f13.net

Game is coming out in four days, and NGI gets one of the first reviews (http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1197544p1.html) out. Of course, it's positive and gets a global score of 9.0.


Here's the video review too (http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/09/30/dark-souls-video-review).


It's hard to overstate my frothing anticipation. That's why I started this thread, to steam off tension while hoping I didn't miss a previous one that the search tool didn't bring up.

Also lovely, the 5 reasons why Dark Souls will eat Skyrim's face (http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1196353p1.html?_cmpid=gspy53).  :drillf:

Unless I am totally crazy it comes out tomorrow in the USA.

I cannot wait to play this. I am so excited. I bet it will even bring Schild back out for a bit to yell at anyone who doesn't like it.

That Top Five Reasons article is horribly written horseshit.

So, what are people getting this on?  I'm guessing the PS3 and 360 user bases won't be able to co-mingle.

I'm probably getting on the PS3 if I get it at all.  I know it'll be an amazing game, I'm just unsure if I'll have time to play it properly.  If it's like Demon's Souls, you have to put some time in to get better.  You just can't sleepwalk your way through it with "dad-reflexes". 

Yeah, it's illiterate fanboi crap, and still has a point! (or five)

If I get it, 360, but I should not be counted on to provide any kind of useful multiplayer input or whatever.

PS3. I wonder if I will be confined to play with Europeans or it will be more global.

Getting it on PS3.

Initial reports state that it was one of the few games that will look mildly better on PS3 than Xbox, supposedly because the team has more Playstation experience. 

Reviews coming in from the major rags from 80-100, they seem to be weighted in the 90s. 

Anyone choosing Rage over this needs their head examined.  Fucking Amazon hasn't emailed me the shipping info yet... I'm about to tear someone up over there if I don't get this tomorrow. 

Getting the collectors edition for PS3.

Self-b-day gift decided.

I am in the same boat. I will fucking make all their customer service people cry if this doesn't show up.

Mine is "shipping soon" with a delivery estimate of Oct 4.

I'll be picking mine up on the way home from work tomorrow.

Nothing from them on this either, but the last thing I ordered with release day shipping showed up on release day with no warning, so I expect my PS3 collector's edition will arrive on time.

I'm not one for superstition really, but every single game I have ever bought a collectors edition for has completely sucked in some way, so I took the hit for you guys and didnt go collectors for Dark Souls.

Wasn't the collector's edition a free upgrade for all pre-orders/release copies? In other words, I don't know that there is a way to play this on day 1 unless you bought the CE.

Yeah, the CE was only for preorders and didn't cost anything extra.  I was hoping for hard-copy stuff, but looks like US gets mostly digital. 

Supposedly, this is how it works:

from http://preparetodie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1200&sid=397e838fcab85f606b63280797b90166

Also, they announced that there will be NO DLC for this game.  I like it.

Picture they show?
(http://www.preparetodie.com/images/preorder_collectors_spread.png)

Fuck them in the face. Right in the fucking face. Atlus did it right. So, so right. Double Jump make guide, put guide in box, players rejoice. Assbags make guide, make it a PDF, put 12-18 characters on a shit piece of paper in the box.

Sigh.

Sorry to be the bearer of that news, man.  I had hoped for the goodies as well, but ended up telling myself that the game is what matters, hopefully that will help dry my tears on my pillow. 

Anyways, their whole marketing deal with www.preparetodie.com was a fiasco.  Doing certain 'things' on that site got a person points and tokens, yet none of it was explained.  At one point I was ranked #5 on their leaderboards... and I have no idea what I did to get there.  At one point it was said that participation in the site was supposed to grant some early souls or something, but it was never explained. 

On a positive note, I got my Amazon email that I'm supposed to have it by end of day tomorrow.  At least I'll get about two full days to play before I have to pack everything up for the move out to Seattle.  Truck arrives on Friday, they'll be pulling the controller out of my hands when they get here.

^^^^

How do you guys think the game will perform on a relatively weak net connection?  Say 1.5meg at best.

I pussied out on Demons Souls but I want this game bad anywqy...

Not too late to fix that, hoss.  Still one of the best games in recent memory.

PS3 version all the way for me, as I've no doubt you need a gold membership with xbox live to do it on the 360 (and I refuse to pay that shit).  Was hoping EU release date was today, but it probably isn't.

This is a sequel to Demon Souls, I'm guessing? *too lazy for Google  :why_so_serious: *

I liked that game... Yet, oddly, I think the story sucked though. It was barely an RPG in my eyes. It felt more like a technology demo.. albeit a good one. That's the only improvement I'd ask for. The whole game world needed life (not the atmosphere, mind you.. that was fine).

Yeah, it's the follow up.  Not really a sequel, as I understand it...I think the worlds and stories (such as they are) have little or nothing to do with each other.

I didn't mind the lack of story in the original.  What was there was compelling, and I thought the vagueness and mysteriousness made it more interesting overall.  I take your point, though...it wouldn't be for everyone, and anyone looking for a traditional RPG is in for a shock.

Well, it's not exactly "not for me" either. It's fun enough. I'm just not into games strictly for gameplay. I don't want to just run around on a platform and fuck around with random set pieces and mechanics. All of that is more fun when there's a bigger story to tell.

"Souls of the lost withdrawn from its vessel. Let strength be granted so the world might be mended."

That's about all I got as far as story goes.  :awesome_for_real:

That said, it had better combat than just about any RPG around. That's what really annoys me. That they can accomplish something rare like that, and invest little time in the rest. In my eyes at least. Maybe they did invest time in it and thought it was brilliant.

DS oozed story; it just didn't make you sit through dialogue to get it.  For that, you have Dragon Age.  The lack of thick, complex story was an added bonus to me. 

I still feel that DS was more akin to Mega Man than any other game I've played in the last 10 years.  Both games were brutal.  Fair, but brutal.

Status:  On a truck for delivery.  Which will arrive five minutes before my class tonight... of course. 

Not yet shipped.

Bleh, EU release is on Friday.  Friday!  Not like I was going to have time to play it before then, but STILL.

I don't even need Bioware like dialogue.. that can be tedious, I know. You can present a story "in motion" though, so to speak.. escapsulate important plot points with dialogue in the midst of gameplay (like so many action games do.. for example, God of War). That's not RPG-like either, but I'd take it.

This otoh was too understated to say it "oozed" anything (except good gameplay). Not only are you a stereotypical mute hero come to save yet-another-realm from the big-bad-whatever-the-fuck, but it encourages things that make no sense narratively speaking (like repeating game levels). It's all built around gameplay and grinding. And it's fun for what it is. But what it's not is something that oozes story. You're imagining things (perhaps I should envy you though. A good imagination is not a bad thing).

I've said it before, I prefer to ignore the man behind the curtain.  Maybe you're right.  I still contend that the atmosphere of DS contributed to the story.  Regardless, awesome game. 

/fingerscrossed Hmm.  I hope it will be like someone said above; it will simply arrive without notice.  I noticed that three days ago it was removed from my "orders listed by date", but yet I could still see it under "open orders", which makes no sense.  I think the release-day delivery does janky stuff with their system.

Wait, I thought the repetition of game levels was the equivalent of multiple threads of reality. And the white shadows you see running around are the realities co-mingling, as if they're all stacked on the same plane.

The story from the original is told through atmosphere and objects rather than being force-fed to the player. It's all pretty straight-forward, but 80% of it had already taken place when the game starts. You're just the hero/villain who gets introduced in the third act. Dense stuff like KotOR and Dragon Age give you heaps of information interrupted by brief lapses in combat. I can never get through those games because they make fantastic worlds feel mundane.

Well, this version is near completely non-linear and the grind is actually counterproductive, so get used to non-forcefeeding fun... errr, frustration.

Gonna go with - you haven't played it enough to form any opinion. Shut your whore mouth and give it another 10 hours.

I was actually saying what I said as a compliment to the design, not a beef.  
And I actually havent even picked it up yet, but have been contemplating doing-so before the afterschool rush.

Oddly, I havent been this afraid (cant really afford a life-sucking demons souls game right now) yet simultaneously excited to pick up a game in a long time.  I might not even get it, even though I know it kicks ass.   :oh_i_see:

This. I still remember the feeling I got after the ending where I did not leave the Old One in peace.  I wouldn't have cared if not for the story (lore?).  Same with each archstone, like the journey of the dead in world 4 or salvation in world 5 or prisons both literally and metaphorically in world 3 GAH SO GOOD WHERE IS MY COPY AMAZONAFD;AFSIAG

Delivered to work moments ago.  :drillf: This will be the longest end to my work day since I've taken this job on.

If I were a collector soft of person, I'd be pretty miffed about this edition.  They used some super-sticky glue on the plastic, so I have it all over my hands and the tin.  My tin has scratches and dents all over it, and yes, the art book is about the cheapest thing I've seen. 

I don't understand how they can go through the hassle of making a plastic credit/gift card to put the code for the downloadable soundtrack, strategy guide and videos, when they could have just put it all on a DVD.  It would have cost about the same. 

The game itself is a sealed copy of the standard retail version, so that's okay in my book.  But overall it is a pretty disappointing CE.  As predicted, it arrived with no time to play it before lecture, so I get to stare at it for the next four hours...

That just rubbed me more as gameplay dictacting story. Not the other way around. Who the hell would write that as a basis in a narrative?

Eh. I'm starting to sound like a hater. That isn't really it. Have fun  :grin:

I've been trying to download the extra items.  I got the map and mini-strat guide, but the videos and soundtrack time out on the download.  I'm guessing their servers are hammered.  The only problem is... that once registered, I have 24 hours to download everything. 

Not a huge deal to lose the videos and soundtrack, but giving 24 hours seems silly.  I suspect this stuff will be warez in no time. 

The mini-strat guide looks almost like a true users manual.  I've only glanced through it because I don't want to spoil, but it details classes, enemies, weapons and starter zones in 46 pages.

Time to finally take a break and eat.
Lovin the bonfire mechanic btw and the game just feels overall better, even though it's obviously tougher.

So basically, torrents it is.

I appreciated From Software's approach to dealing with pre-launch players in Japan: if you are playing before the game officially launches, there is a chance the developers will log into your game and feed you your own sword with a maxed out character (http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/dark_souls/news/pre-release_dark_souls_players_will_be_killed_by_ghosts.html).

Dark Souls - you play it OUR way.

How bad is the death penalty in this game?

Sounds like it's about the same as DS -- you drop your souls (spendable for advancement) on the ground, and if you die again before you get back there and pick them up you lose them.

It's not as bad at the 1st game since you've got bonfires everywhere and your pots reset.  Since the game is non-linear, you can always run to the nearest fire and heal up... but you'll have to fight all the mobs again.


The openness really is quite awesome, but it creates a bit of analysis paralysis at times.  Anyone know if there's a way to choose which fire you res. at?
Also, what is the point of being human besides grief-runs and coop??  My stats seem to stay the same.

"Sorry, this redemption code has expired."

Got the mini-guide and map.  The video part1 and 2, and the soundtrack did not entirely download and the zip files are corrupt.

It is like Demon's Souls++.

Love all the little tweaks to the game systems.  The attack-while-falling and such are nice additions.

Also, wow am I going to die a lot, but I'm having fun doing it.

This should be right up my alley, but....

I have 4 kids, one of whom is a 4 month old baby.  I work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week.  My gaming hours are limited to a one hour session at o'dark thirty in the morning when everyone is sleeping and a little bit here and there on sundays with frequent pausing.

So basically, you either let me slide through your game without trying to sodomize me or you don't get my money.

Well, one hour might be tight in some cases, but in general there's no reason you couldn't play it a small chunk at a time.  You might not be able to retry particular sequences or battles immediately after getting horribly and painfully killed, but you could always try again the next day. ^^

Some reviewers (ie. one Finnish dude) are saying that the grind is much worse here than in Demon's Souls, perhaps to an annoying extent. Anyone played long enough to comment?

Not that it concerns me, I'm still trying to gather the courage to continue my playthrough of the first game. Damn fire lizards and the stupid fire boss.

My copy arrives tonight. Amazon one day delay.

Here are the non-spoilerish things I learned that have helped already:

Item descriptions aren't well translated; that "Regen Ring" you can start with is actually +HP not regen.
The game makes it VERY clear when "You aren't strong enough yet". There are gateway monsters at entrances. If you're getting stomped, take another path.
The Drake Sword is very strong but very expensive to repair. Save it for emergencies. 2 handed + heavy attack wrecks both monsters and durability. To get it see below.
Range is very helpful, winged spear / halberd are very good weapons you get early.
The game instructs you to jump on the tutorial boss's back. You can beat him without, but practice their way because you'll need it for a later boss.
Shield, armor is a lot stronger and more important than the first game; If you want to buy armor buy gauntlets first because they are a lot more rare to find lying around.
Don't start as deprived unless you hate yourself or were really good at demon's souls. It's a brutal start.
Don't start as pyro, because firebomb spell is very weak. If you do, Pyro doesn't scale with int, so don't put points in it. It's good for a warrior hybrid.
Don't start as thief unless you like getting stunlocked to death. Also, because if you miss one parry you lose 90% health. Remember, armor is important.
Don't believe signs that tell you to kill people just standing there. People are assholes and you'll kill critical NPCs. You should know this from Demon's Souls already.

Also, If you've been cursed, don't delete your character, you need to

To get the drake sword:

Started as a Wanderer same as in Demon's Souls. So far I am loving this. I only had time to get past the tutorial stage, but I am super happy so far.

I dont think I can be a sorcerer anymore.  :dead_horse:
Also, can it be true that this game requires some actual note-taking?  It's starting to feel that way.  (unless you have the guide)  Open, branching world with no ingame map.  Nice.

Grind?  It's not grindy if you dont keep at the same goal over and over.  If you can't beat an area, go somewhere else.  I guarantee you there's some place you havent been.

Anyone know if that first NPC after the asylum is important?  (he didnt really seem to to anything but talk) 'Cause I killed him.

Actually ended up tossing out the metal tin because it was low quality and had that glue residue all over it :-\. On the one hand, I didn't pay extra for it and it came with the game in normal shrink wrap inside. On the other hand, pretty shitty CE compared to Demon's Souls. Guess this is what you get when you switch from Atlus to Namco-Bandai as publisher.

Undead Berg Drake hint (not sword):

Other newb hints:

Yeah, fuck. I saw the limited spellcasts and died a little. Sorcerer is kind of a hard start until you pick up a 100% phys shield and a spear of some kind.

Also:

I need to shave and eat.
Also, there are rumors that this thing is bigger than Skyrim.  Srsly?

Of course it is. Bethsoft was too busy perfecting the human form.

Anyone figure out an easy way to get an Uchigatana? That was my weapon of choice in Demons Souls.

