Dark Souls & Other Souls-Likes

Explain Tiddies!

You go in, which automatically aggroes the giant monster thing, then climb the ladder and just run like *** back to the Lighthouse Hut lantern, you should be able to dodge everything, it's just a bit hectic. Now the monster should be in a state where you can attack, lob stuff at it if you want, I just let it do an attack, I ran forward to the edge of the ledge, did a power attack and backed off.

When the other one drops in, when there is an opening hit one with a shaman bone to make them attack eachother, in my case the second one was left with a sliver of health, I attacked it once from the ledge which finished the job.

Just be careful as they can still hit you from the ledge, that's why you attack between their attacks, they have a long enough recovery time to sneak in attacks.

Ah lol. What I did for my Rakuyo was I went down there, and lead the first one on a chase around the central column. I used my uhh Church Blade? Ludwig Sword thingie, in the one handed mode, and just adept;y dodged/blood vialed through. I knew the 2nd one was coming fast, of course, but I just zerged the first one down. The 2nd one got a hit in on my right before I finished the first, but it didn't matter. I killed the first one, and then picked the 2nd one apart(though I got beat up a lot).

There's also a window to shoot them and cause visceral, but I'm not very good at it, and paranoid as *** about getting eaten whole again. Too spooky of a way to go imo /shudder

When I showed Dame where to get it, we fought them together, and of course it was a lot easier, but one of them ate me. Dame finished them off without me.

and down goes the optional boss!

How was he for you? I had a bit of trouble with him, not as much as Orphan mind you, but he was quite bothersome for me.

I'd rank them:

1) Ludwig
2) Orphan
3) Laurence
4) Maria
5) Failures

Laurence I tried my best to stick behind him, closest to his skinny arm which generally worked but he likes to spin around.

EDIT: Well ***, DLC all done, trophies all achieved. I guess I'm done with Bloodborne too, just the inevitable DS3 DLC to wait for.

Yay for nerfing Anri's and the Dark swords. It remains to be seen by how much were they nerfed, though.

1.09 Changes

For me it goes

1 - Orphan
2 - Laurence
3 - Ludwig
4 - Living Failures
5 - Lady Maria

Also I'm curious about how long the 2nd part of Laurence lasted for you. You know :o when he's all cut in half and leaking lava everywhere.

Also here, have a Lady Maria!

I didn't find his second form too bad tbh, I had more trouble with the first form. Second form I just held back for an opening, usually his lava spit attack if I was in an opportune position as it left him locked into a long attack that had no chance of hitting me.

:O Tiddies too good at the floor is lava!

My experience of the DLC bosses:

1) Ludwig - *** Ludwig, he made me quit the DLC when I first attempted it, I eventually got his patterns down but holy ***.

2) Failures - Name says it all, just like Celestial Emissary but somehow easier.

3) Maria - Eh, medium, she has some annoying attacks and gets a bit psycho with the blood and fire but I parried most of her health away

4) Orphan - Struggled to decide between this *** and Ludwig for most frustrating but gave it to Ludwig, yet this guys I barely killed and had 0 blood vials left when I did finish the job.

5) Laurence - Only annoyance from him came from the serious power behind his hits which accounted for a lot of my deaths, otherwise it was alright.

6) The true bosses of the DLC, the giant monsters, *** those guys and the guy who came up with them.

Preparing For Life After Dark Souls: A Conversation With Designer Hidetaka Miyazaki
Patrick Klepek

Between directing Bloodborne and co-directing Dark Souls 3, From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki has kept busy. As he works on Dark Souls 3's downloadable content, Miyazaki must consider the future of From Software and what’s after Souls. Here’s what the designer had to say.

Though Miyazaki is now running From Software, he comes from humble beginnings; he joined the company as a coder and spent time with the Armored Core series. Demon’s Souls, the game that would put him on the map, wasn’t his idea. The project was troubled within From Software and couldn’t find its footing. Miyazaki was assigned to save the game.

“I figured if I could find a way to take control of the game,” he told The Guardian in 2015, “I could turn it into anything I wanted. Best of all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care—it was already a failure.”

After Demon’s Souls, there was Dark Souls. The rest is history.

My interview with Miyazaki happened over email and, understandably, through a translator. As such, I wasn’t in the position to ask any follow-up questions, so you’ll have to excuse any answers that leave you hanging.

