Dark Souls

[Wolf Kanno]

Last night was not nearly as productive as I would have liked. I tried to play Stonfang Tunnels, but the connection was off this evening and so I either had to listen to the sound effects get delayed and stutter at best, or watch as characters and enemies warped around leading to some awkward deaths. The workers are not a big deal, just scaled for my character, the Fat Officials on the other hand have reached Demonic Spiders level, seeing how most of their attacks can take out 80% of my health if I don't dodge or block it, and they must have gotten 5x their normal health in this round cause they are tanky as all hell and they have close to a thousand HP. I am very happy I didn't try 1-3 of Boletaria cause that place is crawling with the assholes.

I did throw Dark Souls 3 in last night and let the PS4 download the updates. I'll probably get back to Demon's Souls, but I can feel myself being drawn to Dark Souls 3. Any advice before I embark on the third and final installment?

[Spuuky]

Not really. Dark Souls 3 doesn't try to "get you" like Dark Souls 2 does. And it's pretty linear compared to the previous two games.

[Wolf Kanno]

A productive evening, but I was unable to accomplish the one thing I really wanted to do. So I'm still playing Demon's Souls and I took down both the Armored Spider in 2-1 as well as the Adjucator in 4-1. I tried my hand with the Flamelurker but I simply can't keep up enough damage to take him down quickly whereas he can two shot me. I'm thinking I'll either complete the first stage of the two reaming worlds, or more likely do what I did last time and complete the Storm Shrine area so I can use the Storm King's area to do some quick leveling up. I need to boost my magic stat in order to take down the Flamelurker quickly cause it's a real pain to complete this game when you're best blacksmith is only working at half his skill level. I've been doing a better job controlling my World Tendency, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get the special sword from 2-3 this time around.

[Wolf Kanno]

Another productive evening, but I'm still stuck on the Flamelurker. On the brightside, I've completed the Shrine of Storms area (which I consider to be the easiest of the five regions) and the Warding Spell is still the MVP of magic spells, which allowed me to wreck the dual-wielding katana skeletons. I was also able to max out two of my weapons (Darkmoon and Quality/Raw) with the stones I acquired in the area, met patches, rescued Saint Urbain giving me access to the higher tier miracles I'm likely going to ignore except for possibly Second Chance, and I've unlocked one of the best Soul Farming areas in the game. Not to mention the Old Hero and the Storm King are two really fun fights despite how easy they are.

Now that I've gotten some more levels in Magic, I'm going to challenge the Flamelurker again. If I still fail, I may jump into Boletaria 1-3 and see if I can rescue Biorr and Yuria, mainly so I can get access to better sorcery magic. If not, I'll probably start Tower of Latria to rescue Sage Frieke, which I'm both looking forward to and dreading at the same time, as it ended up being one of my favorite areas in the game, but I can only imagine what NG+ has done to make the place more terrifying. As usual, I'm probably going to leave the Valley of Defilement for last, cause fuck that place.

[Wolf Kanno]

Pretty productive night.

Completely forgot that I had Poison Cloud, one of the ultimate cheese spells in the game, and decided to cheese Flamelurker so I could get on with things. Took down the Dragon God as well, and was able to obtain Pure White Tendency, allowing me to obtain the Dragon Bone Smasher a.k.a. "Gut's Dragonslayer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/Berserk)" which I'm happy about cause I was denied in the last playthrough due to my ignorance with the World Tendency shenanigans.

With that done, I tested out Boletaria 1-3 and got the keys needed to free Biorr and Yuria to help fill up my Nexus. I didn't fight the Penetrator though due to being low on resources as I didn't imagine I would get as far as I did. I did open up the shortcut to get to the boss area. With that said, I'm worried the game might make me have to rescue Ostrava again. Surprisingly, the Red-Eyed Knights are not so tough, perhaps due to a few more levels in Strength and upgrading my primary weapon, but I'm worried he's not tough enough to survive. It's the other issue of why I didn't fight the Penetrator, cause while I love having Biorr to help me, I'm not so sure he'll survive the encounter this time. From what I've heard, allies don't get stat buffs in NG+ or at least not significant ones.

With that, I jumped into the Tower of Latria. My main goal here is to actually get summoned for the Old Monk boss battle, in hopes of winning his headpiece. Not likely to happen mind you, but I'm hoping the announcement of the server closure would bring some people back for this. With that said, I was able to cover about 80% of 3-1 before sleep deprivation made me fall off an obvious cliff and I decided to call it quits. The funny thing for me is that I'm more worried about the Red Phantom guarding the Cathedral entrance than the actual boss battle.

Another one my wish list is completing the last of the Boss Weapons, of which I think I only have like two left to make, one of which is the Scraping Spear. I do need to see if I can farm some more Hardstone, Dragonstone, and Cloudstone Chunks. I have at least three weapons very close to being maxed out but I still need those particular stones. I'm probably not going to bother with Bladestone weapons this time around.

One thing I have been debating about is whether I want to switch the world to Black Tendency or not. I understand now that I probably should have done this on my last playthrough in NG, but a few of the missing items I really want are all rewards for vanquishing some of the game's black phantom versions of characters like Lord Rydel, and Scivir the Wanderer. I'm also debating on whether I should do the Mephistophie Questline, as she is now the only NPC I have not met in the game. Again, probably going to wait until all I have left to do is fight False King Allant to do any of this. How bad is Black World Tendency?

If I don't get around to any of that, I'm at a pretty good pace at this point, and assuming the Maneaters and the Valley of Defilement don't kikc my ass too hard, I may be able to finish this game rather soon and start Dark Souls 3.

Playing through this entry again, I do feel like this is the game that should be getting a remaster rather than Dark Souls. Largely because I feel it needs it more. Some tweaking of events and adding in a few of the advancements from Dark Souls would really polish off a great game that's a bit too rough around the edges at time. Not to mention it's kind of the "lost entry" by this point if you don't count any of the King's Field games. .

[Wolf Kanno]

Not a bad evening.

Finished 3-1 of the Tower of Latria. Forgot how much of a joke the Fool's Idol is as long as you kill the summoner beforehand. I just need to farm a few more Hardstone Chunks and I'll finally raise my starting weapon to it's +10 form.I'm grateful that weapon crafting got easier as the series went on. Saved Sage Frieke, so I now have all of the "good" NPCs in the Nexus. I was even able to level up a few more weapons and finally got my Scraping Spear. No luck with getting summoned for the Old Monk fight, but I've noticed a slightly higher online activity in these stages, so I'm hoping I may luck out eventually. Granted my PvP skills are mediocre at best in these games, so even if I did manage to get summoned, I'm very likely to get thrashed for my troubles.

I now get to deal with second of the unholy trinity of nasty bosses in this game with the Maneaters. I also guess I'll save Yurt and then kill him as soon as I get back to the Nexus. It's funny how I'm really trying to lavish these final areas, cause I'm certainly dreading the Valley of Defilement. I probably died more times in that area than anywhere else except maybe the second Stonefang Tunnel stage and even that was largely due to Flamelurker. The only saving grace of this area is that all of the bosses are pretty damn easy barring the battle against Garl Vinland in the last area.

[Bri]

Wolf Kanno Was able to get Demon souls for a good price! Played just a little of it and my goodness are my hands itchy to continue! But I must wait until I'm completely done with ds2. My sone and I finished playing dark souls 1 and dlc. It was such a great sight to see my son beat Gwyn. He said he felt sad a bit at the end for defeating Gwyn and he liked that he by the way liked the fight song. So now he has moved on to ds2 and playing demons souls as well. He says he really likes demons souls very much! For Valentines Bob got me Scholar of the first sin! I was sooooo happy! Best Valentine's gift ever in my 31yrs of life! I can't wait to get started on it soon. I was able to defeat Ancient dragon without armor! After attempting god knows how many times I finally said fuck this shit and decided to go without armor. Uses my lighting greatsword two handed and hunter bow. The feeling I got when I finally defeated him was a wonderful one. Also did memories, wasn't sure in what order but I did solo the Giant Lord. Boy was he easy when I figured out his pattern of attacks. I do have to say that ds2 is pretty complicated in a way to really piss you off. But I must persevere to the end!! Hopefully next month I'll be getting a ps4 along with ds3 bloodbourne and believe it ir not Nioh!! Woot woot!! Also FF so me and Bob can play together! It's going to be a good year for me so far!

[Vyk]

Also Dark Souls remastered is coming~ I can't wait to see what they've done with it

[Wolf Kanno]

Wolf Kanno Was able to get Demon souls for a good price! Played just a little of it and my goodness are my hands itchy to continue! But I must wait until I'm completely done with ds2. My sone and I finished playing dark souls 1 and dlc. It was such a great sight to see my son beat Gwyn. He said he felt sad a bit at the end for defeating Gwyn and he liked that he by the way liked the fight song. So now he has moved on to ds2 and playing demons souls as well. He says he really likes demons souls very much! For Valentines Bob got me Scholar of the first sin! I was sooooo happy! Best Valentine's gift ever in my 31yrs of life! I can't wait to get started on it soon. I was able to defeat Ancient dragon without armor! After attempting god knows how many times I finally said smurf this trout and decided to go without armor. Uses my lighting greatsword two handed and hunter bow. The feeling I got when I finally defeated him was a wonderful one. Also did memories, wasn't sure in what order but I did solo the Giant Lord. Boy was he easy when I figured out his pattern of attacks. I do have to say that ds2 is pretty complicated in a way to really piss you off. But I must persevere to the end!! Hopefully next month I'll be getting a ps4 along with ds3 bloodbourne and believe it ir not Nioh!! Woot woot!! Also FF so me and Bob can play together! It's going to be a good year for me so far!

Congratulations on finally beating the Ancient Dragon, I knew I felt pretty satisfied when I won. Also congrats to your son for beating Dark Souls!

Yeah Demon's Souls is a pretty fun game, if a little clunky compared to the later DS series. It's still uber fun, and I've been having a blast with my new playthrough. If you need advice, I have the game rather fresh in my mind at the moment.

