Dark souls review thread

What was your first experience with a souls game like? (assuming you've had one of course)

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First game was Dark Souls remastered playing through with a friend. He got bored when we reached the 4 kings? (I think that was there name) and I didn't end up finishing it since i wanted a coop experience with my friends. Another friend then picked up DS2 cheap and shit so I played through the main game with him, it was alright not as fun as DS1 though. Overall I'd say they were fun, though I haven't put enough time into the series to make a definitive rating.

First Souls game I played was Bloodborne b/c it was on Playstation network a few years ago if that counts and for me, it was a ride. I practically got filtered just going through the streets of yharnam to the point that I ran around frustrated until I mistakenly entered the boss fight with Cleric beast where I 'somehow' killed it on my first try.
Facing Gascoine and blood starved beast nearly filtered me but eventually I through (with lots of deaths of course)
the hunters DLC was super hard for me since I think I was playing it NG+ at that point, so Orphan of Kos was an ultra pain.

But overall, I'm thankful for being able to play it. I never would've tried these games because I thought they were too much for me but it kinda helped me with some real-life turmoil I was having at the time too/gave me a little confidence boost I needed.

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It was fun but ultimately the shitty boss runs stop the game from actually being good

Started with DaS1.
Was a knight; bashed my way through the catacombs with a Morning Star +0 then the Lucerne +0 because my Broadsword +5 wasn't cutting it and those other weapons could crush skellies.
The experience taught me about poise, stagger on miss, stamina management, and dodge efficacy at different equip loads.
Then the Black Knight in the Catacombs dropped his axe and I did gud damage for the rest of the game.
I have especially fond memories of Sif since he taught me that sometimes having poise or blocking will mean that you eat more damage from a combo than you otherwise would've.
Since I barely put any points into VIT or END I actually had to stop using greatshields and start dodging shit for some of the endgame bosses since I kept getting guardbroken.
Tried parrying Gwyn out of desperation after barely doing it the whole game; spent a lot of time doing the walk of shame through the kiln with full havels, BKGA, and a buckler, (attempting) parrying every black knight on the way.

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started with the DS1 remaster on PS4. Never played a game like it before, I liked the mechanics and got used to it pretty quick (had to google what humanity and hollowing actually did). Only thing that kept me from really getting into it was the RPG-esque stat system... I'd rather the game just do that shit automatically, but probably down the line when I get more accustomed to this sort of game I'll appreciate being able to fine tune my builds.

I played a few hours of Dark Souls 3. Overall it was alright, the challenge was quite balanced, however, I didn't like constantly walking to the last place I died in. Most notable was the one I got bored and stopped playing in:
>second bonfire in lothric wall/first real area of the game
>go past the guy that turns into a big monster if not killed fast enough and past the big winged knight
>meet probably the first actually difficult normal enemy, an imperial knight I think
>keep dying and having to walk for several minutes just to reach him
I think I killed both of them once and died later on. It's just so tedious walking and then dying randomly. If I could just skip to the imperial knights it'd be more fun, but I get it, it's the challenge.

ds2 when it came out played a couple of hours, cringed with clunky movements and shit hitboxes, couldn't ultimately get into the game so I just left it and never touched the series again until this year when i killed the casual inside of me and beat all of the dss and sekiro,
Thing is normies spread around a retarded myth that dark souls is something completely impossible and unbeatable like the game is nothing but unrerwarding suffering that only total psychopath can play, i unfortunatly bought into all of these shit and never even considered trying this series out until recently, a shame.

Watching my brother die to Gaping Dragon repeatedly and not understanding how I could be related to such a retard.

I went to the graveyard first because I didn't see the stairs up to the undead burg.

started with das1 (plus artorias) on xbox 360

found zweihander very soon, but didnt have enough strength. from there went full strength for the rest of the game and just dodged anything i couldnt smash. ended the game with +15 zwei, ninja flip ring and havels ring so i could have some clothes on and not be a weird raisin lookalike

First time I played Souls I was a complete shitter and ended up quitting because I was mad that I kept dying in tight corridors due to how my sword slashes would bounce off walls. Much later I realised that a game with that level of attention to environmental detail was what I had been looking for for a long time and the only reason I was mad was because I was acting like a brainlet, ended up playing it again and now it's one of my favorite games.

