Dark Souls

[TrollHunter]

Just when you think you've seen it all, I encountered a Vagrant the other day in New Londo ruins when doing a round of Chunk farming. They're supposedly the rarest of the rare and dropped a twin humanity when I killed it.

Officially ready for 2 now!

I've been killed by so many red vagrants in the past. Their ranged attack is basically a 1-shot. Try and find an evil one next~ :D

[Quindiana Jones]

What what? What is this? Red Vagrants and Evil Ones?

I have no knowledge of these things! :eek:

[TrollHunter]

What what? What is this? Red Vagrants and Evil Ones?

I have no knowledge of these things! :eek:

Oh yes. There are docile vagrants and then there are red ones. Red ones can either be aggressive and will try to kill you or other ones will just chill out.

http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/vagrantwiki.png/477302766/vagrantwiki.png

[Pete for President]

Vagrants only appear when someone drops an item and doesn't leave the area for a long time. And it can only happen in certain places. I saw my second one today while invading the part of the Darkroot Forest just outside Andre's place. It was on the ledge where the Wolf Ring is.

Tried out the Estoc and why I never tried PvP with it before is beyond me. Got a lot of parries in too.

It rained Souvenirs of Reprisal this afternoon, all over Lordran :greenie:

[TrollHunter]

Met someone on campus the other day who was bragging about how good they were at PvP.
He was apparently over SLv. 500. Yes, I am so impressed with your ability to kill people 400 levels below you. I am in complete and total awe.
:simon:

[Pete for President]

Met someone on campus the other day who was bragging about how good they were at PvP.
He was apparently over SLv. 500. Yes, I am so impressed at your ability to kill people 400 levels below you. I am in complete and total awe.
:simon:

Hah! So out of touch with the community. I always wonder who the gankers are. Love it when you get 200.000+ souls when killing someone :greenie:

[TrollHunter]

Met someone on campus the other day who was bragging about how good they were at PvP.
He was apparently over SLv. 500. Yes, I am so impressed at your ability to kill people 400 levels below you. I am in complete and total awe.
:simon:

Hah! So out of touch with the community. I always wonder who the gankers are. Love it when you get 200.000+ souls when killing someone :greenie:

And his friend used the classic dusk crown + bellowing dragoncrest dark bead combo. I had to remove myself from the conversation, I was getting the urge to backstab someone.
But on another note I do love the gankers. Without them we'd be stuck with boring 1v1 duels all the time. I used to love them, but I much preferred taking on 2v1 or even 3v1 situations near the end. You could go all out and fully use all of the tools at your disposal. They're such a blast.

[Pete for President]

Yeah we do need the gankers. I had a phase where I was just forest-ganker-hunting, but looking back it made me grumpy when things didn't go too well. Had some epic moments though! I'm pretty sure they will be in 2 aswell. That summon time-thing might make things interesting!

Now I like invading as a random area's best, while beating NG+ something. You never know what you'll get: an desperate 1 on 1, an honest party 2v1, gankers, newbies, veterans, everything. I like that variety and being invaded yourself is a nice challenge every now and then too :greenie:

[TrollHunter]

My two favorites spots were the catacombs and dukes. You got all types going through there, and those maps allow for some awesome use of the environment. My most memorable invasions were always either in the catacombs or anor londo. I didnt have a ton of memorable invasions in dukes, but it was very consistently interesting and fun for me.

[Pete for President]

3 years after release Yathzee - a.k.a. the guy from Zero Punctuation - reviewed Dark Souls and what do you know: he's super positive about it. Victory, as always, for Souls. :greenie:

Dark Souls | Zero Punctuation Video Gallery | The Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8802-Dark-Souls)

[Fonzie]

Awww yiss, Dark Souls 2 in two weeks. (http://gifsound.com/?gif=i.imgur.com/jTzPUtl.gif%3F1&v=yca2BCwAnBQ)* :jess:



*found on reddit.

[Pete for President]

Haha that is awesome :D

52267

[Unbreakable Will]

I left this game behind forever ago, frustrated and soulless... I picked it up again about two weeks ago and finally beat the fucker. Nothing special to those who play it religiously but I'm pretty proud of my Lvl. 101 Greatsword/Faith knight; beat Gywn Lord of Cinder with the Cursed Greatsword of Artorias+5, Black Knight Shield+5, Silver Knight Armor+3, and the Dark Wood Grain Ring, Ring of Favor and Protection.

I was so happy just to beat the game. :kakapo:

[Robb]

My favourite game of all time. Darkmoon Falchion, reporting in.

You guys know Peeve Peeverson, right? Always fun invading the best.

Me vs Peeve! :D - YouTube (http://youtu.be/LL_4pl6VeX4)

[Pete for President]

My favourite game of all time. Darkmoon Falchion, reporting in.

You guys know Peeve Peeverson, right? Always fun invading the best.

Me vs Peeve! :D - YouTube (http://youtu.be/LL_4pl6VeX4)

That's awesome! Did you streamsnipe him?

[Robb]

My favourite game of all time. Darkmoon Falchion, reporting in.

You guys know Peeve Peeverson, right? Always fun invading the best.

Me vs Peeve! :D - YouTube (http://youtu.be/LL_4pl6VeX4)

That's awesome! Did you streamsnipe him?

Yeah. I don't usually get a chance but I had two months off work and pretty much spent the whole time playing DS. I have a dozen videos but only uploaded this one. :)

[Pete for President]

Not a bad way to spent some time off. Please post links if you upload any other clips or videos : )

The hype for 2 is at an all time high and I'm fighting the urge to watch the new IGN video's, Vaati's commentary and updates on the wiki. So far I'm still pretty much spoiler free so I think it'll be worth it but man I haven't been so hyped for a new game bound to get released since GTA Vice City.

[TrollHunter]

So, I may be picking up a fairly cheap PS3 on thursday from a friend.
HAHA, prepare the duct tape... I'm gonna need it for all the controllers that DkS2 will hopefully make me break.

[Robb]

Not a bad way to spent some time off. Please post links if you upload any other clips or videos : )

The hype for 2 is at an all time high and I'm fighting the urge to watch the new IGN video's, Vaati's commentary and updates on the wiki. So far I'm still pretty much spoiler free so I think it'll be worth it but man I haven't been so hyped for a new game bound to get released since GTA Vice City.

I'm pretty much going to cut off Youtube completely until i've gone through the story once in DkS2. Then i'll probably spend 24hrs looking up all the stuff I missed.. And all the glitches everyone has found. Ha!

[Pete for President]

NG+3 Kalameet has been whooping my bottom so bad it's not even funny.

On a positive note, I managed to beat a flipping divine blessing user by knocking him off a ledge followed by a plunge attack. It was a well needed highlight in between getting roasted like proper dragon food.

[Pete for President]

Another highlight: got invaded by a hacker on the red dragon bridge. He had infinite health and whipped out the karmic justice explosion hack. I ran to the part underneath the bridge and failed to knock him off with WoG. He tried to do the same. After landing 3 hornet backstabs he was on the very edge and fortunately he rolled himself off. Make love not hacks :colbert:

[TrollHunter]

So, about that PS3 I was going to buy.
The dude I was going to buy it from bailed on me sadly... so yeah, still no console to play it on.

[Robb]

Well last night I noticed that full walkthroughs of DkS2 are on Youtube now, including boss names and other spoilers in the titles. No more internet for me for a while! Two days until release day, then seven days off work :D

[Fonzie]

Hahah, time for dark souls!

[TrollHunter]

Hmmmm... Should this thread be merged with the dark souls 2 thread? Or should it be kept separate?

[Quindiana Jones]

I decided not to make a new thread just because this one died a little (because all you bastards have DS2 :(), but I'm starting a new playthrough of Dark Souls. The original. The greatest. The one that the coolest and sexiest people play.

Just got me thinking about interesting and not-maximum-efficiency builds. Pete had his fantastic boxer build, and I'm sure you've all had cool ideas. I'm considering going for a pure parrying build or two-handing only or something. I think I mentioned once my intent to play a Chaos Blade + Power Within build, as I think that'd make the game - especially boss fights - intense as hell. So yeah. Let's talk about cool builds.

Also, who's on PS3 and who fancies returning to Lordran? :radred:

[Pete for President]

It'll be the 6th game I'm juggling but I'M WITH YOU MAN :p Does that mean we're gonna co-op?

A parrying dagger build might be cool. It's obtainable as soon as you reach Firelink Shrine. I've never been able to make a quality build work the way I wanted to and use greatbows and stuff so I might give that a try. Chaos Blade + Power Within sounds awesome. Red Tearstone Ring to go with it? :cool:

[Quindiana Jones]

Perhaps the Tearstone Ring, although I may need to rely on the FaP and Wolf for defence's sake.

I can actually fit a potentially decent PvP build into a very powerful PvE build, which is nice. I think I'm gonna go for a buff build for PvE, then switch gear a little for PvP with the Chaos Blade. SL 120. Stats at 30, 16, 41, 16, 40, 12, 40, 8. Allows me to fast roll, look good, and keeps my poise at 57.

And yes we are absolutely going to co-op if we can. I'm on Beijing time, though (UTC +8), so hopefully we'll be able to join up. I'm on PS3: Renegade_Onion

add me bb

[TrollHunter]

I'll be coming back to lordran this summer, don't you worry.
My first build will be int, but I wont use spells because they make the game easy. Here's the plan.
Get stats for bastard sword. Put a ton into int for when I get the MLGS.
Use dubstep beams to wreck everyone.

Once I get bored of that I'll restart my old challenge run~ How many of you remember this old run?
Base vit
No shield
No RoFap
No Havels
No kindled bonfires
No upgraded flasks

Ohhh yeah. I got extremely far when I played xbox. to be specific I got to the last 3 bosses, manus gwyn and kalameet before my brother took the xbox and moved the denver. I REALLY want to finish that run so I'll be restarting it a soon as I get dks1 back for the ps3.

[Quindiana Jones]

So, entered the land of Dark Souls co-op and PvP for the first time ever today. I have a feeling that my being in China is benefitting me greatly, aided by the fantastic Great Scythe running attack and 2HR2. :D

Helped some newbie around the Parish, but she got invaded and killed before making it to the Gargoyles. And met some Forest Hunters too, which was nice. The bastards. :D

[Quindiana Jones]

Waterwheel. -_-

[TrollHunter]

Waterwheel. -_-

The waterwheel is the hardest boss in dark souls.

[Quindiana Jones]

I'm about to head through Sen's, and I'm on between one and two dozen deaths for this playthrough currently. Seven came from Blighttown. One bout of Leechy arrogance, two waterwheels, and four - four - tumbles off that fucking branch. xD

[Pete for President]

I'm about to head through Sen's, and I'm on between one and two dozen deaths for this playthrough currently. Seven came from Blighttown. One bout of Leechy arrogance, two waterwheels, and four - four - tumbles off that smurfing branch. xD

The branch is horrifying :0 I usually make it a one way trip and just homeward bone out. What build are you using?

I'm trying to get some time in Lordran but I've been on the road non stop : ( Soon brother, soon!

[Quindiana Jones]

I'm not really sure on the build yet. Obviously 40 Endurance, between 20 - 30 Vitality (usually I stick to 20, but I might go up to 30 this time around since I will be using Power Within and the Chaos Blade) and around 40 Dexterity. Am thinking of putting a load in Intelligence in NG and onwards and making a buff build for PvE, focusing around the Great Scythe because I bloody love it.

[TrollHunter]

I'm about to head through Sen's, and I'm on between one and two dozen deaths for this playthrough currently. Seven came from Blighttown. One bout of Leechy arrogance, two waterwheels, and four - four - tumbles off that smurfing branch. xD

The branch is horrifying :0 I usually make it a one way trip and just homeward bone out. What build are you using?

I'm trying to get some time in Lordran but I've been on the road non stop : ( Soon brother, soon!

I never make it a one-way trip. The item hoarder in me feels like he has to grind for a few hours on slugs so that he can upgrade everything to +10. Thankfully I can reliably escape both from the water-wheel route and the depths route in reverse.

[Quindiana Jones]

Well, my death count pretty much quadrupled on my journey from the Parish to the Princess' bosom. :/

[Pete for President]

Well, my death count pretty much quadrupled on my journey from the Parish to the Princess' bosom. :/

It's the most fun part of the game :p Sen's ftw.

Started a new character today! Beat the Taurus Demon, Gargoyles, Moonlight Butterfly and Capra Demon. Intended to use the Halberd but could not resist the Claymore. I think this'll be a halberd/buff build eventually but unfortunately the Gargoyles didn't drop theirs. I am tempted to go and get the Lucerne early :cool:

[Quindiana Jones]

Indeed. I love Sen's and Anor Londo. I've fought and defeated Pikachu and Snorlax about 8 times now. So, technically, the the Slimes in Blighttown have a greater K/D on me than O&S. xD I got my Chaos Blade up to +5, and now I'm gonna head to New Londo to grab the Very Large Ember and take my Great Scythe up to +15. I'm gonna wait until after Oolacile to fight Sif, though, so I'll not be bothering with the Four Kings. :)

I'm curious about general PvP rules. The way I typically treat it is to bow or wave to my opponent and allow them and myself to buff if they want. Then we fight. Also, if I get invaded whilst co-oping, I always make my buddy fight first, then allow the invader to heal before fighting me if they win. This just seems like the proper thing to do, because I want a good fight.

However. I consider Forest Hunting a complete free-for-all, as it is in canon, really. So, as host, I will Estus away and be as cheap as possible, and as an invader, I will do the same. I feel like this seems to be the general attitude of most in PvP, but am I missing anything? Also, where are some good places for duels?

[Pete for President]

I'm curious about general PvP rules. The way I typically treat it is to bow or wave to my opponent and allow them and myself to buff if they want. Then we fight. Also, if I get invaded whilst co-oping, I always make my buddy fight first, then allow the invader to heal before fighting me if they win. This just seems like the proper thing to do, because I want a good fight.

However. I consider Forest Hunting a complete free-for-all, as it is in canon, really. So, as host, I will Estus away and be as cheap as possible, and as an invader, I will do the same. I feel like this seems to be the general attitude of most in PvP, but am I missing anything? Also, where are some good places for duels?

Oh man I'd be pissed off I were a white and the host didn't help me fight the invader :D unless there's bowing involved of course.

But you got the idea. Generally people tend to fight more fair if you greet them. Less running away, less spamming spells, less backstab fishing. You're 100% right about the Forest; no rules at all. The moment you play nice in there is the moment you lose. Best place to duel is to either host or invade in the Undead Burg (the square area right outside the bonfire with the ladder), but to host the Taurus Demon needs to be alive. Another spot is the Oolacile Township but not everyone sees it as a duelling arena so expect the occasional free for all, and maybe ganks when you're the invader.

Random invasions as a Darkmoon/Darkwraith is pretty much free for all too, unless the host bows like you do. Keep an eye out for healers even after they bowed. When this happens I usually go back to free for all mode. Mo Nercy :shifty:

[Pete for President]

NG+5 Four Kings do not kid around.

[Pete for President]

Oh man got so close to beating O&S NG+6 solo. But I got greedy :mad:

[Quindiana Jones]

I had to take a few days break due to having 24 hours of teaching in a 48 hour period. :|

This week is also going to be very busy for me despite the fact that my weekday classes are cancelled, but I'll try to get on and progress. I'm currently at Duke's. :)

[Pete for President]

I'm afraid there will be no jolly co-operation brother Quin, my PS3 has abandoned me and will be on it's way for warranty tomorrow :cry:

On a final note I must conclude that the Silver Knight Straight Sword is a glorious weapon that outclasses everything normally obtainable by the time you get to Anor Londo. It has reach, a powerful moveset, good damage and swing speed, Twinkling Titanite upgrades saves you a slab and allows you to get it to full power before taking on O&S, and on the contrary of what I used to believe it is buffable. The only downsides are the weak backstab/riposte multiplier and with 6 lbs it's rather heavy.

Man this sword was a new favourite before my PS3 said no-no. Did I mention it looks total boss too?

[Quindiana Jones]

I was just farming for this sword whilst playing with O&S! It's a beastly little thing!

Except not little.

[Quindiana Jones]

So, I just accidentally killed Seath before I could cut off his tail. I was hacking away, thinking "I swear he was much harder last time I played" and "Surely it should have come off by now!" when he died. As I looked at him writhing in agony, I realised that I had been hacking away at the wrong tail and had chanced upon the area of this particular boss that makes you functionally invulnerable to his normal attacks.

Whoops. xD

[Quindiana Jones]

Aaaand after last night's blunder I gifted myself another cock up today. After Seath, I decided that the Bed of Chaos was next on my list, so I popped down to visit the Fair Lady and open up the Demon's Ruins - Lost Izalith shortcut. I knelt in front of her and joined her covenant, then nature called so I put the controller down.

The controller fell like the Sword of Damocles upon the head of the poor Fair Lady. Due to the way those shitey triggers are designed, my strong attack was thrown and she was cast down. No shortcut. No saving Solaire. No Sunbro battle for Gwyn. And no Chaos Fire Storm.

After this fiasco, I pretty much just said "fuck it" and went on a slaughtering spree. Anor Londo is dark, and every hint of life within extinguished, save for the Giant Blacksmith.

[Pete for President]

:erm:

Quin you evil, evil man!

[Quindiana Jones]

Not my fault I needed to pee! :(

Just got done with a nice session in the Burg. Met a lot of arseholes, met a lot of people who all looked to be wearing exactly the same stuff and using exactly the same weapons, and also met a fair few unique and excellent folks. Highlights include a fully Dragon'd Dragonbro wielding a Greatbow and a fellow lightly armoured Great Scythe user. He wasn't quite as familiar with it as I am, however. ;)

I absolutely love using Power Within in PvP, and it works very well with the Chaos Blade to create a really tense and desperate fight. Some players notice I've used it and just try kiting around and avoiding my blows, which is no fun but a perfectly clever tactic. Bloody great fun, though. If I was just using the Chaos Blade, I might try for backstabs and ripostes to prevent the health drain, but Power Within ensures that I don't have time for tactical play and have to go all out. It's surprising how effective dashing towards players and just being relentless is; I don't think many people expect it. xD

My favourite thing about Power Within, however, is only found in very close duels. If my health is taken to about a tenth when I defeat my opponent, the delay in teleporting back to my world typically causes PW to suck out my remaining life. Must be hilarious for the host to watch. xD

I have lost all sympathy for people who use Estus in the middle of a fight and don't allow their opponent to heal also, and when I see it I go all-out and gank the crap out of the host. And if a host does it in a 1v1, then they typically find that wearing Havel's Armor, the Hollow Soldier Waistcloth and MoM is not enough to prevent stunlocking at the hands of the Great Scythe's 2HR1 spam. :radred: Nothing quite as satisfying as that feeling.

Strangest event of the night was a red phantom taking a tumble off the Burg and depositing a nice 400K souls into my - a fellow red phantom - pocket. I couldn't believe my luck!

[Quindiana Jones]

You bastards need to play more Dark Souls. I was looking forward to reading about Trollhunter's challenge run. :(

With my Dex/Int, I have reached Oolacile. I ultimately decided to defeat the Four Kings before arriving. I haven't journeyed in at all, however, because...

I started a Str/Faith build. Currently at Sen's. Will be running 35ish Vitality, 28 Strength, 40 Endurance and, eventually 50 Faith for Sunlight Spear. The Spears are absolutely wonderful and I love them. Useless in PvP, but great in PvE.

[Quindiana Jones]

You bastards need to play more Dark Souls. I was looking forward to reading about Trollhunter's challenge run. :(

With my Dex/Int, I have reached Oolacile. I ultimately decided to defeat the Four Kings before arriving. I haven't journeyed in at all, however, because...

I started a Str/Faith build. Currently at Sen's. Will be running 35ish Vitality, 28 Strength, 40 Endurance and, eventually 50 Faith for Sunlight Spear. The Spears are absolutely wonderful and I love them. Useless in PvP, but great in PvE.

