It does take you back to the days when games were actually a challenge and you got some satisfaction from finally beating that boss or moving through that area. Even the environment can kill you, so you actually have to think about which area you're going to conduct the fight in, rather than just rushing in and destroying dozens of enemies at once, as is the case with most games these days. Still, if you have patience and level up your character, it really isn't so difficult. I'd say it is more that it forces you to think, rather than being insanely hard.
Yep this is true, I think the "difficulty" of the Dark Souls games is misunderstood, they're not actually that difficult imo but they do require you to concentrate, to be patient, to analyse situations, to learn from mistakes. Fail to do all of this and yes, players will be punished, but for players who are prepared to commit to what the games ask of you they are brilliantly rewarding.
Personally I love this because it means that you need to be absolutely focused on the game when playing, no distractions, there aren't many games that demand such a level of concentration as Dark Souls.
Last night I really got stuck in after I started a new character (Knight), I had been playing a swordsman and I joined the covenant of Champions without realising that makes it considerably harder and subsequently wasted a lot of souls by not managing to get back to them when I died. The mobs started not to respawn and I realised a restart was really my best bet.
Regarding the mobs not respawning (after 12 kills I believe), is there any disadvantage to repeatedly clearing an area until they don't respawn, as long as you don't loose the souls it makes no difference does it, or is my logic flawed?
Last night I really got stuck in after I started a new character (Knight), I had been playing a swordsman and I joined the covenant of Champions without realising that makes it considerably harder and subsequently wasted a lot of souls by not managing to get back to them when I died. The mobs started not to respawn and I realised a restart was really my best bet.
Regarding the mobs not respawning (after 12 kills I believe), is there any disadvantage to repeatedly clearing an area until they don't respawn, as long as you don't loose the souls it makes no difference does it, or is my logic flawed?
No, there is no disadvantage, if you aren't losing all the souls. I've killed them over and over in certain areas to get souls, or to make it easier to run through the area.
There is an item called a 'bonfire ascetic', which if burnt at the area bonfire, will return the mobs, at a harder difficulty, and they are also worth more souls, but be careful where you use it, because of the difficulty raise.
They will also return, if you decide to do a second playthrough. Called New Game+, it's more difficult, but you keep all your levels and items.
No, there is no disadvantage, if you aren't losing all the souls. I've killed them over and over in certain areas to get souls, or to make it easier to run through the area.
There is an item called a 'bonfire ascetic', which if burnt at the area bonfire, will return the mobs, at a harder difficulty, and they are also worth more souls, but be careful where you use it, because of the difficulty raise.
They will also return, if you decide to do a second playthrough. Called New Game+, it's more difficult, but you keep all your levels and items.
I thought that was the case just had a nagging feeling that I was possibly crippling myself in some way in this first run through. It's just a strange new mechanic to the game after playing Demon Souls and Dark Souls for well over 100 hours each it's something new to get used to. The biggest problem with this game is the lack of time I have to play it, stupid real life getting in the way!
In terms of pure souls farming btw, I'm finding by far the easiest way to do this (and the most fun for me) is to help out with boss fights as a summon, just put my summon symbol down near one of the boss fog gates and I usually get someone calling on my services within a minute or so.
Has the added advantages of providing good practice on bosses that I might not have beaten myself yet (although to be fair I do try them myself first just to get a feel for the fights, I'd feel a bit bad about being summoned to help someone else without at least having some idea of the fight myself first), plus there seems to be a chance of returning as human after helping someone else kill a boss so you can do this to get human form without having to use an effigy.
So I put my summon sign down and get summoned multiple times until I come back as human and then summon people myself to get my own boss kill done having had plenty of practice on the fight, good fun and a pretty efficient way of getting bosses down.
Loving this game! I've stayed as far away from guides as possible and while I may be making a number of mistakes I'm still enjoynig taking my time and making slow progress through the game world. It actually reminds me of Demon's Souls far more than the original Dark Souls for some reason.
In terms of pure souls farming btw, I'm finding by far the easiest way to do this (and the most fun for me) is to help out with boss fights as a summon, just put my summon symbol down near one of the boss fog gates and I usually get someone calling on my services within a minute or so.
Has the added advantages of providing good practice on bosses that I might not have beaten myself yet (although to be fair I do try them myself first just to get a feel for the fights, I'd feel a bit bad about being summoned to help someone else without at least having some idea of the fight myself first), plus there seems to be a chance of returning as human after helping someone else kill a boss so you can do this to get human form without having to use an effigy.
