#when they're full-on describing a game that i know i certainly didn't play and reacting to that instead

[bogunicorn]

i really wish that you could leave notes on blocked accounts so that in the future i'll remember who i blocked for being a spambot vs terf or other kind of asshole vs had a really annoying opinion and maybe eventually unblock those last people

[eri-blogs-life]

Part 4: Dark Souls 3

Oh I have feelings after finishing this one

And most of those feelings are not good ones

Dark Souls 3 is still an amazing game, don't get me wrong. But I do not think I like it very much. There's a fair bit that I think I do like - it's certainly the most graphically beautiful game from FromSoft up to this point, though Bloodborne also has an absolutely gorgeous appearance don't get me wrong. It also is generally fun to play... generally.

So, I think the first thing is really how fucking fast the game feels. It feels like enemies hit too fast, the player moves too fast and swings too fast... I don't know if I can put it incredibly clearly, other than to say it feels like things move too fast to really fit the style I'd expect out of FromSoft from their previous titles. Dark Souls was slow, Dark Souls 2 was slower, Bloodborne was faster paced, but it really feels like Dark Souls 3 knocked it up a whole big notch faster.

That wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but something I really liked about Dark Souls 1 and 2 was this sense of having to fight tactically - it wasn't about fast reactions per se, the gameplay was instead about this push and pull of figuring out when to do your own attacks and when to dodge or block or parry, in a way where reaction was not so much the name of the game as the game was about strategy. I liked the more tactical feel of the early FromSoft Dark Souls titles, but as time has gone on it feels like they shifted further and further into faster-paced, reaction-timing-needed games that feel more like what you would describe as a "character action" game than a "Souls-like"

It felt like it worked good in Bloodborne, for me, but not as much in Dark Souls 3, and I think that's super fascinating and I am not 100% sure why.

I think let's talk parrying, cause that's been a big part of this whole replaying project for me. I've been trying to parry a fair bit more this time around than I have in previous playthroughs of FromSoft games. And parrying feels so different game to game.

Coming off Bloodborne, I was incredibly disappointed in the parrying in Dark Souls 3. It sucks. There are a few redeeming factors, but compared to the gun in BB, there's just so much missing trying to parry with a shield or weapon or fist in DS3. The gun did damage, it was fairly fast and enemy timings felt a lot more in tune where you just had to see a specific windup and react to that alone, and all enemies were parryable in all or most of their attacks. Plus guns make cool shooty sound

Meanwhile Dark Souls 3's parrying has some nice parts (in a vacuum) - if you mistime the parry a little, you at least block the attack and use up stamina, or take reduced damage, instead of taking the full attack. ... But that's all the nice things I have to say about it. And BB's gun parrying system and style is just better about all those things that even if they're nice to have over not having them, it feels so much worse coming straight off Bloodborne, because it is worse than Bloodborne.

There was something really nice in Bloodborne, compared to Dark Souls 3, where every time I encountered a new encounter - even with a regular enemy type - it felt like I had enough resources at my disposal that I could deal with it so long as I kept my wits about me and wasn't too surprised. I don't think the same can be said for Dark Souls 3: in so many encounters, even while fully in my wits about things, I still did not feel like I even had the ability to survive and handle certain encounters, even surprise ones.

I think there's a couple aspects to that, right? Enemies felt faster and less predictable, which meant I would be surprised and led to feel frustrated and shit where I didn't even know what was going on. Some light to medium weapons felt like after they hit there was way too long of a pause in the animation before my next animation would begin. In some encounters, it also felt like I just wasn't equipped in a way that was going to be good for that fight in the first place - my weapon didn't have enough reach, or it was too slow for that enemy, or something like that.

