Dark Souls on Switch it is a real thing and I am very excited, god bless and praise the sun. :sunny:

I played a bit of PVP in DSIII, but I steered clear of it in the original due to some of the issues and exploits that Jas mentioned being a bit of a pain when fighting other players.

Are people still getting this on t'Switch? I've got a big backlog and probably should purchase it, but if everyone is still in, then I will buy it. I want to be in with the cool crowd!

I wasn't planning on getting it right away but then I seen it for under 30 quid on Simply games and I cracked.

If I see it for a decent price I'm all over it, if not I'll wait until next payday. I was a bit silly with my money in Tokyo, see . . .

*anxiety intensifies*

Some disappointing news - it seems as though the Switch has been shafted somewhat with low quality sound in this port. It's audibly worse in that video than in the PC original or the remastered version the other consoles got. I heard a description of it stating it sounded like a recording of the original file, which is accurate.

I've seen some theories about why this has happened with "fitting the game onto a lower sized Switch card to save money on file size" being the most common. Bethesda did the same with Skyrim, but patched it out pretty swiftly. I hope Namco/From/the port team follow suit as the sound is incredibly important to the atmosphere of Dark Souls which is a huge aspect of its overall appeal to boot.

I could hear a difference (it'd probably be more clear with headphones on) but to me at least not enough that would ruin my enjoyment of playing the game.

Oh, it's not going to ruin the game entirely or anything in my book, but I think it diminishes the overall feel of the game to such a degree that if someone's got the means to play Dark Souls Remastered on PS4/ONE/PC, I'd say that'd be the way forward instead of the Switch version as it genuinely sounds like audio you'd hear on a 360p YouTube video or something.

Yeah but playing games on old-fashioned home consoles is lame, so . . .

Well, yeah. Anyone here could have told you that mate

I got this game at Christmas and started playing it the other day, and so far I'm mostly impressed. However some things have annoyed me so far, first of all when I left the asylum there was this nice warrior chap at the first bonfire and after he gave me whatever advice he wanted to I thought "hey what happens if I murder this guy". SO I kept attacking him until he fought back and it turns out he's basically invincible for someone of my level at the time. So I kept dying to his hand and respawning at the fire where he was still there and still angry and he killed me many, many times. This was incredibly frustrating, so I googled how to make him stop (killing him seemed the only reasonable option.) And all found a thread which was useful basically you run off a cliff and he follows you, killing him for good.
This was annoying thing number one, annoying thing number two is that on the same thread which helped there were a lot of 'git gud' morons who were chastising the new player for being unable to beat such an early opponent and shaming him because some players have beat the game naked or whatever. I can see why it developed around this game but there's a definite chad/lad/knobhead subculture around this game (The minority of fans I'm sure, but a prominent one).
The third thing that has so far rustled my jimmies is a continuation of the first and second things, basically the AI is dumb and will keep attacking after you've died, so it's very easy to make a tough enemy attack himself off a cliff to his permanent death while you respawn and retrieve your souls. Lots of bosses can be cheesed in various ways to the point that the challenge of the game isn't really beating the enemy, but breaking the game which is just poor design. That makes me think of another aspect of the game that's really over rated by the Chads, the difficulty. Generally the gameplay itself isn't that hard it is just doge and hit or parry and hit or a mixture of the two. Not that it isn't fun, I've had a huge amount of fun with it so far, experimenting with lots of different weapons to the point that I think I ended up over-levelled for the infamous bell gargoyle fight (Only took like 5 attempts(With Solaire of Astora helping out)).
But we're still on the bad part of my thoughts, and my last complaints are probably Switch specific. First of all when I make my switch go to sleep and then turn it back on Souls will have lost connection and boots me back to the title screen. SO I now play the game with airplane mode on to force Souls to start in offline mode so I don't get bothered by that anymore but it is really inconvenient. Could have been easily solved by putting a big "start in offline" button in the title menu, a consideration a Remastered version should really have accounted. Lastly the menu buttons are x-boxy - A is no and B is yes - which is deeply disturbing I mean this is a really glaring oversight, that's a mistake that a professional developer shouldn't be making In their REMASTERED game. Oh and to agree with the above, the quality of the audio is less than stunning. Made worse maybe that I always play it in handheld, but again that's something the developers should worry about not a humble consumer.

Now things I've liked so far:

• The huge range of weapons and items is fantastic, I've settled on the Uchigatana (samurai sword) for now which I got from killing Mr Shopkeep which is extremely satisfying to use. Worth a shot out too are throwing knives which complete my ninja samurai aesthetic.
  
