My Take On Dark Souls - Part 2 : The Games That Tested Me!

DARK SOULS GAME - PART 2

I mentioned that I would write a follow up to the first part of playing Dark Souls and I finally have managed to get around to it. If you haven't read the first part you can look here >. To wrap it up quickly Dark Souls is a challenging, fascinating action adventure RPG where you can create a character and put them against creatures of your worst nightmares...

Welcome to Dark Souls...

Basic Dark Souls Items

Dark Souls Items Sheet - Artwork Copyright FromSoftware

Titanite
A very valuable commodity in Dark Souls. Titanite can be used to upgrade weapons and armour. Although upgrading armour with Titanite in Dark Souls 3 is no longer applicable.

Souls
These are the equivalent of currency. Use souls to level up or purchase items. Souls can be found be either killing enemies or found on perished hollows.

Homeward Bone
Great for getting you out of tight spots. I would advise having these equipped. You never know what lurks beyond the grey mist.
Estus Flasks
Are essential unless you have a huge health bar – and trust me, going for a straight up large amount of HP isn’t necessary the best decision when you start playing. Estus is flame, its warmth and above all else is basically health potions. You can upgrade the amount of Estus you carry or how potent each drink is in replenishing health.

‘Flame… precious flame’

Magic’s
I have to admit that I didn’t use too many spells/miracles in my players build. Maybe If I was to play through again maybe I should create a Hexer? Throughout Dark Souls you will come across numerous spells that the player can cast to heal, protect or destroy.

Pyromancy
In the world of Dark souls you can cast pyromancies. These are lesser spells which a non-wizard or spell caster can use.

Throughout the souls games there are many items you can pick up, wear, use or cast in the game. Writing everything here would spoil too much. And there is nothing like the
pre-internet days of discovering something apparently hidden. If you are adamant that you want to look for some special items you can follow a website such as this.

Bonfires

You will find a small comfort from the warm glow of your bonfire. These are sanctuaries from which you are protected by the terrors that lie in the deep gloom.
They are also save points!

SPOILERS –

Inhabitants

Phantoms, merchants, vagabonds and lone wonderers... these are the characters you may meet on your journey.
NPC’s
Through the Dark Souls games you will stumble upon rogues, renegades crestfallen travellers, and many others which will either mean to harm the player or help along the way. Generally speaking its favourable to have the NPC’s at your side. You will often come to notice that NPC’s will gather at the central hub of all 3 games so the player can access them easy to either purchase supplies, weapons and various pieces of equipment.

The peculiar characters of DS world will come across as little ethereal and strange, many seam to laugh for no apparent reason – maybe they are mad, maybe the game is laughing as it knows at the torture of some of the stupidly hard challenges that await. They know some you don't. I'm watching you Pate.

Solaire A fanatic and bizarre sun worshiper that you come across in Dark souls, He is in the first level just after defeating the Taurus demon. "You really are fond of chatting with me, aren't you? If I didn't know better, I'd think you had feelings for me! Ha ha ha!"
Pate
I found out that The voice actor for pate was none other than - Peter Serafinowicz, the actor from Shaun of Dead. Pate is a shifty character that you come across in Dark Souls, so keep your wits about you. He looks a bit like a roman Legionary.

Crestafallen night
The Crestfallen knight is a general down and out misery in Dark souls, he is in the first installment and basically sits around wallowing. The Crestfallen knight is easy to distinguish, he will be sat near the bonfire, being a melt.
Andrei
The humble and generally upbeat blacksmith, he makes me feel reassured… maybe its because of the westcounty accent. Andrei will sell and reinforce weapons.

“Tink – Tink - Tink”
Lucatiel
She is one of many characters in Dark souls 2. She is a good summon from memory, although starts to become a little absent minded as time goes along. You will recognise Lucatiel by her attire – She has the appearance of a musketeer

Bonfire Women (Fire Keepers)

2 and 3. These ethereal characters will help the player to level up throughout the games.

Old Ladies of Dark Souls 2

These 3 characters are met early on in the Dark Souls 2. These cynical old crones are former Firekeepers and they are tended to by a servant called Milibeth.
You can meet the Old Ladies intro here...

"Like a moth to a flame, your wings will burn in anguish.”

Design and Feel
The world(s) of Dark Souls is a large and solemn place, inhabited by the lost, the crestfallen, the mad and... you. FromSoftware have done a great sculpting both a enjoyable adventure story steeped in ambiguous lore and a sword-swing, monster slaying RPG.

