What it felt like to play this back when it first came out?

>>713079638 (OP)
like losing your virginity but better desu

like playing ocarina of time for the first time except the game is actually good and has survived the test of time

>>713079638 (OP)
It felt like you were playing Dark Souls (2011), probably for the first time

>>713079638 (OP)
it was 10x harder, souls barely dropped, curse would stack decimating your health every time, bugs were plenty - it was truly brutal and thats when the game got its reputation

then it was all changed into much easier more forgiving game, you got all these free souls pickups letting you over-level in ~5 mins of just running around

It was the best experience in gaming history
People both helping each other and being dicks to each other, the covenants giving people different reasons to do the things they did...
Often people say stuff like "I wish I could erase my memories to experience this masterpiece again", but the memories of Dark Souls 1 from back in the day are invaluable, I would never give them up and I feel bad for people who never got to experience it

>>713079638 (OP)
stuttering slopfest with massive input lag
good thing it got remastered and now it's steady 60 fps and all the technical flaws have been amplified because the gaym was only ever intended to run at 24 fps

Back when Hidetaka Miyazaki wasn't huffing his own farts yet, and a damn fine game was made.

its just shittier halfass mmo wow clone

>>713079638 (OP)
like bags of sand

>>713079638 (OP)
Personally I had completely lost faith in singleplayer games before I discovered DS. I used to only play Dota 24/7

Probably as shitty as it feels to play it now.

>>713079638 (OP)
I thought "damn, this is pure reddit" and in hindsight I couldn't be more right.

>>713079638 (OP)
it wasn't super ground breaking for me because I had already played Demon's Souls whereas most people hadn't because it was still a relatively obscure game that sold more after Dark Souls came out.

It still remains as Fromsoft's only good game.

>>713080481
Did your discord tell you to think like that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2zDvw_9exU
they don't make them like they used to

These games are like food passing down the human centipede. Each iteration gets worse as time goes by.

>>713079638 (OP)
I thought the menu looked like ass, but still gave it a shot. The first boss kicked my butt and I threw a temper tantrum and gave up.
Months later, I tried it again, beat it and became one of my favorite games.

>>713079916
The covenants were at their best in this game.

>>713079638 (OP)
A high I was unable to replicate after 4 more games.

>>713082612
>Have the best ideas for covenants but fail to implement them at their best due to technical limitations/lack of experience
>Instead of fixing them and adding even more variety to them, make them worse and worse every subsequent game to the point of removing them completely in ER
The biggest dropped ball of the genre by far and I will never not be mad about it
And the worst part is that none of the soulslikes by other developers have tried either

>>713082912
Covenants always sucked

>>713082912
Online play was already shit in ER, but having no covenants just made it an even bigger waste of time.

>>713083205
Nah, Elden Ring has the best online because it has the most technical and player knowledge centric PVP
If you need dingling of keys for pointless drip fed rewards to play PVP then you didn't like it in the first place

>>713083362
>L2ring
>technical
LOL
>talks about rewards
>no mention of different ways of interacting with players that covenants used to provide
ER was your first game wasn't it

>>713079638 (OP)
The first time I walked towards the terrace in the Undead Asylum (you know the one where the FOV slowly gets wider as a kino move by the devs) I was fully on my knees. Had never experienced a game that immersive and with that kind of atmosphere before

>>713082612
You have been indicted.

For me its one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had and it's a top 5 game in my eyes forever (no other fromsoft game is close).
Something that wasn't mentioned yet is during the time it released (demon souls was very niche and not well known), all games were goddamn easy. Like on the rails, qte events, uncharted/assassin's creed easy. This was such fresh concept, making a trial and error fantasy game with a metroidvania type layout.
What people also don't remember is that before des/das the controller layout where you attack and block with your shoulder buttons was non existent and unusual. Now it's in every game but people actually complained back then about having to attack with R1.

>>713083362
>technical
KWAB. If you like getting ganked, sure.
I bet you are a fighting arena tard anyway.
>>713083590
Those were the true medals kek

Anor Londo PvP >>>>>>>>> every other souls pvp that came after

>>713083362
>when your ego is too big for normal singleplayer games
>but your IQ is too low for actual fighting games

>>713083736
Oolacile Township was also pretty nice.

