|
This game owns, it's as intense as the first one and more varied. I really like how vertical some of the areas are. It's funny how it's made up of such simple components but everything becomes interesting because you have to engage with it on its own terms. Like the gargoyle fight for example, that felt sort of unfair but it reminded me in a good way of certain parts in Demons Souls-- Maneater obviously but the island with the giant in 5-2 in particular-- in how just being good at fighting was not enough, you have to lock down your strategy & your gear or you will simply get boxed out and die of attrition. This game is also loving GROSS it's pretty cool. I got the gaping dragon down to 10% of its life and it suddenly starts clenching and shaking and i'm running away thinking "oh poo poo is this some new super attack it has" and it spews extremely realistic vomit all over the floor oh my god
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2011 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 02:14 |
|
|
I made my dude look too much like me & now i am periodically taking off my thief mask to see my own rotten ghost face.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2011 01:47
|
|
|
DO IT TO IT posted:Thanks guys, I found it now. Quelag is rediculous, died 4 times now and summoned a helper every time. That aoe she does 1 shots me if I'm not at absolute full health and doesn't seem to have much of an animation/tell to it. If you've got a shield with OK fire resistance (I used the Dragon Crest one from the zombie dragon in the valley) it probably won't 1-shot you. The tell is this sort of shuddering slump-forward animation and the whole room shakes slightly. The spider head will roar too but by the time that happens it's probably too late. Keep in mind though the actual AOE is not that big; if youre standing next to her and striking the spider's legs rather than its main body you're already at the edge of it. Don't try to roll back, just walk back with your guard up.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2011 00:10
|
|
|
Blight town rules by the way. Yes it's tough and yes the frame rate periodically craps out but as a piece of level design and as an environment it's great. It feels so genuinely dank and rotten and hellish. The way the rickety structures are braced against the walls and the pillars is really well-thought out and the fact that you can look up from its lowest depths and see the sun shining through the cleft in the rock is incredible Gameplay-wise the lack of guard rails really tests whether you can keep it together under pressure. I do kind of wish that there was a cache or an enemy drop of anti-toxin moss somewhere in there though, i can see how that would be real frustrating if I hadn't known to buy some first. Oh word and the swaying bridge that poo poo made me catch my breath for a second
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2011 00:24
|
|
|
A Nice Boy posted:What are the best choices, early-mid game, to upgrade? I'm mostly using the black leather set, drake sword, and I have the tower looking shield thats red and blue on the outside. I don't want to waste souls and titanite on whatever random poo poo. I love the shield because it blocks 100 percent physical dmg, but I'm afraid when more dudes start using magic damage I'll be hosed. Nearly any normal weapon will be hitting harder than the drake sword by the time it hits +7 or 8 so I would say experiment until you find something with a move set / scaling stats you like and then work on that. The ember you need for normal upgrades past +5 is in the depths by one of the butcher tables. Shield-wise I agree with the other dude just keep a separate one for magic; as you upgrade, the resistances never change, only stability (and attack damage but whatever).
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2011 00:30
|
|
|
post your ornstein and smough strats Perhaps Surprisingly I can consistently take out Costello but I keep getting nailed by Super Saiyan Abbott's lightning stab. I dunno though I'm doing that poo poo with 5 flasks and no strong weapons besides the freebie lightning spear so with a little preparation I'm sure I can handle it. That said, what did yall find worked there?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2011 06:33
|
|
|
thanks dudes. Anyone know what the skinny one is weak to, if anything? Seems like lightning doesn't phase him. What are yall considering "cheap" deaths? There are definitely obtuse things that killed me because I didn't understand what I was doing but I can't think of anything that seemed straight dumb. Maybe the Titanite Demon killing me with its jump attack because it broke my target lock when it jumped and i didn't know which way to dodge, that sucked, kind of
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2011 07:12
|
|
|
Dj Meow Mix posted:He's weak to fire. Oh yeah the Stray Demon gave me some trouble, there were a couple times he did that off the bat and I got destroyed. O + S together are surprisingly easy with spear & shield, you've got to be pretty rigorous about making sure they're both in front of you before attacking. I do think people's different stat distributions are affecting their perceptions a lot. The difference between being able to block something or not, or between being able to survive a hit or not, is huge.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2011 07:24
|
|
|
Has anyone figured out a way to beat the 4 kings besides using Havel's armor and iron flesh and tanking that poo poo like you're playing Diablo? That's certainly the only thing that worked for me; every time I tried to finesse it I got destroyed. I have no idea how to dodge the grab or the homing projectile and even if I did I couldn't be dodging the other dudes coming up from outside my field of vision. Aesthetically that fight is great but having to do it like that was kind of disappointing.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2011 01:48
|
|
|
