Hey all, just wanted to create a dedicated blog for my Extra Life stream. Goal this year is to get to know the GB community (or any donors who want to call-in).
I'll be hosting a call in show where I get to know GB community members about their gaming lifestyle, history, and GB in general. Donations bump duders up the queue. If possible, we'd co-op one of their favorite games or at least have me play it while I talk to them. Best case scenario is I have a schedule/queue of users before the show starts so I have as little time without a user as possible. When I don't have a caller/partner at the time I'll be playing classic games that I have never beaten. First on that list is Super Mario World.
Please message me if interested in being a call-in duder so I can plan ahead for games to have ready, and organize times. There's interest from a few duder's already so the earlier you message me, the better chance to get the time you want.
Barring any setbacks, unforseen events, I'll be participating two to three 12-hour streams, in the days between Nov 5-7th (I'll know as the days get closer). I'm aiming for 5th and 6th.
That’s it. We’re doing it. Yup. No more waiting. I’m getting this out of the way and it has been a long time coming. What exactly are we doing? We’re finishing my Dark Souls blog! You know.. the game I finished over a year ago? I think I have to explain myself a bit, so here goes.
Last year I was streaming my first full run of Dark Souls and writing a blog, with highlights and death compilations, after each session. The series culminated with me finishing Dark Souls and its DLC during the GB Community Endurance Run, albeit with no blog. UNTIL NOW! So what exactly happened? Well, you see, Twitch has a library of music that is acceptable to use in your streams without having them muted in the archive. I was using one of these songs and they only after my final sessions did they decide to start muting the VODS. Well, I put in a request to have them unmated and while waiting, the VODS were taken off the archive which I forgot would happen so quickly. That really deflated my enthusiasm for the blog because one of my favorite parts was working on the videos for you guys (and just for me). It was especially deflating because it was some of the most fun I’ve had streaming with the community, and IT WAS THE ENDING AND DLC!
So I never wrote the blog and I have been telling myself for the longest time that I would come back and finish it, but y’know… life and stuff.. Well we’re going to finally conclude this blog series and get this weight off our shoulders. There won’t be any videos and the structure might be different because I’m working off memory, but that’s okay. We’re going to try and be concise about the final sessions and put in a sort of retrospective on my time with Dark Souls, now that I’ve been away from it for so long. So, what do you say you join me in this final leg and cross the finish line with me? Let’s do it!
But first, as always, here is a list of all the lessons we’ve learned playing through Dark Souls that I feel have me better at gaming in general:
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Lesson #14:Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
Lesson #15:Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
Lesson #16:Pillars are your best friend.
Lesson #17: Just do what needs to be done.
We left off last time defeating Seath the Scaleless in one of the most exilerating fights I’ve had in Video Games. It was something special. So we pick up from there and this is where my memory will start failing me, and I start being vague. The order of events escapes me but what we did was go back to defeat the Four Kings, killed Gwyn, and completed all of the DLC.
Traveling back to the Four Kings was our first task and what a task that was. First of all, the puzzle of using that one ring to even enter the kings is clever. Fighting them... not so clever. I didn’t feel there was much of a puzzle here. This fight consisted of dexterity, focus and heavy rushdown. It required aggressiveness in a way the other fights did not, because if you fail to take down a King fast enough, his buddies would show up to wreck you. It took some time but after finding a nice combination of magic resistant armor that would allow us to face them, we managed to take them down and move on.
Gwyn was quite something. Killing him would be the final milestone. The end. The culmination of everything we were working towards (or so we thought). This was an interesting series of.. not events.. not emotions.. but… well let me just explain it. He wasn’t the most difficult but I fought him without heeding one of my early lessons. I had been constraining myself to assumptions of what was and wasn’t possible. After quite a few attempts and finally killing him by rolling and attacking carefully, I had found out that he is considered one of the easiest bosses. Why? Because you can parry and reposte him quite easily. Why had I not thought of this? The community was great because not a single person of the 60+ watching had spoiled the tactic. They let me fight him all by my own wits. We’ll talk more about the community later.
I called it a night after Gwyn because I had been told that to play through the DLC, I would have to reach a certain section of the game through New Game+. I did just that the next day so I could stream the DLC. Three new bosses and some of the best bosses in video games, they were. Artorius, Manus, and Kalameet.
Artorias was one of the most fun bosses to fight because he was humanoid and fought with a sword. It felt like a true duel between two knights. His moveset had him jumping all over the place and rushing my face down hard. He was extremely difficult for me to figure out but eventually, he too was downed. I had much more words to write about Artorius when the fight was fresh in my mind, but there’s not much I can say anymore.
Manus was next and was a test of perseverance. His combos were downright brutal. It was damn near impossible to avoid surefire death most of the time because of the extremely tight windows of dodges necessary. It also just destroys your will because it’s not just an immediate death, no. He would trap you into a full combo that would become unblockable after the initial hit. At least, that’s how I remember it. He was downright fierce. The hardest boss in the game, hands down, because of his speed, reach, combos, and varying moves.
Being the true culmination of Dark Souls bosses, of course he had a puzzle aspect to him. A ring that we had found earlier, which we were confused about, ended up being the key to avoiding lethal damage from some of his attacks. When I found this out, I had so much hope.. but that hope was quickly destroyed after multiple attempts at the boss that ended just as badly as before; only this time, I had no unsolved puzzle to blame.
This was truly a test of perseverance and determination because boy did it feel like it took forever. I felt my spirit dwindle after every loss. No matter how much progress I felt I would make, there would be stretches where it felt like I had regressed back multiple attempts. Luckily, I had a couple viewers keep me going. I couldn’t let them down and knew that no matter what, I wasn’t going to quit. I don’t remember much about the fight that saw his health bar reach that oh so beautiful 0 mark, so there’s not much I can say about it.
You know that moment in movies or shows where the hero finally takes down the biggest threat to the world? Specifically the ones where the hero has been training for it for an excruciatingly long time and dreaded facing it? You know how they sometimes seem like they’re just glad it’s all over and lack to convey any excitement they might be feeling? Yeah, it was like that. I know I was excited and showed some of it, but more than anything, I was just glad for that to be over after the grinding necessary for that fight. To make matters worse, I had to grind humanity that would be needed for the fights, since there aren’t saves to load and get your resources back. It was over and I knew there wouldn’t be anything more challenging than that fight.
Manus was done but Dark Souls was not. I had some words with the giant archer, who’s name escapes me (did I already use that phrase? Ah whatever, I’m on a roll with writing this blog, so let’s just keep powering through), and he told me something along the lines of it being the time to take down the dragon that had we had run into earlier in the DLC. Then he sharp-shots Kalameet (the dragon) from some range with all the badassery to match his size.
