I do have to wonder a bit here after seeing so many essays on Souls... Why do the video essayists harp so much on people who do have the time, put in the time, or just have some talent at beating stuff like Sekiro or other From games? Like I get the idea of liking a nice and slow methodical playstyle but whinging about "tryhards" to make your point about how the current from games suck feels like a lame duck. I felt this way watching Noah Cadwell's Sekiro video and heck, its the same sort of energy here. As much as I hate the gitgud argument ad nauseam, I don't know if it's really fair to rag on the people who well, actually got good and adapted with the times and write them off as turbo coffee jockey tryhards or whatever while making the point about the good ol slow days. That's my impression with this vid anyways. As for Miyazaki, the guy directed AC4, one of the faster playing Armored Cores so the seed for faster nutty gameplay was always there somewhere and I guess it sprouted Bost bloodborne.

Interesting that your complaint about the ring slots in DS1 is very improved in Elden Ring, where you can have vastly different talisman loadouts based on the type of build you’re going for.

You can always tell a true David Lynch fan, because they will always say David Lynch quotes in David Lynch’s voice.

To me I would liken it to Resident Evil. Bloodborne is the Resident Evil 4 of the bunch, and it then kinda tainted the later games into becoming more action oriented. I prefered them when they were slower and felt more deliberate.

the take on bloodborne being unga unga bc it’s hyper aggressive is dogshit just think faster lol

1:11:50 I'm obsessed over stuff like that. It started when I wondered about a broken bridge in Fable 1 or reading a book about The Other Lands in the same game, where a bunch of villagers stumbled upon an island of savages. It's the little stuff.

git gud, but also ayy

Skill issue

52:47 For Honor mentioned

"...but more importantly, it feels great to gripe about this stuff." - Plague Amen, brother

I enjoyed my time with Dark Souls 1, but I do get the feeling that if this game wasn’t marketed as the ball-bustingly difficult game it was, it would end as shovelware right next to chicken shoot on the Wii

Although I don’t agree with all your points, I love the ideas for your ideal Souls game starting at 1:03:35. I’m ready for From to do a “gameplay reset” and go back to the original ethos of their game design

Anyway

You just put into words every reason why I didn't enjoy exploring in Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom like I did in previous games.

Ohhh, gripe! Hows it feeeeeeeeellll?? To be forever a goat?

There's a moment during (I believe your first) Dark Souls 1 LP where you go over all the options for what to do next once you get to Andre's bonfire, and not only does that part of the game really excite me on every playthrough I've done, but it helped contextualize what I disliked the most while playing Dark Souls 3. In Elden Ring, my brain did not compel me to "mow the lawn", nor did it compel me to skip content. It really embodied that fulfilling aspect of "what do I feel like doing now?" that I got from Andre's bonfire, but at all times.

Comments are really upset talking about Plague being butthurt over the shield description in BB being a dig at past players stating that, instead it’s trying to point players to a new style of play. That’s right. By making a cheap shot at past play styles. Plague is discussing and analyzing the meta-text at play within a series of games that are intrinsically tied together and people are out here like “nuh-uh, the game exists in a vacuum bro, I cAn SeE wHy HiS nAmE iS GRIPES”.

A fantastic video like always. The only spot I reacted to differently is the bloodborne shield. Reading the weapon description made me laugh. Like the devs knew I'd ask for a shield and provided one for me. Only for the monkey's paw to curl. I consider it a joke only a friend could say. Something almost mean, but said with a shit eating grin. Humor that can only be achieved through trust and time God, I'm glad you make these videos. Something about em always excites me. I'm a critical asshole and I think you're doing a stellar job.