OK thanks dudes. Yeah I could see rolling my way through if I'd had enough damage output to put them down before I got ganged up on. I'll try that on my next playthrough. (i tried the ring shield actually but I felt like it was too slow, it was doing about 650 after its long rear end windup and routinely missing because the kings lean and twist all over the place) Another Abyss question I think: where/how do you meet Kaathe(? the other denture serpent dude?) I'd heard he was down there but all I saw after the fight was a bonfire.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2011 02:00
|
|
|
Man this game is finding out where the whiners are. In fighting game threads if someone is getting destroyed they'll often post a video of themselves playing so more experienced people can tell them what they should do differently. But for some reason (maybe it's just a different audience?) several people in this thread seem not to want to learn, they'll just bash their heads against the wall with the same approach that already failed a dozen times and go like "ugh this BULLSHIT game is so loving CHEAP MOOOOOM I THREW MY CONTROLLER"
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2011 20:29
|
|
|
Crystal Cave rules, it's another area where I don't get the complaining. I laughed pretty hard at that invisible bridge that's about 10 feet lower than you think it is
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2011 20:16
|
|
|
I think people must be having really different experiences with the frame rate in blighttown; maybe it's worse uninstalled on xbox? Mine would chug a little bit whenever it had to render a bunch of distant objects but it was never bad enough to impede gameplay.Sacrificial Toast posted:I saw this on Twitter just now. it was pretty cool to realize what that line is foreshadowing
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2011 23:26
|
|
|
The internal mythology of this game seems really well thought out. I feel like a huge dork saying that, like uh Actually, if you took the time to understand the rich mythos of Dark Souls (Dāku Souru) perhaps you would see that but whatever, here are some cool things about it: -There's not a bright line between gods and historical figures, which is reflective of real-world myths. Gwyn is as much a culture hero as a conquering deity. -Death isn't the opposite of life; they're both at the opposite pole from stasis. Nito is part of the pantheon of founding heroes along with the solar deity Gwyn. He kind of reminds me of Mot in the pre-Abrahamic middle east, the incarnation of death but also a source of life. -In fact there are a couple of chthonic heroes; there's Nito and there's also the witch of Izalith, who ends up using her lord soul to create life, in the form of the Bed of Chaos and the demons. That reminds me of Tiamat or Echidna, the idea of primordial chaos as a mother figure. It's a subterranean, chaotic, interior model of life, as opposed to Gwyn's solar and rational one. It derives energy from the heat of the earth, not from the sun. -Gwyndolin and Gwynevere are really interesting. You meet this HUGE almost cartoonishly feminine sun queen with expansive fantasy boobs and a caring, all-knowing demeanor, and then it turns out she's the phantom transsexual-other-self of her feminized deformed brother who's sealed up behind a wall. But Gwyndolin isn't evil really, he has a secret but all-important role as the dark sun. He's kind of a mystery cult figure, like Orpheus was considered later on. You have to deliberately seek him out. -There's a running theme of deformed or rejected progeny. Gwyn has Gwyndolin, who's monstrous and sort of sexually ambiguous, and hidden away; Seath has Priscilla, who's considered an abomination and sealed in the painting; the witch has Quelaag, Quelana, etc.; you could say Nito has the skeletons but that might be a stretch. And the pygmy has you, the player character, but in your case, it's your mythic ancestor who was forgotten/deformed and it's you who acts as a hero and redeemer. -which reminds me of a related thing-- it seems like in the plot you're enacting a Golden Bough-type solar ritual. In the Golden Bough, Frazer talks about a solar deity-king being sacrificed at the hands of his successor after reigning for a certain term, and how this mirrors the seasonal cycle of the planet. You're doing a similar thing I think. Gwyn and the other lords have exhausted the term of their reign. Frampt explains it in terms of them becoming "corrupt" or something but it doesn't seem like you're morally better than them. It seems like their "season" is dying and you have to reclaim the primordial element of their power-- the lord souls-- to begin a new one. and then you become Grossly Incandescent. You're the new sun. The story really does feel mythical, I think the people writing it must have done some research. Welp gotta throw up blood now see ya~
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2011 20:59
|
|
|
Hatter106 posted:Painted world question: is there a trick to killing the zombie dragon? I tried head-on, got swiped once and killed. I tried looking through that coliseum area for a place to jump on him but didn't find any appropriate ledges. If you have a bow or magic you can stand on the right-hand corner (if you're facing him) of the platform and you'll be safe. See normally when he does the puke attack it will saturate the whole platform but if you stand there a bunch of it will fall off the bridge and the rest will flow right past you. Great puke physics in this game
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2011 02:59
|
|
|
