Not the biggest fan of Dark Souls 3.

[Ishinoya]

Not sure what it is... But Dark Souls 3 just doesn't make me happy. I only have a little over 100 hours into it, and have beaten the game around 4 times, and am REALLY bored of it. I feel like the build variety just isn't very good, there aren't a lot of new armours or weapons, and the PvP is just straight up boring. I have TONS of hours into the Souls series. (Before anyone says otherwise, I started playing Dark Souls 1 and 2 on Xbox 360, then played on the Xbox One once Scholar came out.) I have around 1,500 hours into Dark Souls on the 360, 400 on Dark Souls 2, and 2,500+ on Scholar of the First Sin. I loved every bit of each game, and to this day am not bored of 1 or 2. But 3 is just, in the nicest way possible, not what I expected. I have many different play styles. I play dexterity builds, strength builds, some mixture of both, and I've always had hundreds of hours into each build. Dark Souls 3 on the other hand makes me feel like I'm limited to only quick, fast builds. I have found a way to play with slower Strength weapons, but it's just boring and tiresome. Overall, in my opinion, Dark Souls 1 and 2 are my favourite games of all time, recently getting Bloodborne that is about #4 or #5, Dark Souls 3 isn't anywhere close to my top 10.

(Sorry for the long read, just felt a bit upset for some reason, since it's late night I decided to rant on the internet.)

Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, it's currently past midnight and I'm very tired.

Have a good day/night, depending on when you're reading this, and I'd love to hear your opinions on the latest installment of Dark Souls. :)

[Call Sign: Raven]

I enjoyed your write-up. That being said, the point about how this game tailors to fast builds is right. However, after playing all the souls games, including Bloodborne, I am finding that for PvE quick builds have always been the way to go. In Demon's Souls it was the Blue Blood Sword. In Dark Souls it was the Uchigatana. In DS2 is was the freaking rapier. In 3 it's the Astora Straight Sword. BB it was the saw cleaver. I agree that slower paced weapons are more difficult to use in PvE, but these types of games have always catered to speedy builds. PvP, on the other hand, has a ton of variety and I actually favor strength weapons over the puny dex weapons. Zweihander is my baby! Anyway, have a nice night. :)

[Sin Archbishop of Vainglory]

Dark souls 1 is just a better game overall as it allowed you to do so much more and isnt that linear as you can skip plenty of bosses and have many ways to skip ahead and im pretty sure has more armors and weapons, more rpg feel with alot more awsomeness, the only thing that is good in ds3 is the fluid feel of combat now but it is sadly locked to mostly fast builds and since poise is pointless now about half the armor is useless and you cant make tank builds, i feel like they kinda ruined the soul games legacy with this game, iv tried numerous times to beat the game but everytime i get bored halfway through and restart trying out different crap. So far the closeest iv been to beatin this game is past the archives of lorthic castle

i havnt played ds2 or bloodborne just watched a bit of it but it seems like they got lazy and stuck with bloodbornes combat style, fast and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[RogueVoxel]

I agree on the fact that there wasnt much for new items, they brought back alot of stuff from past games and there wasnt really reason to go to the new weapons for me

[Adachi Ame]

Yeah, I agree... Boreal Valley also feels very rushed, and some of the returning items perplex me.(Are there really really people the wanted the Porcine Shield?). DS3 is definately the weakest installment. You feel like you want to skip areas, because they are a pain and annoying to go through. And the lack of Traditional Poise in the game... The wonky defense heavy armor gives, etc, I will stop myself from ranting.

[Grey Warrior]

new game + has nothing to offer so i have been co opping any were i can just look for the grey warrior even though i suck

[That Drunk Fellow]

I am honestly on the other side of the fence here, I prefer Dark souls 3 over any previous souls game in general, it over all feels better to me.
This is the first souls game I have played through 5+ times without taking a real break away from the game, Dark Souls 2 I only finished once and couldn't push myself through Scholar of the First Sin cause I found Dark Souls 2 to be mechanically quite horrible.

I will say one thing though, lore wise I am still favouring Dark Souls 1, gameplay I favour Dark Souls 3. Dark souls 2? Eh... No thanks, I am not just saying that cause I am a huge Dark Souls 1 fan blindly by nostalgia (otherwise I wouldn't consider 3 better than 1 mechanically)
Generally the combat feels more fluid and intuitive to me.

