Breaking Brad: Breaking Brad: Demon's Souls: Part 02

Wowww, that invader had about the cheapest set up you could ever go for. Health regen shield, scraping spear, poison right off the bat.

I hope they feel proud of themselves :/ Must be fun invading low level players in such unbalanced contests and using just about every cheap tactic in the game. What an achievement!

I think with the added danger of invasions in DS2 there won't be any permanently damaging spells/weapons/builds like the scraping spear. It was really stupid to have that in Demon's, in retrospect.

Glad she ended on a positive, that invader was a fucking scumbag.

Nobody breaks Brad, not even spear douche

For next stream, take the PS3 off the internets. No more weak sauce invaders.

While the Souls games have fantastic visual design, that quotation by Miyazaki is rather skewed and self-indulgent. If the standard by which he is judging something as undignified is a maggot-strewn dragon, then I fail to see how a grotesque creature like the vomit-spewing Gaping Dragon would qualify as the opposite. And that is, of course, separate from stuff like a blood-filled pit of aborted demon babies, and a withered, naked lady whose body is attached to and surrounded by hideously blighted spider growth. Oh, also, try holding with both hands. Real dignified.

P.S. Brad, were you truly a man of the people, you would not play through Dark Souls during your free time. The more you play Dark Souls, the less challenge you will have with Demon's Souls. The less challenge you have with Demon's Souls, the less you will die, which, of course, is far less entertaining--for us watching.

P.P.S. All of you complaining about that invader need to stop. Was it annoying? Yes. Should the player have done it? No. However, by focusing so much on the actions of such a player, one who seeks enjoyment through ruining the fun of others, you merely validate such a strategy. Forget him and move on.

@slightlytriangularrectangle: Should measures not be taken to prevent the same thing happening again? But beyond that I agree, forget and move on.

Little bit disappointed Brad's been playing Dark Souls. I was enjoying watching him learn how the game worked.

@slightlytriangularrectangle: There was a user in the forums who translated the Dark Souls Design Works interviews some time ago, this part brings up both Gwynevere and the Gaping Dragon.

I wish! It's silly when in a time of little to no new releases for the next 2 months they still keep this to a once-a-week format.

If Brad wanted to really play it he should have just played it. I never understood these super strict schedules they run on. Literally nothing happened on the site since Monday apart from that one Quick Look EX and the Bombcast. They should have just streamed the game and everyone would be happy.

I believe they have said you will still be able to avoid invasions in DS2, just not by being hollow. I'd imagine you will have to sacrifice something to do it, maybe wear a ring that blocks red phantoms, or join a covenant that does it.

The adventures of Dark Lord Mindcavitus and his pupil Floogen the Dragonrunner!

@vinny In your second playthrough of Dark Souls, you should craft Quelaag's Furysword. It's the coolest looking weapon in the game and scales with humanity level. You'll need the spider boss' soul and a fully upgraded curved sword, and the giant blacksmith will ascend it for you.

Don't forget the horrible latency that these games suffer from. Even on Super Secret Squirrel CBS Internet, clear hits were not registering and what was actually happening was rather unclear. If this were Dark Souls, Brad would have been teleport backstabbed and thrown his controller at the television.

Also, that guy was a total troll because he appeared to do absolutely pitiful damage and was only meant to destroy equipment.

Dark Souls got better with time on the latency or I've just forgotten how bad it was on consoles because I haven't had any really terrible latency issues lately on PC. Also from what I played of the beta/stress test of Dark Souls 2 they've fixed the network stuff for the most part. Summoning and invading was all pretty quickly down with multiple people and it really makes the game a lot better. It was really awesome to summon 2 dudes in the time it took 2 invaders to get to me.

I found it funny that brad though that attack was personal. I been attack by that build in 2-1 a couple of times. If you want to grieve that it the perfect spot.

He admits it's more about a personal sense of grotesque rather than an understandable universal standard, though. The art design (particularly the creature design) in those games is really good, so, IMO, it's a good thing he had that, somewhat biased, authorial approach to it.

Personally, I think creatures in Demon/Dark Souls are never straight up gross for the sake of it -- you never see stuff like exposed insides, gallons of blood, pus, vomit, or hanging guts. They can be ugly or unsettling like the Gaping Dragon and the like, but they always have some reason.

Is backstab and parry really this hard in the game? I've only played Dark Souls and did those with relative ease.

Endurance Run or not, I'd rather they pace themselves through a few sets of games to completion instead of just crashing once a day on just one game until completion.

All the whining about the invader makes me sad in a way - it's simply a part of the game. That's why you don't go into levels human.

BTW... Is it just me, or is the dialog and voice acting way better in this game than in Dark Souls? I mean, the blacksmith guy sounds just like Christopher Lee and I love the little poem/prayer the blind lady recites when they level up.

Also everybody seems way more inviting and charismatic than the bunch of crazy assholes in the sequel.

Yep I feel the same. It's all part of the experience of playing these games. Brad was waiting to see when Demons' Souls would troll him, well guess what, that was it. That kind of thing is built into the game and actively encouraged by the developers. I'm not saying I like it or engage in it myself, but you should expect and accept that if you are going to play.

Brad is already having a much easier time of this than most people due to having some decent amount of information about the game already (and Dark Souls experience), then there is the somewhat game-breaking Soul Arrow and mana ring build he is using, plus Vinny and the chat giving him tips too. So I don't think he should act so indignant about the occasional setback.

Also from what I understand, Dark Souls 2 is going to make it more difficult for people to get around the PvP aspect of the game, so I guess you should get used to it now!

Then it's a shitty experience.