Kalameet was quite frustrating. This was definitely a fight that would require quite a bit of experimenting to find the right tactic. A lot of his moves would one shot me and I had no idea how to approach the fight. I soon found a weakness of his which was aggressiveness. I had to stay close and use some movement that initially seems dangerous, but proves to be very safe. Once I had figured out the necessary movements and positioning, it was only a matter of endurance and precise timings. The thing about this fight was that I remember feeling like it was also one of the most fun and rewarding, but I don’t remember exactly why. I know he was quite touch while trying to figure him out, but I don’t exactly have a memory directly linked to the feelings of accomplishment with him. Does that make sense? It’s hard to describe but I know I actually had fun with him.
After that, I wrapped up by fighting Sif and Gwyndolin. I had avoided wanting to fight Gwyndolin because I wanted to stay loyal to the Dark Moon for PvP and Role Play reasons, as much as possible. But I wasn’t going to leave any boss fights behind; no way. The fight with Sif was probably the easiest. A wolf with a sword in his mouth is… well.. tight as fuck. It was pretty sad, too, for story reasons, after defeating the DLC. I had gone back in time and saved him, and he recognized me. Gwyndolin was just annoying as all get out, at first, but he’s one of those bosses that you just figure out and dispatch. Hide behind walls, rush over to him, and kill him. A pretty cool setting, though, for a fight.
And that was that. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die was in the books. After listening to how brutal of a test this game is, how it’s a crucible of sorts to gamers, and having to give up on it my first go round, I had finally taken the beast down in all its glory. And not only that, I had defeated some of the hardest bosses in New Game+. To this day, I hold this as one of my greatest gaming achievements and along the way, I had discovered one of my favorite games I have played.
The lessons a game like Dark Souls teaches you can be carried not only into other games, but into life as well. Throughout the blog series, I compiled a list of lessons learned. Take another look at those and see which ones could be applicable to the world around you. It’s quite amazing. Sure, some of those lessons are learned elsewhere, maybe even in other games, but it doesn’t take away just how great of learning experience Dark Souls is. And that’s what makes the game such an awesome experience the first time through. At every step of the way are puzzles and traps meant to frustrate you and push you to the edge of your limits. Just as a tough mentor, it doesn’t extend a hand to help you up when you fall; it stands in front of you and pushes you back down every time you try and get back up. But it does so consistently and allows you to find your solution, and when you finally do, you can feel the game giving you an approving smile as you apply it throughout the rest of the game. Bit by bit, you add onto your experience, and bit by bit, Dark Souls piles more on top of you, until you finally overcome everything it has to offer and look down to see a mountain that you had just climbed.
I have this weird feeling with it now where I don’t feel a desire to go back and play it again. I know the draw with the game is that there are many viable play styles that draws the players to many run-throughs, but that’s not me. I feel like nothing will match that first experience and even if subsequent playthroughs were enjoyable, I would constantly compare it to my original experience which will never be matched. This is something I experience with most games that I have a strong emotional connection with, and if there’s one thing Dark Souls plays with, it’s your emotions. No, not in the same way that a game like Life is Strange might, but in a way that it manipulates the player into playing with their own emotions. It’s truly a roller coaster. No, I don’t have a desire to replay it. Instead, I find myself chasing the dragon of excitement that Dark Souls was. It was a long time before I had played a game that had felt so right. In a time of oversaturation of generic games, Dark Souls stands out as a near perfect instant classic and it’s no wonder it garners such a cult-like following so committed to their craft.
There’s so much more to say about Dark Souls and it’s amazing level and world design, mechanics, deep yet subtle story beats, but it has all been said before, so I’ll spare you. My sentiments match most of the praise the game typically receives. I’ve since beaten Dark Souls 3, plan on playing Bloodborne, and am undecided about Dark Souls 2. We’ll see where gaming takes me. Dark Souls 3 was a ton of fun and the bosses were amazing in design, but I just don’t think it matched my experience with the first game. They’re both amazing games and I think everyone’s first experience with the series will always be their best, because of just how amazing the consistent mechanics are. From Software has created something special that will forever be remembered in game. It also helps that I had the drive of streaming and was able to share the experience with the community.
It's the first game I had streamed a full playthrough of, and it made it that much more enjoyable. Getting to share achievements with others is always great in an undescribable way. It’s even better when you get to do it for a great cause. The last few sessions of streaming were part of the Giant Bomb Community Endurance run that fundraised money for Penicls of Promise. Though, I had not raised much money, I did raise some, and that felt like I was part of something important. I was able to make a difference while enjoying one of my hobbies.
Because I had been playing through the middle of the night, I was able to be featured on in the Giant Bomb chat stream which garnered over 60 viewers during my attempts at the final boss of the game (Gwyn). Getting to beat the game base game in front of my largest audience, the community that I respect and brings me a ton of entertainment, made everything feel right. It is a moment that I’ll always remember as why I love this community. We can come together, push ourselves, keep each other going, and work towards a good cause. I didn’t get to take part this year, unfortunately, but one thing is for sure. I’ll be back.
Thank you everyone for your support during my First Full Run of Dark Souls. Ya’ll kept me going and even if my blogs and stream reached only a few consistant viewers, everyone that took part for any amount of time made the experience extremely more than what it would have been without you. You kept me positive and kept me going, and I enjoyed sharing the frustration and excitement of it all.
Until next time, have batman!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
Hey guys, so I just bought the Steam Link and the first task I knew I had to do was run some tests, and share my experience with you all. I remember there were a lot of people wanting to know how well it performed in all sorts of conditions. Before we start, here are my PC and network specifications and then let's get into it. If there is more information on my setup you'd like added or if you have any questions or tests you'd like answered/run, please feel free to ask and I will see what I can do.
GPU
GTX 980
CPU
i7 4790k (4.7GHz)
Ram
16GB
Storage
500GB SSD + 3TB HDD (Samsung 840 Pro + WD Black)
OS
Windows 10 (Up to date)
Moden/Router
C2100T
Network
2.4Hz Wired; 5Hz Wireless
TV
Samsung 48J5200 (29.2ms Response Time, great for TV)
My desktop is located in my room which is not the greatest of places to play video games when there are more than three people involved. Four can manage but it is cramped. This means I typically move my whole desktop to the living room to accommodate 4+ people when playing PC games. This is less than ideal so I had always been contemplating the purchase and use of a Steam Link for such situations, but I'm someone that splits hairs when it comes to specifications and results. So as a pessimist, I held off. Well, I have some friends coming over tomorrow and I finally decided that I wasn't going to let my pessimism hold me back anymore. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, at least I gave it a shot.
Contents, Build and Connections
Out of the box, Valve gives you all the tools you need to get yourself going. The Link itself, a CAT6 cord (~10ft), HDMI 2.0 (Silver Plated) (~7ft), and a power cord with an adaptable power connector. In addition to the standard North American Type A connector, you get three others. They are type G (UK), type C (Europe), and type I (Australia, China). The size of the link is about the size of an average hand up to the second knuckles and it is light. There's a nice little grip on the underside. You get 3 USB 2.0 ports on the link, and connections for the other cords that you would expect.