So I put my summon sign down and get summoned multiple times until I come back as human and then summon people myself to get my own boss kill done having had plenty of practice on the fight, good fun and a pretty efficient way of getting bosses down.
I do the exact same thing
Shame it's almost impossible to get summoned fighting old bosses on someone else's game, or to play co-op with friends who are much lower level than you, though I see why they did it. We even both had the ring too, and set it to the same god, but no luck
Have to say though, the amount of depth in this game is incredible
I just got a suit of armour that lets me breathe fire and shoot out shockwaves, and a sword that fires a blue shockwave out as it's heavy attack and that chameleon spell is hilarious for PVP
If I got this game would I be able to play co op with some of you guys or can you only play with random people?
It's random really. You can buy a ring in game that if you both choose the same God, it increases the chances, but if there is a gulf in levels between you both, it is unlikely. The game is designed to be challenging- it's to stop high level players joining you and just decimating everything in their path, which makes sense, but at the same time, it's frustrating not being able to play with other lower level players.
I would still get the game though, it realty is good. At first, I wasn't sure if it was for me, it seemed really difficult and there was so much information to take in, but after a couple of hours of play, it just clicked- you level up, and things get much easier. Other people seem to say the same thing about this series. Now I'd say it's one of the best games I've played in that last couple of years. It has a sort of odd atmosphere, like devil may cry or dragons dogma and like the latter, it has some really creative online elements.
I had to laugh when I joined a certain covenant, and now when I join games to try and take down bosses together, we all simultaneously do our covenant pose at each other, quite amusing or the creative use of the restrictive floor messages, like beneath the girl in majula, someone had written 'hurrah for chest' Seriously, would you get that in any other game?
Thanks for the advice. I went for xbox 360 copy in the end. I have played the first game and this feels similar. Getting a bit lost at the moment, and I havent got an estus flask yet.
So 2 weeks on from getting this and I'm still absolutely loving it. I've put around 40 hours in on my first character (Str/Fai build) and I think I'm still only about half way through the game, but I've also been playing around with 2 or 3 other characters to re-do some of the earlier levels and try out different stuff.
Had an interesting experience with an invasion on one of these new chars yesterday, I'd only been playing the character around 3-4 hours (was about lvl 30) and got invaded by some guy who was clearly way, way higher level than I was, he was fully kitted out in high level equipment and using all sorts of high level buffs etc. So I'm not sure how level restrictions on invasions are currently working, all seems a bit strange. I've read somewhere it's supposed to go by "soul memory" (i.e. total souls earned) rather than level but there must be some bugs/cheats/whatever with it as there's no way this guy should have been able to invade a 3 hour old character if it was working properly.
(To be fair to the guy he must have realised I was much lower level, after some initial sparring he stopped trying to kill me and dropped some nice gear on the ground for me to pick up instead. And then he killed me. )
So 2 weeks on from getting this and I'm still absolutely loving it. I've put around 40 hours in on my first character (Str/Fai build) and I think I'm still only about half way through the game, but I've also been playing around with 2 or 3 other characters to re-do some of the earlier levels and try out different stuff.
Had an interesting experience with an invasion on one of these new chars yesterday, I'd only been playing the character around 3-4 hours (was about lvl 30) and got invaded by some guy who was clearly way, way higher level than I was, he was fully kitted out in high level equipment and using all sorts of high level buffs etc. So I'm not sure how level restrictions on invasions are currently working, all seems a bit strange. I've read somewhere it's supposed to go by "soul memory" (i.e. total souls earned) rather than level but there must be some bugs/cheats/whatever with it as there's no way this guy should have been able to invade a 3 hour old character if it was working properly.
