Load Our Last Save: Load Our Last Souls: Part 09

@noelveiga said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oopu3yDlp30

But he just went as far as Tomb of Giants for now. His compilations are great, a highly recommended subscribe!

All hail Vinny! Twice Manus killer!

I'm gonna miss this feature when it's finished.

Also I've killed Dusk everytime I beat Manus...

Vinny didn't cheese Manus. He obliterated him with high poise, high health, high defense, and high damage output. He literally withstood a full Dark Magic Homing Ring attack without using his shield. Cheesing Manus would consist of damaging him before you enter the fog gate, which is a thing people do.

I've killed Manus on normal with a lv 45 lightning uchi/pyro build. I've also killed him on NG++ with a fully loaded PVP character and he went down pretty easily. If you have high damage output and can survive his strongest attack the fight isn't hard because you can always spam Estus.

The difficulty comes from a long drawn out fight where one mistake will cause an instant one hit kill.

My favorite video series on the site right now.

Haven't watched, but guessing he's so dead...

When I played that DLC, that boss was really something...

Vinny proved once and for all he is the one true Father of the Abyss.

Man, pissed off Vinny is so weird, but also great.

I missed this live because there was nothing on the front page to say there was going to be a stream, last minute is all well and good for those in the U.S but not for us over in the UK and Europe where it's late evening early hours when these streams happen so Prior notification is useful to plan for it..

but anyway great episode, Vinny the NPC killer was bound to happen Vbomb no care.

Vinny's the new end boss of Dark Souls.

So excited to have this to look forward to after work! Ain't no shame in VinnCo!

"She was Manus too?" I'm dying over here

Manus is so freaking obnoxious. He's way more manageable with some help.

I don't know guys. This game seems pretty easy.

Dude's got no mercy. None.

There was an entry in the schedule for it, but for some reason no countdown until about 5 minutes before it started. Either way, since you're in EU you probably would've been screwed anyway, due to changes at Twitch they had to use Justin.TV instead, which limits the amount of non-US viewers that are allowed to watch a stream, as well as contantly cutting for commercials.

I'm not gonna lie; it's kind of infuriating to see Vinny tap dance his way through this game with a full Havel's set and Iron Flesh. I had no idea that something so mindless was so effective.

Those things in the abyss are infact human souls

He's also over level 80. Things should be relatively easy at that point if you've tried at all to make yourself powerful. Plus when your weapon is so powerful that you only need to do a few hits, it pays to be reckless. Though Vinny has pretty good instincts for what he can withstand.

And as always, Vinny is one entertaining son of a bitch.

@ultimaxe: It's not effective... what you and many other people saying "this game isn't hard, look @vinny can tank his way through everything!" don't realize is that Vinny is massively over-leveled for this area of the game. He is approaching the level of people who are mid-endgame on new-game plus, not their first playthrough.

That's why his cheesy tank strat is working so well.

Try his strategy as a level 35-50 when you're SUPPOSED to be near the end of your first playthrough, not his level (85-100.. holy crap that's high for first playthrough), and you'll get fucking obliterated and the boss will laugh as he shits on your dead Havel-wearing chest.

@rorie: take note of the above! Vinnys silly tanky playthrough is not a valid representation of any of these bosses real difficulties... ;) (Not that that's a bad thing -- I just don't want potential noobies to DS jumping in and going "ermagerd Havel's!" and expecting it to work as well as it is for Vinny)

Sucks about Twitch. Hopefully since GB is a big streamer they can work something out that they can get verified or something for private channels. I understand why Twitch got rid of private streams, but there are legitimate reasons to have private streams.

THE BIRTH OF SHADOW VINNY THE TRUE MURDERER REVEALED.

Drew is a robot, he can't get sick.

Has he gone to the painted world or fought Gwyndolin?

Vinny is a monster!

@dudeglove: HE IS DEAD TO ME.

What is the lore, or rather how do you find out about it? Is it like most of Dark Souls where it's a vague 3 lines of text on an item?

Well, we've already rescued young Sif, and if Vinny was in human form, could have summoned him to aid you in fighting Manus. What do you think would happened if you did the dlc first, before fighting Sif in the present?

That's only the most obvious of ramifications the dlc has. Based on the flavor text of quite a few items, spells, and equipment in game as well as NPC dialogue, this dlc also has ramifications how the two potential endings of the main game can be viewed.

The game doesn't shove a codex in your face, but "vague 3 lines of text on an item" is selling it far too short. The game does everything outside of locking game progression behind exploration of this side plot.

Of course, there are additional hints, teases, and references littered throughout this dlc for anyone that's explored the world in the main game.

Well I was literally asking how you find out about it because I wanted to know. You can put spoilers on it if you want. If you go the traditional route of having played through the main game and gotten the DLC after you kill Sif and other major bosses - where do you think out the story after you beat Manus?

Well, when it comes to the Sif cutscene, that's more intuition than anything else. Sif was guarding the grave of Artorias. However, now that you've gone into the past and saw the truth of Artorias, saved Sif's life and helped him take down Manus, would you also not be interested in seeing how Sif would react to you centuries later in the present?

I get the feeling that secret was designed to be realized during a second playthrough because Sif is a rather easy fight, and most people complete his boss fight before the required game progression that unlocks the dlc.

As for lore ramifications, since the main game went to lengths to hide Gwyndolyn and False Gwynevere's presence, it immediately made your original goal given to you, to link the flames, suspect. The fact that Darkseeker Kath, the NPC that informs you of the alternate path of hurrying along the Dark Age, is also hidden, you're also encouraged by the game to think that his alternative is the proper choice. You don't die, Age of Fire comes to an end, and Age of Dark (also thought to be the age of man) is hurried along.

