Support NeoGAF

[Draft]

I would not call this a knock against Demon's Souls, but like most RPGs, the difficulty sort of goes out of whack near the end. The enemies in 1-3 and 1-4 can be pretty scary. The assassins are tough, the red eye knights are tough, and I guess the fat officials are still kind of scary. But you are so much scarier at that point. I was one shotting assassins with Soulbrandt.

The early bits, most of the *-1 worlds, can be pretty terrifying, because death is inevitable and frequent. Even during some of the *-2 worlds, I was evacuating before bosses because I was straight scared of losing souls.

But by the time I was doing the *-3 worlds, it was like fuck it. I would run right through, go into the bosses room with 40-50k souls, whup him up, and move on.

 

[Zzoram]

Ya the scariest part of most worlds is the x-1 level since it's your first experience in a new type of environment with new types of enemies. Once you learn their behaviour things get easier. Also by the time you do x-3 or x-4 levels your character also has much better gear and a higher level so that helps make them easier.

 

[iam220]

What class did you start with? Well after beating 1-1 you're allowed to level up. I think you have to talk to the Monumental first (top floor of Nexus sitting in a circular room with dead monks) then talking to the Maiden lets you spend souls to increase stat points. The blacksmith also lets you repair/upgrade weapons. What is giving you trouble in 1-2?

Some people do 2-1 and even 2-2 before 1-2.

I'm using a melee class, I forget which one exactly .. I think it was knight but I may be mistaken. Its the dogs that are doing me in. I beat them a few times by fighting them in that narrow tunnel but only to be fried by the dragon later on. I had like 2k souls going into 1-2 but have since lost them ... I guess that means I'm screwed for that level up eh?

 

[Draft]

BTW, I do agree the game is more fun when you focus on melee fighting rather than magic. That didn't stop me from cheesing a bunch of bosses with firestorm though.

 

[Zzoram]

I'm using a melee class, I forget which one exactly .. I think it was knight but I may be mistaken. Its the dogs that are doing me in. I beat them a few times by fighting them in that narrow tunnel but only to be fried by the dragon later on. I had like 2k souls going into 1-2 but have since lost them ... I guess that means I'm screwed for that level up eh?

You may want to try your hand at 2-1 first since I think it's a bit easier (except for the fat officials that throw fireballs).

2K souls is super easy to farm back. You could replay 1-1, take the shortcut door left of the boss door to go upstairs to the Blue Eye Knight and kill him for ~400 souls + ~200 from the Dreglings along the way for a total around 600. The whole process takes like 5 minutes max, probably less, and there are much better/faster ways to farm once you get stronger and unlock more areas.

The second pass of the dragon is getting you? Make sure you hold O to run across the bridge. Also, do the thing where you bait the dragon to do a pass, back up until the dragon starts to return to it's perch, THEN start your real run across to get maximum time.

If you're playing melee, the best thing to put points into early on is Endurance since you need the stamina (maxes out at 40 End). Also note, if you are wearing too much weight in armor so that your equpped weight is more than half of the allowed equp weight (based on End) then I think you can't run as long and lose the ability to roll quickly. Ignore items/enemies along the dragon path, just run your ass across.

Why did this thread get moved to Community? It's primarily single player focused and mostly what we talk about.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Why did this thread get moved to Community? It's primarily single player focused and mostly what we talk about.

Yeah, that's pretty weird.

 

[Ifrit]

The only thing everyone must know is, in 3-2 you free Yurt. Don't let him go back to Nexus alive. He kills other vendor NPCs making the game way harder.

Wait a minute, I finished 3-2 but I never found Yurt, is he hidden somewhere? I know how he looks like but I don't remeber finding anyone in that level. Or does he just frees himself once I finish it?

 

[vehn]

Yeah especially with the servers shutting down in (supposedly) 4 months

 

[iam220]

You may want to try your hand at 2-1 first since I think it's a bit easier (except for the fat officials that throw fireballs).

