[internisus]

I finally wanted a PS3 when Valkyria Chronicles came out.

Because of this game and schild's write-up thereof, I now need one.

[internisus]

I'm bringing this thread back up because I started this game and want to talk about things that happen! I began over the weekend and played for about five hours, quitting after I beat the Phalanx demon. Then I continued through and beat the Tower Knight about an hour ago. My character is a Hunter with current soul level 18: 14 strength, 11 intelligence, I think 14 vitality and 14 (maybe higher) endurance, 14 dexterity, and I don't remember the rest. My equipment upgraded from stock Hunter gear is a composite short bow, a spiked shield, a winged spear, a scimitar, and a coat of plate. I bought a plate helmet but realized after finishing the Tower Knight that it had brought me over the halfway limit for equipment encumbrance, so I took it off and went back to my dumb leather hat.

After I regained my body from killing Phalanx, I lost it almost immediately in 1-2 to an invading black phantom. The fight was very brief, and I was actually really pissed off. 1-2 surprised me with how short and straightforward it was after 1-1, but it was good times. Ostravik or Octavius or whatshisname is now hanging out in the Nexus; I have no idea what that does or means for me, but I figure it's good that I rescued him twice and he's okay. I have no idea what my world tendencies are! When I look at the screen for that, they all look the same; I have no point of reference. I also don't know how to affect that or anything. That's really fine with me, as I'm looking forward to feeling that out as I have with the other stuff so far.

Before I fought the Tower Knight, I decided to use a stone of ephemeral eyes to revive myself so I could have full health. I tried to get behind him, but I couldn't and he really kicked my ass around; I managed to make it up the stairs where I was safe after killing some archers. I recovered and explored the whole place, and then I stood on a ledge and fired like fifty arrows at him. It felt cheap, but I was really terrified after trying to go toe-to-toe with the big guy. However, I ran out of arrows while he still had about 2/5 of his health, so I had to go back out there and prove to myself that I could fight him honorably. This time, I managed to get behind him (despite my unknown equipment encumbrance) and toppled him by attacking his feet. After a few falls, I won, but I was riding a crazy adrenaline high because he kept landing on me when he fell down and then took a cheap shot at me the last time he stood up, even though he was already dead. I almost died, so I guess it's good that I had decided to revive to full health beforehand. I was a little disappointed that beating a boss while alive didn't seem to net any kind of bonus, but that's okay.

So before I fought the Tower Knight, I had explored upstairs in the keep entrance and noticed a blue-glowing little thing that I had approached with caution. It kind of disappeared into the wall, and I realized that it must be one of those lizard things people have told me I should kill without fail. I was worried I had missed the chance forever, but after the boss I went to the Nexus and returned; it was back, and I killed it with three locked on arrows. I got some sharpstone and hardstone; I guess that means it wasn't one of the crystal lizards but some other kind.

Being alive and all, I'm not sure I want to move on to 1-3; I'm scared! I checked out 2-1 and met the guy at the entrance. His selection is very disappointing (I really want better lightweight armor options), but I was pleased to see that he sells hardstone and sharpstone. That means I can upgrade to my heart's content without feeling like I'm wasting rare goods when I later find a better weapon. So I think I'm going to go and do that, now. I wonder if that lizard comes back, as well.

I have yet to have the opportunity to use any demon souls, and I also haven't learned any magic or miracles. I assume I'm not meant to. There's a lot of people lounging about in the Nexus now, but none of them seem to want to teach me magic or anything.

I kind of suck at parrying, especially when I try to use it against the tough knights. I tend to do much better using my mobility and the range of my spear. I wish I were better, though, because parry->riposte is an elegant way of defeating a foe. Regardless, the combat in this game is the meatiest thing I've ever played. I love it.

I've had the opportunity to summon help a couple times, but I chose to ignore it because I like going slowly, exploring everything, and keeping the spoils for myself!

I guess that's all my thoughts at the moment. I'm going to do something really stupid and go back and play some more even though I should go to bed in an hour or two. I'll probably be unable to tear myself away once I start, but I want to upgrade some weapons and stuff!

Edit: I forgot to mention, my bow has a strength requirement of 18 that I definitely do not meet, but there seems to be no penalty. I looked at my starting bow and noticed that it actually has a strength requirement above my starting strength, and I cannot meet it, either! Very strange.

