Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah - I had a point of weakness this past month and finally bought Demon’s Souls when I saw it for sub-$40 during all these crazy sales. It’s been very slow to discount, so I snatched it up and I plan to play it soon. I think it’ll be my next PS5 project as soon as I wrap up Rift Apart (which might be this week).

I’m a little anxious about starting it. I’m not sure why. Probably because these Soulsborne games are scary and hard. 😛 But the consensus is it’s easier than the other FromSoft games. And, although a completely different style, it’s easier than Returnal which I recently made it all the way through. So it should be fine, right? [gulp]

And just to add to your questioning of my sanity — one of the other games I picked up on a steep sale last month was Nier Replicant. 😅 I think it looks interesting!

@Th3solution I reckon you will be fine, after you have gotten used to the change of pace and the need to block, parry and dodge.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Hi there friend.
So you played trough Nier Automata and got the True ending. Yeah they kinda do something similar in the previous one, but i won´t say what it is for spoiler reasons.
But I think it´s a pretty interesting idea nonetheless.
And you are absolutely right, not only the sounstrack is sublime, it is manipulative as heck.
The game just wants you to feel everything these characters go trough. I think it´s great.
Also, being able to buy trophies is exactly the kind of thing Yoko Taro would implement. Crazy Genius.
Oh and did you play just Dark Souls 1 or all of them? Just curious.
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@Th3solution Hi there friend.
Demon´s Souls is kinda easier than other Souls games....... Just don´t die to much in Human Body form.
The game get´s harder..... Fun, right?
If it is the very first Souls game your playing, heres some tips:

• Always have your shield ready until you are able to quick dodge roll;
• Get better at dodge roll. Then you can two hand weapons and do a bit more damage;
• Don´t waste Boss Souls. They will be valuable for weapons and spells;
• Kill the black knight in Tower of Latria. That´s world 3-2 from letf to right. Trust me on this.;
• Learn enemies and Bosses paterns, be patient and don´t get greedy in a fight and you´ll be fine.
  If you can beat Returnal, my personal GOTY, you can beat Demon´s Souls no problem.
  Nier Replicant is great. Amazing soundtrack, better visuals and even better gameplay than the original.
  Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@RaZieLDaNtE Thanks, buddy. Good advice. I have played, completed, and loved Bloodborne a few years ago. I played the opening few hours of Dark Souls 1 back on PS3 and it just wasn’t gelling with me at the time. If was difficult, sure, but I was also just a little confused by the game and what it wanted from me. Your advice will be helpful. In fact, you say “just don’t die too much in human form” and I never really understood the difference between the human form and the ghost form (or whatever it’s called). I’m not sure if Demon’s Souls will explain it better than DS1, but what’s the advantages to each form?

@Th3solution Hey there friend.
So Demon´s Souls has World Tendency and your Character Tendency.
When ever you kill a Boss, defeat a black phantom version of an enemy or npc (red tinted ones) in a World, let´s say Boletaria Castle as an example, you will advance that World Tendecy towards Pure White.
Wich mean that enemies will have less health and drop more health resources, you get more heatlh in Soul form, some areas will unlock and some npcs will apear.
If you die in Human body form, or kill an npc in the Boletaria Castle World, again as an example, it will advance towards Pure Black.
Wich means that enemies will have more health, but will drop more upgrade resources, they will also do more damage, you´ll get less health in Soul body form, some areas will unlock and Black Phantom versions of npcs will apear.
If you kill a "normal looking" npc, you will get their armour. If you kill a Black phantom version of an npc, you will get their weapon.
It is a tricky game mechanic, although kinda interesting, just not so well implemented.
A lot of people keep dying in Human form and game becomes even more difficult, so they give up.
So don´t give up 😉 Hope it helps.
Glad you liked Bloodborne, my personal Soulsborne type game.
I still think that is Myazaki´s masterpiece, in my opinion.
Kinda have a somewhat funny (not so funny for me) story about my first experience with Dark Souls.....
Cheers, stay safe and all the best

@Th3solution yeah @RaZieLDaNtE lays it out pretty well tbh, as it isn’t really touched on at all ‘in-game’ iirc.

Basically, if you fancy chasing the plat… there is a ‘lovely lil suicide spot’ 🤣 that you will always see other players jumping off from in the Nexus. Basically, as soon as you become human, head back to the Nexus and take a leap off the platform high above Stockpile Thomas (you’ll get to know him soon enough)… and neither your Character, nor any of the World Tendencies will be effected.

@colonelkilgore Hey there friend.
Yeah, I completely forgot to mention to @Th3solution about the whole suicide in the Nexus thing, especialy if your going for the Platinum.
There is a bunch of little quirks and hidden things in the game have and, although it can be interesting to find it out for ourselves, some of them are just not player friendly at all.
Also, best way to change your Character Tendency, in my opinion, is trough PVP.
If you invade, Pure Black. If you are the one being invaded, Pure White.
There´s a fun Boss that summons you to another player world so that you become the Boss yourself.
Fun game I say.
Cheers, stay safe you two and happy gaming weekend to us all

@colonelkilgore @RaZieLDaNtE It sounds brilliant, but also really complex and confusing. Hopefully it makes sense when I actually start the game.