>>713083784
I had tons of fun with a friend playing there, but that was also the moment dark souls pvp stopped being about fucking with people and started being "srs bsns fighting game but for retards"

>>713083362
>Elden Ring (...) has the most technical and player knowledge centric PVP
tell me you have no knowledge of DS1 tech without telling me you have no knowledge of DS1 tech

>>713083534
>>L2ring
You just outed yourself as another filtered retard.
Suddenly reaction rolling around and "whoever hits first wins" doesn't cut it because there's a more varied series of interactions and the shitter playerbase shrieks like retards because they can't trade a 3 second telegraph move
>>no mention of different ways of interacting with players that covenants used to provide
There's no ways to interact, it's the color with which you invade or coop. You swap Covenants like you swap outfits because it turns out linking builds and rewards for certain character to specific matchmaking roles sucks ass and everybody wants to both coop and invade, which kills any kind of roleplaying potential Covenants had been originally devised in.
The only alternative would be a duall faction that has within several Covenants so that each player can serve in any role, but at that point you are potentially splitting the playerbase

Duskbloods is actually built around Covenants, which is far better than half assing it in Elden Ring

"Demon's Souls was so good but this is pretty boring."

>>713083859
>"srs bsns fighting game but for retards"
You do have a point.

>>713083694
Git gud

>>713083779
Fighting games suck ass, any game still stuck in 2D camera is way too shallow and barebones for combat

>>713084073
>tries to prove the game isn't L2ring
>posts a webm of oneshotting multiple people with a single L2 AOE nuke
you can't make this shit up

>>713079638 (OP)
Like playing Elden Ring for the first time pretty much.

>>713084073
>L2 for the win
KEKAROOOOO
>>713084364
Say it again, without crying ER cuck. The game only lets you invade during co-ops and that's fucking sad.

>>713079638 (OP)
Something that cannot be replicated today. Pure unfiltered soul. The difficulty was just a small, almost insignificant part of it.

>>713084151
Not one person thought this except for demon souls PvP addicts. You weren't there.
>>713084636
Not even close

>>713079638 (OP)
It was alright, but everyone knew Skyrim was better

>>713084564
>Filtered by a 5 seconds attack
The absolute state

>>713084678
>The game only lets you invade during co-ops and that's fucking sad.
Why? Because you suck at invading?

>>713084451
There are 3D fighting games.
>b-but their camera is stuck
Your webm literally has camera lock on

>>713079638 (OP)
God I remember the forest pvp. I remember it was so populated at a time that the VERY SECOND you stepped off the stairs, you would immediately see the fog gate behind you. Love it.

>>713084073
>There's no ways to interact, it's the color with which you invade or coop
bro you shitty game doesn't even have a dedicated fun pvp area like the ds1 forest or ds3 swamp/anor londo
what's to say about gravelording or being the spear of the church or a purple
just a bunch of open areas, ganks and AOE nuke spam that one/two-shots everything. I feel sorry that you never experienced anything better than ER, which you obviously haven't lmao

>>713084852
>The difficulty was just a small, almost insignificant part of it
Tourist retard
>>713086512
Nope, I played them all. Covenants always sucked. Gravelording has never worked right and arena covenants always sucked and had always issues of player population, which is why Spear of the Church actually defies Covenant rules and bundles every invader as eligible summon, nigger

>>713079775
The second half of the game is trash though.

Just like Ocarina of Time

>>713079638 (OP)
It was painfully slow compared to other action games.

>>713084852
>The difficulty was just a small, almost insignificant part of it.
This is bullshit people made up literally a decade after the fact when Elden Ring filtered them.
Difficulty was part of the ad campaign, and 90% of the community memes were about how hard the game was.

>>713079638 (OP)
PCfags will never know, they only got the post-nerfs version.

>>713087668
Because people are shitters. Only the Capra Demon was somewhat of a bullshit, the rest were all fair fights. The issue with the game was you couldn't just turn your brain off against the common enemies and 'lost your progress.'

I learned how to pvp in dickstab forest, you could still flip under 50% load so lots of flipping giantmoms and dads. I solo invaded, I feel like I became a man through sheer 3vs1 games.

>>713087774
sour grapes over not having the best version (DSfix PTDE with PvP watchdog): the post

>>713088038
It's the truth, nigger. PC didn't get the game until several patches had already been made and the DLC released. The game had been made much easier. Just the amount of souls shit gave you alone was increased by a ton.

>>713088113
>removed 50% load ninja flips
>easier
keep telling yourself that

>>713079638 (OP)
Don't listen to most anons in here. The game pretty had only 500 players at all times until their favorite YouTuber made videos about it.

>>713088349
Youtube culture was completely different back when Dark Souls came out you fucking retarded zoomer. There were no major mainstream gaming channels actually giving a game like this the time of day.

>>713079638 (OP)
how Japan got its groove back

>>713088521
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnUGxY_b00Y
Dude, even Rooster Teeth did a Dark Souls series.

