f13.net

1. This is a thread for people who have the game. (not me)
2. This is a thread for people that SHOULD know how awesome it is. (me)
3. This is a thread where people who want it can gather together and figure out a way to get it.

Most importantly,
5. If you live in Hong Kong or have access to import stores that carry Asian versions of games, now is the time to let us know. Also of note: Aquanaut's Holiday and Afrika/Hakuna Matata. HALP!

Or you could buy Ninja Blade and bask in the awesomeness.
Just sayin'.

No! And don't derail my thread. I know enough about both to know which is vastly, and surprisingly, superior. That's why I made this thread and not a Ninja Blade thread, sucka.

I received it today and have played for about 4 hours now.  It's fucking incredibly good.  Seriously.  I'll add more once I've put more time into it.  It plays like sandboxy 3d Castlevania on steroids... sort of.  At least that's the best comparison I can make.

Check ebay?  That's how I got my copy.  I had a pre-order from play-asia but they sent me an email telling me that they were unable to fill the order due to a shortage of copies.  They gave me a $10 voucher and told me they would email me as soon as the game was available again.  That very night I jumped on ebay, found a guy with a kick ass rating selling copies at a buy it now price of $59.99, took the plunge and a week and a half later I'm playing.  Hurray!

WHY THE FUCK DOESN'T SONY RELEASE THIS STATESIDE??!!

Did the number 4 touch you in a bad place?


On to the game.

I have it.  Yes, it is awesome.  Last time I enjoyed a game this much was playing Bard's Tale on my Apple IIgs (graphics! sound!).  Why Sony has not geared up for a NA/EU release is beyond me. 

Character creation and development is straightforward.  Pick a class (some classes start at a higher levels than others) pick a weapon and start dieing.  Repeatedly, in a good way.  Combat is deceptively simple. After you learn to manage Stamina (different costs for each weapon type) the combat system really comes into it's own.  Fighting requires a good bit of thought especially when fighting groups of mobs.  The best teacher in Stamina management is being ambushed.  Spaz and flail around and you are dead, run away and you are dead, somewhere in between and chances are you will be fine once you get some decent armor. 

I have not touched the magic class yet.

There is no voice chat.  Communication in game consists of emotes and messages left on the floor by other players.  The messages left by other players are rated by everyone, most of the time they are useful. 

There is co-op and something I can only describe as the anti-co-op.  Once players get the requisite item they can enter your game and PK you.  So far this system is still in the "hey that's kinda cool" phase for me but that may change soon.

I hear some PK types are roaming around area 4-2 laying waste to whoever comes through. God I want this game.

I haven't dealt with PKs twice.  I got killed once and the other time I was in group and he left after we all chased after him.

I think the PK spawns are fixed.  Some players apparently camp the PK spawn.




edit: farked up the code

http://www.yesasia.com/us/aquanauts-holiday-chinese-english-edition-asian-version/1013087815-0-0-0-en/info.html

yesasia shows it in stock

Aquanaut's Holiday (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-15-aquanaut%27s+holiday-70-34md.html)
Afrika (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-15-AFrika-70-33h6.html)

Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/P3-Demons-Souls-Asian-Chinese-English-Version_W0QQitemZ110361740970QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Games?hash=item110361740970&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50) auction.  Steep price but who knows when/if the game will be printed again.

Videos must not do this game justice because it looks like another Viking/Kingdom of Fire game. Lands are barren and characters are missing shadows. I read a bit about the combat and the details involved in that but I wasn't able to see any of that in trailers and gameplay footage. Just looked like an average hack and slash.

NO

Good answer, that totally changed my opinion!

I don't feel the need to change your opinion. I'm just telling you you're wrong.

But you don't know that since you haven't played the game. I am not saying the game plays like those games just that it looks similar. I am not saying its bad either, just that in video form it doesn't look like this magnificent game you make it out to be.

Let's put it this way, this is the first game in the history of games that I watched over 5 hours of live-feed on of people playing. I'm way past spoilers, I froth beyond froth.

How many games actually have live feeds of people playing for 5 hours?

Shitloads. What's your point?

You made a point to say its the first game that you have ever watched 5 hours of live feeds for. Well that is something that has only started to happen recently. I am sure if they had live feeds for games like RE4, Mario Galaxy, Shadow of the Colossus, etc, etc you would have watched all of those for the same amount of time if not more.

I am not trying to say this game is crap you, are being defensive out of your silly hype for this game. I only asked what makes this game so "Awesome" and you have yet to give me a valid reason. I am honestly interested to know its not so that I can argue with you.

You are utterly wrong.  I watched live feeds for games 7 years ago (specifically FFXI in 2002).

I wasn't aware I needed to give you a valid reason.

Which is an MMO, I don't think it has been as popular for single player console games.

Man, seriously, just stop. People used to trade videos of playthroughs in goddamn day school back in the NES days.

Shit man all I wanted to know why you guys are so hyped up this game. Is that too much to ask?

I live in Hong Kong  :awesome_for_real:

I'll drop by the Electronic's district tomorrowish and see if I can find it?

What price are you looking at? What's reasonable?

I can get it in Europe pretty easily but it says "Text in japanese, voices in English". Is that for the japanese version only, while the Chinese version has English text too?

Seems so. I am getting the HK version.

Now I am curious, what's their prooblem with releasing this game in Europe/NA?

I've heard nothing but good things about this game, about the worst that's said is "it's hard."

I think it looks really cool but I am cheap and lazy and will just hope it eventually gets a NA release.

/boggle how do you run out of copies of digitial media when people are still around willing to pay $$ for it. 

Just throw it on some Sony Asia site available for purchase globally, then when the NA release is ready sell another copy to all the NA folks who want it in engrish.

I don't know what "reasonable" is and I don't know how to tell if the version you'll find has english. >_<

Okay! I am officially interested.

I got mine on ebay for a total, shipping included, of 77$. Which is 63€ so I'm cool.

It said ENGLISH/CHINESE. English subtitles so it should be the one, means the menus are in english too, right Moaner and Tige?

On the other hand the Japanese one apparently only has English voices, no text.

This sounds correct.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI_ovxW7uts

Trailer + Gameplay

The reason the game is getting so much hype is because it fucking rocks.  It's word of mouth hype, not shove this fucking Halo3 commercial down your throat 29 times a day hype.

List of reasons why this game owns from someone who's actually played it.  If you blow it off as another hack and slash, your loss.

- The combat is as tight and responsive as anything I've ever played.  Think DMC4 combat with a free roaming camera.
- The weapon/armor selection is amazing.  Not only do items have typical RPG stats, they also behave differently.  Larger weapons are heavy and behave as such, while lighter weapons typically have faster attack delays and are easier to wield in tight spaces (hallways for instance).
- Each weapon/shield has two attack modes.  There is a regular attack mode, a strong attack mode, a shield block, and a shield parry.
- Although the story is railroaded, there is shit tons of open exploration to do.  Think Ultima Underworld or StoneKeep.  
- Fuck tons of hidden goodies that are actually fun to use and satisfying to find.
- Bosses are incredible to see and fight.  Again, think epic hard DMC style boss battles set in an RPG environment.  
- Character customization that makes Oblvion and Fallout 3 look pathetic.

I could go on but I have to get back to work.  I would like to add that after 8 hours of playtime this game could easily go down as a personal favorite, right up there with XCom and Wizardy.  Screw Bethesday, this is how an open ended RPG should be done IMHO.

Falconeer,

The Asian version is the only version that has English/Chinese options.  The Japanese and Korean version have English vocals but everything else is in moon language.

EDIT:  If you do have the game and want to do some Co-op, add Happy_Hedonist through PSN.

http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_dmptZVideoQ5fGamesQ5fGames?_nkw=Demon%27s+Souls+asian&_sacat=0&_fromfsb=&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=Demon%27s+Souls+asia&_osacat=0

I think this is the Ebay guy to get it from.

MrHat is the man.

Thank you for the list. It still sounds like something I have to play to appreciate. The only features on the list that would make it stand out are the stamina based combat and the open ended world. The light/heavy weapon thing has been in games for a while. Maybe its the way everything comes together that makes it so good. Same way that Halo combines a bunch of great but not innovate features into a really awesome package.

When you say things like that, it makes people who can form full sentences not want to talk to you. Just thought I should let you know.

I broke down and ordered my copy from that eBay link.

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/

Best MMOG ever? Possibly!

MMOG?

I am on the wagon of love here, but how much of a MMOG is it?

See, when I say things I have to explain it.

The online is all seamless. Just read up on it.

 :awesome_for_real:

I didn't see the tabs on top of the page and I was so unimpressed with that generic link.

And I still have to read the rest. NOW I am impressed...

Fek.  IPhone just hosed my post.

Short version - Make sure you get the Asian version.  It is the only one that has both English language and subtitles.

Falconeer - The messages on the floor and emotes are the only in game communication, no voice chat.  That and you will see other players' ghosts which you can learn what not to in many situations.

That's why we add Vent into the mix, suckas.

Yay!  Now I need a mic.

No voice chat?  Seriously?  Still looking for a copy, but no luck so far.

You couldn't put 'Playstation 3' in the title so I could be warned away from a thread that would get me all excited with vicarious nerdspasms and then crush me with hardware incompatibility?

