Dark Souls

[The Landslide]

Well, what weapon are you using? I was using the Drake sword (now I have the Black Knight longsword) and most enemies actually don't have too much health. The way the red part of their health bar bleeds into the yellow part of the damage they have taken is confusing, as enemy health bars are very thin. I've sighed to myself and prepared for the long haul against enemies I thought were packing loads of health only to watch them drop dead a moment later because my perspective was off.

But yeah, not a lot dies in three or four hits in this game.

 

[GrayGuy7]

I like this game. It's one of the best RPG experiences I've had in a while, but sometimes this game can be "Fuck Yo Life!" frustratin'! I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've lost over 3K worth of souls in this game [my highest record of lost souls so far: 15 fuckin' K....]. Blighttown is BY FAR the most bullshit of areas to have ever graced a RPG [so far]! This game has made me so cautious that if I'm walkin' on a narrow path, or even on uneven ground [like on a stairway], and see an enemy, I will literally backtrack until I find an even, open area to fight on [if I could, at the time....]; It made me so cautious that even though I have some powerful weapons like the Drake Sword or the Gargoyle Axe, I'll still rock the Estoc sword, just for its safety.

Yeah, I think Dark Souls is a good game. I've been playin' it for hours but I still don't feel like I scratched the surface of it yet [which I like]. But like Jaxel said, sometimes it gets so frustratin' at times, it feels like the game's fuckin' with you...

 

[Sprudling]

Because of this, they made deaths in the game very cheap. When you die in Dark Souls, its almost rarely a learning experience. Its not because you made a mistake, its because the developers of the game are a bunch of assholes and wanted to troll you. You don't learn anything from your mistakes because more than likely, you didn't do anything wrong; the developers just trolled the fuck out of you.

I have yet to encounter anything which I would call cheap in Dark Souls. I think it only does a better at not revealing the "rules" to the player, and at the same time expanding the set of "rules" to be much more varied and intricate than what they were in Demon's Souls. Demon's Souls was pretty much just block and counterattack whereas Dark Souls is so much more. It takes more experimenting to figure out the most efficient way of dealing with things. Just simply dying is not enough to learn everything.

For example, a post on this page asks "what weapon are you using?" This is an indication that one has chosen a single weapon and is sticking with it. This was good enough in Demon's Souls, but in Dark Souls this is a mistake. Choosing the weapon with the best attack properties for any given situation will make your life much easier. Some enemies are effortless with a small and quick weapon while others are best dealt with using heavy hitters. Some attacks kill step (to borrow a Soul Calibur expression) while some do not. Weaknesses and resistances are also more important than in the previous game. If you aren't using at least one weapon with Lightning, you can do better.

There are a few things I miss from Demon's Souls, but for me the improvements far outweights those. My favourite areas so far have been The Catacombs, Sen's Fortress and World of Ariamis. I'm currently in Anor Londo.

 

[Ghengis_John]

Well, what weapon are you using? I was using the Drake sword (now I have the Black Knight longsword) and most enemies actually don't have too much health. The way the red part of their health bar bleeds into the yellow part of the damage they have taken is confusing, as enemy health bars are very thin. I've sighed to myself and prepared for the long haul against enemies I thought were packing loads of health only to watch them drop dead a moment later because my perspective was off.

But yeah, not a lot dies in three or four hits in this game.

I'm using Astora's long sword. It's physical and magic damage. Got the drake sword, does less damage to most armored things. Since most enemies are armored, yeah. Lvl 26 now. Seems like they expect you to parry and back stab everything if you don't want to impale it all day.

Other than that I've got a plus 5 winged spear for backup. Some things like rats just aren't smart to drop your guard around.

Ad for black knights I've killed 4 already and I haven't gotten one of their weapons, even though I'm tromping around with 4 humanity which is almost doubling my item find. Crappy luck.

 

[Juez]

I've picked up rare stuff while not having humanity, I picked up the black knight halbred and apparently it's a rare drop. I think not having humanity increases rare drop rate honestly. My Drake sword is the strongest weapon I have and it does the most damage of any weapon I have. Hell the Gargoyle halbred does less damage than it even if I wield it with two hands.