What is it about the first Dark Souls that makes it feel like far more of an adventure than any of the other Souls...

The atmosphere. Game is somber and silent like a surreal adventure in a nightmare.

>>no bonfire warping for the first half
This is literally it

Elden Ring teleports you halfway across the fucking map multiple times and it never means shit because you're 30 seconds away from a grace that can teleport you right back where you came from.

And the only acknowledgement of "alternate dimensions" and the other meta shit is in the Soapstone and Curled Finger item descriptions. Doubling down on cyclical time, alternate dimensions and other esoteric bullshit as important plot elements in the sequels made them feel less immersive.

Game is literally a 3/10 the minute you get to the archives. People always talk about Lost Izaleth or however the fuck it's spelt but the entire game is dogshit long before that.

Dark Souls 1 seems to lean more heavily into the "fantasy" part of dark fantasy than the other games do. It's got mysterious forests with strange creatures, lava zones with demons, magic crystal golems, fucking hydras and shit. A ton of traditionally high fantasy enemy designs and locales with a dark twist, whereas the others, with some exceptions of course, are more about lanky zombies in castles and swamps.

Yeah, no warping is the answer. There’s obvious pros and cons and elden ring in particular needs warping to be a functional game, but in dark souls 1 you would end up in these haunting or disgusting areas and you felt like you were actually trapped. Areas like Darkroot garden and blighttown have such strong atmosphere in part because you’re stuck there far from safety

this is another good point
dark souls has very little ludo-narrative dissonance. Basically every item and game mechanic has lore justification, and the game is totally self-contained.

>Game is literally a 3/10 the minute you get to the archives
The Archives and Tomb of the Giants are mediocre. Only Izalith is really bad.

It’s only an adventure before Anor Londo, then it flops. Dark Souls 2 is more consistent in feeling like an adventure because you’re exploring random areas and plunging into dead ends throughout even in the DLC

It really bothers me that FromSoft doesn't even attempt to explain the multiplayer anymore. Like, what the fuck even are phantoms in Elden Ring? Unironically hurts the experience. They've gotten lazy.

>Dark Souls 2 is more consistent in feeling like an adventure
>almost no seamless connectivity between areas, most require cutscenes and loads to move between
DS2 starts off as strong as DS1 but it drops off harder when you get past the first few areas

/thread

Honestly, TotG is one of the best levels in the series and I wish there were levels like it. It's a level that really emphasizes the 'player is made for the world' rathe than the 'world is made for the player' design philosophy that makes the first DaS so good. It's one of the only levels in video games I can think of that makes it completely pitch dark, but if you get the right item then you can easily navigate it. It's also a pretty short level so it doesn't really get too frustrating. Nu-From would never make a level like TotG again.

DS1 feels really atmospherically different compared to the other Souls games. I like and play all 3 of them, but it's only the first game where I feel truly alone and free to do whatever l want in it

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Because you probably played it first and the mechanics and style all felt new and unknown to you.

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er, all 3 dark souls games, I like DeS too but I have to emulate it so it plays like shit for me a lot of the time

There’s no connectivity but with the way the world is structured you basically keep going deep into areas and coming across new ones which is an adventure in of itself

fpbp
I honestly believe that the first Dark Souls was a fluke. Games like Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring lead me to believe that From have no idea what made their early games so good in the first place.

I played them in a very weird order: Demon's Souls -> Bloodborne -> Dark Souls -> Dark Souls 3 -> Dark Souls 2 -> Sekiro -> Elden Ring and the first Dark Souls is still my favorite. It's the most immersive and interesting of the bunch by far. Even just little things like having unique blacksmiths spread out across the world is something I miss in the future games.

I played 2 first, then 1, then recently came back to it after four+ years.
Still has more soul than 2.

>you basically keep going deep into areas and coming across new ones which is an adventure in of itself
The same as 1 but worse from the requirements of warping in major parts

>Still has more soul than 2.
Debatable

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Majula, Dragon Aerie, Shrine of Amana, and Huntsmans Copse are the only good looking parts of 2, the rest of the game looks like utter dogshit way worse than DaS1 and even DeS. Aerie and Amana are both pure aids to play through as well.

Elden Ring is pure themepark design. There's nothing believable about the world at all. The art direction is great, but the world itself feels sterile and artificial.

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Imagine if you reached the Dragonrot ruins in ER and reached Caelid without warning without instantly being able to teleport anywhere. Jesus Christ, how did they fuck up this bad.

it’s shit
an exercise in frustration until you’ve done it once, then a waste of time after

>unique blacksmiths
Yeah that was a great design choice and I have no idea why they don’t do it anymore also having to find the embers to increase your upgrade level was also great.

2 has some fun creative areas but the enemy and armor designs are terrible and look like they were pulled from some asian MMO most of the time, detracts heavily from the soul

Elden Ring feels more like an adventure because of the scope of it the world is a lot bigger and it's so long that by the end you feel like you've really been through some shit

I wish From would hire the Xenoblade Chronicles world designers to synthesize their styles

I think kinda linear but lots of side area games are the best type of games and the original Dark Souls does that the best.

It's a unique and interesting adversity to overcome, which is basically the whole point of the game.
>an exercise in frustration until you’ve done it once, then a waste of time after
You just described like 99% of video games in general.

nah its
elden ring > sekiro > dark souls 3 = bloodborne > dark souls 1 = demon souls > dark souls 2

The Fable and Witcher series are other examples of sometimes doing it right

getting lost isn't fun

>that webm
honestly how else do you want them to do it?

The first Dark Souls is just full of small stuff like that just really adds up. By themselves, they might not seem like much, but taken as a whole they really add to the believability of the world.

people unironically place that overly padded af game as the best from game is laughable lol

Based opinion.

>sekiro included
So where is king's field or armored core? Retards.

2 arguably has the best armor designs in the series.
The enemy designs are equally as dumb and ridiculous as every other enemy in these games so I don't know what you're on about there.

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spbp, game plays like absolute trash and has worse atmosphere compared to the later entries

99% of Sekiro gameplay is identical to Souls especially if you include Elden Ring

>and elden ring in particular needs warping to be a functional game
Does it? I'm eight hours in and have committed to no torrent and no warping and it works well.

Except Sekiro is actually good.

Daft.

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Have a visible cloud over the region when viewing it from a distance. Rot dust/spores becomes more visible in the atmosphere as you head towards it

i haven't even played any of the games lol

what a ridiculous claim
the parry mechanic makes sekiro play very differently

BB=Sekiro>DaS1>DeS>ER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>DaS3>DaS2

>armor designs are terrible
Woah now.

Sekiro is weeb wank not better than ds 2

Cloud/fog cover. They literally did this in DSIII to obscure Anor Londo all the way from the High Wall.

Pure sex.

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>thinks the 5th iteration of the same formula is good while the other 4 are shit
lmao

>He didn't git gud

That explains how it looks from a distance, that doesn't explain how you expect them to transition from non-rot skybox to rot skybox.

Yes. Now call me based.

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Come home...

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Trees/clever use of building cover just like Dark Souls 1 when you go from the Parish to Darkroot Garden

Some sets look amazing and the other 90% look like they were ripped from some other game

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I'm using a lighting mod and it makes everything much darker. It feels like an actual horror game. Those dudes that run at you with a giant butcher knife in that place where you rescue the pyromancer almost made me shit my pants.

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Elden Ring made me feel like they’re tired of making these games and completely out of ideas. I seriously wish they would move on and let this formula rest peacefully. After playing ER 100 hours i booted up DS1 again and it really hit home that From went astray somewhere along the way

Yes.

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In the previous games you'd go through some kind of obscurement so you wouldn't notice the skybox changing.
Only glaring outlier is the entrance to Blighttown where you'd see the palette change when you step in through the valley of drakes entrance.

Whatever that means. Every armor set in Dark Souls was inspired by something else if that's what you're trying to say.
The set you posted looks fine for what it's trying to convey.

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>and it really hit home that From went astray somewhere along the way
They focused on making action games (even through they still fail) instead of immersive experiences.

>those 2/3 faggots shitting on DS1 replying themselves with them 'based' opinions
sad!

>I avoided damage with rhythmic presses of the same button over and over
>except in one game you do it by standing still and in the other you do it by moving around
>this means the one where you stand still is better because it lets me spam more and not have to give a shit about spacing at all

This post is about Demon's Souls, but the core of it applies to Dark Souls too. Matthewmatosis also made a good video saying pretty much the same thing.

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