Demon's Souls - Spoilers are Harsh. Evaluate me

[Arinon]

The cling ring is the only real set of training wheels in the game. I didn't even carry it on my third character.

I'll get to that point but right now I've past 'Man this ring is awesome' and landed on 'I wish I could mix and match some of the these other rings but some shit can one shot me if I do'.  The fact that I didn't reach that point until I'm about to cap off a second character is why I see it as an issue.  If it took say 3/4 of your first game I'd be more on board with that kind of reasoning.

I was trying to pay attention to world tendency this go round and pure white world tendency is a bitch.  Lots of ways to force a retry in NG+.  Are there seriously no repeatable white world hits other then capping someone who invades your game?

[Morfiend]

The cling ring is the only real set of training wheels in the game. I didn't even carry it on my third character.

I'll get to that point but right now I've past 'Man this ring is awesome' and landed on 'I wish I could mix and match some of the these other rings but some shit can one shot me if I do'.  The fact that I didn't reach that point until I'm about to cap off a second character is why I see it as an issue.  If it took say 3/4 of your first game I'd be more on board with that kind of reasoning.

I was trying to pay attention to world tendency this go round and pure white world tendency is a bitch.  Lots of ways to force a retry in NG+.  Are there seriously no repeatable white world hits other then capping someone who invades your game?

From the Wiki: http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/world-tendency

[Falconeer]

I did my homeworks and I'd say that unless you knew it beforehand, and because of that played very carefully and left a world boss alive, you can't really go back to white world tendency unless you kill some invading player.
That's why now I am spending hours reading a book while idling at the beginning of Stonefang Tunnels waiting for some invaders to bring me my white hits.

No luck so far.

[Arinon]

That guide is what I was following, just sorta spaced out on the first world I tried it on and rezzed part way through a run so it's totally my fault.  It's funny, I stood around farming spiderstone waiting for an invader last night too but after about 45 minutes gave up on it.  Next character or NG+ for me, too much fun doing other shit.

[Falconeer]

What's your soul level? Maybe we could invade me and then I can invade you in return.

[Morfiend]

What's your soul level? Maybe we could invade me and then I can invade you in return.

I have a SL45 Mage, 80 Blueblood, and 98 Wanderer. Any of those work?

[Falconeer]

Mmmmmm the more I think of it, the least I think it is doable. Like, if I try to invade from Stonefang, there's no way I can choose to end up in your world. I'll be randomly threw in anyone else playing there in that level range.

We should try it, by arranging a time and a date. What's the name of your 80 and 90? I am Lefteye by the way.

[Morfiend]

My 80 is Vaunt, and my 90 is Morv. Although I just thought of something. I think they have a block in place to stop just this kind of thing. Once you invade some one, you dont seem to be able to invade them again. If I invade someone, and then go back to my world, if I try to invade again, I often get Break in Failed, cause nothing in my level range.

Maybe if I invaded, and then you zoned to the nexus and back it would reset the invade timers.

[Falconeer]

That is something worth a try. I am heading out in like 3 minutes, otherwise some testing right now would have been nice. What about later today, 4 hours and 30 minutes from now? Are we friends on PSNetwork? I am falconeer there, easy to find. Once logged in should be easy to chat with the PS3 messenger.

[Morfiend]

I am at work for the next 6ish hours or so.

[PalmTrees]

The more I play the game, the less I like it. Just too difficult for me. After a zillion tries still can't be the Maneaters. Said to hell with and went to 4-1, those rolling knights were just as bad. If they just used checkpoints instead of starting over I might keep going. But having to replay the same areas over and over again, having to go back to easy areas and farm souls to buy potions, ...it's all just too repetitive for me.

Oh, and the way corpses have no weight and just get caught around your feet like stray newspaper just bugs me.

[Morfiend]

The more I play the game, the less I like it. Just too difficult for me. After a zillion tries still can't be the Maneaters. Said to hell with and went to 4-1, those rolling knights were just as bad. If they just used checkpoints instead of starting over I might keep going. But having to replay the same areas over and over again, having to go back to easy areas and farm souls to buy potions, ...it's all just too repetitive for me.

Oh, and the way corpses have no weight and just get caught around your feet like stray newspaper just bugs me.

Honestly, you shouldnt play the levels in order. Generally the x-1 are the easy ones. As for the rolling knights. They are simple. Just block their roll and if a side swing, block that and then attack. If its the overhead chop, back out of range and then move forward to attack after they miss you. If you are fining a level to hard, go to a different one until you get a few more soul levels.

