Dark Souls: Prepare to cry

I completed my first (and final) play through of Demon's Souls this weekend. About 60 hours of gameplay.

Thoroughly enjoyable game, only slightly let down by the fizzling out of the short levels 2-3, 4-3 and especially 5-3. I didn't realise my character was basically starting the endgame after completing 1-3, and the fact there was a 1-4 made me think there was going to be 2, 3, 4 and 5-4s. I still had plans to upgrade my weapons. They were over too quick and were too quirky that didn't really justify a whole level, IMHO. 3-3 was an interesting twist however, I was so obsessed with saving my spice for the boss battle, that I ended up dying too many times on the accent :fp:

. Eventually managed to get through it, on 10th attempt. Other gripes were the Blacksmith on 2-1. Every time I had to sit through a loading screen, just to upgrade a weapon; really, what was the point of that? Still, better than the Skeleton Blacksmith in Dark Souls, why on earth would I want to go through all that and through some HP sapping drops to visit him again?

All of the the 1- levels were brilliant, especially 1-3 with the two rescue missions, though the reward for saving the witch comes too late in the game for be of any use IMHO, and I'm not going to play NG+, which is a shame, and left me feeling a bit flat about all that.

Glad I finally completed it though, and remember struggling on 2-1 thinking, man I am never going to complete this level, let alone the game.

Now back to my 70 hour Dark Souls game save and the, apparently open invitation to be invaded, Demon's Souls tribute level that is the Painted World. Shame there are no tendencies in Dark Souls, as I can't bring myself to kill the boss who has no interest in killing me, though the line "we are peaceful here" made me laugh. Go take a look outside your door love, there's a fcuking undead dragon that spews toxic sick out, for started, and don't get me started on the Charlton and the Wheelies Skeletons guarding the switch to your front door.

This is currently £8.99 on 360 games on demand :nod:

Played a few hours of this last night and loving it so far.

Any tips? I feel I'm really missing out on not having a manual as I've got no idea what hollowing and humanity do as its not told me.

Thanks

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **Yoshimi** » Wed May 29, 2013 9:58 am

Ad7 wrote:Played a few hours of this last night and loving it so far.

Any tips? I feel I'm really missing out on not having a manual as I've got no idea what hollowing and humanity do as its not told me.

It took me a while to get my head round that. Normally you are 'hollow' (undead). By using humanity you become human again. Being human means you can summon Phantoms (NPCs) to help you fight - very useful for boss battles.

However being human also means other players can invade your world.

You can also 'kindle' a fire when you're human. This ups the number of Estus Flasks (health potions) you get when you rest at a fire from 5 to 10.

Thanks Yoshimi, don't think I like the sound of being invaded/trolled :dread:

Are those orange scratches on the floor from other players? Some odd things written on them later on.

Last edited by Yoshimi on Wed May 29, 2013 10:09 am, edited 2 times in total.

Ad7 wrote:Thanks Yoshimi, don't think I like the sound of being invaded/trolled

Are those orange scratches on the floor from other players? Some odd things written on them later on.

EDIT: I've only been 'invaded' once, and I quickly killed him! Don't underestimate how useful the phantoms can be in a boss fight. Some invaders might even help you out rather than troll you too. And as long as you're leveling up often, and not walking about with huge numbers of souls, there's not much danger from being killed by another player.

Yeah. Some of the messages are useful. Although a lot are trolling. Watch out for suggestions to 'try jumping' near cliffs!

A mate of mine warned me off those when it first came out, saying there was one to try falling off a bridge, which is what made me remember they might be player placed.

Try jumping, strawberry float off

Oh and should I get the DLC while its 600 points?

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **Dual** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:11 am

Yes

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **Yoshimi** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:12 am

Ad7 wrote:Oh and should I get the DLC while its 600 points?

I've not got far enough to play the DLC. I've got the 'Prepare to Die' edition, so guess I've got all the DLC. I believe it's post-game (or at least, later on).

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **Dual** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:15 am

Like with everything else in this game, how to access the DLC is not explained. But it's done ingame and towards the end.

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **melatonin** » Wed May 29, 2013 3:08 pm

It's definitely not post-game though, that should be made clear. If you complete the game without doing the DLC you won't be able to access it again until completing a large majority of the game again.

Thanks for the replies.

Jesus this is tough. I've got to some castle thing where a guy at the start said I should ring a bell and I can only just cope with the normal enemies. Anything else is a no, and the boss that I stumbled upon is just :dread:

Found myself clearing an area and respawning with the fire so I can grind for souls.

4 hours of grinding the same area and I defeated the boss :lol:

Got some sword with 80 damage and 80 magic damage, so I had to raise my faith 5 levels to be able to use it. Makes light work of some tougher enemies.

Oh and it went like this:

Beat first boss > meet guy talking about sun > take one step onto bridge > get set on fire > dead > all enemies are back and still no new fire

Fuuuuuuuuuui

One good tip for Dark Souls is that it's constantly saving your game. So you don't have to find a bonfire before you quit the game. Very easy to forget that in this game... :slol:

I knew it saved a lot but thought you had to get to a bonfire. If it just turn it off somewhere do I start at the last bonfire then? Handy to know

PostRe: Dark Souls: Prepare to cry by **Exodist** » Fri May 31, 2013 10:12 am

I highly advise anyone looking to do the DLC to try it on their first playthrough. I forgot about it and finished the game without, and on my NG+ I basically found it impossible. I managed to finish the rest of NG+ with relative ease, but the DLC bosses were way too hard. I'm doing a third playthrough now on a new mage type character so hopefully this time I'll be able to finish the DLC. Good challenge though, I guess.

Ad7 wrote:I knew it saved a lot but thought you had to get to a bonfire. If it just turn it off somewhere do I start at the last bonfire then? Handy to know

You'll restart at exactly the point the game last saved (unless you die, which resorts to the last bonfire). That could be anywhere. So a good tip is to swap weapons before wanting to save somewhere other than a bonfire to force a checkpoint in the game.

Dark Souls: Prepare to cry

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