This is a topic I've wanted to talk about for the longest time. Dark Souls 1 is a landmark game for me and still holds fantastic memories for me even today after 10 plus years of playing it. But the second half of the game and its decline in quality compared to the first has always fascinated me. So I did what any sensible person would do: make a near half an hour video talking about it!
Of course, let me know what you think about the second half of Dark Souls 1 in the comments below!
Want to see more? Smash this link here: bit.ly/3BFbanx
like whacky Elden Ring challenge runs? Check this out:
• Beating all Elden Ring...
How about some super cryptic moments in the Souls series? Look here:
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For those talking about getting the skull lantern in the catacombs: I am aware that it can drop from the necromancers however contrary to popular belief it is actually not a guaranteed drop. The initial drop rate starts at 2% but then increases by ~10% for every necromancer you kill. So by the time you get to the 6th one, the drop rate is ~52%, just higher than half. I've had several playthroughs where I didn't get it as a result even though all necromancers were killed.
Do you have a source?
Idk how or why but i got 3 lanterns first playthru
Where did you get that? All sites I could find say that the last ones guaranteed.
I havent gone through the Catacombs in ages, I just skip my way to the bottom XD infact that whole area is just a blur of running to Nito :p
Didn't drop on my 1st PT. Had to go dark until the one get after Patches kicks you.
Bed of Chaos is one of the best bosses from a meta pov. The witches of Izaleth tampered with a force so dark that it causes pain in the real world. 100/10. Genius idea.
bravo Miyazaki!
Bed of Chaos, also known as Bed of Bullshit
@@mikeyisbombable so powerful you used your orange soapstone in KZhead
@@mikeyisbombableNah it aint so bad. People overreact
Bed of Bullshit is a great boss imo. I wish it was done slightly better, and I have an idea on how. It'll take me so long to write it out, I may make a post or reddit post or smth on what I think
The even more fucked up thing about that door in los izaleth is that before the remaster you had to give the humanity one at a time over and over again
Yes I remember that well. Painful! Same with using Souls/Humanity from the inventory
@@JKLeeds eh i never found the individual use souls too much of a problem. i always just put them in my inventory and spammed X lol
plus she's behind a hidden wall so most people aren't even going to find her much less give her 30 humanity.
It takes a little over 4 minutes.
I remember doing that... Except I did ~45 humanity since I accidentally left the covenant and had to rejoin
The first time I saw lost izalith, I actually thought the game was bugged. I thought the dragon butts somehow replaced the real enemies that were supposed to be there. Furthermore, the way they're placed looks like a guy with a level editor was just Spam clicking because they needed enemies in that area to ship the game
Yeah the level editor point is so true! There's so many of them as well, who's going to stop and fight them in that lava?!
@@JKLeeds uhhh I feel called out lol I just made it my mission today no less, to kill every dragon ass
@@Hirotoro4692 well you are a far braver person than me! 😂
@@JKLeeds me, I am, I did that my first go, and usually do it once every playthrough
@@JKLeeds maybe I'm confusing 2 rooms here, but I killed pretty much all of them from a strategic safe highground using my 999 wooden arrows.
The game peaked early with the way to the Gargoyles, imo. Undead Burg has the best design and enemy placement, by far. And the elevator back to Firelink? Better than falling in love.
It's definitely a great area. I like Anor Londo a lot though (yes, even the archer bit!😂) and also the Blightown loop back up to Firelink
@@JKLeeds Anor Londo looks great, but it's deceptively empty.. I'd give it to the Dukes Archive in the late game
I never really enjoyed undead burg that much, compared to more colorful areas like the forest and the dukes archives
@@JKLeeds I’ve only died to the archers one singular time In all of my play throughs I really don’t get why people hate that part so much
@My Name is Ryan the first half is really empty, just face it, it's pretty much nothing but huge empty spaces until you reach the cathedral.
the weirdest part about demon firesage imo is the fact they didn't even change his explosion damage type to fire, it's still magic damage AND he's still weak to fire like the stray demon because that's how rushed he is
Lorewise it makes sense though. Fire magic isn't pyromancy. So, since they came from the Witch of Izalith, they are being of magic, not necessarily resistant to fire
@@riccardoromani9916 the chaos fire spells are literally pyromancies, pyro = fire mancy = magic
is the fire sage not solomon? yknow the guy who was known for pyrmancy?@@riccardoromani9916
@@AleK0451the chaos pyros come from quelana, the mother of pyromancy. The demon uses the original flame sorcery. That's why the witches use staffs, except quelana. At least in the opening cinimatic. I guess quelana taught the sister outside bed of chaos to use a pyromancy flame but she drops the izalith catalyst.
@@riccardoromani9916Pyromancy LITERALLY MEANS fire magic. Pyro = Fire, Mancy = Magic.
I went all the way into the tomb of the giants because I remember an NPC telling me that there was a secound bell "below" that I had to ring. it was heartbreaking when I go to the fog gate sealed by the great lord and had to go all the way back.
Ironically, based on the area backgrounds you can see, the Demon Ruins are connected to the Tomb of the Giants. Not in a way you can travel though. The second bell is right before the Demon Ruins, so you were so close, yet so far. It is "below", just... on an entirely different path to go "below". Probably would've been cool if there was some kind of connecting path between DR and TotG. Especially since the Sunlight Maggot is in the DR area.
Because you played BEFORE this stupid trend of "mommy, 2nd half DS1 scares me". I played when it released on PC, this idea didn't exist and we were hyped about rumors of DS2.
@@osvaldoprado9906 1. Chill 2. Hate for the second half absolutely existed
@@stungunnotapplicable1953ds2 would just have a zipline lol :^)
@@TheAbysswalker I can't see if we had a conversation before, don't know what you are talking about. Yeah I like DeS, so many memories I want go back in time to play it like the first time.
I think a large part of the reason the second half falters is because of outside factors such as deadlines needing to be met and publisher pressure. Reports from employees at the time DS was being made report pretty poor conditions with crunch and overworking abundant and I think it shows here. Fromsoft was a far smaller company then compared to now, so when Bandai said “we need this finished in 2 months” they needed to finish in 2 months or they’d be fired. Hence the first half being carefully constructed and detailed with the second half being a development marathon to reach the finish line in time.
Yeah there definitely was a rushed development cycle for sure
Yup, even without all of the insight you share here it's blatantly obvious that the second half was rushed just by looking at the difference in level and enemy design. I think the only area that is fleshed out and pretty solid in the second half is the Duke's archives. Everything else is clearly a step down from the rest of the game.
I wish we knew what it was supposed to be
And yet people complain about Elden Ring for the same reason that its late game isn't the same quality. I think FormSoft just kinda sucks at ending their games because Bloodborne's third act also leaves a lot to be desired. Thats 3 widely acclaimed games with the same primary issue.
@@geordiejones5618 I do think ER suffers more cause it is so much longer so that becomes more apparent at the end plus other factors like overtuned enemies, but I agree with ya ending wise it is BB, DS then ER for me mostly cause ER is so long that the end can become a slog while the others are shorter and thus it is less of a slog
I can’t be the only one who tried going through the Catacombs AND New Londo before ever finding Undead Burg because I missed the doorway in the aqueduct
My dad had to tell me that it wasn't the correct way past the skeles
For me I missed the Capra Demon and Depths. I dunno if I missed the key, or just never checked it again or what, I just didn't do the depths until I had done the Catacombs, then I got into Blighttown through the Valley of the Drakes, found the great hollow and ash lake, then went through Havel's tower and did Darkroot, then back to blight town and beat Quelag and rang the bell that way. Didn't find the depths until after Anor Londo, I forget exactly when. Suffice to say the Capra Demon and Gaping Dragon had a terrible awful rotten no good awful bad day.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290hearing other people’s path they take when they play the game is why I love dark souls so much. It just goes to show how truly open and freely you can explore the world of dark souls. The game essentially allows you to do damn near everything as soon as you leave the asylum.
You aren’t. I had the same paths. And I got stuck at the bottom by the necromancer for awhile
Now I'm curious what are the things you can't do out the gate
Every new playthrough after I finish o&s I immediately get a deep sense of agony and dread knowing I have to go through the second half
Me too, which is why I pretty much stop at that point everytime I try to replay it.
Crazy how the same happens in Elden Ring. You get to the capital and game peaks but after that main boss it declines.
The kiln wrong warp is basically part of playthrough
@@noobeternal9718 I feel like it’s the opposite in Dark souls 3. First part is kinda boring and sucks, but around Irithyll the game starts getting good and then really great. And the bosses are amazing throughout. Dark souls 2 is actually very consistent imo but i don’t like it. And sekiro and bloodborne are enjoyable all the way through for me.
@@Ab-he4vf it does decline after Leyndel. Snowy areas suck some serious ass. Then Farum Azula and Haligtree make a comeback for the game, they have awesome level design but not the likes of Limgrave & Caelid. The last bosses except Elden Beast are great but still overall second half of Eden Ring feels like a sharp decline. Just like DS1, but not so dramatic.
I do understand being disappointed in Gwyn being weak, but as a lot of others have said... That's kinda the point.
And while I understand that the final boss being weak because of lore reasons could be kinda appealing to lore nerds, for normal players theres nothing more dissapointing than the final fight of the game being easy, thats the same problem with demon souls (and ds2 for some people). Not only that but if they made a hard fight with him while saying he's in a "weakened state" it would be 1000x better for everyone.
@@otaviojohannjardim1702 Wouldn’t say it’d be 1,000X better for everyone. Like for normal players I guess, but in the lore? Nah, him being still powerful wouldn’t make sense. Only boss being still in a powerful state even when weakened I can think of that works is Radahn, but his weakened state is because of him being that of a beast, not because he lost any actual strength, just his mind. Another one I can think of is Artorias, but that’s because he became corrupted by the Abyss and lost an arm, again, not because he lost any real strength, just became corrupted and lost his mind and an arm. But Gwyn lost almost all his strength because he sacrificed himself to the First Flame as fuel, so him still being strong doesn’t make sense there. And he can actually be a pretty cool fight, as long as you don’t parry cheese him.
@@otaviojohannjardim1702 it's not just a "lore nerd" thing. Even a normal player can feel the narrative weight of the great and mighty Gwyn being a sad and shallow hollow. His lack of difficulty reinforces the theme of the story. Even normal players have the right to a good story.
@@otaviojohannjardim1702 they did that with Elden Ring...go look at how many people complain about it
Agreed, the anticlimax is crucial to the experience of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Gwyn is also unlikely to feel like a _total_ pushover to new players anyhow. It's funny to me because obviously you're _supposed_ to feel at least a little frustrated at some level, that's the point - some people want their games to only serve them with the limited set of emotions deemed acceptable in mass pop art, but that twist on your expectations is at the heart of the ludonarrative masterpieces of the Soulsborne series. I feel like asking for a more "satisfying" ending is a bit like asking for an easy mode, it just kinda misses the point and wants to make the game into something it just isn't
I agree with everything up until the final boss, I think it is absolutely perfect. Gwyn was shown as godlike in the opening cutscenes but turned out to be a hollowed who kindled the flame like you are trying to do. having no cutscene, being visibly hollowed, and having the most beautiful melancholy solo piano piece that gives off the vibe that this lord was defeated long before you got there. I think its a 10/10 boss fight and top 3 in souls.
