Underneath my yellow skin

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Indie games, Dark Souls III, and me

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Let’s talk more about indie games and Dark Souls III (FromSoft, definitely not an indie game). Here is my post from yesterday in which I talked a bit about both. Well, I talk about indie games and FromSoft (if not specifically the FromSoft I’m currently playing) I’m in The Ringed City DLC, and I have finally attained my beloved Black Witch Set, which is after the first boss of the DLC. The armor is also in the second Souls game, but it’s harder to get in that game. Or rather, there’s a chance that the game will glitch and not give it to you after killing an NPC invader. And that invader only shows up in the Scholar of the First Sin edition after you light up all the torches in the area (there’s something like 20 of them? Oh, wow. There are 49 of them. So more than double what I estimated.

Because the level is very vertical with many ladders, the drop can get hung up on a ladder in a way that you can’t reach it. Quitting out and logging back in (something that usually works for drops you can’t reach/didn’t get as the NPC falls to their death) doesn’t do anything. This happened to me once, and I was so mad that I had taken the time to do all the torches, kill the invader, and I got nothing for my efforts.

In this game, you just have to get to the mid-point of The Ringed City DLC (well, not quit mid) and defeat a different NPC invader to get the armor. There’s a veil that you can get a bit later that you can wear instead of the hat. I don’t wear either, though, because I’m wedded to my ridiculously big hat. It’s my favorite piece of armor in any From game, bar none. And it’s not even close.

Anyway, I want to sing the praises of Dorhy’s Gnawing once again. It’s a miracle that sends out little bugs to chew away at the enemy, and it procks bleed really easily. That means that after a certain amount of damage, there’s a burst, and the enemy takes a big chunk of damage.

It takes 25 Faith, which is quite a lot in this game. I tend to spread my points, and my beloved Chaos Bed Vestiges takes 20 Int (and 10 Faith). Plus, I need 18 Strength for the Executioner’s Greatsword (my early-to-mid game sword) and 26 Strength for my beloved Lorian’s Greatsword (my late-game sword). It takes 30 (!!) in Attunement to get 5 spell slots. I knew it was a lot, but I didn’t realize it cost THAT much.

One of the best QOL changes Elden Ring had was that the number of spell slots was not depnedent upon any stat. You started with two regardless of class, and then you had to find Memory Stones around the map. Each one gave you a slot, and there were a total of 10 of them in the game. Plus a talisman (ring) that gives you two extra slots. So you can have a  total of 12 slots! Luxury.

I need to find an indie game to play now that I’m done with Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone). I’ve tried several word game demos, but none of them have quite hit the spot. I’m still playing Birdigo (John August, Corey Martin), but I’m hitting that “I want to quit but I can’t” space. I have two achievements left, and I’m going to get them done if it kills me. It won’t, but it’s killing my joy for the game.


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Dark Souls III: when FromSoft gets silly

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If people know Dark Souls, they think of it being a grimdark fantasy game that is relentlessly punishing. It’s hard AF, and all the bosses will destroy you. That’s the Cliff Notes version of how most people who don’t know From games well think about Dark Souls.

I’m not dissing people for that, by the way. They’re not wrong. The games are grim, dark, and utterly depressing at times. There’s a sense of nihilism* to them that can be disconcerting–even to me. I can see the hopeful spark in them–if I squint. But the darkness is pretty unrelenting. Here is my post from yesterday in which I waxed poetic about my love for the game.

That’s why the absolutely silly parts of the games are a blessing. Today, I was running through

*SPOILER*

the Grand Archives, which is a late game area because it’s a great farming area. I did it so many times in the past. You can clear around seventy K in one run through, which is a nice chunk of change. The thing is, there are these arms and hands that spring out of the books, and they can curse you if they touch you. They are everywhere!

The only way you can protect yourself from the hands/arms (and they’re a weird shade of purply-pink) is to dip your head in wax. Yeah, you read that right. There are pools of wax in strategic places in the archives, and there’s a prompt that says something like, “Dip your head in.” Did it say why? Of course not. Did it say what it would do? Nope! You were just supposed to trust that it was something you had to do because the game told you to.