[internisus]

I was exploring 2-2 and accidentally stabbed Patches with my spear. The guy was stuck inside the bearbug that he had set me up to be trapped by after going to pick up the club he had offered me. So now he's not just a douche but also actively trying to kill me; so far I've avoided ending him, but I think our relationship is over.

Oh well! I had already decided when I put some points into magic (thanks, MOAI) that I'm just having a trial run of the game right now. I'll learn everything I can from it and then play again with a different character (maybe a wanderer or a thief), aiming to optimize towards whatever I like doing most. For now, I'm going to experiment with different things, though not enough to screw myself up or anything.

I found a Dark Heater +2 and a Dragon Long Sword +1; I like them both. The Heater is a definite improvement, though I can't upgrade it because I haven't found cloudstone yet. I'm starting to feel like playing a nimble character with a spear is cheap. Also, it's against archetypes. That seems like a dumb thing, but I feel weird just looking at my lightly armored guy with the small shield running around with a long winged spear.

I didn't think I was being cheap when I killed the armored spider with arrows; I thought it was meant to be a projectile battle and was pleased with myself for only getting hit once when I accidentally backed out of lock-on range. It didn't really seem like it was possible to fight it melee. I'd like to offer myself for summons to try that out. Flamelurker or whatever killed me good, but I found decent footing in the fight; watery veil (the only spell I have so far) afforded me enough time to get a feel for his movement. I died before too long anyway because I was trying to side-dodge his attacks, which ended up affecting the entire area around him; next time I'll try to step back twice when he telegraphs. I think I'll be able to do well.

Still enamored with the level design. (I like tunnels.) It was so cool when I realized, after encountering the bearbugs (I love that there are several varieties) that the rocks I had been busting were the husks of dead worms (wyrms?). It was terrifying to find those later tunnels that seemed more naturally rounded than dug out and all the huge bones. I wonder if I can walk out into the lava-like liquid at the bottom of the main 2-2 cavern; there are lots of little islands and items, but my first time there I was too afraid I would die instantly to take the risk.

During my 2-2 session, I was unable to access the multiplayer component of the game despite seeing the welcome text box for it. I hope that problem will be gone when I play over the weekend.

Oh, and yes, I did find the Thief Ring and have been using it most of the time. I don't really feel like I need it, though, and if any of my foes were inflicting bleed or poison effects I would probably swap it out. I kill everything I see, so I don't feel the need to be stealthy.

I wonder what those exploding orbs are!

[internisus]

Guess what! Patches forgave me and gave me a Ring of Flame Resistance! Wow! Now he's back in the Nexus, chilling and talking about his mom and selling me arrows. Why? Because I beat 2-2. Yeah, I killed Flamelurker. It was very blocky dodgy stabby. Excellent fight.

I also beat 2-3, which was a bit disappointing. That one animation "it" does after attacking where its eyes are purple and it kind of fades back and hisses with its mouth wide open and the air around its face is lit by the glow coming from the back of its throat is awesome. It reminds me of like maybe an Evangelion berseker. And the premise of the battle is cool. But the way it plays out is too simple, and the harpoon things are kind of a terrible contrivance. And the end is anticlimactic. Also, I had been under the impression somehow that each world had 4 parts, so I was sad when it was over.

I beat 3-1, as well, and played most of 3-2. I died towards the end because I climbed up a tentacle and fell off at the top. I'm crazy excited to go back there tonight because 3-2 is the most deliciously atmospheric Lovecraftian place I have ever seen in a game, movie, whatever. It's fucking gorgeous how scary that place is.

[internisus]

oh hey

[internisus]

[internisus]

It took me four tries to beat him, but it was immensely satisfying. My favorite boss of what I've played so far. Boo @ your soul arrows, though. It's an incredible melee fight.

Incidentally, I found a quality weapon in the room right before you get to him; the long one with the huge skeleton. Go to the opposite end and look beyond where the worms are.

[internisus]

I hate this. I'm going to try to play this entire game from start to finish by the end of the month starting on Friday.

