What games are you playing 2014?

[Meeplelard]

Soul Silver: Beat Misty, powered up power plant, got Aerodactyl...and it's level 20, grah, gotta do a lot of raising it now.

[Lord Ephraim]

Finished two Dark Souls 2 playthroughs: One has a melee dualwield dex build, the other as heavy faith/strength spellcaster.

The Dex build was garbage. ADP stat is completely worthless outside of .5 second faster healing.  It's the resistance stat from Dark Souls 1 aka the worthless dump stat.  Too many things resist pure slash damage, so I went from dual katanas into Ricard's rapier + Sun Sword.  Poise damage from light weapons is terrible but works well with the stone ring to stunlock any normal enemy within 2-3 attacks.  The free medium shield that you get from Purse User is the only shield you need if STR < 30.  Hardest boss on that run was Executioner's Chariot.  Yay gimmick boss. Easiest boss was those skeletons in the church.  4 black firebombs aaaaaaand they're done.

Faith/STR build made the game waaaaaaaay easier, you can quickly boost faith up to 22 and get double lightning spears that can kill bosses in 5 shots.  Since faith scales fire damage as well, you can throw a few pyromancy spells around.  Flame Swaith does too much damage with no investment in the pyro glove.   One of the hardest fights solo (Belfry Gargoyles) becomes one of the easiest with Chaos Storm and some herbs.  Final boss was a total joke.  Toss a super lightning spear, dodge laser beam, repeat til dead.

The main difficultly of Dark Souls 2 comes from overwhelming the player with lots of enemies at once.  Exploding mummy hell marks the area with my most deaths.  They even put a bunch of these assholes next to an important NPC and bonfire.  They show up in the most unexpected areas, flop, blow up, and either break all your gear or all your HP.

The next portion of difficulty comes from mandatory platforming.  Jumping controls are shit.  Add in the platforming with total darkness, poison darts, and more goddamn exploding mummies and you get the Gutter, the new Blighttown only with a slightly higher framerate.  Kitty cat ring is a must purchase.

Overall, didn't like the game as much as Dark Souls 1.  Shitty mandatory areas, quantity > quality bosses, and nonexistant lore and interesting NPCs.  The cat has one sexy voice though.  PvP is probably better, but I'm not interested in that.  Outside of rat hell and bell towers,  I got invaded a grand total of 3 times.  One guy did nothing but throw toxic mist at me and broke all my gear.  Thanks.

[Grefter]

I take

Kitty cat ring is a must purchase.  Overall, didn't like the game as much as Dark Souls 1.

As the entirety of Eph review.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Bravely Default - C4, making pretty good progress I think. I have settled into Crescent Mooning all randoms into oblivion in one turn while Ringabel beckons enemies to come hither so they go very smoothly. Bosses still have definite potential to be badass though. C3 boss was definitely legit (better than the fire temple boss I thought), and the two three-way-split bosses I fought were certainly also respectable enough. The first C4 asterisk boss fight was also better than a lot of recent ones though it definitely went on too long (there are two, defeating the durable undamaging one after the less durable more dangerous one dies is very easy but long).

[Fenrir]

I dunno the lore was pretty similar to DS1. Big difference is that the intro cinematic in DS1 told about the old myths, and the intro cinematic in DS2 told about how you're going to a fucked up place for no reason because you just want to.

I'm right before Covetus Demon.

Magic build continues to be cool. Hex guy gave me these totally sweet robes (Flowy like Dragon's Dogma robes) and ridiculously awesome magic staff with auto-rotating circle shiny things.

There are so many spells. Since I inexplicably get more and more magic charges, I only have to use three spell slots for regular damage spells (2 Soul arrows + 1 Dark Orb) and can use the others for stuff like Make Dead Bodies Explode. Which is just cool, but I really haven't found a real use for it yet. Was it really necessary to make this require two slots?

