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Comments
bam, I'm hit by the firebomb's after effects.
blah blah blah there was a giant post here explaining why I preferred even the first game's arbitrary bullshit to this game because at least there there was always multiple ways to advance through any given challenge and all you had to do was find one that suited your playstyle and not suck at the game but I deleted it 'coz nobody cares.
And man, there's something wrong when I actually prefer playing Demon's Souls to whatever game I'm playing now, considering how much that game pissed me off.
I have never once been hit by a firebomb in that level. I really have no idea what you're having trouble with.
I am having trouble with the notion that a game simultaneously encourages me to be cautious when I advance forwards and punishes me for being cautious when I advance forwards.
But only on one bridge.
Are you still stuck on the bridge. Oh, right, I deleted that part of my post.
No, that bridge is not the only place where it happens. The very first time this pissed me off was before I even entered the Burg, where I was on a narrow ledge and there were... I believe, two soldiers down below, and a soldier up above who would throw firebombs at you. If you proceeded to try and kill the soldiers below first, you were stuck either luring them backwards (which should never be a necessity, never, if only because it does not at all seem like you are advancing in the game when you do it) or fighting them directly next to the staircase where the soldier cannot hit you with a firebomb. When I attempted to move to get some room and encourage them to attack so I could not waste my time hitting their shields, the soldier above took the opportunity to hit me with a firebomb- knocking me off the ledge in the process, thereby killing me.
Eventually, I did manage to kill the two soldiers, but when you proceed up the (very narrow) staircase to try and kill him, another soldier is drawn to the fight, leaving you fighting on a fairly narrow section of the bridge against someone who likes to throw firebombs and a soldier who likes to attack you if you try to turn to the other one. Attacking either leaves you vulnerable to the other, and no matter who you ignore, they will likely push you off the cliff. The only way I actually managed to win was by getting lucky and hitting both of them with a swing, knocking them off the ledge and gaining myself some room to move around.
The other instance I can think of is when you proceed to try and kill the Hollows who throw firebombs at you on the bridge, although I don't really count these as they're more of an optional fight. However, you face three Hollows at once, one on the lower deck and two on the upper, who all like to throw firebombs. There is very little room for manoeuvring without falling off, and taking the time to kill one results in you being hit by Firebombs if you do not get lucky in the timing.
I mean, in the very first goddamned level, they're throwing opponents at you who can hit you at range, with a type you cannot reasonably be expected to have an effective defence against, on narrow walkways where you have very little room to manoeuvre.
Considering that I am playing as a Wanderer, a class who is... really not built to take hits, but rather to move around them, dodge the attacks and attack when not dodging, having no room to effectively manoeuvre and being bombarded by attacks I have no defence against pretty much means I can kiss my ass goodbye multiple times.
It is completely different to other areas of the game, which annoy me greatly but I can actually work around because the game has not artificially limited what I can do in an attempt to make it difficult. The three Plague Rats in the area underneath the Dragon's Bridge are some of the most annoying creatures I have encountered due to their ability to poison me, but I can just move around and attempt to attack them. It's difficult, because they are small, quick and hit annoyingly hard, and can even poison through a shield, but you have the tools to defeat them, you just need to apply them effectively. You have no tools other than "RUN AWAY REALLY FAST" when the firebombs are whipped out.
I mean, I've died plenty of times due to other circumstances, but those are just because I make a mistake and the game punishes me for it. Those damned eight-foot-tall Knights with the massive swords and shields have ended me plenty of times, but if I really tried and didn't slip up, I could defeat them, because they don't just pummel me from across long distances. They break my shield in one hit and knock half my health off in the follow-up, yeah, but if I try, I can avoid their attacks.
It really pisses me off when the game limits what you can do, though, especially when it removes practically everything that makes a particular class worthwhile.
I suspect I would find it a lot easier if I spent some time building up my Flame Resist, but I cannot even upgrade my shield yet, the game should not be forcing me to rely on this.
It's the sort of thing they do that makes the game bullshit instead of just hard. Hard isn't just pitting you against a lot of enemies you can't effectively deal with, hard is like... fighting Flamelurker, or Penetrator, or, as a matter of fact, most of World 2 in general. Those were hard, but not just because they were arbitrary.
