Dark Souls 3 Video Game • Page 21

I checked out Berserk after hearing how much it inspired Bloodborne/Souls and now it's probably my favourite story in anything ever. It's insane.

 

I still think Bloodborne and Souls have a huge amount of originality in them though despite some heavy influence. It's the right way to be influence by something and the right thing to be influenced by, ha.

 

Absolutely, and it's wild to think the SoulsBorne series has essentially created a whole new genre much like Doom and the "Doom clones". I think Nioh, The Surge, and Salt & Sanctuary have proved there's a market and a demand for these types of games which is wonderful.

 

made a new Bloodborne character, decided to try a Skill build since normally I do Strength but that gets boring after 200+ hours and Arcane just doesnt feel like its for me, very unique but strange way the game decides to handle "magic".

The beginning of this game, specifically Central Yharnam, has got to be my favorite opening level of any game I've ever played. I love how these games teach you how the game works without explicitly showing you, for example enemies that pretend to be dead/hide around corners teach you "hey slow down, its not a race, check everything" which also has the added effect of letting you admire the wonderful level design and architecture. I love how cryptic everything seems, I love the little detail of the incense candles signaling that theres an NPC nearby you can talk to, I love how the streets are filled with coffins that have been chained shut telling you that things around here dont just stay dead and that something awful has transpired, theres SO MANY of these coffins that theyre just lying around in the street which implies that the cemeteries have run out of room. The townsfolk have clearly gone mad, theyve tied their fellow citizens up on crosses and burned them and theyre all walking around with weapons, I remember the first time I heard one of them call ME a beast that I realized there was much more to this game than just "kill monsters and dont think about it too much" and I also love that at the beginning Gerhman flat out says those exact words to you. I hadnt noticed before how much the game sorta draws from the Castlevania universe, another favorite franchise of mine, hell at one point an NPC says something along the lines of "What a horrible night to have a curse" which is lifted directly from Castlevania. I love how the entire city is connected and, if you get the monocular, you can actually see all the roads and bridges that connect the different levels. I just love this game so so so much. I really love the idea of going back to Yharnam after youve gained some insight and seeing all the Amygdalas and other strange creatures around, its cool that the game basically implies that these things have always been here you just couldnt see them earlier, that this is what the citizens are actually afraid of. There just so much that this game does right, my only REAL issue is that some of the hunter fights are absolutely broken. The other hunters just dont follow the same rules you have to follow, they have infinite stamina and ammo and can pretty easily do a visceral attack and one shot you.

Someone did a comparison between the japanese and english translations of the game and its interesting to see what was lost in the process, for example the Moon Presence actually has a name: Flora, and its flat out said that she is using Gerhman as a surrogate child since, going off the theory above about female Great Ones and how the reproduce, she needed something to continue forward to get revenge.

 

I just completed the chalices for the third time last night. Takes so fucking long

 

Ugh. The chalices are the only thing I never completed in Bloodborne. Still need to get back to them. I think I left off on a root one where Ram was the final boss, and he kept fucking me up.

 

Chalices were difficult. I only powered through them for that Plat.

 

The last boss is fun, they're just something to do while I listen to podcasts. I'm currently in a depth 5 root chalice that's absurdly hard. Witches and summoners all over the place

 

i love the Chalices, they add a lot of good content to a game that some may consider to be a bit short in comparison to the other Souls games. For me the main game has never felt short only because I spend so much time doing all the quests and listening to all the dialogue and just looking at shit.

Eileens questline is probably my favorite, if only because I love the idea of a "hunter of hunters", someone who can stifle their emotional attachment to their comrades and kill them when the time comes. She was my first clue that the hunters and "the hunt" itself are more responsible for the acceleration of the beastly plague and have far more blood on their hands than any of the beasts in Yharnam do. Quite an emotional ending to it as well, having to kill the Bloody Crow Of Cainhurst who is presumably a longtime friend of hers that went mad.

Djura used to be a hunter I hated, that damn gatling gun in Old Yharnam still gets me sometimes and climbing up to fight him is a nightmare, hes just so much stronger than you are. But when I learned that you could befriend him I began to love him. Much like Eileen, his questline is very emotional. He feels guilty for being a hunter and for essentially causing this beastly plague to rapidly take over, so hes made it his duty to guard the "beasts" of Old Yharnam from hunters because to him theyre still his fellow citizens, theyre just people. If you listen closely you can even hear certain bosses and mobs say things like "i didnt ask for this! youre the real monster!" or "youve got more blood on your hands than I! youre the real plague!"