I dumped a few points into STR after starting as a Sorcerer. It was worth it to be able to throw on that heater you can buy from the vendor along with the spear.

I'm kind of trying to follow a similar route to what I did in Demon's Souls (str to wear gear, focus dex/int for damage stats), but we'll see how much harder that is with the new limited spellcast system.

Ps3 just showed up today so I ran out and bought dark souls, but I've already got a problem, maybe.

The ps3 menu etc displays in 1080p, but when I go into the game my resolution changes to 720p.  I did the system update, game update, and am on a Mitsubishi 73" dlp connected via hdmi.  Wtf, working as intended or is something fucked?

Working as intended when the game is natively rendered in sort-of-high-definition.

Anybody know what came from the 24 or 25 digit code that was emailed after the preparetodie glyph puzzle was solved?

You'll find that happens for almost all PS3 games. The vast majority of them are 720p only. Outside of graphically-simple PSN games the only one I can think of that I have that actually renders in 1080p is Metal Gear Solid 4.

Quick question about Dark Souls: is it possible to do co-op with a specific person or is it like Demons Souls and random?

What resolution does it list on the back of the Blu-ray case?

Apparently Amazon was unable to ship me a collector's edition so they gave me a code for $20.  I never ordered the collector's edition, were they having some sort of free upgrade?

Yea the CE was a free upgrade for preordering.

Well, shit, I would rather have had the $20.

In other news, the controls on the 360 version are "wonky".  Nevermind the bumper buttons are ass anyway, I have recently found that sometimes a RB press does nothing until I press LB, which is exactly the wrong fucking time to swing your sword.  This could be happening only when I quickly release LB and press RB, so the fix for me is to keep LB pressed while attacking.  I'd love to know if this is present on PS3.  I'm half ready to buy it on PS3 anyway after getting some framerate drop-n-chop around the lake under Fireside(?) Shrine.

I'm not reading spoilers in this thread but I'll post them.  Am I blowing your mind yet?

Turns out the collector's edition was a piece of shit, but Amazon did in fact get me mine. No one should've been allowed to publish this except Atlus.

Anyway, somehow they made a better game than Demon's Souls. I am now firmly convinced that From Software has, apparently, the brightest, most clever game designers on the planet. The whole achievement is just staggering.

I can confirm this is present on the PS3 version. I thought it was my controller dying or just general funkyness. Its happened about 5 or 6 times.

Well, as far as the other things there -

Also, if you're interested in picking up some miracles early on -

Here's a huge spoilerific post that I pulled off of SA (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=396243130), that has a lot of good info in it. Strategy-guide-esque.

Firewatcher Souls

DO NOT CONSUME THESE!!

Cursed?

Some good early items/npc's

Fire Res Shield:

Magic Res shield:

Strength Sword:

Dex Spear:

Faith Sword:

First Pyromancer Trainer:

First Sorcerer Trainer:

First Blacksmith:


Area Specific Tips

The "areas" are given mnemonics to not give away the name of the location, though they should be obvious for anyone who has entered that area (UA = Undead Asylum).

Area UA:

Area FS:

Area UB:

Area UP:

At this point, you really have two routes-

Area LUB:

Area DG:

From here, you have a few routes, though this is what I have been following and I recommend-


Area TD:

Area BT:

Area QD:

After that area, it should hopefully be obvious where to go next. Also, depending on the NPC’s you encountered, a certain NPC may be missing from Firelink Shrine, don’t worry, this isn’t permanent.

Area SF:

Area AL:

I don't have this issue on 360. I really dislike the controller layout (left trigger to parry and bumper to block? seriously?), but it's not broken in the way you're describing it. Try another controller if you have one.

The 100% most annoying thing is the fact that you can't hit select to recommend a message anymore. You have to actually select an item. Thus, no one does it and there are constantly vanishing 0 rated messages everywhere. It's really dumb. I have no idea why they changed it.

I totally agree with this. It is one of the few changes I feel make the game not as amazing.

Need help.

In Undead Perish.

Pressing select to write/rate messages was great but I don't mind setting the orange soapstone as one of my quick inventory items for messages.  What bothers me is I would have missed the merchant selling the soapstone if it weren't for a message telling me I was standing on a sniper spot, after which I realized I missed an area and in that area another message tipped me off there was a secret route which led me to this merchant.

Also, holding down X and jiggling the controller around opens motion controls for gestures.  I think this was in Demon's Souls too but I completely forgot about it.

It's firmly game of year, by far.
And it's actually one of the few games I've played that have compelled me to perhaps do some writing, using the game as the engine.  In that aspect alone, it's a beautiful storytelling mechanism.

Has there been any book, tv, or movie talks??

This game.... is brutally good.

Goddamn.  I'm now very good at getting from the first bonfire in the Undead Burg to the top of the tower, whereupon the  destroys me (got him down to 1/4 health once out of 4-5 attempts so far).  Taking a break, but I'll get him eventually!  This last time I got sloppy and was killed taking out the guards on top beforehand.

One huge thing you guys may not know is that you should kindle your bonfires. If you kindle them (it costs one humanity) you get double (10) estus flasks from them when you rest there from that point forward. This helped me so much that I can't even describe it.

Also from that point, Quinton, you can actually just run across the bridge, through the room, rest right before the stairs while you run up it, run through the door and off the ledge to avoid all those annoying firebomb skeletons. You'll only have to fight the 2 sword and shield and the one spear and shield skeleton to continue. Like in Demon's Souls, if you experiment a bit you can find the path where you can just run through all the creatures - they won't necessarily follow you.

That part I'm good at!  Getting back up there to repeat it without being squished, not so much...

I've died at least 10 times in the area Quinton is stuck at. My attempts to sprint through the area backfire in a number of entertaining ways and a good number of my deaths were trying to make the jump off the bridge the firebomb guys bombard.  If anyone doesn't know, jumping is done by holding O and then pressing O again.  Although in this instance I ended up making the jump by rolling.

About kindling, I think if someone else kindled a bonfire in their game and you are on the same server and standing near the same bonfire then you get a bonus flask.  I had 10 flasks and have never turned human or kindled a fire.  I also just saw a guy sitting at a bonfire in my game and figured he kindled his.

Edit:  The sprinting worked!!  I see enemies trying to continue the chase through the fog, ha ha!  The few times I stumbled upon an enemy too vicious for me I get chased across the map.  I can't shake them as easily as in Demon's Souls.

So I assume PS3 is the choice platform for this? Or does it perform equally well on 360 and not really matter?

I managed to beat the Taurus Demon

Morfiend has this on PS3, he said, and I'm using the controller that came with my Elite.  The others all suck in comparison.  It's better now but occasionally I miss a swing, probably due to the bumpers being ass.

I think I'm going to have to actually play this on PS3 myself to find out if performance/visuals are better.  Would like to know if there is a performance hit when looking around the underground lake when you enter it, which might answer my question.

In frustration I started a new guy. I manged to get past the stupid gate on my new guy, and then I realized there was a ladder I could have taken. It was hidded in shadows. So now I have a dex based guy and a str based guy. That drake sword is so good its not even funny. My Dex guy is having a hell of a time killing the gargoyles, but with the drake sword I did it second try, wasnt even a real challenge.

Does any one have any tips for my Dex guy, he seems to be struggling pretty hard.

Can you not use poisons/dot weapons with your dex guy?  Stick and move with light armor.
Go visit that

Wont that screw me? So far he is the only way I have found to get arrows.

You said you wanted easy, you didn't say anything about consequences!  Yes, you will be arrowless for a while.  I'm sure it's available elsewhere but not as early as this.  Better stock up. 

I didn't play the previous one.

This shit is hard. I kind of like it though. I have one character I have to delete because I tried killing the first NPC at the starting area. That was a bad idea. Doing a warrior now.

I had no idea what I was doing for a while--I couldn't even figure out how to trade in souls at bonfires for a level. Now I get it--I'm up in Undead Burg somewhere. I keep getting killed by this tall knight or by some demon thing beyond a white door in a tower. I think I need to go get some better shit at the merchant by the spear knights.

I cannot figure out how to use firebombs, though. I keep thinking I've equipped them but it doesn't seem to ever let me switch them in.

I tried a Pyromancer also but it doesn't seem like you actually get magic early on, so that's kind of tough. Ranged does seem like it would help in parts of Undead Burg, at any rate.

You're pretty damned well required to have SOME kind of ranged attack, if not at the least enough dex for bow/arrow.  Kiting is integral moreso in this version.  Bow/arrow is the only weapon that gives u near unlimited range in an fps view.

This game is a lot more confusing than the last. In a good way. Just placed an order for the strategy guide at Amazon. Damn thing better have decent maps.

For firebombs, like most consumables, you use the dpad-down to cycle through them and the square button to use them.  Probably easiest to lock on to the enemy you want to throw them at.  The thing with target lock is it limits your movement a bit so you may need to lock, attack, unlock, move around, repeat at times.

Both Pyromancer and Sorcerer start with just a single spell that you can start using partway through the tutorial once you pick up the item that allows you to cast spells (catalyst for sorcerer, for example).  To cast magic you need to wield the item and have the spell selected (cycle through spells with dpad-up) and hit R1 (or L1 if you have the casting item in your left hand instead of right).

The tall black knight you should skip for now and come back later. The demon thing is the first boss. You will need to beat him to move on.

First game in about 15 years I have considered buying the strat guide. But its sold out on amazon.  :awesome_for_real:

I was thinking the same thing. Sometimes there's a choice to go left or right, with left being a bonfire around a bend (or down some stairs), and I always seem to choose right until I die a few times and think, What the heck, I'll go left this time. <trot, trot> Oh, nice. A bonfire!

I haven't advanced far in the game, but this happened to me on the Red Dragon Bridge between the Undead Burg and the Undead Parish.

I got a light crossbow. I bought bolts. When I shoot it, the bolts sort of dribble down in front of my feet and laugh at me.

I'm a real expert now in clearing to the Taurus Demon without losing any health. Lot of fucking good it does me at level 16, I still get disemboweled by that thing. I tried going back down to the starting area and went down into some skeletons who utterly annihilated me several times.

Trying to decide if this is fun. Sort of on the fence. I don't mind having to play carefully but I would really like the effort of leveling up to yield me some kind of perceptible advantage. At level 16, clearing through to the Taurus Demon doesn't feel appreciably easier in terms of abilities than it was at level 8, just in terms of twitch/game-mechanical knowledge.

Twitch is twitch: if that's what I'm playing, ok. RPG is RPG: time makes me stronger. An RPG that doesn't really make me stronger for time and a twitch that isn't all that twitchy might be not a great mix. But I'm willing to learn.

Also I really hate a game that lets me jump down to a ledge only to find that it's a suicide ledge and nothing more. Especially if I can only jump because of a feature of the game's terrain.

I really like the exploration and I'm not ready for a strat guide.  I really like finding things on my own.  I also don't mind jumping down to some ledge and getting stuck or dying; it's pussy exploring if there is no danger in it, like if all of the enemies were pushovers.  The environment is not a pushover either, and requires careful consideration just like the enemies.

Leveling, well it helps me do things like equip a shiny weapon I found.  That's really the big jump for me so far, not adding a couple points to Dex (although that does help).  It's interesting in this RPG though, because souls are used to level as well as purchase things.  So a few runs around UB is what I'm looking at to buy more firebombs and bolts for use on that fuzzy guy... at least that's my plan, and that counts as a "level up".  If the plan doesn't work... well that's really one of my favorite things about this game.  I might discover some weakness or think of a new plan.

I finally got summoned into a game!  And then I discovered I can't heal myself.   :oh_i_see:  Still fun to see the host's approach, which was to charge all the knights in the area we were in whereas I cleared the area in my game pulling them one by one.  We killed 3 of them, but there is a 4th the host doesn't see.  I engage, he runs off, I die.  I'm also fat rolling which isn't helping things.

Oh, about crossbows, you have to target lock on first then fire.

I haven't found any weapons, and the only merchant in Undead Burg that I know of doesn't sell anything better than my longsword. So being levelled enough to use something I've never seen isn't making me feel all hot inside. Yes, I've humanized up to improve my drops.

I wouldn't mind dying from jumping if I got to make the affirmative decision to jump in a game with a real physics engine. E.g., I had the ability to clear low obstacles, could look down and make a decision that maybe there was something worth trying to get to. When it's all about "is there a break in the wall or some barrels I can break?" having the answer be, "Roll the dice, who the fuck knows?" is kind of like a really sophisticated version of Dragon's Lair as far as jumping down or finding places goes. Would help if one of the hints you could give was "Don't jump" and it was easier to rate a hint +1, as opposed to "don't trust hint".

This game is very mean (yet not flat out unfair) and I want to like it but I don't know if I have the patience.

I killed him at level 10 (Sorcerer), after trying the following suggestion from above:

I'm having fun.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this table, but it seems drop rate increases are capped after you reach 30 humanity.  The big jump is walking around with 1 humanity.  I don't think you actually have to be human, just have the humanity count by your health be greater than zero and it's like luck from Demon's Souls in increasing drops.

Use the sorcery vendor to enchant and the bsmith to upgrade, if you've got the titanite and souls.

I forgot about this tactic being shown in the original trailer! Next run-through, I will do that for sure.

I'm trying hard not to cave and use the wiki or a strategy guide. I want to beat the game once before I do that, although I did look up info on how the Humanity system works. I purchased the basic edition and it doesn't even tell you what Humanity is used for, other than being part of the meter at the top left. hurhurhur I guess I could have figured it out eventually...

I cannot figure out how to get to the Sorcery vendor, who is rumored to be in the lower Undead Burg.  The one path down leads to a Black Knight who slaughters me.  One wiki mentioned that the Residence Key opens a way, but I have not found that way.  Help.  I suspect I'm going to feel *really* dumb about missing something obvious here, but I'm stumped and I want some more magic. ^^

EDIT: Took out the Black Knight (in a really cowardly, cheesy way!) but he was only guarding a ring.  Grr!

EDIT2: Ohhh, I think I can't get down there yet, until I beat another boss.  Sneaky.

You don't actually have to beat a boss to get the key necessary to unlock the lower area.  The key is in the area before the boss.  Also make sure you bought the residence key from the undead merchant.  And bring flasks.  And shields.  And rocket launchers.

I can't believe you beat that knight.  I made the jump across the gap to get the ring he was guarding and then I deflected his sword with my face.  I'm skipping those guys for now.

I beat that knight with the drake sword, he was pretty easy once I had that.

Quinton,

I ran into this issue a couple times tonight. So, no, not your controller. Luckily it seems pretty rare.

Came at the Knight from the other direction (in other words, didn't jump the gap).  Ran a short distance back to the ladder, got on the rooftops, and eventually found a good vantage point to pelt him with arrows and firebombs.  Worked pretty well, with no risk.