@dmfdude: Yeah, but maybe they did it because they knew Brad was playing, it was not random as the game design had intended.

It's a game you can actually lose. Demon Souls can be hard and unforgiving, that's back of the box info and you have to accept in order to have fun with it. If you think this is a shitty experience, the Souls Series is not made for you.

Would it be too much if the only way to not be invaded in DS2 would be to play offline? Because I think this may not be above them.

Man, I forgot how dumb the Scraping Spear is. It's practically meant for griefing.

Come on, that guy was clearly stream sniping and his build used the most trolly broken ass shit demon's souls has to offer. I mean, the spear that breaks the opponent's equipment in a few hits AND broken ass health regen gear? Brad would've totally crushed that asshole if he didn't regain the equivalent of 3 times his health bar in a minute.

That's one of the reason people who think demon's souls is better than dark souls are wrong, it's just SO broken.

@gasparnolasco: I believe that is the case, that you have to be offline but there is no definitive confirmation that I've heard. Either way as long as they fix invading at low levels with overpowered weapons and magic (that is, the low level greifing part of the experience) I'd be much happier with it. Them adding Lighting and Fire scaling seems to imply that, that's what they're doing, or trying to do, but again nothing's confirmed.

They seem to also aim to do more to put the instigators (the invaders) at a disadvantage by not letting them use their max health, have timers (like all phantoms now) and having a covenant dedicated to summon players to defend people who are invaded. Edit: I believe Estus also heals them slower.

I don't know about that conclusion. I had a blast with Dark Souls when I wasn't being invaded. The invasions, whether I died or not, really disrupted my experience of the flow of the game and felt really disjointed, tacked-on and severely broke my sense of immersion.

As a premium sub I would much rather have a 1 hour show every day that's available for everyone than a 2 hour premium show every week. I guess that wouldn't really incentivise people to subscribe though.

It would be fine if it was fair, as most of these games are. But this invader dude was able to heal himself constantly, broke all of Brad's stuff, and was way too overlevelled to be invading. Shouldn't there be some level matchmaking to avoid people who just fuck up all your equipment that you then have to grind and waste time getting back to your original stats?

Well that's optional. The game gives you the option to be a hollow all the time, negating some of the advantages, but keeping you safe from the PvP. It's a way to tailor your experience and a perfectly valid way to play the game.

@assinass: There is level matchmaking, but it's possible to stay at a low level while getting late game gear, that way you can invade people just starting out with all the odds in your favor. I know the shield the invader had has health regen and he might be using the regen ring as well.

Shouldn't they fix that? That seems like a dealbreaker for engaging in online play.

@assinass: I think so. It seems like Dark Souls 2 might, but I don't know for sure. In Dark Souls Pyromancy, because it didn't have a level requirement to upgrade, was widely abused in this way and it seems like they've either attached scaling to it, or integrated fire spells back into sorcery again like in Demon's Souls. I've also heard but not seen that heavy armor now have certain strength requirements.

@assinass: There will be stat requirements for gear in Dark Souls 2.

I just hope he doesn't have a constant troll like Patrick had (who invaded him every time he went human).

Fist-Tech® was my personal highlight!

Best feature on GB, atm. Please make it a bi/tri weekly thing.

I think Brad is playing the game just fine. He's very tentative, but he's just trying to make entertaining content. He wants to progress in the game, and not die constantly and have to grind for Souls - that would be boring to watch.

Good to hear. I had bought Dark Souls a couple of days ago from Steam, and got invaded by some seriously overlevelled dude who just kept on wanting to punch me DMC 3 Royal Guard style and once he got the drop on me, took my health all the way down in one hit :( Not fun, but at least he didn't break any of my stuff.

i always find it weird when i realize the characters have faces for some reason

Sorcery is the easy mode of the Souls series.

I love how much Brad's attitude changed from last week to this. Soul Arrow? Fuck that, I'm gonna mess everyone up with my sword.

Also I at first laughed about the invasion, until thinking about how much time could have been lost, because of Brad grinding out souls. Finding the armor set again was a great deal of luck, for all involved.

Oh, and yes, that quote is indeed ridiculous.

It's very likely that you won't enjoy Dark Souls 2 online then. From my understanding, you can be invaded at all times, whether you're hollowed or human is now irrelevant.

I find it curious that you point that the invasions broke your sense of immersion. Specifically because the game makes a point of heavily indicating, and at times out right stating, that invasions aren't player specific. There are a number of points in the game where you are guaranteed to be invaded by NPCs if you're in human form. Invasion isn't just a game mechanic, it's very much an acknowledge in game event.

At one point you're given task to invade the world of an NPC and kill him and two phantoms that are also in his world. All of this is very much a thread of the storyline for that NPC as well as a few other. I can understand the annoyance that surrounds being invaded by another player as you know it's simply going to be a short lived event since most invaders and skilled and rushing to murder you as quickly and brutally as possible. But to say that invasions are immersion breaking seems a bit off kilter.

At the very least, if the invasion mechanic proves to be frustrating enough in Dark Souls 2, you do have the option of playing offline. And considering the eager talk from fans of the invasion mechanic, it seems there's a fairly sizeable base of players that are eager to invade people who were previously off limits (i.e. Hollowed players). Hopefully some of the new Covenants will be structured around supporting players in escaping/deflecting invasions for the people who don't want to take part of that aspect of the game.

Can't wait to see how Brad's play-through develops! This game is near and dear to my soul...

@nentisys said:

What's the hard mode of the Souls series?

The invader didn't have to break all of his gear. Come on, man.

@matatat: Go in naked and kill everyone!