I’d say that for the most part it’s on par with your typical Souls difficulty. It can be a bit easier because you have a variety of spirits you can summon which can help you out by attacking and drawing aggro from enemies. However you can’t seem to summon them all the time which kind of feels a bit odd and arbitrary.
The game world is very well crafted and you can always find intriguing looking areas that really tickle your sense of exploration.
Horseback combat also helps make things easier with hit and run tactics when you’re out in the open world. You can’t use the horse in caves, dungeons, some other more closed in areas.
robio said:Difficulty-wise how would you compare it to other Souls games? Right on par?
Plenty of options to help you out but every single thing in this game still is designed to kill you a million times.
Thanks for the info on the thread title, it's better now. This was the dark souls of threads, couldn't even get in.
So Archie which way did you travel, I went north toward the big castle cause that's what the game told me to do and as you know that was hard as hell. Well I recently decided to see what's happening south... dude it's super easy!!!! Clearly you are meant to go south first, I am so over leveled for this area. Plus there are a bunch of low level upgrade stones I was never finding. So go south! Don't leave it for later.
Dvader said:So Archie which way did you travel, I went north toward the big castle cause that's what the game told me to do and as you know that was hard as hell. Well I recently decided to see what's happening south... dude it's super easy!!!! Clearly you are meant to go south first, I am so over leveled for this area. Plus there are a bunch of low level upgrade stones I was never finding. So go south! Don't leave it for later.
I’ve been running around exploring just about everywhere I could. Have a lot of the maps in the world now. This game is huge. I’m over 30 hours in, level 39, and have only recently beat Margit. Just started exploring the Castle and it pretty huge as well. I definitely need to go hunting for smithing stones as well. I’ve beaten a number of sub bosses around various places. The game just keeps making me want to explore, explore, and explore.
I went off exploring early on and now I think I'm too powerful. I didn't fight Godrick until I was more than 30 hours in.
By Miu Watanabe.
Archangel3371 said:I’ve been running around exploring just about everywhere I could. Have a lot of the maps in the world now. This game is huge. I’m over 30 hours in, level 39, and have only recently beat Margit. Just started exploring the Castle and it pretty huge as well. I definitely need to go hunting for smithing stones as well. I’ve beaten a number of sub bosses around various places. The game just keeps making me want to explore, explore, and explore.
Oh man, yeah both of you should be well ready to do the castle now. It really is a game that feels so satisfying to just head a direction and see what's what. I found some crazy surprises, found cool stuff (so much I can't use cause of my build), and keep being wowed at the variety in enemies. That said I do feel some of the fatigue of doing the mundane stuff like another enemy camp, another cave, another catacomb. I haven't done a legacy dungeon in many hours and I am missing that really tight linear souls experience. Same issues I have with BOTW where I miss the bigger dungeons and subbing it for big open space isn't much better. I think this game balances the quality content in the world better than BOTW does.
I do miss covenants though. I have done some coop stuff but and it's still a lot of fun but I liked the added incentive of having rewards for specific online activities.
I just found the tutorial area I completely missed. I'm at level 66.
By Miu Watanabe.
Oh yeah something else that makes this game easier then previous other Souls games is that they are very generous with save points. There’s plenty of places to rest at and also checkpoints close to some boss encounters. No longer do you have times where you have to travel long distances when you die to get back to where you were unless you managed to miss the save spots on your travels.
Té_Rojo said:I just found the tutorial area I completely missed. I'm at level 66.
It sounds like a number of people missed that especially during the beta tests. Better late then never I guess. 
Té_Rojo said:I just found the tutorial area I completely missed. I'm at level 66.
Lucky it's by From Software so levelling up is meaningless, or so i've been told!
I like the game, I don't want them to make another open world game. This is probably the best open world game in the sense that it has the strongest core mechanics, but I never want to play a Souls game this spread out and this heavy on the quantity over quality. There is an over abundance of mediocre content in this game.
So 70 hours in and near level 80. Still have two major lords to go and most of the north part of the map to discover. The game is obviously excellent because at its core the gameplay is still amazing, level design of the legacy dungeons and some locations continues to impress. Exploring feels great cause you never know what you might discover.
