Yes, this is fantastic.

Praise the sun! And the Smelter Hammer! And the Crypt Blacksword!

PRAISE THE SUN!

I bring the bops

@u@

That's an impressive bop stick!

its the almighty chicken wing o=

Attack Rating: 800
Flavor rating: five trillion!

here have a taste of my chicken wing! it tastes of PAIN
heheh so as a possible souls fan, how you finding 3? ;P

Well I love the series, but so far I'm a little disappointed I suppose. the larger weapons seem too weak to be any good anymore - my fully upgraded GS is only about 100 AR more than my dark sword.

I feel like they need to rebalance some weapons, and try to make the boss weapons a little more interesting - as it is they're mostly garbage.

I'm not so pleased with the huge focus on invasions, since I always felt thats the least valuable thing the game series has to offer, but at least they tightened up the mechanics and the server lag enough that it's bearable. I just played through most of the game as unkindled so I wouldn't have to deal with it though. some boss fights I really enjoyed so far - Dancer was a blast, for example, though it seems like the main focus in this one is for lots of the bosses to have difficult tells and fast reactions. Their decision to remove the small summon signs really limits how much multiplayer happens now - its much less likely to summon someone to help with the whole level and much more likely that its just for bosses. I really enjoyed that aspect of the first one - you could plant a small sign if you were having trouble and return with full flasks and health after (which they dont even do for boss fight help anymore) - which feels like a huge step back in terms of multiplayer ability. I see no reason to summon anyone unless I can't take the boss solo, and more often than not you can just burst a boss down once you learn their movesets.
So far I'm feelin a 6/10 on it, but I haven't beaten it yet so maybe the endgame parts are more interesting. :D

I see, well im kinda on the opposite end of things in regards to invasions since i feel the PvP is a huge aspect of it, i do agree that the weapons need something to be done with them, but mostly the estoc and dark sword, being stupid over powered with damage and stunlock capabilities, though some boss weapons could do with being tweaked, like the dancer swords, they just do too little damage.

and as for the small signs i didnt really see the point of them in the second game, i mean, it was mostly a way for people to continue safely ganking other players in PvP while in 3 the only way to be invaded after a boss is killed is through a red sign which stops you having any white phantoms now.
though i suppose we need to wait and see what they do with patches and updates and DLCs~

also out of curiosity, what platform you on? on PS4 myself~

The small signs that let people join for a short amount of time as white shades?
Those were primarily so that if there was a very long segment between bonfires, you could be summoned to refill your healing items without having to help someone slog through the entire mess!

it was a double edged sword really more so for the PvP side of things, but at the same time being able to simply go into someones world, kill about 10 enemies and then poof you got everything back, just made the game a little bit too easy really. there was no need for resource management for your estus you just chugged, got summoned, killed a few things, or fell back and let the host/other phantoms do it and BOOM Sunny D for days.

Thats also why i like the dark souls 3 estus system, 15 max estus, how will you split it between normal and ashen? then when youre a summon or invader it halves your max estus for each while rounding it down if you have an odd number.
This can get irritating when you have a host with 15 Estus to chug as well as maybe a phantom or two with 6 or 7 each, but hey, dark souls is suppost to be a challenge right? x3

