Can level up at any bonfire without sitting through loading screens

>can level up at any bonfire without sitting through loading screens
Why'd they stop doing this?

They stopped doing this because they added the ability to warp anywhere anytime. Yea it’s worse that everything about 1. Bloodborne has it the worst tho
> return to hunters dream just to reset area

Because Demon's Souls fags.

>leveling up ever
What a scrub.

Being able to warp eveyrwhere anytime is a blessing.
Try replaying Dark Souls with a particular build on mind, or co-op with a friend, and you will find how tedious having to walk everywhere is.

...

except the first half of the game is designed around walking everywhere. its why walking places in the other 2 games isnt fun at all

Yes coop is better with the other games (doesn’t make them better games overall) but it’s not a problem for building, just have to have any amount of forethought. It’s just like how fast travel ruined TES... limited travel is okay (dark souls 1’s intricate shortcuts) but complete travel freedom ruins games

God I fucking miss the first half of Dark Souls so fucking much.

That fucking freedom, that ability to go places and get totally over your head, that complete lack of handholding and childproofing, that fucking early game build variety. Fuck. Nothing else in the series comes close. Half an hour into the game and you can have totally and dramatically different loadouts and be in dramatically different areas. You don't have to do Undead Burg at all, shit is entirely optional. Fuck man.

Why did every other game move away from this? It was the best fucking part of Dark Souls and the biggest improvement over Demon's Souls, and then they just threw it out in every subsequent game because people got lost in the Catacombs and didn't realize there were other ways to go.

>can go anywhere
>every path to actual progression is blocked by piss-fog

because MUH SHITTY FUCKING MANDATORY LEVEL-UP WAIFU

Because From Soft both loves their callback memes and is incompetent.

Having to walk everywhere forced them to make the level design actually good though, which I find preferable to a warp option right off the bat. The Lord Vessel is one of the sole reasons the second half of the game was lacking.

DS2 handled it pretty well too. The world wasn't as interconnected but you had a ton of places you could go early-game and lots of build variety as a result.

>no warp, have to walk everywhere
>map design is top tier
>warp everywhere
>map design is linear and uninspired
HMMMM

Retarded weeabo waifu fags who need to be destroyed for the greater good.
Dark Souls is the only game in the series I truly enjoyed.

NO SOYFUN.
JUST FUN.
FUCK YOU.

>Having to walk everywhere forced them to make the level design actually good though
Levels in DaS1 were fucking corridors with poor textures. Have you looked an Anor Londo? It seems great in the cutscene, but when you get there it's just hallways, bridges and the same god damn stone texture everywhere.

Not having a warp from the start didn't "force" From to do shit.

>Have you looked an Anor Londo?
Wow almost like that's the level where the warp is introduced or something.

Fromsoft seems to have a problem holding on to good new features in general. Like removing powerstancing, build variety, and having a different setting from 2 to 3.

Anor Londo is great for the most part. You feel like a tiny little rat scurrying around God's empty palace.

>weeb waifufags for a fucking Souls game
>soyfun

I genuinely sometimes wonder what goes on in the heads of the people that post shit like this.

>Why did every other game move away from this?
its not easy to do. also, like you said, many people found it to be too confusing and difficult

Anor Londo isn't supposed to be empty until/unless you dispel the illusion by killing Gwynevere's image.

Places you can go pre Sen's Fortress:

>Undead Burg
>Undead Parish
>New Londo
>Valley of the Drakes
>The Catacombs
>2/3 of Tomb of the Giants(Pinwheel can be killed as your first boss)
>Lower Burg
>The Depths(Capra Demon can be killed as your first boss)
>Blighttown
>first half of the Demon Ruins(Quelaag can be killed as your first boss)
>Darkroot Forest
>Darkroot Basin
>return to the Undead Asylum

I can go to nearly all of these areas without killing a single boss. Let's look at the available bosses.

>Taurus Demon
>Gargoyles
>Moonlight Butterfly
>Quelaag
>Ceaseless Discharge(must kill Quelaag first)
>Capra Demon
>Gaping Dragon(must kill Capra Demon first)
>Grey Wolf Sif
>Four Kings(must kill Sif first)
>Pinwheel
>Stray Demon
>2 hydra minibosses, an undead dragon miniboss, and the hellkite miniboss

There is much to do in the first third. You can even join any covenant except for the Princess Guard and the Blade of the Darkmoon.

Its not a game you were intended to play with a particular build in mind. Its an adventure game, not some sorta PvP focused MMO. Plus the fact that there are a million shortcuts to get to various parts of the world fast is way more fun than just teleporting everywhere.

