From Software 'n such

[guigui]

Oh, sorry about that portal to Oolacile closing forever with Kaalamet still alive in there.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Priscilla was a non-issue, she's so slow that all you need to do is walk at her footsteps, dodge past them, then turn and swing. Giant hammer ftw. Seath wasn't too bad either, Prison sequence went pretty smoothly, flame breath shreds those squid things, though with unupgraded armor and 0 soft humanity (oops) if I got caught in Seath's big AOE blast it'd knock me up, and lying in the crystals would shred my health the rest of the way. Hammered him down to bits.

Turns out there's exactly 5 times in a No Bonfire run where your warp is reset:

1) Getting to Firelink Shrine. I mean, you're unlikely to die in the Undead Asylum at the start if you're going for a No Bonfires Run but still.

2) Going to the Painted World. Your spawn point is now on the bridge. Not too far to run to everything at least, the wheel skeletons are manageable with the fog run so long as you go down the ladder in the building, not the one in the well.

3) Leaving the Painted World. This sets your spawn point to the Anor Londo bonfire even if the fire keeper's dead.

4) Going to the Prison after Seath kills you in his scripted sequence. You can technically avoid this with the really difficult to do sequence break that involves a very difficult to do and likely unintentional drop onto the elevator and rolling onto a ledge. It's too hard for me, and I like opening up the prison area anyways. The Maiden outfit has a good white mage kind of look to it. Appropriate for using a hammer.

5) Going to the Lordvessel to deposit the four lord souls in it. You do NOT need to actually rest at the Lordvessel before this point, placing it doesn't require resting here. It's still possible to warp back out to Firelink if Kingseeker Frampt took you here I think, but since I had Kaathe bring me here for the covenant rewards (then punched him with Dark Hand until he went away :3) this is effectively a point of no return. It's also the only time you have to actually rest at a bonfire in the entire game (to deposit the Lord Souls).

Of note, going to Oolacile does NOT set a Bonfire destination so each boss attempt requires running from Firelink all the way to the portal. And kill Kalameet before Manus or you miss out on killing Kalameet in a No Bonfires Run.

So, final boss time. Point of no return. I'm getting owned hard; I suck as always at parry timing, I'm used to just dodging and waiting for an opening. This is much, much harder than an SL1 run honestly. I can't access any more healing items, I burned Divine Blessings and even Elizabeth's Mushrooms on attempts that got him well past half HP then got wrecked, and Humanity is too slow to heal on him. My best weapons, the Giant Hammer and the Lightning Spear, are both of an element he's nearly immune to. Dark Hand is decent but hard to hit with, my Crystal Halberd long since broke... I do have the Enchanted Falchion though, and that seems to work decently. But to do any damage with them I need to two hand them which eats a lot of stamina, and I can't one-hand the Dragon Crest Shield because with no upgrades the stability's too low to block hit heavier hits. >w>;;

Edit: Victory! I actually learned how to parry Gwyn properly. His jump attacks are dumb and not worth parrying. The higher of the two I've actually parried and somehow got hit and killed despite Gwyn staggering back from a successful parry. :/ The trick is to use the Dragon Crest Shield and Dark Hard, along with Cloranthy Ring and Hornet Ring. Block but don't stand right next to him, you want to be far enough you can back away if he kicks. Dodge and punish grabs with a punch or two or sidestep around him if you're right in his face. He'll do either a slow sword swipe or a fast one, and these are your windows to parry. The slow one is a very late parry, don't parry too early. The fast swipe is too fast to be parried on reaction and needs to be shielded, then you can easily parry the stab or followup swipe. Hunter had enough stamina to be able to block and then parry without being guard broken by these, but only at max stamina.

I guess I'll have to do this again for Kalameet though.

Interesting run. I don't know if I'd repeat the whole No Bonfire thing as it makes item farming tedious, and simply adds extra time to run back to each fight, rather than actually making the fights themselves harder. If you're not spending souls or using Estus, the only things Bonfires let you do is warp or attune magic, and that's assuming your class starts with any attunement points. I never had any items break except for the Crystal Halberd; all of my armor and weapons at the end were still in good shape, so the main challenge of the run was the lack of upgrades, which make a tremendous difference in damage output and survival.

[Blinge]

Roo is a fucking Madman

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I told Sumez I didn't get into Dark Souls for a while because I knew if I liked it it'd be the sort of game I don't put down for a long time and would bump other project games away.

Inspired by Burinju-san's quality posting (and another friend who wanted to see a full run and not a few bosses) I'm actually running a No Buying Anything run again recorded for Youtube, sticking more aggressively to that mindset including no Snuggly trades (no Fog Ring basically) and no Covenant awards that require giving Humanity items (dragon breath is fine and joining forest dudes to boot the ninja off a ledge are fine cuz freebies, upgrading dragon breath with scales is a no-no). I'm an undead cheapskate!

I'm also hoarding all Fire Keeper Souls. I'll allow the use of Estus and bonfires to heal (having to farm Humanity just to heal sucked), warp, respawn enemies, but I won't upgrade Estus, level, kindle anything (irrelevant as the Lordvessel gives 20 when all four big souls are in it) and so on. I will allow myself to spend Humanity to recover my Humanity so I get to actually fight the various NPC invaders, but no summoning helpers obviously. Estus fortunately still heals decently fast at base level in NG, but several things late game require two sips to recover from, or three if I need to top off health because I'm at risk of a oneshot below max HP.