Also, I feel your pain on Maneater. That was the boss that gave me the most problems also.

What type of character are you playing?

[Falconeer]

4-1 is a tough level in my opinion. If you tackle that too soon you are going to have a hard time.
I was there at soul level 40 or something and it wasn't easy at all.

Better do something else before you are confident and geared up.

Grinding for potions means you have to train harder, cause soon you won't need them anymore other than for boss battles, and not because your character gets stronger but because YOU will get better. Change your approach to enemies, change your style, change your weapon maybe. All weapons are good, they just have different characteristics so you could be more confident with something else, not to mention certain enemies are better faced with certain weapons.

If it isn't for you it isn't for you. But this is THE game!

[ghost]

It seems like it is a good idea to run through a level multiple times to grind out some soul levels before progressing on. 

[schild]

The more I play the game, the less I like it. Just too difficult for me. After a zillion tries still can't be the Maneaters. Said to hell with and went to 4-1, those rolling knights were just as bad. If they just used checkpoints instead of starting over I might keep going. But having to replay the same areas over and over again, having to go back to easy areas and farm souls to buy potions, ...it's all just too repetitive for me.

Oh, and the way corpses have no weight and just get caught around your feet like stray newspaper just bugs me.

I'm pretty sure my review said you (and everyone else) would be a worthless, horrible player (only in more words) the first time through. My second serious business character beat more than half the game without dying. Just to put things in perspective. Your first character is a learning experience, stop sweating it.

[ghost]

Okay, I'm at peace with the fact that I royally suck at this game. 

The packs of dogs are now kicking my butt.

[schild]

The packs of dogs are now kicking my butt.

Oh man do they suck the first time through.

And by suck I mean they eat your face.

[PalmTrees]

Honestly, you shouldnt play the levels in order. Generally the x-1 are the easy ones. As for the rolling knights. They are simple. Just block their roll and if a side swing, block that and then attack. If its the overhead chop, back out of range and then move forward to attack after they miss you. If you are fining a level to hard, go to a different one until you get a few more soul levels.

Also, I feel your pain on Maneater. That was the boss that gave me the most problems also.

What type of character are you playing?

My char is a magician. But ranged hasn't work too well on 4-1 so far. By the time the knights are in lock-on range (which is annoyingly short), they can usually close the distance faster than cast time. If I'm real quick and get them at max lock-on range then I can one shot them with flamethrower. They're so close their corpse collapses on top of me and hangs off my shoulder like a half-passed out drunken friend. So I've been having to bust out the sword more often.

That mini-boss past the gate was lol, never responded to my ranged attacks. Kinda like those lava beetle thingies. Just stood there and died.

I've finished 1-1,2. 2-1,2. 3-1,2 (except maneater). So it's either 4 or 5 or repeat content and I'm sick of repeating. I'll probably peek at 5 tonight, see what's what.

[Azuredream]

My char is a magician. But ranged hasn't work too well on 4-1 so far. By the time the knights are in lock-on range (which is annoyingly short), they can usually close the distance faster than cast time. If I'm real quick and get them at max lock-on range then I can one shot them with flamethrower. They're so close their corpse collapses on top of me and hangs off my shoulder like a half-passed out drunken friend. So I've been having to bust out the sword more often.

That mini-boss past the gate was lol, never responded to my ranged attacks. Kinda like those lava beetle thingies. Just stood there and died.

I've finished 1-1,2. 2-1,2. 3-1,2 (except maneater). So it's either 4 or 5 or repeat content and I'm sick of repeating. I'll probably peek at 5 tonight, see what's what.

For me the silver skeletons were one of those monsters that are easier in melee (my character is a royal). I found they only do the BARRELROLL if you're more than a few feet away. When I slapped on the rune sword instead of trying to kill them with magic they were much easier to handle. By the way, 2-3 isn't actually a level, it's just a boss, and 1-3 isn't that hard for a magic type, the toughest part is the three red knights at the end.

4-2 is kicking my ass, those lazer beam guys by the second reaper take like 10 shots to die and rushing to the reaper never works for me either. I haven't tried 5-1, how hard is it? I've done 1-1:3, 2-1:3, 3-1, and 4-1.

[Morfiend]

My char is a magician. But ranged hasn't work too well on 4-1 so far.