Performance
Comparison Video
Setup
First, my baseline is all optimal settings and the changes and results to these settings will be mentioned within the subsections here. I'll underline the key words here to allow for easy navigation. The performance setting of fast/balance/beautiful was kept on balanced, and my TV's game mode was enabled throughout as well. Within Steam, I kept enabled the "hardware encoding through GPU," and "hardware encoding through Intel iGPU," settings but can test without those turned on if someone would like. There's a setting of "Prioritize Network Traffic," that I toggled but didn't properly test because there was no other network usage. I'll come back to that and update the post. If there's specific scenarios people want me to test as far as network usage (while downloading, other devices streaming specific amount of videos, etc.) let me know and I'll see what I can do. My DS4 pad was kept wired to remain a constant variable and will be individually discussed later in the post.
Wired
A 50ft CAT6 cable was used to connect the Link to my modem directly. This is an old, used, somewhat weathered cable. The frequency is a standard 2.4Hz when wired. I threw some Dark Souls 3 up on the TV and played some PVP. Immediately, and I mean immediately, I was amazed. We've all heard about quality loss there. Well I've only been playing DS3 on my 1440p monitor at 144hz but with the game locked at 60fps. So, although I can't compare the Steam Link 1080p60 with GPU direct to TV 1080p60, I can still speak from the perspective of someone coming from a higher resolution and refresh rate. Well it was just as beautiful as I expected. The fps were consistent and image quality clear. It seemed just as clear as any other 1080p game I've played. That's great and all but what about the input latency? Can't play action games if there's input latency. Well guess what, I couldn't notice a bit of difference in controller response time! No perceived latency. Okay, okay, subjectivity is one thing, but let's see some objective results. I popped up Titan Souls and tested the response of the rolling. Keep in mind that my monitor's response time is 1ms in contrast to the TV's 30ms. There's only the slightest ever difference between the Steam Link and direct response times. You could have a worse difference between two different TVs! Take this from a person who is very anal about compromise and playing in the most optimal of ways available to me and, I would play any game on Steam Link based on my experience so far. In fact, I kept playing Tital Souls and defeated a boss. Real world tests!
Wireless
Moving on to Wireless. Here is where the frequency of the signal should make a difference. My modem is outputting a 5Hz signal which to my understanding works through walls better. The Link was ~30 feet away with one wall (closet) between it and the modem. I fully expected artifact when I launched Dark Souls 3, but I saw no difference in image quality. Still clear as ever. To test response times, I once again launched Titan Souls and started rolling again (video). Again, absolutely no difference, perceived and when looking over the videos. I was amazed with the initial wired testing but I was FLOORED when I tested this wireless. Insane. Here's a panorama of the setup. The PC is in the far left corner you see (faint red light you see) and the Link is right under the living room TV . Oh, and don't mind the CAT6; I just left it out.
Pad support
Before getting into it, can I just say how awesome it is that the Link has bluetooth built in? Because that's damn awesome. This also means I can utilize the BT with multiple controller while also utilizing USBs for other ones to not bog down the BT connections.
Pairing
So now we come down to Pad support. I was using the DS4 and had been using it wired up 'til now. The setup of the wireless controller was kind of tricky. When there's no controller connected to the Link it shows a screen that asks you to connect a controller as you would expect. The only problem is you can't pair your controller while it's wired and you can't connect it while it's not paired (to access the bluetooth devices pairing screen). To circumvent this, I started the searching function of the DS4, hooked it up wired, and had to quickly select it on the pairing screen before it stopped searching (due to it sensing that there's a micro USB) attached. At that point, I could disconnect the cord and use it wirelessly. Connecting additional controllers is far easier because you're already on the screen and you don't have to worry about them halting their search. It's not too difficult to do once you know it, but it's a fairly clunky process.
Latency
Wired was already covered in the Performance section so here is where we'll tackle wireless. Well... this is easy because there was no difference I could tell. Not even when I sat 15 feet away from the thing.
So there you go! My experience with the Steam Link! I have to say, I am still floored. This product works as intended. If you're worried about quality and latency, and have a setup similar to mine, don't be. The thing performs as advertised. My pessimistic side was half expecting an experience similar to PSNow but boy, that would be so far off that I couldn't even. When I tried playing God of War 2 through PSNow, I immediately could see the difference and was questioning if I wanted to play with the rest of my trial. With this, I am definitely going to be using often. I can NOT believe I have been missing out on this for so long with all of my parties. Do yourself a favor and jump on it. Remember, since this is a local network service, your down/up speeds don't matter. But I am curious to see if there would be a difference with a 2.4Hz wireless signal because those are still common. Anyway, thank you for reading! Let me know if you want me to test any specific scenarios!
Well well well, what do we have here? A new blog entry! That's what! In the last blog we talked about our run through the Catacombs and the Tomb of the Giants. I defeated Nito and called it a night. That axe I've been grinding, the hatchet I buried? Well I dug it up and framed it. What we learned from all this is that sometimes, you just need to get to your objective and do it, and forget all the fluff around it... and that revenge is oh so sweet. That was then and this is now. We've got bigger fish to fry and blog about, and I promise you that this fish will taste good. If you're allergic to seafood, you may want to avoid this blog... there are also shellfish in death compilation so readers beware! As always, here are the lessons we've learned so far and a highlight video of the latest session. The death compilation is at the bottom of the blog if you want to just skip right to seeing me die over and over again... in that case, we can't be friends. (just kidding, we're cool... as long as you donate to the Endurance Run Fundraiser: Pencils of Promise
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Lesson #14:Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
Lesson #15:Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
Lesson #16:Pillars are your best friend.
Lesson #17: Just do what needs to be done.
Our session first takes us into the magical land of Bob Ross' imagination. Okay, it's more of a prison for a dragon crossbreed lady but really, what's the difference. The design of the world is what I've come to expect from Dark Souls: locked doors, backtracking, and verticallity. It didn't take me long to figure out that the abominations cause toxicity if you get their blood on you. I was lucky enough to still have plenty of Blooming Purple Moss Clumps with me. I knew they'd come in handy. The Undead Dragon here was similar to the one in the valley of the drakes, but there were three levels of platforms in front of him. After studying this for a bit, I found a perfect attack pattern that involves drawing out an attack on one of the platforms while attacking on one of the others. It worked flawlessly and he was down for the count. It was time to move through the fog door.
A lady with a tail told us to leave the painted world. I tried telling her that I have her doll to give to her but she didn't want to listen. I accidentally jumped off the edge (to a sound cue that was definitely out of place in Dark Souls) and made my way back to the first bonfire of the world. Here's something! I remembered my last blog and sprinted past everyone right to the fog gate! I'm learning... adapting... evolving. So Priscilla clearly didn't have any beef with me and just wanted me to take off. I really wasn't sure what to do here. My conscious said just leave her be but I.. I'm playing Dark Souls. My urge to kill got the best of me. I attacked and she disappeared. After some boring running around and wiffing at the air, I saw her footsteps in the snow. It's ironic that I didn't think of this from the get go because not even 30 minutes prior to this fight I was admiring the footsteps left in the snow by my character (the great and almighty Versed). So with this knowledge, she really wasn't that tough of a boss. I defeated her but... I still feel really bad about it. She seemed nice. I murdered her guys... I murdered her in cold blood. What am I becoming.
