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flithierich is basically the face of namco's PR identity thing right now. they're trying to take a cue from capcom re: having stronger community outreach and a name/face to go with it. I guess people would rather interact with a person than a generic OFFICIAL NAMCO TWITTER press release dump, so there you have it.

I can see why it would feel a little weird for a game like this, though.

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if you get a 360 I'll probably get harmony of despair and force you to play it with me so I think you know what you have to do

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teflon take a break from 4ch please

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I don't think it matters, guys. I severely doubt they're dropping someone's photoshop right into the game and stretching it across some polygons and calling it a day. you're not drawing an in-game texture, you're drafting a design. if the lighting contributes to the effect you're going for then I don't see the harm in it.

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Even the latter sounds interesting to me, though. I think we were talking recently about how one of the areas Demon's Souls could've been improved upon was finding ways to avoid become strictly rote and memory-based. If the game had the potential to occasionally create seemingly "unfair" situations in service of that end, I think I'd be okay with that.

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isn't it less that enemies are bad at detecting you and more that most of them have them have a pretty rigidly defined aggro range they refuse to chase you past

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how would that have worked for a nonlinear game

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i recall it being stated early on that one of the larger goals was to have more meaningful variation of properties and movesets across weapons and weapon types, so if there are ultimately less weapons in service of that you probably don't have much to worry about

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btw. btw dark souls btw.

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omfg

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the volume of enemies compounded with the vastly improved pathfinding and ai routines, the fact that staying at a bonfire respawns all the enemies in that area--good lord there is no rest for the weary. i got back attacked immediately after exiting out of the menu when i got to one of my first bonfires. this was probably because i was rushing and ended up kiting the guy along with me but jeez. it seemed to result in it not counting that checkpoint update too, so i ended up back at the start of the second area.

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not to be pedantic but it isn't a backstab as far as i'm aware? i mean, the target's facing isn't relevant, only that you have enough height/momentum to initiate the attack.

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i think adding your humanity to the bonfire kindles the flames, making it larger, improving the stock of estus you can reap from that area in the future.

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kind of disappointed that they didn't include a means of consuming an entire stock of souls this time around. i mean i can appreciate that they want every action to hold a tangible consequence but it's pretty obvious that under normal circumstances you're obviously going to clear the area of enemies and go hang out at a bonfire at nearly nonexistent risk (of anything other than invasion (and even then you have to be online (come to think of it, are any of you guys playing offline?))) and at that point it's just a bit of a cumbersome waste of time.

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i'm pretty sure i have not at all experienced this purported lag/glitch issue y'all are on about.

---

i feel like i wasted today's efforts on stubbornness. i think the bonfire system has some influence on the way i conceptualize "progress". i kept trying to get away with figuring out how to brute force my way through either sprinting to the next checkpoint and reestablishing from there or praying i'd at least come into possession of some new equipment before dying -- dying basically being a given. like, it's not that i didn't want to slow down and think about what i was doing, i just knew i didn't want to do it yet, so i kept running my head into the wall to little avail. i guess i'm going to have to do something resembling grinding. in any case i definitely didn't play demon's this irresponsibly, and i guess i've learned my lesson at this point.

somehow i ended up triggering a flag that opened up a shortcut for me and i'm not entirely sure how, but if not for that i'd probably say that i'd done myself more harm than good today.

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actually i think i just regret my character/class decision and might want to restart before i'm in too deep

but

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wanderer (about as non-committal as it gets, i think). i felt kind of rushed at the character creation screen because i had an audience, to be honest. i knew i didn't want to exploit the ways magic and projectiles were as convenient as they were in demon's souls, but i also knew how the magic system had changed so i thought it'd be interesting to still leave myself open to the possibility of exploring the way offensive magic works now. i've also been somewhat infatuated with the idea of getting through one of these games with a heavy tank-like character (a la nedge), but as i recall the knight's base stats were pretty poor compared to the wanderer. it might have been the sort of thing that works out better in the long run, though. so yeah, i just found the middle ground between those things.

anyway i booted the game back up for a bit after posting and--yeah, i was just playing like an idiot. i adopted my more conservative demon's souls playstyle and things seem to have immediately improved.

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it's about the same, but i think it had at least a little more influence in demon's than you're giving it credit for. i mean, picking royal was pretty much a free ride after all.

also i think i just realized i might have been partly wrong about soul consumption. just noticed that if you mash square to drink from the flask it'll buffer/queue up additional sips in rapid succession. might work the same for souls but i don't have any on hand to test at the moment. anyone care to confirm?

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yeah i mean that's not new. surely you'd encountered that in demon's? that's always been part of the fun of the message system i think. of course you could always get lucky and have a bloodstain nearby as a sort of warning system against that sort of thing. but yeah the messages have mostly been helpful when i've had the luxury of being able to stand still long enough to read them all. i loved all the disheartening "i can't take this..." messages i ran into early on.

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speaking of amazing rings, why the heck haven't i found one yet :\

only found one and it isn't of much use. also no magic. i feel like i haven't really been anywhere yet, it's kind of great

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oh right i forgot about the consumable ring. i got another one right at the start that increases my defense when i'm at critical health, but, uh, pretty sure the next hit is going to kill me at that point anyway. maybe if it works based on percentage rather than on a set vitality value it'll be useful on high-level/high-vitality characters. i suppose it's probably helped me survive a blocked attack or two i may otherwise have not.

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edit: yeah ps3 is dead

have fun guys ;_;

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invading phantoms can bring a summoned NPC posse with them?! or do you just mean enemies that happened to be around

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as much as i appreciate the increased emphasis on emergent design, i'm still a bit baffled as to how i could've done so much depth-plumbing and still fail to encounter the slightest evidence of a guy who'll pony up some new got dang sorceries. on the other hand, i'm pretty impressed with and surprised by how much mileage i've gotten out of just this simple default fire spell. i still only have eight shots per bonfire (can this be improved or will it always just be a matter of using a different spell?), it's not even a missile attack, its AOE isn't that great and i still feel like it's gotten me out of tons of situations and i've never been utterly deprived of it without it bringing me some success along the way. seems really well balanced. certainly better than standing around waiting for mp to recharge and inching my way through cheesing every level to completion. but come on, i picked a magic build, game. work with me here.

also i don't think i've ever found that burg merchant somehow???

also what is the deal with those occasional orange flashes that seem to happen of their own accord? i think they refill your flask by one, but i can't always tell.

what else. oh i had a pretty excellent and vivid sleep aid induced dream of completing this massive tower area w/ new enemies. didn't realize it didn't actually happen until a bit after waking up, and i was about equal parts relieved and disappointed because whoa.

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i didn't get that ring because it sounded dull and cheesy. clear room, stand around for five minutes to get full hp, clear next room, etc.

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I hope this game's NG+ is a bit more interesting than just a boost of health and damage values. I really want to see them play around with where and when you encounter various enemy types.

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