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LTTP: Dark Souls

Jimrpg

Member
I made it to Sen's Fortress before I had it enough. Played it on and off for about 10 years now I guess? After I'm done with Nioh I'll probably go back and beat it, but Sen's was getting a little too frustrating. I suppose I'll just watch a youtube vid and see how its done and hopefully the remaining areas won't be too hard.

I beat Demon's without requiring nearly as much help.
 

Narroo

Member
You can't summon while hollow, meaning you won't even see the summon signs. Of course, you can't un-hollow until you remove the curse, lol.
Exactly.


Amazing. I love LTTP Dark Souls threads lol

I don't get it, why is this so odd? I know you eventually get to fight and beat the Asylum Demon with proper weapons, but I wanted to see if I could do it during the 1st encounter. At the very least, you get a neat weapon for it. (Which, amusingly, I used for a bit in Dark Souls 2.)
 

eot

Banned
Firsts are better than the broken sword hilt, they use less stamina.

Also, curse is great. It's supposed to be an oppressive game, it's why you can't fast travel out in 30 seconds and cure it.
 
Sounds like your familiarity with Souls games as well as your dependency on fast travel in those games has put you into some bad situations. You havent been cautious or thorough with your exploration and mental mapping of the areas.
 

Narroo

Member
Sounds like your familiarity with Souls games as well as your dependency on fast travel in those games has put you into some bad situations. You havent been cautious or thorough with your exploration and mental mapping of the areas.

Sadly, that's not the case. While I do explore everything thoroughly, occasionally I have a brainfart and miss something that's staring me in the face. Back in Dark Souls 2 I kept missing the pull chain for the sulce gate and ended up getting the other three primal bonfires before finding the tower of flame. I was attempting to do a faith+melee hybrid build too....
The funny thing is, I thought I explored that corner of the parish and I thought I saw nothing but wall; my eyes must be playing tricks on me.
 

Randam

Member
I didn't even bother to read the whole op..

This sucks, that sucks.
Tutorial sucks, firelink shrine isn't memorable, characters there suck? Wtf??


And it isn't like every NPC sat right at the beginning of the levels in Demon's Souls..
 

Narroo

Member
Right, onto Blightown!

latest


So, Blighttown really wasn't that bad. I made it to the 1st bonfire with no issues. Spent a few minutes running around the bonfire collecting items.

The main portion of the level, heading to the bottom of the pit wasn't bad at all. Yeah, the frame rate has issues in some spots, but it wasn't really difficult; it just required some careful movement. I'll admit, I died twice trying to reach to bottom due to being jumped and grabbed by enemies: The shield doesn't seem to block this attack and I'm still cursed! So, I got 1-shotted twice.

So, the only real complaint that I have about Blighttown is the draw distance. Once you get to the bottom of Blighttown, its very hard to see exactly where you should go because of the poor draw distance. Remember, the ground is poison, so you need to plan out your route carefully, except you can't really see where the safe patches are until you're already walking towards them. I think I spent a good 5 or 10 minutes running around the scalfolding trying to scope everything out. In the end though, it didn't end up being as much of as issue as I thought it would be. So, 1st time on the ground I missed the elevator mill and ended getting crushed by a boulder as I mad dashed towards the beach. 2nd time on the ground I was able to just barely make out the elevator, and I managed to make it safely back to New Londo! So, Blighttown in 3-deaths! (Two of which can probably be chalked up to being cursed.)

I'll admit, Blight town was time consuming because of how slow and deliberate you had to be, but so far it kinda was one of the better areas, to be honest.

Anyways, I went back to Blighttown to try and claim by blood stain from the Giant: Failed. And I went back a 2nd time to grab some stuff I missed and found a Firekeeper's Soul. Great!

