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Demon's Souls |OT2| Soulsuckingly brilliant RPG full of Demon's Crack

Knight
Soul Level 97 (was 104, before 1-4 boss)
39 hours

Vitality 37
Intelligence 23
Endurance 22
Strength 26
Dexterity 23
Magic 23
Faith 14
Luck 7

... and I'm done!

5-3 boss was really quite cool. Not really a fight, but interesting nonetheless. I've just read about the alternate way to handle her, so I'll Youtube that shortly.
1-4 was pretty fucking bad ass. First of all, I sunk about 600 arrows into
the dragon
to kill it and then the boss fucked me up. I was so surprised when he stole a soul level and I lost quite a few throughout. Somehow, I managed to defeat him, however, which felt great.

The final boss was pretty shit. I just stood there and shot soul arrows at him and he died in less than a minute. I didn't want a hard end boss for the sake of it, but a more imaginative enemy/fight would have been nice. This ties in to things that I would like to see improved in Dark Souls:

  • A better hub world. I would like it if it was out of the Nexus and in a world with villages etc. It doesn't need to be huge and open world-esque like Elder Scrolls or anything, but the Nexus is pretty dull and I don't want to spend more time in an area like it. It would be cool if there were roads that lead to each world, for example.
  • More story! Don't get me wrong, the minimalist approach to the story in this game was definitely well done, because it let you focus entirely on the levels and progression of your character, but after fighting the last boss and watching the cutscene that followed I reallised that there wasn't really a story at all. I don't want to be bogged down with cutscenes, but a better premise to push you along your journey would be nice.
  • Perhaps mid-level checkpoints for the bigger levels. A lot of levels in this game weren't too long, but even a warp point to the boss door once you got that far would've been nice on a few occasions.
  • A slightly better lock-on system. For the most part it was okay, but in groups of enemies and ones that were quite far away, sometimes I wanted better.
  • Better performance. It was completely playable and fine in most areas, but whenever there was a lot of fire or destruction going on, the framerate utterly died. I love that dragons can destroy a whole bridge, but don't show me it at 10fps!
  • A more advanced economy system. When I pick up shit I don't want/need, I should be able to sell it for some benefit, rather than just store it with some guy in the Nexus. Trading/selling would be a great addition.

With that said, those are really my only issues with the game. I could've hated it, and all of the stuff I heard about the game over the last 18 months indicated I would, but I'm glad I decided to check it out for myself as it's quite honestly one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a long time. I won't lie and say I always found it easy, because my first few posts in this thread prove I did find it too rough at the start, but I think the reputation it has for being overly hard is unfair and probably scares a lot of people away. Once I knew how to properly play the game and was a decent level, it became quite easy, honestly. The last few worlds and bosses were done without any deaths - the complete opposite to how I played for the first third of the game.

To summarise, very quickly:
  • Perfect combat. Whether it's melee, magic or ranged, it always felt so fine tuned and satisfying. I can't name another game with a better combat mechanic. Utterly amazing.
  • Fantastic level design. Each world was varied and had different atmospheres, challenges and themes. It was wonderful to explore every location, finding secrets, shortcuts or hidden characters. Only world 5 was anything less than superb.
  • Great enemies and bosses. It felt like throughout I was encountering new foes to fight, which again required different strategies, and as somebody who hates bosses (no, really, I HATE them) I have to say this game did them so well I'm thinking I don't hate the concept of bosses, just the way 99% of games do them. Some were extremely challenging, while others were more about the experience, and this mixture made me look forward to my next epic battle.
  • The soundtrack. Just beautiful.
  • The freedom it gave you to approach the levels as you saw fit. It was great I wasn't forced to play one level if I felt underpowered and was able to go explore or a new area or whatever until I felt confident enough to go back.
  • The game clearly respects you as a player. It may too obscure at times and needs to be FAQ'd on several occasions, but I'll take that over hand holding and prompts.
  • A bajillion other things.

So, as somebody who feels a bit too old to play hard games that force you to re-play sections, and a gamer that has always hated JRPGS (I hate anime art styles and turned based combat), for me to love it so much really says it all.

