Dark Souls Games

[Yevrah]

I started playing the first one over the weekend. It's bloody brilliant.

[Ian]

I think I tried Dark Souls..... 3? Not really my cup of tea. They're the sort of thing where I quite enjoy watching Game Grumps or whoever play them and have all the frustration on my behalf.

Not sure if I've tried any other "souls-likes" but I don't think I have.

[Yevrah]

I played it a while ago, but totally misunderstood the grinding and RPG aspects of it, both of which I love.

It's frustrating and I'm not very far through, but the game is so well designed and rewarding that even finding a new tunnel to go through feels like you've accomplished something.

[Ian]

It does strike me as your sort of thing probably for the exact same reasons it's not mine.

I can appreciate from having watched Let's Plays of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc. the amount of care and craft that goes into them they're just not for me.

[Disco]

I could never get over the lack of a quicksave, which makes the annoying trudge back to the (enjoyably challenging) bosses a fucking chore. Worse are the band of gatekeeping wankers who take umbrage at anyone suggesting such a thing (or god forbid difficulty options), as if it would affect them at all. I still like the first one though, for the design and how fuck-you obtuse it is, never bothered with any o the others but I understand the second one is crap and the third one much more like the first one and Bloodborne.

[P_3]

I really got into the first one on the PS3, enough to get all the trophies. Will look to get all the others at some point. Really enjoyed the progression, the variety of playthroughs and the challenge.

[Shindig]

I've played all of them at least twice. They're great and Bloodborne is the best one by miles. Sekiro doesn't count. Sekiro is agony. I don't quite see it as a grindy series, though. Unless you see the grind as acquiring knowledge through failure, which it totally is.

However, there are some areas which are complete bollocks. Walking back to the boss shouldn't be a chore, although it does give the fight some extra stakes. Also, fuck doing esoteric bullshit to unlock bosses or areas. Something FROM have managed to at least cut out of the series as it went along.

[Ian]

I could never get over the lack of a quicksave, which makes the annoying trudge back to the (enjoyably challenging) bosses a fucking chore.

This is part of the thing with me. Just impatience I guess, maybe once I'd have enjoyed the "challenge" of that aspect of it and the risk/reward of pressing on if you've gathered a load of souls and whatnot but I can't be arsed now.

As you say, these things should all be customisable difficulty options. Let people pick their own challenge. I suppose you'd get the odd person who just goes easy if it's there who enjoyed being forced to play it as-is but if those guys don't know what they want then fuck 'em.

[Shindig]

One of the good things about new players is they go off in directions you do not expect. Yev's not one for tanking.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[Yevrah]

So things I've done so far:

Beat the intro tutorial
Beaten the first boss
Been beaten by the second boss about 30 times now. Can do the start bit fairly regularly but get fucked when he's down to half health and I have double to deal with
Beaten an iron thing with one leg near a Blacksmith
Got Drake's sword
Ground 20,000 souls and unlocked a door in the forest
Went through the door in the forest, ran a lot and got beaten by an animal wielding a sword
Killed a metal Armadillo
Been killed by a Minotaur
Opened a fair few passages.

Loving it and don't really want to look up how to beat things, but I may have to if I start running out of stuff to do.

[Shindig]

It's been fun watching and trying to decipher what you know from what's in your inventory. Are you playing Remastered?

[Yevrah]

Cheers Shinners. I am indeed. Does that differ at all from the original?

[P_3]

Spent the morning and some of the afternoon watching your last session. Makes me want to dive in. Just for the sense of wonder when finding new passages, items, enemies. On par with Fallout and Elder Scrolls.

[Yevrah]

If that was the one I think it was I spent hours on it and only beat one mini-boss and found some armour. That lack of progress in any other game would see me out, but for some reason, this is a joy.

[P_3]

You beat the mini-boss way before I did, so there's that. I'm pretty sure I only beat it after clearing out the forest coming from the opposite direction to you.

[Yevrah]

If you do get on it would you stream? Don't wanna watch much/anything I haven't done but would love to see someone good at the game playing.

[Disco]

This is the playthrough I watched after finishing the game, probably quite spoilery though.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9g2UsogU6yBYKOsp5Ja957Gn4FETp9Cz

[phonics]

If you do get on it would you stream? Don't wanna watch much/anything I haven't done but would love to see someone good at the game playing.

Dark Souls 1? I could crack a few hours of it tonight if you fancy.

[Yevrah]

Cheers Phonics, out to dinner tonight but about tomorrow. Or I could watch the playback.

[phonics]

Would be fun to not play the game completely on my own. I’ll get it downloaded tonight and see if my cloud save is still there.

[Shindig]

Cheers Shinners. I am indeed. Does that differ at all from the original?

The DLC's packed in with it but there's some steps you have to go through to access it. When I played through it first, I completely locked myself out of it.