So, here's the plan:
  • I need to go to New Londo to get De-cursed.
  • The ghosts, from my prior experience, are H*** to deal with using the Halberd due to hitboxes, so it's time to revisit the Smith and try forging up my Gargoyle Tail Axe and Zweihander to see if they fair better.
  • Then next time, it's onto New Londo, but first, let's visit the Firekeeper to upgrade my Flask!


So, I'll see you next ti---Wait, where's the firekeeper?

Sonofa....that idiot from the Bell Tower actually killed the Firekeeper. I figured this guy was basically an expy of Yurt from Demon Souls, and freeing him would be a bad idea, but I really did want to see what would happen with him; I didn't expect this!

Great, just as I was about to upgrade my flask. Can it get worse? Yes, now the bonfire is out, so I have to commute to New Londo from the Smith. Geh....

Well, while it's tempting to try and track down the SOB, I still need to get uncursed. besides, I got a 'eye' item that seems to imply I can retrieve my Firekeeper's soul if I use it and defeat the killer. Of course, I can't use it at the moment. I probably need to be human to do that. Or maybe it's just telling me to go to Old Londo. Who knows? Eitherway, next time: New Londo: I hate Ghosts.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I agree witht he fast travel stuff. Its fair enough that you cant do it right in the begining i think, but they should at least have allowed fast travel to every bon fire that you have lit, and also in NG+ (and above). Luckily they've fixed this in the other Souls games.

Otherwise i think its a great game. I recently played through it again myself going for the platinum trophy. Managed to get it, 5-6 years after i first played it :)
 

eot

Banned
OP you can buy an item called a Purging Stone to cure your curse, going to New Londo lets you do it for free, that's the only difference. The merchant in the aqueduct sells them.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Bonfire fast travel took away the satisfaction from discovering shortcuts for me.
Why is that? Every Souls game have fast travel. Shortcuts still have impacts on the gameplay. You usually discover the shortcuts while visting the areas for the first time, so they serve the purpose. Instead of having to run "all the way" every time you want to get to the boss in a certain area, opening a shortcut saves traveling distance. Bonfire warping is there mainly for back tracking, so that you dont have to run all the way around again when visting an area again.
 

JMY86

Member
Dark Souls is one of the finest games ever made, but it has some hurdles to overcome. If you can get over the hurdles and appreciate why they are there and what they mean you may be a fan for life. Or not...
 

Narroo

Member
Lots of discussion about Fast Travel. Okay, let's move on:


So, good news and bad news. The bad news: I can't figure out how to activate the Black Eye Orb, so now the Smith Shop is my base of operations. The good news is: I figured out where to buy a purification stone! I am no longer cursed!

After that was a fair bit of muddling around. I ran around the undead burg and parish a bit hoping to find the Fire Keeper Murder, but to no avail; I assume I'll meet him in old Londo.

I went around Aritolas's Grave and farmed a bit of cash to buy a Poisonbite ring to explore the bottom of Blight Town a bit more. Kinda boring.

But oh, was exploring the bottom worth it! For starters, I found the second Blight Town Bonfire! Not only that, but I finally found some Green Titanite!. I've been looking for this stuff since I got the Divine Ember god knows how many hours ago. To be fair, I'm not too sure how useful this'll be now that I already cleared the Catacombs, but it should be good for the Giant Graveyard. Maybe the Ghosts in New Londo too.

Anyways, I engaged Quelaag. You know, it's never a good idea to fight a (prepared) Pyromancer with Fire. Poor Boss could barely do any damage...at least while Sweat Veil was active. Took three tries: On the third try I said 'screw it', kindled my bonfire and summoned a phantom. She went down hard.


The Second Bell has been rung! The Gate is open.

The Onion Knight shall be pleased.

So, I wandered a bit around Quelaag's lair before heading home. A helpful message told me of an invisible wall, and so I managed to meet the Fire Keeper of Blight Town...Quelaag's Sister.

quelaag-s-sister.jpg

It was an interesting moment to say the least. I joined the covenant and got a nifty new Pyromancy: I'm assuming her attendant is the guy that invented the Poison Mist Pyromancy. Also, I finally got my Flask reinforced again!

