Dark Souls Review - ZGR
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
Release Date: October 4, 2011
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I know this video is a few years old, but I was curious if you've ever looked into watching some of the lore videos on youtube. VaatiVidya has a series called "Prepare to Cry" and it goes over the lore of a lot of different characters. The game's story is absolutely incredible to me. Every action, every boss, every character, plays a huge role in the story. It's to the point where I feel awful for what I've done in the game (hence, Prepare to Cry). I do wish the game had presented the story to the player just a little bit more, but not too much more. In order to get the full effect of the story, you'd have to talk to every NPC several times and at very different times. Their dialogue is constantly changing and telling you the story. You would also have to find every item and read their descriptions, as several items tell you a little story about them. To give you an example, Quelaag is one of the daughters of chaos. The dying white-ish looking Quelaag you find just past Quelaag's Lair (chaos servant covenant) is Quelaan, Quelaag's sister. Quelaag is staying in her lair, killing anyone who enters so she can harvest their humanity and use it to keep her sister alive. By killing her, you are effectively killing Quelaan too, unless you join the covenant and bring her souls. The game is filled with rich stories like that, but most of them are well hidden to the player and, in most situations, will completely disappear if you don't find them at the right time.
Shane Scarlight I was a huge fan of Baulder`s Gate years ago, Is this game similar in any way?
Any feedback on this will be appreciated, thank you.
Dark Souls is actually my favorite game of all time and I highly recommend it to every single gamer.
Zeitgeist Game Review miss your reviews man hope you’re doing well
I love this game!!!! When i started it was difficult, my first play through took me about 74 hours, but I stuck with it. Now I've beaten this game like thirty times, and can beat it in around seven hours.I have memorized all the bosses,weapons, and armors, I understand different builds for PVE/PVP because I feel it is necessary to succeed. I even obtained every achievement because I was so hooked once i understood how the game worked. Everything about this game pulled me in. It is one of my favorite games of all time and everyone should stick it out and play it!
@GeoBlack4 Kind of. All weapons are upgradeable. Once you upgrade most of them to a certain point you have several options to continue to upgrade them. You may upgrade raw damage, or add an elemental effect light lightning/fire/divine to them and then continue to upgrade that elemental effect.
Easily my most played anf favorite game of all time.
Across the bottom of the screen are the lists of all the buttons and what they do. They appear in every menu system in the game.
what ever happened to the channel, did he just stop or did we get an explanation
I'm honestly glad this is comming out for PC. This is one of my favorite reviews you did as well. Well done.
people beat this game with a guitar hero controller. It's not that hard, you just have to adapt to it.
Yeah it's more unforgiving than hard, i just arived in blightown and i keep being pushed off to lose my souls and stuff, or overwhelming ambushes when they drop on you from above when already fighting 3 enemies. But i beat both the capra demon and the gaping dragon in one try, the gaping demon without healing lol. When you pay attention to patterns and look at visual indicators of which attack they're gonna do and think logically how to avoid those. It's mostly just thinking and focusing to time things right
***** Yes lol, it's a huge disadvantage in pvp unless you feel as comfortable with it as using a controller, which i can't emagine
Yeah, just normal people, all the time
well actually part of the fun of the game is to explore and find that there are some paths open, you never really know if you are going the right way until you see that you cannot progress further, or if there is a require key or stuff
I love your in depth reviews mate, they're unique in the gaming world.
Once you're inside the equip menu, there are more buttons that do things no the bottom of the screen.
Things like this you're supposed to figure by yourself.
The summoning scale on dark souls is 10 + 10% (+ -) of your level.
So this means as a 170 you can summon in a range of 143 - 197.
So any players in that range you can summon to help.
But most players stop at 120 because that is the PVP range right now.
Its the eerie atmosphere and joy of discovery/achievement that made me fall in love with this piece of art.
@PrinceRPG
Yes, if you get the right items in the first playthrough, the second, and even third can be considerably easier (save for a couple of bosses...)
I really liked how you said that some gamers might not enjoy a set path. Even though I do love sandbox essence games, I hated that you had to find your own way around with no recommended path. Due to the sheer size of the world, I wanted to explore every inch of it and that was quite frustrating for me.
Love your channel man. This is hands down my favorite game of this generation of consoles. I cannot stop playing it. I'm on my second play-through. GREAT REVIEW!
@GeoBlack4 There is a spell called Magic Weapon that adds a temporary enchantment to some weapons.
Also usually in an rpg the game wont tell you specifically to equip an item that's left up to you. As you've said usually they explain how to and dark souls doesnt but as i've said it doesnt necessarily have to.
I remember watching this review over a year ago. The reason why I started to play Dark Souls and now it's one of my favorite games.
Glad to keep seeing reviews from you man
Great Review...your right, its so hard to move onto a different game after playing DaS. I actually played it 10 times over before I finally moved on and then again I still hear it calling my name...
In all honesty, if you're willing to just experiment a bit with the keyboard beyond that of the default settings, it's pretty easy to find something that works smoothly. Still enjoying the game on two accounts in the very late stage (LordSouls), and the only issue i've ever had is the fact that my computer is the kind that lags on minesweeper.
...though now I'm wondering if Dks is really THAT difficult if I used a keyboard and laggy computer and still have yet to fight a boss that took 5+ tries
Awesome review!! Covered every aspect, I wish all video reviews I watch were like this!!
You may say you take long to release your reviews, but man is it worth it. Definitely the best review of the game imo. Great job as usual! What are you playing next?
The tutorial zone teaches you the basics of the game and the controls. And no I didn't forget about the PC version. If you look at the date, this video was uploaded in 2011, before they even announced the PC version. I made a separate video review for the PC version a few months back.
We weren't pressing equip we were pressing enter bringing us to the weapons menu where we highlighted the shield and then pressed equip. You're just getting confused because the A button is used for both these things. Its actually quite a good system, you also stated that no other game does this despite the fact a little known franchise called COD actually uses the exact same system.
Just started playing Demon's Souls, i'm a temple knight but i've heard that it's good to idea to focus on spells (don't know if the "ranged attack aspect" where you don't have to go inte hand to hand combat is why it's recomended that you foucus on magic spells). What sort of spelss should i buy, what would be a good idea to start with? ive come very far. just beat the first boss in Boletaria Castle.
Great review. I can't get over the fact of how similar you look to the Battle Rapper Iron Solomon.
Great reviews :) I am considering buying Ni No Kuni after watching your review because I've been dying to play an original RPG lately. I have been playing Demon's Souls on the side and as you said (even though this was about dark souls), the game has a lack of music and a very dark environment that's so unnerving. I do enjoy it but I have to take large breaks from it so I don't burn out my patience.
For those confused about the story, it was made like that specifically to let the player determine the over all out come of the story. Also most of the story is told in the background of the game as you play. Example, at one point u c 2 statues. 1 giant one of Gwyn, and small 1 of Gwenevere, but once u meet her shes the giant and Gwyn is normal size. IE he was once the lord of sun and was giant but that title now belongs to his daughter who has become a giant and he is now Gwyn Lord of Cinder.
Its not hard, you just need to pay attention to enemies and their movement/attacks. On boss fights, just stay away a little while to learn their moves, then you can start attacking.
this game is NOT a button masher, so don't expect to attack all the time and not be punished, because you WILL.
And yes, the ps3 community is VERY active in Dark Souls, its fun as hell invading and being invaded online, it adds so much to the atmosphere of the game.
Anyway, great review Zeit, as always!!
???
The message right in front of the corpse with a glowing light - which the game has taught you right off the bat means "press A on this to get an item" - says "Get your shield!"
Then there's a message that tells you how to equip it - I don't remember it specifically, but it seems like you're referring to it.
So what exactly would lead to the player not picking up the shield from the obvious item-carrying corpse on the floor?
I'm not sure what you're saying, I guess. It seemed obvious.
"It's not uncommon to wipe for six hours to a single boss." Sounds like a rental.
Aged like milk, this comment...
Nice video - Love your reviews, and always agree with them. I am balls deep into demon's souls - Loving every minute of it. I'm stuck on this damn drake sword though. What weapons did you end up using? I can't figure out how to build out my character :-/
At the Gaping Dragon boss fight... you didn't take out the channeler? Mfw seeing those soul arrows.
Hey Zeit what is the beautiful song at the end of the video? Good review Btw,you do the best review out there!
Press start to see your menu. Pretty sure there was a message that said as much.
Also, there's a message in front of Petrus that says how to use Gestures.
I loved this review mr ZGR.. Were the fps drops too annoying?
Hey there, is there any chance that you are going to do reviews of the games Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, or Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City? Because those are the main games I'm looking forward to in the next couple months. Oh and this game looks very awesome, I'm definitely planning on acquiring it at some point down the road :)
Go talk to the crestfallen warrior at the fireling shrine (he's the guy sitting on the log near the bonfire). He usually gives you some good tips. If that doesn't work try googling it.
I'll wait for the PC version which appears to have some added content and features. Great review.
@mkocja5a Yes, rats drop it sometimes, and random monsters drop it if you haven't yet killed the boss for the area.
OH NOW I see what you mean! (I saw your "explanation video" of what you couldn't figure out.)
In ANY role playing game I've ever played - from the old Final Fantasy games, old PC first-person dungeon crawls.. to modern games like Skyrim and Dark Souls..
1) Open the screen.
2) Highlight the slot you want to put an item in. Press the "Confirm" or "Enter" button. (It was A, here.)
3) Since you will now be in an item select screen, pick the item you want to put in that slot.
4) Done.
Every game.
perhaps the first playthrough, but what about all the way to new game +7? best combo in the entire game is crystal magic sword spell w/ uchigitana +15.
Well as I started to play the game (on console btw) I found that Both my actions and the actions of my enemies were lacking fluidity so that I had to time everything perfectly. An exapmle of this is against enemy skeletons in level 2. Their attacks were staggered at some points, so that it was harder to judge when the right time to parry was. And with your character's attacks, at least at the start of the game, they are sluggish and seem overly delayed.
great review !
i am a casual gamer so i am really not sure if i should go for this game
it looks really nice and bosses seem great.. but is it really that hard to master - or ist it just harder than the normal cheep kiddy type of games out there where you ofthen cant even die!?
i hate when games are too easy but i dont have more time than eg. 8 hours per week to play so i am not sure if this game is for me
can somebody set this into perspective please?
thank you!
You sir deserve a cookie.
Same here, the best game I have ever played this year. I wish I had picked this game up first instead of modern campfest 3. 5 characters in and still going, although i will play even more when a major patch addressing backstabs is applied.
@Szeicheng Sure, it just wouldn't take nearly as long.
Plus all the Secrets! The fact that I hit a wall to make a secret chest appear then hit another wall to make an ENTIRE new level (The Great Hollow) witch lead to a secret Boss, secret covenant, secret magic and items was just crazy to me. the game is like a classic snes game like metroid or castlevania with suped up graphics and gameplay. they dont make games like this anymore. hopefully they stay true to it with dks2. and hopefully the community still stays amazing. love this game
"Reminiscent" is putting it lightly. The animations for a lot of the attacks by the sword and shield wielding Black/Silver Knights are EXACTLY the same as those used for the Blue/Red Eye Knights from Demon's Souls. Of course, being similar to a great game isn't such a bad thing...
@MafiaRooster
And the sense of utter relief when you find a Bonfire is utterly unique to this game.
Dark Souls can be difficult, especially if you've never played anything like it before, but once you get the right mind-set it's not so bad. Accept that you will die, often, especially when you're in a new place. The key is to learn from your failures and become better from them. Try not to get too frustrated, even if you die twice in a row without getting back a large amount of souls or humanity (the two major currencies) that you lost the first time. You can always get more, if you persevere.
@Sartrage No they will keep the servers open until early 2013 i hear.
What he means is like insted of demon souls where you had to go to these pillar thingies, to get to a place, its all connected, anor londo is just one of those places a bit 'higher' up then everywhere else, like blighttown is deep down and it goes even lower then that, but ultimately its all connected.
@MafiaRooster
I think the difficulty of Dark Souls is a bit overplayed.Compared to every other game out there yes it's very difficult and it will take some time to get used to it but in time you get a feel for combat and will get better.
If a Boss is too tough you can go grind up levels and try again or call upon friends or NPC summons to help.
One thing to be said for the difficulty....when you do defeat a tough area or Boss you gain a sense of accomplishment no other game can provide
game of the generation. I agree completely, got this game on release and still play it today..
It's not even as hard as people say, you just got to be ok with dying, and be able to learn from your mistakes, take it slow and you will learn it.
I can ring both bells with ease now.