I've read/heard/watched literally nothing on Dark Souls, so now I must turn my attention to that to see what has changed!

Thanks for all the hints/tips I've got from various people from this thread, I really do appreciate it and you probably helped me get over that initial hump the game has. I'm going to keep checking in on this thread to see if oracrest makes much progress recording his SL1 run, though! :p
 
Yeah he took so many from me in the fight I had with him that I was partially glad I beat him first time just so I didn't have to lose another half a dozen if I fought him again!
 

Vitten

Member
Congrats on beating the game, but please do continue as you'll find NG+ to be a whole diferent beast altogether. The ennemies will hit you a LOT harder but all your experience should counter that and make for an even more intensive experience

And for the love of the Old One, please get your faith up to 16 and learn the Second Chance miracle :)
 

Johnas

Member
Wow, Flamelurker on NG+.

One hit and I'm toast. Which means I have to play perfectly.

I could do some leveling and come back to him, but nah. I got this.
I think

Soldier, SL 87, Blessed Mirdan Hammer, Yurt's Gear, high faith build.
 
Vitten said:
Congrats on beating the game, but please do continue as you'll find NG+ to be a whole diferent beast altogether. The ennemies will hit you a LOT harder but all your experience should counter that and make for an even more intensive experience

And for the love of the Old One, please get your faith up to 16 and learn the Second Chance miracle :)
I have a big stack of games I need to see to, which rules out a NG+ playthrough right now. It will happen sometime, though, I'm just not sure when.
 
I'm curious if is still possible to play this game alone? I just got a PS3 recently and have been playing White Knight. Wasn't sure if this game was still playable.
 

Joei

Member
Foliorum Viridum said:
1-4 was pretty fucking bad ass. First of all, I sunk about 600 arrows into
the dragon
to kill it and then the boss fucked me up. I was so surprised when he stole a soul level and I lost quite a few throughout. Somehow, I managed to defeat him, however, which felt great.

Overall, Bolteria was my favorite set of levels. I absolutely loved the setting, the mood, and the enemies in these levels. The dragons were awesome, the bosses were cool, just everything about them rocked. I liked Stonefang a lot as well, but I wish it was a bit longer, or rather, had another level with it.

I'm really curious and excited for the levels and enemies they're going to cook up for Dark Souls.

Johnas said:
Wow, Flamelurker on NG+.

One hit and I'm toast. Which means I have to play perfectly.

I could do some leveling and come back to him, but nah. I got this.
I think

Soldier, SL 87, Blessed Mirdan Hammer, Yurt's Gear, high faith build.


Flamelurker can be a tough cookie on the second playthrough. I don't specifically remember how I beat him since it was almost a year ago, but I remember he gave me the hardest time of all the bosses the second time around.


ShikaTheReaper said:
I'm curious if is still possible to play this game alone? I just got a PS3 recently and have been playing White Knight. Wasn't sure if this game was still playable.

Honestly, I never used the multiplayer features and thought this game was a blast, by far my favorite game on PS3. I actually ended up disconnecting PSN when I played DS so I could play my second playthrough offline so I could better manage world tendencies. You'll understand what I'm talking about when you start playing the game.
 
Joei said:
Overall, Bolteria was my favorite set of levels. I absolutely loved the setting, the mood, and the enemies in these levels. The dragons were awesome, the bosses were cool, just everything about them rocked. I liked Stonefang a lot as well, but I wish it was a bit longer, or rather, had another level with it.
It was incredibly awesome.

I think my favourite few levels would go something like 3-1, 1-3, 1-1, 2-1, 1-4, 4-1, 3-2...

I like the larger levels, for sure. The design of them really shines then. In a way I like the length was varied, but the shorter ones are less memorable. It's actually not a very long game when you think about it, you just spend so much time dying in the first ten hours it feels like it is!
 

Johnas

Member
Joei said:
Flamelurker can be a tough cookie on the second playthrough. I don't specifically remember how I beat him since it was almost a year ago, but I remember he gave me the hardest time of all the bosses the second time around.

