VideoGame_Discussion

Orphan of Kos is rough.

It took my awhile to get that fight figured out.

Nearing the end of DS2. Have the final zone to go (Throne of Want), Darklurker (I don't remember if I fought him last time), and then DLC.

My God there's an insane amount of gear and optional stuff in this game!

I'm pretty interested in checking out AC6 at some point. It's sounding pretty good.

https://www.engadget.com/armored-core-vi-fires-of-...

Yeah AC6 is on my list hit too. Looking forward to it.

Well, of all Souls games ... that may have been the biggest kick in the balls.

Fudging invaded enroute to Aldia, got cheese dicked, and lost 225k souls ... great way to roll into end game pre-DLC's.

Son of a dog.

I'm in Ringed City on my first DS3 DLC playthrough. This crap is brutal

theyrhere wrote:

That was a blast going back to that years later! Love that armor set.

Wow, sooo ... DS2, was pretty damn easy the whole way through. Got to the first DLC ... and it really steps up the game! I'm questioning my whole build at this point!

MrBean wrote:

I remember rolling into the DS2 DLC for the very first time at like level 240 something. Pure magic user. And getting my ass handed to me by every single enemy. I couldn't do any damage, and everything was 1-2 hitting me. I had to go respec into a pure melee build. I also remember having the exact same experience with the DS3 DLC as well.

DS3 DLC was awesome, but on my replay as I was pure melee and it was pretty easy.

In DS2 I'm hybrid (hex + melee). After I got situated, it got better, but still much more challenging. I do debate rerolling heavy strength, gonna keep pushing though. Haven't had a lot of time.

Still, I have no idea how the dlcs rank. I think I'm in sunken king? The one with all the poison mobs and ghosts. Made it to a boss this morning, died twice, hopefully revisit tonight.

I'm just glad this is actually a challenge. Hoping maybe I can upgrade change gear at some point. Been rocking the same setup for too long.

Release order was pyramid /caverns (sunken king), fire (iron king) ice (ivory king)

The first one was the hardest for me by far. Lots of ranged to get through it easier. Layout of the areas was confusing and often labyrinthine. Quite a few optional bosses too.

Yah I'm in Sunken then. There's tons of small areas, been trying to navigate all of them but found myself running through a bit too. The ghosts are dickheads. I made it the boss at the bottom of a bunch of platforming... Crap what was her name (I'm at the hospital with the kiddo). She summons skeletons and another big dude. Got her down to about 10%.

Iron King DLC way easier/quicker.

I thought for sure Fume Sword was gonna be one more weapon to use ... but nope, doesn't seem to be that great. Gdamnit, feels like I've been rocking the same gear for more than half the game. Hard to change it out, especially with so little left in the game.

- Dark Sunset Staff + 5 / Dark Silverblack Spear + 10 / Dark Crypt Blacksword + 5
- Defender's Shield (debating swapping for King's Shield) / Dragonriders Bow / Lightning Bow of Want
--- Haven't upgraded the bows, really just use them for pulls and/or poison procs.
- Black hood (recently got Chaos Hood, may swap and upgrade)
- +10 on Lion Mage set

I've picked up so many awesome weapons, traded in tons of boss souls ... but this combo just works. I debate swapping out the Crypt Blacksword for something with more reach (Fume UGS maybe), but the thing just hits like a tank ...

Ah well, almost done, might as well just plow through and stop worrying about gear.

Wow, Sir Alonne (Iron King DLC) - by far hardest boss in game! I'm feeling really poorly specc'd for this fight!

bill wrote:

I played through it, and then dipped back to the PS3 game. I think I like the original music a lot better ("worse" but more memorable), but it's pretty incredible how these games feel just about identical.

I probably turned the music off for both (I do this with all games), so didn't notice that.
Yeah, I was impressed how it was the same game, but much nicer looking.
I played the Dark Souls remaster after Demon's remake and it was just the same game without looking nicer.

In general, very impressive game presentation. A few of the fun quirks of the original being missing aside, definitely a nice standard for remasters. One of the reasons I like the re-polishes of stuff like Quake (just finished for the first time the other day) and Diablo is that they take the literal "just polish it up" take, but stuff like D2 Remaster and DeS PS5 when handled properly are totally solid. As opposed to the GTA Trilogy re-crap.

DS Remake seemed more like it was done to get the framerates up for the masses, the much smoother presentation was definitely welcome, but I can appreciate that too, price being appropriate. I think DS was mostly fine as is, just sorta stuck on bad platforms and not running very well, which is mostly fixed now.

This actually got me interested in seeing how nice I could get DeS looking on PC, turns out pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q54xoiSUFO8

1440p60, very enjoyable smooth DeS experience.

Well, since I can't get to my DS2 save on the Ally, decided to start DSR.

Wow, the memories coming back! Again, haven't played since release, never did DLC. I always think I've completely forgotten games, but as soon as you're back to it, it's like riding a bike.

Hate that you can't fast ascend/descend ladders.

Pretty sure you can fast ascend/descend. Hold the run button+up or down.

Also pretty sure it also doesn't have Cloud Saves

Kommie wrote:

Well maybe I'm dumb I'll go back to it at some point today but when I was playing it wouldn't let me fast move up or down the ladder. Also yes it does appear to have Cloud saves from what I just read. I hope that's true because I don't want to spend a few days playing and have to start over.

You can slide down by holding the run button without any direction button being pressed. But you can not speed up moving up a ladder in dark souls remastered.

You tap the O button while on a ladder to slide down.

I also had that odd feeling of the game being familiar, but not fully remembered. I walked right into a few traps that I should have remembered better, for example.

It was fun to replay. I skipped a lot of stuff, though.

Haha, the f'ing Capra Demon. My God I remember absolutely hating this fudgeer before!

Fighting the Capra Demon in that little tight ass area was all kinds of rude.

Ugh, didn't realize black knights don't respawn and I needed humanity to raise drop rates. Rocking the drake sword at the moment (from killing the tail of the bridge dragon), but woulda loved to have gotten the black knight sword. Bummer.

You need that covetous ring from Sen's to properly farm.

Did some save scumming late night. Got halberd and sword. Sif was much easier as melee.

Not yet sure what to do with the hydra. Pretty sure I cheesed him with spells last time.

I totally skipped Hydra. I think I read you can just punch it or something.

They actually fixed the hydra cheese in the remaster. Both at the lake and the ashen lake.

There are many cheese videos for DS1 remaster on youtube.
They are kind of funny (some seeming harder than just fighting the boss).
I saw one for Capra that involved throwing tons of firebombs at just the right spot (using bow aiming) from outside the boss fog door. Honestly, it seems like it might be more fun to try the cheeses since they seemed tricky to do.
I guess I just like cheesing bosses.
Boss battles are not why I like Souls games... I love poisoning them the best, fudgeers.
isn't that ironic? Don't you think?

Playing both DS1 and DS2 at the same time, many years later... Really makes you appreciate the world design of 1. I'm only like 10+ hours into 1, and in the last DLC of 2, but man is 1 just better regarding the network of areas. Loving this all over again!

I have no clue what or when the DLC is for 1, but looking forward to it.

Also, the Rog Ally was totally designed for a Souls game. Absolutely perfect platform to play on when away from home.

bill wrote:

Haha, I laughed, needed that! =)

I don't want to look too far ahead but torn on weapons. First play through of DS1 I was primarily caster. Going heavy str/dex this time. Loving both Black Knight Halberd and Sword. I can do an initial upgrade (twinkling) but don't wanna blow my mats. Quick Google looks like Halberd is the superior choice but I do prefer swords more. Just not sure if these will be replaced soon or not.

I always do this in these games. Hoard mats, then later find out they're plentiful and I was handicapping myself for hours.

Gdamn do I love these games.

I think you need to pick str or dex to focus on. Ultimately the upgrade path you pick will be based on 1 stat.
You can blow twinkling on a weapon you are using. Commit to one until mid-early-late game, then you'll need to do the upgrade path for the stat you like to do better.

I did a Faith build when I played last month. I started with Astoria's straight sword. I think I took it too +4 (using twinkling I got from the crow and from a couple early lizards or something). No regrets, worked well for me. I think the Drake sword can be similar for early/mid game.

Then, I started going after divine, so did the locations to get the first ember then the next one (butterfly in the forest then ToG via catacombs). I went a bit nuts setting things up to get the maggot helmet thing and saving Solaire (plus I was sun bro for faith miracle lightning). But I had to do the spider covenant to open the shortcut, etc.

I remember for magic-based character, my priority for location was different to get the magic embers and such.

But also, you want the lordvessel just to get the travel stuff too, so yeah...

Honestly, I didn't do Sif until late game and he was easy by then.

I agree DS1 was just put together well in so many ways. The connections between areas and the upgrade paths being tied to locations and such all made it interesting (and different depending on stat focus)...

MrBean wrote:


Look it up or you'd be probably like 90% or higher to miss it tbh

bill wrote:

Yeah I never do the cheese stuff or even really look it up. So like the thing you guys mentioned about the Hydra, I had no idea that was even a thing you could do lol.

bill wrote:

Agree unless he is really going to overlevel but I find that boring. I think the game is actually remarkably balanced around natural progression. The world connectivity is definitely nice for this as well. If you are struggling somewhere you can often try another area. I also think DS1 is probably the best balanced around SL1 runs but maybe that's largely because it's the easiest game. I'm not fully sure but this is something I think about way too much.

I usually just grab a long sword to fully upgrade with whatever scaling / element I want. Very balanced weapons for casters and at the end of the line I feel like I get more out of normal weapons than special ones. If I’m using a heavy armor melee build I always want the prettiest lights.

MrBean wrote:

What about the rog ally is designed for a souls game as opposed to the switch or steam deck?

Yeah, a (divine) long sword was what I used last month. Many online recommend it. Good move-set and damage output.