However, in the dlc, both Hawkeye Gough and Marvelous Chester tells you the people of Ollicile unleashed Manus upon themselves, tricked by a "Toothy Serpent." So not only did Kath, or one of his allies trick humans into unleashing the Abyss, the Abyss wasn't some paradise for humans, but rather their humanity within, which went wild and turned them into horrible mutations. Gough additionally tells you that the fading of the flames is inevitable.

So now you're left with two new impressions: save yourself and hurry along the Age of Dark, which will turn the world into the mutant monsters you've already fought, or sacrifice yourself willingly, even knowing hidden forces were trying to manipulate you down that path anyways, to only temporarily stave off the dark and continue the Age of Fire?

In the traditional route you DO NOT KILL SIF before you enter the DLC. The DLC is not endgame content. It's set to happen during the course of the Lord Vessel quest. Killing Sif early allows the players to take on the Four Kings before you fight Smough and Ornstein. It leads to the "Dark Ending" where the reality of the world is revealed.

If you listen to NPC conversations, examine your environment, and read item descriptions you'd arrive at the implications the DLC has for the main game. This video will provide the story connection to the main game. The mushroom Elizabeth would have provided some lore if Vinny had let Dusk live.

Casually misogynistic Vinny strikes again!

In the traditional route you DO NOT KILL SIF before you enter the DLC. The DLC is not endgame content. It's set to happen during the course of the Lord Vessel quest. Killing Sif early allows the players to take on the Four Kings before you fight Smough and Ornstein. It leads to the "Dark Ending" where the reality of the world is revealed.


If you listen to NPC conversations, examine your environment, and read item descriptions you'd arrive at the implications the DLC has for the main game. This video will provide the story connection to the main game. The mushroom Elizabeth would have provided some lore if Vinny had let Dusk live.

EDIT: If you want to see how the DLC can change your perspective on the endings then you can watch this ending video.

I wonder what's going to replace this series now that it's over? Or are they just going to leave it empty?

Hahah, is someone on the team a Sips fan? I believe they're whistling "Big Girl", his new song, at moments. :b

vinny "lady killer" caravella

God dammit Vinny!

Making funny insinuations about "getting tail" and "the best part is between the legs" and such isn't misogynistic. Then again, I've still got 20 minutes left in the video so maybe he also says something actually misogynistic before the end.

Good now run through Demon Souls, or I am going to go into withdrawals

Manus...and his hand of fate..

OH GOD VINNY'S SNAPPED!!!

@golguin: Well I assumed most people that bought the DLC were far into the game already. Also the way you get to it requiring you to visit the Duke's Archives I'd imagine most people would have fought Sif by then.

Actually there's a funny thing about that. It was already known that a baby Sif was in the DLC thanks to an early screenshot. No one knew what would happen if you killed Sif or kept him alive when you entered the DLC. The chance to be a Darkwraith in the DLC was also a huge deal since you'd essentially be aligned with the Abyss by doing that.

If the game wasn't in a state that allowed you to enter the DLC under the condition you wanted you had to make a new character. If your character was overpowered for the current playthrough (PVP builds are stronger than anything a Normal Game and NG+ can dish out) you'd want to create a character that would be more suitable level wise for the playthrough.

In the end it was discovered that the DLC caused an extra scene to happen during the Sif fight so it was determined that the DLC area would be completed before you fight Sif and the Four Kings.

The people that bought the DLC on release day needed to make a good deal of preparations before it came out. The game world would have been in their desired state.

Marvelous as always. Oh Vinny you!

Yahhhh, that doesn't sound like something most "regular" players would do. I know hardcore players study every trailer and every line of text but I think most people that like playing Dark Souls but don't necessarily go to such great lengths or even participate in active PVP that much are probably not deducting this much information from trailers and screenshots.

But it's a mute point really, it was cool to see Vinny wreck Manus with his cheeseball tactics. Overleveling for boss encounters has always been my preferred way of playing RPG's. I love being able to completely steamroll a boss because I spent a ton time leveling and preparing for it. A good challenge from time to time is well in order of course, but being able to mop the floor with this big bad guy that's trying real hard to be menacing is a wonderful feeling (for me).

BEST CONCLUSION EVER

@whatisdelicious: Lol, you hadn't reached the part I was talking about yet. It's one of the last parts of the video.

He still has the final boss and it will be amusing to see him go at it with his usual technique

At this point I don't even know what a "regular" Dark Souls player is like. The people who were trying to reach the DLC area as fast as possible knew what they were getting into.

New players that had access to the DLC wouldn't know how to reach Sif to even kill him. You don't simply walk into the forest and fight him. You would need to know that he's located in an area that is closed off by a sealed door. The seal can only be bought from the blacksmith. The blacksmith sells the seal for 20,000 souls. New players wouldn't have access to that many souls and if they did somehow farm it they wouldn't have the power to take on Sif.

I feel that "regular" players would be the kind of people that only play the game once. They would never know that you could return to the Undead Asylum. They would never know that the Painted World of Ariamis existed. They wouldn't find the secret in Blighttown that leads to two completely optional areas and they wouldn't have explored the game world enough to stumble across the path to the DLC.

I believe that "regular" players are in the minority when it comes to all Dark Souls players. Then again I might just be in a bubble where people who like Dark Souls are REALLY into Dark Souls.

@golguin: Trust me, as a regular sane outside observer and fan of the series (although Demon's a lot more than Dark) you are pretty far out there man.