Feel free to point and laugh all you want
I had already said I liked the game's art direction and soundtrack (thanks youtube), and NOT being a "gameplay first" type of guy, when the GOTY went on sale in the EU store and I already had bought all the other weaboo games, I took the plunge thinking that maybe I'd enjoy it more than the previous Souls games (Souls history at the bottom of this post). And I did. At this point I've killed Micolash, but also killed all optional bosses (except Chalice) and also 100%ed the Old Hunters DLC. All that's left is semi-final boss and the ending + Chalice
Don't feel like writing a huge post so i'm gonna be brief. I preferred parrying in this game.. Generally speaking, parrying + dodging in BB > shield pussyfooting in previous Souls games; IMO. Also preferred the added depth of transforming weapons. Bosses for the most part are better, details below. Things I already knew were better, music and art direction. Both superb, none surprised me. Thing that did surprise me, the lore. Engrossed me a lot more than the other games (don't even remember what they were about anymore), the fact that it combines two types of settings I love (the one on the surface in the first half + H.P. Lovecraft in the second) helps.
So what did I have against the series? I played Dark Souls, then Demon's Souls. I actually enjoyed a lot of my time with them, but didn't finish either because something always annoyed me. With DkS, I liked learning the ropes, being a Souls virgin and improving after every failure. I got fairly far into the game.. Aside from completing the DLC, I reach the start of the final area (don't remember the name) but didn't continue. The reason I stopped is this... There were sections of the game I hated. One being the Capra Demon fight. The other being the archer section in Anor Londo. And I hate those not because they were hard but because they were cheap and frustrating. I felt no relief or enjoyment when I got through it; none whatsoever. When people say "In these games if you die, keep trying, and it'll eventually feel good beating the obstacle". Sure, that's true for several areas, but not for all, and certainly not for these. I was fine with the two bosses of Londo, the ones people whine so much about, didn't even take that many tries and was enjoyable to beat. But that archer area... FU. There probably was one or another section that I similarly hated because what happened was that by the final area I didn't feel any kind of enjoyable accomplishment anymore, I felt done with the game and was no longer having fun overcoming challenges. In fact most of it had become too easy anyway, so the pacing was all off; it had basically boiled down to cakewalk -> cakewalk -> frustratingly difficult 5 minutes -> cakewalk. So I dropped it.
Then with Demon's Souls, I liked the setting more as well as the way the hub worked. Tower of Latria deserves its reputation, probably still my favorite area even after BB. Was loving it. Then I got to the Maneater boss fight. And this is where playing the game in close proximity to DkS worked against it. it reminded me of Capra demon because of how the terrain works so much against you.. I hate that way of increasing difficulty. Look at Orphan of Kos in Old Hunters DLC: you have an huge area to fight with, and yet he's still quite hard (mainly the last phase). Maria isn't that hard but also an example of making the boss work against you instead of having to rely on the terrain (fast attacks + very long range). They were also a lot more satisfying.. When i beat the Orphan, I did feel that "Souls feeling" that I didn't when i beat Capra. And as I was trying to beat Maneater, I saw people on YT exploiting AI, doing some silly tactics etc.. Honestly I didn't even make many attempts to beat him. After failing the first few, I was done, I dropped the game. I wasn't willing to put up with another poorly designed boss fight even if he wasn't that hard. I don't want to struggle against controls and/or camera, only the enemy facing me. If the enemy you made isn't hard enough, you should have made him harder instead of shoving me into a narrow room/bridge/whatever. This isn't a platformer. When the designers forget that, I forget their game. Maybe I would have tried more times if I had played it before DkS or had put more distance between both games, but as it stands, I didn't.
Thankfully BB fixed most of those mistakes. It's pretty much better in every way, though I do wish it had had an area that matched Tower of Latria. Hypogean gaol came close but not quite; probably due to the bright exterior. Anyway, pretty damn good. I'll approach DkS3 with caution though because I expect it to be some steps backwards compared to BB and back into some Souls "mistakes". Some people might prefer that, but I wouldn't.
