Dark Souls - First Impressions

We'll see. I'd have to get used to the controler too, I haven't played a game with a controller in ages.

You don't need to use a controller since you have the mousefix. The controls might be overwhelming at the beginning because there are so many buttons for different actions and for navigating the menus, but my advice would be to focus only on few buttons first (e.g. blocking, attacking, equipping items, jumping) and ignore the rest until you are comfortable with these few.

It is easier for me to get used to the buttons on a keyboard than the buttons on a controller.
 
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Dark Souls plays better with a gamepad. It's not really even debatable, and that's coming from someone who strongly prefers K+M the vast majority of the time.

On a side note: My PS3 copy of Dark Souls arrived today. Now I just need to find time to play it. :)
 
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Speaking of dickering about,
are you sure you have explored Firelink Shrine thoroughly? ;)
Thanks for this little prompt because at first I was sure that I had, but after a little bit of extra vertical exploration,
realised I'd missed some hidden chests.
One contained a morning-star, which if found early, would certainly be a nice alternative single-handed bludgeoning weapon.

Another update:
After a disastrous couple of attempts to take on Four Kings; I aborted that challenge temporarily and decided to try and explore the Tomb of Giants.
What a wonderfully grim and forboding experience! An intense area full of its own type of menace where the dark plays a vital role. I slowly found my way to the scattered bonfires and kindled them in case it was the last.
The boss fight at the conclusion of this place (Nito) has some superbly sinister atmosphere. However, any reasonably observant player can take advantage of its creeping slowness and weakness to fire. My only point of advice to others would be to make sure you keep your divine weapon; which logically a player should do, if like me, you'd come originally from the Catacombs.

Next, I think I'll try to explore past the misty door at the top of Duke's Archives…

P.S.: If you think I´m spoiling too much, better say it, somehow I´m finding it hard to resist this stuff.
It's all groovy, mate. Ultimately, it's up to me to be spoiled as the game does have a knack for throwing up some nicely obscure details. It also has a way of rewarding players the more they dig, particularly with the minimalistic narrative delivery.
 
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Thanks for this little prompt because at first I was sure that I had, but after a little bit of extra vertical exploration, realised I'd missed some hidden chests. One contained a morning-star,
Haha, that was actually a coincidence.
And it even fits with the extra vertical exploration :).
What I had in mind concerns
the bird. More specific/bigger spoiler would be that in this case you need to
take an advantage of the lift.
The reason why mentioning this occurred to me was that in certain way this ties to exploring Anor Londo (not Duke´s Archives). But maybe you´ve already discovered this bowl of coolness.

wonderfully grim
It´s probably even grimmer when one
gets all the way down there before progressing the plot far enough.
I imagine that, at least on first playthrough, getting all the way up must be a pain when one is unfortunate enough to rest in ToG early :).

the game does have a knack for throwing up some nicely obscure details.
Indeed. Sometimes it´s not even details, like in the case of the whole "DLC" :).

Also,
Mission accomplished. :thumbsup:
:thumbsup:
(somehow I´ve missed the post previously)

Easily my most intense boss-fight thus far. Interesting to see what else the game has in store…as progress implies the difficulty will yet rise even further?
I wouldn´t say the difficulty rises even further, but some encounters may fall roughly into the same ballpark as O&S. To some degree it certainly depends on build and/or how one is used to play.
For example, on my first playthrough I had a lot of problems getting to that chest behind O&S, but somehow I defeated the DLC´s final boss on my first try.
On second playthrough I had quite major problems with DLC´s final boss, even though I wrecked O&S on first try (and in hollow form).
Speaking of DLC, it´s excellent when it comes to bosses.
3 of my 6 Dark Souls´ favourite bosses dwell in there (and all 3 are pretty intense) :).
My 3 "vanilla" favs, btw, are
O&S, Sif (largely due to backstory and limping) and 4 Kings (largely due to environment).
And when it comes to traversing areas, I´d say that after Anor Londo the difficulty does not go any further either, though the game remains fairly steady at keeping players on their toes.
 
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You make a great point about the way one plays and the nature of one's character build.
To be honest, I think I've probably gimped my Cleric somewhat in the early game by spreading some points a little too liberally, instead of pumping individual stats and going for a specific faith oriented build. As a result of mid-game increasing mostly vitality and endurance, my playstyle is leaning towards a Cleric/Knight tanking hybrid, heavy on defense, with some miracle casting ability on the side. Probably not ideal, but it's been jolly fun so far. :)

As to the first Firelink spoiler in the previous post - I've found the creature you mention (it's hard to miss the dark outline from distance) yet haven't been able to figure out how to make use of it as yet so to speak. ;)

Made a little more progress:
The adventure within the Duke's Archives was an arduous one, with some sneaky snipery enemy locations. Got to watch out for those Channeler melee attacks as well; quite brutal. Moving too quickly in here can be hazardous actually.
But I managed to make it to the second bonfire and link up the short-cut, leading to the Crystal Caves.