No one would've believed me if I said PS3 only from the offset. I want to see *pain.*

You guys sure know how to fucking hype a guy up.

Alright, I'll buy it.

http://www.justin.tv/mtrixis

Guy is just starting a new character. Feel free to watch the playthrough. Or whatever, you know I am. Music is fucking ROCK SOLID.

I'll wait until I get my copy to be spoiled. Part of the fun is playing through.

I love how everything is in English and SCE just completely dropped the ball on Europe and USA releases. The voice acting is good and all the text is fine. WTG.

I mean it already fucking runs on PS3 systems in the US. That was the deal breaker for me. It's just like picking up a very expensive game.

Did you order it yet schild? I couldn't tell from this thread. That Ebay thing made it handy though I found trying to buy it with Guest Registration was a pretty atrocious process.

OH SHIT MOTHERFUCKER HAS DUAL FUCKING CLUBS AT THE START

I might livestream this myself if I can figure out how people do it.

Oh god, I think he just went to the first boss which I somehow hadn't ever seen.

I think it's time to break out the new emoticon I've been saving for too long.

:art:

THIS GAME IS THE SHIT.

You're starting to get into Twitter-level updates. :P

Big mistake watching this video (http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm6069241) showing multiplayer gameplay.  Somewhere around 1:23 the player joins up with a group by interacting with a dropped message (I think).  Then they all /bow to each other and are off.  There's a cool boss at 6:40.

I looked up some other videos and I am very impressed.  I actually had to force myself to stop watching because I don't want to spoil more than I already have, since I know I'll be buying it to play.  And I don't even own a PS3.  Yet.

This looks really brilliant but I'd need a PS3 for it of course!
Don't suppose they will release it on any other platform?

It's a PS3 exclusive at the moment so if it going to come out on the Xbox 360 it's going to be a while.

Made by From Software, Development funded by SCE, Published by SCE.

This isn't a "timed exclusive." That's something only MS does since their only friends with Bungie and Lionhead and they've shut down the rest of their meaningful studios. :awesome_for_real:

Well I'll pay an extra $20 to play it now rather than wait 3-6 months to get it locally. There isn't that much of a difference.

3-6 months? Feh. Try longer.

I slept over it, and decided that the reason they are not publishing this in the west is the PK mechanic.

Anything west of Poland is Whineland, with lawyers and shrinks.

The birds are in flight.

The item (RA816528415HK) was posted on 12-Mar-2009 and is being processed for delivery to the addressee.

I would buy it if I personally owned a PS3.

Schild, get that stream up and notify me before you play. I will live through you!

Bad news, the PS3 eye is not recognized by Justin.tv, nor does Flash Media Live recognize it. Gonna try with the shitty shit shit Xbox Live vision cam as wel. Otherwise, blarg is the word.

I can not believe that any Ebay seller would really ship EMS for $4 a unit. Fucking madness. Either the price has dropped considerably due to the world economy or he works for them or something.

Well, immediate payment means that he goes to the store and buys the game, then ships it.

/shrug

Not complaining :_)

In what seems to be the latest version of Engrich, I think mine has been shipped too. If it wasn't that we have the worst postal system in the world (so many eBayers clearly state they REFUSE to ship to Italy, only Italy), I would bet you for who gets it first.

FROTH!

Didn't Italy burn a whole bunch of backlogged mail after a long postal strike at some point?  or is that an urban myth?

EMS is awesome, but the last leg is the local courier. Best of luck!

They don't need a strike to lose, burn or steal your mail around here. They do it for fun all the time. True story.

Seriously, you can read Bukowski's Post Office from 1962 and that's basically an ELITE service compared to what we have here in 2009.

So, it would seem that the real problem with streaming the PS3 isn't the video, the video I can do fine. Grabbing the audio from the optical stream is proving to be.... harder than expected and I'm not sure how to do it. Flash Media Encoder doesn't seem to like it. Going to try something else.

GET WITH IT!

Just hook a mic up to yourself.  We'll only hear the game in the background but we'll be able to enjoy your heavy breathing and "FUCK FUCK!  I HIT THE X BUTTON!  IT'S THIS CONTROLLER!!!"

I told him to tape the camera to his stomach so we can experience moments of excitement in a realistic way.

I could mic it, but I have a voice for silent cinema.

Truth :-D

Have you checked your TV for an audio out passthrough?  Most have them to hook up to a receiver.

There's a fair chance this'll be the most imported game ever. It's getting crazy.

The only remaining question is:  Is It Good?  I can't tell amidst all the creamy lather and shouts of joy.

...but you can simply play it on an American machine, just like that?  I'll admit to being intrigued, and I don't even know what the hell it is yet.  I seem to be getting caught up in the froth.

Playstation 3 is completely region free for PS3 games.

In all of my watching of live play, all I did was froth more. Even when it came to just pure webcam footage.

Awesome.

Awesome!

Wonder if I have a PSN handle lol.

This game better get enough attention/praise to ensure a NA/EU release and a sequel because it's the best thing I've played this generation.

I'm really trying to wait and see but people are making it increasingly hard. Time to stop reading this thread!

while he is at this can we throw some shadow puppets at the bottom of the screen and go all MST3K with it?

How long from purchase did it take for it to be shipped? I bought mine last night, hoping to get it into my house by next week.

It really is a mystery why Sony is not gearing up or at least make an announcement that DS is will see a world wide release.  Dragging their feet on DS and WKC shows how slow and lumbering Sony has become.

Acidcat - You can dual wield shields, it's time to order.

Sony isn't dragging their feet on WKC. It's scheduled for this year, it's just an immense project and they have to overhaul a lot of the shoddy online component.

I ordered it yesterday afternoon, and then at 2AM this morning, I received an e-mail from the guy saying he had shipped it. That's pretty fast.

ra816528429hk

ON ITS WAY!

haha.

Good to hear WKC is scheduled for this year, after the initial release the buzz completly vanished.   I was bummed when rumors of a March NA release were squashed but then DS arrived and all was well in the world again.

Did yesasia hook you up with the aquatic Hakuna Matata?

Haven't bothered trying to get the other two games yet.

You know what? I didn't want any spoiler but the wait is eating me alive. DETAILS!!

What's the character progression/customization like? How does it work?
Loot? Cool? Varied enough?
World? Large, small, varied?

Froth?

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/


Froth away.  Also, check the nets for Demon's Souls videos.  They're excellent.

The co-op videos, and the 'black orb' video where you take control of a demon - delicious.

So, has anyone actually played it yet or is this all just froth?

DAMNIT. Now I want it too.

A few in this thread I think.

Looks fun enough.  But collectively, ya, we're frothing each other up.

Just reread the first page. Now I want even more. Fuck.

Seems like its sold out at all the online stores listed on the wiki except maybe this one. Its hard to tell if they have it in stock.

http://renchi.com/renchi/PS3_Games_Asia_Demon_s_Souls_AS.htm

Also, checking Ebay, its hard to tell which version is listed.

Fuck, I have less willpower than Hat.

Ordered.

The hive grows.

TRIPPPPPLE POST haha.

This game is going to suck.

Or that ebay seller is going to laugh at the white devils ordering bricks in a box.

question...

I know the game is region free (and in english if you get the "Asian" version), but how does the online component handle playing an asian game in NA?

Make them run our dry cleaners?

 :rimshot:

I'm going to buy a copy and put it in my Xbox, because this game offers the best 'Unrecognizable Disc' message I have ever seen.

Oh I hate you all. Bastards. Stupid UK economy tanking makes that £52! Did I mention yet that you're all bastards?  :why_so_serious:

One of us! One of us!

?

Think of it as £52 out of your computer budget.

Haha fair do's  :awesome_for_real:

Hell yes!  I thought I was gong to be playing this alone.  I'm going to try to figure out how to PK you assholes while I have a head start.

I ate that link alive, but I need more. I need more f13 than real info.

If we can all wait just 2 weeks, we'll have about 10-15 people with the game all talking about it madly. It's probably best to keep spoilers to a minimum. I even avoided select stuff on that page.

I'm clicking nothing, reading nothing and in fact staying away even from this thread now until I have it. This looks & sounds like a game that's going to have a very high first-play coolness factor.

Also, now that I know there's a group of people here willing to go import frenzy, you all are fucked.

The import is in English?

Correct! Only the "asian" version though. Most ebayers and sites specify which you're getting.

I made the crazy asian kid I work with buy it on a whim.


I don't own a PS3, or I'd buy it as well....



SO, I know the VA/Subs are in English, but what about the game text, like for inventory?

Everything.

Ordered this from the ebay guy linked on page one. 

For some reason my tracking number is returning no info on the EMS website.

It's not EMS.

It's Hong Kong's postal service.

And can we put those tracking number somewhere to have a report os are they just for show?

OH WE CAN HAVE A RACE.

http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm

Falconeer is in Italy.

Isn't that like the worst place in the world to receive mail?

http://app3.hongkongpost.com/CGI/mt/enquiry.jsp

Yes, it is.

Other than Boondocks, US. maybe. Or like, the far north of canada, if it's inhabitable.

Well, I hope he gets his copy after you get yours :)

From page 2 of this thread:


So yes, yes it is. I am not going to win that race. And I am not even sure I'll ever get the game.

