Anyone else playing Demon's Souls?

Fozzle · 2010-01-21T04:53:10.000Z

roguefrog:

I’ve been doing this for a while now with a new character and it is Amazing. When you play through the whole stage with someone there is a better chance for black phantoms to invade. Sometimes it’s a hilarious ganking and sometimes the guy is clever but usually still dies. All and all its whole new unique experience provided by Demon’s Souls.

I’ve been doing the same thing. It’s also a great way to score up some souls, since even if you die, you just end up back in your previous level, without having to go get your soul pile. I also tried very hard to get all the white/black stuff done during the first pass, so in NG+ I only have to worry about the swamp (HATE),. The rest I can die as many times as I want without worrying about not getting the trophies. Some of these black phantoms seem a whole lot easier to kill in first pass…

Jarmo · 2010-01-21T23:29:50.000Z

Demon’s Souls has bled through to the real world for me ever since I first played 3-2 (Tower of Latria). I can’t see a diffused yellow light like a street light on a damp day without thinking of the distant torches and braziers in that level. Any bleedthrough for you others?

Alex_Pirani · 2010-01-22T01:12:46.000Z

Jarmo:

Demon’s Souls has bled through to the real world for me ever since I first played 3-2 (Tower of Latria). I can’t see a diffused yellow light like a street light on a damp day without thinking of the distant torches and braziers in that level. Any bleedthrough for you others?

Saw red graffiti on the ground the other day and visualized “Press X to read message” in my head.
A week or two ago I walked into the house and thought to myself “I must have black soul tendency because this day has fucking sucked.”

roguefrog · 2010-01-22T01:24:14.000Z

I ate a soul just now. It was delicious.

Jarmo · 2010-01-22T01:31:57.000Z

Hard-boiled or soft-boiled?

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T02:42:07.000Z

After about 210 hours of play the Platinum trophy is mine. It was quite the ride.

I finally found an easy way of handling Old Monk (offline). Spoilers, obviously.

Wear Graverobber’s Ring and equip Dragon Bone Smasher. After stepping into the fog hit Old Monk with the sword to knock him down. Run to one end of the room and stop. Old Monk loses you and stands still. Creep closer and Poison Cloud him to death. Cheap but effective. I’ve killed him three times by dancing around. This time I just wanted to take it easy.

Lizard_King · 2010-01-23T06:23:16.000Z

What level did you retire at? (and congratulations)

Eightball · 2010-01-23T06:56:30.000Z

Jarmo:

After about 210 hours of play the Platinum trophy is mine. It was quite the ride.

I finally found an easy way of handling Old Monk (offline). Spoilers, obviously.

Wear Graverobber’s Ring and equip Dragon Bone Smasher. After stepping into the fog hit Old Monk with the sword to knock him down. Run to one end of the room and stop. Old Monk loses you and stands still. Creep closer and Poison Cloud him to death. Cheap but effective. I’ve killed him three times by dancing around. This time I just wanted to take it easy.

The offline Old Monk is actually pretty damn easy to kill if you use anti-magic field and just melee him to death.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T07:26:48.000Z

Lizard_King:

What level did you retire at? (and congratulations)

Thanks, about 237. I’ll check when I can as the home theater is in use right now. I’ve gotten very few levels in the last 1.5 playthroughs as one costs around 450k souls now and I’ve sometimes lost 250k souls in one fail.

Eightball:

The offline Old Monk is actually pretty damn easy to kill if you use anti-magic field and just melee him to death.

I tried some heavy-hitting swords (Norhern Regalia, for example) and a souped up-spear but they weren’t really working for me. Maybe a fast light sword would have been better.

Mind you, my character build was wholly based on ranged attacks and I also totally lack melee practise. There’s a whole another Demon’s Souls waiting for me if I decide to learn how real men fight at some point.

Also, in NG+++ the Old Monk is a much tougher nut to crack.

Lizard_King · 2010-01-23T09:23:53.000Z

Eightball:

The offline Old Monk is actually pretty damn easy to kill if you use anti-magic field and just melee him to death.

That’s the truth. I always use a safe attack like a spear or rapier, the clever rat ring, and antimagic, although it can get really ugly if you don’t do damage fast enough. Which I suspect might happen in NG+.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T09:28:11.000Z

Yeah, my female Royal is now soul level 237 with VIT 24, INT 40, END 24, STR 24, DEX 52, MAG 99, FTH 36 and LCK 18. Running straight through 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3 and killing the bosses with her took less than two hours and one death (got too close to a Giant Depraved One).

