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The area past lautrecs prison cell always gave me this vibe

Ds3 is easily the worst soulsborne game

Loving all the DS3 content. Every video you make the same core argument of “3 teaches you that you get ambushed and you have to be fast and skillful” vs “1&2 teaches you to spot and anticipate ambushes” It’s funny seeing the same type of comment misinterpret (willfully or ignorantly) this point over and over again lol. It also just feels like most enemies just aren’t worth fighting. A lot of enemies with fast attacks grouped up together. And they don’t even drop that many souls. When I play BB going lamp to lamp I usually have enough souls for upgrades and 1-2 levels. But in DS3 it felt like I only got levels after either grinding or boss kills. And I acknowledge that a big portion of that is that: ever since the road of sacrifices I try to run past all the bums enemies and get to the bosses that fall over in 2-3 attempts.

bless your heart I really enjoy you videos

9:30 firelink shrine has an empty chest in the room where frampt is

You're like the armond white of dark souls

the drake doesnt spawn unless you go up the stairs

you mentioned that you played bloodborne which ive heard does use monster screams as set dressing but i dont think the DS triology does that. most DS levels are pretty quiet, so a random scream as you run across a empty long bridge would warrant a look. choosing ur weapon to hit ur enemies with raw A.S.S is pretty funny tho

DS3 combat boils down to winning by attrition since enemies attack so frequently/erratically, parrying was nerfed, and hyper armor is so gracious in 3. I think 3 really could've benefitted from more counterplay options, like a beefed up version of the perfect guard system from elden ring. 1 and 2 ask the player to be a lot more methodical, even in gank situations and against faster enemies. 3's scraps always feel way too desperate imo, dodging 3-4 times through ONE minor enemy combo and getting inevitably tagged, quickly sipping estus and face tanking another attack, etc. As a result i feel like ds3 wears me down more than any other souls like (coming from someone with the platinum for ds3)

raw a.s.s. lol I love what you're saying, my interpretation is that ds3 rewards decisiveness and confidence over planning and cautious whereas the last 2 games mostly taught the opposite. it's not a fault of ds3 just your (and my) preference for what the original games taught instead.

The big thing I dont like about demon ruins, other than the random fanservice of the fair lady/quelaag, is that everything is a maze and everything looks identical and its hard to tell where you are going.

as someone with 1200 to 1500 hours in the souls games, get good. no but honestly ds3 is rough but its no more rough than any other ds game in my opinion they all have their own flow adapt and win simple concept

I think almost every area in DS1 is horribly and intuitively designed. Almost all of them. DS3 is a masterclass in level design by comparison.

Least favorite area is 100% Shrine of Amana from DS2:SOTFS

There's a room near the elevator in the Fire Link Shrine in DS1 where it feels like a room that has no real purpose. Not sure if you covered that in that video. I keep finding rooms that I ask "What's the purpose of this space?"

From 4:20-4:50 you make so many contradictory claims back and forth. You say this enemy is a the game teaching you how to deal with being overwhelmed, but you can deal with it "slowly" but seconds later you say you it "teaches you that you NEED to franticly deal with him, and not slowly kite them around and slowly deal with them" even though you just took ur time and killed them. I get they have an attack which COULD further support what you are trying to say, but we aren't shown this so its just a bad example to use. With the whole DS2 vs DS3 gangs and ambush argument, its without a doubt a cherry picked argument because there are several instances in ds2 where they are simply unavoidable unless you have previous knowledge of the area, and in some cases even then they still happen. Such as when you free Rosabeth. There is also several instances where enemies come up behind you, Velstadt alone is a sufficient enough to drive that home. The only defense you could possibly make in support of that sequence with the 3 different enemies trying to ring the bell (one of which comes out of the ground) which spawns 6-8 more enemies would only be arguments you used to put down ds3 in regards to players being observant.