After having a pretty easy time with most of the bosses Gwyn destroyed me quite a few times, and it felt fair. Pretty fun fight and great design
He needed more health. Offensively he's fine, the problem is that he dies so, so quickly. My first playthrough, he died in like seriously 10 seconds. Crystal Soulmass chewed off half by itself, then I smacked him with a club twice.
Someone put a message before the fight, telling me that he is weak to parries. I beat him first try and felt it really underwhelming. The worst part is that everyone says Gwyn having no cutscene and being very easy to kill is intentional, when he is clearly rushed and not as fleshed out as the devs wanted him to be
@@zombiepigman1813 Agree. Nobody would complain about Gwyn being strong if he was. There wouldn't be anyone saying he should be weaker, there'd just be people satisfied with a good final boss, and impressed that even after everything he was still strong. There's even ways to do bosses that feel obviously weaker than their prime, while still being strong. Hell, they DO this in Dark Souls 1 with Artorious, who they had time to refine, and they absolutely nailed it with Ludwig and Gael, with phase 2 being them temporarily finding a little bit of what they used to be, and Gael even finding something extra by phase 3. Heck. They even did it with Gwyn in Dark Souls 3. Did anyone complain when Soul of Cinder's second phase wasn't super easy?
@@zombiepigman1813it is widely known that Gwyn was rushed, people don't say this was intentional, they say it accidentally ended up better this way from a lore perspective.
the duke's archives honestly is my favorite area in the whole game; not only is it visually stunning, but it also has such interesting sequences and mechanics (The fake out Seath encounter, the rotating staircase and secret doorways, as well as the whole small forest before the entrance to the crystal cave.) Something about being in this huge library that's literally above the clouds on a hilltop, with the pink sky always visible from the outside sections is really captivating in a game that's usually so dark and dreary (besides for anor londo of course)
I do really like it as a whole, outside of the disappointing boss + runback
@@JKLeeds Seath's difficulty is really there for mage builds - getting the legendary weapon is the real challenge.
The fake boss part kinda gets me pissed off. Like just imagine trying to do a no death run but forget they put that shit in your path
It was always my least favorite area but it's still cool
@@worstthanaveragegamer1041 a lot of people don't know, but you can just WALK BACK the fog gate on the first encounter and proceed to the archives with the lift jump trick, completely skipping the need to die and the jail cell block, however, being in the upper floor and trying to go DOWN to get the items/spells there is not that easy given that you skipped a bonfire.
The difficulty of the four kings really shines in NG+. They have the largest difficulty jump out of any other boss, massive health and damage and it becomes very hard to not have 2 or 3 swarm you.
It’s the definition of a dps test
@@MILDMONSTER1234 Absolutely, you gotta be smoking them the entire time, stamina management/boosts become a lot more important.
@@MILDMONSTER1234 or can be turned into a poise and stamina test. Only way I ever beat them on 2 different NG+ playthroughs was with full Havel and using the pattern of swing-swing-chug-swing-swing-chug, and repeat
Didn't notice any difference in my NG+ run. Same "human"-shaped punching bag. To me, the DLC bosses are the ones with the spiciest difficulty increase. Haven't gone into higher NG+ levels though.
@@MILDMONSTER1234 so normally I'd agree, but I take everything slow & just learned to dodge multiple at a time. All the more, it's THAT much better when you're outnumbered and depth is obscured.
The first half of the game up to O&S is still to this day one of the best things ive ever experienced in gaming, its funny how drastic the dip in quality is almost immediately after anor londo.
My replays of the game usually ends after Anor. It’s not that the second half is bad, but just forgettable to me. Second half just ends up being boss room rushes rather than enjoying a journey to an epic fight.
@@elephantshelf3617 The first half and dlc feel like you're going on an actual adventure... the second half becomes an annoying, unfinished fetch quest. All for a boss that can be parried to death
@@beans3977 Doing Seath, then New Londo, into the DLC is a pretty good experience. Really, it's just Izaleth and the Catacombs that kinda suck the joy out of me, and this routing coincidentally sets up the DLC, primes you for it, then you do it, and aren't so overlevelled that you can just facetank Artorious. Whatever you do after that is up to you. Finish the game on principle, maybe go quit game for the last time with Priscilla to keep her company, glitch into Gwyn's room to make a statement, idk.
So like Elden Ring then. Post Leyndell I feel like the quality takes a nosedive.
@@weirdeurasianboy8091 yeah the similarity with DS1 is crazy, dip in quality in around half a game after exploring a gorgeous city, and then the game kinda becomes a slog you want to finish as soon as possible.
Really appreciate your take on Gwyn. He’s actually a pretty challenging boss if you’re playing the game blind. There’s absolutely no reason to believe you can parry a literal God when you can’t even parry Capra Demon. Most people seem to know about the parry because they’re literally looking at guides and tutorials on their first playthrough. And then they say the last boss is disappointing after cheesing him.🤪
Yeah I'm not sure why anyone would think to parry him when you couldn't parry any other boss. Can't imagine anyone figured it out without looking it up
Yup I didn’t know he could be parried and I found him to be hard - not anywhere near Artorius but definitely not a pushover.
@@JKLeeds I figured it out without looking it up. I used solely dragon form with a black knight shield for most of the game so parrying was my primary tool. When it came to Gwyn his fighting style is similar to black knights which can be parried so I did the same with him and it became like a rhythm game to win
Me who beated the game blind and still parried him 😎
eh. i always try at least a few times with each boss. can’t hurt to try
Actually, the skull lantern us better than you think. The description says it is aligned with the catacombs and if you use the lantern you will see blue torches on the wall light up. While these wall torches don't provide much light, following them brings you straight to Nito so you don't have to run around the drakness trying to find the boss door.
Oh dang I never realized that that's pretty cool
It's also dropped by necromancers in the catacombs (so you don't need to be pushed down by the thief). I had 2 before going to the tomb of giants, and the description is pretty clear on its purpose. And honestly, even if I was using smough's hammer or dragon tooth, I liked the fact I had to either use them with one hand and be giga slow or switch to two hands and see nothing for some seconds
It’s common knowledge that the late gate was rushed because the devs ran out of time, but I honestly thought for the remaster we would actually see Miyazaki’s full vision and not just DS fix and a bonfire added near Vamos 😢
not even DS fix, it's a horrible remaster. Dark Souls 1 deserves a better remaster!
Miyazaki doesn't care . I think he's kind of a hack these days.
Imagine this: a full remake of DS1 in Elden Ring's version of the engine, preserving the level design but expanding the second half the game with additional content and tweaks.
@@augustday9483 eldern wrongs the same engine as ds1....
@@based-ys9um Did you not notice I said "Elden Ring's VERSION of the engine". I think it should be pretty obvious what I'm talking about here. 15 years of development have brought significant improvements to the engine which DS1 lacks.
I actually forced my way through the catacombs all the way to Pinwheel. It was hella difficult but I thought to myself "well it's Dark Souls, so it's probably supposed to be like this"
Same. I played DS2 and DS3 before DS1, so I was used to the series' bullshit. I killed EVERY SINGLE enemy up to Pinwheel, only to find that I had dug myself into a deep dark pit with no way back up. I said fuck it, put the game down for a week or two before deleting that character. People praise how open DS1's world is, but I will argue that it is just open enough to fuck you over if you decide to explore the tougher areas that are obviously presented to you at the start of the game. I ended up doing the same fucking thing with Lost Izalith. I don't think that DS1 is a masterpiece. It never made me feel that way. Almost everything it does, I genuinely think DS2 does better. And if you want that DS1 nostalgia, just play DS3.
@@D.H.1082Skill issue, you weren’t really stuck down there, you just kept dying or got lost.
@@coleozaeta6344 No, I went Hollow. I was neither stuck nor lost. I told you I put the game down after I realized what I did. I didn't want to fight all those over leveled skeletons again. Also, it is rude to necro.
@@D.H.1082 Honestly, the game just needs a "darksign returns you to Firelink" thing, since the worst problems of Dark Souls 1 are mainly getting stuck at the ass end of nowhere. That and Izaleth. Also generally agree. Unless it's specifically for lore and atmosphere, I don't think there's any reason to play Dark Souls 1 over 2. I could see liking 3 more or less just based on preference for the game feel, but 2 generally improves on 1 in every single way it could. Only thing it messes up is removing the kick for the fart waft.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 Interesting take. Most people I see consider 2 to be the worst DS game, so much so that it became a meme to hate on Dark Souls 2 just because.
Honestly, I like all the weird quirky stuff in the latter half of the game. Like the weird demons that shoot fire, or the ones with half a body, or the squid monster that shoot acid. They are just so weird. Or the fact you can fight a fleet of pinwheels and baby skeletons in the catacombs, or the skeledogs.
These all sound wonderful to me LMAO
The enemies are ok. It's the level design and placement of those enemies that stumbles and falls flat on its face.
This is some “In Defense Of DS2” shit right here
@littlemoth4956 I guess it kind of is. Ds2 has too many points of frustration and unfairness for me though.
I agree. I too like this feature of the game
As a Berserk fan, Undead Burg was by far my favourite area. The enemies and level design, the bosses and the overall ambience/aesthetics are just perfect. Adding the shortcut back to firelink, it became my absolute favourite area in the entire soulsborne universe
What does Berserk have to do with anything here...
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoonno idea lol
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoonI guess the metal to metal fight of one man against a fortress of soliders? You don't really get much of that vibe after in other areas, but i dont know im just trying to rationalise
@@db5094 Dark Soul is full of Berserk reference, but the Undead Burg is definitely not one of them...
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon again, just trying to rationalise what they said
In regards to fast travel, you technically don't need to run back to the bonfire you were just at due to a lack of a warp point. The way bonfires work in Dark Souls is that you need to sit at them in order for the respawn point to register. So using your example, I'm at the bonfire in the cave in Darkroot Basin. I then realize that I forgot to upgrade my weapon to +11 and that I must visit a blacksmith to do this job. I sit down at the Darkroot Basin bonfire, warp to Undead Parish, I remember *not* to sit down at the Parish, then once I'm done with Andre, I can cast Homeward, use a Homeward Bone, or Darksign and I will respawn at the Darkroot Basin bonfire 100% of the time every time. The backtracking is only necessary if you sit down at another bonfire.
