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i'm actually in the painting world right now! those crow things are terrifying. perhaps i should've waited until after Anor Londo to come here? i feel really underleveled.
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Anor Londo: down for the count! i had to kinda rush through since i decided to summon a couple of people, but we all made it to the boss with little to no problems and took down Smough faster than you coulda blinked! of course this means i ended up fighting Super Ornstein but it was worth it 'cause now i have his armor (totally seconding everyone on the quality of that fight by the way, i might do what remote did later and just hang out in Anor Londo helping people with it)

weirdly enough, killing Lautrec gave a lot more grief than Smough & Ornstein ever did. mind you he still went down in three tries, i imagine it would've been fewer if i hadn't been an idiot and tried taking on all of them at once
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i'm not sure how i feel about the "unlimited uses of magic & items" bit, but i'm definitely okay with the rest of it. i've only had the misfortune of going up against someone with a Fog Ring once, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
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yeah, reading it again i think i just didn't comprehend that. sorry!

remote was mentioning the possibility of a From Software podcast in another thread, but i think a videocast similar to the Demon's Souls one could be interesting.
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i have come to the conclusion that i have been playing this game the Absolute Wrongest Way, spoiling most of the good/interesting stuff well in advance in order to satiate my desire to know Everything About It. (though in my defense i have no knowledge of what the final boss is like beyond whispers and murmurs, and i intend to keep it that way, because fuck if spoil that in addition to all the other stuff i will never forgive myself.)

went through the Demon Ruins last night long enough to reach that shortcut for the Chaos covenant members so i could get the maggot helm. thinking i may head back to the Tomb of the Giants and take on Nito now (my first trip ended with me walking forward five steps into the area and falling down a bottomless pit i couldn't see, putting me back at Firelink and losing all the souls i had gained from Pinwheel in the process)

this game is Alice Cooper and i am Wayne Campbell.
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just helped some guy on his first run of the Tomb of the Giants; so far that was the most fun i've had with this game
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re: New Londo Darkwraiths: they are cripplingly weak to backstabbing~ like, i couldn't even get that many backstabs on the Burg hollows!

also: Lightning Great Scythe fuck yeah

...is what i would be saying if i hadn't accidentally killed Domhnall with it (note to self: un-stick that R2 button)

two great lords down, two to go. heading for the Duke's Archives next.

p.s. Youpi that is a pretty great video.
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man, i feel like i'm the only person here who hasn't beaten this game yet. i'm getting close though, i've only got the Demon Ruins left to get through. as regards the multiplayer i haven't exactly been looking for PvP, but i have noticed that i don't really get invaded while human very often. granted i'm not human that often anyway, but still. it's possible that i'm just not human in the popular PvP areas enough. as for the co-op, i've had little to no problems with it beyond some connection errors when i first started the game, but it takes an awfully long time to get summoned on occasion.

anyway, i guess i'm now grossly incandescent enough for the Warriors of Sunlight, so maybe this will improve

(p.s. Crystal Cave can go to hell. what a terrible gimmick for a level.)
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debating whether or not to finish the game without the patch. maybe i won't be much worse off, i'm still using a Lightning Great Scythe. either way, i still hate everything about the Bed of Chaos. what an unfun, annoying fight.
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so, um, i beat this game last night. and i fully agree with everyone who's said the final stages of it (Crystal Cave, Lost Izalith) feel really rushed and unfinished. it's a real shame, especially compared to how much more graceful Demon's Souls was with its denouement. Kiln of the First Flame, in particular, was an area i would've loved to see more of. at least it had the second-best boss in the game. i'm kind of wishing i hadn't rushed into New Game Plus® as quickly as i did, i would've loved just getting summoned for that fight over and over.

god, i think i need to stop playing this game for a long while. it's totally consumed my life, to a degree previously only met by King's Field III.
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Interested and/or Impatient Parties: if i'm understanding this guy correctly, Namco is in charge of the patch schedule for non-Japan regions, which might explain why said countries aren't on 1.04 yet.
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i am indeed talking about that game! sorry if i get confusing with the numbering, i usually just prefer going by Japanese numbers instead of saying "King's Field II US" all the time. i guess it does kind of make me incomprehensible to people who aren't already aware of that, though, so i'll try to tone it down.
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attn: remote


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man now i'm picturing a montage of Solaire clips set to "The Trooper" and this is the best laugh i've had in a while
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oh good, i thought i was the only one who thought the Stone armor was really ugly

i wish the witch's cloak wasn't so weak, it's definitely my favorite piece of light armor.
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1.05 patch to be released for Japan tomorrow

apparently this one will just be fixing what 1.04 broke, online-wise (there were some complaints about summon signs disappearing and the like). i suppose it also helps explain why non-Japan regions haven't seen that patch yet; no sense in releasing it when there's another patch on the way.
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Youpi, tell me what soul level you are and i will make sure i am that level when i go to the Catacombs okay?

accidentally angered the church blacksmith on my NG+ file, and i didn't particularly feel like paying the 170,000 souls for absolution, so i started a new character, a sorcerer, instead. it's been an interesting experience, so far! the low health and weak starting equipment mean i have to be a lot more cautious than usual - no more running through raining electric death on everything, not until i get to Sen's Fortress again. i didn't really like the feel of killing everything from afar at first - it felt a bit like pointing-and-clicking the enemy to death - but i've acclimatized myself to it pretty well, i think. my low endurance at present kind of helps in that regard, as i no longer have thick shields or heavy armor to fall back on. i do definitely miss the feel of the swordplay, but i'm sure i'll get that back once i get a few magic weapons.
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yeah, i'm on the PS3 myself. shame! hope you have better luck, though.
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i now have a Magic Balder Side Sword.