Would love it if you made more of these videos, love them

DS2 is my first souls game and its in a very special place in my heart. its not a good souls game at all tho imo. if u compare this shit to ds1 ds3 sekiro and elden ring then this game is shit but i take away the name of it and its good to me. ds2 doesnt teach shit tho lol thi game throws u shit for no reason. level design on this game sucks ass. but i still love it cause its my first souls

I love yet dislike this area but nevertheless, it keeps me coming back for more. I see why you're not a fan though! ✨ Enjoyed the awesome gameplay! ❣️😍

im sorry this is what i love, i love that they try and punish u for no reason.

raw ass does go hard

I was with you 100%, until you got to Pontiff :( He's actually a really nice guy when you get to know him

the area is beautiful, however, the path between bonfire 2 and bonfire 3 for the area is extremely shit, a large skill curve and the area is set up literally to test your patience, as it's just a straight path going to a dead end (with the main path being somewhere on the side??) , a sort of gauntlet if you will, the enemies aren't bad, they're just grouped awfully

Brutal take... What a cry baby

The argument of being introduced to multiple firewitchs at once is one that I don’t specifically understand, there are many times in the series where you are introduced to multiple enemies, let’s say the crystal golems for an example, I’m darkroot basin if you picked the master key you are immediately introduced to 4-6 of them. Is it the attacks the firewitchs have that make you think this or is it the fact that you ran in to the group if enemies at 3:18 to get ganked so you can make a complaint about damage? I don’t fully understand this, I get that ds3 is a step up in speed and more complex move sets but running in to take a lot of damage and complaining is wrong, you didn’t use the correct strategy that the game intended for the player. (Not trying to be rude and sorry if I came off like that)

Astora SS? You kidding?

I would love to hear about your opinion on Elden Ring, as I experienced it like its meant to just push out your skill, especially with a "souls" build e.g. no summons, just a knight build. Also it feels like gank in every dungeon, for example the archers in Stromveil. There are just so many of them that it kinda feels like cheap difficulty increase to me....

the comparison between frigid outskirts and irithyll seems pretty lacking because you can always see where you're going, there are shortcuts (even if most are useless) and the level is just so much better looking than frigid outskirts 1:14 it gives you a roar as a warning before it attacks it not too much of a surprise since you arent forced to fight it right then the distance it spawns at lets you decided to stance and fight or sprint to the bonfire if ur not ready. 2:20 You're supposed to let the unshielded one look at you to pull then get close to the shield one to the pull the one off to the right. It's to reward slow advancing because the shield guy wont attack even when he sees you until you get really close except with that vomit attack which is slow to cast and slow projectile speed as well as low damage. 3:30 the walking group gets out of the range of the second fire witch if u get close enough for them to see you and dont just bum rush them. 7:00 This part just rewards exploring more as you can drop on the close fire witch and kill it extremely easily if you explore some more 8:00 It looks like the devs expect you to be tired of fighting the knights by then and still have the double knight patrol up and have them in that little alcove so at that point so you would go look around anywhere else at that point at which point you would just find the nearby bonfire 8:30 same honestly. the only time i ever had a wep break in ds3 is when i tried the twin daggers for everything else durability is a dead mechanic in this game. Probably why they removed it in elden ring. 9:00 you can see their eyes all turn to look at you as you enter the area. I know you were checking ur corners but you said they arent communicating that there are invisible and thats not true you just missed the cue because you were sprinting through the area 9:15 it's 3. there to in the grave yard and one in the corner as you leave the graveyard all flash their eyes at you at you enter their area. The second one is on the left in the graveyard but you were shaking the camera too much to see it. At 9:33 you can see on behind the tree.At 9:17 you can see the corner ones eyes 12:30 its a mix of distance and direction. like if you are less than 15 feet away and you arent looking at what would be the back of their head before the initial agro you can see the eyes. They can decide to hide their eyes tho can blindly strike where they last saw you tho. 20:20 theres a door on the top you need to open you didnt actually unlock the shortcut 21:25 if you took the drop(this is the drop 20:44) you saw earlier you could've killed the magic user before fighting that room. 22:00 i don't think its a skill issue dogs are just relentless. you can use fire for a heavy stun or the alluring skulls but they are just bad Irthyll is probably the second worst to go through after farron keep due to 2/3 of the shortcuts being totally useless even to the point in ur complete play through you didnt bother opening those 2 and the massive amount of enemies in the direct path. I get what ur saying but i would still but Irithyll miles above say tomb of the the giants, lost izalith, blighttown or earthen peak

I feel part of the reason you're not enjoying DS3 as much, is because of your personal playstyle, it doesn't seem to suit DS3 all that well. i know you mentioned you started with a +10 weapon before Vord, and that honestly might have made you overconfident in this area, especially with high stamina and HP. You constantly rush into enemies expecting to one-shot or stagger kill them, but then wonder why you are getting ganked, ignoring the obvious signs. Trying to trade blows with enemies that go through the expected stagger isn't too great either. You mention that ganks and invisible enemies aren't communicated enough, but honestly, there have been numerous moments before that straight up told you enemies can come out of nowhere.

there are tricks to keeping enemy's from ganging up on you. like the slowly walking pontiff knights, you just go ham into all situations and complain its un organized. The group in front of the fountain, you just rush into them, you can avoid and draw out... There are short cuts that lead you around and show how to play a level. This is one of my fav ds3 lvls. The Jail..not so much, but its still interesting.

