I have had a lot of success with Dark Souls this week. Carrying on from last week I have managed to get past the Great Stone Knights but came across something even more formidable as a result.
After exploring the Darkroot Garden in Dark Souls for a long time I decided to adopt a new tactic with the Great Stone Knights, this is not to engage in combat with them. Instead I quietly walked around them undetected. It worked very well and I avoided fighting two out of the three Stone Knights in the area. This is quite a valuable tactic to adopt in Dark Souls, it is not always best to fight everything you come across. So sometimes you have to become stealthy in slipping past without combat.
After getting past them I was in uncharted territory. With the game you never know what to expect, but I was certainly surprised to walk though fog to encounter a giant butterfly – yes you did read that correctly. I had walked into a new boss fight against the Moonlight Butterfly. From the start of the fight I knew I wasn’t ready for it as the butterfly was remaining in the air firing magic at me. I was both defenceless and as well as harmless to the butterfly. Being a Knight has its disadvantages, the main being the lack of ranged combat. For this fight, ranged magic and bows are needed. I currently am yet to posses the skills to use them efficiently. It was inevitable that I would die and shortly into the fight that did happen. It was time to try a new area.
I tracked back to another route in the Darkroot Garden which was a dark path leading down to the basin. It is a very gloomy atmosphere in the Darkroot basin, and personally not my favourite area so far. Within a minute of exploration I walked into a large black knight. Not the most pleasant of enemies to stroll into to. Immediately it was throwing its large sword at me. Stupidly I was walking backwards whilst holding my shield up. Another tip to Dark Souls is to be aware of your surroundings in combat or whilst walking normally. I learnt this lesson at this very moment, whilst I was holding my shield up and walking backwards I stumbled off a cliff to my death. Lucky for me the Black Knight followed me over the edge and it also plunged to its death. I must admit it was one of my worst moments on Dark Souls.
So you have read about my unsuccessful progress in Dark Souls, now it is time for the victories. Following the walk off the cliff I returned to the area and found a door which lead to a huge warrior called Havel. He had a huge hammer and shield. However, I wasn’t overwhelmed by his power. I took my time and tactically managed to defeat the warrior after about ten minutes. Another tip to take into Dark Souls is patience; always take your time in anything. Rushing will only get you killed. Havel also dropped a ring upon death. This ring now allows me to carry more equipment than before. Over the game I expect to find more rings with special abilities.
Shortly after this victory I returned to the Undead Burg. This is where I talked to a lone warrior on a balcony. What he gave me for my fight was something quite special which opens a new feature in the game. This is the ability to lay down a beacon on the floor. It another person’s world this beacon will appear to them and they will be able to summon me into their game. This means I can help them progress through an area or help them defeat a boss demon. It can be associated with a coop mode. There is a catch to this though as I also unlocked the ability to enter somebody’s world to kill them. Dark Souls is already hard as it is, and I can’t imagine how hard it will be with another real player chasing them through the Dark Souls world. All I can say it’s a great feature and I am glad it has been carried over from Demons Souls.
Once back in the Undead Burg I found a new area to discover in the lower section of the area. Here there were infected dogs and fast moving assassins which were new to me. Luckily they proved easy targets for my now +5 Halberd. Also in this lower section I freed a magician from a locked house and he is now able to teach me magic which will be a new form of attack or defence to use in the future. Lurking further into the area was a new boss fight. This was the Carpa Demon. As I defeated the Twin Gargoyles easily with lightening attacks I decided to adopt the same tactic again this new boss. It worked perfectly and it was dead within five swings of my weapon. AS it fell a new area was further opened up for me – The Depths.
The Depths is again another gloomy and dark area full of mysterious creatures. As I attentively made my way through the dark corridors nothing could prepare me for what happened next. A giant rat lay in my path, it charged at me so I ran into water stream which swept me away like river. Unable to get out of the fast moving water I plunged off a small water fall further down into the Depths. I slowly recovered and again nervously walked into the dark. Suddenly out of nowhere a frog looking creature jumped onto my back and cursed me instantly and I was greeted with the famous words – “You Died”. I returned to the latest bonfire with half health whilst still cursed thinking how do I cure myself?
That is how far I have progressed this week. Next week’s article will be my last until the full review of the game. Hopefully by next week I can talk about learning magic or even miracles, or even telling you how to cure yourself from being cursed.
