Dark Souls! Dark Souls! ^o^

[Zama]

Are any of you brave lads/lasses ready to die seamless and endless deaths to earned your legacy? Then fest your eyes on the challenging yet rewarding game known as Dark Souls! :onfire: Discussed your thoughts and excitement here as we approach the release of one of the finest games of this current gaming generation on October 4th for North America and October 7th for Europe (It's already out in Japan not too long ago). May the dark signs and flames guide thee :king:

http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/the-game-guy/30157-hidetaka-miyazaki-talks-dark-souls

And this one:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/09/26/reiner-and-phil-play-dark-souls.aspx

[nebrazca78]

Are any of you brave lads/lasses ready to die seamless and endless deaths to earned your legacy?

What is a seamless death? And, probably.



Then fest your eyes on the challenging yet rewarding game known as Dark Souls! :onfire: Discussed your thoughts and excitement here as we approach the release of one of the finest games of this current gaming generation on October 4th for North America and October 7th for Europe (It's already out in Japan not too long ago). May the dark signs and flames guide thee :king:

This game is supposed to be a lot different from Demon Souls, I'll have to play it before heralding it as one of the finest games of this generation. Demon Souls was fun though, and I do have high expectations. Being able to play on 360 is a huge selling point for me as I am not a fan of the PS3 controller (not to mention that I can play at my house instead of the neighbor's.) We'll have to see about the difficulty level though, I felt that the AI was easy to break on Demon Souls. Unfortunately Rage is coming out the same day and I'll be getting that first.

.

[lazyhoboguy]

I've preordered this game already since I loved Demon's Souls. I am a bit worried that they may be trying too much new stuff in this game that might detract from what made Demon's Souls so fun. I won't know until I've played it for myself though.

[Oobgarm]

It's on my list for the holiday. Dunno if I'm gonna grab it right away or not, as there are 4 games in this 2-week span that I'm interested in.

[Zama]

What is a seamless death? And, probably.

A seamless death is like having no awkward transitions when dying over and over again due to your mistakes :)

[Kyle15]

When I get the game, I'm going to sit and scream at it in joy for exactly twelve hours, hopefully attracting some unsavory forest beasts and felines.

[scaryice]

I can't wait! *cue sticky white stuff jokes*

[Tron 2.0]

Can't wait,since i did play demon's souls to death i've been watching videos of darksouls on youtube the jpn version of coruse.It looks like darksouls gameplay has been refine more from what i've seen.I've preorder the collectors edition of darksouls i want to make sure i get one.

[G-Boobie]

Preordered. Amazon only has collectors editions for 360 left.

[The Great Dane]

Absolutely. I love Demon's Souls. One of the best titles in years on any system. I have had it pre-ordered for a few months now. Though, I will admit that I am very nervous about it's difficulty. It is being said that Dark Souls will be WAY harder than Demon's, and they you will die way more. Though I didn't die that much in Demon's, it was still fairly challenging until I leveled up a bit. I'm just afraid I'm not going to be good enough for this one.

We shall see in a few days, though :D

[Oobgarm]

Went to pick up my LE at GameStop yesterday, only to find out that they sold my LE to a guy who came in for the midnight launch.

So they gave me the hardbound guide as an apology to accompany my standard copy. I think I came out ahead in the deal.

Both still sit on the shelf sealed.

[G-Boobie]

My CE hasn't shipped from Amazon yet, and Joystiq is reporting that some retailers didn't receive enough to satisfy preorders. Anyone else having this issue?

[Bojay1997]

My CE hasn't shipped from Amazon yet, and Joystiq is reporting that some retailers didn't receive enough to satisfy preorders. Anyone else having this issue?

There are a few hundred people on Cheap Ass Gamer among other sites reporting the same thing. I had release date delivery with Prime so mine showed up on Tuesday, but I'm hearing that even people who pre-ordered back in June and had Prime may not have gotten the CE depending on which shipping facility handled their order. I got lucky also that mine wasn't stuffed in a padded envelope because the case isn't really a Steelbook, but a flimsy tin case that dents super easily.

