Douglas

Target Exterminated §045 and §046

Yes, indeed. It's called Lothric, where the transitory lands of the Lords of Cinder converge.
In venturing north, the pilgrims discovered the truth of the old words: "The fire fades and the lords go without thrones."
[...]
Only, in truth... the Lords will abandon their thrones.
And the Unkindled will rise.
Nameless, accursed Undead, unfit even to be cinder. And so it is, that ash seeketh embers.

And this is how my deaths adventure started.

  • Dark Souls III
    Dark Souls III

    208 hours playtime

    43 of 43 achievements

  • First of all I want to say thanks to my dear and lovely friend who gifted me this amazing game. I'll be eternally grateful for this. Thanks. Truly

    And what a game it is!!! It is even complicated for me to find the right words to describe it. I loved previous Dark Souls (and hated them too - in a good way) and this couldn't be different with Dark Souls III. I confess I was skeptical when they announced Dark Souls III mostly because of previous experiences and knowing how easily it is for developers to ruin a good franchise. That being said, I figured out how wrong I was as soon I started to play this game.

    Its story is fantastic!!! At least in my opinion. I loved how well they managed to end this franchise. If you still didn't play any Souls game, let me tell you: their story are incredible but also completely subjective and they'll happen only if you allow them to happen, otherwise you'll get lost when you finish the game and think that all you did was kill bosses. But how, you may ask me. Well, there are NPCs to talk, side quests that will provide us even more context and believe me, there is a whole story to be told by items descriptions too.

    In Dark Souls III they added even more stuff and compared with previous games, it has way more NPCs to interact with. Some side quests can't be completed if you're going to complete a quest given by another NPC (Anri of Astora and Yuria of Londor are the best example of this). If you are currently playing this game I highly recommend you to complete all quests (this will require more than one playthrough btw) because: 1. they will give you even more context and let you know more about Dark Souls' universe and their story, and 2. they are awesome in every single aspect. I already finished DS III three times (for now) and I think I still have so much to figure out (even though I explored everything in all three playthrough).

    Now it is time to go back in time first before I start talking about its visuals and design.
    Dark Souls - Prepare to Die had a such great visual, not in terms of graphic, but in terms of design. It was great!!! I remember like if it was yesterday when I just started to play that game and how I felt every time I reached a new location. They are all so well designed, so connected with each other, and while playing, without notice, those locations got stuck in my head. For real, I still remember every single detail of that game, every door, shortcut, ladder... whatever :o

    Then, they finally released Dark Souls II - poor DS II cries alone in a corner - and I really don't know what they did with that game, it is... nice, I guess, some places are well made and even beatiful (Dragon Shrine is one of my favorite locations - it is so pretty), but for some unknown reason, I didn't feel what I felt when playing Dark Souls 1. It seemed so out of context to me, like if they made a lot of maps and just put all of them together to see what would happen. Well, something happened, indeed. Just not what they had in mind probably.

    Now, Dark Souls III. They managed to brought us back all glory we had in DS 1 with perfection. It is so beautiful!! :3
    Each one of its 18 maps are unique, each one has it own life and even so, each one is connected with a previous map or the next one, somehow. I played it really slowly only because I wanted to enjoy every pixel of this game. They added so many references from their first two games (I mean, Demons Souls and Dark Souls 1) - DS II keeps crying alone in a corner. It is definitely so epic as Prepare to Die and with modern graphics and all that stuff, it became a master piece.
    Bosses design are incredibly good. They are unique in their own style. I won't forget the feeling when I watched Dancer of the Boreal Valley cutscene. Damn, this is one of my favorite bosses. Or the change of style when I was fighting Lothric, Younger Prince. They brought a lot of ideas from Bloodborne for bosses and this was a plus to Dark Souls III. Gave it something more to enjoy.

    If not enough, we have also its gameplay.
    It is still in the same base from previous Dark Souls. Manage our stamina, rolls and dodges. Attack when you get a chance between enemies' attacks and etc. But the gameplay changed a bit because of small things they added or changed.
    They added weapon skills. Besides all normal attacks we can execute with a given weapon, they now have some, let's say, special attacks that consume FP (focus points - the blue bar you can see in my screenshots - also used to cast spells). This small thing changed a lot how to play Dark Souls and gave us many opportunities to create our own playstyle. These weapon skills, if timed right can be devastating and they can open sequence for a bigger combo. That's awesome!
    They also added what I said previously: Focus Points. It was present in Demon's Souls. Basically it is our mana bar and instead of have limited uses for spells, we can use it as much we can as long we still have mana. Also, we can refill our mana by drinking Ashen Flask, the correspondent of Estus Flask, but for mana :D. This doesn't look a big difference, but knowing that we can use more spells and special attacks open opportunity to change our playstyle in middle of a fight to adapt to the situation. I felt the gameplay smooth, and faster, and even so, you need to play smart and plan your attacks and how to approach your enemy(ies). You really don't want to see yourself surrounded by five or more enemies without a good strategy in mind. Believe me, you'll die if they are strong enough.

