Did you play Demon's Souls before this?
That's one of the few games to really piss me of so badly that I almost went back and to return it within the first two days.

The tutorial boss you weren't even supposed to beat. It killed you in one hit, so you had to go to the Nexus, and suck major ass as your disembodied spirit.

Certain enemies were so goddamn hard, you had to lure them all the way through long corridors and trick them into falling to their doom. Farming souls from dangerous enemies was essential to leveling up. Lotsa farming.

I was stuck on that fist level for hours, but I beat the first boss (Phalanx) with relative ease, though it took forever. Once I got that stone to go back to my body, I got killed on the next stage I went to within mere minutes.

I'll probably buy it in a few months (when the price drops), and see how it goes. Most likely, I'll end up with a major headache, and a sore throat from yelling at the TV....

It should arrive in a couple days.
So excited!

I didn't have a chance to play Demon Soul's since I rock the 360 so I'm glad I get to experience the game where headaches occur every 10 minutes.

I have bad news for you, friend. Most players and reviewers have stated that Dark Souls is HARDER than Demon's Souls. Having seen it in action, I'm inclined to agree.

There is no Nexus in the new game. There are no real "safe" spots. The world is open, vast, and dangerous. They give you no clue on where to go, and you can just as easily march into an area with monsters than one-hit-kill you and you'd think you're going the wrong way... when that's the EASIEST route to take.

The game is excruciatingly hard... one journalist said he spent over 90 hours playing the game and STILL is getting killed at that high level, often.

And that's somewhat disappointing because, really, I want to play and enjoy Dark Souls... but I don't have the time or patience to master such a demanding, difficult, and frustrating game. Sad there's not even the OPTION of going somewhat easier. Nope; everything in the game, from the weakest enemy possible, can and will kill you the second you make even the tiniest fraction of a mistake.

I like a reasonable challenge, but this is one of those games I know is well made, yet I won't buy it simply because in the time it would take to finish that game, I could have probably played, beaten, and enjoyed at least three or four others with less broken controllers, curse-filled rants, and angry meltdowns.

Seriously?! That's a load of horseshit.
No Nexus?! No 'safe' spots?! (I take it you don't warp to areas anymore...?) Can you leave messages for other players still?

Wow. And I thought Demon's Souls was hard....

You can still leave messages (either helpful or misleading), and there are bonfire "checkpoints" that fully heal you... but using them respawns every enemy you've ever beaten (sans bosses). But no warping, even though there are secret shortcuts.

Other players can invade your game and kill you too... and they can be super-high level and you can't do anything about it.

To me, what I heard was the WORST, were two situations two critics ran into. There's certain enemies that "curse" you, which cuts your lifebar in half. Worse? It stacks. And you fight a lot of them sometimes, so you can get cursed two, three, four times... and your health bar becomes so small that there's almost no way to win or escape. And the ONLY way to remove curse is to go a LOOOONG way to a specific healer that hides behind tough enemies if you want it removed.

Another was a dragon boss that spews acid. The problem? The acid DESTROYS your equipment. Permanently. So, one moment you're fighting a boss, the next moment your armor AND sword is destroyed and your totally helpless and, depending on the saving system, if it autosaves your next checkpoint, your equipment is just flat-out gone forever.

Make no bones about it; Dark Souls is hella hard.

Damn, and here I thought Devil May Cry 3 was the hardest game in the world. That's a cakewalk to what I just read on Dark Souls...

I must get this game to experience the horror...of dying every 3 seconds.

Huh. So other players are no longer just those apparitions you'd see in Demon's Souls? They can actually attack you?!
That's absolutely ridiculous.

Talk about no mercy.
(Thanks for all of the info, Garlador.... I dunno if I'm gonna even bother buying this aneurysm in-the-making now...for good reason! I got headaches just from playing Demon's Souls for barely an hour(!))

Really enjoying the game so far.
I'm finding this one easier than Demon Souls so far tho.

Here comes "that" guy.

PERSONALLY

Picked this game at launch and while it's difficult...some of what Garlador mentioned is off-the-mark a bit. There ARE safe areas...there's just no central hub zone (Nexus) anymore. Campfires have taken the place of Nexus and are generally safe havens unless you aggro some monsters and then sprint back to the Campfire hoping an NPC will protect you. (Psssst...he wont). The game has a perma-refillable HP item now that you get before you exit the tutorial so no need to go farming for grass like in DS. That in itself is a tremendous improvent.

