☠ Souls Series Symposium ☠

[Exhuminator]

Demon's Souls

First off I have to make a correction, I actually only have 35 hours in this game so far, not 42. I was just guessing earlier, and I guessed wrong.

Anyway, tonight I cleared world 3.

Which means yes, I beat the ridiculous Maneaters. That fight was particular annoying, took me about 35 minutes and 7 tries. That's the most tries of any boss I've fought in Demon's Souls yet. Considering Flamelurker took me 5 tries, I think those Maneaters were harder. Especially considering you're fighting TWO bosses at once, and on a precarious elevated walkway no less. If you get knocked down at the wrong place, you're insta-pancake, regardless of health. That happened to me once or thrice. I died the other times because the bastards would get me in a corner, and tag-team pound me to death. Finally I learned to use the large brazier to my advantage, and it all came together.

After the Maneaters, I proceeded up the stairs and beat the bloody snot bubbles out of the Old Monk. Dude was a complete joke. The guardian black phantom mindflayers were harder than him.

So at this point, I've got worlds 2, 3, 4, and 5 complete. Tomorrow night real life withstanding; I shall attempt to clear world 1 and have Demon's Souls beaten. That's assuming beating world 1 clears the game. This is a Japanese RPG so I know there will be a final final boss. If not a final final final boss considering this is Demon's Souls.

[MrPopo]

Old Monk was much better back when the online worked. It would snag someone and you'd have a proper PVP duel.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Old Monk was much better back when the online worked. It would snag someone and you'd have a proper PVP duel.

There were still people online when I played, and they trolled me very hard in the old monk fight.

Also, I thought the fight with the maneaters was great. ("This guy is tough! Oh, sh*t! There's two of them!")

Finally, I can't wait to see how Exhuminator reacts to 1-4...

[Exhuminator]

Finally, I can't wait to see how Exhuminator reacts to 1-4...

I'm about to go find out right now.

I'm still waiting to see what you think of Shadow Tower Abyss. Is your PS2 still not hooked up? It's an easy game, but a lot of fun! (The original Shadow Tower is not an easy game.)

[isiolia]

I went and downloaded Shadow Tower Abyss and loaded it up via emulator, may keep at it. Controller config 4 even resembles standard-ish dual analog control.

I also downloaded the PS1 games, as the only one of those I have is Shadow Tower...new/sealed, which I'm loathe to open as it seems to go for stupid money now (I paid like $13 for it).

[CFFJR]

I started Demon's Souls this past Thursday.

It's going well so far. I've cleared 1-1, 1-2 (killed that stupid dragon too, the annoying bastard), and 2-1.

Playing a Knight. Though before stopping for tonight I did pick up a spell (Enchant) and a miracle (Heal) because why not?

I had a bit of frustration after the Tower Knight killed me once, after which I kept dying like a putz just trying to get back to him. Sad as hell. Lost a few souls that way, but once I finally reached him again I did kill him.

The Armored Spider was cool, but more intimidating than difficult. I honestly had (a lot) more trouble dealing with the fat guys throughout 2-1.

[Xeogred]

More Demon's Souls...

Yessssss Yessssssssssssss



@Exhuminator: I don't think you ever talked about Patches?

[Exhuminator]

I went and downloaded Shadow Tower Abyss and loaded it up via emulator, may keep at it.

Shadow Tower Abyss is really cool, the deeper you get into the more crazy things get. But it also has some direct ties (plot wise) with the original Shadow Tower. So if you care about plot continuity might want to take that into account. I have two complaints about Shadow Tower Abyss. One, the game is just too easy, and two, the enemy variety is kinda paltry. The original Shadow Tower was far, far harder, and had considerably more enemy types. I like the graphics in Abyss more of course, but I think the original Shadow Tower was the better game. But Abyss does let you dismember enemies and that's always a plus.

I started Demon's Souls this past Thursday.

Fantastic. Looking forward to reading your chronicles of the experience.

@Exhuminator: I don't think you ever talked about Patches?

I will spoiler because I don't want to ruin anything for CFFJR

I think you're talking about the guy they call "Hyena". First time I met him he tried to trick me into walking under a fire belching giant beetle. I didn't fall for it. I went up above the giant beetle and killed it with my scimitar. Second time I met Hyena, he told me to look in that hole in 4-2. So I did, and he kicked me into the hole. I figured he was going to do that anyway. So I fought my way back up out of that hole, found him, and murdered him with extreme prejudice. And that's how I got my first Thief's Ring.