Ds3 > Ds1/DSR > DS2

I play now only first time with the ds3, and i dont agree whit what you said. Maybe because I started playing in the 80's and I know what it means to learn the levels of the game, the location of the enemies and their attack patterns. Yes i feel myself like a virgin in a g..g b..g, but second or third try i run through levels like hot knife through butter. So if you see the game from this perspective it is very good design that the levels are small and compact, lot of bonefire like checkpoint in the old game, and yes there is lot of suprise attach, but only first time ;).

Dark Souls 3 forces you into a chaotic situation and then asks, what do you wanna do now. It’s still a form of strategy albeit much faster paced. It’s testing your adaptability. I understand if you don’t enjoy the faster pacing and there definitely is a higher raw skill requirement then in other souls games (which they did a good job addressing in elden ring with spirit ashes) but the fast paces combat and chaotic nature of the series makes it the most exhilarating for me and I’m glad I played it first or I might not have been the massive fan of the series that I am today. Also to be honest I don’t even think you’re supposed to fight that Sullivan beast. I think it’s just there to chase you down the bridge. I haven’t played ds3 in a while but I’m pretty sure it bonks its head on the invisible wall.

Finally someobody who feels the same way I do. DS3's area design suck, yeah. It's the only one I don't feel like replaying. Whenever I think about playing this game Demon Ruins and this area come to my mind and make me give up. And it's even worse in the Ringed City. The bosses are great, but I loathe every second spent in that level.

6:07 excuse me.... what? That's one of the weirdest invisible walls... along with maybe hidden doors in the elevator in DS2 in DLC (the one with mask giving curse immunity) and yeah- for me that section was kinda slog - and it shows up later too... ugh

bad video

My favourite ridiculous gank is the dozen or so Royal Swordsmen before the ruin sentinels in 2[OG]. Also on the run back after you've opened the gate in the hallway then that lets MORE royal swordsmen join in the pull chain. They're tricky to deal with because thier swords can overlap and make up for thier slower attacks. I love it just for the absurdity of it, so many dudes running out of one door like its a clown car.

I have this inside joke with a friend of mine where that we run pass enemies we call it a "ds3 moment". In my first playthought i absolutely couldnt stand the normal enemies for how much damage they dealt and took to kill, so i just started to run past all of them and kinda always work. Still is my least favorite game of the saga

Irithyll and beyond (minus the jail) is where the game becomes good. I can't stand anything before it other than the cathedral and high wall. Those are the only good levels and everything else feels like a slog and almost every melee build pretty much plays the same. But then if you do the early dancer kill, get a +10 weapon to get through it faster it's even worse since you steamroll everything and your build is pretty much complete so no real progress. By far the worst part of this game however is it expects you to metagame your infusions and stats or have a horrible time. A player that goes raw infusion and put everything on health until around 30 will have a way easier time than one that goes scaling infusions and puts them in damage stats mainly. Leveling health always makes these games easier but in this one the difference between these players is a huge health bar and big damage loss until irithyll/smoldering lake where they can finally get +6 and see real gains from their damage stats. (God forbid you are a faith build though and get your lightning infusion after pontiff) DS1 you can level vitality to 20 and forget it until anor londo and 30 is all you really need to finish the game. DS2 is similar but also gives you a little health for leveling anything at all. Bloodborne same as DS1 and if you figure out blood vials heal a % of your max HP you can try to be a bloat lord and facetank most things. None of these games have this raw infusion path that's like 50% higher damage than others like DS3. (Fire is also good but only against certain mobs)

I liked the levels sorta but the pontiff knight spam is pretty bad especially for an introduction, and places like smouldering lake/demon ruins are miserable but thankfully optional. Overall the highlight of the game is definitely the bosses and I wish it had a boss rush mode. Oh also the paths to yhorm and aldrich feel really underwhelming