[G-Boobie]

There are a few hundred people on Cheap Ass Gamer among other sites reporting the same thing. I had release date delivery with Prime so mine showed up on Tuesday, but I'm hearing that even people who pre-ordered back in June and had Prime may not have gotten the CE depending on which shipping facility handled their order. I got lucky also that mine wasn't stuffed in a padded envelope because the case isn't really a Steelbook, but a flimsy tin case that dents super easily.

I'm Prime too, which usually helps me avoid issues like this. Oh well.

Here's hoping it shows up soon, I guess.

[98PaceCar]

Add me to the list of the screwed. Pre-ordered from Best Buy and got a regular edition. Haven't been able to put my hands on a collectors edition yet, but I'm still trying.

[Tron 2.0]

My CE hasn't shipped from Amazon yet, and Joystiq is reporting that some retailers didn't receive enough to satisfy preorders. Anyone else having this issue?
Same even though i preorder it months ago at amazon the date still says shipping soon.

[Press_Start]

So, what's the difference between the collector's and regular editions? I got the one with artbook, tin case, and what looks to be a credit card.

As for the game itself, yes, it's WAY harder and addicting as ever. But i miss the "hub/level selection" layout the original Demon Souls had. At least, if they kicked your butt one area, there were four others to experiment with and keep things from going stall. The problem with the new broader, roaming set up is getting point A to B sometimes needs to go through points C D E F G and vice-versa and can become pretty tedious pretty fast. Alas, I've two bosses battles under my belt, so take that for what it's worth. :roll:

[G-Boobie]

Amazon says my copy has shipped. We'll see if I get a standard copy. No big deal.

Press Start, you have yourself a collectors edition.

[Bojay1997]

Amazon says my copy has shipped. We'll see if I get a standard copy. No big deal.

Press Start, you have yourself a collectors edition.

You can tell based on the shipping weight. If it's 1.3 lbs. or heavier, it's the CE.

[98PaceCar]

I'm not sure how widespread it is, but one of my local Gamestops actually got a spare copy of both the 360 and PS3 collector versions. So I was lucky enough to score the 360 one that I originally wanted.

[TomatoJuice]

Enjoy the game people! I only ordered the strategy guide, because
I have plenty of other games to play. ;-)

[G-Boobie]

You can tell based on the shipping weight. If it's 1.3 lbs. or heavier, it's the CE.

Thank you, sir. I'll check when I get home.

[Cornelius]

Add me to the list of the screwed. Pre-ordered from Best Buy and got a regular edition. Haven't been able to put my hands on a collectors edition yet, but I'm still trying.

BB sent a memo out that you can get a $20 gift card for buying the regular edition if you pre-orderred. Doesn't sound like you need to go that route, though.

I also pre-orderred mine from Amazon with release date delivery, but still didn't have it yesterday by 5. I chatted w/ customer service and they tossed $5 at me to shut about about it. Then it showed up at 5.30 or so and was the CE, so I'm pretty satisfied. Still haven't heard if the $5 bonus from doing a trade-in has been credited to me or not.

And I haven't actually had a chance to play it yet, so I guess the delay didn't matter.

[Overbite]

I preordered from GameStop and got the CE for PS3. Game is fun but hard!

Actually it's easy if you go slow and you learn the enemy attacks. Slow and steady, don't panic, and you'll do OK.

Drake Sword helps too :)

[Cornelius]

I'm finding it just a touch easier than when I started Demon's. I guess after all the experience of DS I've learned well how to be very slow and cautious. I do expect DkS to get harder than DS soon though. I've only just gotten to the second bonfire after leaving the prison.

[Patney]

I preordered from GameStop and got the CE for PS3. Game is fun but hard!

Actually it's easy if you go slow and you learn the enemy attacks. Slow and steady, don't panic, and you'll do OK.