Patrick Klepek: How does it feel to be a few months removed from the release of Dark Souls 3, the conclusion of the story started in Dark Souls? Is there relief? Sadness? What have you been doing since it came out?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I’m actually working on the DLC for Dark Souls 3, and have been focusing on a number of new projects. With how busy I’ve been, I really haven’t had much time to feel hollow, so to speak. If anything, I’m actually quite excited with what I’m doing, and this is nothing short of happiness to me as a game developer.

Patrick Klepek: It’s been seven years since Demon’s Souls was released. How have you changed as a person in that time, and has that impacted your approach as a game designer?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: Just like anyone else, I believe I’ve changed since then. Ever since Demon’s Souls, I’ve been able to experience many things that I couldn’t have imagined experiencing before. Of particular note would be the emotional feedback, both good and bad, from players, and seeing the game’s community grow. These, and all the other valuable experiences spurred me on, and I couldn’t have been any more grateful. In order to repay everyone for what I gained from them, I’m planning on making sure that the changes I go through is something I will take to heart in a constructive manner.


Patrick Klepek: Where do you look for inspiration these days? Do you seek other games, movies, or books? Can you tell me about what you’ve been reading/watching/playing lately, and what’s interested you about it?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: My sources of inspiration come from various venues. The media you mentioned are sources of inspiration, but if I was to bring one item up in particular, I would say books, especially text-based books. I’ve brought this up before, but my pastime is to imagine and fantasize from reading text-based books. This is one of my inspirational sources towards game development. I know it’s a bit old, but of recent, I found myself enjoying the book, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. Personally speaking, it’s quite interesting to see how emotionally invested I am, in a good way, reading the book.

Patrick Klepek: I deeply enjoyed playing Dark Souls 3, but it was familiar. This makes sense, of course, because it’s the third Dark Souls game. If you count Demon’s Souls, which was similar in tone and aesthetic, it’s the fourth game. One of the series’ great strengths is its mystery, which is lost in sequels. Was that challenge for you, as a designer?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: Dark Souls 3 was designed to be a sequel, so the story, in like manner, is made as a sequel, too. The story for this game is built upon the story of the fire keepers from Dark Souls 1 and 2, and this is where the sense of mystery can be found. I believe this style of storytelling is something unique to sequels, and it was a fresh and joyful experience to be working every moment on it.

Patrick Klepek: One of the biggest moments in Dark Souls 3 is when players return to Anor Londo. It’s the one time in the series where the player returns to an area they’ve previously been to. How did that idea come about?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: As I mentioned earlier, the game is built upon the story of the fire keepers from Dark Souls 1 and 2. Anor Londo was brought into the design to symbolize this. The concept of how the player character isn’t depicted as a simple hollow, but rather “unkindled... unfit even to be cinder” also follows the game’s storyline of “building upon the story of the fire keepers.”

Patrick Klepek: There are multiple endings for Dark Souls 3, as there are for the previous games. But in your head, is there a single, true ending? Does one of them represent how the world of Dark Souls concluded?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: There is an ending that I would personally select, but I can’t say which one is of prominence among the four endings. This is because all the endings, and the game play until then, are a precious part of the story the player experiences.


Patrick Klepek: Demon’s Souls was a cult hit, but Dark Souls 3 is a blockbuster being sold to millions. Since then, you’ve become president of From Software, and you have to be concerned about the company making money. Are you concerned that might incentive you to take less risks with future games?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: No. It’s actually the opposite. If we avoided risks, we wouldn’t have positioned this game to be a turning point in the series and an end to the current storyline. I believe the new projects we will be announcing will show our stance and direction we’re headed to.

Patrick Klepek: Players don’t always know what they want. Often, they don’t know what they want until you show it to them. How much do you weigh the demands of players against what you think is the right decision?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I don’t think I get everything right with my decisions, but I do have faith in the decisions I make based on the visions I hold. In order to make my vision come to reality, I place importance in various feedback including those coming from test players. The reason why I have faith is because I like games, and because I’m creating games to those who like games.

Patrick Klepek: When people think of Hidetaka Miyazaki right now, they think of Souls. Even Bloodborne is deeply tied to the design of the Souls games. 10 years from now, would you be okay with that? Or are you determined to make games wildly different from Souls?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: To be honest, I’m really not interested on how I’m viewed as. The only thing I’m interested in is to keep creating something special. Whether that something is synonymous to me or not is really none of my concern. But, I can’t deny the fact that the Souls series is something special to me, so I am happy to know that people have that sort of image of me. Even if that image stays with me, I have no intention of ending in a way where I couldn’t create a game that surpasses the Souls series. That would be pretty sad, wouldn’t it?

