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CuwiKhons posted:That doesn't look like a royal helm to me.
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Apr 17, 2016 11:01
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CuwiKhons posted:That doesn't look like a Catarina helm to me.
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Apr 17, 2016 12:04
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But those are all helms or crowns, not HATS. Of all the actual HATS, Big That's hat is the greatest.
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Apr 17, 2016 13:57
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This hat talk reminds me: Yesterday, I was looking at the (unseen silly hat spoiler) Symbol of Avarice for the first time in a while, and the first thing I thought was, "This is a serious game, I swear."
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Apr 17, 2016 14:03
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Since it came up, there's a definite tell for mimics - their chain curls a different way.
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Apr 17, 2016 14:19
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Tenebrais posted:Since it came up, there's a definite tell for mimics - their chain curls a different way. They also breathe slowly.
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Apr 17, 2016 15:13
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I'm starting to wonder if Vicas is allergic to levelling, running around with all those souls.
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Apr 17, 2016 17:11
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So, that bonfire. Yeah, gently caress that bonfire. https://www.twitch.tv/migishu/v/43032345 (Mute the sound, I had a really lovely mic back in the day and it's spiking horribly)
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Apr 17, 2016 19:37
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Also, this might explain why you're not seeing messages: http://kotaku.com/nobody-knows-why-dark-souls-1-for-pc-has-been-offline-f-1771610424 Terrible Kotaku link, but apparently DS1's servers are down and no explanation has been given out.
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Apr 18, 2016 21:24
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One thing you forgot to show off with that final arrow trap is that it actually has two pressure plate triggers, and that if you trigger it going towards the snake mage, the second trigger pops up and you can trigger it again when you go back towards the outside, only this time the arrows are coming from behind you.
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Apr 18, 2016 23:46
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TimNeilson posted:One thing you forgot to show off with that final arrow trap is that it actually has two pressure plate triggers, and that if you trigger it going towards the snake mage, the second trigger pops up and you can trigger it again when you go back towards the outside, only this time the arrows are coming from behind you. I think I saw myself juuuuust barely miss it while editing the last episode, lol. I totally forgot about it
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Apr 19, 2016 00:01
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And now a boss fight, more or less 34 - Iron! Tarkus v Golem! He is a big boy
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Apr 20, 2016 04:18
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Is it ever explained in game why the door to Anor Londo is blocked? And why do the gargoyles help you up there? Are they operating under orders from someone else?
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Apr 20, 2016 04:45
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Golbez posted:Is it ever explained in game why the door to Anor Londo is blocked? And why do the gargoyles help you up there? Are they operating under orders from someone else? The gate being blocked is likely just a matter of decay, much like the rest of Sen's. As for the batwing demons, it isn't said but can be assumed they're under the control of the one NPC you'd expect in Anor Londo. But we'll get to them when we get to them As far as what it all means, I'll probably prattle on a lot more about it in Anor Londo videos, but it sort of reinforces just how fake this hero's journey is, and how limited that NPC's power truly is (though i may also avoid talking about them altogether until we get a bit further on. There's a bit of weirdness here where the best reveal related to all this is the final boss himself, but it's a point of no return. I dunno, I'm sure i'll find the time to gush about it) Vicas fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Apr 20, 2016 |
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Apr 20, 2016 04:51
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Vicas posted:I think I saw myself juuuuust barely miss it while editing the last episode, lol. I totally forgot about it yeah well I died to that exact trap about an hour ago. Havel is finally dead. Don't bother with all that rolling poo poo, just step back when he swings at you, poke him with a +10 Halberd, move toward him to get him to do his over hand swing. Having Knight +2, Ring of Steel protection, and Wolf Ring means using a shield makes sense too. My lesson for Dark Souls is not "git gud" it's die a lot and you'll eventually over-level.  edit: By the way, thanks bunches for doing this LP Vicas. It's been a ton of fun trying to follow you through the game. Jonny Nox fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Apr 20, 2016 |
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Apr 20, 2016 04:56
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Anor Londo is shockingly clean compared to the rest of the crapholes we've been through in this game so far. It really took my breath away when I first saw it.
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Apr 20, 2016 17:01
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Speedball posted:Anor Londo is shockingly clean compared to the rest of the crapholes we've been through in this game so far. It really took my breath away when I first saw it. I always tell people that just looking at Anor Londo is your prize for muddling through Blighttown and Sen's Fortress. For a glorious city of the gods...it loving delivers on that glory.