[Bri]

Thank you!! It was a tough fight with that ancient dragon. I'm done with the memories now so I am not sure where to go or should I do DLC. I'll probably figure it out or you could help me out by telling me. Don't really care for spoilers just excited to play!!

[Wolf Kanno]

Thank you!! It was a tough fight with that ancient dragon. I'm done with the memories now so I am not sure where to go or should I do DLC. I'll probably figure it out or you could help me out by telling me. Don't really care for spoilers just excited to play!!

Well things to do in DS2 if you haven't yet:

Kill Hollow Vendrick
Find the door in the Shrine of Amala that leads you to Vendrick's gear and soul.
Join the Pilgrims of the Dark so you can fight Darklurker
Do the DLC, so you can fight the new final boss in Scholar of the First Sin.
See if you can find the Catarina Set hidden throughout the DLC.
Go to the Throne of Want hidden in Drangleic Castle to face the final boss.

If you decide to try the DLC, and wish to fight all of the optional bosses, I highly advise doing the optional areas ASAP, cause all three are frankly terrible and their boss fights are chores. The rest of the DLC is fantastic though, so I prefer doing them early as not to leave a bad taste in my mouth with the DLC. If you don't care about any of that, then stick to the two "story" bosses from each DLC, of which you'll usually have to beat one to get to the other. If you manage to collect all three crowns as well as Vendrick's, Past Vendrick will give you a boon where wearing any of the four crowns in the game will prevent you from Hollowing when you die. You will also face a new final boss in the Scholar of the First Sin version after you beat the original final boss.

Also, in the Iron King DLC, to get Nadalia's soul (she's the weird flaming corpse that whispers to you throughout the dungeon and tends to buff enemies near her until removed) you need to use the Smelter Wedges you find at the beginning to exorcise her and collect her soul fragments. There are a total of twelve fragments but you'll need to find the other six wedges to get them all. My main advice here is to ignore the first one you find, cause unlike the majority of them, she's easy to reach. Save four of the wedges until you reach the bottom floor of the tower where Fume Knight is, there you'll find four of them and it's highly recommended you use these four here outside of his boss room. The reason why is because they will heal him during the fight and he's a super tough boss without the extra help.

[Bri]

Alright! Thanks for the tips! I will make sure to come back to your post to help me out. Will post updates as well. My sons birthday is tomorrow but his grammy gave him money to buy new controller. So we ended up buying one earlier and he got himself Naruto and Dantes Inferno. Bob said it should be a good game!

[Wolf Kanno]

Not as productive of an evening as I had hoped. I did farm some crystal lizards and finally upgraded my Sticky Longbow to +4, but it's looking less likely that I will be able to max it out this playthrough without some serious farming, and sadly, Luck is my worst stat at the moment except for maybe Intelligence. With that said, I upgraded one of my shield's fully, which was nice.

I ran into my first real roadblock in the second part of the Tower of Latria. The Red Phantom version of the Mindflayer can one-shot me with his Soul Arrow spell, it's not even using the higher tier Soul Ray which the boss of the previous area used and I could still survive through, it's just the basic version. The scary part here is that the normal Mindflayers can K.O. me with their basic non-magic attacks, so fighting this thing up close is not likely going to work either. So I'm going to have to be extra careful at trying to fight it at range.

Not helping me here is that Faith, which inexplicably controls my Magic Defense, isn't exactly a stat I use very often. So I poured a few more points into Faith, and I'm now wearing Garl Vinland'd Dark Silver Armor set since it has the best stats in my inventory for magic defense, in hopes this will give me an edge. My other issue is that servers went down as well, so no hope of getting summoned for the Old Monk fight.

[Wolf Kanno]

Had a very interesting evening last night.

So I made it to the Maneaters, and holy hell are people not kidding that they are a bit more of a handful on NG+. They are far more tanky, and even with Warding cast on, they can still pack a punch if some of their moves land. The real challenge for me is that their better defenses means this fight drags on more, and if don't take out their tails ASAP, they can pelt me with Homing Soul Rays that can effectively one-shot me. The other issue is simply the arena. I think two of my deaths have simply been me falling off the bridge where the battle takes place trying to maneuver around them. So I'm hoping a change in weapons will give me the DPS needed to trivialize the fight and I'll likely be doing the Fog Gate cheat cause dealing with two of them at the same time is a bit of a nightmare.

On the brightside, I was finally summoned for the Old Monk fight and even managed to destroy my poor opponent whom I caught off guard to get a backstab in and then my Crescent Scimitar's natural Bleed effect made him have to heal too often which left him open for me to finish him. So I was able to win the only item in the game you have to earn through the Online component, meaning I'm not shut out of eventually turning this file into a perfect game down the road if I wanted. I was honestly so floored this happened that I'm still pretty excited cause I absolutely suck at PvP in these games.

Now that the one last box needed to be checked for this game has been done, I'm feeling a bit better about maybe moving onto Dark Souls III soon.

[Wolf Kanno]

Maneaters are down. Used the Fog Gate cheat to kill the first one cause just one of them is a serious handful. Took me several tries and I even gained a few more soul levels to help me out. I also took out Yurt the Silent before he could kill anyone useful. I didn't check, but I've probably shifted World Tendency towards Pure White, so I'll see if I can finally do Lord Rydell's quest in Latria. Then I'll finish off the Old Monk and move onto the Valley of Defilement. *shiver*

[Bri]

Oh my god finally defeated Vendrick. No armor because he was just...ayayai! I did use my blossom shield for extra stamina. Got his armor and crown as well as soul and also joined the dark covenant to fight the dark lurker.
I don't know but I don't even like that name of that boss at all.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh my god finally defeated Vendrick. No armor because he was just...ayayai! I did use my blossom shield for extra stamina. Got his armor and crown as well as soul and also joined the dark covenant to fight the dark lurker.
I don't know but I don't even like that name of that boss at all.

He's surprisingly not too bad, though his second phase can be stressful if you let it. Most of his attacks are slow and he has pretty generous tells. When his second phase kicks in, I advise you to not use the lock on feature, control the camera manually, keep your distance, and take your hits when you can get them safely. This boss is about making you panic and act recklessly, but's he's actually pretty slow which makes him manageable. I advise challenging him at the portal at Drangleic Castle since there is a bonfire right next to the Old Man who heads the covenant.

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In Demon's Souls news, I had a very weird evening.

So I took on the Old Monk, and as I figured, a lot of people are taking advantage of knowing the servers will offocially be gone at the end of the month, so I had three different people invade me for this fight, though I only fought one of them cause those damn Black Phantom Mindflayers are a real bitch until I realized all of their moves are magic based and Anti-Magic Field is a slightly broken spell. The weird part of the evening is that not only did my opponent not put up much of a fight, but I think they actually gifted me a Pure Bladestone (It is the rarest Upgrade Material in the game, only obtained as a rare drop from a nasty enemy in the Shrine of Storms Area) cause one was just lying there in the boss room. So I kind of feel bad, cause I'm not sure if they purposely threw the fight or was simply hoping I could be bribed to throw the fight for them. Considering how non-aggressive they were, I think they just let me win. Still left a weird feeling, but I've heard of players in this game invading other players only to actually help them out. I may actually do that once I reach the last few levels.

Also, fuck the Valley of Defilement. Like seriously, it is the worst poison swamp area in the series. I haven't even reached the second level which is worse, but the first zone is being obnoxious. One thing that got changed in the later entries is the ability to attack enemies who are "playing dead" not in this game. The enemies in the first part pretend to be corpses and then ambush you once you've passed them. Also, the Large Variant has a crap ton of health, which I was expecting, and making me dread even more so, the next stage. Thew True Demon's Souls begins here indeed.

[Bri]

Yes that was what I was doing, target lock and also panicking. So what I finally did was poured myself some red wine, filled my mouth with dark chocolates to refrain from swearing ( mothersmurfer!!!! Smurf!!! Smurf you Vendrick! You old smurfing smurf!!! ) did not target lock, used an upgraded greatsword and next thing I knew he died. It took me a while to see that all I had to do was just relax and hug his right, hit and roll. I actually tried to parry him but I guess that didn't work lol. Oh okay, I went down into the gulch to find him and saw a portal near him. But I'll go back to drangleic because you're right there is a bf there as well. Should I have something equipped specifically? And thank you again! Good luck in demons souls by the way, I went back to pick up on where I left and last I did was saved and NPC, I followed him around a bit and that's where I left off. Sad that server will be shut down next week, I won't be able to summon or be summoned. But will definitely enjoy it offline for sure!

[Wolf Kanno]

Darklurker is weak to Lightning, and all but one of his attacks are Dark Based, so Dark Defense is a must. With that said, he is susceptible to the Hex that prevents magic from being cast, which will largely cripple him and make him a joke, but frankly, as long as you keep your wits about you, he's not too bad, again, his second phase is what usually causes people to panic.

Sounds like you saved Astrova of Boletaria. He pops up in each section of Boletaria and has to be "rescued" in each stage except the last for his questline. I think after you save him the second time, he'll start appearing in the Nexus. Funny enough, all the NPCs you can rescue in Boletaria Castle are pretty much the most friendly characters in the game not counting Stockpile Thomas.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh, I'm starting to wonder if I'll be able to finish this game before February 28. I completed the first part of the Valley of Defilement after a few annoying run-throughs. I was surprised to learn that the area boss Leechmonger actually has a healing move if you fail to attack it for a while, something you don't see too often from bosses in this series. I'm now in the much longer and significantly more hostile second area where even the Warding spell can't stop me from getting two-shotted by the Meat Cleaver Black Phantom and Giant Depraved Ones.

