Video Games: 'Does Not Open From This Side' Edition

[KiDisaster]

Pasting my last reply from the previous thread:

1 hour ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Thankfully, managed to get through. The run and kicking wasn't working, but eventually I stabbed the right archer quickly enough, and got away, leaving the left one. Phew. Thanks again for the tips, everyone.

Of course, am now stuck on the next boss (or bosses, rather). And as usual, Dark Souls makes a frustrating and difficult boss fight 10x more frustrating by making you fight three silver knights and two of the giant statues on your way there. I don't think I've ever loved and hated a game as much at once as Dark Souls. We'll see if I have the patience to make it past these two...

You can totally ignore all those mobs on the way back to the boss really. They can't follow you through the fog gate. I never bothered fighting the giants when I was running back to O&S. Good luck with that fight by the way, and try not to let it get you down if it takes you a while. O&S is considered the hardest fight in the game by a lot of people. Or it was pre-DLC anyway. 

1 hour ago, Jasta11 said:

Yeah, what turns me off from Dark Souls is not the annoying trash mobs or the hard bosses. It's having to slog through the annoying trash mobs for the upteenth time in order to get to the hard boss, again And don't die because poof go all those precious souls.

Dark Souls 3 is a lot better in that regard. There seem to be bonfires and shortcuts way more often than in the previous games.

---

Carry on, folks. 

[Slurktan]

3 minutes ago, KiDisaster said:

Pasting my last reply from the previous thread:

You can totally ignore all those mobs on the way back to the boss really. They can't follow you through the fog gate. I never bothered fighting the giants when I was running back to O&S. Good luck with that fight by the way, and try not to let it get you down if it takes you a while. O&S is considered the hardest fight in the game by a lot of people. Or it was pre-DLC anyway. 

Dark Souls 3 is a lot better in that regard. There seem to be bonfires and shortcuts way more often than in the previous games.

To be fair Dark 2 was far better than any other souls game in that regard because there actually are a limited number of spawns for each enemy unless you are part of the champion covenant.

[MerenthaClone]

I honestly didn't like the extinction mechanic in DS2.  I enjoyed figuring out either boss runs or the optimal way to killing the enemies on the way:  parry-killing all of the Silver Knights on the way to O+S and then dodging the giants was mostly fun.  Mostly.  Compare that to DS2, where I felt compelled to go make some enemies extinct just so I had a clear shot at the boss without difficulty (mostly Fume Knight because that guy was killer).  I didn't feel like I'd beaten the game so much as the game eased up on me so I could win.  

[AndrewJ]

Anyone finding co-op play in DS3 a little unstable (on pc)? I've had a lot of problems trying to do co-op on the first main boss (in High Wall). I often can't enter through the fog door - even after waiting a while and hearing fighting going on through the door. On a few occasions, I've made it through, only to find the host and another phantom fighting a boss that I can't see. Only about twice have I actually made it through to a genuine fight. And I have Sunbro medals to farm!

Undead Settlement boss seems to have no problems, though. But I'm finding success in that one a bit hit and miss. Not ideal for farming.

[Caligula_K3]

56 minutes ago, KiDisaster said:

Pasting my last reply from the previous thread:

You can totally ignore all those mobs on the way back to the boss really. They can't follow you through the fog gate. I never bothered fighting the giants when I was running back to O&S. Good luck with that fight by the way, and try not to let it get you down if it takes you a while. O&S is considered the hardest fight in the game by a lot of people. Or it was pre-DLC anyway. 

Dark Souls 3 is a lot better in that regard. There seem to be bonfires and shortcuts way more often than in the previous games.

---

Carry on, folks. 

I've tried this and it works, so thanks! The main problem is that I don't think I'll beat this boss without Solaire by my side; but if I don't kill the enemies before entering the white gate, he doesn't follow. But I think it's probably worthwhile for me to practice this boss fight on my own a bit before wasting any humanities for now, and avoiding fighting all those enemies will definitely save me time.

Jasta: Agreed re: your comment in the last thread about the tediousness of going through trash mobs to fight the same hard boss, over and over. Glad to hear that Dark Souls 3 is better in this regard- maybe I'll give it a shot at some point.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

So what do you guys think on this: I loved Dark Souls 1, pretty much loved Dark Souls 2, but I am having trouble getting into Bloodborne. Do you think I'm souls'd out? I really want to get DS3, but I'm worried I'll quit about a third of the way through like with Bloodborne--which was a great game, but it lost me. I figured I'd like it more too--the horror setting and all. 

[matt b]

8 hours ago, MerenthaClone said:

  Compare that to DS2, where I felt compelled to go make some enemies extinct just so I had a clear shot at the boss without difficulty (mostly Fume Knight because that guy was killer).

The Fume Knight actually had a bonfire right next him, so that would've been unnecessary for him, but I definitely did that in more than a few situations. The path to the Blue Smelter Demon was impossible for me until I cleared the way. And I was so worried about the Heide Knights in Heide's Tower I went ahead and took care of them before touching any of the bosses.