(To be fair to the guy he must have realised I was much lower level, after some initial sparring he stopped trying to kill me and dropped some nice gear on the ground for me to pick up instead. And then he killed me. )
It annoys me a bit when you get invaded. I have a different set of spells I use for PVP than the normal game, and half the time, I'll be at the end of a level, with hardly anything left, and they'll come up and stab me in the back, grr! They also have the advantage of none of the enemies attacking them and they are never hollow, so it's a tad unfair. I don't mind PVP when both players actually want to do it. I was having duals on that bridge near the iron keep and winning most of the time. It's because I actively looked up how to get all the best sorcerer gear
It does go on soul memory as far as I know, so you will be fighting people of a similar level (or at least, you should be), but if they've been using bonfire ascetics to get ng+ items, it could very well be that they are more tooled up than you. I know that's how I got some of the best stuff in the game, by using the bonfire ascetics. One bit, I must have used 3 or 4 ascetics, just to get several copies of a powerful spell you only get one copy of usually. That's because when you use the ascetic, all the items in that area respawn, some bosses drop awesome items they wouldn't usually, and sometimes the soul you get from beating them is different, and can be traded for better weapons, than a level 1 bonfire.
Also, make sure to infuse your weapons. That's one bit that confused me at first. For example, I had a staff which I presumed was already magic, but I could infuse it further with magic (?) :P and now it's even more powerful. If you're doing a strength/ faith build, try infusing with lightning or raw, if you haven't already.
It annoys me a bit when you get invaded. I have a different set of spells I use for PVP than the normal game, and half the time, I'll be at the end of a level, with hardly anything left, and they'll come up and stab me in the back, grr! They also have the advantage of none of the enemies attacking them and they are never hollow, so it's a tad unfair. I don't mind PVP when both players actually want to do it. I was having duals on that bridge near the iron keep and winning most of the time. It's because I actively looked up how to get all the best sorcerer gear
It does go on soul memory as far as I know, so you will be fighting people of a similar level (or at least, you should be), but if they've been using bonfire ascetics to get ng+ items, it could very well be that they are more tooled up than you. I know that's how I got some of the best stuff in the game, by using the bonfire ascetics. One bit, I must have used 3 or 4 ascetics, just to get several copies of a powerful spell you only get one copy of usually. That's because when you use the ascetic, all the items in that area respawn, some bosses drop awesome items they wouldn't usually, and sometimes the soul you get from beating them is different, and can be traded for better weapons, than a level 1 bonfire.
Also, make sure to infuse your weapons. That's one bit that confused me at first. For example, I had a staff which I presumed was already magic, but I could infuse it further with magic (?) :P and now it's even more powerful. If you're doing a strength/ faith build, try infusing with lightning or raw, if you haven't already.
Tbh invasions have been really rare on my game that's it's actually quite exciting when they do happen! I think I've only ever had 3 happen in probably 60+ hours of gameplay. Which is a bit strange, I was expecting more.
I've not used bonfire ascetics at all yet in my first playthrough but it's something I will probably look at doing more on subsequent playthroughs once I've identified key items or spells that I can use them to get - as you say it sounds like a great way of getting a key advantage early on in game.
I've also unlocked the weaponsmith who can infuse weapons in the last few days so been playing around with that a bit, my str/faith guy is now using a +10 Lightning Claymore seems to do the job nicely. But now I really want to spend more time playing with a hexer char I started as I love the idea of infusing a weapon with Dark and then also using Dark weapon buffs on it.
Tbh invasions have been really rare on my game that's it's actually quite exciting when they do happen! I think I've only ever had 3 happen in probably 60+ hours of gameplay. Which is a bit strange, I was expecting more.
I've not used bonfire ascetics at all yet in my first playthrough but it's something I will probably look at doing more on subsequent playthroughs once I've identified key items or spells that I can use them to get - as you say it sounds like a great way of getting a key advantage early on in game.
I've also unlocked the weaponsmith who can infuse weapons in the last few days so been playing around with that a bit, my str/faith guy is now using a +10 Lightning Claymore seems to do the job nicely. But now I really want to spend more time playing with a hexer char I started as I love the idea of infusing a weapon with Dark and then also using Dark weapon buffs on it.
So much stuff still to try!
I heard someone say you had to be fully human to be invaded, and the player takes your humanity. Can't say either way because I can't remember if I was human or not when I was last invaded.
I did the bonfire ascetics on my first playthrough, just to get the items. I was worried it'd be way too hard at first but actually, the difference in difficulty is quite subtle. The enemies hit a bit harder and have a bit more health, but that's about it. I could still two shot the boss at the end with soul geyser
Yeah, I sort of want to try dual wielding this crazy crossbow I have that has rapid fire, once I get another one. I've seen loads of people use it in pvp. Some hexes are quite powerful, I don't like that some of the best ones cost souls to cast though. Soul spear seems as effective, and I should get crystal soul spear if I can kill a particular boss that'll now be at ng++ difficulty :D
Anyone who hasn't picked it up, its £25 in Tesco now and a few pence less on Amazon at the moment.