I thought I couldn't possibly beat anyone in PvP, but I won my first and only match. Machinegun spell, dark weapon, dagger +7. Stuff works.
Also Chameleon has been vastly improved, unlike DS1 you have fast moving speed when turned into a vase. I'm not sure you can turn into anything but vases and boxes though

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I don't think there are any non-dangerous bosses in C4 as far as my money's concerned. I'd definitely be interested to see you tackle the Vampire asterisk boss gauntlet, though - I found it reasonable enough, if somewhat tricky, but if you're willing to pad out Vampire's skillset early instead of very late, it definitely pays off (mainly because Fireball is a badass skill). 

[Lord Ephraim]

The backstory is explained lategame in optional areas.  Just some of it.  The rest you got to buy the 29.99 US strategy guide.

I'm not sure you can turn into anything but vases and boxes though

Go to Grave of Saints, use the spell there.  Inflict major psychological damage to your enemies.

[Grefter]

Spells DS2 needs.  Summon Animated Vase and Box.

[Sierra]

DS2: Okay, two things Heavenly Thunder is actually good for: frying the shit out of invaders lured into those tiny Hunter's Copse huts; and Skelemob boss. There's so much shit going on in that fight that you almost can't help but hit all of them.

Hit 30 Faith and got Licia's clothes. Oh look they upgrade with twinkling titanite ffrrzgt. Well I guess I don't need to upgrade my shield ever, I can totally afford to use more of this ore for this than I found in the entire first run right.

Apparently people fight Dragonrider without raising the outer rings in the boss arena. I...guess it might be marginally dangerous dealing with him in one-third the area? Also Covetous Demon can actually smash those dead dude lamps in his room and dead dudes will fall out and walk around. Oh noes one-shottable scrub enemies in scrub boss fight.

Made my first attempt at Blue Sentinel invading. Repeated failed attempts in Huntsman's Copse, the one hit I got immediately ends because I am "Driven away from the host's world." I take this to mean the shitheel quit his game. So basically this is at least as unsatisfactory as Darkmoon invading so far. Great. Switching to Sunbro mode, WotG can go hang.

[Clear Tranquil]

ToS- Mithos just jumped in the way of falling rocks to save Tabitha ;o

Now at the Iselia Ranch and a dream came true, I have both Zelos and Kratos in my team~

[Fenrir]

That's actually a pretty cool idea Gref and I wouldn't be surprised if they put it in the eventual fourth game.


I read the strategy guide descriptions and they're all:

"This enemy: He is really mysterious.
That enemy: Woah guys that enemy is TOTALLY mysterious.
That other enemy: MYSTERY LEVELS REACHING 10000%
That boss: Forget about the others man, THIS is the real deal, this isn't your grandpa's mystery"

And so on and so forth.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Xenogears: Nisan stuff.


Hour 32: The party arrives in Nisan to discover it is under the control of Shakhan's soldiers. They discuss the situation as stealthy music plays, then after some discussion jump right into the middle of town, fight a bunch of soldiers, and then get told "thus was Nisan freed". ... sure okay.

In the freed town, Sister Agnes reveals to the party that Shakhan forced the sisters to reveal the nature of the Fatima Jasper (the key to unlocking the Omnigear) to Shakhan, i.e. that it is the retinal pattern of the Aveh and Nisan royalty. Shakhan then revealed that he was going to use the retinas of Margie's (presumably recently?) dead mother. Maybe she was enbalmed in a way which would preserve her well enough for this, I dunno. Regardless, Bart decides it's time to stop Shakhan's aspirations: the next destination is the mausoleum where the rulers of Nisan lie, and beyond it the secret location of the Fatima royal treasure. Sigurd, meanwhile, proposes retaking Bledavik while Shakhan is occupied in Nisan. Bart, Margie, Fei, and one other PC head to the mausoleum.

In the mausoleum, the party discovers that no, Margie's mother's corpse has not been desecrated. Bart heads to unlock the Omnigear to deal with Shakhan once and for all. This isn't really the brightest move, but it's Bart. To get in, he needs to get his eyes scanned, but he only has one, so Margie helps out.

The Omnigear's in some weird 500-year old facility. This place is kind of weird. It's a large area with no randoms (which makes sense) but in general it feels unfinished; there are lots of areas you can go to with nothing in them.


