various interests in an as yet unnamed page. i don't really want to say
a shrine as i guess i'm sort of a hipster that way, but it's a similar
vein
it's called opinions as i liked the visual joke of the recycle bin; but
the name will certainly change at some point, and thus the url, so
consider this location ephemeral
very close to being the best game fromsoft have made. despite being the
lowest budget and the game predicted to fail, it has the best lore, the
most interesting story, and the most enthralling & cohesive world
design:
want upgrade ore? head to the mines. want healing items? kill soldiers
in the castle. want souls? head the the ethereal shrine of storms.
only game apart from elden ring that makes sense in this way
the game that started the annoying runbacks in souls games, but the
only game in which the runbacks are actually good: in demon's souls,
the bosses aren't in any way difficult, they're more of a puzzle than a
combat trial. the combat comes in the form of navigating the enemies,
who are placed in such a way that they have to be fought. no more
tedious dashing past enemies like in later games; every boss attempt
requires enjoyable engagement
it would be the best fromsoft game if it weren't for a few major flaws,
that from have since fixed with later games:
having to endure a loading screen to travel back to the nexus every
time one wants to level up, dump/upgrade items, travel to another
area
having to worry about running out of healing, every time you die is
≥1 grass wasted. i hardly use any > half moon grass until i have the
ring of regeneration
the item burden system is stupid, and feels like it's only jammed in
because every other rpg has one
valley of defilement sucks though
this section is solely about the ps3 original,
as the 2020 bluepoint remake is soul-less (heh), generic and
bland-looking
Dark Souls
shows that all these games proclaiming "fast-paced combat" oughtn't be
the crowning glory of the soulsborne series. the environment design is
almost on par with demon's souls; it's the only game i've ever played
that feels like the map was designed to be used by residents rather than
played as a game. in fact, everything about the game feels like it
doesn't give a shit if you play it or not
it fixes all of demon's souls' major flaws: the estus system refils
healing items every death; bonfires allow levelling, repairing equipment,
and upgrading weapons; and the item burden has been removed entirely
i almost don't have anything negative to say about it
blighttown sucks though
this section is primarily about the remastered version,
as that's the one i played,
but this applies to the vanilla version as they're practically the same
apart from performance issues
Dark Souls II
much more "fantastic" than des/ds1, with brighter colours than the
sickly green of des or the washed out grunge of ds1. unfortunately,
however i think means one loses the juxtaposition of the anor londo
reveal.
heide's tower of flame, for example, is just as pretty as anor londo,
but i don't think it feels the same as it's not in comparison to the
depths, blighttown, and then sen's fortress
the slowest game in the series i think? but that allows it to be the
hardest. rather than a pure test of reflexes, it's an actual test of
strategy, game knowledge, and other skills.
i don't like the parry mechanic though. unlike ds1, there's a startup
animation, which means that rather than parrying when the attack is
about to land, one has to parry as soon as the attack animation starts
so many optional bosses and alternative routes! don't want to fight the
bastard ruin sentinels? take a walk through a wall with a face! can't
be arsed with the singeing demon? just disable the flames and climb the
ladder!
don't want to fight any of the four main bosses? just, like, don't
bother!
i think they realised ds1's mistakes about the runback being too boring,
and tried to fix it. unfortunately it's not quite as good as des, as
they did so by making enemies have a longer aggro range and mist gates
have no i-frames rather than by pure
enemy placement and environment design, but it's still pretty good
the gutter sucks though
this section is primarily about the scholar of the first sin revision,
as i feel that is the definitive version (enemy placements are more
lore friendly, etc.),
but a lot of this applies to the vanilla version as well
Here be Dragons Negativity
i'm worried from might not make another good game. elden ring was a step
in the right direction, but it is so far from their hayday that it's
almost worth discounting. observe this graph:
bear in mind this was not the order in which i played them, this shape
started to form subconsciously in my head and it was not until elden ring
broke the trend that i noticed it. bloodborne is (as of
) the most recent game that i played, and it
perfectly fitted into its slot (between ds2 & ds3, but much closer to the
latter)
frankly it's shameful that the so called "b team" can do so much better
a job than the a team. maybe miyazaki is the problem?