If you're wondering why this place is so awful, let me explain. The first section is like the first part of Blighttown where you're in dilapidated buildings hoisted above a swamp, and your goal is to reach the bottom safely. This part has ambushes galore, with enemies that can play dead and not be hit with attacks until they activate, and they even hide around corners or hay stacks, so it's easy to walk into a room thinking you'll only have to face two enemies to discover there are six of them instead. While the regular enemies don't have much in health, they make up for it with high attack power, and by the second stage when all the enemies get a boost, the regular cannon fodder enemies can two-shot you unless you've been pouring ridiculous amounts of points into Vitality. The structures have several trap holes like the Gutter in DS2, but whereas the enemies in that area tend to be dumbfounded for a few seconds when you come crashing down, the enemies here swarm you. There are also major bridges with no railings over a pit that are usually guarded by the tanky and hard hitting Giant Depraved Ones. So it's a slow process getting in as you have to be extra careful going into any new place and constantly checking your flank in case you missed a "corpse" trying to ambush you. Did I mention the brown and red color palette of the area blends perfectly with the enemies?

The second area is significantly worse. It's pretty much the second part of Blighttown where you're in the main swamp. You start out on the rim, and the actual area to the boss is not far from where you start but, you can't access it at first as the norm. So you take the rim into the swamp. The swamp, as tradition, prevents you from running, dodging, and significantly slows you down while also poising you if you linger in there too long. Where this gets a little bullshit is that these restrictions only apply to you. All of the enemies in the area move swiftly in the swamp, including the Black Phantom wandering around. You leave rim to enter the swamp properly and begin "island hopping" to discover the swamp is separated by a poorly made wall, so in order to get past it, you take the islands to sides, usually guarded by several Giant Depraved Ones, which I'll remind you have a boost in all their stats in this area and unlike the Boulder throwing monsters in Blighttown, these guys have an insanely huge aggro zone and love to pursue you if they see you.

What's unique to the Valley of Defilement is that it's raining mud, which significantly hinders your visibility and makes the Thief Ring a bit useless since you'll now have to be in an enemies aggro range before you can finally see them past the muck. An interesting thing this also does is screw with your perception. The muck carefully hides the Black Phantom since the red doesn't come out as much so you won't notice her until she's nearly upon you, and there are several places where you'll spot a normal enemy, fire an arrow to aggro it close to you, only to discover to your horror, that it's actually a Giant Depraved One and the area uses some simple optical illusions to make you misjudge this. Once you get past the swamp, and to the other side of the area, you're back in a similar situation as the first stage, where you're walking through a "living area" that is swarming with enemies ready to ambush you but now we've added magic users into the mix, and it's only in this part where you'll find the shortcut leading back to the beginning of the stage. So yeah,. it's not a fun place at all. Throw in the fact it has a ton of really good gear and special weapons like the Sword of Moonlight in the outlier areas of the map, as well as the fact the enemies in this area drop next to nothing in terms of souls despite their increased difficulty, and you have a very unpleasant place to slog through. The only two saving graces besides the great loot is that all the bosses of the area are extremely easy, and the jellyfish monsters that swarm you in the swamp are one of the rare normal enemies that disappear forever after being killed until a new NG+ Cycle.

So yeah, it's going to be a few nights before I reach the boss of this area.:cry:

[Wolf Kanno]

Valley of Defilement is mostly done, I'm just finishing up the Pure White Tendency Event, but I may have screwed myself out of that one as well. After a few attempts and being extra careful, I made it through the swamp and even learned I can skip the first Giant Depraved One by being real careful and stealthy. I still need to kill the Red Phantom in the area, but it's not a huge deal, and I'll probably skip it. This basically leaves the last two stages of Boletaria Castle to deal with, and I thankfully cleared most of one of the stages and opened the shortcut to the boss, so I'll likely get that done tonight. That leaves the last stage and that battle with the Blue Dragon and False King Allant, who is very likely going to be the last real obstacle for clearing the game before the Online Services end on Wednesday. It's been a blast blasting through the this game a second time with more Souls experience, and I'll likely dive into Dark Souls 3 next.

[Wolf Kanno]

And... I pretty much beat the game tonight. Kind of surprised the last section didn't give me as hard of a time as I thought it would. Biorr still kicked ass in the Penetrator and Blue Dragon battles, and hey, I was even able to kill the dragon before he was killed, meaning I got to keep him alive.

False King Allant was a handful, but he thankfully leaves enough windows to heal unlike Flamelurker, and he's also surprisingly weak to pure physical damage, which was great cause I finally upgraded my starting weapon to +10 with Hardstone, earning me the last trophy I'm likely to get for this cycle.

I was sadly, unable to defeat BP Garl Vinland to finish his sister's questline. Some how, when I left the zone to repair my gear after getting thumped so bad by him, he stopped showing up. It doesn't look like my World Tendency changed, but perhaps he despawns if you leave the area? Either way, it's something I'll have to do next cycle along with Pure Black World Tendency, and trying to get my character's own tendency to pure black and white to obtain the last two rings I need for the Rogue Trophy. Alas, another time.

With the "final" confrontation before me, I'll likely jump to the ending I didn't choose last time, which I've heard gets a shout out in one of the possible Dark Soul 3 endings, so this will be a treat.

Overall, Demon's Souls is still really fun to play, but still pretty rough around the edges compared to Dark Souls. I still hope Sony may convince FROM Software to give it the remaster treatment since Sony seems to be big on that lately. Some fixes to the World/Character Tendency Systems, more rewards for the Boss Souls, a unified online server, and maybe revamping the boss A.I. would do wonders for this game. I still recommend it for any Souls fans who own a PS3 and need a Souls fix.

[Bri]

Sooo... I finally got ds3!!! Bloodbourne and was so tempted to get Nioh but I said I will wait on it a bit. Dark souls 2, I still have yet to beat darklurker. I am going to transfer the ps3 into my room so it is easier to play at night. I put darklurker aside for now because running out of damn effigies. Sucks that you got to spend effigies just for that boss. Goodness gracious!! So I started DLC and on my way to defeat the slumberibg dragon!!
He will be a treat for sure!

[Wolf Kanno]

The Slumbering Dragon is a pretty cool fight. I ended up liking this DLC far more than I thought I would. The ghost knights were an interesting concept.

[Bri]

Soooo, ended up getting a Ps4 along with dark souls 3 and bloodbourne and demon souls as well. I had only meant to put ds3 on and just make a character and then somehow I am now going to face Pontiff...I love this game so far. I feel bad though because I kind of forgotten to go back and fisnish ds2. Last I left off was in dlc. Now I'm wishing I did not even start of ds3 but It's fun and somehow a bit easier compared to ds2. Also! Bob just started a new character last night in ds3 and will hopefully continue with it. He made me start playing ff14 so that we can play together online he thought since I'm playing he'll try and play ds3. If he likes it we'll get another ps4 so that we can co-op. Hoping he does because I already like ff14 so far! Also must go back and finish up ds2 and dlc.

[Wolf Kanno]

Glad you're enoying it. I'll get to to DS3 once I finish my Chrono itch at the moment. Unless Bloodborne gets to me first...

[Wolf Kanno]

Found this video and thought it was pretty neat. It sounds like we were denied a rather interesting Dark Souls 2.

RzfJs-ikItE

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay real post, I just started up Dark Souls III tonight cause the other Halloweenish type games I have I wasn't feeling as much and I've been itching to play this since I finished DSII. My biggest beef so far is that just like Bloodborne, the online gameplay is hidden behind the PS+ paywall and outside of these two games I'm probably never going to use it so I'm a bit annoyed it came to this. So I'm doing this solo just like Bloodborne.

As tradition, I remained in my basic bitch choice of Knight as my starting class, if only because the starting armor looks like the fluted armor from Demon's Souls which is my favorite armor in the Souls series. My Burial Item was the Life Ring because none of the other items sounded useful.

So after making a hideous character cause I've never been good with face creation features in games, I rolled through the tutorial area, ignored the crystal monstrosity hiding in one of the optional paths, and crushed Gundyr like a bug and then was promptly murdered by the Ronin Hollow guarding a door near the Firelink Shrine. Twice, and I lost all my souls. I was going to let that slide but losing that many souls before reaching the person who levels me up just didn't sit well with me, so I exited the game and started a new file.

Managed to make a significantly better looking player character who looks like a young Mitsurugi of another famous series with Soul in the title. Waltzed through the tutorial, decided to not err on caution and tackled that overgrown monster Crystal Lizard who turned out to be super easy. Crushed Gundyr a second time, saved at the Firelink Shrine and leveled up, then tackled the Ronin Hollow, who still crushed me because I can't get the parry timing down. Ended up beating him as a fluke because I rolled past him when he did his charge attack and then tried to backstab him, only for the guy to continue his combo off a cliff. Sadly, I fell with him since I used auto-target and ended up doing a combo instead of a backstab like I planned. Went back for round two but he doesn't respawn and instead I found his gear waiting for me by my bloodstain.

Went to Lothric High Wall which is basically a weird redo of Boletaria Castle/Undead Burg with the usual assortment of Souls tropes like a dragon level hazard, suicidal hollow dregs, and more dangerous armored knights. New this time around are the Humanity Corrupted Hollows who easily fell into "avoid if you can" territory since they soak damage like a sponge and they take up so much of the screen that staying in close makes combat too difficult to tell what anyone is doing.

I found the cell key to free the thief character who has me looking for some old woman at the bottom of the wall, and to my surprise, while I explored that way I ended up encountering the next boss, who is a mace wielding dog knight who ended up being ridiculously easy since I just followed the Bloodborne method of dealing with big bosses by staying under him where all his attacks missed.

Leveled up a few times and upgraded my weapon once, noticed armor upgrades are gone, and was able to get two extra Estus Flasks. I don't really know how I'm going to build my character this time around but I'm already noticing the heavy influence Bloodborne left on this entry with the sped up combat, higher basic combos, more generous stamina recovery, and the heavier emphasis on weapon arts this time around. The other thing is the graphics, part of the game look like they could be from Bloodborne as well due to the game sharing the former's high detail and stylized aesthetics. I don't think any of the castles in other Dark Soul entries were this heavily ornamented with all the statues, corpses, and general weirdness.

