PS3 RPG's?

[Caiyuo]

If that's the case that's really shitty, you'd hope they'd baby these games and their re-releases.

[Burningthought]

I can see the negative comments about Eternal Sonata, but it's one of the rare multi-player RPG's and the woman probably enjoys it a tad more than me (though we're both making fun of it). And I can see Valkyria being slow based off what I saw in the anime (you basically have one skirmish and then wait a bit to build story and get into war in the anime).

I stopped ES for a bit and turned on Demon's Souls. I really hope there's an aspect to the game I have not yet unlocked. Went through tutorial, got one shotted by the Vanguard dude, which seems like an expected outcome based on how well-developed the Nexus is (looks to be the central game hub?) But from what I'm seeing I basically have to keep trying through a dungeon, face a boss, and repeat? Or is there a level up stat-gaining aspect that doesn't unlock until after I complete one zone/archstone? I started as a thief, which I imagine is likely one the weaker choices for solo play (as it typically is) but I'd like to do Co-op or something down the line if I can figure out how that works and once I get stuff down on my own. How does Co-op work? Can you effectively have group play, or do other people only show up in some limited capacity...?

There's a few "hidden" areas in each level that has some red-eyed enemies, or blue-eyed, fuck I can't remember. I just remember that there are a few Elite enemies that you can't kill starting out, so be careful when you are exploring.

[Elcura]

I can see the negative comments about Eternal Sonata, but it's one of the rare multi-player RPG's and the woman probably enjoys it a tad more than me (though we're both making fun of it). And I can see Valkyria being slow based off what I saw in the anime (you basically have one skirmish and then wait a bit to build story and get into war in the anime).

I stopped ES for a bit and turned on Demon's Souls. I really hope there's an aspect to the game I have not yet unlocked. Went through tutorial, got one shotted by the Vanguard dude, which seems like an expected outcome based on how well-developed the Nexus is (looks to be the central game hub?) But from what I'm seeing I basically have to keep trying through a dungeon, face a boss, and repeat? Or is there a level up stat-gaining aspect that doesn't unlock until after I complete one zone/archstone? I started as a thief, which I imagine is likely one the weaker choices for solo play (as it typically is) but I'd like to do Co-op or something down the line if I can figure out how that works and once I get stuff down on my own. How does Co-op work? Can you effectively have group play, or do other people only show up in some limited capacity...?

Generally the mix between story and gameplay is pretty even. There are long cut scenes and lots of events and story (which is good if you like that), but you get into battle and on average each level takes around 10-30 mins depending on difficulty. So the later stages of the game are more game play than story. The pacing is a lot better with the action/game play too.

[Eaglestrike]

There's a few "hidden" areas in each level that has some red-eyed enemies, or blue-eyed, fuck I can't remember. I just remember that there are a few Elite enemies that you can't kill starting out, so be careful when you are exploring.

I didn't know there was any such difference until you posted about it. Now makes sense why that blue-eyed guy owned me.

But I'm real close to saying fuck this game, tried 2x more on my thief, found a blue eyed guy and died, then ran into a red-eyed spear/shield guy and got two-shotted from max/half hp and quit my thief to start a...knight? Ran him through tutorial, easily got him up to the spear guy, shield blocked first attack, made my counterattack, after two strikes the spear guy comes back and two-shots my knight. So wtf am I doing wrong? Or what do I need to learn to do?

[Manf]

Or what do I need to learn to do?

A lot of enemies, especially the blue/red eye knights are not meant to be straight up fought. Get timid: arrow the fools and kite/roll, or magic the fools and kite/roll. For instance, there is a blue, then red eye knight in the first stage you can get around, even on a fresh character, by soul arrowing them and kiting. You can't rush into fights at any time in that game. Get a good shield that blocks 100% physical and at least some magic. Don't ever rush, and don't be afraid to lure enemies. I can't think of many enemies that you can handle more than one at a time. Every enemy in that game basically can 1-3 shot you, at EVERY point in the game.

[Eaglestrike]

I don't have magic as far as I know, never seen anything about Soul Arrow at least. I don't know HOW to get a good shield, do I just farm the first half of the palace, then leave and start over to gain souls and go to the blacksmith dude in Nexus? If I seriously have to do that for this game, fuck it, I'm not farming to complete what is essentially an instruction-less tutorial.

If every enemy can 1-3 shot you, what is the point of the high vitality/armor classes? Or are those basically 2-3 shotted and thieves/mages are 1-2 shotted? Because my knight didn't start with any bow and can't roll for shit (he flops on the ground, rofl). Or I guess the point of the high strength classes is to use a big shield?

