Sully907

Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

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Here are the ways in which Dark Souls could've been definitely improved:

1. Have a sort of guiding NPC that tells you the lore, like a sprite as in Ocarina of Time

2. Cutscenes before every new level pointing out interesting things and hinting at the treasures and secrets (that builds suspense)

3. More generic enemies to pad out the length between bosses. This to avoid boss-fatigue

4. Crates

---

In seriousness, BadHat, you writing that made me realize something. What you described was my exact feeling while playing Skyrim. That was indeed a world that felt lived in and not tailormade to suit me. I didn't get that from Dark Souls at all. The world is hostile to me, yeah, but it didn't feel like a believable environment at all. In fact, the opposite. Every encounter with a person, while not necessarily revolving around you, has this weird sense of purpose to it. Even though everything is tinged with madness and obscurity, the world doesn't feel real because there's no mundanity in it. No ordinary people that have nothing to do with the 'plot' and just going about their business. Though the world itself is very convincing, it's no more believable than any fantasy realm, and I don't think it's shooting for that. I'm not saying it isn't smartly done - in fact, this is the most remarkable instance of world building I've seen in years - but there's something different going on here, I think.

Dark Souls is making me gibber like an idiot. I guess I'll just go wear a sunlight maggot on my head now. Might as well...

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While I mostly agree Rodi, the castle segments in the Souls games are a great exception to me. No other game evokes the feeling of visiting ancient castles in reality as well as these games do.

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Here are the ways in which Dark Souls could've been definitely improved:

1. Have a sort of guiding NPC that tells you the lore, like a sprite as in Ocarina of Time

2. Cutscenes before every new level pointing out interesting things and hinting at the treasures and secrets (that builds suspense)

3. More generic enemies to pad out the length between bosses. This to avoid boss-fatigue

4. Crates

---

In seriousness, BadHat, you writing that made me realize something. What you described was my exact feeling while playing Skyrim. That was indeed a world that felt lived in and not tailormade to suit me. I didn't get that from Dark Souls at all. The world is hostile to me, yeah, but it didn't feel like a believable environment at all. In fact, the opposite. Every encounter with a person, while not necessarily revolving around you, has this weird sense of purpose to it. Even though everything is tinged with madness and obscurity, the world doesn't feel real because there's no mundanity in it. No ordinary people that have nothing to do with the 'plot' and just going about their business. Though the world itself is very convincing, it's no more believable than any fantasy realm, and I don't think it's shooting for that. I'm not saying it isn't smartly done - in fact, this is the most remarkable instance of world building I've seen in years - but there's something different going on here, I think.

Dark Souls is making me gibber like an idiot. I guess I'll just go wear a sunlight maggot on my head now. Might as well...

 

Since the world kind of exists at all times at once, I assumed that all these important events are being pulled from different times and all happening around you as the world tries to shape you into the chosen undead. I like it because every person you talk to feels important, even those who aren't, and you never know what action or inaction is going to come back to bite you later. Skyrim gave me the feeling that nothing was really important, that things would just continue on regardless of my stupidity. Both are entertaining in their own ways, mind you, but I'm enjoying Dark Souls's take on things at the moment.

 

Edit: Also, I think any "ordinary" people probably went hallow a long time ago, leaving only the extraordinary souls still alive to talk to.

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Finished up the Duke's Archives today.

For all the build up, Seath was a bit of a chump. Once I figured out how to do enough damage to him with my spells to kill him, the fight was pretty easy. I got dodging his attacks down to a science, which is good because I had to put on the headband that increases sorcerery damage at the expense of lowering magic defense in order to do enough damage with my limited supply of spells. You know who was an enormous pain the in the ass? Big Hat Logan. I went to finish him off and he smoked me in one shot with a crystal soul spear, which respawns you in the prison, and then I died trying to get back to him. Oh well, 5 humanity down the drain.

 

Now I'm going to start in on the DLC. I ruined a bit of the surprise of some of the end areas by watching the Giant Bomb streams, but this will be all new stuff again. I can't wait.

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Fwiw I am just getting ready to confront Queelag. I made a mental decision that it was ok to use guides up until this point so as to learn systems without ten bajillion deaths - but from the ringing bells forward I am exploring.

The only thing I really know is that there are archers at some point. :)

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There are archers. They aren't as bad as everyone says (they aren't exactly a picnic either though.)

 

To tell the truth, I wish that I hadn't read quite as much as I have. I didn't exactly watch every second of those Giant Bomb streams, just kinda had them running off to the side, but knowing about the tricky rooms and bosses ahead of time is a bit of a dissapointment.

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Here are the ways in which Dark Souls could've been definitely improved:

1. Have a sort of guiding NPC that tells you the lore, like a sprite as in Ocarina of Time

2. Cutscenes before every new level pointing out interesting things and hinting at the treasures and secrets (that builds suspense)

3. More generic enemies to pad out the length between bosses. This to avoid boss-fatigue

4. Crates

---

In seriousness, BadHat, you writing that made me realize something. What you described was my exact feeling while playing Skyrim. That was indeed a world that felt lived in and not tailormade to suit me. I didn't get that from Dark Souls at all. The world is hostile to me, yeah, but it didn't feel like a believable environment at all. In fact, the opposite. Every encounter with a person, while not necessarily revolving around you, has this weird sense of purpose to it. Even though everything is tinged with madness and obscurity, the world doesn't feel real because there's no mundanity in it. No ordinary people that have nothing to do with the 'plot' and just going about their business. Though the world itself is very convincing, it's no more believable than any fantasy realm, and I don't think it's shooting for that. I'm not saying it isn't smartly done - in fact, this is the most remarkable instance of world building I've seen in years - but there's something different going on here, I think.

Dark Souls is making me gibber like an idiot. I guess I'll just go wear a sunlight maggot on my head now. Might as well...

 

Yeah, believable probably wasn't the right word. I just wrote a bunch of stuff that didn't make any goddamn sense, but basically I think the appeal boils down to the way the game keeps you at arm's length, not to minimize player input but to put the onus on you to meet the game on its own terms, which I think extends to the lore and the fact that the world doesn't exist to tell you, specifically, its story. Compare this to something like Skyrim which, as a living breathing world is much more believable, but (at least this was my impression after playing for a while) gives you the distinct impression that you're being catered to as a player. For instance, scaling all the content to your level so you can complete it at your leisure. I get why they do stuff like that, but it diminishes the sensation that the world exists as its own entity with its own rules instead of existing to accommodate the player.

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I find it incredibly refreshing to be in a game world where it's clearly not the case that everything revolves around me.

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I find it incredibly refreshing to be in a game world where it's clearly not the case that everything revolves around me.

Indeed. Since Skyrim was mentioned, that is one of the biggest problems I had with that game. It felt like the trueman show, everything you see is just a show put on to make you think there's an actual world around you. What I wanted out of that game was more simulation, systems that exist for their own sake. This a bit off topic, but another problem I have with Skyrim (and Bethesda games) is that their worlds aren't very thought through, they don't have any internal consistency and don't stand up to scrutiny. This is a land of winter, why isn't that reflected in the culture? I see people running around in t-shirts in a blizzard. There's a really great guy on youtube who talked about this and compared Fallout 3 and Fallout NV just by asking the question "what do they eat?", I thought it was quite brilliant:

 

Anyway, Dark Souls. I think the vagueness of the storytelling is appropriate. It's true that it's not something you enjoy in the moment, but that just means it's different. For me it still adds value on repeat playthroughs, so it's not something that just exists outside the game. And honestly, the lore probably wouldn't be that interesting if it were explicit. The only piece of omniscent narration in the game is the opening cutscene and I rolled my eyes at that. It's poorly delivered and storytelling is as much about the delivery as the actual story. Piecing together the story myself through tiny clues is a form of delivery that does work though. I like that I can have my own interpretation of the story.

 

I think what makes it work is how committed to it they are. There aren't any audio diaries or written notes, all the text and dialogue (even the item descriptions) is written from the perspective of a person who probably has an agenda. They show so much restraint in what they're willing to not tell you.

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Man, I looked up a couple of the NPC storylines because I didn't want to screw up and miss a large section of the story like I did with Lautrec.

 

No one has a good ending in this game at all, do they?

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*snicker*

 

I had a couple of days off for my Halloween party. I ended up beating the DLC (including optional boss,)  the catacombs (but not the tomb of giants quite yet,) and the painted world (but skipped the boss there.)

 

The DLC is a pretty awesome piece of content, but man the bosses there are hard. With my Sorcery build, all three of them could one-hit me, and the dragon could one-hit me even through my shield with a couple of his attacks. I got a lot of practice at rolling and died many, many times. I finally had to give up for the night on Manus, but then, hung over as crap after the party. I hopped on, woefully unprepared, and managed to beat Manus in one try without him even getting to pull any of his dark magic tricks.

 

The catacombs were a pretty fun as well. Having a +5 divine weapon got me through most of the level with out too much of a hassle. I actually had to unequip my best catalyst and my sorcery boosting ring so I didn't kill the skeletons in one hit with my soul arrow. After a little equipment balancing work, I managed to get my soul arrow to leave the skeletons with around 10 life left, all primed for a single jab with my divine mail breaker. The boss was easy (of course) but then I made the mistake of pressing onwards into the Tomb of Giants without much in the way of light and died losing 70k souls and 14 humanity.  It turns out that the necromancer who dropped the skull lantern fell off the cliff, so that sucks. Thankfully, I have a light spell and eventually managed to make it to the first bonfire before bailing.