Ball Stink posted:THe bonfire says I don't have any humanity though, when I try to reverse. My inventory does. Right the inventory item is consumable. Use one and it puts one humanity on your HUD, which then can be used to kindle or revive, but can also be lost if you die. Tomb of the Giants owned even with the lantern. You really REALLY have to economize your movement. The approach i took was to think of it like, OK, "seeing" and "fighting" become mutually exclusive, so you have to find a spot where you can maneuver a little, pull a skeleton to it, put out the light and kill it, repeat. The giants and crawlers are both extremely weak to circle-walking at point-blank range so you don't actually need much space. It's really tense and difficult but it was still fun. The sticking point I think, is the early part where two of them and an archer are waiting for you before you get the lantern. There's a ramp next to the wall on one side and it's only wide enough for one of them, so you have a long distance where you can back up & hug the wall. Of course if you fall in there you have no idea about that and then a skeleton walks up behind you and smashes your head in, bad first impression
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2011 23:57
|
|
|
I've played through with two characters now and while I found it fun to play with magic it really does make it too easy once you get the top-level sorcery spells. Like for example: -Fighting Gwyn with a fast melee character was intense, i had like a dozen sick flaming sword duels with that guy, just gradually getting better, learning tells and ranges and parry timings, scrambling around in this gloomy pit trying to keep it together, until finally I was on point enough for long enough to win. Very challenging but fun -Fighting him with a caster: I set out homing crystals and dodged a swing. Then i did that three more times and he died. okay dude. THE KING HATH RETURND'ST or whatever
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2011 05:10
|
|
|
The multiplayer is real spotty but it can be great when it works. I haven't been dueling people really, i actually like the cat and mouse game of going through the level Spy vs Spying each others poo poo. Not big on Fog Ring invaders but uhh whatever, I haven't seen too many of them Same guy invaded me twice at Sen's Fortress which is an ideal place for that: -the first time I was up at the secret ladder near the start and figured he wouldn't think to look there so I'd wait and snipe him to give myself an advantage. He ran right past me, towards the boulder trap, before I could line up a shot. He took a long time to discern I was not over there and then as he came into view again he tripped an arrow trap and was shot in the back for hundreds of damage. Okay -the second time I was going to get Tarkus (not surprised that someone at the devs loves prog rock apparently, haha) for the boss fight. He spotted me, ran across the narrow bridge to where I was, saw Tarkus materialize and ran right back out, tossing ogre turds at us. I didn't know what that poo poo was initially so I backed off; Tarkus ran through and hit him for a ton of damage. He started rapid-firing that push miracle to try to knock Tarkus off the bridge; he succeeded I think, or somehow killed Tarkus, then I killed him with an arrow shot for 14 damage. Dude was having a bad night with arrows. I did not Fight With Honor Dizz posted:Is there any sort of path I should be following? There's no guidance on what I should be doing, not even a general direction. Dude you may just wanna use the wiki if you need general guidance. Where in the game are you?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2011 01:30
|
|
|
Have you tried retreating up the stairs and using a spear or rapier to poke them from behind your shield? That seems to have worked for people in this thread, that's how I've done that fight so far.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2011 03:00
|
|
|
Upgrade that poo poo then, the drake sword is gonna leave you too vulnerable when the dogs are coming at you. You found the blacksmith in the parish? If you take a little time to grind souls or explore a new area you can get a shield or weapon up to +5 pretty fast; that will help more than increasing the associated stats at this point. Good idea to get more endurance eventually though, it's the most important stat for melee fighting.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2011 03:07
|
|
|
DEX builds are not too good as far as i can tell. I'm nearing the end of NG+ now and my attack power has plateaued around 450-500; that's the highest the elemental weapons get and that's where scaling drops off dramatically. STR weapons go way higher, INT has crystal spells, but DEX just stalls here. bummer Is there anything I'm missing?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2011 00:16
|
|
|
Oh word I didnt consider using the Magic Weapon buffs. I'll give that a try. re: Priscilla I thought at first that fire damage would always make her appear, but maybe it has to be pyromancy specifically; I landed several hits with the fury sword and got nothing. Possibly the best approach I've found for that fight is to start it by shooting an arrow at her. It'll stay sticking out of her invisible character model and you can see exactly where she is.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2011 04:21
|
|
|
Man that patch looks like they're addressing every single mechanical problem with the game. If it's as good as it sounds i'll be really impressed.Random Stranger posted:Goddamn it. I was pressing against the wall specifically so I couldn't get knocked off like that while I was approaching. Lock on to the one you're approaching.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2011 23:53
|
|
|
I think some people have it twisted with regard to the plot: -pretty sure that Kaathe is in favor of the Undead curse and the darksign and the Dark Soul. He is pro-dark. Like that's how he sees humanity throwing off the yoke of the giants/gods; the stronger undead (like you) become immortal magic supermen by preying on the weaker ones. That is specifically what he teaches you how to do. -but if you go the other route and link the fire, you're staving off the darkness and the curse, at least temporarily, like Gwyn did. The downsides are a) now you have all the power and lord souls and poo poo and there is no guarantee you're going to be more responsible with them than he was and b) presumably you'll burn out someday, the same way he did. So it's not really good vs evil in that sense.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2011 05:50
