Why is this series known for being "hard" if it gives you the option of using summons for nearly the whole experience?

Why is this series known for being "hard" if it gives you the option of using summons for nearly the whole experience?

Isn't avoiding summons simply a self-imposed challenge?

you're playing ds3 though

you couldn't have a gank squad in ds1, invaders were actually a nuisance in the first game

Not really, by default they're off. If you had to manually unsummon an npc every time you respawned then it would be self imposed.

In a lot of games you can play with better players and have them carry you. I don't see your point. Life isn't hard if your daddy is rich and buys you everything, that doesn't mean it applies to everyone.

>Isn't avoiding summons simply a self-imposed challenge?
No, because summoning people gives the bosses more health and makes the fight more difficult.

Are Raime and Laurence the only bosses in the series designed to be harder with summons?

>your summon is probably at least as good as you, if not overgeared as well, at least doubling your damage output.
>boss health increases 1.5x
Hmm

No it doesn't. Most of the bosses are clearly designed for 1v1. The AI shits itself switching between targets

>you couldnt have a gank squad in ds1, invaders were actually a nuisuance in the first game
nigga did we play the same game? The only invaders that were annoying were the cheaters, and even then I saw it as a challenge to bleed them out or kick em off a cliff

>you couldn't have a gank squad in ds1
You're fucking retarded mate. There were many times where you invade and have a 3 on 1. In fact every forest invasion was a ganking.

Almost every situation is exponentially easier with even a weaker NPC summon.

Have you ever played the game? Summoning people makes the game incredibly easy. Boss health is slightly increased, 2 people stagger the boss more often, boss often randomly switches aggro allowing people to heal up etc. Adding HP barely changes the difficulty you retard.

>glitch into the boss room as a grape
Hahaha aw ye

>3v1 is as hard as 5v1
>every one of them has fully-upgraded estus flask
>weapon upgrade tiers
>it's just like in DaS1 :^)
Ok, kid.

Dark souls isn't hard. At most it is challenging.

It's like Monster Hunter.
If you want a challenge you are going to solo it.
Any and all forms of multiplayer in these two franchises can be considered a form of carrying.

The balance there is that bringing summons into your game also invites invaders though we've had more than a few threads full of whiny shitters who want their summons without fear of big meanies spoiling their easymode.

Orphan doesn't really get any easier, but then the primary benefit of bringing a summon into a boss fight isn't really another source of damage as much as it is having someone to draw aggro for a quick breather.

At least in Multi they significantly increase enemy health. Also, I do love and hate with just as much intensity how players can actually knock eachother around with their attacks, creating incentive not to just gang up on a weak point and mash

more summons means more invaders
Doesn't mean much though since they butchered the whole mechanic in favour of the host

>I-Invaders ruin my game!

I treat souls as an offline singleplayer experience

That being said, it's not really hard. It's just a modern NES game.

The sorcerer class sucks so much ass in 3 that you basically NEED a summon.

>that moment of preternatural joy and fury when you kill the host's last phantom and he starts to bolt back to his bonfire
>the sublime instant when you bulldoze him from behind before he can reach it

Aldritch Faithful is my fucking favorite covenant. Shame the rank rewards are so garbage.

Not really?

See, even if you do summon, I'll be there.

I'll be there with my obscuring ring, my silvercat ring, my slumbering dragon ring, and my hornet ring.

>tfw running around Aldritch Faithful zone before the balance patches struck
>dropping onto squads of phantom shitters with my Fume Sword, then vanishing into the wind
>leaping and tumbling across the rooftops while shooting them with my greatbow
>backstabbing and knocking them into chasms

I miss those days.

>those days.
Is Dark Souls 3 like a year old?

the first month or two of Souls games are always the best. It's before they fix the busted shit, before the meta sets in, and the point where players are still new and plentiful.

I remember DaS2's early days with great affection for this reason, back before Faith was eternally ruined. Running around in the bell tower with powerstanced Dual Caestus punching hexfags in the mouth.

