Save your time, it's not hard to see why this got attention for all of a few days before quietly disappearing. They wanna tout it like a big Cinders or Convergence style overhaul mod but it's mostly changes for the sake of change and difficulty first like so many other mods. They say the new/reworked bosses provide novel challenge instead of difficulty, this isn't true. Your first two bosses are the Titanite Demon that spawns a copy once you take it down a quarter health then the copy eventually disappears with the boss healing itself until you finally kill the copy. This is not novel, this is tedium. The other is a duo boss of a big Crystal Golem and the Moonlight Butterfly at the same time. This is not novel, it's dumb.
This is on the heels of the first few areas mostly just being enemy placement changes with almost all of the items removed with Darkroot being especially egregious where it's a slog of extra enemies and Crystal Golems literally spawning in next to you mid attack as you walk around. They say most equipment will not be the same, well "most equipment" must not include everything you can get before the bells because nothing is different except the Tiny Being's Ring boosting healing power to instead of giving you more HP, wow so novel. The progression rework also just seems like change for the sake of it, pushing me down towards Blighttown before Undead Burg makes no sense. The new "lore" mostly just seems like fanfiction they're trying to pass off as "expanded" and connected to the vanilla game. NPC moves are exceedingly pointless. Crestfallen now sits on the other side of the fire, ooo wow, Petrus is now the next room over, golly gee.
I could go on but whatever, you get it. I'm sure there's some cool stuff later on but I can't be bothered and I reckon I won't bother with Nightfall either.
I was enjoying the mod right until Andre that got me flaming as hell. What is exactly the reason for moving Andre, like, two feet away from his original position and placing his, i assume, clone brother's dead corpse instead? When i came to the building first, i was really surprised by his absence, and thought that it is likely now i won't get any upgrades until i get to Anor Londo, so now i am forced to repair weapons myself. Even the depressed guy in Firelink said to me something like "Hey, bro, dontcha think its time to buy some blacksmith stuff, or you want to wield a dull weapon instead?". What a cool concept, i thought... BUT HE ACTUALLY WAS IN SEN'S FORTRESS? Why? Where is the logic behind that? What would Andre be doing there?..hell, that's not even the main point! I mean, the mod was clearly focused on reimagining the original experience, and it assumes that only experienced people play the mod. I didn't even THINK about going to the fortress with such weak weapons, so i was basically roaming around five to ten hours around burg and forest with basic weaponry. And all that time he was so close! Alive! So, i ask this once again: just... why? I fail to see any logic, any hypothetical reason to make things that way.
P.S: I just ragequit the game when Andre said "whoooow, man, such a nice ember you got there. Where did you find it?", and that was that exact ember i took from his assumed brother's corpse sitting next room.
I guess it is safe to assume that any change mod does in a game is made for a particular reason. You can't just draft things like cards and call it a day. I didn't get mad over the fact he was moved, but rather why and where was he moved. Besides, that replacement wasn't even something big: i mean, its not like he was moved to some place afar - he was literally moved to the doorsteps of Sen's Fortress, i.e. 2-3 feet away from his original place. Why, exactly? What did it accomplish, besides luring players in confusion, when that "luring" is definetely not what author wanted deliberately?
Perhaps my wording wasn't elegant enough as i remember writing that comment right after the incident. However, i don't see any logic fallacy in points i have made and i still find that solution a bit... "weird", to say the least.
I totally understand MistressSigil's reaction, as I felt in a similar way when finally meeting Andre at Zen's Fortress (or rather whatever pretentious name it got replaced with). On the one hand, there's Petrus, who's now standing next to the graveyard, and I found it absolutely clever to have him and his companion move towards the catacombs when they were ready to set out: I applaud this change, as it makes sense and serves a narrative purpose. But moving the Crestfallen Warrior, Griggs, Andre? This serves no purpose except mild confusion and inconvenience.
Having now played a total of about 15 hours of this, I have to sadly say that Daughters of Ash is an enormous disappointment.
The worst thing about the mod is how it completely changes the progression route in a roundabout and boring manner; having to visit Blighttown before the Lower Undead Burg is not clever, it is an unnecessary derivation from a logical and coherent story arc. It feels like these changes don't aim to make the game more interesting, but rather for the sake of changing stuff; this pretentious way of adaptation is also reflected in the completely unnecessary name change of almost all areas in the game, as well as the dumb shuffling around of NPC positions. Even worse than this is the removal of entire bosses: both the Gargoyles and Gaping Dragon are absent when the player enters their arenas. This is not a clever subversion of expectations; this is simply a disappointment, as the mod desperately needed a change in pace after making the exploration sections so much longer and more boring.
One aspect that makes exploration boring are item and loot changes, as rarely does one find anything interesting now. For example, one can only muse what the creator's thoughts on removing almost all armor sets from their 'normal' positions are, but it was most definitely not a good idea. At least I can enjoy my third poison dagger found on a corpse, thanks for that.
The one good thing I can say about this mod is that a few of the enemy and boss changes are quite inspired, for example Pinwheel is finally a minor obstacle in this mod, and the changed placement of (some) enemies is quite harmonious. And indeed, if this was the only thing Daughters of Ash changed, I would celebrate it.
I feel bad about being harsh, because I am certain that Grimrukh has poured lots of effort and time into this, but in the end all he managed to do was to make a really good game considerably worse. The point of a good mod is not changing as much as possible, it is *improving* as much as possible, and Daughters of Ash fails horribly at this goal.
