What Games are you playing 2016?

[Captain K]

Dark Souls 3:  Started.  Went with cleric because I hate myself.  They start with perhaps the worst earlygame shield ever - physical reduction 56%, stability 56%.  After a while figured out how the new MP system works and how to heal myself with mp pots.  Won't comment on enemies yet, except to say there's a whole lot of NOPE in this game.  Feels a lot more like DS1 than DS2, so that's good.

[Sierra]

Having actual dice and board game figurines representing characters was a really neat idea.

That sounds uncomfortably reminiscent of Unlimited SaGa.

~

DS3 is surely more like DS1 than like DS2, but it definitely draws on the latter for plenty of details too. Grefter's right, it really is shockingly open (for Fromsoft) and consistent in blatantly referencing past games. For DS2 though that seems more like returning items than returning plot. Flynn's Ring got nerfed into oblivion this time by the way, I get like a single-digit attack increase out of it. Maybe it's worthwhile if you're running naked with the caestus, but I'm not confident enough to do that yet.

Going to track my deaths so far mostly just for personal reference:

1: "This tutorial boss isn't so bad, I'll probably run out of healing learning his moves but I'm sure I'll get him next time--WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD THAT BE?!"
2: "I know Onionbro's still around here somewhere. Maybe that ravine down there? That fall looks like it might be survivable!" (It isn't. The lower Undead Burg skip wouldn't work in DS3.)
3: PVP sucks.
4: Cid sees shiny thing across gap. Cid runs towards gap. Cid presses jump button and falls into gap. The fuck? I am positive I made sure L3 was jump when I started. How is it circle again.
5: You dudes really fought uchi-man immediately? Holy shit.
6: Out-bandited by the cathedral bandit.
7: "These corpses will obviously spring to life when I pick up that item, but I think I should be okay. There are just normal zombies around here, and I can handle any number of normal OH MY GAH--"
8: Do not taunt Swamp Thing.
9: Grave wardens are hardcore.
10: Jumping down an elevator shaft just to see what's there.

[Grefter]

Swordsman is easy bro.  Just roll Promancer.

Also you WANT jump on L3?  Are you some kind of mutant?

Fen, that was exactly what I wanted to avoid   I am planning mostly to be super vague and only talk mechanics transparently if that helps?


I am generally super hype about Pyro this time.  At first I was sad face that it wasn't independent from stats like in 1, but I am happier that we have pyro that works like  DS2 that isn't gated behind getting the flame from random spot, then Fireseeds for upgrading just to have wors Magic than hexes.

Now it plays like Hexes supported from the start of the game and less opop.

Also they upped the range on Fireball.  It ain't sniping material like Lightning or Soul Arrows, but it it very useable from lock on range and you can use it to pull enemies without doing camera tricks to lob it with manual aiming the camera.

Combustion on the skill button of the flame is a beat design idea, but it is too hard to use in practice.  It needs to be in your left hand or using a shield with weapons skill. You can't 2 hand it.

Great Combustion wrecks face.  It is super fast.  So hype for getting more spells.




To cry about PVP since I am Ember Lord all the time because coop.  It is kind of terrible around release and in general in this game I think.

My experience is Poise is useless. 
Shields being not super good in this makes me use Weapon Skill shields in pve.
Dudes invade with Rapier and stunlock after the first hit.
I can't party because I am not using trash parry shield for pve.
Hit detection is client side so they lag up and get sick face stabs that you roll through.
Get wrecked by laggy stunlock boring.


Enemy phantoms can heal still.  Some people are really boring.

[Fenrir]

Fen, that was exactly what I wanted to avoid   I am planning mostly to be super vague and only talk mechanics transparently if that helps?

Actually I usually just see Dark Souls 3 and skip the post. Might read yours!
I'm very torn between going with cleric, archer and pyro in this one. I can't decide.
Can someone just warn me whenever they get a giant club, and like, how slow and huge it feels.

Having actual dice and board game figurines representing characters was a really neat idea.

That sounds uncomfortably reminiscent of Unlimited SaGa.

Yes. And great.

[Grefter]

I am still pretty early and have both Large and Great.  Haven't swung them around yet to check though.

From the options menu you can toggle on/off direction control on 2H weapons that DS2 brought in.  Not sure if you liked that.

[Fudozukushi]

Why do they even include Poise as a stat with how useless it is?  It's actually worse than DS2, which is mighty impressive.  At least there I occasionally took a dog bite or dagger hit.