    A small talk about achievements. Just like previous Dark Souls, you'll need more than one playthrough to complete Dark Souls III. To be more exact, you'll need three playthroughs to get all achievements. Of course there is always an easy way to get them earlier (if someone drops all rings, yes, rings, to you, you'll get the last achievement you would get if you were going after them in the right way. Most of the achievements are story related, like defeat bosses, find covenants, etc. Actually, their achievements are easier to get than you can imagine.

    Dark Souls, each one of them are special to me. I truly love this franchise and no matter how much I play these games, I don't get tired of them. Dark Souls III will always be a game I'll come back to play sometimes (just like DS 1 and DS II).
    I don't think twice when asked if I recommend Dark Souls. YES, I do recommend this game. It has a huuuge replay value, awesome story and design plus an amazing soundtrack and the feeling of defeat that boss you thought was impossible is just unique.

    Is it hard? Yes, and no. Play smart and be careful and eventually you'll reach the ending.

    Will it make you wish to throw your controller on the wall? Hell yeah... but when this happen, you'll make a break, take a deep breath and return to it 10 minutes later just to show it who is the boss!! LOL

    There's still so much more I could say about this game specifically or any other Dark Souls! :O But I think I gave you all an idea of what Dark Souls is about and how special they are to me. Sorry for this huge wall text hehe. Thank you so much for you time reading all of this. You are awesome! :3
    One last thing... if are not convinced yet, check the gameplay tab and look how fun Dark Souls can be. :p

    Quick question: what is the hardest game you ever played? That one you thought about give up many times while playing it, but it was too good and you managed to finish it.

  • Aragami
    Aragami

    28 hours playtime

    39 of 39 achievements

  • I will start saying that I loved this game!! I was eager to play Aragami since I saw some screenshots in my feed activity from our lovely Lenor. It seemed so cool to play with a character that can control the shadows and its design also got my attention. :3

    </p>Then, not much time ago I finally had the chance to play this game!!! Yay!! Thank you so much my dear friend for give me the chance to play this game!! I truly enjoyed every second while playing it. </p>

    You are Aragami. A vengeful spirit brought to life by a trapped sorceress to accomplish her desire of revenge and set her free. It is a pretty straightforward game, but a very good one.

    I really enjoyed its level design. I'm not much into Japonese stuff, but this game has such a great visual. Each one of its 13 chapters have a beautiful looking. And they just get better and better while progressing through the levels. From a beatiful forest, to a cave, passing through a military district. They are so pretty. I took my time playing this game to enjoy all this awesome visual.

    When talking about its story I must say: It starts slow but gets better after 2-3 levels and you'll find yourself interested in discover the truth and the meaning of all those flashbacks you'll watch when playing Aragami. It doesn't have the best story ever made, as it is kinda predictable from middle of the game to its end, but even though I still wanted to finish it to figure out more about Aragami, and Yamiko (the woman who brought you to life). It still surprised with something else that I couldn't thought. I was like "WHHHAT... How did I miss this!! Wow

    Now let's take a look into its gameplay. Aragami is known as a stealth action game and as many other games, it gives you the chance to play completely stealth and in a pacifist way or just get mad and go for a killing spree and kill everyone in your way. Or you can just have a mix of both!! This works pretty well too. I loved that because it gave more replay value to the game, instead of just one single way to progress. I played in both ways and they are really enjoyable.