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Apr 20, 2016 17:17
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I don't know if you already know this, but you can actually jump over to the giant that's dropping boulders into the boulder trap inside Sen's Fortress. It's a stupidly hard jump and doesn't net you any special reward, but it can be done.
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Apr 20, 2016 18:34
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Speedball posted:Anor Londo is shockingly clean compared to the rest of the crapholes we've been through in this game so far. It really took my breath away when I first saw it. This is the sort of thing I really missed in DS2, at least in the bit of it I've played. The world feels much less cohesive. The zones themselves are impressive (Heide's tower and iron keep at least look sweet) but don't make sense or fit together within the actual game world, so it feels a lot more video gamey, like here's the lava level! Here's the ice level! DS on the other hand lets you see blighttown and new londo from the edge of firelink, ash lake from tomb of the giants, sen's fortress and the undead parish from various places, etc. You can't really see the rest of the world from Anor Londo, but you are shown by the gargoyle flight that it is up on the cliff, and the game does a great job making you believe that up until now, the game world has just been in the shadow of a giant rear end mountain and finally you can try to appreciate the beauty of the world and the feeling of warmth anor londo gives you  It's easily the thing I have enjoyed most from playing DS3 so far. I have definitely gotten at least half a dozen "be wary of gorgeous view, try looking away" spots where I literally spent 5-10 minutes just looking around with the binoculars trying to recognize where I am in the world or what I have ahead of me. You can look around on the horizon and recognize previous areas or wonder what distant lands have in store for you. It's fantastic and juxtaposes incredibly well against the difficulty and is a nice treat for reaching new areas. There's a kind of turning point in DS3 where you suddenly realize where you actually are after suspecting it for a while and I was gobsmacked and had to stop and look at all the scenery I just went through. The giant is basically a gimme boss for finishing sen's fortress. For most melee players, simply two handing and chopping his legs a bit is good enough to stagger him, so you don't even really need to summon. That being said, Tarkus loving rules and we'll be talking about him more later probably.
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Apr 20, 2016 18:55
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The thought of Tarkus though makes me wonder. We find all of these corpses throughout the game, especially one for each player class that drops their set. But death and resurrection are clearly established mechanics within the game so it makes you wonder what this means. To me I think every time you find a corpse, such as the new londo guy with the red set in blight town near valley of the drakes, it represents where that character in their own timeline finally gave up and hollowed. It definitely is pretty  with where you find some corpses throughout the game.
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Apr 20, 2016 19:03
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I'm guessing the Crestfallen Merchant has been more or less trapped at the top of Sen's Fortress for years. He doesn't have the chops to take on the Giant, so he's let every other would-be hero try to get to him instead. Then he raids their corpses for the magic items and buffed-up weapons they dropped and sells them to the next would-be hero, and that's how he maintains his humanity.
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Apr 20, 2016 19:18
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Grizlor posted:The thought of Tarkus though makes me wonder. We find all of these corpses throughout the game, especially one for each player class that drops their set. But death and resurrection are clearly established mechanics within the game so it makes you wonder what this means. i'm pretty sure that's exactly what that means. you can continue the cycle as long as you want and your character doesn't hollow until you stop playing
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Apr 20, 2016 19:24
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Vicas, are you gonna go back and crush those Titanite Demons at the bottom of the Fortress? Also... Did you know you can find and kill the Giant that raised the entrance gate to Sen's Fortress?
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Apr 20, 2016 20:38
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oh yes oh god yes form the head FORM THE HEAD unghhhh...
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IronSaber posted:Vicas, are you gonna go back and crush those Titanite Demons at the bottom of the Fortress? Not just one of them!
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Apr 20, 2016 20:44
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IronSaber posted:Vicas, are you gonna go back and crush those Titanite Demons at the bottom of the Fortress? You're the second person to ask about this, and uhh
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Apr 20, 2016 20:57
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Grizlor posted:The thought of Tarkus though makes me wonder. We find all of these corpses throughout the game, especially one for each player class that drops their set. But death and resurrection are clearly established mechanics within the game so it makes you wonder what this means. I think in some cases the corpses may not have been undead/cursed in the first place.