[Quindiana Jones]

I definitely did not mistake this for the Dark Souls 2 thread shut up. :shifty:

[Pete for President]

Don't worry Quin, this thread needs some love too! I can't wait to get back and finish NG+6 as well as a new build revolving around the Silver Knight Straight Sword. DARK SOULS :erm:

[Quindiana Jones]

Still haven't even completed NG yet. :erm:

[Pete for President]

Still haven't even completed NG yet. :erm:

Oh my goodness Quin, what have you been doing? :erm:

[Quindiana Jones]

Well, first I had an online 360 in England, and I started my first playthrough as a Sorceror. Got to Blighttown, then moved to China. Then I got an offline 360 in China and got to just before Gwyn, but decided to take on Oolacile. I moved to a different city and got rid of the 360 in favour of an online PS3 just after I entered Oolacile. And now I've got to just past Artorias when I made a new build. :)

[Pete for President]

Well, first I had an online 360 in England, and I started my first playthrough as a Sorceror. Got to Blighttown, then moved to China. Then I got an offline 360 in China and got to just before Gwyn, but decided to take on Oolacile. I moved to a different city and got rid of the 360 in favour of an online PS3 just after I entered Oolacile. And now I've got to just past Artorias when I made a new build. :)

Haha you hoarder! :p

The character planner was down for a while but now it's back up! I can't wait to get started with this build:

http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?c=432183301895869510

It is basically a less risky version of my favourite build:

http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?c=339691783518880922

Where I made a fatal mistake of picking the Knight class to start giving me 11 strength in total. I never knew how much difference that would have made until NG+5 Gwyn, where one hit totally drains my stamina when blocking with the Heater shield. With one more point in strength I would be able to wield the Balder shield with it's far more superior stability but I don't want to break lvl 125. Oh well, that's what the new build is for :p

[Masamunemaster]

You bastards need to play more Dark Souls. I was looking forward to reading about hunter's challenge run. :(

With my Dex/Int, I have reached Oolacile. I ultimately decided to defeat the Four Kings before arriving. I haven't journeyed in at all, however, because...

I started a Str/Faith build. Currently at Sen's. Will be running 35ish Vitality, 28 Strength, 40 Endurance and, eventually 50 Faith for Sunlight Spear. The Spears are absolutely wonderful and I love them. Useless in PvP, but great in PvE.

I love spears and halberds, I finally got silver knight spear to+5 until then I was using a +10 halberd. My buddy told me not to try o and s solo with a spear because it would be incredibly hard, crystal halberd with magic weapon made the fight last 5 mins.

[Necronopticous]

I just beat this game as a level 1 pyromancer!

[Pete for President]

I just beat this game as a level 1 pyromancer!
Congrats! Thats awesome! I've actually never done the level 1 challenge, that's going on my to do list now. Did you mainly just use spells or is it nessecary to grind for the +5 elemental weapons? And what was the hardest part?

[Necronopticous]

Fully upgraded reinforced clubs, fully upgraded light crossbows, great combustion, great fireball. You don't have to grind so much...the game is designed in such a way that you can collect most of the upgrade materials you need, but I did do a bit of farming here and there--nothing crazy. Hardest part by far was Gwyn which was cool because I never had much trouble with him prior to this challenge, so I feel like I finally got the full experience of that fight. Honorable mentions go to the usual suspects, O&S, 4 Kings, Bed of Chaos (seriously, can we just remove this awful encounter from the game). Quelaag was one of my first targets (wanted to max out my pyro flame with Eingyi ASAP) so that was pretty tough since I didn't have a whole lot in the way of offense/defense at that point. Special thanks to Maneater Mildred for tanking it up.

[Quindiana Jones]

Bed of Chaos is such a wonderfully interesting concept for a boss fight.

But actually fuck Bed of Chaos. :stare:

[Necronopticous]

I actually figured out the Bed of Chaos fight completely in my SL1 game out of necessity (I can do it 100% consistently without dying now, provided I don't miss the jump) but it requires so much cheap bullcrap to pull off that it doesn't at all make me like the fight any more than before. By and large, one of Demon's/Dark Souls' crowning achievements, is the legitimate challenge it provides without ever stooping to cheap mechanics that undermine the gameplay, and the Bed of Chaos is in stark, stark contrast to that. It's easily the worst thing in the game, I think.

[Pete for President]

Agreed that Bed of Chaos is a terribly designed boss. I can usually get to the two roots without dying, but when getting through the middle part my odds always seem totally random. I thought Demon's Souls' Ancient Dragon was similarly bad.

[Quindiana Jones]

Indeed. It's a pity, because I love the lore-iness of the fight, but despise the gameplay. My Str/Fai build has just delivered the Lordvessel, and I'm really not looking forward to having to bloody do Bed of Chaos again. xD

[Masamunemaster]

I've had so many luck chances in bed of chaos, my last run I jumped over after her two swipes and she nudged me off when her arm went back over haha.

[Necronopticous]

I thought Demon's Souls' Ancient Dragon was similarly bad.
I beat the Ancient Dragon on my first attempt, but I can definitely see that being the case--I probably just got lucky. Structurally, the fights are almost identical.

[Quindiana Jones]

Sif is amazing, though, let's talk about Sif.

Also, Artorias was utterly fantastic. I beat him on my first attempt, and it makes me sad that I'm never going to get to fight him again. :(

Unless I get back into Dark Souls again... :p

[krissy]

sif's a cool fight but not very challenging
good character design

[chionos]

Yeah, the Sif fight is disappointing, really. The mini-bosses (the whole run really) leading up to Sif is so much more challenging.

Even so, this makes me want to get my str/fai rolling again. Last I remember, though, I was down in TotG with no way to get back quickly, and I don't feel like make the run back to the top >_<.

[Necronopticous]

There are mini-bosses leading up to Sif? You can fight Sif as the very first boss in the game with almost no opposition, provided you know how to dash & roll. :)

[Masamunemaster]

Except asylum:p

[chionos]

There are mini-bosses leading up to Sif? You can fight Sif as the very first boss in the game with almost no opposition, provided you know how to dash & roll. :)

I don't dash & roll. I fight everything in the way (obsessively?), and the great felines are a pain in my ass. I count them as mini-bosses simply because of their difficulty compared to Sif's.

[Pete for President]

There are mini-bosses leading up to Sif? You can fight Sif as the very first boss in the game with almost no opposition, provided you know how to dash & roll. :)

I don't dash & roll. I fight everything in the way (obsessively?), and the great felines are a pain in my ass. I count them as mini-bosses simply because of their difficulty compared to Sif's.

Those cats are not to be underestimated. I've only fought them once. Never again, I've always taken the other route. They're a Forest Hunter's best friends when it comes to beating gankers in the forest though :D

Sif was challenging at first and if you don't go defensive and bait the 3-hit combo he can still catch you by surprise. Sif is one of those bosses though whose difficulty is immensely determined by at what point you fight him.

Artorias is one of my favourites for sure! All the Oolacile bosses rank among my favourites actually. Such good DLC.

[Masamunemaster]

Two runs down and I've not seen a single cat. But with my newest character I got sif with a crystal soul spear or three and he went down.

[chionos]

I've never done a run that went any path other than straight through cat alley. For that matter, though, I tend to zone-clear even when there's no good reason to do so.

[Quindiana Jones]

Oh man, those cats.

Fuck those cats. xD

[Pete for President]

Two runs down and I've not seen a single cat. But with my newest character I got sif with a crystal soul spear or three and he went down.

The cats are found on the route leading up from the ladder in Darkroot Basin where the Hydra is. It's an alternate way to enter the Darkroot Forest without having to use (and buy) the Crest of Artorias. Could save you 20000 souls, but you get to meet the evil kitties in return ;D

[Necronopticous]

Did you guys ever see this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_h-NvMJK-c

[chionos]

I have now.

It really is a giant scary vagina.

[krissy]

that's pretty much my experience too
too bad the song doesn't play during tho

[Pete for President]

Did you guys ever see this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_h-NvMJK-c

Awesome :cool:

[Necronopticous]

So I just purchased the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. I have heard really good things about it, so I'm stoked. Probably going to roll a fresh character to experience it, any suggestions? I was thinking of doing a fairly low level build focused around the great scythe, but I haven't decided yet.

[Quindiana Jones]

The Great Scythe remains my absolute favourite weapon ever. Buff builds work particularly devastatingly with it, but if you wanna keep at a low level, then the elemental upgrade paths are still very decent.

[krissy]

i kind of want to reroll ds1 with a greatsword
do a speedrun o rsomething

i wont cause life
but i think about it sometimes
there's not that many games i thinkabout now that im old just randomly irl

but ff7 and dark souls are some of them

[Masamunemaster]

So I just purchased the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. I have heard really good things about it, so I'm stoked. Probably going to roll a fresh character to experience it, any suggestions? I was thinking of doing a fairly low level build focused around the great scythe, but I haven't decided yet.

I love Artorias' armor.Nuff said.

[Necronopticous]

I rolled Pyromancer again last night. Leveled to 8 for 14 str/14 dex which allows me to one-hand some great weapons (great scythe, uchigatana, gargoyle tail axe, etc). I rang both bells before work, so it's going pretty smoothly so far. I think I'll stay at level 8.

[Quindiana Jones]

I think I might do a Silver Knight Straight Sword build. Should I just complete my current Dex/Int Buff build with the Great Scythe and play with the SKS in NG+?

[Necronopticous]

I blew through the game pretty easily with my SL8 Pyromancer and made it to the DLC before the weekend was out. I'm fighting Artorias now. I gave him a few tries and got him to about 40% health on my last attempt, but he's still got some tricky attacks that trip me up, and most of them one-shot me, or leave me with a sliver of health, so I've just got to get a little bit more practice dodging and recoiling.

[Pete for President]

I think I might do a Silver Knight Straight Sword build. Should I just complete my current Dex/Int Buff build with the Great Scythe and play with the SKS in NG+?

I find the SKS most useful when you first get it in Anor Londo as it is so easy to upgrade to the max and is buffable. Later on it kinda gets outclassed by other DEX weapons, but with higher levels in NG+ (which I assume means higher END) kinda means the 6lbs doesn't hurt as much as it does in NG.

So pro's and cons! Roll with it whenever, the weapon is total badass steez. :cool: Sweet moveset and decent stuns too.

[Necronopticous]

Artorias down! Really fun boss. Now I'm getting my ass kicked in the township. There was a SL1 character near the bonfire with their summon sign down, so I summoned them a couple of times which was fun. I'm not used to seeing summon signs since I've been playing low level games.

[Necronopticous]

Manus down. So intense!

[Pete for President]

Manus down. So intense!

Such a good fight! I always dread going in there.

[Pete for President]

I'm playing this again! Started a new no-shield run. A lightning buffed Zweihander smashed the Gargoyles and even Ornstein & Smough fell quickly after upgrading a Silver Knight Straight Sword to the max. Granted, I was a bit OP by using Power Within and rocking Havel Ring and the Ring of Favor and Protection.

Going for a pretty straight forward 16 strength, 40 dex, 30 faith Darkmoon Blade build. Sif and the 4 Kings are up next!

Anyone else still playing? :)

[Masamunemaster]

Can we make this a general dark souls thread?

[Pete for President]

Can we make this a general dark souls thread?

Isn't it already? ;D

Did some PvP with older builds yesterday. Man I'm rusty! There's still some duelling going on in the Kiln, and I got invaded in Anor Londo a bunch of times. Not bad for a 4 year old game!

[Masamunemaster]

PvP was so much better in dark souls that in the second so far.

A question for dark souls 2 though: with the same dex stat, which is better a +10 uchigatana or a +10 blacksteel katana?

[Pete for President]

PvP was so much better in dark souls that in the second so far.

A question for dark souls 2 though: with the same dex stat, which is better a +10 uchigatana or a +10 blacksteel katana?

Yeah I agree. I liked how some mechanics changed like backstab fishing was less of a thing, the jumping attack was actually effective and I liked how different ultra great weapons had different parry/backstab multipliers. Other stuff though, like only having cracked orbs, the crazy quick heals, seemingly random rules for poise and overall floaty/ghost-like hitboxes made me not like it much.

As for the katana's, if I recall correctly the Uchi is slightly more powerful despite the Blacksteel having higher stat requirements. But don't pin me down on it :p

[Masamunemaster]

Ok, I know blacksteel has a higher bonus than uchio so I didn't know

[Pete for President]

To be honest I don't know much of the sequel's mechanics.

Some progress update: unlocked the Kiln on the new no-shield run. Beat Artorias first try, it was intense. Got Manus, Kalameet and Gwyn to go. Did some PvP for the darkmoon covenant. Landed a parry to win a duel.

Beat Ornstein & Smough solo on NG+6 with another character. That fight was crazy intense.

There's still plenty of hackers in the forest :(

[Masamunemaster]

First time I ever parried in that game was against gwyn. I saw that you could get him like that for heavy damage and thought"ok let's try this once". First try and he lost half his health><'

[Pete for President]

Been playing lots! Got only Gwyn to go on NG+6, i think NG+7 will be the final goal.

I cheated on the no shield playthrough to defeat Kalameet and summoned two guys to cut the tail. Manus is next, and then only Gwyn is left.

And there's still some PvP going on. The guilty pay the price ;D

[Pete for President]

Been doing some forest hunting to get souls to get a new build to level 120. There's lots of lvl 700's and/or cheaters around. Luckily some of them still don't know how to jump the mid-section cliff which netted me 800000+ souls twice :D

[Pete for President]

Just threw myself about 10 times at NG+6 Gwyn solo... he does not kid around. No success yet :ohdear:

[Goldenboko]

Just threw myself about 10 times at NG+6 Gwyn solo... he does not kid around. No success yet :ohdear:

...dear god. NG6?

[Masamunemaster]

Finally got around to finishing off nashandra and burnt ivory king, who was easier than most dlc bosses.

Just started me a faith build with some pyro. I was thinking of using the sun blade as a main weapon, anybody know of better?

[Pete for President]

Just threw myself about 10 times at NG+6 Gwyn solo... he does not kid around. No success yet :ohdear:

...dear god. NG6?

It's not too bad actually! Everything up to NG+4 was pretty easy and I always just run through all the mobs instead of fighting everything. The only bosses that take multiple if not a dozen tries are O&S, the 4 Kings and Gwyn, not counting the DLC.


Finally got around to finishing off nashandra and burnt ivory king, who was easier than most dlc bosses.

Just started me a faith build with some pyro. I was thinking of using the sun blade as a main weapon, anybody know of better?

Is the DLC any good? I haven't played any of the DkS2 DLC. Not sure about what weapons to use in that game!



Edit: just beat Gwyn NG+6 solo. I was considering going through the Depths and New Londo Ruins to get the embers (something I haven't done with this character since NG) to upgrade a Kite Shield to the max as the Heater Shield I was using only gives 68 stability - not enough to block Gwyn's attacks. But on my last attempt I managed to beat him. Turns out I relied on the parries too much. Poking with Power Within + Darkmoon Blade does a lot of damage too.

Next stop: NG+7 - the hardest it can get!

[Masamunemaster]

Oh brume tower bosses are crazy, but the rest are pretty easy. The hardest area in dlc is the frigid outskirts.

[Pete for President]

Oh brume tower bosses are crazy, but the rest are pretty easy. The hardest area in dlc is the frigid outskirts.

I might check those out at some point.

Made lots of NG+7 progress. Just beat Ornstein & Smough solo, it was intense. The strategy was to cast Power Within + Darkmoon Blade and kill Ornstein with R1 spam within the first 20 seconds when Smough isn't close enough yet. Worked ok, it took like 5 or 6 tries.

[McLovin']

Can't beat the frigid outskirts at all. So damn hard. DLC was awesome though.

[Masamunemaster]

Wanna try co op with me on it mclovin? I kinda have up on crappy npcs.

[Pete for President]

The Kiln has been opened on NG+7 and I've moved into Oolacile. So far all bosses have been slain solo, but I might get some help involved for Kalameet and Manus. They scare me.

This is the 125 build I'm using in case anyone's interested;
https://www.mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/434256

[Pete for President]

It is done! NG+7 is finished. I used summon help for Manus and Kalameet, but every other boss has been beaten solo. Gwyn even on first try.

[McLovin']

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGe4RtPmWw

If you're a big fan of Dark souls, I recommend watching this video. I thought it was awesome.

[krissy]

It is done! NG+7 is finished. I used summon help for Manus and Kalameet, but every other boss has been beaten solo. Gwyn even on first try.


nice hjob!!

and nice vid

[Scruffington]

I know this is nearly a 2 year old bump, but it was the most active thread I could find.

Finally playing through Dark Souls. I have to say...it's quickly becoming one of my favorite games. Everything from the deep gameplay mechanics to the incredible level design make this game really special.

Now if only I can beat Ornstein & Smough, I'll be able to appreciate more of it. :p

[Spuuky]

It's an incredible game. And despite what the kids say, Bloodborne is simply not as good.

[Scruffington]

It's an incredible game. And despite what the kids say, Bloodborne is simply not as good.

I actually played Bloodborne before I played Dark Souls, and I really liked it. I didn't beat it, but I'm incredibly excited to get back into that world.

[Vyk]

I much MUCH prefer Bloodborne. Dark Souls has way too many "gotcha" moments that punish new-comers where the only way to get through something is to have previous knowledge, either from previous playthroughs or being warned about something. It's also way too slow and plodding for my taste. Even lightweight dex characters feel to slow and heavy. And even though they expect you to play defensively and reactionary, the controls are not precise enough to encourage that type of play style. Dodging is generally more about timing memorization rather than skillfully blind reaction time. And the fact that you lose the ability to roll at a diagonal as soon as you lock on is ridiculous.

So while I appreciate the existence of the Dark games, Bloodborne will always be my baby. Fast responsive combat. Far less "I'm going to push you off the edge for blocking" moments, I never end up dodging into an attack because diagonal movement was stolen from me. It's actually designed around my preferred playstyle. I feel like I'm actually playing as a dexterous character. So even without mention of the rally system making the experience more bearable, or the parry and visceral systems having less quirkiness on timing and placement than Dark Souls (it's also easier to master, therefor making the game easier), I can say I would probably still prefer Bloodborne without those mechanics. Plus not a lot of good Victorian style games out there, nor anyone else doing any worthwhile Lovecraftian games

However, it is not my intention to bash on Dark Souls, just to explain why some of "the kids" may prefer Bloodborne :P

[Spuuky]

The kids prefer Bloodborne because it's much easier and more linear. That's fine. That's why I don't prefer it.

[Vyk]

I'll personally grant you that, even though it's got like 8 optional bosses and 2 optional areas, you'd be silly to bypass all of that. And I found it easier simply because it meshes better with my playstyle. But I recall when it came out even a couple people here and on the internet as a whole had hard core sword and shield Dark Souls veterans' panties in a bind because they never learned how to properly dodge or parry or backstab in the first place, or they ONLY learned the Dark Souls way of timing and specifics, rather than reaction and skill. But initially there was a huge backlash on how broken and difficult Bloodborne was

[Wolf Kanno]

So in the downtime I've had for the last few months, I finally took the plunge and decided to beat Demon's Souls once and for all. Rolled a new character and everything. About the time I had beaten the fourth Arch Demon, I decided to pick up Dark Souls because I always said I wouldn't touch it until I beat Demon's Souls and I was well on my way. After finishing Dark Souls last week, I'm now about what I'm guessing is a third of the way through Bloodborne.

Been a blast and I'm a bit sad it's taken me so long to get around to the series. Course that's all of my games at the moment. I need to finish Bloodborne soon so I can jump into Persona 5 which is giving me googly eyes when I'm gaming.

For those wondering, here's a quick rundown for all three games for me.

