Fahzgoolin
Banned
Don't get me wrong, I think the Dark Souls series deserves a lot praise. However, after nearly finishing Dark Souls 3 I have noticed that a lot of the "lows" in the game come from sheer frustration in response to terrible design decisions, not the actual challenge (which is severely overblown IMO). I think Dark Souls 1 was such a unique experience for many of us that we were quicker to overlook the jank.
We are now several games in and a lot of the same design decisions persist and I don't think they benefit the game:
-Large enemies frequently slash around large weapons in tight spaces killing you, but if you try to swing your sword it clanks against the walls.
-Enemies can swing their weapons through walls and doors (such as prison gates) to hurt you
-Enemies can take an incredible amount of fall damage, but you can barely survive a fall of much lesser height.
-Thick swampy water slows your movement, but enemy movement is never affected (even enemies that aren't native to swamps).
-Environmental hazards (poison, lava, etc) illogically don't affect enemies.
-Working really hard to defeat an enemy to get past a door only to find a dead end with a worthless item.
-Using a great soul from a boss only to find it was only worth 10,000 when you have souls you have picked up from corpses that are worth the same or more.
-Your blood stains are frequently in the wrong place when you return to retrieve your lost souls
-Kicking is the same button press as your standard sword swing. You press RB to swing and you have to press RB + up to kick. This can lead to obvious problems and is just awkward.
-Enemies that not only snipe you, but fire projectiles that home in on you like a charged plasma pistol shot from Halo.
-Enemies often have incredibly weird hit boxes and can hit you when they clearly missed by a wide margin.
-Different enemies have "invincibility frames" that you can't predict or know until you get punished over and over.
-The game heavily relies on invincibility frames and is overly generous in providing enemies invincibility frames (such as smacking an enemy into the ground only to find that they are invincible when getting back up. This wastes your stamina and they resume slashing at you).
-Bosses often resort to incredibly cheap moves that cause area of affect damage when it makes no sense (such as slamming a hammer on the ground in front of them and nearly killing you when you are behind them)
-Certain classes and attributes are extremely worthless in comparison to others, frustrating players that don't have experience with the "way these games usually work."
I could rattle off more, but I think you get the point. These games are often brilliant, beautiful, and satisfying. However, they have so many irritating design decisions that have persisted through each title. These games don't seem like significant improvements or tighter experiences than their last games, but just slightly different versions of the same thing. I love Dark Souls, but man do I frequently get frustrated for all the wrong reasons. There is a clear difference between being frustrated at failing a legitimate challenge and being frustrated because of frustrating design. I think I and many others have given From too much of a pass for including annoying and illogical design decisions that have persisted through all of their titles.
The titles are just so unique that I keep returning to them even though I know I'll hate it as much as I love it.
We are now several games in and a lot of the same design decisions persist and I don't think they benefit the game:
-Large enemies frequently slash around large weapons in tight spaces killing you, but if you try to swing your sword it clanks against the walls.
-Enemies can swing their weapons through walls and doors (such as prison gates) to hurt you
-Enemies can take an incredible amount of fall damage, but you can barely survive a fall of much lesser height.
-Thick swampy water slows your movement, but enemy movement is never affected (even enemies that aren't native to swamps).
-Environmental hazards (poison, lava, etc) illogically don't affect enemies.
-Working really hard to defeat an enemy to get past a door only to find a dead end with a worthless item.
-Using a great soul from a boss only to find it was only worth 10,000 when you have souls you have picked up from corpses that are worth the same or more.
-Your blood stains are frequently in the wrong place when you return to retrieve your lost souls
-Kicking is the same button press as your standard sword swing. You press RB to swing and you have to press RB + up to kick. This can lead to obvious problems and is just awkward.
-Enemies that not only snipe you, but fire projectiles that home in on you like a charged plasma pistol shot from Halo.
-Enemies often have incredibly weird hit boxes and can hit you when they clearly missed by a wide margin.
-Different enemies have "invincibility frames" that you can't predict or know until you get punished over and over.
-The game heavily relies on invincibility frames and is overly generous in providing enemies invincibility frames (such as smacking an enemy into the ground only to find that they are invincible when getting back up. This wastes your stamina and they resume slashing at you).
-Bosses often resort to incredibly cheap moves that cause area of affect damage when it makes no sense (such as slamming a hammer on the ground in front of them and nearly killing you when you are behind them)
-Certain classes and attributes are extremely worthless in comparison to others, frustrating players that don't have experience with the "way these games usually work."
I could rattle off more, but I think you get the point. These games are often brilliant, beautiful, and satisfying. However, they have so many irritating design decisions that have persisted through each title. These games don't seem like significant improvements or tighter experiences than their last games, but just slightly different versions of the same thing. I love Dark Souls, but man do I frequently get frustrated for all the wrong reasons. There is a clear difference between being frustrated at failing a legitimate challenge and being frustrated because of frustrating design. I think I and many others have given From too much of a pass for including annoying and illogical design decisions that have persisted through all of their titles.
The titles are just so unique that I keep returning to them even though I know I'll hate it as much as I love it.