Dark Souls III

[Stark]

I just think it's nice. I mostly think of Dark Souls as this forbidding, brutal world that is completely unfriendly to those that enter. But in that little video you've got a dude helping another guy beat a boss - and as the boss dies the guy celebrates, and as the dude leaves the other guy's game, the guy waves goodbye. There's something sweet about it.

Oh. Well yeah, that happens all the time! Love helping defeat bosses in these games. In fact The Lord of Sunlight covenant is designed around co-op.

EDIT: I'd totally help you find your way through Dark Souls II if you wanted to play. I think Dark Souls 1 was hard to sync up with people you know. Dark Souls II and III have a password you can add so you only find people with the same password.

[noiseredux]

Oh. Well yeah, that happens all the time! Love helping defeat bosses in these games.

Yeah, see the are the kinds of things - how I've said in the past that the games haven't quite clicked for me, but I'm always fascinated at the concept of them.

EDIT: I'd totally help you find your way through Dark Souls II if you wanted to play. I think Dark Souls 1 was hard to sync up with people you know. Dark Souls II and III have a password you can add so you only find people with the same password.

Good to know!

I was planning to revisit 1 at some point. But eh, that'll give me a reason to think about checking out 2 again anyway. I'll let you know when I get there.

[MrPopo]

I ran into my "try and try and try and try again" boss last night; the Dancer of Boreal Valley. Up to this point I was either one shotting bosses or getting them in a bare handful of attempts where it was obvious I was making an error in a failed attempted. This one has been the nastiest boss so far; the boss has huge range on its attacks, super high damage, and in the second half the vulnerability windows are random (in that her combos are of random length, so you don't know when a combo is going to end or not and can be too far away during a break).

But man, the animations on the boss are amazing.

[Stark]

There's also messages that people leave on the ground that warn of ambushes or drop offs or even if an NPC is friendly. You can also sometimes summon an NPC to help too if you talk with the right crowd. Remember when you play, to exhaust an NPCs dialog tree and if you change something in the world (eg. beat a major boss) talk to the NPCs you know again. They might give you something or have more lore to talk about.

[Stark]

I ran into my "try and try and try and try again" boss last night; the Dancer of Boreal Valley. Up to this point I was either one shotting bosses or getting them in a bare handful of attempts where it was obvious I was making an error in a failed attempted. This one has been the nastiest boss so far; the boss has huge range on its attacks, super high damage, and in the second half the vulnerability windows are random (in that her combos are of random length, so you don't know when a combo is going to end or not and can be too far away during a break).

But man, the animations on the boss are amazing.

Cool I haven't found that one yet. I just beat the Abyss Watchers. Didn't have an issue with them or the Crystal Sage, the boss I fought before them. The tree was my toughest challenge yet and once I figured out how to really get at him after you fall below, I got him the next time.

[noiseredux]

Stark, do you feel like II or III is the better entry game? Basically, if I and II are any indication, I'll end buying III when it goes on sale for ~$30 even though I know it's gonna destroy me.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, the tree was the first boss that it took me a second try to beat; I had gotten him low but the only vulnerable target I could access was his arm, and he decided at super low HP to bust out some crazy attack combos I was not expecting.

In general I've found the summonable NPCs to be really great in this game. In Dark Souls 2 they were too squishy and didn't deal enough damage to make up for it, while in this one they are far more survivable. Their damage is low but just having someone to draw boss attention has really helped out so I can either safely heal or get in some damage without losing all my stamina to dodges/blocks.

[Stark]

Stark, do you feel like II or III is the better entry game? Basically, if I and II are any indication, I'll end buying III when it goes on sale for ~$30 even though I know it's gonna destroy me.

Well based on my experience with the series I would say II is the best way to get hooked to the series without being put-off by it. My experience was:

Played Demon's Souls when it came out, got destroyed. Killed an NPC that you really shouldn't unless you want to make things tougher on yourself. Gave up.

Played Dark Souls played for a bit and then got destroyed by a dragon over and over. Gave up.

Played Dark Souls II was frustrated at first, but had help from my friend to decipher some of the tough controls and got thoroughly sucked in and have been a huge fan ever since and ended up loving Bloodborne and Dark Souls III.

Dark Souls II may not have some of the cool bosses that the others do and I can understand why some are down on it in comparison, but it truly is the most n00b friendly. I think the fact that enemies die down after taking them out 10 times is huge for newbies.

[MrPopo]

Oh man, you never got to the last story boss in Demon's Souls? He was a right bastard. He's a fairly standard sword wielding human who's obviously larger than you, but he also has some large magic attacks and a grab move that steals a level from you. Permanently.

Fortunately, at release he could be cheesed pretty hard. He was vulnerable to the ring that makes you hard to detect (the one invaders use), so the cheese way of beating him was to walk up behind him (he faces away and his notice you AI is similar to a regular enemy), cast poison cloud, run to a corner, watch as his health ticks down a large chunk. He runs around for a bit, then goes back to his rest position, all while taking poison damage. Rinse and repeat.

[Stark]

I went back and played Dark Souls a bunch, but I've not gone back to Demon's yet. That sounds pretty cool actually.

Does it remember what you did last time you leveled up and take the point away from that? Explain.