Don't even get me started...

Me at the Defiled Chalice layer 3 yesterday (I did beat that boss in the end, but man the RAGE xD)

Maybe I haven't been doing my build right (again in these haha). I put one point into Arcane (21) again last night and although the literal stats don't show it, I noticed the damage boost with the LHB since it scales highest with Arcane. So I think with STR at 30 something and Skill at 40, I'll just beef up Arcane now. Maybe should have been doing that awhile ago. haha

Amygdala indeed sucks the big one. The third phase is absolutely obnoxious. I have died twice from getting stomped, which registers a hit, then BAM magically when I'm on the ground for whatever reason I get hit again and die. The fuck?

Hmm that has never happened to me...

Also, old, but still amusing:

LOOOOL

That is awesome.

Also, these products may be relevant to fans of metal and Dark Souls.

I don't really like any of those but the Four Kings one is amazing haha.

Hahaha wow. That Darkthrone/Dark Souls logo is pretty nifty too.

With the Defiled dungeon behind me, I feel like I can do anything now haha.

So far Ihyll doesn't seem that bad, I thought the Loran dungeon was tougher than this.

Ok, so I started playing Demon's Souls. Started as a Thief, and so far I've cleared as much as is possible of the Boletarian palace area and am currently a bit stuck on Armored Spider in Stonefang Tunnel after a couple encounters. Not exactly sure how best to approach this fight, or (as is often the case with Souls games) if I should even be doing this right now. Haha. Have put several levels into Vit, End, Str, and Dex but I think I'll probably end up doing a Dex-centered build again. Using the Winged Spear at the moment, so it's feeling quuiiite familiar to my Dark Souls experience . I'd like to choose something else, but I guess it just suits my play style. Heater Shield... Haven't upgraded my armor at all yet from the starting gear (black leather).

First impressions of this game are, as you would expect, that it's basically a slightly inferior version of Dark Souls. It's unavoidably annoying that you have to go back to the Nexus to do shit, but eh. Environmental design is wonderful, not surprisingly. Overall it feels a tiny bit rougher around the edges in the gameplay, and the inventory isn't quite as well done, but I'm really enjoying the game in general. Can't wait to see what some of the further areas are like.

Prepare to Farm


I would suggest you don't. Armour is worthless in this game, go with whatever looks good. And it just so happens that black leather (on males anyway) look the best!

I'm not sure how the inventory differs between the two. If anything it's better in Demon's because the game isn't riddled with throwaway junk armor.

The Black Leather armor set is the best like Morrigan said. Once I got that for my platinum NG+++ run, there was no reason to change. Other than I put some other headpiece on later on for fun to change it up. I vastly prefer the armor system in this and Bloodborne. You cannot literally upgrade armor and there's only a few minor differences stats wise between the sets. It's more visual. Dark Souls is way more bloated in comparison here, but I think that does make PvP more interesting with its huge array of armor sets, so people look more unique.

A Winged Spear Dex build... gah, don't do it man. That was how I did my first run and it's just embarrassing to look back on. It's so boring.

The Nexus is annoying? Whaaaaaaaat.

Armored Spider tip is don't die. The fire blast is pretty much unavoidable. Have plenty of herbs stocked and a good shield. Gotta be on your toes with that battle.

Demon's > Dark all day everyday.

Haha, well you guys certainly know far more about this game than I do, these are just my first impressions, subject to change. Good to know that armor isn't much worth fussing over, less complicated can be good. I know what you mean about the spear, it is certainly boring. I might switch to something either faster (some type of fancy dagger, perhaps, I was enjoying using my starting dagger) or polearm-ish with verticals (something like the crescent axe seems like good fun). The only thing that haunts me is the idea of investing a ton of time/ore into a weapon that I just want to switch away from in the end because I come across something more useful. Since I haven't invested that much in levels yet I can probably switch over to a strength build without too much trouble. I have no idea what magic is like in this game, so I wasn't really planning on using it very much. In Dark Souls I built up magic just enough to be able to use supplementary spells (Magic Weapon definitely came in handy a lot vs bosses) but this time I may just do pure melee, I dunno, still too early to say. IT'S TOO EARLY, GIVE ME SPACE, I NEED TIME TO FEEL

The inventory annoyances are mostly with the layout and whatnot. I think they just designed it better in Dark Souls, it's a little more user-friendly.

It's not the Nexus itself that's annoying, I like the Nexus. I wouldn't diss the Nexus, man, hell nah...Nexus is, like, dopebroze...yo... it's just having to go all the way there just to be able to level up and shit that gets annoying. Sorta breaks the flow of the game a bit. I do also have to say that I like the physical interconnectedness of the Dark Souls world over the hub-based warp mechanic of Demon's. It feels a littler more immersive and believable. But it's not that big a deal.