• The combat system is really good fun, and the abundance of regular hostiles is enough to give me something to release my frustrations on after losing to a boss a few times, I love how the weight/rolling relationship works and I've taken advantage of it already by stripping down my beautiful lady wanderer (wandress?) to just her undies so she could quickly dive around the back of a big thunder demon so I could kill it.
  
• The RETRIEVAL and VICTORY ACHIEVED notices are excellent feedback and I love them, "congrats you dies 30 times but got the job done anyway" does not have the same ring to it.
  
• I know the assets are 10 nearly years old and would never hold up against modern games but it is a pretty and well crafted world.
  
• The NPC's that aren't trying to kill me are usually characterful and I enjoy the occasional human interactions, especially Solaire of Astora who is so pleasant it makes me forget I am in a world where I am being hunted by everything. Love him.
  
• Weird one but I'm glad choosing sex had no effect on my stats at the start that's cool.
  
• The moonlight butterfly is really pretty.
  
• I kicked a guy off a cliff and it was everything I thought it would be.
  
• I like that there is a complete durability system, where a damaged weapon can be repaired when it's damaged as opposed to a half finished durability system where stuff gets damaged but can't be fixed. (I can't think of an example off the top of my head but I'm sure a game that does this came out recently)
  
• There's a cute NPC knight who's waiting for a portcullis to open and when I talk to him he's just all "oh hi, it's still closed" and I am deeply attached to him.
  
• It's not completely dark, there are some nicely lit environments.
  

Ok that's them as it stands and I'm maybe only a little of the way through the game, but so far I've spent a lot more time enjoying myself than being annoyed about button bindings and sound quality, so I'm going to give it a 7 so far, I'd give it more if it didn't claim to be remastered because I honestly can't tell that it's not a near decade old piece of software. Good fun though.

If you're going around attacking perfectly pleasant npc characters then I have no sympathy

It is a bit of false advertising with the Switch verison as it's not really a remaster but more of a port with a few tweaks but not sure if Dark Souls Few Tweaks Edition has the same ring.

The opening of the game can be quite unforgiving when you you don't know what you're doing. You've got a long way to go before you figure everything out story wise, depending on how you feel that'll change some of your negatives (or not).

I've beaten Souls three times and taught a friend how to play it. I think that's tied for my most completed game (unless you include star fox 64 or Mario Kart) and I still wouldn't say I like it haha.

Never use the term 'chad' as a slur though. Its etymology is incredibly misogynistic. 100% not saying you are, we all come to words in different contexts, but that word definitely is.

Muss wrote:

Never use the term 'chad' as a slur though. Its etymology is incredibly misogynistic. 100% not saying you are, we all come to words in different contexts, but that word definitely is.

You're only saying that because you're such an incel virgin cuck.

This is the only picture of us together dad. I'm all your fault

Well, keep going 'Duck. I'm glad you're... enjoying it sort-of. I was going to agree with Drunka - attacking helpful NPCs is something I'd not something I'd expect a grown-up to do! And although I don't agree with the Git Gud parade, most things it does give you a bit of a clue with, and I suspect clonky Mr. Sad was a lesson learned! However, having said that, I had to fight off the first shop keeper because he was at the end of 1 accidental sword-swing, so I would be a hypocrite if I didn't sympathise. DS does get the occasional "free pass" -

Nintenduck might not have got here yet:

- but I still like it. In fact, it's now on sale, so I've just bought it as well.

Jimbob wrote:

-

Nintenduck might not have got here yet:

I

Don't read until yer done:

I messed up I read it and now I'm afraid of what might be coming down the stairs.
More importantly however, attacking NPC's to see how they react is a time-honoured tradition and should be respected and upheld, although I haven't done it since...

Yeah, whilst I love scaring the NPCs in stuff like Zelda - try wearing some of the creepier masks from the DLC, they freak out - and in other games too, it's really not recommended in the Souls series. NPCs could be tied to storylines (keep an eye out for your gate lad as the game progresses, and yes, he is great) or could be valuable sources of information or items. Plus, some of the NPCs are tough and will give you a bad time.

Glad to hear you're sticking with it though Duck - I'm looking forward to your thoughts on some of the later areas and bosses!

Muss wrote:

Don't read until yer done:

O&S Chat:

NintenDUCK wrote:

attacking NPC's to see how they react is a time-honoured tradition

You're bad and you should feel bad.

One of the best ways I've heard someone describe the mindset for beating Dark Souls is to stop thinking in terms of a game and start thinking as though you're really there in Lordran. In a videogame  if you see a dragon you might reckon you can fight it, but in real life you'd turn and run. In a game you might randomly attack innocent shopkeepers, but in real life you'd be banged up.