☠ Souls Series Symposium ☠

[Xeogred]

Nice job dude.

YES, the ambiance in 3-2 is one of my favorite things about it. It has this weird droning heart beat thumping like rumble in the background, as if the place you're on is alive or something. It's so awesome. And I love the contrast between 3-1 being this tight claustrophobic nightmare, then in 3-2 they're like okay... you don't want walls, well here you go good luck not falling off to your death. 3-2 is such an abstract level, nothing else quite like it in the rest of these games.

Maneaters are no joke. The obvious strategy as you would guess would be to take one out ASAP, then from there it's not bad. But... easier said than done. Definitely one of the hardest bosses in the game though, so once you conquer that you're on the high ground.

The 3-3 boss was originally supposed to be a summoned player within the vicinity. It used to be insanely hard, but the stock AI for that boss is pretty damn easy.

[Exhuminator]

Alright, so I managed to get a bit done tonight, but not as much as I wanted.

First off, I beat the Dragon God. He killed me 5 or 6 times with his flame before I got the timing down to get by him. The hints are there (the eyes) it was just a failure to execute on my part. It was cool and full of spectacle, but Flamelurker was a lot more intense, and even though it had me on edge at the time, it was also more fun.

Then I moved on to 3-2, which is a really cool (and kinda disturbing) level and much less frustrating overall then 3-1. The "music" is awesome and creepy and really suits the area. Only had 1 death here from rolling off an edge like a jackass.

Of course, the Maneaters fixed my wagon. I had the first one down to about a quarter of his health, and the second nearly half. But the bastards like to hit you with inescapable combos if you're not careful. I managed to survive that a couple of times, but that's still how I lost in the end.

The real difficulty here is that there's two of them. Even with the perilous location, fighting only one would be much simpler.

Anyway, that was my first attempt, and unfortunately I had to shut the game off because I have an early day tomorrow and I was already giving up sleep to play as it was.

Round two coming soon though.

Very nice progress CFFJR! Dragon God is such a cool fight. I was able to beat the Dragon God on my first try somehow, but the Maneaters took me several attempts. I can offer a decent protip for fighting them if you want, but if you'd rather do it all yourself, more power to you! Once you take down the Maneaters there's only one other boss that is a serious bastard. I mean there's still plenty of other bosses ahead of you, but most of them are pretty easy believe it or not.

Keep going man! You can beat DeS and join the exclusive club.

[Sload Soap]

Welp, that's Dark Souls 3 down. Final boss was a piece of piss after the crazed lunatics you fight in the DLCs. Speaking of, these two DLCs are pretty excellent all told. Ringed City is fantastic, if also fantastically hard.

I really loved DS3 overall. It has some of the better level design in the series, is full of nice but subtle throwbacks to all the Souls games and has bosses that will go down as some of the best in the series, if not in gaming. Only have a few minor quibbles really; it's too easy sometimes and those enemies/bosses that are difficult can be put down to one attack telegraph that leads in to a variety of moves (thinking of Lorian and Gael here). There are also a lot more enemies that have heavy hitting combos of 5+ attacks. If you're a shield bearer expect to have your guard broken.

But yeah, quibbles. It's beautiful, it's dark, it's intense and if it is to be the last true Souls game then it's a great way to go out.

Now for Dark Souls 2. Thinking of going dual-wielding swordsman type. I got pretty used to parrying in Demon Souls and managed to ween myself off a shield in the back half of my DS3 cleric run. And it's the last sort of style left to try. Did sword and board in DS, magic and parries in Demon's and now miracles and brute force in DS3.

[Xeogred]

Nice, I can't wait to get to the DS3 DLC. Getting caught up in other stuff at the moment though.

I liked dual wielding Ultra Greatswords in DS2. Was freaking hilarious one shotting players online if I got that double slam down attack on them.

Once you have enough strength (42? somewhere around there) and can power stance the two swords together it's hilariously fun.

I bet a Rapier, like Richard's, paired with another weapon is probably devastating as well.

[CFFJR]

Nice job dude.

YES, the ambiance in 3-2 is one of my favorite things about it. It has this weird droning heart beat thumping like rumble in the background, as if the place you're on is alive or something. It's so awesome. And I love the contrast between 3-1 being this tight claustrophobic nightmare, then in 3-2 they're like okay... you don't want walls, well here you go good luck not falling off to your death. 3-2 is such an abstract level, nothing else quite like it in the rest of these games.