"Yes, very good. I no longer dream, but I was once a hunter too. There's nothing more horrific than a hunt. In case you fail to realise, the things you hunt -- they're not beasts, they're people. But remember one thing, you're not hunting beasts, it's you -- you're the beast, just think about what you're doing - it's utter madness."

 

Also Gascoignes side quest with his daughters is so sad. The man went mad with beast rage, killed his own wife, you then kill him and bring the brooch to his daughter in the window and tell her she can go to cathedral ward for safety. She then thanks you and says she loves you "as much as mom and dad and even granddad!" And heads on her way, only to end up lost in the sewers and killed by one of those pig creatures. You can then bring the blood stained ribbon that belonged to the girl back to the window where her sister will be, where she reveals that there was someone waiting for them and that she had come back to pick her sister up only to find out from you that her entire family is dead.

It's interesting to note that Henryk was Gascoignes hunting partner and friend, it's also important to note that he can be found near Odeon Chapel where Eileen warns you he's gone mad and he must be put down. It can be inferred that he was "grandad" to the little girl and that, upon seeing that Gascoigne and the girl are dead, succumbs to his beastly side and becomes hostile.

 

Are y'all sick of me babbling about Bloodborne yet

I need to play through DS3 again. It's my 2nd fav souls game and the DLCs added a lot of great weapons and changes for pvp which I've throughouly enjoyed playing. Plus all the neat references to DS1 and DS2

 

I'd still put BB, Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls ahead of 3

 

Bloodborne for sure and probably DS1 too but I think Demon's Souls is easily the weakest of the series if you ignore nostalgia.

 

I think it's actually the most in depth of the Souls games. The world/character tendency changes your game so much. There are areas, weapons and NPC's that can only be accessed based on how you've played your game. I always wish they would bring something like that back

 

I really don't like that mechanic, ha.

 

It adds so much replay ability though! Even beyond that, I think it's actually the most robust of the souls games. The nexus gets so much more populated than any of the other hubs, so many different builds you can pull off. You should revisit it

 

The first half of DS1 is incredible but the second half feels so half-baked and incomplete

DS2 is underrated as hell and has the best DLC

DS3 has a great story and sense of finality plus lots of neat callbacks.

Demon Souls has great bosses and is mechanically rock solid but it's the one I like the least

BB is a perfect game. My ONLY critique, if I had to make one, is that some of the Hunter NPC fights are kinda BS (Djura might be the hardest fight in the game given the time you encounter him and the 3 Hunter fight is straight up unfair) but otherwise the lore, the world, the gameplay, the mechanics, the level design, the bosses, it's all just perfect.

As far as Soulslike goes Nioh and The Surge are at least as good as DS2 and I quite enjoy playing both and what they bring to the table

 

I tried not too long ago and I just find it so much more bland than the others in terms of the world it builds and the enemy/location designs. Plus the gameplay evolved so much throughout the games it's hard to go back.

I still think it's great for the template it created but the rest of the games were much more interesting/enjoyable to me.

I guess I can see why the tendancy might elevate it for people if they like that though, for some reason I didn't consider people actually liking that, haha.

 

I'd argue BB did that mechanic as well just not quite as extreme. Still, depending on what Quest lines you do and how you go about doing certain things can trigger different changes in the game.

 

I like Nioh a lot but way less than any Soulsborne game mainly because of the repetition of enemy/location designs and the lore/story being far inferior.

I think Dark Souls 1 does falter a bit towards the end but I think most of that game is perfect and the way the world is created and interconnected is probably the best in the entire series and the lore is second only to Bloodborne.

 

It's interesting hearing Myazaki basically admit that the interconnected world in DS1 was kinda accidental hence why they never really did it again apart from like Yharnam.

But that's ok because the games have always had great level design. BB is the souls game that dominates my mind the most in terms of trying to explain and understand certain things.

 

Bloodborne is the most interesting world/lore of any video game imo. Everything about that game is just bonkers good.

 

I genuinely don't like Dark Souls 2. It felt wrong immediately, convinced myself it was good for a while but it just feels like a Souls fan made a Fanfiction sequel. The DLC is the best part of the game, but doesn't touch the others in my mind.

I replay demons souls a couple times a year, and other than world 5 (swamp-city) it's top notch.

 

I love Dark Souls 2. It was the first one I completed so I may be biased but I think it was done incredibly well considering Miyazaki wasn't part of it. I think the end game with the castle was my favourite of any of the Souls games. I love big ass castles.

 

Every level is like a straight line through ugly textures I've had friends offer to buy me SOTFS so I'd play with them but have no interest.