Oh man going down the lift and seeing it came out in firelink was one of the greatest gaming moments for me. Before then I figured the game was pretty linear, and after all that time, coming back around? That's when I really felt like this game was something special, especially for me, as I'm a metroidvania buff
First Half: Perfect for the most part Second Half: imaginative and creative but annoying at times Artorias DLC: Utterly Orgasmic
I remember I killed artorias but I went to go kill gwyn but I thought I could just walk out but I accidentally got the dark lord ending
@@theofficialnationwidehatersame, sorta. Killed Gwyn then thought I could just walk back out of the arena and go back to the game. I rushed through NG+ just to get the ending I actually wanted the first time 😂
honestly I've not seen a better summary of my thoughts on this game yet. this one nailed it. great video xoxo
Thanks friend! Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Every time I want to play ds1 again the thought of facing the bed of chaos comes to mind... You know the rest.
Use a bow and cheese it
Just skip Izaleth. Wrong warp past the funny door
I fought the bed recently again and honestly? Using the quit out method and some luck it wasn't that bad. granted, the fact that you have to USE QUIT OUT to make a boss more bearable is really stupid.
ive noticed recently that the whole teaching you to look around in a boss fight thing doesn’t really have any pay off. You use the critical hit on asylum demon, taurus demon, and can even sortof do it on capra demon, but after that point its not like learning to read the environment helps with more bosses exactly. Besides maybe ceaseless discharge there are no more bosses where looking around can give you a major advantage.
Yeah this is a fair point. I guess you could sort of argue Seath as well but it does pretty clearly highlight it to you in the opening cutscene.
@@JKLeeds its also the only souls game that really attempts it. I just kindof wish there were more bosses later on where the arena could be used against them in a major way.
I'd argue that the pillars in Ornstein and Smough can be seen in a similar, if less dramatic way. Uh. And, I mean. Bed of Chaos?
It's possible the boss fights were designed orginally with this in mind, and then as the game went further on it kinda got scrapped for most of them. A shame, cuz plunging attacks are so rare in these games and so fucking satisfying.
I feel like the "not being able to warp to every bonfire you've been to after getting the lord vessel" is a result of From Soft trying to make it so the player has to still explore and retain the interconnectivity of the world but going about it in a very poor way. The Kindled Bonfire system sounds a lot better as opposed to only being able to warp to some key ones and having to run everywhere in between when you could warp to kindled bonfires and still have to explore and retain that interconnectivity but with an added sense of "alright I wanna use my humanity wisely".
It's worth noting that warping does not change your "last bonfire", meaning you can homeward bone to the bonfire you warped from if you haven't sat at another bonfire since then. So if you want to go to Andre and then right back, you can do that. Of course this doesn't cover every situation but it makes it a lot less egregious. Though it would have been nice to be able to get a reusable item for that like the Aged Feather in DS2.
Dark Souls one is my favorite game despite the time constraints and limitations it had to go through I really wish we could see a version with all the complete content it was meant to have
I would KILL for a dark souls remake.
I assume the lack of bonfires in new londo was to avoid new players accidentally resting there early on and getting stuck, but i dont understand why they couldn't place atleast one bonfire right at the first bridge to avoid the slow elevator
I always thought it was because the place was flooded so any bonfires would have gone out but idk
Never understood why so many people went to the graveyard with the skeletons first thing after arriving in firelink. The very first NPC you see when you get there tells you explicitly where to go and what to do.
Video game logic: Skeletons are starting enemies. Dark Souls is a hard game. Therefore, these skeletons are hard to beat starting enemies. It's honestly kind of a cool subversion of tropes.
I looped around for 30 minutes unable to find the stairs to the burg, somehow stumbled upon the graveyard
Level design is misleading, that's why.
Because the stairs leading up to the Undead Burg melt into the cliff and are very easy to miss. To add, DS1 had such a huge reputation for being this super-mega-giga-ultra difficult game that will tear out your anus, that you expected bullshit enemies like the skeletons are for a new player. I'd likely fight Asylum Demon with the broken sword too, if there was no message telling me to run.
some of us only had japanese voice solution only.. soooo
I think Dark Souls was showing signs of rushed development in Anor Londo already, not only after it (this is going to be long): - Anor Londo has a lot of cool looking buildings in the background - which you never really get to explore. The city is massive, and you effectively spend all your time in two buildings (the cathedral from which you enter through the window, and the bigger building with O&S). By way of comparison, you go through a lot of unique looking buildings in the Undead Burg and the Parish, which are clearly the better thought out areas. - You enter the city by coming from some stairs, then you land on a bland, grey square (that you take abnormally long to traverse) with basically nothing. There are also two basically identical buildings with two giants each, with some statues and checkered floor tiling. None of this is particularily enticing; - You reach the main gimmick of the area, the impractical elevator, and enter the cathedral through the broken window, after fighting/avoiding a recycled enemy. Why wasn't there some puzzle to break the cathedral window at least? People try to justify this through perceived lore (did Tarkus break it?), but nothing in the game suggests it, even in item descriptions. - Then you go through the rafters. The upper area of the cathedral also has a stairwell to the left that leads to a chest with a Divine Blessing and... an empty, closed corridor. It seems like this building was supposed to have more on the inside, but it was either cut short or never made. It's worth mentioning that the lower level of the cathedral, with the guardians and the painting, is basically devoid of anything other than those columns. Enemy placement seems somewhat random too - which even contradicts the lore that states the guardians are still protecting the painting, even if they forgot why. One could expect them to at least be positioned in a logical fashion. You drop a massive chandelier in front of them, and they'll keep staring at it forever. - You leave the cathedral, take the impractical elevator, and find yourself in another huge empty area that takes too long to traverse (those enormous stairs). You also see some gargoyle demons scattered, which make no sense from a lore perspective (demons are the enemies of Anor Londo, why would Gwyndolin manifest *those* guys to defend his city, out of any possible candidates?). Then there's the famous archer section, which is great actually (very difficult for newcomers, challenging but easily solvable once you get the hang of it); - You enter O&S building. It is poor in color (mostly just white, orange and brown) but rich in detail (except for the rooftop with those 2 silver knight archers), but it makes no sense for it to only have human sized beds and doors everywhere (also, various stock-photo paintings in walls, except for one of Gwynevere - why was that there? She would never fit in those rooms, so who could've comissioned a Gwynevere portrait?). Wasn't Anor Londo the city of the Lords, who are all bigger than humans? Gwyn, Gwyndolin, Ornstein and Artorias are all half as tall as your character, and none of them could ever enter any of those rooms. - Let's not forget the infamous Gwyndolin hallway. Even after defeating the boss, it's way too long and it leads to a room with three chests, one of which is empty, something that never comes up before or after that point in the game. The empty chest in Firelink can actually have key items you lost (though that isn't explained anywhere), while the one after Gwyndolin is never useful. - The city becoming dark after attacking Gwynevere is also a cool touch, but it makes no sense for the effect not to happen after killing Gwyndolin first. He was the one mantaining the illusion after all. It would be very cool if, by killing him first, you'd simply find the Lordvessel dropped in the middle of Gwynevere's empty room. On a side note: I agree 100% that parrying Gwyn is great, and that more enemies should be parriable. Out of 3 defensive options in DS (dodging, blocking and parrying), dodging is the *only* viable one in most bosses.. Elden Ring did great in that regard.
Wait blocking isn’t viable? I went through basically the entire game blocking more than dodging (and I barely touched parrying). Moonlight Butterfly was the only boss that I dodged more than blocked
Anor Londo does seem empty but in my opinion it gives it a slightly psychedelic feel. It’s more symbolic and deliberate than any other area in DS1… you know, a once gigantic and unrelenting force of giants that is slowly crumbling as time passes, etc etc
@@danielsimmich1858 Blocking is totally viable if you use a greatshield.
Blocking in ds1 with a medium shield is viable, can't say the same for elden ring
I agree with everything except that the dlc also had empty chests meant to show that loot has been pillaged already, just like the empty chest in gwyndolins room. Also gwynevere was likely not as tall as the illusion created by gwyndolin.
First half was amazing, just exploring and waking through the world and meeting each enemy and boss along the way. Second half felt grindy but it was alright haha
"Especially if you do get to the bottom and have to climb back out" *proceeds to have flashbacks of being stuck in tomb of giants with a reinforced club*
Pure PTSD that. That's gotta be the worst way you can get yourself stuck in the whole series.
Have you seen the Ash Lake? Such an amazing place, what an awe area but completely empty. So many possibilities.. but it’s completely empty and disappointing. This area gives me the biggest “unfinished“ vibe. Hope it will get ehat it deserves if they ever do a remake.
You know I don't really mind Ash Lake being kind of empty. I actually find the emptiness and the music add some kind of ethereal quality to it.
@@JKLeeds Completely true. I like to consider two types of empty. Intentional emptiness and unfinished empty. Something like Lost Izalith is unintentional, but something like Ash Lake is definitely intentional emptiness.
I always thought the emptiness was intentional, it really fits the vibe of the area
On my first playtrought I got to ash lake really early (around lvl 30 just after beating the gargoiles) Great hollow was extremely painful but interesting, and after hours of trying to get to the bottom and got to ash lake I was extremely scared of what the hell was down there I got a bit dissapointed there wasn't a boss or something, but nonetheless is one of my favorite areas, the place looks cool as hell
@@Sairof There's a leaping hydra down there
Solid vid! Well-structured and interesting :D My enjoyment of the second half wasn't that much less that the first really, tho I can totally understand why it was for many peep. I really like New Londo Ruins personally, such an unsettling place, both in setting/lore and in gameplay, the ghosties make it so ya never feel safe and the Darkwraiths are just plain scary af lol. Agree with everything you said about all the other areas. I do like Nito tho, I think he's a cool boss ^^
Imagine trying to beat all the buttdragon enemies in Lost Izalith. It's like they've been placed there just to fill in space, when in reality you can easily just ignore all of them.
Kindling to allow for more warps is actually an amazing solution for the warp system. I am also in the camp that loves the lack of warps in DS1, but it makes sense only because of DS1's level design, it doesn't make sense so much in DS2 or Elden Ring as they are both spread out with a lack of intersecting paths, but DS2 should have done that kindling thing where Elden Ring being an open world has no flaws in it's warp system.
It's flaw is being open world and the worst souls game
@@lyrebird5982DS2 is the worst lol
@@lyrebird5982how is it the worst? I’ve had more fun in elden ring than DS1 and 2
@@lyrebird5982never like your own comment again
In my first playthrough, I actually navigated the entire tomb of giants in the dark. It was quite the experience. Yes I can see how the second part is more flawed and rushed and the bosses are not as good, but I don't seem to dislike it as much as other people.
I found the tomb before O&S bosses, finished it blind same as you did. Than climb back, to receive the soul vessel. fun area
About the bonfires…I would agree that they should let you warp to any bonfire that has been kindled to eliminate the needless running.
