The Perfectly Balanced Design of Dark Souls - pt 2

[@MLL-bn1go]

the most despicable character in the souls series is the guy who put butter on each branch of that fucking tree

[@AveSicarius]

"Haha those pathetic undead will never be able to climb down our tree! My buttery goodness shall protect the souls of my mushroom brethren!" - Some Big Mushroom Guy Who Lives Under A Tree

[@InvadeNormandy]

The Bothersome Butter Bandit

[@elitereptilian200]

Thanks for the laughs mates!!

[@agbates]

Ah no those fucking trees

[@fusionfountain]

“The Silent Tree Slickner” was a character found in cut content from patches questline

[@The-Anathema]

The most sadistic part about the sen's fortress bonfire is that it's just far enough down you have to take fall damage. Now imagine this, you're playing sen's, you just barely made it through -- you've got critical hp and no estus, you find the bonfire thinking you're saved, only to die from the fall -- kicking you right back to the start.

[@Slyslug]

You use what you've learned to play the segment better and get there with enough HP. That's how you do it.

[@hoesmad8626]

@@Slyslug so you have to die to beat the game. thats crap design

[@jooot_6850]

@@Slyslug this guy gets it

[@jooot_6850]

@@Slyslug once you know where to go it’s easy

[@SBF-qv9jd]

ds is a game meant to punish you for not planning for things. getting stuck in the ash lake is not the games fault. you were going down, what'd you expect. I should hope by sens fortress you should know about fall damage

[@Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

All that hassle, just to cure your curse. …when there was an enemy DOWN THERE that *drops a purging stone.*

[@shaynehughes6645]

He ran by them all though. Guess chat chose not to tell him.

[@Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

@@shaynehughes6645 Yeah. Either that… or the ‘just run past all of the enemies’ strategy is a problem with game design that warrants looking into.

[@godlessgod096]

@@Deoxys_Used_Mimic It's a problem in that *particular* instance, doesn't make it overall a bad tactic. Especially when you just want to get to a boss and you already know everything about the area as you would likely have to know in order to get to the boss without dying in the first place. Also, it makes the game better balanced by making you prepare for your difficult journeys more appropriately. He talks about this in the video at 4:44 when he needs to cure the curse he (just in case) takes spares because of the lack of fast travel at that stage in the game, which in turn makes it more fulfilling to relief yourself of it. I.E. getting cursed wouldn't be such a big issue if you could just teleport to a guy and cure it so easily (I'm looking at you DS2).

[@Wickow]

Man that spider lady made all the ppl standing next to me on the subway train home, looking at me in concerning manner, three times

[@LoserHands]

It's funny how oblivious we get with the shit on our screen. Your phone was end-to-end midriff & bolted boobs, other assorted marzipan and a flaming winamp visualizer for at least, i bet, 3 wholeass seconds. ive lost discretion for seconds at a time with my bulkyass, caseless note phone and had it embarass me into that kinda retrospection lmao and i thank you for sharing lol

[@akumarajio2691]

The teleportation is one of the best and worst features of the newer games. As you said it breaks a lot of deliberate flow but at the same time one of the teleportable locations I'll always say was a good way to design around it was the Cathedral of the Deep. A single interconnected level based around a single bonfire with little if anything in the way of unneeded placement. The boss is shite but I've had fond memories of that location in DS3. Having teleportation is good for the sake of reducing tedium and frustration but yeah it has fundamentally crippled the design from the first Dark Souls.

[@Ashlevon]

Hence why they should've kept teleportation to key bonfires, and not every single one. The choice to warp to any bonfire not only crippled the flow of gameplay but also map design as well. And I'd honestly say that being able to teleport from anywhere at any time with the Lordvessel in DS1 also crippled the design of a lot of post-midgame areas, and areas you can only get to after dispelling the golden fog walls.

[@akumarajio2691]

@@Ashlevon A lot of the post-midgame areas eventually needed teleporting to stay from being tedious though. I won't speak for everyone but thank christ I didn't need to trek one side of the world to the other just for upgrading a weapon or giving something to a covenant leader. Fully agree though, sticking to core bonfires or having areas where you can't teleport out of (like in the Duke's Archives/Painted World of Ariamis) definitely makes it better where it keeps some sense of danger and deliberate challenge rather than a bonfire every 10 meters.

[@Ashlevon]

@@akumarajio2691 they developed those areas with warping in mind, hence why they'd be more tiresome to play back through without warping. They didn't have to put as much thought into the post-midgame areas as the pre-Lordvessel areas.

[@akumarajio2691]

@@Ashlevon It's true in general though that the further you make a map the more tiresome the trek is going to be between major events. Regardless with how they designed the levels in mind the point still stands post-midgame areas needed some sort of fast travel to save from being a major pain in the ass.

[@ODCrab]

In 2 they removed the curse debuf in favor of just being half health when hollow. Like demons souls, IK... But I think its better that way. With reduced hp being an ever preasant issue, it encourages you to learn paterns better. And when you think you might have a boss down, you can use the some what rare resource to essentialy double your health and guarantee a win. But with curse being so rare, it just makes you feel like shit until you get it removed... Anyways curse and vendors were really the only reason to go back anywhere. I don't feel like much was lost.