Demon's Souls
Starting Class: Knight, so I can start with the ever useful and iconic Fluted Armor.
Final Build: Tank/Strength build
Favorite Boss battle: Tower Knight, Old King Allant, or the Old Hero
Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!
Favorite World: Boletaria Castle or Tower of Latria
Least Favorite World: Valley of Defilement which is still my least favorite area in the Souls/Bloodborne franchises.

Dark Souls
Starting Class: Knight, why break with a good thing?
Final Build: Speedy Strength/Dexterity build.
Favorite Boss Battle: Artorias the Abyss Walker, holy hell it was the most memorable fight for me.
Least Favorite Boss Battle: Probably any battle with the Demon Race, including the Stray Demon, Bed of Chaos and Queelag.
Favorite Area: Anor Londo and the Painted World.
Least Favorite Area: New Londo and Tomb of the Giants
Covenant of Choice: :praisethesun:

Bloodborne (Still in Progress)
Starting Origin: The Professional
Current Build: Skill based with Strength or possible Bloodtinge as my secondary.
Favorite Boss Battle so far: Father Gascoigne or Darkbeast Paarl
Least Favorite so far: The Giant or the Watchdog of the Lords.
Favorite Area so Far: Central Yharnam and Cathedral Ward
Least favorite area so far: Forbidden Woods or the prison district you go to when the Abducters/snatchers beat you.

Also, I had to share this, though I'm sure it's probably already been posted in this thread.
WARNING NSFW

M9x_koRZ2bA

[Pete for President]

Good to see Dark Souls still getting some love! Bloodborne would be the only game I'd get a PS4 for, so alas I haven't played it yet. So keen though!

[Wolf Kanno]

Good to see Dark Souls still getting some love! Bloodborne would be the only game I'd get a PS4 for, so alas I haven't played it yet. So keen though!

It's been pretty good so far, though the learning curve is a bit annoying in the beginning due entirely to the game's early sections being designed to punish anyone trying to use pure defensive Dark Souls tactics. The two fights I mentioned in my favorite fight section both curb-stomped me until I realized I was being way too defensive and needed to just be aggressively offensive.

Other than that, I'm enjoying it immensely if only because the setting, story, and lore are far more up my alley. If Demon's Souls was a Lovecraftian story in a Heroic Fantasy Setting, then Dark Souls was a Heroic Fantasy set in a major mythological epic and Bloodborne went full Lovecraftian Horror.

While I'll probably taking a break from the franchise and its spiritual kin after Blooborne (Persona 5 is calling me), I've been reconsidering picking up Dark Souls II and III. Though the whole "no real multiplayer features unless you have a PSN+ account" is a bit of a deal breaker for the PS4 entries.

[Vyk]

Surprisingly I've been summoning and getting summoned for a while now and my PS+ has been up for a month. You may be locked out of the arena matches or something (I don't know, I haven't gotten to them in either of the DLC), but I first noticed I could be summoned without PS+ on Bloodborne, and now I'm doing it on Dark Souls 3

Maybe it's because they work more on a peer-to-peer syestem than an actual dedicated server. I think the servers are just used to match people up rather than play on them. Either that or there's a weird glitch where because I had PS+ it still thinks I have it. In which case you'd only have to buy one month of PS+ to make it think that

Persona 5 has online features similar to golden where you can see what people did that day to get an idea of what you could/should do and that's not locked out by PS+ either

[krissy]

very close to platinum of demons souls

but those friggin rare pure stones are holding me back

currently griding dual katana skellies for pure bladestone

if...anyone has a character around 400 that has the stone... holla

[Wolf Kanno]

Surprisingly I've been summoning and getting summoned for a while now and my PS+ has been up for a month. You may be locked out of the arena matches or something (I don't know, I haven't gotten to them in either of the DLC), but I first noticed I could be summoned without PS+ on Bloodborne, and now I'm doing it on Dark Souls 3

Maybe it's because they work more on a peer-to-peer syestem than an actual dedicated server. I think the servers are just used to match people up rather than play on them. Either that or there's a weird glitch where because I had PS+ it still thinks I have it. In which case you'd only have to buy one month of PS+ to make it think that

Persona 5 has online features similar to golden where you can see what people did that day to get an idea of what you could/should do and that's not locked out by PS+ either

Possibly, I simply just don't play in online mode anymore because the initial time I tried it jumped into the PlayStation store's PSN+ purchasing section when I tried. Frankly, the Souls/Bloodborne series is probably the only one I would bother picking it up for because it's one of the few franchises that I feel does online mutliplayer well. I might reconsider getting it if I decide to pick up DSII and III later on.


very close to platinum of demons souls

but those friggin rare pure stones are holding me back

currently griding dual katana skellies for pure bladestone

if...anyone has a character around 400 that has the stone... holla

Wish I could help but I neither have Pure Bladestone nor a Soul Lv. of 400. I think my character is around Lv. 100 and I would still need to beat Phalanx in NG+ to get access to multiplayer.

Though you are absolutely right, weapon crafting in Demon's Souls is a lot more difficult to achieve than later entries. Hell, in Dark Souls, I think the only weapon crafting trophy I'm missing is for Crystal Weapons, and that was partly due to screwing up Seigmeyer's quest-line and getting too bored grinding the Dark Wraiths for Titanite Slabs. I think I'm only missing five trophies in DS1, and two of them can't be done until NG+ anyway.

Man, the katana-wielders drop pure bladestone... ugh that is going to be a pain to farm.

[Slothy]

Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!

I glitched and cheesed that fucker. No shame at all would do it again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Least favorite Boss: Flamelurker, smurf FLAMELURKER!

I glitched and cheesed that smurfer. No shame at all would do it again.

Oh I abused his shitty tracking ability and glitchy A.I. to finally beat him. My beef was the fact that he was the original roadblock for me the first time I played the game because it's damn near impossible to tank his blows on a first playthrough. He also set up the fact that I just flat out suck against bosses with long combos, absurd stamina regen and super aggressive A.I. I had to cheese Manus in DS1 as well because he's basically Flameluker 2.0. I'm actually surprised I'm doing as well as I have been in Bloodborne to be honest.

I'm not ashamed to say I cheesed the Maneaters as well by abusing the arrows through the Fog Door glitch to beat the first one. I'm glad I did cause taking one direct hit from the other one in the one moment I didn't have the Magic Shield spell up nearly one-shotted me, and I probably poured more Souls into Vitality in this game than I should have.

[krissy]

Man, the katana-wielders drop pure bladestone... ugh that is going to be a pain to farm.



oh man yeah
closest the internet can calculate, the drop rate for pure is 2.5% on pure dark world tendency
though some say it's closer to 0.5%

anyway i've definitely killed about 100 of them now and still nothing
they're not hard with firestorm and at my level

edit: FLAMELURKER

that dbag i actually couldn't figure out how to cheese him at first so i had to do it for real with lots of rolls in ng
much better at cheese these days so i did it that way ng+ upwards

discharge was also really easy to cheese

i also did the maneater trick
the fight area is so tight that it doesn't even feel bad tbh
it's not like in dark souls on the chapel roof where you actually have space to move around with the multiple disneys gargoyles cast members

[Vyk]

I'm actually surprised I'm doing as well as I have been in Bloodborne to be honest.

I think Bloodborne is more skill based and reactionary, while Dark Souls is more about memorization and pattern recognition. So to me Bloodborne feels more natural and easier to dig into blindly. There's also a lot less of hidden ambushes and MUCH less thin terrain to slip off of or get pushed off of by cheap enemies

[Spuuky]

I think Bloodborne is simply easier. Maybe I already said that earlier this thread.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm actually surprised I'm doing as well as I have been in Bloodborne to be honest.

I think Bloodborne is more skill based and reactionary, while Dark Souls is more about memorization and pattern recognition. So to me Bloodborne feels more natural and easier to dig into blindly. There's also a lot less of hidden ambushes and MUCH less thin terrain to slip off of or get pushed off of by cheap enemies

Yeah, I've noticed there are way fewer "fall to your death" setups in Bloodborne than Dark Souls. I forgot to mention how much I also loathed Sen's Fortress. Course I also feel that Bloodborne gives you generous Stamina recovery and I'm surprised how lengthy my combos can be with the little stamina I have. So there are certainly some game changes here and there. Course I feel enemies do way way more damage in Bloodborne, but that's what the rally mechanic is for.

[Vyk]

Yeah, I feel like Bloodborne was a lot more refined in many ways. But I think people prefer the off-kilter feel to Dark Souls because it forces them to find inventive ways around things, or to just struggle through and persevere. There are one or two tough bosses in Bloodborne that require a sigh of relief when overcame, but its nothing like the euphoric victory people talk about when they overcome things in Dark Souls (which I've never honestly felt, they all felt like a chore I was glad to be over once defeated)

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, I feel like Bloodborne was a lot more refined in many ways. But I think people prefer the off-kilter feel to Dark Souls because it forces them to find inventive ways around things, or to just struggle through and persevere. There are one or two tough bosses in Bloodborne that require a sigh of relief when overcame, but its nothing like the euphoric victory people talk about when they overcome things in Dark Souls (which I've never honestly felt, they all felt like a chore I was glad to be over once defeated)

Bloodborne is a much more streamlined experience than DS, but DS itself feels like a more refined, if unintentionally bloated, Demon's Souls. In terms of overall difficulty, I would actually give to to Demon's Souls for making death have a bit more bite, the World Tendency mechanics, and harsher level design. Basically From Software has just been streamlining and refining the original idea, so each installment feels a bit easier and smoother to play than the previous one. It will be interesting to see how DSIII fits into this since it's been called Dark Souls: Greatest Hits edition by some members of the fanbase, and I know they incorporated some ideas and mechanics from both Demon's Souls and Bloodborne into it.

[krissy]

TIME FOR THIS

2kr7KDCsIws

[Wolf Kanno]

If we're doing videos.

PMU41taZJLw

Warning this video is NSFW. Lots of bad words that make baby angels cry.
v4O9rMQ-TlU

[Wolf Kanno]

Yep

7LG5AAKzmkU

[krissy]

mp28JPs25ek

[Scruffington]

Just about to wrap up the Platinum Trophy for Dark Souls II.

Should I finish the series and move onto Dark Souls III afterwards? Or take a break and play GTAIV or MGS4?

I'm honestly thinking of taking a break. I don't want to get burnt out on the series, but I'm really enjoying it.

[krissy]

i always take a souls break after a platinum

[Scruffington]

i always take a souls break after a platinum

Yeah, probably a good idea.

I fully expect Bloodborne 2 to get a reveal at PSX this year with a release date in late 2018, and I'd like to have both DS3 and Bloodborne finished by then.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm not sure if there will be a Bloodborne 2. The Souls Team and Miyazaki said they wanted to make a different type of game after DS3 separate from what they had been making for the past few years. Not to mention I can't fathom how to make a continuation from Bloodborne's plot, barring a soft reboot.

Oddly enough, I can see From Software getting a new team to make Dark Souls 4 before Bloodborne 2.

[Scruffington]

I'm not sure if there will be a Bloodborne 2. The Souls Team and Miyazaki said they wanted to make a different type of game after DS3 separate from what they had been making for the past few years. Not to mention I can't fathom how to make a continuation from Bloodborne's plot, barring a soft reboot.

Oddly enough, I can see From Software getting a new team to make Dark Souls 4 before Bloodborne 2.

I don't know too much about Bloodborne's plot, but is it possible that they could just do it like they did with Dark Souls II?

I mean, DS2 is basically the plot of DS1. But maybe Bloodborne's plot is different in a way that doesn't open it up to a re-telling like that.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm not sure if there will be a Bloodborne 2. The Souls Team and Miyazaki said they wanted to make a different type of game after DS3 separate from what they had been making for the past few years. Not to mention I can't fathom how to make a continuation from Bloodborne's plot, barring a soft reboot.

Oddly enough, I can see From Software getting a new team to make Dark Souls 4 before Bloodborne 2.

I don't know too much about Bloodborne's plot, but is it possible that they could just do it like they did with Dark Souls II?

I mean, DS2 is basically the plot of DS1. But maybe Bloodborne's plot is different in a way that doesn't open it up to a re-telling like that.

Maybe? I mean it would involve canonizing one of the endings, because while there is still a cyclical nature to the experience, there is enough of a major change in the endings to make it not so easy to just retell the tale without addressing it on some point, though they could also just completely ignore it as well I guess, but that would be kind of crappy to do.

I mean part of the issue is that the "story" is really about uncovering what is actually going on in Yharnam, so having a rough idea of it would make a sequel harder. You could move the action elsewhere... but then you have to deal with certain plot elements kind of being tied back to Yharnam and not working as well if you just jump to a new place. None of this is helped by the fact that Yharnam conceptually is closer to DS3's setting than DS1, by which I mean the place is pretty much on the brink of the end by the time you get there. Hence why I feel a soft reboot would work. Same themes and concept, but new setting and story.

[krissy]

lol "plot" in any of these

j/k but i don't think it'd be difficult to piggyback off concepts like in ds1>2 yeah

im still two games behind so they dont have to hurry with more/ever imo

sometimes it's good to know when to stop

[Vyk]

Bloodborne's plot is a lot more integrated into the game, than the Dark Souls games

Actually just had a debate about this a couple weeks ago with the girlfriend. Bloodborne is centered on the things discovered and (mis)used in and around Yarnham, a new game would maybe be able to have a similar history, but that area in the game would had to have come across and discovered how to use things on their own and in their own way. So it could legitimately be totally different. It ties a lot to the chalice dungeons and the ruling government experimenting with and using stuff that they don't really have any control over, and they either don't know that, or don't want to admit it

Then again, the DLC opens up the possibility that similar stuff could wash up ashore anywhere else in the world. Plus with the Lovecraftian influences, it could be whole other different types of "ancient ones" influencing everything

I know it'd be difficult and interesting to spin a tale like that without sounding too convenient, and not just a cash-grab sequel with very little thought put into the how and why, but I would trust Miyazaki to be able to come up with it. Though it may just end up being the Dark Souls 2 team making loose references that don't make a whole lot of sense under scrutinization and is littered with plot holes. I liked what Dark Souls 2 tried to do in a LOT of aspects, but I think they needed a little more guidance from above. But I don't think Miyazaki is into guidance, he either leaves you alone to do your own thing, or ends up completely taking over like with Dark Souls 3. So, whatever. If it happens it happens. It can happen, but it'd be hard. And not everyone there is capable of telling it well. But Dark Souls 2 was still fun to play and had a lot of great ideas that were just cast aside, so the team is certainly capable at least, and I imagine I'd enjoy it no matter which group would create it

Though I'm honestly super curious what they are really working on since it's supposed to be different from both. I imagine it's time that they did some crazy sci-fi thing. Maybe it'll be Tron people and monsters in a computer chip world

[krissy]

sorta like this
UW44fsUFJgA

[Scruffington]

Tbh the idea of a sci-fi Dark Souls sounds fantastic. I just don't think I'd be interested if it isn't being made by From Software.

[Wolf Kanno]

Technically the Sci-Fi equivalent of Dark Souls made by From Software would be Armored Core which has both the learning curve, heavy use of customization, and hands off, lore driven plot elements already.

[Vyk]

The Surge interests me, but I don't think that studio really gets it, as far as what really makes a souls game. Plus, I prefer character creation in these types of games

I never really looked into armored core, I figured it was army games with robots rather than souls like

[Wolf Kanno]

I never really looked into armored core, I figured it was army games with robots rather than souls like

The more I think about the comparison the more it does feel closer to home than one would think. While it is a mission based series, the main drive of the game is to perform missions for credit which you can use to customize your awesome robot. There is a huge amount of depth to building your machine. You would be surprised how much a missions success rate comes down to your load out and where you prioritized parts. It even has the Weight Load mechanic from the Souls series, though it would be more accurate to say that Souls borrowed the idea from AC.

It's not quite "army game" but that isn't a stretch either. One major difference is that there are bosses in the game (usually other AC Units though sometimes massive war machines) and there is also an in-game battle arena which is simply about pitting your machine against fifty or so unique AC builds in a ranking tournament. The games are also fairly difficult, especially since you have to work your way up from a standard unit no better than the small A.I. security droids and amass enough money to build your own custom death machine.

The plot is pretty much a variation of the same deal: You're a Raven (AC Mercenary) who takes jobs offered by the all-powerful corporations that rule the world and use Ravens like yourself to fight covert wars against each other for control. Each entry does tend to have a central plot, but it's very hands off and easy to miss vital information because you spend more time backing one faction over another.

[Pete for President]

Im hoping Miyazaki will stick true to his former self and not make a sequel to Bloodborne.

Although I can only speak for Dark Souls 2 I really think it did not even come close to the greatness that was Dark Souls 1. A lot of things 2 does with the plot takes away from the meaning of 1 and I refuse to acknowledge it being canon. Why didnt they set Dark Souls 2 in a different part of the world during the Age of Dark and not reference 1 at all? Instead we get cringe worthy shields with Solaire on it and every big plot character from 1 they put so much effort in to present them as epic beings of the history of Lordran is brought down by the "oh its just a cycle" thing. I hate it.

These games and their way of storytelling work best on a clean slate where every aspect of it is new, because exploration is such a huge part of it. Encountering familiair things during while "exploring" takes away from the experience.

I cringed when I found Havels Armor in Dark Souls 2 and when I heard there was an Onion Knight with similar name and role as Siegmeyer in 3 I lost all hope for it to be any good.

[Spuuky]

It's a shame that you "lost all hope for it to be good" because it's probably a 9.5/10 game overall. And Dark Souls 2 is probably a 9/10. There's no shame in not being as good as a 10/10 game like Dark Souls 1.

[Wolf Kanno]

I still plan on checking out DSII and III eventually. Honestly, DSIII looks the most promising between the two, but that's largely because DSII looks to be a game that sacrificed quality for quantity. I'm still willing to check it out and be surprised. It wouldn't be the first time the black sheep entry was my favorite title in a series after all.

While I can agree that Miyazaki probably intended for Dark Souls to be a standalone title, I'm not really bothered by its continuation either. As I said, checking some lore info on DSIII makes it feel like Miyazaki still pulls through with some interesting ideas that tie it back to the original lore. I've heard less about DSII but I attribute that to its mixed reception. I hear the PVP is considered the best in the series though.

I'm actually for Bloodborne to get a sequel, hell I wouldn't mind for Demon's Souls to get one either, but I feel it would be best to take the initial themes and concepts and create a new story and setting from scratch than try to figure out how to make a sequel from the original, and perhaps Dark Souls should have done the same. DSII was out of Miyazaki's hands though and it was nice that he came back to finish the series with DSIII. It may be the most fanservicy entry, but most finales tend to be.

Still, the core games are fun and the series is unique enough where there are not as many titles that are like it, maybe four or five games off the top of my head that try to mimic it, but that's still a pretty small pool of titles.

[Scruffington]

Im hoping Miyazaki will stick true to his former self and not make a sequel to Bloodborne.

Although I can only speak for Dark Souls 2 I really think it did not even come close to the greatness that was Dark Souls 1. A lot of things 2 does with the plot takes away from the meaning of 1 and I refuse to acknowledge it being canon. Why didnt they set Dark Souls 2 in a different part of the world during the Age of Dark and not reference 1 at all? Instead we get cringe worthy shields with Solaire on it and every big plot character from 1 they put so much effort in to present them as epic beings of the history of Lordran is brought down by the "oh its just a cycle" thing. I hate it.

These games and their way of storytelling work best on a clean slate where every aspect of it is new, because exploration is such a huge part of it. Encountering familiair things during while "exploring" takes away from the experience.

I cringed when I found Havels Armor in Dark Souls 2 and when I heard there was an Onion Knight with similar name and role as Siegmeyer in 3 I lost all hope for it to be any good.

Dark Souls II's plot does not take anything away from DS1. The world of Dark Souls is cyclical, it was even this way in the original DS1.

Also, how does having an armor set make you lose hope in a game? I'm really confused by this.

I just finished getting the platinum trophy for Dark Souls II. I have to say, it's a really really good game. I didn't enjoy it as much as the original (like pretty much everyone else), but it's still a fantastic game and a worthy sequel.

