What a season, what a season! We keep trudging forward and we keep taking down bosses. In the past two sessions, I have come across a couple of bosses that are arguably well known to even the gaming community members that have not touched a souls game. Last session we beat Orstein and Smough, and this time we came across Nito. More on that later. I'm going to keep this blog post concise. First I'll sum up our session and then I'd like to talk about something that I have become a bit more familiar with. But first! The lessons we have learned so far and the highlight video! Death compilation video is available at the bottom of the blog post if that's all you're here for... you shadenfreuden filth.
Lesson #1: Expect the unexpected.
Lesson #2: Maintain your composure and always be aware of your surroundings.
Lesson #3: Analyze your enemy.
Lesson #4: Sometimes the best defense is a good (and smart) offense.
Lesson #5: Do not handicap your tactics based on your assumptions that something will or will not work.
Lesson #6: Fight on your terms.
Lesson #7: Explore new areas if you feel that you are stuck.
Lesson #8: Use the environment to your advantage.
Lesson #9: Never underestimate enemies; every enemy deserves full attention and stratagem.
Lesson #10: Don’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results… Yeah yeah, I should have been smarter than that.
Lesson #11: Don't waste too much time worrying being Dark Souls-ed, you can always recover.
Lesson #12: Always watch your back. Always!
Lesson #13: If you're not getting many story beats, you're probably not trying hard enough.
Lesson #14:Never forget that vertical attacks are king and should be used as often as possible.
Lesson #15:Don't play the game, or any game, angry. It will only make you worse at it and make it a worse experience.
Lesson #16:Pillars are your best friend.
So it was finally time to face the tombs. I have mentioned this plenty before in prior blogs but I have quite the history with this path. You can go read about it in my primer for this blog series and I think the first blog, but I'll try and sum it. A few years back when I actually first picked up Dark Souls on 360, I initially tried running through the graveyard first because I didn't know where to go. It was damned hard but I figured I was just experiencing that notable Dark Souls difficulty. I got up to the spinning skeletons and couldn't advance, so my only option was to backtrack and find a different path; the correct path. So going through this area now, yeah, I kind of have a chip on my shoulder. And let me tell you, it feels damn good being able to tear through every single enemy in this area. DAAAAAMNNNN GOOOOOOD. Who needs the nemesis system when you've been grinding an axe for years.
Well I blasted my way through the catacombs and found myself "fighting," Pinwheel. Boy was I overleveled for him. But you know what, I didn't care. My axe is sharp. On my way to him though, I encountered... something. Floating eyes that tried to fight me and could not be defeated. I thought it might be a bat or some kind of new enemy but I figured it out somewhat quickly. You see, earlier in the catacombs, I was kicking skeletons off of ledges so they wouldn't bother me with their reanimation. Somehow, one of these skeletons glitched out and kept reanimating in invisible form and raised off of the ground. I could tell it was the skeleton because of the way it moved and the sounds. I believe I eventually found the Pyromancer that was keeping him alive. Oh yeah, an some pinwheel skeletons phased through a wall. Whatever, live your life how you want skeletons! I also snagged a lantern which would prove to be useful later.
Darkness, lots of darkness. Of course Dark Souls had something up its sleeve for another area. There's always something unconventional to screw you over and this area was pitch black if you didn't have the lantern raised. Long story short I got the hang of it and navigating was second nature. Some dude tried to trick me but he was obvious and I killed undead clerics. I eventually triggered his trap so he'd show up in Firelink Shrine (thanks viewers). Another weird little thing happened that is shown in the highlight video. I'm really not sure if this is a glitch or not, but when I slowed down the video, it looks kind of creepy. I'm hoping someone has some knowledge of this and can tell me what they think happened. With the last glitch, I was able to reason what was going on, but this is something else. Very creepy. Oh! We took out the horde of giant Skeletons in that one tomb.. you know, the one. I unfortunately don't have a highlight of it but It was quite the accomplishment. The fireballs I bought finally payed off! So we end up at Nito and he's damned hard with his buddies. Luckily I still have my Balder Side Sword and upgrade it to a divine weapon to keep those skellies down. Once his buddies were down, Nito was kind of easy! His attacks were wildly inaccurate and he had huge openings for damage. That's the summary really of what happened so let's get into our lesson of the day.
The four legged skeletons... those damn crazy enemies. They were my bane. I wanted nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, it was a long treck through many of these guys to get to Nito. That was until a viewer gave me a pretty sweet tip. JUST RUN! I remembered the time we were dealing with the archers and we just ran past everyone so we could brute force attempts. The viewers actually told me to just stick to the right and just keep running. While dodging an enemy I actually managed to make it onto a ledge and got a fancy new ring. I couldn't help but laugh when I finished the first attempt and this and it worked. The second attempt wasn't as smooth (I died...) but every attempt afterwards I ran all the way right to Nito. Perfect. Even though I had done this before, I was still amazed at how well it worked. When you have a goal in mind, think outside the box when coming up with ways to achieve it.
Lesson #17: Just do what needs to be done.
This could be used to describe everything in Dark Souls. I find that whenever I'm frustrated with something time consuming, it is because I'm setting restrictions on myself. What was stopping me from just running past everyone right to Nito? Turns out nothing. Absolutely nothing. One of these days I will get this lesson to stick and then I'll really be Dark Souls-ing.
Well that does it. I've been waiting patiently for when I get to go through the catacombs again and I think I can finally put away my axe, and bury the hatchet. Next session, I'll probably try to take out that Prowler Demon in the catacombs and see what he's got hiding behind him. After that, we're finally going to open that shining locked door in the Darkroot Garden! As always, thank you for reading and here's a death compilation for making it through the blog. Enjoy! (I suffered for this)
The archives of the full run are only temporary on twitch so they are indefinitely archived on YouTube as well. Included in my channel are most attempts at the boss fights (thus far) and larger enemies, and highlights. I’ll most likely be including death compilations only in these blogs and will make a full death compilation available on my page once I finish the game. Below are the links to my pages if you want to subscribe and follow along.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtJjnxQwdCO6L2FbmytTGqA
Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/flashflood_29/
Thank you for reading and watching!
*Blog 1 (Day 1 and Streaming) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-1-and-streaming-highlights-included/112403/
*Blog 2 (Days 2 and 3) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-2-and-3-first-full-run-w-highlights/112488/
*Blog 3 (Day 4) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-4-first-full-run-pvp-and-boss-desig/112549/
*Blog 4 (Day 5) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-5-first-full-run-w-highlights-story/112603/
*Blog 5 (Day 6) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-6-first-full-run-w-highlights-death/112674/
*Blog 6 (Day 7) - http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/flashflood_29/blog/dark-souls-day-7-first-full-run-oands-lautrec-stra/112886/
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