[aceluby]

Was able to get some good time in over the weekend and made my way through Anor Londo and took down the second Lord of Cinder.  The throwback in here was pretty awesome, though it makes DS2 seem nonsensical.  The nice thing is that demand for summons is so high right now that I can figure out a good strategy before I do it in my world.  The only real troubling fight was this last one in Anor Londo.  On past the prison now

[KiDisaster]

Had one of the most epic moments so far in DS3 last night. 

 

 

I'm going through Farron Keep (sidenote: fuck this place, I'm having nightmare flashbacks to Blighttown) and found the Stray Demon up on top of the tall tower. There was a lone golden summon sign by the stairs so I called in the SunBro to go take the big bastard out with me. Right as we pull aggro, I get invaded by one of these purple fucks. Now it's a 2-on-2, me and the SunBro vs Purple Dickhead & The Stray Demon. We split up for a while, Sunbro fighting the demon and me fighting the invader. Was tense as hell, felt like a damn boss fight. Eventually he finished the demon off and the purple guy tried to run away but I have no mercy left for invaders. Shortly after that I had a similar situation with a red guy and a giant crab. I used the Seed of the Giant Tree and the crab whupped his ass.

It was awesome.

 

[Sullen]

Slowly progressing through DS3, trying to get all of the covenant rewards I can get as soon as I unlock one... I refuse to advance until I have all 30 of my covenant items.

Mound-Makers was rather easy, I set up a summon sign at the High Wall and killed whoever summoned me, got my 30 Vertebra Shackles pretty quickly, in the space of an afternoon maybe.

As soon as I got my Red Eye Orb I started invading for Pale Tongues and Sunlight Medals, lasted a bit longer considering the matchmaking system now prioritizes worlds where the host has summoned several phantoms... add to that that up to two blue sentinels can be summoned during your invasion if the host adheres to the Way of the Blue, and most of the time, you end up having 4 v 1 fights, which I daresay is far from fair, but eh, the added challenge makes it a bit more fun. I got my 60 (or less, considering forked blue tongues) successful invasions on Saturday.

But Farron's Watchdogs, Jesus fucking Christ, is broken as hell. I kept myself low-level as to be in the level-range of the area where you are supposed to be summoned, and in 6 freaking hours, I've only been summoned twice, with both times the host unplugging once near death. There's definitively something wrong with the matchmaking there, as I can invade the area instantly with the Red Eye Orb, which means there's plenty of embered players within my level range in the Road of Sacrifices. It frustrates me to be stuck at something so damned stupid, and I hope that they'll fix it soon.

Oh, and bringing back the Blue Sentinels is stupid too. The covenant is still as broken as it was in DS2.

[RumHam]

Does anyone have a link to help me piece together how the three Dark Souls games are related? Or just help me understand the plot in general.

[Werthead]

23 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Does anyone have a link to help me piece together how the three Dark Souls games are related? Or just help me understand the plot in general.

There's the wiki and this image history which may be helpful.

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

There's the wiki and this image history which may be helpful.

A cursory google turned up that wiki page, but it seems to be a very incomplete list of item/area lore text from the games. Even if it were complete, I'm looking for something that puts these lore entries in some form of context. The image history you linked was more helpful as a refresher, but I think it's basically all about Dark Souls I. I'm pretty sure I get the original Dark Souls mythology, I'm just not sure how it connects to the other two games. 

I can remember when Dark Souls II came out people were theorizing that certain areas corresponded to areas from the original, and that there were various other connections. Maybe even one of the bosses was the DS1 player character? I'm not sure. 

[Slurktan]

10 hours ago, Sullen said:

Slowly progressing through DS3, trying to get all of the covenant rewards I can get as soon as I unlock one... I refuse to advance until I have all 30 of my covenant items.

Mound-Makers was rather easy, I set up a summon sign at the High Wall and killed whoever summoned me, got my 30 Vertebra Shackles pretty quickly, in the space of an afternoon maybe.

As soon as I got my Red Eye Orb I started invading for Pale Tongues and Sunlight Medals, lasted a bit longer considering the matchmaking system now prioritizes worlds where the host has summoned several phantoms... add to that that up to two blue sentinels can be summoned during your invasion if the host adheres to the Way of the Blue, and most of the time, you end up having 4 v 1 fights, which I daresay is far from fair, but eh, the added challenge makes it a bit more fun. I got my 60 (or less, considering forked blue tongues) successful invasions on Saturday.

But Farron's Watchdogs, Jesus fucking Christ, is broken as hell. I kept myself low-level as to be in the level-range of the area where you are supposed to be summoned, and in 6 freaking hours, I've only been summoned twice, with both times the host unplugging once near death. There's definitively something wrong with the matchmaking there, as I can invade the area instantly with the Red Eye Orb, which means there's plenty of embered players within my level range in the Road of Sacrifices. It frustrates me to be stuck at something so damned stupid, and I hope that they'll fix it soon.

