Delphouneso

I am. That's interesting to know. Smelter Demon took me two attempts but I must've died 20 times getting to the second attempt, there are so many enemies in that room and their aggro range (and running speed) is insane.

Wordle 284 5/6 seem to have been a few of these recently.

The Smelter Demon boss run might actually be worse than the run to Capra Demon. I'm noticing running through enemies generally seems way less effective in this game, I don't know whether there are more enemies, less bonfires, less shortcuts or something else but running back to your body rarely seems to end well. Another thing that feels off and I can't quite put my finger on why is the feedback when you get hit, it just seems to be lacking some how. I genuinely wouldn't know I'd taken damage half the time if I didn't notice my HP going down.

The start of Black Gulch is some of the most stupid shit I've experienced in a Souls game.

Just got this. I was pleasantly surprised because I was convinced that chest was going to be a mimic as a punishment for attacking a passive soldier. Spent some time farming to buy the Uchigatana as soon as I saw the blacksmith had it for sale, which took a while because I started as deprived so also had to level the stats to use it whilst only being able to use a dagger, and now I'm not even sure it's any good and it broke after literally one attempt at a boss. Maybe it's the game telling me to explore new weapons and not just use what I used in DS1.

I guess what I was hoping you'd say was 'don't worry there's a ring you can get that severely lessens its effect'. It seems they're not quite as rare as humanity was at least. Parry windows so far seem super generous, having to wait for enemies to fall over before riposting is a bit awkward though. Majula kinda reminds me of Red Dead Redemption for some reason.

Spare a thought for those of us not playing Elden Ring. I've just started DS2 and first things first someone please tell me effigies are super common items? I wasn't a fan of the humanity system in DS1 and basically just played hollow 90% of the time, but it appears that's going to result in me playing through this game at half HP, which might get annoying.

It's over. It'll be a while before I come back to this I think, having to do that extra playthrough for one weapon was a drag and completely quashed any desire I had to do any fun runs or challenges. Not least because I made much harder work of Gwyn on NG+2 than necessary, I think only a glass-cannon run at Ludwig has taken me more attempts at a boss. DS2 now I guess?

Worst part is I saved getting platinum until after the game to cheer me up if we lost, now I'm more annoyed about this than the result. I'm currently debating whether it'll be quicker to finish this playthrough and rush through to Anor Londo in NG+3, or start a fresh game but have to kill Capra, get the ember from Depths, farm souls for a +10 weapon then get to AL all whilst being low level. Or throw my PS4 out the window.

So I'm an idiot. Just got to the Giant Blacksmith on NG+2, bought the final weapons I needed, platinum didn't ping.. I bought the cursed Artorias sword twice. Because I'm an idiot, and because the game gave them both the same **** name. What do I do? I really don't want to have to complete this playthrough and play NG+3 up to this point again, but starting a NG means getting the Very Large Ember again I think in order to get a +10 weapon? Are there any skips I can utilise?

Wordle 243 5/6 Well that was annoying.

This one's on the manager, said himself our running numbers were through the roof on Tuesday and picks the same XI against a fired up Newcastle team. Midfield has been abysmal, ref is awful, not a good watch so far.

KKH, JPB, and Raikhy in action tonight. Barry and Steer on the bench. edit: missed A. Ramsey also starting for Cheltenham.

No starters which is a bit disappointing. Surprised to see Archer dropped.

Wordle 220 2/6 My second 2/6, no hole in one yet.

Great goal. Louie looked like he needed that one.

Maybe this was why I hated it. I was using the skull lantern which meant permantly holding L1 the entire time I was in that place (which also prevents you from jumping), also meant I wasn't able to use a shield, and with low vit most of those enemies 1 or 2 shot me. 'ceaseless discharge cheese' is one of the more interesting phrases I've typed into Google. Yeah this is definitely how I'd approach a subsequent playthrough, I really enjoyed a glass cannon playthrough of Bloodborne despite how clunky and limited the 'spells' are in that game, it'd be nice to have a go in a game with a more in depth magic system. Though I did find pyromancy largely useless in this run. Also I have to say now that I've finished the game I'm massively impressed you managed to make it through the whole thing without falling off anything. Did you include the DLC in your no death run?