So we return to the Anor Londo bonfire and run past a guard who's terrible at his job towards the Dukes archives. Fighting past some Channelers and crystal hollows, I finally made it to the top of the tower not sure what to expect. A boss for sure. I walk in and see Seath the Scaleless, the dragon that turned on his species and helped overthrow them to usher in the age of fire. The betrayer. The legend. Needless to say I was speechless to have him right in front of me ready to tear me a new one. And tear me a new one he did. There was nothing I could do and he trapped me in his prison tower, just like the legends said. Finding my way out, the lizards activated some kind of sonophone and the guards dipped out fast. I tried to follow suit and get the heck outta there but they wouldn't let me. Turns out the Picasa's they were running from weren't anything to be worried about. So we got out of the prison tower and made our way out of the archives....
...and into the Crystal Cave. At first I thought that were going to have to be fighting multiple Moonlight Butterflies here but no, that was definitely not the obstacle here. Invisible floors were. And let me tell you, no amount of particles and messages leading the way make it any less terrifying when your character is hundreds of feet (maybe thousands) in the air. There was a specific Crystal Golem that was giving me trouble because of the narrow platform he was on. You can check out that little rivalry in the highlight video. Spoilers: I eventually won. So after some feisty clams, I made it into a little cave within a cave.
I saw cursed players and immediately felt dread. I knew there was one more hydra in the game and I could definitely see a Hydra popping up here. The last thing I wanted was a curse spewing Hydra. Lo and behold who comes flying like the parachute guy in an Evander Holyfield match but Seath the Scaleless. Yeah. Here we go again, let's do it. Oh but guess what, he's invulnerable! Like what?! He immediately starts throwing out unblockable crystal attacks and forces me to start burning through my estus flasks. By the way, my framerate here chucks down to 15 frames per second during his crystal attacks making it even more difficult. I make my way behind him because that's typically the strategy you want to use against almost every Dark Souls boss. Well guess what, he has not one, not two, but three tails that basically cover the whole area behind him when he attacks with them! After some circling around I finally found a crystal which I assumed he was what was protecting him. I broke it and did some damage to a tail and worked my way around him. The reason I didn't see the crystal earlier during the fight was because the cutscene actually turns your orientation around! I was disoriented and the first time I went around his back, I saw a fog gate which I assumed was his back where I originally saw the crystal. When I realized that, I was frustrated with myself but I had to keep going. What happened next was absolutely exhilarating.
I wasn't quite sure I could last much longer in this fight with him considering I had already burned through all of my estus flasks so I had to risk it for the biscuit. I switch over to humanity and rushed towards him. I knew I there was no way to defend against his crystal attacks so I two-handed my Laito, took crystals to the face, and tried to rush his health down. Both Seath and I got each other down to very little health so I decided that it was do-or-die time. No more healing, just straight DPS. Mashing the hell out of my attacks I watched both of our health bars start draining in a war of attrition. My heart was pounding and before I knew it, Seathe vanished into the air. VICTORY ACHIEVED. Hearth pounding. Absolutely heart pounding. The fight went from unwinnable and sure to die, to there's a chance, to Seath down in one.
Lesson #18: Sometimes the best strategy is to just bum rush them.
With my body recovering from the adrenaline, I knew I had to call it a night, which is just what I did. Taking down Seath in one tops Ornstein and Smough in four, but both are up there in gaming achievements. I will continue to repeat myself here that there is no feeling quite like taking down a Dark Souls boss. They start off seeming like an impossible task but lead to you slowly piecing together the puzzle of the fight. Eventually you find yourself figuring out what needs to be done and downing the giant in front of you. Sometimes that puzzle is dropping your defenses and bum rushing the boss in a mash fast... whodathunkit? The experience to the fights is somewhat akin to the battles in Shadow of the Colossus, another high point in gaming. So that does it for this weeks blog. Thank you for watching and reading. For your viewing pleasure, a deaths compilation... sick bastards.
Tune in to my next stream tonight at 7pm PST (10pm EST) which will be part of the GiantBomb Community Endurance Run! We're raising money for the charity Pencils for Promise which helps support childrens expenses for attending school. Every $250 helps send one child to school. No matter how much money we raise, one year of school for even just one child is a difference that we can make in this world. If that doesn't kindle the bonfire in your heart, I don't know what will. As an incentive to donate, for every dollar you donate, I will perform one rep of any exercise of your choice. One dollar will be worth different amounts of reps for different exercises which will be dependent on the amount of money coming in. We'll start off small and increase the $/reps if there are more donations than expected. One thing is for sure though, I will make good on each and every rep. They will add up and be cashed in at every death or 30 minutes, whichever comes first! The initial $/rep is outlined in the below table.
Exercise
Rep Per Dollar
Push-Ups
4
Pull Ups
1
Sit ups
0, my back is messed up =[ instead, bycicle abs!
Bycicle
4x4 second hold
Wall Sit
15 seconds
Burpees
1
Other
Just specify the exercise and I'll come up with something!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
What a season, what a season! We keep trudging forward and we keep taking down bosses. In the past two sessions, I have come across a couple of bosses that are arguably well known to even the gaming community members that have not touched a souls game. Last session we beat Orstein and Smough, and this time we came across Nito. More on that later. I'm going to keep this blog post concise. First I'll sum up our session and then I'd like to talk about something that I have become a bit more familiar with. But first! The lessons we have learned so far and the highlight video! Death compilation video is available at the bottom of the blog post if that's all you're here for... you shadenfreuden filth.
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Lesson #14:Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
Lesson #15:Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
Lesson #16:Pillars are your best friend.
So it was finally time to face the tombs. I have mentioned this plenty before in prior blogs but I have quite the history with this path. You can go read about it in my primer for this blog series and I think the first blog, but I'll try and sum it. A few years back when I actually first picked up Dark Souls on 360, I initially tried running through the graveyard first because I didn't know where to go. It was damned hard but I figured I was just experiencing that notable Dark Souls difficulty. I got up to the spinning skeletons and couldn't advance, so my only option was to backtrack and find a different path; the correct path. So going through this area now, yeah, I kind of have a chip on my shoulder. And let me tell you, it feels damn good being able to tear through every single enemy in this area. DAAAAAMNNNN GOOOOOOD. Who needs the nemesis system when you've been grinding an axe for years.