Well fuck other people. A game doesnt have to be for everyone

Can't handle the truth?

The level up girl is pure fan service garbage.

Dark Souls was a fucking accident let's face it.
>That solitary feeling when you get to the next bonfire with 0 Estus and you have enough souls to level up. That's Fun™ and good game design.

and
Soyfun = Forced Fun see ENB's first DS2 playthrough for the perfect example.

Bloodborne does a good job of connecting many of the early areas together. The difference is that the game is a lot more linear and has more independent dungeons.

>complete lack of handholding and childproofing
Did you mean lack of direction? Because the start of DaS1 is designed by a retard.
>first time playing
>Firelink section starts you off facing the wrong way
>Crestfallen talks about bells above and below
>go into the graveyard
>skeletons are tough, but hey, it's Dark Souls, everyone's talking about how difficult it is
>circlestrafe them to death anyway
>get the Zwei from the graveyard
>continue going down
>further down
>piss fog
And then it turns out you need to go up this tiny little cliffside path that's BEHIND YOU when you start, is barely visible due to murky as fuck graphics and low rendering resolution, and enter the side of an aqueduct (what). It's fucking stupid.

Then you get the first boss (Taurus), placed in an arena where his AI can get confused and accidentally walk off the wall to its death. Just laughable.

whats really the issue? if someone is good enough to get through the catacombs in the beginning then that's fine.

Ladies and gentlemen: the nu-Souls fan.

It's not fine. It's a dead end. Crestfallen talks about a bell "below", and you can go below from the start, but that's not even where the bell is. The ONLY way to go is up first (to the Undead Parish), then down to Blighttown.

>you will never be this retarded

>>skeletons are tough, but hey, it's Dark Souls, everyone's talking about how difficult it is

Let's be honest: something SHOULD have seemed fishy how the enemies in the asylum took 2-3 hits max and even the boss went down in like ten but the skeletons suddenly can withstand dozens.

>he didn't immediatly bang a right to go fight gargoyles
>instead goes into the spooky cave to fight skeletons in the dark
baka

I fell for the memes. Sue me.

That's the problem, you can't get through the catacombs. It's a complete waste of time.

You need to attention more dumb dumb.

Crestfallen clearly says that the bell below will be a tough endeavor.

>Being able to warp eveyrwhere anytime is a blessing.

I played DeS first so I thought it was a fairly difficult area filled with good equipment and not a fucking dead end.

at which point you turn around and explore. it's really not hard to find the stairs up to undead burger

and also
>"One of the bells is up above in the Undead Church, but the lift is broken. You'll have to climb the stairs up the ruins, and access the Undead Burg through the waterway."

Don't worry, so did I.

>Listening to any criticism coming to Sup Forums, be gameplay or level design.

This board considers The Witcher series and Telltale's The Walking Dead series to be the definitive videogames and therefore its opinions should be ignored.

No shit. It's not like I can keep forwards.

>You'll have to climb the stairs up the ruins
This is nonsense as well. The ruins in Firelink only lead up to the elevator, which isn't even broken. The way up to the Burg is not a ruin. It's a fucking cliff path.

(You)

what ever happened to basic enemies chugging estus? why did from from that idea? I thought it was pretty cool and made the player feel less unique and like they had more in common with the enemies they were up against. it also prompts changes in the way you approach fights, making the player want to rush the enemy as they opened themself up before they get all of their hp back.

matter of fact, I don't even think dark souls used this concept that much outside of the first one or two areas.

Programming variable AI is hard.

A lot of the stuff you said requires the skeleton key though, which shouldn't really be used to justify player freedom as it's not meant to be used when you discover the game, it's meant to be used on later playthrough.

>why did from from
why did from drop*

What the fuck is forced fun? That doesn't even sound bad to me? If the game forces you to have fun somehow, why the fuck should I care? I just had fun.

I took master key on my first run. It was the greatest vidya experience I had in a decade.

Never stifle someone's will to explore and experiment. If someone wishes to take the master key on their first run, then let e'm.

Sure, but to me that seems like a really good way to get super lost and end up skipping sections only to work your way backwards. It also sounds like it encourages powerleveling, since you're in an area way past your level and you need to keep up.

>play DeS
>once you clear the first area you are free to do whatever you want
>play DaS
>pick this item during character creation or you will face roadblocks at every corner

The real question is why did we lose the ability to repair and reinforce weapons from the bonfire?

