There's something beautiful about the second half. it's just so oppressive

TOTG+CATA and Duke's are alright, Izalith and New Londo are both bare bones and rudimentary as fuck, just compare them to a properly finished end game area like the Townshit.

My first playthrough was a nightmare
>kill the gargoyles
>go back to Firelink
>the guy tells me to go down

So I figured like ok, I guess I'll go to the graveyard now. So I painstakingly make my way through the Catacombs and Tomb of Giants. Eventually I get through the tomb, but I just run into an orange fog wall. I realize I'm not supposed to go there yet, so now I have to climb back to Firelink, because I hadn't unlocked teleporting yet. It was horrible going through the tomb and catacombs backwards. People like to think about how non-linear the game is, but that's only really true if you're using the Master Key. On a normal playthrough, there's very much a designated path that you need to follow

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So how many souls did you reap? You should've at least leveled up a lot going through that hell and found some neat weapons.

That sort of nightmare is what makes Dark Souls special

New Londo's got a great atmosphere, but I hate the ghosts and I hate the Four Kings.

yeah. the game actually filtered me at the lordvesseel when I first played it (with no prior experience in souls). I played through DaS3 in the meanwhile, jumped into a fresh DaS1 run and I'm now having a blast in the dreaded second half. the criticism is justfiied in the sense that the game can be really gruesome if you're a fresh player.

Conceptually it's all great, but it lacks the tight level design from the first half of the game.

It's pretty fucking obvious that it was rushed to hell, mate.

Ghost are such an amazing organic wall when you first start the game, and when you actually get methods to deal with them they're totally doable. 4K I understand being a pain, but I think the atmosphere for the fight is incredible.

I can't remember, this was in like 2013. But I'm sure I was very underleveled when I was in the Catacombs. People always talk about how Pinwheel is a total pushover, but at that point it was still a pretty decent boss. Anyway, when I finally got back to Firelink, I figured that alright, I guess I need to go to this other direction. Which was New Londo. I kept getting killed by the ghosts until I ran out of the hands. At that point I came here to ask what I'm doing wrong, and someone reminded me about the key I had found in the Burg. I wasted so many hours banging my head against a wall, just because I had forgotten about that one door

It is not as good.
I don't really have a problem with Duke's Archives (Crystal Cave is trash), or Tomb of the Giants really, but Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith are shit, and New Londo is just annoying.
This is of course not counting the DLC which is technically part of the second half, it is something to look forward to at least.

You mean it fucking sucks, right?
The only good part about the second half is the archives. Fuck skeleton hellhole, fuck spooky ghost land, and FUCK BED OF CHAOS.

>first playthrough
>roll a Thief
>end up sequence breaking everything with the Master Key
Confusing as fuck, but I know the game map like the back of my hand now. Thief is the most kino class for sure as it lets you take the ring and speak with spider waifu, I just wish daggers weren't so shit in these games.

Yeah they are "doable", but they are still annoying little shits that fly through walls and knock you down into holes. It's just not a very fun area to go through.

Filtered

>and FUCK BED OF CHAOS.
you know it's not really a bossfight, right? you just hit the weak spots that retain their state between deaths in a handful of lives.

I love the enemy variety in DaS : ghosts, plants, statues, bugs, lizards, skeletons, demons, golems, mushrooms, etc.
Other games just don't feel the same.

>wish daggers weren't so shit
something doesn't need good for you to use it and have fun in a souls game, user. follow your heart and persevere

I always get bored and quit at minotaur demon.

Dagger obliterates anything you can backstab/riposte so it balances out a bit. Also good for applying status ailments

>you know it's not really a bossfight, right?
Not him but that's not a good defense.

Filtered by what? I beat the fucking game.

It not technically being a boss doesn't make the experience any less agonizing.

Game should end in anor Londo with the lord souls being optional areas. Game is too long. I’m over it by sens fortress

Same for me. Actually playing remastered right now the first time. Went to tomb completely under leveled. The way up I couldn't avoid two huge skeletons. Luckily I could fight em solo and had to sent them over the edge. This took 20 tries. But after that I had trouble with the wheel guys. I think it took 70 tries to get from tomb to the smith.

i'm gonna go out on limb and say there are 20 bossfights in the game.
one of them deviating from the norm a bit more is nothing but a positive. i also died to it more times than i care to admit, but I think the game is better with the current Bed of Chaos than if it was more generic.

It was bad, but not bad enough to bog down the whole game and ends on a high note with nito and dlc. That's why it's second favorite game I've played so far.

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How is that not a boss fight? Its atypical for most of Souls, although there are tons of environmental bosses like that throughout the series and Dragon God is even less of a boss.

>10 hours at most is too long
State of "modern" gaming

You can reach Anor Londo in like 5 hours

I am currently in the second half i guess and I dont yet understand the hate it often seem to get. Have done the 4 kings, loved the idea of the total dark. Also releasing the water and getting to the New area was an impressive feature. Now i have just completed dukes archive and I absolutely loved the area and especially the cave. Currently doing my first steps with a lamp in the tomb of giants but i havent come far yet. I dont really see how anything after O&S ive seen so far is worse than the first half. The first half also had those curse frogs in the canalisation which sucked ass

Yeah if you’re an autist that has replayed the game a dozen times maybe

Mediocre game with high difficulty.

DS2 manage to be even worse

Yeah when you know what you're doing

It's a meme. The second half stages are a smidge harder and brainlets just brute force the hazards. Lost Izalith has a rough area at the start but once you actually get the lay of the land even it isn't that bad.

It takes no more than two hours at most for seasoned vets, GIT GUD

Are you seriously saying "it's good because it's different"? Like holy fuck. Are you gonna call the rat swarm boss in 2 good now because it's "different"?
You know what fucking boss was different but actually good? Fucking Ornstein and Smough. They're the only duo boss in the game, the fight is nothing like most of the one person fights, and it's always fun to fight them.

I always tell myself I'm going to go with daggers and end up giving up at some point and switching to a katana or something. The short range is annoying, and using a dagger with two hands to maximize damage is way too silly more me. Dominating the hollows early on with ripostes is kino, though.

I just wish they were as fun to use as the Blades of Mercy in Bloodborne. Maybe I'll try a full Thief playthrough in DS3 later as I've never beaten that one, but I'm not sure how viable that kind of playstyle is there either.

The dragon asses are the only bad area because it's a big room with the same boring enemies copied 20 times

They're not harder at all, if anything it's easier because the enemy variety fucking plummets. All you fight in lost izalith is those fat dragon things and some old bosses, all you fight in new londo is fucking ghosts and a few darkwraiths, most of the archive enemies are just basic fucking undead, only in the fucking catacombs do you fight a decent variety of enemies, but in that place you need to deal with obnoxious fucking bonewheels and giant+regular skeletons that shit out damage. Maybe people don't like them because they're, I don't know, BAD. They feel rushed to shit, are short as hell, and the bossfights all fucking blow chunks outside 4 kings.

Variety doesn't always give you good bosses but I'd rather a Royal Rat Vanguard every once in a while to break up the dozen Artorious clones

I did the same thing but noped the fuck out at giants

What fight in the series is even an artorias clone? Unless you're seriously implying that any big dude in armor is an "artorias clone" which is beyond retarded.

Bleed in DS3 is insanely overpowered and the dual daggers you get have a Blade of Mercy esque attack string for applying status effects

Agreed. A lot of people on Zig Forums just really love parroting shit like this.

I like lost izalith but I despise duke's archives
I think the angkor wat ripoff is really cool looking, it has the conclusion of solaire's story (and siegmeyer usually), and I find it hilarious when kirk tries to invade you one last time only for you to instantly btfo him