And onward

So I've been playing more through DS1, beaten quelaag, and worked my way through anor londo up until biggie and smalls, and I've gotta say, there are definitely a couple things I do not miss at all.

First and foremost, invasions, jesus christ.  I think I actually prefer the "be invaded anytime" style of the sequel to the first.  I'm not sure how bloodborne pvp works yet, I've heard you wont get invaded until you ring the bell for co-op, but I'm not far along enough to know either way.

Anyways, in dark souls one, there was never really a REASON, to be human, you only needed to unhollow long enough to kindle and summon co op buddies for a boss if you need them.  I always fought bosses solo though so I ended up with tons of humanity at the end of the game when I played through originally.  Now though I used some of my soft humanity to kindle a bonfire at the beginning of the game and was immediately invaded.  At SL1 that's pretty laughable.  There are so few people playing the original anymore that there are hardly any messages, but because of the revive system anyone who unhollows is instantly a target, because as I said, there is little/no reason to invite invasion.  It isn't like DS2/DS where you lose a chunk of your maximum hitpoints being hollow, it just feels, clunky.

That said, I fought and killed the guy who invaded me at SL1, (Yeah I healed, fuck you.  You invaded me asshole, why should I show you any respect?  This isn't a duel.) the guy who invaded me at the base of blighttown though?  Fuck that.  I'd rather fight quelaag.  Which is still a fun fight by the way.  It's still a challenge, not because of the shitty environments, but because you have to manage her lava pools and stupidly powerful attacks.  One mistake and you're trudging through slime again to try one more time.

Also, stray demon fight, I remember this being super hard because you basically start the fight at half health, but he's basically a joke when you figure out to stand behind him and back away when he ass blasts.  So is the iron golem at the top of sen's fortress.  God that place is awful though.  Speaking of which, DS2 gets a lot of flack for recycling Ornstein even though he was basically everyone's favorite, but what about this asshole?  Iron golem is basically just tower knight from demon's souls.  Both fights were way more fun the first time.  Maybe that's the point though, given the overall theme of rebirth and entropy.

Secondly, I've run into a lot of simple fights that were made difficult only due to the fact that I've had to struggle to be able to even see anything.  I don't know if the areas are just more open in the other two games or the camera is just better, but fucking hell, it gets stuck on everything in DS1.  It happens sometimes in bloodborne, but not as often, which is weird because everything is super claustrophobic and over designed.

I think that's a hallmark of miyazaki's "A Team."  Things are designed first, and the player's progress is a secondary consideration.

Like fighting a silver knight in a narrow hallway with no maneuverability, something that happens a dozen or so times.  I get that backstabbing these chumps makes them stupidly easy, but cmon.

The world design is top notch though, I'll give it that.  It just doesn't feel like it was....meant for you to be wandering around in, swinging your sword at things.  Maybe that's the point, that you're this tiny insignificant thing in this alien world with inadequate tools at best to overcome insurmountable obstacles.  Yeah, bravo I guess.

Yeah the load times are unbearable in bloodborne, but that game makes me so fucking angry that I don't even mind the chance to calm down.

Also the weapons, for better or worse I always picked up a new weapon and at least tried it out in DS2, and Bloodborne, but in DS1 and  DS I pretty much just grab the first longsword I can get ahold of and use that right up until the end of the game with very few exceptions.  Nothing is as well balanced as a long sword and that's a damn shame.  I mean I use halberds in the second game and a bloody giant hammer in bloodborne, so I dunno.

I'm going to experiment with magic eventually, I only ever used heal and soul arrow on my first play through back in the day on the 360, so maybe I can develop an opinion on why everyone says magic is so damn broken.

Anyways, the house is finally empty, so I'm out.  Looking forward to getting wrecked by Onstein and Smough over and over.