Lizard_King · 2010-01-23T09:51:38.000Z

It seems like magic damage doesn’t scale very dramatically. With magic 99, what kind of results did you see for basic bread and butter spells like magic missile? I’ve stopped dumping into magic at about 50 (too late, I know), and shifted to dexterity in the hope that the bow and dexterity based weapons make up for it.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T10:39:06.000Z

Lizard_King:

With magic 99, what kind of results did you see for basic bread and butter spells like magic missile?

Damage data follows with Kris Blade +5, Insanity Catalyst and Ring of Magical Sharpness all equipped (which in my mind is the normal use case for a Magic 99 character). Used in soul form on the miners in the beginning of 2-2 with neutral world tendency.

Soul Arrow 387
Soul Ray 548
Flame Toss 375

For comparison, I stripped all equipment and used a basic catalyst (S = silver, W = wood).
Soul Arrow 168 (S) 192 (W)
Soul Ray 244 (S) 275 (W)
Flame Toss 101 (S) 127 (W)

By the way, I got my Platinum fully in offline mode. No multiplayer whatsoever so far for me. This is also why I don’t have the Old Monk’s head wrappings. Surely I would use also them all the time. Anyway, most normal enemies are one-shot kills with my equipment and Soul Ray even in NG+++.

Angrycoder · 2010-01-23T11:44:19.000Z

I really need to get back to this game and finish up my unleveled knight build. I think it as 2/3 of the way through when I got busy with work.

I miss Boletaria.

Lizard_King · 2010-01-23T17:15:15.000Z

Jarmo:

Damage data follows with Kris Blade +5, Insanity Catalyst and Ring of Magical Sharpness all equipped (which in my mind is the normal use case for a Magic 99 character). Used in soul form on the miners in the beginning of 2-2 with neutral world tendency.

Interesting, thanks. I powered through the last boss fight in NG+. I was disappointed (but not surprised) to find that no one was summoning at the entrance of 1-4. OTOH, I was pleased to find someone waiting at the entrance of 1-5, and that guy destroyed the opposition. I hit the false king maybe 3 times before the other guy completely destroyed him. Damned if I know how he did it, but I murdered the maiden and was on my way (after yet another successful Mephistopheles run through).

Let’s see if NG+ is kinder in terms of bladestones.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T17:15:52.000Z

When I created my character I fiddled around with the face editor until I was satisfied with how she looked. I then thought I’d give her a bit of a smile just to show some upbeat attitude in the face of the coming trials. Just nudge the corners of her mouth up a bit. There, all done.

Big mistake. Little did I know that there’s a turned-on flashlight on the waist of the avatar all the time. She looks super creepy with the light coming from below her face. She holds this terrifying smile no matter what kind of a bloodbath she’s pushing through (her own or her enemies).

At some point I started to think her expression actually fit the situation very well. Obviously she is going to be deranged when demons keep killing her over and over and she can’t even die and the only way out (maybe, hopefully) is to keep pushing into worse and worse encounters. I’m just happy I can’t hear what she must have been babbling to herself for a long time now.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T17:19:27.000Z

Lizard_King:

Let’s see if NG+ is kinder in terms of bladestones.

Did you mean to say NG++?

merryprankster · 2010-01-23T17:22:59.000Z

Lizard_King:

Interesting, thanks. I powered through the last boss fight in NG+. I was disappointed (but not surprised) to find that no one was summoning at the entrance of 1-4. OTOH, I was pleased to find someone waiting at the entrance of 1-5, and that guy destroyed the opposition. I hit the false king maybe 3 times before the other guy completely destroyed him. Damned if I know how he did it, but I murdered the maiden and was on my way (after yet another successful Mephistopheles run through).

Same thing happened to me on Allant. I got kinda fed up and summmoned some help. In popped a hyper build and damn was it powerful. Took Allant down with about 4 arrows and one shotted an invading black phantom.

Jarmo · 2010-01-23T17:32:31.000Z

merryprankster:

In popped a hyper build

Did he have to get his health down first thing or had he already done that while waiting to be summoned? Another way of asking this is does being summoned as a blue phantom fill up your health bar?

merryprankster · 2010-01-23T17:48:43.000Z

He used the Mokoto to drop his health right off. I blue soul a lot, but I can’t remeber if it fills your health.