[@spacepirateivynova]

I absolutely love how thrusting weapons can be used while shielding (at a penalty...). Little things like this just make the combat deeper. Then there's weapons like the Halberd and the Great Scythe and omg... the DLC weapons the gold and silver tracers... just, how do you type out that sound that a cook makes when they kiss their fingers like 'muahh!'

[@papagalooleo559]

DS1 will probably always be one of my favorites. It’s just got an atmosphere that other games can’t compete with. Great game.

[@PCGonline]

the current state of the dark souls servers being shutdown makes playing the games kinda dull without some dex pyro invading every 2 minutes

[@supermonkey965]

You mean without the twink gravelord invading Undead Burg

[@PCGonline]

@@supermonkey965 twink gravelord meets giant dad is the baseline experience

[@deathblade111]

I am so happy you no teleported ashen lake. I did that my very first play through. Made me love the game in a hate filled way.

[@paxluporum4447]

I'm glad you're a fellow spear enthusiast. We get ignored so often.

[@AveSicarius]

At least we have the Dragonslayer Spear and Swordspear to comfort us... I actually really enjoyed the absurdity that was Spear Power Wielding in DS2, having double pokes at range was pretty fun. That and DUAL LANCES!

[@eggguy20]

Try being a head-on dagger fighter: we're almost non-existent and get lumped with the backstab fishers

[@night1952]

@@eggguy20 Daggers can be fun, but whenever someone pulls out one in PVP they just fish for backstabs or parries.

[@theceron1999]

Where did you get that bleed was nerfed? Only thing bleed related nerfed was Bloody Slash, which was very strong for the low resource cost. The health cost was increased a bit and the damage was lowered a bit, but it didn't affect how bleed itself works. In fact, bleed was buffed a little via a quality of life bug fix - Arcane (The bleed stat) now scales properly on weapons that cause bleed.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

Yeah I wanted to say this exact thing. Bleed hasn’t been nerfed at all, and the fixes to arcane have actually made bleed builds extremely powerful. However bleed does need to be nerfed for PvP but not for PvE, ideally by lowering the percentage of hp removed on proc for other players. And it needs that because it’s too dominant a strategy making PvP boring since every other player you fight run Rivers of Blood, not because it’s unfair, but just because it’s boring.

[@daltongarrett3393]

@@MidlifeCrisisJoe hell, reduced damage wouldn’t even suffice. Two other things that would have to be fixed would be ghost hits while dodging proccing bleed and bleed buildup, and the fact that proccing bleed is a guaranteed stun that allows guaranteed follow up hits (which can proc bleed. See where I’m going with this?)

[@Slyslug]

Typically you finish the tree before going to cure your curse. Or use the curse relieving items you can find before hand to cure the curse when youre done and at the bottom.

[@dreamthief286]

the wierd step collision was a 60fps bug when using DSfix on the original PC PtDE, you needed to swap back to 30fps to fix that (you can set up a key to swap that on the fly), this bug is also the reason it's possible to fall down the floor when sliding down certain stairs. if this is Remastered you're playing and the bug is still there, it's because the Remastered team didn't fix this issue when changing the framerate, which honestly wouldn't surprise me.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

It's the remaster. Sorry to disappoint.

[@JINORU_]

Its a feature!

[@Sniperk1ng187]

Then there's me, a pyscho doing his first playthrough with just a parry knife and a short sword

[@JimmyThree-Balls]

X

[@anitabonghit2758]

Stuck on caprademon then?

[@Sniperk1ng187]

@@anitabonghit2758 nah he was rough but I got him taken down

[@edwardzignot2681]

I restarted Elden Ring because my spell sword build felt cheap af, so I started a bleed/power stance build but now it's arguably easier..... We're all masochists and psychos here.

[@chiefs2pretty4radio]

@@edwardzignot2681 given a long enough timeline...

[@TheLumpmachine]

A lot of people say "Dark Souls is hard." when it is more accurate to say "Dark Souls has a learning curve." FromSoft's design philosophy in these games is all about teaching the player though failure. in almost every case, when you die you can immediately tell how and why it happened. "I miss-timed that roll." "I didn't manage my stamina right." "I got greedy and attacked instead of healed." You can't help but internalize mistakes like these and be mindful of them in the future. In other words, you learn. or, as the kids say, you get good. That's why it rankles me that every time the next iteration of a souls game comes out you always have people clamoring for a difficulty setting! Do you know how difficulty sliders work? almost invariably they work by either buffing or nerfing the damage or HP of the player and the enemies. Sure, that's not a big deal in a game like Diablo 3 or Skyrim, where the actual gameplay is mostly determined by how high your numbers are in relation to the enemy. But in Dark Souls that means that those carefully designed encounters meant to teach the player are either trivialized by making them easy enough to brute force; or made so difficult that you learn a totally different lesson than intended. Sorry for the rant. I know it was only tangentially related to the video, but if your gonna scream into the void, you might as well do it in the youtube comment section. At least this way it helps the algorithm.

[@bobbertsonlarz1743]

Wonderfully said tho.