Drake Sword helps too :)

Using the Drake Sword makes me feel like such a wimp. Easy mode :(

[G-Boobie]

My copy arrived tonight: a collectors edition. So everything works out in the end.

I won't have a chance to check it out until tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm surprised that this thread hasn't blown up, actually; the Demon's Souls thread was HUGE, and a lot of fun to read.

[kupomogli]

Well, I've killed quite a few bosses already. If you see any bosses with a tail, make sure you cut the tail off and it'll get you a special weapon. I just got the God King Dragon Axe with 360 attack power but needs 50 strength and 50 dexterity to wield it properly.

I like the game, but the only problem I have with it is that it's no Demon's Souls. Where Demon's Souls was more technique and skill, while it's mainly there are Dark Souls, that feeling has been somewhat removed in Dark Souls.

First thing I've noticed, and didn't have as much of a problem with this in Demon's Souls, is that sometimes you'll come from one attack with two handed and then you'll want to switch back to one handed. Sometimes it reacts that you didn't do anything at all. You might attack after a block and it won't swing sometimes(even with enough dexterity,) or it'll have a wait time before it makes any sort of motion to attack.

Add that most weapons will feel too weak until you level them up, or sometimes you may come across a cheap death where even when you take a lot of care into going through the part, you'll still get killed. Bs like where a slime will drop from the ceiling and even with full health(I was cursed at the time so half health) you'll die because it keeps on sucking your life away. Same thing with a couple other enemies you don't realize will grab you. Attacking a rapier using knight in a second stance that you weren't aware he'll counter and one shot you. One area which you can't aim at ghosts unless you purchase an expensive item, though there's a trick to killing those ghosts off like nothing. Poison and toxin items aren't common, but you may have some poison items when going through one area, but in another area, you won't even realize you're being hit with poison darts until it's too late and if you don't have either of these items and get either poisoned or toxin, then you're screwed(poison is far more potent in Dark Souls than Demon's Souls and toxin is three to four times the strength of poison.)

Other than that. It's a great game. The game may or may not much larger than Demon's Souls, but I'm leaning towards it infact being a much larger game. At first if you have to go back to other areas it'll seem like an annoyance, because on Demon's Souls you had the portals to make your way to any location. While on Dark Souls you have to walk to each location. There are tons of hidden paths that you can unlock once you're at a certain location that makes quite a few places seem right next to one another. Make sure you get the master key or you will be unable to go through some of these.

Oh yeah. If your PSN logs out while you're playing Dark Souls, it'll send you back to the title screen. So if you have an intermittent internet, you may want to log off PSN before starting the game up.

[Tron 2.0]

Oh yeah. If your PSN logs out while you're playing Dark Souls, it'll send you back to the title screen. So if you have an intermittent internet, you may want to log off PSN before starting the game up.
Sounds like the same problem that demon's souls had the online play breaks down then you have to log off and then back on again.I been watching plenty of play throughs of darksouls on youtube the japan version of coruse.I been doing that so i know 'what i'm getting into even though i'm a vet of demon's souls.I'm still waiting on getting my copy of darksouls no good amazon shesh i did preorder the CE months ago and "it still states shipping" soon by weds that's if they get more from namco/bandai...

[G-Boobie]

I've played a couple of hours, and so far I like it. I'm about half way through the Undead Burg.

Went with Sorceror first. Need that magic missle.

[Patney]

A few general tips:
Master key is a very useful gift to begin with.
The more humanity you have in your stock (not sprites), the higher is your item drop rate
Use firekeeper's souls as early as possible. The effect is permanent and they stack, meaning eventually your flasks will heal all of your life on a single gulp. The firekeeper kan be found at the Firelink, naturally.
Do not die.

[Press_Start]

I been watching plenty of play throughs of darksouls on youtube the japan version of coruse.I been doing that so i know 'what i'm getting into even though i'm a vet of demon's souls.