I rather preferred the PvE aspects of the souls series, there was something quite fun about battling horrid abominations in dusty catacombs and ruined castles, they had a great ambiance and back in the earlier games especially there felt like there was a big focus on trying to make things feel daunting and insurmountable. In the later games they shaped up the mechanics pretty nicely but lost that feeling of exploring hostile worlds alone and afraid, and put a much higher focus on making PvP a thing. I suppose the thing I rather dislike about the invasion system is that it feels mostly like it was just put into the game so that some guy could decide to ruin someone elses fun - its the equivalent of slapping a drink out of the hand of the first person you see come through a door - maybe funny for the invader, but it really spoils the fun for anyone just enjoying game. I suppose my biggest beef with it is that more often than not its just invaders joining a random game to try and fuck up newer or less experienced players, it reminds me of any number of MMORPGs where high levels would just walk into a low level area and amuse themselves with being gigantic assholes - it would be cool if a person on their first run could choose to disable invasions, but to constantly have to have the shitty PvP mechanics forced on you really makes playing offline the most enjoyable option - there's no reason to bother using embers if you just want to play the game. In the first game it was a method to return to human form, but in the later games they provide enough items that do that same thing, if you're even remotely competent you'll never have to worry about running out. Invasion mostly just exists as a tool for assholes to ruin the fun of other people... and it's not like there's any large way to protect yourself from it other than summon a bunch of people to assist you.
I tihnk the dark summoning signs are a great addition in the last two games, especially if you're focused on PvP. Instead of covenants like the watchdogs of farron, who stop being summoned once they reach higher levels mostly due to the fact that unless you're in NG+ you'll just be out of the matchmaking range for everyone in that area, they should have had covenants that functioned like PvP centric warring factions, that would invade the games of their respective opponent covenants, and perhaps if invaded that way could expect to have allies summoned to help (unlike the blue sentinels, which... are still completely useless).
It seems to me like FromSoft doesn't really know where they want to go with the game, so they just keep heaping in random stuff until it looks like something sticks.

As for the estus - yeah, its neat that it can be split, but I think the system they had in DS1 was much better than 2 or 3 - maybe not with the soft humanities, but definitely with the idea of using something valuable to make those bonfires more potent - hell, it'd definitely be a lot more thematic for the unkindled than bringing pieces of broken glass for the smith to smack into your juicebox.

Whiel on the PvE part of things, i get where youre coming from with osses and enemies in the newer games being less daunting, while at the same time making them more dangerous than they appear, which gives you that sense of caution where looks can be deceiving, like Jailers later on in the game.
And while i agree that people like to invade new players to fuck them up, especially dark souls 1 i mean geez, you could have a lightning infused uchigatana +10 what you need to go late game to do and still invade a new character in the first area who just pings you for 10 damage a hit and you just two shot them. while they tried to fix this in dark souls 2, i think its the weapon restrictions in dark souls 3 that does a good job of it meaning that someone with a +5 sword cant invade someone who only has a +2.

Though another thing from dark souls 2, you could burn a human effigy to disable the invasions for 30 minutes, which worked like being hollow in dark souls 1.
Also the Blue sentinels from dark souls 2 and brotherhood of blood, which there 1v1 PvP arena or dark souls 1 dlc arena from OoTA. something like that in 3 would be pretty cool, something more orgasnised that someone who gets bored setting up a fight club.

and also regarding the estus from dark souls 1, i feel it made it too easy, just chunking 20 estus by throwing these easily obtained humanities. i like the idea of crafting additional estus flasks, though they couldve worked it better, like you find two broken flasks, or so many shards allow you craft an extra estus and have more shards in game, or force you to go into ng+ to get all flasks.
abit like heart containers in LoZ? [i think, never played it x:]

I do think you put up some good points for the PvP earlier, i mean they HAVE been improving it since they're putting it forefront. And yeah you're right, the new weapon restrictions DO help a little more than their previous systems. I guess most of my frustration just comes from the core of me not liking the idea that some random person can come in and fuck up something I'm doing, but that is and has always been a big part of the Souls games. I may not love it but I do love the games enough to be willing to put up with it. It's possible my opinion on 3 will shift the more I play, and these games do have a big focus on NG+, its just that as a first-impression I was feeling somewhat... displeased :<

i do understand where you are coming from, but thats also where the fun comes from with playing with a friend, someone comes in thinking "im gonna fuck up your shit" then gets smacked senseless so fun x3
Though feel free to give me a poke if you ever need any advice about an area or boss or anything! i sink way too many hours into this game with my 8 characters ;P

Hey sure! maybe we could play together sometime. I think right now I'm at the ancient wyvern, and trying to low level fight the dancer on a second guy.

im on ps4 myself, PSN is MagRaida if youre on same.
as for AW. if you run to the bell and go left, fight your way through the enemies, you can actually get above the wyvern's head for a plunging attack which is an insta kill.

Yeah I know, i keep missing the jump -w-

IM SO GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE
I'd spend like 10 minutes carefully fighting my way through, plunge from the skies like a mighty warrior aaaand it moved its head....

"plonk"

*splats with a manly scream*