A few things I am really bothered by in Dark Souls 3.
1: Fanservice, too much of it. I am not too bothered by it as I am a mechanically focused gamer when it comes to video games, but it did make me less interested in the games lore.
2: Not enough weapon and armor variety, I feel very limited in my fashion souls when it comes to my options.
3: the freakin netcode.. nuff said.. xD

A few things I think Dark Souls 3 made far better.
1: I enjoy the higher pace of the combat, more focus on positioning and spacing.. It was always important, but I feel like Dark Souls 3 made it far more important. Little addendum to this, I enjoy the introduction of the weapon parts, the greater range of attacks for each weapon allows more mix ups and more varied gameplay which also increases the pace a bit as it allows you to be more aggressive.
2: I am actually happy with how poise works (if it works in any way, seen enough videos and tests to say it does work but meh I haven't done any testing myself so I can't be 100%).
Again its encouraging spacing and positioning a lot more, cause if you get hit, you are staggered, so utilizing range of your weapon becomes extremely important and its gotten rid of the havel mages and it kind of helps with the fashion souls in my opinion.
3: I think they did an amazing job setting up the world and playing with the players expectations by rampant fan service early on to an almost cringeworthy degree, only to tie most of the lore up as the game went on and have it make sense in most regards.

A lot more things I enjoy and dislike about the game, but in the end this is the most important things to me.

[Ishinoya]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Drunk N' Deadly:

I am honestly on the other side of the fence here, I prefer Dark souls 3 over any previous souls game in general, it over all feels better to me.
This is the first souls game I have played through 5+ times without taking a real break away from the game, Dark Souls 2 I only finished once and couldn't push myself through Scholar of the First Sin cause I found Dark Souls 2 to be mechanically quite horrible.

I will say one thing though, lore wise I am still favouring Dark Souls 1, gameplay I favour Dark Souls 3. Dark souls 2? Eh... No thanks, I am not just saying that cause I am a huge Dark Souls 1 fan blindly by nostalgia (otherwise I wouldn't consider 3 better than 1 mechanically)
Generally the combat feels more fluid and intuitive to me.

A few things I am really bothered by in Dark Souls 3.
1: Fanservice, too much of it. I am not too bothered by it as I am a mechanically focused gamer when it comes to video games, but it did make me less interested in the games lore.
2: Not enough weapon and armor variety, I feel very limited in my fashion souls when it comes to my options.
3: the freakin netcode.. nuff said.. xD

A few things I think Dark Souls 3 made far better.
1: I enjoy the higher pace of the combat, more focus on positioning and spacing.. It was always important, but I feel like Dark Souls 3 made it far more important. Little addendum to this, I enjoy the introduction of the weapon parts, the greater range of attacks for each weapon allows more mix ups and more varied gameplay which also increases the pace a bit as it allows you to be more aggressive.
2: I am actually happy with how poise works (if it works in any way, seen enough videos and tests to say it does work but meh I haven't done any testing myself so I can't be 100%).
Again its encouraging spacing and positioning a lot more, cause if you get hit, you are staggered, so utilizing range of your weapon becomes extremely important and its gotten rid of the havel mages and it kind of helps with the fashion souls in my opinion.
3: I think they did an amazing job setting up the world and playing with the players expectations by rampant fan service early on to an almost cringeworthy degree, only to tie most of the lore up as the game went on and have it make sense in most regards.

A lot more things I enjoy and dislike about the game, but in the end this is the most important things to me.

I completely understand! For me, I really like strength builds so Dark Souls 3 was quite annoying to adjust to. I didn't mind at first, but after some time of playing I realized that the armours that I found appealing would weigh me down, and also didn't give me any poise. (Unless you mean the 'poise' that is working as intended.) I don't rock full havels. In the other souls games, I would usually do a mix which would allow me to be nimble, but also poise through smaller weapons. In my opinion it is WAY to easy, even much easier than Dark Souls 2. I can still recall after I had gotten bored of Dark Souls 3, roughly 100 hours in, I went to make a brand new Dark Souls 2 character; and after playing for a bit, it just felt SO much harder for some reason.