Well I blasted my way through the catacombs and found myself "fighting," Pinwheel. Boy was I overleveled for him. But you know what, I didn't care. My axe is sharp. On my way to him though, I encountered... something. Floating eyes that tried to fight me and could not be defeated. I thought it might be a bat or some kind of new enemy but I figured it out somewhat quickly. You see, earlier in the catacombs, I was kicking skeletons off of ledges so they wouldn't bother me with their reanimation. Somehow, one of these skeletons glitched out and kept reanimating in invisible form and raised off of the ground. I could tell it was the skeleton because of the way it moved and the sounds. I believe I eventually found the Pyromancer that was keeping him alive. Oh yeah, an some pinwheel skeletons phased through a wall. Whatever, live your life how you want skeletons! I also snagged a lantern which would prove to be useful later.
Darkness, lots of darkness. Of course Dark Souls had something up its sleeve for another area. There's always something unconventional to screw you over and this area was pitch black if you didn't have the lantern raised. Long story short I got the hang of it and navigating was second nature. Some dude tried to trick me but he was obvious and I killed undead clerics. I eventually triggered his trap so he'd show up in Firelink Shrine (thanks viewers). Another weird little thing happened that is shown in the highlight video. I'm really not sure if this is a glitch or not, but when I slowed down the video, it looks kind of creepy. I'm hoping someone has some knowledge of this and can tell me what they think happened. With the last glitch, I was able to reason what was going on, but this is something else. Very creepy. Oh! We took out the horde of giant Skeletons in that one tomb.. you know, the one. I unfortunately don't have a highlight of it but It was quite the accomplishment. The fireballs I bought finally payed off! So we end up at Nito and he's damned hard with his buddies. Luckily I still have my Balder Side Sword and upgrade it to a divine weapon to keep those skellies down. Once his buddies were down, Nito was kind of easy! His attacks were wildly inaccurate and he had huge openings for damage. That's the summary really of what happened so let's get into our lesson of the day.
The four legged skeletons... those damn crazy enemies. They were my bane. I wanted nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, it was a long treck through many of these guys to get to Nito. That was until a viewer gave me a pretty sweet tip. JUST RUN! I remembered the time we were dealing with the archers and we just ran past everyone so we could brute force attempts. The viewers actually told me to just stick to the right and just keep running. While dodging an enemy I actually managed to make it onto a ledge and got a fancy new ring. I couldn't help but laugh when I finished the first attempt and this and it worked. The second attempt wasn't as smooth (I died...) but every attempt afterwards I ran all the way right to Nito. Perfect. Even though I had done this before, I was still amazed at how well it worked. When you have a goal in mind, think outside the box when coming up with ways to achieve it.
Lesson #17: Just do what needs to be done.
This could be used to describe everything in Dark Souls. I find that whenever I'm frustrated with something time consuming, it is because I'm setting restrictions on myself. What was stopping me from just running past everyone right to Nito? Turns out nothing. Absolutely nothing. One of these days I will get this lesson to stick and then I'll really be Dark Souls-ing.
Well that does it. I've been waiting patiently for when I get to go through the catacombs again and I think I can finally put away my axe, and bury the hatchet. Next session, I'll probably try to take out that Prowler Demon in the catacombs and see what he's got hiding behind him. After that, we're finally going to open that shining locked door in the Darkroot Garden! As always, thank you for reading and here's a death compilation for making it through the blog. Enjoy! (I suffered for this)
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
Whoo! It's been a while. I've been busy with stuff and DOTA2 keeps sucking me in further and further with this Battle Pass they have going on. But I managed to get some good ass Dark Souls in and I've been putting off getting this blog and these videos together. It was definitely a frustrating and exciting couple sessions. The first was a short one followed by a longgggg session a few days afterwards. I feel like the blog is gonna get shorter and shorter because there's less to talk about besides recapping what happened. I've changed the format of the highlight video here a bit. It's only got a few highlights followed by the deaths and highlights of the major boss and enemy fights. Before that though, here's the list of all the lessons we've learned so far:
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Lesson #14:Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
Lesson #15:Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
The first major challenge of the day were a pair of Black Knight Archers. Their big ass arrows were just too much for my shield to handle and they ganged up on me. To make matters worse, these guys had to be fought on ledges. I first thought this might be an advantage for me but it was more of a detriment. At one point, my defending of an archers sword managed to sweep me off of the ledge and die (as if I wasn't frustrated enough). It became a little less frustrating, though, when I realized I could just run past all of the other enemies to get to the Archers. I eventually, during one of the fights, forced myself between an archer and the building, pushing him off of the ledge. I was so glad that I had defeated them and wouldn't have to worry about them again. Wait... what's that... they're Silver Knights and they respawn? Awwrggghhhhh;lakjfsd;lakjfdl;kaj
Well I'm never going back there again... Nah, there's an item there that I might go for eventually. But moving on. I was summoned into a world and found out that this was the area where I would be fighting Ornstein and Smough. But before that, I had to help the onion knight, once again. Oh, and I got ganked by another player while I was engaged with another enemy, but we don't need to go into that.... So the first encounter with Ornstein and Smough was one of amazement and terror. I knew this was going to be ridiculously hard. This was the one encounter I had been dreading since started the game, since the first time I played it years ago, even. I've heard about fighting these two bosses at once and how difficult they are, and me being me, I had already decided I was going to beat this game solo. The second encounter with them brought on sheer confusion. How was I going to do this and would I cave. I conceded that I wouldn't beat them tonight but that I would finish the session off by trying to understand them, and formulating a strategy. In the third round I managed to kill Dragon Slayer Orstein first by dodging Smough furiously, and using the pillars as best as possible to my advantage. Smough was considerably easier by himself and I got his health down low enough that I actually believed I had a chance. This could very well be our only chance in a long time considering how hard this fight is! ...and I blew it. ...And then beat them on my fourth try instead! I was so elated that I not only beat Orstein and Smough in four tries but that I wasn't even expecting to. I managed to figure out a precise method to safely chip away at Smough and I knew I had him. Still though, the excitement from ending this fight was amazing.
I continued forward and my viewers insisted I keep playing and try to fight Lautrec. I decided to just do some analyzing and then realized that I only needed to repost him twice to win. Well I couldn't just stop now. Not losing any souls or humanity during this fight meant I could brute force it and so I did. After frustrating deaths, I managed to once again use the pillars to block out one of his lackeys and I took him down. But after I did so, his friends continued to attack and kill me. I couldn't believe it. Luckily, that death did not count and the game continued forward with Lautrec defeated. Great! Let's call it there... nope, the viewers insisted I go to Firelink Shire and so I did.
I talked to the serpent guy again and he told me I had a ton more bosses to defeat. Four Kings plus three other bosses. Oh boy. We've still got a long road ahead of us. Before I really called it a session I decided to go back to the Asylum and loot one of the treasures I had seen there. While traveling around I someone managed to avoid the trap that led to the Stray Demon fight multiple times. It was quite unreal. But anyways, I defeated that Demon went on back to Firelink Shrine and called it a damn good session, there. Lesson of the day?
