Dark Souls {PS3 / Xbox 360}

[Sir. Triumph]

**UPDATE: Trailers and links at the bottom!**
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Ladies and Gentlemen... Prepare to die.

For those of you who don't know, Dark Souls is the follow up to 2009's cult success Demon's Souls, which was (and is) an action RPG awarded Game of the Year by Gamestop, among many others awards of recognition in 2009. Developed by From Software, the follow up is titled 'Dark Souls' and offers many of the same elements the first game did; in fact, many claim that the two games (as far as design) are identical, which in this case is NOT a bad thing.

I'm creating this thread to broadcast this fantastic game to all of you who spend time on this forum, like myself. I'm counting down the days until this game is released in my sleep. Trust me, you don't want to miss this one. It has far too much potential to be overlooked, and it's also being released on Xbox 360 as well as PlayStation 3, which opens for an already much wider audience (Demon's Souls was a PS3 exclusive).

Dark Souls releases on September 22nd in Japan, October 4th in North America, and October 7th in Europe. The game is being published by From Software in Japan, and by Namco Bandai elsewhere.

The 'catch phrase' for this game, as stated previously, is "Prepare to die". This game is going to be a challenge for you casual gamers out there, but I still encourage you to give it a shot. Online interaction is a huge part of this game, so the more people who get the word and pick it up to try it out, the more the server will be populated (which is a good thing).

I'm posting this thread from my phone, so I'll keep it to an introduction for now, but later I will return to post more information on the game for those of you who would like to know more without searching elsewhere (although a simple Google search will bring up plenty of relevant results). Personally, Demon's Souls was one of my favorite games to date, so I absolutely cannot wait for this one to roll out. Rememberthose release dates, guys, and pick it up when you can - but be ready to die, because this game is not going to be as forgiving as many of the other similar RPGs out today.

If you already follow this game, feel free to post reviews (links) or videos about it, or just your overall expectations for the game and your opinion on it. I will return to elaborate on mine, but until then, DISCUSS.

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Dark Souls Trailers (Youtube):
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The Debut Trailer (somewhat old):
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7U-a9pJtHQ ]

Action Trailer (shows more fighting, and some of the bosses you'll encounter):
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckB6nZ13Jsc ]

The E3 Trailer (reveals some brief storyline, and shows more encounters):
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xp6Y...eature=related ]

The Marketing Trailer (doesn't really represent the atmosphere of the game, more of a commercial trailer):
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93LFz_j5fQA ] "Prepare to Die"

The Prologue Series (reveals the lore of Dark Souls):
PART 1 [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be-lPrtZoO8 ]
PART 2 [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2hF6...feature=relmfu ]
PART 3 [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041Lg...feature=pinned ]
***
FULL PROLOGUE [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmEqpgg3B4 ]

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Previews and Reviews:
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Hands-On Preview/Review (Not a video):
[ http://www.psu.com/Dark-Souls-hands-...a012815-p0.php ]

"Why Dark Souls could win Game of the Year 2011" article:
[ http://www.psu.com/Why-Dark-Souls-Co...a010928-p0.php ]

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Dark Souls Sites:
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--Prepare To Die Site: [ http://preparetodie.com/en/ ]

--DARK SOULS (Official Site): [ http://www.fromsoftware.jp/darksouls/ ]

[Elite Peon]

Am I the only one who didnt like demon souls ?? I played it and was like wtf ??...I did'nt get the hype at all .

[hawtlol]

Loved Demon Souls, pre-ordered Dark Souls right away. Can't wait for this game to come out so I will have something fun to play.

[Tomaros]

Demon's souls was such an amazing game, it didn't spoon feed you anything. it gave you a story, the problem, and where you can go. the rest of the things you had to figure out on your own. So great...

[Sir. Triumph]

Loved Demon Souls, pre-ordered Dark Souls right away. Can't wait for this game to come out so I will have something fun to play.

I did the same. Especially since the Collector's Edition is the same price as the game alone (but only if you preorder it!). That's another detail I should have mentioned -although those new to these 'Souls' games probably wouldn't be too interested. Still a great deal. I cannot wait.

