From Software 'n such

[Immryr]

Oh, yeah, it's always better to pump points into damage early on imo.

[guigui]

I left my 1st run of Bloodborne fall into the oblivion of family life way too long ago. So I'll restart over soon, saw clever weapon, and let the game take me wherever it likes.

Though, as all Souls games, the lore is underdeveloped when you start, and way too much overdeveloped when you consult the internet about it.
Anyone willing to write a small lore paragraph to put me in (principal characters, objectives, facts) ? Dont spoil too much though. Any input appreciated.

[Bananamatic]

Actually an old friend of mine who never really tried the series has given DS1 a go recently, streaming a new game.
"Lol i'm only upgrading STR"
Jesus, it works. Maybe the usual for-noobs wisdom of pumping VIT and END was wrong. He tore through the gargoyles with starting Axe+1

pumping VIT to 20-30 as soon as possible still makes it way easier tbh
just get barely the stats for a weapon and +5 it as soon as possible (halberd probably?) and you'll get all the way to anor londo easily, then either go elemental or go into 40 str/dex
no idea how he did it with a +1 axe that early when it has only C strength scaling and low AR, maybe he used one of the golden pine resins you get in undead burg?

one time I did a drake sword only run where I had insane HP really early and could fast roll in knight armor and it was super easy, especially if you know where the dragon scales are as 300 non split physical damage really isn't that bad
another broken build is barely getting the stats for 2 handing an obsidian greatsword and get it as soon as possible, 0 scaling and 480 AR

[Immryr]

i was thinking today about how it's unlikely from will make another souls style game where you don't get fast travel from the start and it got me thinking about hollow knight. one of the best deviations they made from the dark souls formula is divorcing fast travel from the bonfires. this means you can still have huge areas with multiple bonfires in without reaching a fast travel point, keeping the feeling of exploration / getting lost/scared you get from the first half of ds1(on a first playthrough at least) while giving you some freedom from having to make absolutely everything closely interconnect so you don't have to retraverse the whole map every time you want to go back to town or whatever.

i'd love to see from go back to a more exploration heavy style.

[Bananamatic]

finally got a copy of armored core for answer
it's fun but the arms forts are huge pushovers and the speed is straight up retarded even if you use a medium build
light vs light build is basically hope you can land a stray shot in the split second you can actually see the opponent
I seriously hope ac6 will be closer to 4/verdict day than this

[Ed Oscuro]

Sad none of you reprobates have noted we're coming up on the last month of Demon's Souls having live servers. They're going down on the 28th. I'll be starting fresh in it.

[Blinge]

Oh shit, I forgot about this.

I'm currently playing DS3 for the first time - Made it to Farron Keep, nope'd out of there and been making inroads into D33p Cathedral.
Was using trusty claymore before but now i'm rocking the exile greatsword. I don't really like its spin special.

I will try to play DeS at some point for online shenanigans before the end.
Although my game tends to freeze at the beginning of 1-3

[ReSe2k]

I've started playing Demon's Souls again last week and used the only features for the first time*. Got invaded and died. Someone summoned me and i died. And i invaded someone as Old Monk, but he never made it to the Boss room. At least i got the Monks Headcollar

I forgot what a pain Old King Doran is to beat. He has huge HP and hits like a truck, took me like 2 hours to beat him. Black Phantom Selen was also really annoying. None of the Bosses were particularly difficult this time around though, even Flamelurker was rather easy to my surprise.

This game still holds up real well. The atmosphere in all of the stages is so fantastic. The music is amazing too.

*i got the platinum trophy a few years back on the Asian version, but played mostly offline due to not wanting to mess around with world tendency

[Blinge]

Yeah any NPC fiight in that bloody swamp is a nightmare! you think you can roll on that tiny piece of island, nope, that counts as swamp so get fukt boi.

Also - me vs the BloodBorne DLC bosses: https://youtu.be/C3pXpokEC2g
First times, all NG+
12:40 for the buttclench Laurence fight

[Immryr]

i can't believe there is going to be a bloody darks souls amiibo....

[Sumez]

Why couldn't they have made a Gaping Dragon amiibo instead, though?

[Immryr]

has hidetaka miyazaki ever said anything about being a fan of killer7? i'm replaying it for the first time in years and i was quite struck by how similar harman smith and maid samantha look to gehrman and the doll in bloodborne. there is also the whole moon thing, and the mechanic of returning to where you die with garcian to collect the dead personality.

[MX7]

The 'old person in wheelchair pushed by child' motif was used in Suspiria, which I'm guessing was very popular in Japan as there's so many homages to it in videogames. Shin Megami Tensei III has a very direct reference too.

Twin Peaks is another text that has a tonne of VG homages to it.

[Sumez]

Yeah, I feel like they are simply both going for a similar feel/aesthetic rather than one necessarily referencing the other.

Twin Peaks is another text that has a tonne of VG homages to it.

Curious about specific examples? Not out of doubt, but out of interest.

Asides from Deadly Premonition, obviously.

[MX7]

Probably the most famous famous examples are in the Zelda series, particularly Ocarina of Time and even more so with Link's Awakening.

I'm sure there are loads more I should remember but Silent Hill is very Twin Peaks, especially elements of the soundtrack, but owes more aesthetically to Jacob's Ladder.

[drauch]

Mizzurna Falls, definitely.

[Immryr]

alan wake too.

[MX7]

Mizzurna Falls, definitely.