2K souls is super easy to farm back. You could replay 1-1, take the shortcut door left of the boss door to go upstairs to the Blue Eye Knight and kill him for ~400 souls + ~200 from the Dreglings along the way for a total around 600. The whole process takes like 5 minutes max, probably less, and there are much better/faster ways to farm once you get stronger and unlock more areas.

The second pass of the dragon is getting you? Make sure you hold O to run across the bridge. Also, do the thing where you bait the dragon to do a pass, back up until the dragon starts to return to it's perch, THEN start your real run across to get maximum time.

If you're playing melee, the best thing to put points into early on is Endurance since you need the stamina (maxes out at 40 End). Also note, if you are wearing too much weight in armor so that your equpped weight is more than half of the allowed equp weight (based on End) then I think you can't run as long and lose the ability to roll quickly. Ignore items/enemies along the dragon path, just run your ass across.

I Shall do all that you say, thanks for the write up!

Why did this thread get moved to Community? It's primarily single player focused and mostly what we talk about.

*shrug* I think the forums is taking the wrong approach with the whole "Community" thing. I feel it would be better if we had a forum section for news/discussion and one for OT's. Not sure why there's this arbitrary divide between online and not.

 

[Zzoram]

Yeah especially with the servers shutting down in (supposedly) 4 months

Are there any single player games in Community OTHER than this? The servers shutting down will make it a fully single player game in a few months so the timing of this move is really poor. Who moved it? Why? Can it be moved back?

 

[Dambrosi]

Why did this thread get moved to Community? It's primarily single player focused and mostly what we talk about.

I never post in this thread, but my love for the Game Of Games compels my protest.

 

[Degen]

Yeah especially with the servers shutting down in (supposedly) 4 months

wat. I just ordered it online during the Black Friday sale...

 

[Sotha Sil]

wat. I just ordered it online during the Black Friday sale...

It's a great single player game; the online aspect is just bonus. I played it offline for a few months and had a blast. No worries.

 

[Zzoram]

wat. I just ordered it online during the Black Friday sale...

Don't worry, the servers are guaranteed to be up until AT LEAST the end of March 2011 and could be up longer if the game stays popular enough. There isn't much to be lost without online. Just random notes on the floor from strangers who may or may not be lying, summoning blue phantoms to help you with a boss when you're in body form (but not being able to communicate with them in any way), and getting invaded and killed while in body form going through a level. Oh and offering yourself up as a blue phantom when you're in soul form.

 

[Nirolak]

Why did this thread get moved to Community? It's primarily single player focused and mostly what we talk about.

This is a fair question that I figured people would ask, and it relates back to the motivation for moving threads to the Community forum and renaming it in general.

Basically, the issue that first motivated us to look at moving threads is that we had approximately 20-30 constantly posted in threads on the front page of the forum, making it very hard for new news or threads that weren't these constantly posted in threads to get noticed. These 20-30 threads would also have to compete to stay on the front page with the constant churn of new threads about everything else, and would be hard to find for anyone who wasn't subscribed, and for those who were subscribed, their location never really mattered.

Now, most threads that had this tendency were threads with online multiplayer components that people played for years, however, there were a few others that fit this behavior, but lacked online multiplayer, such as the AusGAF thread. When we looked at all the threads, we noticed that the unifying factor for all of them was that they consisted of a sizable subgroup of the forum that liked to talk about a singular topic in a singular thread very frequently, or in other words, things that had an active community.

However, all OTs did not fit this behavior, as OTs for singleplayer heavy games would normally get posted in for a few weeks and then pretty much only come back once in a blue moon. Moving these threads to the Community forum would only serve to clutter the community forum and make it harder to find the threads with active communities, and thus defeat half the purpose of the split in the first place. As it stands today, you can actually see every active community right on the front page of the community forum, which is very convenient.

Now, as to the reason Demon's Souls thread was moved, it's because Demon's Souls is a rather special game. Despite being a singleplayer game, the thread has a vibrant community of people who play the game for hundreds of hours and constantly discuss it, much the same way people discuss and interact in more online oriented titles. Due to this, despite being a singleplayer game, the OT has really become a community thread, and thus got moved to the Community forum.

