This. It explains in a nutshell how the game works. I feel better now. Numbers 1-4, specifically.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/954345-demons-souls/52956543
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/954345-demons-souls/52956543
Archived M2K2 Forum
The thing they leave out is any hint of a conflict. That's how stories and games typically work. You become aware of one or more problems/conflicts and you have to figure out how to solve/resolve them. They can be anything from vague clues like knowing there's an evil king in a castle somewhere, to simply getting to a flagpole at the end of a level. This game just tells you how to play but doesn't tell you why you're playing. It was eating at me.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
These games tend to leave you to figure out what you're aiming to do as you go, they open with "Everything is terrible and you're probably doing something about it I guess" and eventually someone tells why you had to kill all those bosses and to go kill more. My understanding is that Demon's Souls is just a lot worse at explaining itself than the Dark Souls games are.
It can make more sense to just approach the game with the mindset that "That thing's gonna kill you so you should kill it first" until someone tells you what's up.
It can make more sense to just approach the game with the mindset that "That thing's gonna kill you so you should kill it first" until someone tells you what's up.
There's one guy that doesn't really look any different than any of the other guys, and so far he's the only thing that has killed me. I've died 6 times, and it's all from him. I've figured out that you can't block him, at least not with the shield I have. His weapon just goes right through your shield and one hit is all it takes to kill you. All of my deaths were just learning that you can't block, as I've tried every way you can block. I guess that means I'm supposed to go the other way, which is where I went initially and played for what seems like forever, getting past dragons and legions of enemies, then warping back to nexus (stupid move) because I was doubting as to whether or not I was in the right area (I WAS in the right area, but didn't know it yet). I also just figured out that when you die, the only thing they take away from you is your location but you keep everything you've picked up. I have so many freakin' healing items now that I can heal myself a hundred times lol. That doesn't help me against a one-hit enemy though. I'm just kicking myself for warping back to the nexus at this point. I should have read those 4 items before I played.
Quote from Opium:
There's one guy that doesn't really look any different than any of the other guys
Does he have red eyes? That's an endgame enemy. If you're playing online there should be messages telling you not to go that way. Btw it's the only place in 1-1 you're not getting anything from entering on your first visit to 1-1.
Demon's Souls was my first Souls game too and I had the most trouble with it because of that. When I played it I somehow managed to beat 1-1 relatively smoothly in a few hours, and was completely lost with the game after that until I kinda got the grasp of it.
My hints:
- You can level up with your souls after you beat the boss of 1-1.
- Don't worry if you lose all your souls. Especially this early in the game. Later on you'll get a lot more souls per enemy killed so the souls you get in 1-1 aren't worth a lot.
- Check the physical manual to find out what all the icons mean.
- Upgrade your weapon whenever you can, weapon upgrades are your most important stat in the game. Upgrading a weapon increases its base damage and the damage modifier received from your stats (STR/DEX/INT/FTH).
- Read item descriptions. Those teach you most of the lore and give gameplay explanations. For example, you won't really know what all the different weapon upgrades do unless you read the descriptions of various upgrade stones.
- This game's not your typical action game. But I guess you already figured that out. For a beginner it's best to play carefully and with your shield up. Always watch your surroundings.
- Explore. There's a ring in 1-1 that will let you keep 75% of your health in spirit form. It should be easy to spot, but I still missed it when I played. Don't make the same mistake.
As for the story. The opening movie tells you most of what you need to know. Demons are showing up in the kingdom of Boletario because the king played around with something out of the league of humans, the place is doomed and if nothing's done about them they'll just keep on spreading around the world until no human's left alive.
Thanks for the tips.
I just beat the first boss. First time he killed me, second time it was easy once I used turpentine on my sword. I'm kinda hooked now.
The symbols and numbers on the sub menu really overwhelm me. I'm not really an RPG player. Do I really need to study all of that for this game? I'd like to kinda forget it.
I'm also worried about not knowing when/if I should be using different weapons and equipment. I have tons of souls but everything I look at to buy seems crappy compared to what I already have. Is there an easier way to compare what I have with what's in the shop without having to exit the shop and then go to my inventory?
Funny note: I couldn't figure out how to activate levers until I got to the end of the level, so the two levers I found before that went unpulled. Now I want to go back and pull them to see what I can get.
I just beat the first boss. First time he killed me, second time it was easy once I used turpentine on my sword. I'm kinda hooked now.
