• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Dambrosi

Banned
Taoofberg said:
I finally got a chance to play this, and it is a really great game. Bummed out about the Black Phantoms, though--is there anything I can do to stop people from jumping into my game? Some dude just speared me to death and it broke all of my items, cost of repair is way more than the souls I have.

Granted, not great items, but seems a bit of unfair that top-level people can just up and ruin all my equipment.
Die. As long as you're in soul form, you can't be invaded. AFAIK, anyway.
 

Zzoram

Member
Taoofberg said:
I finally got a chance to play this, and it is a really great game. Bummed out about the Black Phantoms, though--is there anything I can do to stop people from jumping into my game? Some dude just speared me to death and it broke all of my items, cost of repair is way more than the souls I have.

Granted, not great items, but seems a bit of unfair that top-level people can just up and ruin all my equipment.



This thread basically survives on the constant trickle of new people to the game. Asking questions is very welcome here, nobody will tell you to read the whole thread.


Scraping Spear is actually very bad manner. It's generally considered a dick move done by trolls, frowned upon by the greater community. The spear is a troll weapon because it does very little damage but breaks your enemies' equipment.

Black Phantoms can only invade when you're in body form. The vast majority of the game you're in soul form, so you're safe from invasion.
 
Zzoram said:
Are they talking about Project Dark?




Also, after successfully killing the host as old monk, I got sent to 4-2 archstone. Why was that? I was in 3-1 when I planted my blue stone down.
That has happen to me before, not sure what caused it.
 

Zzoram

Member
Beat NG+ Flamelurker. Took a few tries, but eventually Soul Ray won the day. I just had to get used to only eating spices/grass when he was doing some animation that wasn't going to kill me, and keeping my shield up.
 

TuxBobble

Member
Anyone still playing this game? Just picked it back up after a loooooong time not playing it, and it seems like there are very few other souls in the game...
 

Zzoram

Member
TuxBobble said:
Anyone still playing this game? Just picked it back up after a loooooong time not playing it, and it seems like there are very few other souls in the game...

There are still a decent number of people playing, probably a few thousand playing regularly and some occasional players and new people.

I got summoned twice to be old monk in maybe 10 minutes on a Wednesday midnight play session. There must be people playing.
 

Taoofberg

Member
Zzoram said:
Scraping Spear is actually very bad manner. It's generally considered a dick move done by trolls, frowned upon by the greater community. The spear is a troll weapon because it does very little damage but breaks your enemies' equipment.

Yeah, my first invading Phantom at least had the decency to run up and stab me in the back. Dying was surprisingly not frustrating, but man did it stink to have to go back to the first area with no armor and my starting club. Must fight new demons!
 

Zzoram

Member
Taoofberg said:
Yeah, my first invading Phantom at least had the decency to run up and stab me in the back. Dying was surprisingly not frustrating, but man did it stink to have to go back to the first area with no armor and my starting club. Must fight new demons!

There are good players who challenge themselves by beating the game with just fist weapons (claws, iron knuckles, hands of god). The really hardcore guys don't even allow those, using just bare fists.

They have to make an exception for the 4-3 boss though because he flies and can't be punched. Also I think they have to make an exception for 5-1 boss because it regenerates health faster than punching can hurt it. I think for those 2 bosses they used throwing weapons lol.

As you can imagine, bare fists and throwing weapons take forever to kill anything.
 

oracrest

Member
Blue dragon is the most frustrating part of this playthrough. Holy arrows do more damage in the first part, but less from a distance, so I will have to try holy up close, and then light arrows from a distance.

Canova, how did you deal with him as level 1?
 

Zzoram

Member
oracrest said:
Blue dragon is the most frustrating part of this playthrough. Holy arrows do more damage in the first part, but less from a distance, so I will have to try holy up close, and then light arrows from a distance.

Canova, how did you deal with him as level 1?

Why do you have to kill him? He's technically optional if you're really struggling.
 

TuxBobble

Member
Holy crap. I thought I was getting back into the swing of things, then I ran into Maneater. I can barely scratch him by the time he takes me down...Argh this game hurts so good...
 

oracrest

Member
theta11 said:
It's a matter of principle. Blue Dragon has to die.