I'm actually up to Kalameet currently. I'm gonna try to kill him under the previous run's rules by running there from Firelink each attempt and not using Estus. Also not using the Crystal Halberd, as last time I was ready for Kalameet the thing was basically broken.

I decided to dress like a white mage and swing the hammer for a lot of the run and not using a shield meant I got bodied hard by some really silly stuff. Both Solaire and Darkwraith Kirk killed me in two hits. ;w; Then I somehow manage to kill BOC on first try, lol, makes up for it I guess.

edit: holy fuck I hate meleeing Kalameet as always, screw trying him without bonfires, I broke my crystal halberd and so I'm stuck with punches that are difficult to hit with except for one breath attack or the hammer which can actually hit him but is slow and he's resistant to lightning ;w;

not having a crossbow or a properly upgraded shield and weapon really sucks, this is way harder than SL1 melee and I fully appreciate the game taking pity on me and not forcing me to fight him previously lol

edit edit: Using the hammer deals like 50 / 80 damage, I can hit twice only during one of his breath attacks, fists hit for like 40, both of these put me at risk of getting hit by a followup trample. Any kind of melee really is tough because you're close enough where he'll run past you and do the spin breath thing. If the trample hits you're gonna die to the breath. His slow swooping attack also has an absurd hitbox to dodge and sometimes starts somewhere it's really hard to evade.

Out of curiosity I tried two-handing a Crest Shield. Can't really block his breath effectively, but it stops most of the melee hits except his charging swipe which guard breaks and hits hard. Switching to a weapon when he's open was sort of working, but not really great.

Then I remembered I can breathe fire. Turns out it's actually decently effective. Kalameet's openings are slow, and he's a lot easier with a ranged attack especially one that lets you move. It's weak, a full breath does 63 to 72, not much more than meleeing, but it's way safer and I can keep far enough away to avoid followup hits easily.

I want a shield with more stability though (without the chip damage of Eagle Shield), so I go and farm a Balder Shield. Balder Shield just barely blocks even his heavy hitter running claw swipe if I'm at max stamina. He can still oneshot me if I fail to dodge his straight breath attack or the one where he flies up into the air. The breath attack where he stands on two legs oneshots me at anything below max health. Basically, I have a gameplan for handling him, and I just need to execute.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Alrighty, here it is, I've officially dipped my big toe into the "soulstuber" pool:

Dark Souls 1: No Spending Souls Challenge Run

Part 1

Part 2

[Lander]

Ooh, nice! Only had time to watch a bit, but it's already taught me about that parish gate trick, and that Dragon Head's directly to you Satoru Iwata fire breath pose is hilarious! Must try that convenant next time I do a run.

I like the all-killer-no-fillter cutting and text commentary; generally not much for text LPs and the like, but this is quite captivating. Nice job on the arrange OST too, every track has fit its respective sequence like a glove so far

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Haha, I'm glad you've liked it and I hope it's been informative! I discovered the Parish gate thing on a whim one time to see if it was possible to outrun the guy who closes the gate or if you get crushed. Apparently Blinge didn't know about it either at the time I stumbled on it. If you're slow, it's possible for several enemies to follow you through, including the boar, but closing the gate yourself solves this (and the gate can and will deal damage if anything's under it and gets smushed, enough to easily one hit kill, and also knocking hollows far away with hilarious physics when it does for some reason).

RPGs are one of my most played genres but I tend to play them at such a slow pace I think it'd be really boring to watch me play one, especially live on Twitch or something. So my RPG content on Youtube's been super limited, as I know anything I produce would require a lot of editing to cut out boring fluff, grinding, backtracking, and so on.

This video is mainly aimed at someone who's already beaten the game and is aware of the route and most of the spoilers, showing off enough to get a feel for where I'm heading at any given point but cutting out a lot of time from backtracking for goodies, etc. I don't think someone who's never beaten Dark Souls shouls watch it, but I figured I'd make it detailed enough to jog the memory of anyone who's played it but forgotten a lot of it. It still ended up a lot longer than I intended because I tried to make it detailed and kept in every winning boss fight (one of which was a solid 30 minute long fight, oof...).

Spoiler

I only realized after beating Gwyn that I forgot Stray Demon. Damn it. Oh well, I already killed him under these same conditions on my first attempt at this challenge run, and he's easier than Demon Firesage due to the simpler arena layout and nearby bonfire.

I tend to prefer text to voice as it's easier to go back and skim for information. That and I have a few deaf viewers, and Youtube's automatic voice transcription sucks, I don't like my voice, and so on. :V

that Dragon Head's directly to you Satoru Iwata fire breath pose is hilarious! Must try that convenant next time I do a run.

