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[zkylon]

Yup, same here....I'm trying to go through 3-1 before 2-2 but got killed by the Mind Flayers (and lost about 5000 souls in the process).

I think I'm severely underleveled....currently I'm at soul level 26 as a Knight but can't seem to upgrade from the more basic equipment. Did get the spells unlocked.

Try to sneak up and backstab those Cthulhu monsters or hide behind columns or walls and ambush when they come looking for you. There's about 5 or 6 of them in 3-1 and you can avoid many by having the right keys so it isn't so bad. I think the least Cthulhu monsters you can fight before the boss is 3, but you've got to get the keys first. Keep trying to ambush and surprise them, it worked a lot better than ranged attacks for me. Also, while you may think you're wasting time and souls by dying a lot, most Cthulhu monsters drop fresh spice, so you can think like you're actually farming those. I got about 40 of them from 3-1 and now i barely even use the fragrant ring.

And i don't know if you're underleveled. I can't seem to get any feeling of character progression from leveling up (as opposed to weapons upgrades, which have very noticeable effects) so i don't think it would make such a big difference. Explore all the worlds and get all the items you can and try different tactics.

 

[shiroryu]

Has the black tendency event started? I lent my copy to a friend and think he may have picked the worst possible time to start playing.

Yup, 17th was the date the servers switched. Till the end of the month it's happy PBWT time.

Pity him/her if the first thing done is taking a left turn in 1-1 to investigate those shiny glowy things in the distance

 

[xenoflux2113]

I totally forgot about the server forced WT in Oct. Missed the pwwt but oh well I need to go PWCT so PBWT is going to help alot in getting the last 3 rings I need and the last 2 spells I need.

 

[Mechanized]

So someone invaded my game while I was away from the game I came back and attacked him, he kept doing this thing where he'd just spin around behind me and stab me and I couldn't do anything to defend it, I wasn't even attacking. Just rolling around, guarding with my shield.

 

[alr1ght]

Old King Doran is whooping my ass.

 

[TheExplodingHead]

Old King Doran is whooping my ass.

PBWT...yeah you might want to take this advice...

Lure Old King Duran to the spot where the archer and spear guy were, if you go far enough back with the Thief Ring on he'll start going back to his area. This is your chance to attempt a decent combo on him and just retreat back there if you take too much damage. It can be a long fight but he'll eventually die. Just try not to square up with him inside the little enclosed area.

 

[Zombie James]

I lost over 38,000 souls earlier today because I fell off a cliff.

...I'll be fine.

 

[canadian crowe]

So I'm a close range fighter, now with PBWT will the boss of 1- destroy me?

 

[Grinchy]

I lost over 38,000 souls earlier today because I fell off a cliff.

...I'll be fine.

lmao I'm a silent rager in the Souls games too

 

[oracrest]

Old King Doran is whooping my ass.

Use aggressive tactics ahead

 

[alr1ght]

finished before the PBWT took effect. the world was mended.

 

[alr1ght]

So I started a NG+, beat 1-1, yet my World Tendancy is still neutral. Shouldn't it be black for everything? I tried going in the gate to the left of the start of 1-1, but it's still locked. I did log out, then back in.

had to reboot. fuck that section is hard.

 

[Apdiddy]

Out of sheer dumb luck, I managed to beat Miralda and get the Brushwood armor but I'm having to rearrange everything in my inventory to carry it, much less equip it.

Plus, some of my starter armor broke and it's too expensive to repair -- so in a panic I dropped them.

Luckily, I got the thief armor set which may help me on 3-1 (they have a high poision tolerance) but awful on defense.

I really feel I screwed up now for the rest of the game though....

 

[Callibretto]

I lost over 38,000 souls earlier today because I fell off a cliff.

...I'll be fine.

The highestamount I've lost is 60k souls in 4-2. And I've constantly lost 20-30k regularly there. I quit playing for a while

 

[Wolf Akela]

Wait it's PBWT now? Until when?

I'll turn off my PS3 wifi so I'll keep PWWT until I finish all PWWT events.

 

[Number45]

Wait it's PBWT now? Until when?

I'll turn off my PS3 wifi so I'll keep PWWT until I finish all PWWT events.

End of the month.

