The huge warrior dude with the axe looks sick, as do the wolf packs.

Can't wait to see the new painted world, that area was one of the best in DS1 (From software continuing their trend of putting the BEST areas of their games hidden in secrets!)

I think From don't like to spoil too many of the bosses and areas in trailers which is why they recycle some old footage in them. They did the same in some old trailers according to knowledgeable yt folks. 

Just got to the second bonfire in the lorthic wall area.

First impression is that it feels like a mix between Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls which is fine by me! I already have uttered the internal mantra: "There HAS to be a bonfire around the corner...come on!" already and that brings back fond (nightmares) memories of the earlier Souls games. My one and only death so far was from naked katana man near the start area.

Disappointed by the lack of 21:9 support and the third party plugin to fix that presents other issues. Oh well, looking forward to getting lost this weekend! 

Is a dick. 

He does drop a pretty good weapon, though (if you're thinking about going for a dex build). 

I killed this guy at the start of my game and pretty much used the katana the whole time. 

This is just great, really brings back the oppressive atmosphere of Dark Souls 1 that was absent (for me) in Dark Souls 2.

**Minor Spoilers**


I just created the final shortcut before the Cathedral of the Deep fog door. I can only assume this will be a boss (presumably Aldrich of the Deep!) I actually felt exhausted by the time I reached the fog door, and decided to stop instead of braving through the fog door.

But man, CotD is INSANE! Huge layout with multiple layers and surprises. Great DS1 like situations like trying to figure out how the flying fuck to bypass the second resting giant in the goop and how to handle the rafter knights high up above. My favorite area so far, so intense and I am pretty sure I spent my entire session (2-3 hours) just fanoodling my way through this massive space. Can't wait to dive back in!

Also, the fat official lady who bangs her morning star stick on the ground is hauntingly beautiful and echoes throughout the vast cathedral.

Oh and a final note, I joined the covenant of the demon tentacle bed lady and now some white knight lady basically gave me a death threat because of it...nice reactivity there! 

Bloughsburgh, sounds like we are at about the same stage of the game since I got done with CotD about 2 days ago too. 

Awesome, I have been going steady as she goes with the game since my last post. It gets more intense from here on out but I have to still say that currently the CotD is still my favorite location.


**Minor spoilers**



Currently at the snow city experiencing a huge difficulty spike with these knight enemies. I need to re-work my approach which I can surely appreciate! 

aka Ithryll Of The Boreal Valley etc etc....when I first saw that my jaw dropped so far I had to get a crowbar to prise it off the carpet. The most stunning scene I've seen in 18 years of gaming. Although the interconnectivity wasn't quite up to par.

Conversely, I remember Daz shooting his septic load over COTD, but although it was definitely great, it didn't captivate me in quite the same way.

Bluuuurghhhh, what knight enemies are those? The tall skeletal ones are tricky but not that bad, I can't remember if there's a trick or not?? Try playing around with different weapons. It might be the usual "dodge a lot and don't get carried away" business....

I've replayed the last bits....still need to get summons for the final boss and arch dragon peak boss.... 

Shambler, indeed COTD is my favourite area in terms of level design. The layout is fantastic and I love the single bonfire concept (lets ignore Rosaria for now).

If Irithyl had the same awesome layout, connectivity, and verticality then it would be my favourite area for sure. I agree the vista was utterly breathtaking!

DLC HYPE btw 

I might go through Cathedral again for the lolz. 

Yeah the skull face ones with frost swords. They were kicking my butt when I was only trying to roll out of their ways. I switched to sword and board for this part and found backstabbing comes easy with these folks. Currently exploring the dungeon section which suspiciously looks an awful lot like the Tower of Latria from Demon's Souls. 

Yes, Ithryll is pretty stunning, although I'm sorry to say that DaS III hasn't captivated me as much as I'd hoped in the design department. Ithryll feels like a bit of a derivative copy of Yharnam from Bloodborne; the whole high walls area felt very similar to the Boletarian Palace in Demons' souls; etc.

That's not to say the design isn't a million times better than most other games, it just has high standards to live up to. Controversially, I still think DaS2 has the best design of the series so far. 

 

Considering Demon's Souls has kept its exclusivity, I highly doubt we will ever see Bloodbourne on anything but.

I purchased a PS3 slim for Rockband, LittleBigPlanet and Demon's Souls alone. I could see myself purchasing a PS4 (When it is cheaper, has game bundles, and my ps3 is kicking the bucket) with the knowledge I could then play Bloodbourne in mind.

Would be amazing if they did though! 

...I'm just gonna keep moaning about it. Fuck console exclusives!! 

Just figure out that I can use DSFix to dump the textures from Dark Souls for use in other 3D applications ... 

A DS-flavored Quake map could be yummy-a-plenty! 

I actually used the texture dump to change area titles for a youtube project that never came to be. Dark Souls Quake theme would be coolness.

*Spoilers*


Anyway, Tower of Lat--I mean the dungeon was a pretty cool place and possibly my favorite or second favorite area thus far, but the health drain aura from the jailers is some wicked bull caca. Profaned capital is very large and the toxic sludge place was pretty devious...I have yet to enter the tall fog gate.

Pontiff Sully was a pretty epic fight but I am actually sadden I did not die once to him. This may be because I tried to do everything before entering the rather intimidating fog gate. Now on the back end and fighting asshole fire priests and feigning giants...still having a great time...but dying less than I'd like...? Does that make sense? 

you didn't die once to Pontiff?