Even then I think Italy is worse.

 :awesome_for_real:

I bet this guy is making some good money reselling these on ebay.

I feel pretty great wagering my credibility on a game from From Fucking Software.

:awesome_for_real:

So yes, yes it is. I am not going to win that race. And I am not even sure I'll ever get the game.
[/quote]

So, um.. why is that? More accurately, why the fuck hasn't it been overhauled at some stage? I understand Greece is pretty shitty as well.

My dear chap, it's Italy. Blame the cosa nostra.

I won't spend a word on Greece cause I know NOTHING about them (except that yeah they are pretty much like us but worse).

It could be a very long discussion about why and what went wrong with Italy. I'll just quote (roughly) something I read a while ago and dealt basically with two concepts:

1) very old civilization with such a perversely complicated history of fragmentation (Italy became a nation only in 1861), greatness and the opposite of it. Decadence is the only reasonable outcome.

2) Vatican/religion. Strong dogmas make people believe (around here) things are happening anyway over their heads. Italian National Sport is delegating. Giving away responsibilities. Can you see a pattern there?

The influence of the Vatican isn't strong as it was in the past, but it is now coupled and reinforced through the ultra-conservatoristic buzz of the media god Berlusconi. He has been found guilty of MANY charges, and people still vote him because (they say): "if he's that good at making money and getting away with it then he must be so good that I want him as a leader! Maybe he'll make me get a share too!".

Old bad habits plague Italy and Italians, and civic sense went, literally, down the drain ages ago.
People here got drunk with the Italian history and artistic and scientific heroes of the past, now they think being part of that tradition makes them better than everyone else, forever.

I think Italy is possibly the most individualistic country in the world right now.


ON THE GAME/TOPIC:

I got my just released european version of Persona 4 today. It'll slightly quench my thirst for Demons' souls. Hopefully. *groan*

I broke down and ordered this as well last week, now I wait.  Hopefully it'll get here by the time I finish off Persona. 

! hi send you the goods already,this is post track no.ra816528582hk

Curse you people and your demon game!

o/

My dad worked in Venice for a while for one of the top chemical companies.  To finalize his visa, he went with a lawyer to some city office.  In the lawyer's briefcase was the paperwork and two or three bottles of wine.  They left with only the completed paperwork.  Quid pro quo, bro.

That's what it took to get the civil servant to do their job.  Now I can't speak for the whole of the country, but given Falc's "that's the way it is" acceptance of perhaps never receiving his game, it sounds like the norm.

Sheesh, looks like that one seller is making a fortune off of us.

Isn't corruption the best sign of a civilizations decadence? Funny thing that happened to us already about 2000 years ago. And the only thing they liked to lear is that history repeats itself. Bullshit.

Anyway, I am not accepting shit. I am leaving this mud as soon as my son is legal.



P.S. EDIT: Yeah, Lant. On so many offices that IS the norm. Here, there is NO sense of community. There is NO community at all. And every single time a few have any kind of power in their hands, they use it to take advantage. Extortion is the norm in public offices. And the sheeps here love to complain AND support this system (or actively participating in it) at the same time. Seriously, you guys have no idea what kind of sci-fi parody of a country this is.

Funny, because I'd move to Italy in a heartbeat if only for the food and die fat and happy.

But then where would I send this copy of Demons Souls?

Heard a report on National Public Radio this morning that Italy has basically resigned itself to hading the entire southern italian economy over to the mob and that the rest of the country's small businesses are starting to rely on loan sharks very heavily to do day-to-day business.

If you already have good money, Italy is a beautiful place to live.

If you have to earn your living, if you have any ethics, get ready to hate and cry. And hate more.

The ferocity of the game is kicking in.  I'm now hustling back to the Nexus as soon as I gather enough souls for the next item on my wishlist.  Too many times I've gotten killed trying to do too much requiring me to spend souls on weapon and armour repair before starting yet another corpse run.

This game is as enjoyable as it is unforgiving.

This is probably the most important thing I need to hear about a game these days.

How much money do you think this guy is actually making off you people? I mean, he's not putting much of a mark-up on anything, right?

Unless he's getting discounts somewhere along the way.

given how many copies he has and the miniscule markup (considering every online store is sold out), I think he gets them at a very special price.

Is that the new euphemism for Hong Kong street piracy?

As long as it works!

Fuck, I need this. Does this work on an EU console ?

Yes. PS3 games are region free.

Want to plaaaaaaaaaaay this.

Nonentity wins. He already got the package. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

(http://www.thenonentity.com/hk-package.jpg)

Wee!

(http://www.thenonentity.com/demons-souls.jpg)

WTF!

3 days?! And then people ask me why I am moving to the US?! FukK!

he spelled hai wrong!

Falconeer, if you move to Austin, we can eat crappy food and smoke cigarettes and point and laugh at hippies.

I sense my copy is at home. Why didn't I have it delivered to work?

Actually, in Austin lives one of my favourite girls ever. Mmmmmmmmm

But hippies in Texas? Seriously?

Austin is....special, Falc. Yes, it's like the most liberal city in America and happens to be in Texas. San Fran and Portland are the only places comparable.

To derail a bit further.

I ordered Aquanaut's Holiday on a whim last week (wonder what gave me that idea) which was delivered today.  I can't imagine any two games being further apart on the spectrum.

It is unique for a interactive screen saver, it has a bit of a back story which is delivered via tsunamis of text dialog.  Also, if you are a gfx whore, this is your game.

don't make me jealous :(

You're better off with DS if it is a either/or issue. 

AH is pretty cool though.  I won't taunt you with details.

And if you do there is a high probability I might visit some time within a decade of you moving there.

What about me? :(

*SIGH*

Now I so want to be there  :drillf:

What if I ship myself to Austin using that Hong Kong postal service? I could be there in three days for just 4$!

You know, I'd pay that $4.

It's a deal! And I'll smuggle those cancerful Greek cigarettes for you in the same cumbersome package. Cheapest death/care package ever.

You guys are so cute!

http://www.filedump.net/dumped/demonssouls1237324779.pdf

I scanned the little one page sheet that comes with the game in English, I figured some of you might be interested. Schild is turning it into a more digestible format later.

There's a high probability of me visiting you within a decade (well, nine and a three quarters years now) of your having moved to Austin as well.  I was trying to encourage Falc though.

Also I was assuming an Austin f13 get-together happened before too long, so it was a given.

Sup .jpg manual (http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/39720/games/demon%27s%20souls/english_pamphlet.jpg).

Just played for a little bit, will play more later. Made it through the tutorial, into the Nexus, and made it through some of the castle before I got one-shot by a giant plate guy with a spear, it was awesome.

I took pictures and stuff - after I play a bit more, I should be able to write a summary of the first few hours.

On an unrelated but meaningful note, I received today (took 19 days) the package I sent myself from Buffalo with the few goods I bought in the US.

19 days (Italy's fault) and 62$ (USA's fault!), just for shipping a few books and a couple tshirts  :awesome_for_real:

Is there any form of local coop, or does 2 players mean 2 separate consoles?

No local coop.

I haven't gotten mine yet. After it left Hong Kong I wasn't able to track it. I'm hoping today...

I don't know if MrHat is alive.

 :oh_i_see:

He's in your mail, playing your game.

I didn't even open the second copy.  Took it to Gamestop for store credit.

 :mob:

I'm in California! That's like, right next to Hong Kong. Where's my copy?

I'm in California, too. Apparently I'm a better Californian!

You bastards, now I'm $71 poorer and have to wait days and days for a shipment from HK.

Got it.  :grin:

/snarl

Still nothing here (also CA).  Usually EMS is ~3 days tops.  Sadness.  Maybe my postman is playing some Demon's Souls even as we speak...

Wow. This game is hardcore. I finally got alive again and yet I don't feel like I accomplished all that much. :P

Well, yea, that's part of why I want it. i wanted a for REAL dungeon crawler. Not this half-baked Fable/Oblivion/NWN stuff.

You could always play Baroque.

Well, once you get into the swing of it, Baroque isn't really punishing.

In Baroque, death is a learning experience. In Demon's Souls, death is something else entirely. I fully expect them to change the name to "Lost Soul's" in America or something equally poopy. Demon's Souls is so generic that it wanders into awesome.

Just like Armored Core: For Answer.  :oh_i_see:

Froth: clouding your judgment.

Not like Armored Core: For Answer. That's not generic, it's just strange engrish.

I don't think Online Mode is going to work. At least my initial foray into the system met with immediate "You aren't going to be able to connect to Playstation Asia" or some such.

Edit: Well now I have to get it to work if schild has got it running. Those notes on the ground would have been hyper useful in certain areas of the first level.

First boss was awesome.

Very true but that aside, Baroque isn't punishing even if you pretend death is to be avoided.  The first time I died in Baroque was when the game forced me by teleporting me to the the bottom floor.  I might have died once in battle in that game, but the vast majority involve leaping out of a window. :oh_i_see:  But, of course, death is part of the story as well as the game mechanic.

Ohhh What day did you order yours Lorekeep? I am in SoCal, I hope mine comes today.

Last Thursday / Friday.

Ah, I didn't order until last Sunday.

Is it actually arriving USPS or via some local courier?  Signature required?