[@monkeysk8er33]

There really is no difference (in the case of Soulslikes) between the two sentences. Dark Souls IS indeed hard, but it's because of it's learning curve being high. Literally anything and everything stops being hard once you've learned how to properly do it efficiently. Soulslikes just have a way about them that makes it really hard to truly master them. Even now, over a decade later, I still make rookie mistakes in Elden Ring. Your confidence must always be overshadowed by your caution. It's when the inverse happens that you make mistakes. I check every corner, every ceiling, every floor, every wall, every area without physical textures (thanks Seathe), because you never know when you'll find some invisible enemy, or invisible floor to walk on. I still walk around smacking walls and chests for illusory walls and mimics. Every inch of these games are potential traps, and/or secret rewards.

[@JINORU_]

Both statements arent mutually exclusive

[@abyss9316]

Sen's Fortress to me was the moment when the game asked okay you think you've done some s*** you think ringing those two Bells were a big deal? now hold my beer while I dodged through these blades snake-men lightning snake-men Giants rolling boulders Throwing Fire barrels And what is up with all of those hollow balls on the top of Sen's Fortress.....

[@breeze2082]

Always loved the snake getting hit by a bolder. Not for a humor aspect but cause it really is a good simple way to warn you to watch for those in that area

[@comradecatbug5289]

I don't think the changes to warping had anything to do with player complaints. It's just INCREDIBLY hard to design a world so intricately and so masterfully connected that warping isn't a necessity. Especially when the real estate of the games has only grown over the years. FROM just hasn't been able to match their magnum opus of world design.

[@Lukthesword]

There’s a bonfire hidden off a small dropdown at the top of sens fortress. After exiting the interior and then going up the stairs drop off the ledge to your right. You don’t *have* to redo sens each time you wanna attempt iron golem.

[@Pants69]

And after nine playthroughs :)

[@lolihitler4198]

yeah no shit he showed a clip of him lighting it

[@Lukthesword]

@@lolihitler4198 I must have missed that. And he mentioned the tension he felt during an Iron Golem attempt because of the fear of having to go all the way through sens again to retry so I figured he must have missed it

[@lolihitler4198]

@@Lukthesword i think he was talking about the intended first playthrough experience but even then he pretty majorly overstated how hidden that bonfire is i dont even think its supposed to be a secret

[@alejodavies]

@@lolihitler4198 You sure about that? The rooftop is the last place you want to be sightseeing on. What with great balls of fire raining from above and the instant invasions if you're human. On subsequent playthroughs or in a big ol' co-op party you might clear everything then decide to peer of the edge, but otherwise it's rather well hidden.

[@SolidBren]

Love this video series! Keep up the great work! Miyazaki has some sadistic game design, but some of the most satisfying challenge and weapon play I've ever felt in a video game. Shame the remaster didn't polish some of the jank such as the collision detection and they made the lock on range worse. Truly an embarrassing remaster, but the legend of Dark Souls will never die.

[@benkenobi8816]

Best game ever, will never be beaten. The real ones understand. Fun to hear your take on it! Long live dark souls 1.

[@crimsonking440]

"the message system is the greatest thing from soft ever gave us" *Flashbacks of "could it be a dog" and "try fingers. But, hole" consume me*

[@bilskirnir_]

Shen's fortress is my favorite section of the game. I especially like ducking past the lizardmen in a all out sprint to top.

[@avatar2xl]

They didn’t nerf bleed they nerfed one bleed ash of war and made arcane scaling work correctly

[@michaelwerkov3438]

goddammit just make all the parts..i just watched noah's 5 hour souls video last night. i need you. at night. pls.

[@monkeysk8er33]

I never got cursed until my NG+2 playthrough. Had to look up a guide to see how to get rid of it. That was the first time I'd looked up anything on the game, aside from lore videos.

[@GeremyG]

Bleed wasn’t nerfed in Elden Ring in any way and you’re clinically insane if you think it’s balanced right now.

[@trueKENTUCKY]

Balance is for smooth brains

[@yesterdaytodaytommorrow.]

Bleed is fine

[@oglungbusta3587]

Yet the sword of night and flame was nerfed because we’re supposed to believe that thing is better than bleed? What a fucking joke

[@yesterdaytodaytommorrow.]

@Charles Hastings cry more

[@Trevelyan2]

I missed the opportunity to properly invade/be invaded in Sen’s fortress in DS’s time. I did, however, have a gank build used to escort new players to the first boss and murder invaders. Lightning sword+5, Artorias armor, SL 10. Fun times

[@Geologese]

I found the Super Secret Sens Bonfire, but only because i rolled off the edge if I remember correctly. That or I am misremembering.

[@obsolescentmystic2527]

Bleed hasn't been nerfed in Elden Ring btw, don't know where you got that from. They just removed a lot of bugged interactions.

[@coldfire2753]

Man is crying because bleed wasn't able to 3 shot every boss in the game anymore.

[@PearlBladeBeats]

Idk if u know this but after you beat enemies a certain number of times in DS2 they just stop spawning all together

[@MrFallenone]

Yeah but its like 15 times...