Nerf yourself 

dying less than I'd like...? Does that make sense?
Not much to me. Some masochistic tendencies? ;) 

That it should have skill settings not just to tone down the difficulty but also increase it for veterans/perverts.

The dungeon is the 2nd most boring place after the underground fire tomb lake corridor things....but each to their own huh. The Health Drain is evil but a neat trick IMO. Keeps you on your toes. Profaned is semi-tiny despite appearances and the boss fight is pretty much a gimmick. HTH. 

Well, I beat the game. I'll summarize the rest of the journey since the last post.

***Super Spoilers***


I like the inclusion of Anor Londo and the whole spiel of Aldrich munching on some Gywndolin doritos. I loved the Aldrich boss fight and room but sadly I bested him on the first go...once you close the distance with him he is pretty defenseless. Aldrich's boss room is probably my favorite location in the game.

Yorhm (sp) the Giant was pure gimmick but a nice homage to Demon's Souls with the Storm Ruler sword. I would have liked this fight be something that wasn't a Lord of Cinder. As it stands, that fight takes about 5 charge ups to defeat the giant regardless of your skills/weapons. He didn't get me once.

Dancer of the Valley is a different story, pretty intense fight and that one spin move is frightening. I had to finally switch away from my warden twinblades +8 to my black knight sword +3 for this fight so I can appreciate that! Took about 3 tries.

Lorthic castle is fun, but I did not get a "final" vibe from the place...just seemed like a continuation of the high wall. But the Dragonslayer Armor may be my favorite boss. This guy took at least half a dozen attempts and I had to learn all of his patterns to walk away with just 1 estus. The burning butterflies are not cheap as you get plenty of time to compensate...just a great fight.

Grand Archives just feels like more Lorthic and not a new area...although the wax head mages are funky.

Lorian and Lorthic are a fun fight, and I knew it was going to have a second phase and indeed it did. At first I thought it was overkill but I really enjoyed the dynamic the duo provided. 2 or 3 tries...can't remember.

Consumed King Oceiros (sp) appeared difficult on the first go, but on the second try I found if you stay almost under him, he really can't do much but hop away. Loved the inclusion of this place in general...completely unessential and I can appreciate that. Further more, it leads to two secret complete areas!

Untended graves is a trip and was very eerie to roam around...fire keeper's eyes...haunting. The champion gunther or whatever was a more aggressive version but nothing a single attempt couldn't achieve.

Would have never found Archdragon Peak without checking the wiki...that is just too convoluted to find on your own and offline. But wow is this place cool, not only super secret but also includes a large area, items, and 2 bosses! I loved the gimmick of the ancient wyvern and it was done in good taste...felt really good and that I actually accomplished something. I hesitated to ring that grand bell considering the dev warnings (Dev warnings in this game should be adhered!) but finally broke down and rang the sucker. Cool boss, really feels like the Ozma of FFIX or emerald weapon of FF7 in terms of non-essential but very tough fight. He took about 4 tries and again I had to learn his moves and patterns to make it out with zero estus!

Soul of Cinder was expected to be honest...another Gwyn-esque fight and it was a bit of a let down. Just another humanoid where you learn a couple of swipes and you are good to go. I think 3 tries to take him down. I can appreciate that he appeared to possess abilities of the first four lords so that is cool.

And that's it, I linked the fire and did some things and proceeded to NG+. I was too afraid to give the eyes to the fire keeper as it only sounded horrible but I will be sure to do so this cycle. I also completely missed out on the dark sigil quest line and would like to explore that as well.

Speaking of quests, a nitpick I have is how utterly convoluted some of these side quests are. I checked the wiki after beating the game and I am pretty sure I would have never found 3 of the covenants or how to continue 75% of the NPC's stories. There are so many failure points which I can appreciate but damn son. One example is Patches. I did the CotD in such a way that I never triggered his event. This means I would have to purposefully go to the fully explored tower, ride the lift and back down to trigger him...never would have done that without internet assistance. Oh well minor nitpick.

In summary, I think DSIII tied the three games together quite well. I found a lack of locales in this game but the ones present were fantastic. I found this game to be a smidgen more difficult than 2(Not including DLCs), and 1 harder than both. I think the most challenging boss was probably Dragonslayer Armor or maybe the Dancer with Nameless King a close runner up. The new DLC just came out and I imagine some of you folks will be playing it so I may have to stay away from the thread for a while! Thanks for reading.

One more note is that I played this game (And the previous) entirely offline. I enjoyed the brooding and oppressive isolation that this brings and I was never interested in PvP. Further more I never summoned an NPC to help because I feel that takes away the challenge from a boss. 

online play is the heart and soul of the game, it can ease off a lot of the supposed difficulty.

I disagree with this. The statement, not that I have an issue with fifth's playstyle.

I found that the DS1 online connectivity was to have a synchronous world where you realize others are struggling alongside you but not physically with you. The PvP exploded in popularity so of course it will be more infused in future titles. I have no problem with it but I feel having a white phantom distract a boss while you wail at its backside significantly lowers the intimidation (And by extension, the feel-goods when you overcome them) level of the fight. I would have to agree with Shambler and Orl.

I don't need to read a message in front of a statute of a woman that states: "Try holding with both hands."

Anyhoo that's just like my opinion man and I am happy the multiplayer aspect is there but more happy that we that players have a choice!

This is also more in regards to your first play through. Co-oping after the fact would be a different and more social experience I am sure. 

The champion gunther or whatever was a more aggressive version but nothing a single attempt couldn't achieve.

Think he took me 60 attempts or something??

Couldn't even contemplate doing Arse Dragon or Soul Of Chunder solo.