Fairly early in 4-1 you can pick up a Crescent Falchon +1 that will make life SOOOOO much easer for you. After you pass the first fog, and run down the tunnel to your left (the one with the trap) you can make another left and there is a duel wielding black skeleton, they are a bitch to kill, after you kill him it will be on a corpse right there. It does magic damage (so bypasses shields) also its damage is modified by your magic skill. I am not kidding when I say this will make your life easer. It will make your character able to melee REALLY well.

Also on that level you can get a large shield, I forget the name, that has a picture on it. Use this shield. Even if it says you dont have the stats for it, that only gimps your "shield attack". You still get all the defensive bonuses from it.

The combination of these two items on 41 will REALLY help. If you are having problems you can send me a message on PSN (name Morfiend) and I can try to bring one of my characters to help you getting them.

These two items will really make a difference, I can not stress this enough.

[Arinon]

I usually hit up 5-1 for the blessed mace +1 or whatever it's called or you can even use the standard blunt weapon you get really early in that level.  Unless your melee stats are anemic that weapon type will stagger them and you can 2-3 hit them in sword-and-board configuration.

4-2 is kicking my ass, those lazer beam guys by the second reaper take like 10 shots to die and rushing to the reaper never works for me either.

After you kill the first beam guy there you can do a near 180 and look down and snipe the reaper from there.  Probably need a bow for it though.

[Azuredream]

I usually hit up 5-1 for the blessed mace +1 or whatever it's called or you can even use the standard blunt weapon you get really early in that level.  Unless your melee stats are anemic that weapon type will stagger them and you can 2-3 hit them in sword-and-board configuration.

4-2 is kicking my ass, those lazer beam guys by the second reaper take like 10 shots to die and rushing to the reaper never works for me either.

After you kill the first beam guy there you can do a near 180 and look down and snipe the reaper from there.  Probably need a bow for it though.

Do I snipe from where I kill the beam guy or from where he respawns? I've read the same thing and I do have a bow but I can never find him and usually spend 5 minutes killing the same beam guy over and over looking for him until I get frustrated and just go the long way to get him (usually meeting my demise either to an unblocked beam, or a backstabbing phantom, or the beam+reaper at the end).

After I upped and equipped the Crescent Falchion I can kill the phantoms a lot easier. The contribution it gets from magic stat made it a fair bit better than the Rune Sword I was using.

[PalmTrees]

Fairly early in 4-1 you can pick up a Crescent Falchon +1 that will make life SOOOOO much easer for you. After you pass the first fog, and run down the tunnel to your left (the one with the trap) you can make another left and there is a duel wielding black skeleton, they are a bitch to kill, after you kill him it will be on a corpse right there. It does magic damage (so bypasses shields) also its damage is modified by your magic skill. I am not kidding when I say this will make your life easer. It will make your character able to melee REALLY well.

Also on that level you can get a large shield, I forget the name, that has a picture on it. Use this shield. Even if it says you dont have the stats for it, that only gimps your "shield attack". You still get all the defensive bonuses from it.

The combination of these two items on 41 will REALLY help. If you are having problems you can send me a message on PSN (name Morfiend) and I can try to bring one of my characters to help you getting them.

These two items will really make a difference, I can not stress this enough.

Thanks for the tips. My main problem is dying in two hits to boss mobs and then having to run back from the beginning, even if the route is shorter once you've cleared the level. God if I ever go thru that gargoyle, bug thing, 2nd gargoyle then phantom mind-flayer on the stairs of 3-2 again I'm gonna go up a tower and start shooting people.

Already got the falchion, but it's not as good as my moon short sword +4, though I've started swapping in the falchion to augment my fragrant ring's mana regen. The black skel went down with two flame spells, never got close to me. Thankfully he was facing the other way, got the drop on him. Once I get some darkmoonstone I have a +6 shortsword waiting to be upgraded. I like the short sword's R2 thrusting attack better than the falchion's slash.

I'd already found out that shield protection doesn't change if you don't have the strength and I'm currently using a soldier's shield+7, requires 10 str, but I have 9. The picture shield is too heavy and will gimp my rolling. (And I didn't like the way it looked.)

Liked the voice acting on the crow, kinda funny.

If they either doubled your hp or halved dmg so you could make more than one mistake this would be a great game, for me at any rate. (And checkpoints.)

[schild]

If they either doubled your hp or halved dmg so you could make more than one mistake this would be a great game, for me at any rate. (And checkpoints.)