[Grefter]

It's cool, the game is a mash up of all the games they have made for the last 6 years, so you gotta get a bit of Bloodborne gameplay in there somewhere.  Constantly being staggered and random dudes 2HKOing you is representative.

[Sierra]

I'm putting this part up top at Fenrir's request

I tried both the large and great clubs this afternoon and found them massively, unmanageably slow. I didn't actually bring them into combat, just swung them around in the shrine, but I can't imagine landing successive hits on anything with these. You're not going to just chain-stun everything like you could in DS2. Probably not picking them up again. (Don't let this deter you from trying for yourself, though!)

End strictly spoiler-free section, game progress narration resumes below

Cathedral done. Swamp done. Both bosses were first-try wins, though I had an NPC with me for the latter, which turned out to be handy because he helped me dispatch an invader first. And yeah, PVP is really lamesauce in this game. It carries over the dumbest aspect of Demon's/Bloodborne PVP, which is just that everyone's got heals for days so if someone wants to an invader can just be a major pest and run off behind enemy lines to heal up every time they get hurt. Which is how I spent the Catacombs, probably missing a whole pile of stuff because I was chasing an invader the whole damn time. I will have to go back and properly loot later (there's at least one NPC in there I didn't stop to talk to because my Blue Sentinel ally was moving too fast and I wanted to stay together).

Fudo's right, they really did take the biggest nerfbat to one of the scariest Souls enemies. What the hell? The bone ball was amazing though (and amazingly helpful vs. the NPC invader).

Deathcount continues:

11: That's some pretty crazy hang-time you've got there, mutant squidhead wolfdog thing oh where is my face my face has been eaten
12: Dammit, Patches!
13-15: Okay I have no idea how to fight this boss.

It seems obvious I'm not supposed to wear him down through combat. At some point he took a huge chunk of damage from something I didn't do myself, but I didn't see what it was because Doom 3 lighting. I'll come back here later. For now, I instead climbed down an improvised ladder and found true love (see below) before winding up in a fiery cavern. Oh...so...my cool new weapon's gonna be worth jack shit here, isn't it. Thanks game. Anyway I blundered into a side cavern and found a knight who I shot from a mile off and wait, what, he's got a name caption over him, I just picked a fight with an NPC, didn't I? Fuck. Anyway then I walk back outside and THEY'RE EMBERED?! and nope nope nope, we're done for today.

Anyway two crucially important developments came about this evening's journey:

-I have Dusk's outfit. Fashion Souls properly secured. I mean I'd really like to wear the firekeeper's outfit too but no, I can't, my body is spoken for.

-I have fist weapons that are fucking on fire and it's so metal. The special attack is a flaming spinning lariat that does like no damage but looks amazingly ridiculous and I love it. But now I need titanite scales, so I guess it's back to the cathedral to track down that crystal monster I skipped.

Between these two points I basically got what I paid for.

How is magic working out resource-wise for anyone who's using it? I'm kind of hesitant to invest in a brand of offense that will compete with my healing supplies for flasks. (I barely ever use weapon skills and at this point have my flasks set wholly for healing.)

[Grefter]

It is actually pretty great as Pyro.  I should have noted.  It lets you be a lot more flexible with your slots and liberal with spells, not because you infinite mana, but as Pyro I have more casts of Fireball than I ever did in DS1 (way more than 8) and I can sacrifice healing for more casts which is great.

Add in that I have to go Faith anyway and I can heal more efficiently per Flask out of combat for a spell slot.

It also makes attunement between breakpoints useful, more FP, more casts of everything.  Getting slots is nice, but it isn't even a huge thing (I have like 17 attunement now?  so 3 slots).

I have heard talk of Sorcery being shitty now though.  I can certainly see that with out that.  The opportunity cost for Ashen Flask charges is muuuuuuuch higher for Sorcery and I think if its damage isn't amazing enough to make Speed Run = Sorcery Run defaults then it isn't worth it.

For straight Faith, I can totally see running nearly pure Faith and Attunement and just like 2 Estus and the rest Ashen and just facerolling the planet.

[Captain K]

so you gotta get a bit of Bloodborne in there somewhere.

The Bloodborne representation is all the random wooden chairs laying around everywhere.

[Fudozukushi]

HLW: Hit the big glowing bangles on his wrists to beat him.

Dark Souls 3: Rise of the NOPE!: I had one last idea to reach that tower in Irithyll.  I promptly lose ember status to the first enemy I see.  BLARGH.  I back-and-forth this multiple times before I manage to check out the room.  Other than a pain in the ass doesn't look like it's here...