[internisus]

FUCK YEAH




man this is giving me anxiety; just promise forever already

[internisus]

I only ever played about 1/3 of this game, so yesterday I started up a new character (The Dark Souls II announcement gave me the fever). I've read a lot on the Wiki so I now have an understanding of the stats I want to focus on, the weapon upgrade system, and what resources are precious and not to be wasted. I made a list of equipment that I'm interested in trying for this character, but I didn't memorize where to find all of it or anything like that; I'm not out to ruin my first full play-through that completely. So I'll have fun blowing through plenty of ore on weapons I don't want to be using eventually; it really held me back last time that I didn't upgrade anything because I figured I'd rather spend those resources on better weapons I find later. Now I understand that most ore can be farmed or bought for a relative pittance down the line.

Unlike the last time I played, I'm currently using a falchion and not a spear, which makes me feel good because the spear's range seemed a little cheap to me before. I beat both the Tower Knight and the Armored Spider melee only, whereas I had resorted to my bow last time. I feel good about my skills, and I'm looking forward to going toe-to-toe with Flamelurker again.

This character is a female wanderer, a dexterity build with some magic. I have little interest in planning expressly for PvP; that's not what I'm playing this game for, but at the same time I don't want to waste points. About what I want to look like at soul level 200, depending upon how much interest I develop in spells and miracles and whether I decide to pump luck up to 20 or maybe even 30:

40 Vitality
18 Intelligence
40 Endurance
22 Strength
99 Dexterity
38 Magic
10 Faith
13 Luck

And then after a few playthroughs, when I've accomplished what I want to accomplish, I would also like to try a slow, heavy-hitting strength and miracle character to experience the opposite play style and all the equipment this character won't be using.

Online is as active as ever. Some asswipe invaded my under-20 character as I was just trying to move through 2-1 and ruined all my equipment with a scraping spear before I realized what it was. Still took him several minutes to manage to kill me even when I had no usable equipment. It was total twinkage, and it really pissed me off. Like, I was stewing for at least half an hour because of what the repairs cost me, because of the loss of my body and the undesired tendency effect, and because of the jackass shrug gesture the guy made as I died.

After I beat the Tower Knight, I discovered that the door on the left in 1-1 was open, which means I was at pure white tendency! I couldn't believe it. I went in and killed Miralda, so I've got her armor set, which is great. I missed the crystal lizard in that area, though. Next time I lose my body I'm going to go back in there and try to get the items that require tricky drops down that chasm.

After I play 2-2, 2-3, and 3-1 I'll be caught up to my last time playing and be in completely unfamiliar territory...

[internisus]

[internisus]

How dare you impugn my honour, sir? I am no glitcher!

[internisus]

Nah, I dunno where to find any of this stuff nor anything about levels I haven't seen yet, and I'm going to try any equipment I come across to see what feels good.

[internisus]

Guys, in the last couple days I have seen lots of players' white phantoms running around, lots of bloodstains, lots of messages, and at least three summon signs that I recall. Some funny messages, too; someone wrote one directly behind that guy in the Nexus who keeps moaning about abandoning (I think) Urbain and wondering if he still prays in the darkness: "Kick." Someone got up on Blacksmith Ed's bed and wrote "Sticky white stuff" (of course). I like when people walk out onto precarious ledges just to write "Hi!" There's plenty of that all around as well as helpful messages, and I've received up-ratings on my own, too (I especially like to write warnings that crystal lizards lie ahead). I have less than 10 hours on this character, but things seem very active to me.

[internisus]

[internisus]

I wasted too much of the White Tendency event banging my head against the wall that is Maneater. I think I'm just ill-equipped for this fight right now. But it looks like I won't get to worlds 4 or 5 or to 1-3 and 1-4 by the end of the event. So I'm just wondering: Do you guys know what happens to my world tendency when this thing shuts down?

[internisus]

Ah, okay. Well, I'm not willing to give up the online experience; I'll just worry about tendency in NG+ as originally intended.

[internisus]

I was having a fantastic time, admiring the level design of the Shrine of Storms after I beat 4-1 on my first attempt and was feeling ecstatic as I saw confirmation that 4-2 would take me down and into and hopefully around the bottom rim of the island. I was happy about my latest equipment loadout and just really looking forward to what was next, so I didn't go back to the nexus after I got my body back. Immediately I was invaded by one of those shits using scraping spear and plague. It's always scraping spear and plague. Jesus. He couldn't kill me for like ten minutes, and then when I realized I couldn't kill him either because he broke my shit I evaded him by running blindly through the level for another ten minutes and finally got killed by an arrow trap. I'm so fucking pissed right now.

