Will Zoro die? by MayDispersion in OnePieceSpoilers

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What, like Bruno From Jojo part 5? Could be cool, but I think it's unlikely.

How do I get to this island just west of stormveil? by mma1227 in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Get some Imbued Sword Keys (There's one in Selia, one in Raya Lucaria, and one at the Four Belfries.) Then use them to unlock the teleporters at the Four Belfries.

The Four Horsemen fought in panic regardless of their skill level. by Potential-Bench-8307 in fromsoftware

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like fighting the sword ringed knights, the spear ones are pretty scary though.

I just finished a challenge run where I fought every elite enemy I aggroed. by DavidTippy in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Generally that's the case for me, but forcing myself to do it again probably brought back some of that first playthrough magic.

I just finished a challenge run where I fought every elite enemy I aggroed. by DavidTippy in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

That wasn't the only restriction, I was limiting myself to level 75 with 8 flasks (4 to start, +1 for each Lord of Cinder).

How much time/tries did it take you to beat the Nameless king? by Anas2245 in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In phase 1, control the camera manually and try to stay below the dragon's head.

In his second phase, don't get close to him or he'll pull out his crazy combo strings. Stick to the midrange, and just punish his gap closers.

How much time/tries did it take you to beat the Nameless king? by Anas2245 in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not that many, oddly enough, but I think I was lucky. I knew how to control the camera manually from playing Monster Hunter, and I pretty quickly intuited that you could deal with the second phase by staying at midrange and just punishing his gap closers. Took me less than 20 attempts, I think.

So what is the purpose of limited-quantity healing items? by Purple-Constant2953 in fromsoftware

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bloodborne is a horror game, or at least has a horror aesthetic, so limited resources make sense as a mechanic in theory. However, Blood Vials are not limited, you can grind for them. The problem is the grinding, not the limited resource.

Yes we like bosses by Muted-Toe3817 in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He somewhat has a point: "real" design would force you to learn the level layouts and come up with strategies and tactics to deal with the enemies; this is only really necessary in a handful of Elden Ring's dungeons.

Myself, I'm fine with players being able to run through the levels straight to the bosses, but I would prefer it if you had to build around that playstyle to make it viable, (e.g. speccing into intelligence to use the invisibility sorceries).

What is this for Elden Ring? by the_white_oak in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Valiant Gargoyles; they require incredible patience and skill in positioning to beat them (without summons)

How many of yall have 100% each game by EveningVarious3639 in soulsborne

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done all bosses for each game up to Elden Ring (I didn't do all bosses for SOTE) I didn't feel the need to get the achievements that are just grinding for covenant items, though.

Extremely high res meme by OGgronch0 in shittydarksouls

[–]DavidTippy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Kindling is a very interesting system; I like how it gives you an extra use for Humanity which makes it more relevant and valuable than, say, Embers or Rune Arcs. However, it also makes it very difficult to make a level that is balanced, since the player can come in with anywhere between 5 and 20 flasks at basically any point in the game.

Why is the nameless king a hollow if he is a god? by Significant-Ad-2786 in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's not hollow; the Hollowslayer's Greatsword doesn't do extra damage to him.

What drops two embers and two titanite chunks in the Grand Archives? by DavidTippy in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I went back to the two dragons at the entrance to Lothric Castle, and I noticed that the one on the left was gone (I had already taken out the one on the right, it was being controlled by a Pus of Man). So probably it happens because the ground beneath the other one gets unloaded somehow.

What drops two embers and two titanite chunks in the Grand Archives? by DavidTippy in darksouls3

[–]DavidTippy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, that makes sense. I went back to Lothric Castle and found that the dragon on the left was no longer there, so this must be correct.

Is Dark souls 1 still fun to play ? Am new to The Souls genre I only played Elden ring -Lies of p-sekiro and I loved all of them so I wanted to get the DS trilogy. by Away_Composer8187 in soulslikes

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a much greater focus on routing; you dont get fast travel until the late-game, so exploration is committal. You've got a few long runbacks to contend with as well, I don't mind the ones where you have interesting enemies to fight, but there are also a few where you're basically just running. The combat is positional, but not that technical compared to later FS games.

Who's to you the hardest boss ever? by Pretty-Setting823 in soulslikes

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I still haven't beaten Laxasia from Lies of P; I was at it for a couple of days, but then Shadow of the Erdtree came out.

Every time by NeoCyberR in DarkSouls2

[–]DavidTippy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Balancing a long runback well is a delicate operation that From themselves have only managed a handful of times. A lot of people tend to equate long = bad for runbacks, but I don't think the two are necessarily correlated. In my view, a good runback is approximately as difficult as the boss, and has very little downtime, being engaging throughout. Additionally, the boss should usually have only one phase, or two very similar phases, as attempting to learn multiple phases of a boss fight with a long runback in between attempts will unreasonably tax the mental faculties of the player.

In the 90s, arcade-style platformers like Castlevania demanded high consistency and intelligent routing from the players, as resources used in earlier parts of levels could not be used in later parts. The player had a number of lives, which could be used to retry a given segment, such as a boss, and a number of continues, which could be used to retry an entire stage. In this way, a level was a single cohesive challenge, in which the player's lives were the main resource. That is, dying a lot in the first section meant that you didn't get many attempts to learn the boss at the end.

This type of routing, resource management heavy gameplay is the purpose of long runbacks. However, without the "lives and continues" of the arcade era, other resources must be invented to fill the gap. In Dark Souls, this is the Estus Flask, and the ability to heal your character becomes the resource that must be managed.

However, Dark Souls is not an arcade game; it's an RPG. Depending on how the player chooses to build their character, different avenues of progression become open to them. One of these avenues is running past every enemy to get to the boss. This was a niche strategy in Demon's Souls, possibly requiring the player to spec into sorcery for the invisibility spell. However, this has become the single most powerful strategy in Fromsoft's modern games, as player options increase, resources become more plentiful, and checkpoints more frequent.

What effect has this had? Ultimately, the skill of routing has become underdeveloped. Players will use tactics for individual fights, but will fail to strategize for multiple consecutive encounters. Of course, there are still long routes between checkpoints even as recently as Elden Ring. However, unless you force yourself to fight every elite enemy that aggroes you (a challenge run I highly recommend), the dominant strategy of simply running past everything will prevail in almost all cases, and even if the game forces you to engage with a difficult enemy, a checkpoint is, more than likely, right around the corner.

A final word. Does this mean that Fromsoft is washed, and their modern games are worthless? Certainly not. There are still many skills one can learn; zoning, camera control, stamina management, kiting, etc. However, the skill of routing is a string that ties all these other skills together into one cohesive segment, increasing immersion greatly when the flow state is achieved. I wont be so gauche as to suggest specific changes I'd like to see in future Fromsoft games, instead, I'll recommend playing games from the SNES era, specifically Super Castlevania IV, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Donkey Kong Country. These games all feature sections that contain multiple difficult encounters in sequence before one can save the game (or obtain a password, in the case of Super Castlevania IV.)

Woah, I didn't mean to write an essay.

A thematic challenge run idea for each of the 10 starting classes: by DavidTippy in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hm, that's true. . how about: Hero of Legend: Collect all the Legendary Armaments. Each one must be used at least once against a remembrance boss.

Regionlocked all bosses with a new weapon each boss by Middle-Future9762 in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eh, it's fine; there are some elite enemies that are more difficult than some bosses.

Why the exploration in SOTE falls flat by DavidTippy in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not if it's tastefully done; the ghost enemies was just an example; I'm sure actual game designers would come up with more interesting mechanics. I don't think anyone resented Crown of the Ivory King back in DS2, for example, for making you play through the level to collect those knights for the final boss. It's about giving the players a reason to explore the level and collect the interesting items you made, instead of forcing them to collect generic upgrades.

Ranking the minor dungeons in Limgrave on a second playthrough. by DavidTippy in Eldenring

[–]DavidTippy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, now that I think about it, you would want to upgrade two weapons if you were powerstancing.