2681

Thanks guys - appriciate all the info!

I have no idea what the blue eyestone does - makes me summonable for other players I guess?

2682

It places a ‘soul sign’ at the point where you used it. Human players can view that soul sign, check you out, and choose to summon you to help them in their game. If you’re summoned, you appear in their game as a helper phantom, and stay with them until they die, you die, or the two of you beat the final boss. If you beat the boss together, you’re rewarded by being returned to life. It’s also a fantastic way to gain experience with a new boss.

2683

As a heads-up for anyone still playing with an Asian version, the Asian server appears to have gone into pure black world tendency (presumably for Halloween). I’m still smarting from Black Phantom Satsuki wiping the floor with my poor lowbie character…

2684

Started playing this after finishing Dark Souls and i gotta say Demon’s Souls is a better game. (im at the last boss atm).

both of them great games, but theres some reasons why demon’s souls wins for me:

  1. I like the world design bit more in demon’s souls (no bullshit like sen’s fortress and i actually like the nexus because it cuts a bit of pointless running around.). And its bit more challenging (read: more exciting) because there’s no bonfires around every corner.
  2. More interesting weapon system (in demon’s souls you actually have to make choices what weapon to use, instead of making lightning weapon that pwns everything)
  3. i think humanity system is pointless and stupid
  4. game breaking farming spots in dark souls (who gives a damn about dying when you can get all the souls you want without any risk whatsoever)
  5. i like that i actually have to make choices with boss souls in demon’s souls (buy spells or craft weapons)
2685

There were no farming spots anywhere near as good as the one at the beginning of 4-2 in Demon’s Souls imo. 5000 souls for the cost of three arrows every ten seconds or so? psh.

2686

Demon’s Souls not only has a lot of ridiculously exploitable farming spots, they start appearing in 1-1.

2687

thats 4500 souls for the cost of two arrows every couple minutes i think (need to evacuate, so its not quite that fast).

Didnt use that spot myself. Only killed that dude when i needed to get past him. (didnt do farming at all in demon’s souls)

2688

Yeah, I prefer Demon’s Souls also. I liked the Nexus, instead of, as you wrote, pointlessly running around, and I think it made the story stronger.

The bosses are more vulnerable to cheese, which is a shame, but I think it’s a richer, more cohesive gameworld than Dark Souls, which felt, at times, like I could see the hands of the developers moving the pieces around: the ‘bullshit’ sections, which read more like the game designer trying to make a difficult challenge than a designer trying to build a fluid fiction.

2689

Why is sen’s fortress bullshit?

2690

dodging swinging blades while dodging lightning bolts while avoiding falling is just bullshit in my book. It wasnt that hard, it was just stupid and annoying.

2691

Sen’s Fortress was my second favorite part! It’s a nice break of pace when suddenly you have to do things quickly rather than taking your time.

2692

I think only thing that bugs me in demon’s souls at the moment is the way you kill the dragons. Theres no fight, you just firie hundreds of arrows in their butts. Its just boring.

And maybe maneater fight (because i suck at staying up there)

2693

you think humanity is bullshit and therefore prefer World Tendency? There’s something broken in you.

2694

I never really had to dodge lightning. The first guy you just run under the bridge and he can’t get you. The second guy is facing you so you just block him and the third guy is easily dealt with with magic or a bow. I did get knocked off a few times, but I didn’t think it was that bad.

2695

I liked that with World Tendency the world actually changed; gates and doors were opened up, letting you explore new areas; mobs spawned that you couldn’t find at any other time. I much prefer WT to Humanity.

2696

I like both, so I hope any follow up pulls elements of either.

2697

world tendency stuff does not bother me at all.

2698

The problems with WT were primarily:

  1. Poorly communicated states, even once you know understand it.
  2. Online tendency borks personal tendency, but not in an interesting way outside of WT events (i.e. usually, it was White +1 or +2, which doesn’t lead to anything interesting, but undermines attempts to unlock things if playing online).
  3. Potentially unlimited +black tendency in each playthrough, but limited +white tendency.

2 in particular has implications for 100%-ers, since it messes with WT when farming for crafting items, but I don’t really count that, since if you’re trying to 100% the game, you’re probably willing to do things like play offline.

As Charles says, there are elements of each that I like, and I’d have liked a refined WT system. The subtler HP stuff was interesting, and having the difficulty tied to WT had a potentially interested positive feedback mechanism.

I don’t hate the humanity system though.

2699

World tendency alone wasn’t the issue, the server influence on world tendency was the stupid part.

2700

I think the boss design was more varied in Demon’s Souls then it was Dark Souls. Each boss had a different strategy and was more uniquely designed in how you have to deal with them.You couldn’t fight Tower Knight the same way as 4-1’s boss (can’t remember its name off hand.)

I still feel that Dark Souls begins to take a dive during the last quarter of the game both in terms of level design and boss variety which I won’t go into detail here about for spoiler’s sake.

Regarding WT: I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. The idea was cool but I think it was too simple in its design with how to use it and what it affects.