I’m in a slightly odd situation. I’ve never gotten this far in Dark Souls before but I have watched a ton of speedruns and other videos of people playing it. I feel like I already know a lot of areas but I’m finding that there’s a lot more to them than what Lobos sprints through in three minutes.
So, Anor Londo is really quite stunning. The vast, empty palaces are really eerie and fantastic fun to explore. A similar sense of desolation to Majula in DS2.
Ornstein & Smough are definitely the toughest boss fight so far but it still only took 10 or 12 attempts to nail them. Although, to add to what was discussed earlier in the thread, the slightly longer run from the firekeeper bonfire at the start of the level is definitely worthwhile. I was totally out of the double-Estus by the end of the fight! What’s the best way to approach them? I found it a lot easier to tackle Smough first but then couldn’t dodge any of Mega-Ornstein’s attacks so had to switch them round. I suppose I’ll need to do it that way in NG+ if I’m going to get the platinum!
Weirdly, still feel like i’m just mashing the buttons in some of the boss fights but the experience of playing other games in the series has given me a much better understanding of how to approach the challenge. I’m currently around soul level 43 but with 36 Dex and a +10 scimitar, I’m slicing up assholes like there’s no tomorrow.
…so it looks you’re the only people I have to talk to.
New Londo Ruins
Running around on huge piles of drowned corpses is certainly up there with the grimmer experiences in gaming. Good that this is offset by the massive amounts of loot you get from these Darkwraith pricks. Half a dozen runs through there and my dude is groaning under the weight of all the chunks and two Titanite slabs into the bargain. Only went down the big hole once to see if there was a bonfire. There wasn’t.
Had my first ever co-op play last night. Did what someone mentioned upthread and stuck my sign down in Anor Londo. Had a couple of runs with some hopeless case who had no idea where he was going (thought people only summoned for bosses) then got involved in a wacky four on three multiple invasion all-conquering wrecking crew. Ornstein & Smough got wrecked by the one wizard dude and we all went home with 100k souls in the bank. Great fun.
It’s the best spot for co-op imo. Everyone needs help with O+S at some point. Although the spot in the DLC outside Artorias’ is good as you get people wanting to fight him and some that want to go down and fight Khalameet as well, which is a nice bit of variety.
I always found taking out Smough then fighting mega-Ornstein easier. There’s one attack from Smough that I could never quite dodge, whereas with practice all of Ornstein’s are avoidable. It’s easier to kite him around one of the pillars if I recall correctly, though it’s been a while tbh.
After a few weeks of very minimal gaming time, I jumped back into Dark Souls over the weekend. Managed to balls up the Onion bro quest again but did go to Ash Lake which I missed in my first playthrough. Pretty atmospheric, eh?
Was mainly trudging through Lost Izalith which is still the low point of the game (possibly of the series?) by a long long way. Apart from those enemies that are full-on Lovecraft (you know, the ones which look like giant bread puddings) of course - obvs we got more of that vibe in Bloodborne, but i kinda wish they’d explored that angle more in DS.
Decided it was time for a return to the Demon Ruins. Not a huge area to get through but it’s a distinct change in the game to just have big lines of the same enemy waiting to take you on. Or waiting to be baited out with an arrow or two then battered one by one. The basic idea of a huge army of demons waiting under the lake of fire is pretty cool, but it doesn’t really work in practice and those legless, floaty dudes are fairly pathetic.
To top it all of, the boss of the area - Demon Firesage - is just a reskinned Stray Demon, who is himself a reskinned Asylum Demon. Very uninspiring. That there’s a second boss two rooms later makes it seem like they just gave up here.
If, like me, you don’t immediately look up the details of the every item you get or, better still, don’t really pay attention to what gets dropped from each enemy, then trying to get through Lost Izalith will be a bit of a struggle. With a combination of the Fire Stoneplate Ring and the Flash Sweat pyromancy you can almost make it to the middle island in the lake of fire. In fact, anyone who put more than 15 points into vitality could definitely make it. They would, of course, be wasting their time but hey ho.