I used the same technique Velorath did.  Plinked at him with Soul Arrows until I ran out, then two firebombs.  Damn he was tough.  He sliced me to ribbons in moments when I tried to take him in a straight fight.

Beat the armored bull critter in the start of the Undead Parish, got a ways in and then skewered by some undead knights.  I'm feeling really really squishy as a caster type and wish I had more magic. ^^

I got lucky against the bull (or is it a boar) somewhat.  Didn't really have enough arrows to try to take him from up top (was only doing 1 damage per arrow after I got his attention with the first shot).  Went back down the stairs and he charged at me but was stopped by the pillars near the foot of the stairs.  While moving around and trying to keep the pillars in between us, it ended up moving into one of the fires nearby and quickly burned to death.

Oh, thinko on my part, definitely more of a boar, what with the tusks and all.

This guy, he caused me trouble mostly because I can't dodge/block 100% of the time and a slip-up costs me a massive amount of health.  And that lightning-damage item really didn't add much.  He's off my list for now because he seems tougher (for me) than the boss on the ramparts.  At least when I slashed the boss, I took off a noticeable amount of his bar.

Update!

Be careful about pumping end too much as it isnt a damage scaling skill. It doesnt matter right now, cause you are using the drake sword (which doesnt scale from anything), but once you start out growing that, you wont have a high stat to get damage bonus from.

My playtime is currently at 24 hours. Good gravy.

THUS FAR:

Progress Report!

Located the second bonfire in the Undead Parish.  Found the basement key.  Hiked back past the dragon and down to the lower Undead Burg.  Fought crazy dog-things.  Freed the Sorcerer Trainer Guy.  Died on my way back to the Shrine.  Not a bad run.  Those knights further into the Undead Parish are mean.

I'm loving this game, but so far I disagree that it's a better game than Demon's Souls.  I feel like the AI isn't as good, the Boss fights don't feel as epic, the game feels easier when they said it was going to be even harder than Demon's Souls, and so far the level design isn't as good.  No area so far has had an atmosphere to compare with the Tower Of Latria (the Mind Flayer level in Demon's Souls).  Also, with all the save points and shortcuts, I've never really felt like I've been in danger of losing a bunch of Souls which removes a bit of the tension from the game.  Obviously this could all change as I get further into the game, but these are things I think Demon's Souls did well from the start.


Since everyone else is giving progress reports:

Holy smokes the sewers are intense. Defeating black phantoms is highly lucrative though. :why_so_serious: 6k souls for a kill.

Velorath what key do I need to access the door to get to Havel, and where do I find it?

From darkroot garden, I believe it's the key you get from killing the butterfly. You find it up the hill, across the way, just beside the tree grove that leads to the hydra. (up the path from the bonfire in the cave) He's basically inside a shortcut tower back up to the lower burg.

You can also get in there earlier if your character starts with the Master Key.

I found something in the sewers that freaked me out pretty good.


A few changes from Demon's Souls I don't like: re-targeting got wonky, frame rate drops until quitting and reloading got much more frequent, and rating a message with a negative just adds to its total number of ratings.

I hope more people catch on that the host is in charge of healing everyone in multiplayer.

I don't remember backstab being nearly this powerful in Demons Souls.

Started as a Thief so of course he has a dagger.  Stuck with it because I figured I'd have to reroll after messing up a bunch but it seems crazy good.  You're rarely left open, it works in tight spaces, and backstabs will one-shot tonnes of shit.  After I hit the blacksmith and made it +3 it one shots those red-cape knights.  It feels pretty awesome as just about everything that you can backstab falls easy.  Even smoked some of those big black armoured dudes and that tubby guy with the massive club and shield at the bottom of the tower before the rampart boss.  There was even some shady NPC with shield-ignoring weapons that I pissed off who fat-rolls.  Hilariously easy to backstab into oblivion.

Starting to run into more problems that can't be solved with a few backstabs though so I'm on the lookout for a Dex scaling spear or longbow.  Winged Spear seem good enough to farm up to +5?  I'm short like 3 STR to use it and would rather keep pumping Dex/End.

I am attempting to make a Dex guy, but I am having lots of issues. I started as Wanderer, and so far I have Dex up to like 26 I think, and Str at 14. I decided to keep bringing Str up to 16 so I can use the drake sword, as so far all the Dex based weapons just dont do enough damage. I have the winged spear at +3, and its a bit better, but still nothing compared to the drake sword. I am hoping to acquire a uchigatana, but so far no luck, and I dont want to kill my arrow merchant to get one.

Dex seems to be universally praised as the best option, and to keep strength at 16. Everyone says a lightning spear or the fury sword are the things to look for.

I do know that since the drake sword has no scaling, about midway through the game it starts to suck and easily takes a back seat to even a moderately upgraded (+5 normal) weapon. I am going to start upgrading my dex soon.

So, no soul/world alignement this time around? Sounds like a nerf.

And what exactly are the positives of being alive as opposed to being dead? That you can summon (instead of being summoned), and the item drop? Is that all?

You just need to have humanity (that number near your health) to increase drop rates.  Being alive is separate.  You can see your item drop rate stat in game.  It goes from 100 to 120 with 1 humanity point.  Small increase after that. 

It also allows you to kindle the bonfires.

My best guess for those is:

!!!!!!!! That's nuts!  But it explains how randomly they seemed to appear.  Wow.

My bit of failing to awesomeness.

Went on a bit of an adventure today since I felt like taking a break from the normal progression/boss fighting, and decided to track down a good weapon I could build up.

World/Character Tendency is completely gone.
Humanity is now a second currency.
Bosses no longer restore your human form upon defeating them.
Most summons/invasions are done through Covenants (factions).

Spoiler expands on Human/Humanity/Covenants.

What is happening when I hear a whoosh! sound and then a glowing white light emits from my body? It's a cool effect but I have no idea what's happening.

You get an extra Potion of HP, no idea why it happens though.

Also, I find utterly disturbing that it doesn't show how many souls you need to level up. It reminds me of Bard's Tale (1985 or so), when I kept going back to the guy that levels you up every few mobs just to get a "YOU CAN'T LEVEL YET" message. It's one of the few things I wasn't missing from the old times. (or it can be fixed?)

Well, the yellow light happens because someone rested/kindled at the bonfire that you have also kindled, and you get a free estus flask. Black happens when you've put down a curse and someone's walked over it. White... not sure. Some miracles get stronger when others use the same miracle around you, maybe it's that.

That's cool. I like that better than the world tendency system.


Yeah, it's kind of odd having to remember what you needed to level up the previous time so you don't go back to the fire with too few souls.

Yellow flash gives a humanity also.  I think it must be when someone else kindles because resting would mean it would happen a lot more, I think.

I thought one of the flashes was when some one rated one of your messages, cause I have had it happen to me way far from any bonfires.

I never left any message and still got yellow flashes. So it must be the kindling. 

Quick update.  Joined the Forest Hunters covenant.  The creepy talking cat hanging out in the window convinced me that this was the right group to join.  Got to start invading peoples' worlds when they come into the covenant's hunting grounds.  Won 3 fights and lost 3.  Doesn't really seem to be much balance.  Sometimes I was partnered with another phantom and all our NPC's were still alive also.  Sometimes I'd invade and the enemy had already killed all the NPC's and could one-shot me.  Still fun though.  Also took down a couple more bosses.

Finished up Sen's Fortress last night. Started on Anor Londo.

The Gaping Dragon intro is badass. Solaire died while I was fighting the demon. I hope he's not gone for good.  :cry:

Still loving it!

Made my way back to Firelink shrine, purchased a second copy Soul Arrow and a copy of Heavy Soul Arrow, and started tackling the Undead Parish.

Lightning-throwing-beast by the blacksmith: defeated!
Giant Knight and Sorcerer in the Church: defeated!
Gargoyles: defeated, solo, first attempt -- blocking, dodging, Heavy Soul Arrow, a couple Estus Flasks, and some luck.  Wow.  Was not expecting that to go so well.
First Bell: rung!

Today I learned that spells replenish at campfires.  This game is officially easier than Demon's Souls.

I'm probably the wrong kind of person to play this game online where other players can invade me and one shot me.


Just saying.

HAH WUT

I'm on a self-imposed Dark Souls hiatus for a little bit, especially since my new TV that I had ordered before this incident shows up today.

U mad bro?

I posted 'inb4 u mad bro' in the email I sent out with the picture of my broken TV

It doesn't count if you break your TV in anger when you already know a new one is coming!

But now I don't have one for my bedroom thanks to my tantrum. /firstworldproblems

Ha, too much coffee?

I love the instruction manual at the bottom.  Evidence of the crime, and all that.  Oh, and sorry... I almost built a plexi screen for my LCD while playing Demon's Souls.  I might need to revisit that idea soon.

Update on playthrough.

Is there any point in keeping weapons  and armours you already have? Like selling, or deconstructing them? I would say no, but you never know with Japanese...

This is a good question as it seems that stuff doesnt really drop enough to make it worth holding out on upgrading existing gear.  Especially when those upgrades are quite hefty.

Can you grind weapons down into souls? I've been stuffing everything I find into my bottomless box. (that's what she said)

One great thing about playing during the day is I can drop a summon sign at a demon door and get work done while I wait to be called.  :why_so_serious:

You get the means to break them down later.  I'm not personally playing it, only watching my wife, so I couldn't tell you how far along it is though.  It's near the firelink shrine area though along with everything else.

I am not sure. A game without a save point (bonfire) after the first boss (bull) then a semi-one (the charging rhino) and still no bonfire in sight? Not sure that qualifies as easier. It's so weird that I keep looking for one. If I missed it please let me know.

Well, the bosses remain defeated even if you die, so while it's inconvenient to die between the first boss and the shortcut downstairs on the dragon bridge, it's not like you have to go defeat the boss again to move on.

If by the charging Rhino you mean the metal boar, yes, you missed the shortcut to the bonfire. It is right under the stairs coming down from the dragon bridge. There is a ladder to kick down. Its a pretty major shortcut, you dont want to miss it.

Of course, if you're squishy and your timing is bad, you may well get roasted by the dragon.  Which happened to me.  But by the time I had defeated the first boss (who gave me more trouble than the next three-or-four combined (including the Gargoyles who turned out to be pretty painless for me), I had the process of getting from the first Undead Burg bonfire to the first boss area down like clockwork, so one more run wasn't too horrible.

No, I have seen the shortcut, but it's to go BACK. I mean, wouldn't it make sense (and actually give you a bit of a sense of reward) to let you ADVANCE after you killed a boss? So basically, you kill a boss, you "save" at the old bonfire. You die (several times) before you get to the new bonfire, and you keep respawning at the old one that you have been basically binded since 1-boss-and-a-half ago. I love everything about this game, but this particular case I find it a bit irritating. It just feels counter-intuitive and well, I have been killing the same identical mobs since long before I killed that boss and long after having killed it. Repetition after success for no particular reason is, in my opinion, a bit beyond "hard", it borders "meh".

Everything else, I'm in total love.

Uh, you kick the ladder down first rather than going down the broken steps.  It leads to the old bonfire, but then you can climb back up to where you were before.  You can also try running all the way down the bridge with the dragon on it.  Shoot him with an arrow to get him to fly onto the bridge, where he kinda moves from one side of the safe area in the middle, to the other.  When you see an opening, run past through the gate (you might get hit by a small amount of the fire but you should be able to live through it), and there's another bonfire there.

Found a message saying there was an item after a jump.  It had 14 ratings.  I dropped one of those stones used for marking paths and it didn't hit anything after the jump.  I guess those ratings were negative.  I have yet to see a quality message with a bunch of ratings though.  I think there's a miracle which lets you see more messages, going to try it out.

Take all messages with a grain of salt.  Also, everyone is a liar.

...

 :ye_gods:

Note that this is not as subtle as it sounds.  If you approach the ladder you get a prompt 

"Kick the ladder down?" X

 :facepalm:

I haven't seen any ladder, and I passed by that spot about 5 times. I guess I need to crank up the brightness on my screen.

Real Dark Souls begins now!

Even if I hadn't seen it when I explored the room, I did see a PC ghost climb up it before I had kicked it down.

Also, I noticed the large bridge overhead and deduced that if I came across the top that I might find a way down.

Now that I mastered "advancing", how do you "go back"? Meaning, is there any way to instant travel? I would say no, given that the world has no teleports and such, but (for example) how do I go back to the merchant inthe first area if I want arrow, or to the blacksmith later on in the game if I am knee deep in something else?

What ladder I am not kicking this time?

Generally this works by opening up various short-cuts to allow easier access to areas you've been before, but I don't think there's any kind of instantaneous fast travel.

I only think it sucks merchant and blacksmith wise so far. How are you managing to upgrade your weapons in your game so far? Or there are multiple blacksmiths scattered around?

Also, has anyone seen the strategy guide? How is it? Nice? Useful? Crap?

The Firelink Shrine is essentially the main hub.  There is an elevator that serves as a shortcut between there and the blacksmith.  You can get to the Undead Burg easily from the Firelink Shrine also to get to the merchant there.  Things start to branch off a lot beyond that, but since the Firelink Shrine, Undead Burg, and the Parish connect to just about all the zones in some way or another, getting anywhere is fairly quick once you've unlocked the right shortcuts.

Thank you. Got it. Back to simply loving the game like no other.

Don't forget there is a consumable item Homeward Bone that will warp you back to your last bonfire (there's also a miracle that does the same).  So if, for example, Blighttown has beaten you so badly you have to leave crying to get supplies, you can warp back if you don't save at another bonfire on the way out.

New Londo is tough. I'm gonna have to hang somewhere else for a while.

The amount of secrets in this game is incredible.  Hidden walls to whole areas.  NPC's coming and going and changing.  I explored an area and now I have something growing out of my head. 

I'm glad the game strongly hints at what areas to travel to through finding keys, dialogue and cut-scenes or I'd be completely lost instead of mostly lost.

Update!

I'm level 63 now with a dex/end heavy build (40/26 right now iirc) and a +8 black bow of pharis.  Sen's Fortress suuuuucked until Further in Sen's Fortress:
Before you kill the boss, make sure you have this loot:
Lightning spear, fromCovetous serpent ring (boosts item find to 300) from: Boss strategy that worked for me:
Different strat I read after I killed him:
After you kill the Sen's Fortress boss: (Spoilering, but you should probably read it)
I've got some schoolwork shit to grind out before I'm picking it up again, but hopefully I'll be done with that this evening and can make some more progress.  Anor Londo is *gorgeous*.

In response to your last spoiler:

Welp, just call me Falconeer.

Anor Londo is PvP city.  Invasions non-stop when I was human to get help for the boss fight and when I put down my white message to help others.  I would not be able to do lots of these boss fights if I didn't have help in the form of players or NPCs so you guys soloing bosses are pro.  

