1641

Got into a serious groove, and I fear I’m nearly finished with the game : (

After chopping down Yhorm, and taking a break from Aldrich, I backtracked to finish off the Demon Ruins and to finally silence that gigantic ballista. It was pretty harrowing down there, what with the basilisks, and black knights, and the fearsome NPC battle by the lava pool.

With nowhere else to go, I threw myself at Aldrich, and to my surprise my aggressiveness eventually paid off. There is no better feeling then when a fight that seems impossible starts to click, and a few attempts later you get it down. I love how darkened and corrupted the area where you find Aldrich is. For all the callbacks DS3 is throwing at us, this area, a beloved one for any souls fan, was the most meaningful. It felt good to fight Aldrich there. Felt like I was reclaiming something. Exacting some revenge.

Before my successful attempt at Aldrich, I dropped the broadsword (which I got to +10) and started using the Wolf Knight’s Greatsword (+5) almost exclusively. I think this is the first souls game where I’m using (and enjoying!) a boss soul weapon. Doing an Artorias front flip to kill a dude doesn’t get old.

I was lost for a bit after defeating Aldrich. Unless I missed it, the game doesn’t tell you where to go next. Had to look it up.

It made sense as soon as I read where I’m supposed to go. I had totally forgotten about that place, which I had marked down as somewhere to revisit.

I bounced back and forth between the Consumed King’s Garden and Lothric Castle. I brought an NPC pal along to fight Oceiros, more as a distraction, since I was having trouble dealing with the focused attacks, but I took on the Dragonslayer Armor one on one. What a dramatic, hectic, and great fight. This fight kicked off a string of amaaaaaaazing boss fights: Drangonslayer --> Dancer --> Twin Princes --> and Champion Gundyr.

@TimJames is right, guy in armor is the best type of souls fight, and DS3 has mastered them.

The Twin Princes is probably my favorite fight in the game, and Champion Gundyr was probably the most frustrating. I kept getting him down to the last few slivers of life before he killed me with a stunlock combo.

From here I blazed through Archdragon Peak (wow) and most of Ariandel. Currently stuck on the Nameless King (I burn all my estus on the first phase, and I’m exhausted by the second) and Sister Friede (who I haven’t given more than a few attempts to).

I have a bit of a fraught history with souls DLC. Usually by the time I get to it, I’m feeling a bit fatigued and want to finish off the game, but this go round I’m really enjoying it. Ariandel was really well done.

Not sure if I’m leveled up enough for the Ringed City DLC, but besides the two bosses I’m working on, it seems like that’s the only area I have left before the end of the game.

1642

After being a bit underwhelmed by the starting areas of the game (besides the high wall), I’m very happy to report that the last two-thirds of the game has been great. Farron and the Cathedral of the Deep start to hint at what DS3 has in store for you, and the Catacombs provide a really cool remix of stuff we’ve seen before.

From the Smoldering Lake till the end, it’s all fantastic. I felt that same DS1 feeling all over again. Intimidated, awed, excited. There are vistas in this game that are the best I’ve seen in a video game.

If this truly is the last Dark Souls, then they’ve done themselves proud, because this game really is lights out amazing.

1643

I think I will be quite a way behind you Scott! I’m still in Smouldering Lake. I found Tsorig and he kicked my ass several times. One mistake and you’re jam. The closest I got was baiting him upstairs to try and knock him into the lava, and the black knight up there laid into him!

I stood back and was like…

image

Tsorig lost half his health before dying, and I got him down to about 1/3 before running out of stamina (again) and dying. Ugh. Next time I just ran straight past the knight, up the ladder, and shut down the balista. Not sure now whether to beat my head against Tsorig again, or just move on to the next area. I guess I can always come back later.

My +6 Raw Longsword definitely feels lacking in this area, a lot of very hard fights. But I keep losing my souls and haven’t been able to level up for quite some time (losing 20k souls to rats was gutting). One more level and I can try the Astora Greatsword.

[edit] I had one more go, and beat the bastard! I was coming back from the balista, so ran past the knight and he followed me down there, and I let them beat the shit of each other while joining in this time. The last 40% of his health was solo, but I managed to work out the best roll and retaliate timing. Now I have a big fuck-off sword and nowhere near the strength to wield it! Jeez. I still think I’m going to put Dex up to 18 which will make a few interesting weapons available, then I’ll go back to Str.

1644

Ok, so looks like there is no danger of accidentally “finishing” the game before completing the DLC, since you choose when to start NG+ like in DS2.

I think my plan is going to be: Kill Nameless King; Kill End Boss; Kill Sister Friede; Ringed City DLC.

1645

…I tried to set a slower pace, but I had three days off with a lot of free time, and I just didn’t want to stop playing. The game is too good!

1646

If we do something like this in the future, we should consider setting like a goal of one area per week and everyone gives a little report on that area at the end of the week: what they found, who they fought, etc. If you finish it early in the week, spend the rest of the time doing pvp or co-op. :-)

1647

While I can give that a go, I tried to align this with two months at home. Just doing one area a week, I’d probably fall behind and miss weeks. But hey, now that we have a PS4 I guess I should work my way through Bloodborne sometime after this. :) Going to get busy again after August though.