[@necrizy]

Not if you join champions covenant the enemies will always respawn then

[@TrueGamer22887]

You’re really great man.

[@princeniccolo8299]

Definitely my biggest criticism with the series has been the increased over reliance on rolling and the departure of no fast travel, at least initially. I also wish there was incentive to have high equip load in the form of improved physical damage reduction to make up for the lack of rolling. (Although at least in bloodborne they made it look cool) After all, the armor stats make very little difference in damage taken in my experience in the series. Fortunately, shields at least became relevant again with elden ring (IMO) especially with the introduction of barricade shield.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

Yeah generally my biggest issue with the progression of the series has been on the defensive options stagnating bit by bit. It feels like there should be 5 core strategies based on increasingly raising risk in exchange for potentially greater reward: Greatshields being the safest, then going to normal shields, then, rolling, then heavy armor and poising through attacks then parrying. But over time they’ve definitely made rolling king and lessened the usefulness in most other strategies. Though some of the defense diversity is back with poise existing in Elden Ring, rolls in that game are WAY too cheap and base stamina is way to high.

[@devinscott8680]

Honestly, I've been wanting to go through Dark Souls again, especially after Elden Ring. Bleed is still incredibly broken in Elden Ring and destroys the difficulty of PvE outside of like 4 total bosses, so don't worry you can still easy mode the game.

[@superwonderballs]

katana gang 'til I die

[@AveSicarius]

TryHard Miyazaki 2: The Bleedening Returns

[@MrFallenone]

@Trash Person Actualy its not on every katana.

[@yesterdaytodaytommorrow.]

@Trash Person dragonscale too

[@Zargabaath]

1:13 is my life every single day I wake up. Lmfao.

[@diabeticmonkey]

The voice audio battling the in game music made my brain swell

[@Vandalgrunt]

JUMP! You can jump in DS1!

[@alejodavies]

He did try the jump. Unfortunately he stopped trying after whiffing the first.

[@just_ethanj02]

Dude, the part where your spells wouldn't lock on... fuckin felt that.

[@rossdixonellis]

In Elden Ring I just L2'd with hogfrost stomp the WHOLE game. Pre patch anyways.

[@jooot_6850]

Elden Ring’s damage and health balancing is so scuffed that you are really incentivized to cheese bosses.

[@wafflemcmulligan9186]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a set of ladders at the bottom of the Great Hollow that take you basically all the way up with relative ease?

[@night1952]

Pretty much, not like the area is difficult anyways, the hard part is getting all the items, not walking through it.

[@wafflemcmulligan9186]

@@night1952 While I never had too much trouble with it, I can definitely see why most people would struggle in it.

[@jakedill1304]

And I know that Sekiro is the quintessential amalgam of everything I just mentioned below.. but at the very least they extended it to to a realm where if they took the one right way to do one thing outside of kiting.. and just treated that like a tutorial and then just bam let you go to town, with varying combinations of the things.. that would have been an actual evolution of that gameplay.. and instead they made elden ring... But I probably shouldn't be surprised, Counter-Strike players have been playing the exact same maps for the last 20 years, the only difference between the old and the new is that the new players seem to want to run low 4x3 resolution stretched out to 16x9 and go Gaga over random chances to win the bottom of the barrel of the FPS banana skins.. so I suppose change really is the the negative I suppose, especially if it involves new muscle memory.. certainly couldn't take away the consolitis trend of the game playing for you when you hit a button.. I mean look at how they treated gyro aim as the combination horseman apocalypse plague.

[@pathfinderb-sides6077]

still watching, but god bless you sir- legit my fave channels on all of KZbin!

[@bathhatingcat8626]

You’re lucky you could go to the first bell for uncursing. Back in the day you had to all the way to the roof of the ghost house in new londo

[@Kyle_Riel]

9th playthrough? Dude, it's glaringly obvious this is your first playthrough.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Your mom

[@dominiumbrasilis]

1st point about Dark Souls - if you take damage in the roll animation, you will take 40% more damage ( if I am not wrong ). 2nd - We use a weapon in off hand to parry ( like "the dagger"). 3rd - sword is fast, axe is normal and mace is slow ( most time, its same damage ). 4th- the mimic is a D&D creature ( Dark Souls have a lot of D&D influence in game ). 5th - We dont have move set in skyrim, but we have it in Morrowind and Oblivion ( also roll in oblivions and use souls for magic and we also have dark souls ). 6th - Dark Souls gameplay was inspired inZelda. Dark Souls was created by gamers and they have the best influence that I saw in my life. Good video by the way !

[@Kiyozaemon]

Best video on DS1 I’ve seen. This man gets it.

[@Serahpin]

Can you smell what Havel is cooking?

[@ryan0150]

11:16: I used to be an adventurer like you...