I found moving around in this location extremely awkward indeed; but managed to finally get to the encounter with Seath the Scaleless. I died the first time miserably and cursed, but rebounded quickly, refitted with the cursebite ring and my holy robes again to assist with rolling movement away from the breath weapon. Thankfully, he is weak to my current weapon and going in double handed at the right moments in combination with my blackbombs worked wonders.
Another really memorable and quite beautiful looking encounter.

Where to next? Hmm. Not sure I want to go back to Four Kings just yet. I can't warp to any Blighttown bonfires, so maybe another visit down below is in order, with potentially a small peek at the Demon Ruins.
 
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I'm starting to get used to the controls. But I can't seem to be able to perform the plunge attack...
on the asylum demon. How do I pull that off? The in game help and the internet just say "RMB while falling" but nothing happens, so I'm toast. I tried pressing it briefly or keeping it down, to no avail

Any help?
 
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Aaargh it was left mouse button, not right. Well thank god I was practicing the timing on my right mouse button for an hour :)

Now I probably fucked myself by having attacked the human at the fireplace at the start of the next level, lol. This is gonna be a looong game...
 
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Now I probably fucked myself by having attacked the human at the fireplace at the start of the next level, lol. This is gonna be a looong game…

I have done that myself as well and got killed by him with my first character, and the problem is that when I respwn at the bonefire he will be there waiting to kill me again:-/ Had to re-start with another character. After 50 hours of playing with my new character, I went back and killed him because he is very annoying!
 
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Yes exactly. I went back to my first character, a knight, but I don't like his slow movement. I think I am going back to a fighter again.
 
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Yes exactly. I went back to my first character, a knight, but I don't like his slow movement. I think I am going back to a fighter again.
Movement speed (run and roll) is strictly a matter of equip load.
Under 25% of allowed EL is the fastest, 25% - 50% is medium, over 50% is slow.
 
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Now I probably fucked myself by having attacked the human at the fireplace at the start of the next level, lol. This is gonna be a looong game…

Hah, I did something similar with my first character when I accidentally attacked the merchant in the undead burg. That was an automatic restart…

Speaking of that human though, he's since disappeared in my current game.
I think he may have turned hostile on me for some strange reason in the New Londo Ruins awhile back. He had such a great dialogue closing line:
"Hmm, what is it now? I'm not up for chatting…leave me alone!"

In fact, the game has many such memorable parting dialogues, usually delivered with irony, a hint of wistfulness or even a touch of sadness.
examples:

The imprisoned blacksmith: "Keep your head on out there…you really help break up the monotony".

The crestfallen merchant: "Go on, go out and make something of yourself.
But nothing shall come of it…and I should know."
"You shall see...soon...yes, soon you shall see...the putrid fate we both share".
 
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I got around to spending a few hours with my PS3 copy this morning.

I definitely like this version better, and it's what I'll play when I have time to make a serious go at this game which I hope is soon. I've created a new character (Bandit) and started a test run.

What's the best area near Firelink Shrine to build up my character? I tried going into the Catacombs and New Londo Ruins, but those areas seemed too difficult to start with.

Can any character eventually use all the spells or is that determined by class?

I still don't quite understand what impact being hollow/human has on the game. I get that you have to be human in order to summon other players or get invaded, but is that all it's for?
 
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I got around to spending a few hours with my PS3 copy this morning.

I definitely like this version better, and it's what I'll play when I have time to make a serious go at this game which I hope is soon. I've created a new character (Bandit) and started a test run.

What's the best area near Firelink Shrine to build up my character? I tried going into the Catacombs and New Londo Ruins, but those areas seemed too difficult to start with.
Hi JDR, I went up the narrow path with the stairs to the undead city, that is a manageable area (at least the parts I have been to, just played there for an hour or two yesterday).

Can any character eventually use all the spells or is that determined by class?

I still don't quite understand what impact being hollow/human has on the game. I get that you have to be human in order to summon other players or get invaded, but is that all it's for?