I made that curved sword weapon using Quelaag's soul and I'm underwhelmed.  Part of that might be when I do co-op, I see other players flinging some kind of buzz-saw spell that travels along the ground at monsters and I question my decision to go melee.  I also find its particle effect distracting.  Probably going to try the weapon using the Moonlight soul next.

Two tips I wish I knew earlier:  1) Torches in Blighttown indicate ladders, 2) Holding O on a ladder will let you slide down the ladder.  Damn ladders.

I discovered this last night in a big way.  I generally kindle any bonfires that look to be in a good spot and every time I went human in Anor Londo I was invaded within about 3-4 minutes.  My success rate for sending these guys home hasn't been that great but it's neat to see how various people build characters.  The Ornstein/Smough fight has been the best one yet.  I was tempted to call for help but it seemed likely I wouldn't live long enough to do so.  So glad I didn't as that fight was cool to learn. 

I'm barely holding to my walkthrough/information blackout but weaponcrafting and this Covenant stuff has me sorely tempted.

Was grinding out some souls in Anor Londo and wearing my Cat Covenant ring to occasionally get summoned to the forest for some PVP.  Had some wins and some losses.  Usually a win will net me between 5000-7000 souls.  Then one time I get summoned and there's another phantom on my side already there, but we can't find the guy we're supposed to kill.  We keep wandering all over the forest eventually splitting up.  After a while I can see the enemy's health bar flash in the distance meaning my partner is in combat with him.  Come in on the end of the fight and manage to get a few hits in.  We kill the guy, and I'm shocked to notice that for some reason this time it nets me 770,000 souls.  I don't know if it's based on how many souls the guy had on him at the time, his level, or how many people he'd killed before we finally got him, but it was enough souls to take me from level 57 to level 83.

Is the PS3 version supposed to be noticeably better than the 360 version?

No, I did not read the whole thread.

There's apparently some soul duping glitch in the game, I was watching the little chat applet on one of the wiki's and this exact subject came up.  You get their souls when you kill them, so he had either 770k or 1.5m souls on him and they got split.

Finally had a free night and got back into game, starting up again with a Wanderer. Got through Undead Burg to Taurus Demon, killed it this time w/several plunging attacks, moved on to bridge and got the Drake Sword.

Holy shit what a difference that thing makes.

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry couldn't find much difference between the two. (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-dark-souls-face-off)

This chart I'm spoilering is pretty awesome if you want details on upgrade paths without other spoilers like area walkthroughs.  Avert your eyes from the lower left side if you don't want to know which boss souls are used for which weapons.  I'm refusing to grind so my weapon upgrades are based on whatever materials I have or can readily buy but the chart is still neat to see. 


About covenants, just know if you want to switch covenants but you think you want to rejoin the one you are leaving, then leave the covenant by talking to the guy after the gargoyles fight so you won't have to pay him later to rejoin the covenant you are leaving.

I also found a nifty map showing which areas are connected.

I haven't found any real advantages to any of the Covenants but then again I haven't been looking.  Once I get around to a second play-through I'll game the shit out of that stuff.  This first run I've joined several with no real guidance.  Hitting the forest area now after Anor Londo which, judging by the lack of difficulty, I should have hit earlier. 


That weapon chart is what I'm looking for, thanks.  I just don't want to waste anything that's a bitch to farm or that you only get one of. 

I just joined the forest covenant yesterday. I checked the wiki which highly recommends quitting out of the game immediately after joining them. If not, a bug may cause your happy tree friends to attack you on site rather than accept you as one of their own. You might be screwed on that front.

In other news, and I think this is a carry over from the last game, bosses wail like The Thing upon death, which I never get tired of.  :drill:

If a covenant is mad at you for leaving, or for hitting-but-not-killing an NPC, or just bugged, talk to the guy after the gargoyles.  He will cleanse your sins for a hefty soul price (I think it's 2000 x lvl) and the covenants won't be mad at you anymore.  

It's too late for that now!  Next time I fire the game up I'll be seeing what loot those punks drop.

To start with, unless you talk to a particular NPC (forget his name) to leave a covenant before joining a new one, I think you're betraying your previous covenant.  Some Covenants have merchants who will only sell to members of their covenant.  Some give you items (got a ring of fog from the Forest Hunters covenant for killing other players who had entered the forest).  Some get exclusive Miracles.  

Which covenant you've joined also determines how you PVP.  Forest Hunters wear a ring that summons them to the Forest when non-members enter it.  Darkmoon Blades can invade people who have sinned (betrayed their covenant, killed certain NPC's, and certain kinds of PVP) without the game notifying the person being invaded.  Gravelord Servants get the Eye of Death which will cause stronger enemies to appear in someone else's world until they find your sign and invade your world to try to kill you.  Path of the Dragon places your sign in someone else's world allowing them to invade your world and fight, with the winner getting a dragon scale.  There are some others as well.

There needs to be a Nobel Prize for game design.

Gaaah. Boss insta-cursing you is making me want to do very bad things to people.

Also, I wonder if this is a European thing or what, but I've been sitting in front of a few bosses with my soul sign down hoping to be summoned and the average wait is 15-20 minutes. That's quite depressing, and I wonder if it's because the game just got released, if it's because it's not such a popular game, or due to the mechanics of humanity being a depletable resourse people are soloing as much as they can.

What's your experience or your average waiting time for summons, and where do you live?

Also, Game of the Year, please.

They got it for the first one when I called it game of the year (and best Console Game Ever, and Best Zelda Game Ever) before any other website had even played it. If Nobel can be a dick and be remembered for his prize, so can I.

Summoning two kind souls to walk me through Anor Londo probably just saved me a full day of screwing around. I had no idea what a massive place that castle would be.  :drill: Also saved me from getting pummeled within two seconds of entering the boss gate.

If you have long wait times to get summoned, keep putting down your summon message.  Apparently there are different servers so wait times can vary but if you put down your summon message multiple times your message hops servers.  Friends are able to link up by repeatedly putting down one message until the other one sees it.  For myself, I wait a few minutes and then drop the sign again.  I think Demon's Souls had 1 server per region so matchmaking was faster.

Speaking of the good ol' days, the boss fights thus far don't feel as clever as Adjudicator, Maiden Astrea, Old Hero, Storm King, etc.  And I'm still disappointed I don't see any 60+ rated messages (even 5+ is rare). 

I do, however, laugh at the statues I see after Nonentity explained what they are earlier in the thread.  I like these more than bloodstains.  Look how close they are to the ladder, hahaha.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2938963/funny%20statues.jpg)

What the fucking shit am I supposed to do with two skeletons firing knockback sword-javelins at me on a tiny ledge in anor lando as a melee. Monumentus bullshit, that is. I lost track of the number of times I ran only to die over and over again to a goddamned knockback. Even if I get in position to block one, the other one hits me in the back.

You're going to have to head towards the one on the right, try doing a roll without falling off the ledge to get into melee range with him, and either try to kick him off the ledge, or block his swings and hope he falls off.  But yeah, that part is a pain in the ass.

If it's the spot I'm thinking of you have two dashes to make.  The first one to the pillar for a breather, then you scoot around and dash up to a large wall and hang a right.  I believe once you are tight to the wall the guy on the left no longer has a shot at you.  Still have to deal with one, and on a tight edge, but should be doable.

That was probably the most annoying part of Anor Londo.

Don't feel bad as a melee, even as a dex monkey with a +9 black bow of pharis that part is cockstabbingly hard.  They're far enough out of range you can't do any damage to them anyways.  Fortunately, there's a bonfire just after and then shortcuts, so you only ever have to do it once.

Being done with Blighttown, and the deeps, is like being born again. At the same time, that was gloriously suffocating, morbidly oppressive. And a part of me will miss it and will talk about it to those miserable ones who are not playing this game.

I take it you haven't been to Anor Londo yet.
It brings new meaning to suffocating and oppressive.

Edit:
Apparently there is a patch in the works that will do some pretty cool stuff - re-balancing weapon stat scaling, changes to magic (unlimited casts was mentioned, kinda meh on this), making the fog ring not an insta-win in PVP, and some other things.  Not sure when it's coming, but it was posted on the Japanese blogs a few days ago.

Maiden Astrea might be my favorite boss fight of all time. The music and the dialogue, plus the way it make you feel like you might be the bad guy- good stuff.

Calling in phantoms on Anor Londo will save you a mess of trouble. I called in three (one jumped a ledge within two minutes) and was able to collect all the loot and clear the bosses within an hour. They even took out a black phantom for me squeeeeeee.

The Maiden Astrea fight was absolutely amazing.  It was heart wrenching, and I've never felt so guilty during a fight.

Yayy. I got past it by running up until he pulled out his sword, then walking back down off the ledge to the buttress and he fell off. Finally!

I got my Fury sword and opened all the shortcuts, and killed Lautrec. If you're a melee, Iron Flesh is the best spell. It's so worth getting 10 attunement to use it.

Crystal Ring Shield (made from upgrading a +10 shield with the Moonlight Butterfly soul) is seriously overpowered.  L2 causes it to shoot a disc projectile that does (from what I've read) double the damage of the weapon in your right hand (provided you have the stats to properly wield that weapon).  Seath and Gravelord Nito both went down in around a minute using this thing, which was doing 400+ damage a hit.

Isn't crystal stuff impossible to repair, so once its used up, its used up?

It's not like the crystal weapons and armor.  The Crystal Ring Shield is repairable, although it doesn't have the greatest durability and you'll want to switch to another shield when you actually need to block.

I am seriously annoyed at backstab in PvP. Call this a whine if you want. Point is, as far as I know my connection is top notch, I have ridiculously low ping in any game with a server in Europe so I don't know what's my problem here. I got in the Forest Hunter covenant to enjoy some PvP and I keep the ring on all the time, so I got summoned a lot. So far I had about 20 fights and I lost them all, 19 of them due to being backstabbed. That alone would be frustrating, considering the whole fight has been these guys not ever swinging and just strafing until they can get behind. When I did the same thing the fight lasted about 5 to 10 minutes, and that's due to the stupid backstab mechanic that makes it so you never ever can afford missing a swing. But BUT, on top of that, of those 19 times I can swear that a good 50% of those times I was just strafing as good and as fast as my opponent around them, and at some stupid point I just found myself dead, backstabbed, out of what seems to be a lagged hit.

Now, I can only assume people backstab is the way to go in PvP so now that's all everyone tries to do, and I dislike that enough. But how in hell do you protect yourself from a desynched, lagged backstab?

Anyway, I didn't buy this game for the PvP so eventually I will simply remove the ring, but I hate that as of now the whole thing feels a bit beyond my (limited) capabilities. I haven't had a "fair" fight yet and I loved those in Demon's Souls. Did you get all this backstabbing bastards too, or are they only after me?

EDIT: Also, thunder weapons killing anything in 2 hits through a shield :why_so_serious:


Ok I get it now. Darkroot Forest is were high level players go to farm easy souls knowing that noobs like me instantly wear their cat covenant rings thinking we'll get some easy souls out of farming noobs.

I've had a few backstabs and occasionally guys with super-powerful spells that one shot me.  From my understanding, Forest Hunters don't have the same level matching in PVP as most of the other Covenants (I think due to the fact that we have other advantages in that we have those NPC's nearby and that there are frequently two Forest Hunters summoned for one enemy.  One on one, I think we are always set up against people who outmatch us, so if you don't have a partner or NPC's with you to gang up on your enemy, you're going to have to hope he just sucks.  Also, use lloyd's talismans as needed to prevent them from healing (especially since we are unable to heal when invading).  I find that if I'm summoned and all the NPC's are still alive, I'll generally win the fight.  If the forest is pretty much empty when I show up, I'm generally fucked unless another Forest Hunter shows up and we work together well.

Warning: Massive spoiler ahead - Unlimited souls, humanity, twinkling titanite, demon titanite, and dragon scales bugs:
There it is, if you hate farming but still want to play the game with lots of shiny stuff you'd get from doing it, now you can do both.

No mention in the 1.04 patch notes if there are fixes in the works for these, but that's not really all that uncommon, so who knows how long it'll work for.

If you're using that method, I hope you at least have the decency not to pvp with that character.

Nerf's post just made me throw the cat's ring down the toilet. Fuck this.

So today I found out the kind folks at Bandai made Dark Souls copy protected.  What does this mean?  You can't use a mem-stick or USB to transfer your savegames between consoles w/o using Sony's cloud service.  Annnnnnd, I cant remove the console (it's built into the wall and shit) I was playing on to copy physically between the two.   :why_so_serious: :why_so_serious: :why_so_serious:  Ahahahahahaha, ahahahaahhhddafaddagdlk[ljab;lkernhb[ xc]ncb

Since this was the case in Demon's Souls, I'd blame From Software.  In fact, that's one reason I haven't gotten farther in the previous game: character loss.

I've had this complaint about Bioware since KotOR on Xbox.

I'm seriously considering "playstation plus" now because of this; which is the only way you can transfer the savegames.  I can drop $17 for 3 months of it or spend 8-10+ hrs getting back to where I was... which isnt too bad really.  But, that's still 10hrs of my life.

Just PVPd a guy that took two backstabs from me and shrugged them off as if they were nothing, didn't even move his health bar. Then he hit me once and killed me. Yes with one shot. I'm level 60. Interesting matchups.

Well I bit the bullet and got this game on the weekend, and I'm having a hard time even at the beginning stages.  I DO love the combat system, but I do NOT love the fact that when you die you have to go through all the trash you just killed to get back to wherever you died. 

I'm not really sure why I find this game so appealing, to be honest, since dying repeatedly just isn't that much fun.

Right now I am stuck on the Black Knight at the Undead Burg.  Not sure how to defeat him as a Knight.

Move on, he's guarding a ring. You can come back later when you're more experienced, and have the Drake Sword.

Dude, people getting unlimited souls/quicker upgrades is the last reason you should throw your cat's ring away.

You should throw your cats ring away because pvp is horrendously broken right now.  I spent ~9-10hours getting my 3 kills for the fog ring, and 2 out of the 3 kills jumped off a cliff.  This was at SL 63 with a +5 quelaags fury sword, hornet ring, etc.

There's a couple actual invulnerability bugs, where you just can't damage people at all.
There's the lovely Tranquil Walk of Peace (TWoP) PBAE slow that follows the caster around for a minute or so.  That and any ranged means you're dead, since you can't dodge at all.
There's all of the front-backstab bugs, backstabbed-while rolling, etc, etc.
There's the near-instacast PBAE massive damage spells that also knockback/stun

And that's nowhere near an exhaustive list.  Unless you've pumped the shit out of your vitality, expect to just get 1-shot before you have a chance to do *anything* in pvp 99% of the time, at least in the forest.