I have these issues stated in the video but I have exclusively played ds3 so now I’m thinking I should start with 1 so the entire franchise isn’t ruined for me

Don't apologize for your opinion. DS3 is flawed and people gotta stop acting like it was sent down from Gwyn himself. I, too, found enemy placement in DS3 annoying af and level design not great. I love DS1 but I can admit its unfinished. I love DS2 but I can admit its ugly as fuck graphically and imo has the weakest visual design in the series. I don't like DS3 but I can admit it's beautiful and incredibly creative and compelling. It honestly makes me kind of sad that From and the entire soulslike genre seems to be moving away from methodical, strategy based challenge with a focus on level design, and towards reflex-based challenge with a focus on bosses. I'm saying this as someone whose first soulslike was Elden Ring and went back and played everything else. Elden Ring is still probably my favorite, but DS1 and 2 are so special.

Gonna be that guy and say you can clearly hear the beast roar on the bridge, also it only ambushes you once. Also don't aimlessly run through areas? I run through as well but I dont blame the game when I get jumped loll

Irithyll is a masterpiece

Im back Time to let the beep beep take me away whilst i so laundrey

As an invader of 5 years in ds3, irithill was my favorite place. Even if the host had multiple level 400 phantoms, the knights still do good work splitting the party and making room for me to kill the host and phantoms. Extremely based location.

I think the difference with 3 is that it's based on the idea that everything you do builds on itself. In 1 and 2 each area is treated as it's own thing and stuff is telegraphed more deliberately. For example the first Pontiff Knight encounter with the 3rd guy behind the wall wasn't a surprise to me because at several points earlier in the game you learn to never trust a blind corner. Everything you need to know to beat DS3 you learn in High Wall, whereas 1 and 2 keep adding new mechanics. This is why 3 feels more like a test of player skill, 1 a series of escalating challenges and 2 is more of a puzzle game.

This game is quite literally the gankiest of the 3. Sure it gives you the tools to escape them by having the ability to spam roll easily but don't listen to anyone who says that DS1 or DS2 is gankier.

I can understand where you're coming from, but this is something I've always wondered about these games. Should the game teach you everything? I think the reason people don't like ds2 is because its areas seem extremely unfair on the surface, but places like shrine of amana and iron keep can be very easily cleared if you know what you're doing. Ds2 especially rewards you greatly for knowing how the game works. But is it bad game design for not telling the player exactly how to deal with an area when you're supposed to replay it and try it out with different builds?

I want to start off saying you are totally valid with what you are saying. So the main thing I noticed is that the way you approach these levels does create fairly annoying situations; what I mean by this that I have noticed when a threat pops up you often super lock onto that situation and rush toward it while somewhat ignoring the area around you. The way I approached this level (and possibly the way the game developers might have intended for it) is with a much more cautious and slow approach promoting exploration. And I feel that this level teaches you to expect ambushes and not to charge in right at the start of the area. First, with the large beast that spawns on the bridge, showing that things can be somewhat invisible and are lurking about. The next example is very soon afterwards when the Pontiff knight pops out behind the wall at the start of the area proper. This shows you that there are going to be ambushes and it is beneficial to thoroughly check the environment before engaging in fights and fighting on the enemies turf. These two situations are also both super close to bonfires so the sting of these early learning situations aren't the worst if you die to them. Using an example, at 6:55 when you see those three mobs, your thought was to engage them and possibly separate them. On a very recent play through I thought seeing these three tough enemies together was a clear indicator that I should look for a different approach. So instead I explored around and found the path which lead to the platform above where knight that was trying to ambush you. The game gave me a very easy opportunity to ruin its own ambush. What I really disagree with is the statement "Its impossible to be slow and observant..." or "...the game making it impossible to avoid an ambush". The level design strongly promotes the idea of both dragging threats back to safer areas to fight them instead of charging into the room/area they are in, as well as checking to see if you can approach areas other than the way immediately presented. Only when you charge into something head on is when things go south real fast. Again I think you are totally fine with your opinions on Irithyll. I'm glad you shared what you thought and honestly what the game was expecting from the player in this area could have been more clear. I just wanted to share why I think Irithyll gives you the tools to handle these situations before they arrive.