Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[Aquas]

Well I restarted the game and rolled a Warrior again. Throwing most of my points into Dex, a few into End and Vit and the rest in Str per people's advice. I had 9 Humanity accumulated and lost it recklessly. Then I went and beat the Taurus Demon. I don't care much but I felt initiated lol. I got hooked.

[CMoon]

Fortunately in the Souls games, the most powerful attribute is your knowledge of the game.

You may have noticed that Str and Dex didn't automatically make your damage go up. You need those stats to use certain weapons, and if you look closely at the weapons' stats, you'll notice that most scale with a particular attribute. If a weapon scales with str, adding more points to str will make that weapon do more damage. Since you've put a 'lot' of points into dex, keep your eyes peeled for weapons that benefit from high dex.

In subsequent plays, you'll build your character based on your favorite weapons or spells you want to use.

If you get frustrated with this play, another approach is to jut put all your points into vit and end, raising stats just enough to use a few weapons you don't need to know about for your blind playthrough.

[guigui]

The most recent update deleted my game.

That's....that's heavy man. I went through EVERY boss and all the new content. Wow, talk about a ball buster. Almost as bad a Digital River fucking up my Ni no Kuni order.

What the ... ? You sure your PS3 did not keep in your save in that kind of cloud ? Someday I found my saves where they were not meant to be, and I am not PSN+.

If you get frustrated with this play, another approach is to jut put all your points into vit and end, raising stats just enough to use a few weapons you don't need to know about for your blind playthrough.

I also second this ! Begin with VIT and END (not more than 40 for END). Give a try to EVERY weapon you find. When you find one you fell like using a lot, go for the corresponding stat : STR, DEX, INT or FAI. Also consider upgrading it correctly.

Man I wish I was you

[Paradigm]

I fully support playing 'blind' i.e. the normal non-cheating way, as intended. If you need to use a guide at the very start of the game, you just plain suck, simple as that.

I did my first playthrough blind no problem, my Resistance stat is currently 24 and guess what? I never once had to even think about restarting. It's worth reading up on things once you're playing NG+ though, since there will inevitably be lots of little things you missed.

Specific builds are not important in Dark Souls unless you're playing PvP.

[kamiboy]

Fortunately in the Souls games, the most powerful attribute is your knowledge of the game.

That is why I have always sung their praise as the best RPG's released since the genre's decadent inception.

For once an RPG that focuses all its energy on gameplay and mechanics rather than copy paste all the important parts from the Dragon Quest template and suffice to make a 90 hour trek through inane badly paced anime narrative.

Until I played Demon's Souls at launch I thought Vagrant Story was going to forever remain the one and only highlight of the genre, but now there is a busy threesome of highlights in this 30 year old venture.

At this rate I might just live long enough to maybe see one other.

[Aquas]

Fortunately in the Souls games, the most powerful attribute is your knowledge of the game.

You may have noticed that Str and Dex didn't automatically make your damage go up. You need those stats to use certain weapons, and if you look closely at the weapons' stats, you'll notice that most scale with a particular attribute. If a weapon scales with str, adding more points to str will make that weapon do more damage. Since you've put a 'lot' of points into dex, keep your eyes peeled for weapons that benefit from high dex.

In subsequent plays, you'll build your character based on your favorite weapons or spells you want to use.

If you get frustrated with this play, another approach is to jut put all your points into vit and end, raising stats just enough to use a few weapons you don't need to know about for your blind playthrough.

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering why the stats were altering in peculiar ways. Yes. It seems I would benefit pleasantly from knowing at least some of the quirks of the game's system. And surely just game system info shouldn't spoil a playthrough, if anything, hitting a wall is what can spoil a game.

[Ed Oscuro]

At this rate I might just live long enough to maybe see one other.

Did you try The 3rd Birthday? That has a lot more in common with VS than I think DS does.

[kamiboy]

Dark Souls and Vagrant Story follow the exact same design philosophy in their approach to the genre, and as it should be their actual implementation ended up being very different. I wish more developers in the genre were as talented as Matsuno and Miyazaki.

As for 3rd, yeah I played it. It is not even in the same universe in terms of philosophy, implementation or polish.

[CMoon]

So I'm taking this as a recommendation for Vagrant Story if you like the souls games. Need to go back and play King's Field but its sooooo slow.

[kamiboy]

After Demon's Souls single handedly restored my faith in modern video games I got curious and took a gander at From Software's previous efforts such as King's Field and Shadow Tower.

Unfortunately those games lack many of the key factors fused into the classical King's Field mechanics by Hidetaka Miyazaki in order to create his masterpiece. As such I would not recommend them to fans of Dark/Demon's Souls series.