I don't mind of the running, but adding to the list of warpable bonfire would've helped so much. I liked earning warping, it felt like a huge payoff, but going into NG+ without it is....really annoying.
It seems like they were just trying to think of different ways to increase the difficulty of the levels themselves after already having a difficult first half. This lead to a lot of experimental hazards & less convenient bonfire locations
16:44 While I agree that warping to any bonfire makes sense, it is possible to get back to the bonfire you warped from. Rest at an un-warp-to-able bonfire. Warp and do what you need to do. Use a homeward bone and get taken back to the bonfire you rested at to begin with.
That humanity warp idea is amazing I’m surprised it wasn’t added or anything in future games
I'm more surprised humanity as a mechanic didn't continue into future games, and also dissapointed it didn't tbh.
The Gwyn fight being as trivial as it is was an intentional decision. He's not the same lord of sunlight we've heard so much about. He's a hollow husk of his former self, the true god in him having been burned away in the First Flame. Similar to true king Allant in Demon Souls, it's meant to feel almost pathetic
So there's one key difference between Gwyn and False King Allant. If you don't parry or go Havel Armour/heavy weapon on Gwyn, he's actually very difficult! Very few windows to heal and he's super fast. False King Allant is trivial regardless of build so it works a lot better to get that point across (I still think having that as a final boss is mega anticlimactic though and would pick Gwyn over him)
@@Kuijih I was gonna say...
@@Kuijih He said without parrying… obviously with parrying you have loads of time to chug lol. Have you tried him without parrying? It’s very similar to Soul of Cinders second phase if not the exact same, crazy range, long combos, fast, minimal windows to attack or heal, punishing grabs.
@@bolson42 yes I have beat him without parrying and soul cinders attacks are very telegraphed and he was a joke whem i used sellswords and I beat gwyn on my 2nd run with no armor no rings except calamity ring which makes you take double damage, I used a reinforced club and just caveman jumped him to death lmao
@@Kuijih 🤡🤡🤡🤡
I would say my favorite part of ds1's second half will always be the dukes archives. The whole area, while not perfect, has a great level of atmosphere, one of the better visual designs for a boss and captivating mysteries. It also has some of the better npc questlines in the whole game.
Agree. Imo, the perfect route is do the first part of the game, after you get the lordvessal do Seath, then Darkroot, then New Londo, then the DLC, then wrong warp past the door, skipping Izaleth and the Catacombs. Maybe kill pinwheel if you want more estus, I guess. The second half does the good one of the four, which coincidentally sets up the DLC, then you go prime yourself on the DLC's backstory which carries new londo, then do the DLC while you're not stupidly overlevelled, then skip the bad two and fight a Gwyn that's still not unreasonably easy
"Thrown together last minute" Bed of Chaos was thrown together last minute, lol
*raises hand* I did the skeleton thing. Also, you can get a skull lantern from killing all of the Necromancers in the catacombs before fighting Pinwheel. This is super easy to miss as well though, and you would have no idea that its a guaranteed drop after killing the last Necromancer, unless someone told you. This is why I missed it on my first play though and had to struggle through the Tomb without a light source until Patches kicked me down.
It's actually not a guaranteed drop, it's just abnormally high. I've failed to get the lantern at least once or twice.
@@st.haborym Oh damn, I had no idea. That is really mean, lol! I guess I got lucky because I've always managed to get one once I hunt all those bastards down.
I never knew it was a "guaranteed" drop. I just got it my first playthrough and thought it was the intended progression method, so I got it that way every time forward. Because of this, I don't share the hatred of the area. I actually hate the prior areas more, lol. But seeing how many people miss the lantern and spell, I get it.
In my first playthrough I really was stuck in the catacombs, but I thankfully thanks to that I get that lantern and the black knight greataxe (my favorite weapon) and I slaughter all the late game :)
@@aroundthefur1210 Apparently the drop rate goes up by like 10% with each one you kill, with the last one giving you something like 62%. So you are more likely than not to get it, but it's deffo not guaranteed. Probably because there's one in that pit that Patches kicks you into to. I just wish you didn't have to hold the damn thing in front of you to make it light up. That am not how lantern work.
That centipede legs was your first dad joke that got an audible laughter from me. Good job on that one!
Thank you 😂 my wife said it was the worst joke yet
The mechanic you suggested was the exact thing I tried when I unlocked fast travel. I was confused why I couldn't warp anywere and thought to myself it must be only bonfires I kindled so I wasted some humanity trying that.
I'll never forget going all the way down in Tomb Of Giants without having the Lord Vessel, without light and having to navigate all the way back. I really thought I've locked myself down there and it was a huge relief when I managed to make my way back.
Well, dark souls 1 is a sensitive subject for me so here is the longest essay I have ever written as a youtube comment: Let me start off by saying great video as always. Dark souls 1 is an interesting game for me, if anyone asked me a few years ago what my favorite game of all time would be I would've probably said bloodborne, but dark souls 1 would have been a close second. With the release of Elden ring, I have finally gotten that addiction I had with Fromsoft games a few years ago, and replaying through the game for the first time in a while felt super rewarding (including the end game). However, through the last year, I realized just how much of ds1 I actually just don't enjoy (still an amazing game), and I think that's due to me being harshly critical of those segments that I don't enjoy because those first experiences were so special. So I am gonna talk a bit about the early game: I don't think I enjoy the early game as much as other people. I feel like Fromsoft created the areas and bosses of the early game as ways to teach new players how to play the game, and teach players to treat everything in the game as a puzzle. And I am fine with that, I feel like everything they did with that is perfect. The world design is of course the best I have ever seen in a video game. But through repeat playthroughs, I started to enjoy the game less and less, and I started to think about what the reason may be, and this is my conclusion: -Areas: I think that individual areas in ds1 are just not that fun to play through, comparing most of ds1 areas to other From games just showed me how much I just don't enjoy the areas as much. Undead burg feels like a short 10-minute segment that's very unrewarding to explore (good comparison for first areas: forest of fallen giants with its 10000 sidepaths, central yharnam which is my favorite area in the series because of how alive it feels and how big it is, the visually striking high wall of lothric...etc). The depths while rewarding to explore aren't fun to play through due to spammy rats that stun you without any telegraphs to some of their attacks and of course basilisks that curse for half your health. Darkroot garden is just an empty forest with almost nothing but really boring enemies (cool visually, boring to fight)...etc. And I feel like when I compare it to some other game's levels and how much fun I have exploring, and strategizing how to deal with enemies I kinda feel underwhelmed whenever I explore some dark souls 1 areas. And I put this in its own category: Anor Londo, I feel like anor londo for me lost the spark that it had on my first playthrough, it makes sense that it's the ultimate challenge in terms of exploration putting you in very difficult situations from the rafters with the painting guardians, the silver knight archers and of course O&S. But for repeat playthroughs, I realized that the way difficult was handled in anor londo just made it frustrating rather than fun. When I think of difficult locations from other games for example dark souls 3's ringed city, I feel the difficulty of that area comes from fighting tough enemies that are in groups, yet at the same time easy to separate and have a very clear weakness that you can use against them (for ringed knight its parries/backstabs, for harald knights it's plunging attacks), and the level design allows the player to play carefully to find said weakness and actually fight through the area and clear it without feeling as if the reason the area was difficult was not that the enemies were tough, but because the game restricted the player in some way giving the enemy a huge advantage that they shouldn't have while using the limitations of the player against them. Now I don't think all dark souls 1 areas are "bad" (i don't think the early game areas are bad, just underwhelming), my favorite area of ds1 is sen's fortress and that's because it's exactly what I want from a difficult area, traps that punish recklessness, tough enemies with clear weaknesses...etc. -Bosses: Boss fights are the main thing that separates From games from other games, simple combat with tough bosses. And I feel like for the early game dark souls 1 did its job. To teach the player through each boss different situations and how to deal with them (Asylum demon teaches that there are always multiple ways to fight a boss and that the simplest solution isn't always the right one. Taurus demon by forcing you to explore the area and find the platform up above which can be used to plunge taurus, or be used as a bigger area to fight taurus in. Gargoyles for teaching you how to fight multiple enemies, albeit I don't think they are quite as balanced as people make them out to be. Gaping dragon teaching them to use the boss's size against them...etc). But I feel like since their purpose was to teach the player, when they learn and overcome those challenges, these bosses just become lacking, having only very few attacks and so little hp that a fight against a standard enemy in the other games is more fun than any boss in early game ds1. Now let me talk a bit about O&S, now don't get me wrong they are my favorite fight in the game. But there are just too many issues I have with this fight. First off, people talk about the disparity in speed between the two, but through my hunders to thousands of times fighting them, that has never once come up in any strategy I used against them, the pillars yes but not the speed disparity. Smough's rush attack just removes any speed disparity the two had making the fight seem unfair at times when smough's big hammer decides to be spammed in your face 10000 times. An example of a fight where speed disparity actually matters is demon prince, where one is almost completely immobile as you fight the other (now I do have issues with that fight but it's not the focus right now). Secondly, separation through pillars is not consistent due to smough's charge, having Ornstein on one part of the pillar while the smough on the other is the most consistent way to get damage quick, but sometimes that's just inconsistent due to the way smough moves (and also by forcing you to always check on smough while Ornstein is still a danger) making many situations where taking damage or death unavoidable due to seemingly unfair situations...etc, now I have many more issues with the fight (second phase is boring, Ornstein is glitchy, Ornstein attack through smough with vision of Ornstein impaired due to smough's large body..etc) but I feel like I got my point across. Now finally after that long ass essay, let me talk a bit about the end game: Since your videos are almost always spot on, most of the issues you presented in your video are exactly my thoughts including many of the issues I had with the early game carried to the end game. So rather than just writing another essay explaining everything I hate about the end game. Let me just write about the points I disagree with: First off, New Londo: I think new londo is probably my favorite area of the end game, from the creepy atmosphere, the horrifying revelations of the dead population of new londo, the many ghosts (which probably are the ghosts of the people who inhabited new londo)...etc and I think that adds a lot to the area itself. In terms of level design, I think the fact that the flooded segment is blocked off and once unlocked is just under the first segment of the area is really clever. And finally the fight with four kings located at the bottom of the abyss in a pitch-black arena. Now about the four kings, I think that it is a perfectly fine fight. Sure it's a DPS test but putting on Havel's armor to tank the damage is a strategy that works on any boss in ds1 (including the DLC bosses) and I feel like that's an unfair assessment of the fight, the fight itself is probably one of the better ds1 fights because having that rush where you need to be as aggressive as possible (especially on sl1 with low damage output with a +0 weapon/fighting them on higher ng+ cycles), and learning their attack patterns and how to dodge through them is really satisfying because it's a fight that's really fun to get good at. And even fighting multiple kings at once is not unfair (at least not completely) because having more than one at the same time means they won't attack you as long as you are fighting one king (though transitioning between kings when one dies and all other 3 attack you is really hard). As for the runback, the shortcut with the ladder makes the runback much more bearable (it's still like 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds). And finally, Gwyn. I understand thinking gwyn to be an underwhelming final encounter due to parries. And of course, how aggressive and fast he is makes it seem like the difficulty disparity is huge. But I feel like I am fine with that, the parry not working on any other boss except gwyn makes sense because he is supposed to be a shell of his former and a pushover (though I feel like that is kinda ruined with his normal fight being, in my opinion, the hardest in the game to master). But his normal fight is by no means bad, I feel like learning to fight him unlocked, dodge the majority of his attacks (except the fast swing, I am not dealing with that shit), and learning the punishes (and healing opportunities that you have) makes gwyn a really satisfying fight to learn and beat normally. Also, not relying on parries but rather using them as a tool occasionally makes for a very fun climactic final battle for me. Well then, this took well over an hour to write so if anyone actually does read this, thanks for sticking with my bullshit.