Exploration only makes sense when the game world is designed for it. Dark Souls clearly wasn't, because there's a fuckton of dead ends which can be extremely difficult to get out of in early game when you can't warp. Catacombs, for instance, aren't designed to accommodate a player going back on foot. You can see this in enemy placement and their positions, which make no sense when going back up. The entire area was designed with warping back up in mind.

>as it's not meant to be used when you discover the game
If they didn't intend for players to use it they wouldn't have made it default starting gear for one class and an option for every other to pick it as their gift.

You can find the master key in undedburg right? That means that fucked progression can still happen pretty early

You cant fight gargoyles without going through the burg and going down the elevator first.
Baka

Just because you can make a lot of decisions doesn't mean all of thoses decisions are good.

From memory, Blight Town is a fucking ass AND you can't get out until you beat the area right? So uh... fuck you if you somehow fall in there with the masterkey I guess.

If you can, then I have somehow never found it. I wouldn't be too surprised, I remember younger me wanting to haul ass most of the time in case some bullshit killed me so I didn't explore too thoroughly

Yeah, it's not like From can make mistakes and fuck up somewhere in their design, right? It's not like they're infamous for the incompetence and lack of basic playtesting, right?

Yeah, and it's not like user is famous for making shit up.

Is it me or does Dark Souls 1 have the most hidden bullshit of the series? Like.... figuring out how to get on that upper level of Firelink Shrine to get into the crow's nest. Who would ever do such bizarre series of events? Also, the most bullshit illusion walls.Don't even pretend DS1 wasn't the worst about it.

DS1 relied very heavily on player messages over intuitive design. Simple as that.

Is it me or is Dark Souls 1 the best Dark Souls?

From a nostalgia point of view it sounds cool and fun, but when I was actually playing it I remember being kinda mad about it? It was the type of secret you normally wouldn't find without having to look up a guide, and by that point its not a secret at all. It was too obtuse to find naturally.

Figuring out how and that you can get up there is the easy part since there are items visible on the roof, there were locked doors and unreachable items in the asylum and Crestfallen tells you about how the crow carried someone TO the asylum.

Waiting for half a minute on the other hand...

I agree. Big fan of Dark Souls but I'm not a retard so I won't defend this.

It’s sold by the dude in the Depths by Gaping Dragon. The only way to get there without using the master key is to follow the progression the game plans out for you

The thing is

DaS > DeS > BB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DaS2 > DaS3

Sequels were a mistake

Time to derail this thread.

No, it's BB>DaS>DeS.

Frampt is a lying sack of shit and I’m impressed on how the game lies to the player on almost every level

>Sequels were a mistake

Over the last 7 years I've come to realise this is probably the only truth in any media / art form. Also that fandoms and extreme fans ruin everything.

Did I miss something? What's wrong with him? What did he lie about?

Going back to Firelink I can understand. I did a blind playthrough and found out about it by just wanting to see if I could roll onto the roof of the building the Parish lift goes through and just went from there. The game even has items on top of the temple in Firelink to draw your eye to them on the lift and plant the idea in your head.

SOME of the illusory walls also follow this idea, like the one leading to Havel's set in Anor Londo. You can see through a window into the room past the wall, but there's no door inside the room leading to it, so you end up getting curious. The game is designed around being explored and feeds your natural curiosity to help find it. Admittedly the route to Ash Lake is obtuse as fuck but it's an entirely optional area and meant to be a secret.

Pretty much everybody agrees Dark Souls drops off after O&S because the Lordvessel meant the devs could just throw shit everywhere with no care for level design because the player can just warp around.

>Who would ever do such bizarre series of events
Me? I haven't played the game all the way through yet, so I haven't looked at any guides yet, but I recall getting up there.

Dark Souls has the coolest unique weapons

>Quelaag's Furysword
>Golem Axe
>both Moonlight Butterfly's Spear and Shield
>Greatshield of Artorias
>Dragon Greatsword
>Dragon King Greataxe
>all of Havel's gear
>original Darkmoon Bow
>Lifehunt Scythe and it's insane 50% maximum health bleed
>Abyss Greatsword
>Obsidian Greatsword

I it took me hours to successfully cut off Kalameet's tail, but it ended up being my favorite secondary weapon ever made. I'll whip that fucker out against magic res/bow of silence builds anyday.

He didn't outright lie so much as not reveal the full truth. Frampt tells you that your job is to succeed lord Gwynn but never entails what that actually means. He also sides with Kaathe in the end if you go the Dark Lord route. Dude's clearly only in this for himself.