BUT it suffers from all the same open world issues you get in a game this big. Repetition in locations, repeat boss fights, things spread out that used to be all together. BOTW at least I can see why the world is so important, they changed all the mechanics to make the game about surviving that open world. The core mechanics of this game is totally souls, the open world doesn't add anything outside just space and the ability to carve your own path. Gameplay wise though the open world is just space, nothing more. I don't think this is as good as DS1 and 3 at least.
I'm definitely more into the original metroidvania-type level structure than the open world structure (though the original structure is still present in many areas). I'm now 90+ hours in and still managing to come across big areas I haven't seen before.
By Miu Watanabe.
More than 100 hours in and I've just found a new multi-layered area with its own map. It never ends, though I feel as if I'm getting close to the end anyway.
By Miu Watanabe.
I have come to really love this game. It's rare for a game this huge to seem to get better the further I go. Over 100 hours now and since about 65 hours or so I have been hitting the more advanced areas and am in love. It feels like the game kicks into overdrive and hits its stride giving you a bunch more classic souls like areas back to back, so many bosses, so many crazy weapons, so much variety in locations. Secrets around every corner, multitiered quests to compete, online gets more fleshed out. It's brilliant and I still an no where close to finishing it.
While I was doing my sweep of the large open maps I was getting lots of fatigue but once I started to focus on the later parts it really does focus some more. The new parts of map feel more and more dangerous even though I have a pretty strong build. This game is rising up the ranks as maybe my favorite souls game. I want to keep playing, when I'm not playing I'm thinking about it, it's got me hooked badly.
This is the game that doesn't end, it just goes on and on my friend. Some people started playing it not knowing what it was and they'll continue playing it forever just because this is the game that doesn't end, it just goes on and on my friend...
So seems Archie and I are playing this, anyone else? I have many thoughts, played all weekend, have over 20 hours into it and I feel I have seen so little. First take away, it's 100% still classic souls. It controls like souls, looks like souls, has every single quirk and exploit that has existed in the combat since the first game is still there. It unabashedly feels like an old game, especially coming after the graphical beauty of the DS remake this is like a PS3 game in comparison.
Of course the new thing is the big open world which changes how I approach the game entirely. Get hit with a boss wall, rather than bash your head trying to beat it to proceed you can just go a different direction and come back later. The world is massive and mysterious with crazy wonders that just keep blowing me away. Last night before going to bed I went into a small building expecting nothing instead found a way to a totally new section of the map I didn't even know existed, what I found there was so exciting, but I hit a difficulty spike so I will come back later.
There are vistas up on a high point that rivals BOTW, I see castles, forests, mountains, and all sorts of weird stuff to explore seemingly stretching out forever. Bosses roam the world, some are easy, some insanely hard. There are small "dungeons" that remind me of the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne, they have similar interiors but new layouts and traps. Then there are the big boys, the "legacy dungeons" and these are basically classic Souls locations. I've only done of these, a classic castle style level that is more intricate in its design than any first souls level ever was. I was blown away at how huge this one area was.
There are some new weapon arts that are skills to use, it's cool to have and can change the way you progress with weapons, it basically allows customization of every weapon. The new summon enemy ghosts skill is a huge help for bosses, this might seem like FROM getting weak and offering an easy mode for players but you need these skills. The bosses are ridiculous, Sekiro level stupid hard, this game wants to hurt you bad. It is a bit tiresome that in the end though it's all variations of the same weapons and styles of combat I have been playing for like 15 years now. In the end it's still a whole lot of running around smacking a bunch of enemies methodically with the same weapons from before , with a few new moves sprinkled in.
The open world does change the pacing and progression, I feel my character is growing at a snail pace, I guess they need to stretch it out much longer now. I'm still using my first katana blade, no real reason to change it yet. Before upgrades would come steady but now depending on where you explore you may never see a new helmet or shield for hours. It's the same issue with any semi linear game going open world, how do keep the flow, it's not really possible. But I think the world is filled with so many interesting things that it makes the world worth it.