Demon's Souls Coming to America.

[Falconeer]

I have two or three stages left. What I gather from the story is that there's some evil entity (forgot his name) responsible for the fog that the monumentals have been keeping in check.. apparently, the king of boletaria fucked shit up or something, opened pandora's box, dabbled with demon magic, and that's what brought the fog back. A bunch of knights and heroes entered the fog to try to put an end to it.. and you're one of them. Except, not really, I guess. You don't have to be. You can be an opportunist, and just end up like Yurt or Patches too. Other than that, there's the "grey" elements to the story.. like the Witch, the Maiden, and the Sage, who try to walk a fine line and balance demon magic in a less malignant way.. and there's also Urbain and his religious faction who are completely against magic. And I don't even know wtf Astraea's deal was. Seemed like she got too close for comfort, and became a demon herself in some kind of.. harmless way, I guess. Garn seemed devoted to her, so he followed suit. You kill him nonetheless because you need the phat lootz.

I like this.

[Kageh]

She sold her soul when the demons came, so she can stay there with the sick and diseased and tend to them. However, the whole world is perverted and going to hell, and she isn't going to change that by hanging out longer in the mud with bloody fetuses. The Valley of Defilement isn't like it should be, it's the same twisted variant that has also happened to Boletaria or Stonefang, for example. You're there to fight the demons, and she's one of them.

BIG STORY/ENDING SPOILER:


I'll do a complete story write-up today for Stray and whoever is interested.

[Yegolev]

Now I find myself seriously considering Phalanx's motivations and back story.  Thanks, fuckers.

[Elerion]

Demon's Souls has an amazing setting. It does not have much story to speak of.

[Pennilenko]

I got a chance to play this at a friends house, it smacked us all around like little bitches and made us ask for more.

[stray]

Demon's Souls has an amazing setting. It does not have much story to speak of.

That's all I mean basically. I'm not really holding that against it too much. I mean, I'd say the same for Soul Calibur too.. Yet, I love SC. I just expect more from an RPG.

[schild]

You are making terrible comparisons and only doing so because Demon's Souls doesn't spell it all out for you.

What you really want to say is "I don't get it, HALP" not "The story isn't thick, but that's fine, rationalize rationalize rationalize"

[Nonentity]

So, I'm probably 13-14 hours in at this point in the american version. I started off as Royalty, and I'm hovering around soul level 40-50ish at this point. I cheesed out the dragon on 1-2, got the Purple Flame Shield, and that's sitting at around +5 right now. I also have a Winged Spear upgraded to a Moon Winged Spear +2 or +3 at this point. I read up on world tendencies, and got world 2 to Pure Black, got myself a Talisman of the Beast, and then made it Pure White by finishing off the 2-2 boss. I have a Compound Long Bow upgraded to a Sticky Compound Long Bow +3 (used to be Viscous).

At this point, I still don't quite understand it. Most of the stuff I've been learning has been through someone mentioning it online, or in a FAQ, and then going and checking it out ingame. This game is fighting my impatience every step of the way. Every time I'm impatient even just a little bit, I step on an arrow trap without being in the right spot, or a skeleton will get some jab in or something.

I'm sure schild's argument of 'LOL UR BAD' sounds right, but I don't feel like I'm bad at the game. I'm getting the hang of dodging around, using melee, archery and spells all in combination, swapping rings, and so on. If I get impatient on a fight, like with a Black Skeleton, he'll skewer me. I haven't had a problem with any of the bosses I've fought so far on this character. I'm starting to actually be able to kill some of the crystal geckos now.

I've heard people talk about how they purposely used archaic game mechanics in certain points, just because they could. I don't know - I'm a pretty impatient gamer overall, but I'm still sticking with this game (at least until next Tuesday, I hope to beat it this weekend). I'm basically just riding on people's recommendations for DS at this point, but maybe my mind is too broken for this game.

[stray]

You are making terrible comparisons and only doing so because Demon's Souls doesn't spell it all out for you.

What you really want to say is "I don't get it, HALP" not "The story isn't thick, but that's fine, rationalize rationalize rationalize"

No. I said what I wanted to say. And I get it. Why do you need to attribute some other motivation? I'm only criticizing it's lack of story elements and limited interaction with NPC's. Don't act like the the RPG world has changed and all of the sudden this is the norm. It's not.

