Dark Souls Impressions - The FINAL Update

Maybe if you kill yourself, you don't get your shit back, or something. I can't think of any other explanation.

Maybe someone else has a better explanation of the mechanic, but the game uses some last recorded location you were at to drop your souls. Retrace your steps backwards from your death. If you jump off a cliff they should appear on top of the cliff, not where you landed.

Verb. Do you wanna know a little bit more about shields? It just has to do with certain mechanics is all, now that you know a little bit more about that whole deal.

Uhhhh, all right. Shoot.

Basically just practice parrying anything with a spear, just shield out the rest and poke.

I'd like to know his current build so we can kinda know how he's going to play. I usually play the somewhat quick lad with heavy hitting weapons, kind of a best of both worlds thing.

Usually, in any game that allows you to boost your stats, I try to make my character a jack-of-all-trades, even if it's not necessarily a good idea to do so.

Upgraded weapons are more relevant than scalings in PvE don't worry about being spread thin stat wise, just invest in your weapons.

Verb. Do you wanna know a little bit more about shields? It just has to do with certain mechanics is all, now that you know a little bit more about that whole deal.

Uhhhh, all right. Shoot.

So, obviously, you know that blocking with a shield eats your stamina. There's gonna be a lot of stats in this game that might not make much sense at the start. But, every shield in dark souls has a stat called stability.

The higher this stat is on a shield, the more physical damage you can block without having your stamina completely eaten. So, a lower stat means higher stamina loss.

So, if you have a strong enough shield, you can block more than you expect, and you can do it for longer.

I'll let you figure out the rest of the pros and cons on that as you go.

Verb. Do you wanna know a little bit more about shields? It just has to do with certain mechanics is all, now that you know a little bit more about that whole deal.

Uhhhh, all right. Shoot.

So, obviously, you know that blocking with a shield eats your stamina. There's gonna be a lot of stats in this game that might not make much sense at the start. But, every shield in dark souls has a stat called stability.

The higher this stat is on a shield, the more physical damage you can block without having your stamina completely eaten. So, a lower stat means higher stamina loss.

So, if you have a strong enough shield, you can block more than you expect, and you can do it for longer.

I'll let you figure out the rest of the pros and cons on that as you go.

To add to this, the stability is in a percentage, the higher you go the more you can block, doesn't mean a lower stability is bad, everything has its pros and cons in the game.

Next to maximise the amount of stamina you recover, try tapping the block button in combat. So you; quickly drop your shield, raise some stamina, raise it up and block, rinse repeat. Do this when you feel most confident in combat, when you wait for them to attack and make them selves open. Only block as they attack, to maximise stamina regeneration.

Lastly, you said Jack-of-all-trades, but I'll recommend you this build 'physically' to a way that best suits you (eg: Heavy, Light, all-rounder) but later on you'll come across three types of magics, not all at once and I won't tell you what they are. Fiddle around with each and decide which you like the best, Just don't level any of them until you find the one you like the most, thus, to maximise your stats in what you'll actually be using.

Just never put any points into Resistance. I said it before, and I know you don't want spoilers, but this is just doing you a favor. It's absolutely useless and negated entirely by armor you can run across.

Yeah Verb, no points at all into Resistance, that's not a meme, it's worthless.

Can confirm, putting all of my points into resistance allowed me to resist putting points into useful stats.

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Put points into Resistance.

I don't remember giving you permission to post here.

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So, obviously, you know that blocking with a shield eats your stamina. There's gonna be a lot of stats in this game that might not make much sense at the start. But, every shield in dark souls has a stat called stability.

The higher this stat is on a shield, the more physical damage you can block without having your stamina completely eaten. So, a lower stat means higher stamina loss.

So, if you have a strong enough shield, you can block more than you expect, and you can do it for longer.

I'll let you figure out the rest of the pros and cons on that as you go.

Cool, thanks.

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This playthough is already fantastic.

