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LTTP: Dark Souls

Narroo

Member
Update:

So, I went and killed the Boss of Sen's Fortress. Before anything, I said 'screw it', revived myself as a human, and summoned a Player and NPC Phantom to help me, and then unloaded all my Pyromancer on the thing. Took about 30 seconds to die.

I found myself in Anor Londo, City of the Gods. Nice stonework.
So, this was neat for all about 2 minutes: I wander in, kill Golem, accidently pick a fight with a Gargoyle, then I find the Bonfire. And...nothing. I think I've wasted at least a good hour now trying to figure out what to do. I played (and died) a few times fighting the Golems and grabbing some treasure. I found the sparkly door. The Firekeeper told me to go straight. Nothing's happening. Am I not the chosen one? Did the Serpent lie to me? The Primordial Serpent has no advice, so I'm kinda stuck now. I'm half afraid something glitched and didn't trigger when I beat the Gargoyle. I've been looking for levers and haven't found any yet. There appears to be no secret paths....hm....Anor Londo is souring pretty quickly.
 

zma1013

Member
The path is there, nothing is glitched, just look around down there where you fought the gargoyle. Hint: look left.
 

Perineum

Member
I just started for the second time ever Dark Souls 2, this time Scholar of the First sin.

This game is rough...I'm almost as far as I was on my original day one purchase of it back when it came out, and all of the reasons I stopped it then are making me want to stop it again haha. The only saving grace so far is that 60FPS is glorious and makes it a very smooth and fun combat flow.

But shit...the Estus mechanics in this game make me hate life.

OP DS1 is the second best offering this franchise has after Bloodborne. You are in for a treat if you make it to the end. Helluva game.
 

Xliskin

Member
I had blast reading your posts OP dunno is this cause of your writing or the game has so many ways to experience ,anyways I'll be following this thread till you finish the game , this game is one of my cherished GOAT ,IMO the experience do not stop in one playthrough so I hope the game encourge you to do a second playthrough

about your question if the game glitched or not , no just there is no sign where to go in this part I remember i was lost in this place too my first time playing it , check behind the staairs where you fought the gargoyle


I just started for the second time ever Dark Souls 2, this time Scholar of the First sin.

This game is rough...I'm almost as far as I was on my original day one purchase of it back when it came out, and all of the reasons I stopped it then are making me want to stop it again haha. The only saving grace so far is that 60FPS is glorious and makes it a very smooth and fun combat flow.

But shit...the Estus mechanics in this game make me hate life.

OP DS1 is the second best offering this franchise has after Bloodborne. You are in for a treat if you make it to the end. Helluva game.


I've played DS2 sooo many times and got the plat in PS3 it might be my most played game of this franchise , well this tell you how much I liked it , I FU**ing hated SOTFS version couldn't even beat it it left a bad taste for DS2 in my mouth :( so you are not wrong in this version that being said the Estus mechanic in this game neither good nor bad but it will get better as you play but yeah just stop playing this version and go to OG version or play the whole game with a friend co-op
 

Narroo

Member
Small Updated: Figured out how to progress. Originally I thought the messages on the scaffolding were just players placing messages because they could.

Had some trouble with the Pink Demons because The Zweihander is slow, my shield doesn't fully block lightening, and all me other weapons are weak. I wasted more time that I'd care to admit dying against them trying to come up with a trick, only to find out a Bonfire was nearby.

Solaire is back, and he's alive! Hooray!

I like the house. The Mansion is nice, and makes the world feel a bit realer. The pictures are a nice touch. The knights were good too.

I managed to make it to the final fog door. I whipped out the Black Eye Orb and managed to avenge the Firelink Firekeeper, and won back her soul! Somehow, I don't think I can relight the Firelink shrine though, which'll suck.

Next time: Boss.
 

Xliskin

Member
Small Updated: Figured out how to progress. Originally I thought the messages on the scaffolding were just players placing messages because they could.

