What is the best Dark Souls game?

What utter bullshit, I got Demon's Souls because I was fucking bored and tired of easy automated games at the time and this was well before Dark Souls was anounced.

Demon's Souls still remains king in terms of atmosphere with Bloodborne coming 2nd. I also think Demon's Souls has superior level design due to level design being finely crafted around shortcuts and minimal checkpoints.

Enjoy your starbucks.

DeS > DS1 > BB > DS3 > DS2 > All DS Clones

I do enjoy starcucks but I'm hipster that even liked Demon's Souls before the American release aka the Asian release. So I'm literally the guy whom liked souls before it was cool.

/thread
Everyone go home

DS1 > DS > DS3 > DS2 > Dying of cancer > BB

...

Dark Souls 2

I never understood the appeal of these kind of games, and I love RPGs. The worst part is that is spreading like cancer over the industry with "like dark souls with xy! xDD"

It might be a revelation to you but souls franchise is nor RPG.
It's an action game with minor stat management.

2

Battletoads

The first one…

Blame "journalists" for that.

What the fuck are you on about? It has more things than stats that make it an RPG.

I was always annoyed by the massive spam of this game. "Muh hardest game ever XD" Fuck off, I doubt it's even remotely difficult compared to other vidya. Just because consolefags finally got a game that provided challenge, they started shilling it everywhere.

But despite all that, did I really miss anything? Is there a Dark Souls I should play?

Dark Souls 1
Even in its unfinished state its better than both 2 and 3

Honestly it's not even considered a Souls game but fuck off it's a Souls game, Bloodborne, it was the only game I ever wanted to go back for the PVE aspect alone, every other game I only go back and make a new character for PVP.
Or none of them.

What the fuck was his problem?

He was doing his job.
I think you should be asking that question to pic related.

The series is relatively challenging in comparison to other modern vidya because death has actual consequences. It got memed the fuck up by normalfags because of that. They're all worth playing at least once, though 2 is by far the weakest.

I honestly don't get why so many people seem to let vocal retards ruin something for them. It's like hating bacon because it got turned into a meme, not because of how it tastes.

Chester did nothing wrong.

Funny you should post him, because i murdered him 5 minutes ago, and i'm not talking about invasion.

Bloodborne has the best art design and soundtrack
Demons has the best story and world
Dark Souls 2 scholar of the first sin has the best balance
Dark Souls has the best original ideas

Dark Souls 3 is a shitty referential meme game for faggots that watch vaati videos and if you like it you are a shit taste casual who visits reddit and we all know you do.

Also

Armored Core is the best Dark Souls game

Did you forget to take out the cactus out of your ass today?

Also, i don't know how to kill the 4 faggots.
I summoned the witch but she's just standing still and dying instead of shitting magic missiles like with the butterfly.

Hahaha, holy shit.

Can I play Dark Souls with M+K? I absolutely despise controllers.

If you want to talk about rehashed games, just look at Armored Core.

yes, the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne are great games. And they are fairly challenging at first. But its fair and as you learn to master the game it is rewarding. The whole "le hardest game ever" is due to people being too short attention span to pay see the hints and don't read prompts so they run off in the wrong direction and get their ass kicked or where too myopic to see the open door in the other corner of the room endlessly die to the tutorial boss. People who think the game is unfair are just low IQ and honestly don't take the time to read everything.

Nioh is way better then anything made by Deck13 Interactive

pay

Nioh is a lovingly made meme game. Once you get wise to its design there is no threat and it becomes a trek through some lovely late 2000's level design with a bad soundtrack, boring characters and bosses so easy to break even a chad could get through them without pushing the difficulty meme.

It's a DPS race. The longer you take, the more of them show up at once. Don't summon Beatrice because she just boosts their health and her spells don't do a lot of damage.
A lot of people will just tell you to wear the heaviest armor you have and tank through the hits, but that completely trivializes the fight.

Possible, but not advised. They made it somewhat better in the sequels, but it's one of the games where using a controller actually makes sense.

Everyone talked about how great the enemy placement was but I still don't buy it.
Why was there a Dragon in a place a FUCKING DRAGONSLAYER was residing at?
Why was the Shrine of Amana still a glorified bullet hell?
Why was there incredibly glitchy (though admittedly cool looking) Falconers that looked completely unfinished animation and gameplay wise in the Royal camp?

...

The easiest way to kill the 4kids is with a lightning ricards rapier

I'm a full stronk build with great dragon sword, tho.

What about high level PVP?

Don't forget the totally improved grafix they added (shitty post processing) and a plethora of graphical glitches they never bothered to fix!

Dark Souls 2 is a step down form 1 in every aspect except for the amount of content. The "build variety" everyone raves on about is perpetuated by level 120+ reddit duel babies who abandoned the game when For Honor came out. Meanwhile even DS1's PvP community fucking outlived it.

...

According to Yui Tanimura in the Design Works for Dark Souls II, the vagabond Heide Knights you encounter in the original release outside of Heide’s are wandering aimlessly because their beautiful kingdom has fallen, and are now without purpose.
The Heide Knights present in Heide’s Tower of Flame in the DirectX 11 version of Scholar of the First Sin. Heavily contradicts this statement and should not be taken seriously. Link to the statement is here in this translation, page 11: drive.google.com/open?id=0BwcVzvMBb76HSUJCN3haUmhTUDQ

Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin is somehow even worse than Dark Souls 2

PvP and PvE are both poorly balanced. Your anime reaction images don't make you right, bucko.

Dark Souls 3 has better weapon variety than Dark Souls 2 right now. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do right now as described in the notes of these pages:
darksouls3.wikidot.com/equipmentgroup:dragonhead-shield
darksouls3.wikidot.com/equipmentgroup:red-hilted-halberd
darksouls3.wikidot.com/spell:flame-fan
darksouls3.wikidot.com/equipmentgroup:demon-s-scar
darksouls3.wikidot.com/equipmentgroup:estoc

Estoc is still broken.

Dark Souls 2 is just FUGS phantom block (youtube.com/watch?v=qV_jOF3M4WI) (offhand), thief dagger (offhand) and Thrusting Swords (Ice Rapier). The weapon variety meme is just Reddit parroting.

Dark Souls 2 does indeed have awful PVP and PVE game design. It says words that Dark Souls 1 has the best PVP in the series.

the only correct answer

said the dude who thinks The Surge is a good game.

