The Official SoulsBorne Thread

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No one has come this far, not for a very long while.
Young Hollow, do you wish to shed this curse?
Then accept the fate of your ilk, and face the trials that await you.
Unless, you have already joined the crestfallen…

What’s up, fellow undead? @anon85095355 and I were about to derail @noenken’s console thread, so I thought I’d make one for anyone interested in the SoulsBorne genre.

With the announcement of the PlayStation 5 titles, Demon’s Souls: Remastered has been announced.

lol

Demon’s Souls was my first venture into the SoulsBorne genre. At the time, it was the only (modern) release. This was also the first game I fought Mind Flayers!

Time Stamped for your time

Understandably, some of you may be confused.

What is SoulsBorne?

SoulsBorne is a genre of action RPG games that are brutally challenging, often involving sprawling dungeons and landscapes and massive boss fights. They also have phenomenal story telling and world building, but you have to look for it. These games do not hold your hand.

Wow That Sounds Cool, Where Should I Start?

The easiest way to start is with the Dark Souls trilogy. All three are available for PC and they mostly go in order*. If you have a PlayStation 4, you can checkout Bloodborne. If you have a PlayStation 3, check out Demon’s Souls. Or just wait for the PS 5 release.

* HUGE, MASSIVE, GIANT SPOILER ABOUT THE TIMELINE.

DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU ALREADY KNOW, HAVE NO INTENTIONS OF PLAYING, OR DON’T CARE ABOUT SPOILERS.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

Despite being the first release and the oldest game, Demon’s Souls is, sequentially, the last game. When Dark Souls III ends, Demon’s Souls is beginning.

Bloodborne’s timeline is questionable. Some speculate that it’s in the beginning. Other’s say it’s not related at all.

Dark Souls II is way, way after Dark Souls and Dark Souls III. At least suggested by a boss battle or two and the broken Lord’s Vessel.

What Guide Should I Read? What Build Should I Do?

I recommend going in raw, if you’ve never played. Just explore, practice, and have fun!

IF you want a spoiler free tip that may give you an edge in the beginning, go with Pyromancer.

If you MUST have a guide or ideas for the game, read this first:

Then go to the fextralife, defacto DS guide.

THIS GAME IS TOO HARD.

Give it time, take a break and play something else. I am not a pro gamer by any means, and I’ve beaten all five games.

Those of you that have played, are veterans, or attempted and gave up: What were your favorite areas of the game? Favorite game? Favorite boss? Most memorable boss? Favorite gear?

Those of you that are starting, are you stuck? Where at? What have you been doing?

Hopefully this thread takes off :wink: This is by far my favorite franchise in gaming.

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aw come on chris

it’s not canon that demon’s souls is a real sequence to dark souls III

yes it would make a lot of sense, coz everything is tangled, but it’s not officially canon :man_shrugging:

yet I wish it was because the fog and everything

also

I WANNA KNOW ABOUT THE FUCKING PAINTING IN THE REAL ENDING OF DS3

FROM SOFTWARE PLEASE MAKE ELDEN RING BE IN THAT PAINTING!!!

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Them be fightin’ words! How is the Firekeeper not the Maiden from DeS? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Loool rekt. Yeah the way the left some stuff hanging I thought for sure there would be a sequel

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becoz team B fucked up the timeline, that’s why

:laughing:

basically ds1 and ds3 are the same vibe and the story makes sense, ds2 was just a weird feverish dream with good multiplayer

here’s vaati explaining everything but he even says at the end he doesn’t believe it’s all really connected

would be nice if it were tho

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The GOAT of translating the weirdness of SoulsBorne lol.

I will watch that!

More on DS II later. I have something to solidify my theory of it being in the future.

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Vaati: I tried to sell you on something I don’t really believe.
Me: HA! I knew I was right!

All that video did was confirm that Bloodborne is the best :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I think we can debate the absence or abundance of fog in either game as being an indication of them coming before or after one another, so I’ll skip that.

Dark Souls II – Was it in the future? I think yes.

Why?

The Lord Vessel’s power is granted in the beginning. Kind of OP, but when you find the construct has been destroyed, it makes a little bit more sense.

Old Dragonslayer boss fight. “Old” being the give away here, also the revelation in Anor Londo in DS I – The Gods left the city to die and cast the illusion. Ornstein was EZ mode in DS II compared to the “illusion” in DS I. The illusion being his “final form” or true power. Also his loot:

Old Dragonslayer drops the Old Leo Ring which both the effect and description seem to match with it being the Leo Ring worn down over time. The Leo Ring description in Dark Souls says it was given to Ornstein.

Also in “ancient times” Drangleic was not called Drangleic. This is hinted at by more than a few NPCs and items.

Things Betwixt! Literally what?

I’ll show you the door.

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There is one game in that series that hits the perfect spot for me and that is Dark Souls 1.
the level design is beyond amazing, the combat is slower, meaning it’s not really about reaction speed and twitch reflexes, you can literally turtle behind your shield if you wish to, until you find an opening. The story and lore, OH THE LORE…
I am a person that never cares about story ot lore, as long as it serves the gameplay. The most important part is the gameplay, but the LORE…
I love it. I love everything about it.
I suck at it. Massively suck at it. Can’t beat it. And knowing the other entries are speeding up the combat to make it more about reflexes make me puke.
Anyways DS1 is a masterpiece. Deamons Souls is… how to say it, way too videogamy… DS2 is way too linear, DS3 is massively overdesigned retread of DS1 characters, Bloodbourne is waaay too fast for my liking. The combat there is all about speed and attack.

