PS3, PS5: Demon's Souls
 

So, anyone else playing this?

I'm finally getting going after putting it off and beat the first boss...after leveling up a bit, I'm finally getting used to the mechanics more. The fire-breathing dragon later on in the first world that is BBQing the 2 bridges I need to sprint across sucks. :bored:

Gorgeous-looking game.

:popcorn:

Made it through the Tower of Latria...killed the boss in the church/chapel. Now, back to Nexus and I think I'm going to tackle the rainy stage.




Some initial comments: This game is hard AF. I think I died more in this than in Bloodborne. And yeah, the skills I learned in that game are not exactly transferable into this one. I've died alot. The boss I had the most trouble with was actually the second boss I fought, the supersized knight. The giant fire-spitting spider was not too bad as was the multi-armed lady in the chapel. I discovered a Mausoleum key which opened a giant door in the first stage and started a "challenge" with some super god-like boss. After several attempts, I found a way to beat him with a lot of sniping (:blush: )...that's probably a cheese approach but hey man, when my stabs were taking off only 2-3 damage per slice, I had to go with the snipe-and-run tactics. He gave me a sword which I can't yield. :bored:

Maybe I need more leveling up.

Holy shit are you playing blind?

Tower of Latria was so well-designed. Those enemies that froze you were so annoying. Wait until you get to the 3-2 boss. :run:

I remember Tower Knight for sure. Dude was tough and the controls on PS3 were kind of clunky for him. Did you kill all the archers first or just run around like a maniac? I guess we see an influence onto the The One Reborn.

Good job on the King Doran kill. I didn't even do that as this game was so hard and I never fully understood the time changes nor have the patience to truly master it. I beat the main part but I had already played BB on PS4 so going back to PS3 and not being used to the skill set was tough. I kind of wanted to beat it and be done with it.

Playing blind? You mean like, with no help? Yeah, trying to figure things out...though, at the very first few attempts when I first fired up the game, I was almost ready to. :rofl:

I did NOT kill the king. I got him to yield me the mega-sword that I can't wield. :rofl:
I was using the winged spear and scimitar for awhile and just found the kilij yesterday that I immediately upgraded. Also found some katana looking thing that I can't spell behind this mega-fatass beast I had to take out from a distance too (I LOVE the Thief Ring). I will admit that if there is some "code" to this game in combat, I'm taking the cheap/dirty route when possible. Back-stabs when possible and Soul shots from afar whenever possible.

Tower of Latria was indeed good. But, I plunged into bottomless pits on at least 2-3 occasions because I wasn't watching where I was going. I found 2 prisoners there and the tedious part of the game was returning everytime I found a new special key. Only managed to free some mage guy who I got to teach me this Warding spell because I think defense will be important since deaths are so easy in this game even with common enemies (holy fark at the Skeletons in the rainy stage).

Speaking of the Skeletons, that rainy stage sure has me leveling up like crazy though. I think I'll do some grinding in this stage to get myself to a tank. Time to buff out. :D

And for the Tower Knight, :rofl:, the first thing I did was run up the stairs and was like, WTF are with these snipers?!? Only I snipe, bishes. So, hit them all and made the mistake of having ALL the enemies on the main level with the monster. Bad move. Died. So, the next times through, I killed them all with magic shots but then, it left me with little MP to use so, I took on the giant on the ground level but got beat so many times, I lost count. So, I figured out what to do: magic kill the archers, recharge MP, and kill the giant from the balcony. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to and well, I had to. :rofl:

That fight was the beginning of me being a sniping cheapie. :blush:

And oh, I'm playing offline too. I made the mistake of playing "online" the first few times and other online players found it fun to kill me. I'm like, a near powerless character and it's fun to stab me in the back as I'm trying to fight off a mob? Okay...

That's funny. I leveled up with those skeletons too. There's a nearby jump skip where you can find a strong enemy who yields a nice weapon. I won't spoil it though.

It sounds like you're building a more assassin type character since spears are weak with good range. I usually start off DS games with strength builds and have a decent 100% physical shield and trade hits (except DS3 where it was preferred to dodge since it was FS first game since BB).

Tower Knight is not tough to hand-to-hand after you take out the snipers. You basically just hit his feet until he falls and then unleash hell. However, when he falls or when he gets back up, you need to back off. As you learned in BB, don't get greedy. Glad you took him out another way.

And yeah, I always play offline. I hate getting CB'ed by a bunch of net trolls. Remember when you first met the pig in BB in the Central Yharman? Note at the pit nearby said to jump, and well....