More floaty dudes and then the most annoying boss in the game so far. I mean, it is pretty funny to hit you with something so different but I got pretty sick of falling down those holes. And then I had to kill Solaire. Sad times.
Painted World of Ariamis
Okay. Now we’re talking. Not much more enemy diversity here but somehow a much more interesting environment. The whole idea of it is great and the misshapen mass of spearmen guarding the statue is a twisted highlight. Think Priscilla might be the first boss I’ve done first time and it was all over so quickly that I didn’t even notice her tail until I watched a Youtube video to check if her going invisible was a glitch!
Really loved this level. Also took a trip down the annoying but lucrative Great Hollow all the way to Ash Lake. Worth it for the music down there.
I guess there’s not much left to do. Only Nito & Seath that I know about. When would you recommend tackling the DLC?
Think I’m around level 55 and nothing but Dex. Well, I actually just put a couple of points in strength because I realised that I couldn’t even lift three-quarters of the weapons I have, but it’s like 40/15 now.
has anyone on this or any other planet ever beat that cunt dragon Midir? IMPOSSIBLE. also gonna say the Ringed City DLC is some of the best level design and atmosphere Dark Souls has ever done but I wish it was a bit less “just fucking leg it!”. When you first see that big dude who raised those dickhead ghost archers it’s pretty incredible
I’ve beaten Midir on a few characters. Difficulty depends massively on your build. If you’re a strength build it’s pretty straightforward. Anything else and it’s much harder. Laser attack is the worst part. Generally, if you’re close and Midir attacks, run towards, if you’re far, back the fuck away.
Just played this for the first time ever as part of the switch network test. Summoned my friend, killed an invader, rolled around a lot and got mirked by a zombie in armour. 10/10 would die again.
Going to buy this for Switch when it comes out later this week. Normally I’ll throw myself into a game and try to figure things out for myself, but don’t know if that’s going to fly with Dark Souls.
Is it the sort of game where you need to properly look up character builds beforehand (and bad builds will break your playthrough), or can you experiment and figure it out as you go along? Also I saw in the test that were specific items that enabled certain online elements, are these easy enough to find or do you really need to know what you’re looking for?
The online stuff is introduced by items you pick up. It’s not too difficult to figure out. Unlike plenty of other things…
In terms of builds it’s entirely possible to make it up as you go along. You’re unlikely to stumble upon the perfect build first time - everyone’s first build is a bit of a mess. It’s part of the fun. You can’t reset your build on DS1 but there’s no mistake you can make a bit of grinding can’t fix.
I reckon your best bet is to try and fumble through and ask questions on here for stuff you don’t get. The community aspect is part of what makes it great and Dark Souls fans love to talk Dark Souls. I’m sure whoever answers your queries will try and give you the minimum info you need so you don’t accidentally find stuff out you’d rather discover for yourself.
Never too late man. It definitely holds up. Though unfortunately if you really fall for it you’ll find just about all the DS references have been used as song titles already. I really wanted to use Abyss Walker but there are about 50 tracks with that title already.
I’d personally go for a melee build first of all. Focus on weapons that scale nicely with strength or dex and pump points into those.
One of the great joys of dark souls is playing through with another build later on shows the game in a whole new light, it’s got amazing replayability.
Oh and get master key as your gift
Oh and never put any levels into resistance, it’s a garbage stat that increases naturally anyway as you level up other stuff.
Try not to fall down the well in the first hub area.
Started this over the weekend. Really enjoying it, tough but satisfying. Like the risk/reward element of dying and trying to get back and retrieve all the souls you lost…
Beat the Taurus Demon after a couple of attempts which felt good. That black knight down below beforehand kept merking me though. Met Solaire and praised the sun. Noped right out of the next bit though with the dragon. Back to it tonight!
