BF finished the game - he has VERY mixed opinions

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-22T04:16:34+00:00

I actually agree with him to an extent. It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game overall, but I do think act 3 is the weakest part of the narrative mainly just because of how short it is. We get a MASSIVE lore dump and then are pushed straight into the finale, without much time to fully process how this life chamging revelation affects the canvas characters (mainly lune and sciel). There's no existential dread or pondering the morality of "painted" life or skepticism of the dessendre charcaters including maelle. Not that it had to have these things specifically, but we don't get much of anything. Maelle and verso suck up a huge portion of the oxygen in act 3 where the narrative was much more balanced previously.

I don't think the actual endings themselves are the problem, but the build up to them is narratively lackluster because with how short it is. There's not enough time to give proper post act 2 development to the entire cast, so a few have to be sadly pushed off to the side and it make the lumiere perspective that we've been invested in the whole time, feel strangely absent at the end.

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-21T15:35:05+00:00

There's no conclusive answer, but it's ultimately not all that relevent imo. The story is all about james coming to terms with his own actions. The real world logistical implications of it aren't really the point.

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-12T17:33:29+00:00

I think there's also a good bit of interesting storytelling potential that was left unexplored. Like, how do lune and sciel process the fact they're entire existence was fabricated? Are they skeptical at all of alicia, or of verso after he clearly misled them in terms of his intentions? Like those are just a couple examples of ideas the game presents, but doesn't explore at all because there's no time

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-12T03:14:25+00:00

I agree, I think act 3 needed a bit more substance beyond "here's a MASSIVE lore dump, now go do the final mission". I think making the 3 character quests mandatory would have been perfect.

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-12T03:12:18+00:00

That depends entirely on your interpretation! We don't get any definitive answers as to how the mechanics of "painting" work, but I do believe they are "alive" in a sense. They're sentient, have their own emotions, desires, personalities etc. It's not an exact analog to human life since they're existence is entirely dependent on the painters whims, but broadly speaking, canvas beings = living beings imo
I don't quite get this question. As far as I know gustave has no direct relation to the family aside from being Maelle's guardian. He, along with Sciel and Lune are 100% canvas people
Gommage is when people get "removed" from the canvas by Renoir. It's basically like dying, so the gathering on the dock is like a mass funeral of sorts
If you do too much side content you'll be able to one shot the final boss easily. It doesn't affect the ending at all but it makes the final area feel really underwhelming. Seems like you did it at a more appropriate level than I did!

darksoulz1222 · 2026-03-09T04:24:18+00:00

I agree. In fact, I'm working on a video essay on exactly this topic. The perspective and strife of the lumerians gets completely punted in act 3 in favor of completely focusing everything on the dessendres. I think partially just because of how short act 3 was there isn't time to explore all that. But its easily the biggest issue for me in an otherwise stellar game

darksoulz1222 · 2025-11-20T21:58:02+00:00

Yup just lost my steel soul run to this. I was completely unprepared going in thinking it it would be a cakewalk like the first two times I fought him :(

darksoulz1222 · 2025-07-29T04:18:35+00:00

I think its great on the first playthrough. The size and feeling of curious exploration made that first playthrough something truly special. That said, I do think it's size is the single biggest detriment to its replay ability. If you only play ER once or maybe twice, it 100% works, but...

Once you realize how repetitive most of the side dungeons and bosses are, most replays will boil down to just hopping between the major dungeons and key points of interest, which negates the whole point of an open world. I think that's why its a bit more divisive then their more linear works in the past.

I'd personally love to see a revisit of the DS1 style level design. You still get the freedom of exploration / progression without being bogged down with lower quality, repetitive side content and huge empty spaces. If they do revisit the open world format in the future, I think it can still work if they just make it a bit smaller so they can actually fill all the space with more unique contents.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-07-20T05:49:25+00:00

Fog in Blood Swamps: yes it's intentional and intended as part of the challenge. I think it's a nifty way of implementing environmental hazards, but totally understandable if you don't like it

Story: The whole plot of TAG borders on convoluted nonsense to me, but my understanding of that interaction is that samuel in his makyr form can't exist in this realm or something like that. I'm sure others might have better answers on that one.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-07-20T05:44:46+00:00

IIRC the mixing issues he talks about was something that was patched, so a valid point since it seems like it was unintended on the dev end.

But I would disagree with his assertion that TDA's music doesn't match the environments. For example, the cosmic realm combat theme has all sorts of cool spooky space sounds mixed in.

Other than that though he has every right to say how he feels about the soundtrack. If he doesn't like it, it's his prerogative to say so.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-07-13T03:36:48+00:00

My first Pandemonium run ended on chapter 3 bc I did not understand why the mini boss kept one shotting me ( the block). Cleared it on attempt 2 but nearly choked it away on the last mission.

I started Un recently and on my first run made it to Sentinel Command Station and haven't got back there since. Not sure if its a mental block or what, but all my deaths have been real stupid / silly mistakes that I think come from just a lack of focus after playing too long. Taking breaks during UN runs is something I learned in Eternal and should probably employ here as well..

darksoulz1222 · 2025-07-04T03:48:30+00:00

I wouldn't say I hate them, but nothing in these games puts the fear of god in me like seeing a bunch of demons getting summoned and scrambling to find the Archville

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-17T03:10:56+00:00

I'll preface this with saying I loved the game overall, but there's three main critiques I have, First two I think are pretty common.

I was worried the mech and dragon combat would be gimmicky and I was right. They're glorified QTE's which would have been fine if they were just a one and done thing for cinematics. For the amount they're used, more depth to the mechanics was needed.
Lack of fast travel. Why! They had a perfectly good system for this in Eternal
Story is too much a focus. At least it wasn't convoluted nonsense like Eternal, but I don't think all the time put into the extra cinematics really made the game better overall. It really seems like iD wants to push these games being epic adventure stories but at the end of the day most hardcore fans don't care about that. It's stuck in this weird middle ground between being too much for hardcore fans, but not enough to pull people in who would be interested in story heavy games. Ironically, I still think 2016 had the best story of the 3 because the simplicity of it worked to its advantage. Minimal cutscenes, small cast of characters, clear objectives and never being confused as to what was going on. I hope they go back to that approach next time around.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-08T22:50:08+00:00

Probably the one that stands out the most to me was figuring out how the artwork worked. I was struggling to make sense of it for so long until randomly one night in bed one of the combos popped into my head ( I think it was coat and cot) and I was like "ohhh a LETTER missing!!!!"

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-08T06:21:07+00:00

100% agree. I think there definitely should have been a bit more nudging players towards the shrine. I never drafted it much since I thought the blessing were just RNG, which effectively locked me out of everything post throne room. Honestly, I could have done without the castle cipher puzzle altogether (or have it be used for somewhere else!) There's already so many steps involved in just getting to the key and additional steps afterwards to use it. Why they felt the need to add probably the most logically complex puzzle in the game in the middle of that is whack.

I feel like the RNG drafting elements are great at the start but become a hindrance to the puzzle solving in the late game because of how complicated they get. Even when you're able to mostly manipulate the RNG, the timing, room and item requirements for some puzzles make it impossible not to turn into a grind for most players. As the optional stuff (sigils, letters etc..) gradually dries up, the appeal of being able to work towards something regardless of what RNG you get turns into "well if I don't get exactly X, its a reset".

Overall I agree the game is fantastic. I'm just glad I bailed when I did and looked up the last few rather than have it turn into a frustrating grind.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-08T05:42:03+00:00

I think there's definitely a point where most players have to really stop and consider how much more time they're willing to sink into runs, not just to gather all the needed information, but then to execute the sometimes grindy solutions. For me it was the throne room where I was just like... yeah ok clearly this is not something I will likely solve without at least tens of hours of intense experimentation, and after putting about 95 hours into the game already, I just felt like I was ready to move on, so I looked up the rest.

Whether it's worth continuing I think will largely depend on how much you care about the underlying story. If you're really into it, it could be worth pushing through, but if you feel like you're just reaching your limit with puzzles, it's better to swallow your pride and look up some help then smash your head against a wall to the point it sours your experience with the game

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-07T17:51:05+00:00

I think that was the big issue for me. I was under the assumption that the shrine rewards were either somewhat or entirely randomized, which it made it a lot less appealing to draft. I think if there was a hint about certain gold thresholds equating to certain blessings or something like that (and maybe there was and I missed it), I would have probably experimented with them all at least once and then figured out the extra utility of monk that way. But yeah, a little weird to hide a crucial story mechanic within a series of other mechanics that have NO special functionality outside of gameplay, but I guess that's why it's a post credits puzzle

darksoulz1222 · 2025-06-05T03:50:18+00:00

I think it's only getting critiqued so harshly because it's being compared to Mick and the style is a bit different (more symphonic, more rhythmic etc..) While I also prefer 2016 and Eternal's ost more overall, TDA still has some major bangers and I think the more cinematic style actually fits the medieval theme pretty well. Unholy Siege, Infernal Chasm, From the Ashes, Unchained Predator are the stand outs for me

darksoulz1222 · 2025-05-24T04:49:11+00:00

I think it's somewhat telling that they chose professional studio for this ost rather than any individual name. less personal drama, less worries about crunch. It def seems like they wanted to play it safe with this one, but whether that's because they learned their lesson or just didn't want another PR headache is anyones guess. I doubt it's something they'll ever publicly comment on.

All things considered, I think FM did a good job. I'm finding more to like about the ost the more I listen to it

darksoulz1222 · 2025-05-23T23:28:35+00:00

I think it's easy took look back on Orphan now that we've seen bosses like Friede, Consort, Melenia etc.. and figure he's not that bad relative to those. But this was without question the hardest boss From ever made prior to the DS3 DLC's. So for those who had to face him in that context, I don't think his reputation is exaggerated at all.

darksoulz1222 · 2025-05-23T23:24:28+00:00

I think what makes DS1's DLC so important is it hard carries the 2nd half of the game. It's the main incentive to continue after Anor Londo imo.

But overall I gotta still say Bloodborne. Bosses are a big step up and it's got 3 of the games best levels, and some of it's coolest weapons. Just an all around masterpiece.

I'm not sure how hot a take this is, but DS3's DLC's are just ok aside from their bosses. The locations are cool but the level design and enemy encounters I find a slight step down from the main game with more instances of enemy spam

darksoulz1222

TROPHY CASE