Dark Souls

[Solstafir]

You can't actually enter the Gravelord Nito fight/area without the Lordvessel. There would be a giant orange fog gate blocking the path. It shows four of these gates disappearing in a brief cutscene when you get (or is it place?) the Lordvessel.

The gravelord stuff was another player in the gravelord covenant cursing your world. It spawns super tough red phantom versions of enemies in 3 players' worlds and drops a soul sign that prompts invading that gravelord player's world. Killing said player will put an end to it. I'm not sure on anything more specific than that, and I hear that it's kind of buggy.

I've been playing this a lot lately. I killed Gravelord Nito myself just last night, but haven't defeated any of the others of the final four bosses quite yet. Tomb of the Giants is certainly made easy with the Cast Light spell.

[Yggdrasil]

*Be wary of spoilers*

Ash Lake might be only place in where you can get stuck without a route of escape if you don't have the Lordvessel, but I remember seeing a video in YouTube showing how to get out of there without it.

Also the only thing that you need to warp between places is to get the Lordvessel. Putting the Lordvessel can open or close the Darkwraith Covenant depending in how you do a quest that is really never explained to you until you defeat The Four Kings before giving the Lordvessel to Frampt to talk with Kaathe.

Or, something along those lines.

[Cyril]

Nah, you can just walk out of Ash Lake the same way you entered.  It's somewhat lengthy and annoying to do, though.  It might also be a bit annoying if you didn't get the glitched Hydra who kills itself.

I don't think you can get stuck anywhere with the exception of the Archives, which you're stuck at for story purposes.

[beLIEve?]

You can't actually enter the Gravelord Nito fight/area without the Lordvessel. There would be a giant orange fog gate blocking the path. It shows four of these gates disappearing in a brief cutscene when you get (or is it place?) the Lordvessel.

The gravelord stuff was another player in the gravelord covenant cursing your world. It spawns super tough red phantom versions of enemies in 3 players' worlds and drops a soul sign that prompts invading that gravelord player's world. Killing said player will put an end to it. I'm not sure on anything more specific than that, and I hear that it's kind of buggy.

I've been playing this a lot lately. I killed Gravelord Nito myself just last night, but haven't defeated any of the others of the final four bosses quite yet. Tomb of the Giants is certainly made easy with the Cast Light spell.

that cutscene was so quick i only made out the dukes archives gate. but that still doesn't make warping back to those areas useful.

i guess what i'm saying about the gravelord thing is i had no idea it was a covenant thing at first. the vocabulary used had me confused. i didn't know what had changed in the first playthrough. i wouldn't have known i could directly invade them back either. i geuss i'm left with a poor understanding of how all the covenants work. i missed the gravelord covenant so that might explain my confusion a little.

yeah i had to get cast light to fully explore. i got sick of running from the bonfire in the catacombs only to accidentally fall off a cliff or whatever i couldn't see stabinating me.   

[daschrier]

A game who's purpose is to have a player learn the mechanics on their own, yet be so cryptic that the majority of the players end up reading the wiki's, defeats its original purpose.

I do think it was pretty stupid to put up those orange barriers when you could reach these areas quite early in the game.

I didn't even know about the catacombs until I read a guide, never found the place on my own.

[Eusis]

A game who's purpose is to have a player learn the mechanics on their own, yet be so cryptic that the majority of the players end up reading the wiki's, defeats its original purpose.

I do think it was pretty stupid to put up those orange barriers when you could reach these areas quite early in the game.

I didn't even know about the catacombs until I read a guide, never found the place on my own.

Technically the point IS to help and assist other players, albeit in a more cryptic manner usually. So a wiki isn't entirely failing that purpose. As for the orange barrier, well, I suspect it has to do with what you CAN get at those areas, for the few new players that went the wrong direction there's others that, knowledgeable of the game, will break through and get the rewards ahead far earlier than what may have been intended.

And man, I understand pulling up examples of places that are too hard to find without a guide, but Catacombs is pretty damn low in my book. That's simply a matter of poking around the initial area, unlike Ash Lake which

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requires hitting an INVISIBLE WALL at a dead end. If you're offline or got poor luck with player hints you wouldn't know there's one there.

[Yggdrasil]

It really creeps me out the amount of crazy people playing this game when it came out finding stuff like the Ash Lake, or how to get all the loot in the Great Hollow or even finding the secret wall on Sen's Fortress to get a Titanite Chunk.

Hell, getting all the sorceries is pretty damn tricky (and a bit annoying).

[beLIEve?]

you know i just watched a video, vaguely about the other ending and i realized in the abyss

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there is an npc so that makes sense now. i missed that covenant too. i'd still like to walk out of those pits for sake of fast travel

i need to play though at least a second time to take in the things i missed. for now though i'm going to try to finish some other games in the backlog before kingdoms of amalur and xenoblade steal my life during my work season.

i'd like to platinum out dark and demon souls but farming gets a little tedious.

i wonder if i found that wall in sen's fortress...

[cj_iwakura]

Meeting Kaathe was my favorite scene, since it turns expectations on their head.

[Yggdrasil]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp2qiojb0Hc

Always remember, Darkwraiths are assholes.

[Taelus]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/10/rumor-dark-souls-getting-dlc.aspx

DLC?

[beLIEve?]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/10/rumor-dark-souls-getting-dlc.aspx

DLC?

i can't imagine this is true. how would you add to it without it seeming slapped on? unless they were bluffing when they said they weren't planning dlc from the beginning. i guess we'll see...
 

[Yggdrasil]

There are a lot of areas in the game in where they seem to be a path but is closed, so I can imagine them using of those spots for the DLC. But it would be kinda random to do.

Also a quick question: Did anyone know if the Pendant does something? Is one of the gifts that you can choose when you create your character and you can also get it from a certain NPC. I do know that you can trade the Pendant with Snuggly to get one Souvenir of Reprisal but it has some use other than that?

[beLIEve?]

There are a lot of areas in the game in where they seem to be a path but is closed, so I can imagine them using of those spots for the DLC. But it would be kinda random to do.

Also a quick question: Did anyone know if the Pendant does something? Is one of the gifts that you can choose when you create your character and you can also get it from a certain NPC. I do know that you can trade the Pendant with Snuggly to get one Souvenir of Reprisal but it has some use other than that?

i can think of a few places that they could add stuff but as much as i love the game i can't imagine where they'd go with it. it might have been nice if the valley of the drakes had something more going on.

the official guide only gives a clue about trading for the pendant. if it means something more than birdgirl that'd be nice.

[Dade]

Picked up Dark Souls. Several hours in and loving it! Capra Demon is a fucker. Still raped him after 6-7 tries. Almost to the Gaping Dragon.