[krissy]

maybe it's experience, but i found DSII easier. this is my analogy

ds1 : ds2 :: berserk : lord of the rings

it seemed much brighter to me, more happy if that's a thing

but yeah they're still 9.5 and 9

it is hard to appreciate 2 maybe, after playing 1 and hoping for something better, but it's hard to do that in any media

edit:
this shirt is on sale
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[Pete for President]

Im hoping Miyazaki will stick true to his former self and not make a sequel to Bloodborne.

Although I can only speak for Dark Souls 2 I really think it did not even come close to the greatness that was Dark Souls 1. A lot of things 2 does with the plot takes away from the meaning of 1 and I refuse to acknowledge it being canon. Why didnt they set Dark Souls 2 in a different part of the world during the Age of Dark and not reference 1 at all? Instead we get cringe worthy shields with Solaire on it and every big plot character from 1 they put so much effort in to present them as epic beings of the history of Lordran is brought down by the "oh its just a cycle" thing. I hate it.

These games and their way of storytelling work best on a clean slate where every aspect of it is new, because exploration is such a huge part of it. Encountering familiair things during while "exploring" takes away from the experience.

I cringed when I found Havels Armor in Dark Souls 2 and when I heard there was an Onion Knight with similar name and role as Siegmeyer in 3 I lost all hope for it to be any good.

Dark Souls II's plot does not take anything away from DS1. The world of Dark Souls is cyclical, it was even this way in the original DS1.

Also, how does having an armor set make you lose hope in a game? I'm really confused by this.

I just finished getting the platinum trophy for Dark Souls II. I have to say, it's a really really good game. I didn't enjoy it as much as the original (like pretty much everyone else), but it's still a fantastic game and a worthy sequel.

IMO it does though. In Dark Souls 1 all the major plot characters are introduced in the intro. Nito, Seath, Gwyn, the Witches, Furtive Pygmy. All of them - save Pygmy kinda - are written about, talked about, presented as epic ancient beings whose actions have shaped Lordran. They slayed dragons thus the Age of Fire began (their very own Age), but soon the flames will fade. Witch tried to copy the flame and brought chaos upon the world. Gwyn sacrificed himself to the flame to reignite it (and kinda worked) but now the flame fades again. Introducing Undead who sets out and meets all these characters who have done all these crazy things and eventually after slaying Gwyn we have a choice.

Either prolong the Age of Fire like Gwyn did, or speed up the process and usher in the Age of Dark which will eventually show up anyway as legend has it. While the Fire option is indeed somewhat of a cycle the Dark ending is not. We are left with a choice, but we know that the Age of Dark will come eventually no matter the choice. We are led to believe (and righteously so) that the Age of Fire is special. It's a one time thing even though it can be prolonged. Beings have fought hard so shape the world as it was and they were unique characters with unique motives in their one of a kind age. But then Dark Souls 2 steps in and says: "well prolonging the Age of Fire is kinda what always happens and none of these dudes mattered cause it happened tons of times and Age of Dark? Never heard of it.". All that effective world and character building of 1 is just instantly wiped out. If something happens lots it's not special. If many people do the same thing it's not special. Dark Souls 1 emphasised the uniqueness of it all, gave identity to characters and Lordran, giving the player a meaningful existence in an otherwise doomed world. Dark Souls 2 takes that all down by its repetition.

The Havels armour was an example of the many rehashed lore and characters that Dark Souls 2 leeches on and takes away from their identity and meaning.

[Wolf Kanno]

Actually some fans speculate that the Souls world goes back and forth between an Age of Fire and Dark. You can be the Dark Lord, but it doesn't mean the total end of the fire, instead the character reigns as the Dark Lord until another Hollow shows up and kills them and chooses to either take their place or reignite the First Flame. In truth, because Lord Gwyn bound the souls of humans to the bonfire and the First Flame, he has effectively created the ultimate contingency plan to make sure that even if his efforts failed with the first "Chosen Undead" there was always a chance a new "Chosen" would rise up and follow suit. Even Demon's Souls alludes to the fact that the conflict of the story itself is cyclical nature as not only has all the crap with the Old One happened before, but even putting the damn thing to sleep just means it will be just another few centuries before another asshole comes along and wakes it up to gain power. So far, every game Miyazaki has done has had a theme of cycles and the sheer despair it causes.

Dark Souls concept borrows heavily from Norse Mythology with the extinguish of the first flame being sort of like a less violent Ragnarok. Course in actual Norse Mythology, while Ragnarok meant the end of Odin and the Age of the Gods, it didn't mean the gods wouldn't still be around, as figures like Heimdall were prophesied to survive the great battle and become the new ruler of the gods in the next age. Similar in tone, while your Chosen Undead certainly takes down the major big wigs of the last age, there are still several gods in the mythos who seem to have simply disappeared. I mean what the hell actually happened to the real Gywnevere? She simply left with all the gods in the first game to someplace unknown and then DSIII has her partially pop up as the queen mother to the game's major location where she once again, does some stuff and skips town before all the crazy shit happens.

My point is that while I can get behind the original notion of DS being a one and done story, I feel the vagueness of the plot and the creativity of the writers and fans has more or less come up with good solutions to how the story can continue past the first game.

[Scruffington]

So is there an equivalent of Ornstein & Smough in Dark Souls III? Is there any boss that really stands out as the Big Bad of DS3 for its difficulty?

I was told the Nameless King is pretty challenging, but I want to hear what everyone else thinks is the toughest DS3 boss. :P

[Vyk]

It's probably mostly true. But some of it depends on your play style and the type of build you have. Aldrich can wreck certain builds, or certain play styles, especially if you're new to him. Pontiff Sulyvan is one I'm still not confident of while going in, and I honestly can't remember if I've solo'd him yet or not (there's 3 NPC summons outside and they're just too tempting). And The Dancer works a lot like Aldrich, she can easily catch certain builds or styles off guard, and there's plenty of videos out there that showcase how off rhythm her style is, so its pretty common that she throws most people off their game once or twice. But mostly yeah, Nameless King is the beast to beat. Though unlike O&S he's optional, and I'm not sure O&S were designed to be "the fight". Nameless King was designed to be "the fight". So it probably doesn't resonate quite the same. There's no easy parallel in the game that I can think of. Plus there are DLC fights that are contenders

[Wolf Kanno]

So is there an equivalent of Ornstein & Smough in Dark Souls III? Is there any boss that really stands out as the Big Bad of DS3 for its difficulty?

I was told the Nameless King is pretty challenging, but I want to hear what everyone else thinks is the toughest DS3 boss. :P

The closest thing to an O&S style fight is in the recent DLC, with a battle between two demons with very different styles that keep you on your toes. In terms of a gank fight, there is a really clever one in the main game proper, but it's a bit of a subversion on gank fights and from what I hear, not particularly difficult.

Nameless King was the toughest, but I believe the last DLC pretty much brought a few fights that knock him down a few pegs. Two of the bosses are basically DSIII's versions of Artorias and the Black Dragon from the DS1 DLC.

[Spuuky]

Not considering DLC, the difficulty of bosses in DS3 depends on a lot of factors - whether you summon help (makes most much easier, obviously), what order you do them in, and what your build is.

[Bri]

I've played ds1 dlc and ng+ and have to say I am glad I chose the game to begin with. I'm now on ds2 and I have tp eat my words on how much doubt and critism I gave it. Because somehow I actually like it. It can't compare to ds1 but It is fun and I just find it different and interesting. I am in my way in completing it but before I do i must get the dlc. I have been wanting to play demon souls and bloodbourne but I'll have to have ds3 out of the way.

[Scruffington]

I've played ds1 dlc and ng+ and have to say I am glad I chose the game to begin with. I'm now on ds2 and I have tp eat my words on how much doubt and critism I gave it. Because somehow I actually like it. It can't compare to ds1 but It is fun and I just find it different and interesting. I am in my way in completing it but before I do i must get the dlc. I have been wanting to play demon souls and bloodbourne but I'll have to have ds3 out of the way.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way as you do. DS2 initially feels different...REALLY different. But that's only because you get to be so familiar with the original Dark Souls. As soon as you push through that uncomfortable feeling, the game actually becomes quite enjoyable.

[Vyk]

Yeah, I didn't enjoy it until my second or third attempt. And I didn't like Dark Souls until my second or third attempt either. I still don't like it the way most people do. I appreciate what it brings to the table, but there's a lot of things that bother me, and Dark Souls 2 has a lot of things that bother me, but they're completely different things. They're extremely different games. And they both bring fantastic things to the table, but they're completely different fantastic things. DS1 has much better art style, lore infusion, and more impactful NPCs and quests. DS2 has much better weapon variety and combinations, dual wielding is legitimately a thing and a really fun thing at that, and the outfit options are ridiculous. Fashion Souls at its highest. And I initially hated the way aptitude and attunement worked with your agility and animation speed, but after a while it made sense. Dark Souls 1 only had an encumberance issue that you could overcome with building up your equip load. But it's much more in depth in 2. You feel like your character is actually becoming more competent the higher your agility gets. And the life gem thing got a lot of criticism initially, coupled with the fact that it can sometimes take forever to garner enough estus flasks to survive long runs on. But after playing Bloodborne and coming back and treating life gems that way, like a band-aid in a desperate situation, it worked a lot better. Save estus for safe times to recover, but life gems are where it's at. And many people still hate that, but that's how it was apparently meant, and when you don't fight that system, its a lot better

[Slothy]

Finally getting around to finishing a dark souls playthrough.

All I'm gonna say is fuck Gwyn. Almost beat him one time then got fucked every other time.

[Bri]

Finally getting around to finishing a dark souls playthrough.

All I'm gonna say is fuck Gwyn. Almost beat him one time then got fucked every other time.

After playing ng+ I take my time with him and practice parrying. Then when I can't beat him I'll summon solaire and a friend to help :) Grampa Gwyn is tough though for sure!

[Slothy]

Yeah, being my first real full playthrough Solaire is most assuredly dead. Wish I could summon him though. I try to do the parrying when he does his combo of horizontal swings. Block the first hit, parry the second, stab him in the face, repeat. It's mostly all the other moves that get me eventually. The one time I did get him doing that combo most of the time I was one hit away from beating him when I died. I swear I almost cried. Just a matter of time though.

[Vyk]

What type of character are you playing as?

[Bri]

I agree! Only a matter of time. Yes Sunbro is definitely an Npc you must try and keep alive to get help not unless you're the type to just carry out on your own ( I'm not for sure lol ) I do have to say that O&S, DlC bosses and Gwyn are the ones I look foward to every time! I try to get summoned alot for all of them just cause.

[Slothy]

What type of character are you playing as?

I went heavy in strength, a bit of dexterity and roughly equal amounts of vitality and endurance. Running around in black knight armour with a black knight shield and sword and havels ring to keep me under 50% equipment load.

Actually remembered I hadn't done the dlc stuff so taking a break to do that at the moment. But I'll get back at Gwyn soon I'm sure and get the parrying down.

[Vyk]

Gwyn may seem easy after a go with a couple particular bosses in the DLC

[Slothy]

You never know. Even the sanctuary guardian took some practice. Made it to Astoria but do not have time for that tonight. Back at it tomorrow.

[Wolf Kanno]

Artorias is easily one of my favorite fights in DS1.

[Slothy]

Kind of getting the hang of Artorias but didn't sleep well so going to wait until later to attempt him more. Maybe I'll have a nap and try him again. :jess:

Only thing I can't deal with is his charge up so far. Haven't had much luck trying to stagger him in time to interrupt it. Maybe next time.

[Pete for President]

Kind of getting the hang of Artorias but didn't sleep well so going to wait until later to attempt him more. Maybe I'll have a nap and try him again. :jess:

Only thing I can't deal with is his charge up so far. Haven't had much luck trying to stagger him in time to interrupt it. Maybe next time.

If you're handy with a bow you can shoot him in the head while he charges to stun him. Otherwise 2-handing any greatsword, axe or club should stun him in 2-3 hits. I would recommend not forcing it though, if you're too far away it is safer to just let him buff. Lastly, he does give it away when he's about to buff: it's usually 2 rolls backwards into charging. Good luck :)

[Slothy]

I couldn't let my Gwyn struggles go (I have trouble with letting things go in general). So five tries later Gwyn is dead. I'll just complete the DLC next playthrough. I'm not overly bothered about missing some things. But NG+ now and the first bell has rung.

[Bri]

I couldn't let my Gwyn struggles go (I have trouble with letting things go in general). So five tries later Gwyn is dead. I'll just complete the DLC next playthrough. I'm not overly bothered about missing some things. But NG+ now and the first bell has rung.

Alright! Good luck in Ng+

[Slothy]

I'm already greatly enjoying seeing what bits I can bypass to get to the major areas, and exploring some places I didn't fully explore before.

[krissy]

nice! the exploration was so cool, you could reach the bottom bell from multiple ways

[Wolf Kanno]

I may be jumping into Dark Souls 2 in the not so distant future, any advice from DS2 Veterans?

[Galuf]

oooft goodluck. DS2 is like different from DS1 and it feels so weird and hard to play, maybe youll get it but im just saying goodluck to you. atleast DS3 is more like DS1 than DS2 is.

[Spuuky]

I, on the contrary, think that DS2 is still just Dark Souls no matter what people say. It's not harder, more awkward, easier, or anything else. The world is bloated compared to DS1 but so it goes.

Adaptability is a very important stat.

[Galuf]

dont get me worn, i dont think dark souls 2 isnt a dark souls game, it definatly feels like it. im just saying that i had a harder time with it than the other 2, maybe ill play it again and change my opininon. also i like the graphics on it, they are btter than 1 and 3 for me lol.

[Vyk]

There's a lot more enemy tracking on hits, there's a lot more ledges to fall off of, the iframe mechanic is a lot stricter, there's a LOT more weapons to choose from, and armor, and play styles vary a lot more. If you've played Bloodborne, get life gems and treat them like blood vials. Don't rely on estus, or get stressed at how limited it is in the beginning. And yeah, adaptability will eventually help you be less slow awkward and clunky. Also DS2 has a lot more "gotcha" moments, where the only way to survive is to know it's coming. DS1 only had a handful of those by comparison. DS2 however loves hiding enemies behind things, or above you, or snipe you from a distance. They love poison, and curse, and will smash through everything you have with dark damage before you know what's going on.

[Wolf Kanno]

Started this last night, didn't get far because it was late and I finished FFXII first. Just reached Majula and met the Emerald Herald for the first time.

My starting class is Knight once again, cause I love consistency, though I was sad I didn't get to start with a cool armor set or a shield for my trouble. My gift was the Petrified Something, cause someone told me you could get a pretty snazzy item from the Crows nest by doing so, and I got a Great Demon Axe, which will likely stay in my inventory forever cause it's not favorite type of weapon, and I am nowhere near the stat requirements to use it.

I have died once so far in the training area. I was trying to lure the ogre like thing from the boat or something, and did not see the other one that is hiding behind the rocks near the path. He basically snuck up behind me and ate me. This is Dark Souls indeed. I think my priority right now is to get a shield and a bow ASAP.

[Spuuky]

Lucky for you there's an easy access shield that is trivial to obtain. I don't remember about bows since I never use them.

Dark Souls 2 has a bunch of great ideas that they shouldn't have neglected for later games; I'm interested to see if you notice them (and their conspicuous absence from DS3 in retrospect).

[Wolf Kanno]

Well it just so happens that I did acquire Dark Souls III as well, so it will be interesting to see what changed. I can already tell DSIII sped up the combat considerably.

Onto DSII, I just beat my first boss, the Old Dragon Rider. Not too difficult outside of having more health than I would care for and his Halberd has some funky hit boxes. I acquired the actual Knight set, but I'll need to beef up my endurance and weight load before it becomes viable. I also farmed the Old Knights long enough to almost have all of their armor sets except the leggings. I even have the Ultra Greatsword now, but I'm far too underleveled to make any use of it. I need to find better equipment, or at least something I can live with looking at #fashionsouls

Despite whining about needing a shield, so far it seems like two-handing my weapon and just dodging has been more useful, that or my hands are still trying to play Bloodborne. I did find that easy shield, but still ended up picking up a good medium shield anyway.

I like the locales so far. The Crestfallen Knight is the same, but it was interesting that he runs a Covenant now. Not sure what the Covenant of Blue does, but joined it anyway in hopes it will keep invaders down. The cat is amusing as hell and my fave character so far. I also bought the Ring that restores a bit of health when you defeat and enemy, maybe I subconsciously do want to replay Bloodborne. I like the fact the blacksmith looks like the former leader of the Stonefang Tunnels from Demon's Souls, that was a nice touch. I just met the Cleric who teaches miracles, but I like the fact she feels like a con artist. These guys really don't like the clergy for some reason because they always turn out to be a bit more evil or two-faced than the other characters. I also met the cool buccaneer swordwoman with the Pinwheel looking mask. She seems interesting. The Armor Merchant is pretty cool as well. I kind of like his timid personality. Reminds me of Stockpile Thomas from Demon's Souls as well. I haven't quite decided on the Emerald Herald yet, she's a bit too stiff and trying too hard to be mysterious for my taste.

I don't really want to dive into the Wharf area yet, so I may backtrack and check out a new area first, especially since I fast traveled back to Marjula to level up and maybe check out some more armor wares.

I haven't quite figured out what build to go for, but I do feel the addition of Adaptability and its affect on using Estus to be kind of lame. Sort of makes that stat feel more high priority than others which is kind of annoying. At least Poison Resistance is gone. Do I need to focus on Dex for dual-wielding or is still strength mostly?

I hear we have a fourth type of magic now in this game as well. I dabbled in sorceries in Demon's Souls, and while I originally was going to build a Paladin type character in DS1, I ended up really liking Pyromancy more (especially since I could buff it without sacrificing soul levels) and while third time is a charm for Miracles, I'm curious what all this fuss is about Hex magic, especially since I've heard it has a spell to deal with mages.

I feel like the Hollow form is kind of silly looking. We went from looking like the ReDead's from Zelda to looking like Warcraft Zombies. It's amusing to say the least. Also, what is up with those three piglets in Marjula?

[Spuuky]

There's a stat in every Soulsborne game which is actually just the most important one. Yes, you have to put points in this new stat, but you also level up faster than other Souls games and end the game at a higher level, so you aren't really "giving up" anything.

There are some really obscure NPC interactions with various people in town which is always good and Soulsy.

Your first boss was the Old Dragonrider, eh. That is not the typical first boss and you're gonna find a very easy zone as a result.

[Jowy]

Nice! This thread is still going after almost five years.

If you're itching for a Soulsborne / Metroidvania crossover, this is highly recommended: https://ska-studios.com/games/salt-and-sanctuary/

[Spuuky]

Yeah it's a very faithful representation of what Dark Souls would be like in 2D. I wish it had way more weapons to find though.

[Skyblade]

Dark Souls Remastered just announced for Nintendo Switch to release at the end of May, in case anyone was interested in playing on the go.

[Spuuky]

I saw the announcement but I didn't look too closely. Is this purely a graphical upgrade (plus new platforms of course)? Or are they actually changing anything?

[Wolf Kanno]

I saw the announcement but I didn't look too closely. Is this purely a graphical upgrade (plus new platforms of course)? Or are they actually changing anything?

Mostly graphical (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/01/11/dark-souls-remastered-announced-ps4-xbox-one-switch-pc-specs/), but the multiplayer will now allow up to six players. Invasions are going to get interesting... PS4 is also getting a trilogy box set (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/01/11/dark-souls-trilogy-box-set-announced-exclusively-ps4/). Funny right after I just picked up DS2 and 3, but if the multiplayer is locked behind the PS+ stuff like Bloodborne, then I'll be fine with my PS3 version of DS2.

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In gaming news, I went to the Cathedral of Blue and was kind of surprised by whom I found there. He was surprisingly easier than he was in DS1 but not having his Hammer Bro likely helped. Took him down and got snubbed by the head of the Blue Knight Covenant.

