I'm very excited to finally be able to play both. I beat dark souls recently and have done a some-what horrible written writeup about it. find my impressions in the spoiler below: [spoiler] Let me start by saying that if you haven't had a hands on with demon's souls, dark souls will take awhile to adjust to via controls, gameplay style (patience), and customization. Dark Souls doesn't play like many games out on the market, and I noticed this when my buddy bought it. He played it without having had any experience in demon's souls and after some minor explanations he was able to pick it up fairly fast, but had he not had my help it probably would have taken him an additional hour or two to adjust. If you do have experience with demon's souls, dark souls could end up being a walk in the park but at the same time it could prove to be a somewhat difficult task. -------------- DIFFERENCES -------------- there are quite a few differences between demon's souls and dark souls - some positive some negative. The first thing you will notice is that the game functions off of a bonfire system as opposed to the nexus hub. The interesting concept behind this is that the bonfire works as a nexus that constantly moves. With each bonfire that you're at, there's multiple pathways that you can take to different surrounding areas depending on what pathways are available. Some pathways may need to be opened via shortcut after defeating a boss, and the short cuts are essential to traversing across the world of dark souls. another thing you will notice is that the game now functions off of a hollow/unhollow and humanity system as opposed to the physical/soul form and world/character tendencies of demon's souls. Humanity can be gained randomly from mobs, corpses on the ground, winning pvp battles, beating another players boss via co-op, and so fourth. The items aren't rare, but they take a little bit of effort to obtain. -------------- BASICS -------------- CONTROLS -Just like in demon's souls the two left and two right triggers control your attacks. On a PS3 controller, r1 controls your right arm light swing, r2 controls your right arm heavy swing, L1 controls your left arm light swing, and L2 controls your left arm heavy swing. -Hold circle to run, tap circle while running to jump (this is new), tap circle while jogging to roll, tap circle while standing still to jump backwards. If you're standing still and hit circle to jump back and then hit an attack button you jump back and then do a running attack. If you hold down circle to run and hit an attack you do a running attack. -Square is "use" for your consumables. -Triangle switches from single to dual wielding. -left analog + r1 (at the same time) to kick. left analog + r2 (at the same time) to commit a jumping attack. -if you hit R3 you target a mob, if you click it again you untarget that mob -If you're falling and you hit attack right before you drop onto an enemy below you, you do an insanely damaging falling attack (this is new). -If you have a shield equipped into one of the left hand slots you hold L1 to block. You can hit L2 (timing has to be insanely precise) to parry and then r1 directly after to riposte. -you can perform a backstab but there is one miniscule sweet spot in order to perform it in the exact center of the back MECHANICS/CONCEPTS similar to demon's souls fire is a completely different type of magic than magic itself (which consists of lightning, poison, holy etc..), but fire plays an even bigger role in dark souls since you must wield an item known as a pyromancy flame - as opposed to just using a catalyst like miracles/magic. Just like in demon's souls fire damage is pretty overpowered, but there are some monsters that are 90% resistant to it - so it's a double edged sword. souls are your main item in the game. They can be used as a source of currency to buy items/weapons, upgrade, and to invest in stat points. The stat layout is pretty similar to demon's souls with some stats renamed. Once you die you drop a bloodstain. This bloodstain contains all of the souls you have obtained at that point (which means when you respawn that you have 0). If you can make it back to that bloodstain you will obtain all the souls (or humanities which is explained in a bit) that you lost, but if you die before retrieving it you drop a new blood stain with however many souls you have obtained to that point. i.e. you have 20,000 souls and die. you now have 0 souls and make it halfway to the 20,000 soul bloodstain you dropped. you die not even halfway there. At that point you only acquired 100 souls.. the only bloodstain now available (at the halfway point) contains 100 souls. You lost the 20,000 permanently. -------------- HUMANITY -------------- with humanity you can do multiple things: 1. you can go to a bonfire and make yourself unhollow. being unhollow opens up your world for attack (pvp/invasion), but it also allows you to see soul signs that potential co-opers will drop for you to summon them. In unhollow form I believe you deal more damage as well. 2. If you're unhollow you can kindle a fire, but lets take a step back. In the introduction of the game you come across an item known as an estus flask. These are your hp replenishment items in the game, and each standard bonfire (excluding the first one you come across after the tutorial in firelink shrine) replenishes those 