[TXTSWORD]

Cursed. :)

I'm glad to be getting the full experience that everyone else is now.

Got the butcher enemy's sack head helmet.

Yesssssssssss!

Bought a 6k greatsword for some reason even though I already have plenty of good weapons I can't yet wield... and could have used those souls toward the end of being able to wield things.

[klj5j6li]

Man nothing drops Humanity anymore. Kind of wishing I hadn't wasted so much earlier :(

[TXTSWORD]

Man it's kind of frustrating that the multiplayer components can ONLY be carried out with humanity. I think the old system worked better. It's like there's a whole game going on I don't get to play because I'm always hollowed.

[analogos]

[DJ]

The multiplayer opens up a lot more once you guys start finding covenants.

This explanation is horrifically spoiler-y and will kill a lot of the mystery surrounding the endgame PvP situation so read at your own risk.

~Forbidden Text Below, Gaze Upon It And Realize A Bell Cannot Be Unrung~

↓
Covenants are basically an alignment grid, similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Miyazaki (the director/producer guy) kept espousing in interviews that "Role Play" was important in Dark Souls. He wasn't kidding; somewhat awesomely, he meant this very much in the old-school, D&D/Wizardry/Ultima sort of way. Not Roleplay in that you're given a role to play, but actually Roleplay as in decide what kind of character you really are.

It's the usual 9-step system:

Lawful Good = Way of White: Basically, "I want to help people." You'll be invaded less/not at all, and your co-op support spells are strengthened significantly.
Neutral Good = Princess' Guard: Sort-of the same as Way of White, but without the protection from attacks, so you can still fight invaders.
Chaotic Good = Blade of the Darkmoon: You're actively rewarded for hunting down and killing those who invade others' games maliciously and are given tools to find and invade only those players' worlds.
Lawful Neutral = Warrior of Sunlight: Your character will become gold instead of white, and you're pretty much a Paladin Tank.
True Neutral = Forest Hunter: Focuses PvP in the Dark Forest and you play a plot-ish role. Very easy to break this covenant.
Chaotic Neutral = Chaos Servant: Relatively little focus on PvP, more of a focus on making the game weirder/more interesting for yourself and others. I won't spoil how but it's pretty awesome.
Lawful Evil = Gravelord Servant: Instead of invading others' worlds, you corrupt them with Gravelord stones; they can attack you 3 at a time if they find where your curse is, though. Basically, "passive-aggressive griefing." I plan on doing this. :D
Lawful Neutral = Dragon Servant: Focuses on hunting down other Dragon Servants and stealing items from them. Basically, the consensual PvP covenant.
Chaotic Evil = Darkwraith: This is the epitome of world-ruiner. You go in firsthand and kill the other person to gain ranks. You'll probably be the target of Blades of Darkmoon a lot.


Also note: Once you've chosen a covenant, you can break free of it, either inadvertently by performing actions outside of your alignment, or by willingly ending it. However, your deeds aren't wiped clean, so if you joined the Darkwraiths and went on a killing spree, your sins aren't necessarily forgiven...
↑

If you want the non-spoiler version, the PvP changes a lot and plays a much bigger role once you're deeper into the game. Dark Souls being Dark Souls though, you can also miss the whole thing entirely by accident and you'll never know.
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[remote]

That's why I'm a bit disturbed that I caused Solaire and Lautrec to die. Solaire, in particular, seemed so cool. Is his absence from my game going to cause me to miss out on much?

I guess I'll just find out next time through.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[dmauro]

I never played the first game, but I'm finding myself very interested in this. I don't really have time to play through a game of this magnitude, but is it worth it? Should I MAKE time?
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[remote]

[DJ]

[remote]

Whoa. Okay. So, those guys were not dead after all, apparently. I was able to summon them again, and, well, they still died less than halfway through the battle against the gaping maw dragon, but I managed to finish it off myself. Not too difficult, actually, once I figured out what it does. Feeling... reinvigorated!