Now I'm checking out the Forest of Giants, which feels more like the Undead Burg. Met Pate, who is just as much of a prick as the other guy with a name that starts with P in all of the other entries. Beat the Heide Knight and obtained his pretty cool sword which replaced me broadsword at the moment, and is making me reconsider letting this game do my Paladin Build. Met the Pursuer, who has way wonkier hit boxes with his swords than the Old DtagonSlayer and everything in Heide's Tower of Flame. I thought I was dodging most of his attacks because it looked the same as when I dodged it from the other guys but apparently I am wrong.

This does bring me to one gripe I have with the game, something I've heard people talk about but now seeing it in action, I can concur it's a real pain. There is no "weight" to hits in this game. I've taken hits I never noticed and I've hit opponents and had to quickly scan their lie bar to make sure it connected cause it just sometimes feels like we're all LARPing with invisible weapons. It's odd cause it seems to vary though, Halberd and bows have weight but some of the swords don't seem to. It's getting a bit annoying when I feel like I'm doing better than I thought only to learn I've lost most of my health to "chip damage". Also, while I'm griping, I don't appreciate the changes to Parry and Counters. Seems long-winded and over-visualized, and it's a pain trying to get the counter timing right.

I was able to get the key to the blacksmith and the mansion as well so yay for three Estus Flasks! I also have enough equip load to wear the better Knight Armor without fat rolling, so yay for Fashion Souls. I was also excited to find a Short Bow in the Blacksmith shop, so after purchasing some arrows, I'm feeling more complete since Bows have been a part of my builds since Demon's Souls. Course I'm going to need to throw some point sin Dex now and eventually find a Longbow I can bother to upgrade.

I'm digging the bigger emphasis on the horror of going Hollow in this game, to be frank, I never felt like Hollowing was such a big deal in DS1 from a story standpoint and saw it as a "Cursed with Awesome" kind of deal, but DSII is doing a better job really driving home why being a Hollow is a bad thing. The story is also interesting once I really decided that we're now deep into the "Age of Man" when the Age of Gods is so long past that people don't even remember the story of the First Flame, which gives the setting a more interesting flavor that I'm digging.

Despite some wonky mechanics and design choices here and there, I've been having a blast with the game so far. It probably helps that I have enough Souls Experience, that I'm actually making a decent pace in terms of progress. I'm certainly getting farther in areas and with bosses than I normally would.

[Wolf Kanno]

Pretty much got the whole day to play, so lots of updates.

I completed the Forest of Giants and went to the Bastille until the freaking terrible trio kept kicking my ass, not helped by the corridor leading up to them having like eight Royal Swordsmen with their bastard swords in small hallways. So I left and went to this one forest area but didn't get far due to a statue person. Went to the Wharf and completed that, only to wind right back into the Bastille, but with better stats and a few more upgrades to my shield, I was able to beat them with a summon. I also got invaded here and lucked out by having one of the blue knights in my covenant show up to do some damage to them, which made finishing them off not so hard.

Decided I didn't want to bother with the Sinner's Keep and decided to buy that ring to help reduce fall damage and plunge into the gaping hole in Majula. Beat the Rat Vanguard after a second attempt cause I wasn't paying attention to the petrification build up. Reached the Gutter, which wasn't quite as bad as Blight Town or the Valley of Defilement, up until I ran out of torches and found out they merged the most annoying part of Blighttown (the poison spitting fuckers) and the place you fight Nito in DS1 (it's pitch black and easy to fall to your death if you don't have a reliable light source) so the last part was a chore. The Black Gulch, as well as the devs who designed it, can go fuck themselves. I'll need to come up with a game plan on how to reach the Rotten without taking too much punishment in that hellhole.

Went to the Huntsman's Grounds and dealing with more poison than I would care for, especially after coming out of the Black Gulch. This place is interesting cause it reminds me a little of the swamp area from Xenoblade, but also has undertones of the freaking snake monster woods in Bloodborne as well. While trying to deal with a particularly annoying enemy in the area, I got invaded and promptly killed by a mage, who then proceeded to send me an email to tell me I'm a casual. Oh Dark Soul community, you had me at hello...

With all that said, I'm planning on taking a break for a bit tomorrow. Didn't get anything accomplished that I wanted to today cause I gamed too much, and I'm not really sure where to go from here.

With all that said, I may have to agree with KingK's review of DSII in that the game seems a bit more annoyingly difficult by means of the game really having a love of ambushes and swarming you with gank fights. It's like they're going out of their way in some places to be annoying about this. I've also decided that Adaptability is a symptom of this same issue. It's basically a stat designed to nerf the player for the game's sake and now the players have to make sure to throw a couple of more levels into it just so we can be on par with the early games in terms of healing and recovery, which frankly, were not exactly lightning quick in those games themselves, but it's a bit ridiculous to watch your character take their sweet time to chug some Sunny D.

To look at this on the other hand, I'm actually surprised how many powerful accessories I've already found. I have a regen rings for both health and stamina, one that restores health for enemies killed, and a few others I don't remember acquiring in either previous game until almost near the end and after looking them up on the Wiki. So it's not like the game isn't throwing you a bone here and well, but I'm kind of getting sick of getting run through the wringer in some of these places. I also want to find my Sun Covenant, cause I prefer Jolly Cooperation over PVP BS.

[Spuuky]

The Black Gulch really is a bitch, for such a short zone.

You can Jolly Cooperate without a Covenant at all, but ... on the bright side, you get your Sunlight Covenant fairly soon if you don't just miss it.

Hey the Huntsman's Copse has one of my favorite bosses in the game in it!

[Wolf Kanno]

Didn't get as much as I had hoped. I learned that the Gutter had an item that could be used to restore one of the petrified people blocking my way. I convinced my self it was in this treasure chest on a ledge only accessible by getting to the bottom part of the stage and was getting nailed left and right due to the darkness, my lack of torch and the fact the enemies have some kind of elemental enhancement on their weapons that circumvented my shield's protection and took a chunk of my health. That treasure turned out to be a Big Club. So I went back to Majula to buy some supplies and only then discovered I already had the item in question in my inventory from my initial run of the area. Go figure.

I ended up restoring the girl who teaches pyromancy and decked her out in some Hollow Infantry garb. I reached the point of the Faded Woods where the fog takes over and decided that I didn't want to deal with it until I had more time. Went back to the Hunting Grounds and ran into that valley area where the Hollowed Huntman with Dark imbued whips and axes jump down to kill you. Beat them, reached the bridge and thought I heard a bow being prepared and while looking up with shield raised to see where the arrow was coming, managed to fall down the only freaking holy on the bridge. As it turns out, for the moment, the sound I heard was just the rope bridge itself. So I fought my back there to retrieve my souls and decided I had enough to get some more levels. So I went back to Majula to add some levels in my neglected Adaptability stat, bought more arrows and Human Effigies, and called it a night.

Since I began with a Knight Build, I have far lower Attunement than usual, so I haven't been able to purchase any magic yet, not that my Faith or Intellect stats are high enough to cast anything either, but I have enough of all of the items to cast spells that I'm debating on whether I should bother. I ended up using a bit of Pyromancy in DS1, but I've heard it was nerfed in this entry a bit due to how overpowered it was in that game. While I usually teach myself a little magic in these games, it's usually for situational reasons and not necessarily for the full benefits of a dedicated caster. Anyone here play casters?

I also found this video by VaatiVidya concerning the Remaster, as well as some speculation on the new FROM Software games Shadows Die Twice.

rmwDiPilORQ

[Vyk]

If you use a weapon you don't care about, or just watch the durability, you can make your way through the poison area and break most of the statues that cause you problems. But it hurts a weapon's durability pretty quickly. But you can get through about 75% of it before it becomes questionable to that weapon. The rest of it isn't too bad after that. And since it's so small, you can quickly learn the safe areas and not have to worry even as much

I don't know if you've found out on your own, but I think you had a question of dual-wielding earlier, and you should know that you need 150% of the stat requirements for each weapon to make good use of it. I think if you just meet the requirements, you just get to have a weapon in each hand, but if you meet half-again the requirements, you can do what's called a power stance. It's one of DS2's major claims to fame

And magic is what you make of it. It's handy for a warrior if you run out of arrows, you can still hit from a distance, but other than that, it's probably best used with a little more dedication. I've enjoyed my warrior mages in DS1 and 2, but I focused on magic, and infusing melee weapons with magic to use that bonus for the most part, instead of vice-versa

Also, I don't know how much pyromancy or sorcery got nerfed, but I watched cleric lightning magic get nerfed in the middle of a playthrough on youtube from a patch. But you don't sound interested in being a cleric anyway

Also Spuuky brought up a good point on the levels. I'm not sure if DS1 had a level cap, but you certainly feel like you're end-game levels are around 70-80

In DS2 it doesn't feel broken until well after 100, especially if you were to focus a lot on adaptability and attunement, it wouldn't feel broken until close to 150 from regular stat levels. My sorceress character is still pretty fragile at 120 because of this. But at least it feels fair, because I'm straight up a swifty glass cannon

[Wolf Kanno]

After spending most of the evening getting my ass handed to me by the Undead Executioners and cherry tapping the Red Phantom guarding the gate, I fought the Executioner's Chariot, which is probably the most well known boss in the game and didn't disappoint. Largely cause it was a cool concept, more of a puzzle fight than the usual "strafe and poke" fights that make up the majority of the boss battles in this series and it really brought me back to Demon's Souls.

Confession time, I still think Demon's Souls had the best bosses in the series so far. While they are certainly the easiest as well, I liked the fact the bosses were pretty unique from each other and always had a bit of a puzzle aspect, which is something I don't get a whole lot of in the later entries which prefer more kinetic and straight up battles that test your skills and greed.

I also met Creighton, who has a score to settle with Pate, which is pretty interesting. So far most of the masters I've met are not interested in me due to my low magic stats, so I may throw a few points in so they will start talking to me.

While I could go back to the Huntmen's Copse and fight the actual boss, I may finally return to the Sinner's place and finally get one of the Old One's Souls that I've been neglecting. After that, I may tackle The Rotten one more time.

[Wolf Kanno]

The theme of last night's gaming excursion was "Gank and Invasion". I took a break from the Huntsman's Copse and decided to go back to the Lost Bastille to deal with the only other plot relevant soul I can go after that doesn't involve Black Gulch. Though more specifically, I'm hunting Branches of Yore so I can get access to a few characters here and there. Instead, I found the Belfry Tower and the little Dwarf men, as well as a very persistent invader who was likely one of the Bell Guardian Covenant. I feel I may have inadvertently gained his ire, cause when he first popped up, he bowed to me and I tried to stumble through the gestures, only to accidentally pick the "I won't run" gesture that comes off a bit cocky. Guy used magic and had a heavy shield and halberd combo, but regardless, I did paltry damage to them regardless and got whooped about three different times.

This concluded with a rematch against the Bell Gargoyles, except they brought the extended family. Got my ass kicked the first time but took them down the second once I focused on eliminating them one at a time.

With the Bastille Key, I decided to explore the area again to open up the paths I couldn't find, and again I was consistently hounded by an invader with a Miracle/Hex build. I could actually do damage to him, but he could also use healing spells and had this annoying habit of always popping up before I could eliminate all the enemies in the area so I kept getting ganked by him chasing me into enemy filled areas.

While there are certainly more bonfires in this game than the previous one, I've also noticed that several of them also have enemies parked right next to them, the one in the Lost Sinner's area being a rather obnoxious one as it's next to three archers and teleporting in always begins with me hearing them arm their Heavy Crossbows. I went down to the bottom area where the obnoxiously strong lion men monsters are waiting in the heavy water, and despite summoning that cool swordwoman character from Mirrah, she apparently doesn't have any Estus and never bothered to heal after we got thumped by the lion monsters and cursed suicide zombies. This meant she didn't last too long against the Lost Sinner. The real annoying bit is that I nearly beat her on my first try but we traded last blows and she was a tad quicker than me.

I'm aware I can light up the room to make the fight easier, but I'm out of torches. They're an interesting mechanic, but I'm annoyed that torches are hard to come by, and apparently no one sells them, which makes the mechanic more annoying than fun sadly. I'll try to beat her tonight since it was getting late when I finally reached her. I like the shout out to DS1 and the hint she's the reincarnated Witch of Izalith due to the "bug" that crawls into her mask being the same type you slay in the Bed of Chaos fight.

[Spuuky]

I never came even remotely close to running out of torches. I had like ... three hours of torch time left at the end of the game. And I light every single torch stand in the Pit, of which there are ... many. We must play different in that regard. I'm pretty sure they can also drop from any enemy that carries a torch themselves although that's not super-common?

[Wolf Kanno]

I've gotten a few from enemy drops but farming them isn't something I really want to do since that's what eventually got me to finish DS1 and is likely my main gripe against Bloodborne is farming items is a chore in these games.

Part of my issue was not noticing the time until I had already burnt through a bunch of torches already and I wouldn't be surprised if I tackled the Pit way earlier than most do, so several deaths and bad item management is likely why I'm torch-less at the moment. I just think it's silly that something so plain and common is restricted to treasure and rare drops, whereas the lockstone keys, Human Effigys, and healing items are not. Hell, I wish I could find a merchant that sells a decent bow.

It's not like I need the torch to beat this fight or anything, I managed to nearly beat her my first try without it, it's just an interesting novelty that would be cool to do, but it's not important.

[Spuuky]

Lighting up that particular room is way more or less important based on your character type and playstyle. You can't stay locked on at any distance if it's not lit up, for instance.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm a melee man, so I need to be close to her anyway. The real hard part was just losing track of her when she ran away or when she goes all Dragoon on you. After a few attempts, I finally took her down, I even helped another player take her down as well. I used the Branch of Yore to unstone Straid, and was finally able to unload most of my Boss Souls for weapons and spells I'll likely never use, with the exception of the Dragonrider Bow and possibly the Warped Blade once I get my DEX high enough to use it. I'm not far from being able to use the Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword, but not quite sure if I really want to incorporate it. I tend to favor more speedy builds and I wouldn't be surprised if the weight alone will be an issue. Of anything, I'm having a bit of a Demon's Souls moment and tending to prefer my basic weapons over the more fancy shmancy ones. I should probably check to see if I can utilize a power stance with any of my current weapons.

This does bring me to the issue I have right now which is the sheer lack of reliable sources of Titanite. I kind of feel that a good part of my problem with the Lost Sinner and the Rotten may be that my gear is at a bit of a standstill cause basic Titanite is not as easy to come by in the areas I've explored so far. I have enough specialty items to upgrade the boss weapons, and I even have a decent amount of third tier upgrade materials, but no sources of basic and Large Titanite. While I'm on the subject, I wish I could find an easily accessible merchant who sells higher tier arrows, cause the Wood arrows are just not cutting it anymore.

With Lost Sinner down, I'm either going to attempt the Rotten again, or finish Huntsman's Copse and fight the Skeleton Lords. I did explore that Foggy Woods, which is certainly unnerving, but was more terrified by these Lion Head Warriors in the next section which just wrecked me if I let my guard down for a moment. On the brightside, I found an upgrade to my Stamina Regen ring which was supper nice. Is the Stamina Regen shield in this game as well, or did they finally come to their senses and drop it from the game?

[Spuuky]

I guess I'm not SURPRISED that you didn't find Steady Hand McDuff but he's a pretty important dude to find in my opinion. Oh well! The way to find him is not a mechanic that was utilized in Dark Souls 1 or explained in this one except via the luck of discovering it.

Titanite becomes much easier once you end up with a vendor for it in town, which is surely very soon. They're also a common drop from an enemy you'll soon encounter.

I'm pretty sure this game has MULTIPLE stamina recovery shields. But they aren't as OP.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh I already found McDuff, but he just speaks gibberish at his anvil about needing a new flame. I take it he needs an Ember Item like the Blacksmiths in DS1. I've also encountered two people who teach Sorceries and Hexes but my stats are too low for them to want to talk to me about it. While my Faith is like 15 right now, my Intelligence and Attunement are both like 5, so most of the mage characters treat me like shit, except Straid, who looks down on everyone it seems.

[Vyk]

You can't currently talk to McDuff much as interacting with him is tied to another problem you're having at the moment

[Wolf Kanno]

Attempted the Rotten once again, unlocked the second bonfire I didn't realize was in the room. I am having serious issues with him. He hits like a truck and can generally cleave me in two, and if I'm not getting thrown around by his attacks, he's making me walk through his fire traps all over the place which also does way more damage than you would think. I try to stay close and circle him, but I have this bad tendency to get the camera "stuck" on him which makes reading his attacks very difficult since the camera decides to zoom in on me, and through him, so I can only see parts of his model which makes it hard to know when to roll.

So I dropped that and decided to go back to the Shaded Woods, and after getting a ton of my equipment destroyed in that awful Basilisk Trap in the main area, I was able to wander over and fight the Scorpion chick, who thankfully, didn't give me as hard of a time as her counterpart in DS1. This led to the Door of Pharos, where I found the boss room fairly quickly, and my bow came in handy with the normal mobs. I'm happy I went with the Dragonrider Bow since it not only does more damage than my poor shortbow, but also does magic damage, which makes it surprisingly useful against things with high physical defense. The Rat King's Authority is a bitch though. The freaking Toxic wolves are a bit of a cheap shot and I'm stuck in an awkward situation where I have to decide to sacrifice defense for speed and stamina recovery. The boss hits hard, but he would be manageable if I didn't have to worry about his toxic minions and the fact that despite having what I'm told is a fairly high adaptibility stat, chugging Estus is still criminally slow. To the point I've given up on using Estus in fights altogether cause it leaves me way too vulnerable.

If the last few areas have taught me anything though, it's that I may either need to explore and find new gear, or I'm going to have to seriously find more regular and large Titanite shards cause all my gear has only been upgraded once or twice. The Rotten might be manageable if I could do decent damage to him, whereas the Rat Authority can be dealt with by putting some more points towards Endurance and trying to stay under him. Course, I guess I should suck it up and go fight the Skeleton Lords since they are the only thing standing in my way of obtaining the only person who sells Titanite.

[Spuuky]

God I love the Skeleton Lords.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well last night was basically me kicking ass and taking names. My stubbornness wouldn't let me drop the Rat Authority boss, and after reading a message left by another player to use blocking as well as changing my tactics up a bit, I was able to conquer this guy. Basically I had to channel my inner Demon's Souls and Bloodborne for this fight. Despite being a large mother smurfer, even a mediocre shield like mine can tank the hit if you have enough stamina, which allowed me to stay free from his swipes while I dealt with the actual annoying part of the fight which were the Toxic Minions. After that, it was basically a case of being super aggressive like in Bloodborne. Initially I kept trying to keep the Rat Authority separated by his minions but that kept getting me killed, so instead, I rushed the boss with my shield up, and took out the remaining minions, whenever they actually did reach me under his legs. He did get me once cause he had some weird toxic breath I was unaware of and not watching my health since I got too greedy, but my next attempt saw great success after double downing on my aggression.

After that, I attempted the Rotten again, and discovered another secret passage that led me to the swordwoman of Myriah, whose summon sign became available in the second bonfire area. Now that I had a companion who could deal real damage and hold aggro long enough for me to heal, I had a much easier time dealing with him and crushed him first attempt. Discovered the first DLC area, but decided to hold off since my weapon was doing tick damage at best against the enemies in the area.

So finally I tackled the Skeleton Lords, who were amusing for the sole fact that I was way overleveled for them, and opening laughed when I screwed up and took both a pyromancy ball to the face with a follow up scythe attack from another lord, only to watch maybe a fifth of my health get taken out. This coming back from two boss fights where one hit would take three quarters of my health. So I took my time and dealt with them. The skeleton minions were a nice touch, even if I still really hate the wheel skeletons, though they were not as bad as the ones from the Catacombs since there are only four of them this time, and I wasn't fighting in near complete darkness this time.