Had some trouble with the Pink Demons because The Zweihander is slow, my shield doesn't fully block lightening, and all me other weapons are weak. I wasted more time that I'd care to admit dying against them trying to come up with a trick, only to find out a Bonfire was nearby.

Solaire is back, and he's alive! Hooray!

I like the house. The Mansion is nice, and makes the world feel a bit realer. The pictures are a nice touch. The knights were good too.

I managed to make it to the final fog door. I whipped out the Black Eye Orb and managed to avenge the Firelink Firekeeper, and won back her soul! Somehow, I don't think I can relight the Firelink shrine though, which'll suck.

Next time: Boss.

Nice , go back to where you found her and see what will happen while you there explore firelink shrine a bit more
 
The later souls games have a lot better QOL, but it infringes partly to how the game world ends up feeling. I'm not a fan of the separate nexus type area and easy fast travel due to how it dilutes the sense of place in the game world and how easy it is to escape any area. Challenge is only attained by increasing mob difficulty, the areas and progress means very little since they're just couple clicks away at any point. The same goes for OP's problem of not knowing where to go. That's fantastic! So many options to consider, instead of only one linear route, and paying attention to detail is rewarded. I think the main charm of DS1 is overcoming the struggle that a lot of new players seem to hate at first, and some never care to stand up to the occasion and just quit. It's all so fantastically fitting to the theme. People usually either love it or hate it based on how they felt about the challenge of exploration in the game. DS1 has its fair share of issues, but that's likely not the deciding factor in how people feel about the game overall once they're done with it. To me DS1 was much more of a journey or adventure than the other hub Souls games, and I kinda miss it.
 

kromeo

Member
Update:

So, I went and killed the Boss of Sen's Fortress. Before anything, I said 'screw it', revived myself as a human, and summoned a Player and NPC Phantom to help me, and then unloaded all my Pyromancer on the thing. Took about 30 seconds to die.

Aww should have fought that one solo, it's about the easiest boss in the game. I think he actually fell off the ledge the first time I fought him

I remember expecting such an annoying area to have a real bastard of a boss
 
Picked it up on launch day, got up to blighttown and just couldn't get into it at all. Two or so years later I gave the game another shot for some reason, beat the game and fucking loved it.

Never got the same sense of adventure from ds2 or 3 that I got from the first.
 

Valahart

Member
I excitingly read your report to check if you died after Pinwheel.

Tomb of the Giants really fucking triggered me the first time I went there. I was absolutely sure there was a Bonfire there, because how could there not, the last one was way waaaay back, and then I fall into a hole and lose all my souls. By that time I didn't have any source of light yet, because I somehow wandered around for hours without finding Blighttown. So I didn't even bother going back.

Anyways, I stick to the game and ended up loving it despite some minor and some not so minor annoyances.
 
no quick travel is one of the best things about this game.

It's more that the world is so brilliantly designed for the first 3/4ths of the way that you don't really need to fast travel. DS1 is the only game in the series that could be an argument for a 3D Metroidvania
 

Narroo

Member
So. Boss Time!

I started off by reviving myself and Summoning Solaire. Then I proceeded to get invaded by a human. So far, so good. I somehow managed to kill the two giants before the red phantom appeared; I proceeded to smack the player, wearing Onion Armor ,with several fireballs. Solaire managed to smack him a few times too, and then I back-stabbed him with my Zweihander. The guy proceeded to shrug it all off and 1-Hit KO me. Well, if that isn't ominous. I sear, (Human) Red Phantoms in DSI seems to have some uncanny ESP to know when exactly to be the most annoying.


Anyways, boss time for real. Went back, revived myself. Summoned a human player, summoned Solaire again, and headed to the boss. How could be loose?

Dragonslayer Ornstein and Execution Smough

ornstein-smough-large.jpg


This started off pretty well! Me and the real player focused Smough and between my Phantom's even stronger Zweihander, and my pyromancy, he went down quick. I swear, I was just basking in the the great music and the great design.

Then, Ornstein turned into a giant and healed himself. Well....*****.