5 estus flasks. When you're battling enemies and you use all 5 estus flasks, you cannot use the flasks again until you refill at a bonfire. kindling a fire increases the amount of estus flasks you receive - if you have 5 and kindle the fire, you permanently get 10 estus flasks from that specific bonfire. Later in the game you can kindle the fire a 2nd time and receive 15 estus flasks per that specific bonfire. keep in mind that it only affects that bonfire, so once you make it to the next bonfire further into the game you will only receive 5 estus flasks from that new fire. Estus flask are a crucial item since consumable hp replenishment items are hard to come by, miracles are again somewhat underpowered, and hp leech weapons only award you a sliver of hp per kill. 3. You can also consume the humanity and not use it. This displays next to your hp bar (as a number) and it stays active a la souls. The more humanity you consume without using it (on something such as unhollowing or kindling) the higher your drop rate % is. the catch is that once you die your humanity is taken from you like souls and can only be reobtained if you reach the bloodstain that you left in the spot you died. If you lose that bloodstain you lose that humanity permanently. 4. You can trade it to a covenant (explained later) in order to raise your level with them. -------------- COVENANT -------------- There's a new concept in dark souls known as covenants. Covenants are basically NPC/PvP groups that you can join and obtain benefits (or issues) after joining. Many covenants will give you an item as soon as you join - such as a crazy unique weapon, a ring, or something of that nature. Some will not give you items until you contribute to the covenant. The items you have to contribute to covenants tend to be very rare items that can be invested in multiple other areas, so DO NOT invest into a covenant until you know the benefits from doing so. Covenants also have a function in PvP. The higher you are with that covenant, the more damage you will do in that area (in pvp). You can obtain PvP lists for people in opposing covenants and invade them according to how 'wanted' they are. When you invade someone's world, if you kill an NPC from their covenant you move up higher on the 'wanted' list for your covenant. This means that your more susceptible to other players' invasions. -------------- IMPRESSION - bosses -------------- my overall impression of the game is somewhat positive. the bosses in this game may seem like a walk in the park if you've played demon's souls. They are WAY easier with the exception of maybe one boss. The boss fights are for the most part pretty unique, but didn't provide the controller-crushing difficulty that made boss kills in demon's souls feel so rewarding. As you may have seen in the trailer, there's bosses with weird teeth, a wolf that carries a huge sword in it's mouth, hydras, and powerful humanoids. There are MANY more bosses in dark souls than demon's souls which is a welcome addition. The more bosses in a game the better - in my opinion at least. There are an insane amount of mini-bosses that you will see periodically throughout the game. Many mini bosses will be different from the last encounter, and some that you will see multiple times (sometimes multiple at the same time :P). -------------- IMPRESSION - enemies -------------- The enemies are among the most unique that I've seen in any dark fantasy type game. Weird octopus slugs, crystal behemoths, trees (lol), and so fourth. Keep in mind that I've said the most unique that I'VE seen in any dark fantasy type game. I'm sure you guys have come across and can list games with more unique monsters. -------------- IMPRESSION - weapons -------------- The weapons are twice as plentiful in dark souls, but the **** part is that all those additions are pretty much useless. For pve you can obtain a drake sword that will last you up until 50% of the game... which at that point you will find the lightning spear that could last you the remaining 50%. In PvP you will see the majority of the people using a +5 lightning uchigatana since it's one of the most overpowered weapons in the game. It deals 499 damage once upgraded, and the stats to use it are very minor (I believe strength and dexterity under somewhere around 15 is the requirement). Many players are upgrading that weapon, and sinking ALL of their points into vitality and endurance. For example, a player that uses one of the best stat scaling weapons in the game, can only achieve around 400 damage with 50 points in dex or str. That's a lot of points wasted to do less damage than a player who sank 15 into dex and strength and is using an easy-to-obtain lightning uchigatana. -------------- IMPRESSION - armor -------------- the armor in the game is just as plentiful as the weapons - about twice as much than in demon's souls, but again, armor plays a very minor role in the game since everything can 2 or 3 shot you anyways. there are some overpowered rings in PvP too. In PvP everyone has been using the 'fog ring'. What this does is it makes you untargetable, meaning that you have to melee or cast spells without targeting - and it's bloody difficult/borderline impossible against good players. If you're playing dark souls, or have played demon's souls, you know how difficult it can be to kill enemies without targeting