...and three complete sets of Balder Armor.

on the bright side: 225 total damage! not bad for someone who's not even past Blighttown!
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tacotaskforce i saw you in Blighttown and tried to summon you but yours was the only one i couldn't get to go through

taking a detour to kill a hydra before heading to Sen's Fortress again. i'm so excited!

p.s.


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i'm level 35 on my sorcerer. i'm actually thinking about doing it in a bit! are you on PSN?
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tough talk from someone who misspells two words in the same sentence :sunglasses face:
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i do kinda understand where he's coming from in regards to the level design, but i'm having trouble seeing where he found the combat inadequate.
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wait the patch is out oh man oh man yes yes yes
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i can definitely confirm that the multiplayer stuff is more frequent - i was getting invaded in the burg roughly every couple of minutes. i might've had fun with that, if the guys i was facing weren't pretty obviously tailored to trolling the low levels. it was a bit like watching college grads beat up grade schoolers so they could get change for the vending machine.

i was also getting pretty hilarious amounts of upgrade materials - i made a few loops of the church before ringing the bell there, trying to get the sword the caped knights drop, and i came out with about a dozen upgrade shards. enemies do seem a bit weaker, overall, but that could've just been my equipment at the time.

other than that, yeah, i'm pretty satisfied. it'll be interesting to see how they've toned down the later areas. i can only imagine how much of an invasion madhouse Anor Londo must be by now.
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okay, i'm getting really fucking sick of being invaded by guys using Smough armor and a greataxe when i'm still running around the beginning in thief armor. how am i getting connected to these jerks? the level restrictions can't have lowered that much, can they?

edit: or i guess people really are sadistic enough to go through the entire game at that level and just sit around invading people like me. well, shit.
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gah, i have too many characters in this game! my main one at the moment is dexterity-based and was originally conceived as a thieving backstabber, but has since become a bit more nebulous; i'll still probably end up as a Darkwraith with her, though. the other two are, respectively, a straight sorcerer and and a strength-based fighter that i was originally planning to have high faith, but will have high intelligence instead, just because i think that juxtaposition is a bit more interesting. i have high hopes! now, if only i was even half-decent at PvP
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heh, that is kind of a draw! and i don't think my sorcerer has the strength for it, so...!

i went ahead and joined the Darkwraiths on my thief, then stuck around in New Londo to see what invading was like. and my good god, it is pretty tense being on the invading side! for the first one, i was just imitating something i'd seen in a video of Japanese invasions - i ran straight past the host, who had no phantoms, to the last corpse mass before the boss, with the aim of setting up an ambush and assassinating the host in the chaos. only, er, the corpse mass wasn't there. which means it was just me and a couple of backstab-prone Darkwraiths against three very cautious humans.

next invasion, the (different) host was in the same spot, waiting to summon people. i didn't let him get the chance.

it was pretty fun, though! i didn't think i'd go for it, but i'm definitely keeping up with the invading from now on.
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thanks! i figured it was as good a use as any for the half-gig's worth of King's Field images on my computer.
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oh man, i've been doing that with my characters as well! i meant to say something about it, but i, um, kinda joined the pity party myself i think the conceit behind my thief, Beatrix (meaning "wanderer"), was that she had been raised in a church as an orphan named Madeline (after Mary Magdalene), and then was forced out into the streets after the church was burned down when the head mother was accused of being a witch. she soon earned the nickname "Maddie the Mad", due to a penchant for violent and erratic behavior, though she was by no means unintelligent. shortly before turning undead, she changed her name in an attempt to escape said reputation and find a new start in a different town. she's tried to stay on the straight and narrow, but often ends up as a thief and a murderer anyway due to mental illness, only deepening her guilt and despair.

i actually did this for Demon's Souls, too - when i got stalled on my first character (a wanderer), i started over with a knight, and conceived that this new character was the brother of the first one, and had only come to Boletaria in search of her.
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i'm mostly on analogos' side here, but i can see where mauve's coming from - the first time i went through Anor Londo, i summoned a couple of people to help out, and they rushed me through to the boss so quickly i didn't even really get a chance to look around.

i say, if nothing else, just make sure you do the last boss solo. it's so gratifying doing it as a straight-up duel.
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huh!

the reddit thread on this is pretty interesting, as well.
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oh hey i can finally upload my shitty cell phone pictures now

these are all from my first character, who i took from start to finish before the patch came out.



my ugly face. i was going for an approximation of how i actually look; i should really know by now that such things are impossible, though i still think this didn't turn out too badly.



this was about halfway through the game, after clearing Anor Londo. after all the horror stories i'd heard about Super Ornstein, i was pleasantly surprised when he went down as easily as he did (having two other phantoms helped a bit)



taken immediately after the gargoyle fight. i wish i'd remembered to turn off the HUD, this would've looked much nicer without it. if i can get it off my phone, i have another version of this.
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abandoned the Darkwraiths after a crisis of conscience and joined the Darkmoon covenant after having the idea of heading to the Undead Burg and getting some retribution on all those low-level invaders; six invasions later i've not successfully won a single one. even when the odds are in my favor i can't compete with these jerks

Youpi, that is a super-cool, super-thoughtful setup you've got there
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not ashamed: when you took down both dogs at once, i cheered.
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so i played this game tonight. i took my sorcerer from the Four Kings to Pinwheel, got summoned twice, fought off invaders thrice, and died twice. the last invader consisted of me waiting in Vamos' hallway for fifteen minutes trying to see if he would get impatient enough to come to me. TENSION.

rapiers feel really nice on this character.

ALSO: whoever recommended bringing a divine shield to the catacombs: it doesn't work.
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yeah, i might consider using that on my thief if she didn't, um, look down on rapiers. (too "snobby" a weapon.)

i really can't wait to get a bit farther on my "magic knight" character. that black knight greataxe looks pretty insane.
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