@Th3solution yeah, it’s a peculiar system that never got recycled into any of From’s subsequent games. It’s really cool in theory... and relatively cool in execution once you get your head around it. There are areas of levels, items and characters that will only be available during certain World and Character tendencies. Although I would whole heartedly advise blind first playthroughs on these games... I would suggest researching the Tendency aspects a bit as they can be difficult to fully understand.

@RaZieLDaNtE yeah that would be a good place to manipulate Character Tendency actually... personally, I had to spend a good few hours killing the plague babies to farm stones of the ephemeral eyes. I’ve done a good few rng farms in my time... but that was definitely the most unpleasant 🤮

@Th3solution I wouldn't worry with the platinum as it requires multiple play throughs, which if my memory serves is not something you generally do.

Just enjoy the game for what it is, without getting bogged down with all the nonsense you have to do for the platinum.

@JohnnyShoulder I think @RaZieLDaNtE was just bringing the whole tendency subject up as @Th3solution had expressed a little anxiety about taking on a souls game again... and there is the possibility that any ignorance of the tendency systems possibly resulting in the game being made even more difficult than at neutral tendency. There is then the obvious trade off of having less health in spirit form anyway, so any trade off in difficulty is actually debatable... but i think worth a mention nonetheless.

@JohnnyShoulder
A blind first playtrough is always preferable. But these games have very unusual and somewhat obtuse game mechanics that can sometimes hinder the fun people can have with these games.
@colonelkilgore I did a lot of pvp in Tower of Latria, just by being summoned as the Boss.
Got to PBCT very quickly. Other spots I used for PVP were 1-1 and 2-1.
As for farming, usualy I would make PBWT and then go after the materials I needed.
Tankfully, farming in the Remake is far more generous this time around.
@Th3solution It will make sense..... Eventualy 😜 Just have fun with the game. Bluepoint made an amazing job with this Remake and I can´t wait to see what they do next
Cheers, stay safe and all the best

@colonelkilgore It does sound really ahead of it’s time, and amazing that such a aggressive project was a PS3 game. It’s interesting how FromSoft was able to accumulate enough of a cult following to turn this game idea into an enormous franchise. We’ll see how Elden Ring goes, but if it’s everything we expect it to be, their notoriety and success is going to just continue to blossom. Since Demon’s Souls was the first game to flesh out this “souls-like” niche, I’m amazed at how ambitious the game seems to be.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, getting the platinum isn’t really in my plans. There’s always the possibility that I might end up wanting to, but you’re correct — I rarely do multiple full playthroughs. In fact, I’m anticipating being really close to the Rift Apart platinum when I finish it soon and I think I’m going to have to play part of a second run and I’m bummed about that. I think there’s a weapon that can’t be acquired until NG+, or some like that.

@colonelkilgore I have no issue with what @RaZieLDaNtE and you said previously...

The World Tendency stuff can be a bit obtuse initially. I suppose it is up to the individual if they want to to look guides and things, and not others dictate what should and shouldn't be done. And that is not me saying that is what you guys were doing, in case it gets misconstrued again.

I generally do a bit of both and go through an area blind and then sometimes look at a guide after to see if I missed anything.

@Th3solution Yeah same here. Returnal is about the only exception, but seeing as that is one of the main themes of the game, it is kind of the point.

@Th3solution I never used to do any multiple playthroughs on anything (which couldn’t be farther from the truth these days what with having just done 10.5 for MGS4) but it has always ‘felt’ a little different with souls-likes… at least for me personally. Thing is that by the time you will have completed your first (& maybe only eventual playthrough) you will have played pretty much all of the constituent sections so many times each, that it might not feel like much of a bind to play through each section ‘just the once more’ 😉. At least that’s how the little devil on my shoulder put it anyway 🤣

@colonelkilgore @JohnnyShoulder When I completed Bloodborne I do remember having a fleeting moment when I felt the desire to replay it to experience it again with a different build. I’m not dedicated enough to have done that, but it is one of the impressive things about the From games is that they do have such a large variance in how you can approach the game so it makes for fresh experiences when you play again with a different weapon set or character construct. I never have gone back to BB to try and do one of those crazy Bloodtinge builds or magic builds, but if I had endless supplies of time then I would consider it. I have it on my “deserted island” list as a game I’d like to have were I stranded with nothing to do; it could be played ad infinitum and probably never get old. Alas, I live in the real world so I favor cramming in a multitude of new experiences in my limited time. 😄

@Th3solution As someone who has actually purchased four copies of Bloodborne (original UK release, GotY UK release, Middle-East release & Japanese special edition release) hoping that at least one of them would have a separate (stackable) trophy list, so I could plat it again. So I definitely approve of your inclusion of it if deserted on an island.

Sadly, none of them ended up ‘stacking’, so hopefully those rumours of a remake/remaster are true… for me at least.

I’ve just finished a route on AI: The somnium files. I see a route because I suspect that would be a lot more to see had I made other choices. But I’m happy with the ending I got and I don’t particularly want to follow all the paths. Definitely an interesting game and worth playing.