More on Demon's Souls.

By Mike Suskie · January 22, 2010

Okay, so there's this one boss who's giving me no end of trouble. He's an armored knight with an absolutely enormous mace, and he has this one attack where he parries your strike and nails you for a one-hit kill. As far as I can tell, the only way to avoid it is to (a) stay away from him or (b) try to avoid attacking when he's attacking, I guess? The trouble is, he's got an absolutely beastly health meter that takes ages to drain, and for a while, any time I got close to killing him, he'd pull the cheap ass counter attack and end the whole thing.

So, I went in with the attitude that I absolutely WAS NOT going to let him kill me with that stupid fucking attack. I employed a sort of hit-and-run strategy, waiting for him to attack, then narrowly avoiding it and getting a few slashes of my own in before I hurried away. I spent fifteen minutes pathetically chipping away at his outrageously long health bar, and then, just when I'm about to kill him, he uses a fucking healing item. And bam -- health is full again.

Yeah, fuck this game. This whole "challenge" thing was cute for a while, but now I'm starting to see just how much this game is wasting my time. If I spend fifteen minutes in close combat with a guy who can kill me in one blow, I deserve to fucking win. Having him pull out a healing item at the last second and forcing me to start over is, as far as I'm concerned, this game's way of spitting in my face.

I'm not taking it up the ass anymore. You're not worthy of my time, Demon's Souls. Now I'm going to go play something fun.

Comments 11

honestgamer Staff Jan 22, 2010

The Temple Knight is easy as heck if you just attack him from a distance with magic. I beat him on the first try using that method. Going in close with melee attacks is going to kill you unless you just stay near to his feet, avoid him and then hit him hard when he topples over to the ground.

Suskie Blogger Jan 22, 2010

Temple Knight? Are we talking about the same guy here? I was talking about Garl Vinland. (I think that's his name.) He's the guy who's guarding the maiden at the end of... the Valley of Defilement, is it? The creepy ass swamp.

The only spells I have right now are soul arrows and fireballs. The former seem ineffectual and the latter only do something like 9 damage apiece, so I burn my entire magic meter and barely even make a dent in his health. The guide I just looked up told me to ignore Garl and shoot the maiden with arrows, which I kinda want to try, actually. Ignoring the guy altogether never would have occurred to me.

I was pissed when I wrote this blog entry, but this game is slowly and steadily wearing on my patience. I think the unevenness of the difficulty is what's doing it for me. The two levels preceding this fight (including the bosses) were piss easy, and now they're throwing me at an enemy I'm obviously no match for. The trouble with these open-ended games is that the developers often still have a specific path in mind, but you're left on your own to figure out where you're supposed to be going. This'll probably be one of those games where I won't know what I think of it until I've seen the credits roll.

hmd Jan 22, 2010

Vinland never moves beyond a certain point, meaning you can just nail him from a distance and there's nothing he can do about it. I used a constant stream of fire magic paired with some spices and the Fragrant Ring to bring him down.

ALSO, I think he's vulnerable to the Poison or Plague clouds.

Suskie Blogger Jan 22, 2010

Tried that, but it takes ages. Especially since I don't have any spices, so I just have to wait for my MP to recharge =/

I forgot to mention that on top of all this, stepping in the water GIVES YOU THE PLAGUE. As if there's not already enough going against you here. This game really is overwhelming; I'm experiencing a lot of emotions playing it, in case you haven't picked that up.

hmd Jan 22, 2010

Then my best recommendation is to head back to the Tower of Latria. The second level contains a ring that raises plague resistance, and the merchant in the prison sells the cheapest spices in the whole game. She may have lotuses up for grabs, too.

Suskie Blogger Jan 22, 2010

That's actually a good suggestion. I've spent so much time watching my roommate play through the Tower of Latria that I keep forgetting I haven't actually been there myself yet. And those octopus-face guys drop a lot of spices, don't they?

hmd Jan 22, 2010

That explains a lot then. One of the NPCs in the tower is a magician you can rescue, who can then teach you new spells. He can teach you the status effect clouds and new fire spells, which pretty much every enemy in the Valley of Defilement is weak against.

honestgamer Staff Jan 22, 2010

Yeah, you just run down to the swamp water and when he starts after you, retreat up the bank where there's a trail leading uphill. There you can hit him at your leisure without him hitting you at all. You can keep luring him up toward you, hit him with magic, retreat to let your meter fill and repeat. He's one of the easiest bosses to defeat if you do that. Just getting to him was the hard part.

jiggs Jan 22, 2010

two things. if you have a huge two-handed sword, try to get him stuck on the narrow uphill passage, then lunge attack him. or you could just forget about him and use a bow and arrow against the maiden. its cheap but quicker. if that part really annoys you i suggest the 2nd option.

edit: just saw your following comment. so you know..nevermind.

hmd Jan 23, 2010

I just received word from AN UNOFFICIAL SOURCE THAT I AM NOT MAKING UP OR ANYTHING that Suskie is going to hand in his resignation. The letter is said to be written on a soggy kleenex he used after that sick burn you made.

True Story: I was once out at a concert, where I told a girl that I was, "pretty fuckin' good at Demon's Souls." Next thing you know I'm getting a guided tour to the inside of her vagina. Of course, with me being the man that I am, I reached out with my free hand and nabbed the nearest pint of stout, so I ended pounding both this bitch and this brewski! Bam! WHOO YEAH SPRING BREAK!

Anyways what I'm trying to say here is Suskie you need to man up if you want to look good in front of the anonymous face of gaming culture on the internet!

I hope my sarcasm is detectable even in this text form.

Suskie Blogger Jan 23, 2010

Wait... is ReachBeyond aka SuckingDick still trying to piss people off? That's adorable.

Good suggestion, though! I WILL stick with Mass Effect and Deus Ex, both of which are excellent games! Thanks for the recommendation!

Edit: I just had a thought. What if this guy is RecentElectronics in disguise, flipping out on all the people who called his reviews crap? I'm dead on, I know it.