The symbols and numbers on the sub menu really overwhelm me. I'm not really an RPG player. Do I really need to study all of that for this game? I'd like to kinda forget it.
I'm also worried about not knowing when/if I should be using different weapons and equipment. I have tons of souls but everything I look at to buy seems crappy compared to what I already have. Is there an easier way to compare what I have with what's in the shop without having to exit the shop and then go to my inventory?
Funny note: I couldn't figure out how to activate levers until I got to the end of the level, so the two levers I found before that went unpulled. Now I want to go back and pull them to see what I can get.
Good job beating the first boss! Yeah, using the fire related items you find in 1-1 is the key to that battle.
More or less. You should know what stats the symbols refer to, it also helps to know the symbols for the various status effects. Those aside it's good to know what numbers represent the damage stat of your weapons and the defense stat of your equipment. The later games in the series handle this a lot better because you can always press a button like select to open a hint menu that explains everything. At least in the stat screen. For Demon's Souls it's best to keep the manual nearby until you've got it all memorized.
Try pressing square. I'm not sure if that'll really help though, haven't played the game in a while. But don't worry about it too much. It's not the kind of RPG where you get better equipment all the time. Most items are good and only vary slightly in their stats. I recommend you wear whatever you think looks good on your character!
For shield the game differentiates between normal shields and heavy shields. Shields generally have a percentage based damage reduction for the various kinds of damages (physical, magic, fire iirc). Normal shields are light and can be used to parry. Heavy shields are... very heavy, can't be used to parry but have much better stat reduction. With heavier shields you also lose less stamina when you get hit while blocking, but I forgot what the stat which determines this is called in Demon's. It's best to have a normal shield with 100% physical reduction and one with a lot of fire damage reduction, because that will come in handy.
When it comes to weapons, as long as you regularly upgrade your weapon almost every weapon is good. There's some gimmick weapons with ridiculously low damage output (daggers for example), but for the most part you can go with whatever suits you best. Heavy hitting weapons (Large swords, greatswords, clubs etc.) are slower, but are better for staggering and stunning enemies. Then there's DEX weapons like Katanas, Falchions and so on which don't stagger enemies as easily, deal less damage but have quicker attack animations. You'll also find out that heavy weapons have the benefit that if you attack with them enemies are often unable to stop your animation. If you get attacked min-animation with a dex weapon you'll most likely be interrupted. Good basic weapons for early on are straight swords like the broad sword, long sword and short sword.
And IMPORTANT: do NOT consume boss souls! You'll eventually be able to use those to get new spells, miracles and get special weapons via upgrading.
And definitely pull those levers. At least one of them leads to something good. Alhough their primary purpose is to open up shortcuts in case you die on your way through the stage.
Quote:
The symbols and numbers on the sub menu really overwhelm me. I'm not really an RPG player. Do I really need to study all of that for this game? I'd like to kinda forget it.
More or less. You should know what stats the symbols refer to, it also helps to know the symbols for the various status effects. Those aside it's good to know what numbers represent the damage stat of your weapons and the defense stat of your equipment. The later games in the series handle this a lot better because you can always press a button like select to open a hint menu that explains everything. At least in the stat screen. For Demon's Souls it's best to keep the manual nearby until you've got it all memorized.
Quote:
Is there an easier way to compare what I have with what's in the shop without having to exit the shop and then go to my inventory?
Try pressing square. I'm not sure if that'll really help though, haven't played the game in a while. But don't worry about it too much. It's not the kind of RPG where you get better equipment all the time. Most items are good and only vary slightly in their stats. I recommend you wear whatever you think looks good on your character!
For shield the game differentiates between normal shields and heavy shields. Shields generally have a percentage based damage reduction for the various kinds of damages (physical, magic, fire iirc). Normal shields are light and can be used to parry. Heavy shields are... very heavy, can't be used to parry but have much better stat reduction. With heavier shields you also lose less stamina when you get hit while blocking, but I forgot what the stat which determines this is called in Demon's. It's best to have a normal shield with 100% physical reduction and one with a lot of fire damage reduction, because that will come in handy.
