LogFAQs > #967279735

Update from yesterday: I spent a long time banging my head against a wall with the Gargoyles. I could get the first down to half health in my sleep, but as soon as the fire showed up it became impossible- I'd either get aggressive and be burned while getting a hit in, or play it defensively and never get a hit at all because one was always breathing fire through the other one towards me >_> I got a tail axe but wasn't strong enough to wield it properly. Despite Sorozone's advice, I really wanted to get through this without using a summon, if only to boost my confidence going forward. But I was getting nowhere, so I just started murdering random skeletons around the church.

...Then I noticed a path I had somehow entirely missed before, which led me to a blacksmith! I had barely any souls to upgrade with so I took a look around the area- one path led to a dead end gate with a friendly helmeted guy who was also stuck, the other led to a big monster with some limbs missing. I wasn't strong enough to take it out (I can hit it well enough but it has a lot of health), so I just ran past it and entered Darkroot Garden. There were some easy tree enemies here to fill my souls up. One path led down the basin to some frosty golems, another to a mean knight, and another eventually led to a glowing door and some creature that appeared to cast Slow on me. I got what I came for so I ran away from all of these back to the smith, and spent my Titanite Shards to upgrade my sword as much as I could.

And wouldn't you know it, my damage output doubled and the Gargoyles went down in no time at all! And there were only two of them in the end, hooray! Not only that, but we got 10k souls and rang one of the two bells. I guess that isn't going to be a game-long quest like I first thought lol. I raced back to Firelink to heal and save, and that's where I left things. I don't know where to go next- treeland seems like it's maybe the natural way forward, but the dude by the fire has told me the second bell is down in Blighttown, so that's probably pushing me towards ghostland (but I can't hit the ghosts). I also have a key to the basement in Undead Burg but I haven't found a door that fits it. Decisions, decisions!

Sorozone posted...

One of my favorite things about Dark Souls is the way its world is designed. It obviously has some faults in some sections/areas later on, but the way everything is connected and keeps you in a linear path while still allowing you to really branch off and do things in a completely random order is great. It's a great use of natural blockades. You aren't blocked by a giant boulder blocking a path, or y'know other video gamey stuff. You are usually only blocked(sans needing keys for things) by the enemies themselves and whether are not you are good/strong enough to get past them. It's really fantastically designed.

Yeah this is great, despite my frustrations with the combat (or more accurately my lack of skill at the combat) I really appreciate the world design so far. If the game gets too tough this'll be a good incentive for me to keep going, before starting I wasn't aware how much there was to this game beyond the combat. I'm coming around on the item/equipment systems too now, seeing how useful they can be. And I should pay more attention to the lore and the names of the NPCs, I enjoy the worldbuilding but most of my mind has been too focussed on the battling so far.

Aecioo posted...

feel free to upgrade your weapons as much as you want early on - its really only toward the late game that you'll want to pick a weapon and commit to it since later upgrading items are rarer (and you can buy the low level materials pretty easily at a certain point). Won't say anything else but this tip might be useful soon!

This was useful advice indeed, probably sooner than you expected >_>
Aecioo posted...

Also, the NPCs in this game have very vague questlines you can lock yourself out of advancing if you miss a step. None are super important but I'm sure their are some kind of spoiler free guides if that's your thing.

This is the kind of thing I would usually look up but I'm trying to not be so anal about this stuff in games these days, so I'll let things go as they go! I expect freeing that laughing knight in the cell may have negative repercussions, but *shrug*. The NPCs have all been remarkably friendly so far considering how dire the world is, they're full of laughter!

Random q, no need to answer if it's spoily: what is the deal with the white mist? I thought it indicated a boss gate but half the time it just... doesn't. Is this some weird disguised loading screen or is there actually a reason for it?