>>713079775
literally this but at the time no one knew it

>>713088521
facts
some of the most popular and iconic videos were made by noname randoms and had shit like invasion trolling and texture swaps and early challenge runs, each uploader having their own personality/sense of humor/style
it was a different time, the tourist mind is unable to comprehend that. they get bombarded with daily by-the-numbers elden slop videos with colorful ADHD thumbnails
not to say that big channels never did stuff with dark souls, but that's just something that happens when your game is a generational masterpiece

>Dark Souls thread
>no gameplay webms
dWow, amazing for such a "legendary" game there's literally zero evidence of it ever being fun.

Initial release there was no hype for it and pretty much no one really cared for it. It was overshadowed by skyrim and wasnt until mid 2012 that it exploded in popularity on youtube for "LE HARD GAME"

>>713088923
>A single 4 minute and 37 second video made by the resident rage-baiter (likely put up to it because of its notorious difficulty) in where he literally cannot get past the very first boss
Bait used to mean something

>>713079638 (OP)
it was utter dogshit
like every other fromslop game
played it and beat it 8-9 times both on PS3 and on PC (because of the fucking blighttown lag)
shit was garbage, anyone saying it was kino has rose tinted glasses and is a massive faggot
inb4
>so why did you beat it 8-9 times if it was trash
because i was good at it and that would make my friends tilted to no end

it sucked back then and it sucks forever

>>713089642
no one is gonna watch your gay minute and a half webm little bro

>>713079916
I miss covenants.

>>713082612
That's why I have hope for Duskbloods (not buying shitch 2 doe), bc it seems like Miyazaki wanting to go back and make all those quirky mp covenants, and the online in general, better again; kinda like a seamless dark souls.

>>713083923
I'm disagreeing with that take too but DS1 tech is glitch abusing trash only rivavled by melee autists.

>>713089654
that's not true at all. DeS was somewhat cult in mainstream gaming but very popular on this board. DaS coming out for PS3/360 at the same time it was extremely popular here. Like week after week of memes and humor that went on for months. Once Prepare to Die Edition dropped the game pretty much took over modern single player gaming as we knew it.

>>713079638 (OP)
Incredible.
Took me 40 hours to get to and beat Ornstein and Smough.

I bought the original release of Demon's Souls, and had never gotten very far but enjoyed the atmosphere and challenge.

>>713090187
/v/ wasn't mainstream then like it is now, zoomer. You didn't have scores of third world TikTok trash flooding this board day after day with worthless off-topic bait threads

>>713088113
>PC didn't get the game until several patches had already been made and the DLC released
You lying retard. PC got the DLC two months before consoles.

>>713089654
liar nigger

The atmosphere was so thick that even on your nth play through, it felt like you could find something never seen before.

>>713090357
is this bait or are you retarded? i'm saying i was here in 2011 ('07 started on /b/).
4chan was very well known with my age group of millennials. If you played PC games as a teen in the late 2000's you knew about 4chan. even my ex-gf in hs knew about 4chan. this place hasn't been a secret club since like 2009.

>>713088521
I know. You faggots didn't play the game until the 2nd one came out and youtubers made videos about the first. Fuck off

>>713089642
>amazing for such a "legendary" game there's literally zero evidence of it ever being fun.
It could be worse

>>713090187
>DeS was somewhat cult in mainstream gaming
yeah with its 1 million sold after 3 years with a huge uptick after the release of ds1 every normalfag was really singing the song and dance for fromsoft back then retard
>Like week after week of memes and humor that went on for months.
This was AFTER PTDE dropped, you could not escape skyrim on this board back then, the intial release of DS1 WAS talked about here but what youre remembering is what happened during the summer of 2012 almost a YEAR after the original game dropped
this is almost 15 years ago anon both of your recollections of events here in 2011-12 dont even matter

>>713090142
Yes, it's unintuitive and broken as fuck, but you can't deny it has the most depth and the highest execution barrier out of all of these games. An average L2bab's pea brain will explode if they watch high-level DS1 pvp

>>713089642
For the children, 4chan didnt get webm until 2014.

>>713090949
The people who started with Dark Souls 2 after hearing about le hard 1 was are the exact type of people saying that 2 is a masterpiece thoughbeit and shit all over 1 any chance they get.

>>713079916
yeah getting messages that led to traps were funny. made me respect the levels more

>>713091417
retard DeS shipped 15k units on launch in October 2009 and sold 250k by the years end. that is the definition of cult status.

and yes there was week after week of jokes in 2011. if you weren't here for it that's fine idgaf.