 

[oracrest]

Now, as to the reason Demon's Souls thread was moved, it's because Demon's Souls is a rather special game. Despite being a singleplayer game, the thread has a vibrant community of people who play the game for hundreds of hours and constantly discuss it, much the same way people discuss and interact in more online oriented titles. Due to this, despite being a singleplayer game, the OT has really become a community thread, and thus got moved to the Community forum.

I think you guys are getting a bit organization OCD with this kind of stuff. One of the best things about Demon's Souls was how successful it became through word of mouth. Go back through both OT threads, and there were always people starting the game for the first time on every page (many of them giving it a chance because having seen the thread so often in the "gaming" discussion.)

Now it's in a section of GAF that I never go to because I imagine it's just people trading usernames for primarily online games :/

 

[Sotha Sil]

Now, as to the reason Demon's Souls thread was moved, it's because Demon's Souls is a rather special game. Despite being a singleplayer game, the thread has a vibrant community of people who play the game for hundreds of hours and constantly discuss it, much the same way people discuss and interact in more online oriented titles. Due to this, despite being a singleplayer game, the OT has really become a community thread, and thus got moved to the Community forum.

Hmm. Fair enough. It's a tad disappointing though. I wouldn't have bought Demon's Souls if it wasn't for the OT; can't picture somebody discovering the game on NeoGAF now. Ah well.

 

[Nirolak]

I think you guys are getting a bit organization OCD with this kind of stuff. One of the best things about Demon's Souls was how successful it became through word of mouth. Go back through both OT threads, and there were always people starting the game for the first time on every page (many of them giving it a chance because having seen the thread so often in the "gaming" discussion.)

Now it's in a section of GAF that I never go to because I imagine it's just people trading usernames for primarily online games :/

Minecraft, League of Legends, and Blazblue are also three other really fantastic games that live entirely on word of mouth. However, if these four games are constantly sitting on the first page, it makes it that much harder for other fantastic games that live on word of mouth to ever get noticed. Demon's Souls OT has been getting coverage on the front page of Gaming for over a year now, and by moving it, we allow other hidden gems the chance to shine.

It's entirely true that the Gaming forum gets a lot more traffic than the community forum. This is why official threads get to spend a sizable amount of time in the Gaming forum before they ever get moved to the Community forum, even if they're games that will obviously be heavily focused on community activity. However, this is also the reason we renamed the Community forum, made it publicly viewable, and moved so many high profile threads to it. We don't want the Community forum to be a death sentence, and the only way to change its perception and make it a viable forum is to drive a lot more traffic to it.

We were actually considering moving the Demon's Souls thread with the first batch of threads, but since we had the same concern you did, we decided to wait and only move the extremely super high volume threads at first. What we found out though was that the threads we moved barely seemed to change the amount of traffic they got, especially after people noticed what happened relatively quickly. So for that reason, we feel comfortable moving threads like this to the Community forum without the risk of them dying or having an especially large impact on the number of new people who come to check out a word of mouth dependent game that has been out for a while.

If a thread does totally die due to getting moved, we can always move a thread back to Gaming later, but for now, let's see how this goes for a few weeks.

 

[electroshockwave]

So I've a few possibly dumb questions. How do I change which items I have for quick use on the square button? I'm on a Royal build, is it possible to learn all spells on my first playthrough?

And even though having Soul Arrow kind of feels like easy mode compared to the little I played as a Temple Knight I kind of think I should specialise. Is it advisable to go entirely magic focused with my stats?

 

[Zzoram]

So I've a few possibly dumb questions. How do I change which items I have for quick use on the square button? I'm on a Royal build, is it possible to learn all spells on my first playthrough?

And even though having Soul Arrow kind of feels like easy mode compared to the little I played as a Temple Knight I kind of think I should specialise. Is it advisable to go entirely magic focused with my stats?

The way the UI shows stuff is mapped to the DPad. You change active spell, item, right hand and left hand equip with the DPad.