And that too slow comment I think is important and part of what feels different here. These kinds of games rely heavily, in my opinion, on a rhythm to combat. An enemy swings. You dodge, block, or parry as appropriate. You get the chance to get a hit in. The enemy swings. It's this delicate dance, with a perfect rhythm where you have to move in time or suffer dangers. In some ways, the FromSoft games are like a music game in a really weird way. And with Dark Souls 3's enemies feeling less predictable, finding that rhythm was harder to do. And with the huge variety of weapons available in DS3, it's again even harder to find that rhythm - with some weapons, the rhythm a certain enemy moves just is not conducive to your weapon's speed matching that enemy's dance. And with Bloodborne's generally smaller differences in weapon speed between trick weapons, and a smaller pool of trick weapons to even try to learn in the first place, it's a lot easier to find the rhythm.

(I am kind of excited to retry Sekiro. Maybe now that I have that more rhythm-game-style mentality for some FromSoft games, that'll help me really appreciate what Sekiro had going for it. And with its one weapon, the pacing is very definitely set for you by the game and it's just a matter of internalizing that rhythm. Last time I played Sekiro, I hated that I couldn't attempt to rebuild myself with new weapons or armors to try a fight with a different approach. I think I might appreciate it more this time around)

For the really tough parts of Dark Souls 3, it didn't feel like I was struggling because something about the gameplay or the enemy in question wasn't clicking with me in specific. It felt like I was struggling because the game was hard. And that's not a good place to be in. I want my games to feel tough because I don't quite get it intuitively. I was games that feel more like high-stakes puzzles sometimes.

[screencap of the game, showing my character standing in front of a beautiful haunting landscape of rocky mountains and graves, with a solar eclipse hanging in the background]

But let's talk some narrative stuff for a bit. Like I've said, the narrative of FromSoft games has never been my favorite part of them or anything - it's cool to learn about it, sometimes, but generally speaking I'm mostly interested in the tight and exciting gameplay.

That said, Dark Souls 3's story, and more generally just its setting and what it does with the Dark Souls concepts, is really cool.

The way that the Dark Souls trilogy all kind of play off each other, with 2 and then 3 expanding on the setting by referencing parts of the former games within their own setting and lore is really cool. It feels like all these worlds are related but in a kind of ethereal way that makes sense within the world, not just in a "oh the developers wanted to reference another thing they made" kidn of way.

The Soul of Cinder is an interesting enough final boss. It is nice having a final boss that does a little bit of a lot of things, some magic, some combat, some fire, some lightning. You really have to be on your A game to beat it and it feels tough but doable.

The appearance of the solar eclipse, starting while you're in Lothric Castle, that looks like the symbol of the Dark Sign, a symbol that's been ever-present throughout the trilogy, is just beautiful.

[a part of Lothric Castle, with my character standing before a set of stairs. In the sky beyond the top of the stairs is the solar eclipse, looking vaguely like the Dark Sign symbol]

So, I could include some more random notes I'd taken during my playthrough. It's nice that enemies stagger from you rolling into them. Pontiff Suleyvahn sucks so much to fight. They do a nice job of making giants feel like giants. Gimmick bosses like Yhorm really do feel like they suck, when they're the only of their kind throughout the whole game, so you really get it into your head that you just gotta get in there and kick ass but then you can't kick ass. Sucks that in some parts the length from bonfire to boss, even with all shortcuts, is still so much longer than the amount of time I spent dying in those boss fights. The huge crystal lizards are such a cool concept and a great spin on something well-established within the greater Dark Souls setting.

But I don't really feel like delving too deep in to any of those right now. Overall, my experience with Dark Souls 3 felt way more frustrating than my experiences with DS, DS2, or BB, in a way that was upsetting rather than making me feel like I had keep pushing forward. I pushed through for this project, but in this case I absolutely opted to just skip the DLC entirely. I did not want to extend the playthrough any longer than needed.

The Souls Are Always Darkest

So since I have been on a FromSoft kick again (my gf and I started playing the Bloodborne board game, and that made me go back and finish Elden Ring), I decided I’d go back and replay some FromSoft games and write down some of my thoughts on them.

So, here’s my thoughts from this playthrough of Dark Souls

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