 | The final session of Dark Souls and the first session of Dark Souls II: SotFS |
DARK SOULS (PS3)
I reached a point where I realized I only had a few things left to do, and I should do them and move on to the next project.
Priority number one was upgrading the Estus Flask as much as I could. I discovered that there were two generic Firekeeper Souls that I missed, one in Duke's Archive and the other in New Londo Ruins. I nabbed both and beefed up the flask. I also recalled killing Gwyndolin, which makes the Firekeeper of Anor Londo hostile. I returned there and she attacked, but I subdued her and took her soul, bumping my flask to a +5. From there, it was boss hunting time.
I decided against going to Ash Lake. Although it would have been a decent distraction, there was no point, except maybe to get the tail sword from the Everlast Dragon (which I wasn't too keen on doing). I had fully upgraded armor and two weapons I loved: a Demon's Great Machete +15 and a Black Knight Halberd +5. There really wasn't much more that I could desire, though I could grab a better rack of armor (I didn't until the Kiln, though).
I first marched to New Londo Ruins, discovered a shortcut to the boss, died a couple of times--one because I forgot to equip the ring Sif dropped before plummeting into the abyss to fight the boss--before making a safe arrival in the Abyss. There I fought the Four Kings while at level 93 and basically slaughtered them. Their nuke attacks did a moderate amount of damage, but their defenses were low enough that I could wipe out huge chunks of their HP per hit.
From there, I returned to the Tomb of the Giants, wandered around for a bit, then checked a map online to find out where the hell I'm supposed to go. I eventually found an incline leading downward that no one in their right mind could have noticed in the darkness and found the path leading to Gravelord Nito. Upon arrival, I had three Estus Flask uses left, so I figured he'd win. I, thus, went all out with attacks, which resulted in both of us staring each other down with a single hit remaining. Luckily, I scored the final blow and killed Nito.
Deciding I had had enough, I advanced to the final area, the Kiln of the First Flame, chopped my way past the knights (except one, whom I lured off a cliff) and took on Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. It was a pretty mean fight. Gwyn was a tankish like myself, but much more aggressive. Thankfully, his attacks didn't deal much damage. I eventually stopped trying to block and initiated a strategy of taking damage while slashing, occasionally drinking, and continuing my onslaught. It helped that the fire before Gwyn powers up your flask to twenty uses. I eventually came to a point where I took two pulls of the flask and restored my HP whilst Gwyn had but one shot left. I savored the moment.
Then killed him.
That was it. The game has an ending system similar to the first Blood Omen, and I chose to light the flame. The closing moments weren't quite as wild or memorable as I hoped they'd be, but the game left me wanting to play the next one just the same.
DARK SOULS II: SCHOLAR OF THE FIRST SIN (PS4)
I joked on Facebook:
"I've already died so many times in Dark Souls II that I've decided to name my character in the next one Sean Bean."
Basically, this stems from a combination of two things: 1) I'm playing as a duel-wielding swordsman, and 2) my brain is still in tank mode. So basically I'm trying to tank as a dex-based, dodge-only character. I'll acclimate eventually though...
Anyway, I began my playthrough uneventfully. I paid for three months of PlayStation + (though I didn't want to), watched the opening cutscene, and took off. I attacked one of the rat things when I was still unarmed and his friends rallied to his defense. I ended up dying and receiving the "This is Dark Souls" achievement. From there I chose my class and found that the game had much better character creation options this time around. I was actually able to make a bald ginger with a fiery beard like I wanted to in the previous title.
After creation, I challenged something that looked like a cross between a pig and a bear and died horribly. I gave up that ghost, moseyed on to the tutorial dungeon and then made my way to the hub town. I then commenced pulling my hair out because I couldn't figure out how to level up. Memory told me to beat the first boss, because that's what worked in the last two Souls games. I wandered around town, looking for a path, and then found myself en route to a dilapidated fortress of some sort, packed with huge, powerful knights. I knew I wasn't supposed to be there, but figured that maybe the game was being intentionally tough--that perhaps there was a simple boss lying in wait. I mean, I could easily sneak past these knights and get to the mist gate and....
Oh, hey! There's a boss. Dragon Rider? He looks tough. I wonder if my sword does much...... nope.
...
And I'm dead. Well, shit.
I Googled leveling up and found out that there was an unnoticeable NPC I needed to speak to in the town in order to initiate leveling. After getting that off the ground, I also found another pathway that led to a different region where the enemies were much easier to kill. Currently, I'm boosting my stats to prepare for whatever onslaught the game has in store for me later on.
| Most recent blog posts from Joseph Shaffer... | |
| Feedback | |
|
No one has responded to this post yet. |
|
|
© 1998-2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. |