Pretty much. If I am going to make a point to beat the game without leveling up, I might as well kill everything there is. I like to clear him out before going on to the next guy too.

I tried for the third time with 800 arrows last night, and still couldn't take him down (although VERY close, again.)

I am thinking that I should try holy arrows on him at first (32 damage,) and then try and run to underneath him so my arrows will cause him a lot more damage. I'll have to look at videos though, I haven't figured out when to run just yet.
 
oracrest said:
Pretty much. If I am going to make a point to beat the game without leveling up, I might as well kill everything there is. I like to clear him out before going on to the next guy too.

I tried for the third time with 800 arrows last night, and still couldn't take him down (although VERY close, again.)

I am thinking that I should try holy arrows on him at first (32 damage,) and then try and run to underneath him so my arrows will cause him a lot more damage. I'll have to look at videos though, I haven't figured out when to run just yet.
oh god you have been doing this from afar? i never killed him from anywhere but underneath him.

He will blow once, then he will blow again much closer to himself, about halfway through that you can start running, everything else will blow over you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkohwPmTQW4 at :30 you should have enough stamina to make it.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
My game is still in the wrapping. Should have never purchased lbp2. Won't have time for any other game.
 

oracrest

Member
Krauser Kat said:
oh god you have been doing this from afar? i never killed him from anywhere but underneath him.

He will blow once, then he will blow again much closer to himself, about halfway through that you can start running, everything else will blow over you.


OK, I will check some youtube runs later. I went to the 1 hour playthrough, but he starts running when the dragon gets there for the first time ever, and the timing seems different.
 
MThanded said:
My game is still in the wrapping. Should have never purchased lbp2. Won't have time for any other game.
It's probably for the best. Once you put Demon's Souls in, it stays in your PS3 until you're done, guaranteed.
 
oracrest said:
OK, I will check some youtube runs later. I went to the 1 hour playthrough, but he starts running when the dragon gets there for the first time ever, and the timing seems different.
I posted a link above you have probably seen it. I always just wait for the closer burn and just go balls out. If you are running low on stamina, you might need to use the stamina ring and be naked, for no stamina degradation. YOu have a bit of time to get up their though.
 
Put it in the other night, didn't realize the player customization was so deep. Created my character watched the intro and then turned it back off. Hopefully I will get a chance to play it this weekend. Was thinking of starting and finishing Dragon Age first though.
 

oracrest

Member
Krauser Kat said:
I posted a link above you have probably seen it. I always just wait for the closer burn and just go balls out. If you are running low on stamina, you might need to use the stamina ring and be naked, for no stamina degradation. YOu have a bit of time to get up their though.


Thanks, it looks like a count to 3 and gun it once his second blast comes out.

This does change the strategy up a bit. I can kill him with less arrows now, so it opens up some more armor options if I need them.
 

Jtrizzy

Member
Ive never played RPG's before, but I am thinking about picking this up. Is it going to be a problem when the servers go down in a month? As a newcomer to rpg's, am I going to hate this?
 

oracrest

Member
Jtrizzy said:
Ive never played RPG's before, but I am thinking about picking this up. Is it going to be a problem when the servers go down in a month? As a newcomer to rpg's, am I going to hate this?

The game plays like a third person action game mostly, with some elements of leveling up your character and weapons/armors.

The servers will remain up for the better part of the year, at least.

If you enjoy the game play of 3D Zeldas, this game should be easy to get into for you.
 
TuxBobble said:
Anyone still playing this game? Just picked it back up after a loooooong time not playing it, and it seems like there are very few other souls in the game...

There may be a few people, however, how awesome does that desolation feel? Case and point of why this game is so successful at isolating you and making you really feel like a dead soul wandering.

<3 Demon's Souls and will devote myself to Project Dark
 

YoungHav

Banned
Woke up yesterday and fought, captured, and flushed a huge roach down the toilet. I hope it left a message on the floor ("Turn back! Strong opponent!") warning any other roaches.

Any new info on Project Dark?
 

