Demon's Souls (PS5)

Is there a picture somewhere of what the world tendency icons look like at different states? I honestly can't tell by looking at those, what world tendency I'm in...
 
Colonel Sanders said:
Is there a picture somewhere of what the world tendency icons look like at different states? I honestly can't tell by looking at those, what world tendency I'm in...
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Yeah, ditto. I managed to get the first area totally white (killed bosses + dragon without dying) and the only way I can tell is via the eye-like logo when the level starts. Well, that and the gate to the left was finally open.

EDIT: NG+ seems pretty uneven difficulty-wise. Some enemies seem to give/take damage just like they do in your first pass. Others, like those rolling skeletons, now hit like a truck and take a lot more hits to kill.
 
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I'm plugging away at NG+ now. I've noticed some interesting nuances. Seems I'm able to go straight to the Penetrator's level without even visiting another Archstone. Not sure if there is something preventing me from moving forward in that level...but it seems like I could just move forward and kill him + the final boss almost immediately. Not sure if it's related, but Ostrava seems to be doing his own thing. I've rescued him more than once, but he has yet to show up in the Nexus. I killed the Red Dragon right away so that could also be related, too.
This time around I'm also using back-up saves to try and keep my tendency fully white. Why not, right? So far it's basically working. I've have 3 of them all white so far. At the very least I'd like to get more hidden weapons and armor sets. At least a few of them you can get elsewhere (like the Birchstone), but some you can't.
I'm still rocking my Claymore, but a buddy of mine has me convinced that the Cleaver should be my jam. If I can manage to get through that damned mine I'm going to give it a go.
 
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Another thing which can help make additional playthroughs feel a little fresher: the "Fractured Mode" which is a new addition to the remake. Its a mirror mode. Flips the game worlds to keep things from feeling too familiar.
 
The Dragon God in NG+ is pretty beastly. In my first pass I took him out without an issue. I also got hit several times and survived. In NG+ a direct hit is insta-death. Most glancing blows, too. That's with the Brushwood set, Tower Shield, and warding spell active. Maybe I was just lucky before, but killing him took a dozen tries this time around. I'm not really used to instakills in this game, but this fight definitely has 'em. The fire especially, since there's no "glancing blow" fire. If it touches you, you die.

On the plus side, the Northern Regalia is finally doing some serious business damage in NG+. I'm running around pure white so it hits like a truck. The 2-handed swing is hitting harder than my +10 Claymore did in NG. Same moveset, too, so it feels familiar.

Right now I'm cruising through the Shrine of Storms. While challenging, it isn't too terrible. Well, other than being invaded constantly. Invaders show up in the other areas on occasion, but they show up in the SoS one after another and it's getting kinda old. In some cases the game doesn't seem to register that they're gone so it won't let you teleport home, either. I'm getting to the point where I just bail after fighting more than one in 10 minutes. That isn't fun, it's just tedious.
 
Domingo said:
The Dragon God in NG+ is pretty beastly. In my first pass I took him out without an issue. I also got hit several times and survived. In NG+ a direct hit is insta-death. Most glancing blows, too. That's with the Brushwood set, Tower Shield, and warding spell active. Maybe I was just lucky before, but killing him took a dozen tries this time around. I'm not really used to instakills in this game, but this fight definitely has 'em. The fire especially, since there's no "glancing blow" fire. If it touches you, you die.
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Heh for me in the normal game the Dragon God was a insta death pain in the rear. I think it was the hardest boss for me not difficulty but timewise. My character is a mage so low vitality and armor (pretty sure I was Vit 9 at the time). So any mistake was instant death. At least with all the other bosses so far I could get away with a hit or two. Though if they had a super move it would usually kill me in one shot if I didn't completely dodge it or get away from it.

I finished off leechmonger the last time I played and with a mage it is a joke.
 