I look at it from the nearest spot and...  wait a minute... I mean, it'd kind of make sense?  Prism stones go?  Yep, that happened.  Let's check out that bonfire — WHO ARE YOU?  ARE YOU!?  No, no you're not.  You're...  another covenant with really interesting implications...

Guess that explains the bonfire name of the attached building...

And this inadvertently flashes inspiration so I go check where the bonfire should be and yep, false wall.  Oh, dead NPC, crap.  Uh, anyway, running... somewhere and, hey, I totally missed this ladder earlier!  What's down here?  Oh gawd not another one.  Let's rev up and — RUN AWAY!  Okay, come back, fully estused.  Yeah, no, luring doesn't work.  Run and collect loots!  Gem, random crap and the hell is a covenant doing in this place!?  Sure, whatever, RUN AWAY!

This is... another one of those?  Ewwww that makes me feel unclean.

Right, let's get on with the boss.  DOBV: Very pretty scenery, absurdly damaging grab attack.  Something on the order of a ten-hit combo attack doing 1/3 my life that stunlocks me until I die.  Wonderous.  Easily the worst hit detection to date, for both sides.  Plenty of times nothing hit me and still I was damaged.  Then some real obvious misses.  Probably one of the easier bosses so far to discern the pattern for.  Win on the fifth attempt, I think?  Bonfire and ladder to the upper levels unlocked.

Back to Firelink to spend and — oh boy that armor is for sale and it is goddamns beautiful.  Grab the weapon soul too and upgrade it.  I'm sure I won't get enough scales soon anyway!

First try with the weapon goes super-poorly.  I nearly lose to one enemy!  Back to the old uchigatana I go.  Think I'm finally getting around to how to deal with shield assholes.  The amazing kick!  I'm not even kidding.  Let's try out path number two now.  Hey one of you guys!  Hey!  You drop titanite chunks!  Going down an elevator to the Consumed King's Gardens.  Wow that's an unpleasant welcoming committee!  Hey, an NPC summon sign.  That's a first!  Let's open this shortcut and continue along path 1 instead.

Enemies are now dropping titanite chunks constantly.  I managed to get my Uchigatana to +9 right quick.  Let's go.  Hey, ha, this is a nice level of escalation here.  Huh?  Swore I saw something out of the CORNER OF MY EYE — WHAT IN THE BLEEDING HELLS ARE THOSE!?  AND WHAT THE HECK IS THAT DOING!?  GAHHHHHHHH!

Alright, let's, let's keep going...  That's a morbid bonfire...  Hey, a great lance!  I'm so overflowing with titanite and I need a thrust weapon...  Bah, it blows!  Alright, down the path aside...  Up there, kill some dudes.  Not going there yet.  Oh crap another outrider.  DIE!  Yay more useless weapon.  Dark room, plenty of bombs.  And a death and lose of Ember status to chain-grabs.  FANTASTIC!  Come back, kill things.  Get enough Titanite scale to get the Farron Greatsword to +4.  Requires a Slab to hit +5.  Bah. 

What's that gangly mess there?  Oh, OH!  Okay, yeah, I get this.  So glad I invested in fire sword.  Big gate open, let's advance.  Damn, that's a messy fight there.  Hey, boss doors!  Where's my bonfire?  Nowhere, ugh.  Alright, let's explore, there's a ladder, anther drop to gangling mess.  More stuff and... the Alter of Sunlight?  Huh.  There's a shortcut to an earlier bonfire too that I didn't see before.  Seems like the safer path.  Also, Estus went up to +8.  We're in a brave new world here boys.  Anyway, I can totally see the boss from outside, can't wait to waste these sick freaks!

 

DSA: Good god From why!?  Ok, alright, he's fast, damaging, doesn't like you being up close and can damn well hurt for it.  Dodge mojo go!  He switched fast!  OW THAT HURT.  GRAH not that crap too!?  Dammit, I die.  Okay, round 2... doesn't go so well.  Round 3!  Now that is where the magic happens let me tell you.  For just a brief, fleeting moment my dodging stride came back full force.  I know this boss better than anyone.  Let me get that sweet kickass armor and — WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT"S NOT FOR SALE!  You sell armor of dudes not even in the game!  WHHHHHAAAAAAT THE HELL!

Then right in sight distance of DSA's bonfire is another one.