Secrets
What I love about the souls games are the secrets, the mysteries and the easter eggs – there are entire hidden zones in games which can be discovered by pressing, knocking on or falling into walls or objects. I won’t ruin the game for you, all I can recommend is that you start knocking on some walls! There are many. I have to confess, I didn’t discover enough in dark souls 1. And it has been a while since I played.

Monsters
The monsters, the demons and even the your standard combatants have had so much attention to detail paid them it's almost a shame to rush the game. The designs of the characters capture elements of historical realism which just add the the authenticity to the Dark Souls worlds.. These monsters feel as old and as genuine as their environment.

These nightmarish monsters pull you deeper into the yawning darkness to join the other lost souls, the countless 1000's which never completed their journey.

The Environment
Dark souls feels like something out of a dark ages. The souls realm is a place of medieval purgatory where misery and total hopelessness emanates from every cornerstone, archway and tree the player crosses on their path. On of may favourite environments is the Majula. Perhaps this peaceful place reminded me of where I grew up, its peaceful and beautiful but bleak at times. The Untended Graves is also another favourite of mine.

Other Gaming Bits

Did you know!

They have made a table board and card games of the Dark Souls games?

You can buy them from Steamforge Games online or from smaller online retailers. Some of these games may come to this website in the future – Board Games

Help and fan sites

http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Souls_Wiki

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/

https://uk.ign.com/wikis/dark-souls

Dark Souls Trivia

Apparently in dark souls 1 there is a forbidden boss that was removed from the game in late stages of the development – he was called the Undead King Jar-Eel

Devil in the level details : From software love to pack in insane amounts of detail, so much so if you can access the game from your PC you can explore the world and distant structures – apparently. When playing the Dark Souls game in Lothric you can also see some of the lower level detail of the roofs if you look off the ramparts.

Copyright Dark Souls – Fan pen drawings by me.

Play Dark Souls 1 - My Tips for enemies and general opinions

Embrace The Sun – Play Dark Souls

It’s not often, or hardly ever that I will post anything about a game. I have enjoyed playing Dark Souls so much that I felt compelled share my excitable thoughts on this punishingly difficult yet awesome game. You will both weep tears joy and frustration... but to me, it was all worth it.

If tearing your hair out with old school gaming frustration is your thing, then Dark Souls is a must. To me these games embody an unconventional and unique style that bucks the trend with many of the modern triple AAA titles. Dark Souls melds both the old and new, it's a challenge for old school gamers who grew up playing PC games and the likes of Golden Axe on the Sega Megadrive. Dark Souls harks back to days where you need to be precious about your health and conserve all those extra lives. Fortunately, Dark Souls has adopted the ability to save your game (though you will have to live with your choices on that play-through). Upon the players feeble and often unremarkable death you will be transported back to your last checkpoint - which happens to be a bonfire (more on these later).

This post is about some play tips, opinions and my general knowledge of Dark Souls these are my own views and feelings on the game and I by no means claim to being a gaming guru! No, no, Just a commoner with strong like of the Dark Souls.

"I have played Dark Souls, and now I am a hollow…"

Introduction – DS1 First Impressions

When I first played this savage game I was taken back by how difficult and unforgiving it was. It will not hold your hand or tell you where to go aside from the initial message prompts that appear on the ground of the Undead Asylum – after this its down to you to find your way, the path of least resistance is possibly my best advice I can give.

Frailty of the main player
Your player’s stamina is that of an elderly, overweight chain smoker with barely enough gusto to swing a sword and lift a shield. Your the vitality is short, a few decent hits will send you straight back to the bonfire and the warm glow of that bonfire will be your only comfort. Prepare to die an unfair, brutal and gloomy death... over and over again.

Is Dark Souls for Me?
Do you like RPG’s, fantasy settings, pinch of horror and sword play? Then you will probably like Dark Souls! Be warned, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, these games won't mollycoddle you. Dark Souls is fun, old school, and difficult, once your learn the rules of the game and how to best play with your character, you'll be very much into the challenge.