After finally getting enough items to upgrade my old Claymore to +5 via Quality...it kinda sucks. There were posts online about that supposedly being good. I can tell you that at least with a 30/30 it's not. Maybe some kind of crazy 50/50 build sees better results. My regular +10 is better. While a jack of all trades is usually a poor idea in the other games, I'm doing pretty well with 30STR, 30DEX, 30VIT, 35END, 18MG, 18FTH, and 18INT. My Luck is only at 7, but I can deal with that. I win the majority of my PvP matches playing without doing any shenanigans or changing my gear, which is good enough.
The Northern Regalia is still what's getting shit done for me. I also like the Meat Cleaver, although it's pretty slow compared to my greatswords. I like the large katanas, but I'm not a fan of constantly losing my health most of the time.
 
Domingo said:
After finally getting enough items to upgrade my old Claymore to +5 via Quality...it kinda sucks. There were posts online about that supposedly being good. I can tell you that at least with a 30/30 it's not. Maybe some kind of crazy 50/50 build sees better results. My regular +10 is better. While a jack of all trades is usually a poor idea in the other games, I'm doing pretty well with 30STR, 30DEX, 30VIT, 35END, 18MG, 18FTH, and 18INT. My Luck is only at 7, but I can deal with that. I win the majority of my PvP matches playing without doing any shenanigans or changing my gear, which is good enough.
The Northern Regalia is still what's getting shit done for me. I also like the Meat Cleaver, although it's pretty slow compared to my greatswords. I like the large katanas, but I'm not a fan of constantly losing my health most of the time.
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I'm a big fan of the gripless/hiltless Katana ; )
 
Seems like as long as you don't die in human form it isn't too tough to get things pure white and keep it that way. Basically just don't die in human form and don't kill any NPC's.
I'm down to the final area in my NG+ playthrough and have kept things that way throughout. The only quirk is that somehow Ostrava disappeared/died in my game (no clue how), which affects my tendency in Boletaria. I'm guessing I can probably restore it by killing the blue dragon (that'll take FOREVER now) and the final boss, though.
When I'm done with that, I'm going to leave Demon's Souls alone for a bit. I might do an all-black run later. There are still some miracles I never got and a couple weapons I still can't weild, too.
 
Domingo said:
Seems like as long as you don't die in human form it isn't too tough to get things pure white and keep it that way. Basically just don't die in human form and don't kill any NPC's.
I'm down to the final area in my NG+ playthrough and have kept things that way throughout. The only quirk is that somehow Ostrava disappeared/died in my game (no clue how), which affects my tendency in Boletaria. I'm guessing I can probably restore it by killing the blue dragon (that'll take FOREVER now) and the final boss, though.
When I'm done with that, I'm going to leave Demon's Souls alone for a bit. I might do an all-black run later. There are still some miracles I never got and a couple weapons I still can't weild, too.
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I'm not going to go through the whole game soul form.. if I die in human form, I'll try to get summoned to help people with bosses. If that doesn't get me pure white, I'm done with trying to work that system. I'll just do without whatever it unlocks.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
I'm not going to go through the whole game soul form.. if I die in human form, I'll try to get summoned to help people with bosses. If that doesn't get me pure white, I'm done with trying to work that system. I'll just do without whatever it unlocks.
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There's always the Cling Ring + lighter armor.

If you want to take the easy route, just use the Cloud save method. Turn off automatic savegame updating and you can download/upload your saves at will. I went through the game 100% legitimately on the first pass, but used back-ups on NG+ to keep things the way I wanted. I made a totally white run this time. I figure I'll make a black run down the line, so I slaughtered all the NPC's before the final boss.
 
Beat the NG, but I feel I made a mistake. I hadn't played Demon's Souls for years, so I forgot you got immediately pushed into NG+ after killing the last boss. I was going to be setting all the worlds to Pure Black Tendency, so now I have to go through two more runs if I want to get all the trophies.

And stupid me, I went for the most ineffective build in the game. So it's going to take forever and a half to get anywhere in NG+.
 
There's a chance they will do a pure white worldwide event weekend, for new years. From Software used to do that stuff with the original game. There would usually be a few events per year. Some pure white, some pure black. Of course, you will have to play online, to participate. And therefore be open to invasions! ; p
 
I figure I'll end up doing pure black eventually. I already did pure white with my 2nd pass. There are a couple other achievements I missed (like killing the Dragon with the God's hands equipped + all spells) as well. If you're willing to use savegame copy+pasting, you can more or less control your own fate.
 
