My relationship with Souls:
1. I was an early adopter of Demon's Souls. I got it the week or so of release. At the time I was an Atlus head and would buy anything Atlus USA put out. My friend also imported it. It had a lot of buzz surrounding the import version so when it dropped in the US I had to get in. I loved that game for its tone, story, level design, structure, and it was really, really fresh at the time.
2. A few years later Dark Souls comes out. People say it's open-world compared to Demon's more Mega Man style structure where you picked levels at will. I really, really tried but I could never get into Dark Souls. My steam clock on it says I've played it for over 40 hours. I've started maybe three different runs. I got a little past Capra Demon as my furthest.
This was disappointing because:
A. I love dungeon crawlers.
B. I love hard games.
C. I love defense oriented combat.
D. I loved Demon's Souls and many other From games.
I've really tried with that game and I'm convinced I've always done it wrong.
Criticisms being:
putting a save point ten minutes away from the boss room after dying from a boss and having to trek ten minutes to get there isn’t difficulty. I’m fine with retrieving my souls (or corpse) as I have played many games where I do just that. But I can’t stand the tedium of Souls 1 of dying at a boss and traveling all that way just to refight them.
My issue is that the enemies on the way are easy and going through doing the same shit just to get to the boss is tedious as fuck.
Where were y'all a few years ago? I made this same complaint about DS1 and people told me,"just don't die hurrr". I beat the goat boss and I just never really continued after that.
I haven't played a Souls game since. I love hard games. I love rogue likes. But fuck that.
3. I ended up getting Sekiro despite being From because I thought it'd be another Dark Souls disappointment. I was wrong. I love this game so fucking much I'm willing to give Dark Souls another chance. Sekiro fixed all of my issues with Dark Souls 1. Apparently since Souls 1 From realized that making players travel ten minutes to refight a boss isn't difficulty - it's tedium - and that DS2/3/BB are better designed in that regard.
Still I want to beat DkS1 before moving on to the rest.
Bestow me with tips and suggestions to enjoy it more.
Apparently I should get a Master Key at game start? Where can I or should I go once I get to Firelink Shrine? How can I enjoy the game more?
Doc said this in the Sekiro thread:
The only thing you "have" to do, is obtain the lord's vessel to open up the final three areas., and you have to beat Sen's fortress before getting to Anor Londo.
Almost anything else if fair game.
Catacombs, Burg, Blighttown, Depths, New Londo Ruins, Ash Lake, Great Hollow, etc.
Where to start? What class?