Darksouls - Am I missing something?

rubberduck · 14 Mar 2014 at 01:29

So am trying to get in to Darksouls after reading many good things about it.... I don't mind hard games but this just seems like it gives you a massive time-sink of easiness before throwing you something hard... The fact that you may need 5 or 6 attempts to get past the hard bit also means you must complete the easy time-sink part prior to every attempt at the challenging fights.

I enjoy the challenging encounters, but why should I have to spend 10 mins farting around through the easy/trivial bits in order to be able to have another attempt at the hard bit?

dmcg · 14 Mar 2014 at 01:46

it's a punishment for being bad

Sin_Chase · 14 Mar 2014 at 02:26

Dark Souls will just do everything and anything to make you rage quit.

Enjoy

Baron C · 14 Mar 2014 at 03:11

Burn the Heretic!!!

Seriously though, it scales.If the game was very very hard it wouldn't have that appeal.
Demons and Dark souls were a bit Grindy in places tbh which did get annoying.

Not to romanticise it, but the game is really about what 'you' put into it. ( similar ethos to eve-online)

Zethor · 14 Mar 2014 at 07:49

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_(video_game)

Ever played one of these games? In the original, there were ten levels and any single hit from an enemy or a hazard meant you lost one of your three lives. Once all lives were lost, the game was over - no saves, no bonfires, no second chances. And guess what? It was bloody brilliant. Dark Souls and its predecessors capture the essence of games such as Contra.

You should see the "trivial" bit as an opportunity to explore different routes/options, to practice sword play, dodging and parrying. You probably missed a bit of lore hidden somewhere or you saw a ledge that you prefered to avoid - there's also something to do. Each time you go through a certain area, your skills increase a bit more, your reactions and timing improve, your understanding of the mechanics goes a tad bit further. You practically increase your own strength/agility, rather than increasing some numbers on a character spreadsheet.

And guess what? It is bloody brilliant.

Witcher1979 · 14 Mar 2014 at 08:24

Most games back in the day never had saves, you got a certain amount of lives and after that it was game over. People today have no idea what a hard game really is.

iamtheoneneo · 14 Mar 2014 at 10:01

Iv only just started getting into DS aswell. I do like it, it is challenging but I do feel in quite a fair way, it makes you think about every situation your in and whilst death is quite rage inducing it has also made me laugh a lot of times, something no other game can really do.

My only issue is that the texture work in some places is so bad that paths are hard to find! I had to look in a guide to figure out there was a path running up a cliff face that was right in front of my eyes!!! This is even with various PC mods so I cant possibly imagine what its like on consoles.

back in the day I completed Ninja Gaiden TWICE, and that is often regarding as a ridiculously difficult game.