I have no idea how this is perceived by the hardcores, but if you get invaded and simply don't want to deal with it - just exit the game. You don't even have to close the game. Just hit the start button and choose to exit game. Loading in the game is so quick, you can be playing again in less than 10 seconds. That's one way to continue playing online, but you aren't being invaded constantly. Not sure how the game's algorithms work, but I found myself being invaded constantly in the first half of Shrine of Storms levels 1 and 2. Once I progressed to a certain point of both levels, the invasions more or less stopped. People invade in the 1st and 3rd sections of the Boletarian Palace pretty regularly, too. The mine is a mixed bag because it's so damn big. I had people show up and end up bailing several times. Invasions in the Valley of Defilement and Tower of Latria are rare. The way the tower works with the boss, I dunno how it even happens...but I did have one person try it.
 
people invade in those areas a lot because they are weenies too worried about winning. those areas have the least environmental hazards. and it's also relatively easy to find whomever you invaded.
 
I'm the ultimate coward. New to this game, defeated 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 4-1. Whenever I beat a boss and am in body form, I suicide in nexus. Fear of invasions and a black world tendency.
 
Raekwon said:
I'm the ultimate coward. New to this game, defeated 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 4-1. Whenever I beat a boss and am in body form, I suicide in nexus. Fear of invasions and a black world tendency.
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I recorded a cowards run couple weeks ago:

Demon's Souls Cheese Run - YouTube

Took the laziest and easiest approaches for every boss.

Plus, if you have a friend, it's super easy to get Penetrator's Armor. While you can't trade coins directly, you can have a friend drop their coins at a crow, exit the game, and safely claim them that way.

Firestorm, Poison Cloud and Death Cloud turn the game into easy mode.
 
In general, you can cheese this game more than the subsequent games. Well, that and the bosses aren't as rough to begin with. With the Dark Souls games (especially the DLC's), you often have to summon if you aren't up to the task. There's either an exploit or easier option for most if not all Demon's Souls encounters. That's not to say it's an easy game, it's not, but it's easier. Kinda on par with Bloodborne.
 
Domingo said:
I still 100% believe that "Horsefuck Valley" (from the Dark Souls 2 DLC) is the most annoying area in the series history. I'm thinking that the Swamp from Demon's Souls is a contender for second place, though. Even disregarding the poison aspect, which I'm negating with items that auto-heal, the goblin village is just a massive nightmare of invisible enemies, swarms, status effects, narrow paths, etc. I've finally cleared out all of the items (and bought a nice set of armor from the NPC), but it has been hell.
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I think Iron Passage in Crown of the Old Iron King beats Frigid Outskirts for most annoying. The run to the magic Smelter Demon is absolutely brutal and gets very irritating after a while.
 
Nytegard said:
I recorded a cowards run couple weeks ago:

Demon's Souls Cheese Run - YouTube

Took the laziest and easiest approaches for every boss.

Plus, if you have a friend, it's super easy to get Penetrator's Armor. While you can't trade coins directly, you can have a friend drop their coins at a crow, exit the game, and safely claim them that way.

Firestorm, Poison Cloud and Death Cloud turn the game into easy mode.
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Interesting thanks for sharing. I have no access to any of those things you mention yet lol. I'll checkout the cheese run when I get further for less spoilers. I'm reading guides loosely, like in regards to the Sparkly Crow or how to best use the boss souls so I don't eff myself over on accident. But so far damn I'm loving this game. I wanted to go through without reading anything but there is so much to miss and the backlog is real. I'm a priest but trying to specialize in magic (and faith). We'll see.
 
Raekwon said:
Interesting thanks for sharing. I have no access to any of those things you mention yet lol. I'll checkout the cheese run when I get further for less spoilers. I'm reading guides loosely, like in regards to the Sparkly Crow or how to best use the boss souls so I don't eff myself over on accident. But so far damn I'm loving this game. I wanted to go through without reading anything but there is so much to miss and the backlog is real. I'm a priest but trying to specialize in magic (and faith). We'll see.
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It's not worth watching, just mainly proof.

The bottom line is, almost every boss can be poisoned. And if you equip the thief ring, almost every boss can be made to lose interest in you. The thief ring makes you invisible to monsters so that they don't care just inside the range that poison cloud can be used. And unlike other attacks, where if you hit them, they start to move around, poison cloud doesn't agro enemies.

I admit I focused on this later on, because once you get into the higher NG+s, armor (and shield) are going to be completely useless. Enemies are going to one shot you no matter what (blocking with a shield won't help either), and that's just the regular enemies. That's one of the aspects Sekiro and Bloodborne have over the Souls series. The Souls series are mainly all about just dodging everything. You can parry, but it's far riskier than just avoiding getting hit.
 
As someone who has beaten all of the Souls games numerous times, you don't ever have to parry anything. I rarely try. It's very high risk and (at least IMO), the reward isn't worth it outside of PvP. Movement is king as far as I'm concerned. Learning the way to move around enemies to avoid their strongest attacks. Circling, moving in and out, and rolling. Even rolling is sometimes overblown. It has invincibility frames and can get you out of many situations, but it doesn't leave you in prime position to return fire, either. Most of my strategy involves walking/running around and interrupting or flanking opponents. I use rolls mostly in situations where I need more distance or I have to avoid a hit. Shields are really good in Demon's Souls. They're less so in subsequent games. I mainly put mine up as a last resort defense in the Dark Souls game, but you can kinda abuse 'em in Demon's.
 
Domingo said:
As someone who has beaten all of the Souls games numerous times, you don't ever have to parry anything. I rarely try. It's very high risk and (at least IMO), the reward isn't worth it outside of PvP. Movement is king as far as I'm concerned. Learning the way to move around enemies to avoid their strongest attacks. Circling, moving in and out, and rolling. Even rolling is sometimes overblown. It has invincibility frames and can get you out of many situations, but it doesn't leave you in prime position to return fire, either. Most of my strategy involves walking/running around and interrupting or flanking opponents. I use rolls mostly in situations where I need more distance or I have to avoid a hit. Shields are really good in Demon's Souls. They're less so in subsequent games. I mainly put mine up as a last resort defense in the Dark Souls game, but you can kinda abuse 'em in Demon's.
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I disagree about the reward not being worth it in PvE. The only one I've played where parrying was not worth the risk was Dark Souls II. In that one the window was too small for almost every shield, and the riposte action left you vulnerable instead of giving you sufficient iframes. Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls III are almost trivial utilizing parrying, as almost everything with a handed physical attack can be parried and the window is generous.
 
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Armenius said:
I disagree about the reward not being worth it in PvE. The only one I've played where parrying was not worth the risk was Dark Souls II. In that one the window was too small for almost every shield, and the riposte action left you vulnerable instead of giving you sufficient iframes. Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls III are almost trivial utilizing parrying, as almost everything with a handed physical attack can be parried and the window is generous.
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I think you're way better at parrying than I am. I find that I can only hit 'em about 1/4 of the time and when you miss one you usually die or get very close.
 
Domingo said:
As someone who has beaten all of the Souls games numerous times, you don't ever have to parry anything. I rarely try. It's very high risk and (at least IMO), the reward isn't worth it outside of PvP. Movement is king as far as I'm concerned. Learning the way to move around enemies to avoid their strongest attacks. Circling, moving in and out, and rolling. Even rolling is sometimes overblown. It has invincibility frames and can get you out of many situations, but it doesn't leave you in prime position to return fire, either. Most of my strategy involves walking/running around and interrupting or flanking opponents. I use rolls mostly in situations where I need more distance or I have to avoid a hit. Shields are really good in Demon's Souls. They're less so in subsequent games. I mainly put mine up as a last resort defense in the Dark Souls game, but you can kinda abuse 'em in Demon's.
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DS3 is my favorite souls game, I feel like I'm so used to shields not being worth it (played a dex thief for 2 years), that when I finally got the knights shield in Demon Souls, I felt like I broke the game... Parry and a nearly penalty-less block? Unheard of!
 
Hi guys,
New to the forum and have a question I'm hoping you can answer. I killed Stockpile Thomas because I wanted the Ring of Herculian Strength (that, and he looked at me funny). I understand that by doing that, I lost access to anything that I had stored with him up until that point. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to access what I've placed in storage since Thomas' untimely death?
Thanks in advance!
 