So, in the stormy stage, there's a good weapon to be had? :ponder:

Wait...is it the dual-sword wielding black skeletor guarding a dead body in the cemetery? :ponder:

Well, the winged spear was only when I wanted a change of pace and in tight corridors as my scimitar kept getting caught on the walls. I'm now using the kilij almost exclusively with the katana I found as backup though, I'm out of sharpstones to upgrade right now. The stormy stage has these annoying flying rays but a nicely aimed magic shot takes them down for nearly 500 souls which is nice. One shot kill.

One other observation playing this game...I know it is tense because I get some majorly sweaty palms. And that never happens. Yeah, gross. :D

@Doom878 , one thing I would not mind you explaining to me is the tendency thing. I have this white-ish looking eye icon next to my health, stamina, and MP bars...what is it?

K...made some more progress...Of note, I cleared the entire underground mines stage including the big ape-like fire boss and then, the holy-momma Dragon God. :what:

Surprisingly, after I figured out how to use the pillars to avoid that insanity for a boss (HOLY FAWK), it was a cakewalk. When I first entered the giantass cave, I was thinking...I have to fight THIS with my sword?!?!?? Then, I made my way to the spears and was like...OH. :rofl:



This evening, I made some ground and decided to progress onwards in the Tower of Latria stage and frankly, I need a break. The second stage of this world was just a catwalking insanity and I'm still just jittery from that stage...absolute panic traversing and exploring the stage. I freed some badass looking knight from a cage and he didn't do anything...a bit disappointed as he would've been farking helpful against the boss. Who I died alot from. I need a good night's sleep to rethink my strategy against Maneater (TWO OF THEM?!?!??) and avoid getting punched off the bridge too. Using the giant fireplace is okay at first until the first guy summons his buddy which is when I die. I need to try this a few more times and maybe not being so shaken from the damn stage already would help and oh yeah, the stage was also gross AF. The heck was that blood swamp and those blobs of faces I had to go fighting? The swooping gargoyles were also driving me batty and making me jumpy...I almost fell off the narrow catwalks a few times trying to fight off those flying pests.

FAWK...this game is insanity. :what:


<pass out>

Maneater...geebus, probably the hardest boss fight in the game for me. I also finally discovered a use of the Poison Cloud...it's not much but it consistently eats away at an enemy's health which well, helps in a desperate fight against this awful boss. I was somehow able to get one of them to die when the second showed up and once that happened, used the giant fire in the middle as my shield and did alot of slash and running...

Finally did it. Not sure if I did it by luck or not.

Deciding what to do next: Finish this blasted stage...or give it a break and go elsewhere. Tempted to try the gate that was blocked after I killed the Tower Knight now or maybe continue onwards in the rainy skeletor stage. :ponder:

So, I ended up going further in the rainy stage. Into a creepy crypt with ghosts everywhere that I clearly had my brain parked and did not realize the grim-reapers were responsible for...at least um, I got lots of $$$ out of it. :rofl:

The boss was "easy" but that's because after the Maneater debacle, I decided to play cheap and fight the thing from a distance. I had the Thief Ring on and realized soon that the thing was blind. So, it was just quietly following him around and zapping him with a magic shot or two -- hide when he goes berserk for being hit -- and repeat. I got hit a couple of times because his sword goes through the pillars (sorta a bug IMO) but at least I beat him on my first try versus the 23412412347 against the Maneater.

Oh, I decided to kill an NPC in the Nexus today. I didn't really clue in that ANYONE can be hit and I picked a fight with the weird guy I rescued in the Maneater stage. I got some cool armor out of it. With all the $$$ I got, I upped a few levels and also decided to upgrade my weaponry. Got a +7 kilij going and a +4 Dragonsword with fire power in it. The latter was useful against the ghosts as I figured fire would be in any undead stage.


Man, this game rocks.

Yeah

I never learned it :cry: Was confusing as shit

Congrats. He's one of the hardest bosses. The dragon is joke once you learn the trick :rofl:

Yeah I hated those fucks. Another nice tough kill. Great level design.

