Dark Souls & Other Souls-Likes

Oh and has anyone else noticed how much easier it is to parry and follow up with a riposte in this one than in DS1?

Also, I'm loving the guard break they replaced the kick with. Much less obvious what you're about to do compared to the kick animation. Only downside is the kick didn't make you step forward which can be a bad thing.

Things Betwixt
Death 1: Died to giant rat thing before witches.
Death 2: tried fighting it with my new sword :3
Death 3: ^ :x
Death 4: Failed the jumping test...
Death 5: Failed the jumping BACK test xD
Death 6: ^... x.x
Death 7: Died to Twin Ogres guarding Boat
Death 8: ^...
Death 9: Killed one, Died to the other
Death 10: Died to second Ogre
Death 11: Killed second Ogre, Went for revenge for the one at the start.
Death 12: Died to the ogre again, HP getting to be about 50%.
Death 13: Died to the ogre for the last time, but killed it afterwards.

Heide's Tower of Flame
Death 14: Died to the Giant with a big sword ;_;
Death 15: Killed the Giant with a sword, but then swiftly died to the one with the club by falling off the edge into the water.
Death 16-19: Okay, area too difficult :) picked up a human effigy to restore my HP and left.

Forest of Fallen Giants
Death 20: Died to a long swordsman but the area seems more reasonable.

Heide's Tower of Flame
Death 21: Wanted to give this place a few more tries.
Death 22: And I'm backing out again, a room with 3 >_>

Forest of Fallen Giants
Death 23: Died to another long swordsman :<
Death 24-27 Died a few times, up to falling off a tree branch 5 feet and dying <.<;
Death 28: Died trying to recover my souls ;_; *sniff* 7k souls lost~

Heide's Tower of Flame
Death 29-30: Back again, backed off a ledge, I just can't learn, or won't give up Dx
Death 31: Impatience got the best of me, again <.<
Death 32-33: Fell off a ledge... Died to Great Sword giant.. OKAY I GET IT I'LL GO BACK

Forest of Fallen Giants
Death 34-35: Exploring the first part of the fortress.
Death 36-42: Fighting The Last Giant boss
Death 43-49: Exploring the two other areas of The Forest of Fallen Gaints, found the NPC Cale, found the boss The Pursuer, and found another bonfire deeper in. I actually ended up losing the 11k souls I earned from killing the boss The Last Giant (sad), so I farmed the 11k back at this bonfire. I still have to fight the Pursuer, doing that next. Also noteworthy, I beat The Last Giant with my morning star, without any upgrades. I have now gone back to Majula and upgraded it to +4.
Death 50: First death to The Pursuer.
Death 51&52: Deaths against The Pursuer.

Heide's Tower of Flame
No deaths... xP

No-Man's Wharf
Death 53 & 54: Both were from the high bleeding inflicting monsters that have 2 arms and walk around. Both times I had 2 of them on me at once, not a good spot to be in without stairs or a hallway x.x

The Lost Bastille
Death 55-57: The Heide Knight spearman >.>;
Death 58-60: The two undeads that have a super OP AoE attack when they fall down.
Death 61: The group of 5 undead rushing me caught me off guard at the start.
Death 62-66: Fighting the Ruin Sentinels bosses... 3 of them.
Death 67: Ran off a ledge... lost 12k souls...*sigh*

Huntsman's Copse FYI, this was the beta test area
Death 68: Fell down in a pit with poison butterflies and a strong enemy, only 1k souls so left them behind
Death 69-77: Missed a jump :P I found out the correct way to get the shiny :< It's not my fault... I got it by jumping in the beta. ;_;

The Lost Bastille (Belfry Luna)
Death 78-86: bell tower guardians and a bell tower guardian invader :| Finally rang the bell D:
Death 87-102: Belfry Gargoyles fight
Death 103: Got tired of dying, switched to a physical resist 100% shield and then quickly goofed. THE PAIN IS OVER, GARGOYLES DEFEATED \o/ I think I lost 6k souls in this fight.
Death 104: Died from seven dogs and Dark Spirit "Vorgel the Sinner", jerk >:|
Death 105: Suicide run through enemies I can't stand anymore (AoE exploders) to open a cell door at the top of the tower.