 

[AniHawk]

i don't think i'm playing this thing right at all. i was talked out of trading it in by the guy at gamestop, and he advised that i should play as a royal and not a soldier. so tonight i did that, killed phalanx, went to each of the x-1s, and lost probably a total of about 5k souls. upgraded my rapier into a quality rapier +2, and my buckler into a buckler +7. and i just don't think i can go any further. i'm just finding the pacing to be unbearably slow. i'm the type of guy who has always jumped into games without reading the manual first, and it feels like i'm being punished hardcore for it this time.

 

[archnemesis]

Exploring the game by yourself is half the fun. You don't need to read the manual or look up a walkthrough for your first runthrough. I usually advice people to start as a Temple Knight since waiting around for the Royal's MP to regenerate is a slow and boring process. A Temple Knight has enough stats to take a few hits and his initial equipment makes the first level easy-ish for beginners.

 

[shiroryu]

Wait it's PBWT now? Until when?

I'll turn off my PS3 wifi so I'll keep PWWT until I finish all PWWT events.

Simply don't log in to PSN...DS doesn't log you in if you're not logged in to PSN.

 

[AniHawk]

Exploring the game by yourself is half the fun. You don't need to read the manual or look up a walkthrough for your first runthrough. I usually advice people to start as a Temple Knight since waiting around for the Royal's MP to regenerate is a slow and boring process. A Temple Knight has enough stats to take a few hits and his initial equipment makes the first level easy-ish for beginners.

i would love to explore the game by myself, but i feel like i'm being actively discouraged by doing so by the game's 1980s video game philosophy. i know people who love dungeons and dragons and pore over manuals regarding stats and weapons. they'd probably love this game too (actually, i'm sure one does).

oh well. i'll give it one more solid go tomorrow, but i think this is going to be one of those things that just never clicks with me, which is too bad.

 

[DuendeSmoker]

i would love to explore the game by myself, but i feel like i'm being actively discouraged by doing so by the game's 1980s video game philosophy. i know people who love dungeons and dragons and pore over manuals regarding stats and weapons. they'd probably love this game too (actually, i'm sure one does).

oh well. i'll give it one more solid go tomorrow, but i think this is going to be one of those things that just never clicks with me, which is too bad.

Regarding weapon status, scaling and etc. the game is pretty simple actually. Upgrade stuff, stuff does more damage. Grab something that you feel confortable with, find and enemy, locate the face or equivalent, stab the face.

Besides, I'd honestly recommend searching the wiki before any manual. Everything regarding upgrades can be found there, much faster and easier than the manual.

And the click should be after Tower Knight. It usually is.

 

[Mechanized]

Figured out what was going on myself. So this is Demon's Souls PVP eh? The backstab glitch/bad design seems to be the this game's equivalent of No Scoping. =/

Otherwise I'm having great fun with the game now. When I first got it last year I was pretty discouraged, wrote the game off entirely. But after coming back to it reading about Dark Souls I've found the game really isn't hard or anything, it just has a learning curve and you have to develop some skill. Dying sucks, but you open up shortcuts to get back through levels quicker and you don't lose gear or items, only souls when you die, so it ain't that bad. Although losing 10-20k souls kinda sucks a bit. lol

I think the biggest hurdle I overcame so far was completely clearing out Tower of Latria, but not knowing where the boss was, so I took the special key and decided to try to find one of the two prisoners to see if it would free them, after about 3 hours of meticulously crawling through this hellhole killing everything and searching every corner I dropped my guard for 1 second and ended up running off a ledge to my death. I was devastated. But when I respawned I remembered all the doors I previously opened, were still opened. That's the moment I pretty much decided that I would finish the game.

Also just happening upon the brutal backstab and riposte kills/attacks made me go woah. Makes clearing out areas really easy.
Decided to finish this before buying Dark Souls. Which I'm sure will be my GOTY.

 

[Struct09]

After getting burnt out after killing Maneater and completing 3-2 over a year ago, I finally buckled down this last week and completed the game last night.

I'll start with what I liked:

-I love the methodical way you have to handle encounters. Of course it's been stated many times before and it's what people love about the game most - you have to be patient and think your way through just about everything.
-The combat system may be clunky at times, but for the most part is great. Landing hits on enemies is extremely satisfying.
-I actually really like the way you upgrade your character, and the fact that the currency for doing so is shared among everything.