Game sux it's over time to cry

Lots of people in the comments proving plague's point that different people get different things out of these games, but i think a lot of them are missing that this is what plague finds value in in the souls franchise and dark souls 1 in particular, not you, not the majority of players. I find myself liking being told what to do, liking checklist in games. I play survival minecraft, even though i will admit it gets annoying and overly grindy. but i generally like grinding and searching for items to complete a build. so plague's disdain for not having all resources given to him is what i find most disagreeable. it feels rewarding to work for something. it is 'work' in a way, but low stakes no deadline, easy to do work that can give you a small feeling of accomplishment. DS1 is my favorite of the franchise, followed by demon souls, and exploration and interconnected world design are what i most enjoy. That and creating builds using specialized equipment and crafting a character that fights in a unique way. I don't hate the action oriented gameplay, i like that too but not nearly as much. bloodborne and ds3 are a bit distasteful to me because they go overboard with the spastic monsters and dodging being the only solution. i didn't even bother finishing sekiro because it was all that. I remember watching an interesting video by feeble king about ds2 being better before sotfs, where they focused harder on that marketing scheme and wanted to make it 'harder'. 'prepare to die!!!!1' and added alot more enemy ganks and trolls. having played both versions of ds2 i definitely feel that. I think plague makes a great point on miyazaki's future entries narrowing down on one type of gameplay, i-frames, rolling, and boss fights. i also prefer ds1 where the level and resource management was the main focus not a boss. I also agree with plague about open world games being frustrating for me, and the OCD urge to just 'mow the lawn' and the giant empty parking lot just feeling like a damn chore. i want metroidvania/classic zelda design. not open world and not linear. despite these i do like elden ring because there is a lot great about it still. same goes with most souls games i suppose. Lots of people are saying plague went too far with his overanalysis of miyazaki's personality and design choices. from the interviews i've seen it does seem miyazaki does not often play his games and does delight in making areas painful or trolly. either way it isn't super relevant, but could be telling of the design elements we see as the games release. he's the director after all. Lots of people also saying he is being contradictory in showing ds1 has limitations on build changing and customization while saying its about 'approaching problems in different ways'. and he simultaneously is being hypocritical by saying elden ring is limited in approach while having very customizable builds and many OP builds of different categories. I think plague is more perhaps talking about not build design when it comes to limitations in encounter, but enemy design. how every single boss in bloodborne forward is a spastic monster where you *have* to roll roll roll for 5 seconds and then get your attack opportunity. always about pattern memorization. not reaction, not gimmicks nor puzzles, not meant to be approached in a different way. regardless of your build or damage type, your suppose to dodge for a long sequence and then attack, rinse and repeat. I will compliment elden ring for finally making tank builds viable and buffing shield though, i think its a step in the right direction. so is allowing you to respec and equip ashes of war on different weapons and switch their affinities on the fly. all really good stuff. elden ring also has excellent world design inside the legacy dungeon, even if its a shitty open world on the outside. I suppose that summarizes my thoughts. I am really happy to see an interesting take on the souls series finally, and one similar to mine. good vid.

Elden Ring did lose part of the Adventure feel DS1 had, for the record I've put 470 hours into the game pre-expansion. It's one thing to explore an enclosed world with something to find in every corner, and another to go to every nook and cranny in a open map only to find that for the most part you're wasting your time and the rewards you do find are mostly useless to you. Gameplay aside DS3 did this to an extent for me, loved it on release and nowdays is my least favorite game of the franchise. I'm still surprised at, not only how some people react to Dark Souls 2, but at how much I can appreciate it the more time goes on because is a different experience to the other titles. At times is like playing something like Nioh, really fun game vastly different to any souls game with flaws that tell something about how the games could be even better without relying on pre-existing titles.

I started with DS1 back when it came out and have played through the Souls trilogy and Elden Ring many, many times. My first playthrough of Elden Ring was I guess "lawn-mowing" and I tried to 100% it as much as I could. This didn't take away from the experience for me or deter me from doing it over and over in other playthroughs. I love all the Souls games for what they are and what they add or change, even the black sheep of the family DS2 is probably my personal favorite over DS1 and 3 despite it having blatant flaws or issues many others would point out. To me it's just a series of great games that I will continue to enjoy and replay no matter how different they might be to each other or how much they've deviated from their origin.