them. -------------- IMPRESSION - areas -------------- The areas are more unique than in demon's souls. This is one of the best parts of the game. You have luscious forests, crystal caves, gigantic trees (actually a full level of climbing down a tree), a beautiful ash/reflective lake and so fourth. There are some typical areas such as the medieval castle, but it still fits the game's atmosphere perfectly. The game being somewhat open-world makes the game much more enjoyable than the linear world of demon's souls since you can explore to a certain degree - but not as much as a truly open world game. The only complaint I have about the dark souls areas is that there's a few places - such as the painted world of ariamis and blighttown - that chug. the areas provide a constant FPS of 10 throughout the entire thing... -------------- IMPRESSION - pvp/co-op/online mechanics -------------- the online portion of the game is among the worst aspects of the game - especially when compared to demon's souls which had a pretty innovative/incredible online system. There's no bosses that you get to play as, the servers are P2P (unlike demon's souls dedicated servers), and there's multiple servers per region (as opposed to the one server per region in demon's souls)...meaning that if you try and co-op with a friend more than likely you both will be on opposite servers 90% of the time. Near end game you see a lot more souls signs and a lot more players invade, but again when you're pvping you're just dreading the players that are going to be using a vitality/endurance +5 lightning uchigatana fog ring build. I could just use the exact same setup as well, but then the game isn't as fun and intense as it should be. -------------- IMPRESSION - problems -------------- There's a lot of bugs in the game too. 3 bosses that kill themselves on accident - I experienced two...one boss that bugs out on a bridge that you need to get past to advance in the game, and the only way to unbug it is to do a jumping attack (nothing else works..). I had to search the solution online to figure out what the problem was. Some of the bugs are painfully obvious, happen every playthrough, and should have been fixed by from software before releasing the game. I'm pretty sure these issues will eventually be patched. -------------- FINAL THOUGHTS -------------- for the amount of complaints I have, I still really enjoyed the game. As you see I didn't comment on story because the story is basically something you piece together by talking to NPCs. It's not the traditional story-telling that you will find in other similar games. The voice acting is superb - just like in demon's souls - and every NPC seems to be tired, depressed, out of breath, and barely hanging on. It further pushes the desolate, depressing, and deadly atmosphere of dark souls. I had a really enjoyable experience playing dark souls, and in the end I would rate it a 9.5/10. (sorry for comparing it to demon's souls constantly, but I rated demon's souls a 10/10). [/spoiler] now I'm back to completing the witcher 2 for my first playthrough. Been slowly but surely making my way through it. I also have gears of war 3, nhl 12, and catherine shipping to my place thanks to the toys-r-us buy 2 get 1 free (still available through the 22nd if anyone is interested. I'll be playing gears and nhl 12 once they come, and eventually hit up the Wii games I've been dying to play. I just need to make sure I have nothing in my mind/in my backlog when I play both titles. aww yeah! (new games)
by Some-Mist on Comments
Thanks to Yangire I just received a copy of a japanese Wii game that was recommended to me - ikenie no yoru .. along with the european release of xenoblade which I've been wanting to pick up. I'm very excited to finally be able to play both. I beat dark souls recently and have done a some-what horrible written writeup about it. find my impressions in the spoiler below: [spoiler] Let me start by saying that if you haven't had a hands on with demon's souls, dark souls will take awhile to adjust to via controls, gameplay style (patience), and customization. Dark Souls doesn't play like many games out on the market, and I noticed this when my buddy bought it. He played it without having had any experience in demon's souls and after some minor explanations he was able to pick it up fairly fast, but had he not had my help it probably would have taken him an additional hour or two to adjust. If you do have experience with demon's souls, dark souls could end up being a walk in the park but at the same time it could prove to be a somewhat difficult task. -------------- DIFFERENCES -------------- there are quite a few differences between demon's souls and dark souls - some positive some negative. The first thing you will notice is that the game functions off of a bonfire system as opposed to the nexus hub. The interesting concept behind this is that the bonfire works as a nexus that constantly moves. With each bonfire that you're at, there's multiple pathways that you can take to different surrounding areas depending on what pathways are available. Some pathways may need to be opened via shortcut after defeating a boss, and the short cuts are essential to traversing across the world of dark souls. another thing you will notice is that the game now functions off of a hollow/unhollow and humanity system as opposed