I read through the whole thing and enjoyed every second! Very well written my friend. I do agree with the points about the first half as well. It doesn't hold up in some ways compared to newer games I think.
*Clicks 'Read More'* 'O_O!' Thanks for takin' the time to write this! Was a good read and I think I agree with everything really. Nice to see some New Londo Ruins appreciation :D
@@faustusdrake Thanks. I wrote this just to get it off my chest, but I really appreciate people actually taking their time to read this.
Long KZhead comments on Souls videos are my favorite genre of literature. The way you describe your feelings about DaS1 changing over time is the exact same thing that happened to me with Demon's Souls. I played DaS1 first, and then DeS shortly afterward, and DeS became my favorite game of all time. But the more I've replayed it over the years, the more I find that I just don't enjoy a lot of the actual gameplay that occurs over the course of a playthrough. 1-1 is a great first level, my favorite in all of Souls. But after I complete 1-1 and open up the other archstones, I often find myself sitting in the Nexus for a couple minutes not really wanting to take on any of the next areas. If I have a piercing weapon or magic I'll clear out 2-1, or if I want to farm spice I'll go to 3-1, but it always feels like I have to force myself to actually play the game at that point. Things get better toward the late game once I actually get a build together (which takes SO LONG to do in DeS!), but over time I've realized that I don't even particularly like the early to mid game in what I consider my favorite game. I really want to like the Ornstein and Smough fight as much as others do, but Ornstein's ridiculous pathing, their attacks clipping through each other, and the lackluster second phase can diminish that enjoyment. I will say that when I get a fight where the glitchy movement and clipping doesn't happen, it's usually one of the highlights of a playthrough. When those problems present themselves, though, it's among my least favorite fights. I think that so much disparity in the experience of the fight depending on performance shows that it was designed well but implemented poorly. (I would still always choose to fight O&S over Throne Watcher and Defender in DaS2 who, while not glitchy and don't clip through each other that I've noticed, are not designed well as a double boss battle between sharing the same strengths/weaknesses and being placed in an unfit boss arena.) New Londo is one of my favorite areas in the game actually, but I have to disagree about 4 Kings. In my experience, and it seems to be the consensus of the community, the optimal strategy for 4 Kings is to put on Havel's, maybe equip the Crest Shield, and attack constantly. The way I see it, the optimal strategy to beat a boss in a Souls game should be to avoid taking hits and to attack only when there is a legitimate opportunity to do so. (As much as I love greatshield and spear playthroughs, I think dodging attacks is more skillful and should be rewarded.) The fact that dodging attacks, especially tracking magic attacks which last for a very long time, in the 4 Kings fight is likely to make you lose DPS and potentially cause the next king to spawn before you kill the first, suggests to me that they needed a bit of tweaking to properly reward skillful play. But that is a matter of opinion, as maybe the design should instead reward the resourcefulness of knowing to find good armor to be able to tank their hits, which it does. And I agree with your opinion on Gwyn. I do think that there's no reason you shouldn't be able to parry Capra Demon, maybe even Quelaag's sword attacks, but Gwyn is a good boss fight as he is, parries and all.
@@creatureofthegreatswamp1075 Can't really comment much on DeS as I haven't played it much myself (don't have a legal copy of the ps3 game, and my financial situation isn't the greatest so I can't really afford to buy a ps5 just to play one game). Watching a few playthroughs of the game isn't really enough for me to have the most in-depth opinion of the game. Talking about Throne watcher and defender, I actually enjoy that fight more than O&S (i think O&S are a better fight, I just don't enjoy them as much since they are either too easy on a casual playthrough, or too bullshit for harder challenge runs). If you would have asked me that during my first few runs then I would have not enjoyed the throne duo as much, but over the years as I mastered both fights, I found the throne duo to be much more consistent even if they aren't designed as well. The fight is actually balanced in a very unintuitive way by understanding the different AI states that they can be in. I won't go into detail but I recommend watching an sl1 ng+7 no roll..etc fight of them to see how it's done. About 4 kings, even if the optimal strategy in ng is to put on Havel's, It's by no means the actual optimal strategy for the fight in more dire situations as I have stated. Their low damage output just allows them to be tanked, but when they are an actual threat the fight just becomes much more fun (this is also the problem I have with SoC from ds3 who during phase 1 has a very low damage output allowing you to just tank the damage and r1 spam it down, however fighting it at sl1 ng+7, it turns into objectively the hardest fight in the series due to it having well over 50 attacks including soul mass on each of its 4 sub-phases in phase 1). Also about losing DPS, learning the fight properly, there was never an opportunity where I lost DPS from their magic attacks (except the aoe which only delays you for a few seconds), even the tracking magic you can dodge by just staying at the king's left side and strafing as you hit the king occasionally. And even then, multiple kings are 100% manageable because they rarely attack you as you are fighting one king (they only attack you when you get close to them, meaning if the king you are fighting pushes you towards one of the other kings, just be ready to dodge their attack). Now, I don't think four kings are an amazing fight (a solid b-tier), and as you have stated it is a matter of opinion. But since tanking is only viable for ng fights I don't really consider it an optimal strategy. Throughout the years, Fromsoft has been making games harder by forcing the player to actually learn more aspects of the combat, whereas in ds1 tanking damage and poising through everything was super effective (adding with that a greatshield and even DLC bosses don't require any skill), to bloodborne removing shields all together and increasing enemy speed putting much more emphasis on dodging. With Elden ring forcing the player to learn positioning since bosses punish you for running away to heal or just dodging mindlessly rather than understanding the fight and looking for opportunities in between attacks to either heal or punish. And I feel like with four kings I can be a bit lenient on the fact that a tanking strategy is the most effective on ng (again, of the 26 bosses, very few can't just be tanked mindlessly, even manus and artorias can be tanked to a certain degree). As for gwyn, I feel like a few bosses should have been parriable (Ornstein since old dragonslayer can be parried in ds2, gargoyles since they can also be parried in ds2, Capra demon since omen killer which is just a reskinned capra demon can be parried in Elden ring...etc). And I feel like gwyn being the only parriable boss in the game is just some way to make him feel special which I appreciate. What I don't like about gwyn is that he is very buggy, where often he just stands there doing nothing for a second before going back into a full sprint catching you off guard, though with how good everything else about the fight is, it's a minor thing that I can overlook.
I love this game but I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: the greatness of the first half was an accident. None of the other games in the series locks you out of fast travel for so long. That's really the main thing that makes the first half so good. That sense of progression as you go deeper and deeper into hellish regions and the feeling that you might get stuck there with no easy way out. Thats why it feels like such an accomplishment to make it to Anor Londo.
This is why when I replay the game now I play up to O&S, and challenge myself to slay every enemy that I get within targeting range of with as few deaths as possible. There's a few different areas to consider visiting after Gargoyle's and before Quelaag, which can make these runs more spicy as you can choose to only visit one of them. It seems like nearly any build works for this which is great, and if you're very fast and clean you can finish It in under 2 hours which I think is awesome haha.
What are these several areas? Darkroot and...?
@@drewpeacock9087 yeah, Darkroot, the usual path through both the Depths and Blighttown and...the Catacombs aka The Bone Zone lol. After clearing one of those areas I take the shortest path to Blighttown, which from Darkroot is the path through the Valley of Drakes meaning I also slay both lightning drakes on the way. From Catacombs I just take the shortcut from New Londo Ruins. The challenging part of the Depths path is Blighttown itself haha. I do skip a few enemies that aren't all that interesting. The Zombie Dragon is repetitive and can be pretty time-consuming, so I skip slaying it. Titanite Demons I leave entirely optional as they can be a chore to beat for non-spell builds. Also any Undead or Skeleton Archers that require a tall ladder or flight of stairs to reach in melee can be skipped. Finally there's a lone Undead you aggro once you enter Undead Burg from Firelink, but he's way below and it takes him nearly a minute to climb up so I just ignore him haha. The Toxic shooters in Blighttown I also let myself ignore, as otherwise it forces me to clear the whole mess of them from the path from Quelaag up to Firelink. To keep things spicy I slay the Hydra in Darkroot Garden after the Moonlight Butterfly and Havel, or every Necromancer in the Catacombs before Pinwheel. Slaying a skele that reanimates counts in my book as well as them falling down out of targeting range below you, but the best strat is often just booking it to the Necromancer and fighting his skeles after. Keep in mind if you try the Catacombs you will have to deal with all the Wheels at the bottom as well! Catacombs are no joke; it's trained me to reinforce armor and level up HP before it which drains a lot of early souls from the run haha. To help the Catacombs run I clear the Capra Demon, and also allow myself to poke my head into the Depths to rescue the Pyromancer for Combustion, which can also help deal with skeles. I do refrain from grabbing the Large Ember as that isn't something you'd be able to grab on the Darkroot Garden path either. In the same way if I'm a Wizard planning to clear Darkroot, I allow myself to poke my head into Lower Undead Burg to rescue the nerd there and meet him back at Firelink. Shortcuts are omni-important haha. You don't need to re-rest at the bonfire after Taurus Demon, but definitely kick down the ladder to it just in case. Waiting for the Drake to land on the bridge lets you run past and rest at the Sunlight Altar and open the gate there, which allows you a faster and easier trip to Lower Undead Burg after Gargoyles. Also always remember to trigger the elevator to Firelink from the chapel to get to Sen's Fortress quickly (you can run past the first platform and onto the second to skip the elevator ride back up).
I really like this video. I agree with almost everything you said, especially with the Tombs of the Giants part; people always says how difficult Blighttown is but they never say how frustrating the Tombs are! I hated that place in my first playthrough
In regards to the "warp to any bonfire location" topic after obtaining the Lordvessel, my guess is that the game designers wanted to (maybe) add a bit to the difficulty factor. It is way more stressful to travel by foot with a lot of souls and also, it increases the chance of getting killed. Indeed, I would have preferred translating this difficulty factor into something else (like an additional resource management step, as you mentioned), but I guess we have to work with what we have :)
Second note on the tomb: no, they didn't just toss in the darkness. It's very consistent with froms earlier games. They're very big on "challenge" levels where you have to sacrifice a gear slot for alleviating the suffering of an area.
