[CubaLibre]

[glossolalia]

i think i quit my last playthrough of demon's souls the moment i felt compelled to farm for health. the estus flasks/bonfire system is a fantastic way to pace a fairly non-linear action game.

they seem to have the right philosophy about the level design and they're explicitly punishing cheap tactics from the first two games, so i'm not too worried.

[mauve]

I never farmed for health in Demon's.

If you don't get hit, you don't need to heal! Also Adjudicator's + Regen ring cleaned up random nicks and bruises easily enough.
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twit

[Felix]

would I be happier if this game were called Dragon Souls and it didn't have bonfires but otherwise continued the pattern of iterative design from Demon's -> Dark?

yes, of course, but they can still make that game, and Dark Souls was a huge enough success and terrific enough game that they're allowed to make a sequel as long as they do it right

[thestage]

[Talbain]

Most of my worries relate to the weirdness with health and stamina stuff, but I'm hoping it's just presentational. Seemed like he was blocking with the torch against those guys...
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[analogos]

[remote]

yeah, i wouldn't worry too much about any of this. i think it looks really good and await its release anxiously.

really can't wait to see more about starting classes, armors, weapons, pvp, covenants (?), etc.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[remote]

apparently the healing item being used in the demo was something more like a divine blessing, which explains a lot

there will still be estus
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Felix]

[mauve]

[remote]

they were never even a thing until people figured out how to dupe items or had trainers, so

eh
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[allensmithee]

the thing that turns me on most about these games is the level design and environments, so theyre still kicking shell in heaps
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[mauve]

[remote]

i mean i'm kind of hoping they'll go with steam instead of gfwl this time and hacking won't be rampant, but we'll see
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Talbain]

Well, if it is using GFWL their promotional materials don't indicate it.
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[mauve]

even the console versions had duping via bottomless box (two different ways). who needs hacking when you have glitches?

i have zero faith that people won't find something. just don't make items like that. they're either pointless or they're too good.
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twit

[Toptube]

[Toptube]

[Iacus]

[Brooks]

Thanks for apparently not fucking this up yet From

[Iacus]

What was what people thought they were going to fuck up that the videos show otherwise?

Even withiut Miyazaki, it's still From. They own the game, they could have just copied the old code wholesale if they wanted to keep the old fans pleased.
I'm sure all the modifications to the mechanics have a purpose, and we don't know enough to say if those modifications will fuck up* the game yet.

*not to mention that what constitutes "fucking up" will likely be different for each player
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Guayaba 2600

[Toptube]

[Bennett]

I think the bonfires are a big part of what makes Dark Souls great. Lighting a bonfire is always a meaningful choice, since it respawns all the enemies you killed. You only do it because you're feeling depleted and fatigued, or if you don't trust yourself to stay alive through the next part. Lighting them is always bittersweet.

[thestage]

there's no real downside to lighting a bonfire. you get a checkpoint and an estus refill. if you die shortly after lighting it as a result of respawned enemies--which is the only scenario in which you might question the decision--you're only a few minutes away from your corpse.

[boojiboy7]

[Brooks]

Hope is there are many more intricate spaces like Painted World in this newie. Honestly I think that was the high point of Dark's level design, game lost its way a bit when it opened up

[another god]

[BotageL]

[remote]

i could be wrong, but i thought you actually had to sit at the bonfire to activate the warp point and lightning it was merely an extra step in keeping with the theme of linking the flame
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Swimmy]

[BotageL]

I'm pretty sure I managed to backtrack from the Tomb of the Giants bonfire without the Lordvessel, though I could not tell you the route I had to take. Man, I hate that area.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[remote]

[Toups]

this looks awesome. what's wrong with bonfires again??
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[Swimmy]

[remote]

[Toups]

[diplo]

Bonfires become a little more complicated when you're going for an optimized run and want to tactically activate bonfires so that you can homeward bone to them and skip backtracking. That's all I can think of, though.

[mauve]

My only issue with bonfires is that there were too many of them in too convenient places, and sometimes they were placed such that the only thing you did was just run past everything to get back to where you were so it was just tedium. Not even any point in fighting anything. (Looking at you, Lost Izalith)

The ones that were placed in smart, nexusy locations where everything connected worked really well, I thought. As did the ones that were basically halfway points you had to actively search for rather than have them handed to you.
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twit

[diplo]

For me, Dark could have cut out about a quarter of its bonfires and been better off for it.

Actually -- I feel like a bonfire-count edit would be the closest thing to a workable difficulty adjuster in a Dark game.

[analogos]

I wish I could 100% commit to the idea of wanting warpable bonfires to go away.

I think one of the things I'd most like to see is having your progress through the game gradually cause earlier areas to change and/or become more difficult in some way. Maybe keymouths could work toward this end.