Dark Souls

[Syl]

Dark Souls is role playing game and spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. It is developed by From Software and is available on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I recently purchased the game at the suggestion of fellow forumite Fragony and have been having a great time. This thread exists for anyone wanting to join in on the discussion on the game or for those who have questions. I'll use spoiler tags when talking about missions or bosses and things to not ruin any surprises for others.

Excellent choice, first 'real' level is a bit slow but after that things really pick up. What class are you playing, yay to the Pyromancer here

I've been playing with a knight. I tend to like playing as as an armored soldier over a spell caster myself ^^, but I know almost nothing about how magic is in the game, so that could be an interesting choice.

So far...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I've escaped from the undead asylum and have been making my way up towards the upper regions of a castle complex. I'm really loving the difficulty so far. It's very refreshing. I tend to fight along with a sword and shield so I hold my own pretty well against my fellow undead, but demons make me their chew toy in about 10 seconds. I'm currently stuck on this straightway battlement where a bull demon squishes me into tiny little pieces. I'm not really sure what to do about him since stabbing him with my sword just tends to make him angrier. I had so many souls stored too...

I'm also loving the atmosphere and the story so far, like you promised. I wish I could know more upfront, it all seems very interesting and I have some questions about where I am and exactly why, but I suppose it's meant to be that way to reveal it as you go. I also am really appreciating how open the world seems to be and that it seems I can explore quite a bit off the beaten path when the opportunity arises.

Oh, by the way...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I met what I'm assuming is one of Gwyn's Knights when I made a wrong turn down a set of stairs from the castle battlements. Needless to say, he made my Knight look like a toy soldier. Ouchie. I proceeded to run back to reclaim the souls I dropped, caught his attention again, and proceeded to run screaming through half the map to try and get away from him. It didn't end so well either. Not going that way again for a while...

[Fragony]

Bull Demon is a peace of cake, there are two towers, once you enter the white light head to the right and climb the ladder. Kill archers, climb down, wait for demon to appear and run back, climb ladder, and do a plunge attack on bull-demon for massive damage. You have enough time to hit his legs a few times. Run to other tower, repeat.

Or just lure them of the open part of the bridge and let him fall to death, gravity is your friend in this game!

[Syl]

Bull Demon is a peace of cake, there are two towers, once you enter the white light head to the right and climb the ladder. Kill archers, climb down, wait for demon to appear and run back, climb ladder, and do a plunge attack on bull-demon for massive damage. You have enough time to hit his legs a few times. Run to other tower, repeat.

Or just lure them of the open part of the bridge and let him fall to death, gravity is your friend in this game!

I was so freaking close. I took your advice and introduced the demon to Sir Isaac Newton, and I also applied a lighting salve to my blade before the fight. It was extremely effective and took off about half his health with plunge attack. Then I struck his legs two or three times and he had just a sliver of hp left. Then he smashed me into the ground. By the time I finally got up, he smashed me again before I could move and I died. I had full health at the start. Grrrrr.

That little ladder up to the top of the tower is really easy to miss by the way. Thanks for the tip. I'll get him next time.

[Fragony]

What, no progress? Que? It's just a 5 meter high bull-demon that kills you with two hits. Who am I to talk to if you don't press on, people just don't understand it if I tell them that I found my knight shining armor. Darkness will fall

[Syl]

Sorry for the absence on this, I got a bit distracted with the holidays and an issue with a hard drive dying. I do have a few things to mention and a lot of questions for you though, depending on how patient you're feeling when you get around to reading this.

I've actually started a new character. It seems that the bosses damages are so high and generally unblockable that your only real option is to avoid their attacks all together and dodge. The Knight is a bit slow due to his armor and I'd spent some of my levels on resistance mixed in with vitality, endurance, and strength. It seems that I'd be better suited focusing on my damage output. On that note I'm making a bandit and am going to focus exclusively on strength, vitality, and endurance.

I haven't beaten the bull yet on my Knight yet . I'm able to leap down on him and get some good initial damage, and them back up along the bridge fighting him and hurting him as I go, but I haven't been able to finish him yet before he finishes me. That's where I'm hoping this new approach with the bandit will come in . We'll see how that goes when I reach him.

My PS3 hadn't been hooked up to the PlayStation Network since I got it, but it is now. It seems really neat with the added details like seeing other players ghosts here and there and people at bonfires. Now onto the questions barrage. First, can other players manage to hurt me? I know there is pvp in the game so there is a way for that to happen, but I'm unfamiliar how and that seems a good thing to be aware of. I'd like to have my guard up when it needs to be :p. I actually like that extra little danger in the world, it seems to suit it.

