Be Excellent To Each Other

Oh fuck me, would you look at that. Straid wants souls for special weapons and I've been spending them like pennies. Tch. Save your boss souls people!

Killed that boss so very many times. No failures.


You now may or may not be able to figure it out.

yeah, thats the natty armour I refered to on page 7. The shield in particular is verrrr useful as the only vaguely light 100% shield available early (although I dont know when I got the shield that eventually replaced it).

Branches - to my knowledge, theres one very important place to use one to get a woman needing clothes, one kinda important place in the bastille. most of the others seem to be pointless, bar one which is mostly pointless (very near the bonfire after the mist)

Oh, and I'd tried the door near the Giant boss which I still can't open but must lead into the room on fire...[/quote]
It does, although you can access it via other means long, long before you get the key. Area is lethal though. I opted for avoidance.

Same as dark souls. So didn't use them. My advice would be to not use special souls anyway.

For what its worth, None of the weapons seemed overly good, and are probably a pain to upgrade (like ds1). have traded for the spells though. all of which I can't currently use.

Yeah, that was a right fuck up on my part. I thought I'll see if I could get up the stairs; he jumped behind me pinning me into the corner with no way out.



Got em, as you probably gathered. I imagine something happens if you give the woman enough stuff.



Not through that bloody tunnel with the lizard at the end spewing fire? I was wondering if you could run down the corridor into a room or whether you have to fight it in the tunnel which would be nigh on impossible given the damage effect it gave me last time I met it.

Never tried it. You could probably snipe it from there, but there's a more obvious way. How do you even know it's a fire place in the first place?

I don't think I've got the energy to just drop in. Or have I!? I might give that a shot then.

With a ring and dropping onto the higher ground section, it's doable. I'd probably kill the frog before you drop though. They're proper bustard.

FECKIN PETRIFYING FROGS.

Hey, while I'm here avoiding work, will I ever be able to walk in the poison areas in Harvest Moon (or whatever it's caleld) without dying in 10 seconds?

I'm sick of dashing in, grabbing whatever and pissing away my lovely yummy moss. I've taken to avoiding going in but I don't like leaving an area until I've rinsed it.

No. Although I found I could quite comfortably romp round using setup to regain poisoned health. Only required one trip round the big lake outside and two round the tunnels. Plus one accidental trip.

Now, y'see, I just don't "get" how the Earthern Peak and the Iron Keep connect. I just went up the sodding windmill and now I'm going up again where the floor is covered in lava? Is this a floating keep on a volcano?

Hmmm, better look about first before I start moaning for reals.

I like this fiery place. It reminds me of, what's it called, y'know the golden city place from Dark Souls uno. It's got a story behind it, it looks good, the archers are pains in the fucking ass if you let them and so on. Yet, it just doesn't connect with the rest of the world. It's like they had a groovy idea for a level and just threw it in there.It's a real shame, but also, it shows off the problems with Dark Souls 2 over 1. It's far far too easy. With a magic mace I'd found ages ago I've been slaughtering the knights in 3 hits and certainly no more than 4 hits. Magic is rip roaring, and the impact appears to have been greatly upped. And bows and stuff as I said earlier. I was wondering whether FROM wanted me to make the game harder for myself by joining that covenant or throwing shit in the bonfires, but I don't want to. I want to play the game as it was intended. I don't know what'll happen if I make it harder; will it be too hard, will it be comparable to DS1, will I enjoy the game more, what makes it harder - increased health, lesser damage, more enemies, different placement? I don't know and the game won't tell me. I don't want to have to go out of my way to tailor the game to my needs: I just want one game that has been crafted to perfection and then I want to play it.

Plus it's been made artificially unfair with the inclusion of, hnnngh, jumping. Jumping is so unnecessary for Dark Souls. It has it's place every now and again, I'll admit, but leaving items dotted about with certain death below them and in narrow areas where the game doesn't know if you want to jump or roll has tried my patience a couple of times in this fiery world. I much prefer the clever design of the earlier games and indeed earlier levels where tactical dropping and slowly walking your way across is employed to great effect in the vertical spaces. It's about the only thing that's pissed me off. Ok, ok, it was my fault for trying it, but still I WANT SHINY. I hate leaving stuff I know I can get.