Having a completely free, infinite use ranged attack you can use while moving that also does a fair bit of poise damage if a full stamina meter hits (usually breaking guard then getting two unblocked hits) is rather helpful. It also hits certain obnoxious enemies like mosquitos well, and the loss of a helmet isn't a big deal. We get a nifty looking head (looks good with heavy armor sets) that costs no weight, a win in my books. You can also get a body to match if you like (which makes you effectively naked, but at high levels doesn't really cost much defense or durability since so much of it comes from your innate defense due to levels), and the body lets you roar for a very brief damage boost (+30% for 5 seconds or something, basically roar and then get in a super powerful hit with a heavy attack if you can). You can also keep the items that transform you after leaving the covenant, the only things you lose are small bonuses to the breath attack and like a 5 or 10% damage boost to the roar buff, not a huge deal in the end so you can get all the dragon things then swap covenants if you like.

Farming the Dragon Scales for the 25 you need is obnoxious though. There's about 10 in a single playthrough, with the remainder having to come from the wyverns in the Valley of Drakes, who are very silly to tackle unless you're packing effective ranged stuff. Melee would work with a heavy enough weapon to stagger them on hit (bleed also works), but they have a lot of health and I find sorcery or patiently using arrows is a lot safer as they hit hard and tend to shove you off the ledge as they turn with their wings. Their drop rate's also rather low even with 10 Humanity and the Gold Serpent ring to max item discovery, so it's really rare that I go for the full covenant reward. The head itself requires no grinding at all though, just a visit to stone dragon bro, which also nets you a nifty ring along the way that gives you an absurd stamina boost (like, WAY faster than the Grass Crest Shield). It is in a really well hidden area that's entirely missable though. If you're playing offline, the only hint something's there is if you somehow run there during Maneater Mildred's invasion as a fog gate appears before either of the hidden doors, locking you into the current area and signalling that there's a path to another area there.

[Lander]

Finished it up over dinner this evening - learned and laughed. Seeing Gwyn get punched in the nuts repeately was very satisfying
Thank you for embedding the commentary in the video and not using some dead-or-soon-to-be YouTube interface for it too - made watching it in MPV nice and seamless.

Centipede Demon was interesting. I always baited the vertical swing and chopped off his arm to get the ring, never even considered that idea that he'd have a tail, not being a dragon. Didn't know about that Bed of Chaos jump either - handy. And making Seath break his own totem was savage

Apropos of absolutely nothing - certainly not lengthy exposure on account of a certain mythic beast - gosh, EDF really hit a tonal sweet spot of sharp cheddar with the tone on their trumpets.

I tend to prefer text to voice as it's easier to go back and skim for information. That and I have a few deaf viewers, and Youtube's automatic voice transcription sucks, I don't like my voice, and so on. :V

Oh I feel that one - the disconnect between hearing from inside one's own head versus a recording is some uncanny valley doofus shit that I'll have no part of

Having a completely free, infinite use ranged attack you can use while moving that also does a fair bit of poise damage if a full stamina meter hits (usually breaking guard then getting two unblocked hits) is rather helpful. It also hits certain obnoxious enemies like mosquitos well, and the loss of a helmet isn't a big deal. We get a nifty looking head (looks good with heavy armor sets) that costs no weight, a win in my books. You can also get a body to match if you like (which makes you effectively naked, but at high levels doesn't really cost much defense or durability since so much of it comes from your innate defense due to levels), and the body lets you roar for a very brief damage boost (+30% for 5 seconds or something, basically roar and then get in a super powerful hit with a heavy attack if you can). You can also keep the items that transform you after leaving the covenant, the only things you lose are small bonuses to the breath attack and like a 5 or 10% damage boost to the roar buff, not a huge deal in the end so you can get all the dragon things then swap covenants if you like.

I think I've picked it up a couple of times, but was always too caught up in staying on-theme to give it a real go - something those tips will help greatly with, no doubt! Does the body void out boots and gauntlets as well? Takes me back a little to babby's first build; a Joe Mad lookin' meta mixture of bare chest with gold-hemmed black top and Havel's on the extremities.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Thanks for the comments! I'm glad it was informative, I developed a greater appreciation for the sheer number of tools the game gives you that you can choose to use or not use. I learned the value of hardsubs long ago when a channel I loved with a bunch of Mega Man challenge runs lost all the really enjoyable, detailed annotations. I've never forgiven Youtube since then.

Centipede Demon was interesting. I always baited the vertical swing and chopped off his arm to get the ring, never even considered that idea that he'd have a tail, not being a dragon. Didn't know about that Bed of Chaos jump either - handy.

I find hiding behind Centipede prevents the issues where he's so tall you can't see if he's swiping you or going for the grab. He doesn't turn that quickly and the main threat is where he jumps and blasts the field below.

That jump on BoC is really tough. If you have a bow you can just stand against the back wall there and shoot the root, meaning the only jump / roll to make is the final one!

certainly not lengthy exposure on account of a certain mythic beast - gosh

Sorry about that, I was determined to showcase the full boss fights without cropping them. I ended up not finding a working strategy that killed him in a timely fashion so... >w>; The early EDF games don't have tremendous soundtracks. Their music is very fitting, but not like, enjoyable listening on its own? EDF4 and 5 changed that though, particularly 5 whose main theme's a banger.

I tend to prefer text to voice as it's easier to go back and skim for information. That and I have a few deaf viewers, and Youtube's automatic voice transcription sucks, I don't like my voice, and so on. :V

Oh I feel that one - the disconnect between hearing from inside one's own head versus a recording is some uncanny valley doofus shit that I'll have no part of

Does the body void out boots and gauntlets as well? Takes me back a little to babby's first build; a Joe Mad lookin' meta mixture of bare chest with gold-hemmed black top and Havel's on the extremities.

