>>344259061
I did.

>>344259920
Explain yourself

>>344260098
You can beat blightown first
You can tackle any of the pre-endgame bosses in any order.
World is pretty open to explore, though by open it's more "metroid" open than "skyrim" open.

>>344260574
So it's just one area worth of exploration in a 60 hour game.

>You can tackle any of the pre-endgame bosses in any order.

How is that any different from Demon's Souls?

>>344261628
bait. if it wasnt you wouldn't say:
>So it's just one area worth of exploration in a 60 hour game.

>>344260574

Not him, but in Demon's Souls once you beat Tower Knight you can do the other Archstones in any order, meaning there are far more possible level/boss orders than Dark Souls.

Dark Souls's world is open and is well interconnected, but I wouldn't necessarily describe it as 'less linear', I think that's a matter of perspective.

actually you can do that after phalanx and you are right but than again dark souls is overall much bigger game and offers more freedom in terms of exploration of the interconnected world. the archstones in demons souls are the only thing that you can do in which ever order you want while all of them still have set path with levels. both fantastic games, it really shouldn't be this big of a discussion.

>>344262161
>>344262397
sorry didnt click reply.

>>344262397

Indeed, I don't think either of them are anything like 'linear'.

Now, Dark Souls III on the other hand...

>>344263130
while dark souls 3 gameplay was really good and the game is fun, has its great moments, it really was linear, making it much less replayable. really wish it wasnt like that. and the roll had too much i-frames honestly, seen so many bad plays go unpunished because of the roll spam.

>>344263412

I didn't like Dark Souls III very much, not just because it's linear but because it disappoints in other ways.

Something that stood out to me was the recycling of enemies, you fight those little Greirat-lookalike guys in the second area of the game, and you're still fighting them in the Archives at the end. They're literally in every other area without so much as a reskin.

The i-frames on the roll is excessive, honestly I think DSII had the best roll in that you couldn't spam it and it was more efficient to know when to use back-dash as an alternative (which is never, in DSIII).


The bosses were a high point, but overall I felt DSIII was disappointing as a DeS/DSI fan.

>>344263412
Rolling wasn't the only thing that made it hard to punish bad players

Estus healing immediately (ds2 had a delay meaning if they went to chug at low hp, a smack could kill them) as well as being able to walk/rotate while healing. The time it took to sip was also decreased, and it's almost impossible to get a backstab if they Estus unless they stand still with their back to you

>>344261628
>60 hours
pleb

Demon's Souls is 5 linear paths you can do in any order.

Dark Soul's is a mass of interconnected areas that you can go through in a huge variety of ways (if you take the Master Key). Anor Londo creates a choke point in the middle, but everything before and after can be done in almost any order.

In terms of different orders you can go stuff they are similar, but DaS1 is more impressive in its non linearity since it was a interconnected world with loads of connections instead of 5 sets of levels that's a very standard video-game setup.

>>344264337
>>344264581
to be fair, i agree, there is more things i didnt like, estus i felt was ok, mainly because you could move a bit while doing it so i didnt feel like i was locked in a place. the enemy variety is definitely a problem. the roll on the other hand, coming after demon's souls and dark souls to dark souls 2 was a huge step back for me, mainly because you feel like its part of a learning curve, making roll's i-frames a stat was really annoying and took alot from the fun i had with 2 along with other problems it had.

I would only add, while some bosses were really cool, all the other things we mentioned before made most of them really easy and i feel like variety between them was a bit bad, in dark souls 1 there is much less humanoid bosses and more monster bosses which i personally prefer, so i hope dlc has some more monster like bosses.

>>344265352

Considering it was an aspect of the game that received such praise, why did they drop it in subsequent releases?

The B-team of DSII 'tried' to make the game as non-linear as they could and I respect them for that, but they have branching paths instead of a true interconnected world. The singular instance of real interconnection is the Lost Bastille linking to both No Man's Wharf and the Forest of Fallen Giants. A for effort, but it didn't quite work.

DSIII they just give up on interconnectivity and don't even try. Thanks Miyazaki.

>>344265550

In terms of design I think DSIII's bosses are worse, but I think they're mechanically more interesting than DSI's. Most bosses in DSI could be beaten with the universal approach of getting behind them and staying there.
I'd honestly say that's the only thing DSIII did better than earlier entries in the series though.

>>344266119
Well thats because ds3 had 2 more games between 1 and 3, so they had to improve on something, i honestly feel like most things were done best in bloodborne, bosses, combat and dashing. Only in bloodborne i would like 15 vials instead of 20 max, would love that you get 5 of them on checkpoints so that you have less to farm and i would love a bit more interconnected world like ds1, but i guess im asking too much at this point. What ever they do next i hope its more of ds1 direction when it comes to worlds.

>>344263412
Yeah there are a couple of different things you can do early on in DaS3 but overall it was less good for exploration

Still being able to go from the first area to 2 end game bosses is pretty cool

>>344267414

>That's because Ds3 had 2 more games between 1 and 3

I'm not so sure, because Demon's Souls didn't have the issue of bosses being weak to standing behind them like DSI did.
I think DeS has the best bosses in the series in terms of being interesting fights, everyone is designed to require a different approach or at least a variation in tactics... or at least, that was the intention. DeS has some balancing issues and some of the bosses have about a third of the health they need to have to be a challenge. I think DeS has the best designed bosses (on paper) in the series.

>>344268316
I wouldn't be a good judge, i played ds1 1st than went to demon's and found bosses overly easy but i still enjoyed them.