Really, where's the fun in that? :)

The best way to play Dark Souls is to dive "blind" and face head on what challenge awaits around the corner. Formulating successful strategies on the fly and discovering hidden secrets and shortcuts is the most rewarding accomplishment because they are your own, like how warp zones were "your own little secret" at the age of 5. Don't get me wrong, I've used gamefaqs and walkthroughs more times than I can count and you're really never "alone" since fellow players drop hints to help ya anyway but if you're using them as a substitute for playing Dark Souls then, imho, you're really cheating yourself and what the game offers.

[Tron 2.0]

Really, where's the fun in that? :)

The best way to play Dark Souls is to dive "blind" and face head on what challenge awaits around the corner. Formulating successful strategies on the fly and discovering hidden secrets and shortcuts is the most rewarding accomplishment because they are your own, like how warp zones were "your own little secret" at the age of 5. Don't get me wrong, I've used gamefaqs and walkthroughs more times than I can count and you're really never "alone" since fellow players drop hints to help ya anyway but if you're using them as a substitute for playing Dark Souls then, imho, you're really cheating yourself and what the game offers.
I know,that takes the fun away but i was getting impatient waiting for the game to get here.Though i'll doubt i'll remember it all and have to play the game the hardway.

[Cornelius]

Welp, had my first multi-death and lost my accumulated 6 or 8 humanity. It was because of the mob of zombies just before the Bell Gargoyles. I mistook where they were spawned, and thought I could run through/past them. No such luck.

I'm kind of having problems with cutting the tail off the bell gargoyle. I watched a video, and the person did it with their first hit! Do you have to do a certain amount of damage in a single hit? Because I've hit that thing in the same place until it was down to half health and the tail never game off. I mainly use a rapier, wonder if that has something to do with it. Maybe it has to be a slashing weapon.

[Chadt74]

I found cutting the tail of to be sort of random, but once you get behind the gargoyle, try and turn a little towards the tail and swing instead of hitting him in the butt (might have to take off target lock). I also found that with the tail off the encounter was easier since that takes away one of his attacks.

[Patney]

Yeah, try to hit the tail itself, it can be hard but if done right it sometimes only take a single hit.

[kupomogli]

I finished Dark Souls and still stick by my opinion that Dark Souls is not nearly as good as Demon's Souls. It does some things better, but there's a lot that it does wrong to the point that the amount of enjoyment found in Demon's Souls just isn't there.

This review is spoiler free except for a small extremely vague portion that is pretty much spoiler free depending on your opinions on spoiler. I'd say it's entirely spoiler free, but "one area being entirely dark," and others that are just as vague, may be a spoiler to some.

The game plays like Demon's Souls which is good. It even takes itself a bit further with each type of straight sword, spear, etc, performing completely different than one another. There might be some similarities to certain types of weapons, but overall there's a major difference to each weapon type. During the attack animation, it looks like a lot of weight was added to each attack, so attack animations weren't as quick as they were in Demon's Souls. The addition of the attacks like the jumping attack and plunging thrust were overall pretty impractical aside from enemies that it's quite obviously added in there to kill, bosses. The kick is good and is nothing more than a longer range version of the push from Demon's Souls.

You're now much more dependent on getting newer more powerful weapons this time around and keeping them at a high level than you were on Demon's Souls. If you don't continue to keep your weapon leveled up, you'll eventually be taking off next to nothing against future enemies. Because of this you'll be grinding for either souls to upgrade weapons or specific enemies for certain types of ore. Leveling armor seems to have a much lower effect on defense to the point that it doesn't matter if you have the Havel Armor equipped, which has the most defense in the game and by far the highest weight, or lightweight armor so that you can move and roll quicker. Defense overall doesn't seem to do that much in this game and enemies will still take around the same damage, maybe slightly less if you have more, but it's almost unnoticeable.