Lesson #16: Pillars are your best friend.
So thank you for reading, watching and everything. As always, here is a death compilation. Enjoy
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
Hey guys! I'm back again and ready to impart my inexperienced wisdom on you, or whatever it is I have in me. Ahem, moving on. If you haven't been keeping up with the blog, we're playing Dark Souls all the way through for the first time. I've played once back in the day but I brute forced through a wrong path, and eventually had to stop playing because life got really busy. No matter, I'm well well past my progress from my real first time with the game. This is also my first time streaming a playthrough and I'm really enjoying it. A few regular viewers that are almost always following along with a couple people the occasional random viewer can make for some fun experiences. If you want to read more about how I'm playing the game, my experiences streaming, or how the run has gone thus far, the past blogs are linked at the end of this one. So to start off, let's recap the lessons we've learned so far.
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Here's the highlight video for those of you that aren't too interested in the read! Subscribe to follow along! Deaths compilation below!
*forgot to update the death counter but it will be updated for the next play session.
In the last session, we defeated Quelaag, rang the second bell and a giant opened the gate to Sen's fortress. Our Laito was reinforced and we were ready to go. The new enemies we found were Serpant Soldiers and Mages. I quickly realized that the Laito does not stagger the soldiers. A viewer was nice enough to let me know that a weapons weight is what determines whether it might stagger enemies, and the Laito is surprisingly heavier than the Balder Side Sword. I kind of miss the moveset of the BSS but I'm going to give the Laito some more time to see what it can do. If I ever feel the need, I can always go grind some Titanite Shards off stream to reinforce the BSS but I don't think I'm going to go that far. Right off the bat, the game throws a narrow walkway with giant axes swinging side to side. Here it is, Dark Souls is really starting to bring out its inner video game. To top it off, there were enemies on and above the walkway, swinging swords and throwing lightning.
So we got past that and the now instead of giant swinging axes, boulders were rolling all over the fortress trying to crush me. Instead they first crushed a Serpent Soldier. Thank you, game. And LOOK WHO IT IS! Onion Knight, complaining about not being able to get through the trials. Well, I guess it's up to us to clear the way. The top of the boulder pathways allowed us to switch where the boulders were rolled which I thought cleared the way for the onion knight, but the boulders mysteriously kept switching back to wherever I went. Sorry, Knight, I'll be back for you.
Well I kept trudging on and guess what, there's a Giant throwing bombs at me now. Things really are getting tricky. Not only that, but I saw the Giant that was loading the rolling boulders. First, we travel up. I equipped all of my fire resistance equipment and made it to where I needed to be. I pretty much cheesed the throwing Giant but staying in the doorway and attacking him from a safe point. I mean... why would I go out there in an enclosed space with that thing. No. It's funny, the piece of mind you get when you know giant fire bombs aren't being hurled in your direction.
With the way clear, I defeated a Berenike Knight with difficulty. He kept breaking through my shield until I remembered something that I haven't made use of too much in a while; I saw a small drop off that I could use to attack him vertically. I used that for the final blow on him.
Lesson #14: Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
And here's something, I found a unique enemy by the name of Undead Prince Ricard. And for a uniquely named enemy, he was quite easy. That's all I have to say about him. I'm definitely going to look up some lore of him. I also found a merchant who was quite the defeatist. A friend of mine mentioned that I may want to go back to him for a good weapon, I guess. We'll have to investigate. So during all this, I saw another players ghost fighting in an area past a fog door. "must be a boss," I thought. So I did what I always try and do with bosses: get summoned and analyze. Well I managed to get summoned but the summoner managed to almost immediately get pushed off the edge of the fortress to his death. Well so much for analyzing, let's just go and fight the boss, eh? The Iron Golem was a fun fight. Right off the bat he threw a giant ranged attack at me which meant I needed to close the distance, and quickly. Guarding didn't prove too useful but his wide stance was perfect for rolling through his legs. With a lot of dodging and attacking his achilles, he became staggered and I went full bore. Except... towards the end of the fight I realized I wasn't dual wielding at all for the fight... that I didn't guard at all, during. Oh well. We still managed to defeat it, though not without a couple scares when he got good hits on us, as well as some grab-n-slams. And then some gargoyles appeared which I thought were enemies, but they ended up taking me over a wall to what I think was Anor Londo, which looked really damn awesome. My reaction in the highlights video was genuine. But I had some business to take care of before I moved forward.
I wanted to find a way to the other giant to help the onion knight. I wasn't too sure where to go but I knew there were plenty of areas I haven't seen, because a lot of unclaimed items were easily in view in the beginning section of the fortress. I dropped down to the Prowler Demons and managed to take down two of them because they were isolated. Easy enough. It was the two in the corridor that were giving me trouble. I managed to keep the second one unaggroed for most of my attempts, but despite the open area, this Prowler Demon proved much more difficult than the one in the room with a bunch of pillars in the way. Not only was this fight difficult but just getting to him was very tedious and not guaranteed, because of the three Serpent Mages right before him. This was the first time this run Dark Souls has actually made me very frustrated and somewhat mad. I died enough times to put together a death compilation and decided to call it a day. Nobody should play games angry and I needed a breather after a long stream. You know what, that's going to be Lesson #15, and you DOTA2 players should pay attention!
Lesson #15: Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
So that's that. Day 6 is in the books boys and gals. It was a fun and frustrating run. We have some unfinished business with that Giant but I'm not so sure I care to actually fight the Prowler Demons. Next session, I may just try to roll past them. The bad news is it's risky because if I get past them only to die further on, I'll lose everything if I die trying to get past them. The good news is I don't have much to lose at this point because I already lost my humanity and souls during Day 6... is that good news? ugh. That and Anor Londo await us at Day 7 and I know I've said this before, but I have a feeling this is where Dark Souls is really gonna show us it's true colors. Thanks for reading and join us during my next session! Here's a death compilation of days 4-6 for making it this far! Subscribe to my Twitch and Youtube page to follow along!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
Ah, Dark Souls, just when I think I have you figured out, you go and do.. something. We're talking Day 5 here of my first full run of Dark Souls. If you haven't been keeping up, let me get you caught up. Inspired by recent Dark Souls talk and all of the Bloodbourne in 2015, I've decided to play Dark Souls after I had to give it up my first time because life just got busy. I saw a lot of people saying just how much they enjoy watching others' first runs of the game so I decided to make this the first game I've streamed. I'm not letting chat give me spoilers and only asking them questions for slight hints that will keep the stream moving. There are some specific things in video games that I get slightly OCD about so that's where I ask for those hints. You can read more about that in my first two blogs. As far as the game itself, we've rung the first bell, defeated the Hydra and released a princess. We've been learning lessons as we go and the game has been seeming much easier than back when I first played it, but that's also explained in my previous blogs. Today, I'm going to quickly summarize our progression and talk about two interesting things.
So without further adieu, here is the list of the lessons we've learned so far and a highlight video of Day 5!
