Soulsborne games thread - Demon's Souls PS5

[naff]

i think demon's plays up the puzzle aspect more than the others

[Himu]

One shot Flamelurker but made sure to not 2H much and mostly stay just outside his swipe range to bait slams. I love Guts builds in these games but Demon’s is a weird game and frequently puts bosses in your path that necessitate or at least encourage off build solutions. Almost more like puzzles than skill and execution.

Mind expounding?

[Svejk]

just use the rapier/estoc if you don't want to put more points into dex/str. both are really, really good. that said, i'm a magic main with a base dex/str of 13/14 respectively so i can wield the kilij and winged spear coz they're a great combo of slash and pierce damage. i would def consider just running falchion (or soem other slash wep with lower reqs) and estoc/rapier if i rerolled though

Finally jumped back into 2-1 with the spear I had and started to really wreck shit. Glad you all pointed it out (no pun intended).   Getting into a Souls groove again 
I did end up finding the estoc, so I'll be trying it next over the next sesh.  I dabbled in 3-1 also.  The atmosphere in the this game along with the 3D audio is  so great.  Every Souls game should be remastered with 3D audio.  Love it.

[Let's Cyber]

I'm nearing the end now. Overall i'd say this is a great game and just a half step behind Dark Souls 3. I'd probably put it a notch above Dark Souls 1, mostly because this feels a bit more focused but also takes more risks. Dark Souls 1 also drags towards the end. Lost Izalith kind of sucks and nothing after Anor Londo is nearly as good as the stuff before it (excluding the excellent DLC, of course). DeS is short and sweet by comparison without any bloat. My ranking as of right now

1) Bloodborne
2) Dark Souls 3
3) Demon's Souls 2020
4) Dark Souls 1
5) Sekiro
...
...
...
...
lol who cares) Dark Souls 2

[Svejk]

Armored Spider is kicking my ass and burned through all my grass.  Gonna need to farm them back.  I watched videos with most people, it does like no damage to them.  Guess it's their build.  Gonna come back to it later.
Dove deep into 3-1.  Wow.. the level design is a bit crazy to follow, but the atmosphere is bloody awesome.  Got all the way to shutting down that ballista, but decided to double back to level up real quick.  Hoping to clear it tonight.

[Bebpo]

I'm nearing the end now. Overall i'd say this is a great game and just a half step behind Dark Souls 3. I'd probably put it a notch above Dark Souls 1, mostly because this feels a bit more focused but also takes more risks. Dark Souls 1 also drags towards the end. Lost Izalith kind of sucks and nothing after Anor Londo is nearly as good as the stuff before it (excluding the excellent DLC, of course). DeS is short and sweet by comparison without any bloat. My ranking as of right now

1) Bloodborne
2) Dark Souls 3
3) Demon's Souls 2020
4) Dark Souls 1
5) Sekiro
...
...
...
...
lol who cares) Dark Souls 2

I love Dark Souls 1 because I think it's tied with Bloodborne for the best storyline. I really like the stuff with the Serpents. The lore is super interesting in DS1. That being side, I'll absolutely admit that the second half game design-wise is pretty messy. Lost Izaleth is fucking terrible along with the boss and there's some other weak stretches as well. The balance is also the most broken.

Demon's Souls 2020 might have a the better level design and balance, but that's about it compared to DS1. DS1 bosses aren't amazing but most of Demon's bosses suck so I'd give DS1 the edge there. Also DS1 has a lot more build variety and is longer I think, plus the better story.

[Bebpo]

Armored Spider is kicking my ass and burned through all my grass.  Gonna need to farm them back.  I watched videos with most people, it does like no damage to them.  Guess it's their build.  Gonna come back to it later.
Dove deep into 3-1.  Wow.. the level design is a bit crazy to follow, but the atmosphere is bloody awesome.  Got all the way to shutting down that ballista, but decided to double back to level up real quick.  Hoping to clear it tonight.

Are you rolling? Armored Spider is where I got shut down with my heavy build and learned I was playing wrong and heavy/shield doesn't work for bosses in this game. Shields are solid for some normal enemies, but not bosses.