[Thaz]

Am I the only one who didnt like demon souls ?? I played it and was like wtf ??...I did'nt get the hype at all .

I'm pretty sure you couldn't get past Phalanx and gave up.

[Khathrok]

I gave up caring about Dark Souls when it was announced to be released Multiplatform.

As much fun as i had with Demon's souls.

[Resentful]

Am I the only one who didnt like demon souls ?? I played it and was like wtf ??...I did'nt get the hype at all .

Did you play through it all? Because quite simply the thing that frustrates people within the game is the difficulty and that's the truth out there. It's a wonderful and flawless game if you know what your doing.

[Mechazod]

I loved Demon Souls and the fact that Dark Souls is going to be a huge open world makes me drool. The only two things I am really hoping for are:
-The ability to turn off PvP attacks if you are playing it online
-the ability to play co-op with a friend and not just some random player

If FromSoftware can deliver those two things I will be very satisfied.

[Deleted]

I liked playing Demon Souls, never finished it tho since I ran out of patience.
The game overall feels "skill-less" it's more or less a really long grind, if you have the patience of finding a good spot to take on your enemies (Moving forward, hitting them one or two times, backing up so their attack misses, walking forward hitting some and then rince and repeat) then it's worth the bucks, but unfortunately not really my style of play.

Challenging game tho. But it's not because the AI is good, it's because they hit so damn hard.

[Deleted]

I still have to finish Demon's souls first. I got really annoyed in a certain level though. It's basically a big swamp, suuuuuuuper dark, no idea which way I have to go, and suddenly I get my ass kicked by big trolls.

[Resentful]

I liked playing Demon Souls, never finished it tho since I ran out of patience.
The game overall feels "skill-less" it's more or less a really long grind, if you have the patience of finding a good spot to take on your enemies (Moving forward, hitting them one or two times, backing up so their attack misses, walking forward hitting some and then rince and repeat) then it's worth the bucks, but unfortunately not really my style of play.

Challenging game tho. But it's not because the AI is good, it's because they hit so damn hard.

It took me 20+ tries on the flame lurker if you remember him =( He wasn't very fun and I cried in tears

[Thelms]

I found Demon Souls easy after I figured out how to actually play it properly.

First 5-10minutes was aids. But I figured it out. I got till like NG+8 before I got bored of replaying it over and over.

Then I just rerolled new characters and PvP'd at SL120-130 and got a few thousand invasions on people over about 4-5 months of playing, just invading and 1-2 shotting them with the Dragonbone Smasher +5 SL 130 pvp build.

It's actually quite an easy game once you get the handle of it....I can run through the game naked holding the worst weapon and still beat it quite easily. ITS ALL TACTICS. When you finally realise the tactics are actually pretty similar each time, it gets super easy.

[Mechazod]

It took me 20+ tries on the flame lurker if you remember him =( He wasn't very fun and I cried in tears

The only boss I had to ever fight more then two times was freaking Maneater. Get him to half way then all of the freaking sudden a second one pops out of nowhere and they proceed to gang bang me.

It's actually quite an easy game once you get the handle of it....I can run through the game naked holding the worst weapon and still beat it quite easily. ITS ALL TACTICS. When you finally realise the tactics are actually pretty similar each time, it gets super easy.

Very true. That is possibly one of the main faults with the game. The AI of enemies can be easily learned and taken advantage of. Luring enemies to fall off high spots or getting them stuck or running to areas where powerful enemies cant reach you and then keep doing hit and run tactics on them. Once you can find a good spot to grind some souls and can buy a good supply of healing items then the game becomes much much easier.

[Thaz]

The only boss I had to ever fight more then two times was freaking Maneater. Get him to half way then all of the freaking sudden a second one pops out of nowhere and they proceed to gang bang me.

I bugged both the Maneaters and Flamelurker, could just stand at a specific spot where flamelurker would bug out and you could hit him with arrows/magic.
You can also shoot the first Maneater from outside the fog till he dies. It's not something I'm proud of but dying to those bosses over and over again and getting weaker each attempt just destroyed my moral.

