3581

After loving and 100%ing Elden Ring, I felt like I had come across a treasure trove of quality gaming. Never touched a From game before besides a few hours in Demon’s Souls back in the early days, which turned me off by not having save anywhere, so I shunned all From games from then until now.

Now I feel like the rest of my gaming year is sorted: DS, DS2, DS3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and the Demon’s Souls remake. First stop though is Dark Souls remastered, which I have been playing lately and really enjoying. It’s interesting to compare it to Elden Ring:

  • I feel like the bosses are much easier than Elden Ring. Elden Ring had its share of really easy bosses too, but there were also some really tough ones and I have yet to come up against an equivalent here. I did die a fair bit to a bull-like thing early in the game, but that felt like it was due to the confined space causing the camera to freak out and get me killed more than anything else. Even the supposedly hard bosses, like the fat guy and teleport guy combo, has only taken me a couple of tries maximum.

  • In contrast, there are non-boss sections of the game that feel harder than anything that is in Elden Ring. A solitary halberd silver knight was giving me more trouble than most bosses were. Many of these difficult parts, like the first half of Sen’s Fortress or some bits in Anor Londo, feature fighting enemies while playing a janky platforming game at the same time. It must be that the programmers get a royalty everytime a players gets knocked off a platform to their death from a random out-of-screen projectile. Never made me feel rage or even much frustration though, accepting that repeated death is just part of the experience is such a nice innovation that From has brought to the genre.

  • Like Elden Ring, I feel like From leans too hard in the obtuse design. If I wasn’t referencing a guide on occasion I think I would miss how alot of things actually work, and probably would have ruined my whole playthrough by accidentally hurting an important npc.

  • The way the levels all interconnect and with shortcuts is genius, in a way it’s even more impressive than a large open world.

  • Combat feels alot older but retains the same spirit for sure. I don’t know how anyone plays this game with anything but a fast roll though. In Elden Ring, I could wear heavy armour (sans shield) and get my endurance up enough to fast roll without too much trouble. In Dark Souls you seem to have a choice between moving like a 90 year old or blocking blows with paper clothes.

  • Like Elden Ring, I am loving it!

3582

If you beat Ornstein & Smough after a couple tries, then you’re doing well.

There’s a medium roll as well that’s decent. Just have to avoid the fat roll.

3583

Before anyone gets too impressed, I did die what felt like 100 times to silver knights leading up to the boss room haha. All I could think when meeting Ornstein and Smough was wow, two enemies that can’t block my lightning spears and actually telegraphs their moves properly, im in heaven!

I should clarify, I think I had the medium roll in Elden Ring, but it feels to me to be as quick as the fast roll in DS. The medium roll in DS feels like a slow roll in Elden Ring. I tend to play two-handed weapon roll machines, so maybe I am particularly sensitive to such things.

3584

In DS1 getting to the boss is more an adventure than the boss itself in most cases. There is one major boss that is poorly done and when you get there I am sure you will agree. But the distance between bonfires is longer and the environments can be more challenging.

DS1 is my favorite but it was also the first I played.

3585

It’s not until dark souls 3 where these variable swings start coming into play to mess with your timing.

3586

I can’t believe Tim-N found a way to do lightning damage in the game before Ornstein and Smaugh. I kept looking and didn’t find something until close to the end of the game.

3587

You can get lightning spear quite early if you meet the faith reqs (which I never did because I am always pure melee all the waaaaay).

3588

Dark Souls 2 had some but it was limited so it was still interesting.

3589

True, that might have been my hangup too, I never invested into Faith.

3590

O ye of little faith

3591

3592

Insert here (Clapping hands gif)

3593

3594

Wow. Really? Is this still true? Ummm, well, it’s…something. Really something.

Talk about the most involved out of the way hidden secret area in a game since…ever

3595

Yeah, I got to the end of Dark Souls Remastered and said wait, wasn’t there supposed to be someplace called Ash Lake? But I have not replayed.

3596

Every DS game has at least one area that most players miss on their first play thru. Ash Lake is probably best missed the first time thru the area became of the pain in getting out of the area.

3597

Getting to Melania in Elden Ring might give Ash Lake some competition in my book.

3598

Well, to be fair, so did FromSoft.

3599

It isn’t a problem if you have the Lord Vessel already.

Ash Lake is sanity blasting awe after the journey that rivals descending blight town/catacombs to get there.

I haven’t played Elden Ring (Or Sekiro) yet but:

Dark Souls 3’s Untended Graves and Bloodborne’s “Source of the Dream” don’t really even come close.

Dark Souls 2 doesn’t have an extra special secret area that makes your mind explode…that I can remember. If it does it wasn’t very memorable.

Demon’s Souls doesn’t either per se, barring its world tendency area / npc encounters which don’t really count / are their own thing.

3600

There are those areas behind the lock stone doors that lead to PvP zones. They make my mind explode with the joy of multiplayer shenanigans!