I am digging the game really playing up the idea of this being the end. The earlier entries never felt like the world was really just coming to an end like it does in this entry and while the "Unkindled" is just another way of saying Hollow mechanically, I'm digging the premise of hunting down former heroes of the fire linking.

Anyway, any suggestions or hints? I've heard there is something off about armor in this entry among other complaints from long time Souls fans.

[Galuf]

its weird i could kill the crystal monstrosity at the start, but couldnt beat the abyss watchers lol.

[Vyk]

Not sure if you liked two handing in DS2, but it's very specific in DS3, where you have to get a "weapon" that is really two weapons, in order to properly two hand. But since you're a knight I doubt you're all that interested. I won't spoil it, but if you talk to the turtle hermit guy, and take him up on his offer, you'll find out what the difference is between being hollowed and being unkindled/enkindled is for this game

But yeah, I like the idea that you're character is one of thousands who linked the flame previously, and one of thousands who was re-awoken because you succeeded once, and they need you again, because the heroes are being stupid. Once you get most of the way through the game, there's a really good Game Theory video about who your character is actually supposed to be, and I kinda like their theory. But it won't make sense until you encounter a lot of things in the main game, so I'd only watch that once all the main heroes are defeated

You probably already know to save boss souls, you'll get a thing for that later. You probably already learned you can manage different types of flasks, and as a melee character you may not even need the blue flasks, so you can max out on yellow flasks. Though I hate that they share a pool. It kind of gimps mage classes. Much prefer the old way where spells take stamina, and have charges. So it's not a drain on estus

And I doubt you'll have too much trouble with going solo. The only bosses I ever needed a friend with were halfway through the game, and the one has like 3 NPC summons right outside his door. So that's no problem offline. Aldrich may be a problem, though. I can give you more specific advice when you get to him. I don't think there's any NPC summons, and last time I tried, there was nobody available to help. So PS+ would probably be useless there. I've always had to solo him except for my first run through of the game. And he's quite the anti-thesis to a lot of character builds. So it can get tricky until you get used to his BS

[Bri]

Hi!! I'm glad you finally playing ds3!! Yes it is almost in a way like bb ( for me ) password matchmaking just can't Parry with a gun. As for Armor, there is no poise I believe to level up so I'm guessing the stringer the armor the better stance and poise. I still have to complete alot of quests as it's a bit confusing to me but I know you'll be able to figure it out.

Galuf! Nice to hear you playing some ds as well!

[Wolf Kanno]

Not sure if you liked two handing in DS2, but it's very specific in DS3, where you have to get a "weapon" that is really two weapons, in order to properly two hand. But since you're a knight I doubt you're all that interested. I won't spoil it, but if you talk to the turtle hermit guy, and take him up on his offer, you'll find out what the difference is between being hollowed and being unkindled/enkindled is for this game

I never actually figured out how to duel wield in DSII but from what I've seen of video, it looks a lot smoother in DSIII. I might go that route this time around since I tend to be way more aggressive and I've been having issues getting parry down since the second game. Thanks for the heads up about the hollowing guy, I'll keep an eye out for him. Without the online component, I'll probably be missing more content than usual unless I resort to a quest guide or something.



But yeah, I like the idea that you're character is one of thousands who linked the flame previously, and one of thousands who was re-awoken because you succeeded once, and they need you again, because the heroes are being stupid. Once you get most of the way through the game, there's a really good Game Theory video about who your character is actually supposed to be, and I kinda like their theory. But it won't make sense until you encounter a lot of things in the main game, so I'd only watch that once all the main heroes are defeated

You'll have to give me a link to the video when the time comes.


You probably already know to save boss souls, you'll get a thing for that later. You probably already learned you can manage different types of flasks, and as a melee character you may not even need the blue flasks, so you can max out on yellow flasks. Though I hate that they share a pool. It kind of gimps mage classes. Much prefer the old way where spells take stamina, and have charges. So it's not a drain on estus

I've been debating about subbing a magic class. I'm usually really bad about it though, but as it stands Hexes are one of the few spell types I've never used, and I've also noticed their is a new Frost element as well. We'll see, but I've heard that magic builds have it really rough in this entry. I know the devs have been trying to nerf them a bit but it just seems like they might have gone too far if the stat requirements I've read about are to be believed. The new weapon arts have been interesting so far.


And I doubt you'll have too much trouble with going solo. The only bosses I ever needed a friend with were halfway through the game, and the one has like 3 NPC summons right outside his door. So that's no problem offline. Aldrich may be a problem, though. I can give you more specific advice when you get to him. I don't think there's any NPC summons, and last time I tried, there was nobody available to help. So PS+ would probably be useless there. I've always had to solo him except for my first run through of the game. And he's quite the anti-thesis to a lot of character builds. So it can get tricky until you get used to his BS

I'm not terribly worried about the bosses so far, as I've kicked the shit out of the first two with little issue. I think the only one I'm concerned about is the Pontiff guy and that's only because I can't seem to get the timing of the parry system down just yet and I've heard that makes the difference between him being easy to handle vs. That One Boss status. On the other hand, I can already tell this game has more nightmare regular encounters I'm going to dread as most of my deaths so far have been dealing with them.


Hi!! I'm glad you finally playing ds3!! Yes it is almost in a way like bb ( for me ) password matchmaking just can't Parry with a gun. As for Armor, there is no poise I believe to level up so I'm guessing the stringer the armor the better stance and poise. I still have to complete alot of quests as it's a bit confusing to me but I know you'll be able to figure it out.

Galuf! Nice to hear you playing some ds as well!

Thanks, it's been calling my name lately and I even put up the DSIII wallpaper on my PS4 for Halloween so I sort of did this to myself. It helps the game has a more horror vibe to it like Demon's Souls than the previous entries as well. I have the special edition so I have all the DLC as well so this should keep me busy until holiday season.

**************************************************************************************************** **

I haven't played any today, but I did forget to comment on something I did like about the game so far and that's actually having no scrappy stats for once. Demon's Souls had a bad stat spread for mages and endurance was the token stat to raise thanks to the scrappy item burden mechanic the rest of the series thankfully dropped. Dark Souls had the useless poison stat. DSII had that awful stat required to make using estus not suicide, and Bloodborne could have done more to make Bloodtinge and Arcane actually viable builds in the early game. So far, DSIII seems to have a decent stat spread with no particular stat feeling useless. I'm even happy Luck came back as a stat and affects drop rate. I've heard they even have an equivalent of the Blueblood sword from Demon's Souls that scales with the stat which is nice but it might come as the closest to being kind of a useless stat at the moment.

While I can continue past Lothric Wall, I'm probably going to explore the area a bit more because I know I've missed a few spots because I'm missing the keys or the stage hazard dragon makes going for new doors into shmuck bait.

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, that was a productive evening.

Explored one part of the High Wall I missed and found the Way of Blue Covenant, not that it does me much good. I also discovered the SunBros covenant as well though it was rather anti-climatic.

Ventured into the Undead Settlement where I was greeted by leftover Yharmanites who haven't been consumed by the Beast blood as well as the wives of the Fat Officials from Demon's Souls who hit hard and soak damage more than I would like just like their hubbys. I am a bit taken back by how many NPCs are sitting around this place as well. In DSII it seemed like it took forever to fill up the fire shrine, but I've already found a basic Sorcerer in Yore of Londor who is trying to make me come to the darkside; a pyromancer teacher who feels like an older version of the one from DS1; and my Miracle teacher who has an interesting vibe going for since she seems like she's blind and she has a bodyguard who looks like Vinland and Veldstat had a baby. I was also pleased to see that Greirat's ring quest took a page out of Demon's Souls with finding his friend the same way you find Stockpile Thomas' wife, he might be my favorite NPC at the moment. Also, the lone Lord of Cinder who actually showed up to the shrine and looks like a half burnt corpse mentioned I need to find some item to help him get the most out of souls, so I'll need to look into that since that sounds like something to do with Boss Souls.

My biggest quirk was having a minor Bloodborne flashback when I hopped a ride with one of the scary butcher guys with a cage. Was kind of an accident because I was actually trying to back stab him when I found him. Anyway, I found the Mound-Makers who are a little nuts it seems. I also found our recurring item loving crow. I do want to find some more Titanite Shards to bump my Longsword to +3. Not sure if I want to use any infusions yet, I have Raw, Sharp, and Heavy gems. Despite having three of the four magic types, I'm hesitant to really jump into any of them at the moment.

So I have three options right now, I can either got back to Lothric and see if I can race my sorry ass over to one of the doors Mr. Wyvern is guarding and explore more of the place, I can head towards the creepy cathedral that both the Crestfallen Soldier and Bodyguard Knight mentioned while chuckling about it being certain doom, or I can head through the really big door on the opposite side of the settlement where I imagine the area boss is snoozing.

Also...

75752

[Spuuky]

the online gameplay is hidden behind the PS+ paywall PC Master Race

[Wolf Kanno]

the online gameplay is hidden behind the PS+ paywall PC Master Race

And deny myself the chance to trash talk Sony because they always have this knack for shooting themselves in the foot? Never.

**************************************************************************************************** ********

Update Time

Been keeping a decent pace going so far. Took down two more bosses yesterday. The Tree guy felt like a redo of the abomination boss from Bloodborne though it was more interesting because it had specific places to be targeted. The Crystal Sage boss gave me a bit more trouble since that fight eventually devolves into me dodging Macross Missile swarms of Soul Arrow spells. I ended up needing to summon Eygon just so the boss could have one more target and give me time to reach his teleporting ass.

Road of Sacrifices wasn't too bad of a location except for the two super aggressive beastmen monsters tied to crosses and learning the hard way not to summon Mound Maker factions because they're no ones friend. I found out too late why fans nicknamed him Parry God Horace. I also fought the two Faroon Exiles guarding the route to Farron Woods/Swamp as well as the two bandits guarding the entrance to the Cathedral of the Deep. I even took down this game's version of the Butcher blade chick. So I'm not doing too bad.