Thank you for putting your time and effort into your post, and I'm glad I got to read it! Take care, friend. :)

[Larry]

I like Dark Souls 3 the best purely for the return of the mana bar. Being a caster has never been as fun as it is in this game.

Limiting spells to a finite number of casts simply felt bad. As a player who wants to live by throwing fireballs, you only have so many before you had to head back to the bonfire. This essentially tethered you to bonfires like a leesh, gating your exploration and overall fun factor as a magic class.
I realize these games are primarily melee games with ranged/magic as a side dish, but I would also argue that these games are about playing how you want, otherwise we wouldn't have those charming invaders with the pickaxes who just 'mine for ore' instead of fighting you.

Bringing back the mana bar has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the more powerful spells available to pyromancers, like Chaos Orb, as a fun main weapon rather than something that takes up 2 spells slots yet only gives me 3 casts or worse. Adding to this, the weapon arts are a great addition to the weapons and do well to include the mana bar in non-magic builds.

I don't put any stock into "build variety" complains when historically everyone ran flavor of the month builds in every Souls game anyways. Sure, maybe you are the guy who really branched out into many build types, but I bet my balls you encountered the same pvp builds again and again regardless of the game you played.

My only complaint about Dark Souls 3 is they made the dark hand suck more than it already did. Totally unnecessary.
Oh, and the twinkling dragon stones are all flash and no function. Two second cast times are pretty silly for an item that forces you to be naked and have no resistances to anything.

PS. No, I wasn't one of those guys one shotting bosses with firestorm in Demon's Souls, ruining the fun for everyone else.

[Adachi Ame]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Larry:

I like Dark Souls 3 the best purely for the return of the mana bar. Being a caster has never been as fun as it is in this game.

Limiting spells to a finite number of casts simply felt bad. As a player who wants to live by throwing fireballs, you only have so many before you had to head back to the bonfire. This essentially tethered you to bonfires like a leesh, gating your exploration and overall fun factor as a magic class.
I realize these games are primarily melee games with ranged/magic as a side dish, but I would also argue that these games are about playing how you want, otherwise we wouldn't have those charming invaders with the pickaxes who just 'mine for ore' instead of fighting you.

Bringing back the mana bar has allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the more powerful spells available to pyromancers, like Chaos Orb, as a fun main weapon rather than something that takes up 2 spells slots yet only gives me 3 casts or worse. Adding to this, the weapon arts are a great addition to the weapons and do well to include the mana bar in non-magic builds.

I don't put any stock into "build variety" complains when historically everyone ran flavor of the month builds in every Souls game anyways. Sure, maybe you are the guy who really branched out into many build types, but I bet my balls you encountered the same pvp builds again and again regardless of the game you played.

My only complaint about Dark Souls 3 is they made the dark hand suck more than it already did. Totally unnecessary.
Oh, and the twinkling dragon stones are all flash and no function. Two second cast times are pretty silly for an item that forces you to be naked and have no resistances to anything.

PS. No, I wasn't one of those guys one shotting bosses with firestorm in Demon's Souls, ruining the fun for everyone else.

Not as much as DS3

[Larry]

... what?

[That Drunk Fellow]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από けばだった:

I completely understand! For me, I really like strength builds so Dark Souls 3 was quite annoying to adjust to. I didn't mind at first, but after some time of playing I realized that the armours that I found appealing would weigh me down, and also didn't give me any poise. (Unless you mean the 'poise' that is working as intended.) I don't rock full havels. In the other souls games, I would usually do a mix which would allow me to be nimble, but also poise through smaller weapons. In my opinion it is WAY to easy, even much easier than Dark Souls 2. I can still recall after I had gotten bored of Dark Souls 3, roughly 100 hours in, I went to make a brand new Dark Souls 2 character; and after playing for a bit, it just felt SO much harder for some reason.

Thank you for putting your time and effort into your post, and I'm glad I got to read it! Take care, friend. :)

Dark Souls 2 was harder without a doubt, but that was in my opinion cause the entire game was built to bum rush you with more and more enemies, while Dark Souls 1 and 3 does this occasionally.
to me it felt like it happened non stop in Dark Souls 2 which was not to me an enjoyable form of difficulty, it was just infuriating.
When I play Dark Souls 1 and 3 I generally feel like if I died, it was cause I made a mistake, in Dark Souls 2 it didn't feel like that half the time to me at least.