I have no intention of ending in a way where I couldn’t create a game that surpasses the Souls series. That would be pretty sad, wouldn’t it?
Patrick Klepek: I wanted to ask about your process for approaching a new game, whether it’s a sequel or a brand-new world. Where do you start? Can you remember what you were doing when you came up with the concepts for Bloodborne, for example? I’m hoping you can walk us through one of those moments.

Hidetaka Miyazaki: Mmm... That’s a tough one to answer. For Bloodborne I don’t really remember what led up to my vision of the game [laughs]. If anything, my vision of a game is something that is formed, honed, and polished by working with those around me, especially with the great folks on the development team. This, to me, is something integral to the way I develop games, and the game so created is, without doubt, “our” game.

Patrick Klepek: For people who have already finished Dark Souls 3, can you give any tease for the DLC? How do you intend to surprise players?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I’m not sure I can provide “information” without spilling the “surprise” [laughs]. The only thing I can say now is that we’re planning two DLCs for Dark Souls 3. The first is scheduled for release in autumn of 2016, and the second is scheduled for early 2017. We’re actually still working on the first one. Content-wise, it builds off of the previous titles and will be featuring a new area, enemies, gear, and story. The game story revolves around a new location which I believe will offer a different feel from Dark Souls 3. Please stay tuned!

Mine goes like...

1. Orphan of Kos - If I had kept trying when I got to him originally, I would have eventually beaten him. As it stands though, when I got the DLC I was in a very awkward place in my military service as well as life, and there was also FFXIV patches in the way. A mix of all that, and the fact that I find him to be truly difficult made me put the game down. He's the only Souls boss that's ever made me do that, extraneous reasons aside(I also have over 50 deaths on his account). When I did come back after getting the Dark Soul achievement in DS3, I still remembered what I had to do, but I didn't feel like it was worth it. He made me not want to spend hours mastering his patterns, hearing his screeching yells. I asked my friend Dameion to help, and he did. We got him down in about six tries. It's literally the only boss I've ever felt the need to ask for help with.

2. Laurence - Holy hell. This guy had hardest written all over him for me. I am very impatient in Souls game boss fights. His first phase was like a repeat of Cleric Beast to me, but when his legs went away and he started leaking lava everywhere... just damn. He had so much health, and dealt so much damage. The lava limited my movement. I thought for sure I wasn't gonna beat him. Well I did. Then I got Dameion and the confederate NPC, and killed him again. Except when you have 2 people with you, he has waaaaaay too much HP. Dameion was using his PVP character cause that was the cahracter that was in range of my NG char. Both him and the confederate died towards the start of phase 2, and I had to finish off Laurence with his 200% HP or whatever lol. It took so many strikes, probably close to 60+.

3. Ludwig - For me he wasn't that bad. I don't know why. Maybe because I was already really strong going into the DLC, maybe because the way I fight in Bloodborne. Idk really. I beat him on my own in two tries, and then beat him again on a normal NG character with the aid of the Confederate NPC. Then I setup shop, and helped people beat him for several hours. I actually kinda like that fight.

4. The Living Failures - they took me by surprise. Since I wasn't outrageously strong, it took me quite a bit of effort to bring down even one, but that wasn't the problem. THe problem was the big *** you space typhoon lol. The first time they got me with that. I think they took me like 4 tries. I kinda hate them for that. They got me with it twice.

5. Lady Maria - God she's so beautiful and epic. The fight felt epic. It made my heart beat faster. IT was exhilarating. Yet, because of that, and because it is very easy to stagger Maria, I completely dominated her in 1 go on each character.

Hollow Gem drop rates are terrible.

Hardest part of this build. :|

Luck definitely isn't low. It's the cornerstone of my build.

Made quick work of the dancer. And greatshield users.

Do they panic like ***when they see the bleed meter rising?

One or the other, usually.

Panic rolls are really easy to roll catch, so I bleed them anyway.

Finally finished DS3 (/slowpoke), for fun I saved and uploaded all my first attempts on bosses + the first kill so people can see and judge my bad.

Isn't there a spell the pierces through the enemy constantly hitting while it's in contact? I assume that would wreck the younger price since you no longer need to get behind.

Bleed meter should not be built up on successful dodges!

Latency is a ***. For what it's worth, I agree. I hate bleed triggering during invulnerability frames.

Watching this :3