Skill Ceiling: How much impact your personal ability affects your results.
Skill Floor: How bad you can be at something.
I decided I'd throw those three phrases out there (with my personal definitions) first because I'm going to throw each of those phrases around and want you to have a base understanding of what I mean before we get there. When talking about skill I'm going to strictly avoid any "no true Scotsman" type arguments from either side of the table and just discuss my own experiences.
Dark Souls is difficult. It's not made to be impossible, frustrating, or complicated... it's just a game with a very low "Skill Floor," very high "Skill Ceiling," and an extremely smooth "Learning Curve" that you will be forced to find. Even if you go the "easiest" route possible, you're still going to get killed by EVERYTHING if you're not good at combat. In contrast, at level 1 with starter gear you can kill every boss in the game if you're talented (with the lone exception being a boss fight which requires a single piece of gear).
My experience has been somewhere in the middle. I started out with very limited talent. The only "similar" game I've played recently has been Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and that's only slightly similar as it's a multiplayer only title so there isn't as muscle memory when it comes to each fight. It's more learning how people typically act... which has a very different skill set to learning each NPC.
Weapons. Aka Everything Must Be Earned.
Each weapon in the game has different attack animations. Also, every weapon can be wielded using either one hand or both hands. There are two "basic" attacks that are heavy and light. That means without moving or using any button combinations each weapon has 4 attacks with different areas of effectiveness, ranges, timings, etc. Most games would break this down by weapon type where you'd have a class of weapons like "two handed swords" and they'd all behave the same with different stats. In Dark Souls you could have two almost identical swords like the Claymore and Bastard Sword that have slightly different stats, weight, and animations making them feel completely different in your hands. Now, compare another similar weapon like the Zweihander that your character holds the exact same as a Claymore. This is a heavier weapon (and will require more endurance to hold without slowing you down) and behaves accordingly. It has the wide sweeping attack like the Claymore, but the Zweihander's animation for the similar attack is longer and will stagger you if you miss. The heavy attack for the Claymore is a quick, long range "poke" whereas the Zweihander is an overhead smash. Long story short, you're going to have to learn the weapon in your hand before you can ever learn how to fight the evils of the world around you.
This sounds daunting. The first step to fighting is to learn your weapon. The way the learning curve comes in here is that you'll find a good, reliable weapon in the first 5 minutes and that weapon will have a pretty basic move set and handle well regardless of stats. My cleric found a mace in the Undead Asylum which was small enough to swing in a hallway and easy enough to figure out with a little practice. Aka a weapon with a high skill floor that needed very little "learning." So, there you go! Easy stuff first with more difficult/"potentially rewarding" stuff later. Those are the small breadcrumb-like things the developers threw in there to help that people forget when they are being murdered in a million different ways through the campaign. They gave you a chance to learn a simple weapon before you moved on to bigger/better/faster/stronger things... but they never forced you to change, you could have kept that weapon forever. With upgrades acquired at a blacksmith using parts you find in the wild, any weapon can be perfect for YOU.
I ended up settling in with a Claymore (as you can probably tell by my constant comparisons with the Claymore in my paragraph above). Even as I leveled up and poured souls into strength hoping to use bigger and meaner weapons the Claymore was always my go-to weapon of choice for pretty much everything. The timing of every swing was engraved in my mind and I could do things with the Claymore that I simply couldn't do with other weapons... but only because I personally practiced and got better with this specific weapon. Another player with the exact same stats and play time would not have the same experiences. This was made abundantly clear on stream as player after player commented on my weapon choice, how they made their decisions, and what they thought I should do. In the end, no matter which weapon I tried, I always went back to the Claymore when it mattered.
Shields (which are considered weapons) are a whole 'nother can of worms. I've dealt with two major styles of shields; great shields and "normal" shields. I have no idea what the actual name for a "non-great-shield" is, but I also know there are "light" and "medium" shields... but I couldn't tell from using them what their specific differences were, so I won't try to pretend like I know the difference here. The main difference I DID see between great/non great shields is that normal shields can PARRY and great shields can SHIELD BASH but not PARRY. Parrying could be the single most important ability of any melee character in Dark Souls, but it's also the highest of the skill ceilings. When you get yourself to the point where you can parry any attack at any time you've reached the mountain top and should have a day marked on the calendar to honor your achievements .. maybe a parade... or a feast or something... but you're awesome. Parrying is accomplished by pressing L2 at the exact right time right before an attack lands. That will trigger the mob to go into slow motion for a split second and leave them open to a riposte that does MASSIVE damage. Most normal mobs in the game will die to one or two ripostes and you'll take no damage if you can parry, so you immediately become a walking death machine the second you get an iron grip on how to parry.
"So why don't you parry everything?"
Because it's HARD. The skill floor is super low meaning if you are not really good at parrying attacks you will die to every single mob you see. You parry too soon or too late and you're taking a full strength shot to the face from whatever it is that wants you dead. If you're not in very heavy armor like my cleric, you can't take too many of those shots without healing (which takes time), so you'll find yourself at the bonfire more often than you'd like if you're dead set on parrying everything.