I admit I do favour quicker weapons but I have been delving into the heavier weapons a bit and I honestly still find them very effective. They are definitely harder to use than in Dark Souls 1 and 2, there is no doubt about that.
But I am not considering that a bad thing, people who really know how to utilize the hyper armor on them can be just as effective as they were in DS1 and 2.
It raised the skill cap a fair bit and it definitely made heavier weapons higher skill ceiling weapons than faster weapons.

Not saying you rock full havels, just saying.. Praise the freakin sun for them no longer existing..
And I get that its difficult to wear some of the heavier armors without some investment, either through ring slots or stats.. I know the problem myself, not cause I wear heavy armor but cause I have this obsessive need to be below 30% encumberance cause I am a stamina regen addict.. Kind of one of my gripes with the game, its borderline impossible to find an armor set that lets me be below 30% without heavy stat investment + rings.
gotten to the point where I have had to give up my quest for below 30% cause the investment is simply too high for the tiny gain.

I never liked the idea of being able to poise through attacks, it felt silly to me.. As someone who has been hit in the chest with a longsword while wearing plate armor, you will stagger.
I am not saying Dark Souls should be realistic cause well, have you seen some of the weapons in those game? Sweet hell....
However I do think a better system would be to have poise decrease how much you stagger, not keep you from staggering.
I haven't done the math on any numbers for this or if it would even work for Dark Souls 3, but that would be my opinion without doing the math.
but for the sake of throwing a suggestion out there with some semi random numbers thrown in there.
Make it similar to Dark Souls 2, but instead of having half stagger/full stagger/ No stagger in attack animation if poise left unbroken, then simply have every 5 points of poise decrease the stagger time by 1 frame for example, the numbers are as I said just made up on the spot and as such are not balanced but just as an idea.

On a last note on the whole difficulty thing I talked about earlier in the post.
I don't play Dark Souls games for the difficulty itself, I play it for the generally fair gameplay (PvP excluded cause well they never did balance PvP in any of the souls game properly, they try I gotta give them that though).
I enjoy difficulty a great deal, as long as its fair difficulty.
And by fair difficulty I do not mean that its not too difficult, the game can kick my ass none stop if it pleases, as long as it does it cause I made the mistakes that causes it to kick my ass.
Which is why in spite Dark souls 2 was more difficult, it was not as rewarding to me.

Damn this post became a lot longer than I planned, also just a final note I am not attacking anyones opinions in this post, just expressing my own and why I feel the way I do. obviously OP gets that, but I know how passionate people gets about Souls games and someone is bound to get defensive cause of my opinions cause they disagree so strongly with me that their emotions gets the better of them.
Not trying to diminish anyone elses opinions on the matter.

[Adachi Ame]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Larry:

... what?

I'm speaking of DS3 has the same build syndrome currently at the most severe level. Because you are in a sense gimping yourself equiping other than the most popular, and heavy armor, the lack 0of traditional poise, etc.

[Larry]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Adachi Ame:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Larry:

... what?

I'm speaking of DS3 has the same build syndrome currently at the most severe level. Because you are in a sense gimping yourself equiping other than the most popular, and heavy armor, the lack 0of traditional poise, etc.

I see. Perhaps just quote the part you are replying to than the entire post.

The fact that DS3 suffers from it more doesn't really make a difference; it's still heavily present in all the games. Gimping yourself is just another way to have fun in a Souls game.

[Jose Merced]

The stupid online have back to DS1, and lack of POISE make the builds boring and focus on speed and aggresive attacks

Whatever i really miss the sound of walking from my heavy equipment

[Adachi Ame]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Larry:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Adachi Ame:

I'm speaking of DS3 has the same build syndrome currently at the most severe level. Because you are in a sense gimping yourself equiping other than the most popular, and heavy armor, the lack 0of traditional poise, etc.

I see. Perhaps just quote the part you are replying to than the entire post.

The fact that DS3 suffers from it more doesn't really make a difference; it's still heavily present in all the games. Gimping yourself is just another way to have fun in a Souls game.

Use a great hammer... or deck yourself in full gundyr and revel in how little the armor matters, and how painful GH are...