to the physical/soul form and world/character tendencies of demon's souls. Humanity can be gained randomly from mobs, corpses on the ground, winning pvp battles, beating another players boss via co-op, and so fourth. The items aren't rare, but they take a little bit of effort to obtain. -------------- BASICS -------------- CONTROLS -Just like in demon's souls the two left and two right triggers control your attacks. On a PS3 controller, r1 controls your right arm light swing, r2 controls your right arm heavy swing, L1 controls your left arm light swing, and L2 controls your left arm heavy swing. -Hold circle to run, tap circle while running to jump (this is new), tap circle while jogging to roll, tap circle while standing still to jump backwards. If you're standing still and hit circle to jump back and then hit an attack button you jump back and then do a running attack. If you hold down circle to run and hit an attack you do a running attack. -Square is "use" for your consumables. -Triangle switches from single to dual wielding. -left analog + r1 (at the same time) to kick. left analog + r2 (at the same time) to commit a jumping attack. -if you hit R3 you target a mob, if you click it again you untarget that mob -If you're falling and you hit attack right before you drop onto an enemy below you, you do an insanely damaging falling attack (this is new). -If you have a shield equipped into one of the left hand slots you hold L1 to block. You can hit L2 (timing has to be insanely precise) to parry and then r1 directly after to riposte. -you can perform a backstab but there is one miniscule sweet spot in order to perform it in the exact center of the back MECHANICS/CONCEPTS similar to demon's souls fire is a completely different type of magic than magic itself (which consists of lightning, poison, holy etc..), but fire plays an even bigger role in dark souls since you must wield an item known as a pyromancy flame - as opposed to just using a catalyst like miracles/magic. Just like in demon's souls fire damage is pretty overpowered, but there are some monsters that are 90% resistant to it - so it's a double edged sword. souls are your main item in the game. They can be used as a source of currency to buy items/weapons, upgrade, and to invest in stat points. The stat layout is pretty similar to demon's souls with some stats renamed. Once you die you drop a bloodstain. This bloodstain contains all of the souls you have obtained at that point (which means when you respawn that you have 0). If you can make it back to that bloodstain you will obtain all the souls (or humanities which is explained in a bit) that you lost, but if you die before retrieving it you drop a new blood stain with however many souls you have obtained to that point. i.e. you have 20,000 souls and die. you now have 0 souls and make it halfway to the 20,000 soul bloodstain you dropped. you die not even halfway there. At that point you only acquired 100 souls.. the only bloodstain now available (at the halfway point) contains 100 souls. You lost the 20,000 permanently. -------------- HUMANITY -------------- with humanity you can do multiple things: 1. you can go to a bonfire and make yourself unhollow. being unhollow opens up your world for attack (pvp/invasion), but it also allows you to see soul signs that potential co-opers will drop for you to summon them. In unhollow form I believe you deal more damage as well. 2. If you're unhollow you can kindle a fire, but lets take a step back. In the introduction of the game you come across an item known as an estus flask. These are your hp replenishment items in the game, and each standard bonfire (excluding the first one you come across after the tutorial in firelink shrine) replenishes those 5 estus flasks. When you're battling enemies and you use all 5 estus flasks, you cannot use the flasks again until you refill at a bonfire. kindling a fire increases the amount of estus flasks you receive - if you have 5 and kindle the fire, you permanently get 10 estus flasks from that specific bonfire. Later in the game you can kindle the fire a 2nd time and receive 15 estus flasks per that specific bonfire. keep in mind that it only affects that bonfire, so once you make it to the next bonfire further into the game you will only receive 5 estus flasks from that new fire. Estus flask are a crucial item since consumable hp replenishment items are hard to come by, miracles are again somewhat underpowered, and hp leech weapons only award you a sliver of hp per kill. 3. You can also consume the humanity and not use it. This displays next to your hp bar (as a number) and it stays active a la souls. The more humanity you consume without using it (on something such as unhollowing or kindling) the higher your drop rate % is. the catch is that once you die your humanity is taken from you like souls and can only be reobtained if you reach the bloodstain that you left in the spot you died. If you lose that bloodstain you lose that humanity permanently. 