Someone avoiding several hours of tedious grinding to pvp is no reason to quit pvping - pvp being stupid fucking broken is a reason to quit pvping.  I don't see any difference between using a glitch to get however many souls you want, or running around the forest for hours as mobs jump off a cliff and give you 7k per run - it just lets you get back to actually playing the game sooner.

I hate to be the guy that jumps in and says "try sucking less", but out of 20-30 fights as a Forest Hunter, I think I've won more than I lost and that wasn't even with any sort of exceptional gear nor would I ever consider myself a great player.  This is with a Dex build with no fancy spells or anything.  I got my fog ring within an hour of joining the Covenant I think.

 :awesome_for_real:

My experience is the same as Nerf's. Point by point (2 wins out of 30 fights, and one of them jumped off the cliff). Seriously, there is NOTHING I can do to beat these guys. Nothing. I just can't hit them, when I hit them I tickle them. Their lifebars don't move, not even when I backstab them. On the other hand, whatever they do kills me in two hits. Be it an electrical weapon, a flame something, a naked guy dualwielding poison weapons, or a cloth wearer brandishing a flaming tree. I just die in 2 hits, while their lifebars are like frozen in carbonite.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I never attack alone. I always wait for another invasor, so we can team up on the dude. Same result.
Also, as of late, I often invade someone that is already teaming up with someone else, so instead of being vaporized by one god, I meet two at once.

Just had two fights earlier, both one on one in the forest (the first time because the other phantom died shortly after I zoned in, the second just because I didn't feel like waiting).  The first one I lost because I tried to fight the guy with a spear, which was too slow and too hard to aim when you're fighting someone wearing a fog ring.  Second fight I won by just going in and swinging rapidly with a fire scimitar.  We both had fog rings on and were attacking with fast weapons.  He tried to run off and chug a potion but I managed to catch up with him and finish him off before he could down it.

Also, just beat the game.  Might mess around a little bit with the new game+, but honestly this one was so much longer than Demon's Souls it doesn't really fill me with the same drive that got me to beat Demon's Souls three times in a row.

Wanted to like this one, but it's just so much repetitive trash clearing.  I've found the bosses to be easy (through the gaping dragon).  But the trash, oh my god it's so boring to kill the same shit over and over.  It'd be palatable if I could just blow through the trash on reclear, but you need to do the same tedious block-and-counter micromanagement on every trashmob all over again. 

If this is what people mean by wanting twitch in RPGs, I'll take autoattack+hotkeys every day of the week.  If you make me stare with focused attention on something that is mindlessly trivial, I'll get bored with a quickness. 

Huh, I feel the exact opposite.  The fact that the "trash mobs" are actually a threat to you, that you have to concentrate when you are in combat instead of just mashing the attack button, is what I LOVE about this game.  Pretty much the only thing I wish it had was more bonfires closer to bosses.

I gave up trying to kill the black knight and instead went for the Tarsus Demon.  Surprisingly I killed it first try...

If uninteresting combat is a problem, you should go through the game with a small/medium shield and a thief dagger. Play the parry game.

You could also y'know, just run past the mobs.   :oh_i_see:

El Gallo noooooooooooooooo

Hell, I don't even bother to fight 3/4 of the mobs in this game. Unless they drop some sweet loot.

Well there is the problem, you are just a clearly broken human being.  :grin:

Hrm, when I ran past mobs I'd usually end up with one of them surprising me from behind when I was fighting later on.  Maybe I just wasn't running far enough away for them all to de-aggro.  I'll give it another go.

Still wish there was a PC version so we could mod some of the suck out. 

You could also find the shortcuts.

The trash becomes mostly a nonissue later on, especially with shortcuts being opened and once you get the lordvessel.  If anything should make you fucking quit this game, it's the framerate issues in places, the super broken PvP that is yet to be patched, and the some of the cheap bullshit bosses that aren't hard, but just cheap (I'm looking at you, capra demon).  At least play until Blighttown so you can know what really hating the game entails.

Really hating this game is being stuck in The Depths, cursed, with 1000's of souls lying in the middle of a few dozen basilisks even deeper...  surrounded by the rotting stone corpses of the jackasses that did the same thing as you.

SKIP THIS POST. It's just another love letter from a biased, enthralled gamer.

So, I Just completed Anor Londo. This is really one of the best games ever made.

I was probably expecting the worst from Anor Londo after Nerf's warning, but nothing tops Blighttown in my personal Top 10 of oppressive places. Oppressive "experiences" would be more correct. Blighttown comes after the Depths, and I was already very uncomfortable with everything. I wasn't really looking for a happy place, but the unnerving descent into the pit of the muddy hell made for one of my most (morbidly) memorable gaming experiences. That said, I promised myself I would have never went down there again... so imagine my joy when I learned about The Hollow and Ash Lake...

Anyway, Anor Londo is gorgeous. Also, the game is immense. I have no idea how close I am to the end, but it feels like there's a lot of stuff still, and I already have 75 hours of /played. Now, notable things I fell in love with in the last 2 hours:

-- Beware -- Spoilers --

I can understand some people feeling frustrated with having to do the same level every time you die until you can do it "right" and survive. It's that crazy thing about Dark Souls that makes you feel like the game is training you into becoming a Jedi or something, and that you have to do it over and over until you make "the perfect run" for each level. But while I absolutely love that "you can beat it, it's just your fault moron" feeling which is pushing me to endless marathons, it's understandable that not everyone has hours of free time to invest in a game where you might have made zero progress after 3 hours of tackling a difficult area.
Regardless, Dark Souls is more amazing than people who think it's amazing think. It's intense, rich, dark, evil and unique. Brutally beautiful, it never ceases to amaze and actually gets better and better the deeper into it you sink, the closer to the core you get. It's a game I would rate 9 out of 10 right out of the box, a perfect 10 after a couple of days, and a fat, glorious 11 by the time you approach the ending.

There is just nothing like it, and hardcore or not, this is an immortal piece of gaming history.

I agree with everything you said, falconeer.  Blighttown is actually a really well designed area, but the framerate problems I've had kind of soured the experience for me.

Anor Londo, btw, was an interesting experience.  For some reason, I developed a mental block and just could not beat the boss with my sorceror.  I'd keep spending humanity to revive so I could summon some help, only for that to end in more deaths.  That's assuming I even get back to the boss, since half the time I would be invaded by some jackass wearing a ring of fog as soon as I revived, making me waste even more time.  It wasn't until I had spent about 12 or so humanity that my brain started functioning again and I realized I should be doing this in offline mode.

I love this game.

I agree with everything you said, Falconeer.  EverQuest is the greatest game ever made.   :evil:

(I kid, I kid)

(kinda)

Here's google translate for patch 1.04:


There's a bunch of other balance changes.  JP should get the patch Wed (Nov 2) at 12:00am, no clue on US PS3 / Xbox.  Some highlights I read about include: rate messages by pressing select, less wonky lock-on switching, online level range increased, and I think / hope that weird occasional delay upon pressing attack is fixed.

Ahoythematey, I had pretty much the same problem but I really couldn't beat the double-boss alone. I am full melee and I couldn't find an effective way to deal with those two beasts at once. Ironically, the second part, when you face just one but tougher, was easier to solo for me. So yeah, I needed to be alive but everytime I revived I got invaded pretty quick, so my strategy became to run as fast as possible to the boss area where I usually could summon someone to help me repel the invasion, and that worked after a few attempts. Also, when I am not in the forest which godlike morons twice my level I fare pretty good in PvP. Honestly, I wonder how the hell you are supposed to do those two bosses offline as a melee (uhm... summoning knight Solaire to tank off one of them maybe? I guess so).

Question: how can they invade so easily? I understand you can join some evil faction and invade at will, is that the case? Which one? Cause from what I gathered the cracked red eyes to invade other worlds are not so easy to come by, so how do they invade at will?

Well, Soltaire would help tank, even if he's not very good at avoiding damage, but I eventually had run out of humanity and wasn't interested in running back to the rats to farm some more, so it was through attrition that I beat them.  Thankfully, I had some pretty high INT along with homing soul mass and soul spear, so I was able to do a ton of damage quickly before having to do the old run and shoot dance.

On invasion: certain covenants have their own ways to invade, and there's also the cracked red eyes and red sign soapstone that don't require the invader to be in a covenant.  I'm not certain, but I think there is/was a glitch that allowed players to dupe items/souls, so that might be one reason why invasion is so common.  Another could be that Anor Londo seems to be a favorite area for invading.

When I need humanity I just put down my summon sign and wait to be summoned. Takes some time here and there but I love myself a Boss battle where I have nothing to lose and only (eventually) souls and humanity to gain. I would kill myself before going back to rat-land aka basilisk-world to get anything.

Defeat the guy with the spear first.  You can block most of his damage, and he moves a bit faster than the other boss, so you can lead him away a bit, although it isn't always easy.  After you beat him and the big guy gets stronger, I found out you can often circle around one of the broken pillars, keeping it between you and him.  Many of his attacks leave him open for a bit, and the only thing you really have to worry about is that aoe lightning drop he does which can be hard to get away from if you're wearing heavy armor.

Saw a snippet that they have shipped (sold?) 1.5million copies.  Hopefully a third one is in the works.

One of the biggest European online seller cut the price today from 49€ to 41€. I wonder what is that supposed to mean, success or failure.

I am currently going through Blighttown right now, and for me the hardest bit is the framerates on those moving bridges. Also, yesterday my system did something very odd, I hit the bonfire in blighttown, and all of a sudden FPS got low, then all sound went away, then when I tried to exit out it froze up completely and my PS3 got really warm. I ended up having to pull the plug on the back to even get it to shut down.

I havent had a chance to fire it up again since then, I hope my saves are ok.

So yeah. The status of my save games is unknown. The status of the disk drive is dead. I am super bummed right now. I want to play.

 :ye_gods:

That makes me want to grab some psn+ and turn my DS saves into cloud saves.

PSN+? Cloud saves? How does that work? Is it a Dark Souls thing or does it work with any savefile for any game?

So, who was more heartbreaking for you to kill? Maiden Astrea or Crossbreed Priscilla?

Also,

It works with any savefile, including those copy protected like DS.  Which means you can play your games on an PS3 located anywhere.  Also gives you various perks and what-not; exclusive betas, etc.  It MAY give you premium access to some of their other widgets like Qriocity (their music player), but I'm not sure.

So I'm in a veritable state of limbo right now.  Cant decide where to go after killing the 'gaping dragon' (with help of course).  The Garden seems a bit much (so I boned home) and I despise Blighttown, which also seems a bit much (I'm a lvl 23 sorc; dont quite have enough oomph for the spell-ammo I have).   I sneak-attacked the 1st few dragons in the valley, but got pimpslapped back after that.
I'm thinkin about doin a grindy soul-run  and hitting some of the old knights I bypassed to save up for the dragoncrest ring.  Also thinking I MIGHT be powerful enough to  What say you?

edit:
So after collecting 10k souls I promptly died to lightning drakes and then fell down the VoD elevator shaft to get em.   :oh_i_see:  Looks like I'll be grinding the berg for now till I get the ring.  Then hit Btown.

If you're looking to do some soul grinding, there is no better place than darkroot garden.  With 20,000 souls, you can buy a key off the blacksmith just before the titan demon, and this key allows you to get into an area where you can farm souls at a rate of 7k per every two-three minutes, and it's right next to a bonfire.

Bought this recently.

A) Fuck ghosts.
B) I need to sleep.

Artorias Tomb is a very hard area at the level you are at. Yes, you can farm souls there non stop due to stupid AI, but it's up to you if you feel like doing that or not. Nothing too bad with it, it's not a bug or anything, but if you get addicted to leveling up that way you are gonna trivialize the game, in a way. So yes, use at your own discretion. I didn't do that, but I still farmed trees for a good 5 levels. They drop anti-poison stuff which is so needed anyway.

Anor Londo 2nd bonfire in the castle has better throughput. 900 souls for each of the 3 knights, and you do runs at least 3 times as fast.

Well sure Bhodi, but he's level 23. Do you want to send him to Anor Londo at level 23?

That spot though? Lovely. I enjoyed smashing those 4 knights with two unstoppable slams of Dragon Tooth for hours.

Mega-spoiler alert.
So I just ended up grabbing the 10k souls I needed from the Undead Bridge FireDrake by:

Next step, killin the knight that drops that endurance ring (which'll let me wear heavy armor) after mastering blighttown.  Between that and the dragoncrest I should be set midgame.

I just finished Blighttown last night. And while climbing my way out, all I could think of was this post, and how right you where, and how I knew exactly what you felt.

I think Maiden Astraea was harder to kill. 


Plus, THE MUSIC. SO GOOD. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-rNVnrFQDg)

Throughput on Darkroot is better.  You can go from the bonfire -> kill the caster -> bonfire in less than 30 seconds.  Nets 2k a run on first play through.  That said I havent found anything that even remotely compares to the manta farming on 4-3 from Demon's Souls.

You know, I really have a hard time accepting that Skyrim has a 20 pages thread and didn't even launch, and Dark Souls is struggling in its 8th page. What is wrong with humanity?

Granted, I haven't played Skyrim yet, but who did? And to define the trailers underwhelming, after playing Dark Souls, would be being extremely polite.

Also, I am posting this in _this_ thread cause I don't want to raise a flaming fuss in _that_ one, but I am really disappointed in this generation of gamers.

In more relevant news, any update on that patch we are waiting for?

We have a lot of posters here who are primarily PC gamers.

Yeah, can't post (well, shouldn't post) about a game I've never played and will never see.

Also, don't fall in to the trap of equating discussion with game quality.  Otherwise you end up believing that SWG is the greatest game of all time.

Japan got 1.05 since 1.04 did something wonky.  Everyone else is still on 1.03. 

And not only that Dark Souls is a sequel to a game that was an exclusive on the lesser-owned console. Also, last time I bought a game that everyone was praising because it was hard, I got Etrian Odyssey 2.

I am exclusively a pc gamer, but reading the thread for this and its predecessor are almost enough to convince me to buy a console.   It seems like this is the kind of game the pc crowd in general would really like.

This is the kind of game everyone who loved gaming 15 years ago would love. Its full of secrets and real decisions and skilled gameplay. No hand holding here, no quest arrows, and lots of death.

I will say again that I find this game to be much more forgiving that Demon's Souls. Probably in a good way.

This game is like soothing ointment for the burn on your soul that is 2 weapon carry limit, and auto regenerating health.

I am so jealous of people who can play this game.

Do you have no hands or something?

This.

Scale of 1 to 10 ... how's that working out for you?

Amazon has a $50 credit for a PS3 if anyone wants to take the plunge. 

I basically bought my PS3 for Demon's Souls, I would have done the same for Dark Souls and the future me will buy whatever plays the third even if it goes arcade cabinet exclusive. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, maybe 8.  I'm pretty happy except for missing out on a few exclusive games like these.  I don't have the time to play as many games as I'd like as it is.

