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I just defeated Dark Souls +DLC for the first time AMA! (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/soulslike@lemmy.zip
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My first Fromsoft game I ever completed and only the second souls like I ever played. My emotions are all over the place.

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[–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I played DS2: SotFS a couple years after DS1, got my butt kicked very hard (as expected) but didn't find it as bad as people said it was. I did think that DS1's level design was better though (esp. the way areas are connected), but it still had a bunch of cool areas and interesting encounters. It's been a couple years since DS2, and I'm currently playing DS3 for the first time now and, yeah, everything up to AW was surprisingly easy compared to what I expected... The area past that gave me some issues, but I made it to HLW. After backtracking a bit, I figured out I'd missed CS and consequently the entire CotD area which I was probably supposed to find first...

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    I think DS1's level design is overrated within context. Don't crucify me people, it's still brilliant, but hear me out.

    What makes DS1's level design so spectacular is how intimate it is. It's deeply layered because the areas are all largely, physically stacked on top of each other due to the lore implications. This creates such tight narrative and worldbuilding it is hands down AMAZING. But you can kind of really only do that once without too closely retreading a lot of the same narrative beats and I'd honestly argue that if people thought about it a bit more, they'd realize that's not really what they want.

    Now, CotD on the other hand is some of my favorite level design in any videogame ever. It's the DS1 level design but packed into a singular area because it's absolutely huge, but always wraps back around to that central bonfire somehow. Not to mention just the layout itself.

    SPOILERS The way you approach through the forest and then the graveyard, one of the rare places to use infinite enemy spawns. The lighting, then up across the rooftops to open the doors and discover the weird surprise inside. Worming your way back down and then across the rafters! And while Deacons may not be the most spectacular or difficult fight in the series, the vibes are amazing and that arena has such an aura to it. SPOILERS

    I'm not sure how common an opinion it is with the franchise, but I fucking love CotD. Amazing, amazing, amazing!

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