DaS3 wasn't quite as good, since the ruin to the games miracles and sorceries carried over from 2, but it was still fun. I miss the days when I could find people who hadn't yet discovered the way down to the Aldritch Covenant.

I'd invade people's world, notice the wall was still there, and play the friendly invader. I'd show them the wall, and when they though "Oh cool! A secret area!" I'd follow them down the ladder.

...then I'd stay on the ladder, while they stared at the two Bloodborne doggos. Just high enough to be out of bow range, and slide into them if they tried to climb back up.

It's an anti-frustration feature and an easy mode implemented in a way that isn't directly condescending to the player in the way a labeled easy mode would be. It's much better than an actual easy mode because it promotes community interaction, cooperative or otherwise, which is a big part of these games too.

I've never summoned human help in all my time playing all these games, but being summoned can be a joy and adds an endgame activity that feels rewarding rather than destructive. I got summoned for the same guy to Defiled Watchdog five times in a row; he kept dying to a charge. Finally winning the battle and the gesture party that ensued made me just as happy as if it were my own boss.

I missed out on these times.
Especially Dank Souls 2. PvP was dead anywhere that wasn't the bell or rat areas, even when I was playing it fresh off release. I think I got just one invader in between those areas.

How is Raime harder with summons?

Bigger HP pool

Dragon Aerie before the zipline glitch to walk on air was patched was the absolute best time I had in DaS2. I'd spend hours invading just to show it to people, or mess with them and have ridiculous chases if they already knew. I was so sad when the patch hit.

>Isn't avoiding summons simply a self-imposed challenge?
Yes. Player summons usually make the game easier. Think of it as a more organic difficulty setting.

That doesn't make him harder.

>the first month or two of Souls games are always the best.
>DaS3 wasn't quite as good,
[rolls away in kindlednese]

The poor networking they use really exacerbates this shit. If only we could live in a world where online gameplay would grant us copious amounts of hitbox porn.
I wish they didn't try to give it a Bloodborne spin by having the player focus more on dodges, by removing poise (DaS1's poise is too good, though) and decreasing stamina costs for everything.

it's much worse in das1, in das3 all players are scaled down to the summoner

in das1 you could enter the world of some dude with +5 chaos weapons, power within and every other item under the sun that open your rectum

>Why is this series known for being "hard"
Because the people who initially discussed the series were ineloquent and were trying to describe the steep learning curve that the games rest upon. They called it hard because they didn't know how to make it easy. Nobody's talked about the games overall being actually difficult for a long time(short of people posting in your context), there's zero reason to cling to the idea.

>Isn't avoiding summons simply a self-imposed challenge?

No, quite the opposite. Any sane person recognises that the game is meant to be played solo, it's the default state. It's like saying playing without cheat codes is a self-imposed challenge.

Summoning is there for impetuous individuals who probably have some kind of mental illnesses, and are fine with ruining the experience for themselves.

Of course, this is only relevant on the first playthrough, utilising summons after that is fine, but I can't see why anyone would want to beyond lore reasons. It's simply not fun, and there are better games for co-operative experiences.

Easy mode: use summons
Normal mode: regular playthrough
Hard mode: SL1

>you couldn't have a gank squad in ds1
I see you never even played the game and are just spouting bullshit you read here sometime.

I miss when invasions were one-sided rape fests meant to be the ultimate challenge and not the muh fair PvP shit

Nah, they're all way easier with summons.

You'll find that bosses you can't summon for tend to be what people complain about the most.

>invaders hurt each other in das3
Fuck you Miyamoto

>they're all way easier with summons
The most difficult bosses I find are actually harder with summons.

Mostly because you have no idea how incompetent the summons are. If they die 2 minutes into the fight you now have a boss with double hp to fight by yourself.

Yea, DaS2 pvp felt the best for me, except i guess OP hecks and some sorcerry spells but you mostly needed to just dodge them just right(but if you fuk up your ded).

We just assume you're not a summoning casual

think of it like difficulty levels, if you summon you're playing on easy

It's the other way around. Summoning Phantomes is self-imposed easy mode.