A good magic build would have 24 Intelligence and 40 Magic. Also wear Fragrant Ring (slow mana regen) and Silver Coronet (+20% MP). Put the rest into Vitality.

 

[electroshockwave]

The way the UI shows stuff is mapped to the DPad. You change active spell, item, right hand and left hand equip with the DPad.

A good magic build would have 24 Intelligence and 40 Magic. Also wear Fragrant Ring (slow mana regen) and Silver Coronet (+20% MP). Put the rest into Vitality.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I mean that for instance I have turpentine in my inventory but I'm not able to switch to it by pressing down on the dpad. How do I assign it to the item quick-select?

 

[Zzoram]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I mean that for instance I have turpentine in my inventory but I'm not able to switch to it by pressing down on the dpad. How do I assign it to the item quick-select?

Press Start, go to equip, there are 5 or 6 slots.

 

[electroshockwave]

Thanks. I feel stupid for not noticing that.

 

[Zzoram]

Thanks. I feel stupid for not noticing that.

A good supplement to your magic focus is the Crescent Falchion +1 you can find I believe in 4-1. It's damage scales with your Magic stat and it also has MP regen like the Fragrant Ring.

Your stat goal should be prioritizing getting to 24 Intelligence (for 4 Magic slots) and 40 Magic (for high damage). Every now and then you can throw a point into Vitality or Endurance. After hitting 40 Magic you can work on Intelligence again until 40. Stats offer diminishing returns after 40 which is why it's not worth going past 40 until you've hit 40 for all the stats that matter to your build.

You want 24 Intelligence to get 4 Magic slots. You don't really need more than that, Soul Arrow (1 slot) and Firestorm (3 slots) are a good combo. More points would mainly be for the increased MP. The only Miracle you need is Evacuate since it's awesome for farming souls so ignoring Faith is fine since it only uses 1 Miracle slot.

 

[Ifrit]

Just beat the Old Hero, actually one of the easiest boss fights I've encountered.

Now the question is: Large Sword of Searching or Second Chance?

 

[thcsquad]

Carefully went through the rest of 2-1, but the Armored Spider killed me quickly. Couldn't evade the webs fast enough.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

So, I did pure black world tendency stuff for the Valley of Defilement, yesterday. Black Phantom Selen was easily harder than Miralda and Satsuki for me. Her sword cuts through shields, so you have to dodge her attacks. Unfortunately she is in the swamp so it's almost impossible to dodge. The fallback strategy was to use warding to reduce the damage she does. However, once she casts the anti-magic miracle that won't work either. And because of her being able to heal herself, cheesing her with arrows from the bridge was a no-go, as well. So what I had to do was to try and quickly attack her when she tries to use the anti-magic. If she managed to cast it, once my warding wore off, I had to keep away until her miracle wore off. It was not a pretty battle...

 

[electroshockwave]

If a demon soul can't be used for learning Magic or forging weapons (like the dragons') should I just consume them when I get the chance?

 

[oracrest]

If a demon soul can't be used for learning Magic or forging weapons (like the dragons') should I just consume them when I get the chance?

Yeah, I would wait until your right at a merchant, or about to level up.

 

[Zzoram]

If a demon soul can't be used for learning Magic or forging weapons (like the dragons') should I just consume them when I get the chance?

I keep them in storage for a rainy day. Like if you get invaded and lose a stat point you needed to use your equipment.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

So I took care of pure black world tendency in world 3 today. I got my ass handed to me on my first try against Black Phantom Rydell, but turned the tables when I returned with the Dark Silver Shield, allowed let me to win easily.

I really have to give props to From for the atmosphere in 3-1. Even though I am a lot stronger now than before and can easily take down all the guards, I'm still afraid of them. Can't say the same about 3-2, which is probably my least favorite level.

 

[DualShadow]

Quick Question: Do the enemies stay the same strength on levels? I think they do but I'm not quite sure :lol

Also I don't get this world tendancy stuff at the moment but I've just started so hopefully it will make more sense later.