You're proceeding nicely

So, this Poison Cloud is like...an exploit or something. :blush:

After the success of it against the Maneaters, I tried it on a few things: the annoying AF red dragon that's burning the bridges. I zapped him out of curiosity and his health started to go down! I killed the red dragon! :woot:
I mean, if there was some actually some non-cheap way, I could not find it because when I thought I was strong enough, I upped myself in fire protection and still got my ass handed to me. I can't slash him and I stood around everywhere. On the towers, inching lose to where he descends and/or lifts off again...no way to hit him. :blush:



Anyhow, I'm going further into the mudpit past the leech beast...I feel so dirty in this stage. And oh, poison every few seconds sucks. I should get out of the mud. :bored:

Okay...I'm lost in this muck. Poisoned. I am poorly prepared for this stage. Time to go back to the Nexus and reattempt this. I need something with way more poison resistance. Need more of the poison curing flowers too. And time to buy that cure spell from the paladin peeps. :bored:

That's the worst poison level of every DS game of the series. Plus those big furry mf'ers have super high offense. Definitely got to chart that area well.

I have heard of variations of poison spells being OP. Chances are FS will nerf it eventually. It's a common tactic for many high HP foes in FS games.

Oh yeah. At least I'm not as stressed out with this stage especially with the super heights in the Latria stage that got me the Maneater. Good grief I tell you, that stage STILL gives me the nightmares......the height...the pouncing gargoyles and then, the double boss. :ugh:

So, this mud is actually okay because at least for the most part, I can't plunge to my death. :rofl:

Just poisoned to death instead. :O



I ran into a small small small lot of land with 3 treasures guarded by FIVE of these super-sized Neanderthal beasts...I had no chance. Poisoned. Slowed down by the mud, can't roll...one club and then the other buddies joined in and I was mush in seconds. :rofl:

So, I guess being a shitty guy was actually beneficial. I looked through all my inventory and the Gloom armor is it. It's heavy AF though and I am going to have to use this ring I have to up my equipment-carry limit. So, that does screw it up as I always have my MP-recharge ring going but I need to use the poison reduction ring too...gah. I guess not much magic in the mud then...it's fine. I have a +5 Dragon Sword now with flame effect which I found worked nicely against the enemies versus my +7 kilij. Reattempting the stage after playing with Little Cha a bit.

And yeah, thanks for the tip. I got hopelessly lost in the darkness and mud...this time, I farmed a bit to get enough souls to buy a cartload of flowers. And the cure spell against poison too. I should be better equipped this time. Got the armor, got the items...try again. If the boss is hard AF, I will cry. :rofl:

Just try to bait one out from long distance and pick them off one at a time. This game rewards patience.

Question, do they still have the item weight limit on top of the armor weight limit? They got rid of that in Dark Souls thankfully.

Yeah, I did that. When in doubt, I resort to sniping and doing the "cheap" way of killing...I got close enough to target, sent a fire shot, untargeted, backed up and ran to the closest land mass praying I did not get poisoned along the way...didn't. Fought a single giant on the little island, repeated another 4X against the others and looted the island they were guarding.

I found this "gross" slug mound as well in my wandering (yeah, I did get lost again) and realizing the slugs are non-ending, continued my exploration only to find the source up on the cave ceiling. Killed that for a neat Cloud-Strife looking mega-sword. Can't use it though. Need more points. Found the boss amongst a rotten encampment and found him to be rather easy via fire spells and circling around. The Gloom armor was really beneficial as the poison resistance it has helped a tad more and reduced the frequency I got poisoned...at least it was a bit longer between getting infected for me.

I completely forgot about Boletaria and continued onwards past the main gates of the Tower giant...exploring that stage now. Lost in some alleys right now. :rofl:

Oh, to your question: Yeah, there's a max limit to how many items I can haul and limit to how much I can equip.

Pretty much figured out that as soon as I get too many rocks, healing goods, I ship them off to Thomas. Weaponry too. For the Gloom set, I had to equip this ring that helped increase the load I can haul around for armor because if I didn't, my rolls would be super slow. I need my agility to dodge strikes. Though, in the mud, it was kinda useless...I'm back off the Gloom armor and back to my assassin/knight hybrid look: The headgear and leggings are of the former and gauntlets/body armor are plated.

Oh. I poison clouded the old king who I fought for the sword this morning. Stole his armor. :blush:

And hory shet, is it majorly powerful. Too bad it's heavy AF. Need to up my strength a bit...time to farm after I've had enough of these alleys.

Jesus you're making me want to play this on PS5. Lots of exploring I need to do.

It's gorgeous and the sound with earphones plugged in are just top notch.