Dark Souls does have way too much fucking armor, it's true. Would've been way better to put all that design effort into an even wider range of weapons instead, thus making the game even deeper.

One of my friends and I were joking about the ore thing and all the weapons in the previous games. This is something Bloodborne did best, all the weapons are viable, versatile, and fun, and there's only like 20 or so (excluding guns, which probably has maybe a dozen or so).

That being said, if you stick to a weapon in the previous Souls games... I think that's all that really matters. I beat DS1 and DS2 with the Bastard Sword, nothing too fancy. In Demon's... check out the Bastard Sword and laugh a little at how huge it is, then get the motherfucking Claymore and laugh even more. Hands down the best weapon for my aggressive STR playstyle, it was incredible. So yeah, the Souls games are loaded with weapons and some unique fancy ones, but all I need is a +10 Bastard/Claymore sword and it's all good. I think I beat it originally with the Winged Spear myself lol... so just stick with a weapon that you think has a good moveset and some damage output.

Dark Souls is a bit more daunting of an experience and the warmth of the sparse fire pits is a nice touch, but I like the surreal weirdness to Demon's and the Nexus a lot. What is the Nexus? Where is it, is it even on Earth or a normal plane of existence? The Monumentals are way out there. The Maiden in Black is the best and the music is perfection. It's the best hub still out of these for me. DS2 pretty much has the same thing going with that town. Bloodborne has the Hunter's Dream with longer load times. The Nexus is the best.

Still not sure what you're on about the menu... pretty positive it's exactly the same in the first two haha. Huge clunky interface, but they don't bother me. It was DS2 that radically redesigned it and was better utilized for HDTV. It's a bit of a cluster with how much stuff you get though. In Demon's it's easy to just stock stuff up with stockpile Thomas or whatever his name was. So I don't think it's much of an issue. You'll only ever really want to keep around the only equipment you're using and stock away everything else.

It was fairly easy replaying it, but I still like Demon's the best in many ways. By far the best bosses and unique fights. Also, all three sequels are completely guilty of this, dropping a bonfire/warp very close to the bosses. This is never the case in Demon's, so it's all the more exhilarating when you have to trek through an entire section of a level to fight the boss and hopefully walk away victorious. That experience isn't really there in the others. I think this is why it's not a huge deal to warp back to the Nexus throughout. The warps are just straight up far more uncommon. So it's a nice safe haven. DS1 could get annoying having to travel someplace far to get to some merchant or blacksmith, and DS2 is just so over the top with all the warping and makes it disjointed a bit. No complaints here with Bloodborne, other than it being a little guilty of several "safe warps" a minute away from bosses. lol

The story, atmosphere, music, bosses, etc... yeah. Having played Demon's earlier this year and Bloodborne now, I can say it's not on the same level for me. I'd still probably give Bloodborne a 10/10, but Demon's and Dark beat it out, with Demon's still as my favorite... even if I think Dark Souls is better in many ways, Demon's is just so weird! Weird in the best ways. Classic.

Glad you're checking it out though since too many people skip over it.

My favorite level is probably the Tower of Latria, world 3. Best atmosphere.

Unless my memory is failing, you always had a pretty respectable hike from most bonfires to the bosses in DS1 - Having to run past the iron guardians and gargoyles to get to Ornstein & Smough every time was quite a hike; same with getting past all the skeletons and wizard-things in the Tomb of Giants to get to Nito. All of those seemed to have the right balance of difficulty in my book; if you had even longer savepoint/boss runs in Demons Souls that sounds a bit ridiculous.

I didn't mind the warping in DS2, but I agree that the bonfire placement was a bit too generous at times.

Yeah I won't argue there. Tomb of Giants and the Four Kings runs were the worst for me (because I lost the Firelink bonfire).

I don't think the runs in Demon's are exactly longer... but maybe I'm thinking I just like the linearity to it all and broken up levels. Starting from a warp and going to a boss is typically a straightforward point A to point B path, but it gets a little crazier and complex in the Dark games. There was just something about its design here to me that made it feel like old school games. The simplicity to Demon's is a good thing to me.


Sounds like you need a PS3 and Demon's!

Trust me, I've been planning on it for some time! Except now I may as well just save up a bit longer and get a PS4 for the sake of Bloodborne.

Also, any thoughts on Scholar of the First Sin? I just started a new character and was considering getting it (I'm assuming saves don't carry over, so I want to make the decision soon) but I wasn't sure if it's worth the $30 upgrade.

You guys are crazy. More armour is good. That means more options for Fashion Souls.