Then, Ornstein proceeds to kill my human phantom. Well....******!

It did not end well. By the end, I was asking: 'How the Heck are you supposed to beat this boss by yourself?!' It's a great battle, for two or three players, but holy carp is this insane for one-player, unless there's some kind of trick. Perhaps if you happened to have the right equipment setup it's fine, but.....sheesh.

Anyways, afterwards, there was some farting around, and I ended up deciding to try loaning myself out as a phantom to learn the fight. I noticed that while no one ever summons me elsewhere, it's not that hard to get summoned here. This was when I learned the hard way that friendly phantoms can't heal with Estus! Crud, I didn't realized that. This explains a lot about the phantoms I summoned previously. You have to wonder how practical being a white phantom is for farming humanity if that's the case.....but somehow, we won! Now, just to do it again!

I revive myself, again, summon two human players, and go off to the races! It was close! This time I (tried) to take point as much as possible- I noticed my play style is a lot more cautious than other people's- and we eked out a victory against Giant Ornstein. Good gravy! It was an amazing tense and fun time (with three people. I'm never doing this fight alone. Ever. I tried. No.)

So, after the high I met Gwenevre, Princess of Sunlight!

gwynevere-princess-of-sunlight-large.jpg


Oh, this was great! Great Music, visuals, and an actual plot is forming! Granted, no one is ever going to actually tell me what is going on, but I'll take it. She could at least tell me what her covenant does...the 'vagueness' of Dark Souls gets a bit nonsensical at times.

Now, I have the lord Vessel and I can warp. FINALLY. YES. I went back to Frampf, who so far I like as a character (Constant teeth grind aside) and got some more cool cutscenes.

Aside from that, I made a quick pitstop to the Daughter of Chaos, and tried to find my old Pyromancer friend. Couldn't find him; oh well. Oh, I also revived the Fire Keeper afterall!

Next time: 1, I'm going to go buy that DLC now that I have the lord Vessel. 2. Find Pyromancer guy, because I still have a spell to buy off him. Caio!
 

Randam

Member
Only problem with that game is the equip loads.

I liked it.
don't know why they got rid of it.
running around with 999 arrows, bombs, resins of every type is stupid.
having armors and weapons/shields for every situation always at Hand too.

you had to plan ahead in Demon's.
 
Oh, you were just playing Vanilla, not Prepare to Die Edition?

This is the point in the game where I did my DLC playthrough, so it's definitely doable at this point, unlike the other Souls/BB DLC, which I feel are better left until just before the final boss.
 

Slythe

Member
I liked it.
don't know why they got rid of it.
running around with 999 arrows, bombs, resins of every type is stupid.
having armors and weapons/shields for every situation always at Hand too.

you had to plan ahead in Demon's.

I'm okay with having an equip load, but the one in DeS felt really limiting. Worst thing was trying to pick up an item, not having room for it and losing it forever (normally if I picked up a few rocks this would be a problem). I lost the compound bow on my first play through due to this.

However it does help build a sense of isolation not having a dozen different weapon and shield options at any given time etc. Certainly more immersive that walking around with enough gear to supply a small army.
 

Valahart

Member
Can't believe you ruined the best boss fight in gaming history by summoning anyone, even worse is that you summoned TWO players.

I'm sorry to break it to you but that was a mistake.
 
I disagree with a lot of your criticism, OP.

If you talk to all NPCs you encounter a few times and exhaust their dialogue, you do get guidance. You also need to keep an eye open for minor things, and at practically any point in the game you still have unexplored pathways to go through.

That said, I do frequently consult a guide (first Souls game, I tend to get pissed at myself when I learn I missed a huge thing in a game so yeah) and I can see how it'd be very frustrating without one. I love the interconnected world though, and despite being nowhere as skilled as you (I die probably tens of times in any given area) I never really had a problem with being unable to warp (at first). Don't know about the others, but DS1 feels like you're carving a path for yourself and you don't have an absolute power over the world, you're barely squeezing through.