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Apr 20, 2016 21:21
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So, now that we've gotten to Anor Londo, there's an interesting thing the game does. I first saw this talked about by someone else a while ago so I may not be remembering it in its entirety, but: The game spends a lot of time building up an association between brightness/upwards motion/"straightforward challenge" (fighting individually difficult enemies on a roughly equal or somewhat outmatched basis) on the one hand, and darkness/downwards motion/"frustrating bullshit difficulty" on the other. This starts as soon as you get out of the Asylum. There's three ways to go from Firelink Shrine: up the staircase to Undead Burg, where you get to fight weak hollows; out the temple and down the staircase, where the skeletons are ready to seriously gently caress up first-time players and (if you persevere) there are skeletons that get back up after you kill them; and down the elevator under the shrine, which takes you to the land of Invincible Ghost Gangbangs. The intended path is a gradual climb through Undead Burg and the Parish, where it's fairly easy to feel like most of the times you die are your fault for not knowing the game well enough yet. There are a few things which will just kill you (Black Knights, Fire Drake) but they are all enormous and intimidating and you have to go out of your way to provoke them. Ambushes are introduced early (I think you basically get one on the staircase up to the aqueduct) and the general theme of the area is "weak enemies placed intelligently". Noticing an ambush early feels good, getting killed by one feels like you got outplayed by the developers. After you beat the Gargoyles, you climb up the ladder and ring your first bell. It's a moment that gives you a great sense of accomplishment. And then you have to go down. Lower Undead Burg gets things started with the tiny boss arena and dog rush of the Capra Demon fight. The Depths has a mazy structure littered with holes that cause you to drop down into another maze full of basilisks and their clouds of Instant Death And Also You Have Half Health From Now On. I don't think I even need to say anything about Blighttown. After that it's up again - Sen's Fortress is such a huge relief after Blighttown. Sure, it's full of traps, but aside from the Mimic chest (in the dark bowels of the castle, I might note) most of them are pretty telegraphed. You get an introduction to the floor traps in the very beginning, the pressure plates are pretty obvious (at least I never had trouble with them), the giant swinging blades are right there in the open, the boulders conveniently demonstrate themselves on a snakeman the first time you encounter them, and the bombtossing giant gives you giant scorched areas to keep an eye on. One of the major points of difficulty here is how tough the Snakemen are against physical damage - if you're still rocking the Drake Sword by the time you get here, the snakes are really hard to kill and the Mimic's Lightning Spear is a godsend. And then, well, Anor Londo. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of hard stuff, but it's "OK, can you deal with two of them side by side?" hard stuff rather than "guess what's poisoning you and where it is! oops, too late" hard stuff. Then, afterwards, it's all downhill. There are four endgame areas. The Duke's Archives is the closest to your previous path and the place you're most likely to have run into a roadblock that just conspicuously disappeared, and it continues the upwards motion and difficult enemies - but then you reach the top, get gibbed in an unwinnable fight, and get locked in a cell. Then you have to go down - down the tower, down to the castle grounds, down into the Crystal Caves and its invisible path gimmick. All of the other places you can go are worse, and all of them are down. New Londo Ruins is a long slog with no bonfires and enemies you have to use items to even touch, and a boss fight which instakills you if you don't have the right secret checked. The Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith were probably super rushed, but even so there's a lot of item destruction and lava to contend with, not to mention the awful boss. And past the Catacombs' reanimating skeletons, the Tomb of the Giants is entirely about loving with your vision and the place I personally found the most irritating. (I also hadn't noticed that the motif that plays when you first see Anor Londo is also prominent in the Ornstein and Smough fight.)
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Apr 20, 2016 22:05
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I love the body language on the Iron Golem. Sen's Fortress is so old, so worn down, and so neglected that even this lifeless automaton is getting too old for this poo poo. It's drat tired tired of standing around all day chopping hollows.
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Apr 20, 2016 23:08
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You find exactly zero hollows in Anor Londo, so I guess the Iron Golem and all the traps were meant to separate the wheat from the chaff; only a very strong Undead with their wits about them can make it through. Still doesn't exactly explain where the snake guys came from...
