Predictably, the comments section is full of people going “You’re wrong, Gamespot. Demon’s Souls is not your Game of the Year.”
After pining for this game the last few months, I finally got it for Christmas today and put it in. I had to wait for the PS3 to update though, and while I did I read through Lizard King’s suggestions in this thread and managed to get to Phalanx and take him out with out dying at all. I had 5700 souls when I killed him and (playing as a Royal) I upgraded my Intelligence, Magic, and Vitatlity stats since I was doing so well with Soul Arrow.
I can’t wait to pick up some new spells and maybe an upgraded weapon to use. I really like the combat but I need more practice with it - I was using the Soul Arrow a lot during that first world, and I doubt that’s a crutch I can lean on for much longer.
Lynxara
1703
You’d be surprised. That said, learning how to melee effectively is really rewarding in Demon’s Souls’s combat system.
(Man, that use of apostrophes looks weird…)
Honestly It’s best not to concern yourself with souls while ‘playing’ level, since losing them just gets madening. There are several spots in the game that are excellent for low risk soul farming if you want more skill points. 4-2 is the best, but going back from the Tower Knight archstone works well at the start.
I can imagine. I’m tempted to re-roll a new character that’s a little less “easy” than the Royalty class now that I know how that first level plays out.
Magic is probably safer and more effective than melee, but the melee is just so much fun. I love burying my Blueblood sword into foes, or Crushing them with mu Northern Regalia. I definatley athink developing melee skills is worthwhile.
As for armor, while a shield and avoidence are probably more important, the armor helps and there are some pretty sweet sets in the game. Min/Maxing is certainly possible in this game, but there are a lot of ways to succeed so I think it is better to build a character that you like rather than a min/maxed damage machine (unless you really want to smack the snot out of dudes in PvP).
Lynxara
1707
Given how long Demon’s Souls is, I would actually suggest just completing the game and trying a more difficult class for your New Game+. Royalty has a big advantage in 1-1 but the farther you get in the game, the more it flattens out.
Plus you can turn any class into whatever you want, so it doesn’t really matter wth what you start with much past the first couple stages.
ckessel
1709
Killed the viscious axe person on 1-1. Miralda? How do you know if it’s her? Anyway, she dropped some nice female armor, very plague resistant. Went down the ladder and found a bunch of armor I can’t even carry, so I’m guessing that’s not useful for a Royalty class.
The Phalanx was a cake walk. Though, to be honest, it’s because there was a “use fire” message so I used the stuff to coat your blade, raced around and whacked on her, healing up in between whack attempts. MUCH easier than viscious axe-murderer.
I can’t even imagine what this game would be like on a pure black tendency. It’s hard enough in general pure white.
One thing you might want to look at is getting the Hercules ring, which is actually available to you right now. You need to get the jade hair ornament (by chopping the chains in the balcony on that first tower that has all the fire wielding assholes that takes you up to the blue knight, then going back down and retrieving what falls) and talk to stockpile Thomas a few times until he asks for the jade ornament and gives you the hercules ring. That will allow you to pick up things that are too heavy and at least carry them back to the nexus.
The reason I know it’s Miralda is from paying attention to the load screens. Every person you meet in the game that is named usually shows up in those loadscreens, and that’s her.
The Phalanx was a cake walk. Though, to be honest, it’s because there was a “use fire” message so I used the stuff to coat your blade, raced around and whacked on her, healing up in between whack attempts. MUCH easier than viscious axe-murderer.
I can’t even imagine what this game would be like on a pure black tendency. It’s hard enough in general pure white.
Well, it’s not that much harder. The fundamentals you are mastering now will be generally very effective throughout all difficulties, at least for single player.
JZigish
1711
Great! You’ve made it past 1-1. That means you can now safely go back and bank souls for levels, and the rest of the game is totally within your grasp. 1-2 is good to do next (although I couldn’t beat the boss at first) and 2-1 is also a good choice.
So I got my soul back from that slime creature in the first area. Then I died shortly after to a fire breathing dragon… I have a feeling I’m not going to stay a living character very long at all in this game.
Generally not, no. In fact, it’s usually recommended that one deliberately commit suicide after each return to one’s body, while in the Nexus, as dying while in your body causes a black tendency shift in the world you’re in if it’s somewhere else. Also, you can only be invaded by black phantom players while in body.
ckessel
1714
I was wondering how to get that. I got it the first time with my Cleric, but couldn’t figure out what I missed with my Royalty class.
Yeah you get tons of healing items, but the time it takes for the eating animation freezes you and makes you a sitting target. And that’ll get you killed quite often by the tougher monsters.
The other thing is that dodging is really easy and fairly forgiving, because you’re invulnerable during the animation; it’s not like parrying. And if you learn to dodge, you can melée most bosses; you won’t have to rely on magic or bows.
Note, I specifically said a shield is key, though. With a good damage soak shield and enough endurance, you won’t get bleed-through damage.
Dodgeing is important, but it uses a lot of stamina. I think it’s also good to sidestep, often enemies will miss or just get a glancing blow of your shield and you’ll have plenty of stamina to smack the snot out of them.
Flowers
1717
Magician is fun, especially now that I am in 3-1, where enemies drop spice.
Jab
1718
3-1 is spice heaven, on my main character I some how have over 40 spice for those times where I have to blast enemies.
Stupid question, spells that do fire damage, are they enhanced by raising magic the same way that the soul spells are?
Yes. Also, all damage spells are enhanced significantly by the clever rat ring. That means, potentially, a single wrath of god can take care of almost all of a troublesome NPC, like Gloom Armor found out.
ckessel
1720
Man, for a game that’s gotten a lot of love, it has some mind bogglingly huge flaws. I spent about 2 hours running around in 3-1 unable to find a key to unlock a gate. It’s on a dead body…one of hundreds of dead bodies you come across. This one dead body was in what looked like a field of death from an arrow trap/monster, so I left it alone.
Now I’m up against Flamelurker and I’ve died about 20 times. Each time followed by an incredibly annoying trip back to try and fight him again. Not sure what to do to beat him. He’s fast, I can’t really stay out of his way. I’ve got the flame shield, but I can’t find a spot safe enough to ever heal or restore my magic. I’ve spent 3 hours constantly dying and spending the 5 minutes over and over and over doing the god awful annoying “10 drops to the bottom of a pit” puzzle.
Seriously, make the boss hard, fine, but why punish the player with a 5 minute run back to the damn thing every time?
Edit: Well, damn, that just about tears it for this game. I’m completely out of mana and healing stuff and I still haven’t killed Flamelurker. I’d have to go grind for a couple hours just to get the goods to spend another couple hours trying again to to kill this guy. I’ve checked the cheats/walkthroughs and I seem to have the right stuff on hand. It just requires a more skilled action gamer than me I guess.
