CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DARK SOULS REMASTERED
Background
Though it'd be fun to try out Cortext, and I often get long winded about my Dark Souls discussion, but man its so fun to talk about! So I've been posting a lot about my first run through Dark Souls:Remastered. I had previous Played Bloodborne as my first From Software game and then Played Dark Souls 3. I wanted to see what the original looked like and a remastered version seemed like the way to go. Its funny because I never thought I'd be into these games, when people used to talk about them losing their souls they needed to upgrade and getting invaded, plus the complete lack of guidance, and yeah i thought it sounded awful. How wrong I was! These games have quickly become some of my favorites and i was inspired to try them after playing Hollow Knight and just absolutely loving it. One of my favorite games.
I am Playing Dark Souls Remastered on the Switch. Overall I'm playing the game in docked mode using a pro controller, but its probably 80/20. For instance I beat the 4 Kings in hand held and the Bed of Chaos. Handheld was also a great way to go farm for stuff when sitting in bed or around the house, etc. Only real downside to the Switch has been, it'd look better on my PC for sure and the number of players is pretty low. Finding a summon (or even being summoned) has been pretty difficult, with a few exceptions (early on getting summonded for the gargoyle fight was easy and a welcome way to get some fast souls). I've only found 2 real player summons for the Smoug and Ornstein fight and they didnt help seal the deal. In fact MOST of the online side of it is just getting invaded. I was never invaded as much in Dark Souls 3 as in 1, and it only happened once in Bloodborne, but I get that those games are different on that side of. Dark Souls 1 requires you to go human at a bonfire instead of using an ember in 3 wherever so there is a long walk to look for summons in 1 where invasions happen that doesnt exist in 3. There were several times I was invaded in 3 right before me and the summons walked into the fog gate for a boss.
I'm playing a Strength/Pyro build. My weapon of choice is a demon Great Axe at +15 with S scaling. My Pyro Glove is also fully ascended. That took a while. My favorite spells are the fireballs. the Chaos Fireball is especially great. I've got 5 spell slots (getting the 5th very recently). My Strength is 50. My Stamina is 32 and my Vitality is 32. I have some wasted points in INT from when I started because I thought it would impact my Pyro spells. I later learned it does NOT. My Armor of choice is the Elite Knight Armor at +9 with Havels ring and the poise ring, but I mix it up from time to time. When its time to tank I use Havel's Armor, and when I want a lighter set I'm using this red armor that I farmed up to +5 with twinkling twilight. I LOVE this build. With Power Within I can up my strength and go in and two hand the living day lights out of some bosses.
Nearing the End
So, the last time I posted, I had beaten the last of the Lords needed to open that final gate. I have yet to open it. I decided the other night to go do some house keeping before jumping in the DLC, and I'd looked up (sorry dark souls purists) to see if I was missing anything weird. I'll say this, if I was playing this game blind I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much I like playing it now where if I feel totally suck I can quickly look something up (though I definatenly didnt always), So there was a ring I hadnt gotten in the catacombs that takes you to some covenant lady so I went and found that and discovered I'd missed an entire bonfire in thecatacombs, whoopsie! I also had just missed a chunk of stuff, I got in there and pulled the rest of the items I could see out of the catacombs. I also got the undead blacksmith killed because I had dropped off some ledges to get an item and then dropped into the area where the smith is and it has all these rolling skull enemies, that are uh very annoying, and I ran away to the fire and they chased me and missed me and killed the undead smith. Man. Some Dark Souls punishment for you. I guess you could kill the blacksmith in 3 if I personally chose to do it, but....well. I didnt really need him for anythign at this point, maybe a chaos ascension but I'm not really using the chaos weapon anyway.
G'night Sweet PrinceSo after that I went up to the archives to find Big Hat Logan, I read I could further his story a little after I freed him. I found him selling spells. Looked it up again (even looking up NPC quests I still screwed them up). I read to make him go crazy i'd have to buy all his spells, and that'd be a lot of souls so I gave up on that one. I also went back to where I found Scaleless the first time and got some items in there and headed on out.
Finally I went back to Anor Londo to join the covenant with the dark wraith ring. I didnt go through the gate. I put on the ring and waited a bit to see if I'd get pulled into any world to invade, and I didnt. Again, the Switch population seems pretty low.
