Demon's Souls

[the7k]

Yeah, my character is kinda a Jack of All Trades sorta deal. A Thief/Hunter/Mage/Cleric hybrid. I might not excel at anything, but I can adapt to everything.

[randombullseye]

I enjoy it greatly. Picked it up tuesday or wednesday from the mail.

If anyone wants to play add me on the playstation and we can figure out multiplayer.

So far I've had some random multiplayer and its been fun.

[dlmvii]

I can't wait for mine...I should have preordered, but I kept having doubts, so it's my fault I have to wait as long as I do...amazon says it should ship on the 13th, so hopefully Ill have it by next weekend. Waiting sucks

[forsigmar]

Anybody try this yet? I picked it up yesterday, it has so much potential but it really is as hard as you have heard. Restarting levels after dying is soo brutal.

[General Chaos]

I'm extremely tempted to get this. Obviously my main concern is that it will be frustrating and not just difficult. However, all of the reviews have been careful to suggest that it's the latter, so that's a good sign.

In any event, how's the actual combat? Is it comparable to other games or something special in and of itself? I would love a really tight combat system that plays out pretty realistically, so for instance if I were to be conservative and keep my shield up most of the time I could slowly take on enemies. It looks like you use the triggers to control weapons, so you can switch from sword to shield, etc. That seems pretty cool and intuitive.

Anyway, let us know more thoughts as you progress.

[MrPopo]

Chaos, let me explain how the combat system works. You have a left hand and a right hand. Each slot is controlled by the triggers, and you can have two things equipped in each hand. For example, my character has a halbard and a spear in the right hand, and a shield and a talisman (used to cast healing spells) in my left hand.

During combat I hold down L1 to pull up the shield and use R1 and R2 to attack. R1 is standard attack while R2 is heavy attack. On light shields L2 is parry; parry at the right moment and you throw your opponent off guard and can riposte them. On heavy shields L2 is shield bash, which has a knock back effect. You also have the option of switching to a two-hand stance. This will change the way you swing your weapon and allow you to do more damage, at the cost of defense. You can still block with your weapon but it won't block as much damage as the shield does.

You also have to take into consideration the terrain. Using a halbard one-handed is a sideways swing which doesn't work in a tight tunnel (you hit the wall). Switching to two-handed turns it into an overhead chop which works perfectly.

You also have defensive movement. You can roll in any direction, but this is modified by the weight of your equipment. If your gear weighs more than your equip weight stat you cannot roll at all. If it's between 50 and 100% you can roll, but there is a longish pause at the end. If it's below 50% you get a nice speedy roll that can be used to continuously dodge.

Finally, there's the stamina system. Whenever you attack or roll you will drain stamina. Whenever you block you will drain stamina based on the strength of the attack. If you ever block an attack that drains all your stamina you will stagger, leaving you open for a follow up attack. Stamina regens very quickly when your shield is down but slower when your guard is raised. Careful management of stamina is the key to combat.

[the7k]

Also, to add - you can equip two weapons at the same time. For instance, I sometimes use a dagger in my right hand and a rapier in my left hand. They help me cut through hordes of enemies. You could possibly even equip two shields at once, although I dunno why you would. One Purple Flame Shield weighs me down more than enough.

Also interesting to note is the use of bows. If you two-handed hold a bow, pressing R1 will fire, while pressing L1 will put you into a First-Person freefire mode. Great for picking off enemies very far away.

[forsigmar]

Ok, I just sold my copy on Ebay. It was either going to get smashed or sold. Its not the difficulty its the lack of any check point or save that kills the game for me. Awesome game but I am not spending 4 hours of gameplay on the same level killing the exact same enemies again and again. I reached a point where I was on a long bridge and was running from a dragon for the 3rd time. You sprint away from it only to run into 3 crossbowmen and one of those blue night bastards. If you try to turn back you get fried (one hit death) and if you go foward you get mobbed. Do it 3 or 4 times and you run out of healing herbs. I played for around 7-8 hours and barely made it out of level 1-1 using gamefaqs. I just don't have the patience for that type of game anymore. Why not add a difficulty setting that allows checkpoints or saves. Hell, make the player collect souls to buy save crystals or some crap. All I know is it was getting me seriously ticked and I can't afford a new controller now.

[the7k]

A) The dragon isn't a one-hit kill. There is a spell you can learn that coats your body in water. It helps. A lot.
B) You don't have to fight those guys when you get to them. You could just run right through, and take a passage to the right. If you stay out of sight by taking that passage, the enemies will eventually just forget about you. Thief's Ring and Cloaking Spells help.
C) You ran out of healing items? Holy Crap! I actually have to constantly throw healing items away because I'm overburdened! I've currently got 99 Half Moon, Late Moon and Full Moon Grass, and I've never come close to running out.

[dlmvii]

I just beat Phalanx...at first I wasn't a fan, but it's starting to grow on me. It's fun, but I don't think it's the second coming of christ like some reviewers made it out to be. I still have to figure out how to get magic...