[Megathread] Dark Souls 3

[Djriff]

Out of all the Soulsborne bosses, in terms of presentation and the fight itself, Ludwig hands down. That fight gave me chills.

[Baconeggcheese]

Yeah I definitely liked the dialogue and was surprised by it. Kinda wish there was more.

[Djriff]

The first time that cutscene played mid fight, oh man. The boss after him as well (hunter chick) was a very very close second.

[WarpedAcorn]

The first time that cutscene played mid fight, oh man. The boss after him as well (hunter chick) was a very very close second.

Maria and Gasciogne are top tier for me and might be my favorite fights in the entire Soulsborne series.

My favorite bosses over all though, that goes to another toss up between Gaping Dragon and Sif.

In DS3 though, its either Abyss Watchers or Nameless King. Maybe a slight edge to Abyss Watchers.

[Djriff]

Maria, that's her name! I dislike Gasciogne just because how brutally difficult he was. Took me several tries to murder him. Granted I play souls games without using any weapon mods other than upgrades. No Resin, No Magic/Faith/Dark weapon, just plain old steel mettle.

Hmm across all the games?

DS1 - Sif hands down, felt horrible to do. However Moonlight Butterfly (iirc) is a close second. Beautiful Boss.
DS2 - Pursuer, I felt like I was fighting a gigantic version of Meta knight.
DS3 - I have to go with Abyss Watchers. Completely unique fight and the fact that they would attack each other was pretty awesome.
BB - Ludwig

Least Favorite?
DS1 - Tartus Demon (bridge one), was a very annoying fight if you didn't cheese it, and the camera was horrible there
DS2 - Nashandra, didn't realize you could stop the curse, so I hate this fight as melee.
DS3 - Toss up between Yhorm and Aldrich. Yhorm because it was a gimmick fight, Aldrich because of the RNG with those heavenly arrows and the broken poise in the game.
BB - Bloodstarved Beast, found the boss mostly annoying as anytime I would have an opening, even if I was right on top of it, I would miss and be left vulnerable. Could never get a "parry" on it either.

[dope_danny]

Yeah I definitely liked the dialogue and was surprised by it. Kinda wish there was more.

Its cool how you can lead seigward all the way to yhorm and you get a cutscene where its intimated they were once close friends and seigwards here to put him down.

You also see Yhorm doesnt have a black hole but a normal old man face in that chainmail hood, that surprised me. I assumed the holeface was just the giants darksign.

[Pull My Finger]

Too bad they used Yhorm for a cheap gimmick. That felt very anticlimatic. The whole Profaned Capital bit actually seems like an anomaly in there. Like the leftovers of something that was initially laid out as way more comphrehensive, but then cut during production.

Champion Gundyr is cool. Nothing fancy, just a good ol' gritty beating and for more inexperienced Souls players one of the tougher roadblocks. Nameless king is also one of my favorites.

I did notice though, once you really got this Souls thing in your DNA - the whole nature of the movement, the combat system, reading of the animations, and overall the whole mentality of the game ... things just stop really being difficult. DS3 isn't an easy game, or easier than the other two or whatever. But I was still able to burn through it more confidently than through any other Souls game. You just eventually really have it down pat.

That's normal I guess. And what I really love about the series is that you "only" become very, very good at it. But you never gimp the game. It never becomes a joke. You may not die often any more, but nonetheless, you're always "on". Because you can still fuck up very easily and get your ass handed to you in a second - the moment you stop respecting it, and playing it "properly".

[dope_danny]

Too bad they used Yhorm for a cheap gimmick. That felt very anticlimatic. The whole Profaned Capital bit actually seems like an anomaly in there. Like the leftovers of something that was initially laid out as way more comphrehensive, but then cut during production.

Champion Gundyr is cool. Nothing fancy, just a good ol' gritty beating and for more inexperienced Souls players one of the tougher roadblocks. Nameless king is also one of my favorites.

I did notice though, once you really got this Souls thing in your DNA - the whole nature of the movement, the combat system, reading of the animations, and overall the whole mentality of the game ... things just stop really being difficult. DS3 isn't an easy game, or easier than the other two or whatever. But I was still able to burn through it more confidently than through any other Souls game. You just eventually really have it down pat.

That's normal I guess. And what I really love about the series that you only become very, very good at it. But you never gimp the game. It never becomes a joke. You may not die often any more, but nonetheless, you're always "on". Because you can still fuck up very easily and get your ass handed to you in a second - the moment you stop respecting it, and playing it "properly".

Thats the thing. Dark Souls was never 'hard' it was just a big marketing push by bamco affectionately called nowadays "le hardest game mehmay". Its why you get a lot of dick swinging arseholes nowadays thinking its an ego contest. The souls games are just the old Casltevania on the NES style of design in a 3d enviroment. Heres a narrow bridge with a caster on the other end and a swinging trap in the middle and an unsurvivable fall on either side, figure out how to achieve progression. There is no recompense for dying. No game over. Souls not spent are souls you never really had so no point crying over losses, doors dont relock, items dont leave your inventory and enemies do not change or become harder. All you do is get better and stronger by watching and learning. Its trial and error the baseline casual and the tryhard egotist both scream as 'punishing difficulty' because they simply dont understand the design ethos behind the mechanics.

[Pull My Finger]

Thats the thing. Dark Souls was never 'hard' it was just a big marketing push by bamco affectionately called nowadays "le hardest game mehmay". Its why you get a lot of dick swinging arseholes nowadays thinking its an ego contest. The souls games are just the old Casltevania on the NES style of design in a 3d enviroment. Heres a narrow bridge with a caster on the other end and a swinging trap in the middle and an unsurvivable fall on either side, figure out how to achieve progression. There is no recompense for dying. No game over. Souls not spent are souls you never really had so no point crying over losses, doors dont relock, items dont leave your inventory and enemies do not change or become harder. All you do is get better and stronger by watching and learning. Its trial and error the baseline casual and the tryhard egotist both scream as 'punishing difficulty' because they simply dont understand the design ethos behind the mechanics.

I was never really into this whole "game real hard, huh?" talk around DS. Oh yeah, it's that badass game where you die all the time - so hardcore dude. So fuken hard. You gotta git gud man. I always thought that was bullshit. And most certainly not the "key" element or "selling point" of the game.

The difficulty was just an element of that certain sense of consequence that the game has. To me, the game was always much more about its incredible scope, the simple, yet super-emergent gameplay, the unique and enigmatic way it tells its story, and the ways it employs to keep the players always engaged, always "there" and in the moment, instead of sleepwalking through a perfectly orchestrated AAA slide show.

The Castlevania comparison is a very good one.

[dope_danny]

The Castlevania comparison is a very good one.

Dark Souls is just castlevania in a 3D zelda gameplay style. Thats why i love it, anyone screaming about "the hardest game EVAR" can take that shit back to twitch and "ten things you didnt know" youtube clickbait channels. They are fun games that dont treat you like an idiot. This makes them stand out and appear hard only because everything else nowadays tries to be "AAA" interactive movie garbage by and large. It didnt do anything more special than take castlevania and zelda and go "hey you got chocolate in my peanut butter.

[Baconeggcheese]

Too bad they used Yhorm for a cheap gimmick. That felt very anticlimatic.

Frankly that was most of the bosses in the game.

[everydaygamer]

Frankly that was most of the bosses in the game.

Yep this game probably had the most gimmicky bosses in the series.

[Remilia]

Yep this game probably had the most gimmicky bosses in the series.

You should look at Demon's Souls then.

[barackopala]

Yeah, DeS was extremely gimmicky compared to ds3

[Berethos08]

Frankly that was most of the bosses in the game.

Anticlimactic? Or gimmicky?

Few actually have gimmicks - it's largely avoid attacks, hit when there's an opening, deal with specific boss mechanics.

Fights like Yhorm, where it's designed that you use a mechanic entirely unique to that fight and that fight alone within the game (which is itself a callback to Storm King in DeS), aren't common across the series in general. Only other standout like that to me in this game is the dragon you face in Arch Dragon Peak, where you're meant to work your way around and do a plunging attack to one shot it. DeS had both the Storm King fight with the weapon use specific to that area, as well as the Dragon God where you had to make your way to the ballistae and fire chains into it to pin it down so you could take it out. Dark Souls had one that you could fight normally, or get it to follow you across it's area until it basically falls off and you can smack it off with one hit (Ceaseless Discharge), as well as another where you had to mostly not fight the creature itself, instead trying to hit specific things near it, then dodge into the center area of it to one hit the actual creature (Bed of Chaos).

As for anticlimactic, to each their own.

