Malf on 14/10/2009 at 00:46
I'm not usually one for over-the-top hyperbole, and I don't usually have just one game in this category, but this game is by far and away the best game of the year for me.
I'm still nowhere near "completing" it, but even the stuff I've played so far carries the game into its own league.
Today I decided to try the Blue Eye Stone and go for some co-op, and hell, this is the most multiplayer fun I've had since Guild Wars. Even with limited ways of communicating with other players, it's a joy to play, and the incentives to play with other people are massive.
Co-op works like this:
As you may already know, when you die in Demon's Souls, you become a spirit; at its most basic, you have half the health bar you have when you're alive.
The World Tendency system is also affected by your life status. If you beat a boss demon while alive, the World Tendency for that level shifts towards white. The more white (or indeed black) a level's tendency is, the more things get unlocked.
If you beat a boss while in spirit form, you resurrect, but World Tendency isn't affected.
However, by placing a Spirit Sign with the Blue Eye Stone, people can then summon you to their world to help them out. While playing with these other people, you'll gain souls, and if you complete the stage by beating the boss, you'll be returned to your world and revived.
As you want the chance of revival to be high, chances are, you'll place your spirit sign in a level you already know well in order to guarantee a resurrect, and this means the people who summon you will generally be people new to this section of the game. So they get the benefit of having someone who knows all that level's quirks help them out, and you get a pretty much guaranteed revive and some souls to boot.
It's bloody genius.
There are limits however; you can only be summoned by people who are within 10 soul levels of you, so you're not going to get much joy trying to get someone to summon you on one of the earlier worlds if you're at soul level 20+.
Who knows, maybe I'll even try invading at some point...
Mr.Duck on 14/10/2009 at 02:11
FUCK YOU FLAMELURKER!!!
*Tries to land a hit without himself being blown to smitherens*
mothra on 14/10/2009 at 10:52
I can't see myself buying a PS3 + the Game AND start using stupid controllers only to play THIS GAME. but if there was a game worth it or better: that sparked my interest that big it is Demon's Souls (funky motown edition).
Malf on 16/10/2009 at 09:29
A quote summary of a couple of posts I've made about the game on another forum I visit:
Quote:
I'm up to soul level 73, and I've run into a bit of a problem. Urbain, Patches and Graverobber Blige have just vanished. I was just going to start using Patches for arrows too, and Blige was really handily placed at the start of 4-2.
Patches and Blige I can live without, just about, but Urbain disappearing means I don't have access to miracles anymore. Bummer. At least I've got the two I wanted, Evacuation and Regenerate.
I initially started out as a thief, but I found magic too much fun. My stats are currently:
Vitality 12
Intelligence 29
Endurance 12
Strength 20
Dexterity 20
Magic 28
Faith 16
Luck 16
I alternate between a Knight's Shield +4 / Silver Catalyst in my left hand and a Crescent Broadsword +3 / Sticky Compound Short Bow +2 in my right.
I've stuck with the standard thief's armour, as it allows my character to move around quickly, recover stamina quickly, and dodge most stuff.
Rings, most of the time I'll use the Thief's Ring and a Fragrant Ring for added mana regen, although I'll occasionally swap the Thief's Ring for either a Ring of Avarice when I'm soul-farming, or occasionally a Regenerator's Ring alongside a Blessed Mace +1 that gives some nice health regen. I found that mace quite early on, and it really helped. I'll upgrade it when I can find a secure source of the stones needed for forging it (faintstones I think).
I've been invaded once, and that was tense as all buggery. I fluffed it and died, but it was a great experience.
And I use the Blue Eye Stone all the time now; it saves on Stones of the Ephemeral Eye.
I also had one really weird experience where I left my Soul Sign for someone to find, and the next thing you know, it tells me I'm invading someone as a Black Phantom. Cue weird cutscene with some kinda lich guy in a room full of chairs, then all of a sudden his scarf flies off and wraps itself around my head. Lich guy seems to die, and I'm left locked in his room wondering what in blue fuck is going on, when I get notified that my target has been eliminated, and wasn't I a good demon.
And all I got to show for it was this lousy hat:
Inline Image:
http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l406/RealityTVLounge/DemonsSoul/MonksHeadCollar.jpgI'm currently working on getting a Scraping Spear purely to piss off invaders. It should ruin their equipment when I attack them with it. I fully intend to back that up with the Acid Cloud spell.
Bastards.
Oh, and horror story?
It is so tempting to carry on when you really shouldn't. Usually this results in the painful double-death, where you fail to reach your corpse and recover the souls you had. The most I've lost to this compulsive sense of curiosity?
Just over 100,000 souls :(
Quote:
I've done a couple of the arch-demons so far, and they're not that bad to be honest.
The first one I did was Dragon God. Relatively easy to get to (apart from Flamelurker being immediately before him that is), I naturally died the first time I went up against him. Well, this is Demon's Souls. However, second time, I paid attention to the message before him that said "Beware of the enemy's rythm". Indeed, if you do, it's a piece of piss, although it can take some time and patience.
The second one I did last night, and it explained that random hat event I had earlier; I fought "Old Monk". What should happen is that Old Monk should summon a randomly selected player to fight in his stead. But both times, the other player dropped out before I could get there, so I just fought Old Monk himself. The spell I created from his soul, Homing Soul Arrows, dishes out MAJOR damage, taking out Red Eye Knights in one barrage. Awesome.This game just keeps getting better and revealing new depths.
Honestly, I think this game is right up your average TTLGer's alley.
Jusal on 16/10/2009 at 18:24
I'm getting sort of a Severance feel from the videos, which is great. Meanwhile the multiplayer elements remind me of some of those online Nethack servers, which is also great. I'd certainly like to take a look at Demon's Souls once I've got the chance, but anything on the EU release seems unfortunately slow.
Malf on 17/10/2009 at 00:02
I bought mine from an importer Jusal, and it was more than worth the extra I paid for it.
I also got Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend today, but honestly? While Demon's Souls still has more to show me, everything else has to take a back seat.
And you're right, there is a very Severance feel to it; it has that same feeling of loneliness and brutal punishment of mistakes.
The Alchemist on 17/10/2009 at 12:40
God damn it, don't play this game drunk! I felt compelled to show my friends last night and I stumbled into the ivory tower...
The first mindflayer, I slayeth without incident.
The second mindflayer had time to unleash hell onto my fleshy form. At least I got to show my friends soul form. =/
Malleus on 17/10/2009 at 15:32
SomethingAwful.com one sentence review:
Demon's Souls
The only game where you could probably die in the character creation menu and LOVE IT. 8/10
:)
Malf on 20/10/2009 at 08:06
Completed my first "Cycle" last night, and I can't see me stopping playing this any time soon :)
New game + is like being a noob all over again. Yes, you know where all the bad guys are, but 1: it bumps the difficulty up, so once again, the dreglings on the first level can kill you in a couple of hits if you're not careful, and 2: on the second cycle, and I was warned about this, the first level becomes a Black Phantom hunting ground, and as you won't have spent all of your souls from completing the previous cycle, and you're in body form from defeating the last boss, it all of a sudden becomes very dangerous.
My build and equipment really aren't set up for PvP, let alone which, there's the fear to contend with when someone invades.
I ended up running like a little girl when the inevitable invasion happened, only to not pay attention to where I was running to, and I fell down that bloody glowing blue hole on 1-1.
Thankfully, it was relatively easy to get my souls back, but it taught me that this game will always be able to smack me down if I'm not paying attention.
God, I love this game :D