1theccej said:
Hi guys,
New to the forum and have a question I'm hoping you can answer. I killed Stockpile Thomas because I wanted the Ring of Herculian Strength (that, and he looked at me funny). I understand that by doing that, I lost access to anything that I had stored with him up until that point. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to access what I've placed in storage since Thomas' untimely death?
Thanks in advance!
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You'll have to wait until a new playthrough, and any time you get overloaded this playthrough, you're going to need to discard those items. There's really no need to ever kill him. If you're on your first playthrough, I'd just say restart. You can get the ring by giving him the Jade Ornament.
 
Nytegard said:
You'll have to wait until a new playthrough, and any time you get overloaded this playthrough, you're going to need to discard those items. There's really no need to ever kill him. If you're on your first playthrough, I'd just say restart. You can get the ring by giving him the Jade Ornament.
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Thank you! I appreciate your response and will abstain from killing him my next play-through!
 
I really didn't kill any NPCs as I was terrified of the results. Completed my first ever playthrough last night, so fun. Fired up 1-1 and was invaded immediately, killed my first invader, and then realized I had pure white WT and found a new path. I wasn't planning on doing NG+ but when in Rome...
 
PS5 arrived and first order was obtaining Demon’s Souls. Gonna go for 100% in the game, so I expect a few play through a at least. Finished off adjudicator last night (non-shortcut (two tries on that roll) path to him gave me more trouble with those mantas than I remember years ago). Also got stuck at stair pillar at the wrong moment and he got a hit off... so yeah I almost died to Adjudicator. :(((((

I apparently don’t know the right pixel to initiate a backstab because it is almost as difficult as Dark Souls 1 in that regard.
 
Backstabs are definitely trickier in Demon's Souls compared to all of the Souls games. I eventually got pretty good at it, but it took a while. The best advice I can give is to aim slightly right of where their spine would be.
 
Domingo said:
Backstabs are definitely trickier in Demon's Souls compared to all of the Souls games. I eventually got pretty good at it, but it took a while. The best advice I can give is to aim slightly right of where their spine would be.
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That’s what I’ve gathered, keeping right of center of the back, but I just can’t get it. I got through the PS3 version not ever doing a backstab or parry so... I’ll just enjoy when it finally works.

Oh, and Dragon God for some reason is just frustrating the heck out of me. I know the strategy, I’ve beat him more than once in my life, but it’s just not working for me in this version. Flame lurker was my melee bane on PS3, so after him I was not expecting a Dragon God roadblock.

edit: okay, must have been bugged. Completely exited game and he wasn’t catching me on every pillar.
 
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JustinCorrigible said:
That’s what I’ve gathered, keeping right of center of the back, but I just can’t get it. I got through the PS3 version not ever doing a backstab or parry so... I’ll just enjoy when it finally works.

Oh, and Dragon God for some reason is just frustrating the heck out of me. I know the strategy, I’ve beat him more than once in my life, but it’s just not working for me in this version. Flame lurker was my melee bane on PS3, so after him I was not expecting a Dragon God roadblock.

edit: okay, must have been bugged. Completely exited game and he wasn’t catching me on every pillar.
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I killed him on my second try on my first pass through the game. On NG+ I bet I got killed by the Dragon God 15-20 times, though. It's kinda random when those shots count as glancing blows and when they straight up instakill you. Plus, something about his weird line of sight doesn't always trigger attacks and vice versa. I think he was the single toughest enemy in the game for me.
 
Sony’s Japan Studio Closing Down Today, PS5 Demon’s Souls Director Gavin Moore Departs

No, sadly it’s not a cruel April Fool’s joke…Sony’s Japan Studio, responsible for everything from Ape Escape, to Shadow of the Colossus, to Gravity Rush, is shutting down today:

"In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm PlayStation Studios Japan Studio will be re-organized into a new organization on April 1. Japan Studio will be re-centered to Team Asobi, the creative team behind Astro's Playroom, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro's Playroom"

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...s-sony-exit-on-day-japan-studio-is-dissolved/
 
Does this affect/cancel any games that were in the middle of development? Or kill any sequel potential for certain games?
 
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