So, I've played and beaten Demon Souls and Dark Souls II, but I haven't tried DSI. So, I bought the game yesterday and I've already logged in too many hours. Let's Explore,
I don't have a way to capture screen shots, so this is going to mainly be text, sorry!
So, to start off with, a quick recap because I already have played several hours.
I started off as a Pyromancer with the Witches ring. I have no idea what the ring does, but we'll find out!
First Impressions:
Wow the UI is terrible. DSII didn't have the best UI's, but the user interface and controls for Dark Souls I is terrible. Navigating the menus is a pain and finding items is like pulling teeth! I vaguely remember Demon Souls being like this. Aside from that, there's a few minor control changes from DSII.
You know, DSII may have had terrible enemy design, mediocre levels, and characters, but from a interface perspective, it rocked. The menus worked well, the character controlled well, it looked nice and not like some indie-budget game on windows...I miss the polish of DSII.
Also, no quick travel or proper hub area is a sin. I know it's going for an interconnected, natural world theme here, but having to spend 5 or 10 minutes running about through re spawning enemies every time I want to visit an NPC or explore a new area is a pain. I much preferred the level-select design of Demon Souls over DS2. Here, it feels like DSI is just trying to hassle me for the sake of it. God forbid I forget which random hole vendor #23 lives in.
So here we are. I'm going outside to get some fresh air. No spoilers please
I don't have a way to capture screen shots, so this is going to mainly be text, sorry!
So, to start off with, a quick recap because I already have played several hours.
I started off as a Pyromancer with the Witches ring. I have no idea what the ring does, but we'll find out!
First Impressions:
Wow the UI is terrible. DSII didn't have the best UI's, but the user interface and controls for Dark Souls I is terrible. Navigating the menus is a pain and finding items is like pulling teeth! I vaguely remember Demon Souls being like this. Aside from that, there's a few minor control changes from DSII.
You know, DSII may have had terrible enemy design, mediocre levels, and characters, but from a interface perspective, it rocked. The menus worked well, the character controlled well, it looked nice and not like some indie-budget game on windows...I miss the polish of DSII.
Also, no quick travel or proper hub area is a sin. I know it's going for an interconnected, natural world theme here, but having to spend 5 or 10 minutes running about through re spawning enemies every time I want to visit an NPC or explore a new area is a pain. I much preferred the level-select design of Demon Souls over DS2. Here, it feels like DSI is just trying to hassle me for the sake of it. God forbid I forget which random hole vendor #23 lives in.
- The tutorial area was a breeze, but a bit annoying. I wanted to beat the Asylum Demon on my 1st try, sadly a broken sword is no good for that. I went back and made a 2nd character that started with Firebombs and killed the thing, but I eventually stuck with my 1st character and finished the tutorial.
- Firelink Shrine: Kind of a 'meh' area. Not very memorable in terms of visuals, the characters there suck, and it's hard to navigate. I play around a bit with some skeletons, and after dying a few times, I head to the undead burg.
- Undead Burg. So, This was the first real 'Dark Souls' Experience. I immediately appreciated that enemies were more interesting to fight than the ones in DSII. On the other hand, I actually found the 'burg to be annoying, a bit. A lack of quick travel sucks hard, especially with all the vendor NPCs scattered about. If I could at least permannently clear out enemies like in DSII, that would be okay, but having constantly rerun through the same enemy formations is annoying. And it also kinda cheapens the experience, since you're eventually going to figure out what the best way to cheese the levels are.
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Fought the Bull Demon. Took about 3-4 tries. Initially I tried to fight him on the bridge, but after getting knocked off I decided it might be best to climb the ladder and use the arena. I was surprised when I didn't get a soul, but just a helm. - Forging onwards, I proceed to realize that I'm going to be seeing much more of that one bonfire in the 'burg than I'd care to. I hate that bonfire.
- I make it to the Undead Parish and power through. I somehow miss the shortcut and staircase to the bell. I meet the smith and we hit it off. I now have a +5 Halberd and I'm 1-2 shotting everything. Life is good.
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I head to the Dark Root Basin, find the secret bonfire, and kill the Moonbutterfree boss In a split-second decision victory....on my 3rd try. I finally got a soul! But, it's a dead end! All I get is an ember for my troubles....all the while I wonder to myself: Wasn't there supposed to be a bell somewhere here? - I go back and kill the handicapped golem next to the smith. It takes probably 1/2 hour because I'm stubborn. When I realize that I basically just killed a fancy stone-lizard, I become depressed over the time and effort wasted.