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Apr 21, 2016 00:37
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Speedball posted:You find exactly zero hollows in Anor Londo, so I guess the Iron Golem and all the traps were meant to separate the wheat from the chaff; only a very strong Undead with their wits about them can make it through. Still doesn't exactly explain where the snake guys came from... What I like about Sen's Fortress is that even it tells its own little story, with all the hallways clearly being more man-sized than manserpent-sized, and all the knocked over human armor-sets. It makes it obvious that the snakes weren't originally part of it, and that at one point it probably looked very similar (and was occupied similarly) to Anor Londo itself. The sneeple's origin is of course never answered in-game, but I really like the very minor insinuation from the cage key that the sneeple might actually be kidnapping adventurers who attempt to beat sen's fortress and turning them into more sneeple. They show up in exactly one other area of the game, which is quite well known for its transforming regular humans into hideous monsters, after all e: by the way, I really like all the effort posts people are making about design and about how your own playstyle can be interpreted within the story of the game, and all sorts of other interesting things, and I certainly encourage them to continue
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Apr 21, 2016 00:44
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You're not even the first person to ring both bells and get inside Sen's Fortress. I mean, Crestfallen Merchant is there and he says he's seen tons of people fail to make it through. So you're not really destined for anything. You're the "chosen one" because you're the first survivor to make it through all the crap thrown in your way and meets all the criteria. (I bet Frampt gave his "chosen undead" speech to a bunch of people...) I guess after a while the giant on top of Sen's Fortress lowers the gate back down. Of course, time is convoluted. Speedball fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Apr 21, 2016 |
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Apr 21, 2016 03:57
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Vicas posted:You're the second person to ask about this, and uhh Whoopsies. 
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Apr 21, 2016 06:52
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Puntification posted:I think in some cases the corpses may not have been undead/cursed in the first place. The mechanics of death and dying are always a little wiggly wobbly in dark souls. There are some characters who are actually still just totally normal, still alive and kicking regular people who find themselves in Lordran for some reason or another. I imagine that a number of the things that you loot off the ground came from curious, still living adventurers who came to Lordran in search of glory or treasure. There's always a point where you sort of have to allow for gameplay mechanics taking precedence over lore - accidentally pissing off the crestfallen knight and then having to kill him -every time- you come to Firelink would sort of be garbage. It would make sense that when you kill an NPC, you pillage their humanity as well, making them all the more likely to go hollow. This gets a bit murky in the later games where humanity is no longer really a thing (big mistake in design to be totally honest with you), but the first installment its reasonable enough. As for the people you never actually meet, presumably, that's either when they finally hollowed completely or where they died if they didn't have the dark sign. The "prophecy" is probably my favorite part of the first game's narrative arc because it's such a complete and total sham. One day, by luck or skill, SOMEBODY will make it through to Anor Londo. It's just what you try to do when you turn undead because nobody wants you hanging around not dying in their proper establishments. Fate has nothing to do with it. Frampt is a huckster buttering up every undead that rings the bells with talk of being the chosen one to get them to do the dirty work he can't. Eventually someone's gotta get things right. Just try not to look at the mountain of corpses when you bend over to pick up that neat looking sword.
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Apr 21, 2016 07:57
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I agree with Addar. The only character you can rely on in the game is the Crestfallen Warrior. You aren't the first, you won't be the last. Your only purpose is to feed the first flame to keep things going until the next stupid undead happens to build himself up through going through the entire game again enough keep things going.
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Apr 21, 2016 08:21
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Speedball posted:You find exactly zero hollows in Anor Londo, Getting ahead of ourselves but what are all the guards then? If they're not hollow, why do they keep trying to kill you; aren't you doing the thing their "princess" wants done?