Before my gittin' gud stage I used to run with dragon head and a full stone set or havel's set for the swagger, using a greatshield along with it. I got absolutely rocked by Knight Artorias when I tried him, learning that heavy sets have their limits on enemies that attack relentlessly. Blinge taught me in his no rolling run that it is actually possible to do a tank build on Artorias though! I just sucked at it, though honestly it's way harder than using a lightweight, nimble build.

The dragon body is extremely impractical and exists only for bragging rights/swagger/fashion. You lose body, arm, and leg slots for armor, which is really bad unless you're at such a high level that your natural defense greatly makes up for what armor would give you (SL 150+). In exchange you get a few minor upgrades:

• A barehanded moveset with something massive like 400 AR, and with unique claw swipes. However, it has no stat scaling, and being a fist type weapon seems to really hurt its damage per hit. The swipes will realistically deal 150 or so per hit on tough targets, 250 for the heavy hit, and can go up to 300 or more on really squishy mobs. The rolling attack (a headbutt) is noteworthy for being one of the fastest attacks in the entire game. In general though, the range sucks, and you're better off with a weapon due to how natural claws are unbuffable, doesn't scale on stats, etc.

Thematically, if you want to claw your way to victory, consider going instead with the store-bought metal Claws from Shiva of the East which have like triple the range of using fists normally (the tip of the claws hit for full damage, greatly improving the utility of the standard punching animations) and also gives you bleed to boot, all at minimal weight and much higher base damage than a Bandit's Knife for almost the same speed (their base damage is close to a Shortsword!). Useful when buffed too. It also has a unique rolling attack that's quite decent.

• A roar that causes enemies to stagger as if they were poise broken by a medium weight weapon like a greatsword. It costs an absurd amount of Stamina, draining your whole meter (unless you've invested heavily in Endurance I think), but you get a 25% damage buff to physical attacks for 5 seconds. Unfortunately, it's really hard to use as you need the Cloranthy Ring or a Green Blossom active otherwise you have to spend a second or two recharging stamina first, and many enemies like Knight Artorias give you fairly limited openings to safely roar, then attack. You'll only be able to get one hit in with the buff, two or three maybe if you're using a quick weapon.

• Each covenant upgrade boosts the fire breath and roar damage. You can leave the covenant and still use the dragon head and dragon torso stones effectively, the boosts are rather small and don't affect damage tremendously (like 10 to 20% fire breath damage when you get the torso stone, maybe an extra 5% from the roar at the next level beyond that. It's generally recommended to get the transformation goodies from the covenant and then switch to another more useful one, as the boosts from staying in the covenant don't affect damage output that much.

I've only ever gotten it once before; I think it works hilariously with the dragon weapons that spend durability to use a special attack because they get the buff? It's not super helpful outside of that but maybe a more creative user than I can find more applications. Doesn't appear to be considered a magical buff for the purposes of the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring either.

Getting the dragon torso stone also requires a massive amount of grinding the blue drakes and they're a pain in the ass without heavy Pyro or Sorcery investment.

Apparently in DS2, the full dragon covenant is far more useful because instead of being considered naked, transforming your body parts equips unique natural dragony armor sets in their place to you that has a very good defense to weight ratio, the roar buff works better with the new powerstanced attack system, and generally looks very nifty. The armor set has no poise, but at least you're not naked statwise!

[Lander]

Crossbows sound much more useful than I've ever given them credit for - having to reckon with an ammo economy and generally low damage always pushed me further toward comfortable bonking, outside of edge cases like getting the Drake Sword. That, and perhaps a little peer-pressure pride from the melee or illegitimate crowd.

Boss reactions to certain ranged attacks are an eye-opener as well, I generally took them as being simply unpredictable at that point in From's difficulty meta-cycle.

Sorry about that, I was determined to showcase the full boss fights without cropping them. I ended up not finding a working strategy that killed him in a timely fashion so... >w>; The early EDF games don't have tremendous soundtracks. Their music is very fitting, but not like, enjoyable listening on its own? EDF4 and 5 changed that though, particularly 5 whose main theme's a banger.

No need to apologise it was a valiant fight; the very image of endurance in the face of hard-block backflips! Another one that I've only ever beaten to death.

Thematically, if you want to claw your way to victory, consider going instead with the store-bought metal Claws from Shiva of the East which have like triple the range of using fists normally (the tip of the claws hit for full damage, greatly improving the utility of the standard punching animations) and also gives you bleed to boot, all at minimal weight and much higher base damage than a Bandit's Knife for almost the same speed (their base damage is close to a Shortsword!). Useful when buffed too. It also has a unique rolling attack that's quite decent.

Nice idea - I took a clumsy swing at making a Dudley from Third Strike build for my second or third (which as you'd imagine, didn't work out terribly well) so claws would be a solid reprisal of the base fisticuffs idea.
Shiva's another one who I've not interacted with beyond normal covenant 'sup bro activities too, much less snaffling the Wood Grain Ring, so that's a bucket list item to check off in the process.