[Manf]

Ok, magic is learnable by everyone eventually from certain npcs (might get spoiler-y possibly, but search every area thoroughly), so don't sweat it if you haven't seen any. You don't necessarily need it either, but I'll say personally I found soul arrow and its upgrade immensely useful.

Shields you'll just find. Either as drops, or as treasure. I'd say, arguably, the best shield is Dark Silver Shield (when fully upgraded) which is a boss drop out of Valley of Defilement. A good interim shield can be gotten in the first world, Boletaria. You'll reach a point where a dragon attacks this bridge you need to cross. You'll know it when you see it obviously, but before this bridge the path diverges. If you look down this divergent path you'll see two dragons just sitting there, one being the dragon that attacks the bridge. The thing is, if that dragon is attacking the bridge he will not be sitting in the aforementioned field. What you can do is trigger the dragon to attack that bridge, and as soon as you see it coming for the bridge SPRINT TO THE OPEN FIELD AREA WHERE IT NORMALLY WOULD BE ROOSTING. There are some corpses there, loot them and one will have Purple Flame Shield. That is a very nice shield. You just have to be quick and lucky with looting it. Don't get greedy either, I don't think its possible to loot every corpse in that field, but it is possible to get to the one that has the shield. Avoid the other dragon. Upgrade your stats until you can wear it, and don't be afraid to upgrade the shield itself. Upgrade it until it at least has 100% physical block. On the subject of upgrading, don't be afraid to use shards and large shards of any upgrade material, they're common enough. Hold on to chunks and pures until you're sure you want to use them, they're rarer.

You should only pump vit sparingly, since stat upgrades are better spent elsewhere. If you pumped vit high enough, obviously, it would take more to kill you because your hp would be higher, but your str and damage, magic/magic damage, or endurance (or any other more useful stat) will suffer. Even with high HP, regular enemies on later stages will still DESTROY you,at which point those VIT upgrades look less and less attractive. Endurance will help with heavy armor and equip weight. You'll roll slow as hell if your equip burden is more than 50% of your max equip burden. So like, if your armor totals 30 weight, and your max equip burden is 35, you'll roll in the manner in which you were talking about. If its 30, and max is 60 you'll roll full speed which is advantageous sometimes. With heavy armor and with decent upgrades in VIT, yes it will take more than 1-3 hits to kill you. You'd still likely only get less than 10 hits though on easier enemies, maybe 4-5? if you're lucky in later stages, and even less on bosses. The game rewards defense and stealth more than pure offense though, which you will see. You'll want a balance of str/vit/endurance if you're going a full melee character. Your stat upgrades are totally up to you in the end, and you can take your character in any direction you want. I personally did a sort of hybrid melee/mage that focused on str/end/magic and didn't have too much trouble.

[Burningthought]

I don't have magic as far as I know, never seen anything about Soul Arrow at least. I don't know HOW to get a good shield, do I just farm the first half of the palace, then leave and start over to gain souls and go to the blacksmith dude in Nexus? If I seriously have to do that for this game, fuck it, I'm not farming to complete what is essentially an instruction-less tutorial.

If every enemy can 1-3 shot you, what is the point of the high vitality/armor classes? Or are those basically 2-3 shotted and thieves/mages are 1-2 shotted? Because my knight didn't start with any bow and can't roll for shit (he flops on the ground, rofl). Or I guess the point of the high strength classes is to use a big shield?

In Demons Souls you want to avoid getting hit. If you equip the higher defense armor, the heavier it is and it will impact your ability to roll. You need to balance evasion and defense ratings. Defense while seems kinda moot in a game of this difficulty can help in some situations, like taking more hits from trash mobs. There's a few guides out there, and really you need to focus on landing hits and evading, imo. I'm not an expert on DS though so you can probably find someone with better tips. I didn't really get a chance to finish it since my co-op buddy got too busy with work and eventually just quit playing. After that I lost interest.

It is a great game, but the selling point is the feeling of accomplishment after you fail a million times. It's not a game for the light-hearted casual player.

[Kaelan?]

I don't have magic as far as I know, never seen anything about Soul Arrow at least. I don't know HOW to get a good shield, do I just farm the first half of the palace, then leave and start over to gain souls and go to the blacksmith dude in Nexus? If I seriously have to do that for this game, fuck it, I'm not farming to complete what is essentially an instruction-less tutorial.

If every enemy can 1-3 shot you, what is the point of the high vitality/armor classes? Or are those basically 2-3 shotted and thieves/mages are 1-2 shotted? Because my knight didn't start with any bow and can't roll for shit (he flops on the ground, rofl). Or I guess the point of the high strength classes is to use a big shield?

