@stelios: yeah i exactly how i feel about it. back then it was mysterious and amazing, every enemy needed to be figured out, and you just weren't so used to the controls. i agree that the Souls games lost a lot of their magic over time, which i guess is only normal when you play it as much as i have. i also burned out a lot faster on Bloodborne and DS3 than i used to with the previous games. Bloodborne was wonderful and fresh, yet after beating it a couple of times there was no incentive for me to keep playing. PvP in that game was just bad, i never really enjoyed it as much as in the other games and even helping other players became boring. While i usually collect everything on every playthrough, like all optional boss souls and such, Bloodborne just didn't have anything new on NG+. It is actually the only Souls game that has less stuff on NG+, because the bosses drop these badges which you just carry over, once you have it you won't ever need or get another because it's pointless, so the bosses on NG+ drop a Madman's Knowledge. That's like a boss from DS dropping a humanity/ember, imagine that. At least in Dark Souls i can have 5 Souls of the Darklurker, even if i never use it, i get something meaningful as reward (e.g. trade). But yeah the Souls magic fades and i realize i'm not as driven to play anymore. i used to help players from the 1st bonfire in the level all the way to the boss and it was exciting. nowadays most players only put their signs in front of the bosses, including me, because if i put it at a bonfire and 3 hosts in a row die i'm fed up. sorry for the ramblings, i just like to talk about Dark Souls :)
@fabio79gamer: agreed, the boss battles are fantastic. Sister Friede definitely has some style, but when you stunlock her with 1 or two phantoms she really just becomes a punching bag, it's a bit embarassing. the ringed city bosses all were pretty awesome, interesting, challenging and different from each other. Midir is one tough mofo, wether you do him solo or with 3 phantoms.
the dlc is good fun. the bosses are all spectacular, great and challenging and you gotta love how they (SPOILERS) reinvented the Old Monk boss fight and made it even better. That alone is gonna be fun for a little while.
the leveldesign is good, with good bonfire placements, that makes you feel like you discover a new one when you really need it (apart from the weird need of the DS3 devs to again just put a bonfire into each bossroom, even if there are no enemies on the way to the next. of course the DLC could've done without the Demon Prince bonfire or the Church of Filianore bonfire, which both do not serve any purpose at all, much like the Dragonslayer armour bonfire in the main game).
while my 1st playthrough took me a good while in the end i still craved a bit more. 1 more area after the Spearhead-bossfight would've been perfect (the Old Hunters DLC might've spoiled me here). also i really really loved the ringed city setting, but the time you spend in plantcovered ancient city ruins setting isn't really that long, because the biggest part of the ringed city itself is a blackwatered (but not poisonous) lake area.
Darkeater Midir might be the toughest boss yet and i have made countless tries to help other people this weekend, yet only seen him go down a few times, including the two times i beat him myself with my own characters (ng++). In the best Souls-style fashion he might seem unbeatable and unfair at first, what with his gigantic health bar and deadly attacks (how often he just 1-shotted me with a tail swipe, so embarassing), but of course you can learn his attack patterns as well and that is the key to beating him, like so many other good bosses. He is a gigantic dragon and you are a tiny human, so i find it normal that the camera does not work in your favour in this fight (there are complaints). his attacks are well telegraphed from a distance, but hard to read when your hacking away at his feet and this might be why he gets so many kills. My tip: the safest place is in front of him, try it. And hey, at least he doesn't fly around all the time like Sinh did (remember Sinh? run, run, run, almost there, run, run, run, almo... and he's gone again. or run run run, almost there, run, run, run, damn i can't hit him because i'm out of stamina).
@khjsaw: i don't know. for me it would be solely for nostalgic reasons, but the thing is Demon's Souls was the 1st and most basic Souls game. So a lot of mechanics that we DS players got used too aren't there, something as simple as a plunging attack or jumping attacks. also i bet the bosses would feel kinda easy, because the last Souls game (especially Bloodborne and DS3) put a lot of effort into making bosses and normal enemies have unexpected attack pattern. you won't see any crazy combos, or delayed attacks (like the Lycanthropes on the Road of Sacrifice when they go wild, the Bloodletting beast with its super-delayed 1shot-deathpunch or more recently Darkeater Midir). Don't get me wrong though, this game will always be very special to me in that it opened up a whole new world of gaming for me back when it was released. i'm just not quite sure it passes the test of time.
@walidras: there's definitely some new (and old) interesting stuff in there. i personally love the setting of an ancient city covered with lush plantlife. and i hate snowworlds (so much for the last 2 DS dlcs). i haven't gotten that far yet though. i'm only at the 2nd boss. And yeah i died quite a few times.
@walidras: better late than never :) it's hard to say about the difficulty. i think all Souls games are more or less the same. Bloodborne is just a lot faster, you can quickstep away from danger much faster than in the Souls series but enemies are faster too and bosses have gigantic reach compared to Souls series so it kinda evens itself out. what probably made it easier for you is your experience with previous Souls games.
edit: actually i remember i got frustrated sometimes with the fact that so many bosses in Bloodborne had 1-shots, so i might actually have found that a bit harder than the other games (counts mostly for the Dungeons though).
@Gelugon_baat: Hollows can only climb ladders, nothing else ;) There are some puzzle bosses though like the Dragon God in Demon's Souls, which you fight differently. Other than that the game focuses on basic gameplay: light att, strong att, run, dodge, block, etc. it's a pretty deep system, since there are so many different weapons and spells and ways to make a build, but the basic concept is simple: you fight in real time and realistically (in the sense that movement is very realistic apart from carrying and swinging really heavy weapons and casting magic, but you can't e.g. jump up platforms, run up walls, do double jumps or have any attacks that launch and keep you in the air, run unrealistically fast or anything like say Dante from DMC). It's what i always liked about this game: you're really just a human using medieval weapons to fight Demons and other enemies. For me it's way more exciting to beat a boss like Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon like this, instead of beating him with a character that has supernatural powers. You can always find something you find kinda stupid in a boss fight, because it's in a game and you have to accept that for a game to work. Example: Why would you be able to actually fight ANY Dragon in any Souls game or any game at all for that matter? Why are they conveniently coming down to earth so that puny humans can "hack their toes" as you say, instead of just staying in the air and coat the ground with fire? Don't overthink it, i think it might take the fun out of gaming ;)
RaveNRolla's comments