Secondly, similar to in the Undead Asylum, I'm seeing messages written in flame on the ground, except now there are much more and in the main game as well, where there weren't any when I was offline. This could be the result of having the game patched and it added in since then, but I was curious if they were added by the developers or if other players are able to leave those notes.

Third, when the raven drops you off onto the tower like hub in the ruins I hadn't noticed that you could go down. In my exploring I got a bit caught up going up and didn't get a chance to head back. Heading down I met a mute woman and farther down I met a smith who can upgrade items. At the very base along the water in the cavern was a series of rickety wooden bridges leading across the lake. On traveling it ghosts came after me that I couldn't attack (but were more than happy to attack me). I noticed I got a transient curse from a corpse in a vase prior to this area, which says it allows you to temporarily hurt specters. I'm sure I could use that to clear them out, but I only have two, so I'm weary to use and waste them if I'm not ready to take on that area. Is it something I should avoid until a bit later, or should I go ahead and take the plunge?

That's all that comes to mind at the moment ^^, I'll have more to say when I get to have round two with Mister Bull .

[seireikhaan]

Definitely avoid the ghosts for now. That area only gets worse. Probably the hardest boss of the game lurks at the end, and I can say with certainty you just can't win yet. Go take on the bull again, for sure.

Those messages you're seeing now were left by other player. Their accuracy will depend on the integrity of whoever left it.

And, as you noted, mobility is really important. Tanking isn't viable against bosses until later, when you get better shields and armor.

[Fragony]

You can kill the ghosts if you use the proper curse, check your inventory. They seem really eager to drop a cursed blade which is incredibly vicious, it breaks pretty down fast but it has really high damage, that bull-demon won't be so intimidating if you have it. Try mounting/plunging twice, lure it away after your first plunge attack, repeat. You will take some damage, bit of a leap of faith, if you aren't quik enough he will jump on the tower so don't heal, you don't have the time for it

[Fragony]

Can't edit.

Play the game with PSN connected, it was designed to be played like that. Messages from other players are helpfull, and if you touch a bloodstain you can watch the last moments of their sorry lives. Other players can be summoned into your realm, but they aren't always friendly, it's pretty rare but you can be invaded. Another thing, unlike Demon's Souls there is no penalty for dying, if you died a lot in Demon Souls the world tendency would grow darker, making enemies much stronger. Makes sense huh, making things harder if you die a lot. But no more of that you can die at will

[Syl]

Definitely avoid the ghosts for now. That area only gets worse. Probably the hardest boss of the game lurks at the end, and I can say with certainty you just can't win yet. Go take on the bull again, for sure.

Those messages you're seeing now were left by other player. Their accuracy will depend on the integrity of whoever left it.

And, as you noted, mobility is really important. Tanking isn't viable against bosses until later, when you get better shields and armor.

Thank you for the tip issaikhaan ^^. I'll leave that fight for another day then. And thank you for the heads up about the writing. Some have been really helpful in pointing things out or giving a warning about traps, but I soon saw enough suspicious 'try jumping off here' into empty pits to realize all was not well :p.

I really like that you can see other players scribbles and their ghosts as you go along in a primarily single player game. I tend to enjoy single player content the most (or co-op with friends) more then playing with a lot of strangers, and it's an interesting way to give some extra life and interaction to the game without ruining that experience.

Play the game with PSN connected, it was designed to be played like that. Messages from other players are helpfull, and if you touch a bloodstain you can watch the last moments of their sorry lives. Other players can be summoned into your realm, but they aren't always friendly, it's pretty rare but you can be invaded. Another thing, unlike Demon's Souls there is no penalty for dying, if you died a lot in Demon Souls the world tendency would grow darker, making enemies much stronger. Makes sense huh, making things harder if you die a lot. But no more of that you can die at will

I really see no other way to play it now after seeing the full thing like it is meant to be played ^^. Also, I did actually manage to beat the bull.

He was still tough but I think I'm getting more used to the game and was able to dodge better. I was also able to get back to the tower a second time to do another dive at him. I'm really enjoying my bandit character as well.

Also...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I actually got quite a bit farther and got to the next boss battle against the stone guardians on top of the cathedral. It's tough :X. I had managed to summon an NPC (not a player) I met who gave me the summoning stone and that helped a lot. I died near the end of the fight though so I had to re-do it, and he wasn't there to be summoned again, so I think it's going to be a pretty rough fight now.

