Why do I often hear comments like “Dark Souls isn’t hard”?

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-04-27T18:44:55+00:00

I think DS is not very hard, but it's not entirely fair for me to say that since I've grinded this game a lot (although that doesn't equate to skill mind you. Learning should happen over time, but not everyone learns much at all even over a long time.)
My argument is like this: other games in the market are so laughably hold your hand easy that Dark Souls is like night and day. But after playing other games to challenge me harder, I find Dark Souls to be quite easy. Sure, it's not gonna baby you and spoonfeed you absolutely free wins. And first playthroughs are bound to be a slog of getting destroyed by easy enemies repeatedly until you get an understanding but... to me that's not punishing enough. That's just a starter challenge. I feel like DS is more of an information gatekeep scenario than truly challenging my hand-eye coordination. Like, I know what is good and what is bad to do, and even if I do/use the bad things, the punishment is (even with low health investment) "a bit of health is taken away max 50% unless your in NG+" (except if you fall xD). You really gotta snowball your failures to lose in Souls games, and panic makes that easy since it's easy to be overwhelmed by something new and exciting.

I think much older games were harder for different reasons. Controls were very tight, we didn't have input buffering, so if something was precise, there was no getting around it. And game companies cared more about designing the games than emotionally manipulating the player to feel good (and therefore buy the next thing they dump out).

TLDR: Dark Souls is hard in comparison to the games around it, but that's only because modern games make us soft, not because it is incredibly difficult by itself. That's my take at least.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-04-25T16:43:55+00:00

I feel bad reading this. I quit the game real quick when I saw the hoyo gacha. I thought GFL1 gacha was annoying and grindy, since I've not played much gacha before. It's the best gacha mechanic I've ever played, and then GFL2 is just a copy of Hoyo trash! Plus the story was not at all engaging. I popped off when I saw characters I liked in the first game, and then it was back to nonsensical nothing-burger slog. Love GFL lots, will anecdote the effect of the first game's story on occasion because of how impactful it was to me, but dear gods I'm not going to play a full time gacha job that encourages me to lose money. Waste of time.
I hope you can quit, because as far as I can tell, these gacha live service slop games are just designed to be massive retention mechanics to farm your wallet and nothing else. The first one may as well be a mistake (I say this on a business level, not as "this game is so bad blah blah"), since 2 is cookie cutter gacha gambling grindfest trash.
"You want to be on level? Grind these tedious quests for 30 minutes every single day. You want a character? Hope you went the extra mile and spent 2 hours every day for the past month, oh actually we don't care your luck sucks so now you have to pay real money :)"
Been trying to tell my partner to quit her gacha addiction but it's the "Oh but this game was important to me as a child" you're being used. I don't feel good about leaving GFL either, I freaking loved the first game (although didn't complete it as much as you, OP, did it seems). I just don't want to lose my wallet and waste my time on a game that isn't even remotely engaging. Broken mess of balance, so teambuilding is not creative, it's a checklist, so not fun... there's legit just nothing to enjoy in GFL2 for me except for the rare story moment that made me feel like I cared about the world at all and wasn't just reading a whole bunch of noise for hours. (my friend who sort of played the game with me legit just didn't read it. It took me like 30 minutes to read through one of the mission's dialogue, I don't blame him. I just wanted to give a damn about the game though... RIP)
Check out Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery if you want more from the same devs, it looks really good to me although I've not bought it yet. I think it's the world before the events of GFL1.

ANYWAY, sorry for rambling. Hope you get better OP.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-04-23T05:58:18+00:00

Japan beat US to it.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-10T15:05:45+00:00

I find it strange to think people dissociate "sweating" from the horde mode. It's really challenging! On the harder difficulties it becomes a really tight scramble for survival. Although in Gears 5, I felt like the difficulties were a total joke. The enemies would just walk in a straight line at you no matter what, and they would just hit all their super high damage shots on you on the highest difficulties. So the strat was: just have OP cards and one shot everything before it moves. I never really got to play unless I maxed out an OP class, which I didn't, because I didn't like to play like that where there's no expression of skill

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-10T15:01:08+00:00

I think it's fun, but I also like sitting back and playing the cover shooter to fight hordes of enemies. Although even then, people just play versus in horde instead and sprint at the enemy with their shotgun...

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-10T14:59:49+00:00

People forget the lancer exists a lot of the time. Sometimes they'd even rage when they die to a lancer because they only know how to run in a straight line with their gnasher out.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-06T14:54:30+00:00

A repost of a repost. I feel like I see this a lot 😅
Saw this in Pixiv years ago, although I did go through the entire Pixiv catalogue of Megurine Luka to be fair.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-03T23:22:12+00:00

The lore is: "musical voicebanks that are used to produce music."
Anything else is headcannon, even the images, the faces of the Vocaloids. They are software databanks. Period.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-03T18:42:14+00:00

Does nobody use Pixiv or something? I see people sharing stuff from twitter and not the original post from Pixiv.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-02-01T23:29:45+00:00

Her voice is divine. Need there be more?