Not to derail too far off the tracks, but the only game on PS3 exclusively I've played that was 'must-play' was Demon's Souls.  If not for Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, I could have skipped consoles all together this iteration. 

So, at 100 hours (probably inflated, I left the console on a few times I went out) and level 86 I am about to hit the final boss and I decided I want the 380 pages hardcover strategy guide to celebrate this awesome game. But 1 month after launch apparently no online store got a restock yet which makes me assume there won't be a reprint. The only option left is buying it at 3x the original price on eBay, and I must say that's pretty annoying. Especially because, from what I peeked of the pdf, it's quite a beautiful guide.

Also, on the game difficulty, I have a feeling too that the game is easier than Demon's Souls. And it became almost trivial when I made my +10 Halberd into a Thunderous one. Also, I didn't use any sort of ranged weapon, not a spell nor a bow, cause I remembered they made it into easy mode in Demon's Souls, and still think I feel the whole thing became quite easy when I started putting points into Vitality and got my 524 (dps?) weapon. I understand that the game is significantly longer than Demon's Souls, so it doesn't hurt that it's not all a race of endurance and a test of patience, but I am experiencing a bit of a turn off as I approach the end of the game and everything feels easier (and less scary) than the beginnings. Am I the only one here?

It's a non-linear sandboxy arpg.  Obviously, things will be easier if you make it so.  (shrug)  You can try and beat the game at lvl 20, or bleed all the content you can find at lvl 80+.
I look at it as more of an advantage than a hindrance.

I'm currently level 48 Dex based melee/archer, and Anor Lando is significantly harder than anything that has come before.

I'm pretty much at the same hours / level / area as you and I agree the lightning weapons are too good on the first playthrough.  They don't scale so maybe they get outclassed in NG+ but as it is my +4 lightning weapon does over twice the damage of my other upgraded weapons.  I don't use the lightning weapon anymore because it trivialized the game.  Same with my upgraded pyromancy spells.

I got summoned for the final boss fight and I liked the Old King Allant fight better.  I do have a story theory I'm looking forward to testing during the fight in my own game though (perhaps we have an NPC that is Ostrava 2.0 the way we got a Yurt 2.0).

Nearing the end I kind of feel like Velorath where I'm lacking the pokemon drive that propelled me multiple times through Demon's Souls.  Still a clear GOTY for me but it takes second place to the original, which is pretty good considering it's hard to compete with perfection.

Whereas I appreciate that they tried to change a lot of things up, I probably would have been happier with more Demon's Souls.  I feel like the smaller number of areas in Demon's allowed them to really fine-tine the difficulty in each of them to the point where almost every area was painfully hard, but you knew it was only a matter of time before you got it down.  Whether through luck or through talent, Demon's really had that tension of "Fuck I've got a lot of souls and I'm really deep into this level.  Do I press forward and try to finish this area up, or should I head back and cash these in and have to go through this all again?".  Dark almost completely abandons this with its numerous shortcuts and frequent bonfires.

Still love the game although I wouldn't call it my GOTY, mostly because in all honesty the Mortal Kombat reboot of all fucking things kept me and my friends entertained for a long damn time and I'm more comfortable judging games based on that rather than artistic or technical merit.

Haven't played Dark Souls yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm vastly going to prefer the bonfires, if only for reasons of immersion.

I believe Lightning weapons are getting nerfed in the upcoming patch.

Whenever I get drunk I think about playing this game, but the last time that happened I just ended up killing myself on the New Londo Ruins entrance about six times. Not even past the elevator. It's really sad. Don't play this game when you're full of beer!

I got the guide and it's so beautiful. You all get it. Really.

By reading through it without any fear of being spoilered (I am 2 bosses shy of finishing the first run), I read about secrets, NPCs and everything. I must say, while I really like finding the NPCs here and there and not knowing exactly what they are up to (last thing I need in a game like this are stupid side quests and gather 10 rats), it's insane how hard it is to see the whole cycle of "story" for all the characters, or actually for even one of them. After meeting them for the first time, subsequent meetings are tied to specific but random things and order you can do things that there's no way to tell if you'll ever see them again. That's great material for a strategy guide, and boosts the "mystery" feel of the game, but it can be nerve-wrecking at times considering that if you miss a step (by total accident, snce there's no way to figure them out) you are not gonna get that guy/gal ever again until you replay the game.

Even with the guide, I wanted to advance the story of Solaire, and the Onion Knight, only to find out that, alas, I fucked it up. Mind, the game doesn't really punish you for missing them, but you are not gonna wrap their little stories up. Sad.

Also, I peeked at how to get one of the bad endings, the thing with Kaathe? Without spoilering anything, if you don't read about it in advance the only way to get it it's by a fluke. I have mixed feelings about this.

I accidentally completed the Solaire storyline and I thought he would be like Ostrava in Demon's Souls but it ends up going nowhere.  I even ranked up in his stupid covenant and had the pendant.  I should have killed him earlier to get his nifty looking shield. 

I also accidentally got the bad ending.  Interacting with Kaathe earlier in the game is totally separate from getting the bad ending (I never met him in my playthrough).

I was going to wait until the patch to play through this again, but the so-bad-how-is-it-possible weapon switching in Skyrim has me returning sooner than anticipated.

Dark Souls really ruined my Skyrim. I find it unplayable. I'm sure things will be better in a few months, as Skyrim really sounds amazing, but going straight from Dark Souls to it is simply not working for me.

Also, how did you get the bad ending?

Oh, but

I see. I was confusing Gwyn and Gwyndolin.

Just beat the game. Good ending.

Patch 1.05 is out in US. Lots of good changes, (http://pastebin.com/HxMjdaBx) including miracle resonance. Never saw those circles on the ground where other players cast miracles, now hopefully I will.

Wow. Souls gain in PvE increased 2-2.5x? I don't get it. All the other changes seem to make the game a lot easier, too. Fixes aside, I am not sure I like this.

Probably fine.


The fuck?


What does this mean?  The first humanity sent you from 100 to 120.  Typo?


What?  Infinite twinkling titanite?

So, I don't know.  Seems mostly easier to me.

I think it used to cap at 10, which meant any humanity beyond that didn't add to discovery (so 66 humanity would give the same discovery as having 10 humanity).

Also, twinkling titanite is the one thing I didn't want to go through a bajillion playthroughs to get. So...woo!

I felt that Lightning weapons where too strong compared to everything else. Although, I dont think the nerf is strong enough. -2%? Hopefully the scaling buff will off set it. I really would like to think I didnt waste like 20 points in to Dex.

And in :headscratch: patch notes:



And this makes me super happy.

The lock-on switching is indeed much nicer.

Never touching Dark Souls again... ahem, until it's on the PC.

(http://i.imgur.com/zh0nW.png)

I can hear all the delicious whining now.  "Oh this game sucks because CONSOLITIS" :oh_i_see:

If they don't give it a proper PC UI then they would deserve it!

See, there you go.  What is a proper PC UI?  It has a lock-on and the kbm buttoning can't be any more difficult than on a controller.

I believe the answer is "one that doesn't piss me off".

Actually that's my point.  The game is hard and I think we might see a lot of blame going toward the UI.  In any case I will be interested to see the reactions.

Wonder if they're going to add a quicksave.  I'd imagine it'd trivialize the game, but it's something people will howl for.

Why in the world would you not play this game with a controller? I hate playing shooters with controllers with all of my soul and I wouldn't play Dark or Demons' souls without a controller.

I can't see this happening.  Who would howl for this?  Pussies?

I can't remember the last PC game I played that only had save points. I can see it being a bit of a culture shock thing to go back to save points.

Beyond Good & Evil only had save points, i think.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/82533/Futurama_Fry_Looking_Squint.jpg)

Dark Souls does not have save points.  If you fuck up and kill a NPC that you need (pyromancer kills the pyromancy salesman) then you're starting a new character.

I suppose I should edit this to say that you can just proceed without whatever it is that you fucked up.  For example, my main character accidentally the mage vendor, so no more spells from that guy (I did get his ring, though, which really is the better outcome).  But to Ingmar's point, I don't think a PC gamer would do that.

It's pretty common on console ports.  Things like Alice: Madness Returns and Transformers: WfC and so on don't have much of an in-game save, as I recall, just saving automatically at checkpoints.  Also, a lot of the more tricky games that get a lot of mileage out of mastering the difficulty curve, like the trickle of extreme difficulty 2d platformers, bullet hell shooters and fighting games generally avoid having an in-level save, and I think Dark Souls probably fits in this kind of mold.

I dunno, I don't see it becoming a huge problem.

Well, yes, on console ports. Which leads to complaints of consolitis, which is where we started.

I'm not really concerned about complaints of consolitis if that's the only problem (I assumed you guys were joking about that, since it seems odd to complain that a console port plays like a console port).  I'm just saying, there are plenty of games out there for the PC which don't incorporate quicksaves and which still sold reasonably well, so I don't know that it would blow PC gamers minds to be restricted to save points or something.  If there are complaints about the shitty UI or lousy camera controls, I can get behind that, but I don't hear a lot of people who were shocked about the lack of an option to save anywhere in Grand Theft Auto or anything.  Maybe that's just the people I talk to, though, I dunno.

This is not a game for quicksaves and I don't know why anyone would even mention such a thing in a thread about it.

It's plum stupid and should have been ignored.

Had been ignoring the thread since I only play on PC... what a pleasant surprise. Very much looking forward to this.

The developer seems to have a pretty clear goal so save points make no sense. Likewise once I bought a game-pad for my PC I am less worried about consolitis, though a good port is always nice to have.

The same people who will be installing difficulty-reduce mods. To make the game "right".

I just want a mod where I don't open the door and exit the loading screen directly into an 8 x 8 square courtyard where the boss is already leaping towards me.

I know it was a deliberate design decision, an evolution to try and make you feel crowded but that doesn't make it any more fun.

Would be very interesting if it is mod-able.  Lots of opportunity there.

I like Dark Souls and appreciate what it is trying to do, but not everything in it that is hard is hard because you have to master a skill.  Difficulty that can be surmounted is admirable, but difficulty because you are struggling with a bad UI is not admirable.  (Not saying that Dark Souls has a TERRIBLE UI, but it could be better).

I assume you are talking about Capra.  That sucked a lot.  So far that was the hardest part of the game for me.

Got it in one. For me, too.

Saw a quick Kotaku rumor for an August release, and is supposed to have extra bosses.

If it has extras, I'm going to be a tad irritated.

I would assume From is bright enough to know they need to share the wealth.

I believe From already stated that there will be no DLC for Dark Souls.  Maybe this means we will get updates but not pay?

Probably, though we'll see if they can get past the Xbox Live policies.

http://www.preparetodie.com/en/about/

PC version on August 24, 2012

Initial report says that it requires GFWL. 

Extra bosses confirmed.

The GFWL inclusion took this from must-buy to a might-buy. 

It's still a must buy.

There is no chance I'm buying this unless GFWL has become a one-time only activation thing with no limits or other funk, which is significant for me since I am as beardy as it gets with this game.  The ghost of sinij has spoken.

I installed GFWL recently for AoEO, and it seems to be working decently now.  I've just never liked it, but maybe I'll have to get over myself.

As far as I know (and I'm not the most knowledgeable about this) GFWL's current activation policy is like Steam's: your CD Key is tied to your account once you use it, and once you do this you have unlimited activations.  Their games which used the old system are still limited (like WH40k DoW 2 and Bioshock 2) but I think they're moving away from that model for new releases (like Fable 3 and Section 8).  That's the impression I have, anyway. 

GFWL is still annoying, and I haven't heard anything about a Steam release, which makes me wonder if this is going to be a brick and mortar only affair. This might be a bigger deal breaker for me since every store near me has a PC section comprised entirely of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

I have had to reinstall GFWL about 4 times on different machines, due to IT crashing, not the game.

It's hassle layer, and I can do with out it.

If you put a game out on steam, use steam. Stop putting another layer on it. Looking at you EA and GFW.

GFWL? Sorry. I'm now a Pass. I won't even pirate a game that has GFWL.

GFWL is so non-invasive in AoEO that I don't care about it anymore. My auto-pass is now having to install Origin.

Well, yeah. That's a given.

I also like how if GFWL loose connection, you are booted from the game. Even if your game is still online and doing fine.

GWFL is fucking awful and it infuriated me when I installed Bulletstorm recently and I had to spend 10 minutes trying to get their shitty website to create an account for a service I never wanted to use.

note: I do not and probably at this point will never own a 360.

So, whats the install limit on this under GFWL?

Going with 10.

That's new then.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dark-souls-gfwl-discussion-ongoing-say-developers/094637

Looks like it's possible Dark Souls PC may not have GFWL in the end after all. Let's just hope this doesn't bite people in the ass if, in July, From Software suddenly goes Origin-exclusive with it due to losing GFWL.

I doubt that's likely with Unbounded having been on Steam.

I'd just go with Steam because Steam literally advertises your game for you. Even if Valve gets a cut having Dark Souls splashed all over the steam store front page for a week or two would likely help.

There's nothing out there about Dark Souls that even suggests Origin is a remote possibility let alone one worth mentioning.

Dark Souls on Steam and PC DLC coming to consoles.  Seems pretty win-win.

http://kotaku.com/5914504/dark-souls-coming-to-steam-computer-dlc-coming-to-consoles

I don't get it. The PC version will be out this August with the new content, but the PS3 will get it as a DLC... next Winter?

Presumably they developed it for the PC as they were doing the conversion of the whole game, now they have to port it for Xbox and PS3 and it also has to go through the Microsoft and Sony approval process.

Geee....well, thanks for the honesty, I guess?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-07-from-software-having-a-tough-time-porting-dark-souls-to-pc-frame-rate-issues-remain

I'm still buying it, along with the PS3 DLC when it comes out.  They might not work on PC games in the future, but I'm personally of the opinion that any money I funnel to them to make the next Souls game is money well spent.

Much like the last time he said something that sounded overly honest, it was a translation and communication issue, so I'm inclined to wait and see what happens. Theres been talk of the frame rate actually being better in the PC version from people who got hands on time with it.

I'll buy it. They listened to their fans and did what they could. Rockstar never told us GTA was going to be a piece of shit. Appreciate his honest if it's all true.

Thanks to some region discrimination this moved from a certain buy to a fuck you Namco.  Fuck you and your $70 bullshit.

It was 40$ during the steam sale (not actually on sale) so I went to check if the expected had happened. Yep, suddenly up to 69.95 USD.


I agree entirely.

Probably one of the few games that is actually worth that much.

Not when we know others are getting it for $30 less.

frame buffer user patch is out
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=41336203#post41336203

Enjoying this so far.  I'm using an xbox controller for windows, which from a quick read of the dark souls steam forum is probably a really good idea.  I did restart, mostly because I read a player tip to attack the guy by the bonfire in lordan.