Yet that IS fine to a point. I'm not rationalizing anything. If a game plays as good as this one, I'm not going to hate it - I mean, I'm glad it's not, like.. Oblivion or some shit. Which in a way is like it's direct opposite. Oblivion is pretty dense when it came to sidequests and npc interaction, but in the end, not fun to me at all. The combat was complete trash, and no amount of story or flare was going to make me forgive it. Plus, everyone's face looks like ass in those games. Even shit like that spoils it for me. So in the end, I'm glad this game had none of those problems.

[Kageh]

I started on US DS yesterday and finally beat tutorial Vanguard (Yay!) - and with a barbarian, too! Found no Gripless anywhere in the tutorial (Boo!), and, I kid you not, died a grand total of about 10 times on the fire sword dreglings because someone in game design thought it is cool to give the barbarian class a shield with zero fire defense because HE HAS ABSOLUTEDLY NO ARMOR, HE WOULDN'T MISS IT ANYWAY HURHURHURRR!

I think there is a lot of story which you can - for lack of a better word - figure out in DS. Finding the story involves talking to NPCs, examining items for their descriptions, read the archstone details when zoning in. If you look for story in the rather obvious places (books, journals, in-game movies, quests), there's probably not much there - but I think it is a design decision: Story is woven in in a subtle manner, and much of it is left for the reader/player to figure out.

Item descriptions and NPC dialogue in the Nexus are the places to start looking for story there.

[stray]

I've gathered the story from just all that.. I get it, it's subtle. The point is, I want more. I like what I see.. I'd just like to see more. The game deserves it.

For instance, tell me who the fuck the "Big M" is (on the hands of God description). Or maybe I'd just like to see Blacksmith Ed in a scripted event, kicking someone's ass. Boldwin goes on about what a beast that dude is.. But in practice, he's just a static vendor NPC.

[Kageh]

Good point there, regarding "Big M". Especially since he had the Hands of "God". There are a few mentions similar to that, which are not followed up on (I now remember Istarelle reading something similar about an uber knight). Although I haven't wasted too much thought on those, since there was plenty of other stuff to think about in the main game. Which is a sign of good story, to me. I liked how every main character was explained in some way and fitted in in the general story. And how the general story all made sense at the end - even including the "evil" actions like the Astraea killing.

[UnwashedMasses]

2.) Apparently, if you somehow manage to kill Astraea before killing him (only possible via ranged/magic), and reload your game, he will suicide, simply leaving his loot on the floor. The problem is getting close enough to Astraea to shoot, and doing more damage than she heals.

You need a decent bow, but yeah you can kill Astraea first.  Start out by going around the right side of the valley, you will see Garn moving closer to Astraea from across the river.  Then go back around to the entry point and follow the left side.  This will take you all the way to within bowshot of Astraea.  I killed her with Sticky Compound +4, which I will say isn't that hard to get; only because I am the dying champ at this game, and I have one.  It does seem like a cheese maneuver, but so does getting Garn stuck on a rock so who am I to judge.

[schild]

You can kill her with the lava bow, white bow, or any bow with decent range just by standing on the right side and shooting down.

[Azazel]

Does DS US version have one of those large day-1 PS3 patches/updates?

[UnwashedMasses]

Does DS US version have one of those large day-1 PS3 patches/updates?

Not that I have seen.

[Cyrrex]

I don't recall any patching of any kind with the US edition.

[Azazel]

Looks like I'll be playing this for a week or so instead of Clownshoes Borderlands while they get it's shit together anyway.

[Le0]

Finally got the game the other day.

Started by making a priest, did not understand why this big guy named Vanguard would one shot me. Proceeded to 1-1, got rolled numerous time by the blue knight, and also once by the red knight for giggles, at least I learned that when the message "Begginers should come back here later" is put somewhere you can trust it.

I then managed to easily kill Phalanx.

Yesterday I rerolled knight cause I better like sword, and managed to finish 1-1 completly, but I did not find the thief ring tho? I spoke to that knight needing my help and I though the ring was meant to be in this area.

A few questions,

I want to get that purple flame shield, but I'm too scared to go roost stealing cause I'm sure I'll get killed a few times, so my understanding is that if I kill the red dragon in 1-2, it won't be at the roost if I get back. I tried to throw some bolts to it but it made like 7 damage that'd take some time to kill the bastard, I just looted the compound bow but I did not try using that, shall I wack arrows at him for 20min or should I just attempt to steal at roost when he's there?

