ShivaX
2781
To be fair he is the toughest boss in the entire game and completely optional.
kroc: Did you give Kalameet a try? I beat him using the light configuration. Gold-hemmed fire-resistant clothes, below 25% burden. It was an interesting fight in that it’s a lot about camera control and being mobile. Definitely worth trying if you haven’t given it a deep try yet.
I haven’t given him a proper try, no. You know, I’ve really enjoyed playing along roughly at the same time that you have, it’s made me persevere through difficulty spikes that I might have given up on, especially in lesser games. Now that you’ve beaten the game, I’ve actually lost some of that “friendly competition” momentum that was pushing me forwards. Now I feel like I’m just trying to cross the finish line. I want to get to the bar and exchange great stories about the journey. I know we’ve been doing that all along, but go with me here!
Wait, that sounds like I’m blaming you for me giving up on Manus! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT ROCK8! ;)
dammit, I was stuck the last days on those first 2 silver archers in Anor Londo… at the beginning I fought every guardian and fly guy on the way, just to get shot to death by those archers. After 5 or 6 tries, I stopped caring about the enemies on my way to the archers, I plotted the most non-lethal way to them, and died. I switched bonfires, the second one is maybe 10 seconds closer to the first one: get the lift, run up the stairs, evade guardians, evade 3+2 fly guys, run up to the archers and get killed… one run took me maybe 1 min 15 sec. 1 min of total boredom, 15 seconds of intense panic. over and over again…
I used my stone armor to get more balance and protection, but was too slow… I used light armor and got killed, half the time I was dropping down during fight … this was definetely the most annoying part so far… Finally I got down a strategy how to not get shot by the arrows (light armor and lots of rolling), the first archer even fell on his own… the second one had no chance.
Kay did it in her second try, she is playing with light armor* all the time, guess she got lucky and developed some skills or intuition… anyway, I did it, I am in!!!
Found a secret area behind a chimney, but it was a bit dark and I felt I had enough stress…
I’ll have to give it some more thought, but I think those archers in Anor Londo were probably the most frustrated I ever got with the game.
Congrats on getting past them. If I do continue my Xbox playthrough of the game, I am NOT looking forward to doing that again.
I do feel like I abandoned you. I was going to wait on the end, but I just couldn’t stop myself. Also, if I hadn’t finished, I’d be able to go in and do some Co-op with you and take down Manus. But that’s no longer possible since I’m stuck in New Game+ now. Damn it!
By the way, you’re up too early in the morning! (I looked up Darwin’s time zone when I was thinking we’d hook up to fight Kalameet. You’re 14 hours ahead of me).
Well if you hurry, now that you know the content and are super leveled, you should be able to get back to Kalameet and Manus by - say - Tuesday?
I don’t really feel abandoned, that sounds like you dumped me in a small cardboard box with a note saying “Please feed and help defeat Manus” by an door where nobody lives.
Are you going to tackle Dark Souls 2, or are you sticking with Bloodborne?
Mind you, I still haven’t done Gwyn yet. I’ll give it a shot later this evening. I might even, you never know, give Manus another try. Maybe. Just a couple of attempts though, mainly to see if there’s a summon sign there.
Well, I already own Bloodborne, whereas I’d have to purchase Dark Souls 2. That makes me biased. Mind you I’m still not enjoying Bloodborne, but today I did manage to play for almost 40 minutes, exploring new areas the whole time, and finally reached an area which I recognized, thinking I’d finally cash in my souls, and then promptly died twice. So that whole play-session and all those souls that could have leveled me up 4 or 5 times, all lost. And I know it’s perverted, but having that big a loss, for the first time, made me want to play the game some more. It’s almost like if I quit now, it won’t be because I’m not enjoying it, it will be because the game beat me.
I wonder if that’s how Dark Souls grabbed me too?
Gendal
2789
Bloodborne >> Dark Souls 2
I should give Dark Souls 2 another try since I only got about 3/4th through if I remember correctly, but the level design isn’t anywhere close to Dark Souls and not approaching Bloodborne either.
As much as I like to bitch about Manus I would have to agree with this. I was, eventually, able to figure out Manus’ move set and I think I could beat him again without near the difficulty.
Those f’ing archers however are just cheap, cheap, cheap.