Don't do that.

Wish I could say the same.  Looks like my computer isn't up to the task of running it at 30fps, so the entire thing runs in sloooooow moooootiooooon (my own fault for not meeting the min specs).  And yeah, don't get this if you plan on using KB+M, the interface is really, really bad (like, leaves the mouse cursor on the screen, bad).  So, looks like it's time to save up for a new PC.

Or you could buy a PS3, probably for less than saving up for that new PC.   :oh_i_see:

I don't have a TV, though, so it's not just the console.  And the PS3 itself is getting kind of long in the tooth, isn't it?  PS4 allegedly coming out what, next year or so?

I bought mine in April and have gotten my money's worth between Dark Souls, Just Cause 2, Disgaea and Dragon's Dogma.  I don't know when the PS4 is coming, but I'm not generally an early adopter when it comes to consoles.  I like a larger library to pick through and lower costs.

Don't need one if your monitor has a DVI or HDMI input.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiz3fzY0kSY

Seriously, I dicked around with my n52te's options to try and make this game's controls USABLE, but the damn camera just destroys any hope anyone has of playing this with a mouse. You need a Xbox360 or PS3 controller for this. So much for the 40 dollar price tag.

I was thinking of getting this and playing this weekend since I cancelled my GW2 pre-purchase, but from what I've heard its a very bad port.  If I wanted to play a game ported to the pc where the resolution is shit, the fps is capped at around 30 and the mouse and keyboard is inferior to a game pad I would just get this for my PS3.  What a disappointment. :heartbreak:

"Dark indeed -- this is one of the worst ports we've ever seen."
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dark-souls/1225854p1.html

So I got back into this, sorta, figuring maybe the coop was shared between ps3 and pc. No such luck. I started a new character and did well against the world, except that I would continually be invaded by level 1 people with ubergear who'd one shot me. I only assume there is a group of people that home from school and do nothing but invade newbies over and over again for laughs, because I got invaded by 4 separate people, each with a different look and weapon and every one completely untouchable.

So I just decided to stay hollow, hit the brick wall that was the capra demon in the fucking 10x10 sq foot box and just turned off the game. I can't believe they didn't patch that shit out or at least remove the dogs or something.

I can't imagine trying to play this without a controller.  When they announced the PC port I tried for a while to come up with a keyboard control scheme that i thought made sense.  There are just too many inputs for this game to come up with any kind of reasonably sane control scheme.

- 2x analog sticks (usually wasd/mouse)
- 4x dpad buttons (1,2,3,4 maybe?)
- 4x face buttons ( i got nothin on this one )
- 2x light attack trigger buttons (mouse1 and mouse2)
- 2x heavy attack buttons (modifier + mouse1, modifier + mouse2)

Even that (which I think is better than what they shipped) sounds tedious to me.  What would you guys do if you were them and trying to make a usable pc/mouse control scheme?

I repurchased this when it came out with the PC hoping that it would look better.  I've been playing with the resolution hack and having the internal render set at 2x 1080p and the display resolution at 1080p.  It looks *significantly* better than the PS3 version.  Additionally I've noticed improved online support.  Much faster to get summoned, much faster to invade, etc.  I'm extremely happy with the port so far.

I dunno, the keyboard has some drawbacks as a control device, but lack of buttons is not among them, I don't think.  There are a ton of examples of console titles using the keyboard, but if I had to hazard a guess at a general control scheme, I'd point out that there are a lot of buttons you're ignoring (spacebar, mouse3, mousewheel, F, R, C, LCtrl, LShift, etc.) which are used in a ton of PC games.

Though I don't think the problem is so much in the default keybinding (with the exception of binding "open menu" defaulting to home instead of esc, which is just baffling to me) as it is everything else.  The mouse pointer showing up on screen, the issues with the camera, in-game prompts which tell you to hit left bumper without telling you what left bumper is, the general mouse wonkiness of the menus, that kind of thing.

Heh, patch out the dogs and Capra becomes trivial.

That is waaaaaaaay before Real Dark Souls begins.  I stopped at Sen's Fortress because the traps make me all frustrated, and that's not even the hardest part of the game.

If I had to play this on PC, I'd use a controller.  It's ball-crushing enough without handicapping yourself.

This is currently on special offer on Steam for £20 in the UK.

Picked it up, installed high-res fixes, got the holy snot beaten out of me by the Asylum Demon a few times.

Looking forward to more pain!  :awesome_for_real:

Bought a steam key for this on Amazon for $20 last week.  Love it so far.  I skimmed through the thread, but there's a basic systems question I didn't see an answer to -- is there any reason not to level up?  I understand that spending souls on items is more efficient than using them on stats, but is there level scaling or another reason not to level, or is grinding at a bonfire a useful way to get a slight advantage if you're stuck in an area?

There's no reason to NOT level up unless you're saving souls to buy a specific item (or armor set) or upgrading items, some merchants sell armor sets and titanite and so on. Past a certain point souls are pretty much just for replenishing arrows or homeward bones or whatever. I'm not into DS enough to know what is flat out optimal though; I'm not sure if any of the buyable armor sets are better than the stuff you just find.

The most important consideration regarding leveling if you're playing online is PvP. 
My personal experience is entirely with the 360 console version, so adjust for what the PC Dark Souls community is like accordingly.

Got it from the Steam sale, rolled a sorcerer because lack of magic was what annoyed me the most playing as a Ranger in Demon's Souls (never finished that one btw, got stuck in geometry at a crucial point and kind of burned out).

edit: welp, controls seem to be horrible on the gamepad. I die constantly because the button presses don't register.

4 hours in, should've gotten the PS3 version. I refuse to believe that this game is actually worse than Demon's Souls. Has to be the port.

What problems are you having jak?

DSFix (http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/19) will sort out the low-resolution internal rendering and lets you tweak a few other things. If it's the controls, then I'd highly recommend getting an Xbox 360 controller. Really. I spent about 30 mins struggling with the mouse & kb, swapped to controller and it was night & day.

I'm stuck at the end of the Undead Parish. I cannot defeat either the Bell Gargoyle nor the Titanite Demon, but every single time I go human to summon Lautrec and Solaire or some actual humans to help me I get invaded almost instantly and pwned by some pvp wankstain. Much as I love the implementation of multiplayer in this it can be a total cockblock sometimes.

Oh well, moving house on Tuesday, packing PC's up today and then without internet for at least a week (thanks BT for fucking that up), so I'll return and try to find a way through this impasse in a week or two.

I think it's because sometimes the framerate tanks when there's a lot happening and I want to turn the view rapidly. It makes it much more difficult to do things like like locking onto an enemy or changing a weapon.  I read a bit and apparently the game sometimes has problems with ATI cards.

edit: the worst thing is that the game is still just as addictive. I'm torturing myself here.

edit: also I'm already using DSfix and a 360 pad.

Ah, ok. Yeah I get the occasional nasty framerate crash, so far though only when fighting bosses, i.e. the worst possible time!

You're right about the addictiveness, I'm supposed to be packing but instead I'm browsing the wiki & this thread  :awesome_for_real:

Waiting on a refund from Steam on this one. I have no idea what I was thinking other than "maybe they fixed stuff"
They haven't. I have no idea why I am surprised. Maybe I was little intoxicated when I purchased. I wasn't, but I tell myself I was to make myself feel better.

I can't even get the game to start. Even if I do get it to start, while trying to figure out how to get the game to maybe start I stumbled on lovely snippits of information like how wonderfully they implemented keyboard controls for this.
http://pcgamingwiki.com/images/7/79/Dark_Souls_controls_Tru3Magic.jpg (http://pcgamingwiki.com/images/7/79/Dark_Souls_controls_Tru3Magic.jpg) (url as I can't recall how to resize properlly with the img tag atm)
 :ye_gods:  :uhrr: :ye_gods: :uhrr: :ye_gods: :why_so_serious:

End key for menu, esc key does nothing. YESSSSSS.

Oh man. This game.

I got more spells, such a relief. Now I can cheese my way through many annoying things. Mecha Boar, Tower Knight and his buddies are toast but I'm afraid of the rooftop gargoyles. Also they must've patched the dragon, because he doesn't die even if I empty my entire spell inventory on his ass from under the bridge. Hopefully you can still win the Drake Sword by shooting his tail, must try it soon.

To defeat mecha-boar I got him to crash into a fire or torch or something towards the right wall as you face him. He charges into it, catches on fire and takes a ton of damage.

Are you also using the 60FPS unlock?

I just blasted him with Heavy Soul Arrow from the bridge above him.

No, there were all sorts of instability warnings so I got scared. But I'll try it if it might help!

I did that completely by accident, I was trying to plink him to death with my crappy light crossbow from the bridge and fell off. Thought I was fucked then noticed as he charged towards me he was on fire...and he died a millisecond before reaching me  :awesome_for_real:

Soon as I'm back online I'm going to have to explore earlier areas a bit better and get a proper bow and more spells for sure.

Guys. You run up the stairs to the walkway that has the 2 skellies on it. At the end, against the wall, there is a corpse. That corpse has alluring skulls. Look directly down, there is a bonfire. Throw one at the bonfire. Profit.

This time I got the master's key and got astora's sword and the elite and stone armor set. At the 10x10 room demon again, but I should be able to beat him easily this time. I'm going heavy in faith, though honestly I am not sure which weapon to use. I've already killed the butterfly so I need to pretty much pick a random weapon I guess!

I side stepped the boar and backstabbed it, which looks horrifying because you shove your arm literally up its ass. Also did you know that if you kill everyone there really fast you can make it through the gate before the one dredge shuts it? That was kinda cool.

I'm level 18 and the last thing I did last night was try the Capra demon (the one in a small room in lower Undead Burg with 2 dogs), he pretty much one shotted me.

Yeah, after I took a trip through valley of the drakes & darkroot, I was able to beat capra pretty easily. The extra armor is crazy useful and summoning people really really helps as well. Then I spent the next 2 hours being summoned to kill that asshole over and over again. It's so satisfying.

You can also pull everyone in the room with a bow, the dredge that shuts the gate does not respawn and is silly enough to charge you like the rest if you plink him.

So far that was the hardest part of the game for me. (I think I'm a little more than halfway through now)

Apparently you can throw stuff over the wall to kill the dogs before you go into the room.

What?  Oh man. :awesome_for_real:

The dogs are the worst part about Capra.

Wandered around again, accidentally killed the Titanite Demon and now I'm farming the stone knights in the garden thing. Two HSAs take one down real easy, and the plant things are just regular Soul Arrow fodder. I should probably try the Belltower Gargoyles but I'm still scared.

Bought the Magic Weapon buff spell, but it sucks total ass because the effect goes away if you switch weapons.

edit: the knights also dropped Great Stone Sword, a very rare drop that is useless to me. Of course.

I beat the gargoyles and the stone knights fucked me up.  Just chop off the tail and you'll be fine.  Gets you an axe, too.

I was using a Black Knight Sword, if that matters.  All others are number two or lower.

I have just a +5 shortsword, it's pretty ok with the Magic Weapon buff but not otherwise.

You'll just need to fall back on your player skill, then.

Heavy Soul Arrow is distilled talent, to the tune of 250 armor piercing damage per hit.  :awesome_for_real:

You can summon an NPC to help with the gargoyle fight if you have humanity. He can tank them for you pretty easily.

You can summon two NPCs if you're friends with Lautrec.  :oh_i_see:

I found my first Crystal Lizard and immediately upon sighting the game crashed. I hope it'll still be there.

edit: totally got the lizard and then proceeded to kill the gargoyles. Lautrec and the sun dude did help a bit though.

Trying Capra Demon now, it's like the boss itself is the smallest annoyance. Really long corpse run, soul income carefully balanced so you can't buy stuff on the way without backtracking. Boss fight happens in a phone booth where probably half of your deaths are because of the camera freaking out. Sucks that it's a mandatory fight.

http://www.twitch.tv/logothx/c/1741213

I love this game.

The camera is actually the boss, Capra Demon is just his minion.

Run straight up the stairs the instant you enter the room and you can kinda start a game of of ring around the rosy; picking off the dogs and avoiding the capra demon.

One of the dogs had RNGd itself to the stairs and reset there every time when I tried.

I just summoned someone for help. That is the best and easiest way.

For real.  If you are beating your head against a tough fight, summon a bro or two and just focus on keeping yourself alive.  While you can clear every fight in the game solo, if you're determined enough, summoning help in for tough fights is a core mechanic which you are strongly encouraged to make use of.

I now have the Tin Banishment Catalyst, so I shall have to see if that's enough to turn the tide. Also I can now wear partial Elite Knight's Armor without getting encumbered, which should help survivability. I hate other people in my Souls, so I won't summon them except in the direst of circumstances.

Did you start with the skeleton key? If so, take the tower down and kill havel for his ring (lure him up the steps, dodge back when he attacks then run up and kick him off the edge about 5 times). I also did a quick run through darkmoon for some extra / new armor which made a world of difference. A WORLD of difference. So much so I'm repeating it twice on one page.

Yeah, I'm using the skeleton key. Havel seemed to be vulnerable to cheesing around the tower's bottom entrance when I last encountered him, but I didn't try killing him.

Where is this Darkmoon, or do you mean Darkroot?

Sorry, darkroot, yeah. Basically, you kill havel, walk outside and then run around and collect items. There are two sets of good armor there (elite knight set & stone set) which you can get to just by being careful. I actually knew the way so after I had gotten astora's short sword and the shield from the valley of the drakes (down from firelink then over) I worked my way from havel's tower down to darkroot basin's bonfire and then back up; I actually killed the hydra and moonlight butterfly and took the waterfall ladder around and cleared out darkroot before I went back to kill capra wearing half stone half elite knight set because I hated it so much.

Because I was/am going faith, I got the divine ember from moonlight and then got and upgraded a claymore to divine once I got it in the burg, and then used the eagle shield from blighttown. I'm doing pretty well. I was streaming and some folks watching me led me through / mentioned a few other things I could have done right at the start, I went for the compartively sucky astora's sword when I could have just gotten the gravelord sword, for example.

Heh, that guy helped the arrow vendor buy his first vacation home.

Edit to say that I suddenly realized that I have a lot of things to do in this game that are not Sen's Fortress. :oh_i_see:

Arrows? I prefer nudity to solve my problems. (As in, since he one shots me anyway I stripped naked to get extra speed and just outmanuevered / killed him)

Being sans-internet for the last 2 weeks I ended up having to kill the Capra demon solo. Took me about 25 goes. I was elated when I finally managed it!

Now I'm going to try for the Gaping Dragon. Had a couple of attempts that weren't too bad, I think I just need to learn the timings better to stay out of his frontal attack area. Good job it turns so slowly :)

I killed the Capra demon on my second try using the aoe attack on a +3 halberd to kill the dogs.  The gaping dragon took me about fifteen tries, though.