Best way I can put it is that the older titles were mere pedestrian dungeon crawlers while Demon's/Dark Souls are genuine adventures.

I would however recommend anyone interested in RPG's with focus on deep mechanics, exploration and atmosphere and low tolerance for narrative bloat or unnecessary time sinks such as NPC's and the towns that they inhabit to give Vagrant Story a try.

It takes a while for its unorthodox combat system to be fully unlocked, but once it does the ocean like depth will make just about eberything else look like puddles.

For almost a decade it was my candidate for the perfect RPG until Demon's Souls and its sequel stole away that title.

[CMoon]

For almost a decade it was my candidate for the perfect RPG until Demon's Souls and its sequel stole away that title.

Goddamn that's a recommendation!

[kamiboy]

Oh, how I would love to live in a world where Vagrant Story won Square fame and glory and became the defacto standard for imitation instead of Final Fantasy VII.

Alas, the average RPG player is more concerned with the contents of dialoug boxes than in gameplay mechanics.

In that regard the Souls games succeeded where Matsuno never did, in achieving success worthy of note. I've yet to really see traces of their influence in other games, but at least they warranted sequels and a large fanbase instead of a fate of languishing in obscurity.

[sjewkestheloon]

Vagrant Story is definitely another 'knowledge is power' sort of game, and I would recommend doing some reading up about the crafting system if you decide to play it. It is seriously good fun though, and I would also recommend it. It has a similar graphical feel to FF12 and FFT (I assume the graphics were done by the same guys) and a dodgy faux-medieval script, but the mechanics are a joy.

[kamiboy]

I am not really a fan of reading up on a game before sitting down with it. Demon's Souls wouldn't have been half the experience it was if I had not gone in blind and just figured out its quirks and mechanics through trial and error.

Games like these take two playthroughs to appeeciate fully. Once for the sense of wonder anf discovery and once for the sense of empowerment and mastery.

[sjewkestheloon]

I should clarify that I read up on Vagrant Story after having put in quite a number of hours, and I recommend that you use information sparingly. This is, in my opinion, a healthy approach.

With the Souls games, I actually came to most of the information from reading boards like this while playing, rather than wikis or guides, and I actually think that there is nothing wrong with that approach either. If I knew people in real life who like games such as the Souls series I would share bits of information as and when I found it. I think that Dark Souls, in particular, was designed with word of mouth in mind. You are supposed to discover and share.

[CMoon]

I might as well sound off as well: I get easily bored with games and there's very few I spend much time with, but those few games I get into, I'll toss as much time as there is at it. I put 75 hours into Demon's Souls before giving up on it. I just didn't get the system and felt locked into a build. I'd taken so much time learning everything it never occurred to me that if I started over, I'd already know how to beat everything. Having more knowledge up front, even the knowledge that my first run through might be terrible and I should be ready to have a god awful time at it, might have been useful. People talk about the blind run being completely amazing, but mine was torture.

Whatever I learned in Demon's Souls made Dark Souls a much more approachable game. So there's some sort of balance--something about basic game mechanics, leveling and upgrade systems, etc. If there was some way to impart a little of that before hand, that would be pretty awesome, but then I guess you're tossing the mystery of those games out the window.

I still can't take S&P solo...jesus.

[kamiboy]

Actually my experience with Demon's Souls mirrors yours exactly. I did many things wrong, cornered myself in a very bad spot, had a love/hate relashionship with the game until I, by some mracle, managed to beat it after what must have been my hundredth try trying to beat the same damn level near the end. I like to think some arcane god took pity on me and threw me a bone.

I should mention I bought the Asian version at launch just because I once saw a short random and utterly unimpressive E3 video of it running but decided to give it a chance anyway because a little voice in my head told me to.

There were no wiki's or any information on it to guide me at the time even if I wanted them to.

After finishing the game I swore I would never touch it again as only dogged stubborness got me through the frustrations of the last part. Funny thing about the Soul's series is that even though butting your head agsinst its stoic yandere tendencies is excruciating you always somehow come back for more.

Thus when Dark Souls was announced I discovered something peculiar, I found that I was looking forward to it like nothing I had been excited about that entire generation.

And just like you gents I found that my blind run of Demon's Souls had broken me into the series' way of doing things. Everything was still a mystery, but a somehow a familiar one.

You cannot get that from reading FAQ's and whatnot, you need to let the game break you into its ways naturally. Problem eith guides is people get confused by the information dump and get too hung up on what build they should go with. I say go in, make a few mistakes and feel things out on the game's terms. It is a more organic process and a crucial part of the experience.

