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  • Subject: How Does Dark Souls' Combat Work?
Subject: How Does Dark Souls' Combat Work?

Ignore my gamertag. It's actually Dragonzzilla.

From what I hear, it is interesting. You rarely die from bullcrap as I am told. Tell me, how does this work?

  • 01.03.2013 8:10 PM PDT

One last goodbye before I take my .45
Shoot a hole in the sky, rip it open
And climb inside.

RB is weak attack.
RT is strong attack.

  • 01.03.2013 8:11 PM PDT

"Living to smile, and not to succeed; smiling to inspire happiness, not to give the illusion you are happy; creativity and music to inspire smiling, which in turn inspires happiness; being nice to be happy, not for being perceived a good person."


Posted by: Dragonzzilla
From what I hear, it is interesting. You rarely die from bullcrap as I am told. Tell me, how does this work?
Just know that any death is usually your own fault. Some bosses can be a pain in the ass, but each has a weakness to be exploited.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 8:14 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 8:13 PM PDT

Proud Spartan II, COG soldier, Hero of time, and crowbar wielding scientist.

Light and strong attacks drain stamina, which very quickly regenerates. Blocking attacks negates damage and takes away stamina, which regenerates slower when your shield is up. Doing a light attack while directly behind an enemy preforms a backstab, doing a lot of damage. Doing a parry staggers the opponent, and when you do a light attack after parrying, you do a riposte, which does a -blam!-load of damage.
Watch a few videos, you'll see.

Fixed that strange typo.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 8:21 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 8:18 PM PDT
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I aim to please.


Posted by: Etrnlknightmare
Light and strong attacks drain stamina, which very quickly regenerates. Blocking attacks negates damage and takes away stamina, which regenerates slower when your shield is up. Doing a light attack while directly behind an ene,u free forms a backstab, doing a lot of damage. Doing a parry staggers the opponent, and when you do a light attack after parrying, you do a riposte, which does a -blam!-load of damage.
Watch a few videos, you'll see.


This. It's far more enjoyable than the mind-numbing hack-hack-hack-pause game to switch spells-hack-hack-heal-hack like Skyrim's combat.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 8:20 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 8:19 PM PDT

Well, you lock onto enemies by pressing in the right trigger, and from there it behaves a bit like Z targeting from Legend of Zelda. Unlike Legend of Zelda however, you have an endurance bar and two types of attacks with your melee weapon, a weak one that doesn't expend a ton of endurance, and a strong one that expends more endurance than the weak. Blocking attacks with your shield or weapon also expends endurance, the amount of which depends on the force of the attack. Other abillities like running, rolling, and jumping backwards also expends endurance.

Your endurance regenerates back over time, but if you run out, you won't be able to block the next attack with your shield, and you won't be able to attack with your weapon. It forces you to pace yourself in combat, if you go in over your head, you'll run out of endurance, they'll break through your defenses, and you will get stabbed very quickly to death.

I should also mention that you can heal yourself with Estus Flasks, which are these health potions that you can refill whenever you rest at a bonfire. However, whenever you rest a bonfire, most of the enemies you just killed regenerate, forcing you to get through that area entirely using those five to ten estus flasks, which means that reducing the amount of damage that you take while traveling is vital, especially if there is a boss up ahead.

Attacks feel very precise to the point where you can easily learn your opponent's moves and dodge all of their attacks from muscle memory. You have a ton of mobillity unless you are wearing heavy armor, which leads to fun moments where some dude with a huge hammer tries to clobber you and you roll out of the way as his hammer destroys the stone column that you were standing next to.

You can inflict critical strikes on your opponent by circling around behind him and stabbing him in the back, or by parrying his attack with your shield and then counter attacking. The former seems a lot easier than the latter, at least against computers anyways, I haven't had a ton of experience dueling other players.

Different weapons have very different attack animations and different strengths and weaknesses, wielding a long sword feels very different from wielding a two handed sword, it just feels so good!

I'm no expert on the magic bits, I've always played as a melee character. In general it's just very deep, very well done. It rewards good positioning and patience and punishes people who are in a rush or don't think while they fight. It honestly gives me tremendous amounts of hope for the future standard of gaming.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 8:28 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 8:25 PM PDT


Posted by: Etrnlknightmare
Light and strong attacks drain stamina, which very quickly regenerates. Blocking attacks negates damage and takes away stamina, which regenerates slower when your shield is up. Doing a light attack while directly behind an enemy preforms a backstab, doing a lot of damage. Doing a parry staggers the opponent, and when you do a light attack after parrying, you do a riposte, which does a -blam!-load of damage.
Watch a few videos, you'll see.

Fixed that strange typo.

Pretty much, it's much more methodical than most other Action RPGs.

And yeah, the game is perfectly fair most of the time. If you die, it's usually your fault. It's like Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma in that regard.

  • 01.03.2013 8:27 PM PDT

Signatures are for little kids.


Posted by: Hylebos
It honestly gives me tremendous amounts of hope for the future standard of gaming.
Me too dude.

I freaking love Dark Souls. It might be my favorite game of the past 10 years.

  • 01.03.2013 8:51 PM PDT

Respect skill, Not rank.

http://fcwars.net/

if you mean PVE, then it's very well balanced and any time you take damage, you know it's your fault.

if you mean pvp, lag backstabs, lag backstabs everywhere.

  • 01.03.2013 8:58 PM PDT

Protip: Even though you have a light and strong attack, you'll pretty much only ever use light. I can count the number of times I've hit the right trigger out of necessity on my fingers.
>.<

  • 01.03.2013 9:00 PM PDT

Posted by: burritosenior
Protip: Even though you have a light and strong attack, you'll pretty much only ever use light. I can count the number of times I've hit the right trigger out of necessity on my fingers.
>.<
I've used the strong attack before to stagger certain enemies, it even smashes the skeletons into pieces if memory serves.

  • 01.03.2013 9:14 PM PDT
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I aim to please.


Posted by: Hylebos
Posted by: burritosenior
Protip: Even though you have a light and strong attack, you'll pretty much only ever use light. I can count the number of times I've hit the right trigger out of necessity on my fingers.
>.<
I've used the strong attack before to stagger certain enemies, it even smashes the skeletons into pieces if memory serves.


+15 zweihander absolutely crushes everything with the heavy attack.

  • 01.03.2013 9:16 PM PDT