DLC
So, once I was done with the main world other than the final boss (or I assume that's all that's left, maybe there is a "level" before the final boss once I open that lord vessel door). I jumped into the DLC. Ive got a bunch of humanity so I kindled the first fire up to 20, and went through the fog gate to find an immediate boss. I was suprised, but handled it pretty well and beat it on the first go. THEN I went into the next area to find an immediate second bonfire (womp womp), but I've got a ton of humanity and summoning people on the switch is generally no go. So I kindled it up because I was alerady human.
I walked out into the first area and got INVADED oh man. The invader, wasnt great and I smashed his head in. Feeling embolded by defeating the Boss and the Invader I dashed into the next area.......and got surronded by a golum and a few other enemies and died. Dark souls is great about punishing that over confidence. I respawned and found a mushroom to talk too. The mushroom wanted me to go save a princess.....sounded familiar.....
All they really needed to do was give Toad a creepy laugh after he told us the princess was in another castle and we'd be there! I told the mushroom I'd handle it and set off. After a while of running around the woods I found the next area and shortcut. I also found the guardian armor that I put on for a bit because I saw a note into the area that said "need armor" so I...thought maybe something would happen? I was wrong.
I finally linked up all the shortcuts and found the vendor in the area who told me he too had been sucked into the world. I guess instead of trying to find a way out he was just going to sell trinkets. more on him later.
ARTORIAS and other people?!?
I think in DS3 I'm using this guys great sword! I went in and fought him and the first fight was close but he got me. Went back for a second run and man it was damn close but I got him. A hard fight, but my axe just hits for so much damage. Plus with the poise ring its hard for him to stagger me so I was able to get hits in even if I took damage. Got his soul and moved to the next area. I had also decided that run to go human and try to summon someone, there was no one there BUT......the next bonfire after Astorias there were summon signs all over the place. It was really weird, all game I havent see really very many at all, but here they were, in a non boss area. I summoned a few guys and he ran through part of the next level with me, helped me get a key and then I got invaded and we fought the invader. He then bailed. I got invaded 2-3 more times in this area near this bonfire. A won a few and lost a few. I also summoned a dragon lady from a scale on the ground? as soon as she popped up I smashed her with a two handed swing and she was gone. I did this for a while longer, summoning people and getting invaded and it was kinda fun. I realized later this is near an NPC arena and maybe that's why so many players hang out here?
I then went back and put my sign down for the boss but got no takers. I started looking around, a lady asked for Artoria's soul so I gave it to her, she gave me some amazing DEX weapons, maybe for a new build one day? Of course getting here would be such late game but... I then found the carving giant, spoke to him a bit and left.
Kalameet
Throughtout the levels this dragon kept bothering me. He suprised me the first time. The second time I had found another area I wanted to check out and there were some items down there, he swooped in and killed me with fire. TWICE. even in Havels armor. Puzzled I looked it up to see if I could fight him or if I needed to move on. I learned I needed to go talk to the giant guy again and I did. He shot down the dragon and I went to fight him as a finale for the evening. I didnt expect to win. I put on Havels armor and decided to try and tank him. At first it wasnt going well, even with a poise ring his fire breath knocked me down and I couldnt dodge. I was resigned to just trying again the next day. (I also had gone human looking for a summon, but no dice). Then he charged me. I got some hits in, healed up and rolled into him, he kept attacking over my head as I kept on swiging the great axe. I almost had him and he changed tactics and started moving around, he hit me with fire and It was kill or be killed so I charged (he had a hit of health left) and I GOT HIM. First try. Kalameet was DEAD. Man. Felt good. This DLC has been fanastic. From Software knows how to DLC.
Oh one last thing. I went and spoke ot that merchant and he told me I was a jerk for killing artorias and FREEING him. MAN. I havent gone back to my giant friend yet. Tonight or tomorrow I plan to run the rest of the DLC and then take on that Final Boss. I had posted about what my next from software game should be (Ori and Hades will probably get some play inbetween though). I've really enjoed Dark Souls. It was a tad rough in the beginning getting use to the older game coming from DS3 but once I did (and got some useful tips on this site) it really clicked. The first Souls world is excellent with some really unique areas.
How go your souls experiences?
