Dark Souls Discussion - Spoilers

Welcome back to another TA Playlist month. Use this thread to speak freely about and assume anything goes in here.

Going for all achievements after all when I first found out it would be the game this month I thought nah way to much to do to get 100% but started playing last week to get a bit of a head start and Ive almost finished one playthrough and ng+ and ng++ will go by so much quicker just need to farm on the first playthrough to get all the items I need then I can concentrate on killin bosses!

Going back after playing Souls 2 and 3, the graphics look a little bit muddy, I hope they release a remaster in the future. At least the performance is a little better on xbox one backwards compat.

Damnit, lost my save from my old tag. Was planning to drop all the weapons. Dunno if I can be bothered to do it all again.

Many people, even those that unlock 100% of the trophies and achievements, say that they have played through Dark Souls without understanding the story. The plot of Dark Souls is very different from the narrative in most RPGs we are accustomed to. We don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Instead, we must infer the plot through a process of discovery as we journey through the Dark Souls world.

We have already seen one TA Playlist game with a complicated plot. In Alan Wake, a writer tries to solve the mystery of his wife's disappearance. He is hampered by blackouts and the intrusion of his fictional writings on present day reality. While chasing down leads, we find out that there is a strange back story to the town of Bright Falls where the disappearance occurs.

We can view the story of Alan Wake as Alan pursuing his missing wife while battling real and super natural foes intertwined with complex back stories related to the Anderson brothers and Thomas Zane. The back stories may be complex but we understand the basic story in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Alan Wake goes to Bright Falls on vacation. His wife disappears as he is returning to the cabin. He follows the leads to chase after her. In the end, Alan rescues Alice but we are uncertain about his fate.

In Dark Souls, to use comparisons to Alan Wake, almost all of the story is told in back story mode. The plot is revealed in bits and pieces. Because of this, it is subject to interpretation and it is unlikely that any two players will agree on the game's plot.

I had originally intended to present the Dark Souls plot with a brief introduction on the game's rhetorical strategy. Instead, I'll let this post stand on its merits and provide a plot synopsis in a separate post.

I think this quick breakdown of the dark souls lore is pretty good considering it's just over a minute long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uItoZfcK524

Dark Souls plot synopsis:

As I said in my earlier post, Dark Souls employs a rhetorical strategy very different from the conventional narratives we are accustomed to with beginning, middle, and end. I said it was unlikely that any two players would agree on the game's plot. So, feel free to present complementary or conflicting views on the following synopsis. Note that this is a basic framework. It glosses over the wealth of activity that must be undertaken in order to arrive at one of the two game endings:

There are three ages:

Age of the Ancients: In the beginning, the world of Dark Souls is inhabited by powerful entities—dragons and archtrees. These can be viewed as primordial forces of nature.

Age of Fire: The primordial darkness is broken by the appearance of fire at the Kiln of the First Flame. From this mystical fire emerge four Lord Souls—Nito (Death), the Witch of Izalith (Life), Gwyn (Lightning), and the Furtive Pygmy (Dark Soul that he fragments and installs a fragment in each of the newly created humans).

The Lord Souls battle and defeat almost all the dragons helped by a scaleless, mortal dragon. This can be viewed as a struggle to tame nature bringing about an age of prosperous civilization. Lord Gwyn rules this age of prosperity.

Present Day—Ushering in the Age of Dark: About a thousand years before the beginning of the game, the mystical fires begin to fade. Prosperous times are at an end as civilization decays. Demons appear in great numbers and humans, suffering through cycles of death & rebirth, begin to lose their souls. A soulless human turns into an insane being called a hollow.

You, as the game’s protagonist, are imprisoned in the Undead Asylum. A knight, Oscar, provides you with the key to escape. He says he is about to become a hollow and will lose his mind. So, he bequeaths his quest to you—that of the Chosen Undead.

You use Oscar’s key to unlock your ‘cell’ and defeat the Asylum Demon to make good your escape. Once free, a giant bird flies you to the Firelink Shrine in Lordran, the Land of the Ancient Lords.
You embark upon the quest of the Chosen Undead. You have an important choice to make that will lead to one of two possible endings:

1. Comply with the serpent Frampt’s request regarding an artifact called the Lord Vessel: You undertake a sequence of activities in order to gain access to Gwyn’s resting place. There, you defeat the Witch of Izalith, Gravelord Nito, the Four Kings, and the Scaleless Dragon. You place the souls of the vanquished in an arifact called the Lordvessel. When filled, this opens up the way to the Kiln of the First Flame. There you confront and defeat Gwyn and sacrifice yourself to prolong the Age of Fire.