Oh, and bringing back the Blue Sentinels is stupid too. The covenant is still as broken as it was in DS2.

For the Watchdogs keep in mind it's not just level it is also your weapon (any weapon you have).  So don't go  higher than +3 if you want to get called in as a Watchdog consistently.

 

12 hours ago, aceluby said:

Was able to get some good time in over the weekend and made my way through Anor Londo and took down the second Lord of Cinder.  The throwback in here was pretty awesome, though it makes DS2 seem nonsensical.  The nice thing is that demand for summons is so high right now that I can figure out a good strategy before I do it in my world.  The only real troubling fight was this last one in Anor Londo.  On past the prison now

I don't think it messes with DS2 much at all.  It actually clears up the situation.  The Ornstein you fight in DS1 is an illusion.  He went off in search of the Nameless God, which is how he ends up in Drangleic (Yes, that's actually him).

[Sullen]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

A cursory google turned up that wiki page, but it seems to be a very incomplete list of item/area lore text from the games. Even if it were complete, I'm looking for something that puts these lore entries in some form of context. The image history you linked was more helpful as a refresher, but I think it's basically all about Dark Souls I. I'm pretty sure I get the original Dark Souls mythology, I'm just not sure how it connects to the other two games. 

I can remember when Dark Souls II came out people were theorizing that certain areas corresponded to areas from the original, and that there were various other connections. Maybe even one of the bosses was the DS1 player character? I'm not sure. 

Dark Souls 2 is mostly about how the undead curse affects lands too far away from Anor Londo to understand what's really happening and how everyone of your prior decisions is basically meaningless since the world is essentially a cycle that starts anew continuously. The first flame always dies, and it always comes back, no matter how many times it's rekindled/let to go out. Dark Souls 2 also lets us know about the effects of Manus's defeat: He shatters into several pieces who all become queens, marry powerful Kings, and lead to their downfall, as part of the game's cyclic motif.

As for the DS1 player character:

Spoiler

Technically, the Chosen Undead comes back as part of the Soul of Cinder as the last fight of Dark Souls 3, where the flames essentially conjure the form of everyone who ever linked the flame (except the current lords of Cinder). That includes several Chosen Undead, and Lord Gwyn, of course.

 

56 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

For the Watchdogs keep in mind it's not just level it is also your weapon (any weapon you have).  So don't go  higher than +3 if you want to get called in as a Watchdog consistently.

I kept myself at +2 on the Dark Sword, as I said, I wasn't overleveled or anything, Red Eye invasions worked just fine, the problem was with the covenant itself. : /

[briantw]

Hopelessly addicted to Final Fantasy IX right now.  The only thing I hate is when you get a new party member and they have almost no abilities learned, which means I have to put them in starter armor and give them shitty weapons so they can learn basic skills that my other characters have known for hours by that point.  It happened with Eiko, and then almost immediately after with Amarant.  More than a little annoying.

[mcbigski]

So the replacement video card arrived Sunday, got it installed, realized I did need a new power supply after all, took a trip to Best Buy and got started on DS3 eventually.

Unlife ain't easy when your Deprived, but now that I have a 100% physical block shield and a couple of shards, it gets better.

I think I've cleaned out the Upper Walls, except for one damn locked door.  Bought the tower key too.  Getting to be more fun than frustrating!

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, briantw said:

Hopelessly addicted to Final Fantasy IX right now.  The only thing I hate is when you get a new party member and they have almost no abilities learned, which means I have to put them in starter armor and give them shitty weapons so they can learn basic skills that my other characters have known for hours by that point.  It happened with Eiko, and then almost immediately after with Amarant.  More than a little annoying.

I want to get on with the story and must admit that the grinding just to survive and get to levels suitable to face the bosses is quite annoying. I'm sure FF9 is much worse in this regard than 7 (the only other FF game I've played to completion). With Banner Saga 2 out tomorrow, I'm seriously thinking about turning all the aids up to maximum and just blasting through the game, but that feels lame.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

I want to get on with the story and must admit that the grinding just to survive and get to levels suitable to face the bosses is quite annoying. I'm sure FF9 is much worse in this regard than 7 (the only other FF game I've played to completion). With Banner Saga 2 out tomorrow, I'm seriously thinking about turning all the aids up to maximum and just blasting through the game, but that feels lame.

Ah, this explains a lot. I dont recall doing a ton of grinding in IX, I felt like IX and VII were two of the easier FF games. I dont understand how you keep getting into contact with higher level monsters, I only succeeded in doing that when I actively searched for them.

[KiDisaster]

Eh, it's pretty easy to run into stuff you're under leveled for in any of those older FF games if you aren't purposely grinding a bit along the way. 9 isn't as bad as some but that element is still there. 

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Cleared out Farron's Keep & The Abyss Watchers last night. So glad to be out of that damn area. The boss fight was really cool though. Sort of Artorias-lite in the second phase. I thought my game was bugging in the first half when they were fighting each other