You feel absolutely lost and you only get your bearings once you discover the Parish elevator, in my opinion. I loved how the world kept looping back on itself (by shortcuts in unexpected places).

Also, there really isn't anything that takes more than a couple minutes to run to or from so long as you keep an eye open for fast travel options. It IS inconvenient in a location like, say, Blighttown, but that adds to the feeling of oppressive isolation in that place. You're not meant to backtrack all that much at first, anyway.
 

Narroo

Member
Short update: I found the Pyromancer! And he's gone crazy and hollow, sadly I had to put him down...I still had to buy Fire Orb from him! He didn't even have the decency to drop any items for me!

Although, when I slayed him, it appeared almost like he killed himself...odd. I don't think I even got souls for it. He's undead, so perhaps he yet lives on, somewhere, but I really don't want to waste the time to find him.

In other news, I found Onion knight hanging out in a random corner of Blighttown. Why? Who knows.

Luckily, I found the Advanced Pyromancer in the worlds most inconvenient and random spot possible in Blighttown. I'm finally filling out my Pyromancy arsenal!

I took out Ceaseless Discharge. What a crummy boss!

I've gone around the Demon Ruins: I like it so far, except the worms. The worms are a blight on an otherwise nice area.

Next time: Fire Demon Boss!
 

Bedlam

Member
Can't believe you ruined the best boss fight in gaming history by summoning anyone, even worse is that you summoned TWO players.

I'm sorry to break it to you but that was a mistake.

Yup. Also with many other boss fights. OP doesn't even try which is sad.

When I saw the thread I really looked forward to reading of another player's journey of beating the odds and thereby discovering the genius of this game. But reading the posts of the OP is actually depressing, knowing he will never know how experiencing DS really feels like. He is not patient and observant enough, he wants all that comfort shit like fast-travel right from the beginning etc. (NOT being able to fast-travel for half the game made DS1 the best Souls game among other things).

Also, there really isn't anything that takes more than a couple minutes to run to or from so long as you keep an eye open for fast travel options. It IS inconvenient in a location like, say, Blighttown, but that adds to the feeling of oppressive isolation in that place. You're not meant to backtrack all that much at first, anyway.
.

Being trapped down in Blighttown is probably one of my favorite Souls moments ever. DS2 and 3 don't even come close to creating such tension due to bonfire-galore and fast-travel.
 

Narroo

Member
So, update!

I've been busy, so I haven't been playing much. Just got on today!

So: Demon Centipede: Easy Boss, once you find the safe corner with no lava. Got the ring: Onto Lost Izalith!

Wow is Lost Izalith Depressing!
The route to Bed of Chaos is fairly easy in practice; most of the area is contained in optional branches which is neat. Lost Izalith in an interesting area, though....

Onion Knight. Why? Was I really too brilliant? I liked you. I saved you from those monsters. Why did you have to suddenly die anyways? You didn't give good drops.

So, then I sneak my way past the Demon Titanate....and Solaire....
what a terrible and anti-climatic way to go, Solarie. Can I not save you? Should I have killed that slightly glowing parasite first that kinda looked like a graphical glitch? I miss you and your drops do not make up for it. Solaire....I never even got to hear you 'praise the sun.'

All of the wandering NPC's I like are dead now. Argh.

Bed of Chaos....
bed-of-chaos-large.jpg


So, Bed of Chaos was annoying, but not for the boss itself. Rather, getting to the boss, even with the shortcut, is incredibly tedious and annoying. In particular, there's a shortcut to the 'Daughter of Chaos,' but it's still a several minute trip and there's a Demon Titanite in the way that respawns. Why does it respawn?

The Boss herself is actually pretty easy, but it's a refreshing change of pace. The 'flaw' is that she can instant kill you with some rather shots, namely the crumbling floor. For example, I jumped over root and when I landed the floor immediately crumbled and I died.
The boss isn't hard per se, actually she's incredibly easy once you learn how the fight works. But until then, the fight has several aspects that can blindside a new player and result in a few sudden deaths. And that last just is kinda nasty to make. This would be fine, for a battle like this, except the bonfires are so far away! At this point the game is just trying to waste my time. If there was a bonfire next to the fight, it would have been much better. A bit easy, but simply wasting my time by making me run to hell and back because 'oh no, the floor crumbled for no reason, how was I supposed to know that?' is kinda BS.