Hour 33: After exploring the facility, the party discovers the Omnigear. It's locked in the facility so the party heads to the control room to open the hangar. Upon getting there, Bart hits a bunch of buttons and stuff happens. In particular, the whole facility rises to float in the air (Bart promptly names it Fort Jasper) and it fires a giant laser beam which Bart gushes about how awesome it is. His rants autoscroll at rapid speed, something the game normally reserves for annoying NPCs. I am amused.

He also opens the hangar. As soon as he does, Shakhan shows up with a "JUST AS PLANNED" moment! Turns out he never intended to use Margie's mother to open the door (that plan never did make much sense...), but let Bart think he was going to to panic him into doing something impulsive. Safe bet. Anyway Bart rushes to the hangar to stop him from stealing the gear.

Shakhan is waiting for that, though, as he surprises the party with an ambush of a large number troops in the hallway on the way there. All seems lost but Margie quickly sneaks past into the gear hangar. Also, Sigurd and Citan show up, fresh from taking over Bledavik! God that took hardly any time at all, this is what happens when you leave Citan in charge of something; shit happens quickly. Shakhan retreats to the gear hangar to try to capture Margie, but she is able to use the omnigear to fight them off. Someone locks the door so Bart has to open it, but he can't because he only has one eye... but Sigurd to the rescue! He has it scan both their eyes, it works. Bart is all like "wait... what is going on man" and Sigurd yells at him to deal with it later since oh right Shakhan is threatening Margie over there, which amuses me. Bart hops in Andvari (as somehow in the chaos he's able to reach it before Shakhan does, probably because Margie is trying to machinegun everyone else) and syncs up with it, fighting off a gear mini-boss, and Shakhan is forced to run away. Well that turned out better than it probably should have.


Hour 34: Sigurd and Citan provide some other information; they've raided Shakhan's room and learned that one of the Solaris gates was under his purview, and that it's located near Nisan. The party suspects he may be hanging out there, so time to go deal with him.

At the gate generator, they meet Shakhan, who promptly attaches his gear to the gate generator, revealing that while Ethos had been instructed to guard the gates without being told what they were, they eventually figured out and learned how to siphon off energy from the system. Or... he thinks they did as the energy draining system malfunctions. Bart mocks him, but Grahf shows up and does his whole power-granting thing for the third and final time.

I actually lose this fight because not using Maria is stupid and there's actually rather little margin for error in the fight without her. Using her makes everything better.

Anyway, the fight ends with the whole system malfunctioning. Bart takes the time to trash-talk his nemesis one last time before the party retreats just in time for the gate to blow up.

The scene shifts to Aveh. Bart thanks the people for their patience and announces his plan to end the war with Kislev. He also reveals that his father's will included leaving the kingdom as a republic, perhaps because Bart's dad realised that Bart shouldn't be in charge of ruling anything. The people don't know that, though, and promptly acclaim Bart their king/president-for-life or something, much to his chagrin.

In a scene later that evening, Bart inquires to first Maison, then Sigurd himself about Sigurd's past. We learn that he was born to an affair of the king and a woman from a small nation east of Aveh (is this supposed to be Elru? His skin tone is a lot like Dominia's) who might have become queen except that she ran off because she knew she was dying and didn't want to get attached to anyone. Sigurd had later entered the service of the Fatimas as a squire (before, of course, getting abducted by Solaris). He didn't think his father knew who he was, but speaks warmly of how his father treated him. Bart reveals that his father's will instructed to split his inheritance with his brother, which had always confused him until the recent Sigurd revelations. Guess dad knew after all.

With Shakhan dealt with, the party once more turns its attentions to Solaris. To deal with Solaris, they first need to get access to it, which means dealing with the gates. Fortunately, one has already been blown up. There are two more, one is known to be buried deep within Ethos. The party discusses various plans, none of which seem likely to work; they can't dig down to it in a realistic amount of time and they don't have enough firepower to blow it up from the surface. OR DO THEY? Bart proudly reminds everyone of his new toy, Fort Jasper. But it's much to far away. Citan comes up with the crazy plan of reflecting the Fort Jasper beam off of the giant mirror of Babel Tower though. You know I have no idea what the scale of RPG world maps are supposed to be sometimes. Fort Jasper and Babel are half a world apart, but a beam can travel between them? Is the map just a small part of the world? Does the Fort Jasper beam curve with the planet's gravity? Is this all just a setup so that a crazy Citan plan can work because the game loves him? Who knows! Regardless, that's our next goal.

