RichC2

This sold about 800,000 copies its first week worldwide (PS3, Xbox 360 combined) that's pretty damn solid.

wlj

not too shabby. i am glad this game is doing so well. i still have to wait for the PC version, but with Reaper of Souls just releasing, the wait is more bearable.

mhg83

While I'm enjoying my time with the game there are still serious flaws that makes this game less enjoyable and understand why it doesn't have a bigger following.

The deaths: Yes most of the time it's the player's fault for running in too fast and not strategizing. But there are quite a few deaths that are the fault of the game. One is fall damage. I jumped to a lower ledge. In most games it seems like a reasonable fall that won't kill you. Not in this game! Now I'm always afraid my next jump will result in my death.

Water death. This is by far the most ridiculous of deaths. You play a powerful character that can't swim for some reason?! Some parts seem shallow to walk through but not letting the player dive under or have an air bar???

Poorly placed camera. There are parts of a level that make it hard to navigate due to the placement of the camera. There's seriously something wrong with the way the camera zoomed in and not giving enough view of your surroundings.
No pause button and stopping to heal. It's been three games and we still have no pause button WTF. And they should have a way to heal without worrying about getting hit by an enemy/boss.

Merchants that wont let you sell your items. Yes i know there's like one or two but every merchant should have the option to sell your junk. There should be no reason to keep carrying ten copies of the same armor. I have to hold onto this shit till I get to that one merchant.

I'm sure i'll have more later but those are my top gripes with the game.

MoviePage

You can get both a ring and equipment very near the beginning of the game that can reduce fall damage, if it's somewhere you're meant to get to by falling in the first place. Changing into the appropriate equipment (or out of it ) is part of strategizing sometimes. There are definitely a few (optional) tricky jumps in the game.

The lack of pause is because of the intended always-online/multiplayer nature of the game where you could potentially be invaded at any time. I'd imagine a pause function wouldn't mesh with the netcode. And picking strategic times to heal is a major part of the challenge of these games. (Tip: Dodge attacks first like you normally would while waiting for an opportunity to attack, then heal during that time window.)

Agreed that selling to any merchant would be a nice addition, but you don't have to hold onto all that stuff. You have access to an infinite storage box from any bonfire. The amount of souls you get for selling items is ridiculously low, anyway. I wish they'd fix that part.

mhg83

Maybe so but i wasn't very happy when my batteries died on me mid-boss fight

dom56

Finally beat Mytha/Medusa with a couple of people on co-op. Fight only took about maybe 30 seconds I was spamming with Lighting Spears while the two guys were melee with her. Kind of liking fighting tough boss with co-op. Still having problem with the Ruin Sentiel Trio boss, the top platform is real not big enough for me to get away from those big spears of their. Well tried again when I get Soul Geyer, suppose to be a boss killer spell.

dom56

Another thing is why can't I have summon to fight the Royal Rat Authority. Can't beat it when those rats attack and I died quickly from toxic poison. Seeing lot of message saying "Help me...." mine including.

Lastblade

The 3 Ruin Sentinels are very easy if you have a tower shield. Even as a mage, I hold it with 2 hands and block all the physical attack. I summoned a mage (the cell right before you fight them) and basically tanked while he shoots soul arrows. I barely got hit and only because I was careless.

dom56

I probably go tried that. I have the tower shield but I was using the Drangleic shield I heard was a good shield to use. Thank for the tip.

Lastblade

No problem, I died probably 50 times there trying to kill them myself.

You can still hurt them with the 2-hand shield, it is just a bit of gamble because it is slow and you lose a lot of stamina.

mhg83

I'm at the Ruin Sentinels. I was able to actually stay on the first ledge and kill the first. The second guy always gets to knock me down. I was able to get a few good hits in and a few blasts from soul arrow. Is the best strategy to take the first sentinel while on the ledge, Jump down and focus attacks on one at a time?

MoviePage

Take the first one while on the ledge. After that, sometimes only one other one will jump up and you can focus on just that one too. If they both jump up, it's time for you to jump down.

Don't get overly brave, wait for an opening to attack. This is definitely one of those fights that's tough to do solo. There's an NPC phantom you can summon in to help, the sign is in the open cell before you get to the fog door.

dom56

I beat Smelter Demon with one summoner, I accidently knock off Luctiel off the edge before enter the fog gate (stupid me). We did beat the boss, don't think he was that hard to fight just have to watch for his big sword attack. I found the bonfire upstair and save but

GreenMonkey

Agreed. I fought them on my own around level 50-60. Swapped wand to right hand to cast Magic Weapon for a little extra damage, swapped it back, entered fog. Kill the first one on the ledge - enough rolling instead of blocking and you should be able to pick off the first one on the ledge. After that, I used a few great soul arrows from the ledge sniping the 2nd one that gets ready to jump up. Then fight him until the next one jumps up. Then hop off, roll away, heal, and be patient. Don't attack unless they have split up a little. Took me about 15 - 20 tries (never did get the NPC to help...died enroute to boss the couple of times I went human).