After Platinuming Dark Souls I was still hungry for more and decided to give old Demon's a second chance. My god what a difference a second run made, it really let me appreciate the game in a new light.

As frustrating as it was I wouldn't trade that first run for anything. Call it stockholm syndrom but I remember that frustration fondly.

[CRP]

Its on Deal of the Week for gold users. Till the 27 or 28 Jan.
$19.99 => $4.99
75% off

[Cuilan]

Its on Deal of the Week for gold users. Till the 27 or 28 Jan.
$19.99 => $4.99
75% off

It's only the base game that's on sale? Kind of sucks if so. The last time it was a DotW back in mid-2013 both the game and the DLC were on sale.

I ended up rebuying the game and got the DLC during the previous sale, yet I've hardly touched the game since (I haven't even gotten to the DLC areas). This is mainly due to the size of my backlog becoming too large to handle and my attempts to try and work through it.

[Khan]

Just a heads up simplycdkeys is doing dark souls 2 the black armor edition for £19.99 for the steam key I'm sooo tempted to order but with this backlog I have on steam already it will probably be half price before i actually get around to playing it

[Moniker]

W/r/t Dark Souls, is Games for Windows Live, like, permanently down? I thought it wasn't going tits-up till June. I can't log in or even retrieve my password. Attempts at password retrieval leads to a 404'd page. Maybe DSfix is to blame?

I'm unhappy. Obviously.

[Wooph]

GfWL isn't down just yet. I was playing RE5 yesterday with friend and Dark Souls still works fine here.

[Acid King]

I finally finished my first run through with my original character and instead of diving in to NG+ I decided to start over with a sorceror to go for a different play style. I'm trying to stay in human form and keep my Humanity stat at a decent level and after beefing up my INT I'm just slaying these bosses with the various magic arrows.

[Marc]

So I started again today, made it to the Taurus Demon but headed up the tower to take care of the two archers first. They're there, but there was also a crab-type thing with a see through body carrying an item? WTF? Never seen one of those in any of my three or four previous playthroughs...

[guigui]

So I started again today, made it to the Taurus Demon but headed up the tower to take care of the two archers first. They're there, but there was also a crab-type thing with a see through body carrying an item? WTF? Never seen one of those in any of my three or four previous playthroughs...

Vagrant.
As far as I understand, those are online mob supposedly appearing at places where other players left lots of souls/items. Drops some of those souls/items.
Never saw one in more than 100 hours play.
Another exemple of good online idea that From never made the way it was intended.

[CMoon]

This is true. Think how awesome it would have been if every item you dropped became a mob in someone else's world? We'd all be dropping items on that ledge in anor londo with the archers or somewhere in blighttown. Part Dark Soul's brilliance was harnessing players' inherent desire to troll other people.

[Khan]

In my 135hrs Ive come across maybe 10 or so of those crab guys 2 right in the catacombs leading up to graveyard nitos lair and there was 2 in the crystal caves along the invisible pathway in a little cave

[President_Obama]

I've got a 35 hour save which I parked last year. I was at Queeelag's lair but was having trouble killing her and ran out of Humanity, so I nipped back to Firelink via Valley of The Drakes, found some Humanity there and returned to Queelag's lair only to lose it.

I was having so much trouble fighting her, I returned to Firelink and decided to tackle New Londo Ruins instead in the hope of acquiring some more Humanity, but lost all the Transient Curse I had. I love the game and I loved playing Demon's Souls too.
Is it worth continuing, is there anything I can do to accumulate more Humanity? I'm thinking of restarting, would that be wise?

[guigui]

Is it worth continuing, is there anything I can do to accumulate more Humanity? I'm thinking of restarting, would that be wise?

Humanity is not that important, except if you heavily rely on Lady Mildred. It seems more likely that you're stuck due to weapons not upgraded properly and stats not wisely choosen. Advices :
-choose one or two weapons you like and stick with them, only get as much strength/dex/faith/intell needed to use it, not more.
-upgrade them, normal path then fire path (found in the catacomb) as soon as you can for max damage output
-pump up vitality, and endurance
-observe and counter bosses, especially queelag. e.g. : she lowers her head => get the heck away !
-dont hesitate to visit, cautiously, other zones in order to gain better items, soul level, etc...

Keep going, the first run is the best.

[President_Obama]

Thanks. I was doing everything you said and I seemed to be doing OK, but Queelag just kept kicking my ass, so I started using humanity to summon assistance, but we both got our asses kicked. I've started a new character, since it's been so long since I played it last restarting doesn't seem so bad. I reckon I'll be back where I was in half the time. Merci!