Magic is now much better with a specific amount of charges each time you rest at the bonfire. Playing Demon's Souls if you were a pure mage, then one of your rings would more than likely be the Fragnant Ring and you'll either be waiting for your magic to restore or using a potion to restore magic. This time, you can now progress through a stage with a mage at a much faster pace. On the other side, was never much of a bow user in Demon's Souls, so can't say what has changed, but for melee characters, bows are required to make quite a bit of the game much less frustrating.

One great thing though is that there is no more Pure White and Pure Black. Something I hated in Demon's Souls, so I never even bothered getting all the weapons and armor. When you repeatedly kill yourself on purpose over and over in attempts to get Pure Black and still don't, that's when I just ended up giving up on it. I've only managed to get Pure White one time without the help of Pure White/Pure Black servers. You can grind pretty much every ore, or atleast almost every ore this time around, and being in human form while passing a certain area will get you invaded by specific characters allow you to get special items.

The world now being open world is one of the better features. Instead of being enclosed to just one area, you can take shortcuts between areas and everything is now seemless. At one point you'll even be able to look from the top of a castle and in the distance see areas you've progressed through. There are times you might stop at one location just to view at how well done the world is.

You remember the swamp in Demon's Souls? Pretty much everyone hates the swamp. There are multiple parts in the game just as bad, one of which is another swamp. One area that you can't see more than a foot ahead of you, yet you're walking around a good portion of that part with death pits all around and some of the more powerful enemies in the game. Same area you later get a lanter, but it's only useful until you need to pull your shield out, atleast it gives you a look around. An area with enemies that respawn without killing a certain enemy far deeper into the area or with a divine upgraded weapon. Enemies you can't hurt without an item or being cursed, yet being cursed also cuts health almost in half and reduces stats. A lava pit filled with some of the most powerful enemies in the entire game all side by side, somewhere that magic or a bow is pretty much required for safe passage, but because of the color bleeding out to give the lava effect, you can barely see anything off in the distance so then you're required to circle the entire area to find out where to go.

One area deserves its own special mention, and we'll even mention James' Rolfe and his Castlevania 2 review on top of it. So one thing James mentioned about Castlevania 2 is you were required to throw holy water everywhere in one area. Not required, but still. Falling down an invisible pit in Castlevania 2 won't lead to your death, but depending on the drop take either less than a minute or a couple minutes to get back to where you were at. However, one area in this game is similar, practically the same, and while you can see snow falling, you'll still probably make a misstep without Prism Stones until you know the exact path. Take two steps, Prism Stone, repeat. If you don't have Prism Stones you may or may not be very pissed, depends on how lucky you are and how the snow happens to fall.

Dark Souls did a lot of things right, but when it comes down to it, it also did a lot wrong. While Demon's Souls was more about skill and technique, and while it's there in Dark Souls, the game is on the complete other side of the spectrum. Dark Souls is hard for the sake of being hard. There is a lot of fun to be had, but too much bs in my opinion.

If you didn't enjoy Demon's Souls, don't even bother as this isn't going to change your mind. If you did enjoy Demon's Souls and you're not a fan of grinding, you may or may not enjoy this game, even with some very good grinding tricks you might find out. If you have Demon's Souls and found every secret, got every trophy meaning that you grinded enough ores for everything, and/or if you're one who did it a second time with a PAL version, you'll probably like this game.

[moggles]

I finished Dark Souls and still stick by my opinion that Dark Souls is not nearly as good as Demon's Souls. It does some things better, but there's a lot that it does wrong to the point that the amount of enjoyment found in Demon's Souls just isn't there.

This review is spoiler free except for a small extremely vague portion that is pretty much spoiler free depending on your opinions on spoiler. I'd say it's entirely spoiler free, but "one area being entirely dark," and others that are just as vague, may be a spoiler to some.