You don't want to fight those guys directly, especially not early in the game. Your main options are:
1 - Parry. This is hard, if you mess up the timing you're basically dead. But a good parry > riposte takes a huge chunk of their health
2 - Magic. Stand just at the edge of their attack range, backstep/roll away (depending on the type of attack, i.e. backstep vs. swords, roll against spears), cast a fast spell or two, repeat till they're dead. You probably won't be able to do this for a little while if you didn't start as Royalty, which gives you the first spell for free
3 - Backstab. Be patient, hold your shield up and circle around them until you get an opening. Takes several backstabs to kill these guys, but it's far more doable than trying to take them head-on. Keep in mind fast piercing weapons (like Daggers and Rapiers) do significantly more damage on backstabs than say, your average Longsword or an Axe would

As for defensive builds, the main point of the higher VIT is to have a safety net in case you screw up. If enemies have to get two series of attacks to kill you, then you're always safe at full health if you can safely block/dodge & heal after being hit once. A lower health character like a mage wouldn't have that option and would just die as soon as they made a mistake. You also will be able to survive some strong attacks that would kill other characters outright, like certain enemies that can backstab you, or some of the stronger boss attacks, and in this game dying in two hits rather than one (or three rather than two) is a huge difference.

As far as item drops go, you generally never have to grind or farm anything in this game. You can if you want (mostly later on for weapon upgrades), and it will make the game a bit easier, but generally speaking you'll find most of the items in the game as treasure in various zones or as guaranteed drops from bosses. If you haven't found something you want, 99% of the time it's just an issue of not having gotten to a zone that has that as treasure or having missed something hidden in a zone you've already been to (like missing the Purple Flame Shield near the Red Dragon in the first zone). Regular enemies will rarely ever drop any gear, and it's never any of the good gear in the game.

[hey]

See, in demon souls all i did was use a halberd and kill everything in 1-3 hits before they had a chance to hit me. Once i got second chance and my regen halberd/shield maxed out, it was pretty much impossible to die to anything other than bosses/cliffs.

[Eaglestrike]

It is a great game, but the selling point is the feeling of accomplishment after you fail a million times. It's not a game for the light-hearted casual player.

I'd be ok with all this dying if I was at least at a point where I could level up, get stat upgrades and work on weapons/armor/shield upgrades and stuff, because those are the things that really keep me going in games. The fact that I haven't unlocked that area of the game and I'm having this trouble is frustrating because it's a pure action/adventure game without the RPG element that I enjoy in it yet.

So it seems that for the most part I should be keeping my shield out on my thief at all times and blocking as best I can on that and not just trying to dodge? Or what? I pretty much ran around with L1 held on my Knight but wasn't even using a shield on my rogue. And I think one annoying thing about the thief is that if I backstab something and there are two mobs, the other guy can sometimes hit me while I'm still in the backstab animation.

Just went for another few attempts on my thief. I can get to the spear dude with taking almost no damage, maybe eating two herbs the entire way there, pull the spear guy with my bow, shoot 2-4x while he's running at me. First time, I block with my (starter) shield, he breaks my defenses and one shots me. Second time, I pull farther back, go to roll-stab into him, hit him, he attacks me before my attack lands (I'm using a dagger that should be the quickest attack wtf) and hits me again and kills me. I have no idea how I'm getting past this guy and if I can't, well, no point playing the game.

[hey]

Try using a halberd. It has a long reach, making it easier to hit things before they hit you, does a lot of damage, and can briefly stun enemies when you hit them, allowing you to get 2-3 hits in at a time, which will kill most regular enemies. You'll want to use it with two hands. It prevents you from using a shield, but wielding with 2 hands does more damage, and more importantly, attacks quicker, which is better than a shield in most cases.

Demon's souls takes some getting used to, but honestly it isn't usually that hard, unless you make it hard. Also, if you weren't already, always play in soul form. It does lower your max hp by 25%, and prevent you from using a second useful ring, but it increases your damage quite a bit, which is really more important considering you should not be getting hit at all very often.gl

[Eaglestrike]

I don't know how to get a halberd, I'm in soul form and haven't managed to access body form yet.

[hey]

Temple knight starts with one, otherwise the store may have one.

[SephYuyX]

Anything NISA

[Eaglestrike]

Yeah so that spear guy that was repeatedly owning me? Not supposed to fight him yet. I'm supposed to kill the blue-eyed guy. So I managed to do that and have gotten farther into the game. I picked up the purple flame shield, but it is weakened since I cannot equip it fully yet (requires 22 and I have...9) any idea how much weaker it is for me/how I can tell? And will my shitty 60% reduction shield be better than the weakened purple flame?

Currently I'm at some bridge with a shitton of guys that I am slowly baiting down the short stairs and killing two at a time. Heading off to work soon so won't continue until tonight.