FROM Software has been bought out:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/dar.../1100-6419249/

Interesting. Wonder what the future for Dark Souls franchise. Hoping it's good news.

the next game will have a Moonlight Great Chainsaw and a magic staff in the shape of a lollipop

Damn it, couldn't get the White Hollow Mage to drop me a friggin Bat Staff.

Guess I have to use the bonfire ascetic and tried again. This suck.

Break out the wine. I just beat my first Souls game!

So pumped right now. I thought I'd never be able to finish a Souls game. 151 hrs and 30 minutes later with a SL of 221 I just finished the end game boss. Finished her off with five shots of Soul Geyser and went down. Killed her on my first try solo. This is easily my GOTY. Must resist NG+

holy cow 150 hours on first playthrough!! You certainly savored every morsel. I am probably on track for that as well. I have 12 hours in and I have only finished the Fallen Giant and Heide's tower areas. I have spent alot of time farming and doing co-op. I just started the Wharf which is on the aggravating side.

It took so long cause I wound up taking advantage of limited re-spawn. Killed an area of enemies off 15 times clear path to the boss. Gave me tons of souls and was a safe way to not lose much souls. I guess that made the game easier

One big tip that made the game much easier; There's a lot of enemies that have an invisible line they never cross. If you lure them far enough back they stop at a certain point and turn around giving you an advantage to attack, move back to the invisible line, rinse and repeat.

I tried starting NG+ last night but am so burned out I'm taking a break to do some other games.

What scares me off the most from Demons/Dark Souls is there's no limited re-spawn. Are the areas easy to avoid enemies once you figure out the layout of each area? What my strategy will be once I start up is grind till I have enough souls, level up and head towards the boss avoiding enemies as much as possible.

For Dark Souls 1, you start with 5 estus flasks, get 10 by kindling bonfires (think burning effigies), and can get 20 not too far in. So there's a lot more healing. And honesty rolling is a lot better / overpowered in Dark Souls 1, backstabs are quicker (so you can exploit the invulnerability of it). It's really the same formula though. Honestly even in DS2 I ended up running a few of the levels around the bad guys to the boss, eventually. The only levels I ended up clearing a majority of / most of was a few of the early ones (Forest, Heide's) and the Shrine of Amana (kept dying, even with the mage nerf).

It's a bit more of, play the level a few times, learn where the bad guys are, learn how to pick them off optimally.

I did about 110 hours but I haven't done some things yet (a few missed treasures, didn't stop by to visit Vendrick yet, etc). I'm doing another NG playthrough instead to learn where the NPCs are, missed storylines/treasures, etc.

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are set up a bit differently than Dark Souls II is.

Demon's has its areas sectioned off between Archstones; you teleport to one of five "worlds" that are split into three or four different sections. What order you do things in is largely up to you, although some areas are a bit rougher than others. You have more options available if you find yourself stuck on a certain level or boss. Overall it's a good system, although you may miss the larger "open" world feeling that you're now familiar with

Dark Souls isn't too far off from its sequel in that it's one fully traversable world. You aren't able to teleport between bonfires until fairly late (halfway-ish) into the game, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds. The world of Dark Souls is better designed than DSII's world. Not in terms of area/level design, but things make MUCH more sense geographically and you open up tons of shortcuts and paths that make traveling a lot faster. There's a bit less choice where you can really go at the start; while you technically have three or four paths to take, one of them really isn't viable until much later and the other two would be quite a pain if you don't know the game well.

As far as game mechanics go, they're largely the same with a few exceptions.

Demon's Souls doesn't use Estus, you use various "grass" items which can be bought and farmed (you end up with tons by just playing). This makes things a bit easier since they heal you instantly, unlike Lifegems.

The unlimited respawns usually isn't too much of a problem. There's generally more shortcuts that make the path to a boss fairly painless, especially in the case of Demon's Souls. Dark Souls has a few spots where you'll loathe the run back (Four Kings, anyone?), but typically it's not too bad. You won't find bonfires 20 feet from boss rooms though...

The combat in DSII is possibly the weakest of the three games. As stated, rolling is almost OP in the older games; you'll rarely take damage while mid-roll like you will in Dark Souls II. However, the equip burden is less forgiving; anything over 50% weight and you'll crash to the ground with the slow roll whereas DSII you can go up to 70%. Basically, if you're wearing anything harder than cloth or leather, you're probably not going to be rolling all over the place (more of a concern in Demon's Souls).

It may be my imagination, but raising your shield in Dark Souls II seems to have a natural animation delay where you'll sometimes take a hit in the half-second it takes your character to block. The other titles seem to be that as long as you keep the shield button down, you'll guard instantly. Regardless, the hit detection is overall more accurate than it is in DSII.

Demon's Souls is by far the most different of the three. The stats aren't quite the same. Biggest difference is with Spells. For example Intelligence gives you more MP and "Spell Memory" (attunement) whereas damage comes from just "Magic" and "Faith" if I remember correctly. Which means that you don't have limited spell uses; it works in a more standard RPG manner, and you can get items and various equipment to replenish and regenerate your MP. This makes magic VERY powerful so long as you can keep your MP bar full. There aren't a half dozen variations of the same spells; you'll still use good ol' Soul Arrow right up to the end most likely.