Poink

You've probably fought him before if you've gotten that far.

Poink

So I'm at the final stretch of the game with my new Hex build and good lord, nothing stands a chance against me right now. Probably the highest damage I've ever put out in a Souls game, and I've spent hundreds of hours with each title. For anyone curious about this, being that it's mostly new to the Souls games, here's my overview.

I wouldn't recommend using Hexes on a first play, as it's a bit more advanced than most classes. Some spells consume souls just to cast (more on that later) and overall using Hex requires a great deal of investment (you'll want both INT & FTH at least to 30), but it's certainly been interesting the second time around!

Here's a basic breakdown of my relevant Casting stats and spell damage:
Soul Level ~150
34 Attunement
43 INT
47 FTH
Abyss Ring (+Hex power; costs HP to cast)
Dark Sunset Staff +5
Dark Caitha's Chime +10
(Both Scale S with Dark; also infused with Dark)

Dark Orb- 620-1200(!) Damage. The higher end damage is only if hit as a "counter" on an enemy that is guard broken and apparently doesn't like Dark Magic (Hint: they have a hole for a face). Not bad for the most basic Hex spell in the game that I have 72 Casts of!

Great Resonant Soul- 1158 Damage. This is a much more consistently powerful spell, but it costs 500 Souls to cast, and two attunement slots only gives you 8 casts by default (10 once ATN is leveled up). Haven't hit any "critical" hits with it that I'm aware of, but it's been my go-to spell for bosses and any enemy that I don't want getting anywhere near me.

Scraps of Life- 500 Damage. It's an AoE Spell; Hex version of Firestorm basically, although a smaller area. Bonus: tosses smaller enemies away from area.

Climax- 2718 Damage. Now this is one HELL of a powerful spell; the highest base damage of any spell in the game. Cast time is about the same amount of time as the average Soul Arrow/Spear. Pretty sure this will one-shot anything that isn't a boss with very few exceptions. However, casting it will use ALL of your souls. The max damage tops out if you have 5000 souls, so a lot of stars have to align if you want to use it and not blow 43,000 souls just to take 2/3 of a bosses health down in one hit.

Quick summary of this in action:

I just killed the Royal Rat Authority on the first attempt with three spell casts in a fight that lasted about 45 seconds. My first time around I probably died to that damn thing more times than anything in the game.

I entered the fog, and ran to the center of the room to aggro the little Toxic Rats from Hell; as soon as they started scurrying towards me, I cast Scraps of Life. All four of them died instantly. The main boss was already on top of me, so I moved under him and cast Climax. He leaped away from me, already on his last legs (more than 3/4 of his health gone). I charged forward to get under him again, and after a few seconds I cast Scraps of Life while under him, and it ticked away his remaining health in less than 3 seconds.

As EddieMoney would say: He died.

Hilariously, after the dust settled, I looked around the room (I was still mostly in the center), and the little Rat corpses were scattered around the four corners of the arena! Scraps of Life flung them like 20 yards in each direction.

Sorry, I just really love this game. Hopefully this will convince someone else to delve into the Dark Side.

MoviePage

Yes, but the things you have to do to get that spell. I just...*weeps softly*



Thanks for sharing your experience, definitely interesting! I'm nearing the end of my NG++ playthrough on the same character, and while I love the game I'm feeling the need for a break.

Poink

Yeah, it was quite the struggle.


Once I get my characters through New Game+ once each I'll probably step away from the game a bit. I just create new builds and play with a whole different approach to keep things fresh; I have a Melee/Tank type build using the Greatsword and Tower Shield, and a "Quality" build that I'm setting up to use a multitude of lighter weapons / duel wield.

Even starting fresh though, it can get a tad repetitive since you blow through the game 5x as fast once you know everything and within 2-3 hours you're back at the same spot that your higher level character(s) are...

Anyways, somewhat unrelated but should be made aware for everyone: The Dagger (just the basic starting one, also found in Things Betwixt) does INSANE critical damage. It actually has one of the highest Crit ratings in the game. Even without upgrading it, a backstab will pretty much kill anything in one hit that you encounter in the first half of the game.

