Looking back at a year of Dark Souls

I've just about finished Dark Souls (again) with a sorcerer this time. Taken me a year to do it since I've been doing it as a let's play since Janauary when I started the youtube thing. Just got poor old King Gwyn left now but he is nothing compared to the expansion content.

I've just put a little montage together to remember my time in the game and been sharing the magic that is Dark Souls with everyone

I

Wow, nice job duder. Enjoyed that, even if my sound was fuckled. I should really get around to playing this game, but I needed a psychological break after getting torn apart for months in Demon's Souls. Maybe I'll be ready for DS2 but who knows.

Favorite boss?

Really enjoyed watching that. What an unforgettable game, literally. I think about going back and playing it all the time.

@geraltitude:

Hrmmm...no text appeared - Knight Artorias was a particular favorite since I hadn't done him on my orginal play through on the PS3.
Before that it was Gravelord Neto because he just looked badass, oh and Ornstein & Smough

I really need to bite the bullet and finally give Dark Souls a shot. I've always been hesitant because of the higher difficulty that's always discussed.

@mightyduck: Yeah, I say go for it and don't let the learning curve trouble you. There's plenty of threads and helpful people both here and over at r/darksouls on reddit. You will die a lot, but it's the name of the game, and every time you die you'll learn something new about your strengths, play style, weapon preference, enemy habits, etc.

How did you find your sorcerer build going?

The only gameplay I've seen of magic builds have been insane people that focus on the Lower HP = Higher Damage tactic, running around at 15% HP.

How is it playing as a normal character without any crazy gimmicks?

@fantus1984: Too many bosses, not enough stupid deaths. There has to be shots of:

• Accidently falling to your death.
• Being kicked to your death.
• Being eaten by a Mimic.
• Being one-shot by an enemy you didn't see.

for it to be a proper Dark Souls montage.

Tried to play some more Demon's Souls in NG+...it's just not doing it for me. Cheap, obnoxious enemies are far more plentiful in it and the level design is such a bore. I'd rather keep playing Dark Souls over and over and over again even though I have all the achievements and weapons and keep messing around.

Damn, maybe I should start capturing some DS footage because all of those happen to me practically every time I sit down to play.

@mb: I'd subscribe to a channel full of that content. :)

@viciousbearmauling:

The Sorcorer was a lot of fun since I played ranger on my first play through of the game. Having range was an advantage and early on the spells did insane damage. Later on you could kite enemies & bosses easily but the game started giving everything more spell resist - especially in the Dukes Archive. That was a ball ache, espically Seath the Scaless

The other thing I can critize the sorcorer for was the lack of a diverse range of spells. All the attack spells were forms of soul arrow but a little bit stronger. It only got interesting once you rescue Logan who gave you the homing soul mass & spell shield/weapon. The only other one I use was remedy in the swamp section of the globe of light in the tomb of giants :)

This has been address in Dark Souls 2 when I got to play the better :P

@mikelemmer:

Well I did have 16 hours of content to scroll through - never got eaten by a mimic and played the game before so wasn't one shotted. Never came across any pvpers as well except in the castle walls.

I didn't fall to my death either from what I can remember except off the lifts in the swamps. :P

Over 200 hours of play and I still fall foul of a couple of those.

@mikelemmer: Also don't forget, your spear type weapon just whiffing air because of bad lock on.

Shit makes me want to go play Dark Souls all over again. Good stuff.

@mightyduck said:

I wouldn't necessarily say the game it difficult, per se. It's more that the game bucks current gaming trends by forcing you to be patient. To survive, you need to learn your environment, learn enemy placement, learn enemy attack patterns and even learn how to best use your equipment. You also learn by doing, which is why you can expect to die. A lot. But it's also a game that rewards patience, exploration and experimentation. I haven't had a feeling in gaming quite like when I beat a boss that I've been banging my head against for the past hour, knowing that I have an entire new area to explore.

Ive played and watched a lot of dark souls this year.

Played: PS3 once and PC once

Watched: Vinny and Jeff Green videos

If you're looking for a fascinating alternative perspective, try watching one of the speedruns. The strategies have gotten quite unique over the past few months, especially since the discovery of the weapon swap glitch. The swap glitch allow you to transfer the moveset of one weapon to another in a sort of limited capacity. So, for instance, you can make the black knight halberd do the charge attack from the estoc.

A magic short sword, a shield, and sorcery. Pretty much identical to my experience as a Sorcerer. Nice job making it through.