Keep under 50% and just roll under the web shots and roll under the fireball and time the roll x 3 under the triple fireball to get close to him (if you're melee). Then roll under the pincer swipe attacks (pretty easy dodge) and stay in the middle and back a bit for his ground pound. Then run up and punish him after the ground pound and back away a bit. If you're using a fast weapon you can get a couple hits in after rolling under the pincer swipes too. But with a heavy weapon it's pretty risky so just getting hits in after the ground pound is safest.

When he does the oil pour make sure you are not locked on so you can turn and dash back. In fact there's really no reason to lock on at all during the fight. But yeah his attacks have a lot of wind-up and are easily rollable, so just stay under 50% weight and get the roll timing down and he's pretty easy.

If you can't roll you're fucked on him. Period. The stun few seconds of blocking things just makes it impossible even if you have fire shield and stuff.

[Let's Cyber]

I love Dark Souls 1 because I think it's tied with Bloodborne for the best storyline. I really like the stuff with the Serpents. The lore is super interesting in DS1. That being side, I'll absolutely admit that the second half game design-wise is pretty messy. Lost Izaleth is fucking terrible along with the boss and there's some other weak stretches as well. The balance is also the most broken.

Demon's Souls 2020 might have a the better level design and balance, but that's about it compared to DS1. DS1 bosses aren't amazing but most of Demon's bosses suck so I'd give DS1 the edge there. Also DS1 has a lot more build variety and is longer I think, plus the better story.

I agree on Dark vs Demon boss fights for sure.

I really prefer the more straight forward and simple story of Demon's. Dark Souls' characters and lore were interesting (especially how they fleshed things out with Artorias of the Abyss by sending us to the past) but some of the greater world implications felt needlessly convoluted.

[naff]

been trying to help people beat bosses and been having a crack at armoured spider. trying to lead by example by staying back kiting and rolling through webs til an opening but people keep just going in for the slams and getting slammed or stuck in the oil fire 

really wish there was a way to trade in your humanity or store it or something. having to go back to the nexus to suicide each time you want to re-up an invasion or blue phantom assist is a bore

[naff]

switched to flamelurker, feel so bad when I lay my sign down and I fuck it up and get laid out by a flamelurker king hit. I hope those brave souls made it.

[naff]

speaking of clunky mechanics, world tendency is not changed at all beating bosses in co-op but you can get a friend to invade you and beat them over and over to get pure white quickly 

there's actually no reason to help out as a blue phantom outside of its fun (and you can become human again I guess, which nobody eve rwants to do unless they're going for pure black because being human and dying just fucks your world tendency and you miss out on key content). world tendency is such a boring, broken mechanic that could so easily be fixed. just making co-op boss wins contribute to +white would go a long way to fixing it

[Let's Cyber]

I know this is obvious, but his game is a totally different experience in heavy armor. It's fun needing to manage stamina and think a few moves ahead before certain encounters. I'm having a lot of fun on my second character as a result.

Beat Tower Knight without killing the archers, wasn't too bad. Some of the other boss trophies will take some work tho.

[Bebpo]

Good luck!

[Bebpo]

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/954345-demons-souls/faqs/62697

I've been slowly reading through this lore guide. Never dove deep into the lore of Demon's, so it's interesting though it's definitely more DnD surface level flavor.

[Let's Cyber]

Killed Maiden Astraea with arrows for the trophy, which incidentally gave me white world tendency for world 5. Grabbed Istarelle, which just happens to be awesome for my faith build. Switching between Moonlight Greatsword and Istarelle now depending on the situation. I really love this game.

[Svejk]

Got past Fool's Idol last night.  Had to farm back some healing items prior.  Now that I'm more leveled and have the Warding spell, I should have no issue with the Armored Spider.  Yeah.... Ultra slow burn for me.  (only play on weekends)
Was hoping to have this finished before Cyberpunk, but I clearly didn't know what I was thinking. 