The game plays like Demon's Souls which is good. It even takes itself a bit further with each type of straight sword, spear, etc, performing completely different than one another. There might be some similarities to certain types of weapons, but overall there's a major difference to each weapon type. During the attack animation, it looks like a lot of weight was added to each attack, so attack animations weren't as quick as they were in Demon's Souls. The addition of the attacks like the jumping attack and plunging thrust were overall pretty impractical aside from enemies that it's quite obviously added in there to kill, bosses. The kick is good and is nothing more than a longer range version of the push from Demon's Souls.

You're now much more dependent on getting newer more powerful weapons this time around and keeping them at a high level than you were on Demon's Souls. If you don't continue to keep your weapon leveled up, you'll eventually be taking off next to nothing against future enemies. Because of this you'll be grinding for either souls to upgrade weapons or specific enemies for certain types of ore. Leveling armor seems to have a much lower effect on defense to the point that it doesn't matter if you have the Havel Armor equipped, which has the most defense in the game and by far the highest weight, or lightweight armor so that you can move and roll quicker. Defense overall doesn't seem to do that much in this game and enemies will still take around the same damage, maybe slightly less if you have more, but it's almost unnoticeable.

Magic is now much better with a specific amount of charges each time you rest at the bonfire. Playing Demon's Souls if you were a pure mage, then one of your rings would more than likely be the Fragnant Ring and you'll either be waiting for your magic to restore or using a potion to restore magic. This time, you can now progress through a stage with a mage at a much faster pace. On the other side, was never much of a bow user in Demon's Souls, so can't say what has changed, but for melee characters, bows are required to make quite a bit of the game much less frustrating.

One great thing though is that there is no more Pure White and Pure Black. Something I hated in Demon's Souls, so I never even bothered getting all the weapons and armor. When you repeatedly kill yourself on purpose over and over in attempts to get Pure Black and still don't, that's when I just ended up giving up on it. I've only managed to get Pure White one time without the help of Pure White/Pure Black servers. You can grind pretty much every ore, or atleast almost every ore this time around, and being in human form while passing a certain area will get you invaded by specific characters allow you to get special items.

The world now being open world is one of the better features. Instead of being enclosed to just one area, you can take shortcuts between areas and everything is now seemless. At one point you'll even be able to look from the top of a castle and in the distance see areas you've progressed through. There are times you might stop at one location just to view at how well done the world is.

You remember the swamp in Demon's Souls? Pretty much everyone hates the swamp. There are multiple parts in the game just as bad, one of which is another swamp. One area that you can't see more than a foot ahead of you, yet you're walking around a good portion of that part with death pits all around and some of the more powerful enemies in the game. Same area you later get a lanter, but it's only useful until you need to pull your shield out, atleast it gives you a look around. An area with enemies that respawn without killing a certain enemy far deeper into the area or with a divine upgraded weapon. Enemies you can't hurt without an item or being cursed, yet being cursed also cuts health almost in half and reduces stats. A lava pit filled with some of the most powerful enemies in the entire game all side by side, somewhere that magic or a bow is pretty much required for safe passage, but because of the color bleeding out to give the lava effect, you can barely see anything off in the distance so then you're required to circle the entire area to find out where to go.

One area deserves its own special mention, and we'll even mention James' Rolfe and his Castlevania 2 review on top of it. So one thing James mentioned about Castlevania 2 is you were required to throw holy water everywhere in one area. Not required, but still. Falling down an invisible pit in Castlevania 2 won't lead to your death, but depending on the drop take either less than a minute or a couple minutes to get back to where you were at. However, one area in this game is similar, practically the same, and while you can see snow falling, you'll still probably make a misstep without Prism Stones until you know the exact path. Take two steps, Prism Stone, repeat. If you don't have Prism Stones you may or may not be very pissed, depends on how lucky you are and how the snow happens to fall.

Dark Souls did a lot of things right, but when it comes down to it, it also did a lot wrong. While Demon's Souls was more about skill and technique, and while it's there in Dark Souls, the game is on the complete other side of the spectrum. Dark Souls is hard for the sake of being hard. There is a lot of fun to be had, but too much bs in my opinion.