    A stealth approach involves much more use of the first skill you get in game: Shadow Leap. You can warp from a shadow to another and this will give you many opportunities to reach the end of the level. As a creature of the shadows, Aragami also has more skills to improve his stealth approach, like Kage, which make you invisible for a short period of time or a skill to see enemies through walls and also see their line of sight. Blind your enemies with shadow essence or create a decoy of yourself to trick guards and clear your way out. No matter how you want to approach, one thing is sure, shadows are friendly and will allow you to sneak past the army of soldiers that increase every chapter. Piece of cake huh?
    Nope. It is not that easy.
    Enemies are not blind in this game and they will spot you if you stay out of shadows or too close to any source of light. And if they don't detect you immediately, but notice something different they will get suspicious and investigate that area. Aha, so I just need to hide in the shadows and am I good?
    Nope. Shadows won't protect you completely. Those friendly soldiers are pretty smart to see a "shadow" moving by itself and they will investigate that and if they get too close to you, they'll find you right away even if you're in the shadows and most likely kill you if you're early in game and don't have many skills to allow you to escape.
    Of course that like many stealth games, Aragami also has that already known issue of many AAA stealth games. Guards have a really limited memory. They'll find you, they will find corpses (they don't care about blood stains?), they will alert the whole area and turn the world upside down for a short time and then, like if nothing happened, they will return to their routine and totally forget about you. Is not a big issue or anything that will make you hate the game, but I wanted to point out this detail as this always bothers me in games.

    In the other hand, a killing spree playthrough allows you to use all your skills that you'll unlock through the game by collecting scrolls (these also unlock pieces of the story) - Aragami doesn't have a complex skill tree, but I thought it good enough for me. You can create traps that will suck enemies into the... void, I guess, or you can place these traps on their back! lol. You can create arrows to get rid of enemies from a long range distance or if you like a more close range style, why not sneak behind the enemies and summon a dragon from shadows to eat your enemies!! Really, I loved this skill! I even killed myself sometimes just because I wanted to use it hahaha.

    No matter what style you choose, Aragami is a really nice game that must be played. I highly recommend you to play it. I played it completely solo and was a great experience wanted to play co-op too but the only two people who have it already played the game T-T. It is not that long either. Took me about 27 hours to 100% complete the game. And achievements are pretty easy to get. Many of them you'll get without even try if you collect scroll and unlock skills of course because some of them require a given skill to get. And if you get the skill to see scroll locations you won't even need to use a guide to find them!!
    Overall, a really nice game, with great gameplay, an interesting story, awesome visual and such a great soudtrack too. It fits pretty well every chapter.

    That's all for today ladies and gentlemen. I'll see you all next time! Thank you each one of you for your time and have an awesome day. :3

    Irithyll of the Boreal Valley. One of the most beatiful maps in my opinion. Also most nostalgic map ('Anor Londo' said Hi!)
    Amazing!
    Nothing better than meditating before go through Archdragon Peak to face Nameless King!
    Amazing!
    When I was just getting started... I'm grew up now!
    Amazing!
    And this was our "tutorial" part of the game!
    Amazing!
    He didn't like me stealing his item D:
    Amazing!
    Time for a nap in company of my loyal friend Siegward. Because we all need some rest after this long journey!
    Amazing!
    Soul of Cinder: manifestation of every person that linked the fire, which is why it uses player movesets. Loved this boss!
    Amazing!
    Enough! No bosses will kill me anymore. I will kill myself using my Katana! LOL
    Amazing!
    Loved its level design!
    Amazing!
    Best shadow skill ever!! There is also a snake version :p
    Amazing!
    "Water temple"... This level gave me a lot of trouble in my pacifist run lol
    Amazing!
    Oops... I think I need to get rid of this body. Accidents tsc tsc
    Amazing!
    Err uhm hum... just a tip: You're looking in the wrong direction
    Amazing!
    Another chapter I liked a lot
    Amazing!
    I wanted to kill her so much... hunting me all the time with her stupid bow --'
    Amazing!
    You need much more than this tiny thing to kill an Aragami :p
    Amazing!

    A stealth playthrough in Aragami. Don't mind me, I know I suck in stealth :P


    Ok guys, sorry... My potato pc can't handle DS III and record at same time (yet - upgrade is coming).
    But this is a fun DS parody I always like to watch. How can you tell me that DS is not a fun game after watch this? :p

    IcyGlare

    Dark Souls III <3

    I was actually hesitant about buying DS3 after being disappointed with DS2. Fortunately, DS3 was released a week early in Japan. I pre-ordered DS3 after watching some vids and confirming that it wasn’t like DS2.