For that price, despite me getting frustrated with the previous games a must.
Anyone still playing this? I'm loving it. I've just got into PvP and I'm trying to find a style I like, been called a noob for using poison when they were using corrosion lmao
The reason I haven't bought this game is because of playing Demon Souls.
I enjoyed the basic concept of the gameplay. It was hard, you had to learn the attacks and where they came from. That was fine. I didn't mind dying as that is part of playing games. But the deal breaker for the game was the fact that when you did die you went straight back to the beginning of the level and had to play through the stuff that you had mastered.
I wouldn't have minded but most enemies I could learn to kill with one or two strokes then one mistake and back to the beginning. I would have preferred harder enemies but a better system when you died.
The reason I haven't bought this game is because of playing Demon Souls.
I enjoyed the basic concept of the gameplay. It was hard, you had to learn the attacks and where they came from. That was fine. I didn't mind dying as that is part of playing games. But the deal breaker for the game was the fact that when you did die you went straight back to the beginning of the level and had to play through the stuff that you had mastered.
I wouldn't have minded but most enemies I could learn to kill with one or two strokes then one mistake and back to the beginning. I would have preferred harder enemies but a better system when you died.
Strictly one for PS+ if at all for me.
They have a checkpoint system now with bonfires being relatively close together. It works quite well I think.
This is coming to PS4 and Xbox One on 3rd April 2015 with improved graphics, all the DLC and other improvements suck as an increase in multiplayer to 6 players
I'll need good reason to pay out for this again. It is a great game but I'm going to need more than just shinier graphics seeing as the extras are coming to the ps3 for free.
Comments
Yep this is true, I think the "difficulty" of the Dark Souls games is misunderstood, they're not actually that difficult imo but they do require you to concentrate, to be patient, to analyse situations, to learn from mistakes. Fail to do all of this and yes, players will be punished, but for players who are prepared to commit to what the games ask of you they are brilliantly rewarding.
Personally I love this because it means that you need to be absolutely focused on the game when playing, no distractions, there aren't many games that demand such a level of concentration as Dark Souls.
Regarding the mobs not respawning (after 12 kills I believe), is there any disadvantage to repeatedly clearing an area until they don't respawn, as long as you don't loose the souls it makes no difference does it, or is my logic flawed?
No, there is no disadvantage, if you aren't losing all the souls. I've killed them over and over in certain areas to get souls, or to make it easier to run through the area.
There is an item called a 'bonfire ascetic', which if burnt at the area bonfire, will return the mobs, at a harder difficulty, and they are also worth more souls, but be careful where you use it, because of the difficulty raise.
They will also return, if you decide to do a second playthrough. Called New Game+, it's more difficult, but you keep all your levels and items.
I thought that was the case just had a nagging feeling that I was possibly crippling myself in some way in this first run through. It's just a strange new mechanic to the game after playing Demon Souls and Dark Souls for well over 100 hours each it's something new to get used to. The biggest problem with this game is the lack of time I have to play it, stupid real life getting in the way!
Has the added advantages of providing good practice on bosses that I might not have beaten myself yet (although to be fair I do try them myself first just to get a feel for the fights, I'd feel a bit bad about being summoned to help someone else without at least having some idea of the fight myself first), plus there seems to be a chance of returning as human after helping someone else kill a boss so you can do this to get human form without having to use an effigy.
So I put my summon sign down and get summoned multiple times until I come back as human and then summon people myself to get my own boss kill done having had plenty of practice on the fight, good fun and a pretty efficient way of getting bosses down.
I do the exact same thing
Shame it's almost impossible to get summoned fighting old bosses on someone else's game, or to play co-op with friends who are much lower level than you, though I see why they did it. We even both had the ring too, and set it to the same god, but no luck
Have to say though, the amount of depth in this game is incredible
It's random really. You can buy a ring in game that if you both choose the same God, it increases the chances, but if there is a gulf in levels between you both, it is unlikely. The game is designed to be challenging- it's to stop high level players joining you and just decimating everything in their path, which makes sense, but at the same time, it's frustrating not being able to play with other lower level players.