Anyways, don't be afraid. If you made it through Dark Souls II, the other games won't be too bad once you learn the enemies and areas!

Sweet Thanks!

definitely play Dark Souls next. It is the best game I have ever played in 3 decades of gaming. I am enjoying Dark Souls 2 don't get me wrong, but I am no where near enjoying it as much as I did Dark Souls 1. DS1 grabbed me right from the get-go. DS2 took a while before I really started enjoying it. I still have a long ways to go, I may be back here when I am done and say DS2 is better, but I don't think that will happen

I'm only a couple hours into Dark Souls 2, but it doesn't have it's hooks in me like Dark Souls 1 did at this same point. That was such a great game. It'd be a shame to skip over it just because enemies don't have limited respawns.

Yeah. Dark Souls II is no doubt a great game, but the original just has something about it that puts it slightly above.

For me it's mostly the world design. The majority of the original had you opening up areas that interconnected in a really intuitive manner. It was like a Metroid game in a sense. You could just about walk to most major areas within a few minutes from Firelink Shrine (DS's version of Majula). Late in the game you found yourself going off in more linear directions to collect some boss souls and then warp out, but that was a much smaller aspect of the game in my opinion.

Dark Souls II feels more like the "end game" part of the original fairly early on; every path you take leads to an "Old One" that stops at a dead end (or 'Primal Bonfire') and you just warp back to Majula and go in a different direction and repeat.

The design just takes something out of the experience. It felt like an accomplishment -and a life saver- in Dark Souls when you worked through the Undead Burg and Parish and opened up the elevator that took you back to Firelink.

Due to the immediate availability to warp in DSII, you never have to actually fight your way back to the "hub" to lick your wounds, repair your gear, etc. I always felt much more safe in Dark Souls II knowing I could just warp back to wherever I wanted if things weren't going well. That feeling wasn't there in the original. If an area was being tough, it was a serious decision whether it would be worth it to fight onward or to work your way back to a blacksmith for upgrades.

Again, both are fantastic games, but the first game just carries a bit more weight for me. You play by its rules; the sequel gives you a bit more wiggle room.

Here is the main "teller" that I like Dark Souls 1 ALOT more: When I started DS1 back in the day, I felt I had to play it every second I could do it, it haunted me when i wasn't playing it. I could really care less if I play Dark Souls 2 each day. I like the game, but I don't feel I have to have it or I will die.

this was posted on another gaming forum i go to, don't know where it originated from or if it is fake

Is the community still pretty active in DS1?

The community is still active, but not as much as with the new game (obviously). Also, they improved the netcode in DS2 which made summoning/being summoned work much better. At this point in time you might not have a lot of luck with summoning except in certain well-known hot spots.

The good news, though, is that you don't need to summon nearly as much in DS1. The bosses are far less co-op oriented than those in DS2, with one notable exception.

Summoning works fantastic on the PC version of DS2 which is the only thing about DS2 that I think is better than DS1. I like DS2, but I am not consumed with it like I hoped I would be. DS1 was like a demon that possessed me and took complete control of my gaming life for 6 months straight. With Dark Souls 2, I am like "well, i may play it today or maybe not" With Dark Souls 1 "OMG I can't wait to play tonight, I am in freaking withdrawal"


Progress update -- I defeated Lost Sinner. She was rather aggravating, for some reason I couldn't stay locked on to her which made the fight more difficult that it should have been. I am not real sure where to go now.

You can get a key that will open up the gates to the sides of the Lost Sinner's boss room which will light some braziers inside the room that will keep her out of the shadows so you can maintain lock on. Guess it doesn't matter now, but for next time. The only downside is to get it you have to go through an area and boss that is probably harder than the Lost Sinner itself...

I'd probably go to Huntsmans Copse next if you haven't already. You get there by going through the same passage in Majula that took you to Heide's Tower. If you talked to the Miracle NPC (Licia I think) after the Dragonrider fight she'll be there to switch the pathway for you.

that is the area where it rains poison? I started that a while ago and got irritated and went somewhere else. i will head back that way tonight I think.

Thanks for the info about Lost Sinner. I was thinking my controller was going bad and that is why i couldn't stay locked. didn't know it was by design.

The poison comes from moths up in the trees, not rain. They can be eliminated.

Yeah. The mechanic doesn't pop up too much, but the game reduces your lock on range if the environment is dark. The game was originally going to be a lot darker than it is and the torches were going to be more of a necessity than they actually are in the finished product.

Unfortunately they couldn't sustain a decent enough frame rate, so the graphics got a bit of a downgrade, which included the lighting effects.

I believe in the earlier builds of DSII, when the Lost Sinner leaped away in the "unlit" room, you probably wouldn't have been able to see her from anything outside of a few feet away. The way it is now, it just seems silly since no matter where she goes in the room, you can still see the boss running around.

Yeah, my like for this game has lessened. I got so frustrated last night trying to do the Belfry Luna section.

I really recommend you get a summoned player to help you.