 

[Zzoram]

Quick Question: Do the enemies stay the same strength on levels? I think they do but I'm not quite sure :lol

Also I don't get this world tendancy stuff at the moment but I've just started so hopefully it will make more sense later.

Enemies stay the same regardless of your level. World tendency can affect enemy HP and damage though, black world makes them stronger but give more souls and drop better loot.

 

[MidnightRider]

GT5 is robbing me of my Demons Souls and BC2 time

 

[Agyar]

So I started playing this wretched game again over the weekend thanks to my 360 dying. Last time I played, I started as a Royal and knocked over a few sections (1-1, 1-2, 4-1, 2-1) in that order with some specific goals in mind (e.g. magic falchion and some shield from 4-1).

Having started again, I picked a Knight but after finishing 1-1 I'm unsure as to which direction to take. Are there any standout items etc I should be targetting early on for this type of character or areas that would be more beneifical to complete? I am wary of going for 1-2 as the Tower Knight boss seems like he could be difficult as a melee character early on but otherwise I'm at a loss for how to progress.

I'm enjoying the melee-strong knight and the long sword is a sweet weapon but I would like to work some magic or faith into the build but I haven't been able to find any character builds online that aren't designed for level eleventy-billion PvP players. Any suggestions for how to level up my dude for a once-off playthrough?

 

[Zzoram]

So I started playing this wretched game again over the weekend thanks to my 360 dying. Last time I played, I started as a Royal and knocked over a few sections (1-1, 1-2, 4-1, 2-1) in that order with some specific goals in mind (e.g. magic falchion and some shield from 4-1).

Having started again, I picked a Knight but after finishing 1-1 I'm unsure as to which direction to take. Are there any standout items etc I should be targetting early on for this type of character or areas that would be more beneifical to complete? I am wary of going for 1-2 as the Tower Knight boss seems like he could be difficult as a melee character early on but otherwise I'm at a loss for how to progress.

I'm enjoying the melee-strong knight and the long sword is a sweet weapon but I would like to work some magic or faith into the build but I haven't been able to find any character builds online that aren't designed for level eleventy-billion PvP players. Any suggestions for how to level up my dude for a once-off playthrough?

You could try a Blessed Mirdan Hammer build. A Temple Knight starts able to use a Mirdan Hammer, I assume a Knight does too. The Blessed version requires stones from world 5. The Blessed weapon has life regen and damage scales with Faith so you get a high Faith for good magic defense and damage. So only put points in Vitality, Endurance and Faith, emphasis on Endurance (stop at 40) and Faith.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

So I bought this game for my roommate, watched him play for about 5 hours yesterday, and realized I really want this game. Unfortunately I don't have a ps3...do you guys think it's worth it do buy a ps3 just for this game? Is there a second DS in the works? Whats the cheapest I can get the necessary hardware for?

 

[Alucrid]

So I bought this game for my roommate, watched him play for about 5 hours yesterday, and realized I really want this game. Unfortunately I don't have a ps3...do you guys think it's worth it do buy a ps3 just for this game? Is there a second DS in the works? Whats the cheapest I can get the necessary hardware for?

Why not play it on your roommate's PS3?

 

[Zzoram]

So I bought this game for my roommate, watched him play for about 5 hours yesterday, and realized I really want this game. Unfortunately I don't have a ps3...do you guys think it's worth it do buy a ps3 just for this game? Is there a second DS in the works? Whats the cheapest I can get the necessary hardware for?

A sequel by another name is coming to PS3 and 360. Project Dark is the current title.

A PS3 mainly for Demon's Souls and Bluray was worth it for me, with the odd rental of oter exclusives.

 

[oracrest]

So I bought this game for my roommate, watched him play for about 5 hours yesterday, and realized I really want this game. Unfortunately I don't have a ps3...do you guys think it's worth it do buy a ps3 just for this game? Is there a second DS in the works? Whats the cheapest I can get the necessary hardware for?

Sure is.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

Why not play it on your roommate's PS3?

Good question. First, I'm stingy about "ownership" of my rpgs. Don't ask me why, I just need rpgs to be my game, my character. The main reason, though, is that I'm employed, my roommate isn't. Any chance I have to play his ps3 and he's most likely already playing it.

