Souls Series (Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Bloodborne)

[Dima]

Launch trailer

WARNING!!! MAJOR SPOILERS (at least that's what they say in comments)

https://youtu.be/QjY99zF3_to

[Sicarius VI]

Launch trailer

WARNING!!! MAJOR SPOILERS (at least that's what they say in comments)

https://youtu.be/QjY99zF3_to

Whoa... IF this is anything like Dark Souls 1, then I am probably gonna buy it over the summer.

[Dima]

Reviews are out. 90 metascore on Metacritic as of now (based on 25 critics)

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/dark-souls-iii/critic-reviews

Some reviews

IGN - 9.5

If Dark Souls 3 truly is the last in the series as we know it, then it’s a worthy send-off. Weapon arts allow stylish and versatile new moves without tarnishing the purity of the combat system. Lothric’s awe-inspiring locations provide visually stunning arenas for rigorous exploration and fierce face-offs with hosts of deadly enemies and even deadlier bosses. While not all the risky changes land as neatly as others, Dark Souls 3 is a powerful journey and the sequel the series truly deserves.

Game Informer - 9.25

Dark Souls III successfully replicates the winning formula of the Souls series, a wondrous combination of majestic boss battles, incredible layered environments full of secrets, and precise combat that can make other action RPGs difficult to play once you’ve mastered the art. If you’ve never played the series, this is a great place to begin, offering a bit more direction in the early game before opening up. If you’ve already played the series, you can feel confident that From Software hasn’t lost its touch.

Gamesradar - 9

It's a persuasive reshuffle of the feature set, on the whole, reinforcing the original's machinery while throwing in a few new wrinkles for veterans. But it's expressive of a game that's more about putting a capstone on a formula than raising the roof. Dark Souls 3 is a vigorous tale of sacrifice and cunning. It is oblique, punishing and gratifying in a way mainstream console blockbusters seldom dare to be. But the fires are definitely dying. There's been some uncertainty over whether this is the final Dark Souls title – Miyazaki has suggested as much, but the endings contain dutiful hints about future sequels. As much as I love Dark Souls, and as much as I've enjoyed this one, I think it's time to say goodbye.

Destructoid - 8.5

If Dark Souls III truly is the last game for now, it makes perfect sense, since it's just as much of a love letter to fans as it is a culmination of the series. I may not have liked this iteration as much as the rest, but it's still streets ahead of most current action games and deserves a warm spot on your shelf by the bonfire.

Gamespot - 8

There are several possible endings to Dark Souls III, and although most are anticlimactic, they drive home the loneliness of the paths we took. The old lords have abandoned their posts, and in the hunt to usurp them, we descend into those dark valleys, and climb those imposing peaks. This is the essence of Dark Souls III: periods of doubt, followed by great reward. The journey may be rocky, but there's a throne waiting at the end.

[Shinoyami65]

The general fan and reviewer reception of the game seems to be very positive. My hype levels are through the roof.

[Sicarius VI]

Yea it seems people are enjoying it, I may get it earlier than I thought. Haven't decided yet.

[Dima]

This fits pretty nicely.

EDIT: Check my next post.

[Shinoyami65]

^The link is dead, what did it originally lead to?

[Dima]

For some strange reason, the links i post go down after some hours. Still this one was from Bandai's twitter so i don't know what happened. Anyway here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072FR4Yvv3Q

[Shinoyami65]

Started the game. It's pretty damn good so far, although mediocre optimisation seems to be causing framerate issues for me and several others.

[Rosenakahara]

So am I the only one who noticed the

SPOILER: Show

Farron armour

is LITERALLY just Guts's Golden age armour?

[Shinoyami65]

^Probably, if I'm not mistaken

SPOILER: Show

The Weapon Art for the Farron Greatsword has been described as 'Guts Mode' in addition to the sword itself being a replica of Artorias's (and Artorias was a walking Guts expy to begin with) so wearing the armor and holding the sword are as close to being Guts as the game could probably get.

[Sicarius VI]

I remember seeing a build in DKS1 and DKS2 for Guts. Maybe From Soft got the hint.

Anyone get to the ending yet?

[Rosenakahara]

Sadly I had to restart the game cause I messed up getting a sidequest so not yet.

[Sicarius VI]

That happened to me both in DKS1 and 2, it sucks once you realize that you screwed up somewhere not to encounter a trigger and need to at least get to NG+ or restart to be able to redo it.

[Rosenakahara]

Ok I caught up and then got further than where I was and didnt mess up the sidequest this time also:

SPOILER: Show

I loved onionbro's quest, the ending was so cool and the way he just left you his armour and weapons without even a word was just..........yes, I liked that.
On the flipside I am well on my way to getting the hidden ending (I was not spoiled on this, I'm only assuming its hidden because you have to complete a specific sidequest to get it) and I have 8 dark sigils now.

[Rosenakahara]

Beat DS3

SPOILER: Show

HOLY FUCK THAT FINAL BOSS, like holy shit, and when gwyns theme started playing it was just........that is how you end a game.
Sadly I didnt get the ending I wanted, I got the alternative second ending which has no achievement tied to it, though it is a nice demons souls reference.
I wanted the "Hollow Lord" ending and I will strive to go do that after I deal with the burnout a bit, someone throw me a cinder please.

[Monk Ed]

In preparation for DS3 I picked up DS2 again. What remained on my personal to-do list in that game, before seeing the alternate ending, was to defeat the reputed hardest boss, the Fume Knight, and to a lesser extent also the Smelter Demon found at the end of the Iron Passage because I fought him in the past and wanted the satisfaction of finishing what I started.

Tonight, I beat them both.

I'd been working on them ever since picking the game back up again 6 days ago. When I last dropped it, I had not even reached the Fume Knight, but had been working on the (recolor) Smelter Demon for a while. My first night, I could not last 15 seconds against the Fume Knight. It got so bad, I stopped equipping my usual rings of life protection because they weren't doing me much of a favor, because the extra health retained by retaining human form wasn't making a difference and it was wasteful of both time and effort to keep repairing them. So once I'd run down my souls, I left the rings off and let the Fume Knight just keep on killing me and reducing my max health as I practiced against him. Only after I got good enough to bring him to his second stage even with my max health at 3/4 normal did I return myself to human form and start using the rings again to protect it. I thereafter used runs at the Smelter Demon through the Iron Keep to build my souls up then used those souls to fund the ring repair bills of repeated attempts at the Fume Knight.

The turning point came tonight when I switched up that MO by focusing on just one at a time, doing the Smelter Demon run repeatedly until I had defeated it, then making attempts at the Fume Knight until I had defeated it, instead of alternating between them every few runs.

The process of challenging, building up towards, and eventually defeating the Fume Knight has got to be the purest fun I've had with this game, and is a fitting end to my journey (minus the required couple of final boss fights to see the ending, which I hear are pretty easy). The low turnaround time made repeatedly challenging the Fume Knight fun instead of frustrating, a sharp contrast to my runs at the Smelter Demon, which, while never truly teeth-grindingly frustrating, certainly had the potential to be, and could still be described as at least tedious.

And oh yeah... I did it all on Covenant of Champions.

Obviously I've already said the following in other words, but I have wanted to say this for so long.

SPOILER: Show

I beat the motherfucking Fume Knight!

...And just in time for Dark Souls 3.

[Sicarius VI]

Beat DS3

SPOILER: Show

HOLY FUCK THAT FINAL BOSS, like holy shit, and when gwyns theme started playing it was just........that is how you end a game.
Sadly I didnt get the ending I wanted, I got the alternative second ending which has no achievement tied to it, though it is a nice demons souls reference.
I wanted the "Hollow Lord" ending and I will strive to go do that after I deal with the burnout a bit, someone throw me a cinder please.

Don't read if you haven't beaten the game.  SPOILER: Show

I spoiled myself but I've been wanting to talk about it. Like holy shit, it's your character from DKS1 that you fight as that final boss! Like wow I didn't think From would do something like that after Dark Souls 2, but they found a way. They made it so that the gender isn't really clear and the attacks/weapons are based off most popular, and it's the Knight Armour from the beginning of DKS1.

I don't think i got that far. I was on NG+3 on my first save of DKS2 and it was hard as hell to even damage those bosses. To say I bought all the DKS2 Dlc and didn't complete any of them... then the whole scholar of the sin came out and I don't think I'll go back to DKS2 anytime soon.

[Shinoyami65]

Sadly I had to restart the game cause I messed up getting a sidequest so not yet.

That happened for me too,

SPOILER: Show

I didn't realise that curing the Dark Sigil would torpedo the Yoel questline. So I had to start again. On the plus side, in my new playthrough I found a lot of goodies I didn't get before like the Mirrah Set and I've made it a lot further this time as well.

[Monk Ed]

The latest patch to DS3 introduced an intermittent stutter to my experience of the game. Just now, it stuttered right at the instant of an enemy attack, causing it to kill me, and then I died on my way back to collect those souls, resulting in the total loss of all of them.

I'm early in the game, so almost any amount of souls I could lose is paltry in the long run, but wow does that irritate me. I kept saying at the screen, "Are you fucking kidding me?" to vent, because those souls I lost forever? I had just retrieved them from a very hot zone that I kept dying repeatedly in and then barely making it back to before finally successfully killing everyone in there and making it out with those souls. The death where I dropped them happened on my way back to a bonfire.