>>>/reddit/

Wikidot's the best site by far and the OG reosurce since Demon's Souls.

Dark Souls 3's miles above Dark Souls 2 by the way.

Your mixing of the concepts of enemy placement and balance and inability to handle anime reaction images don't make you right, fuckboy

On the other hand, I'm right.

i like 3 just for character customization
sue me

tfw no Bloodborne hair. Only thing I hate about BB/DaS3 editor is that necks are too hard to balance without them being warped and ugly.

You sure are eager to talk to me.

I was just joshing you m8, but I do feel bad for anyone who likes DaS2.

Blade of Darkness

Fextralife is a piece of shit. At least Wikidot isn't filled with malware ads and false information. Also, Vaati uses Fextralife to "fact check".

Putting a bunch of weak enemies into one spot and a bunch of hard enemies into another when it was fine prior is absolutely fucking with the balance of the game. I still don't see how I'm wrong.

What's wrong with arguing, now? Why are you even here?

Do mask of the father and grass crest shield stamina recharge effects stack together?

Are you dumb?

BOI

You have damn good taste.

I wouldn't say its the best, but I appreciate Dark Souls II more than others, it seems. Especially the DLC and Scholar of the First Sin. I really like how it feels more like a standard fantasy universe than the same bleak depressing Hollow bullshit they pulled on 3 because "muh first game." Dark Souls is a great game, but I really like how Dark Souls II tried doing some different things. The countries of DS2 beat Lothric and Lordran because each of them feel unique, and they are all in different states of decay.

Based, wish that studio didn't become the shitty Castlevania Lords of Shadow guys.

That's level design balance when it comes to difficulty, not build/class balance.

Are you taking an interest on my conversations with other people, too? I'm not gonna give you my email, creep boy. Either way, whether DS2 is bad wasn't even my point.

Also, mods, this isn't an avatar. Whoever reported me needs to contain their butthurt.

Reported for ban evading.

Mask of the Father increases equip load limit, but yes Mask of the Child does stack with the shield and the ring.

Please do waste your time being an angry rulecuck
I have access to unlimited proxies

its literally 100% operated and moderated by Reddit.
I agree

nigger Vatti dosen't use Fextralife. Vatti uses cuckchan /vg/'s darksouls general then acts like he get his shit form somewhere else. He was totally caught red-handed copping peoples lore speculation years ago which is why he became such a huge /lol/cow.

I personal like Fex & Cast, they are nice people and Reddit has been defaming them and fucking with there site for years now
anyways Fextra is a ghost town now. Because Dark Souls games worn-out and all washed up

I've been browsing this board long enough to understand that dark souls and elder scrolls series are way too popular here. Make a shit (1) thread about skyrim or dark souls and everyone floods it to bump limit. What's so appealing in fantasy action bait?

Sounds like we got a leet haxor over here

How popular is TES around here outside of morrowind?

You strike me as mentally ill. Sorry for responding to you.

He started out stealing shit from /vg/, yes. But there was a screencap of him somewhere saying that he goes to Fextralife to read up on things. And I already said why Fextralife is a piece of shit.

I meant child, not father.

Why would thrice be too much?

Not my fault their silly system doesn't work.

Skyrim threads get to bumplimit pretty easily.

Just don't avatar fag :^)

Funny. I responded to you because you struck me as mentally ill.

Three isn't enough to warrant an "avatar" accusation. Am I the only who thinks that? Oh well.

The only one I have not played is BB, but Demon's Souls is the best.
DS2 is the worst.

You know what you're doing, and you know that it is blatant avatar fagging.
Don't act innocent.

Good job, son, your mother and I are very impressed

No? I switched up the character on the 4th time.
S-sorry, mom?

This was actually intense.

Did you want me to congratulate you back for figuring out how to post?

Since nobody knows how to give a proper fucking argument i'll do it for them despite actually liking this game more than 2.
I'd argue some of these weapons are too damn good, every weapon that was flashy atleast did considerably less damage to make up for the fact of how fast they were, like the Farron Greatsword, but then in comes the Ringed City DLC with those fucking paired Greatswords with an absurd moveset that can lock you in a combo for damage over the fucking roof.
Granted while i've gotten used to rolling away from every attack it can do, it's still quite ridiculous, and that's not even going over the other Ringed Knight weapons.

Builds are always going to be one sided, sure you can make one that will work but it will always be inefficient compared that high level PVP build still lingering in the back of your mind that you can do anytime you want, you just bring yourself not to do it for whatever reason.
Though to be fair this is arguably a problem with all Souls games, but acting like it's not a problem in Dark Souls 2 is just silly.

I've only played the Dark games as I don't own a PS3/4, but I plan on playing Demon's once the PS3 emulator is finalized a bit more

DS1 hit a sweet spot with its gameplay, music, story, and world design. Out of both sequels I would say DS3 is closest to following the original while DS2 excels at individual builds and PvP mechanics if those are your thing

1 by a mile. Bloodborne comes second, then 2 then DeS and 3 is last.

I was actually arguing that level design is a different topic from build balance. I wasn't defending DS2.

Oh, i'm retarded, nevermind.

Anyone who says Demon Souls is best played it before the rest of them. If you play it afterwards, it does not hold up at all, because it is a shit game.

Dark Souls and Bloodborne are the best, Demon Souls is the worst, the other two are somewhere in between depending on if you care more about combat or fanservice.

DaS = BB > DaS3 = DaS2 > DeS

The rest of the thread got that same misunderstanding. I didn't make myself clear.

just started bluborne for the first time the other day, the aesthetic is strong and the gameplay feels really good but build variety feels so restricted compared to the other games & maybe i'm wrong but the badge system seems to artificially limit your ability to try out different weapons. i'm about sl 25 and i'm still not confident on which weapon is worth upgrading because i've been able to use so few of them.

Weapon upgrades are cheap as shit, just upgrade whichever one you want. I think by endgame you can get something like 3 Titanite-Slab-equivalents, counting the DLC, and more if you farm up 60 insight to buy more or go into NG+.

The badges are kind of annoying but early on the weapon scaling doesn't really matter, so if you get the base stats you can experiment with everything you can find.

Dark Souls 1 for atmosphere and world progression.
Dark Souls 2 for polish, armor design and PVP (which shouldn't matter in this series)
Dark Souls 3 for a mix of both.
Demon Souls for old school Castlevania/Wizards & Warriors/Faxanadu/Zelda II fans.

I actually love the Dark Souls series and I am mostly a PC player. I find it sad how much hate/retarded blind fan love this series gets. I am also a massive sucker for Snow Winter levels and design.

Skyrim

Early game I can understand but once you get to late game the builds start to sort of present themselves to you.
I was actually able to make a pretty good mage build Yes a mage build in a game that doesn't even have a real magic system. at SL 100 when I got all the Arcane items.
Honestly the best you'll do early game is unfortunately limiting when the clear bests are gonna be the Hunter's Axe or Ludwig's Holy Blade.
Once you get to SL 50-60 and get your weapons to +5-+7 you'll start noticing a difference with some of the weapons. But yeah using some weapons early game is unfortunately disappointing, like the Rifle Spear.
The fextralife wiki also gives some advice in the player notes on how you should build a weapon if you're still a bit lost mid-late game.

Technically 4 slabs I think,
One slab main game (might be wrong but pretty sure), one in the DLC, and two in the Chalice Dungeons.

I can't argue with that sound logic.
:^)

I mean look at this, how does this not get you hard.

The textures are horrible and the atmosphere is not that good either

Just use retexture mods.

nigger Crown of the Ivory King was the only relatively good DLC for Dark Souls 2 and that vista is the best it ever looks, everything is downhill from that point. Horse fuck Valley is the pinnacle of B-Team design. It was moderately fun but I just don't understand the "best DLC" meme.

Read earlier, dipshit. I said Fextralife is bad because of malware ads and false information. There's no fucking excuse for either of those on a wiki.
Inb4 use adblock, I do.

Those don't fix graphical glitches and poor animations.

WHAT A FUCKING SHITSHOW

I'm sad they didn't try to port every other Armor from Dark Souls 2 like pics related, in terms of fashion it's definitely the superior of the bunch.

I honestly thought that was a fucking Skyrim picture for a second.

They did snowy city much better with Irythil.

Honestly that's kind of depressing to think that reused Bloodborne assets with snow textures slapped onto them looks better than created work from B-Team.

When are we getting Bloodborne on pc?

can somebody show me an honest review of the game? i played it and if felt like a generic "souls-like" game and enjoyed it, but… combat was easy and never got exciting.
i liked everything else about it but the combat itself felt easy and generic. i like how i can "aim" at a body part, but other than scrolling to find unarmored parts… or armor parts i wanted to take for myself, it didnt really serve a purpose.

i didnt hate the game, but didnt feel like investing more time in it.

is this game worth investing in?

You know who is responsible for the false information? Fucking Reddit raids the site regular to fuck with them. The malware I am not familiar with I block alot cookie and shit on every site I go to. I haven't been on the site sense maybe 2014 but I never got any malware. I did a google search about the subject and the first result is Le r/DarkSouls2 reddit forum. How about you fuck off back to reddit nigger.

Why?

Because he can't play it

Wtf I thought you had to be at least 18 to post here

When Sony lets you stream it over PS Now.

Brain in pain after skimming half the thread. No coherence, only spiraling arguments and categorizing. Thread shoulda been about visceral tangible experience from the games, slowly in chrono order of release. Thread is a maze of mind numbing adhd one liners.

Shit I haven't played this game in over 15 years. Thanks for reminding me, I need to take sometime to play something that isn't shit.

Why don't we make another petition?

I once didn't think twice and clicked on a link leading to the website on my phone. I got about 5 system pop-ups that were shady as fuck.
If your shitty website can't even compete with a couple of reddit cucks it deserves to be shat on. You go fuck yourself.

Also
Work on that.

It's impossible to hold a serious discussion about the series anymore. Every thread is filled with reddit plebs who go to ridiculous lengths to defend the worst entry in the series as well as contrarian shitposters who disregard it entirely because of its meme status.

Anyone who says that Dark Souls 2 is above worst of the worst tier, I want to remind you that the weapon durability glitch broke the game, FROM never fixed it, and it persisted into Scholar of the First Sin.

so what? there are still glitches in ds1 that break the game

Nah, I played and beat it. It's tedious, makes you grind for even the simplest stuff, item weight is a fucking chore, world tendency is archaic and punishes you for just being online with absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it, the linear level system makes each stage arcade-y rather than a part of the world, there's barely any story even if you read all the item descriptions, the weapon upgrade system is overly complicated, some of the stage hazards were retarded (the dragon in the last stage before Old King Allant).

It was just a slog to get through in every way.

I thought Scholar of the First Sin fixed that?

I'm just saying its difficult to keep up with anything said in this thread because an idea/position of opinion comes up, only gets one or 2 responses, and is a post talking about all 5 games.

I'm saying this is not a good way to discuss it anyway. What we should do instead is subdivide the thread into sections, one for each game, and possibly only discuss one game for 2 days, OR even play it together as a new character to refresh your experience on the game, and further harden your opinion or give a new outlook - as a result of playing the game finally after years of not, and playing with someone else to help crystallize that experience. I'm tired of these shit threads. We need a new medium of discussing video games and limit it to intelligent people, 8ch is dead in terms of ambition.

Don't forget DS3 had broken poise. Every weak hit would stun you, and fixing it would give you a softban.

DS1 or Bloodborne
I say DS1 because it wasn't plagued by "Hey remember X" as much as DS3, but wasn't the clusterfuck of bad choices that was DS2. It was a simple game that wasn't really trying to be anything but itself. And maybe a bit of demon souls.

For Bloodborne it's the same thing. A complete shift in aesthetic and a genuine attempt to try something different by gearing the game to more offensive leanings. Rally system and transforming weapons were fun, and the DLC was satisfying Ignoring the animeshit boss Maria the bullying fodder. My only wishes is that it came to PC and that multiplayer wasn' t so shit.

Demon Souls>Bloodborne>Dark Souls>Dark Souls 2/with all DLC>Dark Souls 3>Dark Souls 2/with no DLC
Definitive list, fight me faggots.

its 20 hours long with only 5 distinct bosses.
If you already have it then just finish it. Late game enemies get kind of bullshit in their difficulty and damage but are still pretty manageable. The final boss is a let down but the NG+ cycle is pretty neat. There are 5 types of weapons and while you can just stick to one type throughout the game I suggest trying them all out.
One thing I can say for certain is that the level design is miles ahead of Dark Souls 3 in terms of layout if not artistic quality. Every area has only one "bonfire" and the levels have plethora of shortcuts.

Dark Souls 2 is the only Souls game(apart from Demons in PVP) where durability mattered. They should've made weapons less durable in Dark Souls 3 so that backup weapons were actually needed and you had a reason to use the repair magic and powder. Either that or completely rid of the mechanic in the first place considering it doesn't even have proper crystal weapons.

They only bothered to fix it once Scholar came out.

That's not really going to change anything. Certain games will just make certain anons throw a fucking fit. I can't attribute it to anything else but mental illness and/or peer pressure.
Good luck establishing that in today's climate. This place was fine when people first moved here, but once too many people showed up the post quality started tanking. It's irreversible once that happens. The only way you're going to enforce it is by making the place exclusive in some way and keeping the amount of posters low.

Poise was always working as intended, it only activates when you actually attack. The issue was that it wasn't balanced well, once they buffed poise it worked fine and heavy weapons became viable, even being a hard counter to estoc-spam and the like.
People are also really lenient on DS1's poisetanking for some reason.

I keep seeing this and I don't fucking get it. DS3 is a sequel, it finished the story that was started in DS1. I really don't understand how this is a complaint when other games do this as well and are praised for it. Meanwhile, the Game of Thrones fellating mess that was DS2 they had to retcon with the addition of Aldia.

top kek

What did it finish? All endings are ambiguous nothings.

darksouls3.wikidot.com/poise

Because It's handled so poorly. Not counting how Anor Londo's front steps are copy/pasted and just sort of attached to irythil there's plenty of little things. Pricilla's arena shows up in the AoA dlc, the final boss happens to be a scythe-weilding woman that can turn invisible, another "great wolf" as a boss in a field of flowers, the handmaiden from 2, andre just there in the shrine, the corpses of the mushroom men in the forest, the black knights, the corpse of the pale lady, kirk showing up again, aldritch the devourer, etc. Really for all the shit 2 gets, at least it tried to be its own thing most of the time.

stay mad reddit cuck

It's a good compromise between Demon's Souls complete lack of poise and DS1's poisetanking everything.
You're absolutely right. I wish they gave me more cutscenes with exposition, because I too am too big of a moron to figure out what it all means. Everyone who claims to know is a VaatiVidya fellating lorefag, am I right fellow anonymous?

The themes are not even that fucking complex to grasp.

It isn't. The only thing armor does in Dark Souls 3 is take up encumbrance.
You can keep strawmanning all you want, it isn't going to change the fact DS3 finished fucking nothing while fucking things up even more. You know it to be true which is why you have nothing of substance to offer and will keep trying to distract from the point with your petty behavior.

You mean things like black Ornstein, more but smaller bell gargoyles, a bunch of rats, big guys with big shields and big weapons, a great wolf rat, scorpion Quelaag, a scythe-wielding final boss that can't turn herself invisible, a bunch of skeletons and a lava land that is reachable from an elevator going up from the top of a windmill?

DS2 felt like it didn't even know what it wanted to do.

I'll say it again, DS3 is a sequel. It tied up what happened after DS1.
But it didn't. The great ones (4 bosses) were a direct reference to DS1 bosses and even give you their souls. There was a "great wolf" boss, Ornstein, gargoyles, a boss that was a reference to Quelaag, Velstadt is a Demon's Souls reference, certain bosses showed up multiple times and the final boss uses a scythe. You can't really complain about this in DS3 and give 2 a free pass.

Maybe if you keep accusing me of more random bullshit one of them will end up being true.

You either didn't play the game once they buffed poise or are parroting an opinion you read on Holla Forums.
The true ending completely explains what happens after the age of dark. Read "The Last Question" by Asimov sometime.

You seem like you are projecting.

I literally called it a clusterfuck of bad ideas.

Okay.

You said it tried to be its own thing, when it clearly wasn't.

BB > Demon's > Dark > Dark 3 > Dark 2

That said, Shadow Tower and STA are better than any of them.

Is this a joke?

Fair points, though I do disagree with some stuff.
This especially. Compared to the rest of the series apart from Bloodborne, Demon's Souls' levels felt far more like actual places in a world than areas designed for a game, especially in terms of shortcuts. Stuff like the elevator in Stonefang makes sense since you can tell it'd be used for transporting ore, all the locked doors in Latria make sense since it's a giant prison complex, the locked gates in Boletaria make sense since it's a heavily fortified castle and being able to pushing over planks to create makeshift bridges in the Valley of Defilement makes sense because the whole area's built in that ramshackle way.

That's not at all to say that there aren't areas in the other games that feel as organic as Demon's, but there's a ton of shit in Dark Souls 2 and 3 in particular that feel so arcadey that it took me straight out of them. 2 had ridiculous shit like a 5ft tall narrow pile of rubble you could easily climb over requiring you to go and kill 4 bosses or collect 1 million souls for no reason and only being able to cut down a single specific tree in the Huntsman's Copse (a shortcut that's made totally redundant by the ladder above it anyway). I didn't want to mention the Harvest Valley -> Iron Keep transition because it's low hanging fruit at this point but it's still retarded and is a good example of how little they cared about making the world feel plausible.

3 isn't as bad in this regard, but it still has stuff like Anor Londo just suddenly appearing around the corner from Irithyll when it wasn't visible before and bonfires every two seconds. The most grating example of being taken out of the game for me in 3 though is the Stormruler and its weapon art Storm King, because a boss that could've been fine was turned into a forgettable encounter that lasts maybe two minutes for the sake of a cheap Demon's Souls reference. It doesn't even fucking make sense for the Stormruler to be there since Yhorm touches the ground. Why not have you use it in the first phase of the Nameless King's fight since his mount flies around and it actually takes place in a fucking storm? If they really wanted to force that reference in there because they're such uncreative hacks, they could've at least put it in an area which would kind of make sense.

Another area of world design where Demon's Souls trounces the rest which I don't see mentioned often - being able to vault over short walls and obstacles. I can recall more than a few instances in every game, except for Demon's Souls, where stomach-high walls or obstacles are insurmountable because From are fucking stupid and removed that ability since they're apparently compelled to take at least one step back with every successive Souls game they release.

I've always felt that the level design of DeS and Bloodborne was better than that of the rest of the series and I think it's at least partially because they operate off of a much stricter checkpoint system, with an archstone/lantern at the beginning of an area and an archstone/lantern after a boss. It feels a lot more orderly and cohesive than DaS2, 3 and parts of DaS1.

I understand the appeal of lore, but this doesn't bother me since I never really cared about it. I never felt that the series' lore, or especially the way in which it was told to the player, was anything special in the first place. If anything, I appreciate that there's not much more to Demon's Souls than 'this fog turned everything crazy, go out and kill them.'
I don't think it's any more complicated than the other games' upgrade systems. On my first playthrough I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed when I first found the second blacksmith and saw all the different upgrade paths, but that's about it. You could argue it's not even as complicated as the first Dark Souls, since it has three blacksmiths you need to rotate between rather than DeS' two.
I actually liked WT despite how questionable it was in terms of mechanics. Other players being able to affect the enemy layouts of levels and damage dealt to/received by them etc went a long way towards that sense of community/shared experience that things like bloodstains and white phantoms are supposed to accomplish.

On a side note, at least DeS doesn't have any levels as painfully uninteresting and derivative as Farron Keep, which is probably my least favourite part of the entire series.

I agree

Maybe because you went into turbo shitposting mode and instead of explaining yourself you kept going on posting smug and coming off as
Also balance is equal to enemy placement it's the whole thing that makes or breaks these types of games because if they aren't placed in a spot where a player can take note of it before the battle it leads to cheap or unfair situations these games aren't designed to fight multiple enemies at the same time although some would disagree. You should be able to explore and look at your surroundings to see the impending danger that's about the happen. There's a reason most if not all groups of enemies in DaS and DaS3 were mostly weak fodder that you could take care of in a few hits otherwise it would be unbalanced in a way that the player would have to just trial and error until they figure out a way to kill all the enemies/not get hit until dead it's why I think From does know that their game is shit at fighting groups of enemies. It's all just good level design you can't say that isn't part of balancing a game. A badly balanced game would have shit enemy placement along with something like shit hitboxes or absurd enemy damage this is all part of balancing a game which DaS2 did have all these problems at release.
Oh so you were just baiting, well you got me to respond. Sorry shitposting-kun here's your (1) with your (you).

(checked)
Bloodborne > Dark Souls +DLC >Dark Souls 3 + DLC > Nioh > Demon Souls * > Dark Souls 2/with all DLC > Shovel knight**

* Demon's souls used to be my favorite but after I platinum's it and burned out on the game after thousands of hours played I just don't have the same desire to play it anymore.

**Just to be used as a relative standard of entertainment value

King's Field (NA)series > Demons Souls > Dark Souls > Shadow Tower series > Dark Souls 2/3

the surge sounds kinda lame. i played the demo which was the first level and the boss. there was 1 handed, 1 handed heavy, 2 handed, 2 handed heavy, double knife hands. and none of them were really satisfying. and i dont like how the finisher felt like a QTE.

i've heard the NG+ made the excel beyond mediocre. how does it make ng+ interesting?

What's with pic related? Never played any Dark Souls game but I see many people post this picture. From what I understand it's some kind of ultimate boss with a sad story?

It's the final boss of the series.

My elite knight armor is the final boss?

Spoilers: The Soul of Cinder is the apparent amalgamation of everyone that's linked the fire before you. This includes Gwyn (noted by the few notes from his theme that plays at the start of the second phase) and the player character (the backflip the SoC will sometimes do). There's not so much of a sad story as it is you are literally fighting everyone that's linked the fire before Or something. I don't fucking know

Sorta. I see you're still playing DS1 so telling you would be a spoiler.

the TL;DR or this its Dark Souls 3 final boss. Which is just an avatar for the Original Character you player as in the first game + all the people who had sacrificed them self to the flame to perverse society

It's simpler than that. It's actually meant to be the protagonist of DS1 who linked the fire. Hence all the moves.

Did I fuck up or is it still worth it to play the franchise?

Yea sorry you are wrong. I don't want poise to activate/deactivate. Poise exists because of armor variability. Thin light armor shouldn't have the same POISE (which is ZERO) when I get hit by a dagger that does 1 damage, versus a heavy thick armor which also does 1 damage. Both instances you get stunned, retarded.

And I am for the system of forum I suggested earlier. I would enjoy a totalitarian enforcer to moderate posting and post frequency so that we can actually discuss games. Only 1 dark souls series thread per 4 months, and have actual analysis / gameplay with others and actual critique in a forced way. All forum attendees must stick to the specific topic of debate/focused attention to for the given day/week time span, and then at the end the OP summarizes the facts of the game and uniqueness/interesting things that we as a whole uncovered.

No more "le dark sauce greater than> dark saucey two" and one liners. These threads generally do no service to anything, and add nihilism on what is already nihilism.

Yeah it's literally nothing of value to anything in the series. You're good. The final boss is nothing of value and only serves to have a bonfire sword for cosplay antics or a good lightning spell.

Still worth it, he's not even the best boss in DaS3 imo and his backstory is kind of cheapened by the theme of DaS1's final boss starting to play whenever you get to his second phase anyway. Genuinely made me roll my eyes when I noticed it.

Fuxk

I don't know what you expected. But yes, it's still worth playing.

What you want doesn't matter because, as I said before, poise was fucking overpowered in Dark Souls 1. You either blocked out all the Havel memes out of your mind or aren't aware of it.
I read up on it again, in 3 poise doesn't only activate during weapon animations, but it takes time and other actions for poise to "regenerate". If you're wearing heavy armor a dagger isn't going to stun you unless it hits you multiple times in a row and depletes your poise bar. A heavy weapon can also trade blows with a tiny one and come out on top. If both players have the same poise value, the dagger loses because it does less poise damage.
Yes, the system wasn't working on release and the balance favored fast weapons. But they did fix it after a few patches. People who still whine about it are either repeating the meme that coursed around Holla Forums on release that poise is a "fake" state or they're crying because their crutch is gone.

Then make your own board and watch it fail. Lack of moderation isn't why this place has gone to shit, it's crossposters with low standards and people who come here just to cynically shitpost because it's "fun". The exact same thing happened to cuckchan.

Don't mind this faggots. Best DK Game it's Fallout 4. Also good Lords of the Fallen. The rest is just autistic shitt overrated by a cocksucking community that don't know how to live (or play) beyond their own asses.
Also, Dat ass.

But you didn't even post one.

