Dark Souls III Hype

[Blackened Angel]

One of the things FromSoftware is incredibly good at is creating an atmosphere and feeling around their game worlds. Nowhere is this more obvious in their enemy design. Dark Souls isn't really that hard once you overcome one simple, critical weakness that the majority of new players succumb to:


Fear.


Dark Souls is a master of the intimidation factor. Bosses, especially, but even regular enemies are gruesome and relentless and the potential loss of souls makes them all the more frightening. The reason Souls veterans are so much better able to assault new content is because they've realized that they can't fear the enemy. They've realized that their 100% block shield actually blocks damage even from huge scary shit, even when it seemingly shouldn't. They realize that Dark Souls is so much easier if you just walk past all the enemies rather than fighting them over and over. And, most importantly, they've realized that dying really isn't a big deal in DS. Once you conquer your ignorance and fear, DS isn't that much harder than your average ARPG.

There's also the environments and locations. When I first stumbled into Blighttown, I was scared shitless of falling off to my death, being poisoned by toxic needles and running out of purple moss, or getting swamped by the enemies.


And there's also that quickening of your heartbeat when you get invaded at critical moments.


But in the end, it's just timed blocking and dodging. Once you master parrying in Dark Souls 1, the game feels less overwhelming.

 

[DonKiwi]

Preloading right now it'll unlock in 'bout an hour ;D

 

[Salath]

So first thing's first. You face a boss right at the start that you HAVE to beat just to get on with the game. Die a few times as attack patterns are learned. First half I can handle, the second is a little annoying but you can then get him quickly when... uh, the change happens I'm going to call it, to avoid spoilers. Then I get stuck on a samurai type of guy. I'm not kidding, this guy goes all out. Rapid sword swings on you. Skip him for now. Zombies zombies zombies. OH SHIT, I WASN'T EXPECTING THAT OUT OF NOWHERE! Then I face KNIGHTS! Enemy knights. That are good fighters. Kill him finally, after removing the annoying zombies. Rush suicide explore run. OH SHIT, A COURTYARD OF KNIGHTS! Which wouldn't be too bad if not for the fact that you have to get through the tedious zombies to get to there. Maybe I didn't see a bonfire nearby yet.


And that's DS3 in a nutshell. This game doesn't mess around. It's only the first areas and I got all this to deal with.

 

[Nebula Fox]

Just curious, is this a classic dark souls *insert hard area next to starting location here* with the actual beginner area being this obscure path off to the side, or did they do away with that? Be as vague as possible if possible, I'd like mostly spoiler free DS3 stuff.

 

[Kei]

They actually did away with that. The starting this time is right close to the main hub.

 

[Salath]

They actually did away with that. The starting this time is right close to the main hub.

Which is right past the first boss in the game. In DS2 you didn't have to fight a boss just to reach the hub. As for "hard areas" there's only one to begin with. You get through the first area to reach the other areas. So it's not all connected to the safe zone near the start, like it was in DS2 (that might change later though). The zombies are nothing special but the knights are tough to deal with. Something else too but you'll know it when you see it. The path to the second boss is kinda longish at first, but that's only because of the whole "Open the door from the other side". So that's tough in terms of whittling you down on the way. But you can head back to "town" at this point. After that it's a case of getting through some manageable enemies on a shorter path to reach the second boss after the door is open. After that, from what I understand (from what a certain character nearby has said) you'll get to pick what to face first. Though you might have to go through another area first.


Basically the paths are longer. If you meant hard as in boss fights nearby then there's a bit of traveling. If by hard you meant how tough the area is, I'd say the first large area is tough but reasonable.

 

[Stuffwar]

http://imgur.com/gallery/jjqBtTX