Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

Loving this. After I make significant progress I do look up to see what I've missed and whether it's worth going back for it. In this case, after I made it to the bonfire before the dragon on the bridge, I look back and ... come on, who in the world would know that you can use a branch to turn into a ghost (*if* you are standing in the swamp), and that you could then float back past the bonfire, go around the corner, and a magic ladder would lower? And that's how you get to the purging monument? That's like hidden wall X10, there is just no way anyone figured that out unless they made it their full time job and literally tried everything.

Oof, that dragon ...

It's super convoluted, but there is a message there that says "Show Your Humanity", so if you know from DS1 that you need to turn into a humanity sprite, and if you know that there are items and spells (Chameleon) in the game that change your shape into one of the elements found in the area, and if you notice that there are little humanities that attack you in the swamp...

But also because of the online element, they can be confident that someone will figure it out, and that the information will be passed along via the in-game messages people leave (and the internet obv)

Also I really can't wait until you fight that dragon :)

Oh, I fought the dragon. Three times, so far. The first time I maybe took out ... 15% of its health? The second time I died with no hits. The third time maybe 10%? Once I just fell down the ladder on the way there and died. It's a bad sign when it takes longer to get the stupid dragon than it does to die to it.

Tried a few more times and I think Midir might be the first boss I just skip. I dunno, there is just no getting the upper hand, and it can one shot you with some attacks, and more or less two shot you with others, so you (I) die real fast. Takes forever to get there, the camera (even not locked on) just doesn't do you any favors, which is an extra pain, since it has about a million HP but you have to hit the head to do the most damage, and even that is one or two hits at a time. Of course it's doable, and if I fight it enough I'll beat it, but lack of any clear progress is more boring than dispiriting.

summons?

I'm offline. And everything I've heard says summoning the in-game NPC assist is no real help, because they add even more HP to the dragon, and they tend to die fast, because NPCs can't (or don't) dodge.

Nooooo. I will say that even with real players, Midir is a summon-proof boss. Additional summons just mess up the AI and make him unpredictable, and this one is all about reading tells and figuring out a counter for each move, and when you can attack. And he already has so much hp, adding summons just makes him ridiculous (because bosses gain hp for each person you summon).

That said, figuring him out was my most memorable fight in all of DS3 (like Manus was for me in DS1).

Also I think locking on is a bad move here, I don't think I did it.

I also think I switched up my weapons just for this boss, because I need something with a long (but not too slow) vertical swing, to reach his head in the moments when you can counterattack.

And like many bosses in this game, there's a riposte opportunity midway through the fight, so it goes faster than you think it will (based on the damage you're doing initially)

(I won't pretend like I didn't watch a couple fights on Youtube to help learn his moveset)

Yeah, I can't figure out a weapon strategy. I was using a heavy lothric knight greatsword, which scales A with strength and has bonus lightning, plus reach, but it's heavy and you have to be judicious with swings. Then I went back to the heavy claymore+10, and you can swing it more, and it has OK reach, but the dragon rarely lets you hit it more than once or twice before moving, anyway. That's why I suspect beating it could ultimately prove boring. Hit once, dodge, wait, hit once, dodge, wait, heal, repeat. And any mistake can seriously set you back if not take you out instantly. My biggest frustration is just finding its head again after dodging. There are times I could have sworn I had a clear shot, but my sword just did not connect. Of course, clearly plenty of people have no problem with Midir, so there's that, too.

I had tons of trouble with Nameless King, too, but there seemed more incentive to do that one. He had some similar issues, though. Fighting the camera, plus a super boring arena. I wish the bonfire was right outside the Midir drop down.

It's definitely a fight where you're only going to get in one hit at a time, maaaaybe two (can't remember, but there's maybe only one or two moves of his where you're safe to keep swinging afterward).

If you can get the hang of controlling your camera without locking on, I think that helps (although you can always lock on once you're going in for a swing, and then unlock again).

I also had a big incentive to beat him, because that's the only way you get to BE the boss in another spot (instead of Halflight, who you probably already fought?).

Yeah, that was easy. Offline, at least.

Exanima - a broken rag doll physics Dark Souls - sounds like a fever dream and this video makes it seem like it plays like one too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAE9k33Qbag

Playing this on PC in 2020 is wild with the hacking. An invader used what's apparently called a "monster vac" hack on me, summoning like a dozen enemies at a time to teleport right on top of me. The third time he did it it even included the nearest boss (it was the rotten tree boss). Managed to survive (somehow the boss just kinda died on its own?), but I'm not looking forward to anything like that happening again, and I hope it didn't break my saved game in some way that doesn't become apparent for another 20 hours or something.

Damn, I play on PS4, and I think of I was on pc I would constantly be wondering if people were stat-hacking or giving themselves tons of divine blessings and siegbraus, even aside from the crazy stuff.

All the way at the end of this game and I finally beat a (non-NPC) invader. Great, I'm about 1-and-15 against invaders!

so... i'm supposed to defeat Ludex Gundyr and ffs he's harder than the last boss in Witcher 3. People say this game is fun?

i think one of the main issues i have is controlling the camera at the same time as fighting him. he never seems to be in my field of vision, so it is very hard to know what's happening

Are you locked on to him? (don't mean to patronize, but he's near the beginning of the game, and sometimes people miss fundamental mechanics. I remember reading about a guy that played some big open world thing and somehow missed that fast traveling was a thing, so he played the entire game traveling from place to place in "real time")

This is the first boss, right? I don't remember him being that bad, though I guess it depends what your starting class/weapon is. Iirc circle/strafe and stab in the butt is a strategy that almost always works with this game. Circle, stab, dodge/move, repeat.

It throws you in the deep end, don't get discouraged. Blocking can help depending on your starting gear, locking on will help with the camera, although his phase 2 can make it tricky. Don't attack until you're out of stamina, attack two or three times and then strafe to the right (because at least in phase 1, his weapon is in his right hand), repeat.

Also if you picked cleric, the Perseverance weapon art makes it easy.

(congrats Dan, now you can start invading! Best way to learn. Well, maybe dueling is the best way to start, although they're very different.)

ahhhh, maybe i have to lock on! didn't realise you could do this. i'll try tonight and see how i get on

Locking on, in many cases, is how you win the battle against the camera.

thank god i asked. would have been a very long, difficult and painful game had i not known

lol, i remember the day after weeks of playing when i discovered lock on

happy memories of when I first played DS1 and managed to toggle off the HUD, meaning there was no indication of health levels, stamina, equipment etc. I didn't last very long!

Haha. I know I've said this before, but it's also good to be able to play without lock-on and control the camera manually, like when there are multiple opponents, or certain bosses (often very large ones that mess with the camera, ones that can fly or teleport across the arena rapidly, or consist of multiple enemies). But no need to worry about that at the beginning.

Also weapons that have a wide horizontal sweep (like straight swords) make it a lot easier to play without lock-on. Lock-on is pretty essential for thrust-type weapons like spears.

update: ffs still impossible

also I've used all my firebombs now so I'm double fucked.

PS, what's the significance of the Souls you pick up and then lose when you die?

What did you pick for your starting class?

You use souls to level up and to buy things. I wouldn't worry about them too much, they come and go. It's a good idea to use them after defeating a boss though, especially early on.

If have 1000 souls and then you die, you get a chance to pick up those 1000 souls. But if you die again before picking them up, they're gone.

I DID IT
I DID IT!!!
I FUCKIN DID IT!!!
WHOO WHOOP!!

starting class though?

I'm a Knight

now do it a hundred more times and then real dark souls begins

Haha YES, there it is.

Knight is an excellent starting class, you get a 100% block shield and a straight sword, really you could stick with that for the rest of the game.

accidentally started a fight with a depressed nihilistic Knight who is quite a toughy nonetheless. determined to beat him

sounds like Hawkwood. This one's not such a big deal, but in the future try really hard not to attack non-hostile NPCs, as you can miss out on lots of questlines and goodies that way

Ha, if you want to you can probably ignore him, there's eventually a way to get him back on your good side. Or just kill him for practice, he's a jerk anyway.

xp

Btw dl, if you're playing on PS4, let me know if you want a phantom sometime!

(assuming you're playing online)

right, onto the high tower. nobody told me there'd be a massive fire breathing dragon!!

i am on PS4 Jordan. I don't have PS Plus, is that what you mean though?

ah no I don't think I can play online alas

Ah yeah, too bad. I love the multiplayer aspect of the game, but it's still totally worth playing through offline.

Verdict on this game so far: Infuriating, addictive, very creepy*, difficult.

Haven't worked out if this is for me yet, but I like how it keeps me in my seat. I seem to make tiny little bits of progress each time; and when it comes to an obstacle such as that boss, I feel compelled to beat him, despite my heart pounding in frustration.

It came bundled with Witcher 3 when I bought my PS4. But other than a few aesthetic similarities it seems to be quite a different thing in terms of gameplay: It's much more of a tactical action game than a story-based RPG. More in common with things like Celeste than other third person adventures,in many ways. I can see why people like to speed run it.

*Altogether I'm finding the setting and design very satisfying, if rather grim. Dank labyrinths of stone and marble, dead-eyed wraiths attacking me, NPCs intoning gnomic wisdom in detached voices. Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

I know I felt this way about Witcher 3 when I was first trudging around Velen, and was thankful for the moments of light relief, especially once I got to Novigrad and later Toussaint. DS3 strikes me as a very serious, unfriendly and unforgiving game by comparison.