[Remilia]

Demon's Souls really has a lot of unique to only one boss mechanic. Not a bad thing imo, makes em unique. Some lack the usual swing set, gap closer and stuff.
Storm King, sting ray clusterfuck with Storm Ruler
Dragon God. Hide behind walls and run to the end with ballistas cause reasons.
Old Monk. Only boss that can get a player summoned as the boss. Aka you fight a player as the boss if they place a red sign next to it.
Fool's Idol. Kill a derp at the top otherwise you don't win, kind of odd.
Old Hero: Blind guy, thief ring or walk / hit and run.
Phalanx: Blobs and a core. Kill blobs and the core is effectively a useless blob.
Maiden Astraea: You kill either the Garl Vinland or her.
and stuff I can't remember about the other ones.

Your more traditional swing sets and gap closers and stuff bosses would more or less be the Maneater, Penetrator, King Allant and Flame Lurker.

[Baconeggcheese]

Anticlimactic? Or gimmicky?

Well a mix of both, I don't mind gimmicks in and of themselves if done well, but a lot of fights focused on the gimmick and didn't have a whole lot of fight.

Deacons was pure gimmick but really anticlimactic as you just threw yourself at the soul mob and won.

High lord wolnir was a huge gimmick trying to get the giant skeleton in there, then there's not much meat to the fight itself it was more just about having a giant skeleton.

Curse rotted greatwood was similar, but more engaging than high lord wolnir. Here's this giant thing, go beat on its lil parts.

soul of cinder had the whole weapon switching thing but the fight itself was easy.

Pontiff was actually the toughest fight for me in the game, until I got to the part where he whipped out his clone gimmick and then the fight fell over.

Wyvern was wyvern.

Sage was more anticlimactic than gimmick I guess? They tried to push all the fancy crystal magic + teleporting but in the end you just bum rush him and spam left click and he falls over. Aldrich was more this kind of fight done right than sage was.

[Poppincaps]

Well a mix of both, I don't mind gimmicks in and of themselves if done well, but a lot of fights focused on the gimmick and didn't have a whole lot of fight.

Deacons was pure gimmick but really anticlimactic as you just threw yourself at the soul mob and won.

High lord wolnir was a huge gimmick trying to get the giant skeleton in there, then there's not much meat to the fight itself it was more just about having a giant skeleton.

Curse rotted greatwood was similar, but more engaging than high lord wolnir. Here's this giant thing, go beat on its lil parts.

soul of cinder had the whole weapon switching thing but the fight itself was easy.

Pontiff was actually the toughest fight for me in the game, until I got to the part where he whipped out his clone gimmick and then the fight fell over.

Wyvern was wyvern.

Sage was more anticlimactic than gimmick I guess? They tried to push all the fancy crystal magic + teleporting but in the end you just bum rush him and spam left click and he falls over. Aldrich was more this kind of fight done right than sage was.

When people refer to gimmick fights in the Souls series they generally refer to bosses that only have one way to beat them or specific ways to beat them. Soul of Cinder, Sage, and Pontiff aren't gimmick fights.

[Verdugo]

High lord wolnir was a huge gimmick trying to get the giant skeleton in there, then there's not much meat to the fight itself it was more just about having a giant skeleton.

Well, duh...

[dope_danny]

Demon's Souls really has a lot of unique to only one boss mechanic. Not a bad thing imo, makes em unique. Some lack the usual swing set, gap closer and stuff.
Storm King, sting ray clusterfuck with Storm Ruler
Dragon God. Hide behind walls and run to the end with ballistas cause reasons.
Old Monk. Only boss that can get a player summoned as the boss. Aka you fight a player as the boss if they place a red sign next to it.
Fool's Idol. Kill a derp at the top otherwise you don't win, kind of odd.
Old Hero: Blind guy, thief ring or walk / hit and run.
Phalanx: Blobs and a core. Kill blobs and the core is effectively a useless blob.
Maiden Astraea: You kill either the Garl Vinland or her.
and stuff I can't remember about the other ones.

Your more traditional swing sets and gap closers and stuff bosses would more or less be the Maneater, Penetrator, King Allant and Flame Lurker.

I find Demons Bosses are easier, but thematically much more interesting. Take Phalanx, one of the Boletarian knights famous for cowardice and throwing their subordinates on their enemies spears to spare themselves, when they become a demon the transformation -like all the rest- reflects their nature in life and they become a completely ineffectual blob that attracts or possibly spawns smaller pawns to act as a shield. With the shield removed all it can do is back away in fear and has no attacks.
Sadly almost all Dark Souls bosses tend to just be "demon that just happens to cross paths with you" or "exists to block a path to your current target/maguffin of choice" and that works because videogames right? but the result over time has been bosses that are less "heres the story" and more "but...perhaps [sad piano.wav] you can hear my head canon if you support my welfa- i mean patreon" to fill in gaps that in most cases are simply "we need something for the player to fight here"