Thesis at the start: "Different strokes for different folks" The actual content: "shitting all over those different folks" i get that this is supposed to be hyperbolic, but you're clearly taking out a lot of your aggression on the player base. i love a lot of your vids, but this one is just not it. you actively contradict your own statements repeatedly, and your anecdotes colors your opinion of diverse groups of people. you strawman the hell out of pretty much every other souls fan.

Great Video!

23:34 I mean Goku didn’t care about the non-retconed Family. Considering it was retconed post super twice (once to make Bardock a better person, and the second time so Goku could have a mom for a change), and Bardock was Z Bardock, the man who didn’t give a shit about his wife or until he could see the future where Frieza genocides his entire race because they are too good at their job of killing off entire planets of sentient beings. Pretty sure if Super Goku found out about retconed family he would wish them back, but instead all he knows of Sayains are his brother that used his empathy against him to try and kill Goku and steal his son, Nappa who gleefully murdered Tien and was trying to kill Goku’s son and best friend, and Vegeta teamkiller extraordinaire that had a huge superiority complex about how he was elite and everyone below him was expendable probably tinted Goku idea of what a Sayain is like. Sayains, you know, people that send their toddlers to decimate entire planets for Emperor Frieza the racist to sell? Same race that doesn’t care if said toddler survives? Same people that measure your worth solely on your power level are at birth?

Man, so many bad takes here

Found this video pretty annoying and mopey, which I know is part of the bit but lots of the current video essays about Souls are saying this completely seriously. Having started with DS1 (with the exception of a terrible first Bloodborne experience when I was sixteen and had no idea how to even play the game), and played all the Souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring, Bloodborne, DS3, and Elden Ring are the best of the games by a large margin, and that a decent chunk of the complaints about these games comes down to a genuine skill issue or simple personal preference, frequently both. I wouldn't have said Elden Ring was as good as DS3 or Bloodborne before the DLC, since the new tools in the DLC and a change to a certain wormlike final boss have made the base game infinitely better, too. Dark Souls and Demons' Souls are undeniably the most unique games in the series, but being unique doesn't make you a funner game to play. Gameplay will always be the most important part of a game, and these three games just feel good to play. I love mastering a mechanically rich and complex boss. The Elden Ring ones are very enjoyable when you start using all the tools the game gives you now- Malenia is so much better with the Deflecting Tear. Sekiro isn't my speed but that's also not a Souls game, so it's not too relevant.

I think the specific thing I most associate Dark Souls 1 with is the world design. It has the best laid out map of any game in the series. The lack of early fast travel meant that a pretty significant portion of the game was interconnected enough to be convenient, but not so much that it lost the maze-like feel that demon's had. It's by far the most metroidvania of any of the games. DS2's map and world design took a hit. It's just not nearly as complex or good until the DLC chapters. Those are pretty good, but kind of set the tone until Elden Ring: big single areas that are complex, but sort of work like hallways or dead end dungeons with only 1 or 2 exits to other areas.

I don't trust people who didn't like DS3. Also I was under the impression that most people didn't use shields so bloodborne being balanced around that was excellent, they're so boring

OMFG you do sound like me lol

I mean I dont like lee at the slightest and uchihas are probably all my favourites especially obito and sasuke but I do think the series made the point of hardwork+talent beats just talent or hardwork personally, and i also do think you missed the whole point of the series sometimes and minato is the only one who was hokage without any powerful mom dad, kakashi's dad compared to the 3 legendary sanin together so nah, kakashi himself was trained by minato how is he not related to the hokages xD. And like whats wrong with being born lucky or talented? nothing💀

play Sekiro?