Okay I'm done. I feel like I've had a lot of issues with this game but overall I've enjoyed it. The combat is clunky and the environment is infuriating, but I did enjoy the world it was set in. Though I'm not sure why I spent four bosses worth of time in Izalith and only one in Anor Londo. The DLC is great too, I don't know how much time passed between its release and the main game but it feels way more polished, the bosses are a real step up in quality and difficulty too. Worst bosses: 1. Bed of Chaos - doesn't need explaining. 2. Capra Demon - dogs are annoying anyway but two of them and a boss in the game's smallest boss arena, coupled with one of the most infuriating boss runs to even get to the arena in the first place - I didn't enjoy this one. 3. Ceaseless Discharge - its hitbox doesn't line up with its animations which makes it difficult to dodge and it can also hit you through walls. It seemingly only has two attacks and thus makes for a pretty uninteresting yet potentially frustrating encounter. Also has a name that sounds like an STI. Best bosses: 1. Artorias - plays like Orphan of Kos lite. I'm generally more a fan of humanoid bosses anyway but he's everything you want from a good boss. Aggressive, fast, varied and unpredictable moveset, great arena, great music, great back story. I'm assuming he can't be parried (I'd given up trying to parry bosses by this point) but it would be great if he had a tiny parry window on of or two of his attacks too. 2. Ornstein and Smough - best boss in the main game by a distance, Anor Londo is one of the best areas of the game and this was a really fun boss with a minor puzzle element. (I killed Ornstein first btw) 3. Bell Gargoyles - I could've put Kalameet here but as frustrating as I intitially found the gargoyles they taught me a lot about the game's mechanics and I find myself looking forward to fighting them again. Honourable mention to my favourite NPC: Hawkeye Gough. That guy should voice audiobooks. Despite there being a tonne of weapons, armour, spells and play styles to explore I feel less enthused about subsequent playthroughs of this game. There are certain areas I just have no interest in going through again (Tomb of the Giants I'm looking at you) and I'm not sure the main game is challenging enough to tempt me into any challenge runs. That being said it's time to go watch some VaatiVidya lore vids and figure out what I need to platinum.

Manus would be a much better fight if his combo was a grab. Maybe it's just cause I'm running a low vit build but I can avoid the first two hits and the rest will still kill me at full HP. It's annoying that he can start it whilst you're staggered too making it an unavoidable one shot. /rant

There's a few issues with the combat in this game but I think my biggest problem is that you can only dodge in four directions whilst locked on. Took me a while to discover that's why the combat felt so clunky and I feel like it really hampers the game. In Bloodborne choosing whether or not to lock on felt like a tactical choice, in this it seems unless you're using a shield and blocking your way through fights locking on is just a hindrance so I've basically played exclusively unlocked since about Capra Demon onwards, the problem with that is blocking, parrying, running attacks and jumping attacks are much harder to execute unlocked, which hasn't been a huge issue because none of the bosses have been too challenging anyway - or they're so big they're hard to miss - but it makes the combat feel quite unintuitive and it can be quite awkward constantly having to manually recenter the camera. To balance this moan with a positive I just started the DLC and mechanically the DLC bosses are an instant upgrade on everything else I've fought so far, faster, more aggresive, more unpredictable and more challenging. Artorias is the first boss where I've had to actually learn his moveset and look out for his tells. Unfortunately these bosses just emphasise the above issue.

Okay cool not just me then.

Bed of Chaos is an awful boss. Actually all 4 of the bosses I've fought down here in fire town have been pretty disappointing.

I've passed them now (thanks to some manic dodging) but I'm not sure my shield choice would've made a difference. I'm still using the Grass Crest shield which is 95% I think, the issue was they just trapped me against a wall and smashed through my stamina. I only ended up inside the painting in the first place because I coincidentally saw it in a Gameranx video a coupld of days before. Anor Londo looks nice. Iron Golem was.. a boss? Currently navigating a(nother) narrow walkway whilst being shot with giant arrows by two giant armoured knights. Genuinely feel like the environment has been my most challenging enemy thus far, even most of the enemies seem to fall off things just as often as I do.