So, on the whole, Bed of Chaos, not a bad boss by herself, but given that your are almost guaranteed to die a few times, annoying to travel to.

That's it today. I'll be sure to complain about Dark Souls again soon!
 

zma1013

Member
*Lost Izalith*

That's it today. I'll be sure to complain about Dark Souls again soon!

Congrats, you just made it through the worst area in the game and got it over with. Yes the boss is crap and the area is unfinished and the enemies are just mindlessly thrown about and the shortcut is terrible. However, there is a hidden bonfire closer to the boss so you dont have to take the long shortcut for future reference. It's ok, I think most people miss it.

Visually a cool looking area (orange glow notwithstanding) with a cool looking boss and a very interesting ending to a great character.
 
So. Boss Time!

How could be loose?

Dragonslayer Ornstein and Execution Smough

I defeated them surprisingly easily in my first play through of the game.

Subsequent play throughs would go on to take me days (hours upon hours of attempts..... I remember one other play through where I killed one of the characters I could summon in that particular fight.... so I had to start a new game "just in case" I wanted to summon them at that moment lol).
 
So, Bed of Chaos was annoying, but not for the boss itself. Rather, getting to the boss, even with the shortcut, is incredibly tedious and annoying. In particular, there's a shortcut to the 'Daughter of Chaos,' but it's still a several minute trip and there's a Demon Titanite in the way that respawns. Why does it respawn?
It sounds like you missed a hidden bonfire.
There are two buildings in the lava field in Lost Izalith, the first is open and has a chest inside with a Soul of a Hero consumable iirc, that is the clue that the second one has an illusory wall, inside which is the bonfire - It's the closest bonfire for the boss.
 

Narroo

Member
It sounds like you missed a hidden bonfire.
There are two buildings in the lava field in Lost Izalith, the first is open and has a chest inside with a Soul of a Hero consumable iirc, that is the clue that the second one has an illusory wall, inside which is the bonfire - It's the closest bonfire for the boss.

Huh; funny thing was I was actually hitting most of those walls thinking that one of them might be issuanary, but then I decided around that point I was crazy and gave up.
 

Narroo

Member
Small-ish update:

I haven't accomplished much recently: I'm in the Metroidvania phase of "running around and cleaning the map up."

That said, as I'm doing this, I'm kicking myself because of a few things I missed.

I cleared New Londo up to the boss gate. Neat area. The thing is, if you recall, back when I first started the game, before ringing the bells, I explored New Londo a bit. It ends up I actually got to the room before the de-cursing priest before I called it quits. I never did tell you how far I made it there, did I? So, well, I made it to the 2nd Ghost Gank room.

So, the seal is broken and the Valley of the Drakes is open, which brings up my 2nd 'OMFG WHY?!" point: Blight Town is literally right next to the Darkroot Basin entrance of the valley! There's only two enemies between you, and blight town! If I had just sucked it up and pressed on I could have skipped Lower Burg, the Depths, and nearly all of Blight Town!! Seriously, it drops you right at the boss and bonfire! back when I was wondering around Lordain, I was actively avoiding the depths! For the love of pete! You remember how poorly that went!

Speaking of Darkroot, I killed the Hydra and found the ladder. Apparently, there's a nice shortcut that skips almost the entirety of the forest and drops you off at the boss - I'm assuming it's the giant wolf. I could've completely avoided so much pain and suffering with that area!

Each time, during that early game everyone made fun of me for, if I just pressed on a bit further I could've actually done some great sequence breaking! ARGH.