Would love to play this. Hoping against hope Spike Chunsoft use their (well earned) Danganronpa bux to revive some old Human games. Shibuya Scramble is being localised and there was a lengthy Twilight Syndrome pastiche in Danganronpa 2 so WHO KNOWS.

OT: I need to restart Bloodborne.

[drauch]

This nice lady actually has a guide up if interested http://projectmizzurna.tumblr.com/

And yeah, would love to see them revive some Human stuff. A lot of hidden gems.

[Sumez]

Probably the most famous famous examples are in the Zelda series, particularly Ocarina of Time and even more so with Link's Awakening.

What, how?

[Blinge]

Oh, I looked that up a while back. It basically boils down to " we watched Twin Peaks and liked the 'suspicious characters' "
I can see the tenuous link..
Especially if we're talking Majora's Mask.

So I've played all DS3, fought the final boss to its last hit then threw the fight.
It took me a while to get into this one, I kept taking long breaks. It's probably because Bloodborne is a tough act to follow.
Took the last break after Aldrich - when I came back and started towards Profaned Capital it all started to click. The rest of the game was..blissful. Love letter to the fans, I feel thoroughly serviced.

Playing the DLCs now, just finished Ariandel!
It's awesome man I don't get what people are complaining about.

Gravetender is quite meh to be fair.
But the final encounter, jesus wept. Took me about an hour, I guess.
Yhorm's Machete +10 with 40 STR..

I actually found wailing on the big guy after he went past me for up to 3 hits was a good strat. Freide's spells were often out of range in these little exchanges.
Wish i could say the 3rd form is the only one that gave me trouble. But I suffered a Scythin' a good few times on the first, too.

[Sumez]

Oh, I looked that up a while back. It basically boils down to " we watched Twin Peaks and liked the 'suspicious characters' "
I can see the tenuous link..

I just wrote that off to common Japanese wackiness.

[FinalBaton]

So... I've just picked a copy of Demons' Souls because I wanted to give use to my ps3 and had interest in this series (this is my first taste of this series)

All I can say is : hoooolyyyy... this is cool, lol

[Blinge]

YESSS. haha.

Oh the World Tendency mechanic you should probably be aware of - I'll spoiler tag it incase you want to play completely blind.

Spoiler

Dying in body form in a world, will lower its "World Tendency" which makes it harder.

Pure black world tendency is hardest/ White is easiest.

Killing a boss shifts tendency towards white.

The world tendency used to reflect the online average so every world was +2 towards white. (if playing online)
But now it's all offline, you have started completely neutral.

Only Demon's Souls has this.

[Immryr]

yeah it's pretty tricky to find reason to use a ps3, pretty much all of the good games are either also on the 360 or have been brought out on ps4, both of which i had before a ps3.

for me it's basically demon's souls, the yakuza games and 3d dot game heroes. i've heard good things about folklore too but i haven't got round to checking it out yet. oh there's ni no kuni too if you're into that sort of thing.


demon's souls is really great. the weapon upgrading system is a little too convoluted and the rare upgrade materials are stupidly hard to get, but iirc this isn't too big of a problem if you just go down the normal upgrade path. although it's been a little while since i've played it and my memory is pretty hazy, so i could be talking rubbish.

[FinalBaton]

Yeah Ni No Kuni is my jam Immryr, I really dig it

Games I have(physical copies) for the system right now are : Strider, Ni No Kuni. Demons' Souls and that Capcom Shadow of Mystara port. Also have Dragon's Crown and Valkyria Chronicles but I'll be picking up the ps4 version of the first game when I get around to buying a ps4. And maybe the second game too.

Thanks for the tip BURINJU, I'll keep that in mind!

[guigui]

So... I've just picked a copy of Demons' Souls because I wanted to give use to my ps3 and had interest in this series (this is my first taste of this series)

All I can say is : hoooolyyyy... this is cool, lol

Oh jesus, you are so lucky. I so wish I was still virgin of Souls games. I remember my first playthrough of Demons, definitely one of the very best moment f videogaming for me. Have fun and ask questions here for subtle answers if you do not want to get spoiled by wikis.

[FinalBaton]

Oh jesus, you are so lucky. I so wish I was still virgin of Souls games. I remember my first playthrough of Demons, definitely one of the very best moment f videogaming for me. Have fun and ask questions here for subtle answers if you do not want to get spoiled by wikis.

Merci guigui!
I'll keep that in mind and ask stuff here

[Sumez]

Just the usual warning for new Demon's Souls players, as the one thing that tends to put a lot of people off is that this isn't really communicated well...

From close to the beginning of the game you can go to a number of different areas, which are like the "stages" of the game. However, while it's easy to believe you're expected to take them ones at a time (and nothing is stopping you from doing that aside from absurd difficulty spikes), it is much more approachable to move on to the next area once you've reached the next boss of the previous one. So you'd go 1-1-, 2-1, 3-1, etc. until you do 1-2, 2-2, and so on.
It does get easier to jump a bit more around in the order of things as you get more powered up, and more experienced with the game, and it usually does pay off to go and explore areas that would otherwise seem a bit too tough for you for now - just know that you can always go try having a go at another area if the current one feels too tough.

And never take dying as a setback. You always get to keep stuff you picked up, and as for your souls, you can always get new ones. The game is really lenient in that regard.

[Blinge]

Finished Ringed City at the weekend.

Man.. what a decade of gaming.
From is love.

i'm staying in ng for the next few days so i can farm items for trophies...

Which means I'm having to get summoned now and help the WEAK progress undeservedly. bleurgh!