1648

I’m in Irithyll right now, and it feels very dangerous. The knights are bastards, with two, three, four and even 6+(?!) move variations on their attack combos, with little to no difference in the windup. Can’t trade with them because they will ALWAYS get off another attack before you can recover and attack. Maybe that would be different if I had more poise. I switched back to my twinblades guy after Crystal Sage, but every so often I wish I was running Kolbeast…

1649

I’m not finding them too bad, assuming we’re talking the same ones. There’s a right to left arc followed by a huuuuge secondary arc, so I just roll the hell back from that. Then there’s a series of blow (5+) which I try to roll through, then get some hits in. Then there’s the spell cast, which is basically my chance to get in the side and kill. Once I land a blow I can beat them to death with a succession of blows; the Pontiff’s Right Eye helps with that too!

Of course, every so often I will screw it up completely and just about die. Funny, the easiest fights were the first ones upon entering the central area. The more I fight them, the worse I get!

Those fire-casting clerics though, fuck those guys! That fire spell goes forever, including apparently through buildings.

I did enjoy fighting the crocodile dog, though. :)

1650

Hehe I just get up in the clerics knights’ faces and they can’t hang. The regular knights are ok, but if I fuck up I get fucked up. Have to be ok my toes to take them.

Oh man, that dog was a surprise.

1651

Damn, that would have been a good idea!

Oh wow, you absolutely have to do this. It’s so fucking good, and will feel great coming off of DS3.

1652

I just bought the Season Pass, so I can continue with the Ringed City at some point. I wasn’t sure at first whether I’d want to go the distance with the DLC, but I’m also enjoying this immensely. So far at least!

1653

Good choice, from what I’ve seen so far the DLC is well worth it.

1654

I’m enjoying my twinblades guy, but I found so much pyromancy stuff in the Demon Ruins I wish I’d gone pyromancer! I can see why people replay these games so much.

1655

I’m still bringing up the rear, making sure no one is left behind you guys.

I started off last night by doing the Crystal Sage fight again. I tried @krayzkrok’s trick of looking for magic protection, but sadly, my pyromancer’s outfit was already pretty much the best magic protection. I did change to a silly white hat, but that didn’t help me survive. Then I tried @Scuzz’s trick of looking for a corner to hide in so that I could shoot arrows at the fake crystal sages. And surprisingly that worked, the first time! By standing next to a pillar and shooting, the only places I was getting hit from was the overhead shots I couldn’t avoid, but those weren’t enough to kill me. So then it was just a matter of time.

Again, what a great variation, and a great boss fight. I really enjoyed that.

Then I split my time continuing in the Farron’s Keep poison areas and the Cathedral area I unlocked past the Crystal Sage. At the Cathederal, I didn’t actually open the doors, but I explored the graveyard. Man that was freaky. What an amazing moment to walk into that graveyard with my shield up, scared of what was going to be thrown at me, to encounter only some slow undead. Huh. That’s it? I’ll just plow through these guys, no problem. Huh, wait a minute, how did one get behind me? Oh my god, these guys are not staying down!

By the time I got out of that graveyard I was down to my last estus flask and really thinking I’d gone too deep. But I did manage to get out. What a great mini-adventure!

Meanwhile, back in the swamp, I found this tall ladder that leads up a tower. And from there, I was able to climb above the tree line and see the last flame that I have to extinguish. So I climbed back down and headed in that direction, only to encounter what looked in the distance like dinosaurs? What? Like old maid dinosaurs who are patrolling the area looking for their knitting needles. I don’t know how else to describe these things. I was scared to death of taking him/her on. Especially because I was still kindled from defeating the Crystal Sage, and I’d recently been told that a dark spirit had invaded my world. And apparently that prevents me from using a homeward bone.

So I said, what the hell. You’re going down old maid dinosaur! Oh shit, it noticed my arrows to it’s head! RUUUUUUUUN! Oh no, it’s firing jello at me! Not Jello! Nooooooo!

1656

Of course, 10 seconds after I’d bought it, I opened my Steam page and realised I already had Ashes of Arandiel! What the…? I must have bought it on sale at some point. I didn’t have The Ringed City, but I could have saved myself 8 bucks. D’oh!

I love this description! I had no idea what they were at first either, until they picked up their tree stumps and started throwing jello skulls in my direction. They were an enemy I generally avoided because, while I could take them down most times, I’d typically screw up when I least wanted to.

Speaking of! I managed to get past the two fire clerics and the several knights to reach what appeared to be a large cathedral with another fire cleric flanked by two knights. Time to call it a (k)night, I thought. But no, let me fire an arrow at this left hand knight and pull it, because why not. Turns out it was one of those times when I screwed up an enemy I usually kill. 15k souls are now lying in a hazardous area. Can I get them back? Tune in tomorrow…

1657

Did you happen to get DS3 from the humble monthly? If so, then yeah it came with Ashes…

1658

@Scott_Dobros, you are probably ready for the Ringed City. It does have some tough enemies but strategy probably plays a more important role. Take the time to explore the first areas, it is worth it. Also you have to find the first boss and the bonfire in front of it, so exploration is required.

The Nameless King is a bastard fight. I have never been able to do it solo. How did you figure out how to fight the first boss of the area?

Glad I could be of help.

1659

I have two weeks of “directed” overtime at work and so my playing time will drop. Well, that and next weekend should be very busy. I am currently waiting to help Anri end her story line and am near to helping Siegward end his. Anri’s is pretty easy to follow, Siegward’s not so much.

1660

There were a ton of messages all over the place saying try plunging attack. Trouble was trying to find the right place for it! Eventually I worked myself all around that opening area, and found the spot.

Was pretty tough with dragonfire everywhere.

I lost track of onion-bro after fighting off that monster in the undead settlement. Not sure where he was supposed to show up next…kinda sad about it.

I did see Anri to their end, and that was pretty satisfying.