Oddly, I one shot the old king without having to use things like Firestorm. It was the only fight I actually enjoyed and where reaction speed mattered most.

[Mechazod]

I bugged both the Maneaters and Flamelurker, could just stand at a specific spot where flamelurker would bug out and you could hit him with arrows/magic.
You can also shoot the first Maneater from outside the fog till he dies. It's not something I'm proud of but dying to those bosses over and over again and getting weaker each attempt just destroyed my moral.

Oddly, I one shot the old king without having to use things like Firestorm. It was the only fight I actually enjoyed and where reaction speed mattered most.

Oh wow the amount of times I spent wiping on Maneater and that sounds so much easier. Only "boss" I was ever able to use that keep shooting tactic on was one of those dragons in the second part of Boletaria Castle. Took forever since I picked barbarian.

I also ended up making the game slightly harder for myself by accident when I first started playing. I killed all of the NPCs in the Nexus including the bank character and the first blacksmith thinking they would re spawn. I then had to deal with the more powerful one standing in front of the Boletaria archway who I had attacked. Every time I would leave or try to enter it I would have to deal with avoiding him till I was finally strong enough to kill him.

[Thaz]

Haha, thats crazy. Picking both Barbarian and killing the NPC's, you must be some masochist.

Never bothered killing the dragons myself, I assume you just shot the one that flew over the walkways?
Tried killing the one in the last part of Boletaria, where Bjorr helps you or well tries to help you. Ran out of arrows at some point and gave up.

OT: Will we be reintroduced to tendency's again, I personally found it extremely frustrating to deal with constant shifting world tendencies and never being able to get the world in the tendency I wanted, thus making it impossible for me to obtain certain rewards.

For example, I started a new character and cleaned up 1-1, having not died once I suddenly gained acces to Pure White in Boletaria and entered the place where the excecution ran about. Funny enough the character was a sorcerer so it had no use at all for the items obtained there. Whilst my other character who could use those items was never able to get to pure white.

[Mechazod]

Haha, thats crazy. Picking both Barbarian and killing the NPC's, you must be some masochist.

Never bothered killing the dragons myself, I assume you just shot the one that flew over the walkways?
Tried killing the one in the last part of Boletaria, where Bjorr helps you or well tries to help you. Ran out of arrows at some point and gave up.

OT: Will we be reintroduced to tendency's again, I personally found it extremely frustrating to deal with constant shifting world tendencies and never being able to get the world in the tendency I wanted, thus making it impossible for me to obtain certain rewards.

For example, I started a new character and cleaned up 1-1, having not died once I suddenly gained acces to Pure White in Boletaria and entered the place where the excecution ran about. Funny enough the character was a sorcerer so it had no use at all for the items obtained there. Whilst my other character who could use those items was never able to get to pure white.

Yeah I pretty much just stood there on the top of the one ramparts for 10 minuets shooting weak arrows and using throwing knives on it till it went down.

And yeah world tendency screwed me over in one part of progressing through the game. I got most of both light and dark events on my first playt hrough but by far the hardest part in the game for me was the second part of whatever that island place was called. It was the part with those god damn re spawning laser shooting shadow ass holes and the grim reapers that would summon them. That was the one part of the game that frustrated me. I died the most times in that one level then I did anywhere else in the game or against any boss. I was stuck in dark tendency so it made of course everything even harder trying to progress through it until by pure luck I found one of those secret passages that you need to hit on a certain part of a wall to make appear and it just happened to be the spot where a primordial demon was so i was able to kill it and push my tendency back to white and finally clear that damn stage.

[Thaz]

Ye I remember that one, such a horrible level. I ended up just running through it all naked avoiding all the laser beam guys. The boss at the end was a complete push over though..

[Sir. Triumph]

For those of you who were waiting, I just posted the update to the OP.

Mostly general information, but definitely enough to get one excited.

I may be posting more in the future. Please feel free to post reviews/other information you've come across if you're a fan!

Thanks.