So I finally got the Stone Girl, picked up a healthy amount of stones, including the Large Titanite I desperately needed, and to kind of explain how off my stone collecting has been for this game. Once I got the Lg Titanite needed, I was able to upgrade my main weapon up to the Titanite Slab option, because I have been generously blessed with Titanite Chunks. So it's going to be interesting to see how much damage I do going from a half upgraded weapon to a mostly fully upgraded one. For those wondering, I've been using the Heide Straight Sword as my main weapon due to it's slightly greater length from regular swords, and the innate Lightning Damage it does cause it seems to me that the majority of things in this game are weak to Lightning. I have a few other weapons as well, and the whip turned out to be a real handy weapon in the Black Gulch for destroying those stupid statues. I am thinking of adding a Greatsword into the mix since that was my main weapon in DS1, but we'll see. It depends on how much upgrading has changed since it feels obvious that DS2 may be taking more of a Demon's Souls approach to weapon infusion than DS1 by keeping the blacksmiths down to two with one being basic and the other being for advanced stuff.

I'm now debating on whether I should do Harvest Valley or Tseldora? I've unlocked Shulvan I think it was called, but I'm going to leave the DLC for after I acquire all of the Old Ones Souls since they seem to be the tougher challenges and I figure if I can conquer them, I'll have a good shot at the DLC then.

[Spuuky]

The DLC is very rewarding but infinitely harder than all the rest of the game. Harvest Valley vs Tseldora is a really irrelevant decision, but personally I'd pursue the Harvest Valley path first. I would not do any of the DLC until you are at the end of the game, or perhaps have even beaten the game (unlike DS1 and BB, the game does not automatically progress to NG+ when you win).

[Wolf Kanno]

Completed Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak, as well as beat Duke's Dear Freyja netting me my third Old One's Soul and letting me be one more soul away from accessing the end game areas.

The Medusa chick was surprisingly more difficult than I thought. I almost beat her my first try but got greedy and killed for my trouble. Sadly, I ended up losing the souls I had obtained due to an accidental poisoning, though I was likely not going to get them back anyway because I was invaded and I do terrible at PVP. I did eventually defeat her and reached the Iron Keep. Took one look at the Lava Land before me and had flashbacks of Stonefang Mines and Lost Izalith and decided I would deal with Tsedora instead.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm arachnophobic? Yeah, not a pleasant place, but I found Orifex's shop where I can get BOSS WEAPONS! Though is it me or does it seem like a majority of the Boss Weapons are spears and halberds? Frankly, I've not been too impressed with many of them besides my Dragonrider Bow, but now that I have a Compact Bow, I may switch it out since the stamina drain from using the boss one is pretty steep for a bow. For now, I'm sticking to my Heide Sword, though I may begin experimenting with Dual-Wielding if it has a power stance.

Fought the spider and conquered it after a few attempts, I'm really starting to get annoyed with all these bosses with minions or partners. It's like the devs heard everyone complain about the Capra Demon and O&S fights so much that they decided to make the majority of the bosses like them.

I need to go back and explore the rest of Tsedora since I have what I'm hoping is the key needed for the area, and I also have a few places I still wish to explore. I also got to see the conclusion of the Pate/Creighton Feud and sided with the murderous maniac.

I've also acquired the last two merchants for Majula, which is nice. Gives it that nice Nexus vibe from Demon's Souls except I feel only the starting characters in the area have any real personality with the exception of Swindling Gilligan. I'm starting to feel the complaint about the characters in this entry. While Pate and Creighton were great, and I liked Vengal (sp?) as well, a lot of the characters just kind of feel "meh". I mean I wasn't a huge fan of the characters in DS1 as well, but at least they all had some interesting narrative to follow like the Clerics and Big Hat Logan.

With that said, I'm digging Drangleic. It has an interesting Eldritch vibe to it that was lacking in DS1. The fact the layout of the world doesn't make sense, due partially to the game kind of getting retooled halfway through development, actually adds to the more horror aspects of the region. The lore is pretty good, not as cohesive as DS1 and Demon's Souls, but we are talking about a region where hundreds of kingdoms have risen and fallen over the centuries, so the lore kind of being all over the place due to it applying to different kingdoms is interesting. It's also amusing since we're seeing how far ahead in time everything is that all of the events of DS1 are now myth, but it's also neat how the four Old Ones are hinted to be reincarnations of the four main "antagonists" from DS1 as well with the clever shout outs to them. Tsedora really gives off the vibe of a derelict Duke's Archive and the dead dragon in the area was a nice touch as well.

I'm going to go talk to Manscorpion Tark, cause I've been told he has new dialogue once you beat the Duke's Pet, and I may check the wiki real fast to see what other places I can use the Branches of Yore for cause despite being a pain in my ass in terms of progressing the game due to never finding any of them, I'm now swimming in them and the Trap Keys as well. Also, I rejoined Solaire's Covenant, which made me happy cause while I don't necessarily get the hype surrounding the man, I do like him for being so out of place in the series.

Iron Keep is next. Also, is it me, or are the secondary bosses in some areas a bit... on the easy side? I mean Covetous Demon was kind of a joke despite it's object of affection giving me a hard time with her range and poison. Similarly, the one against the Lich looking dude and his followers was pretty laughable and felt more like an annoying mob fight, as opposed to weapon breaking Freyja and it's death-wielding spider children. I'm curious to know if the Iron Keep is also going to give me two boss fights with one being pathetically easy and the other being a pain in my ass?

I'm thinking of dabbling in the DLC areas once I've completed Dragon Aire and Aldia's Keep, since I've read somewhere they are some of the most challenging late game areas and feel they will get me prepared for the DLC.

So what is everyone's favorite weapon in this game? Boss weapons? Hardest boss for you? Easiest? Favorite NPC?

[Spuuky]

DS2 has a ton of easy bosses. Part of it is just the product of having sooooooooo many bosses. Covetous Demon is so easy that he's basically a meme although when he shows up for a rematch it's not quite as easy. Let me know what you think of the "secondary boss" in the Iron Keep instead, who actually challenges some people.

My favorite bosses are all DLC fights. The hardest bosses are all DLC fights. The best zones, and hardest zones, are all DLC zones.

You have not encountered my favorite NPC(s) yet, although they are not DLC.

[Wolf Kanno]

I finished the Iron Keep, and as typical of the Souls franchise, I'm not a fan of their lava zones. Though I'll give the Iron Keep props for level design cause the main issue with Izalith was that it was kind of boring besides being filled with annoying enemies and the worst bosses in the game.

Smelter Demon was certainly a challenge, and thank god for Lucretia who is easily this games Solaire in terms of being a powerful summonable ally that can actually tank damage. Made that fight more manageable once he goes into his third phase and starts using a flame sword that can reach across the room. Funny enough, I died more times to the rematch Pursuer fight than any of the actual bosses, and I ultimately gave up on trying to beat him cause I just can't seem to get his timing down to dodge or block, and I don't really have any more Human Effigies at the moment.

I was not happy with the return of the Turtle Knights or the second coming of the Anor Londo Archers, but thankfully my fully upgraded sword wrecks most of them. As for the Old Iron King, he was pretty easy. In fact I probably died more times not looking where I was going and walking into the lava hole on the map than actually getting hurt from him. I'm chuckling to myself about the DeMocracy Video about DS2 Bosses where he basically summarized the Old Iron King as a joke with a 2 out of 10 difficulty ranking, and then followed it up by saying that the hole ranked at 10 out of 10 difficulty, "Please FROM Software, nerf it in the next patch".

I met Adlai I believe, which was interesting, and I lit the first bonfire in the new DLC area like I did with the other one. The area is gorgeous by the way, finally a zone on par with Anor Londo or the Painted World in terms of excellent visual design. Now that I have the Four Old Ones, I'll be heading towards the new areas. I may do a little co-op before that just to regain my humanity and to build up my covenant some more since I'm working on a Strength/Faith build for this run, and I read that while my main weapon can't use items to boost it's elemental powers, it does get bonus from the Sunlight Sword Miracle. Considering how many things are weak to Lightning in this game, it feels like a good build to work towards.

[Wolf Kanno]

Didn't get quite as much done last night as I would have liked. I tried to get a co-op battle going to restore my humanity, but I'm very likely way above the normal Soul Memory Level for the areas I have access to. So instead, I spent my evening trying to "Git Gud" with the Pursuer fight, and while the SOB gave me shit for Souls, I was very surprised and happy to get an upgraded Ring of Blades from him instead.

Other than that, I spent my time exploring the Iron Keep a bit more and was able to find the Dull Ember which unlocked McDuff as a Blacksmith. I was unable to get any of the Chests/Items on the Lava Stones due to having absolute crap for Fire Defense since Intelligence and Attunement are my two most neglected stats. I was hoping there was a ring or something like in DS1 to walk on Lava, but apparently there is not.

After that, I went to the Winter Shrine, unlocked the final DLC area and the one I'm kind of excited for the most, and then proceeded to Drangleic Castle. Aesthetically speaking? Cool place, and I love the ghost minister NPC, interesting twist. Enemy wise? Fuck all the living statues and the game making the stupid Knight Bosses from the Lost Bastille into regular enemies. I discovered an easy, if long winded means to eliminate all of them in that one chamber, but my god was it a pain. I think I either need to switch up my Armor, or more likely, I need to level it up a bit. I did meet Nashandra and her stupid Cursed Picture, I imagine I've got to deal with her in the future. I reached the first boss gate and decided to call it a night.

[Spuuky]

You can become incredibly lava-resistant by rolling through pots that are full of water, or dousing yourself by standing in water. This is how almost all the lava items are reached.

When you go to warp between bonfires, there is a small (easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, impossible if you are) orange border around areas with "high player activity" for your Soul Memory.

There are also a few PvP zones: The tower with the bellkeepers, for instance. And the bridge at the start of the Iron Keep is the game's long-standing PvP Duel Area although there aren't really dueler types at every Soul Memory.

The Winter DLC is my least favorite one, but it does have the coolest final boss.

[Wolf Kanno]

So after a few missteps with the dual Dragonrider gank, and learning that one of them was laughably weak to my weapon, I conquered them and explored the rest of the castle. Thankfully, the rest of the castle is a lot less annoying than the early sections, especially the room with the living statues and the freaking Sentry Knight Bosses. I'm going to forever associate those bosses with how many gank fights there are in this game since they seem to pop up in the areas that have the worst examples of them.

Speaking of them, I forgot to explore the room properly and backtrack to them, where I discovered this old man babbling on about the Dark like Kaathe from DS1 and I also discovered the Farrom Set (sp?) which for those who don't know, is the armor set used in all of the promotional materials. Being the basic bitch that I am, it's my new armor at the moment, and frankly, with a few upgrades, it is actually better than what I was using with the exception of my helmet. Still the armor looks cooler than my weird animal headress knight with flashy Michael Jackson pants, so I'm probably going to stick to this set for awhile. I did find a decent medium shield with 100% physical reduction I may also switch to once I upgrade it a bit.

I fought the Looking Glass Knight and defeated him, but not without losing Jugo in the process and thus ending both his quest line and the ability to get his gear. So, I'm kind of annoyed by that, but it wasn't like I didn't screw up with the Siegmeyer quest in DS1 and accidentally let Boris of the Twin Fangs die in Demon's Souls either... I am pretty bad about keeping jolly "Big Guys" alive in these games it seems. It actually surprised me too, cause the Glass Knight spent most of the fight wailing on me up until he summoned an ally who went for Jugo before I back-stabbed him to death. After that, Jugo became the primary target and if Jugo and I didn't have half our attacks land on his stupidly huge ass shield, I probably would have finished him off before Jugo died. At east I still have Lucretia.

I've reached the Shrine of Amana and called it knight. I probably would have gotten more done, but I wanted to do some more Co-Op cuse I've done very little in this game and I'm still miffed I was denied in Bloodborne and will likely be denied in Dark Souls 3 as well for the same dumb reason. Yet, I am having a seriously hard time getting this going for me. I'm not sure if I'm too overleveled in Soul Memory, or if there isn't as many new players for this entry and all the action is going down in NG+, or if it's just something I didn't even think of, but I wanted to level up the Heirs of the Sun covenant and no one wants my help. I get invaded enough times to know it's not my online service, though I did have one poor soul try to summon me for the Rotten and my connection kept getting lost and disconnecting us. I'm not even a huge fan of multiplayer shenanigans but I like Dark Souls treatment of the medium and some of my favorite memories of Dark Souls was camping out in front of the Capra Demon Boos room and helping players even the odds against that cheap fuck. So I'm a little annoyed that I've wasted two evenings for some "jolly cooperation" that never happened.

I'm not exactly looking forward to the Shrine of Amana, it's reputation proceeds it, and it sounds like it's DS2's version of New Londo where ambushes and falling to your death are the norm cause everything is underwater. Have I mentioned how much I disliked New Londo? At least before I finally got a ghost to drop the weapons they are weak to so I didn't have to worry about using that consumable to hurt them.

Speaking of consumables, I feel the one thing I'm going to give this game props for is having merchants in your hub area that actually sell upgrade materials for your gear. You got some in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, but they often involved traveling to specific locations and even then they only sold the most basic of upgrade material. Having easy access to Basic and Large Titanite, and in close proximity to the blacksmith has been a nice surprise. In fact, the only truly disappointing merchants have been the magic based ones, as many of their skills feel a bit too basic and I've honestly found most of their wares just traveling. Not a bad thing for me, since I still lack enough levels in Attunement to even equip magic, but it does seem to me like the selection is a bit too basic and you'll get your money's worth buying from all the others merchants.

[Wolf Kanno]

Completed the Shrine of Amana tonight. Not quite as bad as I heard, but maybe it was because I was extra cautious and went into sniper mode for most of the place. I'll give it props for being one of the most gorgeous places in the game so far, though Dragnleic Castle and the Iron Keep were no slouches either in that department. My favorite thing about the place is the Song of the Milfanito, because it's basically an remixed version of Return to Slumber, the ending theme to the Seal the Great Old One Ending in Demon's Souls.

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Either way, it's a pretty good track overall. The boss of the area wasn't too bad, which was nice considering the slog getting to him. I also find it amusing that the Hollows in this area drop Human Effigies considering they've mutated to the point where they don't even look human anymore. Also the Archdrake Uniforms look like the Choir Uniforms from Bloodborne. Just about gave me a heart attack when the first one rushed me right as you leave the tower area. I had flashbacks of Bergynworth and that nightmare of a Hunter duel where you get to experience A Call from Beyond for the first time.

I also used that Embbedded Key to free the one Milifanito, but curious to know if that "key" would have made a good weapon or not? Either way, this place did make me super happy I didn't drop off any of the shields I got from the living statue enemies, those shields have pretty incredible elemental and magic resistance, which made this area a hell of a lot easier to deal with.

I think I also realize why I have not been able to get any co-op going for me. I checked my player data and realized I have a Soul Memory close to Two Million at this point, which from what I gather is actually pretty high for my part of the game as it seems like that something closer to end game. So I guess I'm not going to get anything done for the Heirs of the Sun Covenant. :cry: At least not until the DLC most likely. :roll2

Undead Crypt is next, any tidbits or advice before I go in?

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, the Undead Crypt is the DS2's answer for New Londo, though honestly, the ghost enemies in this area are nowhere near as BS as the ones from DS1's "hey we've got mid range attacks, and can hide and attack through walls which you can't. Did we mention you need a special item and\or weapon to even hurt us and we can attack from any direction including above and below? Have fun.".

It's also nice to see we're three games into the franchise and the team is still playing lip service to Vinland from Demon's Souls. First Havel, and now Velstadt with the whole Paladin with an impossibly cool hammer and armor set that lets him tank anything your throw at him. Makes me happy since Vinland was a favorite character of mine in that game.

Also, the whole bell gimmick of the dungeon was annoying until I discovered the ghosts only spawn if their tombs are intact and the tombs will not respawn even if you use a bonfire once destroyed. I kind of miss this element from DS1, where they would throw a nasty curve ball at you, but make it a one game deal where the threat never respawns until NG+.

So after meeting the former king and swiping his ring while he was busy pacing through his room trying to remember what he got up to a century ago that involved him Hollowing and stripping down to a loincloth, I backtracked to the Forest of Giants to open the one door that needed his ring, and also dealt with the Salamanders and collected all of that loot I missed on my first venture. Found a third dead giant tree, and called it a night. I'll hit up the door in Drangleic Castle next. I'm guessing the Door in the Shaded Woods is the one I need to access the next area?

I know I'm not far from the end, which means I'll probably tackle the DLC soon. Any suggestions on what order to do them in?

[Spuuky]

I'd probably do Shulva->Iron->Winter

I'm excited for you to try the Challenge Paths on these things and get So Mad that they'd even add such a stupid and infuriating thing to the game. It always pleases me.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'd probably do Shulva->Iron->Winter

I'm excited for you to try the Challenge Paths on these things and get So Mad that they'd even add such a stupid and infuriating thing to the game. It always pleases me.

Oh I've heard. Not helped that I believe all three paths wind up with the extra bosses who are all really phoned in. I've heard the DLC is like 2/3rds awesomesauce and one-third "why did you bother?". So you suggest I do them in order of release?

[Spuuky]

If that's the release order. I forget, though. It doesn't ultimately matter but the end of the city of ice felt like the most "final" confrontation to me aesthetically.

The challenge paths don't all end in phoned-in bosses. The last one certainly doesn't.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll have to see I guess.

So in update news, I used the King's Ring to reach The Throne of Want, and had a very unpleasant encounter with the game's attempts to recreate the Ornstein and Smough fight from DS1. After that, I laid down my summon sign and actually got to do some "Jolly Cooperation" except I either had a situation where the summoner got killed in the fight or I did, because apparently this is where the final boss battles take place and that what every fight was. We took down Nashandra with the first group, but then the summoner kept getting killed against Aldia, except for this one fight where we had him down to nothing and just as I had backed away to take some Estus to heal, the boss decided then to target me with his homing fireball. I assume the team succeeded in winning cause up until then the summoner kept re-summoning me, but the last time I got summoned was a new guy fighting Nashandra and got a bit too cocky and took her scythe to the face which knocked off a good chunk of my health, and silly old me didn't have any healing items in my item hotkey, and so curse killed me before I could heal.

After that, I got tired of waiting for summons and decided to check out the final door which led me to Aldia's Keep. So far, except for being filled with some monsters I don't particularly care for. I did reach the first fog gate for the boss, but wasn't feeling up to it. I did raise my attunement high enough to get a spell, but I still need the particular spell I want, so right now it's a basic healing spell. Though, when I went to talk to my Miracle Cleric in Majula, the game informed that a Cracked Eye Orb was resonating. I am well aware that she's been the red phantom popping up in the last few areas, but didn't feel like pursuing it, on account of the sheer amount of bloodstain in her room. So yes, awkward evening overall.

[Wolf Kanno]

Got quite a bit done tonight.

Met the imprisoned sorcerer who is this game's version of Yurt or Lautric, though I feel it's safer to say he's a cool shout out to Mephistopheles from Demon's Souls since he can contract out his assassinations to you. Made more amusing in that you can actually acquire all the items needed without killing his targets as I already had the first two target's items when I met him, and before the day was done, I acquired the last two.

The dragon at Aldia's Keep was a pretty cool fight when the camera cooperated at least. The Dragon Arie was pretty cool, though I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff going through there. The Dragon Shrine was surprisingly annoying despite being so short. I've heard you can fight the Dragon NPC there, but considering how huge he is and the sheer amount of bloodstains I saw around him, I may leave that for another day.

I was kind of stuck at this point, and had to look up where to go next, so I checked out the Giant's Memories around the Forest of Giants, which was a pretty cool idea. Kind of hated the march up to the Giant's King since I kept getting two shotted with being hit with a bombardment only to get hit with the bosses air slash move. I collected the three Gian't Souls and the Giant's Kinship. I even grabbed the fourth one in Black Gulch as well and the key to finally join the Darklurker Covenant, but again, I'm debating about it.

