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

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.

There's almost no levity, ever, but what little there is comes almost exclusively from the messages left by other players (if you think things like "tongue but hole" written next to a corpse draped over a railing is funny) and the slapstick-like humor of a well-chosen gesture during cooperation or invasion. The game itself is relentlessly grim

does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

There's almost no levity, ever

fought any skeletons yet?

there's pelenty of humour sprinkled about in these games than it might seem at first, quoting myself from another souls thread

when you are lured to a shiny and fall into a cartoon death pit trap, when you come back and do get the shiny it's probably a dung pie or something

I found that bit hilarious, because it seems like the sort of troll someone would have left you in a message (treasure ahead! jump here! fake wall!) but for once it's the right thing to do.

I liked this game a lot (even if I skipped two DLC bosses, because one was too difficult and/or tedious and the game was over already. Whenever I finish Ratchet & Clank I think I'll dive into Bloodborne.

/does it ever lighten up at all, I mean, even a little bit?

There's almost no levity, ever/

fought any skeletons yet?

there's pelenty of humour sprinkled about in these games than it might seem at first, quoting myself from another souls thread
_when you are lured to a shiny and fall into a cartoon death pit trap, when you come back and do get the shiny it's probably a dung pie or something_

press A to dunk head on wax

Yeah, one reason why I've taken an extended break from playing "Alien: Isolation" is because it was so relentlessly stressful. Having played DS1 and 3, there were more than a few places where I would feel safe, say, leaving the game on while I went to the bathroom or off to get a snack or something, without having to worry about returning to find myself dead. Sometimes that's because I killed everything, but other times it was just some place where I could chill and admire the view.

there were more than a few places where I would feel safe, say, leaving the game on while I went to the bathroom or off to get a snack or something, without having to worry about returning to find myself dead

Not recommended if you're playing online ;)

well, yeah. no online for me.

I uploaded some of the clips I'd recorded when I had a really dramatic invasion, usually one where it seems like there was no way I was going to win, and it somehow came together. If anyone's curious why I play this game in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXLS6eMcvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbJkJQQBZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcSiFP0eCQw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUofmeS28qA

And then there's this one, where the phantom was invisible the whole time, but that's the only time I've ever experienced that glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unc_Fxbh0Cg

The first one was a squeaker, but it was fun to see the moment where you go from desperate defense to offense.

Ha that was incredibly lucky, I went in there hoping the elevator was active (it wasn't), and somehow cornered the phantom instead of getting cornered myself. No idea why the host didn't attack then.

"you can't win Anakin! I have the high ground!"

Counterintuitively I think the low ground is better in this game! Fighting on stairs is usually not a good idea, but love to swipe at someone's ankles while their sword goes over your head.

yep yep

I love that there are people still working on their *serious dueling skills* in 2020, like on the level of a craft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUa4ODhw038

(I'm not interested in 1v1 duels honor duels, but most invasions eventually end up in a 1v1 situation, so the skills are similar...not the same though, if healing is involved)

Dark Souls = Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts Remake and I claim my fiver

It's nice seeing the game so active pre-Elden Ring. I've certainly played it more than other game, ever.

COVID and "holidays" have had me gaming more than normal, and I'm pleased to say that this game is easily in my top ten ever. I'm flabbergasted, I can't believe how wonderful it is

I struggled around the Dragon Peak area but then I slabbed my main weapon and put five extra levels into my vigour and suddenly the challenge/fun balance was achieved and it was just heavenly

On a whim I summoned a stranger right at the entrance to the Grand Archive and she was an A+ tour guide, we blew through the entire level in one run, she was pointing out the ladders and elevators and making sure I knew what I was doing. I didn't even ask, she just saw what things had been activated and led the way.

I ended up with some 140000 souls as a result and she kindly left the world right in front of the boss gate so I could de-fog the shortcut elevator. I had three Estus left so I went poking around a roof and ran into three flying fat knights who murdered me

And so I hired another stranger to help me with the knights and I got my souls back

At lower levels my PvP experiences were punishing, but by the time I got to Level 80 I was basically trading salvos with every invader until they ran out of Estus

I won, did the Nameless King too (with a stranger's assist), and just have the DLC to look forward to. My boyfriend likes calling them "titty slabs" and "titty chunks". I like cutting off the vendor's farewell dialogue so instead of her saying Ashen One Be Sure To Bring Me More Souls she just says "Ashen One BEESH"