I met Anri of Astora and her friend which was nice and I also met Seigward and fought a demon with him. I'm curious about the Crestfallen Knight because he keeps disappearing at the shrine and I met a new woman who basically arrived long enough to say we we can't be friends for some reason. I also met a stuck up sorcerer who won't come back to my shrine cause I haven't put enough points into Intelligence. The one thing that has struck me as interesting is how everyone pretty much knows what you are and what you're doing, implying that this isn't the first time the Unkindled had to show up and beat down previous champions of the linking of the flame. Makes you wonder how bad things had been going in the past, especially considering how dire everything feels in this game. I mean in earlier games, you're given the impression that nations of non-Undead still exist in distant lands but here, it feels like all that's left are the Hollows, the few sane Undead, and now the Unkindled. End of the World indeed.

My Long Sword is +3 and I'll need Large Titanite to upgrade it. Still debating if I want to bother with infusion just yet, especially because it already looks like they overly complicated it this time around despite the earlier games doing it right. I also obtained an Irythll Long Sword which does Frostbite buildup. Might play with that for a bit since it's not too different from the sword I'm currently using though I'm also thinking about the Uchigatana and the Twin Thiefblades I just acquired as well. I'm still debating about taking up Yoel on his offer to make me a Hollow. I got the pot to the one Cinder Lord so I can make Boss Soul Items and I've opted for the Ring and Lucatiel's Sword. In fact, I'm really happy I acquired most of her gear at this point because she was easily my favorite NPC from DSII. I also have enough armor options at this point that I'm playing around more with how I want to build my character.

I am starting to see what people meant when they said this game is a bit more linear than previous entries, but the actual zone layouts are well enough to not make this an issue. As much as I loved the interconnected world of the first game, I'm not exactly as annoyed with the later entries not following suit. The Farron area isn't quite as obnoxious as people keep making it out to be, so I don't know if I want to say this is DSIII's version of Valley of Defilement/Blighttown/The Gulch just yet. Most of the zones have been pretty cool so far.

Overall, I've been having a blast, even if the game feels much easier than previous titles so far. I remember DSII kicking my ass from out of the gate, but here I've been doing better job and my deaths have purely been either my own fault or the rare "holy crap this enemy has better range than I thought" shenanigans. It does probably help that I don't pick fights with everything I encounter. Those giant crab monsters near the Crystal Sage boss don't look like something I really want to tussle with on a lark, Same with the giant beast wizards in the Farron area that use trees as magic staffs.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

While I didn't take out any bosses last night, I made some good headway into the Farron Woods and Cathedral of the Deep. Farron is hardly the evil swamp level we've seen in previous installments, so I'm totally expecting there to be a location we can call "that one area" granted, Blighttown wasn't really much a of a big deal compared to other poison zones either so maybe we lucked out in this entry. I am having a hard time finding the third fire tower, it's too easy to get turned around in this place.

I took up Yoel on his offer to draw out my power and he's been giving me some free levels which is nice. Not quite sure what the conditions are but not a bad deal so far, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I did use one of the free levels to upgrade my Intelligence by a point which was enough to recruit Mr. Stuck up Vinheim wizard, course he wants scrolls but luckily for him I found one in the Farron Woods, course he's still ungrateful. I also got some coal for Andre, which now makes weapon crafting not as annoying as I thought. I also found one of the Braille Tomes for my blind Cleric which I still need to hand to her.

The Cathedral has been weird, the respawning zombies were super annoying and the parasite creatures even more so thanks to their bleed damage. Thankfully I read somewhere the torch removes them so I've been using that to deal with them. The Giant stage hazard is also interesting if a bit annoying. I wish they had set it up like the Dragon God in Demon's Souls where there were some safe zones but at least the exposed area is mercifully short. I unlocked the two paths back to the bonfire where Gael is groveling. I know he's connected to one of the DLC areas so I've haven't really bothered talking to him cause I don't need to be warped into an endgame zone at this point. Made that mistake in DSII with the Sunken City.

So I'm not sure which boss to go after next. The Farron Woods will likely lead me to the Abyss Walkers from what the Crestfallen Knight keeps saying, while I imagine that the Cathedral of the Deep leads me to Aldritch, since it's kind of his church.

[Spuuky]

Bloodborne and DS3 both have much easier non-boss content than DS1&2. Bosses in all the games are a mixed bag of difficulty, of course.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update:

Done quite a bit actually. Took down the Deacons of the Deep which was an interesting if easy boss battle. I ran into Patches at Firelink Shrine and realized he was selling Catarina Armor which I picked up, only to explore the Cathedral of the Deep again and run into Seig's descendant in a well.

Found the last fire switch and battled the Abyss Walkers. Was a cool concept but the fight could have been a bit more difficult. I actually think the first phase is tougher than the second phase. Explored the Catacombs which was a poor man's DS1 Catacombs mixed with Sen's Fortress, though the Red Phantom Invasion with the guy wearing Tarkus Armor and later learning his sword was the freaking Fume Knight sword from DSII was pretty tough. With that said, the bridge part was actually cool and pretty cinematic for this game. Ran into Anri and killed her cohort Horace who went Hollow, though was intrigued to learn layer he may have been working with the Sable Knight chick. Didn't like the look of the worm and the barrage by arrows so I left.

Speaking of which, Yoel died and was replaced with this Sable Knight chick who really wants me to murder my sorcery teacher, which I'm going to ignore. I also ran into the Moon Chick knight who was friendlier this time around so perhaps I didn't tick her off like I thought.

Beat Wolnir which was an eerie but pretty easy fight except for the immortal undead he keeps summoning, luckily the fight is like Nito in DS1 and he had a bad habit of killing his own troops. Decided to explore the lake area again before leaving and not only can I summon my red phantom now, I found what looks like the ruins of Izalith and a freaking hard Demon King boss who whooped my ass a dozen times thanks to his AoE fire attacks. Finally took him down after what felt like a dozen tries and felt kind of bad to learn that demons are nearly extinct now in the series. Course I have a hell of a time against demons, so my empathy was short lived.

Been trying out new weapons as well. Really like the Abyss Walker sword since it comes close to my playstyle from DS1 but the weight is an issue at the moment and I feel like the lighter and more combo friendly Long Sword i started with is still ideal, especially because it's the weapon I'm the farthest along to nearly mastering. I'll probably explore the other part of the demon ruins tomorrow.

[Vyk]

Have you not taken your armor off for a while?

[Wolf Kanno]

I tend to always favor clothing attire that covers my face.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

Today was a very sad day for me. My favorite NPC died cause I messed up their questline somehow. Greirat died in the sewers of Irrithyl :(

I'm honestly really bummed about this because he was my favorite NPC out of the bunch and frankly this game has some really charming NPCs. Some of the best in the Dark Souls series. I don't think I've ever been this sad of letting an NPC die in one of these games since Biorr in Demon's Souls.

I finished exploring most of the Izalith ruins, the only spots I've avoided are the lava pools cause I'm not having a repeat of the Iron Keep BS. I also got reamed big time by the Tsorg, the dude wandering around in Tarkus' armor and using the Fume Knight Ultra greatsword. Course I got the weapon for finally beating him which was nice.

Explored Irrithyl and had a hell of time with the tall knight figures due to my deteriorating parry skills. Helped that Sirris woman fight off Creighton from DSII and got chased by a giant Gaping Rat Dog creature... twice. Fought Ponitff whatshisname and beat him first try but I wussed out and summoned some NPC allies to help me draw his fire.

Found the Irrithyl Dungeon before I discovered Greirat was dead. This place feels like a less creepy version of the Tower of Latria, though the Prison Wardens are still just as lethal and unfair. There were also a ton of Mimics in this place, but I'm at the point where I can kill them quickly. Despaired with Greirat dying, I looked up info on Siegward cause I want to keep him alive as well and discovered he could have saved him. I saved Seigward and I think I found all the keys for the dungeon but there is one room I haven't checked yet near the bottom where a half a dozen wardens are doing a conga dance and even worse, those obnoxiously aggressive Mini-Father Gascione beast mode is in the room next to the place. So I'll attempt to check it out later.

Also fuck the candlestick Mage. By Crom it was like a rematch with that Choir Hunter in Byrgenworth in Bloodborne. Also it was a dick move to leave the Toxicbite Ring in the middle of a toxic swamp. Tomorrow, I'll finish exploring the dungeon cause I read somewhere another NPC is in there, likely the one I can give all of these dark magic tomes to, and then I'm going to check out the Profaned Capital before returning to Irrithyl and going past the church where the boss was fought.

75753

[Spuuky]

Greirat "spoilers": he doesn't necessarily die there, but he always dies eventually.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Not a whole lot actually. Rescued Karla and now can learn some actual dark spells. It's amusing that she's fashioned after Yuria the Witch from Demon's Souls down to having to rescue her from a prison and her trying to talk you out of learning her spells. The implication she's connected to Manus and his "daughters" from DSII is interesting. I'm also amused that the person spouting on about Hollows and mankind's destiny is the one who doesn't teach you dark magic in this game.

This does reminding me, the callbacks to the previous games have been interesting, granted it's a little weird that DSII treats the events of DS1 like it was the Age of Myth only for this entry to treat it more like history, but I feel like it works better here. It's more interesting watching the Pyromancer teacher get excited when you find Tomes from Izalith or the Vinheim Assassin geek out over scrolls from Oolacile or written by Big Hat Logan. It just gives the game more history and connection. Though it is a shame that Miracles don't really have any notable figures. I mean Demon's Souls had Saint Urbain, but DSI had the traitor and the despondent cleric, DSII had the amusing con artist, and DSIII has a cleric that has echoes of Lady Astrea from Demon's Souls, but historically, the only figure the clerics have were either Gwyn or Lloyd, and Gwyn has been strangle absent from name dropping, while Lloyd has been downgraded to historical traitor if I'm reading the lore right. It just seems like DS doesn't give Clerics their due.