In fact, its so effective it's not even immediately apparent; both the initial stab AND pulling it out does half the max damage, so you'll likely kill most weak "Hollow" enemies with the first part for 450ish damage and not even see the second damage. Even at like +2 it will do a total of around 1100 damage, and there's hardly any enemy in the game that has more HP than that; and if they do, you probably can't backstab them. Super useful weapon for any build, since any class can use it from the start (2 STR 6 DEX).

Also should be noted that parrying like in the previous game(s) is still possible. It's a lot harder to pull off timing-wise. If you've parried anyone, you'll notice that they just slowly fall over and you can perform a critical while they're down. This is fine unless while you wait for them to go down you're being beaten upon by three other Hollows. However, if you step forward a bit and hit the attack at the right time (something I haven't gotten down consistent yet), you will run them through while they stand, making for a much more efficient kill. Both methods will do the same damage, so the only incentive is to just get it over with faster.

I haven't seen anyone in various YouTube plays do this, and parrying in general seems to be less favored due to the more difficult nature of it. I've had more success with using either a Scimitar or Rapier in the left hand (non-power stance) than a normal shield; they seem to have a larger parry animation similar to the Target Shield. I don't care for those shields seeing as if I'm going to carry a shield, I want something that will block more than 60% damage.

dom56

Nice post Poink.

I have some hex spells but I mostly use the Dark Orb. I like it that it can cause knockback on enemies giving you more time to cast it again. Don't have the Abyss Ring but I do have the Sunset Staff but I need some twinkling titanite to upgrade and it's pretty rare to find or drop. I'm surprised that the Miracle spell are pretty powerful, the Lighting Spear is awesome. I killed the Old Iron King using the spell and I had like 4 left after he died. Neato. I got three primal bonfires to light up and need to find one more so I can go to Drangelic castle. Have to beat . Real liking this game and alway finding something new to find.

mhg83

Ended up summoning someone to help fight the three sentinels boss. Went down so much easier. I just focused on casting while he meleed. So is that a way to farm souls is just get summoned and fight bosses?

dom56

Beat Lost Sinner with the help with two summoners and finally got all four primal fires to light. Whoohoo.

Now I can finally get to Drangleic castle.

MoviePage

You can rack up hundreds of thousands of souls by doing the same boss over and over in co-op.

dom56

Wow, Drangelic castle is a pain. I don't know how I managed to survive that nightmare, but I beat the two boss with two summoner again, one died, but the other and me finally beat it and got to the second bonfire. My advice is be prepared and don't be afraid to get help from summoned players, oh make sure you have bunch of Green Blossom, there one room you're going to hate.

Poink

Update on the Parry/Riposte thing:

Ok, so this isn't possible on the first enemies you face (Things Betwixt and the first Bonfire Area of the Forest). I think this is the main reason why the Dark Souls community isn't as parry-happy as they once were. Most people probably figured the mechanics had changed and that the only way to riposte was to wait until the enemy has fallen completely down to the ground. Even the Official Guide book (which is pretty awesome by the way) only mentions the riposte being possible on a downed enemy.

That is not the case. Once you get to the Hollow Soldiers (Halberd and Swordsman types) in the Forest of Fallen Giants, you're able to perform the critical attack like in Demon's and Dark Souls, which is while the enemy still stands and instantly. Obviously, I haven't tried it on EVERY enemy in the game (yet... mwahahaha), but I did go to Huntsmans Copse and it worked on all of the non-terrifying enemies there, like the Dual Dagger guys and even the ragged Hollows.

There's no finesse with the timing; once you land the parry, just mash R1 and you'll start the animation as soon as possible. Haven't tried that many weapons yet, but your character will kind of punch the dude and then run them through or deliver an overhead slash.

I recorded a horrrrrrrrible quality webcam vid for YouTube of this in action. Since it's hard to tell, I'm using a Scimitar in my left hand and a Poison Dagger +5 in my right. I exit the bonfire at Cardinal Tower, take out the guy up high with a bow shot, and run towards the two soldiers on the rampart. The first one hits me when I botch the timing of the parry, and the second one joins in. I manage to parry them both at the same time (BOSS!); the one on the right falls down on his ass, and the one on the left gets stabbed in the heart with my dagger instantly. Once the second one gets back up, I parry him again just to prove my point.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ivxSGOyfZDc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

dom56

Got the Staff of Wisdom and Soul Geyser spell. Yippee!!

Right now I have the staff at +8 and need to find more twinkling titanite so I can get to +10. Wearing Lion Mage robe, cuff, and skirt with hexer hood +5 for extra cast.