I just got half his life down by using the pillar strategy (which some might consider cheese, but I'm not using a shield, and it's still pretty difficult), which is how I killed him the previous playthrough. My very first playthrough a year or so ago I totally cheesed him when he got stuck behind some of the bones near the entrance. This way is actually really intense and fun.
 
Joei said:
Overall, Bolteria was my favorite set of levels. I absolutely loved the setting, the mood, and the enemies in these levels. The dragons were awesome, the bosses were cool, just everything about them rocked. I liked Stonefang a lot as well, but I wish it was a bit longer, or rather, had another level with it.

I'm really curious and excited for the levels and enemies they're going to cook up for Dark Souls.




Flamelurker can be a tough cookie on the second playthrough. I don't specifically remember how I beat him since it was almost a year ago, but I remember he gave me the hardest time of all the bosses the second time around.




Honestly, I never used the multiplayer features and thought this game was a blast, by far my favorite game on PS3. I actually ended up disconnecting PSN when I played DS so I could play my second playthrough offline so I could better manage world tendencies. You'll understand what I'm talking about when you start playing the game.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna pick this up this Friday and play it after i finish white knight. Also can I get all the trophies offline?
 
So I beat the game for the first time about a month ago before having to stop for exams.
Now I'm back and starting ng+ and I think I may be severely lacking in the stats department, particularly vitality. I was hoping someone could give me some recommendations.

SL: 88

Vit: 22
Int: 30
End: 23
Str: 30
Dex: 20
Mag: 20
Fth: 16
Lck: 7


This is my first character so the stats aren't going to be great, it was just amazing to beat the game.
My main weapon is the DBS, I have Ancient King's Armour but can't roll properly with DBS so I stick to Black Leather.
 

Raide

Member
Damn, I hate every time this thread is bumped. :D

I wanted to replace a few PC bits but instead, I am thinking about buying a PS3 to play Demon's Souls. Even with Dark Souls a few months out, I am really tempted.
 

bone_and_sinew

breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
Apple Sauce said:
So I beat the game for the first time about a month ago before having to stop for exams.
Now I'm back and starting ng+ and I think I may be severely lacking in the stats department, particularly vitality. I was hoping someone could give me some recommendations.

SL: 88

Vit: 22
Int: 30
End: 23
Str: 30
Dex: 20
Mag: 20
Fth: 16
Lck: 7


This is my first character so the stats aren't going to be great, it was just amazing to beat the game.
My main weapon is the DBS, I have Ancient King's Armour but can't roll properly with DBS so I stick to Black Leather.

Your endurance HAS to be 40 if you're melee. 40 is when the stamina bar caps. I'd also put a lot into vitality. There's no point in having intelligence that high if your magic is going to mediocre. I'd de-level magic to your class default, maybe keep enough int to use second chance (18) and faith at 20. Also I'd put strength at 36. I'm not sure what I'd do with dexterity though.

So something like:

Vit: 40 at least
Int: 18
End: 40
Str: 36
Dex: ???
Mag: class default
Fth: 20
Lck: class default
 
Apple Sauce said:
So I beat the game for the first time about a month ago before having to stop for exams.
Now I'm back and starting ng+ and I think I may be severely lacking in the stats department, particularly vitality. I was hoping someone could give me some recommendations.

DBS is the Dragon Bone Smasher, right? I don't have any experience using that--is it good in PvE? If it is and you want to continue using it I recommend you level up strength, endurance and vitality. I think HP is good at 50 vitality and stamina is capped at 40 endurance. You should start getting large diminishing returns on attack bonus derived from strength at about 45-50.

Your stats are so spread out though, I recommend you start a new character or severely de-level your current. You usually only want spread out stats if you're going for a Blueblood Sword build which has a 18/18/18/18 stat requirement and gets an increase in both physical and magical damage from luck. Otherwise, you generally want to level 2-3 stats, and get the minimum required for the weapons you are going to use in other stats.

Raide said:
Damn, I hate every time this thread is bumped. :D

I wanted to replace a few PC bits but instead, I am thinking about buying a PS3 to play Demon's Souls. Even with Dark Souls a few months out, I am really tempted.