Anyway, rescued the Witch, explored the Profane Capital only to learn that the Irrithyll Dungeon was like 85% of it and I probably could have finished it during my last session. Got to see the cool intro with Seigward, got my Storm Ruler, though I think the original was cooler looking, had my easy but pretty memorable fight against Yhorm, my sad farewell afterwards and now I've taken down half of the lazy Lords of Cinder. Also, the Sable Church chick is yammering on about my "wife being ready in Anor Londo" which seems weird to me. I've also noticed that I haven't seen Hawkwood in ages since I beat the Abyss Watchers. I guess I'm going back to Irrithyl to see where to go next because Yhorm's chamber is a dead end. I know I have Aldrich to deal with and I've heard some nightmarish stories about him.

[Spuuky]

I didn't think Aldrich was particularly hard?

I hate the Yhorm fight, though. It's such a cheap gimmick for a cool dude.

[Wolf Kanno]

I didn't think Aldrich was particularly hard?

I hate the Yhorm fight, though. It's such a cheap gimmick for a cool dude.

Eh, I love the shout out to Demon's Souls and honestly he's the fourth Giant I've killed already by this point so I wasn't necessarily feeling it myself.

I am debating whether I should hit up the first of the DLC soon. Maybe after I deal with Aldrich and have the Lothric Bros. to contend with. I also know there are two side areas I haven't seen yet such as Dragon Peak something and another Archives somewhere.

[Spuuky]

The Grand Archives are hardly a side area...

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I meant it more as in "optional area". There's really only two zones left in the main campaign and barring the DLC, I still have four areas left to explore.

[Spuuky]

Well I meant it more as in "optional area". There's really only two zones left in the main campaign and barring the DLC, I still have four areas left to explore.It's definitely not optional.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I meant it more as in "optional area". There's really only two zones left in the main campaign and barring the DLC, I still have four areas left to explore.It's definitely not optional.

pele5vptVgc

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Anor Londo ho! Would it be sacrilegious to say I feel the Anor Londo Archers are way more annoying in this entry? Anyway, explored the place. Did some kind of ceremony in Gwyndolin's old boss chamber/Gwyn's burial chamber that explains a bit more about what happened to Anri. Even though Yuria comes across a bit evil, I tend to always favor the Age of Dark endings, so I'm not exactly bothered I might be helping people some players might call evil.

Friends gave me a tip about Yorshka, and I was able to find her after a bit of trial and error. Sad to find out about the fate of the Giant Blacksmith but thought it was touching that Andre and him were friends. Found Aldrich and got reamed. I started playing around with the Farron Great-sword and discovered that's it's special combo is super effective against the Silver Knights and later learned that Aldrich takes more damage from it due to being a creature of the Abyss. It took quite a few tries to beat him, my main issue was trying to keep tabs on all his magic attacks and learning painfully that the Lifehunt Scythe move is practically a OHKO for my character. I kept trying to take him down quickly like he was a Bloodborne boss but eventually learned that patience was the key. That arrow attack is still kind of BS in terms of damage and its homing ability.

Got transported back to that church in Lothric Castle where the Way of Blue handmaiden was, realized I could move and didn't have to talk to her and took the opportunity to use a homeward bone to go level up and trade in Aldrich's soul. Bought a few items and realized I never actually lit the bonfire from the Rotten Greatwood Tree fight so I headed back there and found a summon sign from Sirris. Got summoned to fight her pain in the ass grandfather and probably died more times to him than Aldrich. I did head back to Aldrich's chamber to explore Gwynevere's room to get the Princess Ring. Overall, it was a nice bit of nostalgia to revisit what was probably one of my favorite areas in Dark Souls 1.

Went back to the hand maiden and as I figured, activated a boss fight with the Dancer and was quickly overwhelmed cause she has way better range than I thought she did. Called it a night after that. I think once I beat her and I assume open up the path to the rest of Lothric Castle, I'm heading back to the Cathedral of the Deep to start the Ashes of Ariandel DLC. I plan on doing the Ringed City DLC after I beat the Lothric boys.

[Slothy]

I've had dark souls 2 and 3 for quite a while but never got around to playing more than maybe an hour of ds2.

So I started playing it the other night, and I'm maybe 4-5 hours in. And maybe it's because I actually do enjoy summoning people to co-op with but the game has felt really easy so far. I've died maybe 5 times and one shot every boss until now. Just got to sinners rise though I guess there's some other stuff that one is generally supposed to do first. I don't think I'm a particularly amazing souls player, and I'm sure odds are I'm going to run into some stuff that just wrecks me as I keep going but it's been a weird feeling so far. I feel like I'm flying through the damn game. Even summoning people for bosses in the first one I struggled more than I have so far.

[Vyk]

Depending on your class, there are builds that will have a much easier time and then get wrecked in other areas where the build is not optimal. Also depends if you're playing vanilla or scholar of the first sin version. I've heard scholar is more brutal and meant for people who already played vanilla

[Slothy]

I actually am playing the scholar version. I'll just bet on me getting beat to shit later on in the game and enjoy my ability to feel good about myself for not getting my ass kicked yet.

[Spuuky]

Mildly depends on which path you take through the game. DS2 has some of the easiest Souls content in it, but also some of the hardest (although that's mostly reserved for the DLC).

[Wolf Kanno]

DSII just has a large quantity of gank fights but if you know what you're doing, it's not so bad. I think only two bosses gave me trouble in the early game, the three Sentinels and the shit demon monster in Black Gulch. It's the bosses towards the end that were often more problematic for me and even then a lot of them were optional. My other issue was the silly Soul Level nonsense mechanic that made it nearly impossible to be summoned for me but made it easier for me to get invaded by players who were a few areas ahead of me. The few areas I had the most grief in were often due to invaders blocking my ability to progress and costing me souls. I think my biggest issue in DSII was that parry timing seemed to be changed a bit, especially the counter riposte which for some reason I could never get done right.

For me, I think Demon's Souls is still the hardest entry, the controls are more clunky, infusions are both more important and situational, and the level design is far more sadistic than the Dark Souls series. In terms of boss battles, I feel DS1 and Bloodborne have the most challenging so far. DSII has too many filler bosses and DS3's bosses have been surprisingly easier than what I'm used to in the series but that might change now that I'm towards the end and all I have left are three story bosses and like close to a dozen optional bosses who tend to be more challenging.

Update Time:
I think the Dancer of the Boreal Valley might be the hardest boss in the game so far. Despite having really good tells, she's pretty aggressive and has longer combos animations and range than I would care for. My biggest issue was that without an ember activated, her grab move in her first phase was a OHKO for me since I rarely put points into HP so a bad roll was all it took to end the fight sometimes. Her and Aldritch have taken the most tries in order to beat, but nothing too infuriating yet.

Reached Lothric Castle proper and explored the King's Garden or something. Met the Consumed King, and he was honestly not too bad outside of some high damage from the charge move and whip attack. The hardest part of the fight was chasing after him cause most of his attacks in his second phase kept launching him across the screen and trying to stay in front of him is too dangerous. A friend mentioned to hit the wall in the back of the area you pick up the Way of the Dragon emote and I found myself in the Untended Graves. I honestly had a tough time killing the Soul Arrow spamming invader than Champion Gundyr and I got to explore one of the eeriest locations in the whole game so far.

Looked up how to find the Archdragon Peak and went there, but called it a night at the first bonfire. I think I'll try to take down the Nameless King because I feel he'll be a nice litmus test for dealing with the DLC. I've seen videos of the Sister Friede fight and I can already say I am both dreading and anticipating it.

[Bri]

Hope you are having a great time with Ds3 ! I just soloed Nameless King on my ng+4 and it was an awesome fight! You'll probably enjoy it as well! As for sister Freide, oh my God she is my favorite boss fight in the game! I don't want to spoil anything for you but just keep on pushing through and have fun!! :) You got this!!

[Wolf Kanno]

Nameless King has been interesting. I pretty much have the King of Storms fight down and can get to second phase with little issue unless he starts flipping around too much to get the camera screw on me, but for the most part. It's down to a science. The actual fight with him is still a it grueling as a memorize his pattern. I think the move I'm still having issues with is his fast lunge attack on the ground. I can't seem to get the timing right to roll out of the way so I take unnecessary hits. I do appreciate the fact your Bloodstain is located outside of the boss arena.

I did explore more of Lothric Castle and found the boss room. I think it's really interesting that one of the two dragons guarding the main gate is actually killed by a Pus of Man. I haven't really discussed this much but the lore and story elements of this game are pretty top notch. Some of the best in the actual Dark Souls series. Unlike DSII, I have a more clear idea of what I'm trying to do and how most of the locations and bosses fit into the narrative. Been interesting. I might fight this boss in Lothric Castle first and then come back to the Nameless King.

[Wolf Kanno]

Got thrashed a few more times by Nameless King and opted to fight the boss of Lothric Castle, who turned out to be some knight dude. He would have been more intimidating if for some reason my ability to roll so close to him didn't somehow offset his follow up attack and caused it to completely miss me and still somehow move me right where I needed to be to get a few extra hits. Unlocked the Grand Archives which was not what I thought it would be but this will be interesting.

Went back to Nameless King fight and after dying countless times to him all evening, I hit that Dark Souls Zen moment and finally conquered him. He felt like a redo of Artorias actually except with a mix of the Sephiroth fight from KH1. Artorias because of his lore and his fighting style being brutal and relentless enough that you have to basically keep your distance and take your hits when you can as opposed to being all out aggressive like most of the bosses in this game so far.

He's like Sephy because I honestly felt his A.I. is designed to utilize the game's less than stellar lock-on/camera to his own advantage. The biggest difference from a flawless battle with the first phase versus me taking a few unnecessary hits pretty much came down to whether I could stay in front of his dragon which loved to try to walk over me and make the camera go screwy so NK could take pot shots at me. The biggest contributor to my success in his second phase, outside of finally getting his timing down to dodge, largely came down to how fast I could lock back onto him when he used one of his charging attacks to dive off screen and break my lock on. That and making sure he didn't corner me into one of his arean's invisible walls which screwed with the camera as well.

