Dark Souls - Demon's Souls Spiritual Successor

[Angrycoder]

Getting that article published reminded me that it’s been several years since I last played Ninja Gaiden Black. I really want to go through Dark Souls again, but I want to wait until the patch comes out with the improved lock on and phantom control fix, and of course weapon scaling.

That is a very good article Jab. NGB still holds up, I just replayed it a few months ago.

[metta]

I started the game really slowly, too. It took me a good 20 hours to ring the first bell. I spent a lot of time running back and forth through Undead Burg, finding everything and getting the hang of combat, both magical and melee. In my NG+, it took me about 30 minutes to get to the Gargoyles. This is possibly my favourite exploration game ever, making progress is about learning and discovery - you have to learn the layouts of the areas, the placements of the enemies, the best way to fight each enemy, then practice until you master it.

It’s interesting what the lack of a map does to the way I play. I have actually memorised pretty much the entire world and know all the best ways to get from point A to point B. Compare that to a game with a map, where I’ll find myself constantly opening the map so I’ll know where to go. Some of the moments where you open a certain shortcut, and it hits you that this tower is the same tower that you saw a few hours ago in another area, or that you’ve done a complete circle and the place that it took you hours to get to is directly above that other place, are just amazing. It’s such a beautifully well put together world.

This is almost the perfect game, such a rare treat in this age of ‘interactive experiences’ masquerading as games.

Nice post, and echoing some of my thoughts.

I just got to Sen’s Fortress (after taking a quick detour from Blighttown to kill Sif first time I tried it: that puppy is not fire retardant) and, wow! I love Sen’s Fortress! What a fun place to explore. Lots of traps, lots of swinging blades and pressure plates, amazing.

I love the tension between pushing on with my exploration, and heading back to cash in my souls. I don’t love it as much as Demon’s Souls (hard to compete with the first, plus I think that game is more cohesive) but this is easily one of my favourite games, all time.

[Jab]

I agree about Sen’s Fortress, that is one of my two favorite areas in Dark Souls, it just felt right with the layout, challenge and shortcut placements.

I enjoyed Dark Souls too, but the last quarter of the game tempered my enthusiasm with how it was designed, still an amazing game, but I still feel Demon’s Souls squeaks by as being better.

[SlyFrog]

Were you level 60 like the last guy that said the same? Most people here hit him around 20 I think. And yeah the dogs are what make him hard.

I just killed him on my third try, and I am around level 30. He wasn’t that hard; it’s pretty obvious you have to get the dogs out of the way first.

I still don’t “get” some of the essence of this game. Immediately prior to the Capra Demon (a level boss), I spent an hour trying and failing to kill the black knight in the basement of the Undead Burg watchtower (the one with the big mace, or whatever that weapon is with a big ball on the end of a stick). It’s odd how this game makes minor bosses considerably harder to kill than the main bosses.

[Avtar]

I just killed him on my third try, and I am around level 30. He wasn’t that hard; it’s pretty obvious you have to get the dogs out of the way first.

I still don’t “get” some of the essence of this game. Immediately prior to the Capra Demon (a level boss), I spent an hour trying and failing to kill the black knight in the basement of the Undead Burg watchtower (the one with the big mace, or whatever that weapon is with a big ball on the end of a stick). It’s odd how this game makes minor bosses considerably harder to kill than the main bosses.

Here’s the thing though. I skipped that guy, and it wasn’t until quite a bit later that I found yet another shortcut to Undead Burg. Since I was there, I did a quick run through to see what I had missed and remembered that guy. He was cake then. I feel like it’s not that the difficulty is unbalanced as much as it’s more like a Metroid/Castlevania game where you revisit places later when you are more powerful.

[Badesumofu]

That guy is a mid-game mini-boss. You only have access to him so early because you got the master key.

All the really hard encounters are full bosses. They are all soloable with the right tactics, though.

[Flying_Arrow]

It’s interesting what the lack of a map does to the way I play. I have actually memorised pretty much the entire world and know all the best ways to get from point A to point B. Compare that to a game with a map, where I’ll find myself constantly opening the map so I’ll know where to go. Some of the moments where you open a certain shortcut, and it hits you that this tower is the same tower that you saw a few hours ago in another area, or that you’ve done a complete circle and the place that it took you hours to get to is directly above that other place, are just amazing. It’s such a beautifully well put together world.

This is almost the perfect game, such a rare treat in this age of ‘interactive experiences’ masquerading as games.

First post here. Figured I’d get in on some of the Dark Souls lovin’.

I was trying to explain something like this to some of my friends a while ago, that the Dark Souls world is so big but at the same time requires absolutely no map system to keep it all together for the player. This is because every corner and turn is unique, and thinking back after a long trek you’ll recall how you came to each area. The orientation in this game is nearly flawless. Not once did I ever look at my surroundings and think, ‘shit, which way did I come from again?’ (Well, maybe one or two times in the Depths or Blighttown’s messier levels.) I recently played through Arkham Asylum again and despite having beat the game twice in the past I still found myself getting turned around, wondering if that was the door I came in or the other one.

