mason

Bought it from a steam sale years ago, but it never ran properly so I gave up on it.

Could get in the game, but couldn't get past incompatibility issues that made the graphics glitch out and the controls completely stop responding in missions.

Still, I loved the very idea of the game, just couldn't play. So I've been hoping for a remake like this one.

It's ridiculous, in a way I can get behind. With humanized animals and inappropriate interface/music which seem to belong in a Gran Turismo game. It scratches that itch for Japanese weirdness that I used to get out of Yakuza before it got stale. I'm enjoying it, even with the sometimes unfairly strict objectives.

My main gripe is that the game often throws you in situations where suddenly there are no sources of food ANYWHERE. The streets are suddenly barren and your hunger meter just keeps ticking down. Either the animals have all disappeared, or there's no plant life to be found. I shouldn't be sprinting frantically across 3 or 4 zones looking for a single chick to munch on. It's frustrating to watch my pack die one by one because the game decided to stop spawning food.

It looks like the game is glitching, but it must be intentional. Maybe the developers want us to feel that sense of desperation when food is scarce. It's probably why they want you to find food items. But whatever the intent, it generally feels cheap and arbitrary. One second there's plenty of food, and then suddenly boring empty streets for 5 minutes.

Also, I can foresee the game getting repetitive, but I haven't gotten tired of it just yet. Still having fun.

@Jazzycola said:

Humanity is kinda worthless in grand-scheme. I mean all you need is 3 humanity to really be lucky at getting good shit.

I disagree. Humanity also boosts your defense. A player with 99 humanity has over 70 extra points to their resistances. Maxed out, it's like wearing a 2nd chest armor. Makes you harder to kill.

Also farming seems to be exponentially more profitable with item find maxed out to 210 (or 410 with serpent ring). My first 2 playthroughs, I'd only have a few humanity at a time with the serpent ring, and yet could never get titanite slabs to drop. Not once, even after hours and hours of farming. Once I actually made efforts to keep my item find maxed out, I'd suddenly get 3 or 4 slabs with one play session.

With my current playstyle, I try my best to never lose my humanity for the entire game (and use a sacrifice ring when I'm not 100% sure I can retrieve my bloodstain). So I honestly prefer to lose souls than humanity. Souls are generally easier to restock.

@Pieman51: From the Depths: Behind pile of boxes surrounded by rats OR Sen's Fortress: Sold by the crestfallen merchant.

I'm playing a heavy weapon character for the first time since late 2011 (I prefer dex weapons now). My experience with strength weapons was pretty much limited to Black Knight weapons, Zweihander, Serpent G.Sword & Claymore. Everything else seemed too awkward to use.

But with this playthrough I'm really, really loving the Large Club from those giant undead in Blighttown (not the Great Club though it seems good too). The timing takes a little getting used to, but once I did I'm just wrecking everything. The dashing sweep has such weird timing that it actually catches enemies off-guard, and I can often follow it up with a 2nd sweep. The two-handed R2 slamdown attack is insane. Last night I took on silver knights with this attack and they would just explode into white light the second I hit them. I also hit that priest in the forest hunters and I smashed him right through the floor. So it's great. It also has a poison effect, which is a nice bonus.

Blocking the 4 Kings attacks drain your stamina to such a punishing degree, it's like the game is begging you NOT to block. This is why everyone here says to either tank the damage and keep hitting, or roll dodge + counterattack. The only time you may want to use your shield is to block magic projectiles (which are annoying to outrun).

Dodging is by far the most effective method, and doesn't require min/maxing like the tank method. It can be done with no armor and any decent melee weapon.

BUT, there's a key to dodging in Dark Souls that should be SUPER OBVIOUS, which makes the 4 Kings a lot easier. I'm saying nothing new but, like an idiot, I didn't realize this until my fourth playthrough:

When most enemies are about to do a sweeping attack, the direction where they're pulling back their weapon is a safe zone. You always want to roll against the sweep, not with it.

Of course with forward stab attacks, left or right doesn't matter, but the 4 Kings also do a lot of sweep attacks. So if one of the Kings pulls back their sword on your left side, roll left then attack. When they pull back on your right side, roll right.

I used to just roll backwards, which means losing an opportunity to counterattack. The left-left/right-right dodging method works great for any huge enemy with a weapon (i.e. Titanite demon, Giant Armor Guards, Taurus & Capra Demons, etc.), but human-sized enemies too.

@Z3RO180: Nope, Both Kaathe and Frampt hate you now. Kind of pain if you wanted to try Darkwraiths, but missing out on Frampt is no big deal. There's better ways to get souls. Though I'll admit he's good for breaking down Titanite Chunks into Large shards (which are harder to come by until Oolacile).

There's 3 ways you can deal with the primordial serpents.

1. Talk to Frampt after getting the lordvessel, and he'll stay your buddy forever, but Kaathe will never appear in the Abyss.

2. Ignore Frampt, bring the lordvessel to the Abyss, defeat the 4 kings, and Kaathe will appear. Frampt will hate you as a traitor.

3. Just jump in the hole yourself. By doing so, you're telling the serpents that you have no need for their stinkin' prophecies. So they'll both hate you.

Weeeeellll, technically, Power Within can hurt since it drains your HP. Lingering Dragoncrest ring helps it last longer and simultaneously slow down the the damage.

If you're in NG+ and your attunement high enough, you should equip 2 copies of it. Use one before you enter the fog door, and one immediately after one of them goes down.

@groin: I am aware. But at 40 endurance, that under 25% isn't that hard to accomplish. You won't have much poise (if any) but in this fight it's not that useful anyway. Combined with Havel's ring it'll allow for a couple of pieces of medium body armor, or one really heavy piece, and still be light enough to do ninja flips with the wood grain ring.

If using heavy weapons like Zweihander, well, fully-upgraded light armor can still take some hits.

@TobbRobb You know what? I change my advice. If you really want to defeat them with a tank character, just to prove you can do it, then go for it. I'm just saying it's maybe the worst boss for tanks, but I know it's possible. Just hard.

Other tips that worked for me with a tank character (but not on NG+):

- Use an upgraded crossbow and keep backing away from them (block and shoot). Nothing with too long a reload.

- Stamina will be a problem so Cloranthy Ring might help.

- Coat your Zwei with Fire.

- Maybe use "Power Within" to add more damage to your attacks?

- At the bonfire, do rite of kindling to 20 Estus, if you find yourself running out of healing.

For me, the biggest problem with a slow character in this fight was that during the second phase, it's hard to get away from the electric butt slam attack if you can't roll, and that move HURTS.

Maybe you need a different approach?

I decimated those two my first time through NG+ and I was about the same level as you. I'm not even that great a player. I often die to them in my first playthrough.

I think what I learned is that it's a lot harder to tank these guys than to just outmaneuver them (you're trying to out-tank a couple of tanks). Since you're wearing one of the heaviest armors in the game, you'll be spending most of your stamina on movement and blocking. Sooner or later their relentless attacks will just wear you down and leave you wide open. Your armor might save your life the first few times, but it's only a matter of time until it doesn't.

I don't find poise useful for this fight. So use whatever armor with decent lightning resist you want that still allows you to fast roll. As long as they can't kill you in 1 hit, it'll do. For good measure, maybe swap that steel protection ring for a wood grain ring so you can easily avoid their every move. I doubt the SP ring is allowing you to take more hits. It's probably making each hit do slightly less damage, but if it's still the same number of hits that kill you, then it's effectively the same as not using it.