Anyways, just as I was leaving I had a moment of inspiration: I equipped the 'Witch's Ring.

Quelaag....is that you...?

If only Quelaag wasn't a crazy, murderous SOB.

This is a great moment. Hopefully there's more of this to come! (And I'm happy I choose the Witch's Ring!)

Okay, that's it, it's late, I've played way too much Dark Souls this weekend, and I have work to do tomorrow. See you guys later!
 

Randam

Member
Why is that? Every Souls game have fast travel. Shortcuts still have impacts on the gameplay. You usually discover the shortcuts while visting the areas for the first time, so they serve the purpose. Instead of having to run "all the way" every time you want to get to the boss in a certain area, opening a shortcut saves traveling distance. Bonfire warping is there mainly for back tracking, so that you dont have to run all the way around again when visting an area again.

and the worlds in part 2 and 3 aren't as good as in part 1.

I remember going down into the tomb of giants after I couldn't beat O&S just to discover that I needed the Lord Vessel, to adanvance to Nito.
having to fight your way back out of the tomb sucked, but seeing the sunlight over firelink shrine again was so damn satisfying.

or from the bottom of blighttown.
in 2 or 3, you could just warp back to firelink. here you had to find the way out over the wooden escalator.

warping after you got the lord vessel was totally fine.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
and the worlds in part 2 and 3 aren't as good as in part 1.

I remember going down into the tomb of giants after I couldn't beat O&S just to discover that I needed the Lord Vessel, to adanvance to Nito.
having to fight your way back out of the tomb sucked, but seeing the sunlight over firelink shrine again was so damn satisfying.

or from the bottom of blighttown.
in 2 or 3, you could just warp back to firelink. here you had to find the way out over the wooden escalator.

warping after you got the lord vessel was totally fine.
I dont think that has much to do with fast traveling though. Demon's Souls and Bloodborne also have fast travel.

But i see what you mean. I also think that is fine, but after playing for a while, having to run the same distances over and over gets tiresome, in my opinion. Also, you dont have to do fast travel if you dont want to either, Dark Souls 2 even give you a reward if you dont rest at any bonfires during the whole game :) I wish the other Souls game had challenges like that.
 

Soodanim

Member
This has been an interesting read so far, possibly more interesting than the overwhelmingly positive LTTPs, because it reminds me of the way DS1 started out for me. I vaguely remember being angered by the skeletons near Firelink and how hard some things were. I'd forgotten about the learning curve after the first couple hundred hours.

While I don't mind the UI in 1 at all (except for how big everything is), I'd adore a re-release version with the UI of 3. It's just so much better in every way.

I disagree with the fast travelling, though. Aside from the one in the Burg that you rarely go back to as it's more of a one-time vendor, you can get to the female one in the tunnel quickly and Andre's location is great for what he provides (the key, smithing near the first boss. (Most) Other vendors go to the shrine as the game progresses too, and the great world design means you're never that far away. Most. One of them you might never meet, but that is no more obtuse than getting to the Bastille guy in 2. I thought that was a tease, not the actual entrance you accessed by a never before seen physics puzzle that you have to manipulate to even set up.
 

Lincoln6Vacano

Neo Member
OP, thanks for making me chuckle. I like the write ups, and even though there's some slight saltiness slipping through, it seems you're still enjoying the game.

Best of luck to you, and have fun in Sen's funhouse!
 

Strings

Member
It seems like your idea of a "good" boss arena is a gigantic empty room with no obstacles since that's mostly what Dark Souls II consists of. The roof where you fight Gargoyles is more than big enough. Regardless, you fight many of Dark Souls' bosses in large empty rooms so rest easy.

Yeah, this... Something like Capra Demon is only an interesting boss because of the claustrophobic arena. The room is as much of the fight as the dogs and the demon.
 