- I discover the Darkroot Basin.
- I play around a bit, find another bonfire. So yeah, I'm not dealing with those drakes now. Instead, I find a tower. Is this the bell tower? Nope! Just a shortcut with an angry guy in it. I get him to within 1 or 2 hits of death, then I overreach and die. Great. On the 3rd try I kill him and I get a ring. 'Oh-my-god, I love this ring. The ring increases my weight limit drastically, and now I finally wear improved armor!
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- I head back and fight the capra demon. "Dear god is this an obnoxious arena. This would be a good fight if I could move. I don't think this arena is big enough for the boss to even swing without clipping! On my 2nd or 3rd I summon a phantom and kill it. It was still fairly challenging though...the phantom didn't seem to be too interested in actually fighting the boss and tried to go AFK in the upper corner of the room until I brought the boss to him.
- I've now saved up 20,000 souls! It's time to visit the smith and buy a new item
- How do I get back to the smith? I eventually end up of the big-brdige where solaire is. I proceed to get invaded by The most obnoxious red phantom ever!. 1st, the guy's afraid of the dragon or something so it takes him 10-minutes before he engages. Then, when I finally fight him, he's laggy and keeps teleporting behind my back and critical-ling me! During the fight I accidentally nick Solaire and now I have two people fighting me. I die. And....I get sent back to the Firelink Shrine. Great! Eventually I get my 20K back but Solarie is still mad at me. Friggen NPC should've tried helping if he didn't want to get hurt.....
[*]So, buy the key to Arisotralisous's grave. I kill some enemies (with great effort) and find a cat. The cat tells me to 'eff-off'. Further out, I see more enemies with too-much-hp. I decide 'Screw it, not worth it.' and head back to the Firelink.
[*] NPC in Firelink says something about a Pyromancer going to blight town. Hey, I'm a Pyromancer! Let's go to blight town! I think earlier he said blight town is underground. Let's go spelunking!
[*] So, ruins of New Largo. The ghosts here are terrible! The friggen spear doesn't want to hit them for starters, and that's when they 'aren't' wall clipping. I try and put up with this place as much as humanly possible, I make it to some strange bridge area. But no, I hate this ghosts too much.
[*] Onto the Catacombs! I'd love it if I could imbue my +5 Halberd with magic here, but I can't. Too bad....so I quickly figure out there's a necromancer and somehow manage (after a few tries) to kill him and light the bonfire. Next area, next necromancer. My spear takes 4-5 hits to kill skeletons, but I don't really have anything that works better, so this is a bit of a pain. After many attempts I make it to the secret bonfire. 'Hopefully there isn't much more to this.'
[*] AHAHAHA, no. So, I proceed to kill myself and spend too many hours trekking through the catacombs, getting too many cheap kills my way. Eventually, I make it to the boss, Pinwheel, who I manage to kill on my 1st try! Yes. Seriously, I hat 5% HP left with no Estus and took him down from >1/3hp to zero. I'm half surprised my controller didn't break under my hand pressure.
[*] I walk forward and fall into a hole. Text appears "Graveyard of Giants." Oh boy, here we go. I take out my lantern and progress: Giant skeletons with tons of HP everywhere. I manage to make it to an NPC, who get's me killed by skeletons that followed be. I loose 20K in souls. I try to get my souls back. I die. I think the catacombs have robbed me of at least 40K is souls by now. I hate this place. I leave.
[*] Where do I go now? And what happened to that stupid bell? I ask myself. After this, is a blur, a blur of annoyance. I don't know how it happened, but I eventually end up in the parish. And I find the staircase. Here's the bell.
[*]
And here are some bell-gargoyles. I hated these guys in DSII, and I hate them here too, but for a different reason. Their fire attack is BS and the roof is too narrow for this fight! I'm noticing a pattern: Awesome boss design ruined by awful arenas....Capra Demon, Butterfly, Bull (to an extent) and now the Gargoyles. This is going to continue to happen, isn't it?
[*] Rung the bell. So what does this do? I checked the mysterious gate next to the onion knight. Nothing. Okay, I need to stop; I've played way too much Dark Souls today.
So here we are. I'm going outside to get some fresh air. No spoilers please