The Gazel, meanwhile, are not impressed. They berate Ramsus, calling him 'trash' (won't be the last time...) for his failure to stop the party reaching Shevat as well as his defeat at the Thames and allowing the Ignas gate to be destroyed. They order him to defend the remaining gates. He is still injured, though, and as badly as he wants to go fight Fei again, Miang refuses. Dominia and company step up to defend the gate in his place.

Next time: Almost at Solaris! Looking forward to it.

[Shale]

RPG worlds are shaped like donuts and you can walk across a continent in three minutes while passing at most five towns. Physics gave up and went to the bar 25 years ago.

[Niu]

Honestly I sorta feel like the "bad" ending of Bravely Default was (spoilers from here) meant to be part of the good ending, but they decided that the game needed to go on for longer or that "properly" ending the game would require all 20 crystals to be turned on, so they split it into a "bad" ending that honestly feels more satisfactory to me and a "good" ending where you ignore half the moralizing and everyone pretends that Airy's a good guy until they can justify beating her up to get to the real bad guy. I don't know; I feel like the game was intended to just be three worlds (3-2-1) and got stretched at some point. The refights in worlds 4 & 3 don't add much, the "bad" ending right up until Airy's final speech felt so much cleaner... maybe I'm inserting how I would've rather seen it, but there's a lot of ways they could've trimmed fat and concisely done so much more/made both endings have so much more punch and impact.

It might say something as to how much I like the game that I'm thinking through the problems, as relatively small as they actually wind up being, and attempting to figure out how I'd make it even better.

Also, I'll still maintain that breaking the last crystal in world 3, after all the buildup, just feels so goddamn right. May be another part of why I think a three-world setup would've fit far better.

You are not the only one who thinks that way. Ch.5 clearlt felt superfluous. The whole Celestial Realm deal also felt tagged on.
It felt like the writer wants to make the whole thing really meta when they are already half way into the development, so they plug in the last boss the way it is.
But that still doesn't excuse the bad writing of requring to make the whole PC cast to be total idiots to get to the true ending. Not to mention the fake ending has less casualty...

[Fenrir]

You know, Citan is 29.

You have all wasted your lives.

(I still have two years to get as awesome)

[Meeplelard]

RPG worlds are shaped like donuts and you can walk across a continent in three minutes while passing at most five towns. Physics gave up and went to the bar 25 years ago.

I figured it's more just V. Joe World Logic where things reach a point of ridiculous, Physics just sort of goes "Screw this, I'm done" and leaves (that's the only way to explain the V. Joe final boss fight, where the world clearly is NOT a donut.)

[Fenrir]

DS2: Hex? More like H4X

Well it's not that good. But I just noticed recently that I had naturally turned all 8 of my spell slots into dark spells + the occasional fun spell like the one that turns your shoes blue.
Dark Orb is my new default magic spell. So far I've only noticed one enemy that resists dark but not sorcery (those few club wielding green dudes in Earthen Peak)

Sorcery is now like the middle of the road option as far as magic goes, stuck between pyromancy and hex.
So yeah if you want a full frue mage you have to get into hex. Sorcery, and its soft cap at 20 int, doesn't cut it anymore.
Get 20 Int and 20 Fai first, get the ultra badass wand from Felkin, put some twinkling titanite into it, have the blacksmith turn it into a dark weapon, and voila. Get to NG+, buy unlimited cracked orbs, shotgun dark blast people (that's my plan)


The hex damage spells that consume souls are worth it. Just like a regular Soul Arrow, except doing just slightly less damage than point blank dark shotgun? Insanity.
I reaaaally don't see the point of an healing spell that consumes 2000 souls though. It doesn't even heal allies. The dark weapon spell that consumes souls is also pretty underwhelming, I guess they didn't want to make it too overpowered for PVP but still.


Oh, the NPC you can use for the poizn lady fight in the windmill is pretty cool. He's a jester who's dual wielding pyro hands.