Jtrizzy

Member
oracrest said:
The game plays like a third person action game mostly, with some elements of leveling up your character and weapons/armors.

The servers will remain up for the better part of the year, at least.

If you enjoy the game play of 3D Zeldas, this game should be easy to get into for you.
The only Zelda I've ever played was the original way back then...maybe I should start with a Zelda game? I also have a wii.
 

oracrest

Member
Jtrizzy said:
The only Zelda I've ever played was the original way back then...maybe I should start with a Zelda game? I also have a wii.

I only compared it to Zelda since I figured you would be familiar with that game.

Basically, you directly control a character, and may equip a number of different weapons/shields to your left and right hands (These are mapped to the shoulder buttons.)

From there, the combat system is focused on being very physical (as in adhering to physics) and weighty. That being said, when you press the attack button, the character will START to wind up and to swing a weapon. Each weapon is different, and one of the reasons many play through many times, to experience and learn new weapons. On top of the range of weapons, any weapon may be wielded one or two handed, which opens up even more versatility to the combat. Another way the game leans on the "realistic" side of things is with how easy it is to be killed. Most enemies in the game can kill you within a few hits (some as little as two hits,) so incorporating a shield, and a very defensive approach is key (I believe many gamers used to the speed of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry are initially turned off by the "slow" combat of Demon's Souls.)

All different character "types" are merely different attribute values, which you level up over the course of the game. If you want a melee fighter that can cause more damage, then simply focus on pumping points into strength, endurance. These changes are slight, but immediate.


Other than that, the game world is incredibly rich, and there are secrets to discover at every turn, in much the same way as Super Metroid had hidden passages and items.

There are many pre-conceptions you might have by considering it an "RPG," so I tried to be as descriptive as I could.
 

Jtrizzy

Member
I'm trying to open up to new types of games, and was going to pick one up to play tonight. Im debating between Zelda for wii or this for an rpg experience, although I see people talking about persona games too, but I only have PS3 and wii.
 

Zzoram

Member
Jtrizzy said:
I'm trying to open up to new types of games, and was going to pick one up to play tonight. Im debating between Zelda for wii or this for an rpg experience, although I see people talking about persona games too, but I only have PS3 and wii.
Persona, Zelda and Demon's souls are all dramatically different game. They aren't really the same genre. Persona is a traditional JRPG. Zelda is an action adventure with light rpg. Demons souls is a bit less adventure and a bit more rpg than Zelda.
 

oracrest

Member
Thanks Krauser, that strategy worked wonders! Killed blue dragon, then red dragon, and Mephistopheles. Even after 4 playthroughs, I mainly playthr game blind with minimal help from guides, so the quick run past blue dragon was still an unknown for me.

Now all I have left is dragon god, them final boss in 1-4.
 

fallagin

Member
oracrest said:
Thanks Krauser, that strategy worked wonders! Killed blue dragon, then red dragon, and Mephistopheles. Even after 4 playthroughs, I mainly playthr game blind with minimal help from guides, so the quick run past blue dragon was still an unknown for me.

Now all I have left is dragon god, them final boss in 1-4.


I was genuinely suprised at how easy the dragon God was compared to other bosses in the game. Amazing looking fight though.
 

oracrest

Member
fallagin said:
I was genuinely suprised at how easy the dragon God was compared to other bosses in the game. Amazing looking fight though.

Yeah, I found him easy as well. At least I could take a few hits though. This time I have to pretty much not ever get hit. I have figured out that he loses you behind the pillars.
 

Canova

Banned
Zzoram said:
Are they talking about Project Dark?




Also, after successfully killing the host as old monk, I got sent to 4-2 archstone. Why was that? I was in 3-1 when I planted my blue stone down.

Did you die in 4-2 (in body form)
 
Finally got a chance to play today. Almost quit about 3 or 4 times after dying at the top of the tower several times. Eventually figured out you can open up a shortcut in case you die and I discovered how over powered magic was that I could basically one shot most of the enemies I finally completed it. The game really met my expectations, it's tough.
 
Man, I need to platinum this finally, stopped at like 60%. Does anyone know if servers for Asian version are still online?

