PS5 Demon’s Souls 2020

[OCH]

27 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

There is a sword in 4-1 (I think) that’ll help with your mana pool and stamina.

Yep. That sword (Crescent Falchion) also helps you with basically every other world in the game. Insanely useful. But they don't give it away for free...

[mfnick]

Well I’m done with this. Since I last posted here I beat the Tower Knight boss but not got much interest in pressing on much more. Put in about 8-9 hours. Was ok and given it a good go but I’m just not really enjoying it enough to keep on with.

 

Ive fucked up World 4, there’s now a red samurai enemy now at the beginning which one hit kills and takes no damage because I didn’t know about the world tendency thing. 
 

World 2 I just find completely dull, 5 the same and 3 is just awkward. Only seem to enjoy exploring the first one. 
 

Plus I think I really fucked up by picking the royal class. But it’s too late to start again now. This also led to anxiety over screwing up my stat points in a way I can’t ever remember feeling in a game before. Just felt I was doing it wrong all the time due to not wanting to spec magic but not committing enough to strength, health etc. 
 

Think I’ll give Sekiro a go next. May even buy it using the money from this. I like the sound of it just having 1 way to play after trying this. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Oh boy not to be too rude but you better prepare your butt for Sekiro

 

Big fan of Souls but fuck Sekiro, wasn't worth it for me. But the only way you'll know is by trying it out I suppose

[mfnick]

Yea I understand Sekiro is meant to be Bastard hard but it appeals far more in every area so should hold my interest more. Plus it wasn’t the difficulty of this, it just got boring and I hated my character. 
 

Couple of podcasts I listen to have people who don’t like Souls games but love Sekiro and have tastes similar to mine so worth a go. 

[OCH]

Indeed. I follow quite a few Souls pros on YouTube and the general consensus is that Sekiro is harder than any Souls game.

 

8 minutes ago, mfnick said:

and I hated my character. 

As an aside, my Magician wasn't the first character I created in the remake. It was a Depraved/Barbarian. Which, because I was rustier with the game than I imagined I could be. I swiftly abandoned before Phalanx. DeS, more so than the Dark games is very old skool in that respect. If you are going for a build, you have to stick with it. You have to commit to certain stats and ignore all the others. Melee builds need Strength/Vit/End, Magic builds need Magic/Intelligence etc For example, I didn't upgrade my Stamina Bar once in my entire playthrough. Because a Magician doesn't need more than the base stat.

 

You did well though and you're not the first person to hit that wall with Souls. So kudos for giving it an honest try and for how far you got.

[mfnick]

I’m not bothered by difficulty if the game is good. Like I say, difficulty isn’t the problem with this at all in my play time - apart from the tendency thing ruining world 4. Which I could have easily avoided if I’d have known before hand. Sekiro just seems more appealing to my tastes than this. We’ll see. Can always sell that on too if I don’t like it. 
 

Cheers ?

[OCH]

There is a reason why they never revisited a similar mechanic to World Tendency. It was an interesting idea, just not well implemented. 

[DisturbedSwan]

I did say not to remain in human form too much, can’t say I’m surprised ? you can also turn the world tendency back to white. You can respec your character at the Nexus in exchange for some Souls if you were worried about stats, sorry you didn’t get on with Royalty, as someone new to the series it’s honestly the best way to go. Some folks just don’t have the minerals for these games (even DMC Kyle didn’t have the minerals to finish Sekiro) ?
 

As for trying Sekiro next, good luck with that man ?? I’d love to see you stream it, that’s all I’m gonna say ?. That game is fucking nails at times, even for a Souls vet like myself. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Actually I just think Sekiro is a bit shit tbh

[DisturbedSwan]

 

12 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Actually I just think Sekiro is a bit shit tbh

That’s just what someone with no minerals would say ?
 

@Nag wish all you like, I will continue to joke about ?‍♀️ I am just messing about ?
 

I can’t finish RE3 on Super Nightmare Zombie Eye mode in less than 2 hours like you can, I’ve got no minerals for RE on the harder difficulties I fully admit.

[one-armed dwarf]

I can get into it, it's a very limiting and stultifying combat with almost no reason to even have an open world. It's plodding boringness punctuated by great boss fights that never felt worth the time investment to play it a particular way like it's DDR. I do that dance with MMOs all the time, don't got the interest to do it with single player games too.

 

It's just boring.

[DisturbedSwan]

Finish it then we’ll talk ?

[OCH]

[one-armed dwarf]

This is tbh what I hate about the whole souls discourse and not specifically picking on Blakey with this. The whole 'prepare to die' thing has made a lot of people think these games are horribly difficult and it's all about suffering and pain and getting bragging rights at the end or something. But it kinda isn't about that at all for lots of people. I think mfnick says it best when it's more about 'is this thing I'm doing rewarding right now'. There are much harder games out there than the ones From make, I think difficulty isn't even the reason why their games are good in the first place. It's not why I like them anyway. I like the lore and worldbuilding told through environments, boss designs weapons etc. When it comes to the fights I just find whatever works, I don't seek out the super challenging skillful way to play it. Just what's fun.

 

I had this with Hades, I pushed through that game to a 16 heat clear which was way beyond what I should have with that game cause I already knew I wasn't having a good time with it. Sometimes games just suck on a subjective level and it's a good idea sometimes to just go 'I think this game is a shit experience for me personally, I'll just drop it then'. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Played a bit of it on PS5 yesterday, unlikely I'll stick with it as it's not my favourite Souls game and I'm sort of burned out on the formula anyway (dark souls II is better than this game). But I thought I'd give oled impressions again, this is one of the games that shows the quality of these screens really well. In the tutorial area there is a dark corridor where there's an armoured knight at the end, don't have a screenshot but I guess I could be describing any corridor in the game. The flickering of the torches against the pitch darkness and then the contrast when you walk out into a more lit space with a hole in the ceiling, very cool looking stuff.

 

It's still Demon's Souls tho, and I ain't ever going to beat this game cause I've already played much better versions of it. I think in terms of raw visuals it's a very good looking game but also I think games are getting to that point with this generation where they are dense visually to a point I can't actually take it all in, therefore don't appreciate it as much. Felt this also watching the Horizon trailer on 4K.

[Maf]

One of the best visual treats is getting to 1-2 and seeing the castle in the distance. It’s a real holy hell moment.

 

3-2 is incredible for that also. 
 

The other areas art actually lets the game down, though. World 2 looks good graphically, but it’s so boring artistically it doesn’t matter what the pixel count is. It’s still brown walls (Even if they’re really well detailed brown walls)

[DisturbedSwan]

The boss fights and the bosses character models in World 2 are spectacular (Flamelurker and Spidey in particular) but I agree that the graphical fidelity is wasted a bit on that area. 

 

Worlds 1, 3 and 4 were the most visually arresting for me for sure, the beginning of 4-1 (I think) when you first see all the rain coming down I was absolutely blown away by it, same story in 'upper Latria' in 3-2 and 1-2 when the Dragon shows up. 2 and 5 due to their nature are artistically quite dull so there's only so much you can do with those I agree.

[Maf]

It's a good point actually the bosses do look amazing. As do all the fire and effects that come with them. The HDR against the darker/brown backgrounds is great. 

[OCH]

On 21/08/2021 at 16:58, one-armed dwarf said:

dark souls II is better than this game

Now that's just crazy talk...