>new londo
>valley of the drakes
>lower burg
>depths
>blighttown
>darkroot

all of those require master key, which if you know how handy it is you'll just skip all of that and go straight to both bells so you can get to Anal Rodeo and finally clear the game, unless you're after specific weapons/spells/armor which you need to kill an "optional" boss for (in context of having the master key anyway)

typical master key progression is always as follows

Undead Burg > Parish > Firelink > lower Blighttown > Sen's Funhouse > Anor Londo > pick 1 of 4 options now that the piss is gone

>It's a complete waste of time.
except for all the bonfires you lit, souls you amassed, and items you collected while you journeyed through the catacombs+tomb.

It would have been better if they let you fight Nito and the others but shit is still miles better about not blocking than literally every other game in the franchise.

>DS2 handled it pretty well too
No it didn't, if it weren't for Dark Souls 3 it would be the absolute worst example.

None of those require the master key, you fat retard, just break the seal in New Londo.

How is any of this a bad thing? It wasn't baby proofed for retards and you got a unique experience and were rewarded for your efforts.

Wow that's cool, I never walk away when I beat Gwyn. Didn't know that.

The whole game lies to you in order to get you to chuck yourself on the fire

>Gwyn needs a shitton of souls to power his bonfire to reboot the time he ruled
>Because of his fuckery time is messed up (Heroes of old appearing, people not dying)
>Order people to round up the undead
>Starts a story to encourage the undead to come to asylum (eg that story the dude in the beginning tells you)
>Makes you ring two bells and go through an obstacle course so you feel accomplished
>Dumb fucking Frampt fellates your ego by calling you “chosen undead”
>Has his son make a titty monster illusion to get people to white knight super hard
>All the while you’re getting super buff from all the souls you’re getting from killing everything
>Tries to make you feel bad by having Gwyn be easy as fuck to fight while sad music plays

>>Tries to make you feel bad by having Gwyn be easy as fuck to fight while sad music plays
user, Gwyn is the hardest boss in this game after Artorias and Manus

>Because of his fuckery time is messed up (Heroes of old appearing, people not dying)

>darksign looks like the dying sun
why have I never made this conncection

Is Gwyn easy on purpose? Some fans have said stuff like its symbolic of Gwyn's fall from grace or that he's hollow so of course he's weak, but personally I just thought it was a poorly done final boss fight. A lot of final boss fights end up being weirdly easy after all, its always disappointing when that happens. With the exception of bonus bosses, the final boss should be the hardest thing you face in my opinion.

At least Gwyn isn't as easy as the last boss fight in BOTW...

If you don't parry, yeah. Parrying makes him easy peasy

same reason why they added warp at the beginning of every game instead of making you earn it for when you actually needed it

theyre fucking retarded

What if my objective is not to speedrun the game like an autist?

Fuck you, I'm going to Go to Valley of the drakes, head up the darkroot basin/forest to the undead parish, then reverse trek the parish to grab the Claymore on the bridge via rat sewer. With the claymore in hand I then go back to the Darkroot Forest to grab the enchanted ember while farming blue chunks from the crystal golems in the Basin. Then I go to Blighttown, get two green titanite drops of 5 each(with the 1 that you find nearby), and head over to New Londo to make a +4 enchanted Claymore. Lastly I go over and one hit kill Taurus demon and shit on everything for free level ups in INT.

Why would I bother going through all of that? Because I want to and the game let's me do that. As a bonus I'll make another character and lv 1 rape the Four Kings with a +15 pyromancy glove.

It was a blessing in DS2 because it has a less vertical and more horizontal design. DS1 didn't have a need for it until it became an option later in the game. DS3 has literally no use for it because it follows the same level design pattern as DS1 but kept the bonfire teleportation for no reason other than to go back to firelink shrine to level up, a bad leftover of DS2.

Gwyn is piss easy to parry and the game offers a ton of fire resistance stuff. And even then if you can’t kill him summoning even Solaire makes him even more pathetic.

>Dude Gwyn is easy just parry lmao
>Dude Pontiff Sulyvahn is easy just parry lmao
>Dude Champion Gundyr is easy just parry lmao

Pontiff Sulyvahn is actually easy as fuck without parries

Most bosses in DaS3 were really easy in general.

Dragonslayer Armour is hilariously easy when you parry his shit.

I gotta say, I liked how Pontiff had his body double right on top of him. Makes it way easier to keep them both in view instead of being sneak attacked from behind.