[@andrewlunceford1984]

theres an alternate shortcut throigh send fortress if you manage to get to iron tarkus and get the cage key. i never found the bonfire on my first playthrough but that shortcut was a lifesaver

[@jakedill1304]

One of these days.. sword and sorcery melee is going to finally drift away from lock on combat and pattern recognition, exiting its extended purgatory as glorified QuickTime events (albeit QuickTime events done right, but still quick time events)... And turn into something that allows you to control your blade, the direction, the range... Manipulate your body outside of the range of enemy attacks working on the same principles.. you know chivalry. Maybe take advantage of the environment, working three dimensions you know like dark Messiah... Suppose I could go on.. but until then I guess Target lock hit button hit other button fight camera is the apparently the norm I guess that people are some reason they're totally happy with as long as it looks pretty each time.. or at least has more triangles in this case cuz seems like as this series has progressed from soft has forgotten the concept of contrast entirely...

[@ThaFashionAssassin]

How are you not at a million yet?

[@NuStiuFrate]

I'm not interested in Dark Souls but i came to say that the thumbnail is awesome.

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

Hell yeah i was waiting for this!!

[@TheSteve_1992]

4:05 could have bought Purging Stones in the first tunnel leading from Firelink Shrine to Undead Burg

[@Dpyrt]

Could've gone to New Londo and get that shit cured for "free".

[@TheSteve_1992]

@@Dpyrt Ok, serious question: how? Never knew, there were such an option

[@Dpyrt]

@@TheSteve_1992 Ingward the Sealer, the guy on top of the chapel/church building with the ghosts. Climb to the top, he will be overlooking the area.

[@TheSteve_1992]

@@Dpyrt oh wow, never knew, thank you. But why the quotations at "free"?

[@Dpyrt]

@@TheSteve_1992 You need 1 humanity.

[@Alex-ip1dn]

You got a big hat Strat

[@noelienoelie8425]

Nooohooohoo the fair lady!!! You monster!!!

[@danielmorgan281]

Where's pt 3? 😢

[@Elgar337]

I tried this game last year but, though I respect it, it didn't click for me. And before anyone says anything about persistence and getting gud, I've finished Underrail going in raw with my own build. Still enjoying the hell out this video though!

[@supermonkey965]

It's not for everyone, no big deal Most players who enjoyed the game by getting back into did it by themselves, there's no point in forcing someone to play it if they don't feel like it

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I have no idea how you did that shit with Underrail.

[@Elgar337]

@@StratEdgyProductions Oh it was a savescum fest. And the last boss was almost impossible for my ambush crossbow build, and I had gone into the last area unprepared supply wise. I almost quit there cause I wasn't loading from before the last area and redoing it. But luckily I found just enough crafting mats in the abandoned warehouse to scrape together a strategy based on feats I had randomly picked that weren't "core", and which required that none of my very limited serrated bolts could miss, in order to keep an important debuff up (I think it was reduced healing on bleeding targets).

[@Elgar337]

@@StratEdgyProductions Hey Strat, Dark Souls finally clicked for me! I'm going into Blighttown and I'm loving every second! Where's pt 3?

[@h3artcxxk]

I have some tips for you strat get good

[@CorvoFG]

Never played this game. Kudos to anyone that does but it looks like phenomenal hard work.

[@alejodavies]

Honestly it's the easiest one of the series. But that's because hindsight is 20/20. Almost none of the boss fights are sweaty, especially compared to DS3, BB, Sekiro and Elden Ring which all have bosses with brutal combos and wind-up swings with feints so the can hit you after your dodge. DS1 bosses are almost all big dumb beasts and none of them get too hyperactive except the last boss and the DLC bosses. As for exploration, just take your time and observe your surroundings. This message is sponsored by the Lordran Tourism Department.

[@Sinintheair]

Might i recommend Jade Empire next? Dont download off of steam, wont work. Get it off EA access.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

pt3 when?

[@NIL0S]

Something's off with the auto fade out you use for the music when you speak, perhaps it's set to be too aggressive, it keeps blasting between words.

[@NineNoRouge]

Very noticeable at the seven minute mark.

[@Bubba524dtm]

Big hat Logan is definitely packin.

[@MrSchottlander]

your memes are cringe, boomer. Love you

[@joshuanickles4010]

Quelaag was also not difficult for me, and I was running as an absolute fucking crayon-eater. Havel's Set, Greataxe, blood shield. Easy peasy.

[@jooot_6850]

no offense but Havel’s Set is easy mode

[@jooot_6850]

(assuming you aren’t heavy rolling)

[@joshuanickles4010]

@@jooot_6850 None taken. It absolutely is easy mode. But I had to suffer for a long time before I got that set. So I'm enjoying it for what it's worth.

[@ostrichlord9097]

Erm, just curious homie but how tf did u beat Quelaag in Havel's? The set is found in Anor Londo after her fight👀

[@joshuanickles4010]

@@ostrichlord9097 Oh shit. No, no. You right. Elite Knight Set. THEN Havel's since I picked it up. No you're right.

[@trielt1]

How do people manage to get cursed? At least in my experience, the curse meter grows so slowly that it's pretty much impossible to fill it unless you literally stand in front of the basilisks for a minute or more.

[@dougyoungman789]

Curse was way nastier back when DS1 first released because you could get repeatedly cursed until your HP was only a sliver. Fromsoft ended up patching it because everyone bitched lol

[@franciscogarciadamiani979]

fuck the teleporting, endgame or mid game reward only

[@deltadrifterd16]

So when are you covering neverwinter nights and nwn2? cause you got me back in morrowind playing it without cheats and i saw you say in a previous video say its the perfect video game.

