From Software Dark Souls 3

[Odoryuk]

Father Gascoigne is a blood drunk wife beater, but he's a good boss.

 

[Silverfish]

It's an excellent boss

The hunter form is alright, but nothing special. The transformed version is just a big monster that lunges and flails his arms, one of the 97 featured in the game.

 

[Ryzer]

It's an excellent boss

The hunter form is alright, but nothing special. The transformed version is just a big monster that lunges and flails his arms, one of the 97 featured in the game.

Yeah like how ... a monster would behave under rabbies.
The hightlighting part of the monster form is the jumping attack, very unpredictable and punitive.

 

[Silverfish]

Yeah like how ... a monster would behave under rabbies.

Yeah, just like Cleric Beast, Blood-Starved Beast, Vicar Amelia, Moon Presence, Darkbeast Paarl, Amygdala, and more that I'm forgetting. People make fun of the Asylum Demon retreads from DS1, and with good reason, but at least one of them wasn't the final boss.

 

[cvv]

Demon's is more special to me, 2 and 3 have their improvements, but if pressed I'd have to say DS1 is the epitome of the series

If I had to nominate just one game for the All-Time Gaming Hall of Fame I'd vote for DeS.

But it's probably the rechargeable healing and especially the seamless world in DS1 that really dragged the series over the home stretch to the mainstream. And the rest is history.

 

[Skinwalker]

Git Gud. Filtered by Gascoigne, sad!

I powered through, but Gascoigne is a terrible boss.

These Elden Ring haters/trolls just keep proving themselves to be worthless imbeciles over and over again.

 

[Silverfish]

These Elden Ring haters

I think Elden Ring is disappointing, but overall okay.

 

[9ted6]

Just my take, but Bloodborne isn't a Dark Souls anymore than Shadow Tower is a King's Field game. From aren't the only developer who have ever made similar games that were not part of the same series or shared a universe. That's why I cringe at a lot of the "Soulsborne" or "Souls series" talk and they even throw Sekiro in there and try to judge it by the same standard, which is foolish. I loved Bloodborne but it's cadence should be its own and DS should have remained more 'methodical', heavy, slower, whatever you want to call it. There was no expectation for BB to play like DS1 or 2, at least there shouldn't have been, but I think it was fair for people to have an expectation for Dark Souls 3 to feel like other games named Dark Souls.

Anyway, I already criticized 3 in the 2 thread, so i will say just taken as a fantasy action game, DS3 is still better than 95% of the market, which I think even its detractors can agree with. You can look at it like Capcom beat 'em ups in the 90s: similar in many ways, but they got faster and more fluid as time went on. Some people prefer the constrained feel of Final Fight compared to The Punisher, and vice versa. Also From's art direction in 3 also mogs 95% of everyone else in fantasy, although I have some criticisms there too.

Problem is if they didn't play like what people expect Soulsborne to be they'd complain so we keep getting the same retread of the same ideas over and over again, and it's why at least from a general view all of From's games after DS1 blend together.

You make a silent blank slate character who appears in a strange world with NPCs spouting cryptic google translated exposition at you, you're then aided by a weird female NPC who spouts more cryptic exposition before you embark through a linear sequence of dungeons fighting enemies with rhythmic trial and error attack patterns, collecting specific meta weapons and advancing specific meta stats to defeat bosses with more complicated trial and error attack patterns and based on a handful of binary choices you get a handful of cryptic endings that don't amount to anything and then the game's over, go do PVP.

They play the same, they play out the same, they look the same and they feel the same from DS2 to ER and likely beyond, because From is the McDonald's of ARPG devs. Besides DES and DS1 only Sekiro came close to deviating from the formula.

 

[Odoryuk]

You make a silent blank slate character who appears in a strange world with NPCs spouting cryptic google translated exposition at you, you're then aided by a weird female NPC who spouts more cryptic exposition before you embark through a linear sequence of dungeons fighting enemies with rhythmic trial and error attack patterns, collecting specific meta weapons and advancing specific meta stats to defeat bosses with more complicated trial and error attack patterns and based on a handful of binary choices you get a handful of cryptic endings that don't amount to anything and then the game's over, go do PVP.

That's what I love in their games probably the most. You simplified it a lot, but it's one of the essence, the building base of every good FS game.

at least from a general view all of From's games after DS1 blend together.

Don't tell me Dark Souls doesn't blend with Demon's Souls a great deal, that's disingenuous.
Their games all can look similar and at first glance play similar, but they are all a different iteration of their formula, with tweaked parameters and slight changes that make each experience unique. They maybe all play the same, some of them even may look the same (and that's a good thing, because what Bloodborne brought to their games graphically and artistically is the best thing ever), but for sure they do feel different, and that's enough for their fanbase.

They play the same, they play out the same, they look the same and they feel the same from DS2 to ER and likely beyond, because From is the McDonald's of ARPG devs

In a world where there are additional payment options for premium priced games, where singleplayer games should be connected to internet in order to be played, where large companies try to pick up games as a service approach to their games, making minor updates over literal years in order to extract more money from them, FromSoftware just makes games that only they can and then move on a next game, without worrying if it will be similar to Dark Souls or not. They don't care if Sekiro sold well, they made the game and moved on. They won't make Elden Ring 2, they already moved on, their next game is probably in the early stage of production.

Besides DES and DS1 only Sekiro came close to deviating from the formula.

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls do not deviate from their formula in the slightest, there's only tweaks and adjustments here and there. Sekiro technically doesn't deviate either, because it is not built on their Soulsborne formula at all, it's a different game (checkpoints, respawnable enemies and bossfights doesn't make it the formula).

Spoiler

 

[Ryzer]

These Elden Ring haters

I think Elden Ring is disappointing, but overall okay.

That's because Elden Ring doesn't innovate at all. The combat system hasn't changed at all since Dark Souls 3.

 

[Odoryuk]

The combat system hasn't changed at all since Dark Souls 3.

Factually incorrect as there's now active jumping incorporated into the combat system, with additional attacks tied to it, and a new block counter attack. The emphasis on breaking your enemy's poise is also new (even though it came from Sekiro) and changes the way you interact with enemies severely (unless you're playing ER like DS3 and then wonder why it is so hard and why bosses are so difficult to deal with).

 

[cvv]

These Elden Ring haters

I think Elden Ring is disappointing, but overall okay.

That's because Elden Ring doesn't innovate at all. The combat system hasn't changed at all since Dark Souls 3.

Still remember how disappointed I was when it turned out that after all these years of waiting and hype ER is just DS3 blown up to an open world.

Ultimately I had good times with my first (and probably only) run, mainly because unlike DS3 the game is actually functional under the hood, but it's my second least favourite of FS games.

 

[Silva]

The emphasis on breaking your enemy's poise is also new

Nope. Bloodborne already had it.

 

[Silva]

Lady Yuria is Coolest bitch in Soulsdom.

CHANGE MY MIND.

 

[9ted6]

These Elden Ring haters

I think Elden Ring is disappointing, but overall okay.

That's because Elden Ring doesn't innovate at all. The combat system hasn't changed at all since Dark Souls 3.

Still remember how disappointed I was when it turned out that after all these years of waiting and hype ER is just DS3 blown up to an open world.

Ultimately I had good times with my first (and probably only) run, mainly because unlike DS3 the game is actually functional under the hood, but it's my second least favourite of FS games.

It's amazing how fast ER gave up on the open world gimmick despite that being its biggest advertisting and selling point. It was open world in the most basic sense in that it's a series of large maps with no level transitions but beyond that the open world may as well not exist.

The only thing exploration rewards you with are copypasted dungeons, a nice DS3 callback.