Put points in resistance.

Speeds up your cast times, recovery time from own usage, and certain actions you do in the game.

Totally worth, only put 40 in though, after that it's pretty worthless.

(continuation from last update)
(I meant to post this immediately after the last update, but that never happened)

So, after going back up the balcony, I discovered that my souls were on the spot where I fell off, not where I fell. Relieved, I immediately headed straight back to the graveyard, where, frustratingly, I had to deal with the skellingtons yet again.

I could deal with the first two just fine--the ones beyond that, plus the giant one that's up ahead, were still going to be a big problem for me. So, this time, fuck it--I'll just try to outdash them. Which worked! And I found a couple of cool things, like a zweihander and a pair of binoculars (not sure what they're for, but whatever).

I also noticed a path that winded downward along the side of the cliff. Walking down it (with the skellingtons hot on my tail), it led me to a place called the Catacombs. I'm pretty sure the weird guy back in Firelink mentioned this place. All I found there was more of my undead bony friends. Low on Estus, I fought them all as hard as I could, but after taking out three of them, a fourth one did me in. FUCK. Now I gotta head all the way back down here...

...But then I noticed something conspicuous. I've killed so many of these skeletons, and not one of them has given me any sort of award drop. I'm not getting anything for this, so what the fuck am I fighting them for? I gotta be in the wrong place. That would explain why these things are so difficult at my level.

I'm not mad--they ended up being great sword practice. I can parry reasonably well now, and I have a stronger grasp of when to defend and attack--I feel like I'm going somewhere with this, but I still don't know where to go.

Looking around Firelink, I tried to see if I could find some alternate paths. One led me underground, to a very dark place inhabited by a colony of Hollow folks, or... whatever. I didn't hurt any of them, but I wasn't entirely sure of what or where I was going. I didn't find anything, except for an enormous zombified rat thing that didn't make a noise when I killed it. Shit.

As I wandered aimlessly™, I crossed a couple bridges, and I came across a couple of lady ghosts. Who promptly killed me, because my shield is unable to guard me from their ethereal attacks. Needless to say, I'm not supposed to be here, either.

Back at Firelink, again, I noticed a final path that went winding upwards. It was here that I discovered a couple of fucktards who were not only easy to kill, but gave me souls when I killed them. It seems as though I've found myself the right path.

to be continued

Updated OP with a list of updates, for anyone who wants to follow along from the beginning.

Like Turkey said, try retracing your steps. Your souls should be somewhere around the spot you fell from or died.

Yeahhh, like I said in #1.5, I didn't stop playing where that update ended--so I had already figured that out by the time I posted it. So yeah. I'll try not to post half-updates anymore, in case there's ever confusion like that.

Thank you for the advice, though.


Coming up with titles for the updates is fun.

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I'm pretty sure the first guy you see at Firelink tells you exactly where to go, and I just either forgot, or ignored it <_<

No matter. I'm where I need to be now.

Also, currently playing. Gonna have an all-nighter, because YOLO.

Lol you went to New Londo and got murdered by the ghosts

The same thing happened to me, heh.

I can't wait till you get to the

Not really a spoiler but just in case

Spoiler

Archers

Verb don't look at this one

Spoiler

do you think he'll rage when he gets cheesed by the dragon the first few dozen times?

I didn't have that all-nighter. Got too tired.


As I entered the Undead Burg, I couldn't really help but wonder why I was there, or what exactly I'm supposed to be looking for. I guess you're not... supposed to care, or something? Just worry about hacking and slashing these zombie warrior things, and everything is peachy... I guess. I understand that the lore of the game is supposed to be all hidden, subtle, and implied--which is really cool and all, but as of yet, I haven't been given a good reason to really care. It all seems like mystery for the sake of mystery, and that's kinda boring and uninteresting to me.

Let that set the tone for the rest of this update. I'm gonna start saying some critical shit now. Can you handle it?

I made it to the first bonfire in the Undead Burg, and right away, I noticed that I have less Estus than usual. Normally, I have 10, but now, I only have 5. What gives? I'm genuinely confused by that. Does it have to do with being too far away from Firelink, or something? Because I don't see any other reason why I'd have less than I had before.

This is where things started getting very annoying. I'm really beginning to feel the consequences of dying too often. As I've been told numerous times, when you die, you lose your souls and your humanity, but you can pick them back up, as long as you don't die along the way. If you do, they're gone forever. It's for this very reason that I've been stockpiling all of the souls that I've been pillaging from the dead bodies I've found lying about--I haven't used one yet, because I'm still pretty squeamish about losing them all. Even though the zombie warriors are kinda easy.

However, some of the zombies in the burg attack you with what appear to be fire bombs. They're kinda difficult to block consistently, because they're tossed in this weird arc pattern. The explosions seem to penetrate your shield if you don't block it properly, and not only that, but the explosions also obscure your vision, making it difficult to, well, fucking see. This makes these bomb-throwers a real bitch-whore to fight. They're the only enemies that have given me any real grievance so far (that's not the criticism, by the way).

Except for this one tall-ass motherfucker I met in a dark spot--I don't know, some kind of black knight, or some shit? Whatever it was, I didn't stand a chance. And I was flustered, too, because I just got done using that one item that gives you humanity (and heals you), and now it's wasted. All I wanted to do was get it back, so instead of being cautious like I normally am, I recklessly tried to rush back to the spot where I died, and, naturally, ended up getting myself killed a second time. Bye-bye souls, & humanity.

...All right, here's the thing.

Obviously, I need to be more patient--that's all there is to it, but god. I know this game tries to bring back that whole "Nintendo hard" thing, and that's cool and all, but the whole punishing-players-by-forcing-them-to-replay-the-same-shit-over-and-over-just-because-they-died thing has never really been that fun to me. I get that it's my fault for sucking at the game--but does that really tackle the issue at its core? No.

Because what's my motivation for "getting good?" What's my cause? My impetus? My reward?

My reward for "getting good" is that I get to raise a meaningless stat by a single point. Yay.

Okay, okay, I'm sure there's more to it than that, and I'm sure I'll come across it all later, but right now? I'm not seeing it. Losing my souls honestly just feels like a waste of my time--and that's what I think this "souls" mechanic really boils down to. It wastes your time, and that's pretty much it. I hope I can derive some merit or enjoyment out of it later on, but so far, my impression on the souls mechanic is pretty negative right now. I can see how it's gonna go: I spend about thirty minutes grinding souls, grinding souls, grinding souls, and then boom--it's all gone when I die.

Now, please sit down. The game's whole gimmick--and that's what it is: a gimmick--of being "unforgiving" is thematically sound, and I don't have any problems with a game punishing you for sucking. None at all. Challenge is a good thing. I'm just saying--the way Dark Souls goes about it--I really just don't care for it. Respect for the player's time is a big deal to me, and from what I can tell, the game doesn't have any respect for the player's time. And that's kinda fucking lame. That's all I'm saying.

/rant

Also, just keep in mind--this is an impressions thread. As in, these are my initial reactions while going through this game in real time. My impressions could change later on down the line, so if you're upset at me for having a negative opinion on your favorite game, rest assured that things could change later on. Maybe. Maybe not, but maybe.

...Anyways, after that bullshit, I eventually encountered another big demon--I think he was called Taurus. My first instinct whenever I see something ten times larger than me is to run away, so that's what I did--but I was sealed shut, with no other option but to fight the bastard. And whaddaya know? I didn't live. I think the general strategy is to just roll when he charges at me, and stab him from behind, or something. He looks kinda similar to the Asylum Demon, so I assume he's gonna have a similar strategy.

So, making my way back, I was hacking through the same zombies' skull once again, when I discovered that my scimitar was "at risk." What the fuck? There's a durability system in this game, too? Man, fuck me. This has never been a fun mechanic in any game. Why is it here? Goddammit.

Right now, I don't really care to move on until I figure out how I fix my weapon, so I could use some help.

Damn. I guess I've just played too much of the second game because I honestly don't remember the first souls having a durability system. That, or your weapons were much tougher in the first souls over the second.

Hmm, that being said, I think the easiest way to repair your weapon is to rest at a bonfire. As far as I remember, there's three weapon states. Normal, at risk, and broken. Resting at a bonfire when your weapon is normal or even at risk should get you your durability back up to 100%. But, if it breaks, you'll need to visit a blacksmith or find yourself an item to repair it.

Ah, yeah, I remember the estus deal as well. K, there's this thing you can do with bonfires called kindling. I believe it requires humanity to do so. When you kindle a bonfire, your maximum estus is raised. So, at the moment, when you rest at Firelink, you'll get 10. But in the berg, until you kindle, you'll have 5.

I think kindling raises estus up by 5. The max is 20, I believe. Bit rusty. Been a long time since I played.

More stuff since I remember. The berg has a merchant in it and he's not too far away from the bonfire you're resting at. Actually if you backtrack a little bit you'll find him past some spear turtling undead. Also, keep in mind about the taurus. There's more than one way to beat him. There's about three or four and they're based on location. Next time you go up there, I reccommend that you look around his area a little bit more and see what you can spot.

And most importantly, right now, you're in a section of the game that I call the make or break point. Admitedly, Dark Souls starts off slowly in a bit of a slump. And this is because you're still dealing with the difficulty slope and learning the game. And this seems to hold true for most people, generally. As of yet, you have no direction and little in the sense of a goal.

This make or break point for the game extends up to the Taurus demon and just a little bit past him. After, and assuming that you pass a certain section of the game just a little bit past Taurus, for some particular reason, the game suddenly sucks you in. Or at the very least, most other players.

And, maybe it's because you've suddenly gone over the difficulty slope and found yourself in something more familiar. You suddenly realize that you know a little bit more about the game and it's not as hard as it's made out to be.

I won't spoil anything for you, but I'll tell you about my experience. The berg was a learning experience. It was harsh. Taurus demon killed me a lot of times and I ended up in the same position as you. The road a little bit after Taurus made me even more inclined cut loose and throw a controller. And then, boom, it happened.

I said, "I can do it." I pushed forward. And suddenly I was in a new area. And then everything opened up. I had all these places I could go. A big area to explore. And I got the hang of the game. And suddenly, I wasn't a stranger to the game anymore because I'd finally grown comfortable, at the bare minimum, with the mechanics of the game.

You keep pushing ahead there bud. And explore. Use your eyes and your ears, and you'll spot things.

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DS1 has no automatic repair, unfortunately for Verb.

what

what the fuck am i supposed to do, then

Oh. And, yes, you did encounter your first black knight. As you no doubt learned, those guys don't fuck around. They're one of the prime reasons you should be a little bit familiar with parrying or learn your way around dodge rolling and backstabbuus, unless you have a strong enough shield.

Black knights can and will be difficult. However, they usually drop goodies for their hassle.

And, my last point about using your eyes, speficially. Explore your menus a little bit. Knowing what your gear can do is helpful. That merchent in your area sells some things.

Hmm, that being said, I think the easiest way to repair your weapon is to rest at a bonfire. As far as I remember, there's three weapon states. Normal, at risk, and broken. Resting at a bonfire when your weapon is normal or even at risk should get you your durability back up to 100%. But, if it breaks, you'll need to visit a blacksmith or find yourself an item to repair it.

DS1 has no automatic repair, unfortunately for Verb.

Damn. I never remember having a broken weapon. Like, ever. Then again he's using a scimitar. Flimsiest weapon in the game. Welp, my advice for Verb is to go find that merchant in the berg.

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