THE END BOSS OF DARK SOULS 3 IS YOUR CHARACTER FROM DARK SOULS 1

Stay salty, spoiler using cucks.

Only the first game has any dank lore because it has a Esoteric meaning that actually apply to Left wing vs Right wing politics.

NEVER FORGET BOSTON

BAZOOKA

Shitt. Sorry dude.
Still waiting for someone porting the 2B mod from Skyrim to F4.

What's this fucking meme that DaS 3 is fucking terrible. Sure, it's not fantastic, but it's not exactly bad either. Did they ever fix poise?

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Ignoring everything else, what is the best Dark Souls in terms of boss fights? I've only played Dark Souls 1.

The answer is always Demon's Souls

They fixed it like a month or two after release.

Really? Like a month or two after realease, all I was hearing was "poise is working as intended".

Maybe it was a few months more, but they buffed poise until it actually worked as intended. It was a huge buff for heavy weapons specifically.

All of Demon's Souls' Archdemon fights were disappointing as hell, though. At least Dark Souls had a few fights with the big bads that were actually enjoyable.

Of course. Not being clear is a very subtle and effective way of bait.

Indeed I did but you're late to the party and I don't care about (You)s anymore. Munching on hooks without any meat.

What about armor? Can't I still go around wearing whatever heavy armor I want and still be staggered by the slightest tink with a dagger?

No, that's what I mean. Heavy weapons benefit the most from heavy armor. If you got more poise and have a bigger weapon, you can trade blows with small weapons and come out on top. Their jab isn't going to do shit compared to eating a greatsword combo.

Assblasted master race fag detected.

HOLY SHIT DARK SOULS IIII JUST GOT LEAKED
DARK SOULS IIII HYPE!

1. even if you consider demon souls a dark souls game, ds 1 is the best by a wide margin. its just one of those games where everything comes together perfectly as something greater than the sum of its parts.

I wouldn't even put BB on the same scale because it's very different from the rest. Also,
Nice platform wars bait faggot.

I heard DSIII's first DLC was more fucking ice, had fewer bosses than expected, and was small. Did the second DLC ever even come out? Was it also shit? Normally the DLC is where they hide all the good shit like the jews they are.

why don't you research that yourself you spoonfeeding faggot, its not some obscure information.

You have surely gotten stronger and gotten better at dodging by that point.

Because I'll find out here anyways if someone tells me whether or not it's shit? I honestly didn't even need that question.

1>3>2>0>-1

BB? Are you implying BB is worse than Dank Memes 2: Electric Boogaloo?

If you're a Miyazakidrone, 1 and 3
If you are a true patrician, DeS and 2.

Its an obvious fake for the blurry image with the fake screen and the shitty art work, but this pisses me off the most.

Exactly.

So you're a PvP fag then?

...

Quite. Not as bad as AoA but I still wouldn't recommend it. In terms of bosses you've got an okay dual boss (whose moveset changes depending on which one of the two you kill first), a worse version of the Old Monk from Demon's Souls, a shitty damage sponge that's fortunately optional and a genuinely very fun boss at the end who's a bit too easy but is definitely the highlight of the DLC all the same. The new weapons are all pretty unique but most of the new armours look like shit. In terms of levels there are three areas, but the first one's essentially a straight line and the last one's just a giant boss arena with a titanite slab in one corner and a fight with an NPC in the other.

I got the Fire Fades edition for pretty cheap and I was pretty glad that I didn't buy either of the DLCs individually. If you do get The Ringed City just don't go into it expecting anything near The Old Hunters levels of quality.

Whoops meant for

thanks

Oh definitely I still go back and play all the Kings Field games every other year. I even have the ones for the PSP which are alright but the combat is kind of lame, but the story is pretty nice. Too bad it's pretty much the same game (in the sequel you play the son of the main character from the first game) otherwise I liked them. I still love III and IV. Shadow Tower is a whole another level thought, great atmosphere, gameplay and atmosphere. And that fucking soundtrack is godlike.

Do you want the actual answer user?

Oh yeah, Dark Souls 2 was the worst offender in terms of level design connections being fucked. I do need to clarify one thing, though - that was the result of switching directors more than halfway through development and the new guy having to shove together existing assets to make a finished product, not a lack of care. That doesn't forgive its sins, but I do feel it needs to be noted.

Anor Londo is actually visible from the first time you step out on to the ledge of the Wall of Lothric after beating Vordt. They hide parts of it in fog, but it IS visible. Stormruler's appearance didn't bother me at the time as I hadn't played Demon Souls yet at that point.

Vaulting over walls is nice, but it's not hugely useful unless the level design accounts for it, so I see it as a non-starter except in the case of Dark Souls 2, which, I agree, has the dumbest designs.

I think we're going to have to disagree about the level design of DeS being good - I dislike the straight orderly approach, as it feels, again, less like a world and more like a series of arcade checkpoints. What's interesting to me is that you like Bloodborne's approach, when in my mind BB is closer to DaS with the interconnected world and sparsely-placed checkpoints.

I know that lorefags are cancer, but I do actually enjoy reading about all the conflicting sides and relationships. Again, it seems you prefer the arcade-y approach of "kill everything, who cares."

Dark Souls failed in this regard as well, honestly. That's something Dark Souls 3 and BB got right (I can't remember DS2's) - they required far less screwing around and back-and-forth between merchants and smiths.

This is something I will not ever understand. There is no sense of community created by WT, as every other player's effects are lumped together into one final number with no distinguishing them whatsoever. I feel a small connection to the writers of soapstone messages, to white phantoms, even to invaders, but at no point did I feel any connection to the nameless and faceless members of the server who determined an arbitrary difficulty number.

Ultimately: yes, other games committed the same crimes as Demon Souls; Dark Souls 2's level design sucks and 3's is okay but not great, Dark Souls' weapon upgrade system is also overly complex. But none of them commit as many failures all at once as DeS does.

This post is perfect

Do neofags like BB or something?

t. nigger

They didn't buff poise. It still only applies as hyper armor when attacking and its still fucking useless as it depends more on weapon type than armor. The game is explicitly designed to make poise useless for player characters. There are so many enemies which have near infinite poise and stamina while you will stagger out of attack animations in two attacks. The game is designed around roll cancelling as most bosses have a pancake attack which is followed by a swing that can only be dodged by roll cancelling. Dark Souls 3 is a clusterfuck of poorly thought out decisions and ill conceived references. Its as bad as Dark Souls 2.
Whats the true ending?
The limp dicked "questline" one or the one where you give the eyes to the fire keeper?
None of those explain anything. The lord of hollows one fucks the entire concept of hollows and completely mitigates the curse of the undead.

This

They moved all of the heide knights away elsewhere? What the FUCK they were easily my favorite enemy along with the looking glass knight and the pursuer

Don't forget the spell nerfs they decided to keep from the patches.

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Hydrocity Zone Act 1 it's okay too

Okay DSP.

2 > 3

3 was such fucking boring garbage I don't even remember most of it now

2 was trying to please Demon's Souls hipsters that cried 1 wasn't Demon's Souls and 3 was trying to please Dark Souls 1 autists that cried 2 wasn't Dark Souls enough and it fucking shows.

Sure, quality-wise it doesn't hold up as much but it's so much more fun to play than just Dark Souls 1.4

There is a wide gap between making a spell broken and making a spell completely useless.
Scholar of the first sin already reduces the health of bosses in the first place making the spell nerf pointless.

What?

I don't know if its the boss health or boss defenses but all the base game bosses in Scholar of the First Sin die very easily.
It also changed the poise values for enemies so they get staggered more easily too. This is contrasted with the DLC enemies which are untouched and are huge damage sponges compared to the base game.

So you don't actually have any hard facts to back these claims up?

I firmly believe that you just made a shit character if the DLC enemies give you trouble. That or you are underleveled. Disregard the base game bosses, they were already easy, but the words you are saying right now, at this very moment, are telling me you made a shitty character, and are paying the price for it.

Yes, i dodge roll like a champ in my elite knight armor.

Did someone just give up at this particular area and said, "fuck it"? I'm also killing goat demon bosses as regular enemies now and levitating pig gargoyle statues that spew fire at me?
The first "boss was a joke and i refuse to believe there is a single human being that died to him, in fact, why did he even exist?

I'm not even angry.
I'm actually impressed.

So I made a shit character that breezed through the base game in SotFS which didn't happen in the vanilla game.
Do you not see the problem with your own retarded logic?

If we're just talking about sword and board adventures, then Die By The Sword is the best.

Kek this faggot is full of himself.
Calm down, user.

Dark Souls, it's literally the Dark Souls of Dark Souls

That entire area is what you would call cut development time.

Pretty much. Are there any videos of the area before it was actually completed? In unpatched games it's supposed to be unwinnable.

Who is Real

I also have no idea where the Fatbro is in lost Izalith even after activating his and his daughters quest flags all over the game.

He should be where the ground collapses into poison maze and blender monsters. Maybe you have to break the ground first? It's been a while, and I've never completed that Onion family's questline.

Either way be sure to Bone out after you help him there. If he'll just peace out in the poison and die if you leave him there, but sitting at a bonfire should remove and advance him.

Also have you killed all the sun parasite things? Getting the Sunlight Maggot helps with Grave of Giants though you can also get it by trading with Snuggly.

is G2A legit place to get a key for deluxe version?
i dont want to pay 85 yuros

Pirate it you little bitch.

i want online tho, the old crack from some russian who made it work doesnt anymore

No you don't. If a game can't be fun by itself and you have to have other people to make it fun, then it's not worth it.

I already did Grave of the giants with shining stones and wood carvings as my helpers until a faggot kicked me down and i got the skull lantern.

thank you for your opinion

online is overrated. I played the first games without online and then with. It didn't really add any value. I think it's even counterproductive as you are forced to minmax

And yours doesn't matter you little bitch. If you want the game so badly, then work some overtime hours so you can buy it if you want to play online with a bunch of faggots. Besides, the games are more fun playing solo.

thank you for your opinion

at this point I genuinely wouldn't mind a remake of 1 with refined gameplay, some new areas, and updated graphics. That's it.

It's weird how they were never able to quite capture all the things that made DaS 1 great again. I heard Blood Borne comes close, but I'm not willing to shell out and buy a PS4 to find out.

If you 100% Persona 5, Bloodborne, Nioh, Gravity Rush 1 and 2, then you'd get at least 500 hours of gameplay out of the console it would be worth it imo at this stage.

Don't forget Yakuza 0, Kiwami and soon 6.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Souls is fun by yourself, but it's also a fun time to summon/be summoned by random people, and once in a while to be a jackass invader. Greatbow in Blighttown is a hoot.

at this point I'm interested in Bloodborne, Nioh, Yakuza Kiwama/0, and both the digimon games.

… I suppose I have less games on my Wii U and still play that from time to time. I've got a friend who's been wanting a PS4 pro, perhaps I'll see if he wants to sell me his normal PS4 to have some extra cash to put towards it.

I need a source for this.

Roly, dude mostly does furry art though and out of the Mildred he has done half is pretty knarly.

This is 100% true.

Which games in the King's Field/Shadow Tower series are worth playing and in what order?

I got banned a long time ago for having an anime girl as my reaction image and the mod thought it was "avatarfagging" even though I posted once.
Mods on Holla Forums go unchecked as fuck, and the laws that state what is rule 8 are too subjective and too vague up to the mod's discretion, which allows heavy bias if he simply doesn't like you.
Mark really doesn't do shit for this board.
sage for off topic

they defended The Order 1886 and Kanck what the fuck do you think?

Man these grapes are tasty!

bloodborne has good lore. But all of them r overrated anyway

Bump

Look pal, it's not my fault you're both A.) too retarded to deal with DLC enemies, and B.) too retarded to know when to switch up your playstyle, or at the very least try new weapons and infusions.

Accept your own ignorance and stubbornness, and realize maybe, JUST MAYBE, the problem is you.

Am I the only one who played through all of dark souls 2 and some dlc without realizing the stat which lengthens your roll invincibility even exists, making the wolf dlc boss extremely frustrating, if not impossible? I legitimately quit playing once I realized that.

No, but most of the times I try to enjoy DS2 end after the nth time I get hit in the middle of a roll because LOL NOT ENOUGH ADP

Go browse 4AM threads if you want to know what real avatarfagging looks like.

Considering it's a fucking terrible design choice, it makes sense not to expect something like that.

Adaptability was one of the most retarded design choices in a game that was already filled to the brim with retarded design choices.

Also, no one has brought up Soul Memory.

pic related is the only good thing that DS2 gave us

I'm about to finish DS1 and go to DS2 and you guys are scaring me.

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Pretty much all north American releases plus Shadow Tower Abyss, which I think has been translated. King's Field: Ancient City may be the litmus test to see if you can handle old graphics. Good thing to remember is you start slow and speed up with level increases, and explore walls to find secret shit.

Skip it and play DS3. Will feel MUCH more like a sequel.

DS2 fan here
Don't go into it expecting DS1, you'll be disappointed. It seems people wanted to do their own thing and it's an interesting, if broken game.

Bring arrows with you when you get to Shrine of Amana.

Also, don't rely on lock-on. Free-hand fighting is the best

I steamrolled the game using punches (there's a ring you can get from grinding phantoms.)

so Kings Field II, III, and IV, then both the Shadow Tower games after? Also, graphics don't matter to me, so long as the gameplay's good and people saying this series is actually better than the Souls series is a tempting prospect.

But unlike the Order 1886 Bloodborne is a good game.
Also, unlike the Order Bloodborne is a game.

The game became a lot less frustrating when I realized that after killing an enemy around 10 times, they disappeared.

Bloodborne is the best one b/c of that sweet fast-paced no-shield action & cosmic horror.
DS3 is way worse than DS2 b/c it's more derivative and far more linear, just wish DS2 had the weapon arts.

I haven't played 2 and 3 yet because I was too busy playing 1 and Demon's Souls a dozen times each, so I have no opinion. No Bloodborne either. But out of these two, I think Dark Souls wins because it's a lot more refined. A lot of annoying things about Demon's Souls simply aren't there. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be able to choose.

I am playing Dark Souls again right now, actually. Probably should just play 2 already.

The last DaS3 patch is quite interesting. Looks like all those Hitler builds were getting (((some people))) very riled up. :^)

Honestly, why is it that in every From game there's always some fucking awful zone that's not even remotely fun to play through. I hope if they ever remake these games they fix shit like Lost Izalith.

Bloodborne.
I could be biased because I love Lovecraftian horror, but I enjoy this game the most.
Also Old Hunters is bar none the best DLC they ever made, the whole thing is pretty fantastic from start to finish.

Crash Banicoot is the best Souls game.

I must've missed something incredible

But all they did was change the name user.

...

You mean the swamp areas?

Dukes archive would have been better if it included sick shelf to shelf library platforming, it's just empty and boring.

Well then start with King's Field II then, probably my favorite of all time.

Is that Four Kings? Those guys were my most favorite, yet frustrating lord soul fight in that game. It's too much of an RNG dependent fight to be honest.

It's just a lot of point ups, pestilent mercury, that staff with a poison cloud skill, the follower torch etc.
You can do it in BB too as well.

It's weird that after all this time, Miyazaki suddenly decided to SHUT THE SERVERS DOWN because of a spell name that has been there since the very beginning.
The patch changes that spell name and allegedly removed boss invasions. That's it. Forcecasting still remains.

Blightown is great, it teaches the player about not being a careless moron through its exploration; they should just fix those flame hounds and the FPS issues and it would be a fine zone.

Throughout the entire game i have had a problem with the fucking mouse fix of all things where no matter what i choose the targeting is always set to look rather than mouse scrolling, so when there are more then two enemies on screen, like here, i have to keep my right hand perfectly still as even the slightest movement instantly snaps my lock on to a new target, making this boss battle hell.

I really like how they managed to cram it into as many games as possible.

What's the ETA on the DeS port right now?

they're like $20 dude

My current character is a fat Jewish tranny with green hair and zi would be offended by your attempts to gas the (((chosen))).

They are always pretty quick when you know where to go (at least if you don't want/already have the items that are there), so it's not really a big deal after the first time. Blighttown is pretty damn cool, though. It's actually fun to explore if you're already good enough. It's also where you get my favorite weapon, the Large Club.

gotcha, just finished downloading it and about to give it a play

It will be finished when they port BB.

just use the ps3 emulator rpcs3 or whatever

...

Oh my. So you have Neato and 4Kucks down. Going to have a lot of fun with Bed of Bullshit.
Have you taken care of Seath yet?
What about the DLC, Asylum, and Painted World?

...

ftfy, friendo.

Bloodborne.

Guess I'm a "Autistic Neo Hipster". Dark souls 1, Bloodborne then Demon's for me. Never played the shit fest that was 2. Never played 3. But plan too. Also waiting for Code Vain, Maybe get Nioh complete edition, if Tecmo ever decides such a release.

IV

dis is fuckeN hyper retarded!

Just as trilogies of movies are really just one long-ass movie chopped into 3 parts, game franchises are a single game chopped up into a multitude of smaller shittier games.

The game you call "Dark Souls" began as King's Field aeons ago, and finally culminated in DaS3. It was okay; a bit bumpy in the middle, but otherwise alright.

Finished them all and got the special cutscene in the great wolf battle, but i was a dumbass and gave Artorias soul to his gf because i'm not a scumbag.
I guess I'll have to craft his greatsword some other time.
>mfw my onion bro actually died in lost izalith despite my best efforts to save him

What's best in your opinion? Wanted to know what is good if you are on your periods user.

I liked Bloodborne just because it met my taste to be honest, all games were great in my opinion . . . Yeah 2 as well, but that aside I just enjoyed the Bloodborne more because of its setting and agressive fight system, if I had to choose a favorite then I will say salt and sanctuary

That's a pretty big guy

Either 3 or 1

Anyone who says Demon Souls is a nostalgiafag hipster

Heh, it's true. Holla Forums would rather talk about things they loathe than things they like.

Feel free never to post again.

DS2 doesn't even have color. the level designs reflect bandai's dreamcast years and their development is shit.

Do I need the Crystals and Bloodstones for anything or should I sell them? They go for a pretty high price but that makes me think they are useful. Also, pretty decent game so far. Some things feel a tad dated, but all in all it's fun. You can see where DeS/DaS evolved from it, but it's different and holds up on its own.

Which crystals are those?
The blood stones are useful as they remove almost every status ailment. Don't bother selling items, you don't really need the money most of the time.

Gotcha, I didn't know how hard it would be to come across weapons and armor in the game, though I found a helmet right off the bat. Guess I'll just hold onto my stuff then. Also, it's just a regular crystal.

As a rule of thumb save everything that goes for a high price
I am not gonna spoil what those crystals do. Its entirely possible to finish the game without even finding out what they do.