Topic: Dark Souls Remastered \[т]/

I would agree that the demo is a lot like MH. Both demos throw you in at the deep end but give the player little or no experience of the sense of progression these games provide - of building a character and figuring out the various game systems. I would also say that this demo is much more difficult than the full game in that at this point it is possible to have a more fully upgraded weapon, making progress much easier.

@NEStalgia Yeah, the actual game starts you off in a tutorial area that's designed to teach you how to play. This demo is terrible.

@Ralizah i think you saved my preorder. After this demo i was thinking the game was really sketchy compared even to it's sequels and not very enjoyable.

@evillucario Oddly i haven't left that first room more than once, and I'm still less frustrated than hollow Knight,, for some reason.i managed to pry myself from torna for 2 hours just to keep failing in room 1. Hollow Knight led to a string of explatives long before that

Still better than bloodborne

Yeah, this is more of a network test (at least in-name, “failed to invade” amirite?) than a demo. A tutorial and gentler introduction could’ve been much more helpful for folks new to the game.

@NEStalgia Dark Souls 1 is fantastic. The demo isn't a strong one, but it's much easier and more forgiving than other similar games like Nioh. Once you learn everyone's patterns, everyone goes down like a stack of dominoes.

Just to make sure, in the actual game it is possible to not let people invade your game, right? I hate when I make it pretty far just for some random red guy who is clearly awesome at this game to come in and take me out. And what is even the point of that? What do they get out of it?

@Xyphon22 Mostly for fun, but you also get humanity, which when you have humanity you get boosts like resistance to curses and item drop rate buffs.

If you kill invaders, though, you might get a piece of the gear they're using. On my second character on my PC version, I got invaded and I killed the invader for humanity and his spiked shield.

If you don't care for PvP, just play without an Internet connection or (in the main game) just stay as a Hollow. On the other hand if you play without a connection, you'll be missing the messages left by other players which can be very helpful.

@Xyphon22

Just play it offline. I played it for the first time offline and it works just fine like that.

@Dezzy I'd recommend people to play with it online since without those messages, you're going to have a crappy time in the Darkroot Gardens and Sen's Fortress without certain helpful messages by other players. That's my opinion though.

@EvilLucario easier than nioh? That sounds simple enough then!

In the demo, i got past the pig with a bit of luck, and playing as dark Knight just to cram it in. I was exploring the upper areas, but got crushed finally by that next boss with the mace in the upper levels. Never got the gate opened. Are they no other bonfires in that area? That's a pretty big area to explore withouta single checkpoint.

@NEStalgia I'd say it's easier than Nioh yeah. In Dark Souls, enemies can be staggered extremely easily, and they die extremely easily. Fights take much less time in Dark Souls than Nioh, especially bosses. On the other hand, Nioh enemies stagger much less easily so you can't just hit them once and then kill them quickly while they're dazed. The one thing that makes Dark Souls harder though is more varied movesets and attack patterns. Nioh enemies have very simplistic attack telegraphs and patterns, but they just hit REALLY hard. In Dark Souls, normal enemies require a lot more hits to kill you while bosses also do less overall damage than Nioh bosses.

Healing is 50/50 depending on what you may find more difficult. You can have more Dark Souls Estus Flasks, but you can only refill them at bonfires. You have less Nioh elixirs, but you can randomly get them from fallen enemies.

There's also less things to keep track of in Dark Souls. In Nioh, you have Ki blasts to recover more Ki (stamina in Dark Souls terms) after an attack combo and three different attack stances that give you varying degrees of offenses and defenses. In Dark Souls, you just have some dinky little attacks, a dodge roll, blocking, and parrying (which is STUPIDLY OP if you can master the timing). The challenge is reading enemy patterns and reacting accordingly, but again they are all more complex than anything in Nioh.

Dark Souls rolls also have invincibility frames while Nioh has absolutely no invincibility frames on dodges. To make up for it though, blocks are MUCH stronger than in Dark Souls, and your dodges are INCREDIBLY fast.

So while I say Dark Souls is easier than Nioh, it's more a multitude of reasons that I found compared to others. Your mileage may vary.

Edit: There are some new mechanics in Nioh that could potentially make it easier than Dark Souls though. I've already mentioned the better blocking, but there's this Devil Trigger/Umbran Climax-like supermove you can use that makes you immune to damage while you can unleash incredibly powerful attacks. Under the right circumstances, you can activate it to save yourself against a boss fight and kill it before it kills you. The three different stances can also provide for more damage and evasion whenever you need it, as opposed to Dark Souls being one way or another.

