DARK SOULS: if you need me i'll be in an induced coma so mvrch comes tomorrow

It's interesting to read my "first time playing a From game" from four years ago. In the intervening four years I think I've always been playing a From game in some capacity.

Funny to read/remember too that I was using a Chaos Gargoyle's Halberd on my first play through. I totally forgot that was the case! I've been using one again on my current run and thinking I was ~so~ original.

I also can't imagine that I ever played this game, on my first play through, without any rolling capability. I played Bloodborne after this game and so shields were not an option, it's all rolling all the time

Anyway, my current DS1 run is, again, a dexterity build, enjoying the incredibly overpowered Balder's Side Sword, and sometimes the Chaos Gargoyle's Halberd and sometimes the Silver Knight Spear. The Balder's Side Sword is an unhappy choice for me, it looks like a 12-year old's woodshop project, but it's just too fun and powerful for me to really commit to any other option.

I'm light rolling while wearing silver knight greaves and gloves, and the cute-as-hell Antiquated Blouse. Great look

I don't know if I ever actually got the Balder Side Sword to drop, although I know it was a favorite of many and that most DS3 straight swords use the moveset.

The BSS has a fast and supremely overpowered R2 poke. There isn’t any sword like it in Elden Ring that I know of (although the thrusting sword class of sword in ER is far more powerful than in DS1, so it doesn’t matter)

It’s kinda crazy how unbalanced it is, to be honest? Also interesting in DS1 is just how much more valuable/necessary shields are

I got totally stuck on this in Blight Town - my only good sword got blunted and I didn't have a repair kit to fix it. Not being able to warp from bonfires is the thing that sucks about this game

I argue the opposite, I think it is what makes the first half of DS1 so compelling :)

I got totally stuck on this in Blight Town - my only good sword got blunted and I didn't have a repair kit to fix it.

happened to me on my PS3 save, and managed to fight/run my way out of outside Queen Quelags area with one of the big clubs you pick up from the trolls that I didn't have the stats for, all the way to the blacksmith outside Sens fortress.

the feeling when I actually went above ground, was a great feeling, rarely replicated in video games since...

So totally agree, once you can warp between bonfires this game loses some magic.

Fought Gwyn. Parried to critical, parried to critical, dodged a grab, parried to critical, parried to critical, he died.

Was even swapping to my Chaos Rapier for maximum criticality

Didn’t even take a hit! How times have changed

So tonight I set myself the task of escaping from Blight Town with a broken main weapon. It took me well over two hours, but coming back up for air, getting to Firelink and getting the usual rude response from the Crestfallen Warrior was like getting out of prison after six years

Ironically, I'd unbeknownst already unlocked the back route into Blight Town via Valley Of The Drakes before getting cold feet and turning the other way. Essentially I had fought my way all the way down there when I could have gone the quick route

Now what though? Do I really have to go all the way back down there? I HAAATE it there

Haha. That's an essential experience though. Do you just have the boss left? It does connect to a couple other areas, not sure if you've reached them yet (and the back way is much faster).

Yeah just gotta kill the boss.

Oh man, getting back on solid ground and using loads of titanite shards to upgrade my once broken weapon to a +7 is a revelation! I've gone from dying to single firedogs to being able to slice my way through the Blighttown swamp with ease. I'm so glad I persevered.

In my head, this is perhaps the toughest of the Soulsborne games I've played so far, which is saying something. Bloodborne was really tough mind you. Had no real trouble with Demons Souls.

It also feels like the grittiest, but maybe that's down to the older graphics. Once you get to Blighttown and other darker areas, everything looks like a photocopy of a photocopy on high contrast, which gives it all a murky patina

Haha, I’m glad you got to experience one of those desperate, broken crawls out of hell. Lived a similar situation, chronicled above surely, and it’s still one of my favorite gaming moments.

I’m always curious to see how DS1 hits for people working backwards to it.

Just beat the Quelaag boss on third go. I feel like I've tamed a runaway horse or something. Yay Dark Souls!

So no one told me about Sean's Fortress. Talk about out of the frying pan...

Stayed up way too late last night on this level - it's huuuge, the enemy placement is unforgiving, and the lack of bonfires and shortcuts is just plain cruel.

I can't wait to get the widget that lets me fast travel to bonfires. It feels like I've been playing this game for a pretty good while and yet I suspect I'm barely halfway through.

It's strange coming to this after Demon's Souls though. Granted, I was playing the Remake, but there are aspects of Demon's that just make sense which don't appear in DS1, like bonfire fast-travel from the start, or a less obfuscated central hub.

Sean's Fortress lol

from memory by the end of it you do get some useful shortcuts? Though not that many! And there's exploration to be done in its basement, if you can face that

xp - lol autocorrect. It'll be Sean's Fortress from now on. Same as Margit will always be Margaret

I didn't dare explore the Pit! I rescued Big Hat Logan, but died to two lizardmen after a long time traipsing around the marble mazes.

Here's a vid of my exploits and me muttering unintelligably into my controller microphone if anyone is really that bored:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78r2_t1uTF0

You probably know already but there's a very useful hidden bonfire in Sean's fortress.

It's strange coming to this after Demon's Souls though. Granted, I was playing the Remake, but there are aspects of Demon's that just make sense which don't appear in DS1, like bonfire fast-travel from the start, or a less obfuscated central hub.

It's the giant interconnected world, traversable without fast travel, that's the big achievement of this game. It makes it feel so much more immersive and less video game-y. It's also what's so amazing about Elden Ring, even though fast travel is kinda necessary for crazy scale of the world. I loved watching someone's no-fast travel blind playthrough when ER first came out.

ah yes I remember now, worth seeking out by looking for messages if you've not found it already DL

Either I've not seen it or I passed it by! Feels like I've gotten pretty far - up past the marble turntable. I'll keep an eye out.