A sequel by another name is coming to PS3 and 360. Project Dark is the current title.

A PS3 mainly for Demon's Souls and Bluray was worth it for me, with the odd rental of oter exclusives.

Excellent news about the sequel, may just have to wait for that. Plus a bunch of great rpg's are coming out next year (on both systems) so I might sit on the idea and wait for things to pan out.

 

[Zzoram]

It's unclear how Project Dark will turn out but Demons souls is definitely awesome and is the only game I own for my ps3. That beats the current 0 games I own for 360. I don't care about online so I usually just rent games. Having all consoles and just renting games is actually a pretty cost effective way to have every game available to me.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

It's unclear how Project Dark will turn out but Demons souls is definitely awesome and is the only game I own for my ps3. That beats the current 0 games I own for 360. I don't care about online so I usually just rent games. Having all consoles and just renting games is actually a pretty cost effective way to have every game available to me.

I never rent games, only buy. And I buy very few, only the one's that I do research on and I'm positive will receive a decent amount of play time. Demon's souls looks pretty remarkable. Only real complaint I have so far: not enough loot. If they made this game a little more equipment driven, I think it may have been even better. Correct me if I'm wrong though (I have only seen the first 5-10 hours). I like the idea of upgrades, but more unique properties always adds variety.

 

[Zzoram]

I never rent games, only buy. And I buy very few, only the one's that I do research on and I'm positive will receive a decent amount of play time. Demon's souls looks pretty remarkable. Only real complaint I have so far: not enough loot. If they made this game a little more equipment driven, I think it may have been even better. Correct me if I'm wrong though (I have only seen the first 5-10 hours). I like the idea of upgrades, but more unique properties always adds variety.

The upgrade stones satisfy the loot itch. It takes some effort to grind the stones required for higher level upgrades and each type of stone provides different attributes. You generally want to put thought into what type of stone and what weapon (chosen for damage, reach and attack animation) you want before crafting a weapon since farming necessary stones can take a while. For example to make a Dragon +1 (special stones max at +5) you need to first upgrade the base weapon to +3 with sharpstone or hardstone (base stones max at +10 but can diverge to special stone upgrades at +3 and +6). More annoying is making a Blessed +1 requires a +6 base so you need quite a few large sharpstone or hardstone just to get to +6.

Shards of sharp and hard are sold by a vendor at the beginning of 2-1 and dropped by many enemies. Large shards are dropped less and sold by a vendor deep into 2-2 past many enemies so he's harder to get to. Chunk and Pure have to be farmed, so 2 of the 4 levels of the base stones must be farmed. Many special stone shards can Be bought from vendors in levels but their chunks and pures usually require farming (specials only have 3 levels of stone). Higher upgrade levels require more of every type of stone. You may need to go to the blacksmith in 2-1 to get certain special stone and boss demon soul upgrade options to show since he's more skilled. Weapons made from boss demon souls have unique properties.

In addition the upgrade stone and boss demon soul systems, there are some unique weapons placed in hidden parts of levels or held by special bosses that are only accessible with pure white or pure black world tendency. Killing bosses shifts the world white, dying in body form in the world shifts it black (hence people suiciding their body form in nexus). However world tendency is affected by the online server so it's easier to manipulate world tendency offline. Connecting to the server shifts your worlds towards the global trend which is usually partially white since everyone is killing bosses. The exception is holiday events where repeated connections to the server while in nexus (load save, exit, load save) shifts you to pure white or pure black (Halloween, Christmas, Easter). I imagine they'll do at least two more pure world tendency events before they have to decide whether to shut the server down in March 2011.

 

[jessecuster]

I just picked up the game, and was under impression that I would see notes and follow the blood shadows and stuff, why am I not seeing any of that stuff?

 

[Zzoram]

I just picked up the game, and was under impression that I would see notes and follow the blood shadows and stuff, why am I not seeing any of that stuff?