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:Here are a few primary tenets of Buddhism: all life is suffering, suffering is at its root caused by attachment, there is no fundamental self (no "soul"). All three of these items manifest themselves very clearly (and slightly differently) in DS and DS+. Kaathe being the a sort of representative for an ebb of phenominological existence and Frampt for a (fundamentally illusory and painful-by-nature) differentiation between self and the void is, I think, more consistent. Oh word, the game's idea of souls seems to fit that (they're this agglutinative energy, they don't contain a person's immortal self). But Kaathe's idea of the darkness still has kings and warriors and exalts mankind, and the light ending is way more self-abnegating than the dark one. The entire game world reminds me of the Avici hell in Buddhism but I don't know much about that. Kaathe is definitely pro-darksign though, and pro-undead. The darksign is from the darkness, not the light. The intro makes that clear and Kaathe never suggests otherwise. I guess people heard his speech and figured that he must be secretly right about everything and projected that idea onto the game so there could be clearly defined poles of good and evil. video games!!! 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2011 20:14
|
|
|
doomfunk posted:e: Also his armour is called Havel's Armor, so... his stuff is his stuff. Yeah a ton of the background information is in the item descriptions. I noticed that on Solaire's bad ending the way the talons on the bug flare out it looks just like Solaire's sun logo. Maybe i am the last person in the world to notice this.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2011 22:25
|
|
|
For the most part I think this game is an improvement on Demon's Souls, but the bosses are a step back. There are some awesome ones (Gwyn, Gwyndolin, Priscilla, uh, O+S sometimes) but most of them seem like really straightforward slugfests. Like Sif and Seath are aesthetically great but the fights are too simple. I kind of miss stuff like Storm King and Tower Knight-- not that those are any more challenging, but that they introduce a different mechanic, they necessitate learning a new skill. Bed of Chaos was almost that. All of Izalith in fact seemed like it was built on cool ideas that never quite cohered into solid gameplay and maybe they just ran out of time or money and went "OK gently caress it nothing respawns, at least it's playable now"
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2011 23:24
|
|
|
I'ma try that DEX/INT hybrid build someone suggested, although I feel that it is likely to be a bad idea, since neither is really lacking on its own and working on both means stamina and attunement are gonna suffer BUT whatever
|
|
#
¿
Nov 8, 2011 03:29
|
|
|
I wanna like Lost Izalith because it has some cool ideas-- using light instead of darkness to gently caress with your vision, the wide-open structure, enemies who are super dangerous in the open but can be baited & outwitted and even hurt each other-- but it never quite comes together.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 8, 2011 04:10
|
|
|
!amicable posted:What about those archer douchebags? They can't see each other from where they are. If you sprint to the closer one and engage him in melee the other one can't hit you at all. Also when you're melee fighting him the dude will tend to knock himself right off the ledge.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 8, 2011 04:31
|
|
|
ALL RIGHT i played so bad last night that I wanted to apologize to my phantoms. Like, I'm not trying to gently caress with you. I do not normally get Big Smough down to 10% health and then miss two dodges in a row or try to block before switching back to my shield. I'm g... i'm good at v-v-videogames 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2011 02:47
|
|
|
This INT/DEX build is cool, it's scary fragile but so versatile on offense. An enchanted bandit knife just tears through humans or anything else vulnerable to crits/bleed and you've got element weapons, spells, and crystal magic weapon for the bigger enemies. Only downside is you may have a stroke and actually die from the tension of having to be insanely on-point at all times
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2011 22:00
|
|
|
HondaCivet posted:I really want to do this on a new char after I beat the game. Well, probably more Int than Dex but, yeah, basically a badass sorcerer. I'd probably get Havel's Ring so I can wear a little armor at least. yeah the thing is a caster does not really need DEX at all; the only real synergy between the two stats is that as your DEX gets higher (up to 45 iirc) it shortens the windup animation on casting. It's a whole separate set of options, I'm just doing them both as an experiment. It's more fun and challenging IMO than just casting your way through everything. Before you can get into the good spells, I would recommend a bandit knife or rapier with Magic (& later Enchanted) properties. Backstabs, ripostes, and bleed effects are all real good for melee damage on a low-strength character; at least one of those will work on nearly everything before you get to Sen's. Practice switching to a two-hand grip to attack and then switching back fast. Buy duplicate spells from Griggs and Rickert so you can just fire off a shitload of soul arrows if need be. Be real attentive to attack animations and dodge timings so you know when it's safe to cast; Heavy & Great Heavy soul arrows are going to be your main source of big damage against early bosses but they take a long rear end time to come out.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2011 23:17
|
|
|
HondaCivet posted:OH and in my opinion you don't actually want to pick Sorcerer. You can buy all the sorcerer stuff from Rickert as soon as you get out of the asylum, and INT is easy to build at an early level. Start as a thief (for good light armor and a bandit knife) or pyromancer (for the flame hand & fireball).
