SO, over the past few days I've played the ever loving shit out of Dark Souls.
Some spoilers follow so if you haven't beaten the game yet you might want to skip the rest.
I finished up Demon Ruins and beat the Centipede Demon, that was a fun fight but I hate lava. Or rather I did, now with my reward it isn't bad. Then explored all over Izalith, those large dudes aren't any kind of fun so I just avoided most of them. Explored and fought all the way to the shortcut between Demon Ruins and Izalith. Poor Solaire, I didn't like it but I had to put him out of his misery.
Entered the Bed of Chaos boss room and much to my surprise I one shot him. Didn't even die once, took me awhile to figure out what to do but just being careful during the fight made it surprisingly easy. Had 8 estus flasks on me too so that helped as well.
So now I had three of the souls for the lordvessel. Next it was time to finally explore the Tomb of Giants. I had wandered in there before but the darkness convinced me to put it off. I carefully worked my way around the darkness using my lantern, killing skeleton giants, sliding down pillars, got kicked down that pit, etc. Oh and fuck those skeleton dogs. Much to my surprise I managed to not die at all, I carefully advanced and retreated to bonfires when I had to. Well, I didn't die until I got down to the bottom, then a skeleton hiding around a corner kicked me off the ledge while I was attacking an archer. Damn sneaky skeletons. But I returned and quickly (and vengefully) dispatched of the lot. My next death was just ahead though, found a bunch of pinwheel looking demons who distracted me from the REAL danger down there:
baby skeletons. They surrounded me and slowly staggered me to death, lol. Once again I returned and carefully got my revenge.
And then I came upon Gravelord Nito. What a cool looking boss, I died a few times to him learning the ins and outs of the fight, and dealing with his minions. Eventually I did beat him, but it took me a careful long battle and a bit of patience in order to do so. What a fun fight though.
So now I had all four of the lordvessel souls. But I didn't put the last one in yet, I don't know if the game ends after that or not, so I'm going to run around cleaning up loose ends before doing so.
Which brought me back to Anor Londo and the huge painting. I had the doll and I knew it had something to do with that paining, so I went to explore it and got myself sucked into it. And then learned that I was trapped in it, LOL. No other way but forward then. The Painted World was a cool area. Short, sweet, but interesting. Died a few times to those poison firebreathers and also to those annoying birdmen. Learned how to deal with both after a few fatal mistakes. I figured out how to get every soul I could see, some of them took some careful platforming. Attacked the undead dragon like the one down in Valley of Drakes, and carefully one shot him by using the stone wall for protection. Was angry to find more skeleton wheels down in the sewers, lol. Then I had a 300 re-enactment with some Spartan Skeletons, that was a fun fight actually. Eventually I found the large spear wielding lady in white, prepared for battle, and then discovered that I don't have to fight her at all. I simply walked out of the painting, hah. I don't know if I was supposed to kill her or not, I may go back and try it.
But she was so polite. Maybe I'll just let her live.
Now I found myself with only one place I could think of that was left to explore before putting the last soul into the lordvessel: The Great Hollow. I had found it while down in Blighttown long ago but never went back to explore it, so now was the time. This area was tricky, fell to my death many times while attempting to find hidden areas and shortcuts and such. There are still a few souls I can't find my way to, but shelved them for now and instead worked my way down deeper into the tree. Carefully dispatched curse frogs along the way and was amused to find more of the mushroom people from Darkroot Basin down here. I wasn't so amused when they punched my ass to death over and over again. But I cleared them out and then found myself walking into Ash Lake, which is one of the most pretty yet serene places I've seen yet in the game.
And that's where I am now. I've no idea how deep this Great Hollow goes, or where Ash Lake will lead me too. I do know there is a huge hydra in the distance, and he doesn't look friendly. But I get the feeling I'm near the end of the game. I feel overpowered most of the time now, and most of my deaths are more due to lack of tactics than anything else, once I learn how to fight a new enemy it goes pretty smoothly. I'll probably be putting in that last soul into the lordvessel in a day or two, no idea what will happen after that but it "feels" like the end is near.