[quatoria]

I love the fact that the world in Dark Souls doesn’t cheat. If you see something off in the distance, you can get to it. When you look back, you can see the exact route you took, exactly to scale. Everything fits together, the whole world. It’s amazing.

[ColonelT]

First time poking my head into this thread. Positively thrilled the Capra Demon is a major struggle for everyone, because now I don’t hate myself so much for spending three hours on him. Right before my successful attempt I switched to lighter armor, getting my total equipped weight down to about 30% of capacity (from 80%) and that seemed to give me the speed I needed to sprint around Capra’s right side, followed by a lucky roll between the dogs. I didn’t realize how much of burden heavy armor is – switching really made a difference.

[quatoria]

Have any of you found a decent place to PVP at higher soul levels? It seems to take forever to do an invasion or get invaded, above 100, even in Anor Londo. I’m starting to think about switching to Grave Servant, just to let the computer handle the constant connections while I go about my business, instead.

[Wallapuctus]

I beat Capra last night with some summoned buddies with my Sorcerer at level 18. I was level 13 first time I got to him, so understandably there was no one to summon. I stuck around and accrued 4 Humanities helping others kill him afterward, then headed into the depths.

I was doing fine until I got invaded. Somehow the dude invading me had a lighting battle axe and what looked like the black knight armor. What the hell? He killed me with 1 hit, which I blocked.

We danced around a bit, I had a strong position on the stairs with my greater soul arrow (I tagged him with one and it depleted 1/4 of his health), but he hid behind a pillar. So, I decided to try to bait him out into an attack, which I did, but that attack went right through my shield and killed me.

[SlyFrog]

That guy is a mid-game mini-boss. You only have access to him so early because you got the master key.

All the really hard encounters are full bosses. They are all soloable with the right tactics, though.

I don’t have the master key. I found the separate key for the tower basement.

[Anders_Hallin]

Noob question here, I’m running around the Undead Burg, and in the tower right before the Taurus Demon there was some kind of critter that ran away from me. What was that?

[Wolff]

prob a crystal gecko, they run and disappear if you don’t kill them, if you kill them you get crafting mats, they will respawn with a bonfire touch or a game reload till they are dead

[CLWheeljack]

Man, I finally got around to picking it up, and the Drake Sword seems oh so close to cheating. On the other hand, you don’t even need to read FAQs to get it, because player messages are all over the place there.

I put in some time to get some other weapons to +5, and it’s closer, but still better than anything else I have.

After hitting a wall for a while, I’ve been tremendously productive in the last couple hours. It’s always amazing how much a little change to your approach or trying a different path can just open up the game. So many sections are set up as interlocking gates where making progress in one direction gets gear that lets you progress in another, etc. When it works, it really works.

[Hanacker]

I hate this game so much right now. I’ve spent well over 3 hours trying to make it through the New Londo Ruins to cure my curse. It shouldn’t be that hard, but the combination of really narrow walkways, having half life, the ghosts having a surprisingly quick and long-ranged move, and the ghosts having an instant death move (which rarely hits, but still) has made it so that one stupid mistake pretty much means death. And I make a lot of stupid mistakes. Recently I’ve mostly been stepping off of ledges that I know are there. The camera can be an issue, as is clicking to target something and have it spin me around instead of targeting something. Also, wtf is up with having a monster targeted and in range, casting soul arrow, and having it go like 90 degrees away from where it’s supposed to? That one is pretty frustrating.

I’ve made it into the last building once with everything outside cleared and thought I was home free when I stupidly got caught by a ghost embrace. Fuck those ghosts. And fuck whoever designed them.

I could have farmed a cure 10x over by now, and after reading a FAQ there’s not really any point to continuing in this direction except the cursebite ring, but it really seems like it shouldn’t be this hard to make it to the end of the level.

[forgeforsaken]

I hate this game so much right now. I’ve spent well over 3 hours trying to make it through the New Londo Ruins to cure my curse.

Why are you trying to go through the ruins to cure your curse? You can buy a cure curse item from the guy below the first bell. Also to fight the ghosts it’s better to just use transient curses, and they have a really high drop rate from the ghosts themselves so you can usually keep a decent supply of them.

[DaveVu]

I’ve spent well over 3 hours trying to make it through the New Londo Ruins to cure my curse.

I did the exact same thing! Got cursed in the sewers and when the message explaining how to cure curses popped up, I thought it would be good time to start exploring New Londo Ruins. After dying countless times at the last building and even like two times to the last screaming ghost with the lightning spell, I finally made it up to the top only to find out that Ingward can cure curses but it costs you a humanity. I hate that place so much.

[Hanacker]

Why are you trying to go through the ruins to cure your curse?

Because it seemed like a good time to start exploring the runs. I could see those transient curses getting usEd up real quick if I went in blind.

[Wallapuctus]

The ghosts drop them, no need to frustrate yourself trying to avoid them. Just pop one off and it lasts like 10 or 15 minutes. I went into New Londo with 3 curses in my inventory and finished it with 20, just from drops.