Yeah, see my sneaky edit.
In any case, from what I’ve heard Dark Souls isn’t quite as bad. There are some mandatory new game+ things, like multiple paths for boss’s souls. But on the other hand, I don’t think there’s anything nearly as bad as the Pure Bladestone drop (ask Lizard_King how he feels about that one).
Yes because you got yourself in that situation, it’s not the intended path nor the game actively working against you with unrecoverable consequences.
Demon’s Souls stuff, not hugely spoilery
In Demon’s Souls there are items that are used in crafting that you only get once per play through but are used to create four different items/spells or items that you only get at the end of the game. Also there are ways random NPCs will die in the Nexus in Demon’s Souls if you don’t do specific things to prevent it and there’s almost nothing telling you it might happen or what to do to prevent it. Good luck with the game if Stockpile Thomas is randomly killed.
If you mean what I think you mean, it’s not random and Thomas is not a possibility afaik (see link). I would still consider looking at the upgrades, looking at what to trade with the damned crow woman, and dealing with that particular NPC death issue as good things to look up with a great cost/benefit ratio in terms of your sanity. You can deal with World Tendency in NG and I think as a fan of DS you’ll find it an interesting way to do a challenging second run. I don’t think any of the other issues including Ostrava warrant much concern for a first play, especially if he’s clearly not hitting a difficulty wall anytime soon.
One disappointing thing about Dark Souls is how many of the bosses are heavily inspired by Demon’s Souls bosses (and generally slightly easier). I was thinking about how much I hated the dragon god boss in Demon’s Souls the other day and then I find that Chaos Bed is pretty much the same thing.
There are plenty of items in Dark Souls you can easily miss out on on your first run. Most of the items from chopping off a boss’ tail, anything that drops off an NPC phantom where you need to be human before killing the boss, etc.
For my money, the Dragon God was a much better designed level than the Bed of Chaos. The latter is too reliant on chance.
I didn’t know what the hell was going on with the bed of chaos at first…which is probably the biggest reason why it fails. I tried attacking “it” directly. Then it clicked and I happened to lucked my way through it. The NG+ run was actually harder when I knew exactly what I needed to do…ironic.
Truth be told, I was tipped off on the NPC assassin guy by a co-worker who imported the game from Asia early. I didn’t know “who” the assassin was going to be but I made damn sure to find and kill him dead when it became apparent. To my surprise the fuckers actually hid him in a remote alcove.
That’s what I mean, I beat it by chance the first time (although I knew what to do) and didn’t realize how lucky I was until I was helping others as a summoned spirit and was getting knocked all over the place with max poise, or vaulting into space and sliding off the root.
Truth be told, I was tipped off on the NPC assassin guy by a co-worker who imported the game from Asia early. I didn’t know “who” the assassin was going to be but I made damn sure to find and kill him dead when it became apparent. To my surprise the fuckers actually hid him in a remote alcove.
I was tipped off by the qt3 thread, or I would have been even more reliant on melee than I already was.
Alright! Game defeated. 28 hours, Soul Level 52. Pretty awesome experience, and I’m really glad that it was successful because without that we would have never gotten Dark Souls.
More observations from a Dark Souls player:
- I really miss my plunging attack off ledges
- That said, what’s up with the fall damage? Either a slap on wrist or instant death, very little in between
-Valley of Defilement is way worse than Blighttown
-Patches is Patches
The fall damage is scaled to dexterity, but still with a firm ceiling past which you die. So if you were boosting dexterity at all you probably got the experience you describe. I actually miss that aspect of dexterity because it seems underpowered relative to Str in Dark Souls given that Str continues to unlock more and more weapons and gear past 30 and it directly affects your ability to resist guard break kicks and dish them out. The spellcasting acceleration seems a trivial and disconnected benefit in comparison for melee focused characters. Fall damage wouldn’t have helped that much, I guess, but in the absence of really tweaking the parry system so it’s dex affected or something to that effect I would have liked something.
Congrats on the quick finish, though.
I can only attribute the shortish playtime to how much time I put into Dark Souls. It took me almost as long to get out of the Undead Burg as finishing all of Demon’s Souls. Plus with everything you need to do being right in the Nexus, I didn’t spend hours exploring and getting lost. Which, come to think of it, I kinda miss. Really the only boss that got my heart pumping like DkS did, was the boss of 1-4.
Also now that I’m reading through the wiki, I’m realizing how much stuff I missed. I finished with over 300K souls and 7-8 Boss Souls unspent. I never even found and Colorless Souls. After I killed the boss of 1-4 I went right into the endgame without knowing any better…credits.
Dude, how did you manage that? 25 hours in and I’ve only cleared five out of sixteen stages: 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 3-1 and 4-1.
Atlus just announced that the servers for this will be turned off at the end of May.
Single player will still work.
Odd timing with the sequel coming to PC in August. What about the people who are so excited by Dark Souls that they want to play the original?
If I recall correctly, I think they originally wanted to turn them off almost a year ago (probably there’s some talk about it in this thread…). So, we’re already on borrowed time as it is.
I have the asian version of the game. I hope the servers for that don’t go down. As it is, I laid down crystal several times to try to get help to beat the boss in 3-1, but no one ever came to help. So I guess it’s virtually empty anyway, but I do enjoy seeing the ghosts and death markers while I’m playing, even if I can’t get any help from other players.
Atlus - the Japanese version of EA
Larsen
2737
This is not fair at all, especially considering the games that Atlus publish to provide income.
I’m surprised they even make profit on their “established” franchises.
If EA does it: "EA is dead to me…die EA die!
If non-EA does it: “We totally understand, don’t worry we still love you anyway…”
Yes, it’s totally fair. The game has been advertised with multiplayer elements. If Atlus intended to turn if off, they should have stuck an expiry limit warning label on the cover.
As I noticed here and elsewhere, the alternative publishers get a pass in their profit-maximising behavior - much more so than the big boys aka EA and Activision. If you charge $60 for your product, your reputation should be judged accordingly as everyone else.
Larsen
2739
Extrapolating the argument, you’d rather small companies go bankrupt rather than turn off a server?
NA was lucky Atlus took a punt on Demon’s Souls in the first place. That is different from EA switching off servers for previous versions of their annual franchises. Atlus produce games that have limited print runs because it’s all they can afford. They make enough to sell.
Turning off servers is not a good thing at all but the difference lies in being able to understand why a company has to do it.
Jape
2740
Just finished the game. In ironman mode.
Maneater was bitch as usual (too much luck involved in that fight). Almost died when archer black phantom decided to use fire storm in boletaria castle (that was little surprise because i didnt know she could do that). Another near death was when i took Bramd right in the face from Garl Vinland. Otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing.
No cheating, minimal farming. Melee’d all the bosses and 99% of the enemies. SL70 at the end.
Sucks that theres no trophy for that. That actually felt like an achievement. Sad panda.