Maneaters are no joke. The obvious strategy as you would guess would be to take one out ASAP, then from there it's not bad. But... easier said than done. Definitely one of the hardest bosses in the game though, so once you conquer that you're on the high ground.

The 3-3 boss was originally supposed to be a summoned player within the vicinity. It used to be insanely hard, but the stock AI for that boss is pretty damn easy.

Yeah, I loved that heart beat. In fact, I found I missed it a lot when I was in the lower swamp like portion of the level.

I'm kind of sad to hear that 3-2 is unique in the series though. I liked it enough that I want more of it!

Very nice progress CFFJR! Dragon God is such a cool fight. I was able to beat the Dragon God on my first try somehow, but the Maneaters took me several attempts. I can offer a decent protip for fighting them if you want, but if you'd rather do it all yourself, more power to you! Once you take down the Maneaters there's only one other boss that is a serious bastard. I mean there's still plenty of other bosses ahead of you, but most of them are pretty easy believe it or not.

Keep going man! You can beat DeS and join the exclusive club.

Thanks for the offer, but I'll tackle it. I'm certain I can beat them.

Or maybe I'll get my ass beat, come back and ask for that tip after all. We'll find out.

I'm about to go play now, so I'm hoping that by the time you guys see this response, the fight will be won.

Ain't no stopping now.

[CFFJR]

Allow me to present the worst way to lose a fight.

You have been signed out of playstation network. Returning to title screen.

...




Damn it all.

[Exhuminator]

Another benefit of playing offline.

[CFFJR]

Another benefit of playing offline.

Indeed. I'm considering staying offline for the remainder of the game. That pissed me off a lot.

It's just as well, the Maneaters were living up to their name. I got very close to winning one time, but other than that it has been a series of gruesome deaths.

The frustrating thing right now is that I know I have the strength to kill the first one before his pal shows up, if he would just LAND.

He always ends up playing chicken shit and flying around out of reach until the second one arrives, and then they both suddenly get hyper aggressive. Annoying.

[isiolia]

Welp, that's Dark Souls 3 down. Final boss was a piece of piss after the crazed lunatics you fight in the DLCs. Speaking of, these two DLCs are pretty excellent all told. Ringed City is fantastic, if also fantastically hard.

Congratulations! I'm making my way to the Ringed City on my mage character (I've done the base game save Soul of Cinder, along with Ariandel)., which seems like it'll be...increasingly tougher. Midir and Gael have a lot of resistances. Demon Prince has been somewhat annoying as well, since he has reduced damage for most things too.

DS2 is, if nothing else, a very interesting entry to the series. While I don't like Adaptability and how rough it feels (I haven't tried the controller tweaks on PC though), and it does frequently have meh level design and cheap enemy placement...it's got a lot of little elements that just aren't really present in others. More environmental puzzle type stuff for example, more fleshed out magic classes, and so on. Probably the best to try dual wielding in, due to Power Stance.

Also, word to the wise, for whatever reason, DS2 changes illusory walls to be actual doors, so you need to press use on them instead of dealing damage (or just rolling into them).

I liked dual wielding Ultra Greatswords in DS2. Was freaking hilarious one shotting players online if I got that double slam down attack on them.

One of the weapons you can get in the Ringed City DLC is a set of paired greatswords.

The frustrating thing right now is that I know I have the strength to kill the first one before his pal shows up, if he would just LAND.

He always ends up playing chicken shit and flying around out of reach until the second one arrives, and then they both suddenly get hyper aggressive. Annoying.

Yeah, they're largely frustrating due to RNG. They do have a berserk type move as well if you're running into that. I think cutting their tail removes it? Miyazaki has a tail cutting fetish. Most bosses in DS1 that have a tail reward an item if you cut it off.

There is, apparently, a way to stealth them to split them up too. I haven't tried it though. I did manage to get one of them to get stuck under the bridge one time, but I think that just makes it unwinnable.

[Exhuminator]

The frustrating thing right now is that I know I have the strength to kill the first one before his pal shows up, if he would just LAND.

I'm sure killing the first one before the other one appears is ideal. But I was never able to take down the first Maneater before the other one appeared. When I killed them, I had to take them both on simultaneously. If you end up too frustrated I can tell you how I beat them, but only if you feel you need the help.