Welcome to the Grand Archives.  That looks like an NPC corpse right there.  Oops?  Hey, not that's a sexy pair of swords there!  +6 those now!  Stepping in is immediately met by pain by a makes-sense enemy.  This turns the first half of the area into a weird game.  Coupled with an incredibly bizarre prompt along the way.  Heading further on and — GRAH what the hell!  Eat fire academia!  CRAP!  Learning is immune to fire!  Run and fight and run some more and eventually take out the big guy.  Open a shortcut and go to Firelink.  Still no damn armor!

Back at the archives my shortcut seems to have broke.  WHOOPS, turns out I was looking at the wrong elevator.  There's another outrider here and, hot-diggity-damn it dropped the armor set!  And it's pretty damn cool!  Heading up, checking stuff.  Haha I managed to stagger a huge enemy and riposte his face off.  Running low on estus here, need something to go on...  CRAP!  Run and panic mode AHHHHHHHHH!  What's that?  OH GAWDS!? AHHHHHH!  WHAT ARE THOSE?  AHHHHH!  Hey an estus shard.  AHHHHH!  Dammit, that looks like boss doors?  What the hell! — DEAD.

Well, that run to the boss looks like the most absurd thing ever.

[Grefter]

Dark souls 3 - I literally don't get the point of PVP and invading in this game.

Like not because PVP or invasions are bad in concept, but because its the slowest fucking most boring PVP I have ever seen with everyone having a billion Estus and Net Spaghetti so fucking thick that it is impossible to hit anyone without just flailing randomly.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 3: Beaten?  I have honestly no idea.  Not really in-depth spoilers but more a what?: That was such a non-ending even for a Souls game I'm left confused and empty.  Level 90; 32 hours.  Will have actual detail in a bit.

[Grefter]

3 Dank 3 - Fenrir this post is entirely for you my man.

Large Club and Great Club.  I think they are both usable.  They are both hella slow on R1 on both one hand and 2 hand.  You would never use those though.  The R2s and Jump attacks.  Roll attacks.   All of those are pretty quick.  On Great Club I honestly think 2 handed R2R2 is going to be your attack.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 3: Detail in not a little bit.  I slosh around the Archives so more grabbing loot and trying desperately to see if there's some shortcut here.  I really don't want to run through an entire zone to get to the inevitable boss.  I find a whole lot of nothing.  One halfass ladder at the end, but that's about it.  I can't even find all the treasure.  The final bit of the run I just squeak by and get to the boss.  Who I just Quit out of (after getting hit instantly, oh yharnam).  I look around near the fog door, and yes there is an exceptionally long shortcut to a bonfire.  Why not just put a bonfire here instead of a thirty second elevator ride + another minute of running?

I still have the Garden to check out.  Oh, there's a boss door here too.  What?  No, I have no idea what you're talking about?  Why would — oh, yeah, I see now.  OTCK: Alright, you're freaky looking and freaky actin'.  Wow, that's some spot on hit detection.  Hahaha, your legs wobble when hit.  Phase transition and now he's a bloodborne boss.  With all the required camera problems.  Narrowly, narrowly miss getting him my first try, but the second does it!  Awww yeah, let's see what rewards I get!  That's a funny and referential enemy!  Neat gesture, a chest and... that's it?  Wow, one titanite scale, lovely.

Back up top, let's get this boss started!  TP: Alright, that's an incredibly cheap move.  You take damage like a wuss.  I really should have seen this coming.  And die.  Alright, attempt 2!  Goes even worse.  Then I stumble on a titanite slab through sheer dumb chance and get Uchigatana +10!  Sweet Hanzo Steel!  It doesn't really help. 3,4,5 more down the drain, with one of those being chainlocked from the start of the fight to death.  Hello attempt 6!  Alright, get to phase two.  Have the pattern set down and lock.  Damn that's a mean trick.  Annnnnd victory!  Suck it you dopey prick!

All Five Lords of Cinder have been acquired.  Let the king be crowned.

My jaw literally dropped for the next part.

Final bonfire, and one run up to the final boss.

SOC: Ohhhhh shit this whole area is impressive visually and so is this guy.  He's fast, aggressive an varies up his attacks and attack speeds damn well.  The best part?  He's honestly not that damaging he's just brutal and relentless as all hell.  I love it!  Do a good bit of damage for a form change and... and... h-holy fuck is he who I think he is?  It'd make perfect sense, I mean god-DAMN.  He switches gears brutally and flings attacks around insanely.  I slowly manage to whittle hm down.  And the True Dark Souls begins here.  He gets more aggressive and his attacks are even better paced good god I do not regret losing to him one bit.  Round 2 I'm still getting a handle on things so he takes me early.  Round 3 I find the best ways to punish him but he still gets me down.  Round 4 just goes poorly and is a write-off, though I manage to ember after death.  Round 5 I switch back to the Grass Crest Shield for the first time since Smouldering Lake.  It helps immensely.  I've really got him good now.  He's intense as all hell but I'm in the groove and he goes down!