You're right on that. I still remember (without any love at all) the Valley of defilement from Demons Souls.
That’s basically elden ring boss design. Which is why I don’t like the bosses as much as the previous games. Just cause it’s consistent with fromsoftawres design doesn’t mean it’s good :/
If you killed all the necromancers in the catacombs you already have a skull lantern before you get to tomb of the giants
Do they always drop them?
@@diggerdog9205 Last one ALWAYS does. It's an incentive to actually do the level instead of running past everything.
yeah, I was like "what do you mean bro, just use the lantern lol"
yup. plus the argument that some things are too well hidden is kinda BS when soapstone messages are a huge part of the game. sure, some people will play offline, but the game was designed with the intention of being online always
@@KILLER1PIE i don't mean to be nitpicky, but you're half right, if you kill all necromancers, and they didn't give you a lantern yet, the last one is guaranteed to drop the lantern. because that works for all unique non-respawning enemies, boars, mimics, gargoyles and such.
After the release of elden ring I started to go back to the older from games, after playing through demons souls I played dark souls even though I thought I heard everything the game has to offer. After beating Ornstein and Smough though I realized that I had only ever heard about the first half of dark souls, and the second half became a complete mystery due to the noticeable lack of content on it.
I agree on a lot of points, though not completely. My first playthrough of dark souls 1 was back in 2018, after beating dark souls 3. Finishing the third game, I got into the lore of the universe and was appalled by the "origin" of everything, deciding to buy and play the just re-released dark souls remaster. It blew me away. The first part was very well done, with every area being connected to each other. I remember being in awe when I opened a door that suddenly got me a shortcut to firelink from the depths. Ornstein and Smough felt extremely unfair to me so I decided to summon solaire for it, which made it a lot easier but still challenging. In fact, in my blind playthrough I only summoned solaire every time I could, because I liked him so much. Now the second half. I personally REALLY like to gather lore, read item descriptions and talk to npcs over and over again after every action. What I love about the first game is that patience is king. Impatience gets punished heavily but with patience I actually barely died at all, making it a much easier game for me compared to the third one at the time. I knew from the guy we see at the blighttown gate I could hurt the ghosts in new londo while being cursed! Then I learned how to cure my curse! Got to new londo and defeated the four kings. (I died once because of the abyss, but had killed sif before). The catacombs were similarly not that difficult because I learned that divine weapons were strong against them. Exploring the catacombs felt like an amazing experience! There were so many secrets, hallways, fog walls, even the coffin before the titanite demon gave me a big shock. I got the skull lantern from a necromancer so I had some sight in the tomb of giants. It was hard, much harder, but patches and rhea made TOG a memorable experience (Leeroy too!). Duke's archives were beautiful and the "death" sequence was very fun (the invisible part I personally had no issue with, I thought it was cool). Now, lost izalith started out great. The demons protecting the chaos ember makes sense from a lore standpoint. The lack of variety was sad, but not bad. I enjoyed destroying the demons that used to be boss level. The firesage was a bit of a remake (especially since I had beaten both asylum and stray at the time) but the lore implications were cool. Rip solaire, then fought the bed of chaos. THAT was the worst experience of my life, and I quit multiple times. It took me a week to beat it after multiple breaks. I actually had to google the shortcut because I just could not believe I had to run every time from the scorpion bonfire. Very dumb to put a bonfire behind an illusion wall AND to hide the shortcut in the form of a wall. The random t-rex dragons were really not helping either. It made the experience a lot less fun for me, even if the lore was interesting. In the end though, I beat it, completed the game through the dark lord ending and since then I've went, beat the game 4 times and got all the achievements (which personally, are also kinda annoying, especially knights honor). It's definitely my favourite souls game. (Got carried away a bit with my essay). What Im trying to say is that even with its rough edges and weird second half, it almost never felt like an unfinished game for me
Dark souls is supposed to be difficult and maybe a little complex But in my opinion the tedious-difficult sections of the game are the main draw back to the game. I'd love to see a remake with serious quality of life changes
I liked New Londo and the Catacombs honestly, it's a nice adventure (just wish the game had a torch). The Duke Archives are definitely okay too! And the Demon Ruins are tolerable and there are cool parts - I like fighting the Capra Demons and Tauruses to see how far I've come skillwise. It's the OUTRAGEOUS Lost Izalith location that's the issue... and the Bed of Chaos is an absolute anti-fun Frankenstein. Fortunately, once you memorize it, you just need 3-4 tries to get through it. Then onto the Kiln of the First Flame, which is awesome.
As soon as I got out of blight town I forgot to rest at another bonfire. Used a homeward bone and ended up back in blight town
Sounds like you missed the intended shortcut to four kings btw.
I can't agree more about the run backs with some bosses. I love Dark Souls 1 so much but every time I die to a boss it just becomes a slog to go through. Some areas are so massive but also empty at the same time. Also your video made me chuckle a lot. You deserve a like and a sub.
Thanks friend! Glad you liked it, welcome to the channel 🙂
people who complain about Gwyn being a bad fight are the same mfs who just parry him the whole time, how about you actually fight him instead of being cheesy ? just parrying him repeatedly is not fun nor rewarding...so ofc you think hes a bad boss
I feel this video has been done to exhaustion, yet here I am watching and liking it.
I'm on my first playthrough right now. On this channel. I wish I played it before Elden Ring but here I am
Does anyone else actually enjoy Blighttown? I think that area was hated just mostly due to the terrible framerate dips experienced on the old gen consoles. Playing on the remastered it certainly is one of the coolest areas imo. The mazelike structures of the upper half, peering down from the giant pillars. It connects 4 areas, and is one of the most expansive and vertical levels in the game. I'd say the only big negative of the area is the mosquitos that tickle you, and the toxic enemies that are frustrating to avoid, luckily they don't respawn.
I agree, after hearing about blighttown for so long I was pretty surprised how fine it really was. Even the mosquitos as annoying as they are to kill due to their jank hitboxes they aren't really that aggressive so it's whatever. Now Tomb of the Giants, fuck that place. When I got through it I was like "Why is Blighttown the infamous one this place is way worse".
@@jfm5864the duke archives slap all of those areas that place is the worst
I'm content not being able to warp everywhere. Adding that bit of traversing makes the world feel bigger and enhances my experience and immersion.
the main issue is the selection of bonfires available, if they had at least one for each major area it'd be more bearable, some places are absolutely awful to backtrack to without a nearby warp
@@mattmangaming279 I hear you, I'm just not sure I agree. DS1 has some obvious issues, especially in the latter half, but I just never found the running to be a bother to me. I just like moseying around the world, it brings me a lot of joy.
@@CarlWidegrip fair enough, there are a lot of cool areas and it's nice to immerse yourself in the world, I just think they could've use at least 3 or 4 more warpable bonfires, especially considering they made every bonfire in the dlc warpable despite that being a lot more contained
@@mattmangaming279 Oh yeah, I understand that people will have different opinions on it. I just wanted to weigh in since the video seemed to insinuate that no one likes the running around, but I do. Just my two cents!
I just want to say I love this channel. I could listen to you explain how you made toast for breakfast and be just as entertained
Haha thanks that's lovely to hear 😂 maybe sometime I'll share my recipe for scrambled eggs with you? The secret ingredient is creme fraiche 🤫
@@JKLeeds It's all about the creme fraiche!! Thank you for the entertainment, keep it up!
The Castlevania music in the background was awesome. Great video
Thanks! Its one of my favourite tracks to include in my vids 😁
Honestly, Tomb of the Giants was such a «lol whatever» area that I just didn’t bother doing any extra work. I had already gotten through all the annoying shit to get there from the graveyard, so I just brute forced it in the dark. I honestly don’t know what the location looks like, but could find my way through by muscle memory within 20 attempts. And considering you just sprint, it seems like an okay time investment, knowing you’ll never have use for lighting up locations before or after that area ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m glad that the games since didn’t go for that design again. They knew it was a bad area, at least in retrospect.
It's not a bad area just because you're too dense to use the item that they _specifically_ give you for completing the area.
@@Lorenzo_I. There are 3 items that can help with this. 1 is guaranteed, but in an area you might not do before the tomb. Also I don't remember if you can even get the maggot hat if it gets Solaire. 1 is guaranteed, but in an area you might not do before the Tomb, requires DLC, and I don't remember if it has stat requirements. 1 is not guaranteed, capping at a 50% drop rate, and has an even lower chance if you do not find the more hidden necromancers. There's a reason they press the torch into your hand at the very start of Dark Souls 2, for a single place in the game that really needs it, and that area is full of duration refills that are highly visible even if you don't have any left.
Doesn't the catacombs just reinforce the careful progression idea? I had zero issues with the Giant Skeledogs as I very carefully trudged through the area and saw their eyes in the dark as I progressed. I thought it was tense! And finding the ring was such a "That's so Cool!" Moment!
Carefully progressing by looking around and preparing for the different enemy encounters is not the same as blindly wandering around in the dark with no idea what’s going to happen. To compare these things even slightly is idiotic. And what? “Such a ‘that’s so cool’ moment”? What the fuck does that mean???
The return to firelink was bitter sweet for me, because after I traveled up from blighttown, I went right instead of left and died to the zombie drake. Then I discovered the new London shortcut...
A fun story about your point regarding bonfire warping: I made it all the way through the Tomb of the Giants to Nito's door without realizing that I needed to place the lordvessel first before his door would open. There is a bonfire right near the door but you cant warp to it so I had to make the whole runback through Tomb of the Giants again just because. I already found the bonfire but I arbitrarily cannot warp to it.
I think a happy medium for the fast travel, would be to have the ability to MAKE a bonfire BECOME a travel point. Like with the Estus and the rite of kindling. Have it cost a humanity or something. Then you could create your own travel points, and if you were commited enough, you could make every bonfire a travel point. But it would still require some backtracking and resources.
Yeah I agree! I just can't see any good that comes from not being able to warp to all the bonfires
That was going to be a feature in dark souls 3 however it was cut from the game. Pity.
Sounds like the warp keys mechanic on King's Field.
Am I the only person who REALLY likes lost Izalith? I do agree with the common discourse that it seems a bit keen to reuse enemies and fighting bed of chaos is very frustrating but the place looks so cool and alien. I love the lore of the chaos flame and demons and how the witches daughters mirror Gwyn's family but instead of Olympian giants they're all monstrous demons and witches. I love getting the ability to run on lava, it makes you feel so much more powerful and it's justified so well in the story telling of the item descriptions.