But, there was one main thing that ruined the experience for me. And that's the fact that the punishment for death can mean replaying the same 30+ minute section you just played. This is why I was burnt out after 3-2 - Maneater is not an easy fight (given that you don't completely cheese it by shooting arrows through the fog). Learning the attack patterns took me a few attempts, and every time I died I had to traverse through 3-2 again - which was by far my least favorite level and it didn't have any good shortcuts. I really appreciated the levels that would throw you a bone with a shortcut, but not every level had one.

This game would have resonated with me better had I not had to replay some lengthy sections over and over. Getting through most of these sections was not difficult, just time consuming and uninteresting since I had already done them multiple times. Dying at a boss before figuring out its patterns is a pretty common occurrence in this game, and my reaction usually was "Dammit, I don't want to have to redo that level again." I think if the game had just given more shortcuts so you could quickly reach the boss without having to deal with all the other BS I would have really loved the game.

I'm undecided if I'm going to ever play Dark Souls since I know it still contains what bugged me about Demon's Souls. There's too many great games coming out that I know I'll have fun with, but maybe in the future I'll get the itch to play it since there were things about Demon's Souls that I really liked.

EDIT: As stated below, 3-2 does have a shortcut (Not sure if I missed it or if I'm just recalling my experience wrong). But my complaint about having to replay long sections over and over still stands.

 

[greyshark]

After getting burnt out after killing Maneater and completing 3-2 over a year ago, I finally buckled down this last week and completed the game last night.

I'll start with what I liked:

-I love the methodical way you have to handle encounters. Of course it's been stated many times before and it's what people love about the game most - you have to be patient and think your way through just about everything.
-The combat system may be clunky at times, but for the most part is great. Landing hits on enemies is extremely satisfying.
-I actually really like the way you upgrade your character, and the fact that the currency for doing so is shared among everything.

But, there was one main thing that ruined the experience for me. And that's the fact that the punishment for death can mean replaying the same 30+ minute section you just played. This is why I was burnt out after 3-2 - Maneater is not an easy fight (given that you don't completely cheese it by shooting arrows through the fog). Learning the attack patterns took me a few attempts, and every time I died I had to traverse through 3-2 again - which was by far my least favorite level and it didn't have any good shortcuts. I really appreciated the levels that would throw you a bone with a shortcut, but not every level had one.

This game would have resonated with me better had I not had to replay some lengthy sections over and over. Getting through most of these sections was not difficult, just time consuming and uninteresting since I had already done them multiple times. Dying at a boss before figuring out its patterns is a pretty common occurrence in this game, and my reaction usually was "Dammit, I don't want to have to redo that level again." I think if the game had just given more shortcuts so you could quickly reach the boss without having to deal with all the other BS I would have really loved the game.

I'm undecided if I'm going to ever play Dark Souls since I know it still contains what bugged me about Demon's Souls. There's too many great games coming out that I know I'll have fun with, but maybe in the future I'll get the itch to play it since there were things about Demon's Souls that I really liked.

I don't understand - to get to the boss's area don't you have to unlock the shortcuts for the level? It only takes about 90 seconds to get back to Maneater from the archstone after you've gone through the level once.

 

[Struct09]

I don't understand - to get to the boss's area don't you have to unlock the shortcuts for the level? It only takes about 90 seconds to get back to Maneater from the archstone after you've gone through the level once.

It's been a really long time since I played 3-2, but I don't remember taking any shortcuts when going to re-fight Maneater. Perhaps I missed it if there was one.

EDIT: Doing some searching, it looks like there is a shortcut in 3-2. Not sure why I remember re-playing that level so much. My complaint still holds though, there were too many sections of replaying 30+ minutes of gameplay.

 

[TheExplodingHead]

It's been a really long time since I played 3-2, but I don't remember taking any shortcuts when going to re-fight Maneater. Perhaps I missed it if there was one.

EDIT: Doing some searching, it looks like there is a shortcut in 3-2. Not sure why I remember re-playing that level so much. My complaint still holds though, there were too many sections of replaying 30+ minutes of gameplay.

When you unlock the staircase to Maneater, that is the shortcut. It has a Mindflayer black phantom guarding it. But I really do think there should have been a checkpoint system before each boss, or special option to use one. Even if you know the shortcuts/enemy avoiding it still gets tedious to simply run through levels 30+ times...

On a darker note, I just lost 190,000 souls on 4-2...to a bunch of slugs.