Soodanim

Member
Yeah, this... Something like Capra Demon is only an interesting boss because of the claustrophobic arena. The room is as much of the fight as the dogs and the demon.
Really and truly, there is ample space to fight Capra once you learn his moveset, which isn't much at all. Large wind ups for the big attacks that are easy to roll through/avoid entirely. The only change I would make to account for the camera/fog getting in the way of seeing the 2 dogs immediately run at you is to make the area a bit longer to give more of a warning that you're about to get fucked up if you stand still.

Taurus practically teaches you to roll through his legs, and Moonlight is an exercise in sideways rolling with those slow projectiles.
 

Narroo

Member
Okay, up next: My poor Ear Drums. Why must you attack them?
I swear, for the next bit the game's trying to drive me nuts with sound effects.

Anyways, so leading off from last time: I make, yet again, the arduous journey from Blight Town to the Firelink where I met something that was totally not a Penis. Primordial Serpent, please. I was elated to finally find a vendor that I could sell excess junk to, though I wish the prices where better. I'm also relieved to have finally figured out what the source of that snoring was....
The Pyromancer has been sent down to Blighttown; let's hope that's for the best. Mr. Dark and Gloomy seems to want to kill the Serpent. Let's see how that goes for him. I do sympathize though: The teeth clattering is annoying.

So, I head off to the Smith and forge myself a +2 Raw Zweihander, and with my new weapon in tow, I tackle Sen's fortress!

Wow, this is a difficult one! Well, sorta. I've definitely died a lot; I've probably died here as much as I've did in the entire rest of the game combined. Some of it was silly stuff like successfully identifying a mimic, only to then roll into a hole. Other times it was impatience. And yet other times it was just simply loosing. The Fortress is interesting in that it doesn't feel hard moment to moment, but it's long and punishing. A single mistake will usually get you killed instantly, forcing you to begin again from scratch.

Also, the boulder sound-effects eventually made me want to gouge my ears out. But that's an aside.

I want to believe that a bonfire is hidden somewhere, probably behind an illusionary wall, but I've tried everything and found nothing. On the bright side, I did manage to just barely find the cell key and unlock the shortcut, which will be useful soon enough. The entire fortress up to the boss has been cleared, including saving Logan. So next time I'll be taking the boss on.

Also, I made a quick trip back to the Firelink to talk with Logan. It seems I'm too dumb to learn magic even with 10 Int. Oh well...by-the-by, Dark and Gloomy is gone. I'm going to assume that the T.N.A.P. Serpent ate him. At least that's more closure than what I got with the Crestfallen NPC in Demon Souls.

Good luck everyone!
 

TitusTroy

Member
my first time playing DS1 (also my first Souls game ever) I only really started to enjoy the game and appreciate (and understand the mechanics) once I reached Anor Londo
 

chunk3rvd

Member
This has been great to read. You've literally made so many wrong decisions that made this experience much harder than it should have been. I think in the long run though, once you can see your mistakes, you'll look back on the game fondly for it. You can never have an experience like this once you know how the map is really laid out and all of the games systems. One tip since you're a pyromancer and you didn't mention it -
explore the blightown swamp a little more. There's another spell vendor down there
 

Hektor

Member
Great read op, looking forward to more!

Though your opinion about the firelink shrine is a very unfortunate one, in my opinion it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and memorable placed in all of videogames. I love it so much, i even have fan art of it hanging at home.
 
Great read op, looking forward to more!

Though your opinion about the firelink shrine is a very unfortunate one, in my opinion it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and memorable placed in all of videogames. I love it so much, i even have fan art of it hanging at home.

I think Majula is the best hub out of the 5 Souls games.
 