As of right now, I can go and beat the game and get the original vanilla endings, I can take out Vendrick and open up the opportunity to fight the new final boss and get the new ending, I can finish up the vanilla game by taking on the optional bosses from there, or I can start the DLC. I'm probably going to not bother with just going straight to the end and will either deal with the few lingering quests and bosses left in the main game, or I'll start the DLC, likely the DLC as I'm not really in the mood to fight a dragon that can apparently one shot me with any of his attacks. That and I don't quite want to drop my covenant since I have not been able to really rank it up, and I figure the DLC will help me there. Any suggestions?

Before I do go further, I would like to say that I feel the second half of the game has been much more enjoyable than the first half. Maybe it's because none of the starting areas really grabbed me like some of the final areas, or maybe I felt the opening was a little too directionless for my taste compared to the tighter narrative of the second half, but it's amusing how this is like the opposite of DS1 for me.

[Wolf Kanno]

Played a little last night.

I'm beginning to think I should stop trying to do "jolly cooperation". I got a few more summons last night for the Nashandra fight and pretty much just embarrassed myself with my awful skills at this game. My favorite was rolling away from Nashandra but forgetting to remove the Lock On so I didn't notice I rolled off a cliff to my death about 15 seconds into the fight. The other death was a fight going well where I kept trying to control her aggro from the summoner and learned the hard way that she has an AoE attack to deal with players who like to hug her too much and while my Dark Defense is okay from an armor standpoint, not stat wise and so it killed me. I should be grateful my PS3 started having issues with staying online so I couldn't be summon anymore.

Checked out the first DLC instead. Shulven (sp?) has been interesting so far, I tried hard to fight my way through, only to discover the switches that make the platforms move around. Turns out you can use these switches to either kill some of the enemies or minimize the usefulness of the archers so you can sneak close to them and kill them that way. I did have a nasty time with the Ghost Knights in the Dragon Shrine until I learned you can attack their crypts to lower their defense and make them susceptible to back attacks.

I'm digging the cinematic moments with the dragon swooping around and causing some damage. I always love these bits in the series so it's been nice. The more puzzle aspect has also been really appreciated.

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, so after spending some time in the Sunken Kingdom, I've found the Cave of the Dead, which I'm assuming is the "hardcore optional zone" since it doesn't appear to have any lore implications. Honestly, it's not that bad, and is thankfully short. It really feels like what Black Gulch should have been like to be honest. It also helps that I have the rings to protect me from all of the Petrift effects going around. Not a bad area actually. The boss fight has been giving me issues but I kind of like the dynamic of it. Sure it's just a lazy PVP fight with three themed Invaders using legacy sets from the series lore, but at least they're all unique and the boss map adds some cool dynamics to the fight than some of the gank fights this game has thrown at the player. So overall, it's been pretty fun, but I still need to "Git Gud".

75050

[Spuuky]

Definitely the easiest of the three Challenge Paths. By an enormous margin. Good luck with the next DLC, wherein you get my vote for the hardest runback in Souls and (thank god not on the same boss) the hardest boss in Souls.

[Wolf Kanno]

So, quite a bit happened today.

I finished the Sunken City DLC. Took down the Squalor Queen and only had to fight the Velstadt clone twice before she finally went down. Sihn proved to be significantly easier and I appreciated the fact he was almost in the next room to her cause I'm not sure if I was ready to deal with more of the tanky Drakeblood Knights. Overall, it was a pretty great DLC as the dungeon layout was fun and enemies were tricky but pretty fair, even if the Cave of the Dead largely felt like a more well thought out redux of Black Gulch. Overall pretty awesome and I loved the lore.

After that, I went back to the Undead Crypt to talk to Vendrick, and I tend to drop my summon sign whenever I backtrack. I was honestly surprised when I got summoned though as I figured my Soul Memory was too high for this part of the game. Ended up meeting a player who is more reckless than myself, though I get the impression he may be doing a challenge run due to his clothing option which was mostly naked and I think he was using a whip. Anyway, I dropped my summon sign before the hallway where Velstadt is fought, and as anyone who has played the game knows, there are a quite a few obstacles to reach Vendrick. My first attempt to help him ended in utter failure cause the guy decided to YOLO his way to the boss room, leaving me with a bunch of knights and ghosts to contend with before I assume Velstadt one-shotted him and I was sent back to my merry way. I dropped my summon sign again just to see if I could help him again, and sure enough, I got summoned along with another player to try and help him. This time however, the guy ended up getting invaded by another player and in addition to dealing with the usual riff raff of the room, I had a nasty spear using mage to contend with. Course I don't think he expected to be dealing with three players. I was finally able to chase his sorry ass down to the back of the room and finally killed the invader, which got me much praise form the other two players. Then my host ran into the boss room while I was healing and got killed. I decided to spend my time elsewhere.

So I jumped into the the Iron King DLC and traveled to Brume Tower. I picked up some Smelter Wedges and saved them cause I was told I would need them for the area boss fight. For the most part, the area is a bit easier than the Sunken Crown, partly due to having more soul levels and partly cause nothing resists my lightning weapon in this place. Overall, it's a pretty cool place and felt like an extension of the Iron Keep, which is one of my favorite locations so far in the vanilla game. I did the optional hardcore area as well and... it can go fuck itself. It's frankly a nice representation of the issues I do have with this game at times. It's a boring rehash dungeon of the Cave of the Dead with slightly different gimmick (there are two paths now!) and it ends with a reskinned boss, but whereas the Cave of the Dead was kind of an interesting melee with a pseudo PVP type match against popular builds in the series, Smelter Demon is basically the new Asylum Demon where we're just going to change the color, make him do a different elemental damage and jack up his health. The prize for beating him isn't even great to be honest. I ended up just running to the boss cause trying to fight all of the ganky fights in this area is a chore and the last room before the boss room is the worst.

So with that, I reached the bottom of the Tower, and barring that last hallway with all of the animated armors and having to fall through the floor, I managed to reach the bonfire and use the wedges on the human bonfires so the boss doesn't heal. I met Fume Knight, and he certainly lives up to his name as one of the game's toughest boss. His first phase is hectic, but manageable. His second phase is a nightmare and he can easily end me with two attacks. Despite the difficulty, he reminds me of the Artorias fight, where he's actually pretty fun, so dying to him isn't so frustrating and it helps the bonfire is just around the corner to his boss room. Though I am now starting to dislike the "lost health when you die" mechanic of the game cause it's making the fight more grueling than it needs to be and I don't like wasting Human Effigies. Also, unlike a few other boss battles in this game, I'm not using a summon for help as I've been told that Fume Knight becomes an utter nightmare to deal with if he gets the defense boosts from having fellow players, so this will really be like Artorias all over again. Now if I can just figure out how to boost my fire and dark defense without using up a valuable ring slot.

[Bri]

Nice, I need to complete ds2. I got to get the DLC first though which is so exciting. After I am definitely going to give demon souls a try! Dark souls 3 will have to wait until we can get a ps4 :/

[Wolf Kanno]

So it's been an interesting few nights.

The previous night, I attempted Fume Knight a few more times and got totally wrecked. Decided I was going to reagin my humanty the old fashioned way through "jolly cooperation" and went to the final area to wait to get summoned. The difference is that I left my summon sign by the bonfire nearby rather than the boss door. I ended up getting summoned by a guy named tanuki_bros. who is decked out in the Catarina Armor set and what followed was what I could only imagine is what following around Siegmeyer would be like. Not sure if he's been touting the bonfire ascetics or I just happened to get summoned into a NG+ world (probably the former) but I was helping along with two other guys fight off red phantoms, and gank Pursuer fight, and a few of the area bosses and getting wrecked by the stronger enemies, but I kept helping him and the guy actually sent me a friend request on PSN so we're now Dark Souls Bros I guess. Despite dying a fuck ton, it was actually pretty funny and it certainly caused me to step up my game in order to help him. Got a few soul levels and weapon upgrades while I was at it as well.

So that was last night, tonight, I largely dueled with Fume Knight and after expending all my human effigies and a few trips to that special shrine n Amana where you can pray for humanity to come back, I finally took him down. It took three changes in my strategy. I switched out my Heide Sword +!0 for the Drakeblood Greatsword, which I upgraded to it's +5 version in order to get a sizeable boost to my attack power without throwing off my weight. It helped that the weapons moveset isn't far off from the Gwyn's Drakknight Greatsword from DS1 which was my main weapon for a good chunk of that game. I also switched up my armor for something lighter. He was two shotting me with his heavy sword anyway so I figured defense wasn't going to help me and instead focused on stamina recovery. This helped considerably. My final element was changing up my strategy for the fight and having to learn to dodge towards him, not away from him. His hitboxes almost guaranteed that trying to get away from him would make the attack land, not to mention his increased range in his second phase. The other element was that you need to stick to him like a tick in the first phase to avoid most of his attacks, but it's actually better to keep your distance during his second phase cause his two charged up fire attacks are easier to dodge if you're not on top of him. It took some getting use to but, I eventually got the pattern down and played conservatively in the second phase and finally conquered the guy who is considered to be the hardest boss in the game solo, so I'm feeling quite satisfied and he's so far the "Artoriaa" of the DLC for me in terms of being an awesome fight.

The rest of my evening was spent hunting down Smelter Wedges and taking down the rest of the Ashen Idols all over the place. Holy crap is she a pain in the ass, especially in the areas where she inflicts curse damage and their usually inhabited by those obnoxious floating armors. Got invaded a few times for my trouble as well but at least I found the last bonfire and the entrance to the final bosses area for this DLC. It's a tough call as to which DLC area is the best so far for me, and I still have the Ivory King DLC to look forward to as well. I might edge it towards Sunken King just because I liked all of the areas for the most part, whereas as I was not a happy camper with that awful tunnel and the rematch Smelter Demon fight at the end in the Iron King DLC. Whereas Sunken Kingdom's optional areas was slightly less obnoxious and had a more fun boss battle at the end.

After I finish the DLC, I'll probably take on the Ancient Dragon and Vendrick before finishing the game. I also still need to join the Dark Covenant, cause I've heard there is a boss at the end of that one as well.

[Spuuky]

No other boss has embarrassed me nearly as many times as that STUPID Fume Knight. One random trick that some people use is that if you enter the fight with certain gear on (for lore reasons) he immediately goes straight to phase 2 at full health - while phase 2 is "harder" it leaves you with only one sequence to learn.

This DLC's final boss is also really great. What a great DLC, all three of them really.

The Dark covenant boss was actually probably the boss I died to the second most times in the game; although that almost certainly was a stylistic issue and the fact that I fought him WAY earlier, more than that he's THAT tough.

[Skyblade]

Okay, so after spending some time in the Sunken Kingdom, I've found the Cave of the Dead, which I'm assuming is the "hardcore optional zone" since it doesn't appear to have any lore implications. Honestly, it's not that bad, and is thankfully short. It really feels like what Black Gulch should have been like to be honest. It also helps that I have the rings to protect me from all of the Petrift effects going around. Not a bad area actually. The boss fight has been giving me issues but I kind of like the dynamic of it. Sure it's just a lazy PVP fight with three themed Invaders using legacy sets from the series lore, but at least they're all unique and the boss map adds some cool dynamics to the fight than some of the gank fights this game has thrown at the player. So overall, it's been pretty fun, but I still need to "Git Gud".

75050

I don't get it.

[Wolf Kanno]

75050

I don't get it.

The first guy in armor is the Pursuer, a recurring boss with a simple moveset but higher stats than what is normal in the early game. He tends to pop up in old boss rooms and he's the bane of a lot of new players, hence the first image in NG. By New Game + You're character is so overleveled and experienced that you'll start wondering why you were afraid of him the first time around. Hence the second image. The new armored knight in the final panel is the Fume Knight from the DLC who is considered to be the hardest boss in the entire game including all of the DLC expansions, so he makes even a NG+ Player and Pursuer looks like scrubs in comparison. Which he does rather soundly I might add as I'm sure I've died to him more times than any boss so far in the game.

In update news:

I beat Sir Alonne and completed the Old Iron King DLC. Even met and helped another player take him down. While his moveset was simpler than Fume Knight's, he makes up for it by being faster and a bit more relentless making stamina recovery a major task. The lead up to him is not fun either, but a walk in the park compared to the shit hole that leads up to the rematch Smelter Demon fight. A nice message left from another player allowed me to find the last Smelter Wedge and I was finally able to get rid of all of the Ashen Idols and claim Nadia's soul.

Tried some more co-op in Drangleic Castle and discovered that you can't really get help for the Dragon Rider Gank fight or rematch Pursuer battle in their boss room as it's apparently "not in the same area as the first bonfire" so I've had a few times a player grabs me for these fights and I end up getting sent away as they challenge the boss. Spoke to Vendrick as well for my next set of dialogue from him.

Started the Ivory King DLC and the enemies are a bit of a step up. Whereas the Old Iron DLC either hid away the nastier enemies deeper in the level or had the Ashen Idols buff up the regular enemies to problematic territory, this place brings out some tougher enemies from the onset and just gets a bit more hectic from there, especially when you find the Eyes of the Priestess and all those praying women turn out to be Soul Spear casting pains in my ass. The fact they have invisible soldiers wandering around the blizzard isn't fun either. The biggest issue of the place for me is the size, it is easy to get lost and it looks like I'm going to have to switch over to pyromancy to get some of the chests opened.

On the plus size, the first NPC Invader in the area was actually pretty clever. I had heard they stopped up their A.I. to make them feel like human players with several of them using gestures before attacking but this guy did something that finally justified my general paranoia in these games concerning certain OCD ticks I have. I'll leave this as a surprise for anyone who hasn't played it yet, but I'm sure veterans know what I'm talking about. I have not ran into the first area boss, nor have I found the challenge area yet, though I've heard the challenge area is one of the most reviled of all the DLC. We'll see what happens. I also apparently picked up Artorias' Sword, though it goes by another name in this entry.

[Spuuky]

That challenge area is the worst fucking zone in any Souls game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not much advancement tonight. I did a little co-op, but nothing fruitful because the other players either entered boss zones outside of the summonable area, or in one case, the guy had us clear a room for him before banishing us back to our worlds. :mad2:

While it took freaking forever to finally start having the co-op element kick in for this game, I will give it props for having more cordial invaders. Outside of one jackass I encountered early in the game, most of the invaders I've encountered are just guys in it for some fun PVP and tend to seek you out, greet you from a distance and then go for the kill, and while I lose nine out of ten times, I'll take this friendly invasion over the BS in DS1 where invaders made certain zones a virtual nightmare for me cause the guys basically hid around the level to snipe me or sneak attack while I was trying to complete it. I think I would have loved Sen's Fortress and the Painted World more if I didn't have to worry about using Humanity cause it meant I would be invaded all the freaking time in those places. I think helping things out is the Red Soapstone which allows invaders to ask you if you want to be invaded.

This sort of brings me back to the one thought I felt about the PVP elements of this series, which is that they have it backwards. Instead of making invaders only show up in locations where the other player hasn't beaten the boss. It would make more sense to me to have the invaders only be able to invade worlds where the bosses have already been beaten. Partly cause it's frustrating to try to finish an area and prep for the boss only to have to change your plans cause some jackass showed up to ruin your day; and partly because it would actually make backtracking to older areas more exciting. I mean traveling through the Forest of Giants with my over-leveled character to grab some item I missed is kind of tedious, but would be exciting if I knew there was a chance the zone would be filled with invaders. It would make backtracking more interesting since you could still have a real challenge. DS2 certainly mixes this up since it introduces the Red Soapstone and bonfire ascetics, but I feel the PVP community would prefer this set-up since it would mean the chance to invade more players, have a much better diversity of zones to play in, and would mean they are going to be challenging an opponent who has already proven they can beat the area as opposed to maybe running into a less skilled player. Griefers may hate this set-up, but I kind of like the idea.

Onto actual news, I spent most of the evening playing around with covenants. I'm having bad luck with the Heirs of Sun covenant cause I'm either only able to be summoned in endgame zones, my host dies, or I keep getting sent away before boss battles for one reason or another; not to mention my own success rate with some bosses isn't perfect. So, I picked up the Sentinels of Blue or whatever and finally learned the missing gesture I needed for the gesture trophy, and then realized I still hadn't opened that stupid hidden door in the Black Gulch. Did that, and met the old man a third time and joined the Pilgrims of the Dark, and gained access to the side quest to unlock one of the other hidden bosses of the game. I also explored the Dragon Shrine some more and debated about fighting the dragon there and found the petrified egg needed to join the dragon covenant.

Also, is there anyway to unfreeze all the frozen treasures in the Ivory Crown DLC? I still haven't fought the first boss, but I tried pyromancy and that did nothing. I need to get back to finishing it up I guess. I did find the item that makes the invisible knights visible, so that was nice.

[Spuuky]

There would be way fewer invasions in your PvP system. I very rarely spend time in zones I'm done with (by which I mean having beaten the boss, which I do last). I would guess people spend way more time in zones pre-boss than post-boss.

You just aren't far enough in the DLC to melt the ice.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, but if PVP was left for after bosses, then you would actually have a reason to go back to places. Instead most of the invaders stick to end game zones or places like the Painted World where the boss can be skipped, having it be post would actually give the players who like PVP a place to go and do so, and the people who would rather never bother with it can freely ignore it.

I backtrack a lot, but part of that is because I rush to the bosses so I can end invasions quickly and the other is because some zones are just fun. Afterwards I comb over an area to grab all the items and events I missed, but it would be nice to be able to enjoy areas on the first go around instead of feeling the need to find the boss ASAP cause XxXdipshit637XxX and his cronies like to invade you while you're still trying to figure out the area. As I said, there are still some zones in DS1 and 2 I'm still salty about cause they were tough and compounded by being invasion hotbeds that raised the frustration factor more than I would care for. If you like PVP, then I don't see how the idea I suggested would really change it for them. It would largely just stick it to the Griefers.

[Syssareth]

Artorias and the Fume Knight are two of my favorite bosses in this series, which is kind of hilariously ironic because they both force me to play opposite my usual playstyle (I'm very turtly) and they both took me upwards of 20 tries to beat. As I wrote in my game diary, but then never posted anywhere: Contrary to just about any other boss, where losing more than 3-4 times was irritating, when I repeatedly lost against these two it wasn't frustrating--because I could feel myself becoming just that tiny bit better each time.

Artorias I kind of just wore down with my Great Scythe and a ton of kiting, only attacking when I was sure I had time to get a hit in, and even on that winning run, I nearly died a few times because I just couldn't shake off my turtly ways. With the Fume Knight, a couple of tries in, I discovered summoning help was a very bad idea, then a little later had another epiphany where I realized it was neither stage 1 nor stage 2 per se, but the switch between them that was getting me. Started wearing that special helmet that forced him into stage 2 from the beginning, and (after many attempts) took him down with the Craftsman's Hammer. (Went through most of the game with that hammer, but in this battle I don't recommend it; the range is so short and the battle so fast that I kept whiffing.) My winning attempt I was far more aggressive than any prior, almost not even using a shield, dodging instead of trying to block, and attacking every time I had an opening. I had one or two close calls, but overall, though it took about the same number of attempts, he went down easier than Artorias. (Though the difference likely lies in my increased experience, rather than actual difficulty.)

On another note, I just got Dark Souls 3 from the current Humble Monthly, and my computer is nowhere near the minimum specs, but it still runs. XD I've got an AMD A6-3620 APU with a 6530D graphics chip. For quick reference, it's a 2.2Ghz quad-core CPU and an integrated "GPU" with 512MB memory. Miraculously, DS3 is playable, but I've got it at 800x450 with the lowest settings possible, and I still get booted offline due to FPS sometimes. On my end, it's a bit jittery but not choppy, and there doesn't seem to be any input lag, but I'm only just past the first area so time will tell. My biggest problem so far is trying to read the tiny text. XD


I have not ran into the first area boss, nor have I found the challenge area yet, though I've heard the challenge area is one of the most reviled of all the DLC. We'll see what happens.