I just hope they're still alive back at the bonfire, now. Heh.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Flylighter]

I wish I found weapons, I haven't found anything terribly good except the trident off those weird caster-Poseidon guys and I don't have the stats for it, so instead I'm using a Divine Broadsword!

Dinghy you can find a vendor that sells humanities, I can't remember how much they cost though.

So tonight I went and upgraded my shield and then thoroughly trounced the boss that gave me grief last night.
I then found the belltower that I missed and rang it after beating that boss.
Then I went back to the Firelink Shrine for the first time since starting the game, saw all sorts of new NPCs, found places I hadn't found previously, and went down the elevator to the ruins.
I decided the place was less 'challenge' and more 'tedious bullshit' and went to the catacombs instead.
Down there I found some items that apparently lure bad people into your game so you can kill them! I wasn't clear on exactly how it worked but I'm sure I'll figure it out another time.
I then beat a boss, and after his room the next area got so dark that I couldn't see. I called it a night!
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I'm on Steam! ----- I'm on Youtube!

[Focus]

man i joined a covenant and now i want to break it because it is totally wussy.
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[belthegor]

[Focus]

just did that!

what level is everyone at?

i'm at 26! (dex/magic build?)
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[klj5j6li]

I swear to god this boss is tactically using his dodge move to screw up my lock-on camera and make me walk into his attacks

[Joachim]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

The 360 version has already had a severe drop in message/bloodstain/ghost activity.

Where do you find the message-writing item, anyway?

[smartblue]

[klj5j6li]

Just fought what I'm pretty sure is going to be the most complained about boss fight in the game. Boss Spoilers: You fight two guys at once, one is a giant thing that constantly hits you with a hammer to take off half of your stamina (if you have the 30 + 20% endurance I have) while the other one just kills you with a spear while shooting lightning bolts up your ass. Once you kill one [even more spoilery:] The other one finishes him off and gains his power, refilling his health completely and gaining some new powerful bullshit move.

Jesus christ, Dark Souls.


Also unlocked Fast Travel! Praise the Sun!!!

[glossolalia]

can you even touch the sin and punishment garden boss with melee?

[remote]

So, character shots? Here's mine. Basically a warrior, still in his starting chestpiece, wearing the thief's hood, gloves, and pants. With the drake sword and the black knight's shield.



Level 29.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[remote]

I've been having some fun trying to get summoned in the Catacombs. Went well once, then my weapon started to break and I got distracted trying to equip another...

...and then I fell off a cliff trying to catch up with the dudes I was with. Embarrassing.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[TXTSWORD]

Trying to fight my way through new lando despite there clearly being better options for removing my curse. :|

Tossed on the shitty winged spear and a shield and I'm taking them one at a time. The little jabs hit stun them so it's pretty manageable if there are no surprises.

But I've died like 50 times trying to make it through there if that tells you anything. OH but I got a p cool weapon drop off of a ghost. Nothing I would use, but still cool. I need to get two more levels in my dex so I can use the black knight sword. Oh yeah, but I went all through the sewers and wrecked the boss down there while cursed no big deallll B) That's probably the easiest boss in the game. Obviously I haven't encountered all of the bosses but I just have a feeling.

[remote]

Yeah, dude, save yourself the grief. For now, at least. I've learned that the first bell tower is the best place to remove curses for a while.

Is that the jagged ghost blade you're talking about? It's a fast weapon and it turned out to be a nice alternative when my drake sword was on the verge of breaking.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Focus]

aaaaa i don't know how i want to ascend my halberd :c

i figure magic damage might be helpful later on, but. RAW HALBERD.

i forgot how helpful it is to upgrade equipment!
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[remote]

I'm still using the drake sword, which I guess can't be upgraded...? I should try other stuff, though.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[klj5j6li]

[BadFlower]

[DJ]

Had easily the most satisfying fight I've had in a videogame for a while now even though it was completely ridiculous and staggeringly unnecessary. Managed to take down Havel the Rock at level 9!

He's the guy who looks like a golem at the bottom of the first tower in Undead Burg. Wields the giant Dragon Tooth/Penis Bone thing that smashes you into meat toothpaste with one hit. Guards the passage to the Hydra.

Anyway, after using the Master Key to unlock the path down to him yesterday, he promptly fucked my shit up when I (stupidly) tried to block one of his attacks with my shield. I had that fun split-second of "...This isn't gonna work, is it" before my head got knocked into my chest cavity.

Today, I wound up making something in the vicinity of 8 attempts on his life, which really turned into about 20 deaths overall because the stress/impatience had me trying to get through Undead Burg a little faster than was prudent at that level, and the hollows made me pay for it more often than I want to admit (seriously, fuck that one bridge right across from the bonfire. Stay on the bridge, get lit on fire. Run in the room, get immediately facefucked by a solider hollow and his two buddies while three other bomb-throwing hollows saunter in after a few seconds and also proceed to firebomb the shit out of you CHRIST)

Upon reaching Havel this evening for the first time, my first plan was to lure him up the stairs. This works up until the top level. I turned around and noticed I didn't hear his distinctive clanking shamble noise, so I turned around and went back through the door leading to the stairs.

Motherfucker was standing literally 2 centimeters to the side of the door with his fucking club in the air waiting for me. The millisecond I stepped across the threshold he splattered me like a bug.

I don't think I've ever let out an expletive quite that loud at a videogame since...Well, ever. I'm sure my neighbors are wondering what I was swearing at. It was half surprise and half complete and total indignation at what a bullshit move that was -- and of course, I deserved it. After all, if I was a giant Dragon Penis Club Golem and some crispy-looking little fucker in a cloak was trying to kite me up the stairs, that's exactly what I'd do so fine.

Now it was personal, though.

My plan eventually became: Smash through undead burg with my wingtip spear and armor on; once I clear it out, take all my armor off and equip the Estoc using 2 hands. Go engage Havel, lure him up 2 levels so we have an arena, and then roll out of the way of his club and backstab him.

A backstab did 45 points of damage. I'm not sure how much total health Havel has, but 45 points isn't a very large chunk of it.


So this went on for about 2 hours. A naked, near-totally-black corpse desperately flipping around like Rikki Tikki Tavi on meth, trying to avoid the Gothic Michelin Man's stone phallus while chipping away futilely at his ass armor's health with what appears to be a glorified knitting needle and winning. It was like some kind of videogame Dadaism production. There was symbolism here somewhere, particularly in the fact that this went on for longer than most feature films.

You know a game is ruining you when you think to yourself "Man, all I have to do is hit him like 25 or 30 times while flawlessly dodging all of his attacks!" and this seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing even as you're trundling back up the tower through 30 hollows that have respawned for the 20th time so you can have another go at it.

But, it paid off. He finally fell, and now I have his ring way earlier than I probably ever should have.
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[8128]

dude I don't know how this game gets so many things right that all ought to be totally intuitive but that everyone else gets totally wrong

it's really remarkable
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[TXTSWORD]

Yeah something I find funny is how you come into this game assuming typical videogame logic you've been taught your entire life - and then Dark Souls turns that on it's head and you're surprised to have completely logical, reasonable things happen to you that would make sense in life but ceased to make sense in videogames.

[remote]

Some dude posted this on tumblr:

[TXTSWORD]

Man, no wonder the multiplayer elements feel so elusive.

God damn it.

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh if that's true that's a SERIOUS fuck up. Demon's Souls always made you feel connected to a world of other players where you could, at any time, get invaded or find a buddy. Now I pretty much never see other pleyer's ghosts even, I've never been invaded, I wasted 4 stones without invading anyone, and I've barely gotten to coop. I could pop in demon's souls right now and probably get more multiplayer in an hour or two of play. I mean, that doesn't change the fact that Dark Souls is a fantastic game... but what a huge let down if they took one of the shining and most recognized achievements of Demon's Souls and made it a nearly unusable non-feature.

[Moogs]

[remote]

Here's another shitty pic. Somewhat new look, with this helmet...


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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[wolfteam]

[wolfteam]

this looks like the official summoning conditions:

[TXTSWORD]

how can the person joining be undead? i thought you couldnt use the stones while undead?

[radish]