One challenge run that kind of interests me is a listen to the voices build - kill every living/breathing NPC on first sight, make Velka mad, consequences be damned. Hardly original at this point, but less intimidating than SL1 or equivalent, and the mechanical implications seem like they could add some spice to proceedings by early-snuffing bonfires and limiting trade.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Crossbows sound much more useful than I've ever given them credit for

Oh my gosh, crossbows are amazing and make the DLC bosses who are very hard to punish with melee way, way easier because you don't have to run up to them and risk eating a high speed counter/getting trampled/etc. They suck on most normal enemies that run around with shields up all the time, but are a great tool on larger beasts with no shield as well as many bosses. I was gushing about them earlier on a GameFAQs thread about how useful they were. Make sure to have the stats to use it one-handed as it reloads much faster than using it two-handed.

The Heavy Crossbow is best and is easily usable with minor stat investment, but if you can't use it a Light Crossbow is fine. Sniper Crossbow is trash as it can't lock on any further and it's slow as hell, and I keep missing the Avelyn in my playthroughs as it's well hidden and found very late. By the time I discovered it I was doing a lot of no levelling runs that don't have the stats for it, and the Heavy Crossbow is more efficient in Souls spend on ammo per damage point.

[Kamaleet's] one that I've only ever beaten to death.

I've done an SL1 and an SL1 melee only and both were signficantly easier because I could actually go in with a high level Balder's Shield and block everything one-handed, taking out the guesswork from his weirder melee hits like the swoop. Having a crossbow meant I could simply bait and dodge the much more manageable long range breath attacks. On this playthrough, since I couldn't use a decent crossbow, and I couldn't use any shield safely with one hand, I got my ass handed to me and broke my Crystal Halberd trying to melee him. Swapping between two-handing a shield to two-handing a hammer was also weird... I hated trying to melee him under these conditions, fighting him without a shield suuucked and I had so many failed attempts that I eventually had to take a day's break and see if I could think up a solution.

I took a clumsy swing at making a Dudley from Third Strike build for my second or third (which as you'd imagine, didn't work out terribly well) so claws would be a solid reprisal of the base fisticuffs idea.

Oh yeah, fist weapons have awful hitboxes in this game, they're terrible to use. The dragon bone fist you can make with the Iron Golem with the shoryuken? As hilarious as it is terrible. The claw is a weird exception because the blades on it are the length of a shortsword, so even with the slightly weird punching animation you've now got actual range! Vertical range isn't fantastic, but the heavy attack is a super effective semicircular slash. They're the only "fist" weapon I'd recommend, specifically because you don't have to hit with your fist. :p

Shiva's another one who I've not interacted with beyond normal covenant 'sup bro activities too, much less snaffling the Wood Grain Ring, so that's a bucket list item to check off in the process.

Shiva's toolchest includes a lot of interesting enemy weapons you'd have to farm. The Demon's Spear is the earliest source of lightning damage in the whole game interestingly, and it's also super long range. They're rather expensive, and some need crazy stats to use, but once I realized he sells Uchigatanas I never understood why people go and murder the 'Burg merchant for one, that's just rude. ;w;

One challenge run that kind of interests me is a listen to the voices build - kill every living/breathing NPC on first sight, make Velka mad, consequences be damned. Hardly original at this point, but less intimidating than SL1 or equivalent, and the mechanical implications seem like they could add some spice to proceedings by early-snuffing bonfires and limiting trade.

I went out of my way to do this on my unrecorded initial go at this run to eliminate the temptation to go back and get upgrades, hahaha. Allowing the use of levelling would open the door up to some stuff that'd work just dandy at base upgrade level, such as the Gravelord Greatsword or going heavy on Strength stat for the Dragon Axe, Ultra Greatsword, Dragon Tooth, Havel's Shield, etc.

EDIT: Was running this at a friend's for fun, learned some new stuff (Sorcerer, no levelling):

Spoiler

• Sorcerer's magic with Oolacile Ivory Catalyst is actually quite respectable up until you go after the Lord bosses, and is totally useless for the DLC due to needing way higher stats to overcome resistance. Even with top tier Pyromancy the DLC bosses take a while to go down, and Pyromancy is slow. 3 slots to use does mean Sorcerer is one of the stronger "no levelling run" characters early on, but the low strength means you're stuck with a bad shield in the end and unable to reliably block hits, making it likely the hardest to clear the final bosses with.

• The full dragon covenant basically makes you incredibly squishy. I was getting one shotted by lots of boss attacks a bit of extra armor prevented. Also, you actually need Endurance and Resistance for the Bleed and Poison/Toxic resistance, because without them you're really susceptible to them. Bleedbite Ring is a substitute option, Poisonbite is NOT because it doesn't do anything for Toxic. Going as a full dragon is the one use case for pumping in Resistance so getting hit by Nito or anything else won't insta Toxic you on the first shot. Of course, having enough health to survive long enough to cast Remedy or use a Blooming Purple Moss also works, and is probably better than investing too heavily in Resistance.

• The dragon torso stone actually makes knocking off that one archer in Anor Londo really easy if you're not using a bow. Not work the armor loss though.

