It's not that hard, just grindy. Grind so much in the first area that you can up your stats to a level where you can actually live for more than 5 seconds and have a humongo stock pile of moon grass. At least that's what I plan on doing.

Eh, I only grinded during New Game +. And that was only for my very personal OCD when it comes to getting every bloody item I can. At that point you don't even need HP raising abilities, since you'll need to have acquired enough skill to never get hit by common enemies, and bosses will kill you with one blow anyway.

I'm talking about just getting through the other 4 zones. I can't, so I have to grind the first area for items.

I never actually had that issue to the point where it would be exploitable. My main issue with that fight is that I often jump into a wall and he gets me.

Some new screens just came out. They dont look like magazine scans so I'll post them


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420591

That world O_O

Edit: It also looks like we have white phantoms now

I need to pre order this when it is announced.

Whoa. They said they'd ramp up the weirdness factor in their monsters. But this I did not expect. Congratulations, From Software.



€: Let http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/dark-souls-gets-official-announcement be grant, so the world might be mended

That trailer is......................


I'm speechless.

It better come out here this year!

I dont have a PS3, so how difficult was the original ? Compare it to any other games ?
Also is cobat real time or stat based ?

It's not very difficult. Most of those whose reaction to the game was that it is terribly difficult have simply forgotten what it is to play a game that expects you to be attentive, cautious, tactical, learn from your mistakes and from those of others', etc. Every enemy you encounter can potentially kill you if you aren't careful. Even myself and some of the other 'veterans' would still die now and then when we weren't paying attention.

Basically: Demon's Souls does difficulty right; Ninja Gaiden, and other similar games, do not.

Oh, and a side note: if anyone is picking the game up now and needs some help, my PSNid is NumberoftheJon. Shoot me a message and I'll help out whenever I get on, which isn't much anymore -- I've sort of hung the hat with Demon's Souls since all I was doing for the last few months were PvP and tournaments.

And one last thing, those screens are looking quite impressive. The only thing I'm a little worried about is if the PS3 version and 360 version will be the same. If so, the PS3 version will likely be held back by the 360's lack of BluRay. :glare:

Combat is real time, but your stats do play a role in how much damage you give and receive. There are people who have beat the game at level 1 simply because they have godly reflexes

Right. It seems I forgot about that part of the question.

Firstly: the game is class based, but that doesn't really mean anything beyond what equipment you start with and what levels your statistics are in the begining. After the game has begun, any character can put their experience into any attribute they want, so in a sense, any class can be anything. That said, the attributes are important and tie heavily into which weapons you should be using and forging, as certain weapons/weapon types receive multipliers from attributes.

As others have said the learning curve is steep. You will be punished for your mistakes. But as you may have heard the game does not give out cheap deaths, but there is ALOT of trail of error. In this way it is very much like a 2-d scroller, you have to learn the game's patterns before being able to complete a level or beat an enemy.

Also the game's souls system is quite unique. You are rewarded souls for killing enemies. You either have to spend the souls on leveling or gear or carry them with you. If you die, your souls are left at that spot in the level and you return to the begining of the level. You then must get back to that point in the level to retrieve your souls. If you die again before retriving couls, bye bye souls.

It probably took me 5 hours to figure the first level. Kinda embarassing, but that should give you an idea of the learning curve and I never looked stuff up on the internet. Now i can beat the stage in 10 minutes. Go figure.

Combat is modifed by stats. Weapons have pre reqs like STR, DEX, MAGIC. You basically invest in damage, endurance, health. It is still very much an action rpg that depends on player skill, but the character building is so VERY deep, deeper than some other non-action RPGs.

It is interesting that many people compare this to the older NES ninja gaiden series. I always thought this before reading it here.



I was disappointed in this as well. The character tendency and world tendency were very innovative additions to the game. And I was astonished to find the game got HARDER the more I died. It also had some impact on the multiplayer component altering DAM and HP depending on world + character tendency. I hope if is going to be replaced by some other tendency system. It took me SO long to properly manipulate the world/character system properly.