If you ordered through eBay from that guy it'll end up with your regular mail. The package is not much larger than a regular letter.

Same. Maybe mine is there today!!

Coop anyone?

I'm down for whatever!

If I can get online...

I have an asian PSN account. I very well might just play on that and keep a coop character going if it's necessary, but it really shouldn't be. Remember your time zones, there might not be people that can connect or exist to play with. If you're getting Blood Splatters and notes, you are connected to the server.

The whole "Starting in Offline Mode" when you boot the game is a clear sign I was having connection difficulties.

Do we need an Asian account to play online?

I had zero issues connecting to the game.

I literally just signed in with my normal PSN account and started playing.

HOWEVER!

Last night when I was logging on at like, 1 in the morning, they had said the servers were undergoing maintenance. You guys might have just been in an awkward timeframe.

Probably. I was playing really late last night.

Turns out my PS3 wasn't configured for my new router. So I'm on! PSN: Lorekeep

So it sounds like to see messages and get the most out of the online part, you need to be alive. Otherwise you invade other worlds to get your body back (And change world alignment) or you send out a Co-Op request. I sent out a Co-Op request but I didn't get any invites.

Mine arrived this morning.

Fired it up, updated & connected fine. Started playing. Next thing I know my girlfriend puts her head round the door and says "You want some lunch or what?" and I realise I've been playing for 4 hours without noticing  :uhrr:

Me like. Lots to work out, bit confused by some stuff, can't play any more for a few hours, must do physiotherapy first  :awesome_for_real:

How do we go about doing this co-op?

sigh

I'll probably have mine Tuesday though!

Ok so I ordered this game now, hope this shit is hardcore, YO!  :why_so_serious:

This shit is, indeed, several varieties of awesome all rolled into one large awesome-shaped lump and dipped in awesome sauce.

It's really hard though! I'm going to have problems getting far into it because I want to try different classes, not done anything with magic at all yet! Just discovered the joys of dual wielding and was starting on the 2nd part of the first zone when my weapon broke and I had to go back and spend all my remaining souls on repairs.

There's an English wiki up here (http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/) but be warned, it's spoilertastic, don't read if you like finding stuff out for yourself.

Edit: OK this game is obscenely hardcore. After defeating the first boss I have spent 4 hours for zero progress. None at all. In fact I used ALL the herbs and consumables I had trying to defeat the 2nd boss and lost the lot when I died, plus all the souls I had collected. Repeating the earlier part of the level gets me really very few souls, certainly not enough to purchase enough herbs to get through the 2nd part. So I'm kinda stuck unless I farm the earlier parts a LOT to get myself some ranged ability and a huge stack of herbs, cos the 2nd boss seems impossible otherwise.

The awesome:frustrating ratio is a close run thing here! Be prepared to swear at this a lot! I'd forgotten how harsh death penalties used to be back in the day  :-o

I'm going to be online now. PSN Lorekeep.

Why no one told me Persona 3 is 1000000 hours long and no matter how long it'll take for italian postal service to deliver Demon's souls I won't be finished (not even close) with P3? 26 hours in and I am at chapter 3 of 12.

I don't even know what I am wishing for now, immediate delivery of D'S or indefinite delay (yes SO late to the party but oh my dog P3 is unbelievable).

Persona 3 is only like 80 hours long  :awesome_for_real:, unless you're being a retard and grinding up to absurd levels before every chapter end.  Persona 3's extreme length is always commented on in detail in just about every thread about it.   If you reach more than 70 hours before you on the path to "grind to extreme levels" or just beat the game, you're definitely doing it wrong.

It should also be mentioned that Persona 4 is better in every single aspect.  :awesome_for_real:

In most ways, yes.  I think I enjoyed 3's narrative and voice acting more, but 4 made improvements on every system in 3.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3630/3373537715_6e5d7eabf2.jpg?v=0)

Grrr.  Still no Demons nor Souls for me.  Sadness.  Maybe Monday?

Your fortitude is astounding. I removed the voices after 10 minutes of play >_>

I have nothing to add to this thread at the moment, but I had to give you props for your Reid Fleming: Worlds Toughest Milkman avatar.

Wow, this shit is HARD. And unforgiving.

I *knew* someone else on here would recognise him  :drill:

OH MY GOOOOOOD. I did a Co-Op session with someone in area 2-1. He seemed experienced as he ran through a lot. We were invaded like 5 or 6 times, but I was able to help beat the Black Phantoms down. So many times the Black Phantom would run to kill the host and I'd come up behind and do a backstab.

We killed the demon and I got my body back plus some fat soul power. This game is soooooooo fucking awesome but I think any co-op we do is gonna be random, not organized.

Ye gods -- 72 page DS thread on SA: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3072632

The linked narrated nicovideo stuff is pretty neat.

Can someone explain to me how to use the "Unknown X Soul" I am finding? Also, should I be using the Demon Souls I acquire right away?

It sounds like you can pick up items that can be converted into souls (as well as maybe used for some other purpose?) and leaving them as items is useful since you don't lose items when you die (unlike souls). 

You mean like the Unknown Soldier Souls?

Unknown/Old/Traditional/Renowned/Legendary Souls all give you X souls when used. X being different based on type of soul. So, I would wager, just use them.

Edit: Also, yes, use them as Quinton said, when you're in a place where you might need souls.

Hello all just discovered this forum, I ordered Demon Soul's on ebay it left Honk Kong on the 14th and still waiting for it :( Hope it will come this week can't wait to play! I was watching a couple guys on justin tv play but they have stopped, I really need my DS fix lol.

My PSN is Allenstergess feel free to add me, hope to see some of you online soon.

Ok good. I think I'm about to jump quite a few Soul Levels.

Some screenshots of UI and such: http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/Unknown_PC/PS3/DS/

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/Unknown_PC/PS3/DS/DS_9.png)

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/Unknown_PC/PS3/DS/DS_11.png)

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/Unknown_PC/PS3/DS/Inv_2.png)

This game is still kicking my ass. I've loving it, but it fucking hurts, it's brutally hard!

I think I've tried the Act 1 part 2 boss (the Knight) over 10 times now with different classes and tactics. Last night I got him down to 80% with a caster, which is encouraging, I just need to work on getting the timings *perfect*.

There's the potential for quite a lot of grind in this game I'm afraid to say - farming souls to buy consumables and stat upgrades to make the bosses possible, and farming mats to upgrade weapons. The solution to the grind is to be a lot better at the game than I am  :uhrr:

How do you learn spells? I haven't gotten any so far.

There's a couple of guys in the Nexus. On the same side as the blacksmith there's a guy who teaches you miracles, which you need a Talisman of God to cast (only way I've found to get one of them so far is to start as a Priest) and on the other side, behind the pillars, is an Apprentice who teaches you magic spells. You need a Catalyst equipped to cast them.

Just managed to beat the Knight \o/  Took some serious doing though! I have no idea how you'd manage it as a melee class. Also started a Royal character and he seems very cool. He starts with a ring that slowly regenerates MP which is awesome. He's a bit fragile though and struggles in tight corridors and ambushes.

Goddamn this thing is addictive! Just beat my 3rd boss, definitely liking the Royal class, but you beat a boss and then get to spend all the souls you've collected so then you're all keen to go try out your new improved stats and stuff and before you know it another 4 hours have gone past!  :uhrr:

One of my games got invaded by a Black Phantom earlier but I was a big girl's blouse and ran away  :drillf:

Just got my copy! So excited now just gotta figure out what class to play first, I'm leaning towards Priest.

Didn't you get deleted earlier today?

God, yes he did and he's going to be gone again.

Edit: And if you're wondering why, just google his original name and look at his post on the playstation forums.

My internet keeps dying at my house. I don't want to play this offline. It completely misses the point of the game.

We killed so many phantoms in Area 2 in that one Co-Op session that it's started glowing and I'm glowing White. I guess that means Area 2 is White Affinity?

I have no idea what "it" you are talking about, but maybe you should see a doctor.

Ah, sorry. If you go to the menu and select the fourth option it'll show your affinity (alignment?) with certain areas. This has the affect of changing the properties of maps.

I really really like the gameplay of this game. I am very let down with the coop mechanics. I hate when companies put cockblocks in the way of the fun. I wanted to start this up and just play coop, but noooo.

Yeah I have the most fun with this game in Co-Op but the obstacles in the way (Only alive can summon) lends itself to Bleh.

Yeah, as I was just trying to explain to Schild on AIM. I understand that this mechanic's information was available prerelease, but that doesnt make the mechanic any better. I want to play coop, and the game is standing in the way of that. I am fine with how hard it is, but if I want to play with a friend, I shouldnt have to jump through so many hoops to do it.

In a way it reminds me of a MMO where its like "Ok, in order to get to the fun, you have to do this other task you dont care for some much a bunch of times first".

Did anyone else specifically think "hologrind" when they read this?

This game is really hard, I'm literally afraid every time I play it.

I'm such a pansy.

The big metal knight guy is INSANELY hard as a melee. The only way I can think of to beat him is to get someone else in co-op.

Stupid Post office.

Nonentity - get a bow. For real.

