[Traveller]

He'll have fun with it after playing Skyrim, with its easy-kill dragons, save-games anywhere, and stopped-time to take potions in during a fight.

He won't know what's hit him - sure he'll appreciate the difference though!

[Morgoth]

although it can be a little annoying at times :S

[Morgoth]

Oh man, shield and halberd turned things around something massive. Suddenly those pesky undead knights hanging out in the Undead Parish fold before me like grass before a scythe. Not too long ago each one of those was a challenge.

My jubilation was short lived however as I climbed up on the roof and got trashed by a duo of gargoyles.

Is it a good idea to use shards to upgrade the weapons I have now? Or are those something I should hoard? And did I make a bad choice going for the knight? I figured health and armour was the way to go on my first attempt.

[Traveller]

I went with Warrior, and got some nice Knight Armor. You can't really go wrong with what you start out with. (If you get yourself Havels Ring you can wear the heavier stuff and still mov quickly) Health and armour is a good way to go, and if you learn Pyromancy, it's a useful, powerful addition which you don't need magic to use - just buy a pyromancy flame, which you can also upgrade.

I got the Drake Sword early on, and found that good for just about anything, collecting shards to use later. It's actually really more useful to upgrade your armor pieces - it gives you a real boost if you're still getting kicked. When I realised how much more effective the upgraded armor was, I farmed/bought shards just for that - it was a better use of souls than just levelling up.

Halberds are pretty good. I found a crystal one which does monster damage, but reserve it for nasties as it wears out quickly. The sweep is a bit slow, but that stab over the shield is great for the knights.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 31 January 2012 - 09:56 PM

[Traveller]

Finally finished the game.

I made a bit of a botch of the end though - I went to check out the final boss, expecting to get flattened, and got him on my fourth go. Once he was dead, I wandered a bit close to the door (not realising there was a bonfire in the centre) and triggered the 'Dark Lord' ending, which I then accidentally skipped when I realised that I'd finished the game before I meant to. So, after about 70-80 hours of play, I found myself back at the beginning, without having used all the Embers before I lost them, and having missed the ending too. Damn it, but I would have liked a save to go back to.

Anyhow, minor error on my part aside... thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I had a bunch of weapons at the end, I completed it using Quelaags Fury Sword, and wearing (mostly) a +5 set of Black Iron Armour. The last four bosses were not as bad as I anticipated... I think Orstein and Smough were worse. The Four King's dropped on my first run, Seath on my fourth, while the Bed of Chaos took a few goes, mainly due to falling down holes all the time. Nito just died after a flurry of hits... that Fury sword is awesome with high Humanity, which I farmed loads of from the Baby Skeletons in the Tomb of the Giants (they keep respawning, and drop tons of Humanity and souls).

And Gwynn, finally... I found a big rock to hide behind, and kept it between us while I kept hitting him - it stopped most of his attacks getting through, anyway.

What a great game though - huge, carefully linked areas to explore, with no loading screens, lengthy cut-scenes, flashing targets to aim for... and interesting, original enemies to fight.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 16 March 2012 - 10:23 PM

[Black Winged Lord]

I'm seriously loving this game. Seems just as challenging as Demonsouls, but doesn't make me want to commit genocide every 5 mins.

Just on my first game, and just entered Anor Londo (spelling?). Anyway, loving the system of bonfires, and the shortcuts back/forth are great in the planning.
Best thing so far - Serious range of weapons/armour sets. Read good things about the furysword, hopefully get it eventually. Almost got my falchion to +10, so shouldn't be too far off it.

Just need to find some good spots for farming shit.

[Traveller]

I like it so much I just had to carry on into Newgame+.

There are even more weapons and armor available, as some demons souls can be used to make different things, so you need more than one. Also, I now have Gwyns soul, and his armor is available to buy.

I've taken a completely different route through this time so far - I went straight to the tower where Havel is, took him out, and then went through the gardens backwards to Smith Andre. So I'm at the Undead Parish without having passed through it yet, haven't died once, and have tons of souls. Just no embers, dammit.

So I'm back farming in darkroot garden (where you use the seal of Artorius to get through the door) using the Silver Serpent ring, plus you get more souls anyway this time around. (If you make it to the bottom of the Tomb of the Giants, you can farm hundreds of baby skeletons, and get loads of Humanity too).