Not only is it difficult in general, but you need to learn how every single mob behaves with every single weapon they can carry and at all ranges and angles they can attack from. This isn't a world full of hapless skeletons with short swords endlessly poking at you with one animation for as long as you let those giggling fools live. The FIRST skeleton you see has at least a half dozen attack animations. These all have their own parry timing and are not easy to learn as you're only going to see that combo of position/weapon once per run through that area. So, that means you parry his attack and riposte him to death on his first swing and that's all the practice you're going to get. I guess you could stand there parrying over and over without killing him, but with how exciting it is to progress through the world... and how soon his friends are going to show up to join the melee... you better keep moving.
The other option you have is to circle and backstab enemies. This does similar damage to a riposte and can be much easier to do with less risk depending on where the nearest cliff happens to be. It will also lead into the great shield discussion as this will be your main "finishing move" on enemies that need to be dispatched quickly while using a shield that cannot be used to parry. There is a stat called "poise" that determines how sturdy an object you are. If you have very low poise you will be knocked all over the place by attacks even if they are blocked. If you have very high poise it will be the attacker who is knocked back as their attacks bounce off your brick-wall-esk physique. When they get staggered by attacking a high poise character (I'm looking at you, Great-Shielders) it gives you an opportunity to get behind the enemy and finish them with a backstab. You can backstab pretty much every "humanoid" enemy of comparable size to you with some exceptions, but even if you can't backstab the enemy, slashing at his back is much safer than swinging at his face.
Ninja, Fast, Medium, Fat, and OMG I CAN'T MOVE... ROLLS!
The stat "endurance" has a dual function. The first is you have an endurance bar which in increased by spending souls on endurance. This gives you more "fuel" to do the things that are taxing in game like sprinting, rolling, and attacking. The second function is that your endurance increases your "equipment load." There are levels of encumbrance you can experience that are based off of your "equipment load." If your equipped weight is under 25% of your max equipment load you "fast roll." 25% to 50% is medium roll. 50% to 100% is fat rolling. Anything over 100% and you can't move at all. All items you equip besides ammo for bows/crossbows have weight. You have 4 "hand" slots that all are included even though you can only have one thing in each hand at a time (you can quick swap to the other one using the D-Pad). If all this totals up to less than 25% and you have a special item, you do what's lovingly called the "ninja roll" which basically looks like you're going for gold in the floor routine in gymnastics.
Okay, so what's the difference and why do I care?
Rolling is the light armor wearing equivalent of parrying attacks and can be easily combined with back stabbing to make you into quite the deadly warrior and does not require any poise or defenses at all. You could be completely nude without a shield and take zero damage if you learn to time your rolls. Additionally, the invulnerability you experience while rolling is not affected by any of the things that would hinder a "block." Blocking requires endurance, is relative to your shield's resistance to the attack type, etc. A roll is just avoiding the damage all together.
The roll category you're in also determines your move speed. The faster you move the less you'll get hit. The less you're hit, the less you die. Also, the faster you move relative to the enemies, the more likely it is that you'll have the upper hand during longer duration fights that require constant attention to your relative position. There are a few boss fights I'm thinking of right now that I simply could not finish with heavy gear but became a cake walk when I could just out maneuver them.
What changes in your actual roll is the speed (hurrrrrr), the delay from button press to "invincibility", the duration you're "invincible," the quickness of your recovery, and the time it takes between rolls. In "ninja roll" you'll be doing round-offs all over the place with basically zero delay. In "fat roll" you basically just fall over and stand back up.
The balance between speed and armor is one that you'll have learn on your own. My cleric loved to just stand in there with the highest defensive gear I could find and hold up his massive great shield while enemies just scratched their heads. My sorcerer is fast rolling all over to find opportunities to sneak in a soul arrow or a back stab. It's all up to how YOU like to play.
So, I can learn this in a day and be a pro right?
No. Well, at least I don't think the average human brain will learn everything in a day. My first play through lasted 70 hours and I still have trouble timing up my parries. In fact, in most situations I'd rather just stagger an enemy off my shield and one shot them with a heavy attack, but that's just me. Everyone will have different experiences.
What will happen is you'll start to remember how things move and attack and be ready for a little bit more than you were the last time. That's what a really strong learning curve should feel like! The first time you're trying to get to the Undead Burg you're going to die. The next time you'll make it a little further. The next time you'll get even further. Eventually, you'll do it in your sleep without taking a single point of damage. This is all completely independent of the stat system in game. It's all about the skill of the person holding the controller, not the avatar he controls.
Final Thoughts on Difficulty... (aka wrapping this mess of a post up)
The game is hard, but it is fair. Nothing is ever going to be thrown at you that requires "luck." If you die, it's because you did something wrong that you could have avoided. [NOTE: for anyone who saw me fight the Bed of Chaos live and is wondering why I'm not bringing that up... I will... there will be a post on boss fights soon.] That "something wrong" could be that you weren't watching your proximity to a cliff, you didn't kill the enemy fast enough to avoid his friends charging in, you were led into a trap, missed a back stab, etc. These are all mistakes that you will learn from and they will make you a better player. The combat in Dark Souls goes from one legged man in an ass kicking contest to a beautifully choreographed dance as you improve. This evolution is all in your hands... not the game's. This isn't getting yourself a special sword or leveling up to a specific level to become powerful... this is your skill alone. It is that fact that makes Dark Souls a wonderful, long lasting, experience. Every time you load up the game you're going to have a different experience because the experience is all on you.
And with that, I'm going live! Check out the stream at http://twitch.tv/t6srof and come back later for part 4!
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