The Ringed City

[Renzatic]

I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek. It didn't teach me any new life skills or anything. I won't get a better job due to my DS experiences. But it did a great job of teaching me how to manage my Nintendo Rage.

Though it's not merely the tough bosses that piss me off. Those few particularly difficult ones that kick my ass straight up. I can handle that. It's when I'm good enough to get those tough bosses down to just a few hits consistently, yet still manage to slip up there in the penultimate moment time after time after time.

That? Yeah. That's enough to drive someone to murder a controller.

Fuck you, Fume Knight.

edit: I should also add that DS has a particularly good way of making just about every mistake you make feel like it's entirely your fault. In a cheesier game with fake difficult, getting your ass kicked over and over again feels like a failure of game design. In DS? When you die, you saw it coming, you did the wrong thing, and now you're suffering the consequences. It isn't bad game design. You just suck. It's. Entirely. On. You.

...that has a tendency to make you angrier than usual.

[twisty]

But... do some people really break their controllers while brute-forcing their way through dozens of attempts on the bosses?

For me it was more a case of starting out with a crappy cheap controller and just natural wear and tear of my next controller's R1 and L1 buttons. The R1 in particular lost its seating and would sometimes just fail in the midst of battle. Since getting a better 3rd controller, an F710, I haven't had any issues since.

On a slightly related note, DS/Bloodborne is the only game I can think of that can raise my heart rate to similar levels of doing vigorous exercise. It's interesting as I often get a similar feeling after lifting weights. Can't say it's as beneficial to one's health as actual exercise but interesting nevertheless.

[Judith]

Basically what Renz said. Typically I'm calm and warm when face-to-face with people, and you really need to do something terrible to me to make me hate you. There very few people on that list (like 2-3 in my entire life).

With Darks Souls though, it's something a bit different. It's like stumbling across disgruntled (is that a proper adjective in this context?) ex- at a party, who is following you around saying: "you know, in fact you're not that sophisticated, observant, intelligent, witty, etc., and here's why". And you know they're right, but, as if that wasn't enough of humiliation, you actually get a demonstration on that. There's a certain friction between being humble and saying "right, my fault, I can do better", and the burning desire to just prove them wrong, because you know you're not a bad person. Not that bad anyway. But when you constantly get a solid evidence that you actually are... That's when things start to break down.

Sure, in terms of a game, you can just finish playing for that day and come back some other time. Quite a lot depends on that desire to prove that you're in fact not that bad, not as much to a game by beating it, but to yourself.

[Renzatic]

I'd say it's more like climbing Mt. Everest. It's there, and it doesn't care about you, but for some reason you just love the climb, cuz the challenge is just so intense and life affirming...

...until an avalanche rolls down the slope, carrying you down two miles, and kills all your friends, making you want to rip up your tent in a fit of rage.

Also, there's a sign at base camp talking about how you're just some random asshole wanting to get to the top, who'll probably die along the way like all the other random assholes who came before you. You're not special. What makes you think you are? Oh, your steely resolve? Well that's just cute, ain't it? Yeah, you're gonna die.

yay. so fun!

[Mr.Duck]

We already got a rematch with a form of Gwyn as the Soul of Cinder. For my two cents I feel it'd be awesome to have a remixed match with Manus, him being the other great antagonist (and, technically, the antagonist in DS2 too).

Just a thought.

[Renzatic]

Considering all the Abyss theme enemies we've seen in the trailer, it's very much a possibility.

[Mr.Duck]

Fingers crossed.

If not Manus as he once was, maybe he can be reconstituted into a new form? I think I saw something about an Abyss Dragon somewhere...hmmm.

[Renzatic]

5 bucks says you'll probably be making a trip into The Deep, which got a lot of mention in the game (and a few monsters from there, too), but never plays a direct part in the story.

The way I understand it, it's supposedly the deepest, darkest, scariest part of the Abyss, so I wouldn't be surprised if you take a step into there.

[Renzatic]

The final Ringed City trailer. It's a strange one, because instead of being brand new from top to bottom, it expands upon the previous trailer.

[Phatose]

And I had almost forgotten how good dark souls trailers were at making me think "I don't wanna fight any of this shit."

[Renzatic]

That's probably due to the fact that DS trailers rarely ever show the player winning against whatever boss they're putting on display. It's like they're trying to demoralize you before you even get the chance to play it.

[Mr.Duck]

BRING ON DA PAIN!

[Renzatic]

GOT MY CEREAL! I AM READY TO ROKK! |m|

[Mr.Duck]

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

NEXT STOP: PAIN TOWN. POPULATION: MY FIST, YOUR FACE.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Renzatic]

WOOOO WOOOO! CHUG-A-LUG CHUG-A-LUG CHUG-A-LUG CHUG-A-LUG

...You Died.

[Mr.Duck]

S'cool. Got my permanent pass for Resurrection City, where the blades are sharp and the monsters are kinkyyyyyyyyyyyy!

By the by...are you in a NG+ (or beyond) playthrough? What soul level are you at? I'm currently at 92, so a bit low, though I am playing still on NG. We should try to co-op, since I'll be playing this on the PC.

FOR SODDY DAISY!

[Renzatic]

I'm at the very end of an NG+ run, everything beat, save for the Lord of Cinder, and am currently sitting at SL150.

I'm up for co-op, but you'd have to grind like a mad mofo over the next couple of days to get to where I'm at.

[Malleus]

You all know that soul level doesn't matter when you use password for coop?

Btw, I'm gonna start the DLC with an SL95 character in NG. It's a STR/VIT build, so not exactly overpowered. Gonna summon for bosses like a boss though.

[Renzatic]

Actually, I did not. Good to know.

[Mr.Duck]

You'll have to let me host. Otherwise I'll get slapped ten ways from here until Friday if I go into your world.

Also, no summoning for me. BRING ON DA PAIN!

I've been doing a solo run on all bosses so far.

But then that means I'd have to finish the DLC and start a new game to play with Renz...

Aw...

[Renzatic]

Hey, guess what? Ringed City is coming out today!

I wasn't expecting it until tomorrow.

[Renzatic]

But then that means I'd have to finish the DLC and start a new game to play with Renz...

Hop to, broseph.

Which reminds me, I still need to hit up Malleus to play the multiplayer sections of the DS2 DLCs...

[Renzatic]

Okay, you fuckin' fucks! IT OUT! GON GO PLAY!

edit: nevermind. I'm dumb. It's still a few minutes away.

edit 2: ERMAHGERD! URTS DURNLURDING! 3GB of gibbly goodness coming down the pipes!

[Renzatic]

Okay. It's evil. Damn evil.

[MorbusG]

This is bullshit. Bad gimmick design. So I took it to another level and started invading. At least now I understand when the host disconnected. :P