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Apr 21, 2016 10:48
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Looking at the blocked doorway, it's obviously a passage into the massive wall that would most likely be another defensive layer that travellers would have to pass through to get into Anor Londo. Given that there were obviously time pressures on getting the game released (see all those complaints about the lava areas), I have to wonder if going through that doorway and fighting your way up the before emerging at the top of the wall was cut content, either because it would have been too similar to the ascent up Sen's fortress or just because From ran short on time. After all, you're grabbed by a bunch of monsters - who are ultimately agents of the game developers - and literally given a free ride over a major defensive emplacement standing between you and your goal. Yeah, you can interpret them as being under the control of a certain NPC we haven't met yet, but I would like to think that this is also possibly a little obtuse humour from the devs. Somewhat ironically, Vicas, your LP of dark souls with Geop ages ago made me not buy the game because I knew I wouldn't get the same sensation of wonder or horror again. Specifically the creeping horror as you descend through the geographically lower areas of the game world: You thought the depths were bad? Here's blight town. Disgusted by the swamp? well, there's a place that those guys were trying to wall themselves off from, and also SPIDERS EVERYWHERE. And that's not the end of it... similarly for the graveyard - catacombs - tomb of the giants - etc. progression. There is always more and it is always worse. Until you finally descend all the way to ash lake, at the root of it all - both geographically and chronologically since it seems to be the place in the intro movie where everything began from - and you find calm, serene beauty. On the other hand, it made me determined to avoid watching any playthroughs of the sequel, which I am currently inching/blundering through, and while it's fun I definitely see what everyone's saying about its world not feeling so connected. However, I did read a really interesting theory on one of the wikis about the background scenery in DS2 not making sense compared to the places you actually walk through (especially the elevator in the windmill), which was that it fits if you consider yourself to be an unreliable narrator. All the other undead are slowly hollowing and losing their memories, so why shouldn't that apply to you as well: just how long were you wandering through that underground tunnel between Heide and the bastille, and was the elevator really at the top of the windmill? Yes, it's still a cop-out covering for (slightly) shoddy world layout, but it's at least one that almost fits thematically. All I know is that every time I find myself seeing a nice sunset or twilight landscape (it's kind of an obvious thing but did you comment on the lighting/time of day the outdoor areas seem to take place in? I can't remember), I kinda feel like I should be combat rolling everywhere and jabbing a rapier at things.
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Apr 21, 2016 11:05
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Dzhay posted:Getting ahead of ourselves but what are all the guards then? If they're not hollow, why do they keep trying to kill you; aren't you doing the thing their "princess" wants done? Honestly I don't even think they can go hollow. Hollowing is a thing that happens to people after they've been undead for long enough and I think it's safe to assume Gwyn's crew (obviously including the giants) aren't human; the game is unclear on what exactly characters like Ornstein are (i.e. it doesn't call them "elves" or something), but they certainly aren't humans whether it's because they were always a different species or because of Gwyn's lord soul. They're either immortal or extremely long-lived without being undead. The only theories that make sense to me are either A) they've been at it for so long that they're paranoid and assume everyone is trying to kill Gwynevere, which is probably half-true since I assume a dude like Lautrec isn't there to pursue a heroic quest, or B) they/the real power in Anor Londo are testing your might to see if you've got what it takes to bear the Lordvessel.
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Apr 21, 2016 11:08
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Zombies' Downfall posted:I assume a dude like Lautrec isn't there to pursue a heroic quest The answer might surprise you!
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Apr 21, 2016 12:31
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Glidergun posted:So, now that we've gotten to Anor Londo, there's an interesting thing the game does. I first saw this talked about by someone else a while ago so I may not be remembering it in its entirety, but: i really like this read except that one part of anor londo was way more frustrating for me than any other section of the game besides the boss of lost izalith. i'd rather go through some combination of crystal caves and tomb of the giants than deal with that
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Apr 21, 2016 14:01
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Dzhay posted:Getting ahead of ourselves but what are all the guards then? If they're not hollow, why do they keep trying to kill you; aren't you doing the thing their "princess" wants done? They need to be sure you're capable of getting the job done, and reasonably sure you're down with the cause. Giving the Lordvessel out to any undying scrub who bumbles in drives up the risk they'll fail and lose it, or start asking dangerous questions about just it's so important that they link the fire. Since you can do exactly that by joining the darkwraiths, who they know you'll need to go through to slay The Four Kings, they're right to worry. Also Seath's clearly working against the linking. The snakefolk work for him, (Guarding the archive prison, Snakes are lesser Dragons, etc) and they infest Sens to obstruct pilgrims trying to reach Annor Londo. Their prisoners would make fine victims for Seath's experiments. The Gods and Witches fear what could happen if the fire Dies, Seath predates the fire and has discovered new ways to stay immortal. When an undead shows up on The First Wizard's doorstep with the royal bowl, he will presumably do the math and some strong white crystal words for his moon-neighbor about respecting Uncle NoScale's personal space.
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Apr 21, 2016 15:25
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