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Venturing into Blighttown led some new enemies and annoying mosquitoes, which was odd because I had a dream about mosquitoes eating me alive the night before... anyway. We fell down and didn't know where we were! My mind was racing because I was worried that we were somewhere we shouldn't have been. Spoilers: it was find, we just skipped a couple of ladders. COOL! So we came across a treasure that we'll talk about later and were summoned. I got to experience Quelaag and was hoping to use the summoning to analyze her a bit. Well I got some information from it but not too much. After returning to my world and gathering a ton of questionably useful treasures, I went on to my first real attempt at Quelaag. This was perfectly timed because someone had just invaded our world as we were heading there. I took care of her on my first attempt and rung the second bell, which opened up the gate near the onion warrior. Looks like we know where we're going next... that is unless we find a really cool underworld area full of fire and lava- OH HEY! LOOK AT THAT! LET'S KEEP GOING! We went through a fog gate, stole some treasure from a giant lava spider thing and got the heck out of there with a homeword bone. We'll be back to kill that guy some other time. I tried to light the bonfire but it turned out that the fire keeper was dead! MURRRRDERED! More on this later. I fed a giant serpent my surplus of green titanite and turned them into titanite shards! Perfect! I had been wanting to upgrade my Laito so I could make it my main weapon. Some tricky platforming for some more treasure, upgrading my Laito at the Blacksmith, and we were done for the day! Whew, sorry for the very quick rundown, but lets move on.
So, onto the stuff that I find interesting. Towards the beginning of the game after I found the new bonfire, I found a treasure sitting very conspicuously in a pit. Come on Dark Souls, how obvious could you be! I'm onto you! I didn't want to just go down there because I knew something was lying in the wait. I dropped a summon sign to use someone elses world and find out what trap was waiting for me. Well that didn't work because the person that summoned me had already opened the treasure. We were just going to have to do it the hard way. I slowly approached the treasure, checking my surroundings for any change with every step. As if this trap weren't obvious enough, the treasure was attached to a chain! Too. Easy. I attacked the treasure chest a few times and quickly rolled back, ready to dodge anything ready to counter-attack. Nothing... yet. I opened the treasure and rolled back again! HA! ...nothing still. So I took what was inside and ran. Ha! I got away! ....wait... nothing is coming for me... I didn't get attacked. I didn't lose any health. I didn't get poisoned. Nothing.
That's right, there was absolutely nothing there. I was being hyper-alert and cautious for nothing. I couldn't help but laugh. Dark Souls had used everything I had learned about being hyper-aware and alert against me, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. This is the kind of humor I can get behind because it all relies on me setting myself up, really. Good job, Souls, good job. Let's move on....
Listen, I love lore and I'm willing to do some work to find it. I've spent a ton of time watching cutscene supercuts of games and delving into wikis for long amounts of times just to learn all about lore of games that I haven't even played. I get into it. The intro to this game and everything that has followed up until the start of day five's session didn't really do much for me. The only piece of lore that I found intriguing was learning that a Dragon had betrayed all of the other Dragons. I tried reading items and talking to NPCs but there was nothing that caught my attention. Well okay, maybe the guy that was trapped in the church and an item description about someone being locked up. But nothing has really come together for me. Well someone's dead now and that certain someone being dead means I can't rest at a very important bonfire, damn it! And there's some lay praying to the pots? What the hell is going on?
The story is picking up in this world that I've already spent a lot of time in. Stuff is happening in what feels like the place I've been calling home and I need to know what is going on. So I'm intrigued and in a game like this, I want to know the deep lore. I'll admit, I started reading the backstory, not knowing what is a spoiler and what isn't, but you know what, I'm not really worried about that and I'll tell you why. In a world where I'm not understanding what exactly has happened and what is going on, finding out the backstory of the people I have been killing and talking to has made EVERYTHING a lot more interesting, in a retroactive way. Even if some story beats do get spoiled, knowing about the people and places I encounter and not having ah-ha moments is still more fun than not know what's going on AT ALL. Plus, I'm sure there's some narrative and explanations I've already missed. Spoilers. No spoilers. It's all about having fun! There's a fun lore deep in this game and I'll have to try a bit harder to find it.
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
So that's that for Day 5. Another boss and area down, and some events are actually unfolding in the world. We've also got a new weapon we're going to start using now that the Laito is reinforced. We jumped up about 50 points of attack power if I recall correctly, so the next session should be quite an experience. I can tell these blogs may be dipping in quality but it can be hard for me to keep writing about the same game every week, especially when I do it on my first day off. I'm not too sure how much longer the blog will be updated on a weekly basis but I'm not making any promises. No death compilation this week either because there just weren't many at all. Thanks for watching and reading, and join me next time!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
I'm going to keep this one nice and short. No really, I meant it, so that's it for the introduction. So let's recap the lessons we've learned so far from Dark Souls.
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
There wasn't much death in this one but we did have three major encounters, with the first being another player! That's right, for the first time, I was invaded and fought another player... TO THE DEATH! He wielded a giant club and shield, and he often went with a two-handed approach, so he was very slow. It seemed at times that his attacks were getting through my shield which made this a frustrating fight. It seemed manageable and I knew I could win the fight. My Balder Side Sword wasn't as reinforced as I would have liked but backstabs still did some damage. I landed quite a few backstabs but so did the other player. We were both healing back and forth with humanities for quite some time and in the end, he managed to get one last hit that did me in. I'm a player that gets really frustrated when I lose in PvP, and I was really frustrated, but after I recovered my souls and humanity, I realized that I had fun fighting that Phantom. I always thought being invaded would mean getting pummeled by another player that is more experienced than me, considering this game has been out for so long, but it did not go that bad at all. It was a ton of fun and my progress didn't really get screwed over. Now I could see a lot of instances where you would get screwed over by another player invading so I can see this PvP being a pain, but for now, I'm kind of into it. I am curious as to why my banishing item did not work though; oh well.
Next up was a Giant Undead Rat who somehow managed to dodge our lunging attack the first go round. He was pretty dang fast and made drinking estus flasks a tough order. This was one of my three deaths of the sessions but I returned with a better understanding of his mechanics, and ready to take him down. The second go round was still quite tough but we defeated him after a close call with our health, and a counter-attack off of a block. I was wandering around for quite a while looking for the next area and thought that the only way to progress was through a trap I had found earlier. I had figured I could slide down the sewers in the Giant Undead Rat area but I was also worried that it was also a trap. After wasting too much time I had finally decided to give it a go. I'm not quite sure why I was so worried because I would still be able to recover my souls and humanities if I had died. A whole lot of time wasted there but a small lesson learned.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
After some scrounging around, we unknowingly started making our way towards the area boss. At a small area, while fighting slime, a second slime sneakingly made its way to my back and nearly grabbed me, which might have actually drained all of my health! It was here that I learned the next lesson which piggybacks off of Lesson #9.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
I went on through a fog gate and encountered the area boss: Gaping Dragon. Even though it is kind of weird-looking, I adored the design of this enemy. Its attack strategy is something I would expect an real life species to have developed over time. What it does is curl it's long anterior portion of its body to give it the appears of having short reach. When you close the distance, it springs that part of its body down onto you, and attacks you with its enormous teeth. There is something about deceptiveness in hunting in the animal kingdom that I absolutely love; it shows the cunning side of nature. This was a well designed boss and I liked it. It was a pretty easy victory though as all we had to do was bait out the uncoiling attack, wait for it to charge, and swing at his back/tail. His tail came off, we got a weapon, and we finished him off. Off to Blighttown.