I think a good way to describe Dark Souls, besides amazing, would be a perpetual state of out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[Greyblades]

The thing with the knight is that it is pretty much the only class that can block the larger enemies attacks due to the high endurance. I have found that with a good shield you can easily block the cathedral Gargoyles' swings without taking very much damage and in some cases its even better than dodging as you dont have the pesky recovery animation that slows your reaction time, with a good tower shield and a high endurance you can even block the bull demon's overhead swing without being flattened.

[Fragony]

If you reinforce your shield a knight doesn't take any damage from the gargoyles' physical attacks at all, and a good swing with teh halberd will hurt it a lot. Easiest boss by far if you finish the first of quikly. Tank you very much

[seireikhaan]

I would disgree with the gargoyle being easiest.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Gaping dragon literally has yet to damage me with three different characters. The golem wasn't any better until I decided to try slaying it with a bandit's knife +6. Even then, only took three tries. Gargoyle, otoh, took me hours with my first character, a standard knight-type, though I started off as deprived. Simply just didn't do enough damage until I found the drake sword.

[Greyblades]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The problem with the gargoyle is the second one that comes seemingly out of nowhere half way through and breathes fire at you, usually when you have your back turned, which can kill you in seconds

[Fragony]

I dunno, you can have your entire equipment +5 with a little bit of grinding by then as the smith at teh forest sells shards for only 1000 souls and these caped pricks ar the gate drop them as well. Game is much more forgiving than Demon's Souls when it comes to upgrading your equipment, halberd +5 kills gargoyles with 3 or 4 swings (gawd I love teh halberd) single handed

[Fragony]

BUMP

PC-gamers sign this http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...t-gathers-pace Trust me you want this, I described DS earlier as 'The pc game you have been waiting for, console only'. For Thief and Die by the Sword fans it's a no-brainer, Thief fans (hi vuk!) will adore the lore and exploration and DBTS the pixel-perfect combat. PC-gamers will soak this up like sponge, and frankly it simply belongs on the pc to begin with, even if I have no idea how to make it work without a controller. Grumpie elitist naysayers rejoice and claim what is yours

[Fragony]

If the pc-crowd can come to terms with playing a console-game the return could be well worth the trouble. There simply aren't any good dungeon crawlers anymore (or good games at all STALKER was the last great pc-title), except some indie stuff, and I think they are sorely missed by a starved crowd.

[Husar]

They know that half the people who sign that will pirate it anyway so there's not enough money in it to bother as GeliCube said.

[Fragony]

They know that half the people who sign that will pirate it anyway so there's not enough money in it to bother as GeliCube said.

Sure but piracy didn't really hurt The Witcher or Skyrim and this is a much better game than either. I assume so by Skyrim as I haven't played it, but I played all of them prior and don't expect all that much change. This is one for the starved hords that are still getting all teary eyed over the loss of Lookinglass, and there are many who miss immersive gaming and should crave a pc version of Dark Souls. It worked before as Demon's Souls was never supposed to be released outside Japan.

[Drunk Clown]

Sure but piracy didn't really hurt The Witcher or Skyrim and this is a much better game than either. I assume so by Skyrim as I haven't played it, but I played all of them prior and don't expect all that much change. This is one for the starved hords that are still getting all teary eyed over the loss of Lookinglass, and there are many who miss immersive gaming and should crave a pc version of Dark Souls. It worked before as Demon's Souls was never supposed to be released outside Japan.

Didn't hurt Skyrim or The Witcher 2? I believe they lost a lot of money due to piracy.

It worked before as Demon's Souls was never supposed to be released outside Japan.

That's completely different. It's not making a port to the PC.

If they are smart they pass the PC-version and stick to their console. If you really want to play it, buy a PS3.

[Drunk Clown]

Double post.

[Fragony]

I will agree that we need more dungeon crawlers on PC. Just give me one good replayable loot/level-oriented dungeon crawler with some real challenge! It's not a fantasy RPG, but I always felt Space Rangers 2 was the pinnacle of what I want in an RPG. I still play it, a lot.

There are more of you and this is just your thing, I'm pretty sure it will find a loving home. PC-crowd can also be a very loyal one if you give them what they want, immersive games that don't treat you like an idiot

[Fragony]

Looks like it's working http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...dais-attention

[Fragony]

Bump, and it worked, it's comming to the pc. Awesome. A game this deep and atmospheric simply belongs on the pc. Time to grow a pair Vuk, prepare to die. This is hardcore as

[rajpoot]

Heard a lot of good stuff about this game. Looking forward to the PC version.

[Fragony]

Heard a lot of good stuff about this game. Looking forward to the PC version.

Easily the best game of this generation, certainly the moodiest. You will dread every step in unexplored territory, knowing that whatever it is you find will likely be your doom. PC-crowd is going to adore it, I am so pleased that this petition payed off.