Are you connected to the server? Sign into PSN and when you start the game it should have a message welcoming you to the server (possibly after loading your save, I forgot when the message appears). You may just be in low activity areas. I forget if only see characters 10+/-10% of your level (that's the restriction on co-op and PvP) or if you see everyone.

 

[jessecuster]

I am connected to the server, I am unable to complete 1-1 at this point and still working on that. Shouldn't I see plenty of stuff there?

 

[oracrest]

Excellent news about the sequel, may just have to wait for that. Plus a bunch of great rpg's are coming out next year (on both systems) so I might sit on the idea and wait for things to pan out.

In most cases, sequels to RPG's make the earlier ones outdated. I highly doubt this will be the case with Demon's Souls. It's offers such a unique experience (Hard to compare it to any other game. The closest thing for me is Zelda II, but even then, the differences are all over the place.) I imagine the "sequel" will take the spirit of the gameplay mechanics, and offer another unique adventure that is unto itself in the same way.

I am connected to the server, I am unable to complete 1-1 at this point and still working on that. Shouldn't I see plenty of stuff there?

I ran into an issue just once where I was "connected" to the servers, but the white souls, blood stains, and hints were not showing up. Restarting my game fixed it though.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

The upgrade stones satisfy the loot itch. It takes some effort to grind the stones required for higher level upgrades and each type of stone provides different attributes. You generally want to put thought into what type of stone and what weapon (chosen for damage, reach and attack animation) you want before crafting a weapon since farming necessary stones can take a while. For example to make a Dragon +1 (special stones max at +5) you need to first upgrade the base weapon to +3 with sharpstone or hardstone (base stones max at +10 but can diverge to special stone upgrades at +3 and +6). More annoying is making a Blessed +1 requires a +6 base so you need quite a few large sharpstone or hardstone just to get to +6.

Shards of sharp and hard are sold by a vendor at the beginning of 2-1 and dropped by many enemies. Large shards are dropped less and sold by a vendor deep into 2-2 past many enemies so he's harder to get to. Chunk and Pure have to be farmed, so 2 of the 4 levels of the base stones must be farmed. Many special stone shards can Be bought from vendors in levels but their chunks and pures usually require farming (specials only have 3 levels of stone). Higher upgrade levels require more of every type of stone. You may need to go to the blacksmith in 2-1 to get certain special stone and boss demon soul upgrade options to show since he's more skilled. Weapons made from boss demon souls have unique properties.

In addition the upgrade stone and boss demon soul systems, there are some unique weapons placed in hidden parts of levels or held by special bosses that are only accessible with pure white or pure black world tendency. Killing bosses shifts the world white, dying in body form in the world shifts it black (hence people suiciding their body form in nexus). However world tendency is affected by the online server so it's easier to manipulate world tendency offline. Connecting to the server shifts your worlds towards the global trend which is usually partially white since everyone is killing bosses. The exception is holiday events where repeated connections to the server while in nexus (load save, exit, load save) shifts you to pure white or pure black (Halloween, Christmas, Easter). I imagine they'll do at least two more pure world tendency events before they have to decide whether to shut the server down in March 2011.

Well its good to know that the upgrade system is fairly extensive and that the game does offer at least some uniques. I guess I was hoping for a simpler unique/epic loot drop system, but maybe there is something to be said for how its done here.

Anyway, appreciate the info. I'll look on craigslist for a cheap ps3, hoping to spend less than 150 for the system, and the game only costs 20 bucks. My rpg thirst must be quenched!

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

In most cases, sequels to RPG's make the earlier ones outdated. I highly doubt this will be the case with Demon's Souls. It's offers such a unique experience (Hard to compare it to any other game. The closest thing for me is Zelda II, but even then, the differences are all over the place.) I imagine the "sequel" will take the spirit of the gameplay mechanics, and offer another unique adventure that is unto itself in the same way.

My guess is that they will update some things like combat, environmental detail, and upgrade options, but from what I've seen I really hope they don't change too much. Something about the confrontations in this game are just really awesome; they test your twitch gameplay more than most any rpg i've encountered.