[Bebpo]

Not sure how Warding will help on Armored Spider much outside getting hit by pincer attacks or slam. Just rolllll

Killed Maiden Astraea with arrows for the trophy, which incidentally gave me white world tendency for world 5. Grabbed Istarelle, which just happens to be awesome for my faith build. Switching between Moonlight Greatsword and Istarelle now depending on the situation. I really love this game.

I almost died on her lol

I didn't realize how much damage the floor in the area kept doing even with my HP regen. Arrows sound like a smarter option.

[Let's Cyber]

Yeah plague is rough, basically this game's equivalent to toxic. And even with the plague ring you don't have a ton of time in the abortion pit before you're infected. I was trying out the anti-poison ring + Istarelle and it seemed to give me immunity in the normal swamp. If I was building up poison, it would have taken several minutes to actually proc. Wish there was an easier way to unlock it because once you have the spear by getting white world tendency, you're already done with world 5 on NG.   

I didn't intend on getting the plat but I'm really not that far off. The all rings trophy will be the only big issue.

[naff]

i missed the "may you be unharmed" trophy, and will have to do another 2 runs to get all the spells and miracles. not sure i care to plat as you have to get a gold coin from the fat men (rare af, unless you bought the deluxe edition and got that ring already) and farm a pure bladestone; also notoriously difficult to farm.

going for it for now anyway and doing the easy stuff, did all the pure white world tendency events so now i'm going to make everything pure black, get pure white character tendency, get the friends ring then go on a rampage, get the foes ring then kill that bish mephistopheles. look forward to ng+ and not worrying about world tendency. netcode actually seems really good this time around and i look forward to playing around with it more, im always in soul form and mostly offline to avoid changing world tendency. keen to start a new char focussed on faith and co-op and get all miracles that way, i wanna low level co-op/invasion build rocking that moonlight greatsword 

[naff]

edit: not "difficult" to farm, just extremely rare so boring and laborious 

will try fat men for a bit and if i get lucky i'll glitch my luck so i get all the guaranteed rare drops 

is the bbs luck glitch still a thing?

[Let's Cyber]

They definitely messed with the drop rates in the remake, I got a pure bladestone from the skeleton in 4-2 and I wasn't even trying to farm him. 

[naff]

cool, i hadn't looked into it tbh. just assumed it would be the same.

[naff]

right, got a pure bladestone 3rd try on the 4-2 black skele. got a golden coin from the 2-2 fat man in PBWT in maybe 40 tries? felt like a lot but wasn't counting.

[nudemacusers]

I wonder if my hypermode build will still work in this game. assume so if you can still wear the morion blade and clever rat ring together. it's a fun way to play especially if you like invading and want to do 1K+ damage at range

They definitely messed with the drop rates in the remake, I got a pure bladestone from the skeleton in 4-2 and I wasn't even trying to farm him. 

i dunno i feel like it has always been this way in demon's souls. I never actually got pure bladestone after probably cumulatively weeks of play/grinding... but others get it without even messing with tendency. who knows... the best builds don't really even rely that heavily on exotic stone drops anyway 👀

[Bebpo]

I just like that for faith build the girl gives you the pure faithstone for free once your faith is over 20. The grinding I had to at the start of 5-3, going backwards and killing the shaman in front of the boss room for shard drops was pretty annoying, but at least that was all I had to grind. Took maybe an hour or so.

[Svejk]

Got past armored Spider and leech monger in one sesh. 
Easy bosses, but still...  Better progress than last week. 
Not sure what to tackle next. 
So, is there anything else to spend your boss demon souls on other than magic?  Just wanted to be sure before using them.

[archnemesis]

So, is there anything else to spend your boss demon souls on other than magic?  Just wanted to be sure before using them.

Some can be used for weapon upgrades. Some can be used for of of multiple spells.

[Let's Cyber]

Fighting Old King Allant with a heavy tank character.

 

It's the one thing I've ran into that's super difficult. Other than that my heavy faith build has been wrecking shit.