2. Reject Frampt’s request regarding the Lord Vessel: If you do not place the Lord Vessel as Frampt asks, you go on to meet another serpent (Darkstalker Kaathe) in the Abyss. He tells you about the Furtive Pygmy. Kaathe says the Furtive Pygmy intended the Chosen Undead to inherit the power of the Dark Soul and become the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord will then usher in the Age of the Dark as its ruler.

vSully said:That is pretty good. You also make a very appropriate reference to 'dark souls lore.' Insofar as Dark Souls is not presented as a regular narrative, the players must piece together the story from 'lore' they pick up during their travels and activities.

I suck at this game, so I'm posting to get participation for the badge. Don't mind me!

Slayers Reign said: You bring shame upon the Awoo feed

Slayers Reign said:A kindly reminder that the site rules say, "Keep it productive."

There is no shame in not being good at Dark Souls. You could have said what aspects gave you problems. Then, you would have had a productive post that would have earned you participation.

Many games spoon feed the players so there is no challenge. Most RPGs allow you to grind to the point where you can saunter through the game cutting down enemies like swatting flies. Dark Souls is not one of them. When FromSoftware released King's Field, the precursor to Dark Souls, for the PS1 during the month of its Japanese launch, they said players should expect to die often. Every game in the King's Field and Souls series since then and continuing in Bloodborne has had this same feature.

The bottom line is you may not suck at this game. You may simply be doing what the developers want you to do--die often. It's part of the game playing experience. Though you may die often, eventually you will progress and reach one of the game's endings.

What I liked most about Dark Souls are all the Oh shit! and Wow! moments. Like when the Asylum Demon drops down, the first time you find a mimic, or when you first see Anor Londo.

Also, the satisfaction of beating most of the bosses. After multiple attempt, yelling YES! after delivering the fatal blow to Smough with half a life bar and no Estus flasks left. I can' remember another game that rewarding.

I truly hope this game gets an xbox one remaster one day. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

If I could make one recommendation to new players it would be this; learn to parry. you WILL die a lot while you figure out the timings, but once you're able to pull it off consistently it's by far the most satisfying way to play (in my opinion at least). The best way to do it is to equip a small shield as they parry faster, and hit LT as the enemies hand hits you. Ignore their weapon, it's all about the hand. Everyone is different, but I found the game much more rewarding as a dodging / parrying rogue than I did as a huge tanky knight. When you reach the final boss you will thank me. He can be brutal with some builds, but if you can parry consistently the guy is a joke.

For anyone looking to run the game for achievements as easily as possible; here's an incredibly OP build.

Strength - 16
Endurance - Level evenly with vit, after all other attributes are correct, dump all remaining souls here.
Vitality - 20
Dexterity - 40
Intelligence - 40
Attunement - 16

Farm the cathedral knights under the gargoyles for Balder Shield and Balder Side Sword. Swap to Black Knight Shield when one drops.

For spells you want:
Crystal Magic Weapon
Homing Crystal Mass
Crystal Soul Spear
Power Within
Repair
Remedy

Rings - Ring of Favour, Lingering Dragoncrest.

Personally I would swap the weapon and use Great Scythe instead. It's the most powerful dex weapon in the game, and can be acquired immediately by speed running the first part of the catacombs. This however will not be an easy feat for new players. There should be videos on youtube that show you exactly how to do it.

This build won't make your first playthrough much easier, but NG+ and NG++ will be an absolute cakewalk. Every time you arrive at a boss, cast your homing mass, power within and crystal magic weapon. Go to town on them until your buffs run out and then roll away and spam crystal soul spear until they die. That's it. You want Dark Souls easy mode, this is the build for it.

Not really my type of game, so I'll have to pass this month. That said, I tried the game on a dummy tag when it was free through GwG. It was interesting to see how the game wasn't as brutally difficult as I expected, just that the minimum level of proficiency required was much higher than other games. For example, Assassin's Creed games (and many others) aren't difficult at all because players can limp through the campaign making mistake after mistake. However, DS is different in that you have to get a decent grasp on the combat and other systems just to keep going.

Everyone who is starting fresh, have fun dying!

Slayers Reign said:Next person to do this is getting their post deleted. Contribution with why you don't want to play is fine. A spam post just to increase a badge is not.

This playlist is really getting me into playing Dark souls again. I am currently in Anor Londo, right before Ornstein and Smaug. After hearing all of the stories about these guys, I am quite scared to start playing

Anybody have any tips for the gargoyles?

SpiralGamerpro said:Summon Solaire and Lautrec from right before the fog door.

For once I wish I hadn't already completed this game!

Can't wait to dive back into the world of Dark Souls. This month's play list gives me the perfect excuse to try out a pyro build and see how I will fare against Ornstein and Smough with that