Gaping dragon? Really? I killed him on the second try, at times he literally just stands there with his ass in your face letting you hit him.

Hardest boss for me was a semi-secret one:


I'm not sure if maybe I went back there too early in terms of items and levels.

Also for a while I was wearing armor that was heavy enough to make my movement/rolling slow without realizing it.

For the Gaping Dragon make sure you're at minimum encumbrance, naked is fine.  No armor you have at that point will actually let you go toe to toe with him any way.  Then just learn his animations and don't be there when the attacks happen.


edit: Because knowledge is power: below 25% of your weight limit is minimum encumbrance.  50% and 75% are similar plateaus. 

Has anyone else discovered that this game is just too heavy to play on weeknights? Gonna take a while, only playing this on weekends.

Fuck yeah, I killed the Capra! The catalyst spear one shotted the dogs and then the Capra got all confused and I was able to kite him while blasting Great Soul Arrows in his face.

Now I'm exploring the sewers, a confusing place to say the least. I fell down a hole and it took me like half an hour to find my way out. How do you fight the giant rat btw, there always seems to be a grate in the way.

Well done with the Capra demon :)

The sewers are very confusing yeah. Watch out for the basilisks (frogs), their steam cloud thing is potentially very nasty. I cheesed the giant rat by plinking arrows into it through the gap at the top of the grate and then later on found a way in to loot the corpse... can't remember where exactly :/

Thanks, it felt pretty good.  :awesome_for_real:

The basilisks are pretty easy, as I found the curse resistant Crimson Robes along with the catalyst.

I haven't gone to Anor Londo yet. I did this boss before Gaping Dragon I think, or maybe right afterwards. I probably tried 20+ times. I think I finally beat him with a combination of figuring out my armor was too heavy, learning his attacks better and swapping in some magic resist gear.

Edit: basilisks are easy but if you do get cursed it really really sucks. I got cursed once and that put the fear of god in me.

Stray demon isn't so bad. Use light armor and just stay behind or beside him during his explosion attack. Once you get the rhythm down it's a piece of cake.

http://www.darksoulsii.com/

!!!

This makes me happy in ways I can't put into words. I was thinking about Dark Souls the other day, and how deeply into it I was exactly one year ago. And how sad I was that it would have been years before I could even hope for a sequel. And here it is. Literally best gaming news for me since, well, Dark Souls.

Seems like I should quote my post from the useless gaming news thread:

I share the fear. New director is NEVER good when the old one is responsible for achieving the impossible. If the new directors' first words speak of something that belongs to "any other game", how can we not be worried that this won't be what the two previous DS have been? It's not that I don't want to be able to understand things better, it's just that I know this will be different. Good different? I would be the happiest, but my money are on "no".

I'm terrified. The ambiguity of the first two really added to the feeling of mystery and exploration. Making the game easier to understand would really take away part of what makes the franchise so amazing.

Sounds like an attempt to widen the appeal, which unfortunately will probably result in diluting the magic potion.

It must be a dilemma for From because every single review of Dark/Demons Souls goes to great lengths to say how harsh, brutal, unforgiving, difficult, hardcore the game is, which will alienate a huge number of people. The opacity of the games is a large part of the difficulty, but also what makes them what they are.

I'm not worried because the first game probably never should've existed anyway. Gamers got lucky.

Kinda hoping they release a screenshot with a radial menu in it so I can watch some game forums self-immolate.

Personally I think the series could do with better explanations of what stats do and less hidden stats.

For example, resistance is a stupid stat that you shouldn't waste souls on, and poise is a "hidden" stat that shouldn't be hidden. You have fucking items like the wolf ring that reference poise but no explanation of what it is.  Having to read a wiki to understand how just about anything works isn't a great feature.

Yeah, that's not what scares me. And I wouldn't mind a less anticlimatic ending. But changing director means changing much more than that. Basically, you are inevitably messing with the style, the mood, and who knows what else. Which is much much more important than any stupid stat in D*Souls.

I imagine DS2 will be a bit more linear, have a more hand-holdy exposition laced story, and probably some sort of combat/stat/inventory overhauls that will put people who liked the last two games into a snit but I imagine they'll still nail the difficulty/play style overall.

I dunno, From Software's games are all over the place and I fear the Souls series merely stumbled on their magic formula.

On the subject of the last boss:


Edit:
Totally agree.

I beat it, and I had the exact same feeling about the ending. I was informed that the story is told through item descriptions. What the fuck?

I was also expecting a final dungeon of sorts after going down the 4 paths, not walking directly into the end boss and having beaten it 10 minutes later. But the zone was really cool looking, I wish they had done more with it.

Final verdict: Fun, and some creepy parts, especially tomb of the giants, but it's nothing compared to the terrified creepy jail of demon's souls. The bosses were less interesting and way more bullshit, like capra and half a dozen variations of big guy in a small room. I liked the bonfire system a lot more and I feel it made the world seem more real and connected, but I liked the "story" or at least the setting of demon's souls more.

It bumped me directly into NG+, and I've kept it installed and am doing small parts. My character continues to get stronger as I play NG+ since I'm using a BSS +15 and eagle shield with 30 faith and 16 INT for greater magic weapon / sunlight weapon; I spread out a lot of my points but since I pump them into dex my damage started scaling through the roof as I finished the game. I think I finished at SL 80 or so. I'd like to do painted world and the tree and the DLC zones that I never saw on my first play through.

I know, I know... IGN link - but gameplay footage revealed and it looks a lot like Dark Souls.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/dark-souls-2-gameplay-reveal-coming

Looks like Dark Souls.  Which is a very good thing. 

Would rather it look like Demon's Souls.

Rise from the dead like a Catacombs skeleton!

I figured I'd continue my babbling here, seeing as how I've put 25 hours in this game over the last week.

I'm still afraid of Sen's Fortress, so last night I went and cleared the Catacombs (double crystal lizard ftw!) and one shotted Pinwheel (that was easy!). Raw Halberd +3 seems pretty excellent, allows me early damage and a chance to gather mats to upgrade something nice and two handed for divine damage later (perhaps BK axe or sword?). I did update a regular ass battleaxe to divine for catacombs, but it kinda sucks ass. Is there any way of getting at least some of the mats back? Doesn't really matter though, as I'm still flush with lewts from Snuggly.

Next up is something, maybe I can brave Sen's or give the Hydra a try. Any gear recommendations for a str/faith build at this point in the game?

If your faith is high enough for Wrath of the Gods and you have a light source I'd risk Tomb of Giants far enough to rescue Rhea and buy that spell.  That area can be kind of annoying though if you go too early.

Man, I hate the Tomb of the Giants. I made it through Sen's Fortress not too bad, but that place just kicked my ass for some reason.

Hrm, fought my way up Sen's, killed everything sans the boss and the basement and freed the wizard dude. Upgraded to Raw +5 and fools are going down. However, I seem to have triggered a bug with Siegmeyer as I forgot to talk to him outside since I did it on my first save that got nuked. Now he's just sitting in the boulder area and not talking to me.  :heartbreak:

I also semi randomly killed Ceaseless Discharge, he's trivial to cheese using the small path forking off from the main combat arena. He just kept tentacling at me and I poked with the Halberd. Is the rest of Demon Ruins difficult? I boned out with my loot as soon as some sort of a gribbly started running at me.




 

I normally don't go past Ceaseless until I have the Lordvessel.  Mostly because backtracking on replays sucks.

I'd head for Ash Lake if you need twinkling titanite, or for the Painted World of Ariamis as it's a good spot to farm up souls if you are looking at weapon switching and haven't hoarded what you need.

Cool, seems it was the right choice to head for Anor Londo then. I killed the Gargoyles and got the black armor set, which I think shall me my next thing to wear (it seems perfect for the bridge dragon, time for some payback). I got a crapload of 2H weapons that could potentially be made divine, but for now the halberd is still kicking ass.

Yes, get the Lordvessel before you go to Ash Lake, unless you like slipping from narrow paths to your death.

I didn't feel like running the archer gauntlet in Anor Londo so I wandered around, killing the wolf and the hydra. Then got my ass kicked by some black cat dog beasty.

I'm way too tired now, but tomorrow I think I'll try and see if Force works on the stupid archer knight dudes.

Real Dark Souls begins now! :awesome_for_real:

I hope not, because it's a sorry excuse for a platforming level. I came here to fight, not fall off ledges once every three minutes when I'm not corpse running.

fake edit: yes, I spent some time trying to get to them today.




 

Whew, finally got past the stupid archers. For some reason none of the guide videos worked for me, had to do it my own way. Now it's back to awesomeness, the castle feels really creepy. I'm getting good at killing mimics.

When is an appropriate time to go to the Painted World? IIRC you're not able to get out until you clear it, so I hesitate.

Not knowing what it was I got sucked into the painted world as soon as I got there. It's not that hard (other then the crow men) so you should be able to do it now if you're far into anor londo. There is a black phantom there though that you can only do the first time you enter, so make sure you have a few humanity sprites before you go in.

You don't actually have to kill the area boss to leave, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to go back and kill BP Jeremiah on a later trip if you wanted to. 

I went in there by accident without a fire weapon and it went... poorly.

On the other hand, it's a decent place to get souls.  I don't know about Jerry the Q-Tip returning, but you don't have to defeat the boss to leave.  I think you can even skip the midboss.

The Phalanx is awesome for farming souls once you open up the big door at the beginning.

You're ready for the painted world as soon as you can reach it.  You have to unlock some things to leave but that's not as hard as the stuff you have to do to get there in the first place.  You don't have to kill any bosses either.  The most annoying parts for me are the risk of going toxic from the walking pimples and the spikey wheel guys in the tunnels.
This is the reason to make a point of stopping here early.  If you don't need the souls or are opposed to leveling up then no reason to prioritize the painted world.

Yeah that's right.  Toxin.  I can't remember if the Spider shield helps here, but wear the witch robes.

Wheel skeletons are not a problem once you know where they are.

Phalanx isn't hard, just annoying and a crappy homage to the first boss in Demon's Souls.  You can probably firebomb him for old times' sake.

I crafted Artorias' Greatshield and Quelaag's Furysword and went to the Painted World. Everything seems to die pretty easily (to the Raw Halberd +5, what's in there that needs fire?), save for the crow dudes who are a bit of a learning process. I'm also gathering a fuckload of souls since it's easy to retry clearing out the pimple men without getting toxic. I have a bunch of the purple stuff for emergencies but as always I'm reluctant to use it.

Well, since you're past the archers I'm not sure how interesting the rest of this is. :why_so_serious:

Smough & Orrenburger seem like a really good opportunity for foaming at the mouth, so stay tuned for that once I get out of the painting.
 

I need to start this up again and try to get deeper into it with a guide. I got distracted the first time I played it when it came out and haven't really had the time to get back into it.

My advice is to kill the fat one last on the first playthrough, then the fat one first on NG+.  Or maybe I have that reversed.  Probably what I said.  I think Smough is probably an asshole on NG+.

Yeah same here, don't think I even got past Blighttown.

This totally makes the Painted World a cakewalk.

I think I killed the fat one first, as I wanted the weapon that the skinny one dropped.

I actually never realized you can avoid toxicity by burning the pimple men. Turns out the halberd's max range is enough to keep you healthy if you're careful.

I have to confess that I have never managed to kill Smough and Orrenburger by myself. I always had to use a humanity and then summon another person. I have played through the game 3 times.

Have you upgraded your beginner weapon?

Welp I roflstomped Smossen and Ornstorg on my first try, helped by Solaire cos I was human and his sign was there. Greatshield of Artorias just plain stopped all their attacks, even the big ass butt smash from super Smough wasn't enough to go more than 25% of health past my block.

Have I perhaps overleveled in my ocd'ness of scouring every nook and cranny? Soul level 67 atm.

This is becoming a bit of a monologue, but I placed the Lordvessel and wandered all over the place. Tried to fight 4 Kings, but my attacks wouldn't connect for some weird reason. Perhaps a bug? Disappointed by that so I went up and am now clearing the Duke's Archive. Poison arrows are worth their weight in gold against the stupid wizards.
 

67 is a bit high for Smossen and Ornstorg, but not outrageous by any means.  Not many people have the Greatshield of Artorias and the strength to use it by that point, that would make things quite a bit easier.

The four kings may have awkward hitboxes for a halberd, assuming you're still using that.  I wouldn't know specifically, I hated the halberd and never used it seriously.

Out of curiosity: are you using any sorcery/miracle/pyromancy or just plowing all your souls into strength/endurance/vitality?

I'm focusing on strength and faith, and I'm favoring endurance over vitality (the only HP you need is the last one!).

The halberd does have some issues with hitboxes, I had to attack Smough slightly from the side to avoid poking between his legs. Other than that I'm loving the weapon, it's got incredible reach and works in small spaces. The two handed heavy attack is a great aoe, had great fun instagibbing up to six phalanxes in Ariamis. I love the weapon so much that last night I even made a divine Gargoyle Halberd just so I could use one (getting to the point where my stats scale better than the Raw upgrade). It seems the game noticed my obsession as well, since I got a Giant Halberd off of one of the guards in Anor Londo. Now for some twinkling titanite.  :awesome_for_real:  

:awesome_for_real:

I think the more important thing when selecting a weapon is one that fits your style.  I have heard of crazy assholes that use the painting guardian "sword", probably the same ones that wear the ninja suit.  Personally, I like the black knight sword.  I'm planning on raising stats eventually so I can use something bigger (and giant armor), but so far it's just perfect.

Claymore all the way baby! 

Uchigatana. My favorite weapon move set from Demons and Dark souls.

Started a second playthrough getting this weapon early on, made me wonder why I did my first playthrough with the zweihander.

I didn't really try any of the other large straight swords since the BKS is just so much more powerful, but maybe I can check out the uchigatana.  I think it's curved.

It is curved. It has fantastic reach, and swings very fast. Every other long sword feels slow after using the Uchigatana.

I'll have to cut back on Dark Souls for a few days because of other stuff, but for some reason I'm already planning my return to Demon's Souls. I wonder if it'll feel any different now.

Mana feels different.

Don't forget the satisfying bleed proc

It has low durability though so make sure to carry repair powders.

I have a flu so I played this for a while again. The golems in Crystal Caves were way too resistant of my Occult Halberd (what works best?) so I descended to Demon Ruins and killed the Firesage dude. Went inside Centipede's lair and got smooshed trying to poison him.

It's monologue time again, but I totally killed the Bed of Chaos! The fight wasn't what I was expecting, but feels good anyway. Next up is Four Kings, maybe this time I can hit them. 

Necro, but just figured I'd post that Dark Souls is free for XBL Gold subs right now.