PixlBit

Dark Souls 1

I finished a playthrough of Demons Souls recently and started DarkSouls 1 again, but is it me or is the character much heavier and slow to move in Dark Souls than Demons Souls. I feel like Demons Souls was much faster to run around the stages with little armor, where as with Dark Souls 1, even with a strong equip ring and low armor, still kind of tanky. I might be doing it all wrong.  

Nope, you're exactly right. Dark Souls 1 is much slower than both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls II. I didn't notice it until going back to it right after finishing Dark Souls II, but your character does feel very "tanky." I'm rolling a character with very light armor right now and I feel like a ton of bricks.

One of the things I like most about DS2 is the fact that the thresholds for lightweight movement are much higher. In DS2 as long as I have equipped 70% or less of my max-load I can move quickly and jump a decent enough amount. If you are even lighter and go 50% or less than your max-load you can move even faster and jump further. In DS1 I always felt like I was fighting harder to meet a much lower threshold and it was a pain some of the time. That's why I ended up settling on light armor characters in DS1 and never ever used heavy armor.

In DS2 I've been able to use medium-to-heavy armor, the heavy Tower Shield, and a greatsword for pretty much the entire game and I can still move quickly and get below the 70% threshold.

The difference is very apparent. More so if you play the games back to back like Im doing. The thing is that in Demons S, running around weightless was a game changer and really made the game hella fun, like giant sword and being naked lol. Dark Souls, even with the lightest armor and high stats, still really tanky. Im looking at raising magic stats to get an edge. It seems even dex weapons and melee is weak. Interesting. 

This sounds like good news 2 me since I like doing nekkit runs lol!

reading these recent posts makes me want to venture into Lordran again.  Are those of you who're playing DS1 still seeing other live players? for summons, mostly, is what I'm curious about.

I think you have to be human form to get invaded unless you want to help others in hollow form. I think? Im playing through solo, mostly hollow.

What system are you playing on? I just reached Sen's Fortress in my PS3 quest (already played through the game on 360). Chessa's also got a quest going on PS3, she's at the Bell Gargoyles in Undead Parish.

If you're near either spot on the PS3, we can help you through, if we can coordinate a time. I'm nintend0nick, she's Chessa203.

i've yet to obtain a copy of the first Dark Souls, it'll be for ps3 when I do.  every time a store in my city gets a used copy it sells it quick

Lol... Vit allows me to fast roll in heavy armour = Game won. Well, not really, but it helps a lot. Endurance, vitality, and dex are where I'm spending most of my points this time around. It's a pretty awesome character.

 I highly doubt this is in Lordran. There are a couple of things that lead me to believe it's not, like the war with the land of the giants. Lordran was the land of the giants right? And the land of the giants was possibly the sixth archstone in Demon's Souls, although they'll never say it for legal reasons. Makes sense IMO

I've been constantly going back and forth between Dark Souls II taking place in Lordran or another place (The common 'other' place being Vinhelm). After a while though, I settled on it being Lordran.

The game says they went to war with the Giants and crossed the sea and blah blah blah, but looking at the Giants in Dark Souls 1 compared to the Giants in Dark Souls 2, you can see a vast difference both physically and mentally between the Giants in both games. With this said, I've been pondering over the idea of the Giants in Dark Souls 2 being from a different land other than Lordran, and simply being a different species as a whole. The shitty part about this minor speculation of mine though is that I have absolutely no proof whatsoever, I only have the things I've seen to go by in terms of forming a theory.

 Actually, after defeating the Belfry Gargoyles, I'm starting to think more and more that this might be Lordran, especially with the talk of the Firekeepers dying out and whatnot.

That was a turning point for me too. That area really made me think of the Undead Parish. You'll find another Belfry and I bet you can guess what the area around it is like.

Don't even bring up the Belfry Gargoyles, I really hated that part. It was the one time I've ever played a Souls game and felt it was a little unfair and not designed well, at the very least it certainly wasn't fun. Everything else in DS2 has been pretty great and there have been multiple boss battles later in the game that actually work well and feel good (I just killed Dual Dragonriders last night and that was really satisfying) but the Belfry Gargoyles were just dumb. It was like multiple bosses for the sake of multiple bosses. The Gargoyles seem like they were built with co-op in mind, which is fine, but people who are playing solo like me are just expected to beat our heads against it until we get lucky.

It seemed a little meta and spiteful. "Oh you thought the Bell Gargoyles at the beginning of DS1 were too easy? Well here's another fight like that except theres three times as many of them and they're faster and hit harder, see we made the game hard! Tee Hee." Dark Souls isn't suppose to be about luck, it's about a static world, learning the scripting, and then using skill to find ways to survive and progress with your particular playstyle.

