Dark Souls

[Cyril]

I use eagle shield and the demon spear. I've probably stupidly tried to bump my stats up equally across the board. As I'm not very good with rolling and dodging, I love having the spear for long reach and a shield to fall back on.

I made it to Four Kings, but after dying once didn't feel like trecking back into the abyss just to die again. Have made it to the crystal caves, but kept falling off trying to avoid those large butterfly things.

Yeah, raising your stats evenly is the sure way to ruin your character.  Focus on two stats first, then slowly bump a third and then -maybe- a fourth, depending on your build.  Ignore everything else, unless it's for weapon/spell requirements.

The Four Kings are easy enough to get to. You just hop down from the first main building on the top right corner. Then you sprint to the fog, dodging the Darkwraiths. It takes about 20 seconds. As for the Crystal Caves, once you spend enough time there you'll realize those paths are actually straight. Well, they're at a slight tilt, but it's a straight tilt. Use the Prism Stones if you're worried - they're not only pretty, but useful.

You might want to Upgrade yourself a Lightning Spear +4 (save the Slabs) instead.  I'm not sure how much the patch fixed scaling, but unless it was by quite a bit, the Lightning weapon is going to outdamage you.

And you're going to need to learn to roll, very very quickly, for the Tomb of Giants boss. That's the only way to avoid one of his attacks.

[daschrier]

+They must've fixed scaling, because my Demon Spear (can't remember the level), outdoes my +4 lightning spear.

Took out seath, nito, and four kings today. Now I just need the last one, but having trouble with the centipede. Can't even seem to hit him...

[Yggdrasil]

Now that I've burn out of the game I think I have to say my final words to it. Is hard to say if this game was a good experience in retrospective thanks to the amount BS that the game has, for every thing that it does right the bad ones always look bigger no matter how good one part of the game was.

I seriously believe that the entire experience goes to hell the moment you reach Anor Londo because it only gets crazier after that point (and I'm not saying that in a good way). I also have to mention that in all of the 200 hours that I put into the game I never felt that the combat system was good, it didn't worked all that well in Demon's Souls either but here somehow is worse, maybe "janky" is the word I'm tryng to use here for the combat system.

Oh and the PvP is a mess full of backstabbing maniacs with no desire to have a real duel othe than spaming the shit of out one attack until you are dead.

With that said, I enjoyed my time with the game but I didn't really like it. And yeah I really don't see the future me buying a game like this again.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Oh and the PvP is a mess full of backstabbing maniacs with no desire to have a real duel othe than spaming the shit of out one attack until you are dead.

Backstabs are a crucial gameplay mechanic. There`s nothing inherently wrong with them. You either learn how to do them or you`ll have your ass handed to you indefinitely in PvP.

[daschrier]

I actually think that the combat engine is one of the best in any game I've played. Sure, it isn't perfect, and the camera does screw you over a lot, but I feel like I actually have control over what my character is doing.

I think the game falls apart after Anor Londo, but mostly because it was fun to explore the first hub, open secret paths to enable backtracking, see how everything linked together. This all fell apart in the 2nd half.

Plus, I was reading the trohpy guides to see if I want to attempt it, and some of the spells/convenants etc are so crazy to get, how would you ever figure it out without a guide?

[Fadedsun]

Oh and the PvP is a mess full of backstabbing maniacs with no desire to have a real duel othe than spaming the shit of out one attack until you are dead.

Backstabs are a crucial gameplay mechanic. There`s nothing inherently wrong with them. You either learn how to do them or you`ll have your ass handed to you indefinitely in PvP.

Pretty much. In PVP, it's usually a race to see who gets the first back stab and then trying to survive after that. Good luck surviving in PVP if you play a character with light armor that doesn't use magic. I always died. After a while I got sick of it, so every time I got invaded I would equip some heavy armor just to survive.

Back stabs are useful in non-pvp situations as well. I'll try and get one whenever possible to avoid a nasty, lengthy fight.

[Cyril]

Rolling in PvP is essential.  A character in full heavy armor is going to be at a severe disadvantage if they're fighting without a Havel's Ring and the Black Grain Ring.  This makes invading in some areas impossible for their build (such as Lost Izalith - really, that place is the best to be Invaded at because you have such a huge advantage as the Invadee).

Unfortunately, unless it was patched, the Black Grain Ring itself makes the above argument weaker and light armor relatively useless in PvP.  In fact, I'd argue that even mages should be wearing a few pieces of Heavy Armor at higher levels.  The Poise stops your spells from being interrupted at even the lightest hit. Mix and match Light and Heavy for best results.

[Yggdrasil]

After many many weeks of perseverance I finally got the platinum trophy. I got in a bit of a problem getting all the rare weapons, I almost had to do a 5th playthrough to get the remaining ones but I was lucky enough to get the rest in the same playthrough.

I intend to play the game one more time to see a few things, but I guess that at this point I'll never see a Vagrant.

[Ivalice Alliance]

Just got the Platinum just now.  All I had left was the Channeler's Trident!

[Der Jermeister]

Yeah, I'm playing the first Demon's Souls which I got for Christmas, and it's probably the most fucking overrated game I've ever played. The Japs who decided that there shouldn't be a pause button or automaps should have their fucking heads chopped off.

[Jonathan Ingram]

The Japs who decided that there shouldn't be a pause button or automaps should have their fucking heads chopped off.

Also checkpoints and an arrow that points where you need to go, am i rite?

And LOL at demanding an auto-map for Demon`s Souls` relatively straight forward levels. I hope you never try something like Eye of the Beholder or earlier Wizardry titles.

[cj_iwakura]

I did Phantasy Star(1) on GBA without a map. Probably my proudest achievement.

[Taelus]

I did Phantasy Star(1) on GBA without a map. Probably my proudest achievement.

I'm proud for you. Love that game.

[Yggdrasil]

Yeah, I'm playing the first Demon's Souls which I got for Christmas, and it's probably the most fucking overrated game I've ever played.

Is not overrated. Is just, not for everyone. The only way to get to the point in where the game "clicks with you" is just by playing it for some days and understanding how everything works (like in a fighting game to give an example).

Though, learning everything takes more than one playthrough... so yeah, your choice there.

Just be sure to have a lot of free time if you are going to play Demon's Souls for real because once you get into it you will not care about what time is. The game is a real nightmare for people with Gaming OCD too.

[Eusis]

However, it's still perfectly enjoyable with one 40-ish hour playthrough. You may be rewarded for really, really getting into it, but anyone that doesn't care that much about that will still see most everything the game has to offer, unlike a fighting game which can feel kind of pointless unless there's extra modes for single player.