Anyhoo, and my last moan, well, it's not really a moan, but it's ugly in places and yet utterly beautiful in others. It could have blown everyone away had it been released on the next gen consoles but, as it is, it's both a beauty and beast at the same time. I can vividly recall thinking at the beginning of DS1 that it didn't look like much and that the graphics were worse than Demon's, but then I never thought that ever again after that first ten minutes. It might have been the sense of place, it might have been the experience I was having, it have been because for all its flaws it was actually a bit of a looker after that first section was out the way. I'm having those lingering doubts at the moment with DS2 however. It might be that the sense of place has gone. I have barely looked out and saw where I was 2 or 3 sections ago. It might be because the world here is a hotchpotch of levels sewn together. It's good. It's really good, but by taking away the consistency of vision that the game has lost something.

Maybe that's because they kicked that guy out who made Demon's and Dark Souls 1 so great. Maybe, it's because Dark Souls 2 is just more of the same and we've seen these enemies, beat these same enemies, worn the same clothes, swung the same steel... but we did it in a place that we were wholly and completely into.

Damn, I think now I got lucky with the magic mace since other weapons are garbage against the knights. Plus Smelter Demon was kicking my ass with his fire sword until I found some buddies to help out, and we almost didn't do it then! Fack.

And Shaded Woods is awesome. Remember when fog in a game was frowned upon? I reckon fog in a game can be awesome. Almost invisible enemies less so but it makes for a scary time.

Yeah, he'd be the too firey guy I struggled with. A 100% physical/fire blocking shield made him a fair bit easier.

I haven't found anything with that sort of protection and I've the lava boss to deal with now.

I've been down the fire alley in the Valley of the Giants now and milked its teats for resources. Wasn't that hard with fat-up magic and arrows.

For all my moaning about it not being Dark Souls 1, it sure is addictive. I've clocked up a fair few hours now (37?) and lit up one of the primeval bonfires. I'll be honest though, I take it that I've got to light up more but, frankly, it never told me I had to light up any bonfires at all. I just killed a baddie and this bonfire was behind it and it said it was a primeval one in big writing. It did say something about getting to the king and getting four big souls so, y'know ... something about story telling in Dark Souls being rubbish. Well, this time.

I've been absolutely everywhere that I can and I'm blocked by three big baddies (fire guy, spider woman and Emo goth) so I'm assuming that they're the guys stopping me getting to the king. Anyway, it been awesome...

Foggy Forest: scary shit.
Water-World Stoke-on-Trent: splashy fun
Dinner-Dinner-Dinner-Dinner Spidertown: Nice wonky map layout. Took me ages to rinse that place out for trinkets.

I've totally changed my mind about the Halbard an' all. It's ace again! Because this time you can hide behind your shield whilst you poke people in the face. Water-World Stoke on Trent might have been a bastard with those hammer guys but they'd smash me in the shield at the same time as I was jabbing their eyeballs out with the business end of my awesome stick. So now I'd got interested in the Halbard again I had to shove some lightning on it again. And it's just as I remember it - all zappy and powwy. It doesn't half drain stamina though. Still, it's ace and my weapon of choice. Also, it's the first weapon that I've maxed out. +10, baby.

And my flaming hot fist is pretty nasty too. That massive fiery pillar ring thing that it does has pretty much fisted the last couple of mini-bosses that I've faced. OH NO, a giant rat dog mammoth thing! WHOOSH-PWWWEEERRRRRKKKKK. Dead. Yes, I died a lot trying to see if it was an easy way to kill the giant rat dog mammoth thing. But tenth time ... WHOOSH-PWWWEEERRRRRKKKKK x 3 and it was dead. Simple.

It didn't take 10+ times to kill the three priest bosses when I ran right into the middle of the ruck and went WHOOSH-PWWWEEERRRRRKKKKK x 4 indiscriminately murdering everyone in the room.

Yay, fiery fist hand!

I do wonder how much I'm missing though. I almost can't wait to look at the wiki's and see what has been going on.