Apparently, the Scimitar doesn't actually have a kick attack. It has this weird attack where you slash and then immediately do a backflip and get away from the enemy. Absolutely useful when facing certain enemies, but in this particular one where there's a lot of enemies who like to wander around you for literally minutes at a time with shields up and there's lots of ledges and deadly falls around, I really need a proper kick attack. Luckily, one of the Hollows dropped a Longsword for me.
For firebombs, I do one of three things:
1 is for narrow areas with fewer enemies.
2 is for wider areas with more enemies.
3 is for wider areas with fewer enemies.
Firebomb enemies can certainly test one's patience, but they're hardly the worst thing in the game, or even break the action up that much. The Burg is reasonably forgiving; the Parish much less so, and I don' think it even has firebomb enemies. Just one hell of a lot of death.
argh you're telling me there are worse thing?
Also, Hollows that wield spears and shields really try my patience. They take forever to attack, and as I wield a Scimitar as my only decent weapon, I can't Kick them to break their shields. It can literally take thirty seconds for them to stop circling me and actually attack at time, which particularly sucks when crossbowmen are nearby.
Most of the rest of the game is fairly easy, but fuuuuck I miss having my Regenerator Ring.
There are way worse things than firebomb enemies, but then again, firebomb enemies never gave me half the trouble they seem to be giving you. I noticed their massive telegraph almost immediately, so I always had lengthy warning. Plus, as soon as they finish that animation, the path of the bomb is set. So if you manipulate their facing as they're about to throw and then keep moving, they can't touch you very easily.
Also, if you want to avoid a lot of frustration, I suggest making your way to Darkroot Forest before you go to Blighttown and doing what you reasonably can in that general area. By the time the way to Blighttown is open, you should be able to complete all of Darkroot Forest (except the path behind a particular, huge stone gate). You could also do a bit of Darkroot Basin (which is off to the side of the forest), although in this case I just suggest looking for a stone tower and dealing with the enemy inside for the loot (which helps one hell of a lot).
In fact, there's a load of stuff you can do for Blighttown, which is pretty much the entire game's upfucked most section, comparable to World 5 in Demon's Souls. The higher level you are for that part, the better, and having all the right gear helps as well.
I actually finished World 5 easier than World 3 or the later parts of World 1.
I'm just concentrating on this fucking Undead Parish for the moment which is annoying me.
The other thing that is annoying me is this game's extreme reluctance to let you proceed with a decent amount of health without never fucking up. At least in Demon's Souls, you could find healing items around the place. Let you heal in Dark Souls? lolnope.
It's error control. You could run out of healing items completely in Demon's Souls and might have to grind for more -- boring. Dark Souls is about giving you 5-10 healing items per a "lifespan" and forcing you to partition them out between engagements. So yes, if you found and held onto a lot of healing items in Demon's Souls, you'll have to be more cautious here, but it's a strong error control system that removes any anxiety over future effectiveness within the game while still creating tension.
If you have humanity, I strongly suggest kindling the first bonfire you find in the Burg. It's an important one for a large amount of the area (and so is the next one, which is accompanied by the sound of a hammer). Ten flasks should see you through at least until you get under the bridge, at which point you can knock down a ladder that provides a shortcut to the same bonfire.
Oh, I'm already at the Blacksmith. I did that while I was gone.
As was the case with Demon's Souls, once I managed to repair my equipment, upgrade my main shield to +2 and my spare shield to +1, and upgrade both weapons to +2, I found everything became significantly easier, as I can now two-shot most enemies, rather than the six or so it was taking before.
This is a pretty significant bonfire. Not exactly right now, strictly speaking, but it's a crossroads into three major areas. Being able to come here, heal, recuperate and leave as empowered as possible is pretty important.
I already kindled it :V
Also, the Longsword+5 is boss. Its' power attack can one-shot any Dregling I've encountered so far, and it can even one-shot the Herald-Knights when I backstab them.
NOW TO GET ALL MY GEAR TO +5.
argh
FUCK THIS GAME
Also, crossbows suck, so much.
You'd think that it'd be enough that you just can't aim with them, but nope, you also have to stand there reloading after shooting. Makes them worse than useless during the Bell Gargoyle fight.
Crossbows are pretty awful indeed. I think they're only really included because the dev time ensured that almost all gear equipped by enemies could be equipped by you. It would be better if they could be aimed, but still required you to remain in place while reloading -- then their value would be in firing a prepared shot quickly and with accuracy, after which you could then switch to a close combat weapon and close.
The thing is, they really are powerful. I believe my Light Crossbow + 5 has 145 power, whereas even my Longsword +5 only has 120 power. I believe only the Axe and Halberd actually have the potential to do higher damage, and they're two-hand weapons with high Strength requirements. Hell,
The best way to do it, as far as I can see, would be to still require you to reload (to offset the power of the crossbows as opposed to regular bows) but not require you to do it immediately, so that non-tanky characters can actually use them.
In the meantime, let's go rescue this dude from the church and kill the Gargoyles.
I think the "tanky only" balance thing for crossbows is trying to enforce the theme. After all, a crossbow isn't a ranger's weapon ("ranger" here meaning "medieval spec ops"), but the weapon of a heavily-armoured, frontline soldier. The way crossbows currently work, they're only viable in the hands of a tanky, heavily-armoured sort.
Whether or not that's a good thing is up for debate, and I'm fence-sitting for the moment, but I have to admit that it works really well on a thematic level.
That said, despite playing primarily heavily-armoured knights, I never found myself using the crossbow. Still too limited, and heavier swords/axes/polearms do more damage anyway. Although I guess a blessed crossbow would be pretty cool, although it'd still only be workable if they brought back the health regen for faith weapons.
It works on a thematic level, but considering their general inaccuracy, their reaaaally slow reloading times, and the expense of their ammunition compared to bows, bows actually easily outstrip them. Sure, bows can't deal as much damage in a single hit, but you can hit easily twice as often with a bow, which makes up for the damage like nothing else, bows have way more range (I believe one bow has a range of 65), and you can actually move around after firing, thus ensuring non-instant-death. And ammunition is a lot cheaper, so you end up with more Souls, too, although using more ammo may actually make that a bad thing.
To be fair, this is pretty realistic in context of the small-scale encounters (at least in terms of numbers) the game represents. The advantage of a crossbow in real life was its penetration combined with ease of use. A bow required good physical strength from its user, but being strong with a crossbow just meant you could wind it up faster. Once the bolt was set, it could stay there for as long as you needed the shot to be lined up, making it the first weapon in history comparable to modern rifles.
Personally, I'd go with this:
I think this would make crossbows usable -- and perhaps even preferable in some scenarios. But they would still be outstripped by the bow in terms of combat at greater ranges. In fact, this way, crossbows would fill a currently empty tactical niche, that being a weapon that can easily interrupt actions that would be out of the range of a close combat weapon but too close to risk using a bow. Although I suspect the semi-auto crossbow would see horrible misuse in multiplayer.
Those changes would make crossbows usable, yes, while not outstripping bows.
Ranged weapons in general suck in Dark Souls. Don't waste your time with them. If you want to be able to do damage at some kind of distance, then just use Pyromancy. Or Sorcery, since it's generally better, but requires you to increase your Intelligence.
Also, it amuses me that you can fight Four Kings as the third boss in the game, before even the gargoyles or Quelaag.
Third? Can't you fight them as soon as you take out the Asylum Demon?
Anyway, I prefer Pyromancy to Sorcery since you can scale it to its maximum damage without increasing the cost it takes to level yourself up, which means that it's more efficient to grind both pyromancy and something else than to grind sorcery and something else.
Crossbows are definitely useless. Bows are useful in two locations. Maybe three or four if you want to use them to lure enemies off ledges.
You need to beat Sif as well, even on NG+.
Oh, right, forgot about that since they aren't geographically anywhere near each other.
I like what the game did there, by the way. You could blow through all of Demon's Souls without getting even the slightest bit of the plot, but Dark Souls, at least there, requires you to think, even if only briefly, about where you need to go and what you need to do.
Er, no. I assure you you can get through Dark Souls without even the slightest thought about the plot.
In fact, I've beaten the game and I'm still not completely sure there even is a plot.
What I mean is that (unless you're using a walkthrough or something) you need to think "oh, they're in the abyss? I need to go find that abysswalker guy. Where's he?" which is really minor, but still a good deal more thought than Demon's Souls requires.
And yes, there is a plot. It's a pretty good one. Don't have time to type it out right now though. Will in a bit.
Insofar as plot goes, I didn't think Dark Souls had a moment comparable to the Maiden Astrea encounter or its sombre aftermath.
I assure you, it does. Put on the Old Witch's ring and talk to Quelaag's sister.
Anyway, I wrote out a part of a plot summary, and found that if it's just typed out, it's doesn't sound as interesting as it is when you try to find it...:/