GRcade plays... Dark Souls series

Tried again for the last couple of item drops I want before moving on but no dice. Loot drops can be a pain in the arse in these games.

I'm gonna try (again) to take down the dang Capra Demon this afternoon. Not gonna stream 'cos it could take me a while. Will post the evidence once done, though, and stream from that point.

And how is your nephew today Jawa?

Jenuall wrote:And how is your nephew today Jawa?

Jen, you are a cad and a bounder, sir!

I did laugh during my stream yesterday when Kriken came up with the idea of a new sound effect.

!nephew

... :lol:

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Your not going to stream it cause it'll take a while? What shite excuse is that?

Jawa

There's no pressure of course (It's not like I've been streaming!) but I'd definitely like to watch even if you're just practicing!

Stream or no stream, good luck with the Capra demon Jawa, you did it before and you can do it again! :toot:

Its fine if ue doesn't stream, I just don't get why you would stream some of the game and not others and then say it may take awhile. Its funking Dark Souls! People expect things to take a while and they still bloody watch, its just a really really stupid reason.

Yeah I've spent 2 or 3 hours on a stream just playing through the same area or fighting the same boss and there's always been a few folks there for a chat. I suspect people like seeing me get frustrated :lol:

https://clips.twitch.tv/DepressedSmoothAlbatrossWoofer

Pedz wrote:https://clips.twitch.tv/DepressedSmoothAlbatrossWoofer

...

. the fun of Dark Souls!

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Oh, and... THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I have just defeated the Capra Demon. WHOOOOOOOP! Almost felt like crying after making around forty attempts :slol:

. Video evidence uploading now. Next session I will be going down into the depths!

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See the Capra fall from 1 hour 41 mins :toot:

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But, err, all the time before that is me ~~getting beaten up~~ practising.

jawa wrote:

See the Capra fall from 1 hour 41 mins .

But, err, all the time before that is me ~~getting beaten up~~ practising.

Yesss

jawa wrote:
Pedz wrote:https://clips.twitch.tv/DepressedSmoothAlbatrossWoofer

... . the fun of Dark Souls! .

- - - - - - - - - -

Oh, and... THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I have just defeated the Capra Demon. WHOOOOOOOP! Almost felt like crying after making around forty attempts . Video evidence uploading now. Next session I will be going down into the depths! .

Congrats jawa, that boss was so frustrating - not because of the boss itself but just the cramped and awkward arena you fight it in - such a crap design, I only managed to defeat him with grade A cheese :lol:

I'm not sure if you can still do it, but you used to be able to stand back a bit outside the boss fog and throw dung pies over the wall at the right angle to hit the Capra and toxic it to death :lol:

Mafro wrote:Yesss

Preezy wrote:Congrats jawa, that boss was so frustrating - not because of the boss itself but just the cramped and awkward arena you fight it in...

Thanks a lot, guys... it sure did feel good to take Capra out :datass:

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Ah, Manus is an excellent boss! Took me about an hour's worth of attempts to get him! I love how (big spoiler) puppy Sif comes and helps you if you free her earlier in the DLC. :wub:

The DLC quest is very high quality and a great way to finish the game. And to be honest I think I've had my fill of Dark Souls Remastered for this run. Just in case I decide I want to do Gwyndolin or Kalameet, I've committed the UNFORGIVABLE SIN of backing up my save :shifty:

, but I doubt it as I'm worn out for now.

So with that in mind I popped down to the Kiln with my best friend Solaire :wub:

to kill (big spoiler) Gwyn. The last fight is interesting, feeling more like a part of the game's narrative than like a proper boss battle, at least to me. I chose the (big spoiler) Dark ending for the first time, which was pretty cool.

My character level was 80. This was my build: click to see on MugenMonkey Dark Souls. (Sometimes switching to the Falchion +15 if something resists fire, and/or having a Dragon Head for a bit of extra range, and/or using the Wolf Ring for poise.)

Both seeing other people play, and deciding on a "gimmick" for the character (sticking to the Wanderer template), helped me stick with it and see the latter parts of the game again, some of which I'd only done once before. Thank you for starting a GRplayed Jawa. :mrgreen:

Here are some reflections. I'll inlinespoiler any spoiler-y bits, but I'll also spoiler it all in case people don't want to read a (sort of) review before the end of their journeys.

I replay Dark Souls Remastered pretty regularly, but I often hit a wall and stop after Ornstein and Smough. Partly that's because I love the early-game sequence breaking and character building you can do, but in retrospect I think it's also because I had accepted a bit too much of the "the latter half sucks" rhetoric that I don't actually agree with. I'm not having a go at people who feel that way, it's all subjective obviously, but I definitely don't feel that way about the game.

