)
2. The Level Design:
This is one I have mixed feelings on, some of the areas feel well thought out and have a maze like design that wraps back in on itself. Other areas feel like they just jammed the area with tons of enemies to slow you down just to prolong gameplay. An area like the High Wall of Lothric compared to something like the Demon Ruins or Catacombs. I began expecting ambushes, item ganks and mobs and it started becoming a recurring trend where I spent more time thinking about where the enemies were going to come from then just exploring the level.
3. Linear and Short:
This is a minor nitpick, however I can't help but say something. The other games had a more grandiose feel letting you explore freely and find paths in the direction you wanted to go, some might start linear but lead into the open paths and DS2 had freedom early on. This one has been linear the whole way, go here or go back here and get an item so you can go this way.
The only time the game seemed to offer a choice was between two lords of cinder and you basically just chose to go up or go down.
The game also has felt very short with the enemy cramped areas making the level feel longer that it actually is. I noticed it a lot more when I was just running past everything on other characters and grabbing loot and essentials. On top of that there aren't many bosses in this game compared to prior titles, perhaps DLC will change that eventually but still.. I don't have anything against linear games but I'm sure folks who know what "Final Hallway" is will agree with me.
4. Covenants:
Again, very minor nitpick here but covenants almost feel useless to join in this game right now. I can also note the blue sentinel covenant and the darkmoon blade covenant are the exact same thing and share rewards so why do they -both- exist? Hell, you cant invade the world of a sinner anymore. Tying this covenant to the Way of Blue again was a terrible idea.
The Sunbros are back, but while no true invasion covenant exists the others are pretty much all pvp related and seem very strange or lazily implemented like comparing the Farron Wolves to the Aldrich Faithful, they do the same thing but in different areas.
5. Dragon Form:
WHY DID YOU NOT MAKE THIS LOOK AWESOME FROM!?!? I WANT TO BE A DRAGON NOT A SICKLY LOOKING DEER! SKAMUYELSHWNCLAFWSHED (X3)
Seriously though, why does this look awful, I loved the DS1 design and the DS2 one was -okay-, though wish you could hide the armor.
Frankly I wish they had done the Bloodborne thing where you transform and could wear armor too but I understand that would make balancing issues cause "why not be a dragon?" it would need a downside.
-EDIT- Also the dragon gets its own little side quest, even more reason to make players want it.
Ending Thoughts
Those are my main complaints, in general the game still has the classic combat, they opened up a lot of builds and while the game lacks poise as of this posting it's still really not that bad. I like the boss fights a lot, the weapon arts are unique, From tried hard to limit Twinking and the password system is awesome.
While magic needs some buffs I think generally speaking its a decent game.
I just feel currently this is the weakest Souls game in the series, and yet everyone I know is saying this is the best one yet and I really don't understand how you're not having fun. Other people will tell me the difficulty is what the game is supposed to be based around, and I can't help but think.. yes they're hard but I think what they initially wanted was a world where you felt alone in a tense dangerous world overcoming the odds in front of you through wit and skill.
But also you should be enjoying the adventure, the exploration, the feeling of finding your path and.. I'm not getting any of that. Every area just feels like a slog and I'm likely to set the game down once I beat it.
So what are your thoughts on this game so far? Have you played it? Do you think I'm just seeing things wrong? I don't really know.. Ive gone back to Bloodborne since DS3 came out and have had a lot more fun with that in a few hours than days on Dark Souls 3. But.. I'm also the guy who doesn't like Monster Hunter 4 or Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn so.. maybe I just see things in a different light.
(TL;DR: I'm not having fun with the game for various reasons, are you?)
Anyway, thank you for reading!
Feel free to leave comments below and have a great day!
I recently got my copy of Dark Souls 3, for those who don't know the souls games are a collection of difficult dark fantasy rpgs that are notorious for being hard and requiring the player to "git gud" as I hear on the internet a lot. (fuck you guys :P )
I loved -and- have beaten Demons Souls, Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, Dark Souls 2 while fun here and there had poor level design (windmill elevator up to bowsers castle?) was bug ridden and liked to have enemies outnumber the player a lot and have "hyper armor" compared to older games.
Anyway beside the point, I am now nearing the end of the game. I have to say I am disappointed so far.. and there are a number of things that annoy me. I'm probably going to get criticized for these.
For the record I am a quality build (str/dex) in medium armor using sword+board, very basic.
1. The Enemies:
From improved the AI and aggression of the enemies in this release and while I can understand it should make for a more exciting romp through the game since you never know what the enemies are going to do it also makes them very hard to deal with especially if you're a ranged character.
I've not had much fun at all dealing with these enemies, perhaps I just suck but I always felt combat in souls games is a dance between you and your foe watching their motions and learning their pattern so future encounters become easier. In this game they are so erratic that it just becomes kill them before they kill you. (or just get good at parrying..which I'm not)
2. The Level Design:
This is one I have mixed feelings on, some of the areas feel well thought out and have a maze like design that wraps back in on itself. Other areas feel like they just jammed the area with tons of enemies to slow you down just to prolong gameplay. An area like the High Wall of Lothric compared to something like the Demon Ruins or Catacombs. I began expecting ambushes, item ganks and mobs and it started becoming a recurring trend where I spent more time thinking about where the enemies were going to come from then just exploring the level.
3. Linear and Short:
This is a minor nitpick, however I can't help but say something. The other games had a more grandiose feel letting you explore freely and find paths in the direction you wanted to go, some might start linear but lead into the open paths and DS2 had freedom early on. This one has been linear the whole way, go here or go back here and get an item so you can go this way.