I did kind of wish I didn't have to fight the dragon every time he beat me into the ground, not because I feel it's unfair but because it actually got boring after awhile and I just wanted to get back to that second round. It was still a pretty cool fight but I'm not sure if I liked it as much as Artorias, Fume Knight, and Lady Maria.

I think I'm going to explore the Grand Archive a bit before I dive into the DLC. I figure I'll try to reach the boss gate which should be the Lothric Boys and then I'll go visit the Painted World. After I beat them, I'll visit the Ringed City, though I'm not quite sure where the entrance to that DLC is.

[Bri]

That's awesome! You did good for sure and I aggree I about the dragon. Sucks we have to keep fighting him every time but he is honestly easy if you didn't know already. You can actually stay by his head and hit him a few times to stagger and reposte him for a quicker death, it's just NK himself takes all the stamina and flask as he punishes you for trying to recharge. But the fight is truly a great one for me , or one of the great fights in the game. Keep posting as I really like to read how's darks souls 3 and updates ! Have fun and stay safe Ashen one!

I am actually working on my sl125 character for ds3 as there will be a dark souls 3 hunger game event and I'm pretty excited about it , if you guys are interested, let me know :)

[Wolf Kanno]

Explored the Grand Archive, was able to finally acquire the awesome Farram Armor set from DSII, reached what I'm assuming is the final gate across a fortified bridge to the Lothric Boys and then plunged into the DLC.

The Painted World was eerie in DS1 but now it's pretty damn grotesque in this title. Largely imitating the dying world we've seen so much in DSIII, it's interesting seeing a world rotting. I also find it interesting that the new painted world expanded the original ones concept of being a refuge for the unwanted. Two lost order of knights, an entire species of beings, and two outcast members of the Sable Church. It's an interesting concept.

I can say that I don't like tussling with the Millwood Knights, these guy feel like viking versions of the Gwyn's Black Knights, hard to stagger, loads of health, and they can wipe you out in about two hits unless you've been pouring all of your stats into Health and Vitality. The Monster Wolves haven't been friendly either.

Course the enemies I don't engage directly have been the Corvian Knights who play my own style (speed and combo friendly) better than I can since they have about a foot or two on me in range. It's why I keep a bow. The battle against Vinhelm was pretty intense too since he loves to attack and then roll away. Took awhile to finally get him killed but I didn't die either. It was interesting to meet the new Painter as well, and looking up a bit on her, she appears to be part dragon like Priscilla was. Wonder if they are related.

Beyond exploring the Tower where the Millwood knight archers attack and fighting past the town to the Painter, I still haven't encountered the bosses of the world. I know there are two and Sister Friede is one of them, but I haven't the foggiest idea where the other one is or even what it could be. Anyway bummed around the world exploring the mountain behind the Painters prison until I realized it was late and called it a night.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time:

Okay, so I looked up where the bosses were. I actually unlocked the path to Friede without realizing it, while I had to look up how to reach the Gravetender. The trip down to his location was not fun, since the Millwood Knights apparently compete with the Londo Knights in archery.

He did kick my ass a few times but it mainly came down to trying to kill the bastard before his giant wolf dog truly entered the battle as well as realizing the wolf does not work like the Sif fight and rolling under him will likely have you roll directly into his attack. Oddly enough, the moment the wolf hit second phase he actually became a hell of a lot easier cause he liked to spam the frost breath attack that kept him stationary for once. I learned later that fighting the mini versions of him in the forest and winning apparently drops his health permanently.

After that, I checked out Friede and oh boy is she interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about these sequential cinematic fights with multiple phases and life bars. It was kind of a novelty for the Ludwig fight and my issue with the Nameless King is that the first phase eventually got kind of boring redoing over and over again, so I'm hoping the same thing won't happen with Friede. I do appreciate the fact she has far less health and takes way more damage than NK did, meaning that reaching her final phase might be less tedious. That teleport move is obnoxious though and tends to slow the fight a bit, not to mention it has some obnoxious tracking when you try to dodge the charge move, almost feels like some of Champion Gundyr's shenanigans with his incredible ability to transition from a charge into a right angle turn followed by a halberd attack.

Still, the fight is actually fun and I like her moveset. Nice to actually see Frost as a real element after the main game sort of played with it but didn't really do anything with it. Let's hope that with a bit more practice I can get this fight down in the bag. It's all about minimizing my Estus use in the first phase.

[Wolf Kanno]

Friede is down and holy hell was her final phase nail biting. DS Maria is right, she does not give you much of an opportunity to heal and very few openings to actually hit her. Thank goodness she has like no poise so when you do get a hit you can combo a bit as long as you don't get too greedy. Still, that fight was pretty fun if a bit insane but likely worked well since my build is light weight and stamina efficient. Overall, I liked the Ashes of Ariadnel DLC. Brought in a bit of cool lore and followed along one of the coolest sidequests in the first game. I kind of wish we could have seen Londor in this game to tell you the truth or maybe even Astora as well.

After that, I checked out the Dreg Heap which resulted in me getting run over by a massive humanity ghose on my first trek and then two-shot by a headless monstrosity on my second. After that I decided I was done for the night. I think I'll deal with the Lothric boys before I face off with the final DLC.

[Bri]

Just read everything and you are doing absolutely great!!! I haven't been on ds3, stuff came up so will be back on to finish my ng+4 . I am last left off at Greg Heap myself, I've actually beaten all the Lord's except the last boss in the game but will do so after I've done all the dlc.
Great job on Sister Freide!! Her cutscene I can never ever get tired of, love everything about it!
Can't wait to hear more of your progress Wolf Kanno! You got this!

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:
Lothric Boys are dead, and I've obtained all the crowns of the missing Lords of Cinder. I can proceed with the endgame but I'm going to finish the Ringed City DLC first.

The Lothric boys are one of the more challenging non-optional boss battles in the main game but after taking down the Nameless King and Friede, they didn't feel too tough. Finished a few more character quests and my poor Firelink Shrine has become very quiet as of late. I'm being reminded of DS1 and Bloodborne where most of the questlines end tragically for the cast.

In the Dreg Heap, I've grown to despise the weird angels, and I'm desperately trying to find their base tree forms to kill so I can explore the region unmolested. Met a chap named Lapp who squats and talks a lot like Patches but doesn't seem to know who he is. We'll see how this questline works out. I didn't get as far as I would have liked from here though I did discover Earthen Peak which was a surprise. Nice to see a few more nods to Dark Souls II though if I had to pick a locations from DSII, I probably would have chosen either the Iron Keep or one of the DLC locations, but hey, its nice to see some fanservice come that way that isn't just weapons and armor. The fight with one of the Pyromancers of that area caught me off guard but I was able to beat her and then got murdered in an angel crossfire when I tried to cross some roots most likely going the wrong way. This DLC has been interesting and I'm digging the layout.

I'll have to explore more later, but for now I need to backtrack to the Swamp area because I missed a few more treasures and I kind of want to explore a bit more.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:
Took some time off from the Ringed City to finish Reinhold's quest cause I really wanted his hat and hey, I got a miracle out of the deal as well. Also, I know a few people feel Rosario is Gwynevere's daughter, but considering she gives you the same miracle for her soul as Gwynevere rewards with her convenant, wouldn't it make sense she is actually Gwynevere? Anyway, after that, I farmed the Dark Wraiths outside the Abyss Watcher bonfire for the rest of their armor pieces and even farmed a few covenant items while I was at it.

Finished the Dreg Heap and took down the Demon Prince. I am very pleased that killing the Angel source permanently rids you of them. I died like twice to the first phase of the Demon fight when it's a two on one battle, then I remembered that Gwyn's Dark Knight weapons get bonus damage against demons. I thanked myself for getting nostalgic when I obtained a Black Knight Greatsword as it was my main weapon in DS1 so when I acquired one, I fully leveled it up despite rarely using it. Sure enough, crushed the first phase, fought the Demon Prince and managed to beat him on the first go.

I'm now in the Ringed City proper and what a welcoming, the archers seemed nearly impossible until I finally noticed the stone placements. Still, trying to kill that giant is a pain and it wasn't helped that I was shortly pushed off a ledge to my death shortly after completing the scenario the first time. I've gotten to the next bonfire and spoke to Lapp again, whom I'm pretty sure is just Patches playing another con on me at this point. I reached a door where some guardian is willing to talk to me but couldn't finish the conversation because the area has a few annoying enemies in the area and they have very large aggro ranges. I almost got killed chatting with her until I noticed the sound and moved the camera to notice a few of them were heading my way. After a few attempts, I decided to call it a night. I really love the Hollow Knight armor and hope I can get more pieces for it. I am also laughing because I didn't realize until awhile ago that my characters outfit looks like Guts outfit from Berserk.

So far, it's been a really interesting location and likely my favorite DLC location in the Souls series as I've always been interested to learn more about the Furtive Pygmy and the Dark Soul during the Age of the Gods. We'll see how far I get the next chance I can play.

[Wolf Kanno]

I think the Ringed City wins the reward for having the most pain in the ass enemy sets going on for it. The Ringed Knights are not so bad since they take decent damage and it's more of a matter of dodging their attacks but their buffs can be troublesome especially when it changes up their combos. The regular cannon fodder enemies are not so bad as long as you notice them before they notice you with their damn lightning miracles and the ones that cause Curse buildup for just being near them. The headless fatty's became a lot easier once I learned they take ridiculous damage from plunging attacks. Made that staircase area much easier to handle. The cricket men are only annoying because they back off preventing my full combo from landing but they're pretty easy regardless.

Course the two biggest pains in my ass have been the Angels and the Summoner Giants. They can make simple zones into a serious gauntlet of trouble if you're not careful and deal with ASAP. I am annoyed the giants are not perma death like the angels though since they're also basically stage hazards, oh well. Also, it was not cool to bring back the Dragon Armor boss as a regular enemy but it could be worse...The in-game invasions have also caught me off guard, especially since they happen regardless if you're embered or not. I'm only grateful they don't spam estus healing like Hawkwood and Reinhold did. Took down the crossbow guy in the garden area and eccentric Silver Knight Ledo.

