Demon's Souls: This is harsh. Evaluate me

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Demon's Souls: This is harsh. Evaluate me

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Hypha posted:

I'm just curious if and how stealth works in this game. Can you stay in the shadows as a Thief and attack at your choosing with a back stab? Is it based upon the environment's shadows or is just a flat stat? CAN I STEAL THINGS FROM UNSUSPECTING FOES!? I have the fear that thieves are just lightly armed warriors that are fast and have a nice gimmick, if stealth is there at all. Still looks like an excellent game, I'm just worried that I won't find the Thief very "thief-like". Also, still waiting for the game to arrive, so I'm completely ignorant on anything except oh preetty.

One of the tactics I used with my thief was to lure enemies out, then run and hide, then as soon as they turned their backs to to back to what they were guarding, I'd sneak out and stab them in the back.

Mostly being a thief is about outmaneuvering your enemies and striking quickly when their guard is down. The name is sort of misleading as they're more assassins than anything.

Oae Ui posted:

I was playing a nimble thief type character and was happily backstabbing everything, but between 3-2 and every boss fight I can recall it's been pretty useless. I'm soul level 40 and I've had to resort to using my bow for more and more enemies and for all bosses. And I'm starting to think that I'll never beat Maneater. Is dodging and backstabbing in melee combat at all effective in the long term?

I was having this problem on my thief for a while, and what you need is a better melee weapon. The large sword of searching or just a highly upgraded blade of some sort is really useful. I couldn't beat maneater at all and I was resorting to using my bow and even a spear, but then I got a better sword and just cut him apart.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2009 01:22

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 00:05

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Oae Ui posted:

I've been using a Dagger +7. I've been avoiding larger swords because they're much slower and I'd read that their backstabbing bonus wasn't as good. Is this not an issue?

The large sword of searching is pretty fast, and the speed of the generic swords varies with the sword. Try them out and see which one suits you. The combo pattern and the direction your character swings it in are important too. The backstab bonus doesn't matter very much, you'll still do tons of damage with it regardless.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2009 01:32

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

I managed to do the whole game lightly armoured without a shield and without using magic. Unfortunately that doesnt seem to fly in NG+, so I've started a new thief to try and be more prepared this time round. A slightly heavier weapon can be a big help though since it'll stun enemies more when you hit them, and you can go in, hit, then go back out and still do a good amount of damage.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2009 01:39

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

EvilSlug posted:

I meant to ask this before and forgot. Am I correct in assuming that you can revisit a cleared area to kill respawned stuff for levels/items; but the bosses themselves never reappear once you've dropped them?

Yeah, everything but bosses respawns.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2009 04:06

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

This is probably the only game that I've actually gone back to after beating it the first time. This time I managed to beat tower knight the hard way, then I did 4-1 pretty much flawlessly the first time through. I was hacking away at tower knight's ankles for ages doing like 31 damage, and I was pretty sure I would die because I didn't have many herbs left and pretty clearly it would take ages to kill him doing 31 damage a hit. Then he suddenly collapses and I stab his face till he dies. It was awesome.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2009 02:44

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Irony.or.Death posted:

Er, what's the easy way? Buy a million arrows or something?

You don't need that many, maybe like 70. You can just stand at the ramparts, aim for his head, and if you stand at the right place you can shoot him but he can't shoot you so you can just kill him easily.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2009 04:03

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

TheQat posted:

The red souls show you how a person died in that area. Sometimes this can be useful for predicting what's coming up, but early on it's just as often some dumbass running right off a high ledge.

There's probably a hundred of me jumping off the stairs in the nexus because when you win as a black phantom you resurrect and you can only invade in spirit form so I run up the steps and dive off.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2009 17:38

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Policenaut posted:

5-2 is just a deathtrap for whomever decides to play in it, whether it be Black Phantom or living people.

I'm fairly sure that you move at the same pace in the purple muck as a B. Phantom that you do as you're living, and you're still subject to the Poison that it can (and will) inflict. Not to mention that the entire area is way too dark, has way too many high places to fall off and die, you get lost way too easily if you're not familiar with the surroundings, and it's simply too loving big.

Think about the space you have to cover in 5-2, you've got the little entry way and the cliffside path along with the shanty town. Then you've got the absolutely humongous swamp that takes forever to go through and has inumerable places to hide in. Imagine hunting for someone who's standing in a corner using Subdue Soul, Thief Ring, Graverobber's Ring, and a Blueblood Sword? You'd be hunting forever!