Regarding human/hollow AFAIK:
Humanity (the counter, no matter the form you're in) affects item drop rate.
When human you can be invaded, but you can also summon help (online, requires item?)
When human you are more resistant to curses
When human, some NPC react differntly / have different dialog.
(Edit: resistance are also affected by humanity: more info)

I tried turning human yesterday, and promptly got invaded by a black phantom (with a... lump? brain? thing?... instead of a head, and got my ass kicked…
 
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Sounds like he was infected by an egg parasite. I haven't seen that yet myself, but I've heard about it.

Yuk... :puke:
it perfomred some kind of special attack on me - I hope that doesn't mean I get that infection too now :fingerscrossed:
 
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What's the best area near Firelink Shrine to build up my character?
You'll get to know the Undead Burg inside and out during the early game. After that, the Undead Parish as well. Doing cycle sweeps between the bonfire in the 'Burg all the way up to the misty gate in the tower was a very common way for me to gather souls early on.
Can any character eventually use all the spells or is that determined by class?
Probably, yes. But it may require nerfing/radically altering your intended build, as miracles and spells have stat requirements. These are easily checked though, so you can plan well in advance.

An update on my game:

Whilst I didn't have any trouble with Ceaseless Discharge or the Firesage Demon, the Centipede Demon was a true pain in the posterior, essentially because of the tight confines and the sense of fighting the camera if you lock on when it's close during its jumping attacks. Again, summoning Solaire proved to be the difference, and after a couple of deaths, I managed to take it down.

Progression wise my trusty Cleric has just hit level 90. I've just defeated the Bed of Chaos, which I have to say is one of the more demanding bosses as far as dexterity and agility is concerned. That encounter is…unique. I also lucked out in a major way.
In the third iteration, the sweeping hand attack pushed me down directly on to the trunk where the player evidently most wants to be!
That's all I'll say, as anything else would spoil it.

It seems I only have one more lord soul to extract; Four Kings. I wonder how this meeting is going to go, considering it's only a couple of levels since my unsuccesful attempt. I definitely need to work on maximising melee output for this fight.

However, I'm also yet to find the Dusk summoning sign to grant me access to the DLC content. Perhaps I should suss this out before trying to progress much further; as the extra soul levels could come in handy for my movement towards the endgame.

Keep up with the stories chaps. :) Have either of you managed to kill off the Knight sub-boss in the Undead Burg yet?
 
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Can any character eventually use all the spells or is that determined by class?
Class just determines your starting stats (there are no innate, class-exclusive characteristics) and equipment, so you can branch out wherever you like. As long as you have required stats, you can use everything.

However, I'm also yet to find the Dusk summoning sign to grant me access to the DLC content.
That´s not how you access the DLC.
Accessing the DLC is somewhat ridiculous, so here´s a spoiler just in case:
To access the DLC areas you need to:
Kill the hydra, then either reload or rest at bonfire and go to the cave at the hydra lake - reloading/resting causes the gold golem to spawn there, killing it will free Dusk after which you can talk to her (since you know about the summoning sign obviously you´ve already done these steps, I´m putting it here just for the completion sake :)).
Her summoning sign becomes available right after you talk to her - it´s located where you fought the hydra, in the water or on the shore, close to a body with some armor set, IIRC. However, summoning her there only opens some dialogues, spells (some rather useful I might say) and items, AFAIK it has no bearing on accessing the DLC.
Besides the sign, talking with her after you free her also spawns a crystal golem in Duke´s Archives (in the first area after you take the first elevator up when going there from Anor Londo). Killing this dude nets you a broken pendant item.
If you freed Dusk before going to Archives, you very likely already have the pendant.
If you freed her after, then you have to return there. Along with the gold golem not being initially spawned, this is the second reason why I think this sequence is bad design - I, for example, killed hydra long before the Archives, but since I´ve explored the cave right afterwards there was no gold golem there and therefore no crystal golem that drops broken pendant later :).
I´m also pretty sure that once you obtain the pendant, the summoning sign temporarily vanishes and only appears again once you complete the DLC, which may be the reason why you can´t find it.
Anyway, once you have the pendant you have to return to the cave by the hydra lake once again and check if anything new is in there.
As I said, ridiculous! :)

Also, since you´re very close to the endgame it maybe bears mentioning that there are three cool optional areas you seem to not have visited yet.
I´ve already partially spoiled access to one of these (tied to Anor Londo, accessing it begins with thorough vertical exploration of Firelink Shrine) and finding the other two is IMO close to impossible without outside help.
If you feel like leaving these for a replay, I won´t spoil anything further :).

Anyway, congrats on Bed, that encounter can be a bitch (personally I disliked the mechanics, though I liked the aesthetics).
 
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My my, I do wish there were a more than just one bonfire in the undead burg - or are there?
 
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