GWJ Plays Dark Souls

Section: 

Join Cory and Shawn as they delve into Dark Souls Coop!

Comments

Witness the perfect introduction to Dark Souls at about 7:20

Good let's play. Much more interested in the game.

This might be the next game I play after bioshock infinite. Put 120 hours into demon souls.

My ex and I played quite a bit of Dark Souls coop back in the day. Those were some fun times. *sigh*

Is it a testament to the power of DkS that I sat here and watched this whole video, or a testament to to my Homer-esque "ooh shiny" syndrome? Good video guys, you captured a lot of the essence (and frustration) of the game!

Oh, and that second invader was an utter scumbag. Leading into enemies? Humanity? Black Separation Crystal? Scum tactics all.

Just a clarification from some stuff at 32:00 - You can be summoned into someone else's world when you are not human, but you cannot yourself summon anyone into your world. In other words you can drop your summon sign at any time to get called into another world. This is actually a little less restrictive than it is in Demon's Souls.

Humanity is a limiting factor to how often you can summon someone. This is kind of unfortunate because it limits the amount of summons that can realistically occur. And the more you die, the less likely you will be able to summon as you will have spent much more humanity. So the people who need the most help are less likely to have the resources to summon the help. This in conjunction with the peer-to-peer online structure makes for a more barren multiplayer scene than it could be.

The Prepare to Die update added a bunch of loose humanity items and increased the drop rate - which helps, but of course nowadays the population is smaller... so hopefully these things get smoothed out in Dark Souls II.

Great quick look. Definitely do more if you have the inclination.

So glad you chased off that hostile invader. Grrrrrrr.

Higgledy wrote:

Great quick look. Definitely do more if you have the inclination.

So glad you chased off that hostile invader. Grrrrrrr.

The dickiest thing about that was using the separation crystal at the end. If the invaded player wins, they get a humanity + half the souls the invader needed to level up, and the invader loses effectively nothing. He had literally nothing to lose by giving you the win save a short run back to his bloodstain.

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

They're going to say "the very end" and then I'll start crying.

That was great to watch, thanks so much.

The convenants are a pretty cool aspect of the game, though I think one of the game's shortcomings in that they probably should have given the player a *bit* more information. They are basically factions, and joining them can give you access to convenant-specific items and abilities. You can get cool weapons, spells, turn yourself into a dragon-creature, one of them can even open up a very useful shortcut late in the game. There are also some cool PVP aspects where members of covenants are essentially at war. If you join Alvina (the cat), you can wear her ring and get summoned into the Darkroot woods of other players to defend it.

Orange summon sign is the sunlight covenant (the NPC Solaire belongs to it, the phantoms are golden instead of white). Praise the Sun!

On the topic of tension, if you co-op with randoms and no voice chat, the tension is still there. Playing with 3 people and then getting invaded is a ton of fun as the 3 of you move around together trying to find the invader, using nothing but gestures.

When you were having trouble connecting, Shawn was seeing fog doors because I believe he was being invaded. You'll notice the sign *you* put down disappeared, and signs of others appeared (so you could summon them to fight the invader). When I am making myself available to co-op I make sure either the boss is dead, or I'm in hollow form so I can't be invaded.

Definitely kill Lautrec (dude in prison cell), he has one of the best rings in the game! Also, if not he will kill the Firelink Shrine firekeeper (so you can't use that bonfire)

Sorry for the long comment!

Demiurge wrote:

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

Hmm, so many good options. Dukes Archives leading to the fight with Seath the Scaleless (watching you guys walk on invisible catwalks could be good). New Londo Ruins or Catacombs/Tomb of the Giants really freaked me out my first time through.

Ornstein and Smough boss fight in Anor Londo- another good one!

Demiurge wrote:

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

I would say, in order of earliest access: Sen's Fortress, Anor Londo for the boss fight and archers, Painted World, or the DLC content.

Demiurge wrote:

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

The very end. Stop crying, Certis!

The DLC content would be the coolest to show off, but that's very deep into the game, so probably unrealistic unless you were both planning to power through the game soon.

Maybe you could get through enough of Darkroot Garden to take on Sif and the Moonlight Butterfly. I think Sen's Fortress could be great and/or agonizing to watch, depending on how quickly you guys catch onto the traps and layout of the area.