It wouldn't be the same game, even a little. in fact, that would make the game too damn easy. The only things I ran into the whole game that could kill me in one attack was: The Red Eye Knight the first time through, the lost hero, and the dragon god. Everyone else leaves you with at LEAST a sliver. Oh, and the phantom in the 5-2 swamp. Even the tutorial boss takes 2 hits to kill your character, and you're not even supposed to beat him.

[Azuredream]

My Royal gets one-shotted by the 4-2 beam guys if I don't partially block it and I'm in Soul Form. The Reaper, if he magic hits you or melees without it being blocked also one shots me in Soul Form. Penetrator also is a one shot if he connects, falling of course is an instagib, the phantoms in 4-2 if they backstab you is a oneshot.. that's just off the top of my head.

[Morfiend]

My main problem is dying in two hits to boss mobs and then having to run back from the beginning, even if the route is shorter once you've cleared the level.

Protection, and Total Protection are godly. Also, you might want to consider pumping some stats in to Vitality if you havent. If you don't like the attack animation of the Falchon type weapons, you should get an Uchigatana and upgrade that to Crescent. The slashing animation is really fast and it has great reach.

I would bypass a shortsword and go for a longsword or even try for a Knight sword. They both have the same animations and speed, but longer reach and damage. But thats just the min-maxer in me.

Crescent is the best weapon for Magic users. Due to having an //A/ rating.

[PalmTrees]

Ok, is 1-3 the pk hangout or something? Had my first invasion there. Beat the guy. Then less than a minute later there was a second invasion. He killed me. Pulled the cable and went into offline mode so I could play.

[schild]

There's something about Demon's Souls in the new Famitsu but the douchenozzles at NeoGAF are too interested in the new fucking Lunar game (ugh, bleh, remake) to post the DS stuff. I'll post it here when they do.

[Falconeer]

Ok, is 1-3 the pk hangout or something?

Yes, because it's a tight map, easy to find players and to avoid getting mobganked along the way.

[Morfiend]

Ok, is 1-3 the pk hangout or something? Had my first invasion there. Beat the guy. Then less than a minute later there was a second invasion. He killed me. Pulled the cable and went into offline mode so I could play.

1-3, 4-1 and 4-2 are the main PK levels. Best thing is to just grab 2 blue phantoms at the start. I find playing 1-3 with 2x blue phantoms to be the most fun level in the game. Thats how I got my character to pure white tendency. The other option is to suicide in the nexus and just play it in soul form.

[Hayduke]

Yay finally arrived today.  You guys weren't kidding though, it's pretty tough.

[Typhon]

Only at first, and only so long as you care about keeping souls.  Once you let that go and concentrate on controlling your character it gets easier.  Not "easy", mind you, just easier.

... that said, I definitely said 5 or 6 times (ok 20), "FUCKING GAME SUCKS!!! WHAT KIND OF SICK SADISTIC FUCK HEAD DESIGNED THIS PEICE OF SHIT!!!!11!1!"

[ghost]

This game is starting to feel a bit like running through Karazahn.  I keep re-running through stuff to get my soul level up a little more to handle the next level.  Grindey. 

[schild]

http://www.fromsoftware.jp/090522/

So. they're announcing a new game. I would assume if it were Demon's Souls 2, this would be a splash page on the SCEI site. Other possibilities include:

The good:
Chromehounds 2 (5% chance of this happening)
King's Field (5% - this would be a way to make a Demon's Souls like game for other systems as Sony owns the DS IP)
Otogi  3 (1% - This game never sold well anywhere (Xbox Only), I would kill for a next-gen one though)
Something New (14% - The Most exciting Possibility IMO)

The OK (these two are only in the OK category because Enchanted Arms exists as a possibility):
Armored Core: Crappy Subtitle (25%)
Ace Combat: Who Cares Edition (25%)

The Unbelievably Poopy:
Enchanted Arms 2 (25% - Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck bleh)

The Depressing:
Demon's Souls (0% - I just don't see it happening this fast, unfortunately)

Edit: I'm choosing to ignore Tenchu. Every single goddamn release has been a bugfest. If you twist my arm on it though, it's probably an 80% chance of being Tenchu. Also, 0% on Ninja Blade, if you're wondering.

[Velorath]

Ace Combat: Who Cares Edition (25%)

Ace Combat isn't done by From Software.