[Yevrah]

The DLC's packed in with it but there's some steps you have to go through to access it. When I played through it first, I completely locked myself out of it.

That is brilliant. :D What a game!

[Yevrah]

On for 90 minutes now.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[phonics]

Live:

https://www.twitch.tv/trip___tv

[phonics]

I remembered I was completely lost and why I hate this game.

[randomlegend]

Yev streaming on Twitch under the name "chemicallocust" is one of the more surprising things I've come across recently.

[P_3]

I remembered I was completely lost and why I hate this game.
It is almost impossible to pick up where you left off after a long time away from the game. Maybe consider starting from scratch and try to catch up with Yevrah?

[Shindig]

Every time Yev pops up a stats screen I'm thinking, "Does he know what any of it means?" :D It's amazing how these games caught on in spite of themselves.

[Yevrah]

I think it's fair to say "no", but I am actually trying to understand, which I guess is testament to how good the game is.

Last night, albeit brief, was a great success.

Beat the second boss
Discovered a lift
Met another boss who owned me
Fought the boss animal with a sword again and nearly got him down to half health

Tonight should see some serious hours on it. :drool:

[Yevrah]

And I forgot...

Beat one of the massive green nights (they respawn, boo)
Picked up a shield near the skellingtons

I've got a load of equipment now, so I need to get grinding the souls again to upgrade it all.

[Shindig]

Went back to watch the boss win. Nicely done.

[Yevrah]

Cheers. Given I'd died to him about 30 times already it was very satisfying.

[phonics]

It is almost impossible to pick up where you left off after a long time away from the game. Maybe consider starting from scratch and try to catch up with Yevrah?

Going to take this advice. It's a sprint.

https://www.twitch.tv/trip___tv

[P_3]

Going to take this advice. It's a sprint.

https://www.twitch.tv/trip___tv

I take it you went off the idea few minutes in as your stream is already offline? :lol:

[phonics]

Forgot to turn left at the boss. Got frustrated and quit. If I was playing it with somebody I’d be down but just on my own I’ve been through this pain before.

[Shindig]

I was going to follow Yev's lead but with some restrictions on gear. But the starting dagger I have is quite useless. Awful reach. I've got my preferred weapon now that'll see me through the game. I've only beaten one more boss than Yevrah.

I feel like you need a foothold like that, phonics. If that weapon doesn't drop, I've got one very stupid, grindy plan B. Use a walkthrough or whatever until you wind up with a build you're actually comfy with.

[Yevrah]

More success tonight:

Picked up three rings
Beat a couple of drakes
Beat the minotaur
Cleared out some sewers
Met another boss
Got another boss down to less than half health
Gave some ember to the Blacksmith

And many things I've probably forgotten. Still loving it.

[randomlegend]

https://youtu.be/ppJi6uAstP4

How long til you're going to give this a go Yev?

Edit: that doesn't go into the story or anything much but I guess it will have spoilers

[Yevrah]

I've listened to it and it's incredible. There were events (many events) at the Olympics that were far less worthy of a gold medal than that.

I'll never do any of them no hit, but I could see myself trying to no death the first.

[Shindig]

The only metric I bother with is time spent. I may give Soul Level 1 a shot.

[phonics]

I was going to follow Yev's lead but with some restrictions on gear. But the starting dagger I have is quite useless. Awful reach. I've got my preferred weapon now that'll see me through the game. I've only beaten one more boss than Yevrah.

I feel like you need a foothold like that, phonics. If that weapon doesn't drop, I've got one very stupid, grindy plan B. Use a walkthrough or whatever until you wind up with a build you're actually comfy with.

I've already completed the games to a level that I want to. Was more about joining Yev. Like I say if you message me and say 'I'll spend a couple of hours on discord with you watching you play' then I'll do it. If not I'm good. I've been there, done that to my satisfaction on my own. I've never completed one but I've also never looked at a guide/faq for anything ever. If a 'Dark Souls Expert' wants to play via me then cool but I have no interest in doing it on my own again.

Completion/how far I got notes:

Dark Souls 1 - Sewers
Dark Souls 2 - Feel like I wanted to quit at the two Sentinels but beat them somehow and died at some Samurai guy
Dark Souls 3 - Everything up till one of the flying bosses in Archdragon Peak
Sekiro - After the first major boss with the lightning but not the Monkey or the Scarecrow guy.

[Shindig]

Fair enough. It actually sounds like you got the most out of 3. I've got a playthrough of DS1 on my youtube channel but it's in potato-vision. I wind up with the same build I'm currently using. I'll probably start streaming again in NG+

[Yevrah]

Back on and I'm cursed again.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[randomlegend]

Yev having just watched you getting gaped by a dragon in your thong (and bearing in mind I've never played a DS game, but having play a LOT of MHW which looks not a million miles different in terms of the boss fights) I'd say one of your biggest problems is your camera control.