I've also noticed I'm being stalked by a dragon again. I'm guessing this is the Midir the one NPC told me about that she wanted me to put out their misery. All I'm doing is trying not to have flashbacks to the Ancient Dragon and Kalameet from the previous entries. My biggest sad moment is that the damn Ringed Knights will just not drop their main armor, I keep getting their helmets, gauntlets and leggings, but not the cool main armor with the Darksign on it. I did get their cool weapons but not their shields.

So far it's been a slow process, having found the +3 variation of the Gold and Silver Serpent Rings, I've been able to amass quite a few items and souls but it's just as easy to lose all the souls if I'm not paying attention. Progress has been slow especially since it appears my only options on where to go involve fighting the Mini-Boss Dragon Armor or head in the direction to Midir.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

Decided to take on the Midir and got roasted on the bridge but I at least found the puzzle that allowed me to finish Lapp's quest which a friend told me about. I didn't appreciate having to fight past two Ringed Knights and one of those annoying summoning giants. After making my way to the mines, I saw the ending to Lapp's quest and reached the bonfire.

I also had to laugh because while the narrow staircase would normally make the Mimic and Red Phantom Invader particularly difficult, both of them accidentally ran off the ledge to their deaths, so lucky break there. Fought Midir on the second bridge and took him down with my bow. Went back to Shira to report it and she said he's not dead but resting the chasm like Kalameet and then gave me the instructions to go find him. I fought my way to the final tower where a voice tells me not to move forward. Decided to call it a night. I still haven't been able to get the Ringed Knights to drop their main armor :cry:

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Finally, after dying a bajillion times, I took down Darkeater Midir. He was a pretty cool boss who just ridiculous attack power and a few attacks that turn his whole body into a hit box making him pretty lethal. At first I was using a ring for fire defense and the Farron Greatsword to fight him but I just wasn't making any headway. Finally, tonight I switched to a +10 Lightning Astora Straight Sword, but the damage wasn't too good so I tried my main weapon, my +10 Refined Long Sword and the damage wasn't too different from the Farron Greatsword, it just took two hits instead of one and I had plenty of stamina left since my usual sword is 8.5 units lighter. I brought some Gold Pine Resin which I had to farm some souls for an sure enough my damage was better than with the greatsword. I took him down and didn't even notice I still had the Covetous Serpent rings still equipped instead of all my defensive rings.

Went to the church and got murdered by Halflight and his annoying Painted Guardians cause I somehow have become inept at parrying. Called it a night. Course I don't have much left of the DLC to go.

[Slothy]

Soon I'll actually get to read about your Dark Souls 3 journey. I finished 2. It definitely got more challenging though not near Dark Souls 1 from my play through. Missed a bit of stuff though. Skipped the DLC but I also knew I was skipping the DLC. I kinda wanted to just finish up the last of it because I really wanted to move on to 3. Figured it best to not let my dying attention keep me from finishing it. Still a good game though and I'll go back and do the NG+ I think once I've sated my DS3 appetite. The worst thing I can really say about the game is it's not as good as Dark Souls, and if that's your biggest flaw you're doing all right.

I'm up to the Road of Sacrifices now. Right by all the tree branch wielding undead and the crabs. Keep getting invaded at the worst possible times it seems but oh well. Such is Dark Souls. Did spend a good 15 minutes dueling one dude before he finally finished me off. That was tense and satisfying in all the right ways. I'm loving the hell out of the game. The somewhat faster paced combat feels so good to me. Pretty much everything you do feels more satisfying. And on top of everything it seems to be back to the sort of interconnected world and being able to see things in the distance that you've either come from or will go to at some point an hour or two later maybe. That was always one of my favourite parts of Dark Souls. And I think all Dark Souls games have at least had their moments of looking really damn good just because the art style they've had is so strong, but sweet zombie jesus this game is so smurfing gorgeous. I'm dying for the weekend to come so I can just sit down and play most of the day.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh man, to be honest I felt the DLC for Dark Souls 2 was the best part of the game. I also wanted to just jump to 3 but that DLC kept me hooked. Yeah, DS3's combat has taken some cues from Bloodborne in being a bit speedier and aggressive. I remember in Yahtzee's review for it how he mentioned the game tends to emphasize speed over power and I honestly agree as I've had a few battle go very differently by sticking to a lighter weapon, despite the fact I traditionally use Greatswords in these games. Glad yo hear you're having fun though.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time:

GAME. SET. MATCH.

Finished Dark Souls 3 this evening.

Halflight was pretty easy once you learn not to summon help and to kill those annoying Guardian Painting helpers ASAP. After that, I took out that Filianore Knight and got one of the craziest weapons in the game. Then it came down to Gael. Honestly, he was way easier than I was expecting. Especially once I learn he was weak to poison which made this fight way more manageable as I was able to get to the later phases faster. With that said, it was a pretty epic battle. After that, all I had was the Lord of Cinder.

Cinder was obviously not much of a challenge after doing the DLC. Though his powered up second phase was interesting and a nice sendoff for the series as a whole. I obtained the Ursurp the Fire Ending, because I pretty much always choose to end the Age of Fire in all of the Dark Souls games cause I honestly feel Gwyn is a dick.

My MVP weapon was actually my starting Longsword which I eventually infused into a Refined Longsword. The damage was admirable, the ability to buff it was a lifesaver, and it is incredibly combo friendly and can break poise better than you think it would. Like seriously, anytime I tried to use a new more fancy weapon I quickly dropped it in favor of this beast of a weapon. I never bothered with magic outside of dabbling in a few pyomancies but even that was more for options than because I built my character towards it.

My MVP Ring was the Carthus Milkring which was basically Bloodborne's Hunter's Bone without the Silver Bullet cost making it even better. Since I tend to play light speedier builds, any item that can increase my dodge roll invincibility frames is a godsend.

Favorite Armor was a toss up between the Abyss Watcher armor and the Ringed Knight Armor. Fashion souls indeed.

My overall assessment of the game is a bit mixed. From a Lore standpoint, this is my favorite entry of the Dark Souls series. The setting and bosses were interesting and the DLC didn't disappoint. I didn't mind the game taking some cues from Bloodborne, ythe faster combat was welcomed and I felt it translated into more exciting boss battles. The locations were pretty snazzy as well though I still feel like a few locations felt more like Bloodborne areas that got cut such as Irythill of the Boreal Valley and the Carthus Catacombs definitely felt like an unused but better designed Chalice Dungeon. I think this game has my favorite set of NPC s as well even if the witch chick kind of feels more like a Demon's Souls Easter egg instead of an actual person. The rest of the NPCS had interesting stories and I honestly was really saddened when Greirat died, I'm still freaking upset about that cause I loved that dude. While I stuck to my starting weapon for most of the game, the weapons selection was actually quite nice and the weapon art mechanic was quite nice. As per usual with FROM Software and this franchise, the DLC was quite excellent.

My biggest gripe with the game? Probably the fact it is one of the easiest entries in the series yet. While I clocked in quite a bit of time, I feel a good chunk of that was just do to the massive amount of secrets and content this game contains as opposed to DS1 where a third of my time was me hitting a brick wall with a boss or a particular area. I probably had more issues with Red Phantoms and certain enemy types than I did with overall areas and boss battles and I was astounded how many bosses I took down on a first try. I'm hardly a Souls expert here either, I've only played each entry once except Demon's Souls. I'm sure for someone who has never played the series this entry would be quite challenging but honestly I think only the Dancer and Midir were able to kill me so much I lost count. Also, Farron Woods is easily the nicest and most pleasant swamp level FROM Software has ever made. I almost feel like it was an apology for the BS of previous games. Granted this isn't a deal breaker but it is a bit sad that several bosses are more memorable for me due to the spectacle than because of the challenge. With that said, I actually kind of like the game a little better than Dark Souls 1 simply due to the lore.

So let's do the stat rundown:


Favorite Boss: (Main Game) Abyss Watchers and Aldritch (DLC) Sister Friede and Gael
Most Difficult Boss: (MG) Dancer of the Boreal Valley and Nameless King (DLC) Darkeater Midir and Sister Friede
Easiest Boss: Deacons of the Deep or Halflight.
Easy Boss I embarrassingly died to more than I should have: Halflight and the Rotten Greatwood Tree.
Super Hard Boss I found pretty easy: Gael and Sulyvan
NPC Invader who can go Smurf themselves: Tsorig and Hodrick
Favorite Covenant: N/A
Favorite NPC: Greirat, Gael, and Anri
Favorite location: Lothric Castle, Grand Archives, Catacombs of Carthus, Ringed City, Painted World of Ariandel, and the Archdragon Keep
Favorite Easter Egg/Reference: Storm Ruler and revisiting Anor Londo, I also still love the Farram Armor set.
Least favorite Zones: Smouldering Lake and Profaned Capital.
Favorite Lord of Cinder: I honestly liked all of them.
Thing I need to work on for my next playthrough: Parry skills.


I'll probably think of more as time goes on, but I may take a break from the series for a bit, unless the call to Bloodborne gets the better of me... :shifty:

[Jowy]

Super Smores dies tomorrow. This entire thread is a no girls allowed zone.

I hate to generally toot my own horn, but beep beep, I was right.

[Slothy]

I beat Aldrich then promptly died thanks to some lingering homing orbs right after I got his soul and such. No big deal, just need to go collect all of the 70k+ souls I lost. Immediately die to the first silver night before I can get there. I ran through a wide variety of emotions in the 5 minutes after beating him.

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh man, I know that feeling. :soothe:" smilieid="509" class="inlineimg" border="0">

[Slothy]

I probably could have sprinted past them and been fine. Especially with the bonfire in the boss room to reset anyone who might follow me that far. Oh well. It's not Dark Souls if you don't occasionally lose everything to enemies that aren't THAT hard.

[Jowy]

I saw someone with an Ornstein and Smough tattoo on each forearm today. Game is spiffy.