No-Man's Wharf
Death 106-107: D pointed out that I missed a building, died xP

Huntsman's Copse
Death 108: Fell off a ledge... Dx

Huntsman's Copse (Undead Purgatory)
Death 109: Failed the jumping back test at the end of the rope bridge after picking up a shiny.
Death 110: Didn't manage the skeletons very well.
Death 111: Got hit by the chariot, lost 15k souls.
Death 112-113: Tried running to the boss entrance <.< got killed entering the fog door :<
Death 114: Died to...idk what to call them, they have a status effect on their polearm/staff.
Death 115: Pretty sure stuff is getting more difficult, I'm doing less damage and they are doing more.
Death 116-117: Dying to the Executioner Chariot
Death 118: Died on the way to the boss~
Death 119: Still dying at the start of the boss battle.
Death 120-158: Dying over and over to skeletons and the Chariot... only 4 attempts I made it to the actual boss fight, 3 of which I obviously died, bringing my total to 44 boss attempts, move over gargoyles, you have a new pain in the *** king. I'm going to take a rough guess and say I lost close to 35k souls before stuff started to despawn completely. The area is basically empty now :\

Huntsman's Copse
Death 159: Died to an NPC invader
Death 160: Failed the jump back from the necromancer
Death 161: Died to normal enemies ;_;

The Lost Bastille
Death 162: Trying to get up the tower to check something, a hunch.

Harvest Valley
Death 163-166: Giant trolls that throw purple magic balls of oneshotness.

Earthen Peak
Death 167-168: Trying to make a jump :(
Death 169: Died to Covetous Demon~ got trapped by accident
Death 170: Fell off the stairs.. lost 14k souls...nice
Death 171: Fell off the same stairs, not even rushing, what is my problem -.-
Death 172: It did some leaping attack while I was next to it, took the rest of my health down~
Death 173-175: Triple ninja attack of death near the bonfire.
Death 176-178: Jumping back fail, gave up trying. Left 2k souls behind
Death 179: Going into battle against 2 shield with my shield unequipped, smart.
Death 180-181: Red Invader NPC kill, or w/e they are called.
Death 182: Pressure plate trap kill :)
Death 183-184: Fire magic in the face 1 hit kill.
Death 185: opened the chest that I was suspicious about, to my satisfaction it was a mimic and it ate me :3
Death 186-188: Died a few more times trying to kill the red invader NPC.
Death 189: Died to the Medusa boss, was one hit away and messed up.

Sinner's Rise
Death 190: Died to an exploding AoE dreadling thing in the waist high water.
Death 191: Died trying to get my souls back; lost ~7k souls. Done with the area for now :)

Grave of Saints
Death 192-193: Swarmed by rats! :< Easy fight though
Death 194-196: ._. exploded. figured out that running is the best tactic.

The Gutter
No deaths... not bad for a decent blightown.. but.... Black Gulch ahead...

Black Gulch
Death 197: Wow... didn't know poison could be so bad.
Death 198, 199, 200: Fighting the Huge giants with dual massive giant stone clubs. Their HP were incredibly high, I'd guess maybe 2000 each, and their attacks are incredibly strong, dodging was required for me to defeat both of them. I can live with them giving me my 200th death instead of me falling off the edge or something lame. Earned their soul and a forgotten key for it.
Death 201: My left foot stepped in fire and I burned :(

The Gutter
Death 202-203: Went to check the door in The Gutter, got Havels armor set for it, but didn't make it back to a bonfire with my souls and no homeward bones. Looks like I need to farm some. 6k souls lost~

Sinner's Rise
Death 204-213: Welp, area is easy, but she's pretty strong with the darkness on her side. I'm pretty sure if I light the oil tunnels behind the two doors the fight will become much easier... but I like the idea of fighting it this way, like how it was intended.

Iron Keep
Death 214-252: Some flame demon thing (Smelter Demon), died 39 times using my usual morning star club.
Death 251: I went and tried Craftsman's Hammer, first try we died at the same time, second try I beat him. It might have been the weapon, or it might have been sleep, just glad I beat him.
Death 252-253: ... the pursuer is back, 3 tries not that bad I guess.
Death 254-260: Stupid OP Great Sword belltower knight :(
Death 261: Death by lava
Death 262: Death by Mimic :<
Death 263: Forgot to kill the knight up on the beam this time.

I'm back up to where I had left off in my first character, except this time I only added 16 deaths to the list(all stupid mistakes while farming/being overeager on bosses. I'm actually a little further than before, because I've beaten No Man's Wharf(<3 Lucatiel). I think I exited in the Lost Bastille after seeing what's under her mask. My goals now are to farm souls to buy all of the sorceries/miracles from their respective vendors since they are available. I'm going to farm No Man's Wharf until it dries up, then I am going to farm Heide's Tower until it too is dry. I'll let you guys know how magicks work out in the game, because it seems like many of you haven't delved into these.

Gave up on lost sinner again.HP got too low even with the ring and no effigies still. Those thing are like non existent for me. Went back to another area because I missed another boss. Defeated chariot and gargoyles though. Really need to find a way to get effigies. Spent so many in belfry because of invaders spamming magic. ***is way too damn strong and the hitboxes are huge. Got invaded four times in a row by force spammers backing me into a corner there.

I only do like 110 a hit to sinner by the way. He eventually either breaks my poise and combos me to death or my shield breaks.got him to like 1/4 once.

I don't like magics really, it's like a whole new game and makes a lot of stuff easier, especially when you get soul spear and stuff.

When I was exploring the area, I noticed the two gates on the sides of the boss room and when you open them they reveal two oil tunnels. If you light your torch I'm very sure you'll be able to light the room up so you don't lose lock on but I wanted to try it in the darkness.

Block until she (yes she) ends a 3 part combo, or jumps and then does 2, because those two moments are her most vulnerable recovery times from what I've noticed.

Any other opportunity is too short that only daggers and maybe short swords would be able to get a hit in, and you might need the stamina.

Also, for any combo, I block her first hit, then dodge the second. I found it much easier to deal with her that way because timing your dodge for a 2nd hit is easier than anticipating the first.

I like them because they give you a reason to grind, and I also like how they alter the game somewhat. In DS1 they were a bit unbalanced due to the nature of Pyromancy, though I am wondering if that will remain the same. What I enjoy most about them is, is that they give you a new perspective and let you see how the game would be if you were to play using only them, even if you just dabble a little. It's also highly satisfying in PVE to see if you just examine some spells a tiny bit, they can make some of the most difficult enemies(difficult in the conventional dodge/block repeat) easy as pie due to being said creature's weakness.

Also: OOOOH SPARKLES! LIGHTS! SHINY! :O!!!! /isalittlekidenjoyingfireworks

Unlike Humanity, they are not easy to farm, if farmable at all, and as far as I could tell you are intended to not just pop them off like candy any time you hollow. I felt the need to restart due to running out of them around level 30, and after I went to half HP, the current boss I was on could one shot me, but then, so could his adds.

Wait till Shine of Amana XD Even PvE Magic will make you rage soooo bad. Probably one of the top worst areas to go through imo. I would rather go through Blighttown 2.0

I also had less trouble with chariot and the boss of the pirate place. Forget it's name. She really is simple style but it's just getting me. I do better with more complex bosses.

Pirate one is a joke, but chariot is all about getting to the boss. I died 41 times in the boss room but I really only fought the boss 3 times.

Yea, I found the sword side to be easier to deal with so I kinda exploited it on my first try. Club side was very punishing if you don't dodge, well, punishing to your stamina. Doesn't leave you any time to get a hit in.

I meant on chariot. Pirate boss beat first try. Fought club side and let it attack the pillar with the over head smashes. Was getting like 3 his in at a time is not more.

So I summoned Lucatiel for the Smelter demon, and she walked off the edge before I even entered the fog gate. Is she gone for good now?