Also, I hope in Project Dark we will be able to play as a woman knight.
 
So I dropped my ss in 4-1 to get summoned by a host who also summoned a bp for a duel. I lost and also lost a soul level. All I wanted to do was help lol, not really duel. Would be happier if he just killed the host instead of me. Damn that bp and his crushing great axe with hyper armor. He ate my dbs+5 to the face and finish me off with a combo.
 
What the fuck.

I accidentally killed the Black Maiden cause I set my controller down onto the couch and it triggered R2. Got the bad ending and no trophy.

Whatever, will probably do a good ending run someday. (before the release of Project Dark at the latest)
Didn't get to free Yuria either, lost the Officials cap cause I was overburdened.
 

TylerD

Member
Played last night for 3 hrs after not playing for several months. I am only SL 46 and making my way through world 4 right now. No other game gives you such a sense of impending doom and makes you play so carefully. I love inching down a dark corridor with my shield raised just waiting to be ambushed and the combat is very satisfying. When you have such a good chance of biting it if you aren't careful and smart about your fighting it makes for some very tense gameplay.
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
So, I still haven't played this, I was considering waiting for the spiritual sequel but then I realized it is still far away and the original can be found for a pittance now. Plus it has always appealed to me, a LOT, I just thought there'd be no way I could give it the playtime it seemed to need.

Two questions then: How important the online part is to enjoy the game to its fullest (ask yourselves what if the game had been offline all along) and, again, how important it is (on a scale 1/10) that you also have a good connection.

My internet's not that good where the PS3 is, mainly because of latency >90ms, and since It takes me a long IRL time to beat games (little free time, huge backlog and tons of consoles/pc) the servers for the game may even be down by the time I'm halfaway thru my first playthrough.

Thanks!
 

Zzoram

Member
Dash Kappei said:
So, I still haven't played this, I was considering waiting for the spiritual sequel but then I realized it is still far away and the original can be found for a pittance now. Plus it has always appealed to me, a LOT, I just thought there'd be no way I could give it the playtime it seemed to need.

Two questions then: How important the online part is to enjoy the game to its fullest (ask yourselves what if the game had been offline all along) and, again, how important it is (on a scale 1/10) that you also have a good connection.

My internet's not that good where the PS3 is, mainly because of latency >90ms, and since It takes me a long IRL time to beat games (little free time, huge backlog and tons of consoles/pc) the servers for the game may even be down by the time I'm halfaway thru my first playthrough.

Thanks!

Online is nice but more as a bonus than an essential part of the experience. It's easier to get all the trophies offline. Online allows you to get co-op helpers if you are stuck on a boss and adds the invasion/PvP element to the game. However, you can always just grind a bit to level up more or look up strategies or just get better from practice if you have trouble with a boss. You can read messages from random players or leave your own, but the messages are cut and pasted from different options pre-generated in the game. There is no voice chat or way to invite people from your friend's list into your game, you have to go to the same place at the same time and be in a similar level range and hope you can summon them, but the stone to summon them may not always show up for you, someone else might summon them before you can. There are no trophies associated with any online stuff and none of it is necessary to beat the game.

I have no idea how good a connection you need. I assume that whatever is good for other multiplayer games should be good for this one.

Servers have been extended to October 2011 from the previous March 2011, so there is still plenty of time. It may be extended again if there is still enough activity, they just don't want to commit to extensions of more than a few months at a time in case everyone stops playing during that time.
 

soldat7

Member
Dash Kappei said:
So, I still haven't played this, I was considering waiting for the spiritual sequel but then I realized it is still far away and the original can be found for a pittance now. Plus it has always appealed to me, a LOT, I just thought there'd be no way I could give it the playtime it seemed to need.

Two questions then: How important the online part is to enjoy the game to its fullest (ask yourselves what if the game had been offline all along) and, again, how important it is (on a scale 1/10) that you also have a good connection.

My internet's not that good where the PS3 is, mainly because of latency >90ms, and since It takes me a long IRL time to beat games (little free time, huge backlog and tons of consoles/pc) the servers for the game may even be down by the time I'm halfaway thru my first playthrough.

