Does anything else think the Souls series is the best IP to release

>>379724501
It's definitely one of the best. No series has managed to do something completely new and unique like souls in recent times. All you ever see nowadays is the same fps and fps rpg garbage.

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>>379724501
I kinda agree. Haven't played Demon's, but the other four games have been magical.

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>>379724660
What's more impressive to me is that the concept isn't that unique, but the way the game handles itself is what sets it apart. The whole swords and sorcery shtick has been done a thousand times before, but in DS the world manages to feel so unique.

The difficulty of the game itself helps characterize the world around it. When a random bloke in a deserted town says there are huge demons above and below you, that tends to carry more weight since you know the game itself is very hard on the player.

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>>379725648
Demon's Souls is fantastic. Very similar gameplay to Dark Souls, with the main world difference is that you travel to other locations via a hub-world.

Demon's Souls is unique form the other Souls games in a way that it feels very copper. There is a dull, steely shine to the game, an atmosphere that isn't similar to the others. Still very dreary, but it feels different. Some of the locations in the game are some of the most memorable in the series, so if you get a chance to try it, I'd recommend it.

>>379726037
>No real penalty for dying
>Infinite retries
>Broken weapons
>Combat is as simple as block->punish or dodge->punish
>Enemies only respawn after using a checkpoint or when you die
>Can get people from across the internet to beat the games for you
The Souls games aren't hard. They're more challenging than your average modern single player game, that's true, but they're perfectly doable for someone who isn't good at videogames

>>379726410
That sounds amazing. While I pretty much bought my PS4 for Bloodborne, I don't want to buy a PS3 because there is nothing coming for it. I hope they port it to the PS4 someday.

>>379724501
It's the most overrated IP that's for sure.

>>379726652
Not everyone excels at similar tasks. I found Dark Souls to be pretty difficult, my first time around. My PS3 was not connected to the internet at the time, and it was the first Souls game I had played, which admittedly may have added to the difficulty.

>inb4 triggered Bethdrones

>>379726998
being offline doesnt increase the difficulty

>>379726998
I'm garbage at games (as a kid I never managed to finish a single NES game or going farther than the first two stages of any arcade game, as a teenager the only games I managed to finish were JRPGs, can't win at online games against human opponents, only managed to finish PC games thanks to savescumming) and still I found Dark Souls 1 relatively easy. Well, not cinematic shooter you don't have to do anything easy, but it definitely wasn't the Ninja Gaiden everyone claims it to be. Not even summoning given how I played the pirated PC version.

>>379727339
As powerful as Iron Tarkus, the Witch or Solaire are, they don't compare to human players.

>>379727339
Considering summoning, yes, it is. Don't act like the minor buffs the bosses get during multiplayer make things more difficult.

On that note, it's always a shame how the anytime Souls games are brought up, the topic is immediately shifted to the game's difficulty and doesn't budge from there.

>>379724501
>Does ANYTHING else think
Did you just assume we are non binary gender?

>>379727556
>Not everyone excels at similar tasks
I don't know why you blogged in response to that but alright.

>>379727753
Blame the idiots calling it "the hardest game ever"

>>379726037
I was speaking more on the presentation than the general idea. Magic and swords can be done as much as it needs be but it's how it's presented that matters.

I've been saving the Souls series until I have lots of time and can binge uninterrupted.

Are the PC ports good. Can the PC port of DS1 be fixed with mods? How important is it to play the games in order?

I love them and all. But Idk if I can call a series with games this similar to each other the best.

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I like their ps2 rpgs a little more but for the 360 gen yeah sure they're great.

Its a shame DaS1 was a fluke though, its still my favorite in game design and philosophy. I like all 5 though honestly

>>379731169
Good ports, except ds1 that needs dsfix I believe. You don't have to play them in order, but I would play DS2 -> DS1 -> DS3, since 1 and 3 share some common themes.

Most people say 2 is shit, but the gameplay was better than 1, imo, where the level design and the areas of 1 in general won by a landslide.

>>379731169
You should definitely play in order if you can. Dark Souls 1's PC port is the best version, but only by a bit. You'll want the DSfix mod and an Xinput controller.

>>379724501

No, it's shit.

>>379733008
>>379733798

thanks

http://www.beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Dark_Souls

is this correct? I don't want to use a guide, but also don't want to fuck myself up with wrong choices 50 hours in - can I just use common sense for character development or are there any unobvious traps?

>>379736501
I'd go into it blind. Don't worry about min/maxing or hitting every questline. If you fall for the game, you'll definitely revisit it anyways.

>>379736501
Looks pretty good at a glance. Only things you should really know are:

Don't bother levelling resistance, it's really pointless.

Heavy armor makes your dodge much worse, so wear light armor if you want to be able to dodge well. There are three tiers of burdening, under 25% of your max load, over 25%, and over 50%. I usually like to stay under 25%, but it's up to you and your playstyle.

There are late game areas accessible right away, so don't let the reputation for difficulty make you think you're going the right away if the enemies seem too tough. It should only take a few hits to kill basic enemies.

Other than that, do like the other guy said and go in blind. Starting class doesn't matter and points in stats other than resistance are never wasted, just not optimal.

>>379724501
>>379725648

Unfortunately, the series has gone consistently downhill since its' creation. I say that as someone who loves all the games and has put thousands of hours into the series.

Demon's Souls is, as poster mentions above, copper. Memorable, dark, gimmicky, full of weirdness and soul. It was way ahead of its time, so much that it didn't succeed even remotely. But it was great.

Dark Souls coming out really put fuel on the bonfire, and everyone liked it. It's a more understandable Demon's Souls with a better interconnected world, less gimmicks (both bosses and builds) and a more cohesive sense of self. Dark Souls' slow, methodical combat and high-fantasy schtick done 'right' appealed to a broad audience of actual 'gamer' types (not facebook gamers or mobile gamers or whatever else; those people who've been playing serious titles since Hydelide on the Saturn or before).

Dark Souls 2 tried to re-envision much of the series, to re-invent and adapt. It succeeded in some regards, but what it lost was the ineffable magic of the original; it is a competent title despite the shilling you hear otherwise, and the PVP is the most refined in the franchise, but it lacks a sense of unique soul.

Bloodborne addressed this. Bloodborne dropped the slow, methodical formula altogether, any sense of defenses or even variant builds, and just slapped you into a victorian, blood-spattered alien nightmare full of aggression and fear. It was a brilliant game, but still so far removed from the true magic of Demon's/Dark Souls

Dark Souls 3 was an attempt to go back to the glory of the original, but the studio couldn't undo their aggression and combat changes from Bloodborne. DS3 is literally Bloodborne combat hybridized with DS2. It isn't Demon's nor Dark Souls, it lacks the methodical combat, it encourages spam-rolling, etc.

They're all phenomenal games, but it's clear the studio has become tired of them.

I can't put into words why I find souls games so captivating, other than that they don't feel videogame-y in the same way alot of minimalistic indie games feel.

>>379724501
Simply: Yes.

Even the misguided Dark Souls 2 and tired Dark Souls 3 rank far greater than most video games being released these days. As some others have indicted, I think From has had about enough of them, and it would be good if they stopped making them for now. A little break would make people miss them and get people excited when they come back.

There's also the fact that the Souls series has easily been the most influential series game-design wise, along with Call of Duty.