And then the game ends in less time then it took to write this sentence here alone.

Yeah.

[Sierra]

Also you WANT jump on L3?  Are you some kind of mutant?

Missed this bit before. Yeah, I absolutely do. I was weirded out by it at first in DS2 but by the time Bloodborne came out I hated jump being circle again. Reason being it's too easy to jump into shit that I am trying to dodge while running when jump and roll are the same button, and this cannot happen if jump is a completely different button. Also you lose a tiny bit of inertia releasing circle to hit circle to jump again. L3 has proven to be a much less frequent cause of stupid mishaps for me so I never want to go back.

[Grefter]

I woul look at binding it to something that isn't featured in moving at all then.  I personally am thinking L2.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 3: Now With More Completion.  I looked online to see if I missed any areas/bosses, and yes, I did.  One of them is so obscure and stupid it had to be made to sell guides.  The other I never would have found because it's behind an illusion wall in a place I'd sworn I'd actually hit.  Instead of going after those two I decide to go chase an NPC in Irithyll.  I was halfway through, so after checking the immediate area and finding nothing but loot I missed I 'port back to the start.  Whoops, wrong bonfire, ah well, might as well run with my giant bars.  Summon sign?  Huh?  Reverse summon sign?  Oh, hey, haven't seen you in a while.  And we're fighting... what are you of all people doing here?  Okay, two-v-one is easy so whatever.  Lady is back in Firelink to say good job.  Yay silvercat ring?

Head off to the first area I missed.  Untended Graves.  Man, this place is dark.  Hey, that looks familiar.  Wait...  And that is...  Huh, wow, that's a... thing, I guess.  Moving on... ugh, the run to the boss is long and filled with enemies including some annoying pricks.  Whatever, attempt 1 go!

CG: Alright, you make perfect sense considering.  Not too hard now.  Phase 2 and you're not even all that changed.  Locked into a corner and die when he's one hit away from death.  Lovely.  About five more attempts with increased frustration and swearing.  This is easily the worst boss in the game, bar none.  He takes advantage of all the huge flaws in DS3's combat.  The ridiculous lag after estus will be punished with his huge range.  His attacks are nearly 360 degrees, he has a lightning fast back-kick to prevent rolling behind and his attacks drag him so far forward you will overshoot rolls.  One hit from his swings will mean a second because poise doesn't exist.  On try 7 or so I just barely squeak away the win.  Easily the lowest point of the game so far.

Heading deeper in I meet some dudes.  Which... has some damn interesting implications going in further.  The inside is damn creepy, and I'm wondering if something can be done hre on NG+.  There's also a shop NPC of all things that sells...  Why is this here of all places?  Whatever, it'll work!  Grab that sweet-ass swag.

I decide to test out poise with all that's available.  I manage to get up to 66 poise and the broken sword wielding hollows at Highwall still stagger me in one hit.  It is literally worse that DS2 holy shit.  Why is this even a stat if it does nothing!?  (Also Highwall's differently colored now and the dragon's gone).  I dance around with the dancer stuff a bit before heading to the next last zone.

And because I need to access it from Irithyll Dungeon I get hopelessly lost.  Eventually find it and go through obtuse nonsense to access the Archdragon Peak.

No bonfire immediately?  Bah.  Oh, hey there's more than one of you.  Usual stupidity continues.  BONFIRE!  Moving on — suddenly boss!  Not doing any damage and, hey, a message.  Gimmick boss go!  And beat in one try.  Wimp!  And then teleported right after.  Bonfire and, awww, you're back!  Still trying to kill me huh?  This combat really agrees with you.  Except poise doesn't exist when you're playing moderatly fair so good chain damage for once!  Victory and loot!

And what the hell is that noise?  Is this some sort of gauntlet?  And dead.  Lovely.  RUN AWAY!  Kill thing!  Keep on running!  You're back again!?  Dead.  Okay, round 2 and that's not you?  What?  Is that supposed to be that one guy?  No?  Oh, that's how this works.  After about a dozen more attempts I kill the special one and no armor.  UGH.  Upwards and onwards and — again!?  *two more deaths* Still no armor.  Got another titanite slab though.  Up this other path is a thing.

Now let's ring the big boss bell!

That's some nifty scenery.