 

Finally, the Painted World, where I picked up my new primary weapon, Velka's rapier. Not much to say here, pretty snowscape, fairly easy compared to anything else I've done recently. Skipped the boss because she seemed like such a nice lady. So I guess that just leaves the Hallows, the lava area, and the Tomb of Giants.

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All done! It's nice that some time in the back 1/3 of the game, my sorceries got powerful enough to kill invaders in one shot. That was very satisfying.

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Congrats!

 

I, too, tumbled into a crevasse in the Tomb of Giants first time I went there. Luckily I found a Sun Maggot helm afterwards, which made exploration a cinch. I'm surprised you weren't intimidated by the painted world of Ariamis. Perhaps the experience is way different for a mage. For a melee fighter like I was, those infested undead are a major source of concern. If you kill them and stand too close, you become toxic instantly, which necessitates either returning to the bonfire or using an expensive consumable. Figuring out how to effectively deal with them was difficult and rewarding. Not to mention the awesome vibe of that place; the snow-flecked setting and labyrinthine layout.

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Congrats!

 

I, too, tumbled into a crevasse in the Tomb of Giants first time I went there. Luckily I found a Sun Maggot helm afterwards, which made exploration a cinch. I'm surprised you weren't intimidated by the painted world of Ariamis. Perhaps the experience is way different for a mage. For a melee fighter like I was, those infested undead are a major source of concern. If you kill them and stand too close, you become toxic instantly, which necessitates either returning to the bonfire or using an expensive consumable. Figuring out how to effectively deal with them was difficult and rewarding. Not to mention the awesome vibe of that place; the snow-flecked setting and labyrinthine layout.

 

I was pretty over-leveled for the area, and had farmed plenty of the blooming moss after having problems in Blighttown. I also must have had a high poison resist, as killing one and standing next to it only filled my toxcisity about half way. But yes, having sorcerey and killing everything from afar made that pretty easy. The only bit I really had a problem with was the bone wheels. It was pretty neat looking, especially the wierd courtyard in the middle with the invading NPC and the wierd blobs with shields and spears.

 

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I finally started to play the game because it's the only thing left in my backlog... Yeah, I was putting it off for obvious reasons... ¬_¬U

 

It's not as hard as Demon's Souls so far... but I do feel a bit worried since I choose the sorcerer and I have a limited spell use. To beat the minotaur boss I simply ran and didn't kill any enemies to have enough spells to kill it. Since I've only invested in a magic build, once I'm out of spell I'm kinda screwed.

 

Can you teleport between campfires like in Demon's Souls? I have an item to teleport me to the bonfire, but only the the last one used.

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Nope.

 

 

I haven't played dark souls, but from what i gather demon soulds is more hubby. As you progress you will open up new avenues back to certain bonfires.

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But what about the spells? I might be a stone throw away from a spell vendor, but I'm pretty worried now.

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You probably just need to practice your fighting if you are having trouble getting to the Tarus Demon without using spells. It is difficult at first. Most people recomend newcomers only invest in Endurace with enough str/dex/whatever to use your chosen weapon. If you want a spellcaster, a pyromancer is a lot easier for a beginner.

Also, check your equipment load. Every 25% of your max weight you get slower, it might be worth taking off some clothes if it is getting too hot for you. You will speed up a lot which makes blocking and hitting and dodging a lot easier.

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Oh, I beat him alright, I just reached a ladder that lead me the last bonfire, that's where I left off. I'm just worried I might have enough spells for the next area.

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Ya, thats why you need to practice hitting things. The pyro only has 8 charges of her spell per rest, so i always saved them for the really nasty bits and hit things with my mighty axe most of the time.

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Tanu, don't be afraid to experiment, fail and try again, or start over with a different class to get the feel for it.

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Oh, I beat him alright, I just reached a ladder that lead me the last bonfire, that's where I left off. I'm just worried I might have enough spells for the next area.

 

Not sure if this is obvious or not, but you get all your spell castings back when you rest at a bonfire.

 

The first sorcerer vendor is located

Downstairs in the Undead Burg, accessible right before the big dragon after you get the basement key part of the way through the Undead Parish

 

Also, there's a smith  that sells a couple of spells. He's...

Rickert in New Londo Ruins. After stepping off the elevator coming from Firelink Shrine, head down the stairs and stick to the right side, you will come across an undead laying on the edge near the water. Near the undead is a staircase which will lead down to Rickert who is trapped behind bars and doesn't wish to leave.

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I've put about 150 hours into this game. And I've never had a character make it to the dlc.
I guess I should get to it before march :P

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