Souls-likes

[SML]

After six years of waiting for it to sell for more than 50% off, I caved in and bought the Dark Souls remaster. I ended up spending last night and this morning as a co-op summon for the Gargoyles and Capra demon. It's a lot of fun and I'm surprised at how active the servers still are (much better than PTDE felt after the same amount of time).

 

[Lagduf]

It’s been six years since the remaster? Wow.

 

[SML]

Two hours until the DLC trailer for Elden Ring drops.

 

[Average Joe]

Well, that was awesome.

 

[HornheaDD]

Now to wait for Vaati's breakdown on it.

 

[Average Joe]

Might have to start another build/playthrough.

 

[SML]

My (strength/faith) character from the first playthrough has mostly been in mothballs for this, although I've kept using him for the seamless co-op mod (which uses its own saves.)

I have kept leveling up the co-op mod character and messed around with some other weapons but I really like Siluria's Spear. (Although I only started using it after I'd cleared PVE with a Flame-Art Claymore, as seen in the Elden Ring thread.) Going into the DLC I'll probably swap to the Blasphemous Blade when the spear feels too slow.

That's probably just what that sick snakey-looking lanky bastard wants though. My blaspehmous blade, I mean.

 

[Average Joe]

I have a pure Strength Hammer build as my main with 260 hours into it and then a pure Sorcery build that has over 100.

Kind of think I'd like to take something fresh into the DLC with a build I haven't done yet--maybe Faith this time since I haven't ever touched that in any Souls game before.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Why are games of pure exploration and skill that treat the player like a kid about to be dickpunched off the cab by an older kid at the arcade so rare nowadays? God bless FromSoftware but we need more.

 

[Lagduf]

Might have to start another build/playthrough.

Im wondering if I should do the same. Beat the game with a sorcery build on my first/only playthrough.

 

[Average Joe]

Im wondering if I should do the same. Beat the game with a sorcery build on my first/only playthrough.

Started a Faith build right after I posted that lol

My other playthroughs I didn't read any guides or anything, but I am for this one.

 

[Lagduf]

I kinda want to do a katana/bow dex build. Maybe even dagger?

 

[Average Joe]

Never even touched a Dagger or Bow in this game, but I did just grab the Uchigatana and that thing is nice so far.

 

[Average Joe]

Godrick The Grafted downed on the first shot.

I remember fighting this dude for HOURS one my first run. Crazy how slow and predictable his moves are compared to the shit you deal with later on--he's basically moving in slow-mo.

His second cutscene is still probably one of my favorite moments in all of gaming even if he is a mocked demi-god chump.

 

[Tron]

Now to wait for Vaati's breakdown on it.

 

[SML]

After six years of waiting for it to sell for more than 50% off, I caved in and bought the Dark Souls remaster. I ended up spending last night and this morning as a co-op summon for the Gargoyles and Capra demon. It's a lot of fun and I'm surprised at how active the servers still are (much better than PTDE felt after the same amount of time).

Fucked up going through Sen's and picked up the lightning spear (brought me to WL +10, out of range for my earlier summoning spots) but I got lucky and had a Halberd drop from the second (and last) gargoyle in Anor Londo, which I brought up to lightning +5.

Decided to go ahead and level up endurance and vitality until I got to 46, since elemental infusions don't scale.

I've cleared the base game (except for Gwyndolin and Priscilla) and I'm in a good range for most of the second half. Mostly put my sign down at Iron Golem and O+S (switching to a +5 chaos great scythe for those two), but I've also done the Four Kings once or twice.

I already had this experience on my second playthrough with a sorceror but it's still very funny to me to melt bosses who I struggled with so much the first time through.

Next time I probably won't bother with endurance, but who doesn't want to summon Tarkus?

 

[Average Joe]

I still need to give that a proper go.

I got the Switch version when it came out, but I just wasn't in the mood for Souls at that time and haven't touched it for more than a few hours.

Just beat Rennala who once again was way too easy for my liking, but I think her fight is one of my favorites due to the final stage environment. Did a quick respec since I was just dumping everything into Faith and Vigor, so now that I have an idea of how I'm playing this I tweaked the stats a bit better.

 

[jro]

Im wondering if I should do the same. Beat the game with a sorcery build on my first/only playthrough.

I used the ol' Moonveil my first time around on PS5 then started a new playthrough on PC aiming to go for Rivers of Blood but I just got brickwalled at, jeez, Godrick? Someplace else early maybe? Been debating just waiting to start another brand new, very different build playthrough on PC when Erdtree comes out or maybe will load up my NG+ on PS5 for it.

I still can't quite put my finger on it, but ER doesn't pull me back in like the other From games do, Sekiro notwithstanding similarly.

Re: DS1 Remaster - I've finished 1, I dunno, 4 or 5 times, but my last run, on PC, was as mage, and I somehow managed to get to Sif with only the first offensive spell. The guy that teaches you Great Homing (I think that's its name roughly?) is nowhere to be found, so I sit there and try little plinky pew pew magic or Uchitagana, neither will do it with that double spin. I'll pick it up again and get serious sometime I suppose. I remember doing a late-life playthrough of Demon's Souls Remake with Royalty in which it took me forever to pick up on how to properly abuse magic, still yet to get that sense on any of the others. Feels like if you come into them with a melee-first mindset magic takes a while to click.