    Hmmm… Hardest game that I’ve actually finished… Not really a game but the DLC bosses in the Dark Souls games, especially (no cheese) Manus and Sister Friede. :3
    Both of them took me at least 7 hours to beat. But I never really thought of giving up. I kept trying and told myself that I’ll beat them no matter how many deaths or number of hours it would take. \o/

    Douglas

    Dark Souls!!! <3

    I was hesitant about the game itself. I really thought they would fuck everything up. I got sooo happy when I figured out it wasn’t anything like what I thought. They did a great work :D

    Oh, I don’t have its DLC’s yet, but looking foward to play them. I’ll probably buy it when I upgrade my pc. I think is common in DS games. DLC bosses can be harder than bosses from main campain.
    Damn, did you play DS II DLC? I had so much trouble fighting Elana, The Squalid Queen. It was such a great feeling when I saw her dying!! You’re just like me and keep trying no matter how much it takes or how many times we die :p
    Can’t wait to play and fight these bosses then! Will be awesome!!

    How long is its first DLC? So sad that this amazing franchise ended :(

    IcyGlare

    Didn’t finish all DS2 DLC bosses. The ones I remember were Fume Knight and Sir Alonne. I think I fought others but I can’t remember which. Definitely not those “throw lots of enemies” bosses. :p

    Ashes of Ariandel was around 15 hours, if I’m not mistaken. Most of the time I spent in the DLC was fighting Sister Friede. It was fun. XD

    Douglas

    Neither do I D: I need to come back to it eventually. I played only one DLC so far, but enjoyed it, even more than main game. I’m curious and excited to fight this Fume Knight and Sir Alone. Read great things about them and how hard they are.

    Oh, so short!! D: I miss Prepare to Die DLC length. It was longer in my opinion, or I just spent much time fighting Artorias. Damn, this is a boss I give my respect. Such a great fight. I wanted to run away first time I past through the game (I didn’t know it was a boss battle) haha

    Can’t wait to fight this Sister Friede. Looks an intense and hard fight! Just what I like! \o

    Forsaken

    What a fantastic progress! Congratulations Douglas :)

    After reading the way you described Dark Souls III, I admit it’s hard not to say “I wanna try this game” but then the illusion breaks cause there is just no way. It is not for me at all. I satisfy my masochist needs in other ways :P It’s a great experience to read your thoughts about this game though. It feels like I’m eavesdropping on a very private moment between you and the game :D

    I’m so happy you enjoyed Aragami. Co-op was very fun but you avoided all the annoyances it brought such as the very frustrating invisible guard glitch. That glitch doesn’t happen in solo play and it’s for co-op mode only. I don’t know if they fixed it. I really enjoyed watching your gameplay video and I noticed how you picked one of the hardest and longest missions and made it look effortless with your sneaky skills :P You need to give yourself more credit regarding stealth games, you are more than capable!

    As to your question, I was gonna say Ori and the Blind Forest but you mentioned managing to finish it. I couldn’t finish it due to frustrations with platforming so I gave up and it’ll ruin my average completion rate forever. Due to this I can’t answer the question the way you want me to so I’ll try to answer it my way, similar to what S17tabris did.

    The hardest moment I’ve ever had in my gaming background is C’thun boss battle in World of Warcraft classic. It’s the last boss of a 40-player raid called Temple of Ahn’Qiraj and still to this day I believe it to be the hardest boss the game has ever thrown at the players. I was in a pretty hardcore raiding guild at the time, we raided 5 days per week from 7pm to 1am. It took us 3 months to took it down (so just imagine the time it took) and it was a server first :P I also consider this to be one of the best moments of my gaming history. It was an epic fight and a massive win. I still keep its video, I can share it with you one day if you’d like to see it. You can see me tanking some massive tentacles from time to time (I wasn’t the one who recorded it). I’m lost in nostalgia now, such good days :(

    Awesome post Douglas, thank you so much for this and I loved what you did with the screenshots! :D

    DOOM time now? :P

    Douglas

    Thank yooooou :3

    OMG, are you saying I made you say “I wanna try this game”? :o this means a lot if I made you say that, even though you woke up and the illusion broke :D - Yea, I know how you satisfy your needs :P - and you’re awesome doing this in a way I can’t ever do myself :D

    It feels like I’m eavesdropping on a very private moment between you and the game :D

    Hehe, yea, I can’t avoid how I feel when I talk about Dark Souls… they are too special to me :3 And I could talking for hours and hours and always find something else to talk lol

    I truly enjoyed Aragami!! It was such a great experience for me and a beatiful game to play. It has a beatiful design, a great gameplay (just what I like: supernatural skills, more than one way to finish the game), an interesting story too.. damn, Aragami was good in all aspects. Really enjoyed it.
    D: they added “special” content for co-op… hard one btw… how would I sneak an invisible guard if I don’t even know he was there in fist place?! Jokes apart, is so sad when a co-op game doesn’t work properly :(
    I did pick a hard one. I failed sooo many times in my both stealth and killing spree runs. I’m surprised I could remember orbs locations and how to move around when I was recording. But even so, it took me some tries until I get it done :D - Thank for your always kind words… I’ll try to give more credit to myself more times :D

    Well, yes, I did say a game you managed to finish, but you could have said about Ori :D I swear I wouldn’t get mad :p ok, seriously now, Ori keeps getting my attention, it seems so bloody hard LOL and you know me, hard is the special word to get my attention about a game (not just hard, but, well, you got the idea).

