Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Enhanced Edition I don't say this lightly, Honour mode is broken.

I had to login, even on an old post, to point out how objectively wrong your argument is.

You have a preferred play-style when it comes to reloading and saves. I get that, sorta, it's what turned me off of Skyrim was that it felt so bad and non-immersive to reload.

But you clearly have no idea what you are talking about or even how to form a proper argument.

Let's see:
"...Dark souls and bloodborne are severely broken and take zero skill since you're constantly reloading, reloading, reloading, reloading until you figure out a very precise formula..." Skill is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance." By your own admission, the games require you to reload (die) in order to learn how you are supposed to not die. Sounds like using one's knowledge, right? Sure it can be a grind, or super niche, or infuriating to figure out, but your argument is objectively wrong. A no skill game is probably a game that you can't lose, even if you don't know how to use the controls.

Secondly, you say dark souls has a"formula that can't be discovered through natural game play and cautious planning." Now in some cases as the souls Series went on, that really is the case. But you say "Dark souls" so I am going to assume you mean the first, and this does hold true for a good amount of the second two games. Dark Souls does a really good job at killing you and teaching you where you went wrong. It doesn't spawn a random boulder right above your head and instantly kill you, it does so with a boulder that had a slightly notable silhouette at the top of a slope, or a slime on the ceiling that you never even thought to look up at, or a pitfall that was very obvious once you looked closer after dying.
Third, "These types of games are broken and are for the extreme casual gamer." Ignoring the elitist mindset, you are contradicting your own argument. If the game is so casual, why does it require so much work - "reloading, reloading, reloading, reloading" - and the utilization of a "very precise formula"? Also, that's just wrong, I think anyone who actually played Dark Souls, even if they absolutely hated it, would know that it is not for "the extreme casual gamer."

Finally, and I love the logical gaps here, "They require massive, extreme forms of meta gaming to a point I find sickening." Wikipedia defines Metagaming as "any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game." At what point did you ever even hint that the way to beat dark souls was to do stuff outside the game? Of ALL the games, what game more purposefully and intentionally incorporates the concept of reloading (dying) more than Dark Souls. The DLC bundled version of the original Dark Souls is Prepare to Die Edition. The entire theme of the game is dying. And dying is the reloading mechanic you mentioned four times over. It is very much part of the game. So again, by definition, you are wrong. The game teaches you how to beat it by having you use methods that fall within the games intended ruleset.



I don't know why I typed all of this really, it's hilarious to me how close-minded you have acted. Have you considered the maybe your two tank characters died because you approached the fight wrong? Why were they close enough together to be killed by one attack. If you mean the first orc fight, that fight is at level 2 and your characters should have roughly 100 hp. Show me a spell that does that much. I bet you stood your characters near one of the very clearly labeled oil barrels which cause a devastating explosion when shot. That is a mechanic that can be inferred from general knowledge, and even if not is quickly learned. Also, at level two you have crap gear no matter what you do barely anymore than 15 % water resistance from a starting ring. You also clearly didn't think about how ineffective two pure tanks were. You don't need to worry about surviving damage as much if you have the cc to stop the mage from casting abilities. I have done that fight several times and none of which had me dying to anything that couldn't have been anticipated three turns prior. In fact none of my characters ever died, even on tactician mode.

That's not even the best example of one shots, why not talk about the exploding grave? Or the traps that cause poison/oil/fire explosions?

I really was just irked at how much better your argument could have been. Because there are issues with dark souls, even more so later on, and I imagine bloodborne had plenty of issues too. And even honour mode I imagine could be handled better, nothing is perfect. But you talk like an elitist who believes that anyone who approaches games in a more casual way is scummy, yet when someone confronts you about games that are widely accepted as being hard games, you blow them off broken games. All I want is a proper discussion, but you throw around words like skill and metagaming in places where they are just flat out wrong. How can we discuss whether a gamemode is well designed or not if you think that failing at something and needing to practice multiple times isn't building skill? Dark Souls asks you to take a look at how you failed and to learn from your mistakes, I think that is a valuable lesson beyond games.

P.S. - Please tell me that for all the games you listed you did ironman playthroughs on at least the second-to-hardest (reasonable) difficulty. Ironman loses its touch if you do games like ME on the Story difficulty.