To level up, I did some re-exploration yesterday and continuing with that today a bit. I did some experimenting in the mining pits of Tunnel City and took some leaps of faiths down this cavernous black pit because I could make out items way down below. Midway through, I ran into some guy squatting by some rocks who told me about this sword buried with the Dragon God. I went to the Dragon God cave and re-examined and found a sword (looks like Cloud Strife's Mega Sword). I also went back to the Tower of Latria to try to unlock some more prison doors I couldn't open before. There's still a section with a prisoner who I can't release (no, it's no Sage Freke who I've freed already). Lord Rydell or something. I need to figure out where his key is. This may take awhile but it's fine...I want to get some souls and power up anyways. I could use some leveling up as my strength is only 20. :D

I'm trying to level up because I found I could be stronger against the red-eyed knights in Boletaria. I figure whatever they are guarding must also be strong too and with the bosses so far in this stage, I figure whoever is waiting for me is also so mega-knight. And oh, I made a cool looking sword with Ed. Need 24 strength. :bored:

Did you finish all the levels except on World 1?

Not yet. I did some major exploration yesterday in my cleared stages (the ones I killed bosses in)...and found more stuff that I swear were not possible before. I finally located a key to open all the doors in the Tower. So, after getting lost in the Tower again trying to FIND those locked doors I happened upon (me going :loco: in that prison as I kept running up and down the same stairs for at least 40 minutes), I think I have 100% cleared out the penitentiary.

I leveled up a few times also in my re-explorations and so, I took on the momma of the stingrays...Man, that was the Death Star of stingrays and it was a fight in frustration until my 5th try and running around the area yielded me a sword that by the description went with the hint at the front of the arena. Like...oh. Though, the Thor-like thunder strikes take getting used to. I missed lots. :rofl:

But, I figured out a safe spot too...there's a destroyed cottage near the back that I hid behind until the Death Star ray showed up and I zapped it a couple of times. Easy-peasy.

I have a few more stages to clear: Boletaria (I got lost in the alleys, remember) and the last stage of the mudpit. I will take on Boletaria again and hopefully, that trio of red-eyed knights are easier this time round. And I don't get crushed by on-fire boulders. Then, the mudpit maybe? We'll see what I do but the Nexus music has changed...so, something happened. :what:

Found an even better stage to power up on souls: the Storm King stage. Just keep respawning there with the Thor-like sword and with the ring that boosts soul intake and wow, I leveled up quickly.

With my upgraded stats, I cleared out another phase of Boletaria and took on another knight. This time...with help from a guy I freed when I went exploring all the alleyways and etc. That was really useful as I was able to take out the boss easily with him distracted at the NPC. I cleared the mudpit stage's final boss too after a few attempts...secret/cheese method: Do NOT enter the muck at all and try to go after the woman. Take out her bodyguard and she just dies on her own. And the key to taking him out is staying on the ledges as he refuses to go past a small awning. So, that's like...exploit-city for me. Slash a few times...roll back to avoid his mega-hammer slam...repeat. The little demons in the mud are dangerous AF. Plaguing FTL.

I'm think I will advance farther into Boletaria tonight as that's my last remaining stage now. :kungfu:

I haven't played other PS5 games other than the robot game that comes with the machine...but...Demon's Souls is awesome.

There are some graphical nuances I think could be better like how the weaponry "disappears" when climbing ladders and or a shield just vanishes if not used...but otherwise, the sound, sights, and ambience is just stellar. The way fire, water, and everything behaves is just amazing.

Recommended. And of course, the learning curve of this game does take patience.

Finished. :kungfu:

I hated the run up to that boss. The shadow dudes had strong magic and then when you go outside to that last hallway those dual wielding gold knights were fucking tough. Run run run :run: :run:

Yeah that was a solid dude but easily exploitable
Oh for real?

^ Indeed. The king (part 1) was a reallllly easy fight when I realized the computer teed it up for me...At first he was marching towards me and so, I waited to see what he would do instead of charging in. He stopped and TURNED AROUND. I'm like... :smirk:

So, I snuck up...fired up Poison Cloud. Watched his health go down and I'm like...no reaction!??? Okay...let's wait this out...so, kept waiting and waiting...ran around behind him a few times. He didn't do anything. Fired up Poison Cloud again. Got bored...after the 2nd dose and by this point, his health was down by like almost half. Fought him and well, with such an advantage, he went down easily. :rofl:

I realized I had the Thief Ring on FTW.



I guess it's NG+ for me now? Holy cow are the enemies amped up. O_O

Got killed by the fatsos in the mining shafts a couple of times. :what:

What a shame. He's one of the best Souls final bosses. He's going to pwn you in NG+ but your guy should be juiced up by then. Congrats! Did you take out the blue dragon too?