I plan to play blind through my first play through but, would be nice if I could ensure I do not miss new NPC's/quest steps in later play throughs and the like.
I also still think the mod is great. Sure the quests are kinda buggy and obscure, but thats nothing new in Dark Souls. If you managed to figure out to install the mod im sure you can also figure out how to make a few back-saves in case something breaks.
I greatly appreciate all the time and effort that went into making a fresh new ds1 experience.
I see a lot of negative comments but I'm not gonna lie, I think it's a perfectly good mod that is substantially more difficult than the vanilla Dark Souls experience, which I find to be tiringly easy. It could be better, but everything can, and I believe the creator will use some of the lessons from this mod in the next one they're cooking up. In other words, git gud bros?
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JumpThis is on the heels of the first few areas mostly just being enemy placement changes with almost all of the items removed with Darkroot being especially egregious where it's a slog of extra enemies and Crystal Golems literally spawning in next to you mid attack as you walk around. They say most equipment will not be the same, well "most equipment" must not include everything you can get before the bells because nothing is different except the Tiny Being's Ring boosting healing power to instead of giving you more HP, wow so novel. The progression rework also just seems like change for the sake of it, pushing me down towards Blighttown before Undead Burg makes no sense. The new "lore" mostly just seems like fanfiction they're trying to pass off as "expanded" and connected to the vanilla game. NPC moves are exceedingly pointless. Crestfallen now sits on the other side of the fire, ooo wow, Petrus is now the next room over, golly gee.
I could go on but whatever, you get it. I'm sure there's some cool stuff later on but I can't be bothered and I reckon I won't bother with Nightfall either.
I was enjoying the mod right until Andre that got me flaming as hell. What is exactly the reason for moving Andre, like, two feet away from his original position and placing his, i assume, clone brother's dead corpse instead?
When i came to the building first, i was really surprised by his absence, and thought that it is likely now i won't get any upgrades until i get to Anor Londo, so now i am forced to repair weapons myself. Even the depressed guy in Firelink said to me something like "Hey, bro, dontcha think its time to buy some blacksmith stuff, or you want to wield a dull weapon instead?". What a cool concept, i thought...
BUT HE ACTUALLY WAS IN SEN'S FORTRESS? Why? Where is the logic behind that? What would Andre be doing there?..hell, that's not even the main point! I mean, the mod was clearly focused on reimagining the original experience, and it assumes that only experienced people play the mod. I didn't even THINK about going to the fortress with such weak weapons, so i was basically roaming around five to ten hours around burg and forest with basic weaponry. And all that time he was so close! Alive! So, i ask this once again: just... why? I fail to see any logic, any hypothetical reason to make things that way.
P.S: I just ragequit the game when Andre said "whoooow, man, such a nice ember you got there. Where did you find it?", and that was that exact ember i took from his assumed brother's corpse sitting next room.
However the amount of anger you express over a video game mod fells a bit unnecessary.
Gets mad when NPC not in original location.
Besides, that replacement wasn't even something big: i mean, its not like he was moved to some place afar - he was literally moved to the doorsteps of Sen's Fortress, i.e. 2-3 feet away from his original place. Why, exactly? What did it accomplish, besides luring players in confusion, when that "luring" is definetely not what author wanted deliberately?
Perhaps my wording wasn't elegant enough as i remember writing that comment right after the incident. However, i don't see any logic fallacy in points i have made and i still find that solution a bit... "weird", to say the least.
The worst thing about the mod is how it completely changes the progression route in a roundabout and boring manner; having to visit Blighttown before the Lower Undead Burg is not clever, it is an unnecessary derivation from a logical and coherent story arc. It feels like these changes don't aim to make the game more interesting, but rather for the sake of changing stuff; this pretentious way of adaptation is also reflected in the completely unnecessary name change of almost all areas in the game, as well as the dumb shuffling around of NPC positions.
Even worse than this is the removal of entire bosses: both the Gargoyles and Gaping Dragon are absent when the player enters their arenas. This is not a clever subversion of expectations; this is simply a disappointment, as the mod desperately needed a change in pace after making the exploration sections so much longer and more boring.
One aspect that makes exploration boring are item and loot changes, as rarely does one find anything interesting now. For example, one can only muse what the creator's thoughts on removing almost all armor sets from their 'normal' positions are, but it was most definitely not a good idea. At least I can enjoy my third poison dagger found on a corpse, thanks for that.
The one good thing I can say about this mod is that a few of the enemy and boss changes are quite inspired, for example Pinwheel is finally a minor obstacle in this mod, and the changed placement of (some) enemies is quite harmonious. And indeed, if this was the only thing Daughters of Ash changed, I would celebrate it.
I feel bad about being harsh, because I am certain that Grimrukh has poured lots of effort and time into this, but in the end all he managed to do was to make a really good game considerably worse. The point of a good mod is not changing as much as possible, it is *improving* as much as possible, and Daughters of Ash fails horribly at this goal.
Edit: Upgraded to windows 10 and now i get this "Unhandled exception occurred 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'version'"
I plan to play blind through my first play through but, would be nice if I could ensure I do not miss new NPC's/quest steps in later play throughs and the like.
If you managed to figure out to install the mod im sure you can also figure out how to make a few back-saves in case something breaks.
I greatly appreciate all the time and effort that went into making a fresh new ds1 experience.
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