And more weapons is good too. Bloodborne is nice with its fewer-but-they're-all-viable weapons, but it limits the build variety somewhat.

Also, Bloodborne is like Tower of Latria, but like, the whole game. It's insane. And awesome.


lol? Of course it is. When it starts charging it, just run back to the entrance and it won't hit you.

I don't run from battle.

Got a decent video of me taking down Ebrietas in the Isz chalice dungeon... felt like one of the tougher fights to me. One of my friends did it and it looked like a different fight, he wasn't doing shit! But for me look at how hectic this is haha. I die the first time but it was kind of humorous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQkWIrSM1ws

@3:03 yeah I was speechless and I don't know how I survived the lasers that time, they were one shotting me, as was the puke blood if it hit me good.

....Uh, okay. Enjoy taking damage uselessly then...?


Sounds like the memory leak glitch.

Also, LOL (no spoilers)

Haha, that was bound to happen in one of the root chalices.

Yeah... I really do wonder how different the Bloodborne experiences are, in between the weird memory leak issues and people speculating Insight might change enemies up, kind of like this games' WT or something. No idea. I've read up about some of the minor enemy changes when you hit 15 or something like that, but I wonder if it goes further.

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus? Boom. Truthbomb.



Fuck, I've been avoiding watching very many videos of Bloodborne to avoid spoilers, but checked the first minute of this one... that's some most Lovecraftian shit, man, wow. Awesome design. And framerates so smooth! Looks quite silky next to the comparative roughness of Demon's Souls.

If you played Demon's and Dark (PS3) back to back, you'd witness how much better the framerate is on Demon's actually. lol

I'd say Bloodborne is about on par with the others on the PS3. There's definitely some dips, but oh well. Graphically it looks outstanding, as that dungeon shows I'd hope. The whole game is pretty much full on Lovecraftian stuff.

Hm, I have to say that vid of Bloodborne totally looks smoother than Demon's Souls. The camera panning looks way more seamless. But whatever, I'm not going to argue about it, as much as I'm sure the other readers of this thread would love to see this small disagreement devolve into two pages of pointless bickering!

I don't really care anyways lol. Anyone who claims Blighttown is more "fun" in 60FPS... what a joke.

We'll do anything to impress Morrigan.

I agree with Starmere, Bloodborne has been a lot smoother than Dark Souls in my experience. Demon's had dips in 5-2 and when you roll into a lot of boxes or jars but otherwise more stable than Dark Souls. The only dips I've noticed was in the beginning of Old Yharnam (I think it's all that smoke) and in one particular chalice dungeon that was stuttering a lot for some reason. And those weird occasional bugs that make everything slow to a 1fps crawl when entering some specific boss fogs for some reason but that's surely a bug that will get patched.


...Uh? It really was.

Blighttown and Fun don't go together no matter how you cut it. But by all means, bask in those dung piles all you want.

Blighttown is awesome. Genius level design, tons of good loot all around, oppressive atmosphere. The drawback was the sub-20 FPS on console (and sub-15 in multiplayer XD), and the PC version fixes all that so... yeah.

Yeah, as torturous as Blighttown was, it was one of my favorite parts of the game just for how memorable, well designed and atmospheric it was. They really succeeded in making it a loathsome and uncomfortable experience. Those rickety, collapsing, firelit walkways with the bloated, hideous arthropod...fucking...things? Gucchh. I also died one of my most legendary deaths in the absolute deepest corner of Blighttown, literally buried underneath a flopping, thrashing swarm of giant leeches ...so it definitely stuck in the mind. I think it also hit me at a point in the game where the absolute wonder of the level design was really starting to sink in. And speaking of Blighttown, I always wondered if I was missing something in that disc-shaped room behind the lower bonfire; the one with the metal gate beyond which is only darkness. At the time I figured I'd eventually come back to it from the other side, but that never happened.

Oh, this reminds me, how's the overall lighting in Bloodborne?

All that comes to mind to me is ladders. But these levels in these games are essential and just make me laugh. The area that I legitimately like a lot that's built on the dung piles is 5-2 in Valley of Defilement from Demon's. I would put 5-1 above Blighttown as well.

Honestly Blighttown probably just has its legacy because of the lag and maybe those ultra poison guys (forget what the status was called), otherwise I think it's a pretty easy and short area. I do like the bottom level of it a lot (kind of like 5-2 again) and some of the lower areas near the spider boss. The boulder guys haha.

Did you find Ash Lake? That craziest secret tucked away in Blighttown's lower level.

There's a charm to these sections, but I certainly didn't miss this stuff in Bloodborne.