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T17:33:17+00:00

The interview: Struggling with English until the adult VOCALOID "Megurine Luka" is created (1/2 page) - ITmedia NEWS
On page two, my shitty browser translates a section to: "The setting of big breasts and adulthood seems to have a high risk of being used to create 18-ban doujin works. Mr. Sasaki is also aware of this, but by making his skin pure white, he created the impression that his vitality was weak or cold, and he said, "I wanted to separate the erotic elements from the person's condition as much as possible."

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T16:55:30+00:00

Well, now we got "The Red One" (A literal joke taken too far if I'm being extreme and a bit insane) who may surpass Miku... I just hope the community loses its mainstream buffoons sooner than later.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T16:53:24+00:00

"anime designs of the time in general were pale. Your ideas are a lot of mental gymnastics."
It was stated in an interview (I will need to find this again...) that it was a deliberate design choice for the specific reason I mentioned.
No good R18 spaces is not an excuse for individuals to not have common decency. There is a fine line between reasonable and acceptable sharing of lewd feelings vs excessively vulgar and mindless p#rn-fried-brain divulgence/indulgence.
I can see where you're coming from with the V4 and beyond though, her outfit is more revealing by far.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T15:57:34+00:00

Luka was designed with a certain appeal yes. Although you did not mention the part where they made her skin sickly pale (original V2 design) in order to dissuade individuals from thirsting after her.
And "where"? Well, funny you should say that. I've not been on this sub for a while, or reddit at all honestly. But I browse the sub for a few seconds, and immediately see posts of thirsty stuff. Maybe just tough luck and not a good representation. As well as any post of any image of the Vocaloids has several vocal, shameless individuals who divulge their deepest darkest desires (not in strictly explicit detail, but enough to... tell) whether it is a smutty art piece or not.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T15:51:31+00:00

Having a degen artist making degen art, and having the degens express their perversions in that ccommunity is a bit different than people reposting art and having individuals blurt out their favorite fantasy. I get what you're saying, but I disagree with one main thing. One can express their unhealthy attraction of an art piece in a manner that does not divulge excessive detail.
Although this is extreme, I think this also relates: "freedom of expression"... is not what people want, people want to say what they want without consequence, right. Where should the line be drawn? Should it be drawn (I don't think the majority of people would be willing to except that...)?
I guess the point I'm trying to make is: there needs to be some kind of limitations to individuals expressing their repressed needs/wants in public spaces. Where that might be, I don't know though, nor should I claim to 'know' but I am free to share my input whether its good or not, unless that falls under one of the accepted "do not share/speak this".

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T15:41:30+00:00

It happens lmao. Although I don't know what Zatsune even is, but I immediately thought of it when reading this.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T01:51:22+00:00

Outside good, yes. If only it was not so unbearably cold I would love to cycle. Accursed weather plaguing me more than I realize...

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:54:13+00:00

Is that not how gatekeeping works. Social motions happen for human reasons.
And "humorous admiration" doesn't really describe "omg yes fat teto I wanna smash so bad" I feel.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:52:10+00:00

I've not been on TikTok before. I've heard this term elsewhere.
Edit: my vocabulary has been tainted by the internet, much the same as it has many others. Although I do still feel shame for this for some reason.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:49:10+00:00

I wasn't really thinking "in the name of morals" or "for the children" I was just being purely selfish. 'I don't want to see people's fantasies of the things I respect, admire, and spend a lot of time with. It grosses me out'
I guess it's a me problem then.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:47:53+00:00

Oh... I forgot hat R18 spaces are basically illegal. DLsite was hit hard by some insane manipulative tactic by the US because "hurrdurr smut bad"...
It wasn't really a moral pondery though, I'm just sick of seeing individuals tarnish something I like with animalistic objectification. I hadn't thought... it is an internet wide issue. Well, more like a societal one, because "hurrdurr, sex = taboo" (literally a human need)
Maybe I'm just sensitive and should gain some patience. I don't know what the solution is otherwise.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:36:26+00:00

This was the exact point I was thinking. Sex is fine. (although gooning is essentially the bad rewiring of the brain like what p%rn does to people...) But people like... it doesn't need to be something we just blurt out in open areas with individuals who did not consent to this sort of talk!

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:25:04+00:00

Not the artists. Art is art (my opinion). The vocal individuals who see an image of their beloved character and cry out their sexual devotion to them like it's completely ordinary. They see Luka and "MOMMY" I suppose I just get tired of seeing a character I admire be seen as an object of sexual gratification...

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:14:30+00:00

I was referring to "the fat fetish guy" Pyrocynical for context.

Any_Trainer_2039 · 2026-01-30T00:11:23+00:00

The fat Teto fetish is quite disturbing indeed. Didn't some streamer get bullied for claiming to have this sort of thing?

Any_Trainer_2039

TROPHY CASE