    Ohh, I know this raid boss. I didn’t play it when it was hard (actually I just went there to grind stuff and waste my time hahaha). But I can just imagine that area back in the day, when you are in the same level of the area. Damn, that was definitely hard and even more with 40 people making all kind of mistakes LOL a 20 people raid was already complicated when I played WoW.
    Ohh, this feeling of job done… The best feeling when talking about games. Is something just unique and indeed a great feeling :D I can imagine all of you celebrating when they saw him down \o
    YES, please, I would love to watch this video! :3
    Oh, I didn’t want to make you feel this way, remembering old things :x I always get lost in nostalgia too when I remember old days :3

    Those screenshots tabs took me a lot of my time to make them work. It was a completely mess with text from previous tabs there, two/three screenshots in the same tab, wrong alignment.. damn, I’m proud I make it work ^-^ Thank you again for you compliment.

    Thank you so much Lenor for your time reading all of this. This means a lot, you know that <3

    Indeed… DOOM time now! Just taking a time and playing some small games before start it. I’ll have sooo much fun exploding demons!! I won’t allow any survivors in Hell! Muahahahaa

    Forsaken

    It’s good to be passionate about something like that. I share the same passion (possibly a lot more of it actually :P) for Warcraft so I really know how it feels.

    Honestly I’m happy they didn’t add new achievements with the new content they added to Aragami. That would have been quite frustrating. I’m curious about that special content. If my fight against backlog ever improves, I might download that game and force you and Dani to download it too so we can try it out :D

    I know you are obsessed with “hard” :D I am seriously rubbish at platformers so that game was impossible for me. I can re-play a chapter over 1000 times in a stealth game to perfect my ghost run but if I die like 5-6 times in a platformer it’s already game over for me.

    You didn’t make me feel this way :P Ever since I watched South Park “Member Berries” episode I am in this constant mood of nostalgia. Stuff like ‘member Warcraft? ‘member C’thun? ‘member Splinter Cell? keep circulating in my head in that funny voice of theirs :D

    Your posts deserve to be read! :)

    I hope DOOM multiplayer achievements won’t be too annoying :(

    Douglas

    Yes, is a good feeling, right? You definitely share this passion for Warcraft, I feel like you could spend an entire day and still feel like there is much more to talk about :3

    Uh, I hate when they change something in their games and sudden there is a lot of more achievements to get D: - I don’t know if its achievements ever changed, but is good indeed, they didn’t add achievements.
    Oh, the “special” content for co-op I was talking about was those invisible guards :p this glitch is definitely only in co-op because I didn’t find any invisible one playing solo. Hope they fixed it though. But would be awesome to try it out anyway :3 I wish I had played a bit of it with you both

    I’m not that good with platformers either. Jumps, jumps are the things that make platformers hard to me. Is even fun to watch me trying to jump in platformers hahaha I think I never make a jump in my first try –’

    If one person read them, I’m already happy :3

    I didn’t check DOOM achievements yet, not much actually. And if I looked the right, I think I don’t even need to finish the game in nightmare mode, only on level. I think I’ll still give it a try in nightmare and see how far I can get :D
    But even if they were annoying, this is not a problem to me :D in any case, one thing is right. I will have a lot of fun!

    Forsaken

    One day wouldn’t even be enough to cover only Illidan’s background let alone the lore of the entire game :D

    If you ever play Ori or Salt and Sanctuary, definitely record gameplay please I’d definitely watch that but until then I’ll wait for your naked DS run :P

    You’ll finish the game in Nightmare of course! :P

    Douglas

    Ahh, I do believe that. WoW has an really long lore, great one btw, full of details, characters, factions, places, races and much much. One day wouldn’t be enough to talking even 1% of it I believe so.

    Ohh, they’ll definitely get their gameplay as well if I ever play them. Hahaha if everything go as I planned, I’ll be ready to record it soon :D

    Well, I’ll do my best to finish it in Nightmare… let’s see how it goes :DD

    Deleted

    This comment was deleted about 7 years ago.

