[Talbain]

Well, you should still check out the artwork. The stuff's too great to pass up.
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[Talbain]

[Talbain]

Mm... no, the Cling Ring doesn't prevent invasions, as far as I know.
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[Talbain]

Swords don't penetrate walls either, but they do have odd hitboxes (which is to say that a sword can hit and have the wall hitting animation occur). The only enemy that I think is blatantly allowed to swing and hit regardless of terrain are the big goblins in Stage 5. I suppose the Black Phantom who carries the Meat Cleaver is also allowed to run, but so are all enemies in swamps, while you can only trudge. This kind of irked me, but the enemies really are at a disadvantage and this makes up for it somewhat.
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[Talbain]

[Talbain]

[Talbain]

I actually thought Maneater was quite easy, so I have a hard time sharing your opinion that he was a difficult boss Felix. What was it that got you on him? I absolutely hated 5-1 and 5-2 and could not believe how many times I died to the environment (the bosses were, admittedly, kind of a joke). That said, I never did spend much time with life regen, and I always preferred the Dark Silver Shield over Adjudicator. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have the regen, but for me it was never the poison that got me, it was more typically the huge goblins (trudging through the goop certainly didn't help).
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[Talbain]

Yeah, I don't think I've ever died on Adjudicator. It's one of those weird fights for me though. I often get near death when I fight him, due to the way the fight progresses, but I rarely ever worry about it. I guess it's just that Adjudicator feels really predictable and that predictability lets me get in more often. Flamelurker was the same way for me for a time, but once I figured out how to strafe him correctly, I rarely die more than once (though admittedly, because my first character was a magic user, Flamelurker was a joke, as was Maneater, and only later when I came back with more physical characters did I appreciate their difficulty, though again, I still had considerably less trouble with Maneater, I think because I knew about the Meat Cleaver and how exceptionally effective it is against everything).

Personally, the fight I've had the most trouble with has always been Storm Ruler. I don't even know why, most people tell me it's a relatively simple fight, but maybe it's just because of the way I approach the fight that I've never been able to get that fight down. Even Allant, after a while, becomes somewhat predictable, but due to the angles at which those barbs come at you, I've never been able to figure out when it's "safe" and when it's not (ironically, the first time I played through, with my magic character, I beat him on the first try, but when I played with my more physical characters, I tend to die seven or eight times before I down the bugger). I think I have trouble with aerial enemies in Demon's/Dark Souls in general though.

Garl and Maiden Astraea is probably my new favorite boss fight. It's just a really immaculately well made fight, and one that I simply will not be able to forget or stop talking about. Everything, from the execution to the way in which you approach the fight just feels right. Even when you figure things out, it doesn't always go as planned, and every time I enter that doorway, I feel like giving pause. It's just exceptionally striking, visually, audially, kinesthetically. Something that can't really be described, you just have to get there and experience it to really appreciate it. A rare moment where I've been able to appreciate the medium.

Thanks Felix for the explanation.
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[Talbain]

[Talbain]

Man, how nuts would it be if they announced the PC port of both of these games and not just Dark Souls? I mean... yeah, seriously, From Software would just get a free pass on whatever they do for a while I think.
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[Talbain]

I agree with the sentiment, but I hope you're both wrong.

I don't really want DLC for these games, I don't think I've ever felt that DLC added to a game in a way that didn't feel tacked on, and, what's more, that added to the connectedness of the world. I suppose we'll know what's going on in April.
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[Talbain]

I will see you all on the 31st... so sad.
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[Talbain]

I dunno, I tend to think of them as being different rather than one being better, particularly that everyone who had experience with Demon's Souls knew, to a certain degree, what to expect when coming into Dark. From what I can tell, introducing Dark to a person who hasn't played Demon's is far tougher mostly from a navigational standpoint. In Demon's Souls the game is very straightforward about what's expected of you and where you're supposed to go. My brother spent a good three hours in the Dark Souls starting area before figuring out that fighting the skeletons wasn't the right way to go, but given that it was the obvious way to him at the time, he spent a long time dying there before attempting a different path. When I played Dark Souls blind, there were areas I was absolutely terrified of due to not knowing where the next rest point was. Playing Dark Souls blind makes you appreciate the brilliance of its waypoint system immensely, whereas Demon's rest points feel very forgiving (though this is playing both blind, I suppose your mileage may vary depending on how you played it). While it's true that Dark Souls had nothing like 4-1, Demon's Souls has nothing that's like the Painted World, and the Painted World is by far my favorite area in any game. Still, there is also nothing like Maiden Astraea in Dark Souls, the closest to it might be the Artorias fight/post-battle encounter. Again, they are games of differences, and each is extraordinarily rich, both with a different mythos and pathos to consider.
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[Talbain]

[Talbain]

[Talbain]

[Talbain]

[Talbain]

I played a Mage the first time through and I simply could not get at a distance where I felt safe casting spells (and Soul Arrow was pretty much my default against the boss too). Was always super tense about doing anything other than blocking whenever I fight Flamelurker.
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