4. You can trade it to a covenant (explained later) in order to raise your level with them. -------------- COVENANT -------------- There's a new concept in dark souls known as covenants. Covenants are basically NPC/PvP groups that you can join and obtain benefits (or issues) after joining. Many covenants will give you an item as soon as you join - such as a crazy unique weapon, a ring, or something of that nature. Some will not give you items until you contribute to the covenant. The items you have to contribute to covenants tend to be very rare items that can be invested in multiple other areas, so DO NOT invest into a covenant until you know the benefits from doing so. Covenants also have a function in PvP. The higher you are with that covenant, the more damage you will do in that area (in pvp). You can obtain PvP lists for people in opposing covenants and invade them according to how 'wanted' they are. When you invade someone's world, if you kill an NPC from their covenant you move up higher on the 'wanted' list for your covenant. This means that your more susceptible to other players' invasions. -------------- IMPRESSION - bosses -------------- my overall impression of the game is somewhat positive. the bosses in this game may seem like a walk in the park if you've played demon's souls. They are WAY easier with the exception of maybe one boss. The boss fights are for the most part pretty unique, but didn't provide the controller-crushing difficulty that made boss kills in demon's souls feel so rewarding. As you may have seen in the trailer, there's bosses with weird teeth, a wolf that carries a huge sword in it's mouth, hydras, and powerful humanoids. There are MANY more bosses in dark souls than demon's souls which is a welcome addition. The more bosses in a game the better - in my opinion at least. There are an insane amount of mini-bosses that you will see periodically throughout the game. Many mini bosses will be different from the last encounter, and some that you will see multiple times (sometimes multiple at the same time :P). -------------- IMPRESSION - enemies -------------- The enemies are among the most unique that I've seen in any dark fantasy type game. Weird octopus slugs, crystal behemoths, trees (lol), and so fourth. Keep in mind that I've said the most unique that I'VE seen in any dark fantasy type game. I'm sure you guys have come across and can list games with more unique monsters. -------------- IMPRESSION - weapons -------------- The weapons are twice as plentiful in dark souls, but the **** part is that all those additions are pretty much useless. For pve you can obtain a drake sword that will last you up until 50% of the game... which at that point you will find the lightning spear that could last you the remaining 50%. In PvP you will see the majority of the people using a +5 lightning uchigatana since it's one of the most overpowered weapons in the game. It deals 499 damage once upgraded, and the stats to use it are very minor (I believe strength and dexterity under somewhere around 15 is the requirement). Many players are upgrading that weapon, and sinking ALL of their points into vitality and endurance. For example, a player that uses one of the best stat scaling weapons in the game, can only achieve around 400 damage with 50 points in dex or str. That's a lot of points wasted to do less damage than a player who sank 15 into dex and strength and is using an easy-to-obtain lightning uchigatana. -------------- IMPRESSION - armor -------------- the armor in the game is just as plentiful as the weapons - about twice as much than in demon's souls, but again, armor plays a very minor role in the game since everything can 2 or 3 shot you anyways. there are some overpowered rings in PvP too. In PvP everyone has been using the 'fog ring'. What this does is it makes you untargetable, meaning that you have to melee or cast spells without targeting - and it's bloody difficult/borderline impossible against good players. If you're playing dark souls, or have played demon's souls, you know how difficult it can be to kill enemies without targeting them. -------------- IMPRESSION - areas -------------- The areas are more unique than in demon's souls. This is one of the best parts of the game. You have luscious forests, crystal caves, gigantic trees (actually a full level of climbing down a tree), a beautiful ash/reflective lake and so fourth. There are some typical areas such as the medieval castle, but it still fits the game's atmosphere perfectly. The game being somewhat open-world makes the game much more enjoyable than the linear world of demon's souls since you can explore to a certain degree - but not as much as a truly open world game. The only complaint I have about the dark souls areas is that there's a few places - such as the painted world of ariamis and blighttown - that chug. the areas provide a constant FPS of 10 throughout the entire thing... -------------- IMPRESSION - pvp/co-op/online mechanics -------------- the online portion of the game is among the worst aspects of the game - especially when compared to demon's souls which had a pretty innovative/incredible online system. There's no bosses that you get to play as, the servers are P2P (unlike demon's souls dedicated servers), and there's multiple servers per region (as opposed to the one server per region in demon's souls)...meaning that if you try and co-op with a friend more than likely you both will be on opposite servers 90% of the time. Near end game you see a lot more souls signs and a lot more players invade, but again when you're pvping you're just dreading the players that are going to be using a vitality/endurance +5 lightning uchigatana fog ring build. I could just use the exact