I would live a Balder's Gate 3 video

'Dodging is nice, but not if they endorse cowardice' and thats why we have sekiro

I find most people that play these games enjoy them absentmindedly. Sure they will find elements that are frustrating or even flawed but there will often be a lack of introspection as to why it is making them feel that way. Even if a person can intuit that something is off or missing from DS1 in later titles, very rarely will they stop to consider and try to put it into words. DS1's atmosphere and level design is I'd argue the best in the series, but your average player will not consciously "feel good level design", because it is only clearly noticable when it's really bad. Each system and component of the game forms a wholistic experience that determines how good a game is. But your average player will only focus on one or two elements that stood out to them out of the whole experience when deciding why they liked it. Hence why the gameplay/combat are usually the very first thing most people notice and attribute as to why they liked the game. I'd even argue that a lot of players falsely attributed the positive experience in DS1 with punishing difficulty, while not fully grasping what about the difficulty it was that made it so attractive. Bosses used to accentuate a level and each one had a lore significant reason/purpose behind being 'there'. In contrast Elden Ring is a boss gallery. Many bosses repeat, and their difficulty is ramped up, checkpoints are placed closer to the arena, and other enemies pose little to no challenge or can be ignored. All to appease a player base that doesn't actually know what they really want. Though I'd argue DS3 and Elden Ring still deserve the critical acclaim they receive, purely based on the virtue of clear passion, and effort being put into making them a good game first, and a product second.

Your explanation about Dark Souls 2 is interesting, considering it's the only one in the series I actually enjoyed or completed. DS1 and 3 were so much alike, and so frustrating because of it that I ended up ragequitting them both. I wish for a sequel for DS2 but that's sadly unlikely.

While I personally preferred Elden ring compared to Dark souls, I think you hit the difficulty/unfairness issue right on the head. Hopefully with the (slight) negative reaction the DLC received, we'll see a shift in the trend of fromSoftware games.

14:24 i guess you could say it was.... Complete... *...in its incompleteness*

yeesh play Dragons Dogma 2 woof!

These games actually suck and I don't understand why people like them😅

All this guy does is gripe.10/10 Would not recommend. Unsubscribed + Reported.

Noticing ppl misunderstanding plagues gripe with the creator himself sucking at his games and instead seeming to be obsessed with the theatrics of dying. If you just reword it as obsession with challenge and the idea of challenge you get all the fans that obsess with rage over ppl using assistance. We look at difficulty in the wrong terms on both sides of the argument

This video is really off base, at least for the anime. Goku did a lot of mistakes, but had clearly emotionally matured by the end of Z, especially in the buu saga, which you barely touched on. The best example of this is his treatment of Goten compared to Gohan during their respective childhoods, and how he had genuine pride in the improvement and happiness of others entirely divorced from any selfish desire for challenges or his own self improvement. He also had become much more socially insightful. For example, in the cell arc, goku openly flaunted his improvement to vegeta, not even predicting how bad it would piss him off, while in the buu saga, he deliberately hid his new transformation to vegeta in favor of trying to get him to come to terms with what had actually pushed him over the edge to try to pull him back from the brink of self destruction. Don't get me wrong, he's still stupid, rationally goku should have killed vegeta both times they fought, but he had grown much more considerate. And every bit of that is absent in super.

i agree with so much of what u say the people that arent happy with what souls games have become and see the untapped potential that fromsoftware consistently fail to take advantage of or notice at all, are the people who have the ideas, understanding and creative potential to create games to outdo fromsoftware in every way with any luck, the drive and motivation might hit me to truly get stuck into learning unreal engine and produce my own ideal version of a souls game, this video has given me a lot to think about design wise, now translate this video to japanese and force miyazaki to watch it 5 times before he directs another mid souls game that desperately tries and fails miserably to mesh slow and methodical classic souls gameplay with bloodborne and sekiro speed and aggression

Miyazaki was a director before demon souls, these old heads can’t even get the facts right smh

I keep telling people DS1 is the most unique of the souls games because it’s entirely slow and methodical where the other games are all fast and focused on reflexes

Man, I wish Prepare to Die edition wasnt removed from Steam. Just bundle it in with remastered BAMCO, fuck

Your bloodborne opinions are insane, jesus christ. Witch of hemwick?? Really??

I’m starting to think this plague of gripes guy has a lot of strong, maybe even critical, criticisms.

This is the gripiest I've ever heard plague talk. It's hilarious, also damn you're so butt mad about the shield description 😂