• Two-handing a crossbow seems to double the time it takes between pressing the button and a shot firing off. Reload's the same speed. It's still fast enough to be useful on a number of bosses including making Kalameet and Manus far easier, especially compared to trying to slash at them with itty bitty dragon claws. Kalameet's standing breath attack can be shot twice safely, and Manus has a jumping attack that usually results in bonus headshot damage! But Knight Artorias is just fast enough to punish two handed crossbow unless you use it on his slowest attacks (the spin slash where he drags the sword on the ground, the super high jump, the charge aura).

• Trying to melee Kalameet, especially without a shield, absolutely sucks, I still hate it. :3

• If you're using Jump mapped to the same button as Run / Dodge, you can do a Run -> Dodge by holding your shield up, the game won't allow Jump while blocking.

[ryu]

Demon's Souls is back on my mind since Youtube, for some inexplicable reason, started recommending me videos on it en masse. And it really got me wondering when the last time I played it myself was.

Good thing I keep track of when I play what. Turns out I haven't touched the game since 2015. That' almost 10 years now.

[insert meme pic of old geezer here] ;_;

[ryu]

I ended up playing Dark Souls 2 again. Did the first hour or so on vanilla and SotFS. Got to say, starting vanilla as a deprived is... something. Had to run away a lot because my weapons kept breaking and I didn't have anything to repair them yet (and no replacement weapons to use instead). I completely forgot how brutal durability was in the original.

Was also surprised to rediscover that enemy respawns are normally limited. Is only Dark Souls 2 doing this or is it a general mechanic in souls games?

[it290]

It's just a DS2 thing. I think they partially did it to keep Soul Memory (which was a silly system to begin with) from getting too high on a low-leveled character.

[Lemnear]

I ended up playing Dark Souls 2 again. Did the first hour or so on vanilla and SotFS. Got to say, starting vanilla as a deprived is... something. Had to run away a lot because my weapons kept breaking and I didn't have anything to repair them yet (and no replacement weapons to use instead). I completely forgot how brutal durability was in the original.

Was also surprised to rediscover that enemy respawns are normally limited. Is only Dark Souls 2 doing this or is it a general mechanic in souls games?

I confirm, only DS2 (Vannilla and SotFS) have this start with the Deprived, the other chapters are all very generous instead, both for the objects you find at the beginning, and for the duration of the weapons.
The 2 like Deprived is really "Survival" in the first hours.
Only the 2nd has the limit of enemy respawns, I think 12 times, I find it absurd because if I killed all the enemies 12 times and lost all the souls 12 times, I would have no methods to level up except using an Ascetic Bonfire (and therefore sending that area to NG+)... because of the shitty Soul Memory I had to play 30 different games... yes I liked invading and fighting against entire groups of players. I got 3 Ring of Thorns +2 in total, which is equivalent to 3000 kills as an invader.

[ryu]

It really didn't feel as bad in Scholar so far. But maybe I just got lucky with the many weapon drops.

[Lemnear]

It really didn't feel as bad in Scholar so far. But maybe I just got lucky with the many weapon drops.

If I remember correctly in DS2/SotFS, as Deprived at the beginning you have practically nothing, there is a small shield towards the Tower of Heide, and a couple of Broken Swords and that's it, maybe a dagger or a shord sword? No armor, the rest is all random drops for a long time in fact.

In DS1 instead there is immediately a merchant who gives you a phenomenal shield for 2000 souls and a bow with which you can take the sword from the dragon's tail on the bridge. And the Drake Sword works perfectly until Queelag.

In DS3 instead each area has an item that helps you either in the area itself or in the one immediately after.

ER instead is practically all useless, if you start as Deprived, at the first cart you find you get the Vassal's Greatsword and the Flail... (which by the way is very strong in the early game)

[ryu]

If I remember correctly in DS2/SotFS, as Deprived at the beginning you have practically nothing, there is a small shield towards the Tower of Heide, and a couple of Broken Swords and that's it, maybe a dagger or a shord sword? No armor, the rest is all random drops for a long time in fact.

Yeah. I'm past the last giant and dragonrider now and my entire arsenal is from drops. You can purchase decent weapons from Lenigrast once he's unlocked, but my weapons in vanilla were broken way before I got there.

In DS1 instead there is immediately a merchant who gives you a phenomenal shield for 2000 souls and a bow with which you can take the sword from the dragon's tail on the bridge. And the Drake Sword works perfectly until Queelag.

The merchant also sells an Uchigatana that's not bad at all. Wouldn't surprise me also if that's where you can get your first broad sword and bastard sword.

ER instead is practically all useless, if you start as Deprived, at the first cart you find you get the Vassal's Greatsword and the Flail... (which by the way is very strong in the early game)

Iirc I played nothing but deprived in Elden Ring. Didn't have any problems finding weapons at all.

It's just a DS2 thing. I think they partially did it to keep Soul Memory (which was a silly system to begin with) from getting too high on a low-leveled character.

Thanks! I can't believe how bad my memories of these games have become despite having played them all for hundreds of hours back in the day.

[Klatrymadon]

I've always thought Shadow Tower doesn't get enough credit for its astonishing creature design. There's a new bizarre, chimeric freak around every corner. Just dozens upon dozens of them. This video shows off all of them.

[ryu]

The Roaring Halberd is really cool. Hits like a truck when you land attacks with its tip, has great range and the heavy two-handed swing is a spin-to-win aoe attack. The backstab animation is super cool and one shots most enemies. I had no idea halberd were this fun to play.