This has been great to read. You've literally made so many wrong decisions that made this experience much harder than it should have been. I think in the long run though, once you can see your mistakes, you'll look back on the game fondly for it. You can never have an experience like this once you know how the map is really laid out and all of the games systems. One tip since you're a pyromancer and you didn't mention it -
explore the blightown swamp a little more. There's another spell vendor down there

Didn't we all? :) <3 It's fucking great to experience this game blind for the first time.
 

I.R.I.S.

Neo Member
Wow the UI is terrible

Putting 2017 standards on a 2010 game FTW

Oh dear

I might as well warn you right now: Raw Infusion sucks in Dark Souls 1.

Actually, Raw is perfectly fine to do in the first 50% of the game, it just is mediocre because of the wasted titanite once you find the Very Large Ember and need to downgrade again. It's in the game for a reason though.

Plus, if you were going to make something Raw, Zweihander is a perfectly good option. At least he didn't make a raw katana or something.
 
Glad you have stuck with it - I fear my advice is far too late now but IMHO DS1 blind is almost entirely about exploration and learning the map (and mechanics)...

Sure there are boss fights sprinkled around but these are...I don't know...punctuation marks I guess...within the exploration.

Going over your posts I actually don't think you could have a harder start to the game...TOTG and New Londo are difficult even with the right equipment and levels.

Just take your time, accept that you will die occasionally, and take everything as a learning experience.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the rest of the game!
 
Putting 2017 standards on a 2010 game FTW

The UI was bad back in 2009 when Demon's Souls released, Dark Souls had a year or two to fix it and it's still as bad.

It's hardly putting 2017 standards on it, it was bad then and bad now. The equipment + in the bottom left corner is terrible. It takes up a large part of the screen, and other than making it painfully obvious that you press the d-pad in a direction to swap that thing, it's mostly redundant. Showing what spell or item you have equipped is useful, sure, but why do I need a massive picture of my weapon that I'm holding on the screen at all time. I used the Uchigatana for my whole playthrough. It's not like 40 hours in I thought to myself "it's a good job there's a massive picture of my Uchigatana on the screen, I'd almost forgotten what weapon I was using."
 

Narroo

Member
Putting 2017 standards on a 2010 game FTW



Plus, if you were going to make something Raw, Zweihander is a perfectly good option. At least he didn't make a raw katana or something.

...What? What?

First off, Dark Souls 2 was a 2014 release and Dark Souls I was a 2011 release, so you dates are messed up. Both games are also on the same system to boot!

Second off, and much more importantly, what does 2010 have to do with anything? Why can't a game in 2017 have a good UI? Was there some kind of game design revolution in the past seven years? If we were talking about a game from the 80's or early 90's, then sure, a bad UI might have been necessary due to technical limitations, but that is not even close to being the case for a PS3 game. Additionally, ideas about UI's haven't changed much since 2010 either. I know that 2010 may sound old to you, but it's not.


Also, about the Zweihander: I forgot to mention it, but I have now upgraded my Zweihander to +5 Raw. Congratulations!

As for why I did it: Well, I had a ton of success in DS2 using a +10 Raw Malformed Skull. Granted, that weapon doesn't have any scaling, for for an initial playthrough it was incredibly overpowered and was 1-2 shoting almost everything to the end of the game. Now, the Zweihander does do scaling, but I'm planing on doing a Pyromancy/Physical build, with maybe a bit of Sorcery. I'm not planning on dumping too many more points into Str and Dex, so the bump from going to Raw seems to outweigh the scaling reduction. We'll see if it pans out.

Also, honestly I'm not much of a fan of the Zweihander; it's not satisfying to swing around like the Black Fire Ultragreat Sword from DS2. (You know, the one from Tseldora Manor.) I'm just using it because it's my strongest weapon and my Halberd doesn't do much against Snake Men.

See ya all later!
 

KHlover

Banned
To be fair, the Zweihänder (to my knowledge) isn't an UGS, just a GS. Maybe the Greatsword would be more to your liking, idk.
 

Narroo

Member
Now that I think about it: without knowing more, if I pressed on ahead with the Valley of the Drakes when I first found it, I could have entered Blighttown from behind. That would have saved a fair amount of trouble, I suppose. On the otherhand, I'd've missed the Pyromancer....still...drat! I should've just gone for it!
 

Carlius

Banned
dark souls 2 will forever be my favorite dark souls no matter what. its just so good, i know it by heart already.
DS was my entry to the series and i loved it yes, no doubt its an amazing game, specially its dlc which i still consider the best in the series. never beat bloodborne.
 
Now that I think about it: without knowing more, if I pressed on ahead with the Valley of the Drakes when I first found it, I could have entered Blighttown from behind. That would have saved a fair amount of trouble, I suppose. On the otherhand, I'd've missed the Pyromancer....still...drat! I should've just gone for it!

The Valley of Drakes entrance is locked, and you can't get through that way unless you
take the key as your starting gift
.

The way you went is the 'correct' way for a first playthrough.
 

psyfi

Banned
I never did find out what the witch's ring does in my playthrough, and I had no idea about the secret path to the Fire keeper from Quelaag's lair. Damn! I'm bummed I missed all that.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
To be fair, the Zweihänder (to my knowledge) isn't an UGS, just a GS. Maybe the Greatsword would be more to your liking, idk.

It's an UGS. The greatsword IIRC is identical except has higher str requirements and does thrust damage?

It's also a really, really, REALLY bad idea to make the zwei, or almost anything, raw. Saying "my raw ___ in DS2/DS3 worked well" is meaningless because raw infusions were potentially decent in those games, but they are worthless in DS1 unless you're doing an SL1 run and don't want to use elemental weapons or something.

If you're not going to dump points in str/dex, then make a lightning uchi or something, that'll have better DPS in the long run.
 

Slythe

Member
As much as I love the connected world, DS1 can be so frustrating. I honestly didn't start enjoying the game until Sens Fortress. Everything before that was such a slog. The complaint about boss arenas is valid. Capra Demon could've been a great fight if not for the back-alley setting.

If given the choice of replaying the opening hours of DeS, DS1, or DS2 (the only ones I've played), I'm convinced I'd pick DS1 last every time. I prefer the creative vision of DS1, but DS2 simply becomes fun so much sooner. DeS outclasses both DS1 and DS2 in art direction, atmosphere and pacing. Only problem with that game is the equip loads.
 
As much as I love the connected world, DS1 can be so frustrating. I honestly didn't start enjoying the game until Sens Fortress. Everything before that was such a slog. The complaint about boss arenas is valid. Capra Demon could've been a great fight if not for the back-alley setting.

If given the choice of replaying the opening hours of DeS, DS1, or DS2 (the only ones I've played), I'm convinced I'd pick DS1 last every time. I prefer the creative vision of DS1, but DS2 simply becomes fun so much sooner. DeS outclasses both DS1 and DS2 in art direction, atmosphere and pacing. Only problem with that game is the equip loads.

That's funny; I'm the opposite. I love the opening of Dark Souls, until you get to Blighttown (I'm not a huge fan of the Depths, but it doesn't really bother me either way). I love the whole Undead areas and the forest.
 

Slythe

Member
That's funny; I'm the opposite. I love the opening of Dark Souls, until you get to Blighttown (I'm not a huge fan of the Depths, but it doesn't really bother me either way). I love the whole Undead areas and the forest.

I definitely think Undead Burg is the strongest part of DS1's opening. It's far better than Forest of the Fallen Giants.

However the run afterwards of Capra Demon, The Depths, Blighttown, and Quelaag (who gave me a lot of trouble) is just really hard to stomach. I will say though, I remember far more about those areas and bosses than I do about DS2's early areas and bosses, and I'm still in the middle of playing that game. Difference is, despite DS2 areas and bosses not being as memorable, I know I've been having an absolute blast with DS2 since beating the Last Giant (first hour of the game). It's weird.
 
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