[Cotigo]

Re: Xenogears physics:

Dude, did you forget the part about Solaris' gravity being reversed for... reasons, or the fact that the world map changes completely because Solaris had some... force... field... that... made the world look different... or .... whatever?

The only physics the game gives a shit about is Metaphysics, and look at how they handle that.

[Grefter]

Well it's not that good. But I just noticed recently that I had naturally turned all 8 of my spell slots into dark spells + the occasional fun spell like the one that turns your shoes blue.

Stop making me want to play this game.

Oh, the NPC you can use for the poizn lady fight in the windmill is pretty cool. He's a jester who's dual wielding pyro hands.

Stop making me want to play this game

POKEDUDES XXX - Finished.  Overlevelled because Exp Share and I didn't rotate pokemons as much as I intended to.  Second game in a row where I meant to use a Ghost Steel because Golget is rad and Honedge sounds fucking sick.  Second game in a row I failed to do so and hated self.  Ran a Scizor the entire game because I got a level 1 Technician Scyther with a good Nature from Wonder Trade on my first night of playing and a friend had a Metal Coat to spare, so bam, Bullet Punch Technician Scyther straight out the gates.  Good times were had.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I will no doubt nitpick those things when we get to them, Zenny.


Xenogears - Hour 35: Citan's plan is put into effect, as Fort Jasper's beam is fired at Babel's mirror to destroy the second gate generator. Not much to say about the sequence of events here; of more note is that you meet all the Elements again. Dominia still wants Elly to die while Kelvena is shown as level-headed and speaks regretfully of having to fight Elly, implying that they are former friends. Tolone and Seraphita mainly provide comic relief as before, with Tolone trash-talking the PCs' plan, and Seraphita ignoring her and blathering about unrelated things.

Anyway it works. The party then notes that thanks to information from Shevat, the gates form a triangle. (I snarkily remark to my company at this point that any three points form a triangle because I am that kind of person. Yes, yes, I know they mean equilateral triangle.) Elly remembers that one of the gates was near the ocean, which narrows down where it can be.

There's a scene with the Gazel again, expressing contempt for the renewed failure of Ramsus and his soldiers. Krelian, meanwhile, notes that there is some interesting data from the memory cubes (wait, did the game just acknowledge save points to be a thing?), and wants to send Emeralda to confirm the presence of the 'antitype' (which we later learn means Elly).

The party heads to the underwater gate. Here, they meets the final PC, Emeralda. Krelian has brainwashed her into trying to kill the party, and one of his flunkies named Rattan (who like Stone, also has no face... Krelian has weird expectations of his followers) observes the boss fight. After we win, Emeralda recognises Fei as 'Kim', which pleases Rattan, and he takes off, allowing the party to blow up the gate. Emeralda, meanwhile, turns out to be fiercely loyal to Kim/Fei, but not give a shit about Elly... clearly she didn't do a very good job of impressing Emeralda 4000 years ago! Considering Emeralda was apparently sent to identify Elly, this is kind of ironic, but I guess her recognising Fei was ample proof or something? Feels a bit plot-holey.

Anyway, with three gates destroyed, Solaris appears. It is big and menacing-looking; there's a surprisingly lengthy cutscene just panning over the place. This is the source of all the evil which has assailed the Lambs for the last five hundred years and the game makes you want to savour it. Time to go in and mess up the Gazel once and for all!

The party forms a plan to do just that. They'll need to destroy the fourth gate on Solaris itself before the place itself can be attacked. Fei, Elly, and Citan will form the strike squad. Before they leave for Solaris, Citan has a cutscene with his wife, where he talks about how he has chosen his path, but he may yet be overcome by the "dark side". Yui gives him his sword and tells him to come back alive. Meanwhile, Jesiah also accosts Citan alone, warning Citan he will kill him if he does anything funny. Citan merely notes that he is counting on it, which flusters Jesiah. Good.

Next time: Solaris! Maybe some Soylent Green references, definitely some character work.