The lighting in Bloodborne is damn good. Some great effects from whatever the weather is and one thing they pulled from DS2 that I liked a lot was the torch, but this time it's an infinitely burning torch (the catch is not being able to hold a gun or 2H a weapon, etc). I used it a lot for the early chalice dungeons especially. There's also a little lamp you can buy early on that kind of becomes essential. All this said, the one thing about Bloodborne is that the palette is consistently bleak and dark. The entire game game is mostly dark blacks, reds, purple, etc. With the other games it's kind of like they built these crazy worlds around the game, but with Bloodborne they built the game around its world... if that makes any sense. It's a strikingly huge and menacing setting that'll definitely stick.

But yeah, that said it's one thing I'm really looking forward to when I replay DS2, more diverse environments and being able to PRAISE THE SUN!

That's awesome, I've been really looking forward to the torch aspect of both DSII and Bloodborne. Firelight makes everything better. In Stonefang Tunnel in Demon's yesterday, I was suddenly taken down on that big flatbed elevator, down into pitch blackness, and knowing there were spiders about I was immediately terrified I was going to get lowered into some wide gulf of darkness to get feasted upon by some gargantuan spider I could barely see. Ggghh gives me shivers. Funny that the Souls games are sadistic enough to make that sort of thing being done to you a legitimate fear.

You know, From should try their hand at survival horror. The Souls games don't even fit the category, and yet they're still scarier and more oppressive than most games with the horror label out there.

Could be interesting. I'm definitely wondering what they're doing next.

I keep having a hilarious idea that an Armored Core Souls styled game could somehow work. Or a futuristic Souls game haha. I guess Shadow Tower kind of blended that line.


You know, I've never really been disturbed or bugged by bug enemies and designs in games... but Bloodborne is probably the nastiest I've ever seen. Freaking disgusting spiders, insect heads or pieces everywhere, the way they move... the hairs and insane graphical details... nasty!!! Gotta kill that crap instantly.

The only weaker area to Bloodborne to me was the music. I was wary of the American composer, but it turned out pretty awesome. There is some top notch boss music, but I don't think the OST compares to the previous games and it mostly seems kind of forgettable in the end. Nothing comes to close to stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs59egXnb3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFrcmJQencc

Did you intend to show when you died? I always use the PS4 trim feature before uploading to only get what I intended to show. Just push start and there's the trim option.

The lasers are avoided by just running. Lud and Zallen or Aava from Dark Souls 2 quickly teach you that running around can be a great strategy to avoid certain attacks.

That boss I think is easier with quick weapons. I never had a problem with my cane. You can almost trade blows with it because your attacks will keep regenerating your health back to a large degree. Back off and heal at times and repeat.

I finished the Defiled chalice and the Isz chalice and am on to the Great Pthumeru Ihyll Chalice. There's still a few other chalices I haven't explored. Lower Loran and Lower Hintertomb. So far I like how the Isz chalice looks the best. Really cool interior theme.

I trimmed it, yeah. But I thought that death was funny haha. First upload though and it went smoother than expected, easy to link to my youtube account too.

I knew that about the lasers (after countless deaths), but did you see how I barely dodged them in this video? It was hilarious. I got hit briefly but not spot on I guess. I didn't meant to jump when I did at that part, seemed easier to dodge them by just running. But it was just crazy in that last fight and somehow I escaped death, while also barely dodging two of its ramming attacks, and nearly getting hit by the spitting blood too haha.

Originally I was 1Handing the LHB, but my friend who beat this fight in like 30 seconds was using the Greatsword form. I think he glitch locked the boss repeatedly or something, because it didn't even enter the second phase. I'd link it but he didn't put it on youtube.

I'd say Loran and Defiled were the toughest portions of the game for me. I really didn't have much trouble with Ihyll, beat the Queen on my second try. I'd agree Isz looks the coolest.

Damn right. Bring back L3 for the jump, dammit! I keep accidentally jumping when I mean to run and doge and of course you have no i-frames and eat full damage. Why they didn't bring back this improvement (at least as an option) from DkS2, I have no idea.

Ew, jumping in Souls-like games. I'm not sure what it's like in Bloodbourne, but I lost count how many times I died in Dark Souls and Lords of the Fallen by jumping, landing on the platform, and then the idiot doing an unnecessary roll and taking a little tumble off the cliff. Grr. Did they fix that in Bloodbourne?

So I finished every possible chalice dungeon. All that's left are the randomized ones. So I can do a root chalice. Or I can use the coop and invading chalice. Or use someone else's chalice code. But yeah I'm done with all the optional side content and voila!

Platinum trophy!

I'm not Bloodborning as quickly as you guys are Bloodborning. I must Bloodborne faster.