Speaking of bonfires (or checkpoints), in the actual game there is a bonfire east of the church area. The demo bafflingly does not let you go there, so the demo is harder than the actual game for the wrong reasons.

I especially like the sense of danger and mystery in the game though. The later games in the series didn't replicate this at all.
So I think what you lose in community cooperation you gain in atmosphere.
Finding some stuff out for yourself is really rewarding too. Like I found the way back to the Undead Asylum by myself with no hints or guides and that made it seem so much cooler.

@OorWullie @javman05 Regarding the little piggie, I just wanted to let you guys know that its ass isn't its only weak spot It also has a weak spot ontop of it, namely the part where its mane is. If you walk up to the platform above it where the archers are, you can sprint jump over the edge, land on it with a plunging attack, and smash its health bar good. In the demo for example, 2-handing the black knight sword makes this attack a one-shot and gives you a special animation when hitting the boar.

@Grumblevolcano @Spoony_Tech @NEStalgia @Ralizah Just letting you all know since it seems the word "demo" is being thrown around without much regard for what it actually was that was experienced this weekend:

It was NOT a demo. It was a network test running on an old build of the game. It was NOT meant to showcase the game as it should be (unlike the MH demo which just failed at it), it was purely meant to, as the title of it said, test the network. It's not meant to be representative (again, unlike the MH demo... Sigh, that demo was BAD.) of the game at all.

Sure, it's a little playable snippet from the game, but everything lies in the purpose (and name) of it.

@EvilLucario Great comparison between the two games. While I've never played far into either (a bit farther in Nioh than what I'd played of DS3 though) I still fully understand the comparisons. I somehow really like (but suck massively at) Nioh (so progress is slow), but DS does indeed sound more interesting. Combined with the fact that I loathe Bloodborne with the passion of a thousand suns this demo really almost put me off from DS, but I think I'll stick with it and switch my preorder from physical to digital. I'll pay a bit more (RIP Amazon discount ), but it's less than 4GB apparently and is a great game to randomly jump into for short times until rage quit...er...taking a break. (For some odd reason I bought 2 & 3 on X1 sales for crazy cheap while I waited for DS1 on Switch....then found out they're bringing all 3...

Ahh that bonfire must be the "miasma" blocking the door just outside that boss. Two people left clues saying "bonfire ahead" and "bonfire?" I didn't go that route (darn users and their false traps) and went into the other direction....with the nasty boss battle. Tried to flee back to the "bonfire" but was walled off and it wouldn't let me throug the "miasma", and he chased me out so I had to take him on with low health.....couldn't figure out how to damage him so the game ended there. (And without the gate open at the bottom I'd be restarting from the very beginning again so that was the end of my demo run.

@Blizzia Good PSA! Technically I'm aware of that, but a network test is also intended as a demo (that's why they advertise the free tests and such heavily on all platforms they're done on).... Technically it's a network test but nobody would join for a "hey want to do our QA work session and play a really bad game snippet?" It's still supposed to serve to entice people into the game. Most network tests succeed in that (Splatoon 2, ARMS, Mario Tennis, MHW, Dissidia NT, The Crew 2...well...ok, the game is really terrible and the test/demo made that clear on day 1, and it's already in the clearance bin, physically and digitally, months later. Scratch that one. )

@Dezzy The vibe and atmosphere really reminds me of Quake 1. So do the graphics and audio, but we won't go there, it's a PS3 game after all. "The Necropolis", "Wizard's Manse", "Dismal Oubilette", "Azure Agony". I half expect a Shambler around a corner.

@NEStalgia Well yeah, in theory everything released for the public to "indulge in" should be top notch and make them all hungering beasts smashing the pre-order button, but you know what I mean The exact purpose of a network test isn't selling your game, but making sure your game works when you're trying to sell it. The online anyway.

@Dezzy I get that but honestly nothing would suck more than losing to Sif or the Iron Golem (who admittedly isn't too bad but still) then going through all of their areas AGAIN, especially Sen's Fortress. Like Jesus.

@NEStalgia Yeah that's this demo for you.

Also another tip, a viable way of playing Dark Souls is to unequip ALL of your armor so you're much more agile and mobile. The heavier armor you have, the slower you move and the slower your rolls are. You are a glass cannon yes, but in that case Dark Souls leans more on the Nioh scale than Dark Souls :^]

I don't think Nioh has as much penalties for higher equipment load. I'll need to play that more tbh.

@Blizzia "Failed to invade" I think they should have made the demo portion better because the online test portion wasn't so hot

@NEStalgia I had zero of those, and I invaded like... 1.000 people. Were you using the red eye stone, or were you trying the floor signs? I used the stone, it's super solid.