[@silentobserver888]

Yet again he does it!

[@Left4Coragem]

DS1 is still one of my favorite games, while elden ring is one of my most reviled. The distant bonfires of DS1, made the world itself be dangerous, travelling between zones when you're a new player is somewhat scary, because not only you have to risk of dying to an enemy or the environment, but you're constantly travelling down routes that take you deeper and deeper to god knows where with no idea if you'll find a way to return. It feels like an adventure. elden ring is just a bunch of teleports around the map that you use to see npcs and fight bosses, there's never any danger to travelling because at most you lose a minute of walking around.

[@kloakovalimonada]

Yep. There are dozens of us. Dozens!

[@camalienator]

don't warp then, it's your choice

[@Left4Coragem]

@@camalienator elden ring is made to warp around and not warping solves nothing, because bonfires are still 100 meters away from each other. You have to be specially dishonest or stupid, to make that argument.

[@camalienator]

@@Left4Coragem don't cry, play something else then. but saying my argument is dishonest? well, the map is bigger than any other fromsoft's game so far, so not warping is an actual solution to your crying, since it solves the problem. "bonfires are 100 mitirs way". well don't activate them, challenge yourself, or play something else lol

[@headglitch7003]

How is that a bad thing? Running past the same enemies over and over and over because you die to one area doesn't teach you anything, and definitely isn't fun. Placing bonfires more often so you don't have to repeat the same bullshit instead of doing the thing you're stuck on is a good thing.

[@chainsawvsgod384]

Love that Philly accent

[@beauchard5873]

There’s actually two ladders that go all the way up the great hollow, but their honestly pretty hard see.

[@Roonsine]

I didn't expect a part 2 😢😢 I'm so happy I had to wait for so long to watch the elden ring video

[@bugothecatplays7864]

Indeed there are some deep areas early on in Dark Souls that's so annoying to navigate and then back. If you go down the blighttown in the muddy area, then to return back there is a lot of climbing with a lot of chances to fall and die and have to try again. It's not the same with the first bell, where an elevator just connects to the beginning. The blighttown is hell to reach and hell to go back early in the game. Going down further the tree to the dragon covenant, yeah you have to climb up from there (I am impressed by the verticality now btw, the dragon covenant is way down the blighttown which is way down the beginning of the game, blows my mind!). At least I will go down the tree much later after I get the lord vessel. I can reach the dragon covenant, then just warp up. But it's great that they made it like this because it meant something being lost and not being able to easily go back until much later. DS2 and even DS3 destroyed this feeling with the easy bonfire warps early on. You reminded me how great the Sean's fortress was. I used to hate it, those traps would just push me down to death again and again and it wasn't easy to distinguish where to stand between the blades, and after you overcome the first set of blades, there was a 2nd set and a 3rd and a 4th before you finally find the well hidden bonfire (also the cage elevators that conveniently but also inconveniently connect to the starting bridge with the snake and the blades and the mage above, such a risky place to have the elevator but easy pathway later on). All the traps and the ideas and the different ways one can find to avoid or use those traps, brilliant! After playing the game a lot, Sean's fortress while it can kill me, I have a much easier way to mostly not die and take various roots and get all the stuff. It's the most brilliant DS level now I think about it.

[@MidnightSt]

dude why waste spells on snakes in sen's funhouse? they're easily parryable

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

I absolutely hate the auto aim in Elden Ring. I don't get why you can just aim manually.

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Anyone else just flip out and shut the system off before you even see the YOU DIED? You get so frustrated and don’t wanna see it again, so rage quit like a mature adult.

[@ObiJuanKenob]

It's not that hard to grasp, if the game has level design front and center; the entire game will be better since most if not everything ends up having a place in the game and offers player choice and freedom. When we have fast travels from the get go... well then that good old quality takes a nosedive since you can just fast travel w.e it doesn't matter anymore. Then they start focusing on that good old "difficulty" that sells so many units and instead of creating games with cohesive systems and mechanics they just focus on making it "harder" at the expense of its quality. Dark souls 2 lacks this quality and just goes the quantity route; which is just lazy; same can be said about ER just obnoxiously lazier.

[@romaroalte2645]

That was too painful to watch.

[@c.jarmstrong3111]

Strat: bad at the game, plays sorcerer, doesn't follow the games natural progression, stuggles. Also Strat: surprised by struggling

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I'm getting tired of typing this. Need to make a bot, but until then... Your mom

[@EddyKnightBlade]

Forget about it🤌

[@Tyufoe96]

Bleed is still busted whatchu mean?

[@JobeStroud]

Trip. I thought you were younger. The bald thing gives a much older age. Now... I am just confused.

[@same8gt982]

Do how to survive stalker anomaly

[@khornethegrim8258]

Whatever happened to Nick and Doc? I miss those guys...

[@nlong714]

Great work love your videos.

[@redashea3004]

Angry cursing, classic game, and hahenera ah heaven again.