You should, while the servers are still up.
 
bone_and_sinew said:

Ok, it's good to know what to concentrate on. Thanks for the help.

Giriath_89 said:
DBS is the Dragon Bone Smasher, right? I don't have any experience using that--is it good in PvE? If it is and you want to continue using it I recommend you level up strength, endurance and vitality. I think HP is good at 50 vitality and stamina is capped at 40 endurance. You should start getting large diminishing returns on attack bonus derived from strength at about 45-50.

Your stats are so spread out though, I recommend you start a new character or severely de-level your current. You usually only want spread out stats if you're going for a Blueblood Sword build which has a 18/18/18/18 stat requirement and gets an increase in both physical and magical damage from luck. Otherwise, you generally want to level 2-3 stats, and get the minimum required for the weapons you are going to use in other stats.

I'm not really that experienced with the game so I can't say if DBS is good in PVE or not. I'd like to keep it though. I should have looked up some stat advice before playing. I guess I thought it would be good to have more spread out stats. Maybe I'll start a new character, I've never heard of de-leveling before though, after checking the wiki it seems like it might be hard to do since I can't get my ps3 online where I am atm.


FTH said:
5-2 is such shit.


Yeah, 5-2 is terrible. I normally just stock up on Royal Lotuses and run through. On the other hand, I really liked 5-3. I think it's one of the most emotionally engaging levels of the game.
 
Apple Sauce said:
Yeah, 5-2 is terrible. I normally just stock up on Royal Lotuses and run through. On the other hand, I really liked 5-3. I think it's one of the most emotionally engaging levels of the game.

Won't HP regen items cancel out the damage from the poison?

Figuring out Dark Souls will be so good. I hope the CE guide won't be too extensive though. Explaining items and general game mechanics is fine--providing walkthroughs right out the box is not.
 
Giriath_89 said:
Won't HP regen items cancel out the damage from the poison?

I don't know about cancel out. When I tried it it seemed the Regenerator's Ring almost kept up with the damage but not quite so you still lost hp but a lot more gradually. It's been a few weeks since I last played though, so I'm not sure.
 
Apple Sauce said:
I don't know about cancel out. When I tried it it seemed the Regenerator's Ring almost kept up with the damage but not quite so you still lost hp but a lot more gradually. It's been a few weeks since I last played though, so I'm not sure.

Blessed weapons have a lot of HP regen that increases as you upgrade them. The Adjudicator's shield
obtained in 4-1
also has HP regen, that can be upgraded using Colorless Demon's souls, of which a maximum of 10 can be obtained per playthrough.

There's also a HP regen miracle called "Regeneration" which can be learned with Swollen Demon's soul, that will regenerate 1% of a character's max HP per second, that lasts 100 seconds.
 

bone_and_sinew

breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
Adjudicator's Shield+5 definitely cancels out the poisoning hp drain, I'm using it with my Faith build in 5-2 right now.

Apple Sauce said:
Maybe I'll start a new character, I've never heard of de-leveling before though, after checking the wiki it seems like it might be hard to do since I can't get my ps3 online where I am atm.

Well if you're able to get online sometime, shoot me a pm and I'll de-level you with my mage build.
 
what is the benefit of the purple shield over the king doran shield?

i decided to build up a bit more before i fight king allant . i finally got my level up so i could use the meat cleaver weapon. it's pretty sweet because the R2 feature is a diagonal slash which makes it very handy in tight tunnels.

the old hero boss fight was the new easiest fight using the thiefs ring. dude didn't even get near me at all as long as i walked and didn't run.
 

one85x

Member
FrenchMovieTheme said:
what is the benefit of the purple shield over the king doran shield?

i decided to build up a bit more before i fight king allant . i finally got my level up so i could use the meat cleaver weapon. it's pretty sweet because the R2 feature is a diagonal slash which makes it very handy in tight tunnels.

the old hero boss fight was the new easiest fight using the thiefs ring. dude didn't even get near me at all as long as i walked and didn't run.
King Doran shield? The main benefit of the PFS is it's flame resistance.
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
Knight
I was so surprised when he stole a soul level and I lost quite a few throughout. Somehow, I managed to defeat him, however, which felt great.

Kudos for keeping a clear head when confronted with the soul stealing. I think when I played him for the first time and he soul sucked me it freaked me out so much that he easliy finished me off.
 
My initial response was to warp back to the Nexus, but I figured if I did that I'd just be delaying the inevitable, so I went from spamming him with soul arrows (which really didn't work that well) and just started fighting him with my shield and sword. He actually isn't that hard once you learn his attacks (roll when he warps to you quickly, run away when he's about to put out that big explosion attack, etc) but man, when you see your soul level drain away it definitely is unsettling!
 

chunk3rvd

Member
oracrest said:
If your going to get PB for world 2, then you might as well do that now, and increase your chance of rare drops while you farm for them.

Are you saying that PB increses the rate of rare drops? If so I'll take it to PB now then, farm my stones, upgrade my bow, then take a crack at scivir
 

Vitten

Member
chunk3rvd said:
Are you saying that PB increses the rate of rare drops? If so I'll take it to PB now then, farm my stones, upgrade my bow, then take a crack at scivir


Yes, black tendency gives much better drop rates for stones. Pretty much a necessity for getting spiderstone from the guys in the 2-2 tunnel or you can waste hours.

But you don't need a bow or some other cowardly strat for Scirvir, it's a very fun melee battle. Just keep a safe distance first and dodge all his fire attacks with quickrolls until he runs out of mana after a few minutes. Then get close with your shield up, wait til his attack deflects of your shield and then counterattack.
 
so King Allant is beating the fuck out of me every time i go to fight him.

finally hit a roadblock in this game :(

Got sick of getting the floor wiped with my face by him so i decided to make a new character and have some fun.

Went with a Royal and yes... it's like playing on easy mode with one.

Soul Arrow Soul Arrow Soul Arrow ..... what happened to everyone in 1-1 ? oh that's right they are dead.

I also fucked my stats on this character so I guess I really should just start over with the Royal.

though I bet a straight out magician would be a fun time too.
 

oracrest

Member
MidnightRider said:
so King Allant is beating the fuck out of me every time i go to fight him.

finally hit a roadblock in this game :(

The biggest mistake you can make is to keep close to him. You have to attack in 2 or 3 hit flurries (sometimes just 1 hit), always maintaining emergency stamina, and retreat.

When close, he will use his soul suck spell, and his quick 3 swing attack. those are his most powerful moves. By keeping distance as much as possible, all you really have to do is roll dodge his rush, and green beams swipe. Occasionally his lunging stab, but this seems to be a rare move. Like the Tower Knight, many of his attacks are dependent on your distance, so by keeping away, you can in essence control his attack patterns somewhat. The rush is easy to dodge through once you figure out the timing of it, and since he telegraphs it so much, that shouldn't be difficult. He always rushes straight for you, so there is no getting out of the way. You have to roll through his swipe. Rolling against the direction of his swipe, which is always the same, makes the move easier. After you roll, come up swinging. Just a couple hits, then fall back. 49 % of my hits against him are after he does this. also, when he goes to do his super explosion attack, don't run away, but go attack him 2 or 3 times. This is where 49% of my attacks come in to. the other 2% randomly during the fight. After you do this, he will want to go offensive on you bad, so attack enough to knock him out of the blast attack, then fall back ASAP. Most likely, he will go into the 3 strike attack, which is devestating if you do even a single attack too much. It works against you in timing, and also drains your stamina so you can't roll back through this flurry. You want to be able to roll 2 or 3 times in a row at any given time.
Hope that helps! That's my strategy.
 
i thought the maneater wasn't too bad but now i've been knocked off the ledge and then he called his bro to help him which was surprising so i have to regroup and destroy these dickbags
 

oracrest

Member
MidnightRider said:
Thanks for the help.

About to go try it out on him and see whats going on.

I've been soul sucked so many times by him :(

I've only ever been soul sucked once by him, in all my playthroughs. I don't know why it hasn't happened as much to me, but it has been easy enough to just dodge through his grab, or back away from it. I must be lucky...
 