I'm apparently pretty tolerant for a Dark Souls player. I didn't mind Blighttown. I didn't mind the Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith. I didn't mind the Shrine of Amana or the Iron Keep or most of the areas people tend to hate. I didn't like the Black Gulch and hated the Tomb of Giants, but neither even begin to compare with my loathing for that challenge area in the Ivory King DLC. It's not even the environment I hate, though it adds insult to injury; it's the enemies. I seriously camped there for literal hours to deliberately despawn each and every one, partly to make my wanderings easier but also because those things shouldn't be allowed to exist. And to add more insult to injury, they actually have a pretty neat design. Would probably really like them if fighting them wasn't such a pain.

(In other words, I sincerely wish you good luck and highly recommend summoning any available NPCs to take aggro while you rush the boss fog. If anybody survives to follow you in, they'll help with the boss too.)

[Wolf Kanno]

Weird night.

Helped a player fight off the twin Pursuer duel and then got killed in the Nashandra fight by being too greedy and her curse damage knocked enough of my health down for her AoE attack to finish me and the guys other summon off.

Remembered that the room with all the living statues had one of the Pilgrim of the Dark areas, but instead opted to start with the one in the Black Gulch cause it's way more annoying to reach. Ended up completing that zone and the one in the Faded Woods, as well as light their torches. Luckily wasn't hit with any Player Invaders but I imagine that will change in the last area since it's a high level zone.

Opted to not to finish that quest-line and instead tackled Aava and took him down rather easily. He's powerful but his attacks miss more than I thought they would. Met the Priestess and finally melted all of the snow. Now, being the idiot that I am, I ventured back into the city to collect the knights she was talking about, as well as grab all those treasures I was denied. Ended up finding an elevator and reached this place with an NPC Invader, some ice hedgehogs, and some nasty Ice Wizards. Cleared out everything and was sitting on close to 85,000 Souls but I was really hoping to find the optional area and a bonfire. Met this odd White Phantom, who never attacked me and even used gestures. Kind was paranoid around him but against my better judgment likely due to my low supplies of healing items, I ignored him and found this lever. About the time I used it, this phantom back stabbed me and killed me in one shot. Kicked myself for being stupid. Went back to collect my souls but missed with one of my arrows and watched as one of the ice hedgehogs murdered me...

Was going to call it a night when one of the guys I friended during some of the help I got in the Old Iron King DLC messaged me and asked if I could help him with Elena. So I went and helped him take down the Squalor Queen and was getting ready to help him with Sihn when my PS3 started to lose contact with my internet (my internet is pretty awful in my area unfortunately) and kept getting shot into offline mode. Figured this was a sign to call it a night and here I am telling my exploits.

**************************************************************************************************** *******
For the most part, there are only a few zones I really dislike in the series so far.

Demon's Souls - The Valley of Defilement, easily the most obnoxious poisonous swamp area in the series for me. Like I don't know why people even complain about Blighttown or the Gutter cause neither have anything on that place.

Dark Souls - Sen's Fortress sucked cause I don't really tank damage and prefer to roll my way through situations and overwhelm opponents, so tight corridors with strong enemies with high poise are the bane of my existence. I also disliked New Londo before you unflood it. Largely cause I find the Ghost enemies to be one of the few really unfair opponents in the game, especially if you were like me and were unfortunate enough to get cursed super early in the game and had to try and venture through there early to get uncursed. I'm still salty about it.

For Dark Souls 2, the only area I really hate in the main game so far has been the Black Gulch cause that whole zone is designed for maximum frustration and even at higher levels that can easily deal with most of the stuff it throws at you, it's still a chore to get through. Of the DLC, I can so far agree with the general consensus of the fanbase and say the "Optional Hardcore Zones" have all been the weakest if not the most frustrating parts of the DLC. I died over a dozen times trying to beat each of those zones but it was never fun and I'm usually sighing with relief when the boss gets taken out, and I'm actually fine with not going back through them to get every item. With that said, I died about the same amount of times trying to take down Fume Knight and Alonne and had a blast in both cases despite that, though I could have down without the lead up to Alonne. My main issue with areas in DS2 so far is that I often feel more "meh" about them than I feel I should.

Sadly, much like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, the DLC has been of such excellent quality in terms of dungeon design and bosses that the main entry has tough competition in terms of my favorite places and boss battles, and it's kind of hard to remember any of them cause the DLC is so good at eclipsing all of it.

[Bri]

My eight year old is finally done with the Abyss DLC ( I still got to beat Manus then the dragon)he was hesitant about Kalameet but he went ahead and defeated the dragon on his first run. He also saved Sif because he wanted the other cut scene. All I goy to say is he got gud lol

[Wolf Kanno]

Not a big update tonight:

So my evening began with helping a friend I had made through the game with the Cave of the Dead, which considering how short it was and my own experience, I felt like a freaking super star for once being able to slam in there and take out all the cronies left and right. Even took down two of the three Gank Squad bosses by myself.

After that, I tried my hand with the third Cave of Dark for the Pilgrims of Dark Covenant and kept dying stupid deaths thanks to all of the freaking bottomless pits. I ran out of human effigies and decided to just focus on the Ivory King DLC.

I was able to reach my first Knight to help me with the boss, but not before a lot of trial and error. The enemies in this DLC are tanky as hell and I had to use a few Repair Powders and most of my arrows just to make it back to one of the bonfires in one piece. I've also decided that along with the Ice Hedgehogs, my new least favorite enemy type in this area is the re-imagined Crystal Giants from the Duke's Archive. You know except now they are ice based, have much better speed, which was like their only weakness in the original. Still high poise, still lots of damage. I also lit some torches that led to a cavern with a bunch of those backstab happy priestesses and decided to play it safe and just call it a night at this point. I'm still looking for the optional zone cause I usually try to complete it before the final story boss battle if I can if not first, but this one seems really well hidden for some reason.

[Wolf Kanno]

So I finally tackled Darklurker, using the Drangleic Portal cause it's surprisingly the easiest one once you know what you're doing. Not too bad of a fight, took him down on my second attempt. He was a surprisingly fun fight, and was a well done boss overall despite the fact that I was probably way over-leveled for him. Pilgrims of the Dark are currently the only Covenant I've completed at the moment, and I'm now back to Heirs of the Sun, though this Covenant seems to be cursed for me, as I'm having a hard time getting successful co-ops going here and I seem to more often than not, get summoned to help a player farm souls in a tough section before getting sent away without actually fighting a boss.

Finally got the key to access the optional zone in Ivory King DLC, and was pleasantly surprised that it's not quite as bad as people make it out to be. The Lightning Reindeer are certainly a handful but manageable, and the gimmick of the zone is actually clever and has more thought put into it than the other two optional zones. The same cannot be said for the boss fight, which got me clobbered pretty badly, especially since my primary weapon was at it's breaking point by the time I reached them and I had to switch to a weaker one. The fight is also one of the worst of the DLC IMHO. Largely cause it's a reskin of a fight from this very DLC and to "mix it up" they made it into a another gank fight which is sort of a major symptom of some of the design problems DSII suffers from.

As for the rest of the Ivory King DLC, I'm still trying to hunt down the rest of the Knights, but have only found one so far and I've completed everything up to the "third bonfire" which takes place before the NPC Invader. I've noticed there is a slot for a fifth bonfire, but have no idea where it is.

I plan on focusing on beating the optional zone first before proceeding with the main DLC quest cause I want this to end on a high note and so far, finishing the optional zones early is a good way of doing that. Afterwards, I want to beat the Ancient Dragon, then Vendrick, then finish the game. Not quite sure if I'm going to dive straight into Dark Souls III afterwards.

[Bri]

That's where I left off with the Ancient dragon. Let me know if you need some help. I'll have to check my soul memory also. Good luck!

[Wolf Kanno]

That's where I left off with the Ancient dragon. Let me know if you need some help. I'll have to check my soul memory also. Good luck!

Ooh thanks for the offer. I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure my Soul Memory is over four million by now. I have kind of dealt with him, but I would be happy to help fight him again.

So update time:

I seriously lucked out and finally took down the beastly duo in the Frigid Outskirts. Surprisingly enough, with the exception of the disappointing and lazy boss battle, I actually liked the area. It had a lot more thought put into it than the other hardcore zones and while the Lightning Reindeer are certainly a hassle, as long as you tread carefully and slowly, you only deal with them one at a time which makes it way easier. Especially since it's pretty easy to outrun them surprisingly enough.

After that, I took on the Burnt Ivory King and holy hell if that wasn't one of the most epic boss battles in the game. While he's not as hard as Fume Knight, he makes up for it with spectacle. Certainly a nice end to some great DLC. Though I'm not sure if I want to farm the Loyce Knights to get the final Child of Dark soul.

Overall, the DLC is great if with some questionable design choices. I don't think anyone would disagree with me that all of them would have likely been better if they didn't have the optional zones and they are all generally the weakest link. The Cave of the Dead was my favorite with the Iron Passage easily being my least favorite. Boss battle wise, Ivory King is the weak link with the pets all being boring battles and only made up by the epic Ivory King duel. Old Iron King easily has the best battles with Fume Knight and Sir Alonne both being exemplary, and the Smelter Demon not being too bad. The Sunken King DLC has the best level design with the various switches and hidden passages combined with the cool ghost knight gimmick, though I will say none of the DLC was really a slouch in this department and all four are also simply gorgeous. Difficulty-wise, I feel the Ivory King was the hardest and the Sunken King was the easiest. Lore-wise, the Ivory King was my favorite and the Sunken Kingdom was my least.

After beating the DLC, I decided to tackle the Ancient Dragon. I think I now have my boss who has killed me the most in the game, especially since I've nearly cleared out the Dragon Shrine by this point. With that said, I did beat him finally, and despite dying so much, he's actually really simple to fight. The only real issue with him is his size and the ridiculous damage he can pull off. Despite that, he's also kind of cheap as he got some wonky hit boxes like him "landing" on me despite clearly missing me and the one time he basically flew off the platform and into the perimeter sky around the arena, and thus gave me no room to dodge his fire breath which killed me by launching me off the arena. So he's probably won the most "no fair!" and "this is bulltrout" from me. I think Veldstat was the other boss where I swear his hammer's hit box is twice the size of the model used in game.

With all five Giant Souls, I challenged Vendrick and was promptly crushed for my trouble by me accidentally dodging into him and his surprisingly combo friendly sword wailing. I decided it was getting late and had accomplished enough. Once Vendrick is down, I'll finally try to finish the game. I'm debating about jumping straight into DS3 afterwards but part of me feels I should take a break and come back later.

[Bri]

High five on Ancient dragon! And good luck with Vendrick! Updates please when you do defeat him finally.
I definitely agree about Veldstat also. I am level 172 last time I checked. You have to share with me how you manage to defeat the dragon because he kills me every time!
As for dark souls 1 I am done with getting all foul lord souls as well as my son. I'm so proud of him, he defeated tge four kings on his first try! He basically tanked them. I was a bit jealous though because it took me 4 tries. Well once I'm done I'm going to finish up with ds2 but before I do I must get the DLC! I must!!

[Spuuky]

Ancient Dragon is notorious for being "easy" and "hard" in different ways; he OHKOs most players but he has one simple pattern and you just repeat it until he's dead. One of the worst boss designs in Souls probably, except for how cool he is.

[Wolf Kanno]

High five on Ancient dragon! And good luck with Vendrick! Updates please when you do defeat him finally.
I definitely agree about Veldstat also. I am level 172 last time I checked. You have to share with me how you manage to defeat the dragon because he kills me every time!
As for dark souls 1 I am done with getting all foul lord souls as well as my son. I'm so proud of him, he defeated tge four kings on his first try! He basically tanked them. I was a bit jealous though because it took me 4 tries. Well once I'm done I'm going to finish up with ds2 but before I do I must get the DLC! I must!!

I'm jealous too, they were one of the hardest fights for me and I think I only initially beat them by having a particularly powerful sorcery build player help me out. I stink at the fight as I learned when I tried to help other players.

As for Ancient Dragon, my strategy involves rushing to his back legs and nipping at his heels of his back feet. Don't stand in front of his feet or between them cause that usually baits his self-immolation attack, and don't attack his tail cause it just makes him use hit tail whip. Basically nip at his heels and when he flies up, chase his tail. Don't get greedy with hits, just hit him twice and then run towards the tip of his tail until you're about halfway between the tip and his feet and simply wait to see what he does, If he flies up, follow the tail and run towards it but slightly to the right of left of it so he doesn't land on you. Wear a Quartz Ring +3 if you have it for protection from his flames or Goyer's Ring that prevents backstabs. Chaos Pants +5 also give you great fire defense and mobility. With that said, focus on mobility and stamina recovery for the fight since most of his attacks will OHK. Also, I wouldn't use partners either since his pattern is surprisingly simple and you don't need to prolong the fight more than you need to or let another player accidentally bait him into using one of his more dangerous attacks like his tail whip or self-immolation. After that, it's a matter of hoping he doesn't land on you and I should warn you his hitbox for landing is a bit larger than it looks so try to keep your distance from his body when he lands but always stay behind him. With that said, be careful if he starts clinging to the edge of the arena as this leaves you open. When he does this, rush to his other foot that's more into the arena and pray his next "jump" will move him back into the arena area so you can maneuver.

Update time:

Game, Set, and Match.

I just got incredibly unlucky on my first attempt with Vendrick but totally kicked his ass on my second, and I better have considering I had all five Giant Souls. Got my upgraded crown, decided not to use it...

Fought Nashandra with some help but it just kept going badly for me, so instead I fought her solo and found her incredibly easy as my damage was significantly better and I played extra cautious. Didn't stop her from cursing me once or twice sadly. Surprisingly, I don't think she ever actually hit me otherwise, her scythe has terrible range.

Aldia was the bigger shocker. This guy has wasted me every time I've tried to help someone with the fight and this time I took him down no problem. I basically learned that I was just being way too overly aggressive before which meant I was taking unnecessary hits from his fire shield and by staying so close, I often left myself open for his pyromancy spells he casts above him and out of my line of sight. So just staying super defensive I was able to get through the fight no problem and actually beat him on my first try.

I ended up taking the "third" ending that's unique to Scholar of the First Sin, which ironically was very similar to the ending choice I took in Dark Souls. As it stands, I think Demon's Souls is still the only entry where I've taken the more altruistic ending choice, though I guess the Dark Lord ending is DS1 is sort of altruistic in its own way when you think about it.

Overall, I feel DS2 is a pretty solid game. The weakest in the series for me so far, but that "weak" entry is still far better than some series strong entries, so understand this is simply me stating it's weak compared to the other entries but is still a great game overall. It does have several issues which hurt it, but it comes in with some interesting ideas as well. The two most glaring faults I can give it is one of quantity over quality. The game is huge compared to other installments and has almost twice as many bosses, but the quality isn't there and some of the bosses are poorly implemented. Editing the game down would actually do wonders for it. I also feel the devs focused a bit too much on the "difficult" part of the "difficult but fair" mantra fans have for the franchise. Gank fights galore, entire zones designed around being as painful and unpleasant to go through as possible, marathon boss battles, screwing with the healing mechanics by giving them a stat to deal with it and largely adding back things in from Demon's Souls that I honestly felt Dark Souls did better, making weapons break easier, and Soul Memory was just a bad idea overall.

On the other hand, the game has way more equipment options, more fun to use boss weapons, power stance (though I never used it), a genuinely better and less trolling online community, better refinement with the Covenants, some great locales, streamlined weapon upgrading, a better hub zone, and some good lore and characters. The DLC, barring the optional zones, are overall still excellent quality that befits the rest of the series. The lore added in Scholar of the First Sin actually segues into the plot of Dark Souls 3 rather nicely as well.

Top 3 Favorite Zones:
The DLC locations
The Shrine of Amana
Aldia's Keep

Top 3 NPCs:
Lucratia of Mirrah
The Pryomancy Teacher
the Cat

Favorite Bosses:
The Executioner's Chariot
The Burnt Ivory King
The Fume Knight
The Glass Knight

For now, I've jumped back into Demon's Souls since this is the last month the servers will still be up. I'm finally checking out the NG+ of which I've heard Demon's Souls has the most jarring jump in difficulty within the franchise. It is both weird coming back to this now that I know what I'm doing, and I am seriously chuckling at my character build. This is probably the closest I've come to playing a "tank build" which is really jarring cause I prefer speed usually. Chances are, the itch for Dark Souls 3 will kick in soon and I'll jump into that instead.

[Wolf Kanno]

It's been interesting jumping back into Demon's Souls on NG+.

I've just finished 1-2 of Boletaria Castle and I'm going to dive into 2-1 of the Mines cause I want to unlock Blacksmith Ed. I could dive to 1-3 of Boletaria and try to rescue Biorr and Yuria early, but I remember 1-3 having a considerable difficulty spike from the previous zones. On the brightside, I was able to achive Pure White World Tendency in Boletaria, so I got access to the Execution Grounds and finally fought Executioner Miralda who serves as a basis for a character in the Dark Souls series. She has way more health than I feel she deserves, but thankfully we're in Demon's Souls and Poise isn't a thing yet, so stun-locking her made this fight pretty easy once I stopped getting antsy with her.

My stats are kind of awful as I focused on health and kept the rest of my stats kind of even barring luck, meaning I'm not particularly good at anything. The Equip Burden mechanic is far less generous in this game than in Dark Souls as it doesn't take long to finally ditch the fat roll in decent armor in those games, but Stamina is like my second highest stat and I'm still fat rolling in my Fluted Armor set. Not helping things is the scrappy mechanic of Item Burden, which I'm happy the series dropped like a stone after this entry. I am also just too use to trying to roll my way out of situations. One feature Dark Souls brought in that I never noticed until now is that rolls can cancel actions like healing and take priority. Demon's Souls doesn't do this, so I've had a few embarrassing deaths due to trying and failing to roll out of a healing item animation when an enemy closes the gap between us than I anticipated.

While I did acquire several great spells and boss weapons in the first run, I'm either not built to use any of them effectively or more often, they are not as useful as they sound. This comes a bit jarring coming from DSII where I actually felt the boss weapons/Soul Arts were handled really well for once. With that said, the Lava Bow is still my favorite bow in the series (high damage and arrows do fire damage) thus far, though the Dragonrider Bow in DSII was a nice substitute.

Boss-wise, I'm surprised that Phalanx turned into a bigger ordeal than I felt it should. She has more Phalanx Guards than in NG and it seems like they got a boost to fire and magic defense. On the other hand, outside of getting hit by multiple Phalanx Guards, most of their minions do laughable damage so the battle just took longer than I remember it doing. The Tower Knight was a completely different story, as he can still come close to taking me out with one hit with most of his attacks, but being able to fight him with an upgraded magic imbued weapon saw me nearly finish him off with my first combo after I knocked him down once. I had a harder time fighting the two Blue-Eyed Knights guarding his Fog Gate than with him. I really hope Flamelurker goes down this easily. I also took down the Red Dragon in 1-2, which I instantly regret because he actually makes this zone go faster since he murders everything on the tower bridges for you. He's still my favorite stage hazard dragon in the series.

Regular enemies are a bit weird, everything has much more health so it's still taking two to three hits to finish off things, but that's manageable. The damage they do is the bigger problem cause while I remember Knights always being powerful foes up until the end, it's surprisingly to see Dredglings take out 75% of my health if they actually stunlock me into their flailing attack.

It's been interesting so far and while the place isn't active anymore online-wise, I still love the notes you can find and I actually got repped for a few of them. I do love the fact that Demon's Souls changes the color of your messages so you can spot them easier. Funnily enough, they look like summon signs. How long I keep this playthrough up is unknown. DS3 is calling me it seems.

Who else here has actually played Demon's Souls btw?

[Slothy]

Got demons souls before dark souls was even a glimmer in anyone's eye. I still love that game to death.