After 4 characters I've finally settled on one, a Royal, and his advantage is versatility. Seems that using the right tactics against different enemies has a major effect on the difficulty and being pure melee or pure caster makes things really hard. You need different weapons - slashing/thrusting, ranged/melee, etc. I reckon I'm going to get Miracles as well as the Magic I have now as soon as I can too.

PS: Fuck all you all.  This game is about to take 13 days to get here.

W.T.F.

The boss on 2-1 was rather easy to handle due to us playing Co-Op. One guy (me) kept the bosses attention and blocked all his attacks while the other guy ran in and WTF pwned him with melee.

Status of my shipment hasn't updated since the 17th when it left HK.  I swear I will never, ever do non-express shipment overseas again.  It is miserable.  Yeah, express costs an arm and a leg, but dammit, it gets stuff from Asia to CA in 3 days every goddamn time.

Every day I get home from work and there's nothing in the mailbox and I weep, for that is another day I must wait before playing Schild's Devil Game.

Same, albeit was reported shipped out a day later on the 18th.  Figured they'd be more on the ball with updating the status but guess not :(

Mine left Hong Kong on the 17th, and was hand delivered to me on Saturday the 21st.

Just a side note on any late buyers, it seems like Hong Kong itself has run out of Chinese copies of Demon Souls.

I dropped by here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sham_Shui_Po) to see how much it'd cost and it was sold out of every store.

They only copy I found left was a Korean version for HKD $480. The guy said it was English as well but...  :pedobear:

They said to try again early April for new stock though.

Fortunately for me, I don't have any tracking information for my package and cannot obsess over its location.

If the Chinese version gets a reprint or two, maybe someone will get a clue about releasing it outside Asia.

I may be late to the party with this info, but it seems that the Korean version of the game has both english text and voice if your console has english set to it's primary language.

I just got a tracking number for mine, now to wait a week and see if I get a shoe in a box from HK!

(http://students.eng.fiu.edu/~jfunk/images/weird/those-are-my-shoes.jpg)

That shit is so funny.

Oh, and it arrived.

I'm going home.  Fuck all this massive work.  Pizza and GAMES.

I'll ship yours schild, promise.

I'll give you $20 if you replace the disc with a Wii Carnival Games disc before you send it off to him.

If your heart mysteriously fails, you'll find no evidence of "tom foolery."

I'll give you a hundred to ship it to me instead.

This thread is filling up with "win".

The game is fucking fun.

I died like 30+ times last night.

I wish I could go back and get my 4000 souls from the dragons though :(

Also, I laughed my ass off for like 3 mins during the character creation when trying to decide on skintone/facial structure.

North, East, South, West.  hahah.  Racism is awesome.

Edit: Arrows don't come back.

Hehe yeah it's evil. I've got a bloodstain deep in 2-2 with 25,000 souls on it, I've run out of Spice and the bugbears take more than a full mana bar for me to kill with my nuke. So I'm having to 3/4 kill one then retreat and wait for my MP to regen (takes about 5 mins) then go finish it off. And there's another 4 of them between where I am now and my bloodstain  :uhrr:

Still no update in tracking.  Still no package.  Only sadness.

2-2 is a beast of a map but was hella fun for me. It was an experience to explore, though the Bug Bears were easy to take down (just took a long time with spear). I don't know if there's a "trick" to them. Ranged magic attacks seem to have an advantage against them and 2-2's boss.

There's a shortcut down to the boss area, but requires losing half your health and risking death if you don't know how to traverse the shaft.

I'm finding it's best to summon / get summoned for bosses while exploring dungeons solo. For the time being...

Yeah I'm loving 2-2 tbh. Got my corpse back - it was down the bottom with all the lava - I'd got there by the route you said. Man that was a hairy set of jumps into almost darkness hoping I'd hit the next platform and not fall all the way! Then, after recovering my (by now) over 30,000 souls I had to fight my way back up through the normal route, but in reverse. No way was I heading for a boss with 30k in my pocket  :awesome_for_real:

Made it, breathed huge sigh of relief, bosted a couple of stats and am now preparing to do it all again to face the boss. I love this game  :drill:

I just want to go home and play play play!

2-2 is an example of a map that player messages become insanely important in figuring things out on a first runthrough, except for the boss. The boss NEEDS a decoy er other player to be able to effectively combat.

What if you quit your play session after a death with your souls on the ground as a stain? Will I be able to do the corpse run the next time or the corpse (and the souls) is gone when I turn off the system?

And is it a valid tactic to tackle the insanely tough boss of 2-2 as a solo melee after grinding levels to get there a higher level as the intended one?

That is how I did it, but it is not easy.  I watched a friend do it with Soul Arrow and it looked much easier.  If your able to grind out the magic skill and pick up that first spell, I recommend it.

I would like to be a soldier, pure metal and stuff. I want to know if the game is doable that way, even if with some more grind, or it's just foolish.

Got mine today at work without ever having an update.  Have faith...or something?  *shrugs*

I picked up soul arrow just to have a ranged attack not tied to my bow and arrow.  It does decent damage too.

Think I'll bump my will to 10 and get Evacuation (eventually).  Free trip to Nexus + all souls intact.

All my magic skills are below 10. Dex is 24, Luck 18, End / Vit 17. Str 13. Maybe if I developed my magic a bit I could get some decent spells like you mention, but I don't know what I'd be getting when. I'll just play a Magic class for that. :P

I need to dig deeper into the game. So far I'm using heavily upgraded weapons and shields (which makes a hell of a difference on damage). My Spiked Shield does damage if I miss the parry. :P But I find myself parrying.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay:

But didn't make it to Mountain View... tomorrow for sure!

I think if you log out the souls are gone. Not 100% sure though. I'll test it next time I'm on and report back :)

I think that you leave one bloodstain, so if you die once, and quit, then come back later, you can get your bloodstain, as long as you dont die again.

I do know if you log out in the middle of a game, you'll end up where you logged out when you come back. If you go to someone else's game and stay dead, your blood stain will remain where it was previously when you come back.

You know what feels good about this game? It's a nugget of unexplored content that doesn't hand-hold me like I'm a child through it. The game doesn't give any sympathy or consolation if I fuck up. I know once I learn the maps this will go away, but for the time being, figuring shit out and being able to figure shit out is this game's strongest asset. The game fights me at every turn, and it rewards me well when I stand triumphant.

I had the unfortunate incident of a high level player joining my game and basically nearly running me through 3-1. :(

Don't recruit players for your first playthrough of an area. Just grab em for bosses.

I'm going to try and get through 3-1 tonight. Somehow going into 2-3 doesn't FEEL right...

3-1 is very cool, but be prepared to spend a lot of time lost.

The crushing difficulty of this game is just awesome. Even knowing the map is no guarantee of safety. I died 3 times doing a soul-farming run through of 2-2 yesterday ffs. There's many places and many mobs where one, single wrong step means death. And death means everything respawns and you have to fight your way through all the evil shit all over again  :drill:

Just to confirm for certain, yes, your bloodstain + souls are there when you next log on. Just explicitly tested this.

Saw that last night.  Didn't expect it to be there! 

Only had time to try the tutorial before work (got the boss to 50%!).  Very excited to dig in more tonight.

First impressions:
- Fun!  Started with Noble for some sword/magic comboage.
- Camera being fully manual is good and bad.  Need to get used to using the camera while doing everything else, but happy it doesn't do stupid things unexpectedly.
- Gotta be more careful about using healing items -- they're not instant, oops!
- Blocking is not too hard.
- Parrying I need to figure out. 
- I need to figure out how to better get around behind enemies.  Backstabbed once.  Very fun.
- I like the voicework and the visuals.  Pretty!

I wonder what happens if you kill that demon at the start of the game.

If I can deal with all this car insurance shit and get some stuff done for my game, you'll find out tonight.

Peter Molyneux, the KOEI DW team, and every other action adventure team (lookin at you too Naughty Dog) needs to take fucking notes.

From just ate their sandwiches. THEY ATE THEM ALL.

I'm guessing that means schild has got the game.

Let the froth begin.  :grin:

lol died to the tutorial boss. oh yes i will start over.

now that i get the controls

You ain't seen SHIT yet.  :awesome_for_real:

No fuck, I'm the one that told everyone to buy it. I'm pretty sure I've SEEN everything though :awesome_for_real:

But you haven't EXPERIENCED it yet. :P

I know, this is not an argument I'm going to win. I just can't wait for you to go batshit crazy.

Beat him.

Edit: I've been dreaming of this game since I was 5. My hands can't stop shaking. I'm in fucking heaven. Knight Simulator 2009. I would pay anything for this to replace Armored Core in From's stable of games.

Got a Grey Demon's Soul from teh Archstone for beating him.

And unlike when he killed me, I'm now alive staring at a dragon. Fucking game, rocks.

Edit:

Full wins:
4x Full Moon Grass
3x Splinter of Hardstone
3x Splinter of Sharpstone
3x Renowned Soldier's Soul

Then this guy punched me in the kisser:

Well I now have a good goal for my second playthrough.

What, be better than me?  :grin:

My adrenaline pumps at the challenge. :drill:

Wait, that first fatty is actually KILLABLE?

lolz

Lemme put it this way: Once I go Black, I'll never go back.

Shaky Cam ftw.

My possible-shoe-in-a-box has now left HK, and is somewhere between there, and here. I can't wait.

