There’s one attack of Genichiro that I can never seem to avoid, the one where he leaps down onto you, which is absurdly easy to avoid. But then he has a perilous attack thrust that always takes out like half my health and I can’t counter it for shit

And the soundtrack is amazing. It’s up there with some of my favorites

Just move towards him and press O, or B if you're using an Xbox gamepad. That is provided you have the mikiri counter. If you don't, you need it immediately.

Also while you need to be super aggressive in Genichiro's first two phases, I strongly advice being very defensive in his third phase. Always wait for thrusts to mikiri counter and always wait for lightning attacks to reverse on him. Otherwise stay running away from him the whole time.

Yeah finally beat the first two phases and literally just found out he had a third phase. This game is gonna be the death of me but I will fucking beat it.
Thanks for the advice

Finallllllly beat that slutty last boss

Album Rating: 4.5

Sword Saint? He's fucking hard eh? I'm stuck on the other version of Isshin atm but to be fair I've only died to him once.

isshin ashina isn't too bad but the hitbox and tracking on his fire attacks can be a little janky and result in some cheap damage/deaths. i beat him in a battle of attrition since attack spam didn't work out too well for me lol

Album Rating: 4.5

lol yeah you need to read his moves. his fights are definitely pretty cool. sword saint is wayyyyy more intense tho. imo, at last.



also to whoever it was i was discussing dark souls 1 with recently, i'm currently going through a new playthrough after several years removed. it was hard to adjust to the difference in speed, but i have to say, i'm really loving this so far. it's been long enough that i don't remember a lot of things super well so i'm taking my time going through each area to soak it all in. i retract my previous sentiments regarding this game, it's definitely a masterpiece.

haven't done sword saint but yeah that seems to be the consensus

the first half of dark souls is a masterpiece (and the dlc as well), but the second half is a huge dip in quality to the point i've had a hard time going back to ds1 just because i know after anor londo the game falls off dramatically. i think bloodborne or maybe demon's souls is the most 'complete' experience, but that first half of ds1 is probably the strongest portion of any sekiro-soulsborne game.

I just beat the drunk sumo guy. Idk how to parry yet so just brute-forcing everything so far. Ooof this game.

I’m with you pal
Games kicking my ass

Album Rating: 4.5

trilo: i definitely do agree there is a dropoff after anor londo. however, some areas can be left for later. i still haven't done the catacombs and i think they're pretty cool. also have to complete darkroot garden which is a favourite of mine. and go back to blighttown to ascend the great hollow to ash lake which is a fun area to explore. new londo ruins isn't awful either and has some cool shit, and i always save the painted world for the second half of the game. that plus the dlc (which i very much count as being included in the second half of the game) makes the second half pretty damn great. really it's only tomb of the giants, demon ruins, and lost isalith that suck ass. i'm torn on duke's archives. on one hand, i think the level design is pretty great and there's a decent amount of stuff to collect, and on the other hand, the enemies are so trash that it's hard to really enjoy it. definitely the start of the game, undead burg and parish, darkroot basin, depths (actually don't dislike this area nearly as much as i thought), blighttown, sen's fortress and anor londo is an amazing stretch of levels, maybe the best in any fromsoft game, or any game in general tbh.

I'm feeling a demon's playthrough...

demon's souls is so good. the atmosphere is unmatched

Sword Saint is such a skank

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are two of the greatest games ever made, agreed. While I love Bloodborne and Sekiro, they remove so many of the aspects of DeS and DaS that made them special, and as such are just that little bit in a league below them.

I need a Demon's remaster. Can't be arsed to connect my ps3 rn.

I also hesitate to call it the second half of Dark Souls that falls off, because after Anor Londo/Dukes Archives, it's really only 3 smaller areas you have to go through. Lost Izalith is big, technically, but it's very empty so it takes no time at all (especially if you just take the shortcut and skip it entirely), Tomb of the Giants is very very short and I personally love the idea behind it. Execution wasn't perfect but I don't think it was bad by any means. And New Londo is actually really good. I like everything about it. So having thought about it just now, Demon Ruins/Izalith is the only truly great misstep designwise, and mainly then bc of time constraints which is an unfortunate truth of the industry.

The only big problem I have with the late portion of Dark Souls is that because it turns into a warp trip between the four farthest parts of the map, each area has to be balanced equally, and thus all of them and their bosses just get steamrolled for being too easy and not scaling with the game's previously very tight design.

While I have stated in the past that the difficulty isn't the point of these games, it does serve a very good purpose by encouraging the player to approach areas more thoughtfully in fear of it, which in turn helps emphasise the series' core strengths in their exploration and storytelling mechanics. With those final areas, you feel a bit top OP and lose that caution and tend to just plow through them without that cautionary exploration, and that's why the gameplay tends to suffer even in fairly well designed areas like Archives and New Londo.

My PS3 is set up at any time for my Demon's Souls needs but I would love a remaster on the PS4, mainly for the fact that I have three broken dualshock 3 controllers and right now am forced to use a very dodgy sixaxis held together with duct tape.