[@awesomeface478]

I hate Sen's fortress as much as the next guy and I'm sure you clipped just the most BS moments, but still... whaddaya expect, standing still and spamming magic like that? Get a shield or somethin, mang

[@l.e.b.3541]

I love Sens..

[@Theorphan81]

Oh look, the Commie's here to talk about how he could do Dark Souls better like he did with Elden Ring.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Your mom's a commie. That's why I love her.

[@matthewharter6134]

Try going to 4:47 it's very important.

[@cantonnierbethcepourlavhy6343]

Ppl didn't like ur elden ring vid huh

[@michaelgjrjvebs]

Bro they didn't nerf bleed, they buffed it. Bleed is by far the most broken mechanic now

[@goblin5880]

obvious skill issue

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Your mom

[@Delby5]

I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not because half the time what he’s saying is the exact opposite of what’s happening in his stream video. Also if your playing with a magic build in ds 1 your gonna have tons of problems. Shit magic didn’t get good till almost ds3 and even then it’s still not nearly as good as idk just two handing a colossal great sword and going ham. There’s so much bullshit you have to do to even make magic viable in the DS series. Thankfully the open world of elden ring works in a magic users favor.

[@alejodavies]

I'm all for very specific niche builds, but my first character is always a generalist. Heck, even my "pure" characters (INT only, for example) have a back-up slapping stick that I can buff to fight things that counter my build. The game gives you so many tools, yet I see so many people saying one challenge is unfair because they decided not to use the tools.

[@Delby5]

@@alejodavies I’m not saying it’s unfair and that the game doesn’t give you the tools to be successful it does. But it only does eventually. Like look at the damage he was doing with his wand against quelog. If he was just using his estoc he would’ve been doing more damage then using heavy soul arrow. And your trading a lot to use magic especially in ds 1. Your static while using it. Most of the magic is relatively slow, lock on distance isn’t far enough. Manually aiming is extremely hard. I’m sure if I spent the time I could come up with more stuff. Magic is like an end game tool after you beat most of the bosses and have all the required rings and pumped 60 lvls into just one stat while hoping you don’t get one shot. Like yeah you can do it and maybe as a challenge run it’ll be fun but honestly the easiest way to play throughout the entire game would be some sort of melee build

[@ostrichlord9097]

Magic in DS1 was definitely easy mode if you forgo a full havel's shield build. It allows the player to focus entirely upon spacing and spamming spells safely rather than engaging in the riskier side of close quarters combat, group aggro and massive stamina management. The attunment and cast system also replaces an MP system, making it very easy to stack duplicate spells and not worry about running dry. Sure, spells wont nuke enemies until endgame, but I think that balances things out. Hell, the game even offers pyromancies that scale with int just in case you run into magic resistant foes.

[@Delby5]

@@ostrichlord9097 idk man I’ve always found any ranges option to be unwieldy and hard to make it through the sections of the game. Like 10 soul arrows arnt nearly enough to beat beginner bosses. Let alone help you through the area if your a newbie. Like if I was a new player and I was like I’m gonna go deep into spells and forgo endurance and vitality for attunement and faith or intelligence. I’d be having a hell of a time. Like I guess you can spam the dragon in the beginning with the bridge? Grind some souls out. Just sounds like a massive waste of time and hard cuz you’ll be skipping most enemies and just going for bosses.

[@ostrichlord9097]

@@Delby5 I played DS1 on Xbox 360 and found the weak tracking and accuracy of spells to be very reliable. Dunno if other ports have issues with that or not, sorry. The enemies also have brain dead movements and practically run into spells. When it comes to fighting bosses, even if you reach them low on spell uses, you will always have a physica weapon to use. Mages get a rapier (going by memory here lol) which has pierce damage, all early enemies are weak to that and it uses little endurance, a low risk weapon for a vulnerable mage. Even if you still die which you probably will as a beginner, you would have learnt the area well enough to beat it again whilst conserving spells, now equipped with the knowledge of what the boss is like. From that point, it's all about spacing the boss. When it comes to stat investment, it sounds like you're describing a min max build, which is fine, but if a beginner decides to forgo health in favour of INT/FTH/ATT, then well... they get what they asked for. I'd say such a choice borders both stupidity and extreme confidence when a novice thinks they can min max in a game they're new to. Even seasoned players know health is a safety net. If you think you'll be getting hit, invest in it. The player will know if they get hit alot or not just by playing the game. No excuses there. Especially when the start of the game doesnt incentivise dumping into the INT and ATT stats because you wont be finding any new spells until you beat undead burg. The way I see it, because I played DS1 before other From games, the later magic systems are just upgrades to what was already an easy mode. If you experienced the later systems before DS1, constant expectations of broken magic will massively tailor your experience. My advice for enjoying it is; go in blind, see what works, be patient and be satisfied. You are an undead who should be happy enough just to survive, not a walking nuclear threat that melts everything in your path. Do what you can, the best you can and enjoy both the limits and freedoms of being a mage :)

[@alexlindstrom9971]

As much as Elden Ring is great, I feel that a big element of the magic sauce is gone, and that can be boiled down to checkpoint placements. Elden Ring is the most accessible game they've ever made, it's true. It also removed almost all tension from the boss fights, IMO, by putting a bonfire right in front of nearly all of them. All I have to do is spend my runes, pop in there, and fuck that thing up. The boss fights can be *tense*. They can be *intimidating*. But never in the way some DS1 and Bloodborne bosses were, bosses where the journey to (e.g.) The Four Kings was horrible, uncomfortable, and a huge part of why that fight is so ass-clenching. The giant AHHHHHHHHH release of defeating a boss from earlier games is almost totally lacking in ER for me, and while I'm sure that isn't true for people newer to the series, it is for old hats.