When it comes to weapons, as long as you regularly upgrade your weapon almost every weapon is good. There's some gimmick weapons with ridiculously low damage output (daggers for example), but for the most part you can go with whatever suits you best. Heavy hitting weapons (Large swords, greatswords, clubs etc.) are slower, but are better for staggering and stunning enemies. Then there's DEX weapons like Katanas, Falchions and so on which don't stagger enemies as easily, deal less damage but have quicker attack animations. You'll also find out that heavy weapons have the benefit that if you attack with them enemies are often unable to stop your animation. If you get attacked min-animation with a dex weapon you'll most likely be interrupted. Good basic weapons for early on are straight swords like the broad sword, long sword and short sword.
And IMPORTANT: do NOT consume boss souls! You'll eventually be able to use those to get new spells, miracles and get special weapons via upgrading.
And definitely pull those levers. At least one of them leads to something good. Alhough their primary purpose is to open up shortcuts in case you die on your way through the stage.
Dood Trigger™
I'm surprised that you're playing Demon's Souls, Opium, you don't seem to get along with games that don't explain themselves very well. There will be a lot of frustrating/confusing moments in this, but there's always a fairly simple solution to everything, so just ask for help if you get stuck.
General good rule: if you don't know what to level up, just level up health and stamina. They'll always get you more powerful no matter what other parameter you decide to focus on.
You'll get used to the menus. For now just keep an eye on your equipment weight. Keep it below 50% or else your character moves and rolls too slow.
I'd also suggest posting on the Souls topic before ark just moves all the posts there anyway... :P
General good rule: if you don't know what to level up, just level up health and stamina. They'll always get you more powerful no matter what other parameter you decide to focus on.
You'll get used to the menus. For now just keep an eye on your equipment weight. Keep it below 50% or else your character moves and rolls too slow.
I'd also suggest posting on the Souls topic before ark just moves all the posts there anyway... :P
If you're interested in the Souls series in general, I would actually recommend playing one or both of the Dark Souls games first and coming back to Demon's after that. Demon's is by far the hardest introduction to the series because it's the most unforgiving, cryptic and has some rather archaic mechanics that got scrapped in the next game. In case you're unaware, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne are both standalone games that are completely unrelated story-wise to the two Dark Souls games, they're just spiritually related because they feature the same gameplay. Most mechanics are very consistent across the series and they all have the same control scheme, so you will quickly get a basic grasp on one of the Dark Souls games after your Demon's Souls experiences so far, and playing through those will equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the series that will make Demon's Souls much less frustrating.
Quote from Serris:
If you're interested in the Souls series in general, I would actually recommend playing one or both of the Dark Souls games first and coming back to Demon's after that. Demon's is by far the hardest introduction to the series because it's the most unforgiving, cryptic and has some rather archaic mechanics that got scrapped in the next game. In case you're unaware, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne are both standalone games that are completely unrelated story-wise to the two Dark Souls games, they're just spiritually related because they feature the same gameplay. Most mechanics are very consistent across the series and they all have the same control scheme, so you will quickly get a basic grasp on one of the Dark Souls games after your Demon's Souls experiences so far, and playing through those will equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the series that will make Demon's Souls much less frustrating.
That sounds like a good idea. I have both, and the only thing that made me decide to play demons souls first is that it was released first.
Thanks all for the input.
Dood Trigger™
I don't think you should do that necessarily. Dark Souls is even more massive and just as overwhelming. You seem to be getting the hang of the concept if you made it through 1-1 on your own. I'd stick with DeS, shouldn't be that different on the first playthrough. Just keep in mind that you won't be a master of the game in the first few hours.
Dood Trigger™
So it is 1999 and I'm playing Sonic Adventure for the first time. I've always wanted to play this, and I even tried a demo version that almost fried a really old PC I had. Recently got the PSN version on some flash sale for like $2. Wall of impressions below.
Right off the bat, and for the whole game, you have to put up with an ugly purple border... even if they're too lazy to make the game widescreen friendly, why not at least give you the option to stretch the 4:3 picture? It's quite distracting. Then you gain control of Sonic and the camera is atrocious and you can't tell what direction is what. It's worse in the hub, but even in the action levels it only gets barely acceptable.
This game has a hub area like most 3D platformers, and you can walk around and talk to people, but I don't think you can choose the order of anything, right? It follows a pretty straight forward cycle of finding a key or a new ability in the hub world > occasionally beating a boss in the hub world > gaining access to the next action level. Kinda lame that with such an open hub you can't do stuff in your preferred order à la classic 3D platformers.
But man, this game is so fun. It's just the right balance of mindless thrills and discovering little hidden platforms and alternate paths on your own. I've beaten 7 main levels so far, which probably means I'm close to the end of the story (is this accurate?). All those levels were good, with no exception. The speed sections are free in this game, which is surprising to me because I was under the impression that in 3D Sonic you pretty much had to memorize the levels if you want to survive or be speedy. But in SA, the punishment for hitting stuff while running is usually just slowing down for a sec. When you play well, you get access to shortcuts and alternate routes with more items to collect and such. It's really satisfying to play.
The music is great during gameplay where it is actually videogame music, but IMO it's bad during cutscenes where they cue the rock and roll with generic cool dude lyrics (I do remember liking City Escape from SA2, though >_>). Voice acting is terrible, but who cares? I just wanna run fast and jump on stuff.
Will finish tomorrow. There's a bunch of different campaigns with the unlockable characters too, damn. This game's replay value is crazy.
This game has a hub area like most 3D platformers, and you can walk around and talk to people, but I don't think you can choose the order of anything, right? It follows a pretty straight forward cycle of finding a key or a new ability in the hub world > occasionally beating a boss in the hub world > gaining access to the next action level. Kinda lame that with such an open hub you can't do stuff in your preferred order à la classic 3D platformers.
But man, this game is so fun. It's just the right balance of mindless thrills and discovering little hidden platforms and alternate paths on your own. I've beaten 7 main levels so far, which probably means I'm close to the end of the story (is this accurate?). All those levels were good, with no exception. The speed sections are free in this game, which is surprising to me because I was under the impression that in 3D Sonic you pretty much had to memorize the levels if you want to survive or be speedy. But in SA, the punishment for hitting stuff while running is usually just slowing down for a sec. When you play well, you get access to shortcuts and alternate routes with more items to collect and such. It's really satisfying to play.
The music is great during gameplay where it is actually videogame music, but IMO it's bad during cutscenes where they cue the rock and roll with generic cool dude lyrics (I do remember liking City Escape from SA2, though >_>). Voice acting is terrible, but who cares? I just wanna run fast and jump on stuff.
Will finish tomorrow. There's a bunch of different campaigns with the unlockable characters too, damn. This game's replay value is crazy.
Quote from Serris:
If you're interested in the Souls series in general, I would actually recommend playing one or both of the Dark Souls games first and coming back to Demon's after that. Demon's is by far the hardest introduction to the series because it's the most unforgiving, cryptic and has some rather archaic mechanics that got scrapped in the next game.
What? Demon's Souls is the easiest game in the series.
Club 27 Goals
did you guys play the same Sonic Adventure I did? The one with the blue-gel guy and the most bullshit fishing mechanic made?
And I guess it has the illusion of replay because of different characters, but it's the exact same thing from a different perspective over and over and fucking hell I'm going to rant about that fishing part again because just... WHY
And I guess it has the illusion of replay because of different characters, but it's the exact same thing from a different perspective over and over and fucking hell I'm going to rant about that fishing part again because just... WHY
Club 27 Goals
I liked playing Sonic 06 ironically with friends, and Sonic Boom after taking some shots was bearable and kind of fun actually especially with the Knuckles glitch, holy shit
but man I played Sonic Adventure as a kid and didn't really enjoy it and tried to enjoy it again recently but I just couldn't for the life of me enjoy that game
but man I played Sonic Adventure as a kid and didn't really enjoy it and tried to enjoy it again recently but I just couldn't for the life of me enjoy that game
Club 27 Goals
Is it really that free though? I remember whenever you're in a hub or whatever there's like, one thing you're supposed to be doing at one time, with places restricted or just empty and useless.
It definitely has fast moments, but it has weird transitions between fast moments and then like weird boss fights where you just kinda jump and walk around waiting for the boss to be exposed and hit them. Idunno
honestly maybe I should give it a shot or watch a humorous playthrough of it. Maybe it was just a phase where I was just sick of the genre and sonic and wanted to hate it, but I'll have to take at it from a different perspective
It definitely has fast moments, but it has weird transitions between fast moments and then like weird boss fights where you just kinda jump and walk around waiting for the boss to be exposed and hit them. Idunno
honestly maybe I should give it a shot or watch a humorous playthrough of it. Maybe it was just a phase where I was just sick of the genre and sonic and wanted to hate it, but I'll have to take at it from a different perspective