King Asshole is making me hate This game. Fuck that long ass run just to get beaten to death by him


I'm about to say fuck this game and be a quitter.
 

daffy

Banned
FrenchMovieTheme said:
i thought the maneater wasn't too bad but now i've been knocked off the ledge and then he called his bro to help him which was surprising so i have to regroup and destroy these dickbags
hahaha. I lol'd
 

Facism

Member
ShikaTheReaper said:
I'm curious if is still possible to play this game alone? I just got a PS3 recently and have been playing White Knight. Wasn't sure if this game was still playable.

I pretty much played the game alone until i wanted to sort out my character tendancy. Essentially helped living players fight invaders hoping i'd get the kill and shift my CT. Was a crazy event where the guy's world was invaded by 3 guys simultaneously. That was a fucking tussle that was won with homing soul arrow :D
 
FTH said:
hahaha. I lol'd

well i ended up beating them on my 4th try due to some kind of glitch. i kicked the first ones ass and then he summoned his friend but he got stuck behind the fog somehow so he didn't come out at all. i killed the first one and then walked over to where he was stuck in the fog and after i shot him he came out but i made quick work of him.

the old monk was the 2nd easiest boss in the game. my body is now ready for king allant again
 

test_account

XP-39C²
MidnightRider said:
King Asshole is making me hate This game. Fuck that long ass run just to get beaten to death by him


I'm about to say fuck this game and be a quitter.
I used the poison cloud spell on him. It is a cheap way to beat him and it can take quite some time (maybe sound like 10-20 minutes), but i didnt want to lose a lot of soul levels on him :\
 

Johnas

Member
Whooped Flamelurker on NG+ earlier this morning, amazing battle. I did end up using my Purple Flame Shield +3 to help me get through it. Blessed Mirdan Hammer +5 took off 278 HP each hit (don't know if that's really good or bad, but it seemed good).

I could probably find this somewhere on the wiki, but I'll just ask here, why can't I use turpentine or sticky white stuff on my Blessed Mirdan Hammer +5? I wasn't sure if it was because it was a fully maxed out weapon in general, or the fact that it's blessed, or what the reason was exactly. Not a huge deal, but I'm curious.

I still have not used magic (or miracles) in this game except for heal and occasionally warding, I need to play around with spells on my next playthrough.
 

B-Genius

Unconfirmed Member
Johnas said:
Whooped Flamelurker on NG+ earlier this morning, amazing battle. I did end up using my Purple Flame Shield +3 to help me get through it. Blessed Mirdan Hammer +5 took off 278 HP each hit (don't know if that's really good or bad, but it seemed good).

I could probably find this somewhere on the wiki, but I'll just ask here, why can't I use turpentine or sticky white stuff on my Blessed Mirdan Hammer +5? I wasn't sure if it was because it was a fully maxed out weapon in general, or the fact that it's blessed, or what the reason was exactly. Not a huge deal, but I'm curious.

I still have not used magic (or miracles) in this game except for heal and occasionally warding, I need to play around with spells on my next playthrough.
Thank you for this! He just pounded me on my NG+ and I needed a decent strategy to make another attempt. My trusty Scraping Spear is simply not the right tool.

And FMT, your posts are great. For some reason I imagine your avatar as the guy behind all the armour, going in against Maneaters and going "dickbags..." haha.
 

Sword Familiar

178% of NeoGAF posters don't understand statistics
MidnightRider said:
King Asshole is making me hate This game. Fuck that long ass run just to get beaten to death by him

Although most people will advice against it, I always just turn the system off if I die against him, then reload. You'll start in the elevator before it goes up and will maintain everything you had prior to the fight, including lost souls/soul levels etc.. Call it cheating if you must, but it saves me the trouble of going all the way back there again, at least.
 

Johnas

Member
B-Genius said:
Thank you for this! He just pounded me on my NG+ and I needed a decent strategy to make another attempt. My trusty Scraping Spear is simply not the right tool.

I thought I might clarify that those were two-handed hits, by the way. Also, make extra sure you have the thief's ring equipped if you want the occasional break from his attacks.
 
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