IDK… Just me…

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Never understood this. Majula is literally a hub that branches out to multiple places.

Agree 100% – There are maybe two or three bosses where you can’t full tank/turtle but otherwise I agree.

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Yes, Majula is… And that is all there is to it…
Let’s look at Dark Souls 1:
Firelink Shrine leads to 4 zones
Undead Burg leads to 3 zones (parish, Basin and Firelink)
Undead Parish leads to 4 zones (burg, Lower burg, Depts and Darkroot)
It all feels like a large connected world…
Dark Souls 2 everything feels like a chain of zones…

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OK, it’s much more linear. There are no shortcuts and the zones don’t flow into another zones…

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They did that to prevent back tracking. The mechanics for DS 1 and DS 2 are vastly different. You don’t get the warp in DS 1 until after mid game, in DS 2 you do it in the beginning. You can still see Drangleic Castle from Majula, and when you head that way you end up there.

No reason, you had the power of the Lord Vessel at character creation.

As far as zones flowing, that’s personal preference/opinion. I think the flow from The Gutter to Black Gulch, Shaded Woods to Undead Crypt were awesome transitions and flow. That map seems to be missing (conveniently) some back tracking. Heide’s Tower of Flame had multiple entrances from Majula IIRC. Same with Doors of Pharros.

I can’t quite read that map, though.

Harvest Valley/Earthen Peak to Iron Keep was badass too. Tons of lore.

You would like Bloodborne if you shortcuts/new paths are your thing. That’s how that game operates in the beginning - midgame for the most part.

BTW I dig this discussion :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: I love me some Dark Souls talk so don’t think I’m saying “you’re wrong” just giving my PoV

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Yes, and that resulted in blander level design. Since you can just teleport from place to place you don’t need intricate level design and interesting verticality and stuff like that. All of this is lost…
For me that’s a negative thing.

The issue with bloodborne is the combat system. It’s way to fast and twitchy. It’s all about constant attacking and speed. And I am kinda defensive player. Also it’s so visually overdesigned and the backgrounds are so busy… Details on details on top of other details and all of this covered in details and all of that for a background. In Dark Souls 1, and even in DS2 the visual design was clean and you could always tell what is path and what is background and what is what… DS3 and Bloodborn are a mess…

Oh me to. I love talking game design.

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I don’t think that because Drangleic didn’t link back to Majula directly that means poor level design.

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I think Dragon Age II is an example of poor level design. They used one level, flipped it, and changed the colors. DS II had some awesome zones and locations.

You are rewarded for this, btw. Coming from DeS, DS I, and DS II before playing Bloodborne, I got rekt. When I found a shield I was so excited but they were super condescending about it lol. It didn’t work.

However, once I learned how to go about it it got “easier”. The game is far from easy, definitely the hardest out of all of them I think. But yeah you need to be aggressive but you are rewarded.

The benefit of attacking fast is you can also back away/dodge very fast as well.

It took me a year (no joke) of playing off and on to get used to it. Once someone dropped an H.P. Lovecraft reference I became super dedicated. I am a huge Lovecraft fan.

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I would agree with that. They have some really creative zones. The windmill where you fight medusa, the ghost zone where you fight ghosts, the entire thing with the zombie chariot… They have some really cool zones. The world still does not feel as well interconnected and does not quite feel like a world. The entire thing for me feels like a chain of zones with no real regard of what is coming after what. The design decision to allow the player to teleport literally removed the need to make the world interconnected. IMHO that is a massive negative.
DS1: You go deeper, you find yourself in the lava world, and you see the other zone, that is super deep down under the ground.
You go up - you see all the zones below your level, because everything is connected.
There is a nice place in the Tomb of the giants where you can see Izalith and the ash lake. On the other hand from the parish you can see all the way up to the archives and if you look down you see a deep forest where the garden and the basin should be…

Yes, I know, but that does not change the fact I panic easily in games and die…

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but in ds3 the world was left to ashes

it was already crumbling down and then we get the painting and all

I think there were nothing after ds3… only fog… lmao

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Initially, yeah. Who’s to say Vendrick’s kin weren’t born after that? Or some underground hollow became Vendrick?

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I melt everytime I hear it

so let’s talk about ds2: I love that motherfucker

dislike the story… it’s kinda dumb… they chose to go with the “one more cycle” bullshit and became some sort of spinoff

but the gameplay was so cool, had some 200 hours of pvp with my 250 lvl dark magic dual greatsword wielding

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Hey! HEY!!! Why is Sekiro not mentioned here? I’d say its even harder than any of the soulsborne games because its just you alone with all the bosses. No phantoms to help or hinder you and no glowing text to give you hints.

Anyway there 3 “best” moment in Dark Souls for me:

First enemy: Oh look its a stupid zombie - proceeds to hit me with endless slashes. You died.

First dragon: Oh look its a dragon on the gate bridge - flies and toasts me on the bridge - lots of times because I thought I could block and/or dodge it.

Sewer Dragon: Oh its a crodile bo-- ooOOOOH! GOD! the Teeth!

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FUUCKIN GAMEPLAAAAAY TRAILEEEEEEEEER

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lol

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Any game that has Mind Flayers in it is an insta-GOAT contender and insta-Classic.

Can’t wait for November.