    Joe

    Haha I thought of Ori and the Blind Forest too, just saw your comment. Such a difficulty spike in that first escape sequence with the rising water… and I’ve bought the definitive edition to replay it, that’ll be fun!

    Forsaken

    That is exactly where I quit playing :) I read that definitive edition has like 2-3 checkpoints during those escape sequences :( I wish I never played the non-definitive version :/

    Joe

    That almost made me quit playing too haha, I wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult! Having checkpoints sounds like a huge help so that’s nice to know, thanks, it’ll be funny if I can’t get past that section now they’ve made it easier! Well I hope you do decide to play the definitive version at some point as the rest of the game was brilliant (aside from the other escape sections…)

    Forsaken

    I read that there are also difficulty options but I don’t know how that would work on escape sequences but I guess it’s possible to make the overall game easier \o/

    I will not be buying the definitive edition ever, its non-definitive edition is hurting my average completion rate enough therefore I can’t take that risk again. I know the game is beautiful and it saddens me that I can’t experience the story and the atmosphere but the gameplay is not for me at all :( I’m happy you persevered and got through it :)

    uguleley

    Wow, so you’ve 100%’ed the whole Dark Souls trilogy, congratulations! And a great post as well, it’s really fun to read it when you’re so enthusiastic and it shows through your writing. :)

    The first times I learned about the Dark Souls games, I actually thought these games’ sole purpose is to challenge the player with very difficult enemies and bosses, and nothing else. A long time later I found out about the amount of backstory that’s going on in the series and I was surprised. No wonder why the game series have a strong fanbase, because the players who spend more and more hours with the game are rewarded with more pieces of the story.

    To your question: The one game that I’ve had a strong love-hate relationship so far was Super Meat Boy, I gave up several times thinking I can’t finish it but it always lured me back into playing it. The quick pace of dying and and trying again was addictive in some way, and I never felt like there was any cheap deaths. If I kept failing, I knew it was my fault and that I had to do better next time. I spent like 30 minutes to an hour to beat just one level in the last chapter, that’s how much I was struggling. It was satisfying when I finally beat the light world, but on the other hand I knew that I had only beaten half of it. :)

    Douglas

    Yeeees! All three Dark Souls are now completed!! Thank for gentle words :D I really put my feeling in this post as it is a really special game/franchise to me.

    I can tell that: first time I played and finishd Dark Souls 1, when I reached the end I really didn’t learn anything about its story and I felt like my only goal was to try everything in my way and one boss after another. Then I played again, but this time listening NPC dialogues, reading descriptions and wow, its story really impressed me!! We’re rewarded, indeed. Let me say this: I played DS1 like 30+ times yea, I like it and do you believe I still can find new stuff? Even if just a small one, there is still something to learn.

    Oh man. Super Meat Boy! I really wanna put my hands in this game eventually. I always see its name in those “top 10 list of hardest games”. Ahh, I’m glad you did it! A good feeling, right?!
    One question, if you die, are the checkpoints short of where you died, or you have to like start all the level again?
    Keep trying man! I believe you can beat it!! I still wanna read one post of you here talking it and that you beat this game! All luck of the world! :D

    uguleley

    You’ve played it that many times? Wow! Well if I ever decide to try any of the Souls games, I know who I can ask for advice :)

    Yeah, beating the final boss level in SMB was satisfying but also a relief because it took a lot of attempts for me to pass the last chapter. And as you asked: no, there are no checkpoints so if you die you’ll respawn at the start of the level. That’s why I spent so much time in the last few levels because they were longer than the levels in earlier chapters. That’s where the intensity in the game comes from - when you’re getting close to the finish but you know that one little mistake will wash away your effort.

    It’s a tempting idea to reach the second ending of the game but that requires beating the majority of the more difficult dark world levels to unlock and beat the final boss again. It will take a lot more time, dedication and skill for me to even get close, but maybe some day I will feel committed to give it an honest effort. Thanks for your motivation cheer though, I appreciate it :)

    Douglas

    I did play that much >.< either because someone challenge me to finish in a specific way or I found another challenge way to finish it (Like last time that I finished it using Kalameet Ring (it makes you take 2x more damage)) or just wanted to finish it for fun. Feel free to ask me any advice and I’ll do my best to help you :D - Hope you give it a try one day \o/

    Oh, those no checkpoints games then. Awesome (I guess). Haha I have a problem with games like that because I get really nervous when I’m close to reach the end and end up making mistakes, of course :p

    Well, wish you all luck of the world in advance for when and if you decide to go back to it and give it more tries. :DD

    uguleley

    Oh, I get the “jitters” while playing too, especially when you’ve managed to pull off a very difficult move but the run still isn’t over. I’m also inconsistent in platformers - I can pass a hard set of moves and then fail on a very basic jump. It’s the worst. :/

    Douglas

    I can pass a hard set of moves and then fail on a very basic jump.