I would still get the game though, it realty is good. At first, I wasn't sure if it was for me, it seemed really difficult and there was so much information to take in, but after a couple of hours of play, it just clicked- you level up, and things get much easier. Other people seem to say the same thing about this series. Now I'd say it's one of the best games I've played in that last couple of years. It has a sort of odd atmosphere, like devil may cry or dragons dogma and like the latter, it has some really creative online elements.
I had to laugh when I joined a certain covenant, and now when I join games to try and take down bosses together, we all simultaneously do our covenant pose at each other, quite amusing
Had an interesting experience with an invasion on one of these new chars yesterday, I'd only been playing the character around 3-4 hours (was about lvl 30) and got invaded by some guy who was clearly way, way higher level than I was, he was fully kitted out in high level equipment and using all sorts of high level buffs etc. So I'm not sure how level restrictions on invasions are currently working, all seems a bit strange. I've read somewhere it's supposed to go by "soul memory" (i.e. total souls earned) rather than level but there must be some bugs/cheats/whatever with it as there's no way this guy should have been able to invade a 3 hour old character if it was working properly.
(To be fair to the guy he must have realised I was much lower level, after some initial sparring he stopped trying to kill me and dropped some nice gear on the ground for me to pick up instead. And then he killed me.
It annoys me a bit when you get invaded. I have a different set of spells I use for PVP than the normal game, and half the time, I'll be at the end of a level, with hardly anything left, and they'll come up and stab me in the back, grr! They also have the advantage of none of the enemies attacking them and they are never hollow, so it's a tad unfair. I don't mind PVP when both players actually want to do it. I was having duals on that bridge near the iron keep and winning most of the time. It's because I actively looked up how to get all the best sorcerer gear
It does go on soul memory as far as I know, so you will be fighting people of a similar level (or at least, you should be), but if they've been using bonfire ascetics to get ng+ items, it could very well be that they are more tooled up than you. I know that's how I got some of the best stuff in the game, by using the bonfire ascetics. One bit, I must have used 3 or 4 ascetics, just to get several copies of a powerful spell you only get one copy of usually. That's because when you use the ascetic, all the items in that area respawn, some bosses drop awesome items they wouldn't usually, and sometimes the soul you get from beating them is different, and can be traded for better weapons, than a level 1 bonfire.
Also, make sure to infuse your weapons. That's one bit that confused me at first. For example, I had a staff which I presumed was already magic, but I could infuse it further with magic (?) :P and now it's even more powerful. If you're doing a strength/ faith build, try infusing with lightning or raw, if you haven't already.
Tbh invasions have been really rare on my game that's it's actually quite exciting when they do happen! I think I've only ever had 3 happen in probably 60+ hours of gameplay. Which is a bit strange, I was expecting more.
I've not used bonfire ascetics at all yet in my first playthrough but it's something I will probably look at doing more on subsequent playthroughs once I've identified key items or spells that I can use them to get - as you say it sounds like a great way of getting a key advantage early on in game.
I've also unlocked the weaponsmith who can infuse weapons in the last few days so been playing around with that a bit, my str/faith guy is now using a +10 Lightning Claymore seems to do the job nicely.
So much stuff still to try!
I heard someone say you had to be fully human to be invaded, and the player takes your humanity. Can't say either way because I can't remember if I was human or not when I was last invaded.
I did the bonfire ascetics on my first playthrough, just to get the items. I was worried it'd be way too hard at first but actually, the difference in difficulty is quite subtle. The enemies hit a bit harder and have a bit more health, but that's about it. I could still two shot the boss at the end with soul geyser
Yeah, I sort of want to try dual wielding this crazy crossbow I have that has rapid fire, once I get another one. I've seen loads of people use it in pvp. Some hexes are quite powerful, I don't like that some of the best ones cost souls to cast though. Soul spear seems as effective, and I should get crystal soul spear if I can kill a particular boss that'll now be at ng++ difficulty
For that price, despite me getting frustrated with the previous games a must.
I enjoyed the basic concept of the gameplay. It was hard, you had to learn the attacks and where they came from. That was fine. I didn't mind dying as that is part of playing games. But the deal breaker for the game was the fact that when you did die you went straight back to the beginning of the level and had to play through the stuff that you had mastered.
I wouldn't have minded but most enemies I could learn to kill with one or two strokes then one mistake and back to the beginning. I would have preferred harder enemies but a better system when you died.
Strictly one for PS+ if at all for me.
They have a checkpoint system now with bonfires being relatively close together. It works quite well I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-cGX0W1Ekg