Part of the problem (or the fun) about these games is that you can be knee deep into a level and it's tormenting as to whether you should risk poking around areas like the Pit and risk being killed or just keep on until you get to the next bonfire.

Lol, I think it involves a hidden wall and a drop, so it's easy to miss on your own. One of those things that's totally fair game to look up.

Also it's crazy how you can run through Sean's Fortress in a few minutes once you know where everything is and you're not exploring. That's true of anything in this game, but hits especially hard here since it feels so byzantine and intimidating on your first time through.

I recall farming those first two snake people, and also using an upgraded version of their giant machete as my main weapon.

A lot of people farm one of the knights after you first reach the rooftops for the Balder side sword, but it's a rare drop. Nothing too crazy, just a good straight sword with a nice moveset (same one that was used for most of the straight swords in DS3, I believe).

I enjoyed that video DL, especially your deliberate approach, really takes me back to the early days of my DS obsession. :)

I love the Baldur’s Side Sword. I usually farm it next to the chapel.

The upstairs bonfire is easy to find, just look right once you’re dealing with the firebombs, drop off the edge and you’ll land right on it :)

Hehe, I'm not sure what you mean about "deliberate" - barely scraping through maybe? I had a look online for that bonfire but I think it's a bit further from where I managed to get. I saw someone speed run their way to that bonfire in just a couple of minutes. No idea how they managed to so boldly roll through guillotines and man-serpent crowded corridors, but it's possible (apparently).

I spent about an hour yesterday mostly grinding those two man serpents at the start and one of them dropped the Man Serpent Sword, whcih is massive and unwieldy. Honestly, there are so many weapons in this game which just seem kind of useless and have better alternatives. But anyway, fun to have.

I also managed to grab the lightning spear from the pit and upgraded it, so I'm going to use that for a while.

So obvious once you see it, but if you don't know about it you're so freaked out by the firebombs and not wanting to die after making it all the way to the rooftops, there's no time for careful exploration. FROM!!!

xp

Yeah it's juuust after where your video stops, I think.

damnit

Sean's weirdly a totally chill dude, dunno what the story is with his Fortress.

you see him occasionally, just wandering round in his tatty robe and tiki mug.

he knows all the names of the man serpents guarding the stairwells,

"hey Sean...."

"Hey Rhojax, how's your kid getting on with that new retainer huh?"

Haha, that's definitely the vibe I get. "NTS, oil the squeaky death guillotine. Hey Ghorbox, just resting your eyes there mate? Yeah I see you..."

Very pleased to report I reached the bonfire. Whew! If I hadn't known about it I definitely wouldn't have found it

ANORRRRR LONDO!

I've heard so much about this place.

It's interesting coming to these older games (Dark Souls / Demon's Souls) and seeing exactly where Elden Ring gets its DNA from.

There are areas of these games that correlate directly to each other. Boletaria / Undead Burg / High Wall of Lothric / Stormveil. Anor Londo / Leyndell. Valley of Defilement / Blight Town. Stonefang Tunnel / Ruin Strewn Precipe etc... And yet it never feels like theey're just rehashing themselves. They're more like callbacks or self-references.

Anor Londo features IMO the most difficult bit of any of the Soulsborne games, so much so that first time around I had to give up for a while before going back

Welp, that's been my experience with almost every area so far

All of these games (with the exception of Bloodborne and Sekiro, though not entirely) are essentially the same games over and over again, with subtle tweaks and refinements. That's something I like about them. Oh, here's the poison swamp, here's the fire lake, here's the palace in the sky, etc. They all feel thematically linked, but are all different enough to feel distinct and fresh.

Anor Londo features IMO the most difficult bit of any of the Soulsborne games, so much so that first time around I had to give up for a while before going back

And it's funny how much of the difficulty of that bit is psychological, and the placement. Assuming you haven't spent much time in the first half of the game fighting black knights and working on your parry skills, you're faced with this silver knight in a high-stress situation without any room to circle around or maneuver. But after that, there are silver knights all over the place and you get very used to their moves and timing.

Or of course you could just block and step backwards so that he falls off the ledge, lol.

yeah, it's a proper sweaty palms moment when you get that far, and then a bit later you wonder what all the stress was about!

My most-recent replay of DS1, having become "good" at From Games, I just cruised on through, beat every boss first try, basically didn't die at all, even Kalameet was a softie...

...except for the archer run. It's amazing how bizarrely arbitrary that moment is. Just when you get a handle on facing your adversary, you get an arrow in the back.

Huh! I rarely get shot at by the other archer, if you hoof it to the knight on the right it usually puts you out of aggro range from the one on the left, I thought.

Update: I thought for a minute I was really smart examining that gigantic painting

ha!

*sigh*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERcN6frKuB8

lol, good stuff dl. Congrats on (presumably) escaping the painting though! No mean feat.

I took the coward's way out. Killed the pukey dragon and spared the furry fox lady. I'll come back to them

yeah watched your video DL and... it do be like that

Finally I'm at Ornstein and Smough. Only given them a couple of cursory shots but mostly I've been grinding to improve my weapons as the Lightning Claymore I have felt too big and slow to deal with these guys.

So I've managed to upgrade a Silver Knight Straight Sword to +5 and try them a few times before I use humanity on summoning Solaire.

So far I've hardly used any humanity, save to kindle bonfires. is that a normal thing to do in this game, or do people run around unhollowed all the time? Is there even any point if I don't really care for PVP?