KOTS: Alright, that's an obvious tell.  Camera souls are in dangerous effect here along with poor hit detection.  Part one down.  NK: Alright, you have huge gabbing openings but the color palette favors you intensely.  YIKES that's a big shocking surprise.  Wow, you stagger easy.  HIT HIT HIT HIT.  Dammit emergency EMBER!  HIT HIT HIT DEAD.  First try ho-yeah!

Back to Firelink for levels and transpose.  Hey what are you NK of?  Wait, what?  That's an oddly specific description...  And the weapons and spell...  Was that seriously HIM of all people!?

Okay... warp back.  LOOT TIME!  Hey, another titanite slab, sweet!  And...  Why is this here of all places?  And that too?  What!?  Least I look swag as hell now.  Let's go upgrade this new weapon and see how it goes (my bet is poorly).  Talkin' to Andre and he's saying something new and I missed half of it.  What are you talking about?  Who the hell is Hawkwood?  Crestfallen has a name?  He was an NPC summon at one point?  The hell?  Alright, key item and — you prick!  You deserve to die for this you stupid asshole!  Stab-stab-stab.  Wow this weapon is kickass now!  WIN.  Get useless garbage, yay.

I also luck out get the last piece of the item set I was missing too, haha.  Back at Firelink, hey maybe NK had armor?  Yep, and...  Well, that settles that beyond any doubt, really.  No wonder he was so pissed.

EDIT: Also, I gave an item from Untended Graves to the Fire Keeper and Firelink got new music.  Alternate ending?

[Sierra]

Dark Souls 3: Darkmoon chick hates me now because I made friends with Slugzilla, but please understand, it was the only way I could get a haircut. Yeah my track record with NPCs this game is pretty poor. Almost everyone's died. Which I guess is pretty much just in the grand Souls tradition anyway.

I am enjoying DS3 mostly without reservation, but I do agree that the hit detection can occasionally be wonky (both to your benefit and detriment).

Case in point, I tried out the cool demon fists and quickly concluded that fist weapons are completely unsalvageable in this game. I am extremely sad about this. The stats are fine on paper, but you have absolutely no range at all, even less than you'd expect for the closest of close combat weapons. If you're not basically merging with the enemy's character model at all times, you won't hit anything, and the tendency of follow-up punches to whiff as combatants move ever so slightly means the tendency of DS3 enemies to dodge out of range at first opportunity guarantees they'll escape and your combo will break and you'll probably get stabbed in the face while punching air. Garbage, garbage weapons, and I wish I hadn't spent three titanite scales before experimenting to find out. So now I'm back to old reliable butcher's knife.

Anyway, yesterday was some backtracking to clean up stuff I missed, then Irithyll and Smouldering Lake + related spoilertastic environs. Irithyll was cool, not just figuratively--the art gallery was probably the most fraught with implications room I've seen so far. The local boss seemed brutally difficult and I feel kinda bad for cheesing it out with an NPC, but there were kinda spoilerish reasons for bringing someone specific while I could still do so. Lake neighborhood by contrast was immensely confusing and I'm sure I missed something but I'm not inclined to go back. Also, the lava room, the hell? Place did have the saddest corpse in the game so far, though. Boss was, well, I walked in and got flattened in like ten seconds, decided not to try this again for a while, but then my brother got online and was like LET'S GO, so we did, and I still have no good idea how to fight that boss because we just kited him back and forth across the arena with arrows until he got tired and gave up or something. I dunno. I do know that is the most metal boss arena I have ever personally seen, though.

And after all that I set foot into a very familiar place and, perhaps unsurprisingly given context, immediately got invaded twice at the same time. I see how it is. Offline mode is go for a while. DS3 seems to like giving you two choices of zones at a time to explore rather than the more open "Here are four big bads for you to kill in any order" thing that DS1&2 did. This is probably better for balance purposes. So right now my options are Very Familiar Place #2 and Irithyll Dungeon, and since the latter almost immediately established itself as the worst place in the game, I am probably going to ignore it while I can.

Also, yesterday's backtracking included finally clearing the giants out of the cathedral. Wow this was stupidly easy, why didn't I try it earlier? Fighting them on their level = doubleplusungood, fighting them on the ground = they can't hit you, period. Anyway swank loot around those giant feet, I got another of my favorite returning armor sets and a set of twin hammers that I really wish I'd got earlier because now I don't quite have the materials to upgrade them (can't buy large shards yet).