Prepare yourself - How to play
Dark souls isn’t a conventional hack and slash. Running into the enemy button bashing will get your player killed. Learn to evade, block and stay away from weapons – timing is key, especially for Melee characters. You will also need tenacity to play the game as you will probably die many times through trial and error

Warrior Technique
“Running in, sword at the ready” One thing I would advise if you have just started to play is to build stamina. Other attributes such as attack and defend rely on your stamina levels and without stamina you character will struggle with melee combat, let alone running away. You may come across bits of equipment that will boost stamina recovery, but it will be short in the beginning. You can be as strong as you like, but your strength will be useless without the heart, lung and legs to help wield your weapon, you'll tire or be too sluggish.

Know Thy Enemies – Playing Your Foes

1) Understand your enemies
I would advise learning how your opponents move. A well timed attack or counter is by far more productive than going in swinging your weapon, basic enemies can actually hurt the player in Dark Souls so remember to keep your guard up and proceed with caution. Dark Souls doesn’t reward you for sloppy sword play; defend, evade, attack cast a spell how ever you wish to play. An air of caution is advised at first when meeting new enemies, be prepared.

2 ) Enemies with basic or crude weapons.
Some of your early encounters will be with lightly armed enemies with broken sword hilts and light blades, treat these as your training enemies. Learn how they move and time your attacks. These guys are also good practice for parries and back stabs. It's also worth noting that some enemies will also broadcast their moves whilst running towards your or raising their weapons.

3 ) Enemies with shields and spears
I have to admit, I personally love how the Dark Souls team have captured the way the enemies hold their shield and spear, it can be tricky to out manoeuvre these guys, but as will all enemies in this game, there is often a way. Try to circle the spearmen and they will try to circle you also, attack with a weapon and they will deflect it. You might be lucky and be able to sneak in a crafty arrow at the start but guess what they will do after that initial attack! Enemies with shields and spears are at their most vulnerable when they attack. Bait them into trying to attack you, let them swing and lower their guard and go in for the kill. If you are very quick you might sneak in back-stab.

4 ) Enemies with projectiles
These opponents can be a pain as they will try to pick you off from a distance using crossbows, longbows and bombs. Sometimes if you get caught out you might find a bomber raining explosives down on you from and elevated position whilst you try to tackle a Melee opponent on the ground. In other words you will be to pre-occupied with the melee attacker to do anything about the bombardiers or crossbowmen (remember to look before running in) . The best way to deal with ranged enemies is to keep your wits about you and use cover. Look at your surroundings before diving in, keep your shield up – cover! You can either try to pick them off from a distance or attempt the gain ground and get up close personal. Often, if you get up close and personal they are easier to take down... most of the time. 5 ) Enemies in heavy, fancy or stylish armour
If you come across an enemy early on with that is armoured from head to foot, be prepared for a nasty fight. Don't assume because they are clad in armour that they are clumsy or slow and if an enemy is clumsy or slow, they are generally very powerful. My first ever fight with one of the Dark Souls knights involved me throwing a small knife which basically bounced off their back, he chased me down and murdered me. As with some grounding of truth, hammer based weapons are effective against these enemies, blades less so. Learn how they move, wait and then sneak in some attacks. Make them commit and then unleash! Be warned, certain knighted opponents are devilishly hard.

6 ) Invaders / Phantoms
These enemies will move a lot like the player, they will guard, roll, and parry to get the better of you and ruin your gameplay! You will groan when you see the words 'You've been invaded' “No! You are not taking my precious souls, they are like money! AND I NEED IT!” and from that thought they will take you souls, and spend it on something nice like a nice new level up or a sword for example. The computer AI will just absorb souls and feel nothing for ruining your last 25 minutes of intense game play. There is no straight way of beating these, hit hard – hit'em fast, keep your guard up.

7) Bosses
If you see a grey mist… prepare yourself for the horrors that lay beyond. The grey mists will block a passage or an arena and once you step in, it may not be easy for you to get out. You will come across items called ‘Homeward Bones’ don’t be afraid to use these. In one or two (many more probably) boss fights I have found the bosses to be too harsh and catch my player off guard. The Homeward bone will transport you back to your last bonfire, leaving your pride behind in the boss arena.

- Oh, homeward bones can be tricky to use in some boss areas, as the enemy may not give you the chance. You might be too per-occupied with being smashed into a bloody stain – good bye soul collection. The bosses vary from colossal fanged monsters to disfigured knights. I wont ruin too much here fearless adventurer. For the dreaded grey mist is something for your beat – make sure you are prepared, levelled and well equipped. Now go forth and prove your worth!

8 Sneaky Enemies
I wont spoil too much here... watch your back.

Thank you for reading. I have attached some Amazon Links for you get your undead claws onto this game.