 

[electroshockwave]

i don't think i'm playing this thing right at all. i was talked out of trading it in by the guy at gamestop, and he advised that i should play as a royal and not a soldier. so tonight i did that, killed phalanx, went to each of the x-1s, and lost probably a total of about 5k souls. upgraded my rapier into a quality rapier +2, and my buckler into a buckler +7. and i just don't think i can go any further. i'm just finding the pacing to be unbearably slow. i'm the type of guy who has always jumped into games without reading the manual first, and it feels like i'm being punished hardcore for it this time.

So, read the manual. It's not exactly an encyclopaedia and you'll get a lot of useful information from it. The buckler is a crappy shield. It doesn't even completely block physical damage. And the rapier isn't much use either and I'd guess that you probably haven't put enough points into strength and dexterity for the Quality upgrade path to be more useful than the basic upgrades. If you picked up the crescent falchion in 4-1 I think you would be better off with it, especially if you're a mage. I made a similar mistake when I went through as a Royal of holding on to my starting weapons for too long. I went through all of Stonefang before trying anywhere else. I didn't have any spices so I was waiting around for my fragrant ring to regenerate my MP and poking Giant bearbugs with my rapier. It made the game a lot tougher than it should have been and was ultimately my fault. (Still incredibly satisfying to eventually beat Flamelurker after all that though)

 

[zkylon]

Just rescued that Yurt fella.

Spoiler

I should go kill him, right?

 

[Leunam]

Instantly.

 

[TheExplodingHead]

Just rescued that Yurt fella.

Spoiler

I should go kill him, right?

If you're into heavier armor I'd say yes, his Gloom armor has really good resistances on you're first playthrough especially for world 5.

 

[Struct09]

If you're into heavier armor I'd say yes, his Gloom armor has really good resistances on you're first playthrough especially for world 5.

You should also kill him because

Spoiler

he starts assassinating important NPC's if you don't

 

[zkylon]

Hope he's still around his cage, then.

I'm at a crossroads with my stats. I like the battlemage-like character i'm building but i don't know if i should go DEX or STR for my melee damage stat.

These are my stats right now (SL 43):
VIT 16
INT 16
END 20
STR 18
DEX 13
MAG 21
FAI 12
LUK 7

 

[TheExplodingHead]

You should also kill him because

Spoiler

he starts assassinating important NPC's if you don't

Yep, but on my first playthrough I didn't even notice/know that. I ended up killing him before world 5 just for the armor. Wasn't until my 2nd playthrough that Patches ended up dead and I found out through the wiki what happened.

 

[Struct09]

Hope he's still around his cage, then.

If you complete the stage he shows up in the Nexus. Trust me on this one, as you can see from my previous post I'm an expert on 3-2

 

[shiroryu]

When you unlock the staircase to Maneater, that is the shortcut. It has a Mindflayer black phantom guarding it. But I really do think there should have been a checkpoint system before each boss, or special option to use one. Even if you know the shortcuts/enemy avoiding it still gets tedious to simply run through levels 30+ times...

On a darker note, I just lost 190,000 souls on 4-2...to a bunch of slugs.

Ouch.

Yeah, going through a level again to get to the boss is really annoying. I love how 1-1 does it, you start off 20 seconds from the boss area, just need to unlock the 'boss gate' etc. They should've ensured that degree of awesome level design for every boss IMO.

Or gone with an archstone before the boss door instead of after it.

 

[TheExplodingHead]

Hope he's still around his cage, then.

I'm at a crossroads with my stats. I like the battlemage-like character i'm building but i don't know if i should go DEX or STR for my melee damage stat.

These are my stats right now (SL 43):
VIT 16
INT 16
END - 20
STR 18
DEX 13
MAG 21
FAI 12
LUK 7

For a battlemage-type probably bump up your dexterity to 15-18, and strength to 22. That'll allow you a lot of item/stat bonuses going forward.

Anyway, since we're sharing stats my 5th run on NG++ (balanced blueblood build SL173) is:

VIT - 40
INT - 20
END - 40
STR 60
DEX - 40
MAG - 20
FAI - 20
LCK - 13

I figure I'll easily grind my way to 15 Luck on PBWT and just keep upping it to 30 when I'm able. Only thing is going back from 3-4, 4-2 to kill the BP's gets really tedious fast after 10 consecutive times... Even with Soulsucker, Soul Thirst, Avarice ring.

 

[zkylon]

Fucking Maneater.