---

Okay last night was the first time I went through 1-4, so here's how it went

The first three crossbow guards were not problem, killed them. The trio of black phantoms was a little tricky, but between using arrows and my scimitar, I killed them. Then the red eye knight was easy. I killed the next two crossbow guards and the ninja easily. Then I killed the next red eye knight easily. And then the BLUE DRAGON appeared. I shot the two demon jesters to death before attempting to deal with him. Then I arrowed him until his life was halfway down, at which point he flew off to fight with Biorr. So I made my way to where he was fighting Biorr. Biorr ended up dying from dragon flame breath, so I got Biorr's brushwood armor set at least. Then I attempted to run the dragon flame gauntlet, and that didn't go well. My ass got turned into ash.

So that was my first run. On my second run, I made it back to that point, and proceeded to just arrow the blue dragon to death. It took something like 45 minutes and 375 arrows, as I was only doing an average of 10hp damage with each shot. But finally, I whittled him down to dead, and the blue dragon was no more. Then Ostrava appeared on the stairs going forward. I attempted to talk to him, but accidentally hit the attack button instead of the X button. I killed him with one hit. And since this game automatically saves every other second , that mistake was permanent. I have no idea what he was going to say or do for me, but I did loot the mausoleum key off his corpse. I proceeded up the stairs and defeated another black phantom swordsman. Took the elevator up and...



This ridiculous bastard appeared. I believe he's called False King Allant.

The first time I fought him, he turned my entrails into confetti. So I made it back to him again, and got half his life down, and then he killed me again. So I went back a third time, and got his life 2/3rds down, and then he not only killed me, he also STOLE SOME OF MY SOUL LEVELS. Now that is complete bullshit! I was legit enraged so I just put the game away after that.

I'll plug away at it some more tonight.

[isiolia]

Ah, I haven't actually tried the first Shadow Tower yet - I think I tried out King's Field II of the PS1 games I grabbed, but I haven't gotten around to much in the way of focused gaming this weekend.


Comments on your DeS stuff, spoilered since you did...

Patches will actually show up as a vendor in the Nexus, if you forgive him, with nice prices on some of the better grass variants. I think 500 souls for Late Moon, which is what I stocked up on and used (I just hoard the best ones I get as drops for False King...I had nearly 100 Full Moon alone on both runs).
He is actually a recurring character in the Miyazaki helmed games, always more or less doing the same thing. Try to trick you, beg for forgiveness when you survive, and then end up selling stuff.

The second encounter with the dragon is on a timer, basically, take too long and Biorr dies. The ideal thing is to get underneath it, since arrows do more damage up close and you can lock on. Plus, I don't think it can actually hit you from there. I managed to kill it in time this round, with magic it was too slow.

You missed basically nothing with Ostrava. Literally, he'd give you the key with a couple lines of dialogue, die, and reappear as a red phantom on the bridge (the mausoleum is what the red eyed knight is guarding in 1-1).
Usually, you get some leeway if you accidentally attack an NPC, and if you do end up angering them, there's often a way to undo it (there are NPCs that pardon sins in the Dark Souls games, for a price, which will reset them).


False King Allant isn't actually too bad if you're leveled up/etc. Just keep your distance and dodge when he rushes you (I think he tracks if you dodge early). After he does that, he just kind of stands there, so you can get a few easy hits in and then run away again. He does some mean stuff up close - that grab, a combo, etc. He's also got a big AoE charged move that does major damage. So I think it's just simpler to get some distance on him in between attacks.

I wouldn't stress too much over the soul levels. If you can take down False King Allant, you're set.

[Xeogred]

Ex:

Repeating isiolia a bit:

Haha dude, yeah that's a funny mistake on Ostrava. isiolia is right though, no big deal. But so... did he not spawn as a red phantom in the hallway after meeting him?

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the way red phantoms seamlessly invade you is how it works with players too. Got the vibe you were really turned off by the idea of the online stuff in these, so just throwing that out there though. It would be annoying if they weren't seamless. Which it isn't with some covenant stuff, but if you just casually played these online that's how it would be. But you only get invaded in "body" forms.

Haha Patches, I don't blame you dude. Don't you get his HP regen shield too? Here's the catch... if you don't kill him, he is one of the best shops in the game! But don't fret about it too much, I killed him the first time around too. He basically has the best prices on arrows and sells most if not all of the healing grass type items. But those are really easy to farm on the big bridge before the boss of 1-3.

This isn't really a big spoiler but he's in all of these games. Even Bloodborne.

False King Allant is so legit. The soul level sucking ability is insane, but yeah I wouldn't stress about it too much. Definitely made me rage when it happened to me too though. I can't think of any other boss in these that does that.