>DaS1 on Xbox One via backwards compatibliity
>start as a knight because it had tons of HP
>died a couple times to the asylum demon even after I got the correct equipment
>get to firelink shrine
>believe that the graveyard to the catacombs was the next place to go
>after dying a couple of times to the skeletons realize I had to go to undead burg
>reaching first bonfire was easy
>met the first Black Knight
>autistically die to him multiple times because I had the need to kill him
>after killing him, game was mostly normal

Stuff I completely missed:
>didn't realize how to become human until blighttown
>didn't realize how to kindle bonfires until Anor Londo
>didn't realize that knight armor made me fat roll UNTIL the 4 kings
>didn't realize how to parry NEVER during my first playthrough
>never visited ash lake, ariamis or returned to the asylum during my first playthrough
>somehow nobody invaded me in the entire game except for the NPCs

I also remember choosing the Divine Blessing as my starting gift and never ended up using it because "it was too good"

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I played demons when it came out. I got really autistic about being in human form and not being at half health and gave up after beating phalanx and tower knight.

Fast forward through years of not giving a shit, I played all of the souls games in 2019. Starting with ds1, then ds2, then ds3. Then demons after. Bloodborne happened and I finally got around to sekiro.

I'm a ds2 apologist, its a really good game. Ds1 is full of soul but overrated in some aspects. Ds3 kinda sucks. Bloodborne sucks for me personally, but in a way better way and I can see people loving it.

The difficulty meme has really gone too far to the point where I know a lot of people who I think would enjoy the Souls games but they won't give it a try because they think they would need to dedicate more time than they have to get good at the game.

I agree with your ds2 apologism. personally my ranking is ds1 > ds2 >>> ds3, but I think that 2 is legitimately good. unfortunately im poor so no DeS or BB for me

whats with all these people who first played das2/3 or playing on nextgen consoles? its not that old of a game, and if youre older than 16 you shoulda been able to play it on ps3 or xbox360

Undead Burg twinks with Gravelord greatsword and WOTG spam.

>WATS UR EXCUSE, CASUALS??

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Started with 1 as soon as it hit pc. Didn't like it at all. Flashes of genius but the bad was so bad it was hard to appreciate what little good there was. Didn't want to play 2 when it came it, thought it will be the same shit. Played it, and loved it so fucking much I decided to replay 1, maybe I just didn't "get" it. Nope, hated it even more and couldn't bring myself to finish it a second time.
Played BB and loved it so much I bought a ps4 just for it. Played 3 and loved it. Almost finished des on emulator and loved it.
Ever since I replayed sotfs like 15 times, and BB/das3 over 30 times each. Played das 2.5 times in total and I'm playing it as we speak but I just can't, I'll directly go replay 2.

Started with DS1, a few hours in realized the game is completely broken, unfair bullshit so I used a trainer for the rest of the playthrough.
Then I went back and beat the game legitimately, to prove to myself that I can. In retrospect it wasn't worth it, the games are all about atmosphere and map design, the gameplay is broken clunky shit that relies on the player wasting hours trying to learn how to break it back.

My first souls experience was Ds1 when prepare to die edition launched on steam. My first playthough was an amazing experience because, being a fan of Ico games from the ps2 era, the game world game me the same feeling. While I was playing, and still when i replay it, I like to imagine whats happening outside the bounds of the playable areas because the atmosphere was so thick and the storytelling was so nuanced that it just completely drew me in. I genuinely felt emotion when companions went hollow because they helped me overcome a challenge. The PvP also gave me hours and hours of enjoyment. Making creative builds and twinking the fuck out of people in early game areas with a min maxed build was really fun. Helping people defeat bosses was also very rewarding. Ds1 will always be one of my favorite games every and it sucks that it has become the victim of Zig Forums fanboying over the years because it really is a beautiful game I think everyone should play through atleast once.

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Started with DkS on the 360 back in the day
> Beat the tutorial
> Got the loot in graveyard but kept dying
> Reminded me of KF with the Kraken
> Went the other way
> Explored Undead Burg while pressing A on every wall autistically
> Encountered the Black Knight and died a few times
> Realized that for some reason the enemies in this game have trouble attacking you if you just strafe right or run around them
> Ez game after that
> Killed the gargoyles to get the basement key
> Then I found the blacksmith who said something about a divine blacksmith and how divine weapons were needed for skeletons
> Went to Darkroot Garden searching for the so called Divine Blacksmith autistically
> Made my way to the boss gate and killed the butterfly
> Divine Ember get
Went back to the Catacombs and killed everything
> Rite of Kindling get
Stumbled into the shitty Tomb
> Hit golden fog wall
> Had to work my way back up
> The reason I did all this was because I figured Blighttown was beneath the Catacombs
Went back to the bridge like the damn key said and worked my way down into Blighttown
> Beat Sens and into Anor Londo
> Examined the painting -> Contraption does not move
> Figured I had to wear the Painting Guardian set to enter it but nope
> Tried lots of autistic shit and combed every inch of Anor Londo but couldn't enter the painting
> Tackled Seath and Nito
> Check the painting again
> Nope
Hmm maybe New Londo Ruins has something to do with the painting
> Nope
Beat the game

At least I discovered Ash Lake though.

Only things I really missed were Gwyndolin/Dark Anor Londo and The Painted World.

I first played Demon's Souls. I heard murmurs on the net of this new, unforgiving, challenging action rpg that many felt played like a throwback to difficult arcade games of old. I watched a couple videos on youtube and instantly ordered a copy. The rumours were true, it was fucking hard and I preceded to get filtered by almost every area and boss in the game. It took me months and multiple toons to finally figure out how I should be playing this game. After my first playthrough, I went online to do more research and see what others experiences were like and eventually I found the wiki. From there I obsessed over finding every item, learning every spell, completing all the questlines and experimenting with different builds. Those early days first playing, being in awe of how mysterious this game felt was really magical. Only a handful of games in my life have given me that same feeling of wonder. 10/10

my first was Demons souls in 2010 because I am not a bandwagon zoomer faggot like most of V

>I liked them before they got popular

>What was your first experience with a souls game like? (assuming you've had one of course)
Picked up Demon's Souls for $5 at EB because it had a cool armour dude on the cover, played like an absolute fuckwit just slamming random points into luck (missed the Blueblood completely, of course), and then gave up at False King Allant because my build was so bad I was dealing 35 damage a hit.
Didn't know what a scaling stat was, that rolls had i-frames, any of that jazz. Felt I got my $5 worth.

I had two friends who played ds2 obsessively. At this point in time I had been so burnt out of Lord of the Rings looking games that I didn't even give Dark Souls a glance. Even the title sounded generic. But my friends gave me a copy of 2 and insisted I play co-op with them. It ended up being a lot of fun. They pointed out traps and bullshit before I could fall for it, which saved me a lot of frustration. Eventually I liked the game enough to look into the series on my own. I found out that 2 is the worst, so I got 3 and just beat it an hour ago. 3 is a massive improvement in every way. I'm saving 1 for last since that's the one everyone says is the best.

TL;DR it good

>Demons souls in 2010
You only outed yourself as a bandwagonner

Demon's

Bought it as a kid (I actually have to idea how I was able to buy and walk out with a copy) on a whim. 1-1 is an absolute masterclass of ingrained tutorial and design and it's stuck with me forever. Beat that area then accidentally skipped the cutscene telling me to go talk to the monumental, so I spend the next 2 days getting filtered by the Tower Knight. Then I beat him and finally looked up what I was missing.

It's my favorite game of all time.

First game I played was DS1, but I never finished it. At the time I found it to be a clunky and unpollished mess.

Later I picked up DS2 SoTS and DS3 and finished those and the DLC in one go. I enjoyed the challenge, but I found them to be a clunky and unplished mess.

After that I played DS1 again and finished it. This time I enjoyed it more, but it was still unpolished and a mess.

Played Sekiro when it came out, that was super fun and polished. I really enjoyed that one a lot.

Overall the games are enjoyable, but the Dark Souls games themselves are also a huge mess.

Skerio>DS2>DS1>DS3

Don't forget to hit that thumbs up and hit the bell button.

I started with DaS when the PC port came out. During that time, Zig Forums was cumming with the game and almost every threads in the front page were about it. I don't why the fuck this game is so popular, so I pirated it and started to played it.

The hardest part of the game was swallowing the fact that it's a shitty PC port. I haven't seen a port so bad since Saints Row 2. The game is almost unplayable with M+KB but I still played it that way, because I don't have any controller. I think I played it on a shitty resolution (sub 720p) because my potato can only able to run it decently that way.

It's still a really fun game and it's definitely one of my favorite game ever. Finished it about 70 hours and almost dropping out from college because I was so addicted to it. I don't know why but it's the only Souls game that made me addicted. It has that magic that no other Souls games had. DaS 2 was fine but it didn't grabbed me, same with DaS 3. Sekiro is cool and in many ways better than DaS but again, just isn't addicting. I haven't tried BB or DeS but I don't think I'm interested either.

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I remember I got the PS3 scholar of the first sin. It wasn't the ps4 version so it had none of the updates and only the DLC. I wasn't really into games cause I had no money but I remembered lighting a bonfire and the gold text with a black box flashed on the screen "BONFIRE LIT" I was hooked. It was quite literally a slap in the face. It was everything I ever wanted in a game. Something was missing in my life

No wonder you got the same feeling from Ico because Ico was what made Miyazaki quit his job to go into game dev, it's the single biggest inspiration for the Souls series.

Demons' Souls on PS3. I got lost looking for the Monumental. Came back to it after playing DaS and had a much smoother experience to completion.

Dark souls 1 probably prevented me from commiting suicide

Magical.
That's all I can say.
I'll never ever get that experience again as it was the first one I played