The only time the game seemed to offer a choice was between two lords of cinder and you basically just chose to go up or go down.
The game also has felt very short with the enemy cramped areas making the level feel longer that it actually is. I noticed it a lot more when I was just running past everything on other characters and grabbing loot and essentials. On top of that there aren't many bosses in this game compared to prior titles, perhaps DLC will change that eventually but still.. I don't have anything against linear games but I'm sure folks who know what "Final Hallway" is will agree with me.
4. Covenants:
Again, very minor nitpick here but covenants almost feel useless to join in this game right now. I can also note the blue sentinel covenant and the darkmoon blade covenant are the exact same thing and share rewards so why do they -both- exist? Hell, you cant invade the world of a sinner anymore. Tying this covenant to the Way of Blue again was a terrible idea.
The Sunbros are back, but while no true invasion covenant exists the others are pretty much all pvp related and seem very strange or lazily implemented like comparing the Farron Wolves to the Aldrich Faithful, they do the same thing but in different areas.
5. Dragon Form:
WHY DID YOU NOT MAKE THIS LOOK AWESOME FROM!?!? I WANT TO BE A DRAGON NOT A SICKLY LOOKING DEER! SKAMUYELSHWNCLAFWSHED (X3)
Seriously though, why does this look awful, I loved the DS1 design and the DS2 one was -okay-, though wish you could hide the armor.
Frankly I wish they had done the Bloodborne thing where you transform and could wear armor too but I understand that would make balancing issues cause "why not be a dragon?" it would need a downside.
-EDIT- Also the dragon gets its own little side quest, even more reason to make players want it.
Ending Thoughts
Those are my main complaints, in general the game still has the classic combat, they opened up a lot of builds and while the game lacks poise as of this posting it's still really not that bad. I like the boss fights a lot, the weapon arts are unique, From tried hard to limit Twinking and the password system is awesome.
While magic needs some buffs I think generally speaking its a decent game.
I just feel currently this is the weakest Souls game in the series, and yet everyone I know is saying this is the best one yet and I really don't understand how you're not having fun. Other people will tell me the difficulty is what the game is supposed to be based around, and I can't help but think.. yes they're hard but I think what they initially wanted was a world where you felt alone in a tense dangerous world overcoming the odds in front of you through wit and skill.
But also you should be enjoying the adventure, the exploration, the feeling of finding your path and.. I'm not getting any of that. Every area just feels like a slog and I'm likely to set the game down once I beat it.
So what are your thoughts on this game so far? Have you played it? Do you think I'm just seeing things wrong? I don't really know.. Ive gone back to Bloodborne since DS3 came out and have had a lot more fun with that in a few hours than days on Dark Souls 3. But.. I'm also the guy who doesn't like Monster Hunter 4 or Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn so.. maybe I just see things in a different light.
(TL;DR: I'm not having fun with the game for various reasons, are you?)
Anyway, thank you for reading!
Feel free to leave comments below and have a great day!
I also run a quality build and the enemies I felt were fine...with the exception of archdragon peak. I hate that area after the miniboss because not only is it another "Overall small place but crammed with crap to fight" The serpent men in this can just be relentless with trades almost always ending in their favor. Outside of that place thoguh I liked the AI.
THe linear path I can also agree with but it doesn't bug me.
The dragon form does look pretty dumb and it's useless for my character since I can just do far more damage faster and easier with my refined +10 barbed sword.
Despite all this I really enjoy the game and have logged in a lot of hours in it but you aren't weird for being disappointed in it.
I did notice myself, and think it to be a rather big issue, that the game is far too linear compared to previous Dark Souls games. The world progression is really a lot more similar to Bloodborne in that you're going along a single path but there are diversions along the way where you can choose to take optional paths, but I think the reason it worked in Bloodborne because your end goal was a lot more nebulous in the beginning, as opposed to here where you know your goal is to find the Lords of Cinder, much like previous Dark Souls games, and you don't have enough choice to choose which one you want to go for. I really feel like, if nothing else, they should have made it so that the Abyss Watchers and Farron
KeepSwamp were off to the side somewhere instead of being required to go through in order to reach the Catacombs and Irithyl. Another part of the problem is probably in the pacing which distorts the perception of how long the game is. There actually aren't that many less bosses than there were in Dark Souls 1 (DLC excluded), but it gives the impression there are a lot less because there's more distance in between each boss.Personally though one of my biggest gripes is that they took a big step backward from the dual wielding/left hand weapon options that were in Dark Souls 2. Where before you could use any weapon in either hand to the same effect (only being unable to backstab/riposte with left hand weapons) in DS3 it's back to the left hand being much more limited in what it can do, most weapons will only guard if you do the light attack and the heavy attack is instead the light attack combo. It's nice at least that they put in the dedicated dual wielding weapons, but what I find disappointing about those is that almost all of them are just two of the same weapon paired together, with the only exceptions being the Farron Greatsword and, maybe, if you go for a stretch, the Dancer's Enchanted Blades, while in DS2 you could power stance a wide variety of things together which greatly added to the diversity.
It's been said that Dark Souls 3 was meant to be a "best of" compilation of all the features of the previous Souls games, but perhaps it can be argued - though I don't know if I entirely believe this myself yet, as, again, I still haven't beaten the game - that directly because of this it doesn't have enough to distinguish itself as its own entity outside of its references to the other games. I really want to enjoy the game more, it's just that I haven't been able to fully immerse myself in it enough yet.