@DomenicSlapperX well it depends on the experience they want to have, personaly I never get stressed over dark souls, what I feel is engaged, the checkpoint system of most games this days is based on having one before and affter every event, so most of the times it's just a mather of repeating till you have the luck of getting it right, in dark souls you have to fight for it, doing it right isn't just you can earn an achievement or get a new weapon, it's the only way of finishing it
@Michformer I've heard that some people get a drop in the frame-rate, some people don't. But they always say "It doesn't ruin the game, you can still play"
Clunky? I found the controls to be some of the best I've ever played. Well, besides the occasional input lag that is. I guess it just takes time to get used to. The controls in this game were not made for button mashing, they were made for strategic play, planning and timing each button press. It gets really fun and rewarding when you get used to it.
I think Demons Souls is actually harder. DkS doesn't really take all that long to get used to, maybe try using a shield and spear combo which you can get very early in the game to get used to enemies and stuff. The spear is useful for beginners because you can stab things while hiding behind your shield so you don't die as easily if you make a mistake. If you have any trouble I suggest looking up Dark Souls Completionist series here by Kazamieras. Cheers and I hope you get to enjoy the game! :)
I love your reviews because it's so serious and professional then suddenly you curse. Keep it up.
That's an interesting perspective. I loved the controls to this game, I thought they were just right.
I feel for ZeitgeistReview. Whining is the very soul of this game. Dying (like 100 per run) is a part of this game that made it beautiful. Developing skill through death in this game was what made Dark soul Epic.
go look at the IGN interview about DS2.
the devs are saying they don't want to change the core of the game.
the only thing they will do to make it more "accessible" is to explain the combat machanics, and how basic things like weapons upgrading work.
They also clearly state that they want the game to keep the preassure and "nervousness" in the game.
@ZeitgeistReview In your opinion, do you like this game over skyrim? wondering which one to buy, mostly leaning to skyrim seeing as ive played all elder scrolls games since morrowind.
The controls are weighty, not clunky. It unsettles everybody, but bear with it. Appreciate that most weapons and actions are slow, and that you will need to leave yourself time to make each action. Base every movement on what your opponents are doing. Every enemy has a safe period after attacking you that if you wait for you can take advantage of.
This isn't some hack and slash brawler in which you can charge in recklessly. Use your brain, take things slow and things won't be too hard.
@ZeitgeistReview
What he means is it is hard (to the point of being impossible) to summon a friend into your game. When you start up the game you are assigned to a random server and if you and the buddy you are trying to summon are not in the same server you cant play together.
Other than that annoyance, the game is great.
I'v completed The Witcher 2 on the hard difficulty a couple of times. There is a big difference in level of difficulty between those two games?
Looks interesting ;)
IM around that place at 2:28 and when u go down to the poison water and then later goes out at some wierd place with crazzy dragons... I dont know if its the right way to go please help me!
Where do i go i have been stuck so long!
well, that's just my personal preference of course. i like the gravelord sword as well, since it's the fastest greatsword in the game.
well i wouldnt say that. keyboard is hard to get used to but after i changed the controls a bit (a lot i should say) it is pretty playable for beating the game (not for pvp though). only bad thing is the wasd movement and cameras suck compared to controller.
Totally. If you don't try something new every time you try at a boss, you're just not thinking. Perhaps its because I am in drumline, but that sort of error perfection and trial by fire feeling is something I wish more games would have.
The drop in framerates is caused by npcs and enemies glitching out. I remember it happened to me when i glitched the cat monsters in darkroot garden, i made it so they got stuck to a tree and couldn't move so that i could kill them, but as soon as they go stuck my game slowed down it was so bad i could barely move.
There´s really only one thing that bothers me and that is the lack of a pause button. Numerous times I get a phone call while playing, and if I could just pause the game I wouldn´t have to make a choice between missing a ,possibly, important phone call or dying and taking the call. Apart from that, this game is by far one of the best, if not the best game I´ve ever played.
@MrDillerjohn Yeah your talking about blightown...but the framerate dips are in a pretty small area and in a game this huge thats pretty insignificant...though annoying it doesnt hinder the game as a whole whatsoever
Will you be reviewing/do a comparison of the PC version when it comes out?
@Michformer Yes, you can still move your character but everything is in slow mo...
Swap out blight town for ng+ four kings and it's perfect.