Wait, what about the Giant's Graveyard?! Oh lord, that place is going to have something silly, isn't it?
 

galv

Unconfirmed Member
So, the seal is broken and the Valley of the Drakes is open, which brings up my 2nd 'OMFG WHY?!" point: Blight Town is literally right next to the Darkroot Basin entrance of the valley! There's only two enemies between you, and blight town! If I had just sucked it up and pressed on I could have skipped Lower Burg, the Depths, and nearly all of Blight Town!!

Yep. You can literally beat Quelaag as your second boss (Asylum Demon first) in Dark Souls. Funnily enough, the developers knew people would try this, and you actually get a different cutscene if you beat Quelaag as your first Bell of Awakening instead of the Gargoyles which most players do.

For people who don't mind spoilers: also noteworthy is that you can beat
the Four Kings
as your third boss in Dark Souls (
which allows you to warp without the Lordvessel, even if it's practically useless since it's a one way trip from The Abyss to Firelink)
... ;) Actually, come to think of it, you can do any of
Quelaag, Sif, Bell Gargoyles, Pinwheel, Taurus Demon and Moonlit Butterfly
as soon as you reach Firelink Shrine (
if you chose the Master Key, otherwise you gotta beat Taurus first
).
 

Narroo

Member
So, putzing about.

That Dragon! I tried to go back to kill that dragon. "How hard could it be?" Several deaths later I realized that it was not meant to be fought normally. Dumped about 5 pts into DEX, upgraded the Dragon Slayer Bow, took it down, and got 10,000 Souls for my effort. Doesn't appear to be worth it. Dark Souls!

I went back to the Graveyard of the Giants, and found that the main bonfire was literally right next to where I died on my first venture so many hours ago. Jeeze louize. Making my way to Nico the Gravelord wasn't bad at all; although getting the enhanced Divine Ember was absolutely ridiculous.

Nico himself gave me a fair amount of trouble; his scream attack is dumb if he spams it. I fused my Halberd to +14, from Divine +5, before this, so I eventually had to go back and fuse up a +10 Divine Man-Serpent Sword...which made the fight fairly easy after so many countless deaths.

So, not much to talk about at the moment; currently I'm in Seath's level, which has so far proved to be entertaining. See ya later.
 

Narroo

Member
Proper Update:

The Duke's Archive's
dukes_archives.jpg



Today, I explored the Duke's Archives. It was wonderful! After entering through Anor Londo, I took a few pigs down and rested at the bonfire. I made my way through the main entrance without much issue and took the lift. I marveled at the strange crystals for a bit before rather suddenly coming face to face with:

Seath The Scaleless!

Bum-bum-baaaaaaam! I'll admit, I wasn't expecting him so early. Up to this point things were pretty ho-hum, then I died. Yes!

Waking up in the Prison was both unexpected and exciting! We've deviated from the formula! Something interesting is happening! I even got a cutscene when I escaped! I feel so special! Phew!

Looting the Library Prison to the tune of the calling record was definitely fun. Afterwards I made it to the main library where I somehow got lost despite the simple layout. Aesthetically, I do like the Duke's Archives, and it was short and sweet while requiring some attention. Eventually, I make it to the Crystal Cavern:

Crystal_Cave.jpg


I have some mixed feelings about the Crystal Cave: The hit boxes on terrain is strange and I died a few times because of it; I don't think I legitimately died because I lost in combat. On the otherhand, from an overall level design standpoint it was great! It was a nice change of pace, it sorta had background music, and was quite neat.

And above all, this happened:

"Oooh, what's that Shiny thing over there...? Wait a second, I see petrified men..."

"Oh not this S*** again. I guess the mist is cursed. I better equip as much Curse Resistance as possible. I'll remove my armor in favor of Dingy Robes"

"Huh, a cutscene, why am I getting cutscene...?"

"Oh dear god, it's the boss! I am not ready for this!"

"Come +14 Halberd, don't fail me now! Nonononononoooo..."

"I'M ALIVE!/B]

Seath's sudden appearance was exciting to say the least. I'm happy at the moment.

Next up, is the DLC!
 
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