You can be invaded and summon into other peoples games just like in Demon Souls (which...I'm not sure how you never were invaded in DS Rockchalk. That was a big part of endgame). They added an interesting Covenant system that puts a nice spin on the Co-Op and PvP based off of your in-game story choices.


Overall, I'm enjoying myself so far and would easily recommend this to anyone into action/rpg's that enjoys "twitch reaction" style combat.

If you wanna have a look for yourself, the guys over at Giant Bomb did a quick look for Dark Souls. It should give you a better idea.

If I can play a game where it's vast and whatnot and killing things like dragons and shit, I'm gonna say I'll go with Skyrim (Not that Demon Souls or Dark Souls is bad, I'm just saying this in my opinion)

Although, I do wanna try this game out.

So im in a graveyard.... It seems as tho these Skeleton demon things can kill you in one/two hits.... -__________-

EDIT: Wtf Double Post?

Yep. It's a mid lvl zone that leads to the upper - mid area "The Catacombs". Your next zone progression area should be Undead Burg from the first Campfire.

Well, thanks for sharing! I'll probably rent it, at least.

(P.S. I never beat or got close to the end of Demon's Souls.... I got fed up at the level where you're on those rickety boards (that you can easily fall off of), and the enemies can poison/ give you the plague. The contamination level...?)

Don't get me wrong. I like Demon's Souls, but it could be so aggravating. However, it was unbelievably satisfying when you could beat a stage.

Yeah, sorry if I misled anyone. Campfires are your "safe havens", though when I said they weren't safe, I was referring to the second part of Mojo6's statement, that monsters can and will chase you to a campire, so don't expect them to turn around and walk away if you're fleeing from a really tough battle. I watched one poor sap on a video running from about four angry demons, got to the campfire, and just as he was about to re-heal, BAM, skewered through the torso from behind.

I think the biggest learning curve is that combat is extremely fast paced but isn't super combo heavy like a God of War, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, etc. Rather it places strong emphasis on timing attacks, blocking, manuvering, partying counters, and backstabs. In that sense, it's more tactical melee/reflex oriented than button mashie. As a result, even low level enemies can kill you with a few hits with the threat increasing exponentially when engaging multiple enemies.

The other thing that frustrates people is how quickly you can lose souls and the humanity points (which both are tied to significant gameplay mechanics).
In short: Souls are the main resource in the game AND double as money for merchants and blacksmiths as well as experience to level up your character.
Humanity effects quality of loot drop, loot drop rate, campfire buffs, and acts as a modifier for high lvl skills / spells. Most importantly the ability to SUMMON a person as Co-Op requires you to use Humanity.

So you have these important resources that you're collecting that drop as soon as you're killed. This requires you to track down your corpse from your most recent Campfire checkpoint with ALL of the non-boss enemies respawning. If you die a 2nd time trying to retrieve your Soul/Humanity stash then you can kiss all of it goodbye. You keep all of your equipment however no matter how many times you die (though it does require repair).

Once you get the strategy of the game though you learn not to walk around with a lot of Souls on you.

I'm not "that" guy. I did horrible in Demon Souls and really didn't get far at all. (Though i'm gonna try again) But in this one i'm doin a hell of a lot better and can hold my own with a lot of dyin of cource.

Demon's souls was amazing. Still have it.

Dark souls is on my shelf. Waiting for the strat guide to get here. Just in case. Trust me. Its better to have a guide for these games. again.. TRUST ME. not for bosses or whatever. Mostly for items etc. this game is ridiculous. The light/dark soul/world tendency opening different paths. Its just essential to know what the fuck is going on.

Cant wait to dive into this game. This looks amazing.
crtic towards these games is th multiplayer. I know its how they design the game to be. A dark, solo experience. Struggle etc. But I feel free world-joining with your friends should be an option. Just makes it funner for those who dont want as insane of a struggle as solo/randoms is.
My ONLY

Great!
Any tips on playing as deprived?

My girlfriend got it for me....,it is currently the only game I play.

It's that addictive, and I only give up when I lose all my souls for the third time (as in dying before I can recover).

Sure. I'm guessing that you're new to the series as Classes are really just used to determine your starting stats and starter gear. Skills/Spells/Weapon uses are based off of stat values so any class can technically use anything. So there really isn't Deprived specific tips but if you're new, just look into some YouTube videos. EpicNameBro (a devout fan) is one of my favorites to watch on the soul series.

If you have more specific questions I can help you out.
Edit: Oh wow, didn't realize that post was from June. Well J-Spit if you need help that advice is still applicable (especially the YouTube reference).