 

[irriadin]

I'm getting demolished on 4-2. I only made it to the boss one time out of like, 15 tries. Everytime I die, it's to the black phantoms on the passage between the two caves. Sometimes I can kill or make it past the two skeletons with the huge weapons, and then the dual katana skeleton one shots me. The only times I've managed to get past is when I snuck up behind them and backstabbed them off a cliff, but this is very difficult to do. Is there some easier way of dealing with them?

Soul level is in the 80's, I'm using a Purple Flame Shield +9 and a Moon Winged Spear +4.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

I'm getting demolished on 4-2. I only made it to the boss one time out of like, 15 tries. Everytime I die, it's to the black phantoms on the passage between the two caves. Sometimes I can kill or make it past the two skeletons with the huge weapons, and then the dual katana skeleton one shots me. The only times I've managed to get past is when I snuck up behind them and backstabbed them off a cliff, but this is very difficult to do. Is there some easier way of dealing with them?

Soul level is in the 80's, I'm using a Purple Flame Shield +9 and a Moon Winged Spear +4.

Do you have turpentine to enhance your sword with, do you have any magic spells?

The dual katana skeleton is the one before the boss right?
You can just sprint past him to the fog door.

 

[Kyleripman]

Fucking Maneater.

Firestorm is your friend with these guys.

 

[irriadin]

Do you have turpentine to enhance your sword with, do you have any magic spells?

The dual katana skeleton is the one before the boss right?
You can just sprint past him to the fog door.

I'm 95% sure I can't use turpentine on my weapon because it's a moon winged spear. I do have magic spells, but they don't do much damage at all to the monsters. Does pure black tendacy give all monsters a huge jump in damage output and resistance or something?

Also, the dual katana skeleton is actually guarding the entrance to the cave where the last reaper is hiding. I guess I'll have to play cat and mouse with him.

 

[Zoc]

Don't forget there's a black world tendency event right now, so there are extra black phantoms scattered through levels, regular enemies are tougher, and you're weaker. If you're having trouble, you might want to wait till after Halloween.

 

[neoemonk]

I beat 1-2 two days ago. I tried to go on to 1-3 but apparently I can't until I kill an archdemon.

I've been too afraid to play again since then. I just got my body back!

 

[alr1ght]

Is there a speedrun where the player doesn't spam magic?

In regards to 4-2, yes it can be a bitch. Just jump down and avoid the first room with the lurkers & repaer, lure out those first skeletons, lure out the gold skeletons one by one and kill them, make sure you have a good shield (I used the Dark Silver Shield, which is found in 5-3) and just shield/melee the Shadowlurkers, run until you get to the Reaper, kill him, then in the swamp like room, just run along the left side. Thief's Ring also prevents those flying rays from shooting you.

 

[xenoflux2113]

I beat 1-2 two days ago. I tried to go on to 1-3 but apparently I can't until I kill an archdemon.

I've been too afraid to play again since then. I just got my body back!

Once you learn to play in Soul Form there is no reason to go body form unless its for PVP. As far as progression from the 1-3 blockade I would say go to either 2 or 4. 2 has the easiest archdemon but 4 has the easier bosses.

 

[Kasumi1970]

when a i buy a ps3...i am thinking about Demon's Souls. I am playing Dark Souls om my 360 right now and i love that game. how much is the gamr play in Demon's Souls like Dark Souls?

 

[Defuser]

when a i buy a ps3...i am thinking about Demon's Souls. I am playing Dark Souls om my 360 right now and i love that game. how much is the gamr play in Demon's Souls like Dark Souls?

Almost identical except it's broken up into 5 world spanning 3 to 4 levels per world.Magic and Pyro are combined into one and they cast faster while miracles are still separate. Healing items are grass which can be farmed or bought so you can bring a shitload of them.No covenants, unlimited invasion and invaders can heal themselves,carrying equipment or items around although not wearing them affects your carrying weight.

 

[Drewfonse]

Demon's Souls is more fun and a better game than Dark Souls. There, I said it.

 

[Typographenia]

I know this is probably a biased group of people to ask, but is the soundtrack worth the extra money when buying the game?

I'm tossing the idea back and forth of picking this up some time, and I'm debating whether I go the extra step and get the ost.

 

[Defuser]

Demon's Souls is more fun and a better game than Dark Souls. There, I said it.

No need in fear to say it, Bosses are more fun,epic and have interesting concepts, PvP isn't in a broken mess or imbalanced. Stat scaling with weapon isn't broken either and some areas have better atmosphere.