Damn you schild, I need to start another character now and try killing that first boss  :uhrr:

Afternoon,

Quick question; does anyone know what the different stats on teh weapons are all about? 

I mean you can see your dps on the right, but when in the inventory screen and you look at your weaps, armour, it has all these weird swirly symbols which i can't read about because my manual is Chinese.

Or are there are Chinese brothers who could translate if we put up screenies?

It's all explained on the Wiki. http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/items

March 30th. Guess who's still without the game 16 days after ordering? And tracking says nothing.

Fuck yeah! Swearing, combined with time and some phone yelling (useless, as the package was already out for delivery but the guy on the phone was italianly clueless and annoyed) worked! I'll finally join you all in demons' hell later tonight.

I signed the slip of paper and put it back into the mailbox.  Maybe I'll get my package tomorrow.  Maybe it will have Demon's Souls in it.

So, so tempted.

Looks like playasia is currently out of stock, otherwise I would've just ordered.

Considering I've got a serious backlog of games already to burn through, I'm wondering if it'd be best to wait for the NA release...

EBAY

DO IT

DO IT NAO

Ok. I'll be quick.

Rocks.

I am tempted of writing something about it, cause the no spoilers policy isn't glorifying this enough.

The son is loving it too, despite the horrible horrible stinging feeling of impending death and consequential joypad destruction out of rage. Not so common to be in love for something so dark and unforgiving.

I'm writing an article about this: *gasp*

In short.

1. Deus Ex
2. Demon's Souls
3. Planescape: Torment

Link to the Past is no longer in my top 20.

I will explain all in detail on Thursdayish as I have priorities and have already wasted enough time.

(Edit: If I were going purely on gameplay, this would be the single best game I've ever played, and I will explain why in the article).

The voice acting is awesome, fits the style, which is double awesome, in a way I didn't believe possible.

This game deserves twittering.

Server Maintenance on April 2nd from 12:00 to 14:00, I assume that's Japan time. I also assume it's a patch as it's not a daily thing.

Damn all of you. Since you make it sound like Console Jesus, I broke down and ordered the game through some random ebay merchant. I hope it's worth the trouble.

May thine strength help the world be mended. Hawt.

Son just killed Phalanx without Healing, Turpentine or Firebombs. Kids scare me. And everyone else who did it like that.

That's how I did it the first time! Second time I noticed a note that just said turpentine. The third time I just pelted it with Soul Arrow (mage/healer hybrid - which is harder to play than you'd think).

I went the soul arrow route too.  I am all about dodging about and taking magical potshots at things.

And now I am stuck at the big metal guy of 1-2. WTF?! I'm noob sauce.

Take it to the gameplay thread. Protip: No one can help if you don't say what you're doing.

I didn't want help. Just whine.

To ask for help I need a few more hours of suckage.

From last week.

http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/NewsCom-298143.aspx?CT=1


Look at that fucking gap!

My wife has the package.  Hoping it does not contain a shoe.

Or human teeth.

Or a Chinese mail-order bride on the installment plan.

Hmmm.....

It was an envelope.  Contained Demon's Souls, not teeth.  I'll have the boy in the bed in less than one hour.

lol

Hi All, just bumped into this forum while doing some googling on Demon Souls' updates.

I am currently lvl 90 Wanderer class, in round 2. Anyone care to join me in a game?  :grin:

Umbassa!

Edit by Trippy: don't spam those kinds of links, especially not on your first post

You want the honors schild? :awesome_for_real:

Haha wow look at this cat. Nah, go for it, I'm tired.

So sorry, didn;t know abt the rules. Just wanted to share some info on the game. No malicious intent. :oh_i_see:

Just wish to concur that it's one hell of a game!!

DEMON'S SOULS "PERFECT GUIDE" - The real truth behind the fog… (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4757748604/dreamisland0f-22/ref%3Dnosim&prev=_t&usg=ALkJrhjXMYN7QlWPdSMGnCuXS4_sC6P-aQ)

Releases April 2, 2009

-Includes data on ALL weapons, items, and equipment - ALL area maps, complete information on the entire game.

Japanese release only.

1680 Yen + shipping (where applicable)
192 pages

 :awesome_for_real:

Not really necessary. Half the fun is discovering this stuff. The wiki that's online covers most everything too.

Not necessary AT ALL.

It's just a want have.

Shipping from amazon.co.jp is damn expensive, but fast.  They use the "get it there in 2-3 days" kind of EMS, not the "get it there in 1-2 weeks" kind.  I'm tempted to order a copy.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/demon%27s-souls

Now with sound!

Edit: Grinding 4-2 because I've got nothing better to do atm. Boring stream.

Edit 2: I am sucking ass. Seems I should've just stayed up and played thorugh the whole thing last night.

I just found a LARGE CLUB (it deserves a capital name). It's a huge, spiked baseball bat on steroid. It oneshots lots of things (at my level) and it is cool because all the other weapons I found so far has ADDED PARAMS of Es and Ds while this club has an A for STR, and it shows! When I wield it with 2 hands the bonus really shines and, well, my char is stil a baby but I'd say you never beat the shit out of anything in a videogame until you pick up this club, wield with two hands, and unleash an R2 attack on a few mobs. The animation and the feeling of heavyness are too good for words. You FEEL the hits, it's really like you are actually weilding it, in real life. It has to be tried. This game is so beyond everything else.

Odd note (for me as I am a noob): this is the only weapon I found so far that can't be upgraded. Why?

The Great Club can be upgraded to .

I was having the same glee yesterday when I discovered backstabs with a dagger for the first time. The miners in 2-1 that my dagger was tickling gently now go down with 1 hit, and the animation is just awesome  :drill:  So much easier with a helper or two too - let that blue phantom dude with the polearm occupy them, slip in back, wham dead miner :D

I finished up the 3-1 boss.  Wow, 3-1 is amazing.  It's a biiig level, has some mean critters on it, and I actually never managed to defeat the black phantom right before the boss (damn thing killed me like 5 times in a row and I finally said "fuck it, I'll take care of you later", and just dodged around).  Amazingly creepy throughout. 

I've been digging into 4-1, getting better at dealing with those damn rolling silver skeleton things.  Is it in any way possible to deal with them if you're ranged only?  I pretty much have to engage them hand to hand because they're just too damn fast to keep my distance from most of the time.  I'm getting pretty decent at taking them down, and with a large shield they often get stunned if they try their primary attack.

Picked up a large shield with hp regen (yay!) and a curved sword that does magic damage (yay!), but still haven't made it all the way through the level.  Just ran into a golden skeleton and wow, it was mean.

I've located and rescued Sage Freke and picked up some fancier magics, which is nice too.  Soul Light is my new standby, but it does eat MP like mad.

So far, 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, and 3-1 complete.  Much more to do!

Oh god yeah 4-1 is brutal. I've not found anything ranged that can take them out before they get to you, although Thief's Ring (or Hide spell) and a good bow with Toad Eye Arrows or some such helps a lot. They're weak to blunt weapons btw so 4-1 is the time to dust off and upgrade that mace or club :)

Where did you find the shield with HP regen? That sounds handy, I must have missed that!

Adjudicator's Shield - 90% phys 50% magic blocking, HP regen.

On the way around to the golden skeleton, there's a black samurai skeleton -- it's by him.

Ahhh I got that shield but didn't notice it had HP regen! Still a bit big for me, I'm finding I prefer lighter shields and armour in general because I need to stay agile or I die. Shit, I die anyway, just slightly less so if I'm not blundering around like a walrus in plate mail :D

Wish you could wear more than 2 rings tbh. Fragrant ring + Regenrator's ring + Thief's ring would be  :awesome_for_real:

It is a bit big (was using a buckler +4), but with that and my mage/black armor I'm still able to roll around and dodge like mad, so works for me.  I am all about Cling Ring + Fragrant Ring right now, as I spent most of my time dead, and lean on the magic.

If u are a magician, suggest u get the Old King's armour at 1-1 Masoleum. Kill Ostrava for the key. It's light n pretty decent defense stats.

I don't mind getting new posters for a game, but do try to not talk like a retard.

Well, i m terribly inclined to defend myself, but heck, u must have had a bad day.

Enjoy the game!

No, it's just the rules around these parts. Don't be a retard and don't talk like a retard. That's pretty much it. We define what retard is, but the latter is always in effect.

Coherent, correct, written English is the preferred mode of communication on these forums.  Take a little extra time to actually spell words, punctuate correctly, etc, and everyone will be happier for it.

I like the cut of your jib.

The crafting system makes me feel uncomfortable. Like if whenever I upgrade something I am gimping myself instead of growing. I noticed the only time you can craft a quality weapon is when the intended weapon is at +3. As soon as you upgrade it at +4 you can't go "quality" anymore. Thing is, the "quality" is worse at first, so it really feels like you are wasting stones and souls.

Worse, Ed was willing to make my Bastard +3 in a Dragon Bastard or a Crusher Bastard (which by the way looked kinda useless... where are special skills like the HP regen supposed to be on item description?), but as soon as I found the needed crystal, it was already upgraded at +4 and Ed wasn't offering the cool versions anymore.

How to avoid such fuckups? Some general rules and/or tips about crafting?

You should really try to you know, read the wiki.

