Gaming Achievements

[Karxrida]

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after a long while i am done with dark souls achievements. i functionally went backwards through the fromsoft lineup (ER -> sekiro -> ds3 -> ds2 -> ds1) so getting accustomed to the clunk of these games was part of the experience. i'd say they're all great games, but after some of the painful grinds (mainly in 3, hence the much higher hours, but also in 1) i'm not really itching to play them again anytime soon.

here are my overall thoughts on the games:

DS1

it's a relic. the remaster fundementally didn't change anything so this is a game from 2011 and it really shows, primarily with the late-game and some archaic mechanics such as blacksmiths only doing some upgrades each, medium rolls feeling terrible, flask heals being determined by the particular bonfire you sit at (even when it costs literally nothing except your time to warp to a bonfire that has more available and warp back), and instant ng+ when you defeat the final boss (i fell for this and had to scrounge upgrade mats as a result). this also shows in the boss design, whereby bosses only have like three moves with only one ever being threatening (eg. ornstein's charge, seath's explosion; usually only due to being frametraps or to other clunk like the hitboxes of the boss itself), and with the game being as old as it is, you probably know some of the progression path / big bosses even if you haven't played the game, so otherwise-interesting effects like how the game world (mostly) all links back to firelink is dulled in impact a bit. probably my least favourite of the three.

this was the quickest 100% time-wise since nothing in the dlc is required and the game itself is pretty short with few intense grinds. you need two copies of every boss soul except one of priscilla and three of sif, but farming weapon drops goes quite quick so as long as you plan (remember tailcuts, titanite slab pickups, and failable quests like reah) you should be fine.

DS2

i went into this game a bit biased against it just from everything i'd read online, and i did initially drop the game after getting to bastille, but i was pleasantly surprised by the end. it's definitely the easiest of the three thanks to lifegems and most bosses being very strafable; much of the difficulty comes in boss runbacks (eg. ancient dragon, smelter demons) and being stunlocked by groups. the exploration in this is actually quite good, since the map extensively reaches in 4 directions from majula (5 technically, but heide's tower and forest of fallen giants both converge to bastille) all with a lord soul at the end. similar to ds1 there definitely is clunk that lets it down; hollowing (dying reduces your max HP) sucks, the constant invasions suck (even when trivialized with something like the dragon tooth r2), i thought adp was fine but worth bringing up as a possible issue.

this is far and away the "best" 100%. bonfire ascetics allow you to advance the area around you by one ng+ cycle, allowing you to obtain the requisite duplicates of boss souls, farm easy money, and fulfil the two "summon me for bosses three times" quests without having to run through the whole game again. soul memory allows the requisite ng+1 and +2 playthroughs (three spells are exclusive to ng+2 and cannot be skipped to via ascetics) to go much quicker, as you can just farm the rotten and skip the whole first half of the game. the list of grind items is incredibly short, limited to just hidden weapon and sunlight spear iirc, and the "obtain everything"-type achievements are almost all earned through regular gameplay. the dlc sorceries, pyromancies, miracles, and hexes are required for the achievements on SOTFS edition so even though the ng+ runs are faster than ds1, you'll likely still be in the game for a longer total time.

DS3

i don't think it's really a debate that this is the best one overall. it controls the best, it's the fastest, it has the best bosses, and
playing it as functionally an elden ring tourist it was the easiest jump into more dark souls-specific mechanics (eg. runbacks, less heals, no jump button, weaker status) while still feeling responsive enough to not be pained by clunk. the exploration is quite linear, most similar to ds1 but without entire nothing areas (eg. ash lake, pre-lordvessel demon ruins), though i don't really mind it here because of how fast a lot of enemies attack in this game, meaning you really want some HP leeway from being appropriately levelled to get dodge timings down.

the 100% grind for this can fuck off however. this is the only game where obtaining every ring is a requirement in addition to the regular sorceries/pyromancies/etc.. every dark souls game forces you into ng+2 in some way (sif's three boss weapons, chancellor wellager, +2 ring variants), but ds1 and 2 at least have the common decency to let you only need to play half of ng+2 (ds1 can end as soon as you get to the giant blacksmith in anor londo, ds2 only needs you to enter the first room of drangleic castle). ds3 forces you to play basically the entirety of ng+2, as the gold serpent +2 is in the area after nameless king, life +2 is in untended graves, and dragoncrest +2 is in lothric castle on the same straight path as the second-last boss (all of these are completely separate paths btw, with serpent/life being after 2/1 otherwise-optional bosses too).

^ that's arguably the easy bit because this is a fast game. in all dark souls games, covenants require you to earn specific items to rank up and earn rewards required for the 100%. of the six functional covenants in base-game ds3 (dlc is a separate purchase and thus isn't required), four require covenant level 2 (30 covenant items) and two require level 1 (10 covenant items) to get this 100%. these items are easily the worst grind you will probably ever do in a game should you try; we're talking two of the 30-required being 1% (unadjusted) drop rates from enemies you maybe get three of per minute, three others being at best 2%, and only one (a 10-required) being a 5% drop. these items alone took me multiple days of grinding to get, all while completely dull and not overlapping with any other aspect of the 100%.

I've 100%'d DS1 and DS3 (did the plat for 1 twice, even) and plan on doing the same with DS2 whenever the seemless co-op mod is done. I prefer playing with my friends for jolly cooperation.

I have to say that I vastly prefer DS1 over DS3 even if the latter is an overall more polished game. I just like the light Metroidvania vibes of Lordran's design and how it makes repeat playthroughs even better. Oh and magic and pyromancies are more busted (and thus more fun) and I can actually tolerate DS1 PVP and like its DLC compared the cancer that is DS3's PVP and two expansions.