same setup as well, but then the game isn't as fun and intense as it should be. -------------- IMPRESSION - problems -------------- There's a lot of bugs in the game too. 3 bosses that kill themselves on accident - I experienced two...one boss that bugs out on a bridge that you need to get past to advance in the game, and the only way to unbug it is to do a jumping attack (nothing else works..). I had to search the solution online to figure out what the problem was. Some of the bugs are painfully obvious, happen every playthrough, and should have been fixed by from software before releasing the game. I'm pretty sure these issues will eventually be patched. -------------- FINAL THOUGHTS -------------- for the amount of complaints I have, I still really enjoyed the game. As you see I didn't comment on story because the story is basically something you piece together by talking to NPCs. It's not the traditional story-telling that you will find in other similar games. The voice acting is superb - just like in demon's souls - and every NPC seems to be tired, depressed, out of breath, and barely hanging on. It further pushes the desolate, depressing, and deadly atmosphere of dark souls. I had a really enjoyable experience playing dark souls, and in the end I would rate it a 9.5/10. (sorry for comparing it to demon's souls constantly, but I rated demon's souls a 10/10). [/spoiler] now I'm back to completing the witcher 2 for my first playthrough. Been slowly but surely making my way through it. I also have gears of war 3, nhl 12, and catherine shipping to my place thanks to the toys-r-us buy 2 get 1 free (still available through the 22nd if anyone is interested. I'll be playing gears and nhl 12 once they come, and eventually hit up the Wii games I've been dying to play. I just need to make sure I have nothing in my mind/in my backlog when I play both titles.
I'm very excited to finally be able to play both. I beat dark souls recently and have done a some-what horrible written writeup about it. find my impressions in the spoiler below: [spoiler] Let me start by saying that if you haven't had a hands on with demon's souls, dark souls will take awhile to adjust to via controls, gameplay style (patience), and customization. Dark Souls doesn't play like many games out on the market, and I noticed this when my buddy bought it. He played it without having had any experience in demon's souls and after some minor explanations he was able to pick it up fairly fast, but had he not had my help it probably would have taken him an additional hour or two to adjust. If you do have experience with demon's souls, dark souls could end up being a walk in the park but at the same time it could prove to be a somewhat difficult task. -------------- DIFFERENCES -------------- there are quite a few differences between demon's souls and dark souls - some positive some negative. The first thing you will notice is that the game functions off of a bonfire system as opposed to the nexus hub. The interesting concept behind this is that the bonfire works as a nexus that constantly moves. With each bonfire that you're at, there's multiple pathways that you can take to different surrounding areas depending on what pathways are available. Some pathways may need to be opened via shortcut after defeating a boss, and the short cuts are essential to traversing across the world of dark souls. another thing you will notice is that the game now functions off of a hollow/unhollow and humanity system as opposed to the physical/soul form and world/character tendencies of demon's souls. Humanity can be gained randomly from mobs, corpses on the ground, winning pvp battles, beating another players boss via co-op, and so fourth. The items aren't rare, but they take a little bit of effort to obtain. -------------- BASICS -------------- CONTROLS -Just like in demon's souls the two left and two right triggers control your attacks. On a PS3 controller, r1 controls your right arm light swing, r2 controls your right arm heavy swing, L1 controls your left arm light swing, and L2 controls your left arm heavy swing. -Hold circle to run, tap circle while running to jump (this is new), tap circle while jogging to roll, tap circle while standing still to jump backwards. If you're standing still and hit circle to jump back and then hit an attack button you jump back and then do a running attack. If you hold down circle to run and hit an attack you do a running attack. -Square is "use" for your consumables. -Triangle switches from single to dual wielding. -left analog + r1 (at the same time) to kick. left analog + r2 (at the same time) to commit a jumping attack. -if you hit R3 you target a mob, if you click it again you untarget that mob -If you're falling and you hit attack right before you drop onto an enemy below you, you do an insanely damaging falling attack (this is new). -If you have a shield equipped into one of the left hand slots you hold L1 to block. You can hit L2 (timing has to be insanely precise) to parry and then r1 directly after to riposte. -you can perform a backstab but there is one miniscule sweet spot in order to perform it in the exact center of the back MECHANICS/CONCEPTS similar to demon's souls fire is a completely different type of magic than magic itself (which consists of lightning, poison, holy etc..), but fire plays an even bigger role in dark souls since you must wield an item known as a pyromancy flame - as opposed to just using a catalyst like miracles/magic. Just like in demon's souls fire damage is pretty overpowered, but there are some monsters that are 90% resistant to it - so it's a double edged sword. souls are your main item in the game. They can be used as a source of currency to buy items/weapons, upgrade, and to invest in stat points. The stat layout is pretty similar to demon's souls with some stats renamed. Once you die you drop a bloodstain. This bloodstain contains all of the souls you have obtained at that point (which means when you respawn that you have 0). If you can make it back to that bloodstain you will obtain all the souls (or humanities which is explained in a bit) that you lost, but if you die before retrieving it you drop a new blood stain with however many souls you have obtained to that point. i.e. you have 20,000 souls and die. you now have 0 souls and make it halfway to the 20,000 soul bloodstain you dropped. you die not even halfway there. At that point you only acquired 100 souls.. the only bloodstain now available (at the halfway point) contains 100 souls. You lost the 20,000 permanently. -------------- HUMANITY -------------- with humanity you can do multiple things: 1. you can go to a bonfire and make yourself unhollow. being unhollow opens up your world for attack (pvp/invasion), but it also allows you to see soul signs that potential co-opers will drop for you to summon them. In unhollow form I believe you deal more damage as well. 2. If you're unhollow you can kindle a fire, but lets take a step back. In the introduction of the game you come across an item known as an estus flask. These are your hp replenishment items in the game, and each standard bonfire (excluding the first one you come across after the tutorial in firelink shrine) replenishes those 5 estus flasks. When you're battling enemies and you use all 5 estus flasks, you cannot use the flasks again until you refill at a bonfire. kindling a fire increases the amount of estus flasks you receive - if you have 5 and kindle the fire, you permanently get 10 estus flasks from that specific bonfire. Later in the game you can kindle the fire a 2nd time and receive 15 estus flasks per that specific bonfire. keep in mind that it only affects that bonfire, so once you make it to the next bonfire further into the game you will only receive 5 estus flasks from that new fire. Estus flask are a crucial item since consumable hp replenishment items are hard to come by, miracles are again somewhat underpowered, and hp leech weapons only award you a sliver of hp per kill. 3. You can also consume the humanity and not use it. This displays next to your hp bar (as a number) and it stays active a la souls. The more humanity you consume without using it (on something such as unhollowing or kindling) the higher your drop rate % is. the catch is that once you die your humanity is taken from you like souls and can only be reobtained if you reach the bloodstain that you left in the spot you died. If you lose that bloodstain you lose that humanity permanently. 4. You can trade it to a covenant (explained later) in order to raise your level with them. -------------- COVENANT -------------- There's a new concept in dark souls known as covenants. Covenants are basically NPC/PvP groups that you can join and obtain benefits (or issues) after joining. Many covenants will give you an item as soon as you join - such as a crazy unique weapon, a ring, or something of that nature. Some will not give you items until you contribute to the covenant. The items you have to contribute to covenants tend to be very rare items that can be invested in multiple other areas, so DO NOT invest into a covenant until you know the benefits from doing so. Covenants also have a function in PvP. The higher you are with that covenant, the more damage you will do in that area (in pvp). You can obtain PvP lists for people in opposing covenants and invade them according to how 'wanted' they are. When you invade someone's world, if you kill an NPC from their covenant you move up higher on the 'wanted' list for your covenant. This means that your more susceptible to other players' invasions. -------------- IMPRESSION - bosses -------------- my overall impression of the game is somewhat positive. the bosses in this game may seem like a walk in the park if you've played demon's souls. They are WAY easier with the exception of maybe one boss. The boss fights are for the most part pretty unique, but didn't provide the controller-crushing difficulty that made boss kills in demon's souls feel so rewarding. As you may have seen in the trailer, there's bosses with weird teeth, a wolf that carries a huge sword in it's mouth, hydras, and powerful humanoids. There are MANY more bosses in dark souls than demon's souls which is a welcome addition. The more bosses in a game the better - in my opinion at least. There are an insane amount of mini-bosses that you will see periodically throughout the game. Many mini bosses will be different from the last encounter, and some that you will see multiple times (sometimes multiple at the same time :P). -------------- IMPRESSION - enemies -------------- The enemies are among the most unique that I've seen in any dark fantasy type game. Weird octopus slugs, crystal behemoths, trees (lol), and so fourth. Keep in mind that I've said the most unique that I'VE seen in any dark fantasy type game. I'm sure you guys have come across and can list games with more unique monsters. -------------- IMPRESSION - weapons -------------- The weapons are twice as plentiful in dark souls, but the **** part is that all those additions are pretty much useless. For pve you can obtain a drake sword that will last you up until 50% of the game... which at that point you will find the lightning spear that could last you the remaining 50%. In PvP you will see the majority of the people using a +5 lightning uchigatana since it's one of the most overpowered weapons in the game. It deals 499 damage once upgraded, and the stats to use it are very minor (I believe strength and dexterity under somewhere around 15 is the requirement). Many players are upgrading that weapon, and sinking ALL of their points into vitality and endurance. For example, a player that uses one of the best stat scaling weapons in the game, can only achieve around 400 damage with 50 points in dex or str. That's a lot of points wasted to do less damage than a player who sank 15 into dex and strength and is using an easy-to-obtain lightning uchigatana. -------------- IMPRESSION - armor -------------- the armor in the game is just as plentiful as the weapons - about twice as much than in demon's souls, but again, armor plays a very minor role in the game since everything can 2 or 3 shot you anyways. there are some overpowered rings in PvP too. In PvP everyone has been using the 'fog ring'. What this does is it makes you untargetable, meaning that you have to melee or cast spells without targeting - and it's bloody difficult/borderline impossible against good players. If you're playing dark souls, or have played demon's souls, you know how difficult it can be to kill enemies without targeting them. -------------- IMPRESSION - areas -------------- The areas are more unique than in demon's souls. This is one of the best parts of the game. You have luscious forests, crystal caves, gigantic trees (actually a full level of climbing down a tree), a beautiful ash/reflective lake and so fourth. There are some typical areas such as the medieval castle, but it still fits the game's atmosphere perfectly. The game being somewhat open-world makes the game much more enjoyable than the linear world of demon's souls since you can explore to a certain degree - but not as much as a truly open world game. The only complaint I have about the dark souls areas is that there's a few places - such as the painted world of ariamis and blighttown - that chug. the areas provide a constant FPS of 10 throughout the entire thing... -------------- IMPRESSION - pvp/co-op/online mechanics -------------- the online portion of the game is among the worst aspects of the game - especially when compared to demon's souls which had a pretty innovative/incredible online system. There's no bosses that you get to play as, the servers are P2P (unlike demon's souls dedicated servers), and there's multiple servers per region (as opposed to the one server per region in demon's souls)...meaning that if you try and co-op with a friend more than likely you both will be on opposite servers 90% of the time. Near end game you see a lot more souls signs and a lot more players invade, but again when you're pvping you're just dreading the players that are going to be using a vitality/endurance +5 lightning uchigatana fog ring build. I could just use the exact same setup as well, but then the game isn't as fun and intense as it should be. -------------- IMPRESSION - problems -------------- There's a lot of bugs in the game too. 3 bosses that kill themselves on accident - I experienced two...one boss that bugs out on a bridge that you need to get past to advance in the game, and the only way to unbug it is to do a jumping attack (nothing else works..). I had to search the solution online to figure out what the problem was. Some of the bugs are painfully obvious, happen every playthrough, and should have been fixed by from software before releasing the game. I'm pretty sure these issues will eventually be patched. -------------- FINAL THOUGHTS -------------- for the amount of complaints I have, I still really enjoyed the game. As you see I didn't comment on story because the story is basically something you piece together by talking to NPCs. It's not the traditional story-telling that you will find in other similar games. The voice acting is superb - just like in demon's souls - and every NPC seems to be tired, depressed, out of breath, and barely hanging on. It further pushes the desolate, depressing, and deadly atmosphere of dark souls. I had a really enjoyable experience playing dark souls, and in the end I would rate it a 9.5/10. (sorry for comparing it to demon's souls constantly, but I rated demon's souls a 10/10). [/spoiler] now I'm back to completing the witcher 2 for my first playthrough. Been slowly but surely making my way through it. I also have gears of war 3, nhl 12, and catherine shipping to my place thanks to the toys-r-us buy 2 get 1 free (still available through the 22nd if anyone is interested. I'll be playing gears and nhl 12 once they come, and eventually hit up the Wii games I've been dying to play. I just need to make sure I have nothing in my mind/in my backlog when I play both titles.