If you didn't enjoy Demon's Souls, don't even bother as this isn't going to change your mind. If you did enjoy Demon's Souls and you're not a fan of grinding, you may or may not enjoy this game, even with some very good grinding tricks you might find out. If you have Demon's Souls and found every secret, got every trophy meaning that you grinded enough ores for everything, and/or if you're one who did it a second time with a PAL version, you'll probably like this game.

While I respect your viewpoint, I can't help feeling that you've been playing the game the 'wrong' way. It's not about grinding at all, it's about learning how to overcome challenges using skill - if you're just grinding your way through the game in order to overcome challenges then you're missing the point.

[kupomogli]

While I respect your viewpoint, I can't help feeling that you've been playing the game the 'wrong' way. It's not about grinding at all, it's about learning how to overcome challenges using skill - if you're just grinding your way through the game in order to overcome challenges then you're missing the point.

In Demon's Souls as a melee character, you can go through without grinding one bit and it's very well beatable with a non upgraded longsword. In Dark Souls, a new longsword will take 20-30 varying attacks to kill a balder rapier knight in the Undead Parish, a location in the very beginning of the game, how long do you think it will take to kill a silver knight in Anor Londo. Or how long do you think it'll take to kill a black knight at the very end.

It would help if you may have played more than the beginning of the game or even played the game at all. From that comment I'm sure you haven't gotten very far if you have. If you actually want to kill enemies, leveling up your weapon is a necessity. So you may have played through Undead Parish and Lower Undead Burg where the game is actually very easy and a lower upgraded weapon doesn't matter too much, but get further and it's clear that it's a requirement.

[Patney]

In my experience Dark Souls is a lot less grind heavy than Demon's Souls (I'm almost finished with my first playthrough). Sure, upgrading your weapons is sometimes a necessity but then again it's so much easier than it was in Demon's. There are a lot less upgrade stones and the most basic and common upgrade stone is sold very cheap by the first blacksmith you meet.

[Cornelius]

I'm finding this to require quite a bit of grinding, where Demon's Souls required none at all. I went through DeS with an Estoc that I only upgraded when I came across the necessary ingredients. I don't think it was fully upgraded when I finished my first play through. I did get platinum on it, and that required farming.

With DaS I had no problem going through with a hand axe and then rapier dex build until I got to the Gargoyles. And that is really early in the game. At that point I was doing 19 damage to them, and got close to defeating them a couple times. Then I went and got the Drake Sword and I feel like I'm cheating. First try I cut off the tail and beat them solo. So clearly this wasn't a matter of skill, really, but rather damage output, which relies on stat and weapon reinforcement (i.e. grinding... playing straight to that point I was less than level 20). Though I suppose someone truly great would have no problem beating them naked.

To get a Rapier up to even half the damage of the Drake Sword I'm going to have to level it and my stats quite a lot. In the meantime I've been proceeding with the Drake Sword. Which brought me to kind of a funny situation last night. I was down at the bottom of Blighttown entering the swamp and died. I'd been out of arrows and throwing knives for a while (never thought my journey would take me so far from 'base' without a way back!) and I use them to make life easier, so I decided to run back up and see if upgrading stuff would help me out. And for the third time I got careless and fell in with the basilisks. This time, though, I got cursed! Ugh, so then I'm fighting my way up out of Blighttown w/ half health, and I think it is harder going up than down. Took me a good many tries to get out. Anyway, then I go to start upgrading and I only have one freaking titanite shard! I've got a few bigger pieces, but I don't really understand upgrading, so don't know what they are for. So I got my arrows, did some grinding to get 6000 souls to cure my curse, and then killed Havel and that Titanite Demon thing just for fun. Probably should have waited until I had some humanity for a better drop rate, but I needed a couple easy 'wins' to boost morale. ;)

Love this game, but starting to miss the hub system. It hadn't mattered since there were nice shortcuts before, but that isn't the case down where I'm at now.