[@beyondthelol]

The game should always be balanced around pvp

[@camalienator]

dude, since i watched to the end, some things to consider: 1 - you went down and up from ash lake and only bought 2 purging stones? damn, and you say this is your 9th playthrough? (this will be repeated) 2 - many jokes about breasts, maybe get a dating app 3 - warping between bonfire/graces is a design choice that was included in ds1, and that was earned, maybe i even miss a bit of that, but it is very frustrating to walk a long path, only to get ambushed by something and having to go all the way back for something you couldn't have foreseen, so the deliberation of not warping could also be considered filling the gameplay time artificially, since most of your return to where you died includes things you already mastered. i could get behind the idea of earning the warp ability, but i think that could be more of a player choice; not many people have the time to keep playing the same thing over and over, slamming their heads against a wall to see when will the wall fall. elden ring approaches this beautifully: you can't handle this fight? go do something else and have fun in another way, later you can try this, it's ok, come back when you're stronger, have fun in your own way (something you said about build your own adventure) 4 - i don't think calling your audience smooth brained is a cool move, because if done ironically, i didn't notice it because i just watch your videos occasionally (partly because of the reasons above), and if i didn't notice, others didn't as well. and if it wasn't said ironically, sorry to break it to ya, but i didn't get as far as 9 playthroughs of ds1, and from my 2nd playthrough i already didn't make much of the mistakes i saw you make 5 - at the same time rolling was a bit more punishing in ds1, blocking was a mechanic that was too safe, and didn't encourage risk taking (dominant strategy), so people would turtle up instead of changing playstyle. Also, you didn't mention that ds1 has 4-direction rolling, which was vastly improved in ds3 and elden ring, which is a qualitative change, instead of how much stamina it spends 6 - i don't know if all of this footage was from you 9th playthrough, but your death that comes by 20:10... i gotta say it to ya buddy, when you got hit by the first lightning, i said to myself "he's gonna die because of the lightning" and you did... one thing that the design of these games show is the improvement by repetition, failure, and change, so much of the systems on these games have been finely tuned over several games. if you like ds1, play ds1, but try not to get narrow-sighted by some bias, because elden ring, for example, tackles challenges ds1 can't hope to concieve, such as mounted combat, open world, a vastly more dynamic multiplayer, so i encourage you to look into some of these aspects a bit more with a game designer perspective 7 - you mention the hidden bonfire, but not the shortcut elevator that leads almost straight to the iron golem? 8 - for a solution to the warping "problem" (problem as percieved by you): don't activate or use the bonfires, and don't use the warp, that could even stimulate challenges within the community 9 - spent too much time on this

[@AdamOwenBrowning]

9

[@alejodavies]

On warping: Not activating bonfires to intentionally prevent oneself from teleporting isn't a solution as much as it is a masochistic challenge. In a game like Elden Ring, though you do have a horse to zip around the map and I'm all for hoofing it in open world games, the game is still built from the ground up with instant teleportation in mind. What makes the first half of DS1 so special is that the world is actually tiny. You can make it from the top of Sen's fortress to the bottom of Tomb of the Giants in a matter of minutes, but on your first playthrough it'll take dozens of hours. No other game in the series has world design that tight expect maybe Bloodborne but it gives you no reason to experience it. To get back to your point, it's sort of like saying you can turn off quest markers in Skyrim if you don't like them, but the game is built with them in mind and (some) quests are unplayable without them, because they didn't make the NPCs give you directions à la Morrowind. Being able to opt out of having to walk everywhere in DS1 would have severely hurt the game and the following franchise

[@camalienator]

@@AdamOwenBrowning 9 goes for either of us mid you lol

[@camalienator]

@@alejodavies incorrect comparison. not warping from graces does not block any progress in the game. masochistic challenge? you're saying that by defending that warping makes the game easier, so what's the deal? you want it to be harder or easier? and yes, it does solve the problem, because it takes longer between bonfires if you don't warp, makes you spend more resources and increases the chance you will fail. and if you fail, no warping eh? go back on foot. jeez, people complain about the feature, and when someone shows them it's optional, and entirely in their control, they defend the feature. make a mod where warping is disabled then, do something instead of complaining. also, you ignored what i said: the game is artificially padded by making you go to the same routes over and over again but i guess a smaller world (which i also disagree when you say it's 'small') is more your thing... so i guess play ds1 again then? and you also have to walk around and explore to find the bonfires to warp, it's not like you can warp to a bonfire/grace you don't have...

[@Dpyrt]

I would argue that the shortcut "elevator" isn't something you would reliably do in a first playthrough, but this is his "alleged" 9th playthrough so only has himself to blame.