[Hunter Sopko]

Atelier Escha & Logy- I'm not sure I like this game. Almost done with Assignment 7. It's fairly breezy and easy, but... there's almost nothing here. It's a regression from Ayesha on the story front, with next to no character work or story happening, and I know Ayesha was also light on the former but it at least tried. Everything here is just so empty and melodramatic and you just end up not caring. It's so boring. My god. There is no compelling reason to finish this game. At all. They really missed the mark trying to "fix" the "problems" with Ayesha. The end of the story really better tie it all together because goddamn this is just a whole lot of nothing.

The alchemy system is a little more intuitive. Not being able to register items in shops is annoying, even if the Homunculus duplication tries to make up for it. It's just less convenient more than total bullshit, so I can deal. Filling out the assignment pad is easy enough, though sometimes it's not exactly clear on how things work sometimes, which can waste some time.

Combat kinda treads water. Alchemic attack items are back on their pedestal, and you get not one but TWO overpowered alchemists. On the flipside, stats and buffs generally aren't as clearly overpowering as they were in Ayesha (just mostly). Your non-alchemists are still generally strong though, owing to Ayesha's improvements. But the enemies got HP buffs and nothing else really, which makes early battles until you can craft better stuff really tedious.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Solaris having reverse gravity never bothered me. They understand all the advanced technology and shit right? The spaceship from the beginning of the game clearly had artificial gravity just from looking at how it was shaped. They are missing a particularly clever reason for it though. The prison where they reversed the artificial gravity in one of the ancillary Star Wars works, for example, did that because people would try to escape by going up since they were underground but that only lead further down. I understand HOW Solaris could, just don't understand their motive.

[Pyro]

Totally agree with you on the Bravely Default plot stuff.

This is especially true because after entering the pillar of World 3, NOTHING HAPPENS WHATSOEVER in Worlds 4/5 until you break crystal #20. The optional refights are neat (sometimes amazingly so) but the characters stop having any real interaction related to the plot, which is just sad. If you break the 4th crystal in World 3 it all works much, much better from a storytelling perspective.

Also Airy makes for a much more compelling villain than Ouroborus. Ouro just kind of shows up, says some Evil things, has a fairly long battle, then is done. Admittedly he hams it up better than your average space flea from nowhere final boss, but still. Airy taunts the party, has conversations with them about how much she hates them mid-battle and how she enjoys using them, and so on. Much more connection to the narrative, which makes for a more compelling villain.

The game COULD have done something interesting with the plot after W3, but it did not. Pity.

[Fudozukushi]

Don't have anything but my own experiences to compare it too, but Hexes tended to do more damage to giants.  Around 180 to normal enemies and usually 1.5x or more to giants.  Yay odd usefulness!  Resonant Weapon can have its uses if you're using something with poor attack power like Caestus(I hate meeeeee).

DARK SOULS 2: Shitty boss breakdown edition.

Smelter Demon: Hey look, another antithesis to Caestus!  Hello giant gap between your legs making me whiff 75% of my attacks.  Guess I have to target your sides instead and hope you don't flatten me in one hit!  Or I could wuss out and just spam spells while I let Lucatial tank you.  Except that one time she doesn't enter the arena and that's my best run to that time!  And when I finally succeed it is exactly when she dies so no credit for completing that quest.

The Rotten: Hey look!  When I'm not aggravating myself wasting ten minutes getting to the door the stupid dull garbage that is this boss fight is just that!  Gutter was more interesting because I accidentally punched one of those dogs to death.  Went full tank mode since lol Gutter souls.  Also found the Darkdiver and Giant Soul here on complete accident.  Then I went and grabbed Havel's gear.  Arm/Leg is gonna be the new pieces for my tank set yay Twinkling use!

Drangleic Castle: Ruin Sentinals the return got me a few too many times.  The Stone Soldiers dropping Titanite Slaps like crazy is lulzy.  I have more Slaps on me then I ever got in Dark Souls period.

Dragonrider X2: No, even if there's two of you you are still effortless trash.  The real difficulty here is living with yourself if you get hit.  They have less health than the generic enemies in the castle I'm pretty sure.

Black Chasm?" HELLO HAVEL.  GOODBYE MY LIVING.  The 70 Effigies I've stocked up will sure come in handy soon!