Blight town is only hard if you don't have rusted iron ring, a good hp halving weapon (black knight sword drop from undead asylum) and patience. It can be stressful at times (club and rock giants were a bitch)
Once you really get used to the game, its not that hard then you think.
By the way, I got through sens fortress by parrying. Try to take those Lizards one at a time. They hold big weapons but they can be a little slow so try to follow there patterns.
how do i get to use fire like in section 6:26 , all i have is this huge stick that shoots a magic
My list of favorite games since I was just a child... Snes Link to the Past, N64 Ocarina of Time, Ps1 MetalGear Solid, Xbox 360 Elder Scrolls Oblivion, but this game takes the cake! Surpasses Ocarina of Time for me! I've never been more involved in a game than this one. I got it day one and really nodbody knew shit of what to do or wear to go. The community on the DarkSouls wiki is so amazing and we all helped eachother with the journey.
Plus, unlike Skyrim, not everything is just explained to you point blank by the NPCs you meet. I love how even when you've pieced everything together, there are still questions to be asked.
@TheParadozia It's from the credits of this game.
I'm level 175 and find tons of coop and pvp...maybe try a different time of day. Here in Greece I get lots of activity around 12-1am...
I started off as a thief and my main reason was for the fact they start with a master key by default so I could chose a different gift like divine blessing or black fire bombs. That and the dagger kicks ass to start with.
You probably came here from seeing it in the list of videos on your channel's news. This vid was uploaded Oct 14 2011, but ZGR just replied to a comment on here, so it popped up on your list as news. If you ONLY want to see new uploads, you should choose the option above the list.
Hope a stranger like me could help :)
I have problems with my PS3 Game pad switching on it's own in the middle of battle..It may be a driver issue using wireless controller.
@gilgamesh310 oh and 1 last thing: preparation is key to success. as in carefully note what types of stuffs each vendor sells in any environment and know that if he/she is selling that stuff, chances are you'll probably gonna be needing it to the place you're going. example: the vendor before sewers selling anti toxic herbs and anti curse stones. not only that,whenever u go to a new dungeon, observe what the enemy is capable of inflicting ya, as in poison,curse,toxin,bleed. and then be prepared
It is... I just asssumed I would have to select my chest piece to change chest armour. Try paying attention.
They confirmed in an interview somewhere ( cant remember exactly) that the difficulty is a major part of the game and will remain unchanged.
I had no problems and I read every single message. Maybe part of it comes from playing role playing games regularly and knowing the usual standard of item selection screens..? Highlight slot, hit A, pick from menu, hit A..
No indication apart from the fact it doesn't say equip it says enter you cannot assume because X is unequip that A must be equip. The interface is clearly not designed that way because that's not how it works. On COD X is remove and A is select not select a gun select the slot to place a gun i would not think it would be any other way this game is exactly the same. As you have clearly stated the shield is not there to equip therefore i wouldnt think that A was equip i would think it was enter.
I must say that I took the risk of buying this game new, and ended up getting the collector's edition. My first time playing it I was just frustrated and angry -- I felt like I wasted my money. After spending more time with it, I realize that it's just a more hardcore, traditional RPG. I remember the "old days" when PC RPGs used to kick your ass from the first battle onward, and they required real careful planning and strategy.
I can appreciate this game now, but it takes so much time!
i do own the ps3 version, yet still my friend and i cannot find each other though we are in the same exact stage in the game. i have only been able to summon another person about once or twice. compared to demon souls the amount of people you can summon is equal to a ghost town
if youre in Blighttown I'm assuming you've not yet beat the Chaos Witch Queelag?
Theres some pretty cool stuff about the game.. for instance, some of the factions you find you can join and pvp other players in that area from enemy factions
Dark Souls is more about memorization and anticipation than it is anything else. There certainly are a lot of gamers who will say this game is very difficult, but that's just because they are inexperienced in this type of game-play. Over time, any gamer will find that this game is not really difficult once they learn it all. That can be said about "most" games though.
I didn't try the game with a keyboard and mouse. Is it possible that this game was simply designed to be played with a controller? Keyboard and Mouse just won't work because it wasn't designed that way?
@K1asH3r Not necessarily true. The least-accented version of English is that of the Midwestern United States, as many linguists have pointed out. It is why this is the "accent" that the vast majority of television producers choose to use. Every other form of English is slightly "off".