>>713079638 (OP)
Huge downgrade from Demon's Souls. I was planning on getting 100% but dropped it because it was so boring

>>713091643
1 is worth shitting on

>>713093060
did you seen gwynevere's tits?

>>713090360
Stupid nigger, the game had been out for a year before PC got it and several huge changes had been made by that time.

Why are children lying about all this shit?
/v/ loved Dark Souls and Demon's

>>713091359
This doesn't look way better to you than running around in circles for 3 minutes in some cramped arena? Are ds1 hipsters being serious? lol

>>713090360
Not him, it got the DLC first, but it launched with a bunch of patches that made the game way easier, like increased soul counts, more forgiving curse, larger merchant inventories, and some adjustments to Lost Izalith, among other things

>>713079638 (OP)
It gave hope that gaming would be revived but we got monkey pawed HARD

>>713093137
I like how DS1 lets you get comfortable with a bow because you find out the hard way that it can't be used against bosses unless you have two hours to kill.

>>713093957
also for teaching you to use tool to soften bosses up. your not giving these demons honorable killings

>>713080871
kek classic, unironically a good view into the ds culture back then

>>713083362
play moba it will make your little brain explode soulscuck

>>713093957
You like the game being broken and retarded and having zero depth? DS1 hipsterisim is seriously a fucking cult. The bow shouldn't be used against bosses...because why!? Unless you have two hours to kill because the ai is retarded. That's good game design to you?

>>713083736
For the it's the forest.

>>713093957
>I like how ds1 is just really fucking bad and easy
Calls that "getting comfortable"

>>713079638 (OP)
I dunno. I starred with Dark Souls 2 and played DS1 afterwards. It was actually mind boggeling to me how much better DS1 was over 2. I just remember thinking "Why the fuck did they ruin this with 2?". Then as From made more games I realized DS1 was their Magnum Opus and a accident they would never be able to replicate.

>>713095087
DS2 is stunning

>>713093137

>>713088521
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXw86Vn8ko

>>713079638 (OP)
it felt like a revelation, the feeling no other From game managed to replicate ever since

>>713096329

It was the first challenging game with no difficulty settings or hand holding Ive ever played. I had a shit time figuring out the mechanics and was gaslit by a youtuber into only leveling up endurance and spamming backstabs and fireballs. once I realized that was stupid and actually figured out the game, it was amazing and more rewarding than any game ive played since. Not to mention the atmosphere, weapon/armor designs, world building, and art direction was 10/10 (until lost izaleth and tomb of giants). Still play through it every year and have fun everytime

>>713096663
The Painted world was kino. I did not expect them to do a Super Mario 64 reference in the game and then you can't even warp out of there, what a great area.

Especially love the extra spooky area where the cages are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OPd65DbdIM

>>713079638 (OP)
Pure, unfiltered kino
>suffering through Blighttown at 17 FPS
>finding bizarre bullshit around every corner
>feeling like a genius for bringing the crest shield to the moonlight butterfly fight
>trying out a new weapon and realizing it's either great or garbage
>praising the sun
>realizing you fucked yourself out of the darkwraith covenant and making a second character
>knocking other players off of the bridges in the catacombs
>touching fluffy tail
>getting backstabbed by a +5 chaos dagger
>showing no respect for these forest dudes and their high speed parries
>making OC for /v/, which wasn't 90% third world porn and gacha """game""" addicts at the time

DS2 release window was also kino for entirely different reasons
shockwaves :)))

>>713080871
I've never seen this, hilarious. I'll have to imagine that this is what every invader is doing when I get shit on in Elden Ring.

>>713095561
>814k views in 13 years
>Mainstream
I guess, but you're proving his point that the internet was different
But TB was actually one of the major reasons it even got ported to PC iirc. Miss this nigga like you wouldn't believe

>>713097836
search something DS-related like "dark souls invasions" on youtube and add "before:2014" or something close to that date at the end of it

gems

>>713097397
ever notice the creepy music in the background over there? then you get invaded out of nowhere by the pyromancer with the fucked up head

>>713079638 (OP)
Fuck off ESL

>>713084451
Souls pvp is literally the worst pvp in any game

>>713100168
parrying someone and taking 90% of their health on riposte only to backstab fish to finish them was fun as fuck

>>713080480
>>713081028
>>713089932
>>713089984
only real posts itt

>>713101769
as real as your new vagina, xister

>>713102187
gottem

>>713079638 (OP)
Honestly... had just a big of an impact on gaming as Super Mario 64 and Resident Evil 4 did. The soul (heh) was there right from the beginning.

>Go down to the catacombs if you dare, or journey towards the castle to fight the capra demon, OH SHIT! DRAGON. If you cut off his tail you get the strongest early game weapons.