 

[SML]

I jumped back over to Dark Souls 2 before I try to tackle the DLC this time. (I already made it past the Sanctuary Guardian, but my infused halberds aren't going to do me a lot of good against the DLC bosses.)

I'm not loving the way it feels to play as a mage. Affinity (hex version of Homing Soulmass) is the first spell that feels like it really has a significant punch, but I don't want to run to safety, cast, and walk up to enemies over and over. I also didn't expect I'd have more trouble with crowd control as a mage vs. the dex build I took through the game the first time through. (

The cast times are rough, too. I now understand why every mage who summoned me for dragon covenant duels tried to ambush me during my first run.

I like a lot about DS2, or at least the concept of DS2. Tonally, it's good. Aldia, hollowing as dementia, etc. However, the things people complain about are harder to ignore on this run. The expansiveness and openness of the world aren't as striking now that Elden Ring is there for comparison.

Elden Ring feels like it would be an awful lot of work to go through again. Maybe the new Sekiro-style leveling in Shadow, however that's supposed to work, will also bring with it the ability to revisit boss fights that Sekiro had.

I've got runs in progress in all the Souls games atm. They're all mage runs, except for my sub-sl50 halberd run in DS1. I just need to get my life together and kill False King Allant without cheesing in Demon's Souls.

Overall I'd say DS1 just keeps holding up, aside from Lost Izalith.

Since Miyazaki probably is going to read this as he plans out his secret "final cut" collection release, here are my notes:

Demon's Souls: Make tendency a little easier to work with. Elevator switch visibility in Stonefang.

DS2: Any tweaks necessary but keep the world and the lore.

DS3: This one is hard to talk about. Mechanically, it's great. When you consider the game's scale and level of detail, it's hard to believe that it came out two years after Dark Souls 2, one year after Bloodborne, and just four months after The Old Hunters DLC.

However, it also feels like it doesn't have an identity of its own. So much of it is an "on steroids" tribute to what came before, including, as good as it is, an encore-medley final boss. The DLCs do a lot to address this, which goes to show that the callbacks themselves aren't the problem, so long as they're used in an interesting way. Ultimately the ending of the series, the one that feels true, has nothing to do with linking the fire, or ending it, or usurping it, but is something much more quiet, eerie, and sublime. In the burning attic of Ariandel chapel, you deliver Gael's blood to his Lady, for her painting.

So, I don't know, maybe figure out a way to better integrate the base game and DLC.

 

[Lagduf]

I really want to give Dark Souls 2 a replay. I think I got through about half of it in 2014 but 2013-2015 was a time I wasn’t doing much gaming so I dropped it and I got rid of all my PS3 stuff years ago.

I’d certainly buy the game again but I’m not spending $40 on it digitally.

 

[Average Joe]

DS2 is still a near complete mystery me.

I've never owned or played it and seen very little of its gameplay.

All I really know is that some people really like and that most people don't like it or even kind of hate it.

 

[SML]

DS2 is still a near complete mystery me.

I've never owned or played it and seen very little of its gameplay.

All I really know is that some people really like and that most people don't like it or even kind of hate it.

It's a good game with some quirks and weird decisions. The second time through the oddest element is the doors. Like the stonesword keys in Elden Ring, there are lockstones that you can use to access doors and secrets, as well as a *different* key item used to unpetrify enemies that block your way. There are traditional illusory walls that disappear when you attack them, but there are *also* three or four hidden doors in the game that only open by walking up to them and hitting the the interact key unprompted. I'd forgotten about that since they don't appear in any other games in the series, to the point that I assumed the messages I came across about hidden doors, etc., were just jokes.

It clicked again for me. Some people say that the original release is better than Scholar of the First Sin, but I've only played SotFS, so I couldn't tell you. The main difference is enemy and item placement, with SotFS having bigger crowds of more aggressive and persistent enemies.

Near the end of this run I installed the lighting engine mod. The results are pretty good. It's still in progress and there are a couple of areas that it currently makes a bit harder (Frozen Outskirts because of the volumetric fog and Shrine of Amana, especially after the singing stops, because of the reflections hiding the lizard men.)

My mage was over-leveled compared to my original melee build at the same point, but I was surprised at how easily (ignore the single remaining Estus charge) I took down the Fume Knight once I gave up on trying to use ranged magic and summons on him.

 

[SML]

If you have Dark Souls 3 on PC you can get a taste of DS2 in the very ambitious-looking Archthrones mod. Heide's Tower of Flame and a desert sorceress from DS2 are in the trailer.

I've seen people import assets from Bloodborne and DS3 into Elden Ring before, mostly for the sake of boss vs. boss videos, but there's something incredibly wild about seeing Elden Ring assets imported into DS3.

This is going to get a C&D, right?

 

[Tung Fu ru]

That looks pretty badass

 

[SML]

It’s too fuckin hard