I agree but just for a personal reason, DS1 was my first and I absolutely hated the game initially, left it for 2 years then through having nothing else to do gave it another try when the lockdowns began and struggled all the way through, right up until Izalith when for some reason I just finally 'got' Dark Souls. So it's hard for me to criticise the place that laid the foundation for the Souls series becoming one of my favourites and easily the best gaming experience I'd had in probably over 5 years at that point.
You are not alone dude, I like Lost Izalith. It feels a bit short but it isn't bad as people say and Bed of Chaos is in my personal opinion best platforming boss made for clunky moveset of your character. Also I find it interesting that it's only one small worm, crazy idea for a boss. Also lore of this place, like always, is great
Psst... The demons were attempting dragon imitation. Quelaag (keylog, c.f. archstone/titanite) and the Fair Lady are nude in the style of the Path of the Dragon. Quelaag's Domain ( *X* ) is a reference to her *eggs* See also: CROSSbreed Priscilla, Painted World AnneX key, The Xanthous, Crucifixion Woods, Crucifix of the Mad King, Logan (X-Men, see the Crucifix shape on the archive doors, his crossed legs, the number 10 (X in Roman Numerals) on the books on the floor, the wolverine claws in Oceiros' garden, the "wolverines of Farron" who follow the Crystal Sage), 10 flasks at a Keeper's bonfire, 10 rings of sacrifice from Oswald, the cross-eyed hollows (mentioned by Female Undead Merchant, visible on Undead Soldier DS1, referenced by Locust Preacher {...belike two eyes gazing upon the other...}) Also, also, rusted iron ring is a reference to Jesus' water-walking.
....wait what?! 😂
Lost Izalith is fine, Demon Ruins is pretty lame though.
I think the bonfires chosen for warping were mostly fine, I hated the one chosen for tomb of the giants, and hated getting back to lost Izalith bc the closet warp was the fair lady's bonfire, but beyond that I enjoyed still needing to explore after warping.
Yeah, for the most part I think they weren't TOO bad. They definitely needed to make the one bonfire before the centipede demon a warp fire though.
I pretty much agree with everything and even in the case of Tomb of the giants I see your points, even though I personally don't mind it. Especially the first time I saw it as not really fair, but an interesting twist that you need to work around. But that is probably bit skewed by the fact I did it after Izalith, so I naturally had the Sunlight Maggot. But you're rigth, the light sources are quite out of the way and not obvious. Maybe something like putting the maggot in a place that's hard to miss would help, again emphasizing the option of exploring somewhere else if you find an area too much at the moment. I also like the archives, especially the moment when you discover you can't just warp out of the jail. Then the early game feeling of just having to push through has a brief comeback.
I like it. It's like an attempt at objective art criticism, and in games, which are based in the polishing of gameplay, it's a noble effort. Dark Souls engaged me so deeply with it's heavily mythological story that I found myelf patching these awful design decisions with headcannon. It was not that the Chaos Servant covenant was a glorified elevator ride with a couple of custom pyromancies, it was more of a "nekya", a mysterious trade with the deities of the underworld with the aim of saving our sky-godly, incandescent friend. Like, demons wouldn't be honest about their ulterior motives and their agenda would never be completely revealed to us, but they are still worthy allies and capable of compassion, and stuff. That's one of the things that makes this game one of the best: themes and aesthetics and ambiguety of narrative reinforcing the believability of its gimmicky gameplay.
What does this comment even mean?
The scarcity of bonfires is perhaps my favorite thing about DS. FromSoft really dropped the ball after this.
THATS WHAT IM SAYING, ds3 is so soft for that reason. 10000 bonfires and immediate warping with a linear game is so boring. Being able to go almost anywhere right off the bat is amazing! It’s the reason the bosses and areas are so rewarding and we look back so fondly. I have 100% DSR and am on my way for DS3, and DS3 just isn’t on the same level.
@@K-roc902 " DS3 just isn’t on the same level." in level design and bonfire placement, no, in everything else, yes. better bosses, environments, music, enemies, atmosphere and combat imo.
@@flamingmanure DS3 definitely does NOT have better enemies, atmosphere, and combat. The enemies in DS3 are some of the worst in the Soulsborne games with DS2 being the only competitor. The atmosphere in DS3 is also the absolute worst in the whole series. The whole game literally tries to make you feel depressed. The combat got downgraded massively in comparison as they made most builds unviable. The only thing DS3 does better than DS1 are the boss fights and music. Everything else is worse.
@@davidnewhart2533 I have to disagree, I just recently beat DS1 and DS3 after diving into the series after ER. I honestly *hated* DS1, I felt like I was playing a Beta of DS3; now I respect it for what it is to the genre and the industry of course, but it was not fun to play. Half of the game feels like the enemies aren't hard, it's just the terrain of typical "hehe instant death fall lol". I went for a classic experience of Pure strength, no summons no magic; half the time I found myself going "These enemies would be pushovers in DS3 because the game doesn't play like a hospital patient trying to get out of a wheelchair after weeks in bed". The boss designs range from legendary (O+S, Artorias) to outright poorly designed and ill thought out (Capra demon, bed of chaos). I much prefer a more fair and clean difficulty curve and narrative structure than the aimless wandering and boring backtracking of DS1; I did the work of beating this area, stop wasting my time making my ignore all the enemies in-between anywhere for mindless tedium. The whole point of DS3 *is* to be depressed, the age is ending around you and the world reflects that; hell in DS1 it's basically the same? Practically every NPC you "Help" ends up getting killed or find out they're an awful person or you have to kill them anyway (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions). I'm actually unsure how builds are less viable in DS3? Now for a pure pyromancer sure cuz the final boss is the Soul of Cinder, but the FP/mana system is objectively better than limited casts so you can actually be a proper wizard type, in PVP I saw tons of builds from pure casters to pure bonkers (strength) to faith/magic boys to pyros and more! DS1 if anything seems more limiting since every build boils down to melee/melee with spice to a degree due to limited casting. DS3 combat actually felt responsive and clean, when I died I could tell it was because I couldn't keep up or over/underestimated a swing or something like that. While in DS1 Your character even on medium weight trudges through the game like they're strolling through a swamp in plate mail, dodge rolls work when they feel like it since you can dodge the swing of an attack; yet still take damage from... I guess the rest of it? Despite your character not reacting to it all but u still lose hp.
@@crushcommando8637 FP meter over number of casts per alloted spell is not a better magic system, as it only incentivises you to use the most efficienct damage/fp spells, while a system that simply gives you X number of uses allows you to gather a few weaker high usage count spells to use on trash mobs while saving the biggest low usage spells on actual threats. In the fp bar system, using one comes at the cost of never using the other, reducing everything to jsut 1 optimized spell, on the usages per alloted system you get to pick and choose which ones are best suited for the situation without canibalising your other options.
I went through the entirety of the Tombs without a light source (I'd looted the skull lantern but didn't experiment sufficiently with it), reached the pre-lord vessel gate and had to fight my way back up in the dark. That was something else. I think the ease with the final boss actually fits somehow? The music too, suggests some degree of pity is warranted for the guy. I liked exploring Izalith, there was an uncanny quality, but I felt like the regular enemies were underwhelming (like they'd spammed the area with a paint tool), apart from the chaos eaters, which are one of my favorite creatures in the whole game.
I still need to get round to Dark Souls 1, I love the look of it. I've only played Demons Souls remake, Bloodborne and trying to complete Elden Ring!
Hot take: the game was showing signs of rushed development as early as Anor Londo
I agree, Anor Londo is pretty but the level design doesn't compare to undead burg or sens fortress
I will say I think the bit after the archers is great but agree the bit before could have used some more sections
Cold take. As it’s been said and done many many many times since it’s initial release in 2011.
What part of anor londo are you guys talking abt? The only part i can think of are the tons of painting guardians but that seems more like a result of ariamis being rushed. Everything else felt perfect to me.
I played DS for the first time after ER this year, and even without nostalgia googles or the rose-tinted glasses of youth, I felt it was an absolute masterpiece. Until the halfway point. I actually really liked Tomb of the Giants, and New Londo Ruins was cool as well, although the lack of a bonfire was completely unnecessary (one behind the illusory wall leading across a narrow bridge to a small tower, would be the perfect spot). It all ended very anti-climactic as Gwyn was beaten on the first try, as all the DS bosses are very simplistic compared to ER and he didn't have a gimmick. I couldn't believe that was the final boss and the game felt like a joke to me.
I should add that I'm currently playing through DS2 and while it's nowhere close to the first half of DS1, it's still better than the second half. My main qualm is that the bosses are too easy, and the only way they give them difficulty is with an obnoxious run-up, which I felt also was an inherent flaw of DS1.
@@revenanke3132 idk where you are rn in DS2 but the DLC is worth it
Gwyn was intentionally made to not be difficult as it made perfect sense within the games story.
Agree with everything here aside from the anti-climax thing towards the end, i always interpreted the gwyn fight as intentionally anti-climactic. Sort of like the king vendrick fight in the sense that they're a shell of their former glory but their physical body still holds power to pack a punch. I think adding your highlights of the earlier levels was a great addition to flesh out your discussion of the later areas too.
I know DS2 is the black sheep of the Souls family but for every reson you stated in this video i rather play DS2 again then DS1. There is alot of things in DS2 i dislike, but nothing is so bad as the anxiety of having to stubel through the tomb of giants or fighting the Centepide Demon. Its not fun for the most part not challenging but tideus. And there is one more thing i have to add. PPl like saying DS2 has to many ganks, i dont think tha DS1 is better in any way, New londo alone is a huge gank area. the aquduct going up to the undedburg is a gank and the grave next to firelink is one too and thats just the first 3 places you can visit from firelink.
I love the archives, and new Londo is pretty sweet too. The other two are pretty awful, with lost Izalith being my most hated, due primarily to olaying through it pre-patch.
Great video! Going through the second half of the game for me was not nearly as fun as the first as well. In the areas of the first half of the game I was always wanting to explore and see what each level offered to the fullest. Second half and, outside of the Duke's Archives and New Londo, I just wanted to get out of the areas asap. I also actually like Centipede demon. It's a big chaotic amalgamation of a demon which I think fits the area pretty well, and the fight is something new unlike Firesage and an actual fight unlike Discharge or Bed of Chaos. Overall I was pretty disappointed with most of the second half of the game, but the DLC definitely made up for it.
Yeah the DLC is top tier for sure. Not a single bad boss imo
For me I was disappointed in the DLC I was expecting something much longer but the entire thing took me slightly under two hours my first play through. It kinda felt like everything was jammed into this super small area and the bosses were fun but not very difficult.