Yeah, first thing I tried when I ran into it the FIRST time in the final stage of Boletaria esp. since I killed the red one...so, I figured (one of the beauties of this game) since you can kill ANYONE, may as well try. I had to recharge my health and magic anyways so, I eased forward to see if I could acquire target lock on the blue dragon and once I did, I tried a Soul shot and it took out about 22 damage and so, I'm like...sure, let's try it.

It flew off at about 50% and so, after progressing, well, I ran into it again and this time, had more trouble figuring out how to kill it up the stairs. The helpful NPC that had assisted me with the knight boss in the stage prior tried to help but the dragon was relentless in phase 2. After figuring out that taking it on ON the stairs was not possible, I killed it via cheapskates by standing under the archway and target locking onto its head. Killed him for frying my ass about 6-7 times. :rofl:

Saving his soul to see if Ed or one of the mages will give me something for it. Otherwise, cashing it in.



I'm about level 100 right now and I'm not sure where this game maxes out but even at 100, I've died a few times on NG+ and this is with ALL my items and weaponry. Dafuq. This game is evil. :what:

I will admit that I was by the point of fighting Allant rather..."beaten". The final stage was a freaking gauntlet with the dual encounters with the blue dragon...and the FOUR super-enemies I had to fight. On top of the super-charged fatsos.

I kinda was looking for a cheap way out at this point I will admit. I was like, I can't take another sweaty-palmed fight here. :rofl:

FFS, the guy guarding the king's pathway knocked me off twice. And I saved his farking ass a couple times I think??? That's the thanks I get. Jerk.


And also, the trio? Someone in that trio right at the front of the gates as some sort of acid attack that completely ruined my armor. So, yeah...it's an excuse but yeah...took the easiest cheap path to fight the boss. I had to. :D

I was fortunate to keep my souls more or less intact though and get my bloodstain each time I had died...Thank goodness. The final stage gets you lots of $$$ too.

Yeah I hear you. This game was a gauntlet. By the end, I just wanted to defeat the boss and call it a day. I liked BB more as it was much more polished and was like the 4th game FS had made. Plus going back to PS3 to play this game didn't add on to the fun. I'd say for NG+, you should probably check the guide so you can tie up loose ends because NG++ gets worse. Maybe you can level up one of your deficient skills so you can switch up how you handle enemies in this run to make it feel like a diff game. I remember going from the Ludwig sword to the weak cane made BB feel different and much more challenging.

Yeah, if this game was not on the PS5, I would've probably never gotten around to playing it. I think what makes Bloodborne "funner" is that you it seems a bit more offense oriented versus DS here which requires alot more defense and "patience". Though, I suspect if my character was less "well-rounded", I may be able to amp up certain skills when it comes to ranged attacks? Also, I need to really upgrade my endurance. It's at 32 or something but that's not enough to wear FULL armor sets esp. with the sword I'm hauling around.

I'll start reading through some of the guides for the stages to see what I missed. I know there is the gate at the VERY start of the game towards the left of the screen that was closed all game which I can't get open. I also need to figure out how to access a balcony with an enemy clearly behind it inside Boletaria...it's inside the city and there is no key I've found yet that is working. The guy I killed for his armor, he talked about Mephistopheles or something...I'm thinking he needs to be found. And oh, when I killed the Astrea's bodyguard, he left behind a crest. What is it for? Not shiny enough to trade to the weird crow and no one I've found yet wants it.

And oh, there's the Japanese dude who is looking for his sword. Need to find that too. Not sure if I want to give it to him though. :rofl:

The guy in the cage you can jump down to. I forgot what else he does other than help you kill dudes. Think he gives you an item.

And for fuck's sake do the BB DLC. It's so damn good and the bosses are way better than the regular ones.

Sorry, what cage? I freed a couple of peeps from cages: Rydell and Freke...and the guy in Latria who I stole the Gloom Armor. And also some guy in gold armor who helped me against the boss in Stage 3 of Boletaria and against the blue dragon although, he was kinda useless against the latter. He sleeps lots. :rofl:

I did not note anyone else in cages at least in my journey. As per my post, I did say that in Boleteria, there is this one room up a flight of stairs that had this ledge where I am SURE there is stuff on it. But, I can't get through because it is blocked. I think the door/bridge needs to be let down for me to enter but I am unsure how.

It's in the Boletaria city itself...it's in the stage after I had killed the giant Tower Knight and I can enter the city grounds. I found it by fluke though after getting lost/exploring the alleys.

And yeah, BB DLC...I guess I should get around to it. Just too many games to play and so little time. I can port over my saved content off the PS4 and keep going I guess. :ponder: