Hmm, invading in the 360 version sounds so tempting... If I can get my hands on a War Scythe or Mirdan Hammer, it's on!
I might just get the 360 version so I have a head start over everyone. Hopefully the Meat cleaver is back so I can invade their games earlier and show them pain!
Ninja Gaiden is fast paced where as Demon/Dark Souls is slow paced. I know how difficult Ninja Gaiden is, I had the original one on Xbox and it raped many of my hours retrying levels and bosses.
The NG games are indeed very tough, but nothing is tougher than an elite human opponent. An elite Demon's Souls invader can be a nightmare to deal with. You have no idea what was coming for you when you get that invasion message.
Unless they are on their own and you have two companions as you three lay in wait. Ah how I miss Demon Souls. Roll on Dark Souls.
I might have to look into this Dark Souls since you guys all seem to love Demon Souls. Sounds tricky though. I like a challenge but I don't like having to play the same bit of a game over and over again.
You're going to die often in a Souls game, especially if you get careless. I think modern games tend to spoil gamers with easy difficulty. They are accustomed to thinking that they can get away with spamming the attack button to wildly hack or shoot through most situations without dying. They expect some last second QTE to help them get past some almost impossible situation with a miraculous escape. Check on this video to see what happens if you think you can screw with a dragon. There's no last second QTE to save you in Dark Souls. Another fate awaits you if you do something stupid. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-dark-souls/716003 Things are further complicated by the fact that at any time another gamer on the network can decide to get mischevious and invade your game. In Demon's Souls, if they invade and kill another player on the network, the invader gets their physical body back, which gives them a full health bar rather than the half health bar you're limited to in soul form. Invasion returns in Dark Souls, also shown in the video above. You have no idea who will be coming into your game. It could be a scrub you wipe out in a few seconds. It could be an similarly matched foe who you battle for 15 minutes in an incredibly intense battle. Or he could be a rather elite player who competed in Demon's Souls tournaments and has a build that is optimized specifically for PVP. Dying frequently isn't that frustring to me because I have realistic expectations. That's just how it goes. It's incredibly satisfying to finally conquer a difficult area. I played through Demon's Souls several times and earned every trophy. I still go back for more from time to time because there are always new challenges with PVP, whether you are helping newbies with invaders or creating chaos of your own as an invader. Some will even gather in certain spots in the game with high invasion traffic and take turns battling 1-on-1. In general, the Demon's Souls user base demonstrated some of the highest ethics and sportsmanship I've seen in online gaming. For example, it is customary for regular PVPers to bow before the battle and and after defeating your opponent. It was really amazing how sporting they were. I was rarely ever cheap shotted despite how competitive and hardcore this game is. If someone does decide to pull some nonsense, others watching the 1-on-1 in the gathering will usually all converge on the cheater and crush him. There's very little tolerance for that type of nonsense in the Demon's Souls community.
I have one of those battles before. We would strike each other, evade and heal ourselfs and it continued until the first person ran out of healing items. Epic.
Some new walk through videos have been posted from GamesCom 2011. There are 4 parts. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-11-dark-souls/719334 They seem to have added ladder fighting.
I've played for 2 hours, past the Undead Asylum, beaten the boss and wandered through the Undead Burg. This is all the old, good Demon's Souls. Few subtle differences are: pros: - more vivid, more colour - the open spaces are epic, you are wandering through the Burg and see the huge city walls around - checkpoints (aka fires) cons: - I think I have the issue with the white colour. the game looks like I have a high contrast set on my TV or the softening filter is missing. because of this, all the white onscreen elements looks bad, the text seems not aliased, icons looks dotted It's been too short to say whether it's more difficult or not. Although I've lost like 10 lives on the first boss until finally realized what I was doing wrong.
Had a go at the belltower gargoyle, got him below 50% HP and another one appeared and flamed me to death. On his own I think it would be easy as you can see his attacks coming a mile off and get out of the way. Will have another go later.
Is Fable III actually any good? I've heard it's incredibly short. I liked the first two but didn't think they were anything special, I might pick this up when it's cheap second hand since there's no multiplayer to pay for EDIT: Posted this in the wrong damn thread.
I was able to take out the Bell Gargoyles. The key is to get off to a good start and damage the first one as much as possible. Something I've noticed that could help Dark Souls players out is that you can actually block many of the attacks from bosses if you have a decent shield and have built up your stamina. The problem I'm having now is that the boss I need to take down is brutally hard unless you can block some of his frequent attacks, so it looks like I may need to grind a bit to get my character into shape to take it out. Also, finding that blacksmith close to the church was VERY helpful. My character feels much more powerful now that I've made some upgrades. BTW, I've found 2 NPCs in the church. I almost killed one of them; I thought he was an assassin the way he was dressed and didn't expect anyone to be in that spot.
Where did you go after ringing the bell? I can't get past the dragon and going down from firelink shrine is hard so I guess the grass areas? I got the drake sword from the dragon. Great little 1h sword but it has no boosts from stats so I guess it will only last a short while. When exploring I ended up in drake basin/valley and got one shoted by what looked like a dead dragon. My only problem with this game is that there is NO direction. The game just lets you get on with it and gives you no clues other than ring the bells. I got a sun medal from the NPC in the church cell. Once you have freed him go to the firelink shrine and head down near the woman who can't talk (she upgrades your flask too) and he is sitting down on the grass. No idea what to do with it however.
There's very nasty demon down in the depths that you can defeat to get another key. It's tough unless your character has gear and stats to block some pretty savage attacks. There are dogs and assassin-type bastards in that area leading into its lair. You can open a shortcut near a bonfire (close to the archer) to that place as well. The other NPC in the church is at the very top. You have to beat the boss to get to him. I felt much more lost at the very beginning. It's kind of like a multiplayer map in the sense that you feel lost until you start to memorize the basic layout. Now I have few problems getting around the first few areas. And I have to say I'm quite impressed with FROM's level design. One of the things I hoped to see with Dark Souls is a more integrate level design similar to Boletaria/ World 1, and it seems they've done that. I'm really pleased to be able to see forests below a bridge and then actually be able to go down into that forest eventually. BTW, there's more to that cemetery than I realized. I found a Great Sword-type of weapon and a spear. There's also a creepy looking area. Beware of the giant skeletons guarding it. I had to kill 2 of them to explore the rest of the cemetery. The weapons I'm currently wielding are the Drake Sword and Halberd +5 (so glad to get a familiar type of weapon from Demon's Souls; I was much more comfortable when I got my hands on this thing). Regarding gear, I'm still using the default gear for the Pyromancer, although I upgraded it a few times. I also freed a guy in a sewer area that has upgraded my pyromancy skills 5 times. So far, I'm still underwhelmed by the pyromancy attacks. They are nice to use when I'm in an elevated position and drop a fireball down on a foe, but it takes too long to get a shot off to be an effective alternative to weapons. Does anyone know if increasing Attunement increases the number of uses you get out of spells or pyromancy? I don't want to waste any more souls on something I don't need. I blew a ton buying a weapon and upgrading it only to find the Drake Sword. I don't know how long it will be before I can actually try out the Great Axe I found. It requires 32 STR to use it single-handed!
At the start of the game you get to choose a gift such as a ring that gives you HP regen. Most people go for the master key as it opens a lot of the basic locked doors in the world. There are still quite a few doors it will not open but it saves you hunting for keys to certain areas.
AKS, Have you managed to get past the Hellkite dragon? I can't get under it without getting burnt to a crisp and want to see what is in the area behind it. I have read ways to kill him but he heals himself when he opens his wings and after spending a lot of time putting 150 arrows into him I gave up.