Trouble with Bloodborne is you need to buy a PS4 to play it. And while I’m sure it’s a fine machine, that’s a high cost of entry! Whereas I bought DS2 on sale for $20 AUD a couple of weeks ago, so I’ll have to settle with that. I’m tempted to jump straight to DS3, but I suspect going back to DS2 might be difficult after that.
Those Anor Londo archers weren’t as bad, for me, as I’d heard. Sure, they got me down a few times, but each time I tried I got a little bit closer to defeating them (in my case, I just used speed to get up there, and then switched to a 100% physical block shield to cope with the one on the path towards the bonfire). If only Manus gave me some sense that I was getting better at it. He’s as dispiriting as the darkness he spews from the abyss.
Scuzz
2791
Congrats. You were using the halberd before so you were probably more Dex than Strength oriented, which I guess I should have thought of when I recommended the BKS.
Scuzz
2792
I have the same problem. I cannot watch the screen, fight and defend, and at the same time rotate the items for the X button. I couldn’t use the pendent effectively in this fight and I had a heck of a time with poison healing in the first DLC fight.
Scuzz
2793
I think Dark Souls 2 has taken a bad rap. Sure it isn’t as good as DS1, but what game could be. The areas don’t mesh together as they do in DS1 and overall I don’t think the bosses are as good, but it is still worthy of 100 hours of your time. It does have at least 1 boss however that will probably send you tot he wiki’s for some advice.
Wow, that’s quite the statement.
Scuzz
2795
Okay, so I just love the whole DS world, and I have a PC that can’t play DS3. But for all the people who don’t like DS2 I just don’t get where they are coming from. For 75% of the game it is an open world, and if you enjoy exploring areas as much as fighting the bosses I think it may be just as good.
My only advice for people going from DS1 to DS2: When you first start playing, you’ll see a bunch of fog doors. Unlike in Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, you don’t want to avoid these fog doors as much as possible and then come back later. You actually want to go through them early, because if you avoid them you’re screwed.
I’m still in love with the Dark Souls universe as well. After several more fruitless attempts at Manus and Kalameet, I went back to Firelink Shrine, spoke with Frampt, put the Lord souls in the Lordvessel, and went into the Kiln of the First Flame. I knew there was a boss fight ahead, but just the simple need to walk down there and fight those progressively harder knights was enormous fun. I like that each one has a different approach. The first one seems very honourable, putting his sword up after a single hit. Pity I have no honour! BACKSTAB. The second guy hits a lot harder and is far more aggressive, but he still went down. The third guy was on a freakin’ narrow ledge. I hate that. But he went down. ;) The fourth guy had an axe - get out of here. And the fifth guy had a halberd. Sorry, too slow.
And finally, Lord Gwyn. You bastard. I can’t kill him yet. He’s a tough cookie. Like Artorias, I think it’s going to be a case of learning his moves gradually. Still, my motivation level has taken a hit. But I’ll get him. I tried parrying his attacks, but he’s either immune to it or he’s too fast for me. Can’t get behind him for a backstab. So dodging and rolling it is, then. Tempted to try the Artorias approach; <25% armour, two-hand the weapon, and just hope I don’t get hit.
Oooh! Parry! I forgot all about the Parry. I think I did that the first time in the Undead Asylum at the beginning of the game when they first had a tutorial message about it, but then forgot it completely. Are there many enemies in the game that you can parry? Even bosses?
There was a time there, around Undead Parish, when I starting parrying a lot. Got pretty good at it. It depends on the shield you have; the lighter shields are actually better at parrying (you have a slightly larger window to pull one off), and any attack that’s telegraphed well is usually easy to parry once you get the timing right (usually as it’s swinging towards you). I stopped parrying around Blighttown though, because the big guys went down easily to backstabs, and the smaller guys went down easily to a sweep / stab. I always wondered whether you could parry bosses. You certainly can with Havel, and he’s a boss right? Anything with a sword certainly, but the larger creatures / demons I’m not sure about. Timing gets really hard later in the game though, so I kinda stopped, but when I saw Gwyn with his sword I thought I could parry him. Maybe I’m out of practice, but after multiple attempts I never managed one. I realised recently that the gold hemmed robe should be good for him, as it’s somewhat fire resistant.
You might still have better luck learning to parry than trying to roll dodge. Not sure, up to you. Practice on the hollows.