 The Belfry Gargoyels had none of the nuance in the mechanics of the fight, and no sense of personal achievement once I finally killed them. I was just happy I could move on and that I could find a way to get through a badly designed fight. The rest of the areas in DS2 are pretty great and the main boss battles are fine, but since Belfry Luna is a secret optional area and the Belfry Gargoyle fight is such a dumb mess the whole section is like the asshole of Drangleic. Belfry Luna is the itchy dark asshole of the DS2 world.

I'm sure I just had a stroke of dumb luck, but I managed to best the Gargoyles on my first shot. I will definitely agree though that there are sections and Dark Souls II that feel like they're hard for the sake of being hard. It's probably my biggest complaint about the game. Doesn't feel like it struck quite the perfect balance that DS1 did, but I could just be imagining that.

 I didn't beat it on my first attempt, but on my second. I actually didn't find it that hard. Felt like the four kings fight. Take an enemy out before more spawn. It's about being quick - or smart. If you get one down to under half way, they start breathing fire, which means they aren't as aggressive and take a while to catch up. This gives you time to attack the other one or heal up. It was a surprisingly easy boss once I figured it out. Now the Lost Sinner can go fuck herself.

 Also, I really dug Belfry Luna. The NPC there reminded me of Cicero from Skyrim, and it was pretty creepy and fun. 

It's interesting to read different peoples take on boss fights in the Dark Souls games.  It seems as if people have widely different experiences with certain bosses.  Personally, I though the gargoyles were pretty easy.  I beat them on the second try. However, there have been certain bosses that I was stuck on for awhile that were cakewalks for others.

Last night I quit after attempting the Prowling Magus in Brightstone Cove Tseldora twice.  Both times I walked in was almost immediately killed by some kind of attack that destroyed me despite me having my shield up (I think).  I was already thinking about quitting at that point, so I turned it off in frustration, but I'm hoping the fight turns out not to be as annoying as it seems like it will be.

Bullet; try going in to that battle with a shield that has higher Magical/Lightning resistances.
I've beaten that boss 3 times without dying, so yeah, we all do have differing experiences! The one that gave me endless trouble was the Smelter Demon. Not sure why, but it damn near took me a day to beat him lol

Thanks for the advice.  I might have to change my armor too.  I'll probably give it another shot tonight.

If you're really struggling, you can summon an NPC within one of the tents near the BonFire as well!

Anyone who is interested in light armor might want to keep an eye out for Agdayne's Set. You come across it late in the game from the merchant Agdayne in the Undead Crypt. If you approach him with a torch (kill the undead torch-bearer that follows you around as well) he will become hostile so make sure to talk to him without any torches. Once you get the King's Ring in the crypt you can wear it, talk to Agdayne, and he'll give you the whole set. In terms of light armor it's a slight step down from the superior Llewellyn's Set, but Llewellyn's is much harder to get because it drops from a small specific group of enemies, whereas if you manage to not piss off Agdayne you will eventually be guaranteed the set, super easy.

Chris told me about the Llewellyn armor and I really tried hard to get it but it didn't work. The pieces of Llewellyn's Set drop from stone soldiers outside the Looking Glass Knight room but those drops are apparently super rare from my experience. When I was in Drangleic Castle I had the Gold Serpent Ring, prisoner's tatters, and Jester's Hat on (which all raise item discovery) and on top of that I was using copper coins (which raise luck and therefore item discovery) and after farming those stone soldiers outside the Looking Glass Knight room until they all stopped appearing I only managed to come across Llewellyn's gloves and shoes.

If you're like me and didn't have any luck getting the full Llewellyn set, you can still settle for Agdayne's, which is lighter, has better elemental defenses, but around 20-30 points less physical defense across-the-board. Both Llewellyns and Agdaynes upgrade with twinkling titanite.

On a side note, did anybody realize that the stupid casket on the shore in Things Betwixt changes the gender of your character if you interact with it? I started the game off as a girl, then at some point when I was first exploring the area I used the casket but I had all my armor on and couldn't tell that I had changed to a dude when I came out of the casket. So I'm about to finish the game and I had no clue I spent the past few dozen hours as a fucking weird dude instead of the girl I created. I took off my chest armor for the first time in a long time and was like, "Hey, she doesn't have boobs anymore. Hey wait, she's not a even she anymore. What?"

I ended up going back to the casket in Things Betwixt after all this time, used it, and now I'm back to being a girl. Who would've known? Sex change on the beach. At first I didn't know what to make of it, I thought that she changed into a dude because I made her into a tank strength build, that would've been fucking weird. Turns out it's just the coffin on the beach. Makes sense, checks out, that's science.

Thanks again for the suggestion!  I went in there with a shield high in magical/lightning resistance and it was a piece of cake. The two guys with him went down fast (got them both from behind), and then he was really easy to avoid. 

Just beat the easiest boss in the game so far. God damn covetous demon. You Could at Least try next time

Seriously. What was up with that boss? How utterly pointless.

Covetous killed me once. I can't think of any other time in my life in which I was more embarrassed, lol
Seriously though, it side-rolled me into a corner and trapped me. It was pretty brutal