Breaking Brad: Breaking Brad: Demon's Souls: Part 12

Yeah Brad locked himself into this specific set quite some time ago by neglecting all his other stats and going full magic. Most weapons will require him to invest at least 4 or more points into various stats, and then cost exuberant amounts of souls to upgrade down the magic path. In terms of armor we can forget that also because his equip load is going to be too low to get anywhere near a fast roll - and unlike Vinny I somehow doubt Brad would be willing to put up with any other playstyle than the one he has been using all along. Brad appears to be very fearful of leaving his comfort zone.

So I wouldn't expect him to change anything up. He might be able to put on some gauntlets or something but at this point who cares? For tricky melee situations he uses ranged magic and his sword is powerful enough that he doesn't need to be nearly as careful when actually engaging enemies in close quarters.

I know it's not on purpose, or maybe it is who knows, but Brad has rolled a perfect game so to speak. He has leveled all the right stats, gotten all the right gear early in the game and tackled the archstones in the perfect order. He has followed a path to creating the most powerful, most hassle free character imaginable. Garl Vinland was the only potentially challenging aspect left in the game as he had full magic resist but even that proved to be a minor setback. There is nothing left in Brads way now that could pose any sort of problem so he might as well just stick with what he's got.

The cowardly Potato Marshal returns.

I have to disagree that brad ''has leveled all the right stats, gotten all the right gear early in the game and tackled the archstones in the perfect order. He has followed a path to creating the most powerful, most hassle free character imaginable.'' There is much more broken builds than the one he has now. A faith/strenght build with the butcher's knife is much more OP (S scaling in Str and Dex, A scaling in faith). You can also get second chance and god's wrath with that build. I'm also convinced he's going to have trouble with the maneaters if he doesn't use firestorm and he probably won't because he dismist it as a spell that could be usefull. It's the most powerfull magic in the game and it literaly kills bosses in one hit. So I guess brad could be rolling with much more broken stuff.

@pyrodactyl: Of course there are even more powerful builds, but relatively stepping back, he has played the game really well compared to the typical player that I assume really meandered about, put points into random stats and overall felt a lot more lost on their first run-through.

Just stick with the gear you have, Brad. You're getting towards the end of the game; you probably only have a few hours left (3-2; 3-3; 1-4).

For those who didn't know this was going on, you can follow @GiantBombLive on twitter. Its a bot that auto posts when chat goes up for a live show. I set it to alert my phone whenever it tweets something. Thats how I knew the stream was happening.

Best one yet! The highschool talk was a trip.

Of course he's done better than the average player on their first time; he hasn't done anything without guidance from thousands of people and Vinny, though the latter's insistence on Brad upgrading magic to do more damage really only served to further lock him into a playstyle that he's forever at odds with.

It's not that accurate these days, and I didn't see anything from it when the stream was starting; I only saw the show live because I happened to go to the front page of the site.

As usual, when Giant Bomb plays a boring section or a boring game, the talk gets super philosophical.

The fact that he handled 4 giant depraved ones in his first encounter is amazing.

I came to realized that Brad is better at games than me.

It's like he set to beat the game in spite of getting in his own way with how he's built his character. High Vitality but he can take 1 maybe 2 solid hits before death? High endurance, but rarely parries, High magic but low INT, low DEX and STR so no real flexibility with weapons or armor.... it's incredible honestly.

But hey in the Souls games, you stick with what works, and that sword is what works so... more power to him.

@onemanx: Umm, there's nothing really wrong with the way he's built his character. Magic is the stat all his damage is based on and he's currently comfortable with that so there's not really anywhere else to dump points in other than Vit and End if he's currently happy with the amount of spell slots and mana he has. He dies in 1 or 2 hits because that's what bosses and hard enemies do in Souls games when you're wearing light armour. Also, what does endurance have to do with parrying? The higher endurance is to let you block, roll, and swing for longer amounts of time. And STR and DEX don't affect armour. Only weapons and shields. He could pump some points into those for a better shield but the other weapons that he could craft down the magic scaling path don't really need that many points in those stats.

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how quickly the Giantbombers plow through a game, people still feel the need to offer advice.

Also, I'm sure Demon's Souls was about this easy for most people. It's just that playing a game you are wrapped up in every death, where watching someone else die it just seems like a minor bump in the road.

Regarding that conversation @brad and @vinny had about going back to HS with your mind now, there are all sorts of ethical implications there. You couldn't date anybody just because it'd feel like you were taking advantage of them with your decades of earthly knowledge and maturity. And a lot of the "social" stuff was really just a different form of bullshit. Frankly, I'd probably go the Vinny route and take naps.

Seeing as how they have another stream scheduled for tonight it looks like they're pushing on hard with this in order to beat it before Dark Souls ll comes out. And I love it!

@hollitz said:

I love that Brad counter trolls him and just peaces out.

*Potato_Marshal appears*

Brad: "Get fucked, boi!"

*Walks through fog gate right in front of him"

Also, I don't know why Brad continues to Soul Ray lizards. There's such a good chance that it'll miss once the lizard has started moving that he should just be using his sword on them. He could've easily gotten the one by Astraea if he had just sprinted up and used melee.

I could be mistaken but isn't Floogan a word in Undercommon or Cthulu speak? Seems like Illithids would be talking about Floogan all the time. You're a wizard Floogan.

What a surprise, Brad being bad at games.

Oh man, Vinny totally knew that knight was gonna' heal too. Cheeky guy. :)

@vinny@brad While Dark Souls hides much of its lore in item/equipment/spell descriptions and locations, Demon's Souls places it within dialogue for the most part. You hear about Maide Astrea first from the game intro where her name is included amongst the many famous explorers that have entered the fog, never to return. Then, the male disciple of god and Saint Urbain himself have several lines about her. The female merchant in 5-1 and 5-2 actually also mentions her. Lastly, there is the description for the 5-3 archstone, her soul item, and the beast talisman that fills everything else in.

Thanks @brad, I gave the Pixies another shot. I always liked "Where Is My Mind" but found the band pretty impenetrable but I tried again and I'm in. I love "Monkey Gone To Heaven".

I understand using your sword when its fun combat, but not when you fight poisonous jellyfish.

Maiden Astrea was just sitting there not hurting anyone and even politely asks you to leave and they just go and murder her for the souls.

She's by far my favourite boss from the Souls games though lacking in the fighting department.

Brad's been inexplicably great at parrying since episode 1, and it finally comes in handy.

Breaking Brad: Demon's Souls: Part 13

Anyone in HS or younger shouldn't on facebook, tumblr etc... 18+ ONLY Should be a new law. That will stop that bullying shit

I wonder what happened to using health regen items to negate the poison