And what a maze blighttown proved to be. Ladders, traps, moving bridges, and items requiring daring feats. After a few tries, we acquired the Laito and ended our run there.
So that about wraps up day 4. Not too many deaths, not too much frustration but a lot of fun. We got new toys and found a fun new area so as always, I can't wait to get back into it. My next stream is going to be going up in about 15 minutes actually, so come join us as we venture further into Blighttown! No deaths compilation for day 4 because there wasn't much dying! Sorry, I know you're disappointed but have a highlight video! Thanks for reading!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
Another two days are in the books for my first full Dark Souls run and I'm here to tell you all about it! Our last day left us off at the blacksmith after we managed to ring the first bell. We didn't die too much that day but days two and three turned out a little different. Dark Souls started showing its true colors and challenge but we managed to make the best of our situations and power through. I decided to keep streaming because of the fun I had the first day and some new viewers joined us during these sessions. Before we start off, let's recap the lessons we learned from day 1!
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3:Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4:Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
And here is the highlight video.
Day 2
After talking to the knight in front of a locked gate, we started out session by facing the Prowling Demon near the blacksmith. The first step was to analyze his moveset before trying to take him down. His ranged lightning strikes were easy enough to dodge but the long sweeping physical attacks proved to be dangerous, and could easily rush our life bar down. Being able to easily recover our lost souls meant there wasn’t much at stake, though, and that made the encounter feel less threatening. Each death led to some new revelations and I finally felt comfortable going for the kill.
During the final fight, the Demon used a jumping attack that we kept trying to roll away from. At some point, I accidentally blocked that particular attack with my shield which was something I did not expect to be able to do.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
There was also something quite amazing that happened during this fight, which can be found early in my highlights video. After inadvertently luring the Demon to the top of the small staircase, I began fighting him from a lower position to give myself room to retreat, rather than being backed up against a wall. From the top of the stairs, nearly none of the Prowling Demon’s attacks reached my lower position; he attacked as if we were both still on flat ground. This meant that most of his attacks were not making contact with my hitbox. At this point, the rest of the fight was cheese. Lesson #?: No matter how well the design, a video game is still a video game and can be taken advantage of.
We spent the rest of our day in the Darkroot Garden where we first encountered Demonic Foliage, Giant Stone Knights, and a couple of odd trees that kept making weird noises /spoiler(Possessed Trees)/spoiler. We wandered around the area, collected some treasures and the next thing we know, that crazy tree was moving on its own, revealing a hidden path. More treasures were had. This was a fairly uneventful area but still, as always, there should be lessons to take away from our time. Here, our lesson came from being outnumbered and slowed by a spell, which led to our death. If we catch ourselves in a situation where our chances of success are very low then we should retreat, and re-engage when we have the advantage. In this case, if we were slowed we should have hunkered down and focused solely on surviving until the slowing de-buff would wear off. We also used the difference in the Foliage and Knight’s speed to separate them and take them on almost individually.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
The Moonlight Butterfly was the boss of the area and the fight was straight forward in terms of mechanics. It flies around throwing projectiles at us and then occasionally gives us free hits. The difficulty here came down to learning how to properly dodge the attacks. After adjusting our equipment to maximum magic resistance and using the environment to our advantage, we took down the Moonlight Butterfly and called it a night.
Day 3
Day three started out with some exploring to make sure we were thorough in the Darkroot Garden. As we started backtracking we found a new path and took down another Black Knight. After lighting a new bonfire, we encountered the Hydra, and we got frustrated at the Hydra, and we got frustrated at the Hydra, and we got frustrated at the…. We decided to take a break and it payed off. Taking down Haval and opening some new shortcuts not only meant we had farmed up souls and increased our level, but it also meant we got some sweet new items.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
But this is Dark Souls and that means we can’t run away from all of our problems. It was time to head back to the Hydra and figure out a plan of attack. After countless attempts at slowly approaching it and chats help, I remembered that his attack bypasses over my head as long as I get close enough. Using the environment to my advantage as seen in the highlight video, I was able to rush towards the Hydra and outlast his physical attacks for the win.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
The next area gave us more goodies but after some ambushes of strong enemies we had to fall back again. A golden golem fell to us and we rescued a princess which chat helpfully pointed out was part of the DLC, and that I didn’t have to worry about her or that area for now. Again, this is another way streaming makes the experience more enjoyable: the chat helps me understand when I should and should not worry about things, without spoiling any part of the game, or giving me too much guidance. Essentially this just keeps my anxieties and frustrations about the unknown in check.
Since we could not go forward, the only way to go was back. We unlocked shortcuts, went to Lower Undead Burg, and thwarted more ambushes. We seemed super over-leveled for this area and found ourselves at a fog door. While waiting to be summoned at the fog door to practice against the Capra Demon, we made our way to some treasure guarded by weak looking enemies wielding torches. I had underestimated them and became careless when I engaged them. It took only one flurry from a single Hollow to rush my health down almost completely.
Lesson #9: never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
After devising a plan for the Capra Demon, I took him on myself. The strategy was simple, walk up the stairs and onto the ledge where he didn’t seem to fit on, where we could take out his pets and then single him out. We were wrong; boy were we wrong. After rushing onto the ledge, he and his pets trapped us in the corner and whooped us for a good long while. I kept defending hoping he would fall but that definitely didn’t work. I’m not sure why I had spent so much time stuck in that position rather than just simply jumping down. After wasting so many Estus flasks in that crappy situation, I managed to defeat the Demon’s minions and then him quickly after.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
So that wraps up Day 2 and 3 of our stream. Mistakes were made and lessons were learned, but in the end we came out victorious! Deaths were much more common and I had become much more frustrated during these sessions, but my infatuation with the game only kept increasing. No matter how frustrating a section of the game gets, the draw for that patented Souls feeling of accomplishment keeps us going, as I’m sure it does every player that has beaten this game. Streaming was just as enjoyable as the first time as some new viewers stumbled into the stream, and stuck around. It’s always fun to interact with people that have beaten the game already because everyone brings new insight and points of view into the mix. Well, I’m already itching to get back into the game and keep going, because I know there’s a second bell that needs to be run, so stay tuned for more Dark Souls! And as always thanks for reading. Here's a death compilation for your pleasure!
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far), most encounters with larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
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