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to mention, I don't think think powerstancing exists in this game? But this doesn't matter because something like it does. Some weapons are just designed to be dual-wielded, and for these hitting the button to two-hand it puts a weapon in both hands. So you probably couldn't like powerstance differently colored Smelter swords like everyone liked to do in DS2, but that's okay because the weapon types that were more fun to powerstance and benefited most from it anyway are handed to you in pairs in this game. I really want to try all these cool twinned daggers I'm finding, but this isn't a DEX build so they wouldn't do me any good. Maybe next time!

Deathroll continues:

16 (forgot much earlier): Tried to fight the cathedral giant on the second floor. Do not advise.
17: Pugilism fail vs pontiff knights (whose armor is light enough that I might actually wear it if I can get a full set)
18: Demon hammer'd.
19: Mimic grabbed me in combat and gnawed me to death pretty much from full health.
20: Told I missed the Chloranthy Ring, go back to get it, forget where to roll off the elevator and plunge to doom.

[Grefter]

I am way behind you.  STill in Cathedral.  Raging about some stuff.  Had to stop playing before I went fully berserk.

I have been invaded a couple more times and am winning now that I know it is Lag Souls and just R1ing dudes in the face is the secret to winning.  I still hate it though because everyone has so much HP (because you need so much HP in this game more so than previous Souls games even) and so much fucking Estus (because lol bothering with Ashen Estus flasks as an invader) that it makes fights super slow.  90% of the fight is people running away.

I need to get Rapport.

Also part of the reason I tilted was rolling off rafters when I rolled twice when I meant to once.

[Fenrir]

Apparently PS4 can't be plugged to laptops even though there's that HDMI port there. Why.

Sorcery! : This is an adaptation of an old Choose your own adventure book on iOS.
Of all the "Words Words Words" games I've played on iOS, this is my fav. (Device 6 just didn't grab me and 80 days gameplay was a headache.)

Sorcery has a nice presentation and fun Suikoden duelish fights, but the selling point is the ton of cool spells at your disposal. There are like 42 spells. You cast them by choosing the correct letters (HOT for the fire spell) so there is a little more effort involved than you'd expect. This means that finding the correct spell for the correct situation feels really rewarding, while finding the wrong spell is often really amusing. For some unfathomable reason you don't get magic for a good part of the story. I discarded what prevented me from casting spells ASAP, showing no empathy.
In fact, what really sold me on this is just how much of a colossal jerk you can be. This game is Yattaf Story Gaiden. Tutorial village? Treat people like shit, get money, destroy the ancient door with a 3 stamina lightning spell instead of using the 1 stamina lockpick spell like the game directly tells you to do. Notice a really weird old man on a tree, throw stones at him until he falls off and dies.
It is most splendid and I'll definitely get 2 and 3 too

[Scar]

Hmm.

Ds3.

Uh. So...

I get a key open a door go down an elevator fight a stupid hard fight....die.

Go again. Fall to my death. Oops. Lost souls
 Fuck.

Fight this fucker a couple times. Beat him. Get...

A fucking behelit? Seriously!?

Uh. Obviously berserk reference item in here randomly. Cool.

Items useless for me. I but awesome regardless.  Hype.

Boss of stage 3 was interesting. Popping pimples has never been more fun.

Befriended a big guy. Making it rain is now pain free!

Uh. I also find what I can only express as a guy who is some parody form of a final fantasy referrence?

Hope that's not a spoiler. Can't spoil things I don't understand.

Anyways. Hey this is a nice view. Wait what's that down there. How...wait where'd he go? I can hear him....hm.

Ah. There he is. Ok. Oh cap did I just trigger a mini boss? You know I'm just gonna stay up here and...

Ha. Ok. Can't let him have all the fun. Jump in late, get the kill. Cool. Wonder what's in this area.  Almost die to two fatties. Get to the top and...where do I go? Oh find a drop to a tower and...uh.

Can't find a way down without death. Great. See items at base of tower. No idea how to get them. Warp out.  First time I used that.

Ok. Now what's below this tower? Death. Death again. Death again. Fuck this guy. What's behind him? Lure him out, run past open door.

Bonfire! Cheese the fuck outta him now. Cheap, but whatever. Nice sword.

Get to stage 4. Die. Oh gawd. Die so much. Can't kill crabs. I try cheese on land method. Doesn't work. Goes underwater and gets life back. Fuck.

Run around. Do stupid things. Lose estus. Fight my way up a path that looks like a possible bonfire.

Nope. Boss. No life. No items. Dead.

Bah. Go back again, find a good path to the boss. He's. ..surprisingly easy?