Copy I ordered off Ebay showed up, and I just started playing today.  Good stuff so far.

You check the wiki (http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/)  :awesome_for_real:

Basically you can't really tell unless you are pure black or pure white, then it'll be obvious on the tendency screen. If you've got the Demonbrand and Soulbrand swords then their bonuses change with your tendency but you won't have them until quite late in the game.

People, reading the wiki isn't half as fun as sharing info with people you almost like.

I love that wiki, but it is not as good as you. Like the white and black tendencies. Maybe it has been updated now but last time I checked it explained the concept whitout really telling me why I can't see alignement changes as they happen.

Finally, it is spoiler-full.

I know, and agree, which is why I also told you what I knew after the obligatory wiki link jibe  :why_so_serious:

Started a barbarian yesterday which has so far been the hardest character to get through 1-1 (for me). The big meaty club rocks but timing the swings becomes *crucial* when they're that slow!

So far there are only 3 things that I wish this game had:

1) More. I am fervently hoping for DLC at some point.
2) A warning when you're about to end the game. Would really have liked to explore and complete things more before finding myself at The End and then into the, frankly, astonishingly brutal New Game+. Still, lesson learned, I know for the next character!
3) I've forgotten what the third thing was but it was nothing to do with the gameplay. I remembered - I'd like the UI elements to be smaller, or an option to turn the UI off totally. Of course I'd also like this to be coupled with a screenshot capability ;)

So the bottom line for crafting is: before ever upgrading a waepon over +3 go to Ed and see what he offers?

Seriously, on the crafting stuff.

Read the wiki. I'm not typing out the entire crafting system and it's worth *not fucking up.* Though, like Lorekeep, you may have already. :awesome_for_real:

The short version is: At +7, some weapons can be made into unique ones. Some can be made at +8 and some can be made at +0. You need Demon's Souls to upgrade them that way and you need to give Ed one specific soul to unlock the upper tier of crafting. So, yea, go look at the wiki.

That's exactly the short version I was looking for. The wiki doesn't do that.

And oh, I have the red hot soul but Ed is completely uninterested. I talked with him over and over. Same uninterested line.

Is it on you?

Also, walk away from him, and reinitiate. That bat can be wonky. Just like with the jade hairpin and Stockpile Thomas.

The wiki does in fact do that: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/demon-s-souls (http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/demon-s-souls)

"Spoilerish" sure, if the names of the demon's souls bother you. Location and name of each demon soul and what they upgrade to and at what point.

Finally arrived. Korean text all over the manual, but still English in game. It's really pretty, but I suck so hard at it. I'm having trouble with trying to aim and handle the camera in big fights.

I'll play more tomorrow, but at this point I feel it was well worth it.

Unless you're using bows a lot, there shouldn't be that much aiming.  Haven't had many issues with the target lock on.

The only problem with the camera I have had, is that it tends of angle a bit downward, so you cant see the health bars on some of the bigger mobs. But for a game camera, it works very well.

Learning when and when not to use the lock-on made a big difference to my fight survival, especially when facing multiple foes. Not being locked-on gives you a lot more maneuverability - I often approach and initiate without lock-on and then flick it on for a backstab or when I've seperated a pair of enemies.

I finally got my copy last night, and mostly for Schild's ego, the developers did indeed somehow invoke Robot Jesus in the making of this game.  Not much more to say since he's already said it 3 or 4 times now.

Been farming these a bit today cos I need souls! Got them down pat - Wooden Catalyst, Thief's Ring, the ring that increases magical damage (but decreases magical resistance - dodge those arrows, they're magical!), Soul Light spell and club or mace (+2 mace works nicely) on weapon switch. Edge to just within lock-on range and hit them with Soul Light. If you're lucky you can get 2 Soul Light's off and that's one dead skellie. If they reach you before you get the 2nd cast off then switch to mace while side-dodging then slap 'em twice, dead skellie.

Soul Light is great for this because you can hit 2 at once if you've got a pair coming at ya.

In other news the black phantoms seem to be increasing in frequency. Every single time I've resurrected today I've had an invasion into my game in under a minute. Started camping for them now.... kill boss, rez, warp to archstone, gear up, hide..... wait... ambush invading fucker  :drill:

Oh and I killed the red dragon in 1-1 by bow sniping it and I didn't get the acheivement! Grrr!

That's because you have to kill the blue dragon in 1-4 also.

Ohhhhh I see. Thanks  :grin:

Finally "ordered" this from ncsx, now begins the long wait until they restock and ship.

PSN handle: ahoythematey

Got my wife to order a copy of it for me on ebay.  I hate ebay, and importing stuff, I'm going to be a nervous wreck until the game arrives.  I just know something is gonna fuck up with the order.

I feel the same way.  I actually setup both Ebay and PayPal accounts to get a copy.  The last couple of games I picked up based on buzz from this board were awesome so I'm hoping it's gonna be worth it.

I'm the same way with stuff from overseas, especially from the smaller, boutique-esque outlets.  I was definitely not cool-like-Fonzie when I ordered Shenmue2 on the dreamcast, and I'm going to be the same way until I have the actual game in my hands.

Does anyone know if there are any importers actually within the US who have this thing?  I don't wanna wait three weeks for it to wiggle its way overseas and through customs, but everything online that I've found is shipping out of Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Korea.

NCSX is your only option. If they get more.

Bolded part is where I start to lose it sometime next week if they don't have an update, seeing as they already accepted my money.

I wouldn't worry about it then, they're good about that stuff.

I'm not to worried about their follow-through, NCSX is pretty trustworthy IMO.  The two things on my mind: the current trend of both Nintendo and Sony trying to hide their best titles from americans somehow makes me foolishly worry about there not being another pressing/shipment of demon's souls, and I just really don't want to wait so long for the game.  The amount I've tried to read without going into spoiler territory makes it sound fuck-awesome, like the kind of game oblivion should have been.

I got it off ebay from a seller in Hong Kong.  Took 11 days total from the day I ordered it to the day it arrived.

i want this, right now

Just think, if you had ordered a few pages back, you would have it already.  :grin:

Is your nose bleeding yet?

Why? Did you punch me with your mind?

It's here. And what do you know, it really is awesome.  :drill:

Killed the first boss and got my body back. Let's see how long it lasts.

If you're at all like me, it'll last just long enough for you to go back to the nexus, get sent upstairs to talk to the monumental, and fall to your death off the staircase.

It's here! :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

I lost my second body by stepping off a ledge in 3-1 after murdering most everything in there... so mind the gap.

Been playing this now basically since is got here on Wed.  Great game.  Got it from that HK-Wan ebay guy, 11 days and 4 bucks to get from Hong Kong to Ontario.  Worth the wait.

I currently suck balls at this game but getting better.  1-1, 1-2, and 2-1 down.

It is just me or does ranged suck ass?  I think it's me.  How the hell do you aim bows and magic ranged shit at all?  You have to be locked on or no dice?

This game is fantastic and brutally hard at the same time.  This is not a statement I find myself making often.. or ever. 

Unable to down the 1-2 boss and goddamn if you die it's doing the whole thing over again.  I think I need to farm 1-1 a bit since I blew through most of my herb stash. 

Ranged is AWESOME at low levels. To aim with the bow you can press the L1 trigger, while wielding the bow with both hands. For magic you need to lock on.

1-2 becomes a bit easier to at least throw yourself at Tower Knight if you down the dragon first.  Then you're at least not jittery avoiding flamey death running across the rampart.  The downside to this is that you can't feed the knights at the end to the dragon anymore.

On ranged:  you can't zoom in with a crossbow, so if that's what you've got, I'd recommend also picking up a bow.

Just to add, once aiming you can zoom in & out with the up & down d-pad buttons. I only found that out the other day  :awesome_for_real:

 :mob:

Anyone know why I'm getting this from NCSX when trying to order this game?

(Charge error: SGS-020005: Error (Merchant config file is missing, empty or cannot be read). Please call in your order or try again.)

Both my cards work just fine everywhere else.   :headscratch:

It's arrived  :drill:

Its awesome  :drill:

Now I gotta fight the wife for the TV  :tantrum:

I ordered mine about 2 weeks ago. I was talking to a co worker of mine and mentioned that I went with the ghetto shipping method (only $2.90) and I didn't get a tracking code. He laughed at me and said "you're getting a shoe!" The next day I get an email saying it has shipped, a few days after I ordered I get an email from ebay saying that my seller is no longer on ebay and that I may not get my item.
At this point I get kinda worried but I used paypal and at least I could  get my money back with the email that I received from ebay.

But sure enough I got my game and the it was only $73 cdn with shipping. It took just under 2 weeks to arrive!

I'm really impressed with NG+. Even knowing what to expect and armed with Death Cloud and top-tier melee and bow hasn't diminished the tension as much as I thought it would. They did an excellent job in scaling.

I am terrified of NG+. I still have trouble sometimes in normal game, and my character is level 61 (my highest one). And I feel I built him pretty well. Around what Sould Level would you recommend going in to NG+?

I'd say somewhere between 90-100 is safe.

I'll agree with this in general. It depends on your build I suppose as I did little to differentiate my character until all my stats were 20+. "Jack of all trades master of none" indeed which is problematic in this game.