[Lemnear]

I've always thought Shadow Tower doesn't get enough credit for its astonishing creature design. There's a new bizarre, chimeric freak around every corner. Just dozens upon dozens of them. This video shows off all of them.

I played them a couple of summers ago, the first 3 Kings Field and Shadow Tower, what sublime atmospheres!

The Roaring Halberd is really cool. Hits like a truck when you land attacks with its tip, has great range and the heavy two-handed swing is a spin-to-win aoe attack. The backstab animation is super cool and one shots most enemies. I had no idea halberd were this fun to play.

Is one of the best weapons even in PVP.

_______________________________________

I find myself in an unusual situation, I have Elden Ring + DLC, the game is in the physical Deluxe version for PS4 (while the DLC is cross-gen) ... but ... I have the PS5 without a disc reader, is it better to get Elden Ring for PS5 or get the Demon's Souls remake?

Elden Ring is huge and long-lasting, but it is not very replayable given the duration ... Demon's Souls on the other hand being shorter is much more replayable.
I don't know where to throw myself :v damn it

[ryu]

Is one of the best weapons even in PVP.

Doesn't surprise me to hear. Handling NPC invaders has never been this easy for me.

I find myself in an unusual situation, I have Elden Ring + DLC, the game is in the physical Deluxe version for PS4 (while the DLC is cross-gen) ... but ... I have the PS5 without a disc reader, is it better to get Elden Ring for PS5 or get the Demon's Souls remake?

That's unfortunate. I played Elden Ring on PS4 still and wish I had waited to play it on PS5 instead. Even better visuals and the loading times on PS4 are atricious.

Demon's Souls I would always prefer the PS3 version as long as its an option. I really don't like how they handled the aesthetics of the game in the remake.

[Lemnear]

Is one of the best weapons even in PVP.

Doesn't surprise me to hear. Handling NPC invaders has never been this easy for me.

I find myself in an unusual situation, I have Elden Ring + DLC, the game is in the physical Deluxe version for PS4 (while the DLC is cross-gen) ... but ... I have the PS5 without a disc reader, is it better to get Elden Ring for PS5 or get the Demon's Souls remake?

That's unfortunate. I played Elden Ring on PS4 still and wish I had waited to play it on PS5 instead. Even better visuals and the loading times on PS4 are atricious.

Demon's Souls I would always prefer the PS3 version as long as its an option. I really don't like how they handled the aesthetics of the game in the remake.

another PVP weapon is the Crescent Axe, I don't know how it behaves in PVE.
"Although classified as a greataxe, the Crescent Axe has the moveset of a regular axe class weapon; this makes its swings very swift for a weapon of its length. In addition, the Crescent Axe's 2H running attack is the halberd's spinning attack, and it's second 2H attack seems to be unique.
The Crescent Axe wis a sweetspot weapon. If an enemy is struck by the handle, they will only receive 50% damage."

However, a common Longsword 2H heavy attack stuns practically any enemy in the game except those from DLC1 and DLC3.
It's a shame that in SotfS there are no weapons with alternative colors that they gave with the DLC (like the Longsword in light blue or the Katana of the Knights of Alonne in white version).

Demon's is definitely more replayable (a bit like Dark Souls 1-2-3-BB), if there's one thing I can't stand about Elden Ring is how dispersive it is... you'd like to try out many builds but it's literally impossible given how long the game lasts, the second run already becomes heavy to do.
Furthermore, it's so long that it's impossible to "refine the run/route", which is something I really like to do with the other souls...but maybe I'm the one who never really appreciated open world games in general. When it's a dungeon level to explore it's ok, but if it's an endless map I feel like I'm wasting too much time wandering around uselessly.

[ryu]

if there's one thing I can't stand about Elden Ring is how dispersive it is... you'd like to try out many builds but it's literally impossible given how long the game lasts, the second run already becomes heavy to do.

Yeah I had the same impression. Didn't even feel like finishing the game with my second character. It's a real shame because the "legacy" dungeons are great. I also found routing very difficult in Elden Ring.

[Lemnear]

Damn....now Elden Ring is on sale at 36 euro-dollars...(and I already have the DLC since it's cross-gen)...
but there's also the Deluxe Edition of Demon's Souls at 60$/€...
and as if that wasn't enough even Returnal at 40 eurobucks...

I don't know if I would buy Returnal right away because I don't really appreciate procedural/roguelike/roguelite games...even if it actually looks like a 3D BulletHell. But it has its charm.

Good wine in a big barrel or exceptional wine in a small barrel?
Too bad Elden Ring doesn't have any function on the DualSense (it doesn't, right?).

In doubt I was even making a list of pros and cons:

Spoiler

Elden Ring PROs:
+Weapon Variety: There is something for everyone
+Environment Variety: Artistically truly inspired and varied.
+Boss Quantity: Almost 200 fights.
+Longer Game: Lasts longer than all the souls put together.
+The Jump: Being able to jump! (and sense of verticality)
+Infinite Exploration: Immense amount of content.
+More Possibilities:you can create the character you want and play it however you like, it has fewer "constraints" on what you can and can't do.
+Original by FROM: It is From Software's work from start to finish, unlike DeS:RE.