I like to hunt in 5-2. I like it because most people won't be using that combo, they'll be wearing gloom armour, using the adjudicators shield and wielding the meat cleaver. The regeneration effect lights them up like a christmas tree. The same applied to the fragrant ring. I stalk them with my thief's ring, and stick to the islands. When they venture out into the muck I shoot at them.

I like to watch their decision making process as they choose whether to stay out in the swamp and die a slow death of poisoning and being sniped at, or whether to come on to the island where I am. Usually I carve them up with baby's nail a bit then switch to something more hard hitting and they run back into the swamp and die.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2009 13:24

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

I finally beat flamelurker who was for some reason giving me tons of trouble this time round, unlike all the other bosses who i had trouble with who i've found really easy. I'm putting more points into magic this time, so I can use the epee rapier.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2009 02:32

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Is there gonna be any difference between the north american version of the game and the asian english version? I liked the game enough that I'd probably buy it twice.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2009 14:05

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Does anyone know what the beast soul is for yet?

# ¿ Oct 3, 2009 21:12

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

I played more or less the whole game in just the black leather you start in as a thief. You can just dodge or roll around anything. It's especially fun to roll round behind someone while they're striking, then stab them in the back for a critical hit animation thing. Eventually I got my max equip weight up enough that I could wear Yurt's black plate and still be able to roll around quickly.

Loot is a pretty big part of the game, but it's mostly rare weapons rather than armour.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2009 14:55

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

Before i watched the ZP review i knew he wouldn't like it because he's shown before that he's quite poo poo at games. Missing the roll button is pretty astonishing though. He also kind of skipped over a few vital parts of the multiplayer because he didn't get far enough in the game to find them.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2009 02:12

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

ErIog posted:

I did something really stupid. I stopped playing for a few days because I wanted to see if I could glean some enjoyment from Ninja Gaiden Sigma in light of all my recent reading about what a good game it is in terms of fair difficulty. I get to chapter 6 and decide the poo poo ain't for me.

I go back to Demon's Souls, and now I can't fight worth poo poo. 58 hours in, at the end of NG+, it's like I'm a newbie again.

Yeah demon's souls teaches you a bunch of habits like caution and timing, but when you got to play another game (which usually are much easier and make you think you're immortal) you tend to lose those habits and have to relearn them.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2010 04:56

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 00:05

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

A Nice Boy posted:

Holy...gently caress.

So, I get to 3-3, and I'm working my way up the staircase, killing those red phantom mage tentacle head fuckers, when it cuts to the boss cutscene. Just afterward, I get the big message: "You have been invaded by player xxxx." I seriously poo poo my pants. I thought it was a bug at first, because I was in soul form, but just in case, I walked up and down that hallway like four times, trying to find the dude. Then, I waited at the bottom for like five minutes in case he was in a different part of the map. Finally, I figured it was an error or something, and went up to the boss.

I got my rear end handed to me. I mean, seriously, completely annihilated.

Bummed, I go back up the stairs, fight more red phantoms, and it cuts back to the boss cutscene again, which I can't skip. I was like...Something odd here, it's never played a boss cutscene twice. So, the thing pops up that says I'm invaded, again. This time, I looked around again, and just figured it was some bug that never got patched.

I hit the boss again, and this time he moves and acts COMPLETELY differently. Like, night and day different from the first time. And this time, I win fairly easily after I figure out his pattern.

After, I'm sitting there thinking about how different it was from the first to the second time, and I realize...The game brought a player in both times I did 3-3 to BE THE BOSS OF THE LEVEL. I fought another player as the level boss. When I realized, it was probably one of the top ten gaming moments I've had in years.

This game. Holy loving poo poo. I've played Uncharted 2 recently, I'm playing God of War 3...I've played Mass Effect 2 and Modern Warfare 2, amongst other games in the past year, and I have to say...This may be my game of the year. Moments like up above, that are so much more amazing when you discover them for yourself instead of wiki'ing them, are just amazing. It's crazy to me that a game I barely even knew about a month ago is just blowing away all these games I looked forward to for years. It's just tremendous.

Demon's Souls. God drat.

Sorry for the long rant...Just had to blow off some nerd steam.

I used to hang around that level invading lots just so I could be the boss and prevent people finish the level. Sometimes I'd get the same unlucky bastard multiple times in a row. Occassionally I'd get my rear end kicked by some freakishly good japanese guy but usually I'd win.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2010 02:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Demon's Souls: This is harsh. Evaluate me