Thankfully tendency didn't change and I got Makoto on 4-2. But then when I went back to 4-1 Satsuki wasn't there anymore. I'll have to search more thoroughly for him when I have time to go back. Sadly, it looks like world 5 has dimmed a bit on my map, so I may miss out on that event this time.

[internisus]

Ah, okay. Thanks. I hope I can find a way to still do the world 5 stuff, though. Maybe if I just beat 5-1 in soul form I'll bump it up to pure white.

I'm still mad about that phantom. See, I really like having my living body. I like hearing my footsteps and not having a green aura surrounding me all the time. It adds to the immersion factor. So it's really frustrating to get it trolled away as soon as I get it back, especially since I'm currently in a no-man's land of uncertainty; everything I knew from my last time playing is behind me. I also played 1-3 today, and it was pretty great, but Penetrator killed me. I think I can take him, but I'm more interested in exploring 4-2.

The way you enter the Adjudicator's arena is thematically perfect for the geography of the Shrine of Storms. It tickles me in all my sensitive places. This is the opposite of the architectural idea that is the Tower of Latria, which is all vertical extremes and sprawling horizontals. The Shrine reminds me of the HL2 mod Minerva: Metastasis, all dense and folded within a finite shell. I can't imagine that Dark Souls can compete with this kind of level design because it's supposed to be a contiguous world whereas this is a bunch of encapsulated ideas with no relation to one another. (But if it does anyway, man, I'll die of excitement.)

[internisus]

The kilij is my weapon of choice, as well. 4-1 is full of good equipment for a character like mine (low equip burden, dex focus with magic), but I'm glad I didn't go there earlier in my game because it would have been like skipping to the end of my journey. I never found anything that felt as good to use as the falchion I started with, so I was really happy to find that the kilij is wielded the same way. The uchigatana is superior, but it seems to have a heavier stroke with longer recovery. So I'm rocking a kilij +7 at the moment with a knight's shield +8 most of the time.

I missed the white tendency event in 5-3. I was good for it and did the stupidest thing by wading into the plague river to get some items; those little babies surrounded me and trapped me in a corner, and I couldn't manage my health fast enough. No way to raise the tendency now short of killing an invading black phantom. I could try that later, but I'm unlikely to succeed. It doesn't really matter. After this play through I want to make another character who is more of a slow heavy-weight with strength and miracles, and the reward for that event will be more relevant to him.

So 4-2 is a huge pain in the dick, huh? I thought the architecture of it was cool because of the way you're moving around the boss chamber as you descend (like a large-scale version of 4-1's boss room), but that has to be the hardest level in the game. I read about it afterwards and facepalmed for not thinking to use the thief's ring as a way to avoid constant storm beast harassment, and I probably made it harder than it needed to be by actually engaging every enemy rather than running past at least the black phantom skeletons near the end. Hell, I bet I could have raced through the whole stage since that would jive with my approach to the end ghost segments. Anyway, I ran that thing probably 15 or 20 times and got my routine down to a science; I could write a 5 page paper explaining my tactics for each little segment because I felt like there was only One Possible Way to make it. Yeah, it kind of sucked to have every single moment of this level be a thing that could kill me in one or two hits if I made the slightest mistake. It seems more claustrophobic than the gameplay usually is; there don't seem to be a lot of things you can try. But in retrospect it is pretty Demon's Souls.

As is the Valley of Defilement. I've read that some people really hate this place, and certainly it is no fun to play, but it's a place they just had to create for this game, I think. At the same time, I didn't find it very difficult, with the exception of my panicked attempts to fight multiple giant troll things in the restrictive swamp muck.

After 4-2, everything seemed easy. I went back and beat Maneater in one attempt. I think before I was still using a heater shield +6, and my knight's shield +8 holds up much better to their pounce attacks. Another improvement over my earlier tries was my replacement of protection with warding, of course, but I don't think I needed it. I actually dodged almost all of the pounces this time. And I guess my higher soul level means more defense. I think I'm around 62 right now. But it's the higher damage output of the kilij over my falchion that made the most difference because I killed one of the Maneaters shortly after the second showed up.