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2011 23:30
|
|
|
I managed to beat the four kings without heavy armor. No idea how i'd have done it without homing crystals, since it's so crucial to kill each one before the next one shows up. Anyway though I feel pretty good about it; I only took one hit, from that homing magic slash that i have literally never seen or heard of anyone dodging. Cool
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2011 03:10
|
|
|
You can dodge Big Ornstein's lightning stab by rolling towards him. The timing is really lenient in fact. Running from him is not a drat bit safer than going all in and doing figure eights around his legs like an upset housecatSpiffo posted:Like for example, the halberd (my favorite) can stunlock just about any humanoid enemy that staggers and it's got great range too. So for bit knights the range helps a lot and against human enemies they still go down in one combo (and the range keeps me safer as well). The halberd is so great for PvE; every single move can take out whole crowds of weaker enemies. There are stronger polearms but they all seem to have that janky 1h light attack where you brace it against your armpit and swing it in a circle. I like the katana a lot for PvP. You remember in Demons Souls how Satsuki would go into his strong attack windup facing completely the wrong direction, then pivot back towards you and stab? that works shockingly well against human opponents
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2011 03:13
|
|
|
I'm excited for the patch, mainly there's a large amount of poo poo i haven't experimented with because it takes twinkling titanite to upgrade and i always put that into stuff I know will be useful first. Honestly I don't see why they thought things like the xanthous robes or the fuckin painting guardian smock with like 9 points of defense were so special that they had to upgrade with rare materials but oh well!! Oh that reminds me i need to be using the painting guardian sword, it's basically not very good but it has a cool wuxia-movie-lookin' moveset and it's got bleed at least.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2011 03:17
|
|
|
Ramsus posted:There are plenty of good weapons besides the drake sword that are available. On your first play through it should be more about exploration and not wiki this wiki that oh god drake sword easy mode please. See I feel the opposite-- the first playthrough is novel and overwhelming enough. Unless you put the game on the shelf afterwards and never pick it up again, you're not missing anything by using the drake sword and lightning spear. It's more fun to learn & customize your own weapons but that also demands a level of skill that a first-timer isn't gonna have yet.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2011 14:59
|
|
|
synertia posted:Bed of Chaos felt like I just had to run back enough times without accidentally getting knocked off, 4 kings were just poo poo, and Nito was kind of a gimp. Bed of Chaos and 4 Kings are weird because theyre REALLY fun and exhilarating once you kind of 'get' them but both require long-rear end walks from bonfires every time and, probably relatedly, both have boring but effective ways you can brute-force them Basically i don't understand the bonfire placement. It seems like they decided the Lord Soul bosses all had to be far from bonfires but the design of the fights themselves doesn't always work with that. Gwyn really is a good end boss though, I agree.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2011 15:57
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 02:14 |
|
|
Re: pendant it occurred to me that it's on your usable items list, not the key items one, it's just that "use item" is always crossed out on it. Maybe it becomes usable in a certain place or set of circumstances? I've been trying that on a new character but I'm not seeing anything. Relatedly I had to take the main road to blight town & while it may be annoying but it's so amazing looking, when you first see under that archway and realize how big the whole area is it's jaw dropping
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2011 23:54
|
|