Ugh. So I have to farm like 35 levels of souls? Thats not cool.

I only have 1-3, 1-4 and 5-3 left.

Farm 4-3 with Stormruler.

You'll pick up a good chunk of levels just playing through those last bits so I don't think you need worry too much about grinding. It's also possible that NG+ difficulty is keyed to your soul level when you start so grinding might be counter-productive in a way. /shrug. Just make sure you get Death Cloud

My main guy was going magicless, except for Hide.

Let me know how that works out for you with the last boss.

Old King Doran or the normal final boss?

The normal final boss can be beaten with pure melee. Doran is worth cheesing with poison or death cloud.

I admire your decisiveness. If Schroedinger's Cat took the same tack we could dispense with all that namby-pamby superstate indeterminacy and unerringly know its fate. It would always be dead.

Necro, or atleast a good kick in the spleen!

So we're buying a PS3 (mostly for the BluRay), so I thought I would get this as one of probably very few games we'll buy.

This eBay-link was posted earlier;

http://cgi.ebay.com/P3-Demons-Souls-Asian-Chinese-English-Version_W0QQitemZ120414376248QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Games?hash=item1c09419138&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Is this still the guy to use, or do you think he has run out of copies and has transformed his business to just taking peoples' money?

Looks like he has them. He's only raised the cost $5. I'd say it's worth it. You really can't put a price on this game. If they guaranteed a release in America on the condition that every copy of the first run had to sell and it was $100 a piece and then a second run would be released at regular price, I'd buy two.

Worth it if it arrives, otherwise, not so. :-)

Asked to see if someone had ordered from him recently and not received the goods. I will try him then, thanks.

I ordered from him on April 3rd and it got here little less then two weeks later.  Pretty painless, but not sure if that qualifies as recent.

The confirmation mail took so long that two out of three copies got sold in the meantime. I got the last one. Whoho!

http://www.ps3hyper.com/news/demons-souls-director-i-wanted-it-to-be-easier-no-plans-for-sequel-yet/

Fascinating interview with the devs.

Man...two more days.  Damn it.

I love that they lead the article with this image.

It's here :awesome_for_real:

Thief Character by the name of Duplicity.  Erection level: rock-solid.

This is harsh, evaluate me.  Also, how do I recover souls lost from following my attacker over a cliff?

Bloodstain appears where you fell off.

Game is hard, but awesome.  I die because I fuck up on my parry timing and lose my shot at ridiculous damage.  90 minutes in and I'm addicted as hell, even though I haven't recovered all my bloodstains yet.

How the fuck can SCEA justify not bringing such a killer app out in the states?  All they would have to do is translate the manual.

That's not how it works. Only your most recent bloodstain sticks around. You die twice, you lose all those souls and a crappy bloodstain appears. Have fun!

 :ye_gods:

I've lost a lot of souls...

Yea, that happens.

This may sound a bit strange but don't worry about it.

Don't fall into the habit of trying to recover all stains, all the time.  If you are farming souls then yea, by all means recover it but when you are trying to advance through a stage or explore new areas the aggravation is not worth it in many cases.

 

I would say that depends on how many you lost for what level you are. if your fairly low level and you lose like 10,000 souls, thats a BIG hit.

I went into this with eyes open.  Game is too awesome to stop playing just because I lost a thousand-odd souls.

I easily lost a few hundred thousand souls on my first toon. There's absolutely no reason to stop playing over it.

I died yesterday with 150,000 souls on me. Then on my way back to my blood stain, I dodged off a cliff. Meh.

Anyone else having issues connecting to game server?

So my copy from NCSX finally shipped (after two weeks or so) and I expect to get it sometime next week.  I haven't read these threads on this supposedly orgasmic title.  Excuse me if this has been asked and answered before, but DLC?  This game seems well suited for it.  Would there be any barriers for importers to acquire it?

No DLC yet.

And no, it would be trivial to acquire. When/If the time comes, I'll make a post about it.

Arrived today. Exactly one weeksix days or five days discounting the time for the slip to arrive at my door. Not bad to be from Hong Kong!

Edit: I fail at math :-P

I ordered from NCSX today.  If you fuckers have led me wrong about this game being awesome, I swear that I will become the best player EVER just so I can PK you all.

For me, its probably in my top 3 console games of all time. Possibly number 1. I need some space between me and the game before I can decide that. But I cant give it space cause I'm still having so much fun with it.

I'm not too far in and the game already gives me those diablo2 vibes, the ones that take over my free time like mind-control tentacles.

If anything feels awry once you play, trust me when I say that it's all you.

Definitely and easily one of the best console games ever. And I say "one of the best" just to be cautious. It's not like right now I can remember anything that could compete.

The game doesn't give Diablo 2 vibes to me, but I unloaded a ludicrous amount of time into Diablo 2 so it's not a fair comparison. It's still an awesome game, but you can't ever feel bad about dying, and you should expect to die a lot.

I meant the level of addiction I'm seeing with this game is something I haven't really experienced since diablo2.

I've been enjoying it, but starting the entire level over when you die is pretty damn annoying, especially for the end of level boss fight. They have those fog barriers that are just perfectly placed as checkpoints, why not use them? Flamelurker kicked my ass so many times and all the running back to him from the level start had me seeing red. Didn't feel bad at all exploiting the geometry to kill him.

I suck at killing crystal geckos, any tips?

First, most levels have gates or elevators you can activate to drastically cut the run back to a boss. They are mini check points in a way.

As to the geckos, if you get to right about their aggro range, then spam roll, you can usually get at least half way to them before they start moving. From there sprint and use a weapon that has a down swing. Failing that, get a bow, then they are simple.

Excellent, I'll keep an eye out.  Looking forward to the game more than ever now.

There's also a huge shortcut right from the beginning to Flamelurker, once you learn the jumps, if you head right instead of left at the very first crossroad.  You can get to him within a few minutes with minimal fighting.

I just wanted to say that Flamelurker is pretty fucking nasty on NG+. Sheesh.

The Korean versions (which are also supposed to be in English) have been knocked down to 29.90 each (plus you can save 2 more dollars by buying them both together).

Hakuna Matata (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-77-3-49-en-70-3d7h.html)
Aquanaut's Holiday (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bp-49-en-70-3d7j.html)

My copy's apparently shipping tomorrow, so the fateful day approaches.

Well, I bought your little game, and then some big asshole with an axe one-shotted me.  For which I blame Schild.

My only complaints thus far is that fighting with a rapier sucks harshly without using the lock-on, with wonder-dude viciously attacking the space six inches away from his opponent, and that working out what the hell is going on when the tutorial dumps you in the Nexus is a bit unintuitive.  Aside from that, everything's doing okay thus far.  Yay magic killy arrow, boo having to unequip my sword to use it.

So how long does ordering from NCSX to Europe usually take?

NCSX appears to get a batch roughly every two weeks.  Their warehouse seems to be in New York, so Europe would require transcontinental shipping and however long that takes.

Use this guy:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/hk-wan_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

He shipped to Sweden in like five days.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to Ebay. I guess I just have to get over myself and do it.

The guy has a shitload of feedback and most of the people in this thread used him. It's fine.

Just check the feedback.  I used dave123, for example, and he was great.  The benefit is that the package ships directly from HK instead of going to NY then HRE.

So with the press release saying it'll be released in the US, should I wait until then or should I inport it? What would be the difference between the two games?

Just buy it.  Trust me, you won't want to wait.  It is too good.

Sorta true, I'm buying it again when it comes to America just to play with Americans. I bet they don't bow when you join multiplayer. Or maybe the old guard can bring that habit over. I guarantee the PvP will be better in the American release. Highly doubtful the multiplayer will be though.

If you like having a manual that you can read, buy the NA version.

No manual or strategy guide will prepare you for Boletaria. Hell, they won't even really prepare you for the tutorial boss. I'd recommend not reading anything, but that's just me. If any game ever deserves a double-dip, it's this one.

Oh, right, I did not mean to imply that the manual was helpful in any way.  That's what the wiki is for, and even then it won't help you suck less.

Sounds like a straight-up release of the same version that I already have.  Any notes on changes in the NA release?

Considering it's a Fall release, I would ASSUME we'll get AT LEAST one if not two patches (probably on the asian version so they can test them) and at best, we'll get a 6th archstone. God. Sixth archstone. Want.

So when I buy this, is my daughter going to learn how to curse and fling controllers?

I hope so.

I know so.

Cursing and flinging controllers is a vital stage in gamer development.  Any gamer who misses that most important step grows up into a pussy who thinks that Halo is hardcore gaming.

No, you bottle up that shit.  No one is throwing my DualShock 3 at my $3000 TV.

I don't know of anyone who ever broke a tv by throwing a controller. Lamp? Sure. A controller? Obviously. But who throws it at the screen? Even 5 year olds don't do that.

I fly off the sofa when someone gets close enough to the screen to put their finger on it.

I don't even know why you're talking about the screen.

I'm getting angry just thinking about it.

Shit be hard, especially when you've never owned a console before. I think it's the second game I play seriously with a gamepad. But I got Phalanx on my third attempt, yay.

Edit:
Oh, and I'm not even close to throwing the controller yet. A couple of "cunt" as most. I guess I had that stage with QuakeWorld.