Elden Ring CONs:
-Zero replayability (excessive length):
100+ hours per game that rise to 200 for completionism make a second playthrough practically impossible.
-Unbalanced bosses: all bosses boil down to roll-roll-roll-hit-roll roll and none have any particular mechanics or special arenas (despite there being almost 200).
-Unbalanced weapons: some weapons outclass all others by a wide margin making the choice of arsenal trivial.
-Dispersive: many activities are superfluous and not up to the level of the main content, with poor loot and recycled bosses.
-Inconsistent performance: poorly optimized for any platform.
-Superfluous Gameplay Features: an entire Crafting system that is totally useless, I don't think anyone has ever actually used it..and the ability to duck is almost useless in real PVE fights.
-OST: no memorable music aside from the Main Theme.

Demon's Souls PROs:
+Quality Level Design: Impeccable dungeons.
+Weapon Balance: Each weapon allows you to complete the game.
+Bosses with unique features: Each boss has a unique feature and a unique way to be faced.
+High Replayability: Being shorter allows for more experimentation and more different games with different classes.
+Excellent Performance: Dynamic 4K and 60fps, DualSense functions and 3D audio.
+OST: The music is as memorable as the first Dark Souls.

Demon's Souls CONs:
-Short Length: it is perhaps the shortest of all the Souls.
-Archaic Gameplay: although dodging is now multi-directional, the gameplay is still limited compared to Elden Ring.
-Few Settings: only 5 worlds and few real landscapes.
-Few weapons and armors: even if the Remake adds some, the issue does not change.
-Design Change: the new design takes away some of the magic of the original unfortunately.
-Redubbing:the change of some voices bothered me more than the aesthetic change: the change of voice acting for Stockpile Thomas bothered me...

Damn if I had doubts before now I have double...because the size of Elden Ring actually makes it a bargain .

[BIL]

tbh the best From is gonna come not from Miyazaki and co but the enterprising Bloodborne PC port chaps. I'm not a PC guy in the least, idgaf normally. But that's what it takes. One day it's gonna arrive with 60fps, quickloading, and FOV adjust so the old ways can fall aside, a new era of gentlemanly Hardcore Killing.

I've loved BB, DS1, DS3, and ER in their own ways, and will surely have a blast with SexyBro and AC6 when I get a moment. But while From is one of the vanishingly few contemporary crews I've any interest in following - nothin' personnel kid! I'm kept quite busy enough by the 70s~00s canon, so neatly bookended by Demon's - I just want them to fix that bad FOV. Sort yourselves out ffs.

EDIT: lmao, wtf. Parl is a saint compared to some of the stupidly over-zoomed bosses in ER. My apologies old buddy!

[it290]

I don't know if I would buy Returnal right away because I don't really appreciate procedural/roguelike/roguelite games...even if it actually looks like a 3D BulletHell. But it has its charm.

Returnal is pretty light on the procedural stuff. You mostly go through the same rooms each time, just their placement is somewhat randomized but still following the same general progression. The roguelike stuff is mostly related to leveling up your weapons and powerups, but if you're decent at action games it shouldn't take that long to clear, I'd guess maybe 20-30 runs which is much less grindy than something like Rogue Legacy 2.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

DS1's dragon form has a visual glitch that always bugged me: when walking or sprinting, the right hand tip of your little with glitches out and wobbles in a weird stretchy kind of way that makes it clear the model's moving in a way not intended. As it turns out, it stops doing this when wielding any long weapon like a spear, polearm, or greatsword. So if you wanna avoid being weirded out by that, plan to use one of those weapons.

I've always thought Shadow Tower doesn't get enough credit for its astonishing creature design. There's a new bizarre, chimeric freak around every corner. Just dozens upon dozens of them. This video shows off all of them.

I haven't finished Shadow Tower yet but I love the art and designs so far, so it's a struggle not to watch this and spoil myself entirely. It's so good.

[ryu]

The other day I beat Freja and thought I discovered a trick when I avoided having to engage the spiders by carrying a torch. Turned it that was just a new mechanic in Scholar forgot about. :/

Fume Knight took me over two hours. In the end I learned two vital lessons: to heal up, engage the enemy, dodge and heal during an opening you would otherwise use to attack. Otherwise it's a dice roll whether the boss will kill you mid-sip or not. I still find this kind of game design questionable considering healing is limited anyways. Also... stamina regen is op. After struggling for hours just reducing my equip load by 10% made a huge difference. wtf

[Lemnear]

I don't know if I would buy Returnal right away because I don't really appreciate procedural/roguelike/roguelite games...even if it actually looks like a 3D BulletHell. But it has its charm.

Returnal is pretty light on the procedural stuff. You mostly go through the same rooms each time, just their placement is somewhat randomized but still following the same general progression. The roguelike stuff is mostly related to leveling up your weapons and powerups, but if you're decent at action games it shouldn't take that long to clear, I'd guess maybe 20-30 runs which is much less grindy than something like Rogue Legacy 2.

Paradoxically, I don't like changing maps, but changing equipment, yes...mmm, interesting.


I ended up going with Elden Ring, but I'm replaying it starting as Wretch and following a map to find every possible bossfight, this time I want it 100% complete, but above all I want an Int/Faith character with the least possible strength or dexterity.
It runs like total shit on PS5 too lol.