As someone who enjoyed playing the game unorthodox, I do enjoy New Londo and Tomb for existing. I think that what most people often leave out is how both areas, although technically designed to be fairly hard for an average player to get through, give items near their entrances (or close to it) in order to make it easier. The Catacombs has a secret area where the Parish Elevator is that gives the Morning Star. Although it's bleed on skeletons is useless, as a blunt weapon it is an easy way to make skeletons nearly useless as it staggers them heavily, which you can use in order to push many skeletons off of the cliff with patience. New Londo also has something as well, giving 2 pairs of Transient Curses (one heading to new londo pre-bridge, and after the wooden bridges there is one in the jar in the same large platform that connects to the firekeeper soul and to the upper parts of new londo). With 4 Transient Curses, you have enough tries in order to kill the ghosts. Combine TC with the Humanities that you get from the well in Firelink Shrine, you can consume the Humanities and keep killing ghosts to get more TCs, until you eventually get the Jagged Cursed Blade (one of the underrated weapons that helps immensely early-mid game). With the Crystal Lizards that are found in the Catacombs, as well as collecting some in either the forest or otherwise, the player can upgrade their Jagged Ghost Blade to +4 and be able to kill a lot of mid-late game enemies with relative ease. Doesn't help that it also has bleed, and if you get past unflooding New Londo, you can bleed the Darkwraiths and Wyverns to death, as well as kill the Red Sage that is keeping the New Londo Key with ease. It is a descent-damage dex weapon that you can upgrade nearly to max without ascending, and its bleed effect can topple a lot of heavy enemies very fast. Combining the Morning Star and the Jagged Curse, you can immediately do New Londo and Catacombs pretty early. I often do New Londo first and unflood the area after killing enough ghosts and getting the Jagged, followed by doing the Catacombs and clearing that. I often go all the way until Pinwheel and kill them as my 2nd boss so that I can rekindle all my bonfires up to +20 (I mean I really don't 'need' to early game, but I love having every single bonfire in the game be maxed because the fires in OG, not remastered, looked pretty cool). Paladin Leeroy helps A LOT with dealing agains the skeleton wheels and the black knight down below, and if you take the time to clear everything you can leave him in the pits, go back up, and unlock the dwarf skeleton to use whatever souls you gathered to upgrade the Morning Star (or the Mace you probably picked up by Leeroy) all the way to +5 Normal (or turned it into a Flame weapon thanks to the Green Titanite near him) to help deal against the skeletons and be able to kill them. the Jagged Curse helps a lot against killing the Necromancers. If I am doing a Faith build, I also take the time to often save the priests to get one of the few Offensive Spells that you can use since Miracles generally lack one for a long time, but for the most part I take the time to collect the Silver Covetous Ring just so that I can level up my Egghead fast. After getting what I want, I often leave VIA Homeward Bone. The Dwarf Skeleton is also nice to unlock in order to upgrade the Jagged Ghost to +3 thanks to the 2 crystal Lizards near the hidden Bonfire Tunnel, as well as getting any weapon/armour upgrades I desire. I often purchase the key items that allow you to upgrade your armour and weapons at the Blacksmith just so that I can upgrade all but my non-standard weapons to Maximum. I even go ahead and purchase the Gravelord Sword from joining the Nito Covenant and upgrade it so that I have a descent heavy weapon to make use of, and all twink and demon weapons can be upgraded to max at the bonfire without ascension tech. Afterwards, I will often go back to New Londo after clearing what I desired, usually using the Gravelord Sword and/or the Jagged Ghost to clear most of the enemies out. You can get the GS upgraded to +2 thanks to the Titanite in Catacombs and the Forest, so its a valid option to do it before using either or against Sif. You can enter the Forest through the Gateway and kill the Drakes either by bleeding them to death early with the Jagged or coming back with your upgraded weapons from Catacombs to do it (or roll past them, but they are pretty 'buggy' enemies so its not always reliable). You can kill Sif as your second or third boss depending if you fight Pinwheel or not, and can grab the Stone Armour and the Crystal Lizard to get an easy chance to kill the Four Kings next. If you killed Pinwheel, you should have enough estus, armour, and descent weapons in order to kill the boss fairly quick. Whenever I play, it's usually Asylum, Pinwheel, Sif, and then Four Kings as the first 4 Bosses of the Game. The freedom that Catacombs and New Londo give (as well as much of the first half of the game) was what made me enjoy replaying it after dealing with the game enough. I wish that the Souls series stuck to that philosophy of inter-twining locations, instead of often relying on linear paths and dead-end paths for many of the series until Elden Ring. I do enjoy that New Londo was so early access, it made the game very enjoyable for replays. I think that it one of the issues I have with the other three 'second-half' locations is that many are just a dead-end path that NEEDS the warp mechanic in order to not make it tedious. I think that Tomb in particular could have been fixed if it was 'larger' and was able to connect to both Ash Lake and the Demon Ruins as it shows through its background promps of its two locations when exploring, and give some more depth to the game as a whole. I honestly would have enjoyed it more if they did, but then again the worse enemy to contend with is the Skeletal Beasts in terms of non-shitty enemies with anything lacking range (thank god Gravelord Sword has that strong Thrust Attack).
I think the second half is only less exciting on consecutive playthroughs. Areas like the Duke’s Archives feel so expansive and limitless until you realize how narrow your path really is. It doesn’t mean that they’re not beautiful, it’s just that they’re much more linear than the first half of the game.
i think that the tomb of giants is meh but definitely doable with a shield (which is the intended gameplay tbh), duke’s archives was pure bliss for me, new londo had still had excellent secrets and i love that it elaborates on the gargoyles concept, i think lost izalith is the only truly unfinished area. i think one element of this game that is more of a design decision than a flaw is the zelda-esque design of “need X item to beat the level” ie light for tomb of giants, moss for blighttown, and transient curse for new londo. sekiro elaborated on that with the prosthetic tools, which also easily replenish and thats why that game is perfect (axe for shield enemies, flame vent for beasts, sabimaru for the fast enemies, umbrella for gun enemies, fan for hoardes, spear for mobile enemies/armor). i have a feeling that if DS1 gets a remake (im hoping its in the works, though im not sure if bluepoint would handle it well after demons souls) i hope they actually go through and restore some original art/concepts for these late areas even if the community would dislike it. i’d rather see experimental changes baked in the game than a completely faithful remaster with remaining problems cause its so close to being a perfect game to me i would hate for it to remain that way forever.
Which is why I absolutely love the Honward spell. I just don’t rest on the Undead depth ruin, I simply teleport back to my far away bone fire
I haven't even seen the video I can't stop looking at the thumbnail it's so good
Thank you 😂
In my opinion saying Nito is a bad boss is a terrible take. And i think the second half is overhated. Sure there some luckluster areas the bed of chaos that is a category itself but the duke's archives, crystal cave,new Londo ruin are incredibly areas.but the first half is still better
Agreed. Each area of the 2nd half has interesting gameplay quirks applied to their areas that make for very memorable moments. The only part of the 2nd half that really earns its rep is Lost Izalith. And even then it’s still a memorable run through…just clearly slapped together the night before it was shipped.
My first playthrough of Dark Souls was a chaotic mess 😁 I was drifting aimlessly ... somehow ended up in Darkroot Garden . I grinded and farmed for Crest of Artorias, since I thought this was the only way forward. Then I ended up being beaten by Sif and that damned Moonlight Butterfly. Again grinding and farming until I leveled up myself to beat both of them, and then finding out they were dead end 😄 After that I tried my luck in graveyard and catacombs, going all way down to Pinwheel. Only after that I discovered that you could actually descend into Blighttown without killing yourself 😁 Quelaag was relatively easy but her little brother trashed me repeatedly until I found the spot behind the rocks and killed him with bow and hundreds of arrows 😄 Didn't have a clue about the cheese. Ended up descending all the way to Hell (Lost Izalith) cause I thought this was the right way. After being killed by Capra demons few times I reached the door to Firesage Demon ... and only could kiss them because they were "Sealed by a Great Lord's power" 😁I ended up pedaling all the way up to Undead Burgh . Somehow managed to pass Sen's Fortress after lot of frustration and landed in Anor Londo. Then I hit a brick wall of Smough and Ornstein. Fortunately, area was good for soul farming (Silver Knights) and there was a Giant Blacksmith that sold Twinkling Titanite . I created a route where I would "harvest" Silver Knights, buy Titanite from Giant and then return to bonfire to upgrade my kit (Black and Silver armor and weapons) . Repeated that literary dozens of times, occasionally checking on S&O . Finally managed to beat them, by that time I had fully upgraded (+5) Black knight armor and weapons . And then this second part of the game started ... I would not call it a second half, because it all went much faster. Except few boss fights that had to be repeated, I do not remember having trouble with other enemies. I was probably way too OP for them .Also, some of the areas were already known to me. Didn't know about DLC so this part of the game was simply wrapping up things. Peak of satisfaction has passed, I just wanted to see things trough and finish the game. In the end I missed much of the content and lots of lore. First half of the game was definitely more engaging, second part just another RPG action adventure.
Sounds like a fun time overall 😂
@@JKLeeds For me Dark Souls game always fluctuated between extreme fun (when you could move around and explore) and extreme pain (when you have to defeat certain boss to progress) 😁😆
For me, as someone who likes exploration quite a bit, the Tomb of Giants wasn't much of an issue. As I was carving my way through the game the first time I ended up going through Lost Izalith before going there (I believe I killed Pinwheel and didn't notice the two ladders out of his massive tomb). With exploration as a top priority as stated above, I found the bug (and Solaire unfortunately) so I was prepared for the Tomb of Giants even before I knew it existed 😁 I even like how the dots were connected in my head, maybe that whole area could've been planned out better for sure, but I felt like my meticulous exploration was truly rewarded at that moment. Entering that darkness for the first few times I died unsure if that's where I need to progress, just then I thought about Solaire's 'sun' and immediately put the bug on my head for the first time to see it lights up... Honestly it was the first time a game rewarded thinking and going off the beaten path this much. As for shitty enemy placement in the second half of the game, absolutely agreed, I don't think anyone can defend seeing all those Taurus Demons in one spot after defeating discharge
a necromancer dropped a skull lantern on my first playthrough so im lucky I didn't have to go through the hell that is blind tomb of the giants. It actually made me really appreciate it and fighting one handed with out a shield was a fun exercise. if they were to have made the simple addition of the lantern as a treasure item somewhere in the catacombs that would have made that whole following area so much more enjoyable.
I'd probably enjoy it more if you didn't actively have to hold the lantern out for it to cast light. Sure, tie up my shield hand, but forcing me to put it down to attack feels like a step too far into annoyance
am i the only one that loves lost izalith? i mean yeah the boss is trash but you’re literally in hell and the art design is so immersive
Honestly this whole "second half of dark souls sucks" thing is really overblown... the only thing that shits me is Bed of Chaos, it's so shit compared to the Dragon puzzle boss in Demon's Souls
@@Lucrei. Totally agree. Tomb of the Giants is one of my favorite areas in the game; it's always weird to hear people rag on it. Bed of Chaos is, however, indefensible.