Nearly every time you took damage it was because you didn't have eyes on the boss until it whopped you.

[Yevrah]

Cheers RL. The camera is a bit wank, but I definitely need to improve that part of it.

[Yevrah]

Back on and we're heading to Blighttown, which I know not much about but understand is an arse.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[Yevrah]

Done for the night.

Blighttown is such a fucker. Made it to the boss there but couldn't beat it tonight.

[Shindig]

It's been ages since I last went through Blighttown by the front door. I'm in the back third at the minute. Ticking off some of the trophies I've missed. Might go for the platinum if I can be arsed. I've noticed you've switched weapons.

[P_3]

You were close a few times Yevrah. A little tip, seeing as you're not actually using the shield in the boss fight, why don't you trying two handing your weapon with Y. It does more damage plus you still get the shield benefits.

[Yevrah]

It's been ages since I last went through Blighttown by the front door. I'm in the back third at the minute. Ticking off some of the trophies I've missed. Might go for the platinum if I can be arsed. I've noticed you've switched weapons.

I did. I figured that as my Drakes Sword is so hard to upgrade (although I do now have a dragon shard or whatever it is) I'd experiment with other weapons.

Really can't wait for a second playthrough of this. Gonna get to the Blacksmith and just grind to upgrade and be able to use everything I have when I do.

[Yevrah]

You were close a few times Yevrah. A little tip, seeing as you're not actually using the shield in the boss fight, why don't you trying two handing your weapon with Y. It does more damage plus you still get the shield benefits.

Cheers P_3, that is an excellent suggestion and one that hadn't crossed my mind. After navigating through the hell of Blighttown last night I didn't have enough juice in the tank to take the boss out, but I fancy my chances tonight. Very curious to see what that opens up as I'm assuming the second bell I need to ring is through the door behind her. :drool:

[Yevrah]

You were close a few times Yevrah. A little tip, seeing as you're not actually using the shield in the boss fight, why don't you trying two handing your weapon with Y. It does more damage plus you still get the shield benefits.

Oh and on this, the weapons seem to have defensive attributes too. How does that work?

[Yevrah]

Cheeky few goes over lunch and that's the boss of Blighttown done. The cinematic cutscene after you do it is all kinds of :drool:

Just need to get out of this hellhole now.

[P_3]

Nice going. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting out, just ignore the vast majority of the enemies.

Regarding the defensive attributes on weapons, you can apparently block with them. But it isn't advisable as they don't offer as much protection as shields.

[Yevrah]

Best day on this so far by an absolute mile.

After beating Blighttown's boss at lunchtime, followed that up with another one in Darkroot Garden and finished Sen's Fortress too. Anor Londo is incredible. What a game.

[Shindig]

Yeah, I really like the Anor Londo reveal. After trudging through swamps and sewers, it greets you with that.

[Yevrah]

Yep. Another thing the game does really well is it earns the right to be a dick to you and then rewards you when you get through the dick parts. So well made and you play something like this and it’s even more striking how crap most games are. Which is why I generally only play about 4 different ones.

[Yevrah]

Back on.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[Shindig]

<tunes back in>
<sees an empty Boss room>

Well. There's no stopping you.

[Yevrah]

Well, there's a story behind that...

I fought valiantly through Anor Londo (the archers :sick: my God the archers) and then took some humanity so I could kindle the bonfire there to 10 Estus Flasks. At which point I was able to summon some help, which I assumed would be an NPC (as it was previously with the Gargoyles). What actually happened was an absolute legend turned up who showed me a shortcut and then proceeded to smash the absolute shit out of the two bosses. I helped a bit with the fat hammer one, but really all I needed to do was stay alive.

Feels a bit hollow really.

[Yevrah]

I also think I may have recruited some new blood to the board. He goes by the name of DomFireheart and he's a streamer. I'll be sending him a link in the Twitch chat when I see him again tonight. You have to time these things right. Be nice when he signs up.

[Pepe]

I left when he arrived. Don't want to be associated with some Twitch weirdos.

[Ian]

Yev requesting special treatment for his e-mate.

If you wanted people to be nice you may have chosen the wrong place to invite them.

[Yevrah]

It was more of a jokey post than a serious one, this has quite clearly never been a place where people are nice to newcomers.

It's also a 20+ year old forum, he won't be remotely interested.

[Ian]

Bastard. Get him in here so we can show him how friendly we are.

The cunt.

[Shindig]

And you almost took Smough out by yourself.

[Yevrah]

Back on.

Anything less than killing that sodding Hydra and Wolf tonight will be a failure.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[Yevrah]

Hydra down.

[Disco]

I fully support this method of dunking O&S, fine work.

[Yevrah]

Wolf down.