Thanks!

Demon's Souls is a 10/10 when played offline. It get kicks up to 11/10 when played online. You can enjoy it immensely either way.
 

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
Zzoram said:
Online is nice but more as a bonus than an essential part of the experience. It's easier to get all the trophies offline. Online allows you to get co-op helpers if you are stuck on a boss and adds the invasion/PvP element to the game. However, you can always just grind a bit to level up more or look up strategies or just get better from practice if you have trouble with a boss. You can read messages from random players or leave your own, but the messages are cut and pasted from different options pre-generated in the game. There is no voice chat or way to invite people from your friend's list into your game, you have to go to the same place at the same time and be in a similar level range and hope you can summon them, but the stone to summon them may not always show up for you, someone else might summon them before you can. There are no trophies associated with any online stuff and none of it is necessary to beat the game.

I have no idea how good a connection you need. I assume that whatever is good for other multiplayer games should be good for this one.

Servers have been extended to October 2011 from the previous March 2011, so there is still plenty of time. It may be extended again if there is still enough activity, they just don't want to commit to extensions of more than a few months at a time in case everyone stops playing during that time.
Thanks for the reply, I have no interest in trophies but the summon/invasion/messages on the wall thing seems to add a lot of tension and atmosphere to the game.
About connection quality, well it's not the same for every game unfortunately.
Largely depends on netcode, type of gameplay and how the online is implemented, that means it can fo either way depending on the game: latency might be a non-issue, make the experience less than stellar or even ruin the flow of gameplay so much that it completely ruin the online component (Vs fighting games for example).
soldat7 said:
Demon's Souls is a 10/10 when played offline. It get kicks up to 11/10 when played online. You can enjoy it immensely either way.

Well, this awesome reply right here from one of my Gamcenter buddies (lol) seals it, I'm pretty darn convinced right now, good to go and kinda pumped to play this game for the first time :D
Fake EDIT:
just bought it online for £12,95 shipped, can't wait!
 

Rawk Hawk

Member
Question about the online play, I know there is a limit to what Soul Level you can summon, but what about the Black Phantoms? Do the same level rules apply for them? I was invaded for the first time (first time I got back to living form, lol) and this guy just destroyed me, and for being roughly level 30 I thought I was doing pretty good skill/dmg wise.

He caught me off guard, I was fighting another enemy at the time so I didn't stand much of a chance, but he crushed me pretty bad.

Also, wish I knew Evacuate didn't work after being invaded, because I changed weapons quickly to teleport out, but obviously that didn't work. So incase any other new players are reading this, casting evacuate after being invaded didn't help me any.
 

oracrest

Member
Rawk Hawk said:
Question about the online play, I know there is a limit to what Soul Level you can summon, but what about the Black Phantoms? Do the same level rules apply for them? I was invaded for the first time (first time I got back to living form, lol) and this guy just destroyed me, and for being roughly level 30 I thought I was doing pretty good skill/dmg wise.

He caught me off guard, I was fighting another enemy at the time so I didn't stand much of a chance, but he crushed me pretty bad.

Also, wish I knew Evacuate didn't work after being invaded, because I changed weapons quickly to teleport out, but obviously that didn't work. So incase any other new players are reading this, casting evacuate after being invaded didn't help me any.

Black Phantoms are actually lower in level than you, as a rule, but some players deliberately keep low characters, and just collect great equipment for the purposes of killing other players.
 

Rawk Hawk

Member
oracrest said:
Black Phantoms are actually lower in level than you, as a rule, but some players deliberately keep low characters, and just collect great equipment for the purposes of killing other players.
Gotcha, well what can you do I guess, do you lose anything for being killed? I was able to get back to my souls no problem and don't really mind soul form since I have the HP bonus ring.

Another thing I'm somewhat confused about is armor.. there is no upgrading it? Or have I just not got that far yet? I'm in the full brush set even though I run slower since it's the highest defense I've seen so far. Or should I find other armor to help with stamina? I'm just generally lost with the armor so far, looking on the wiki dot, it doesn't seem like there is that many sets of armor.
 
Top Bottom