I have one more post about demos and video games in general in me, and then I’m going to move on. Probably. Here is my post from yesterday in which I talked about this, that, and the other thing. One thing I was talking about is how my love for Dark Souls III (FromSoft) has flared up once again. I just played and took a glance at my playtime. It’s roughly eighteen hours, and I’m about two-thirds through the base game. The first time I played the game, it took me roughly seventy hours to beat the base game. That’s with all the hidden/optional areas. It’s still longer than most people, but…I’m actually guessing it probably took me longer. Closer to a hundred hours, maybe.
At that time, I still held to the toxic notion that you had to solo the bosses. I managed to do most of the bosses solo, but four of them I just could not (I did them later solo). Now that I’ve done all that, I have no compunction about summoning, and there are NPCs for several of the bosses. At least the ones you have to fight. The hardest boss (who is optional) does not have an NPC summon, unfortunately. And while I can sometimes get a human summon, it’s not a guarantee (and it’s more often not than that I can).
It’s funny which bosses I have trouble with and which I don’t. The Dancer of the Boreal Valley is considered one of the harder bosses in the game, and I’ve never had trouble with her. She’s very susceptible to fire in the face as it turns out, and because my Attunement is higher this time than ever, in this run, I demolished her faster than I ever had before. I did see if there were any humans to summon, but since I did her on the first try, I’m not sure they would have shown up, anyway. There’s a special thing you have to do to prock her, and then you’re locked in the boss room with her.
I can usually get her on the first or second try, and I did it this time with such ease. It took less thatn a minute because my Chaos Bed Vestiges (best pyro in the game according to me) just melted her–literally. I read afterwards that Gnaw (swarms of flies that chew on the victim until they prock bleed) will do the same. I have Dorhy’s Gnawing , which is the souped up version. It takes 25 Faith to use it, which I just got.
One thing I don’t like about this game is that it becomes prohibitively expensive to level up. the secodn game of the series is probably the one in which it’s easiest to level. It’s not bad in Elden Ring as well. I’m back to smiling my way through Dark Souls III. It has been fairly smooth this time, even when I solo a boss (like I did with Dancer).
Speaking of Dorhy’s Gnawing, if you want true cheese in the game–that’s it. It got me through soloing the toughest bosses in the game in the past. It’s great because it’s a ranged miracle, so I can safely let it fly (heh). Because my blue bar is huge this time around, I can spell for days. Also, since I have four available ring slots isntead of three (usually have to wear a ring that gives me an extra spell slot), I can play around with my rings. When I’m just walking around clearing out enemies–
Look. I think we all know I suck at these games. I love them despite the fact that they don’t love me. That means I will do whatever it takes to win. By the way, the trailer I included above is my favorite trailer of all time. It’s the one I quoted to Ian when I came back from the dead. “When you pick a fight with the Devil, you better be stronger than Hell!” That’s the tagline, and it’s become my mantra.
I love everything about the
Ed Note: For some reason, I thought I was done with this and had published it. I wasn’t, and I hadn’t; I’m finishing it now. Back to the post.
I love everything about the trailer. The hyperaggressiveness. How ridiculous it is. How perfectly it captures the feel of that era. One thing about FromSoft that most people probably don’t know is taht they can be very playful. Yes their games are grimdark fantasy, grueling, and has dark subjects. They are also whmisical, funny, and downright silly. I mean, my favorite hat is so ridiculously large, it obscures my face. And has a plague mask beak on it. There is a spell that lets you become an object in your immediate vicinity. There is a weapon that is affectionately called the pizza cutter. There is a boss that is a big, rotting tree, and you have to explode its ‘balls’ to get it to the second phase.
I love that the trailer I included above embraces that silly side of their personality. They are not an indie dev, but many indie devs have whimsical trailers which are just delightful. So any time I see whimsy in a triple A trailer? I’m all over it.
Side note: I never considered FromSoft a triple A dev until right before Elden Ring. I’ve thought of them as mercenaries for hire (in that they would go with any publisher willing to publish them). Sure, they mostly publish with Bandai Namco, but they’ve published under Blizzard and Sony, and they will with Nintendo (sigh). I know they’ve been a triple A developer all their–wait. In doing a light Google, they were AA when they developed Demon’s Souls, but then become AAA afterwards.
At any rate, they are AAA now. And one of the most respected game devs in the business. I just worry that I will soon not be able to play their games any longer. Not just literally as with The Duskbloods being a Switch 2 exclusive, but because my skills are deteriorating at an alarming rate.
I will write more about this tomorrow.