[Shindig]

Awesome. The hydra's a pain in the arse with just how unsure I am of where the heads will land.

[Yevrah]

Decided to start again yesterday and with one eye on the football I spent 12 hours grinding for souls. Up to level 41 already and haven't died twice without collecting my souls or humanity yet so we're pretty well set.

Have an abundance of consumables and also got a Green Greatsword thing from one of the massive green knights in Darkroot Garden, which looks pure pownage, but I need 6 more strength to use it properly.

I've played enough now to be fairly certain that for me at least this is one of the best games ever made. The World design (which I reckon is actually far easier to achieve than it might look, so others don't really have an excuse) is outstanding, as is the way the game drip feeds information to you.

[Yevrah]

Also, where is Dark Soldier , thought he'd be all over this.

[Dark Soldier]

Also, where is Dark Soldier , thought he'd be all over this.

I watched some of your stream yesterday, I'm just very, very Soulsed out. My only tip is don't fatroll, wear lighter armour.

[Shindig]

And don’t get greedy with your swings.

[Baz]

Is this the game I saw you playing? Some clunky knight with a sword, hitting skeletons on a castle roof?

[Yevrah]

That's the one Baz.

[Baz]

Looks alright. :thbup:

[Yevrah]

Back on. Grinding to Bronze pack heights here.

https://www.twitch.tv/chemicallocust

[Yevrah]

Second playthrough is going much better. Already a higher level than I was before in half the time and now need to grind a huge amount of souls to get all the goodies from the pyromancy lady in the swamp. Back to the depths I feel to do that so I can also stock up on Large Titanite Shards at the same time. Need to make that Zweihander +10.

Killed the Bell Bosses last night and also took out Ceaseless Discharge (I mean, lol) which I didn't do first time round so that was nice and that just leaves me needing to do Sen's Fortress and O&S to be further ahead than I was in the last save. The latter of which I can feel being problematic, but bring it on. :drool:

Also, a gold medal isn't enough for that chap completing all of these games in one sitting without being hit. Freedom of the World should just about do it.

[Alex]

Need to make that Zweihander +10.

Be still, my beating heart. :wub:

God I fucking love that weapon. I would struggle to think of a more satisfying gaming experiencing in my life than twatting everyone in the face with that fully upgraded bad boy. Every time I replay Dark Souls I go in with the intention of doing something different ("I'll try a magic build!" etc) but nothing hits the spot quite like wandering round with that fucker slung over your shoulder and wrecking everything in your path. :D

[Shindig]

I got bored grinding for trophies so I'm now in NG+. There's a couple of weapons I don't think I'll get but I'll cross most of it off. Time to get all those pyromancies I missed.

[Disco]

Have you ever tried the randomizer?

[Shindig]

Nah, not yet. I dunno if that will appeal to me. I like knowing what to do to get a run going.

[Elbastido]

Is anyone else going to be playing Elden Ring when it releases tomorrow? Genuinely excited for it to go live after finishing the Demon's Souls Remake.

[phonics]

I had store credit at a cd key place over a Microsoft office purchase that I didn’t need so I used it for this and they still haven’t given me a code.

[phonics]

Posted this and it arrived.

[Pepe]

That is why we should make the forum private.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That is why we should make the forum private.

People would be begging to sign up reading that.

[Elbastido]

That is why we should make the forum private.

They come for zingers like this.....

[Dark Soldier]

Is anyone else going to be playing Elden Ring when it releases tomorrow? Genuinely excited for it to go live after finishing the Demon's Souls Remake.

Of course. Most wanted game since BotW for me. Preloaded, waiting for 11pm.

[Elbastido]

Have you got an initial class you want to try?

I'm quite tempted to give the Samurai a go first up.

[Dark Soldier]

Have you got an initial class you want to try?

I'm quite tempted to give the Samurai a go first up.

Wretch. It'll give scope to do what you want with the build, planning on multiple playthroughs. Network Test was amazing so can only imagine the game itself is gonna take over all my free time.

[phonics]

I didn't even know there were classes. I'm a fast, dodging, use a two handed dex weapon no shield kinda guy so time to go do some reading.

[Shindig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KVCFxnpj4

Well, that's my Sunday taken care of. Probably the only critic left I could realistically listen to for five hours.

[Shindig]

I'm digging this thread up because the souls series has a lot of Beserk references. Last week I didn't really know what Berserk was. I have now watched all of the 1997 anime adaptation.

It's left a mark that I don't think I'll ever recover from. At least Dark Souls has hope.

[Dark Soldier]

I'm slowly buying the book compilations. They're beautiful, have the first 5. Nine to go. Not read a single page but the artwork is :drool:

[Shindig]

Aye, really sharp and detailed. 1997's anime goes by really quick, too and I think it looks better than the later efforts that make Griffith look like an actual woman.