Beat him with little trouble. Yeah OK game thanks. Keep going find a second boss of stage 3? Super dead
 Try again. Die again. But I did notice something interesting. Use it my next go around. Uh. Help! Cool. Neat. I beat him.

Or not. Dead. Try again. Beat him this time.

Into the catacombs!

Ugh. Fall off lose all my souls. Try to get them back. Almost there a ball of death hits me and knocks me off again.

Fuck this game!

Ok. Calm down find a bonfire which leads to...ugh. what? How? Mommy.

Yeah no idea how to beat that guy. I mean maybe, but something invisible is insta killing me. Not sure what.

Back track find a church. Hey look zombies. Not too bad. Oh gawd they are everywhere! Wait what the fuck us that. Get it off!

Run away run up some rafters find a big guy. Find a easy path to a bonfire. Cool. Uh. There's a second one. Hmm. Not sure what to do here either.

Bah.

I'm liking these ultra great sword for farming. Guts would be proud.

My character kinda looks like kylo Ren with a frozen sword most of the time. Git my estus packs up to 10. That super helps. Gotta find ways around these two boss like areas.

Good times.

[Grefter]

You are doing alright.

[Sierra]

Scar: you can get down that tower, it's just a little tricky. There are some ledges midway down that make it not a fatal fall. The loot is worth the risk and I'd recommend going back at some point.

And Berserk references shouldn't be any surprise going forward. FYI, From's been doing that forever.

~

DS3: Ocelotte? Ocelotte?! Oceloooooootte!!!

So I did a lot of stuff, don't think there's much of the game left by this point. Pretty sure I'm in the last mandatory zone, and I know there's one optional place that I wouldn't have found unless Fudo rage hadn't instigated me to look it up (and wow, yeah, that is a stupid obscure unlock even by From standards). The high point today was everything about nostalgia town, especially the boss. You know, I didn't like Gwyndolin either, but I'd hardly have wished for him to be eaten alive. There's something so macabre about that that I could never wish it on anybody. Especially Priscilla, goddammit! So he was a genuine monster who profaned things I had a personal attachment to and it felt really cathartic to put him down. Saint my ass! Hey Fudo, who do we think his fire moves were supposed to be stolen from? Aldia maybe?

The optional zone I did find today was amazing and I won't talk about it save to say it was the scariest place I've been in the game and this had nothing to do with enemies.

Anyway, I'm level like 90 or so now. STR/END hit 40 and HP gains are starting to look inconsequential, so I'm just dumping whatever levels I get now into VIT. Maybe I'll wear armor eventually, just for looks! I'm also still rocking the Butcher Knife. I've tried out a lot of other strength weapons, but nothing's beating the combination of speed and reach for a weapon that hits relatively hard and has good stagger power. Pretty much everything I want in a weapon, including distinct aesthetics. It's not what I expected to spend the bulk of the game using, but I just can't put the thing down.

Today was a good day to die:

21: (As phantom) Trying to snag some extra souls for a level, lag-pope warps in and overkills me from full health. Still not sure what happened, other than LAG.
22: IT. ATE. EVERYBODY.
23: We can dance if you want to, we can leave your friends behind--
24: --'cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance well they're no friends of mine.
25: Mobbed by normal hollows. Pathetic.
26: Grabbed by a mimic again. The crawling ones are frighteningly agile.
27-31: Do you really deal that much damage in one hit? Holy crap. Why is this a thing that can happen.
31: Mobbed by jinglebell assassins. I hate these little twerps.
32: Archives rooftop mob. Holy shit.
33: See above. That knight is too hardcore.
34: There had to be another rafter sequence didn't there? Pro-tip, guys, this is not proper geography for a plunging attack.
35-39: See 27-31. Different boss, even more BS.

Man Grefter is so on point about the boss damage. It's really got out of hand late in the game. I have 30 VIG and the Life Ring on and dudes are just casually blasting through 75% of my healthbar in one hit. It's insane. I can't imagine NG+ in this game, nothing would be survivable. Tack on the most recent boss seemingly being built to punish you for even trying to heal and I'm pretty sure that's the hardest thing I've fought so far.

Re: fist weapons, the claw actually looks like it might be usable in this game! Just because it has a degree of reach that punching doesn't. Pity it shows up so late. I mean...I can see a potential sequence break for getting it early, but I'm sure as hell not going to try.

[Fudozukushi]

ADOG: I think the fire stuff is just natural Lord of Cinder Ember stuff.  Like Abyss Watchers and Yhorm do.  Though he's also about the only reference to Nito I've found.

Even with 40 VIT there's not much difference in suitability.