[nudemacusers]

wait after he does that charge move... or lose the weight

[BIONIC]

Beat it in 30 hours. Definitely babbies first souls game (admittedly, I was a mage  ). Pretty fun though.

Oh, and I guess I just officially beat all Miyazaki souls games. My life finally has meaning 

[Bebpo]

Now try a melee run!

In terms of difficulty running melee builds I'd probably rank them from most difficult to easiest on first run:


Bloodborne DLC > Demon's > DS2 (including DLC which was pretty challenging) > Bloodborne > DS1 > DS3


I thought going back to Demon's, having cleared all the rest and been done with Souls git gud would've made Demon's a breeze. And maybe it would have if I ran a mage build since like 90% of enemies/bosses are only melee range on their attacks, but running melee, I thought Demon's was still hard as fuck.

Though in Demon's its the levels, not the bosses, that are the difficulty. Bosses are only Flamelurker/Allant and Armor Spider until you figure out the rolls. The rest are pretty easy compared to other Souls games. The levels in Demon's are pretty brutal and don't have as many checkpoints as the other games.

Also, I think Demon's is the only game you actually ever need to use more than 1 weapon in a run. The miners in Stonefang needing thrust/magic is something I can't think of encountering in any other souls game.

Also because the challenge is in the levels of Demon's, once you learn the levels and the tricks to them, it's fine. I can run through any stage in Demon's no problem right now. So on a replay right now Demon's would be one of the easier souls games outside Flamelurker/Allant fights. But then I could do that 10+ years ago after clearing the PS3 one and I forgot everything in the meantime and on replay this time it was hard as fuck so...

But most Souls games are like that where if you remember the levels, it's only the tougher less-scripted bosses that will give you trouble. If I re-ran DS1 now I'd probably be fine outside a few deaths on the Ornstein/Smough fight.

I definitely thought DS3 was the most accessible. There's a few challenging bosses, but otherwise it's a game you can just blow through on progression. Which isn't a bad thing. Was a lot of fun.

[BIONIC]

My Miyazaki tier-list:

Sekiro > DS1  >  DS3  >  BB  >  DeS

All wonderful games, so being at the bottom isn’t a condemnation. I also liked DS2 at the original PS3 release. Burned through like 25+ hours right when it came out, then life happened and I never got back to it.

[Let's Cyber]

wait after he does that charge move... or lose the weight

Oh I'm definitely lighter...on soul level.



I'm down 11 so far.

 

[nudemacusers]

keep it up, that means you can invade noobs with higher level gear. grab a scraping spear and ruin someone's day

[Bebpo]

Also when you beat Allant

spoiler (click to show/hide)

You get all your soul levels back in souls. It kiiiiiinda could be abused to be a respec mechanic if you let him steal a ton but you'd still have to beat him afterwards

[close]

[naff]

Went to a friends place and he's playing dark souls 3. i don't remember this shite looking like such sweaty ass crack. NEXT GEN BAYBEE Demom's Souls the GOAT confirmed.

[Kestastrophe]

Anyone here try out Ashen? I'm currently on a soulslike kick and this keeps popping up in search, and is on ps store sale

[Akala]

I am about halfway through DeS which I think is around where I got when it released. Actually I think I got fed up on tower of latria previously but this time did the royal but have since specced more over to STR as was having more fun meleeing with magic weps. 

I think I should be hitting for more, that or bosses just take forever. old hero was easy but was a pain...

[Himu]

Dark Souls III fucking sucks. Fucking Bloodborne wannabe game with Bloodborne aggression in a game with slow ass characters. A game where enemies regularly break the games own rules. Have full on enemies that spam jump attacks repeatedly with little to no recovery, enemies that just keep attacking and attacking and constant rolling and evasion without the speed of Bloodborne's character. I feel gimped with my weapon choices. Long sword manages to hit enemies with better frequency than my big weapons despite having worse spacing. If I wanted to play Bloodborne I'd play Bloodborne. Sekiro is better than this. At least the game mechanics and enemies stick to the games internal logic. This game fucking blows.

[chronovore]