    I know right… really. I can defeat no matter what boss shows up on my way, but die for a two step distance jump… I lost my count of the times I died trying to make the simplest jump in games D: - I also don’t like parts where we don’t have much space to walk, like this (you can’t imagine how much I died there when I first played it and needed to fight enemies in those beams).

    uguleley

    Oh, that’s such a mean map design. :s By the way, I didn’t know you had footage from your Dark Souls playthrough! I’ll try to check out those episodes from time to time. I don’t mind that it will spoil the boss battles for me, I’ve seen many of them in other Youtube videos and speedruns anyway. :)

    Douglas

    Anor Londo is a nightmare for new players! There is that part of the map and another one where there are two fucking archers shooting giant arrows at you. The famous archers from Anor Londo hahaha if you ever decide to watch it, you’ll see me spending minutes to kill them from distance with a bow (no way I wanna fight them there)

    Ohh, yes, I started it as a challenge a friend mine made: Finish DS without deaths (didn’t work as I died trying to fight a giant Hydra.) Hope you enjoy it… it is not a speedrun, but is faster than normally because my character is kinda overpowered :o

    Joe

    Ahh that’s impressive, well done on that 100%! Dark Souls is definitely a series I want to play at some point, I bought the first one a while ago, but I’ve always been put off by its supposed unforgiving difficulty. Haha I mean to answer your question the hardest game I’ve played that springs to mind is Ori and the Blind Forest which I think speaks volumes! I’m just a bit put off by games that pose too much of a challenge as I’m really easily frustrated… but you’ve convinced me that I should try and play it soon and look at buying the rest of the series if I enjoy it, it seems like I’d be missing out on something big.

    Douglas

    Thank you Joe!! It had some moments I thought impossible to pass :o
    As I always say, DS games are hard, but if you learn how to manage your stamina (really importan) and take your time to attack, it will get “easier”.
    Ohh, Ori, again :x this game keeps showing.. I think it is trying to say that I should play it haha Are you done with Ori or will you still give it more tries?

    Oh, I’m so glad I make you think better about DS… I can tell you for sure, that if you ever play it, it will surprise you in at least one way… hope you enjoy it and figure out what you’re missing :D

    LastM

    Gratz! I still haven’t tried DS3, but if it’s as hard as DS1 and 2, you have the right to feel proud of yourself! Really nice what you did with the screenshots! Your channel’s intro is also really well-done.
    Hardest game? Probably Victoria 2. It’s by the same creators of EU4/CK2, but it was created before they started “dumbing down” their games to reach the masses. The dynamic economic/trade system that is tied to the education level of your population is so hard to understand/control that all of the tutorials on youtube have 10+ and TBH even after years, sometimes I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing. The game had a bunch of problems and didn’t sell well because of its complexity, but one of the reasons that I chose my career was that feeling of accomplishment every time I’d choose the correct resource allocation and distribution of goods and services within a country to create a booming society. Best 18th century economic simulator ever, hands down. It also takes place during the victorian era, my favorite one. xD

    Douglas

    Thanks Last.M!!! Well, it is as hard as DS 1, but not DS 2 (DS 2 is actually the easiest DS game - DLC’s in the other hand are harder than main game). Of course its difficulty is relative, and as a DS gamer, it was a little bit easier than if I was new in the game.Thanks for compliment you have no idea how many times I broke that screenshot tabs haha - I liked the result though. Hehe, thanks about youtube. I’m not a youtuber at all, but I do my best to record some gameplays, for fun, of course. :D

    Hmm, so if I understood right is Victoria a strategy game? If so, I can just imagine… Im really really bad with these type of games - I remember when I tried to play Age of Empires a looong time ago and killed all my workers, soldiers, whatever. I made a ghost town after 10 minutes of playtime haha D:.
    It seems really complicated, as I think about many simulators. Never played any of them, but I know I would do everything wrong lol

    escollo

    Congrats with great assassinations! And I like how you edited your post ;)

    Douglas

    Thanks… hopefully I can keep assassinating :D
    Yeah, took me a while to make everything worked, but I’m glad it at least worked haha Thanks

    Arbiter Libera

    Holy crap, that's some serious tabception going on in your post. How'd you keep it all straight? Also, I love your idea with circular tab images. Letterboxing kinds gets in the way for DS3 screenshots, but Aragami ones look great and clean. While I'm on the subject - did you do some custom resizing for Youtube embeds?

    I wish I had something useful to say about the games, but I've barely dabbled in first Dark Souls before I dropped it and decided to start with Demon's Souls instead to get a good idea of everything that was changed, etc... only to never really get anywhere because I keep getting distracted by other games. Your breakdown for all three Dark Souls titles is much appreciated, though. Aragami is on my watch lust because stealth games are so rare.

    Douglas

    Tabception! I liked this… I think I’ll start to call my posts similar to this one as tabception hahah (if you don’t mind, of course) :p
    Thanks man… I tried normal thumbnails first, but didn’t like how it looked, so I changed to circular ones and enjoyed the result. Oh, you mean those black borders? If so, it is due my native resolution, it is like that too when playing the game :x - Hmm, I didn’t change anything in my youtube embed code. Just copy-paste from youtube. Is it different somehow?

    Ohh man, you have no idea how much I wanted to play Demon’s Souls (just need to buy a console first haha). Did you enjoy it at least the time you played the game?
    Thanks for your kind compliments. I wanted to talk first about previous DS to give people an idea of why DS III looks so good in my opinion. Glad you liked what I did.
    Oh, if you are into stealth games, this one is a nice one to play. Pretty straighforward, but a good one in my opinion. I’m pretty sure you will love it when you play :D

    Arbiter Libera

    When I try embedding Youtube videos they come out huge, but it could just be something to do with how much screen real estate is available. Its a mystery we'll have to live with. Tabception away. :)

    I wish I could tell you more about Demon's Souls, but really I just got out of World 1-2 which is essentially tutorial + some more stuff after so I'm not exactly qualified to comment. Liked what I saw so far, even if the whole "dragon instakill on the bridge" was spoiled for me because I saw it from Dark Souls games so I knew the jig was up. If you go back to my first real update you'll see Demon's Souls is up there as Work in Progress, but I sadly never got anywhere since then. Too many games.

    PS.
    Is anyone else having problems seeing their profile?

    Douglas

    This is weird… I don’t do anything else than copy the code from youtube… if you wanna check, here’s the code I use in my “Gameplay” tab: Pastebin I tried to copy paste here, but I don’t know how to paste codes D:

    Ohh, our endless backlog… I know how it is D: - hopefully you find time to go back to Souls franchise eventually. It is such a great one in my opinion.

    Yees, I have issues here too. Any profile is now Mandril’s profile and we also can’t open the page to check replies.
    EDIT: it is working normally again.

    Arbiter Libera

    Thanks, I think I was doing something wrong when I modified video size because it just confused the scale and cropped videos instead. What you posted works just fine.

    Yes, our profiles are safe again. :)

    burnedstriker

    Awesome post bro. Extremely detailed and shows your love for the game bro. I am looking to buy the first game and give it a shot. Hope a big discount comes soon.

    Btw, please put a warning for spoilers as you gave away quite a few (not extremely details) spoilers :D People like me who have not played any DS games would want to avoid these ;)

    Congratz Achievement Hunter. I am trying to raise my Avg Game Completion Percentage too. So way to go bro!!!

    For your quick question, I would say, the hardest game for me would be Capcom games- Devil May Cry 3 SE & Resident Evil 4. I have not played any resident evil games and only played 4, that too for just a couple of hours so my opinion is not to be taken seriously for RE 4 but DMC3 is definitely hard but too awesome to miss IMO :)

    Douglas

    Thank man for you reply and take your time reading all this :D Really appreciated \o
    I’m glad I could show how much I love this game with this post. I can’t avoid talk about DS without talk how special they are to me. Glad that you and other people saw this through my words :3 - Hope you find a nice discount soon. Awesome game, for sure.

    Hmm, in my text you mean? I know that video can indeed spoil some stuff. Please, let me know and I’ll try to fix it. I really didn’t want to and did my best to avoid spoiler (except the video parody).

    Hahah, I’m doing ok I guess with my achievement hunt. But there are better people out there. They are my inspiration :D - you’ll get there, I believe you!

    Devil May Cry… Hmm, never played the old ones, only DMC Devil May Cry (and didn’t play in hard difficulty yet). RE can be really hard, even more the old ones. I remember back in the day, when I was just a kid and tried these RE… They were so hard!! D: