Dark Souls 3 | PS4, Xbone & PC | Praise the Sun

More progress on this last night, cleared out most of the Undead Settlement - helped Onion boy beat the Fire Demon, took down the "Ice Knight" guy who was properly annoying, and beat the Curse-Rotted Greatwood on my first go. :datass:

Getting back into the swing of the more measured approach needed by this now. Playing it at 60FPS on the PC compared to the ~30 of Bloodborne on PS4 and DS1 on Switch also makes everything feel a bit different too which has taken some adapting to!

Had a quick shot at this again last night, exploring the Road of Sacrifices mainly.

There's just something intangible about this that means I'm not enjoying it as much as I did DS1. That the area design doesn't feel as good is part of it, along with the fact that nothing feels as connected as it did in the first game. That feeling of being in a large, connected play space with many areas to explore at any one time was such a huge part of the original game.

The ability to warp around from the very start (necessitated in part by this more disconnected world design) is also a negative - another thing that stops you feeling connected to a large place that you are exploring, instead you are just diving in and out of choice locations at will. Having to travel back to the Firelink Shrine to level up is also bloody annoying.

The bonfires are also way to close together making exploration feel less of a risk - there aren't any moments where you feel a long way from safety and genuinely fear dying.

It's still a lot of fun, but it's not up there with the original.

Jenuall wrote:Had a quick shot at this again last night, exploring the Road of Sacrifices mainly.

There's just something intangible about this that means I'm not enjoying it as much as I did DS1. That the area design doesn't feel as good is part of it, along with the fact that nothing feels as connected as it did in the first game. That feeling of being in a large, connected play space with many areas to explore at any one time was such a huge part of the original game.

The ability to warp around from the very start (necessitated in part by this more disconnected world design) is also a negative - another thing that stops you feeling connected to a large place that you are exploring, instead you are just diving in and out of choice locations at will. Having to travel back to the Firelink Shrine to level up is also bloody annoying.

The bonfires are also way to close together making exploration feel less of a risk - there aren't any moments where you feel a long way from safety and genuinely fear dying.

It's still a lot of fun, but it's not up there with the original.

It's basically a series of corridors. There's some loop back (mostly in individual areas) but it's not a sprawling world like the others

Hexx wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Had a quick shot at this again last night, exploring the Road of Sacrifices mainly.

There's just something intangible about this that means I'm not enjoying it as much as I did DS1. That the area design doesn't feel as good is part of it, along with the fact that nothing feels as connected as it did in the first game. That feeling of being in a large, connected play space with many areas to explore at any one time was such a huge part of the original game.

The ability to warp around from the very start (necessitated in part by this more disconnected world design) is also a negative - another thing that stops you feeling connected to a large place that you are exploring, instead you are just diving in and out of choice locations at will. Having to travel back to the Firelink Shrine to level up is also bloody annoying.

The bonfires are also way to close together making exploration feel less of a risk - there aren't any moments where you feel a long way from safety and genuinely fear dying.

It's still a lot of fun, but it's not up there with the original.

It's basically a series of corridors. There's some loop back (mostly in individual areas) but it's not a sprawling world like the others

Yeah that's pretty much how it feels (and how I remember most of it from last time I played)

It's still fun and the combat and bosses are as enjoyable as ever, but it's not going to take the same place in my affections as either DS1 or Bloodborne have at this rate.

Still plodding along in this, up to the Abyss Watchers now.

It all feels very mechanical and just lacking compared to DS1 and BB, but a big part may be that I've been spending most of my gaming time on this "series" now for the last 4-5 months and might just be getting a bit jaded with it all in general!

After taking a break from this I've been inspired to return while reading of others taking their first Souls steps over in the DS1 thread!

Had a very productive time last night - took down the Abyss Watchers, dispatched High Lord Wolnir, put Horace to bed and got the ring from Anri, killed the giant worm and the Old Demon King and finally made my way to Irithyll and slaughtered the beast on the bridge. :datass:

I still think DS1 is a better game but taking a break from the series has definitely improved my opinion of this. :toot:

Mechanically and comabtly (it's a word. shut up) it's better - fast clearly Post-Bloodbourne - but the world doesn't come close to DS1

There are definitely mechanical improvements, and yeah the pace is definitely increased, that is undeniable. Bloody gorgeous at times as well, they created some wonderful scenes to take in at times.

Think I'm closing in on where I got to last time through this, I know I got past Anor Londo but don't really remember much beyond that. I do need to backtrack though, I got a bit single-minded and there's a whole bunch of areas I need to go back and finish off, don't want to miss out on any goodies. I must have missed a few Estus and bone shards on my first play through as I definitely don't remember having as much healing power as I do now!

There's a few optional areas you can miss but I think you've got 2-3 main areas last.

Some are great and some is terrible. One is very confusing

This is the best DS game IMO.

Kinda wish it had a more connected world along the lines of DS1.

i played this up till whereabouts Jenuall got to and never went back to it

might have to play it again when i finish the BB DLC

I went back to this after a long break as well.

Just beat the final boss, but I still have the Nameless King left.

I started the Ashes of Ariandel DLC before attempting the final boss, and I'm up to the Sister Friede fight.. Can do the first two parts easi enough solo, it's just practicing the third phase now. I can avoid damage a decent chunk of the time, but need more Estus and can't do damage consistently. Maybe I'm being tok cautious, but she's really fast.

After that, it'll be The Ringed City an then my Soulsbourne joinery will finally be over.

Parksey wrote:my Soulsbourne joinery will finally be over

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Had another quick bash on this last night, spent most of my time getting spanked by Pontiff Sulyvahn, that guy has some ridiculously long combos! :dread:

Can get him down to half health where he summons a shadow of himself easily enough, and came within one hit of a win a few times. Might try abandoning caution more and just two hand the strawberry floater when he's doing his half way animation.

Took down the Pontiff last night and then made my way up to Londo which obviously had much more impact than on my first play as now I've actually played DS1! :lol:

Pontiff was really easy once I changed tactics - normally I default to keeping my distance and circle bosses waiting for an opening, but I quickly realised with this guy that staying right in his face and moving around his attacks made the whole fight a breeze. Still a bit of a bitch when he summons his shadow but that was the only really difficult section.

Had some more fun on this last night. Finished mooching around Irithyll, got the Darkmoon covenant (not that I ever really bother with any of that side of things), went back to Firelink to get the tower key and be dicked over by Patches (as always!), headed back to Anor and pulverised Aldrich (found this really hard on my first play through but he was a piece of piss this time - only his rain of arrows attack was a bit of a pain if not avoided), then moved on to clear out the Irithyll dungeon and finally got to Yhorm at the Profaned Capital. Had a couple of goes at Yhorm last night, was managing to get quite far but needed to read his attacks better as he kept absolutely flattening me with one move ... then I remembered that you can just grab the weapon from the same room as him and it makes the whole fight a walk in the park! :lol:

I'm up to the Ringed City now, having just beaten The Demon Princes. Was a really good boss fight.

So was Sister Friede who I'm glad I resisted the urge to get help with and practiced so I could beat it all on my own. It's weird how she seemed so fast in the final phase at first, but as I practiced it was almost like she was going in slow motion. I was able to almost consistently avoid all damage. You begin to see how people who play and practice more than I do, end up doing SL1 or no hit runs.

Anyway, three bosses left in the Ringed City DLC (heard two of those are really hard) and I left the Nameless King for later as I thought levelling up through the DLC would help.

Finally made it beyond where I had bailed on this last time! :toot:

So after taking down Yhorm, which again was trivial thanks to the Storm Ruler, I got warped back to Lothric to face the boss that I gave up on previously - Dancer of the Boreal Valley ... and beat her first time! :datass:

Not entirely sure why I found this so hard last time but again I think it was a similar failure of tactics as when I was fighting Pontiff. I was trying to stay away from her attacks and keep my distance too much, this time I was all up in her face and she couldn't handle it. :nod:

So now I'm exploring Lothric Castle for the first time and it's a really nice area to take in so far. It feels slightly odd to finally be making my way through a new space again after spending so long revisiting areas I'd down a couple of years ago! :lol:

Not sure if it's just because it's the first new area I've explored for ages but I'm really enjoying mooching around Lothric Castle, that same sense of discovery mixed with trepidation has returned now I no longer have some fore-knowledge of where enemies and items are etc. :wub:

Had to deal with a couple of pesky dragons that were breathing fire all over a bridge just now. Well I say deal with them - I ran through the flames and into a building then whacked one of them on what I assumed was its foot and suddenly they both seem to have died! :lol:

Jenuall wrote:Not sure if it's just because it's the first new area I've explored for ages but I'm really enjoying mooching around Lothric Castle, that same sense of discovery mixed with trepidation has returned now I no longer have some fore-knowledge of where enemies and items are etc.

Had to deal with a couple of pesky dragons that were breathing fire all over a bridge just now. Well I say deal with them - I ran through the flames and into a building then whacked one of them on what I assumed was its foot and suddenly they both seem to have died!

Not sure which bit you're in as there's several routes you could have gone, but overall it's the first area in a while that loops around/shortcuts and has a fair amount of exploration.

Dark Souls 3 | PS4, Xbone & PC | Praise the Sun

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