Now, I will say that FromSoft rarely outright tells the player to do something detrimental (I want to say never, but there might be  a case or two) , but I wanted to know why I was dipping my head in wax and making myself look like a candle. And to make matters worse, I lost my big hat in the process.  Not literally as I still had the attributes, but it didn’t appear to be on my head any longer.

The enemies had the same waxy appearance (at least, the humanoid-looking ones), which made it even sillier. As you may guess, they are extremely weak to fire. My Chaos Bed Vestiges literally melted them. This will never not amuse me, by the way. Being a human candle, i mean. Especially as someone with a fondness for pyros. It just makes me laugh inwardly because it’s so goofy! But it’s presented so seriously, which makes it even more hilarious.


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Dark Souls III love is flourishing, part two

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I’m going to talk more about Dark Souls III (FromSoft) and how I’m absolutely in love with it again. But first, I want to share a video I found. I have posted it down below. I found the Elden Ring one first, and it just warmed my heart. These videos are so adorable, and they really just make me smile. It’s the little (tiny) things in life sometimes. Here is my post from yesterday in which I talked about one of my hardest bosses in the game. Today, I will be talking about another really hard boss.

*SPOILER*

I did an optional area today, including a bullshit boss that has the worst hitbox in the world. It’s called the Ancient Wyvern, and when you first encounter it, you do potato damage on it. There’s a message on the ground that says somethnig about a plunging attack. It’s a dev message, and it’s supposed to be a clue as to what you need to do. I don’t remember if I figured this out myself or not, but here’s what you have to do.

You have to race up the level as the Ancienty Wyvern chases you, breathing fire on you. There are enemies along the way, and you have to get to the top of the castle so you can–wait. We’ll get there in a minute. You can access this area roughly halfway through the game. In typical From faashion, it’s really hard to find this esoteric and obsucre area.

Shall I tell you how? Sure, why not. So. There’s an area with a bunch of dragons sitting, looking at a castle in the distance/on the horizon. First time, I saw it and thought , “Hm. I’ll get there eventually.” Because if you can see it, you can go there. At least in the Souls games.

Did I figure out how to get there on my own? Nope! I had to look it up and read the forums with one eye (trying not to see other spoilers). You have to go to another completely optional area, beat an optional boss, kill an enemy, and pick it up down the road. With this gesture, you then go to the area with the sitting dragons again. You do the gesture and get whisked away to the far-off castle.

Which is hard as hell.

Seriously. You don’t want to go there too early. It’s really hard. And the hardest boss in the base game is there. Optional, integral to the story, and so damn hard. It’s another one that I had to summon for in my first playthrough, and they are still so hard now .It’s the Nameless King* and the bird he rode in on. Who is called the King of the Storm. That’s the name bar you see when you first go into the boss arena.


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When you pick a fight with the Devil….

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You better be stronger than Hell.

I love that phrase so much. I want to make it my life mantra, but it doesn’t really make sense in and of itself. There is a lot of explaining I’d have to do if I went around saying it all the time. I’m going to include the trailer below once again because I like it that much.

I want to get a shirt with it emblazoned across in the Dark Souls III font (not sure that’s allowed). I would wear the hell out of that, pun not intended, but still funny. I was talking yesterday about the bosses that arre considered more difficult and how I found one of them (Dancer of the Boreal Valley) easy.

Today, I faced one of the four bosses who completely owned me the first time around. Back them, I was still of the mindset that I had to solo all the bosses or I was not a true Souls player*. I tried so hard, but this boss just had my number. It wasn’t just one boss–it was two. Hey, look at that. Double bosses are harder than single bosses. Um, spoiler warning for a ten-year old game.

*SPOILER WARNING*

This was not an optional boss, and it was the boss I had to beat in order to get my beloved late-game sword. It’s called Lorian’s Greatsword. Take a guess who you have to kill to get it. If you said Loriaan, you are half right! It’s Prince Lorian in the first half, and then his sickly and frail brother, Prince Lothric, climbs on his back and hits you with holy magic that takes away nearly my whole health bar. Granted, I only have 20…Vitality? They always change the name of the stats from game to game. No. It’s also Vigor. They didn’t change that one, which makes it worse. They change some , but not the others. Dark Souls III stats: Vigor, Attunement, Endurance, Vitality, Strength, Dex, Intelligence, Faith, and Luck. Elden Ring stats: Vigor, Mind, Endurance, Strength, Dex, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane.

I looked up the cheese for this boss. There was one I had not heard of and hadn’t tried. I’ve done the Pestilent Mist cheese, and this cheese was similar. Take care of Lorian as quickly as you can. For the last hit, though, you have to be at the foot of the carpeted stairs that lead up to Lothric. You can’t be on the steps–you have to be as close as you can be without touching them. Then, you have to watch the cut scene. If you do it correctly, Lorian and Lothric will be in front of you, motionless (with Lothric on Lorian’s back).

The Pestilent Mist cheese is to spam the sorcery, Pestilent Mist. It’s a cloud that eats away at any human’s humanity (including the caster). So, yes, you have to make sure you cast it away from you. Then, just watch Lothric’s health melts away.

Oh, here’s the thing. In the second stage, you have to kill Lothric, not Lorian. You can kill Lorian if you wish, but when you do, Lothric will bring him back to life. So, you have to hit this tiny target on Lorian’s back, and it has a very janky hitbox.


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Demos? Demons? Definitely! Part seven

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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).


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I heart Dark Souls III (part two)

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Yes, I’m doing one more post about my favorite Dark Souls game–the third one. Third Dark Souls, I mean. This is the millionth post I’ve written on the subject. Here’s the lastest post I wrote on it (from yesterday).

Many people thought the third game was not as hard as the first one. I would disagree. While, yes, the mechanics were similar so combat was very familiar, the bosess were so much harder in general. In the first game, I can now get almost all the base game bosses on my own in less than five tries each. Many times, it’s just one try. That’s not the case in Dark Souls III. When I play the third game, I always summon now. The few times I couldn’t summon a human, it was sad times. This was in the second DLC, by the way. The last boss in that DLC. Man. So bad and terrible. I don’t mean terrible as in a terrible boss, but so fucking hard. One of the hardest bosses in the series. I could not find a human to summon, so I did the poison cheese. It took forever, but it worked.

Here’s the thing. I don’t play these games for the difficulty–I truly do not. They are secondary to why I play them–indeed, they often get in my way. I know many people who love that about the games, but it’s a cross for me to bear to get to the good stuff.

Yes, I did solo the bosses when I first started playing. I felt I had to do it because that’s what ‘the community’ told me. Even when people stressed that it was not necessary, there was still an undercurrent of “but you’re a pussy if you don’t.”.

This is one of my least-favorite parts about the  community, by the way. How toxic masculinity seeps through every pore. All the ways you’re “not a real gamer” if you don’t do this, that, or the other thing. No matter how much I roll my eyes at the notion, it’s hard not to let it get under my skin.

This game looks great. There aren’t as many shortcuts as there were in the first game beacuse you can fast-travel from the beginning, but the ones that are there are terrific. It definitely has Miyazaki’s handprint everywhere. In the Cathedral of the Deep, there are two doors you can unlock–and you can also go up to go yet another way. That was a very elegant design.

You really can tell when Miyazaki does the design and when he doesn’t. As much as I defind the second game, I have to admit the level design is not as elegant as the other two games. I didn’t find it as egregious as other people did, but it definitely isn’t as intricate as the first or third game are.

I am solidly in the camp of this is the most polished of the Souls games (and I’m speaking strictly of the trilogy). It’s the greatest hits, and while it wasn’t the most innovative of the trio, it still did bring a few new things to the table. I mentioned some of them in the last post, and while they may seem like little things, they really made a difference. The new Ashen Flask was such a game-changer. And the weapon arts/skills were interesting, even though I didn’t use them. The graphics were very polished, and there was plenty to see and do.


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Dark Souls III is still the best

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Dark Souls III (FromSoft) is my favorite of the Souls game,s and it’s tied with Elden Ring for my favorite game of all time. This is a controversial take, but I don’t even care. I am very careful to say that they are my favorite From games, not that they are the  best From games. The reason for that is because I have a very hard time putting an obejective value on any game because, well, it’s just so subjective.

I mean, it’s fairly easy to say that a game is good or bad. And, for me, it’s easy to say that all the FromSoft games I’ve played and finished (this would exclude Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon because I did buy it and played the first hour or two, but I simply could not play it. The combat was beyond my abilities. But, from what I’ve seen other people play of it, it’s easily a 9 as well.

Here is my post from yesterday, in which I outlined some of the improvements and innovations FromSoft made in the third game. I have heard it said that Miyazaki was not the main director on the game, but he is listed as the director. He was not the main director on the second game. I do know that he redid Lost Izalith, the worst area in the first game, to his satifsfaction. I mentioned that yesterday as well.

Anyway. I have played the three Dark Souls games, Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. They are all easily 9+ games. I must say that I don’t give 10s. I don’t think anything is perfect. I know the  reasoning behind giving a 10, but I just can’t do it.

Side note: FromSoft do banger music trailers for their games. The one I’ve included before is for Dark Souls III. I have not heard/seen it before (as I’ve said, I don’t usually watch trailers ahead of time if I’m going to play the game. And then I forget to do it afterrwards). The song is In the Woods Somewhere, and it’s by Hozier. I’m surprised because I only know the one song by Hozier, which I don’t like at all. This song, though, is fire. And this trailer goes hard–as all FromSoft’s trailers do.

My list is pretty static except for the top two games. I have moved them back and forth endlessly, so I’ve pretty much decided they are tied. I have played Dark Souls III fairly recently, and it definitely holds up. It’s hard to go back and forth between it and Elden Ring, but that’s beacuse FromSoft likes to fuck with the buttons, just slightly, from game to game. Since they added a dedicated jump button to this game (A), they had to change interaction to Y. And because of that, they had to change two-handing your weapon in your right hand to holding Y and RB at the same time. Or the one in your left hand with Y and LB at the same time.


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Dark Souls III NPC love

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Now it’s time for the main course. Weve had salad and apps, but we’re still hungry for more. At least I am. And Dark Souls III has been my favorite game for years. Now, it’s tied with Elden Ring (which I’ll get to in the next post), but still a favorite. I love that I can get human summons for it, especially on the weekendes.

I love this game with all my heart. I have played it at least two dozen times. I’ve hundo chievo’ed it, and it was the first game I played after leaving the hospital. It was a few weeks later, and it was just me running around outside the Firelink Shrine killing the scrubs who reside there. I had tears in my eyes because it was like coming home.

1. Yuria of Londor. She is forever BAE. she disappeared from my first playthrough, which made me mad, sad, and upset. I thought about restarting the game because I had intended on going dark magicks, but I decided to just let it be. It turned out that she was not necessary for dark magicks, but she was necessary for my heart.

She is a huge part of the game. She shows up wthen Yoel of Londor dies. I’m not going to get into it, but it’s a thing. If you do another thing, then she disappears. Before she does, she tells you that she wants you tou usurp the flame. Which, hell yeah! Fuck the rule of law and the First Flame.

Later on, she warns you about Orbeck, the magic teacher. I don’t xnow why, exactly, but he has said that he’s an assassin, so maybe he went up against her in the past. It’s a bit weird because if you do kill him and give his ashes to Yuria…nothing happens. If you don’t kill him…nothing happens. I usually don’t kill him and Yuria’s questline goes on.

At some point, she asks you if you know Anri. She says you will be wed to him, which, ok, weird.  Marriage in a Dark Souls game? Huh. Would not have expected that. Later on, she tells you that he’s ready to be wed and then it just gets weirder from there. There is something you can do to stop this from happening, too.

This is always the ending I choose, by the way. Once in a rare while I may choose the Fire Keeper’s ending, but that’s twice or three times out of thirty at best.

She can fight with you during the final boss fight. The big boss of the first DLC is her sister. You even get a special line of dialogue with Sister Friede if you choose to align yourself with Yuria. It’s a deep and intertwining questline that I’m glad to do every time.

I will say it here. She is GOAT. Period.


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I finally decide between Elden Ring and Dark Souls III

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OK. I’ve dithered. I’ve dallied. Today, however, I’m making the final call. And until I do, WE’RE NOT FUCKING LEAVING! More realistically, I’ll ramble on and on until I get bored and end the poist. Hopefully, I’ll come to a conclusion before I reach that point, but we’ll see.

In the last post, I finished by talking about the NPC questlines in both games. I  concluded that it was a draw as to which game did it better.

I have to say that I’ve been playing Dark Souls III for the last week and enjoying the hell out of it. It has been the final boss and the two DLCs. And the Nameless King. I have been able to summon for them all–oh, I no longer do the Champion Gravetender (first boss of the first DLC) because it’s only for access to the PvP arena, and you get that item later, anyway.

I have been able to summon humans for all the bosses except the Soul of Cinder, much to my surprise and pleasure. The online was off for a year because a hacker, but it’s now back. Ian laughs at me when I express surprise that people are still playing because as he pointed out, I was still playing. Which, true. But I kinda thought that with Elden Ring being out, people wouldn’t be playing the older games. I’m glad that’s not true, even if it means I get invaded.

Dark Souls III is ultimate comfort food to me. I was doing the loop of killing the thee Lothric knights near the Dragonslayer Armour bonfire because I wanted Sunlight Medals Thirty of them, to be exact. I want the incantation you get when you turn them in at the Sunlight Altar, but then I realized that I can get the even better version (the miracle for the thirty Sunlight Medals is a better version of another miracle itself) for the Soul of the Lords (final boss’s soul). The base miracle is Lightning Spear. The upgrade you can get for the thirty Sunlight Medals is the Great Lightning Spear, and the one for the Soul of Cinder’s soul is the Sunlight Spear.

Now that I almost have the Faith to use Sunlight Spear, I don’t really need to get the Great Lightning Spear. I kinda want to get it just to have it, but I don’t want to grind for that long. I could try to get summoned as a Sunbro and do it that way (you get a Sunlight Medal for every boss you help someone defeat), but I don’t like being a summon. You get severely nerfed as a summon, and like PvP, you have to be practice to be good at it.


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There can only be one favorite From game

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Ok. This is it. This is going to be the final post (for now) about Elden Ring v. Dark Souls III. First of all, I was watching a Let’s Play of Dark Souls III (first time, unknowing), and there are things that I had forgotten happened. In the last post, I listed a few more pros and cons of each game. To start off this post, I want to talk about NPC questlines.

9. NPC questlines. There are tons of NPCs in every From game. In the first game, there were preset conditions that moved them to different places in the game and make them do different things. If you didn’t do certain things at certain times, you cut off their questlines. If you did things in a certain way, you advanced them. In this game, I would say it’s nearly impossible to figure out on your own how to do them precisely right on your first time playthrough. Hell, even now, there are certain steps that I’m never sure when to exactly do them. I only know the hard stops for certain questlines.

In the second game, most of the NPCs don’t move around. Once you find them and get them to go to Majula, they stay put. There are a few exceptions, but even those are fairly shallow and short. They are nowhere nearly as in-depth as the other two games or Elden Ring.

In Dark Souls III, there are some very intricate questlines. There are questlines that entwine. There are also questlines that contradict each other. I’ve included a video by Vaati Vidya about how to start each questline.

I like to do things as naturally as possible the first time I play a From game. Unfortunately, with Dark Souls III, that meant pissing off Yuria of Londor because I had the Fire Keeper heal the Dark Sigil because it wsa a new thing. I did not know what the Dark Sigil was, but why not?

Well, because Yuria refused to talk to me, that’s why not. I was roughly a quarter of the way through the game (which I did not know at the time), but I seriously considered starting over because I had fallen for Yuria the minute I laid eyes on her and was willing to follow her to the ends of the earth. I thought she would be the dark magicks teacher (wrong) and was dismayed that I would not be able to go down that road.

I was furious. I cursed out Miyazaki. but I ultimately decided to continue because I wanted to see the rest of the game. I did not want to do the first quarter all over again. Of course, I followed Yuria’s questline carefully in the second playthrough, making sure to look it up. That’s what htappens when I get burned–I make sure to take all precautions before going into the lava again.


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