Having it all fresh in my mind, in my opinion the only noticeably weaker part of the game is Demon Ruins / Lost Izalith. You can't help but be a bit disappointed in the wasted potential there - there are stretches where the level design is very basic, and there are lots of repetitive, uninspired set pieces (the worst example being the, uh, rugby team of Taurus Demons). Even those levels have a few good bits - some cool ruins, a couple of weird new enemy types, two decent boss fights (out of four). There's some good "looping" (bits of the world connecting together) as well. I just wish they had cleaned the rushed bits up in Remastered.

Obviously it's all a matter of opinion, but outside of that particular stretch, I think the game is of a very consistent high quality.

I want to list some of my favourite parts.

I won't dwell on "wow, Anor Londo!" because everyone likes that bit, but it's definitely the peak that the first half builds up to.
The Painted World is such a tightly designed area. I particularly like its use of vertical space - you're always going up and down between "layers" of the map, between parapets and courtyards and weird sewers. And isn't Priscilla just so cute?
To me, New Londo feels like the stage which most directly extends the "first half" feel and formula into the second half. There isn't one particular wow moment, but it's a really enjoyable block of gameplay. The ghosts and Darkwraiths are very effectively utilised, placed in different formations and hiding spots. Four Kings is a cool and interesting boss with a fair but difficult twist (i.e. the timing of each King arriving).
The Tomb of Giants is intimidating the first time through no matter how many times you play. But as you travel through you build a mental map of the area, and afterwards you can just sprint through it and it stops being stressful. I just think that's a really cool achievement in level design, and vindicates the pitch black darkness as a design choice.
When you can see bits of Lost Izalith from the Tomb of Giants, and then you reach the bottom and you're rewarded with the view of Ash Lake. It's such a cool detail that these places exist in an overall 3D space relative to each other. And it looks really great.
Ash Lake is just a sublime area. The amazing background music and overall surreal, otherworldly art direction make it one of the most memorable Souls locations for me. It contains two really cool interactions as well: the (big spoiler) conclusion to the Catarina storyline and the (big spoiler) Covenant of the last Everlasting Dragon.
Everything about Oolacile is fantastic. I know the Royal Wood area is criticised for being (big spoiler) a clone of Darkroot Wood, but I think it's great - it feels so different despite being the same area. And then you have the Township and the Chasm, which are just brilliant, looping, interconnected areas that really showcase the best of Dark Souls game world design. All three main boss fights in the quest are amazing, and manage to have a steady ramp of difficulty from "oh, this is a bit harder than the main game" to "ffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu-"! The DLC also has really interesting narrative design (big spoiler) integrating and often subverting established characters like Artorias, Sif, Alvina, and Kaathe.

Karl_ wrote:Ah, Manus is an excellent boss! Took me about an hour's worth of attempts to get him!...

The DLC quest is very high quality and a great way to finish the game. And to be honest I think I've had my fill of Dark Souls Remastered for this run...

...Thank you for starting a GRplayed Jawa.

Very well played, Karl! It sounds like you really enjoyed your run and it's a great example of how repeated playthroughs in Souls can offer different situations and experiences. Although you are taking a break from the series right now, it'd be neat if you decided to return and tackle Souls 2 or 3 a wee distance down the line :-)

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I will later update the Play Log in the opening post to show that your run has completed. I think Mafro has now finished Bloodborne, too, and so we now have three completed runs (including Cumberdanes' recent Souls 2 playthrough).

Well done Karl, you've powered through this!

I agree that the "second half is gooseberry fool" rhetoric is hard to agree with. I won't deny that if I were to rank the areas and encounters from the game then it would likely favour the earlier content but there isn't some huge quality chasm between the start and end of the game.

I also find it an argument that is hard to properly engage in because the game has a relatively loose concept of sequencing anyway, half of the time when people are moaning about "later game" areas they include sections that I did way before stuff they would consider as being in the first half! :lol:

I managed to have a quick go at this last night and made a small amount of progress. I made my way through The Catacombs and confronted the most fear inducing boss in all of Dark Souls Pinwheel! It was a tough battle and it was touch and go for a while but in the end I just about managed to defeat him first time in about 20 seconds without taking any hits at all! :lol:

I had somehow forgotten how bloody annoying the space immediately before him is though, those rolling skeletons can seriously piss off! They make a return in DS3 and are far less frustrating there!

I also remembered to pay a visit to Blacksmith Vamos whilst I was down there who should prove useful if I want to forge any fire/chaos weapons. Also that bonfire near him is bloody useful!

Next I'm going to finish clearing out this area as I know I breezed past some secrets and pickups that I should go back for, then I'll probably head back to Blighttown to deal with Quelaag and the second bell. I can't be dealing with the Tomb of the Giants yet as I need to get a light source first

Hydra has been defeated :toot:

Actually managed it on my first attempt, had very repetitive and obvious attack patterns so I could just sit tight and wait for it to strike. The hardest bit was getting to the shoreline and dodging those water attacks :lol:

There's a big ladder nearby that I know leads up to Darkroot Forest and Sif the Good Boy, but I'm not ready for that yet :dread:

GRcade plays... Dark Souls series

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