Dark Souls

The Furysword is fun. Just to be duper super sure, I upgraded my Painting Guardian Sword to +10, so I'd say I am prepped for the Lost Izalith.

I killed Pikachu and Snorlax. Three tries this time, and it was as tense as always. As easy as it is to mock them, the sheer elation of taking down Hornysteve and Smog is like nothing else.

With this wonderful Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, I'm gonna grind humanity from the rats, soon. I want to save Solaire, make the Fair Lady better, and strengthen my Furysword, so I kind of have no choice.

Once you reach the Tomb of the Giants there's this location with Skeleton Jr's. I think they drop it far more often than rats do, and they respawn ad infinitum too.

man it'd be pretty cool if you could fight artorias in his uncorrupted, un-crippled state

does his soul or likeness turn up in dark souls 2?

as far as artorias himself, no not really.

ornstein shows up pretty much recycled from DS 1 without smough but you probably already knew that.

The Lost Sinner, the boss of Sinner's Rise, way of moving and fighting reminded me very much of Artorias. Apparently there's no meaning behind it though, since I recall an item description identifies the boss as female, and apparently she is, in fact, if I remember right, the Witch of Izalith.

edited 13th Apr '15 6:40:58 PM by artfulscruff

yeah apparently she's connected to the witch of izalith, in much the same way the rotten and the old iron king are connected to nito and gwyn respectively.

His sword turns up in the Iron King DLC and lets you do a lot of his ridiculous moves like the spin-flip when you wield it in the left hand.

Yeah, much of the "story" of DS 2 is about cycles and everything repeating over time. Even a fragment of Manus shows up as the final boss.

Made a lot of progress on my second playthrough. Today I beat Manus, Ceasless Discharge, Sif, and the Four Kings, got Chaos Servant +2, and got a fully upgraded Silver Knight Strong Sword, on top of the Grass Crest Shield.

With the help of 1000+ health, courtesy of the Mask of the Mother and the Ring of Favor and Protection, the DPS of this blade, and +3 Estus, I made a joke out of the Four Kings, and Sif. Dark Souls is a game that's surprisingly easy to steamroll through when you're properly equipped and in the zone.

The Manus fight was pretty fun, though. Some vengance for Artorias, a tremendous challenge, an awesome design, just an all around great way to end the DLC. There's even some heartwarming points if you find Sif's sign which I didn't so eh.

The DLC is actually surprisingly merciful with its boss-bonfire distances, with the exception of Kalameet. The Sanctuary Guardian is right in front of the bonfire, Artorias' path is blocked by two squishy peons, and a safe, straightforward sprint, and Manus...Well, just those two, I guess.

Speaking of Sif, I got the alternate cutscene and...Hoo boy, the base fight was sad enough. It's a shame that, by then, I've gotten ridiculously overleveled.

I had another "I am such a fucking retard" moment, this time with Artorias. It took me quite some time to destroy sir flips a lot, and as it turns out, there was a reason he took 62 per two handed Quelaag Furysword attack. He resists slash attacks!

Why didn't I notice that sooner is beyond me, but at least I can brag about handing Arty's ass on a plate using attacks he resists.

On top of that, I also used a slab on my armor. Ha...

edited 17th Apr '15 9:27:07 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

pfft. at least i can boast about beating artorias underleveled and with a slow weapon and without the ability to block any of his attacks

the distance between the final bonfire and manus is very short actually. i can think of maybe 2 enemies you have to deal with on the way there, one of them being the bloat sorceress who snipes at you if you try and make a run for it. deal with her and you're not really in danger of anything, on account of humanity phantoms being slow and randomly aggressive. all in all its basically a 3 minute trip.

I didn't block either (Two handed + mad reflexes yo), But you win the rest of those points.

Damn you, by the way.

edited 17th Apr '15 9:35:13 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

fight is way more fun if you dodge everything anyways.

and having this badass, chaotic fight that travels alllll around the arena with both you and artorias forgoing any form of defence and just taking potshots at each other, fits the mood.

Well, Quelaag Fursysword also has low physical damage, it seems.

And Artorias seems to resist fire, atleast a wiki I checked says so.

So good job. You used the least optimal attack types to win!

That I can attest to. Even if it was hell, it was the Dark Souls kind of hell. The hell that cleanses you after you go through it. So, um...Purgatory.