After having read a bit, apparently armor is pretty useless and being able to dodge efficiently is better, my question is where can I find a light armor easily to replace my flute armor?

[Elerion]

I did not find the thief ring tho?

It's on the ledge where that knight spawns. You have to jump down from above, right before the room with the exploding barrels.

dragon

Might as well kill him asap. Crossbow, bow or soul arrow+fragrant ring. Yeah, it takes 20 minutes. You could wait until you're halfway through the game and are more powerful, but it will probably take you 5 minutes even then. Do it for the easier 1-x movement, roost treasure and bunch of souls.

where can I find a light armor easily

If you're a female, there's Ragged Armor in 1-1. Look well. If you're male, 3-1 is probably your best bet for Black Leather.

[JWIV]

I tried the soul arrow route and couldn't really get the hang of it.  Much easier to get a bow, upgrade it to +2 or so, and then camp out on top of the tower and ping him for a few minutes.   

[Elerion]

Bow is by far the easiest to execute, but soul arrow is the first viable option if you are a royal, as you don't have the stats for a bow.

No point upgrading it for this purpose though. It's like 50 arrows vs 60 arrows.

[Le0]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll get that red dragon then :)

[Nerf]

Killing the dragon with soul arrow is actually trivially easy, you just have to start firing before you lock him.  Get your timing down and you'll be 1/2-3/4 of the way through casting before he's in range and lockable, your spell will nail him, then rinse/repeat.  Takes forever on a brand new character, fragrant ring doesn't regen fast enough :(

[Elerion]

Or you can just position the camera correctly and learn when to cast unlocked. It's not like it's hard, but there's still more of a "trick" to it than simply shooting it with a bow.

[Cyrrex]

Where do you get this fragrant ring (which I presume is restoring your MP)?

[Trippy]

You start with it as a Royal, otherwise you have to go hunt for it:

http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/rings

[Morfiend]

\

where can I find a light armor easily

If you're male, 3-1 is probably your best bet for Black Leather.

This is my one real gripe with the game. Compared to the weapons the armor feels forgotten. No one really uses it, and it makes so little difference.

[JWIV]

\

where can I find a light armor easily

If you're male, 3-1 is probably your best bet for Black Leather.

This is my one real gripe with the game. Compared to the weapons the armor feels forgotten. No one really uses it, and it makes so little difference.

Your first go around, I'd say it does help (I notice the difference between my TK and my Royal getting pegged).  But either way, you still end up better off just using a shield and learning how to use it properly.  I _really_ wish they had made armor a lot cooler in the game, but instead, it starts off marginally useful and from everything I've read, devalues fairly rapidly.

[Nerf]

The stupid fucking "haha you can't see anything because you have a huge orange tornado on your head' mage hat is pretty damned useful.

[Lounge]

I want to get that purple flame shield, but I'm too scared to go roost stealing cause I'm sure I'll get killed a few times, so my understanding is that if I kill the red dragon in 1-2, it won't be at the roost if I get back. I tried to throw some bolts to it but it made like 7 damage that'd take some time to kill the bastard, I just looted the compound bow but I did not try using that, shall I wack arrows at him for 20min or should I just attempt to steal at roost when he's there?

The *easiest* way to get this (and all of the other items there) is to just wait till your world tendency shifts white.  When its white there are NO dragons there and you can loot everything.  You should be able to pretty easily get white just by killing phalanx and the tower knight.  Then just roll back and leisurely pickup the goods at the roost (there's more that opens up if you are white but...).

[ffc]

where can I find a light armor easily

If you're a female, there's Ragged Armor in 1-1. Look well. If you're male, 3-1 is probably your best bet for Black Leather.

That female armor in 1-1 is useful for its resists in the Valley of Defilement.  When I played with other people in 5-1 they were always afraid of the rats but I would roll around and hug them plague free.

[Lounge]

http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4901

HEROES OF BOLETARIA, BE WARNED:
THE OLD ONE'S POWER WILL GROW ON ALL HALLOW'S EVE
If you opt to play Demon's Souls online on Halloween, quest with caution...

So sounds like they are flipping all the worlds pure black on Halloween.  Sounds fun.

[Kageh]

That's cool, saves me some ephemeral eye stones if they would do that. Now I have to go level my melee guy. Again!

[ahoythematey]

Jabbari then cackled as he quickly put a Thief's ring on his finger and disappeared.

I love Atlus press releases.