KINO

the demaster needs to go on a 90% sale already

>>713104230
>40 bucks for a 15 year old game
This is why they killed physical media.

>>713079638 (OP)
i played it first in 2012 but got stuck at the undead burg lmao
took me 7 years to truly enjoy it for the first time

>>713085875
>t. Filtered

>>713106034
>L2
>L2
>L2
most skilled elden shit fan

>>713106034
see>>713083779

>>713106909
Git gud

>>713079638 (OP)
Absolute kino, i spent 1000 hours being a dickwraith in honorabu PvP and another 1000 hours as a forest ganker, i replayed it a while ago and it still holds up, such an amazing game.

>>713107410
>says the guy who's too dumb to play Tekken

>>713079638 (OP)
magic

>>713079638 (OP)
Refreshing. Everyone was seething at capra demon at the same time.

Games were extremely easy and forgiving at the time. Regenerating health and all that. Then Dark souls comes out and suddenly it's possible to die in a video game.
Yes i know Demon's souls came first but that wasn't as popular.

>>713083736
I'm one of those cucks who was invaded right before activating the second bonfire on the very first playthrough.

>>713108894
after the archer knights? You devil

>>713107410
That slow movement is what I want back.

>>713079638 (OP)
I believed in the pendant lies. Fuck you Miyazaki.

>>713079638 (OP)
Still playing it. It's perfect

>>713087425
>The second half of the game is trash though.
this is exaggerated. yeah, it's not as fleshed out but I still enjoy Lost Izalith and even Bed of Chaos.

>>713106034
this is garbage. you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to pass it off as impressive.

>>713079638 (OP)
Indescribable.

>>713079638 (OP)
feels the same as now, you retard. what the fuck is wrong with you?

>>713112114
if you played offline you didn't play the game

>>713079638 (OP)
It felt like shit to the infinitly superior demon souls.

>>713084678
Imagine buying a single player game for its small extra of a coop.
Are you that kind of retard?

>>713111316
>this is garbage. you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to pass it off as impressive.
Thanks for being self aware but next time use spoilers instead of showing so openly Dark Souls 2 in a blue board

Great learning the gameplay until you beat the Gargoyles.
Terrible going through Blighttown (sans Master Key) with that shit FPS.
Amazing going through Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo and getting a bunch of new loot.
Drag going through half of the endgame areas.

>>713110872
the fuck is wrong with you people?

>Thread is just filled with underage 2fags desperate to shit on something they don't understand

>>713079638 (OP)
first played in 2011, ultra comfy setting, stopped at the undead burg, somehow I've completely stopped playing vidya until 2017 where I picked up the game once again my favorite game of all time was almost untouched in my library for 7 years

>>713110872
if they fixed lost izalith so it wasn't copy/paste citythen it'd be fine. it's just after being ambushed and having enemies in blind spots the entire game it's a little jarring to just have hordes of taurus / kapra demons mulling around followed by dragon butts

oh and make bed of chaos a little less shit

I was really disappointed as a Demon's Souls fan. Dark Souls 1 didn't have that atmospheric touch and everything just felt like gritty garbage, Dark Souls 2 however was amazing and ephemeral. And by the Gods I loved Bloodborne. Dark Souls 3 was the best coop invasion experience I ever had. Elden Ring was kinda mid but I give it a pass. Nightreign is really fun.

>>713079916
>It was the best experience in gaming history
But enough about Skyrim

>>713079638 (OP)
Coming from Demon's Souls, I couldn't really look past a lot of the repetition from before. It soured my experience a little bit, but I still very much enjoyed it. I think less of it now after playing Dark Souls 3, since A-Team decided to repeat all the classics, very similar to what they did with Dark Souls 1.
I'm trying to think of a good moment I had, but not much comes up.... am I getting old? Do the good memories get replaced by bad memories over time?

>>713079852
I miss the pre nerf dragon asses every time I replay the game
Everyone parrots about izalith being so shitty without ever having even experienced it at its peak shittiness

>>713120253
Based

>>713079638 (OP)
like Alice lost in Wonderland. it was fucking magical.

>>713120253
>>713122134
stop samefagging todd

>>713079638 (OP)
I was dumb and bought into the “it’s so hard!” memes. I got so nervous every time I played it and thought I had to drink to take the edge off a little bit to play it lol. Looking back this game was super easy compared to things like Bloodborne and Elden Ring.

played, thought it was ok, a little different from the rest of the games at the time. got bored halfway through and kept playing skyrim like everyone else.

>>713120253
This, but unironically