TOP 16 — Poll 4 of 8

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the #BGE2020 Elimination Round of 16!

Each game is seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools. Every game in the Upper Bracket has defeated multiple other games in 1-on-1 polls to get to this point. These are still the best of the best.

Polls are updated weekly, typically on Monday. Check back throughout the week to make sure you don't miss a vote!

HOW TO VOTE

This is easy. You only get one vote per poll. The game with the most votes wins. In the event of a tie, the higher seed advances, so don't get complacent!

[Sharecrow]

Hmmmm I may abstain or pick one…I’ll have to think about it…

[Niahak]

For me this was kind of an easy vote - while Symphony of the Night has fantastic aesthetics, Dark Souls is a much more challenging and rewarding game to play. SOTN also has good exploration and weapon variety, but both feel like they matter more in Dark Souls.

[Kong Wen]

There are two Metrovania classics left in this top 16, and Symphony of the Night isn't even the best one. SotN is a good early action-exploring-RPG and a fun world to moonwalk around in, but Dark Souls feels like such a leap forward in action RPG combat and mechanics that it truly is one of the greats.

After playing so many physics-free action games where your character has no weight, no momentum, and can attack so many times per second with a huge club that the action feels meaningless—you're not deciding what to do, how to take down an opponent or solve a problem with combat, just memorizing combos—moving on to a game like Dark Souls where each weapon has its own heft, and each attack you make has its own cost of recovery feels like a true revelation. You can actually be strategic in an action game!

That strategy doesn't just end in your approach to combat, but in your whole approach to character design. One of the complaints people who don't know how to play the game had about it was that you just have to walk around everywhere holding your shield up. Using a shield and then reacting to enemy attacks was indeed one strategy for how to approach the game. If you're terrified, you hide behind your shield. But you could also be an agile hit & runner. You could also be an aggressive great-sword-wielding beast who kills the threats before they kill you. You could also rely heavily (heh) on Poise and thicc armour and just allow yourself to keep getting hit and eating attacks, knowing you're too big a boi for them to affect you. And these are all just the common legit strategies!

Man, none of this even takes into account how the whole faction system worked, and how cool it was that you could summon phantoms into your game to help you—but that even doing that doesn't really make the game "easymode", it's just a completely in-lore way of showing a glimmer of human resilience against the oppressive crushing darkness and hopelessness of the world. Doesn't even take into account Solaire and Siegmeyer. Absolute god-tier game.

[Niahak]

That strategy doesn't just end in your approach to combat, but in your whole approach to character design. One of the complaints people who don't know how to play the game had about it was that you just have to walk around everywhere holding your shield up. Using a shield and then reacting to enemy attacks was indeed one strategy for how to approach the game. If you're terrified, you hide behind your shield. But you could also be an agile hit & runner. You could also be an aggressive great-sword-wielding beast who kills the threats before they kill you. You could also rely heavily (heh) on Poise and thicc armour and just allow yourself to keep getting hit and eating attacks, knowing you're too big a boi for them to affect you. And these are all just the common legit strategies!

These are great points that I didn't think to bring up. I had a great time in Dark Souls 2 (although the first also supports almost as much) role-playing specific kinds of builds - one of my favorites was a "Belmont build" that used consumables to enchant whips with elements, as well as throwing knives for ranged combat. It was a pretty effective build, since whips have longer range. Dark Souls supports boxing, crossbows/bows, and polearms, too - considerably more variety than most games of any genre, which is a part of the fun. If you wanted to, you could pick off a fair number of enemies from long range. It's not just finding an item and thinking "Can I use this now?", it's "How could I use this - if not now, then on a different character?" It incentivizes and rewards exploration on a whole different level.

[Claytone]

After playing so many physics-free action games where your character has no weight, no momentum, and can attack so many times per second with a huge club that the action feels meaningless—you're not deciding what to do, how to take down an opponent or solve a problem with combat, just memorizing combos—moving on to a game like Dark Souls where each weapon has its own heft, and each attack you make has its own cost of recovery feels like a true revelation. You can actually be strategic in an action game!

I appreciate this point about strategy in an action game, but man I wish hitting enemies in these games felt good at all. I also wish I were better at describing what I mean, but one of my biggest sticking points with Dark Souls and also Bloodborne (which I at least actually enjoyed somewhat) is that striking baddies with your weapon just doesn't feel satisfying.

Even SotN manages that from time to time (albeit not as nicely as the whip-based action of its predecessors).

Idk, I realize it's a rather subjective and amorphous complaint, but it's what I've got. After years of discussing the merits of these games with various people, I found that it seems to be the most significant source of my discontent. What I've seen of Sekiro, though, makes me think that it may not suffer from this, so I look forward to giving it a shot.

[Sharecrow]

There are two Metrovania classics left in this top 16, and Symphony of the Night isn't even the best one. SotN is a good early action-exploring-RPG and a fun world to moonwalk around in, but Dark Souls feels like such a leap forward in action RPG combat and mechanics that it truly is one of the greats.

After playing so many physics-free action games where your character has no weight, no momentum, and can attack so many times per second with a huge club that the action feels meaningless—you're not deciding what to do, how to take down an opponent or solve a problem with combat, just memorizing combos—moving on to a game like Dark Souls where each weapon has its own heft, and each attack you make has its own cost of recovery feels like a true revelation. You can actually be strategic in an action game!

That strategy doesn't just end in your approach to combat, but in your whole approach to character design. One of the complaints people who don't know how to play the game had about it was that you just have to walk around everywhere holding your shield up. Using a shield and then reacting to enemy attacks was indeed one strategy for how to approach the game. If you're terrified, you hide behind your shield. But you could also be an agile hit & runner. You could also be an aggressive great-sword-wielding beast who kills the threats before they kill you. You could also rely heavily (heh) on Poise and thicc armour and just allow yourself to keep getting hit and eating attacks, knowing you're too big a boi for them to affect you. And these are all just the common legit strategies!

Man, none of this even takes into account how the whole faction system worked, and how cool it was that you could summon phantoms into your game to help you—but that even doing that doesn't really make the game "easymode", it's just a completely in-lore way of showing a glimmer of human resilience against the oppressive crushing darkness and hopelessness of the world. Doesn't even take into account Solaire and Siegmeyer. Absolute god-tier game.

I downloaded this again a week or two ago to give it another go.