Looking Glass Knight: Hey, an interesting boss, that I can hit! with a neat gimmick, that doesn't do 80% of my life on any attack.  Nifty!

Shrine of Amala: Having a bow and fire arrows really made this cake.  Got a fair bit of Twinkling Titanite and Effigies from the swimming freaks.

Demon of Song: !  How the hell is melee supposed to fight this thing all its attacks killed me in one hit?  I had a bow so it wasn't so bad but...

Undead Crypt: Neatly put together.  Enemies being able to stunlock me to death though is poorly put together.  SCREW IT MAXIMUM TANK.  HAHAHAHA those shield assholes only take off like 15% of my sad pathetic lifebar.  Hello Aveyn.

Royal Aegis: Hey look, a dull boss, that I can't hit, with a stupid gimmick, that does 80% of my life on any attack!  STUPID!  That offhand backswing costed me about a third of my dozen attempts on him.  Stupid insta-kill homing attack only took me twice however!  Because his legs were spread so far apart AGAIN, I couldn't get in very many hits with Caestus.  After a couple of weird attempts with spells and bows I just wussed out again and took him out with the Black Knight ULTRA Greatsword.  Apparently it got an upgrade sitting unused for XXXXX amount of years.  Oh hey, his soul trades for that Sacred Oath miracle.  Cool, a boss near endgame giving such teamplay miracle.  Princess Guard all over again!

King Ring get.  Throne of Want?  No.  Aildia Place thingy?  Sure.  Oh hey, using a Fragrant Branch of Yore, it's been a while.  Hey these glowy-weapon guys drop Petrified Dragon Bones, neat!

Guardian Dragon: Turns out the Dragonrider Bow is real good at taking our dragons!

Dragon Aerie: Got invaded, enough time passed for me to get fully geared up.  Fight took place in that tiny passageway before the bonfire so naturally my Casetus hit the wall and bounced off while his giant greatsword swung on by effortlessly five times and I died and have to wait for that elevator forever.  Run up to the Ancient Dragon is a nightmare because everything as too much health and the big dudes once again have their legs so far apart I can't hit them from behind.

Giant Memories: Now this is a cool idea!  Would be better if the Royal Soldiers didn't keep trying to kill me because clearly between Giants and some guy some guy is more important.   Dying here is a nightmare because of suffering through two slowass loading screens each bloody time not even counting for blacksmith trips.

Giant Lord: Last Giant MK2!  Now with 100x the stupid run up to him!  One of my failures was solely because I ran out of time hahahahaha.  After the phantom proved useless a half-dozen times I said screw it and went solo.  Such a better idea ugh.  Resonant Weapon is actually what won this for me in the end.

OFF TO FIGHT SALAMANDERS!    And die about four times because they're the fastest thing in the game cripes.  Why does this open with the Iron Key that's dumb.

Anyway.... half a million souls on my person with probably another 200K in consumables.  I didn't want to level so I could keep getting summoned but my connection's so bad that I rarely get called in.  I should just go get myself those 30 or so levels.  Maybe getting 60 more attack will be slightly helpful.

Death total broke a hundred million monday whoooooo.

[dude789]

Dark Souls 2: I probably need to listen to Fenrir and start working towards Hexes because Sorceries are underwhelming right now. The damage really needs to be increased, because Soul Spear still isn't one shotting most of the trash enemies which seems wrong. I do have the sunset wand, but I need more faith for most of the spells and I would like to get the Staff of Wisdom levelled up first and see if that helps at all with the sorcery damage. Soulmass is still alright I guess and I just got the Greatsword spell which is also neat. I also tried Pyromancy and did over 1000 damage with Flame Swath. That was pretty neat, but it's also very slow and takes up all of my stamina to use most of the spells.

People are very nice in Drangleic castle though! Had two sets of sunbros help me through the area and then another group help me through the Mirror Knight. I think I'll stick around and do co-op for the Mirror Knight a bit longer. I'd like to see him actually summon an opposing player instead of the generic phantom.

edit:Oh my. I just saw how much the Sunset Staff gets with each upgrade. Going to go work on that today.