| mZuzek said: I don't like trial and error. I think it's stupid. But if well designed, even I can think it is passable. However, Dark Souls is not well designed for that purpose, because whenever you die, it punishes you EXTREMELY HARD by making you go back levels, lose a shitload of gear, going back to the last bonfire and whatnot (yeah sure you can recover your stuff, if you don't die on the way there because you're frustrated). |
Broadly speaking, I don't think Dark Souls is trial and error, but there's a couple of things you have to get in the habit of for it to not be trial and error.
First off, make sure to read messages left by other players. The game banks on you having those as a way to get around notifying you of things that it would need to otherwise in order to be fair. For example, there's a part in Dark Souls 3 where a giant boulder falls down and starts chasing you down a flight of stairs, Indiana Jones style. There's no indication that this will happen outside of a bunch of messages right by the stairs that alert you to a trap and to "try rolling." If you aren't playing online, then, yes, the game can be more than a bit unfair at times.
Secondly is to just be very, very careful. Aggro-ing too many enemies at the same time is almost a guaranteed death sentence. Make sure you're checking out every area as closely as possible before you enter it, or you'll oftentimes miss enemies waiting to ambush you.
I'm not as definitively on the side of "Dark Souls is tough, but fair." Dark Souls is certainly tough, but there are times where it definitely leans towards being unfair (especially with some of DS2's hitboxes). With that said, if you make sure to scout your surroundings out well, you can avoid most non-boss related deaths, and it's incredibly rewarding to avoid dying because you noticed something and prepared accordingly. There's a feeling of outsmarting the game that I enjoy quite a bit.
With that said, I agree that DS2 and DS1 haven't aged particularly well. DS1's framerate stutters in particular are the big reason why I'd like for it to join the remastering train for current gen.