Let me known if you want any help . My PSN is Ratt_707. I just started a new game, again.

Love the art direction, it's great to see a legitimately dark and horrific fantasy world that would make Kentaro Miura proud. Leave it to From Software to make something as mundane and cliche as a giant rat to be a truly nightmarish beast. This is going to be fun.


It's only grindy if you make it. Improving your stats always helps, but oftentimes, having the right spells, items, weapons, and upgrades does things just as well. And you can always try summoning help. And, well, even if you do resort to grind, you probably won't be noticing with all the dying you'll be doing.


Both. Combat plays like an action game, and success is going to rely on your reflexes and judgment; you really need to know when to dodge, when to block, when to attack, when to cast a spell, and when to heal. Statistics all play a part, though, from your damage output to health, to spellpower, and though it may seem a gradual process, you will be considerably stronger at the end of the game than you were at the beginning.

Thanks for bunch to linking those pics, I hadn't seen em before. I am holding back tears of joy.



The art direction and atmosphere really make me love this game, it feels so desolate and lonely my heart still jumps a bit when I'm invaded and I'm always happy to find help.

As far as grinding goes, it only felt that way my first game when I didn't really grasp the mechanics of the game.I actually just usually stay around a 90 soul lvl because that is where I'm comfortable pvping and usually when I'm done w/ my build. With things like souls svck, learning to farm, co-oping, earning souls become less of a priority, I just attain the lvl I'm comfortable playing at.

Preview:

http://www.1up.com/previews/dark-souls-harder-brutal-demon-souls

Looks pretty good. And the article sounded pretty promising. I'll be looking forward to it.

Thanks for the link. After being so tight lipped they're dropping alot of info this week. Glad to hear that this game may be harder.

That portion about fighting the minotaur/cave thing sounds promising, I like that the boss pursued you no matter where on the map you were. I hate AI exploits and there were quite a few in demon's souls.

Really wondering about how they will incorporate multiplayer into the "seamless world" they are creating. Any speculations?

I truly hope for a multiplayer staging area that lets ppl blue or black phantom with out having to world hop.

And did I see an execution animation in that trailer? That would be a great addition to the game, even if it a bit superficial.

That's actually the one thing I did not like about the trailer. Execution moves, be them quicktime or whatever, always feel so, well, as you put it, superficial. I don't like them.

Eh, you would have to agree that it feels kind of anticlimactic to just bash and bash and hex your enemy over and over again and them just falling for those repetitive actions after a while, or would you not?
I think it's nice to spice it up a little, and with the last blow enter a special finishing animation. As long as that's not done for every common type of enemy, it's really fine.

I think FROM did just fine without them in Demon's Souls. Take the Tower Knight, for instance. You didn't just bash and swing away at him until he was dead; there was a method to killing him that made it feel fairly climactic, and all without the use of some quicktime event that takes control away from the player and forces him to watch a cut-scene. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't like them at all.

It's probably something more akin to the backstabs/counterattacks you could pull (with difficulty) in Demon's Souls, just to fit for a specific, larger enemy.

In case you haven't seen it (sorry if this is A.B.P'd):

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/projectdark/news.html?sid=6297337&mode=previews&tag=topslot;title;2

They seem to emphasize a few main things during the interview:

1) RPG elements have been expanded on. There were very few traditional role playing elements in the original Demons' Souls.
2)Explorable environment / seamless world. I foresee insanely hard to find areas and many death's trying to get there.
3) If anything it will be harder ! :celebration: Bring the pain!

I am most excited about the explorable environment / seamless world aspect. If the team can bring the level design elements from Demons' Souls and apply them to an open world, this game will be amazing.

Release in fall 2011, eh? Damn, this is gonna' be a really cramped season.

Regardless, I like the sound of that vase shapeshifting spell. It's going to make invading, and handling invaders, soooo much fun.

New trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ignite-11-dark-souls/710266