I did fuck up the Pate story though. And, yes, it's a fire fist related story. I helped Pate out along the way and dragged him along to fight the Last Giant ages ago and he eventually gave me all his clothes and his weapons. He must have had two pairs up his arse though as he wasn't buck naked after he'd dished them out. I met his mate as well but he didn't give me anything, but he did moan about Pate being a bad 'un. Anyway, so when I found the two of them duking it out I decided that because I'd already got Pate's kit I'd play the bad guy and kill the other chap. Serves him right for being a tight arse, right, and not helping me out with any bosses. TIME FOR FLAME FIST. But not the fire pillar ring thing but rather the much more sophisticated, almost sniper rifle like accurate, targeted flame ball. WHOOSH-PWWWEEERRRRRKKKKK. I forgot it exploded like a nuclear bomb on impact promptly murdered them both which left me feeling very silly but with double the gear.

I love this game.

Lastly, I had a "moment" where I put the pad down on the floor and accidentally pressing a trigger smacking the Level-Up Woman - the single most important character in the game - right in the face! Twice! Turns out that's she's more more forgiving than Dark Souls 1's temperamental lot as she soon forgot about that I'd just jabbed her in the tit and levelled me up. It was a bit touch and go though as to whether I'd fucked the whole game up.

Turns out though, that the NPC's aren't too bothered about you hitting them. After the giant rat dog fight the Rat King is waiting for you. I didn't know it was him so I smacked him in the moof. Twice. Again. He wasn't that bothered so I offered him the tail of his kin to placate him. I daren't ask what he was going to do with it. Weird stuff.

Oh, I bloody love this game.

Been fighting the

Got a really useful ring for co-op. It

Eventually co-op turned me human. (Is it random now?) and used the same technique successfully for myself. That's the second boss I've summoned for. Feel like I'm cheating, but it's fun.

Loving it.

That pretty much is the end of pates story.

If you help one, he'll give you a key. Which leads to a couple of (in my view) un8nteresting chests.

Didnt get his armour or nought.

Don't forget the secret rooms in that, um, room. There's a fair few. The Bastille is full of secrets.

His kit's not particular interesting either but his spear was quite useful for a while as it had decent stats at a time when the rest didn't. I got a ring for killing him and a helmet/mask for killing the other chap. I totally forgot to check out what they both were as I was in explore-mode. I'll have a look tomorrow.

Oooh, cool cheers, I'll go exploring for secrets tonight. Save-quit straight after last night, so haven't even cashed my souls. Talking of which - worried I might be overleveled due to co-op. Level 47 already...

Meanwhile, I have now beat every optional boss in the game too.

Just got to get one more spell then it's on to NG+. Unfortunately, it involves beating the crap out of a rare, but infinite spawn.

The Sinner: dead!

Fiery Fire Git: alive and well.

They just light up the kill house as far as I could tell. It might have made it easier to lock on though.

I've managed to get to the castle now. I see the end in sight and it makes me sad.

I have now started NG+

It's... quite different from Dark Souls NG+.

How so?

I was thinking how easy that Spider boss was with a fellow spirit last night. First time, I did my usual slow, cautious approach: shield up watching the attacks and learning the patterns, and get absolutely annihilated with his laser vision; the second time me and a buddy went wading in smashing up his face and his ass face. I basically stood right next to the spider throughout and barely got a scratch on me as I chucked fire in his mush and then jabbed his ass face with my pointy stick.

I felt like a big man. Then that guy's headless body SMASHED. THE. LIVING. SHIT out of me in the next room. He's was recklessly fast and his blows broke my shield down in no time and I was left crying the souls I'd left on the floor. I managed to get them back mind, and blew up up with nuclear fire when he finally stood still and stopped beating me up. Twas touch and go for a minute though.

As well as upping the enemies health and punching power dark Souls, it also adds unexpected enemies. While it took ages for me to even find something to attack on ng, NG+ I was being attacked by a new (I think) enemy type somewhere that was previously uninhabited. As I wasn't expecting it and was blithely running through, I came quite close to dying.

As well as extra and new enemies, I think the AI may be tweaked too.

Have had quite a few surprises. Certainly not able to run through it like you could dark Souls ng+.

Yeah, the spider boss wasn't hard. I'm not sure if he damaged me at all. Standing by its side seemed effective. Didn't have any problems with the post boss either, though it was an unpleasant surprise.

You're getting close to my least favourite area (after the castle) What kind of build are you using? It was terribly painful for my agile sunsword character.

I'd like to say that I'm tanking it but I've been pouring stats into my magic and faith but I'm still managing to wear the best defensive (and heaviest) gear I've found (body armour is about 195, head is about 95).

I've got a stick filled with lightning (doing about 235 damage and 235 lightning damage), a black stick +6 filled with twinkly stuff (doing about 200 damage and 200 fire damage) and beyond that a magic mace +7 (about 200 damage and magic damage).

Das ist gud, ya? Danke?

You passed by the havel gear then? I think that may be the heaviest armour I found, although I did buy some obscenely heavy boss armour toward the end.

I've seen ghosts rocking around with that gear on (that was my gear from DS1) but I've never found it. Whereaboots is it?

Not entirely sure, think it's in the gutter or black guy has. But could be in another place I backtracked having not fully searched first time round like bright Cove or iron keep.
I use the shield fairly often, but even with a +1 picking up heavy shit ring, it's a bit too heavy to use the full set.



Up until the end I basically had the iron keep captain armour and leggings, elite Knight gloves and hide helmet, +10 sun sword and old Knight shield. To beat the optional bosses have since moved to various imbued great swords and havels dragon tooth. And smelter demon gloves. Not quite as agile as before. Need to find a +2 ring of picking up heavy shit.

Well that's close to 40 minutes spent in the room filled with sentinels. Frankly, I hate them. I hate them so much. BUT I MUST SEE INSIDE ALL THE ROOMS.

Heh, I left that room until much later. (As in, it was the last thing I did before NG+)

Fortunately, I'd lucked into opening the two most useful rooms anyway.

Also: My pyromancy made light work of them.

My pyromancy game is tight, son, I just ain't got enough of them to blitz the entire room. I cleared all out eventually but it was a nightmare. Once again, I forgot to check what treasure I'd picked up...

I have a handy spell that could take out two or three sentinels in one shot, or at least leave them only needing one swipe with my mighty magic greatsword.
And I had it three times. Made it easy enough.

Loot (from what I remember):

Those bloody statues are virtually unstaggerable. Bastards.

That room with the Sentinels hasn't got 3 by the way. It's 5. 5 of the fuckers. I hate that room.

Anyway, I'm moving on and dragon arrow firing gits are a reet pain in my character's arsehole. Literally. Slow and steady progress is the key. As always.

Yup. That's why you want chaos storm (which you've probably passed) and the ring of extra spell uses. Statues I could wipe out with the magic great sword before they had a chance to attack.

Is Chaos Storm a Hex? I've just found that old guy for the third and final time and he had a few spells to sell and that might have been one of em.

I went into his swirly black hole and was promptly deadid by MIB's.

Nah, it's the strongest pyromancy available through single player (until ng++ which has something that might bear it). Fire storm turned up to 11. You've certainly been through the area it's in, but it's a colossal pain in the are to actually get.

Took down what was for me the penultimate boss and many other late bosses in two uses.

Also, the old guy portals, I would strongly recommend doing them after the final boss.

Not the lava area? I've got no chance if that's what you're on about. I couldn't get the soul under the stairs at the beginning without dying!

Flame Swathe is as good as I've got so far.

That guy has appeared by the well with his ladders! So that's what you were talking about.

Down I go with my key!

No weak to use it. Pah.

Anyhoo, I see that guy at the start is selling the boss armour! Nice. Smelter's armour is one, Looking Glass t'other. Presumably the former might get me around the lava. I'll save up some coinage.

Onto the shrine of singing woman!

Yeah, it's one of them. Requires a fair amount of fire proofing.


Urgh, that place. One of the few times I was dying and I didn't feel it was my fault.

That's a fair few deaths achieved around those bloody wizard priests. Well done me. It took about 7 deaths to realise I had a shield with a 90% magic reduction and I could actually hold it with my stats. Dickhead.

Then a hippo chewed on me. To death.

Closest to the fog gate: 50 yards.

I still bloody love it by the way.

There's very few games where I'll slowly walk around the edge of a pool of water with visability about 5 yards just looking for the edge of an underwater cliff and the chance of a secret. Facking amazing game this.

I started Demon's Souls today. Combat is excellent, I like the setting and not as daunting as I was expecting so far.

If ye have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.