I'm kind of looking forward to seeing just how hard the bosses are now - everything else is about 3 times stronger than before.


* EDIT Holy crap. I spoke too soon there. I just tried the first Capra demon. I walked through the fog door and he one-hit me stone dead. I went back, managed to get in a roll and a block before he killed me again, as the damn dogs get in the way.Took me a few goes to get into a position where I could fight back, let alone kill him.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 20 March 2012 - 08:36 AM

[Deck of Dragons]

I put around 110 hours into this but could never beat the 4 Kings in New Londo ruins. I had a mage character and even defeated Big Hat Logan and got his spells but that was not enough either. So I finally gave up and sold it.

I liked this game, but I felt it was harder (in a cheap sort of way) and less fair than Demon's Souls. I went through Demon's Souls 3 times. I also feel the frame-rate and graphics were better (higher resolution) in Demon's souls. Immediatly noticed the graphics were worse when firing up Dark Souls and you could tell cause the UI was much larger (because it is lower resolution). The worst part of the entire game is Arno Londo and those Bone Archers up on the tower. It's nearly impossible to solo that because you keep getting shot in the back and it is near insta kill for a mage. If you try to co-op there you get invaded every friggan time.

[Traveller]

I ran past those guys, but I have a melee build with a few spells, most of which are all a bit redundant in newgame+ as they're just not powerful enough. I've used that Solaire guy to fight a couple of bosses, but other than that I haven't used co-op at all. Was that Four Kings in newgame+?

I would agree the Demons Souls was slightly crisper with a higher res, but I'm playing it on 360, and it was written for the Ps3 so I didn't expect it to be great. I wouldn't agree that it is hard 'in a cheap way' though - when I die, it's because I fucked up somehow.
Even when I walk into a room and get killed with one hit from something I didn't see (or even tried to avoid) it just makes me go back to do it properly. My biggest beef is the distance you have to travel in some cases just to reach the boss that will single-shot you when you get there. I think this builds the tension though - so even when you don't care about losing souls, you want to make damn sure you don't have to make the run up to the gate again. I believe this is all intentional, and I can't knock it because it is the tension that keeps me playing - if you could just reload a previous save, that tension, atmosphere and challenge would be gone, like it is missing from so many other games. I mean, even Skyrim, which I really enjoyed, was a bit of a 'walkthrough'... and when I got to a point where I felt I'd finished it, I had no desire to go back to the start and do it again as another character or anything.

Whereas Dark Souls...Newgame+ is so addictive, as you just want to see if you can get back to where you were at the end of the previous game. I made an almighty cock-up early on though, by heading down into the catacombs before I got the Lordvessel. I thought I'd farm some souls down there, and got right to the bottom before getting stopped by a golden gate. I then had to fight my way, backwards, out of the Tomb of the Giants. Durrr.

I've now killed Sif, Hydra, Quelaag, Pinwheel, and the easy ones at the start. I'm impressed with how well they scale the difficulty - I just hit level 100, and the bosses are still a real challenge, although this time round I know what to expect so I have an advantage. I think this time round it's possible to skip bits though - there's no need to face the Depths, as you can access Blight Town elsewhere.

Sens Fortress next - the Iron golem hopefully won't be too bad, but Orstein and Smough again....? the first time was bad enough..

This post has been edited by Traveller: 29 March 2012 - 09:51 PM

[Aerthorn]

I consider myself quite a bit of a Souls fan. I've beat NG+ and ++ with my starting character (holy shit O&S were hard in ++), and I'm looking to start a second character. I kinda want to make a Sunbro mage character, anyone here have any build suggestions?

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

Confirmed to be coming to the PC!

[Traveller]

POOPOO MCBUMFACE, on 07 April 2012 - 06:08 PM, said:

Confirmed to be coming to the PC!

After just a quick check, it does look likely. Will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Even better though, there is also a rumour about some upcoming DLC, called 'Forest of Darkness'. Will have to wait and see.

I'm right into Newgame+, now have the Lordvessel after a great fight with O+S.

[Mentalist]

it's hard for us to have nice things....

coming on PC< but with GFWL.

I've already signed the petition to use Steam instead. I've yet to figure out how to get GFWL to to work on my new PC, since it refuses to update itself.

[Lucifer's Heaven]

Do you have a link to this petition?

