I mostly like these, mostly. I think the comparison of the central mechanics of games to the mechanics of Dark Souls needs to be a bit heftier and elaborated upon, unless you were just using the comparison as a base to jump off and do heavily critical reviews with an element of humour in them? 

I think the former idea is stronger than the latter idea because personally I've gone a bit off the "super negative because it's funny" style of review. Not that they aren't well written or anything (bar a few typos and the like) they just aren't ON MY BRAND or whatever. 

So, if you worked on the comparisons and how games could have been inspired by Dark Souls for the better, they'd be more interesting, but also at the same time it would be harder and limit what you can write about because really can SR4 be made better via mechanics and ideas introduced in Dark Souls?

PS: it took my fucking hours to write this, because I didn't want to come across as a really negative prick about what you've done, cos it isn't by any means bad, I just think you're slightly wasting the concept.

I mean I'm happy to go with "more games should be about mysterious exploration with a combat system that prioritises a sense of deliberate weight" but I don't think that means Dark Souls specifically.

If I was making a Dark Souls game I'd do what your Bro is doing and cut out the worst part of it: numbers. Fuck them all. I'd probably try my best to remove and levelling system of any sort too.

If I was making a Dark Souls game I'd do what your Bro is doing and cut out the worst part of it: numbers. Fuck them all. I'd probably try my best to remove and levelling system of any sort too.

Pretty much this. Basically, if DkS is spiritually beholden to Metroid it should be a bit more spiritually beholden to Metroid.

I don't resent having to jump into a menu to switch my gear around, but I'd like the actual utility of same to be more opaque, so that you learn what works through actual experience rather than looking at the chartz.

I'm sure studios can get past hp/mp bars too.

Tempy wrote:

If I was making a Dark Souls game I'd do what your Bro is doing and cut out the worst part of it: numbers. Fuck them all. I'd probably try my best to remove and levelling system of any sort too.

Well you'll both be pleased based on what I saw last night in my bro's game.

Things that are in Dark Souls that are in NG+:

Weight based classes
Stamina
Lock on
Weapon nuances
Mysterious lore
Lack of hand holding
Fair but punishing difficulty

Things that aren't in NG+that are in Dark Souls:

Numbers
Hud (other than stamina/health/magic)
Inventory (really)
Stats
Min Maxing (no level shown)

Greater hostile unit randomisation of placement would be swell also.

Nick that reads encouraging.

That all sounds good. Inventory in games is ridiculous anyway. In Dark Souls all that shit you're carrying is a joke.

TheDJR wrote:

Don't enemies already take more damage from thrust or slash etc? The divine system for the catacombs was (must resist) really good.

They might do, but it's still all numbers. I just want to see a sword glance off bone, and a hammer break them to bits. No numbers. No STR/INT/FAI no A-E efficiency on weapons, no requirements on what to use based on numbers, instead have situations where certain weapons are marginally more effective than others to coax progression logically. That said, if you have a Claymore it's two handed and probably strong enough to break bone so interesting nuances like that can be achieved without stats.

All games should be NG+ maybe.

It's all good in theory but I reckon if any game tried to strip out all the gamey-ness of numbers, inventories and so on it would only be able to do so at the cost of some of the customisation. There's a reason some of these shortcuts are still in use, mostly for some sort of transparency, but it would be interesting to see a game of this complexity do without them if only to see how it failed.

I've tended to think of the numerals as a development shortcut more than a user-end one. The kind of sophistication Temp was just typing there about how weapons interact with different enemy, uh, substances requires resources, and I don't just mean money.

All games should be Journey.

Brooks wrote:

I've tended to think of the numerals as a development shortcut more than a user-end one. The kind of sophistication Temp was just typing there about how weapons interact with different enemy, uh, substances requires resources, and I don't just mean money.

I can't see myself enjoying a game where I constantly have to judge the visual feedback in that way, not when it comes to minor differences between upgrades or similar weapon types. A bigger number tells me quickly that a particular weapon works better here than another, and that's very welcome.

Sword X bigger and shinier than sword Y then moar powah

Frosty wrote:

Sword X bigger and shinier than sword Y then moar powah

It really is things like this, oddly enough. (Then there are basic mechanical factors like length of reach, speed of use i.e. weight, which even DkS is actually on board with to an extent.) The introduction of metrics for err'ting is a very modern peculiarity and not always a welcome one. Certainly not in a context which is leaning heavily pre-modern like DkS.

@Brooks

Reach, speed and weight to an extent?! Every single weapon has these differences, I beat people in PvP every single night because I know that their swing will not be able to hit me at a certain distance. Or that I'll definitely be able to get a hit in and roll away because my one handed katana will swing faster than their two handed greatsword.