Both of these areas are in the first half of the game. Hmm... yeah, watching failure in Sen's Fortress could actually be pretty hilarious.

drew327 wrote:

Definitely kill Lautrec (dude in prison cell), he has one of the best rings in the game! Also, if not he will kill the Firelink Shrine firekeeper (so you can't use that bonfire)

His storyline is so much cooler if you let him kill the Firelink keeper, then invade him. The first time I tried to take him on, the way he was taunting me? That was unnerving.

It's an obtuse game, but if you put in the time, the payoff is huge. I'm so glad the GWJ community made me give this a second shot.

Demiurge wrote:

His storyline is so much cooler if you let him kill the Firelink keeper, then invade him.

Touche! I do like how the game can simulate online play using the NPCs this way, if you want to play offline.

I get the ring the first playthrough, then let him live on the 2nd : )

Dyni wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

The very end. Stop crying, Certis!

The DLC content would be the coolest to show off, but that's very deep into the game, so probably unrealistic unless you were both planning to power through the game soon.

Maybe you could get through enough of Darkroot Garden to take on Sif and the Moonlight Butterfly. I think Sen's Fortress could be great and/or agonizing to watch, depending on how quickly you guys catch onto the traps and layout of the area.

Both of these areas are in the first half of the game. Hmm... yeah, watching failure in Sen's Fortress could actually be pretty hilarious.

Both of us have played through Sen's in other playthroughs. It was the hardest part of the game for me, for sure. I don't know if Shawn has ever finished Anor Londo, though.

These are good suggestions, though. Shawn: Let's talk.

drew327 wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

His storyline is so much cooler if you let him kill the Firelink keeper, then invade him.

Touche! I do like how the game can simulate online play using the NPCs this way, if you want to play offline.

I get the ring the first playthrough, then let him live on the 2nd : )

You get the ring from him when you invade him, too. At least, I did. Lots of choices on how to handle him and the entire storyline. Which, again: Fascinating.

I think it'd be fun to watch an attempt to descend through Blighttown. Mind you, I'm never doing it again since there is a shortcut.

Fights that are either spectacular or have interesting tactics would be good. Failing that, a dragon.

Higgledy wrote:

Fights that are either spectacular or have interesting tactics would be good. Failing that, a dragon.

I've never killed the bridge dragon. I wonder if we can. Hmm.

Demiurge wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

Fights that are either spectacular or have interesting tactics would be good. Failing that, a dragon.

I've never killed the bridge dragon. I wonder if we can. Hmm.

You can, but I don't think it would make a very interesting video. You have to cheese it in melee or pelt it from afar. Not the most interesting fight. I would suggest you look up a video or 2 on how to do it.

I think the best boss fight you could show off before post game content is Ornstein and Smough.

Gimpy_Butzke wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

Thanks for watching, everyone. This was a fun video to put together.

If we did another one, what section of the game would make for good viewing?

I would say, in order of earliest access: Sen's Fortress, Anor Londo for the boss fight and archers, Painted World, or the DLC content.

This. I was thinking Anor Londo starting at the archers through O&S / the DLC areas.

Yeah, bridge dragon (Hellkite Dragon) is not interesting to watch if done right. The many deaths and running for their lives might be, but I doubt humor would be the purpose for another video

Demiurge wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

Fights that are either spectacular or have interesting tactics would be good. Failing that, a dragon.

I've never killed the bridge dragon. I wonder if we can. Hmm.

I killed him once on the PS3. It wasn't much of a battle, I stared it down until it proffered his neck to me, inviting me to end its pitiful existence.

Hey, can I ask what you used to record this? I wanna do something similar with Kerbal Space Program, but have no idea. Thanks!

Most people who do a Dark Souls LP totally skip the Depths and Blighttown so that might be interesting

Actually I just did the Depths in my playthrough and liked it, I only died a couple of times. Blighttown looks miserable though and is kind of keeping me from continuing my playthrough, even though I have the Master Key and could skip it.

Veloxi wrote:

Hey, can I ask what you used to record this? I wanna do something similar with Kerbal Space Program, but have no idea. Thanks!

I used a program called DXTory, which seems to do a good job recording without killing my system performance. This is a decent video of setting it up, near as I can tell.

Awesome! Thank you!

This bring back some great memories. Dark Souls is the only game I've gotten the platinum trophy for on PS3.