[Mentalist]

http://www.change.or...or-windows-live

[Malaclypse]

Traveller, on 29 March 2012 - 09:45 PM, said:

I ran past those guys, but I have a melee build with a few spells, most of which are all a bit redundant in newgame+ as they're just not powerful enough. I've used that Solaire guy to fight a couple of bosses, but other than that I haven't used co-op at all. Was that Four Kings in newgame+?

I would agree the Demons Souls was slightly crisper with a higher res, but I'm playing it on 360, and it was written for the Ps3 so I didn't expect it to be great. I wouldn't agree that it is hard 'in a cheap way' though - when I die, it's because I fucked up somehow.
Even when I walk into a room and get killed with one hit from something I didn't see (or even tried to avoid) it just makes me go back to do it properly. My biggest beef is the distance you have to travel in some cases just to reach the boss that will single-shot you when you get there. I think this builds the tension though - so even when you don't care about losing souls, you want to make damn sure you don't have to make the run up to the gate again. I believe this is all intentional, and I can't knock it because it is the tension that keeps me playing - if you could just reload a previous save, that tension, atmosphere and challenge would be gone, like it is missing from so many other games. I mean, even Skyrim, which I really enjoyed, was a bit of a 'walkthrough'... and when I got to a point where I felt I'd finished it, I had no desire to go back to the start and do it again as another character or anything.

Whereas Dark Souls...Newgame+ is so addictive, as you just want to see if you can get back to where you were at the end of the previous game. I made an almighty cock-up early on though, by heading down into the catacombs before I got the Lordvessel. I thought I'd farm some souls down there, and got right to the bottom before getting stopped by a golden gate. I then had to fight my way, backwards, out of the Tomb of the Giants. Durrr.

I've now killed Sif, Hydra, Quelaag, Pinwheel, and the easy ones at the start. I'm impressed with how well they scale the difficulty - I just hit level 100, and the bosses are still a real challenge, although this time round I know what to expect so I have an advantage. I think this time round it's possible to skip bits though - there's no need to face the Depths, as you can access Blight Town elsewhere.

Sens Fortress next - the Iron golem hopefully won't be too bad, but Orstein and Smough again....? the first time was bad enough..

I'm doing newgame+ now as well, Soul Level 160 though

Sen's was fucking brutal on my first playthrough but I breezed through it on this game, which was a bit weird. Summoned help for Ornstein and Smough because I wanted Ornstein's armour and it's much harder to kill him second. Just finished the tomb of giants, gonna farm some titanite slabs and dragon scales from new londo, get the moonlight greatsword and a second avelyn then probably tackle the demon ruins, not sure if it's worth it to sacrifice my standing in the dragon covenant to open up the shortcut to lost izalith or not, but if I can avoid the lava it may well be...

[A Demon Llama!]

I'mpretty stoked that a DLC is coming and also the game is being released on the PC via steam. Most likely gonna repurchase it for the PC for the smopoth framerate and new pvp mode.

I actually wouldn't mind the game being even harder. Once you know how to properly play and move the game is a bit too easy. The only boss that gave me a lot of problems was the wolf; Sif. and after I got this shield that never makes you stagger everything is just way to easy.

Haven't played this game in months, time to get back into it.

[Defiance]

Beat the game with a warrior about a week after it came out. I think I'm going to start playing again, this time with a pyromancer or someone focused on low-cost strength/dexterity weapons who can cast miracles.

Concerning the PC version, I don't think the frame rate is going to be better. I read an interview where they said it was going to be a direct port and issues like frame rate in Blighttown would not be fixed because they want to ship the game as quickly as possible.

I am really looking forward to this DLC. I'm hoping it adds another 5+ hours of content at least.

[Trull's son]

I bought the pc release today. keyboard controls are horrid, but with an xbox controller and the resolution fix that can be found online, I'm having a great time. Difficult, interesting, and a ton of fun. Weapons look good, and the fighting is as dynamic and difficult as demon souls (if not more so). Looking forward to pushing on with my pyromancer (who, oddly enough, uses his dark knight sword more often than any pyromantic (is that a word?) powers).

This post has been edited by Trull's son: 27 August 2012 - 03:35 AM

[Defiance]

I've found that you use your weapon just as much as your flame, if not even more, when playing a pyromancer. The number of casts you have is extremely limited, and using pyromancy on many enemies just feels like a waste.