Sadly, the Old Monk was an AI. And I ruined the Storm King fight by using arrows, only realizing what was supposed to go down when I explored afterwards and found the Storm Ruler sword. I don't see myself using it in general, but I can see how that boss would feel epic if you do as intended and run in to grab the sword. Astraea was interesting! I appreciate what they did there.

I'm nearly done with the game now. Worlds 2, 3, 4, and 5 are completed. It's got me feeling wistful. Only 1-4 and whatever lies beyond are left to discover. But at the same time there's so much that I have left to learn. I haven't used magic damage weapons at all. I keep a kris blade on me just in case, but I've yet to need it. I wonder whether moon/darkmoon stuff is better. I wonder if/when I should be using these weapons. Likewise for inflicting status ailments; I've never tried poison or lifeleeching weapons and can't really imagine them being very helpful in PvE, although I have gotten a few kills through bleeding. I don't use large shields or miracles at all, and I only use spells for buffing so far. There are so many different kinds of upgrade materials that I haven't used at all. So in some respects I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the game. I'm sure that I'll replay it many times.

[internisus]

I won't read that until after I've tried to get through on my own, so I'll come back later to make my report. Though I'll take a moment to agree that arrows are boring. I like bows in general a lot on an archetypal level, so it's too bad. Are you saying that the lava bow is better than the white bow? I'm planning to use the white bow until my sticky compound long bow and dex are high enough to be superior. It's unimportant, though.

The reason I'm posting again before finishing the game is that I feel like something just clicked for me about its structure. I was looking at what I can do with colorless demon souls, trying to decide on which of my uniques I should choose to spend the three that I've got, and I realized that most of the unique weapons have characteristics that make them tactically interesting for PvP. Since there's a limit on how many colorless demon souls you can collect in one playthrough, it seems to me now that the meta goal for the game is to keep your soul level as low as you can while still completing the ever-increasing challenges of repeated NG+ to acquire colorless demon souls and improve unique PvP weapons. Spreading primordial demons among the five worlds is what pushes you to play the full game rather than just beat one archdemon and then the Boletarian Palace each time. That's kind of brilliant!

Understanding that Demon's Souls has this thoughtful meta-structure now causes me to consider PvP more seriously! My only real concerns: 1) What do you do with collected souls when you are trying not to increase your soul level but also unwilling to risk losing a very large accumulated quantity by simply holding onto them? and 2) What would you say is an ideal level to be around for PvP? Where are most of the players in terms of their level?

[internisus]

[internisus]

I'm postponing the end of the game, and I ran through 4-2 again. No problems. Differences this time: I have the DSS instead of the rune shield; the three black phantom skeletons at the end were gone; and I wore the thief's ring. It was actually really smooth, but part of that was that I knew how to handle it already.

Anyway, I think I'm going to farm some bladestone for awhile because I don't want the game to be over. I've decided to turn a kilij into a sharp kilij +5 instead of using an uchigatana like I guess everyone else. I know the katana is a little more powerful and has higher bleed, but it's so unwieldy; I just can't imagine it as my main weapon. Feel free to talk me out of it!

[internisus]

My level 80 build is kind of shitty. Too well-rounded. I should have left my strength at 14 for the kilij, but I didn't know what I liked yet!

25 Vitality
24 Intelligence
25 Endurance
20 Strength
25 Dexterity
18 Magic
10 Faith
13 Luck

Point total: 160

I'm at like 68 right now, so there's not much I can change. I should be able to keep soul level 120 more specialized by pumping dexterity and magic.

I'm going to kill myself a bunch and get worlds 2 and 4 to black tendency so I can work on sharpstone and bladestone drops. Then I'll try some invading in 1-3 and see if I have any success. I'm going to equip warding, acid storm, and soul ray for spells, and I might swap my kilij for the Baby's Nail if the other guy goes for a drawn-out Scraping Spear thing. My problem when that happens is that I can't stop myself from blocking when I should just ignore attacks and give my own. I'll carry some grindstones too.

This is pretty cool! I guess I'm more sympathetic towards the people who were total dicks to me before now that I understand how the game implicitly encourages you to create ruinous PvP tactics at as low a level as possible.

[internisus]

[internisus]

[internisus]