Fuck From Software for making me feel like shit whether I win or lose, though. Artorias's death scream is both depressing and downright chilling.

I'd like to thank my stubborn determination and dimness for bringing me this far.

edited 17th Apr '15 9:45:51 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

If you feel bad now, just wait until you speak to Artorias's fellow Knights.

A word of warning, whatever baneful resistance artorias has to Magics.

Expect that to be doubled when facing Manus.

Long story short From hates spellcasters. When I was playing pure sorc, I had to go full suicide damage build to kill artorias with my spells. Manus should be taken on with Pure physical damage only.

IRCC, FROM's spellcaster penance, DSII, took the apology a bit too far?

Beat the Lost Izalith, and saved Siegmeyer and Solaire. Ugh...I like Siegmeyer. Why does he have to be doomed to die?

@Jimmy: Did that last playthrough. It was also a gut punch.

Good thing I didn't kill Ciaran though. Her death quote is a new level of wow. Gough also has a depressing set of last words, but goddamn, will killing Ciaran make you feel like the worst.

On a different note; what do you guys think about the omitted Artorias quotes? I'm conflicted; having his dialogue reduced to monstrous grunts is a great display of Dark Souls' mastery of "Show, don't tell" by illustrating how far he's lost himself, but a speaking Artorias would have been cool.

edited 17th Apr '15 10:01:50 PM by mrsunshinesprinkles

the artorias cut quotes are depressing.

Ornstein just can't help himself◊

the best

I beat Nito. First two tries were disasters, but then I found out staying put was a good idea, lest the rest of the skelly gang get aggroed.

It might be because I fully upgraded my equipment fairly early, but Dark Souls gets surprisingly easier up to a certain point. I still get trounced by certain enemies, like the Skeleton Wheels from hell, but with the right gear, not much poses harm as long as you remain focused.

In my first playthrough I horribly misunderstood the way elemental weapons worked and upgraded my Battle Axe to Lightning then kept levelling Strength even though it doesn't provide any scaling bonuses. I did it before I reached Ornstein and Smough, so they were even harder to beat since Ornstein is lightning-resistant.

It's amazing how much more effective a simple Broadsword is when it's upgraded down the regular path. I chose it because it's quick and has some wide sweeps for clearing out large groups of enemies, and it carried me through the entire game on my latest playthrough upgraded to +15. I switched to the Gold Tracer briefly, but at +5 with 40/40 STR/DEX it does slightly less damage. It's insane for enemies that are weak to bleed, though - I beat the Stray Demon in about a minute using the Gold Tracer.

Also, I used the Elite Knight set and upgraded it with any spare Titanite I had, which definitely helped somewhat. The Grass Crest Shield is super helpful if you're melee-focused too.

edited 19th Apr '15 5:49:53 AM by JimmyTMalice

How does the Stray Demon even bleed?

The Grass Crest Shield is super cool. As a character who two hands their Silver Knight Straight Sword because of a lack of strength, it's an incredibly fun item.

Unless you actively tried to screw up, every weapon is pretty viable, once fully upgraded. I like that about Dark Souls; even with a terrible stat spread, or no stat spread at all, you can beat the game with the right tools

As a personal note, Blighttown's difficulty is a bit overhyped. That level hurts quite a bit, but it never popped my veins. The area that truly taught me the meaning of pain and despair was Anor Londo.

edited 19th Apr '15 11:27:04 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

i like the cut artorias quotes a lot, but i'm not too bothered that they weren't in the final game. they cut quelaag's monologue too.

I remember in my first playthrough I used a Zaphander for a lot of it, also due to a lack of understanding, at least in part. Its base damage is extremely high, but yeah, no scaling reduces its effectiveness as enemies get stronger, especially into NG+ and beyond, I would assume.

I usually stick with vanilla weapons these days.

I just beat Dark Souls a second time. Gwyn was a bit tricky. His swings don't have as long of a delay as the other bosses. It started with well timed dodges and counterattacks, but after a certain point, it became an Estus chugging bitch slap fight that ended in the Lord of Cinder's demise. Good stuff.

I'm Dark Souls'd out by now. The game was just such a blast, but playing through it twice, I can now put it down for a long time. Still, it was worth every cent.

edited 21st Apr '15 2:46:01 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles