If its one thing I learned from this LP its to not immediately fight the Tower knight and come back to him later.
It sounds so simple but damnit if I wasn't so persistent I could have saved myself a lot of frustration
Damn I'm bad at this game
Snowblindvictim on
0
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Yeah. So. 2 month hiatus. Great.
I want to finish this, but for now you'll have to do with a stupid video.
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Set 16: Long Live the King
I got my YouTube account upgraded and am taking advantage of it.
Only uploading Part 1 right now. Extra stuff and the ending will come up tonight or tomorrow.
[strike]EDIT: Part 1 seems to have fucked up for some reason. It'll be reuploaded it in a bit.
EDIT EDIT: Since I'm having loads of trouble making a non-fucked up version of Part 1, I'll just keep the link for the wonky version that for some reason has the video play twice in a row (the compressor is messing things up). Hopefully this won't delay things too much :-/[/strike]
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
So, here are my final thoughts* on the game. Overall, I'm happy with how the playthrough turned out, especially considering all the random factors that can ruin a run of the game. However, there are a lot of flaws I see when I watch my videos, some mild, more of them cringe-worthy.
Cons
Update "Schedule: Holy shit did I procrastinate in this Let's Play. What should have been a two or three month LP became a seven month project. Sure, the way I recorded slowed me down (namely the file format of the raw videos took about 10 days total to convert into an editable format), but none of that is an excuse for a two-month delay!
Too many videos: Honestly I probably should of paced out my updates more often. I wanted to make each set dedicated to a level of the game; that may have been a bad idea ultimately. And some sets were just stupid. Set 1 I had 12 fucking videos (should have separated the tutorial from 1-1 ffs), and Set 7 had practically random time lenghts. Thank goodness YouTube increased the time limit to 15 minutes, and now my account has the no-time-limit upgrade which will be useful for later.
Sound quality: I think this got better after the first set or two, but I fucked up the recording for the first set baaaaad. The worst part was:
I didn't make back ups and my files got deleted: Compilation video of the LP? Reuploads of early videos with better sound quality? NOPE, MR. HARD DRIVE GOT REFORMATTED AND ATE MY VIDEOS HAHA.
Intros: While I like the intros and I will definitely try to keep them in some way for anything I make later, I definitely overdid until like, Set 8 or so. Having those little 30 second slide-shows every short video was stupid.
Editing: Editing was all over the place. When it was good it was good, but I think there's a worrisome portion of my editing that was either too flashy or just too lackluster.
Skipping Content: I only did two World Tendency events and one Primeeval Demon. Fail.
My internet connection: For an online playthrough of the game, my internet was being a little bastard. It worked, but my PS3 was still giving me a NAT 3 connection and thusly limiting my connectivity to other players. Can't really do much with the router I have.
Commentary: I wanted to do a mix of live and post-commentary because I wanted to capture my original reactions to situations, but at the same time be able to present information in a coherent manner. I guess this worked out okay, but damn, there was a lot of hit-or-miss. Pauses, vocalized pauses, messing up lines, mixing facts, ergh. And the post-commentary, despite doing practically multiple takes on every sound clip, should be better. And I tried to sound at least somewhat enthusiastic, but I think there were times where I was super dull. And I like the sound of my voice....
DID NOT COMPRESS VIDEOS: No excuse for this. I mean damn, my files could have been a third of the size they were when I uploaded them. Only on the last two out three videos did I actually use a transcoder. Thankfully this is going to be a non-issue in the future, but the LP suffered through my noobishness.
Pros
I didn't suck at the game: Arguably Demon's Souls would be fun to see blind and done poorly if you could edit it right, but I'm glad with the lack of deaths and the one-shots of some of the hard bosses in the game. I don't think I died more than 10 times total (I'll look it up later).
Online content: I think this is one of the few Demon's Souls LP that actually is played online. I got to show off invading, being invaded, co-op as a blue phantom and co-op with a blue phantom. My biggest regret is not fighting a real player in 3-3, but at least I was the boss several times.
Editing: The editing wasn't terrible. I don't think I could have made a good LP of this game if I didn't do all the cuts I did. And hey,
Intros: Please tell me that someone liked the intros from Set 8 and onwards. They are like one of my favorite parts in making this LP.
HD: Lack of compression hinders this a lot, but for what it's worth I think the videos are in a decent quality.
So yeah. I see more bad that good as you can see, but I hopefully this LP was worth watching for some of you.
I would really appreciate any criticism you have, especially constructive criticism. A lot of times I really don't know if I have a real problem or am just making up issues with my videos that aren't actually there. And a lot of times I overlook issues that need to be addressed.
*Final thoughts is a relative term. I definitely want to do New Game +, but it will be after a little break from LP'ing. I want to see if I can come up with a better way to update frequently, and I may do other games before NG+.
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Some stats and information about this playthrough:
Deaths - 1 in tutorial, 1 in 1-1, 2 in 5-2 (:(), 1 in 4-2, 1 in 3-2, 1 suicide to play 3-3 as a boss, 4 suicides in 2-1 to get a Primeval Demon.
11 deaths total. 6 deaths were intentional, so 5 deaths where the game actually got the better of me.
1 hour 4 minutes on average between deaths. 2 hours and 21 minutes on average between accidental deaths.
No deaths to Black Phantom invaders. No deaths to bosses (unless you count Dragon God in tutorial...).
Bugs - In 3-2 one of the BP mindflayers jumped to his death when I was going up the stairs to fight Maneater. In 1-4 Allant bugged out in his animations making the fight much easier. In 1-1 Doran was dead before I got to him. No idea why.
Online - 2 runs as a blue phantom (5-1 and 4-2). 2 runs with a blue phantom (3-2 and 1-3). 2 invasions. 1 time invaded. 2 times as the archdemon for world 3, 0 times fighting a real player as an archdemon for world 3 (:().
World Tendency Events - 2 NPC encounters (Miralda and Scirvir). 3 item encounters (dragons go away in 1-1, Istarelle, Dragon Bone Smasher). 1 Primeval demon.
Build and Final Stats - Faith build mainly. Rolled a Male Temple Knight.
Vit - 24
Int - 18
End - 14
Str - 22
Dex - 18
Mag - 13
Faith - 29
Luck - 7
Soul Level 65. Was 66 except for stupid Allant.
Weapons Used - Started with the Halberd. Got Short Spear in 1-1. Switched to Blessed Mace from 5-1, then Istarelle, then Meat Cleaver. Light Crossbow, Heavy Crossbow and Compound Long Bow also used. Silver Catalyst used for spells.
Best Item - Thief's Ring.
Spells Used - Soul Arrow. Soul Ray. Evacuate . Enchant Weapon. Wrath of God. Curse Weapon.
Total Playing Time - 18 hours and 45 minutes. My original playthrough of the game was almost twice as long.
Videos - 79 videos. 16 main sets, 3 non-set videos (7.5, 15.5 and the End). Total length of videos is 11 hours and 35 minutes. Average video length ~8 minutes 40 seconds. Average number of videos in a set was ~4.9. Average set length was 42 minutes and 49 seconds.
So yeah, I hope this is interesting to someone somewhere.
It was definitely neat to see. If I had a PS3 i'd be playing this because of the LP, but I don't so it just goes on a list somewhere.
Too bad there wasn't more online stuff, all of that seemed really interesting.
Hopefully I can squeeze some more online play out of my NG+. If things haven't changed too much the general level for PvP averages around SL 120.
The biggest issue is my router. It's not a gaming router for sure. Basically it cuts outs about half the connections I have online due to whatever firewall it has. Obviously this cuts down on my online experience.
In body form I'm much less likely to find players. Thankfully, in soul form when I invade or put down a soul sign I'm likely to connect to other players since I'm on the giving end.
I would like to note I'm not going to start up New Game + immediately. I need a break from LP'ing and need to focus a little bit more on Real Life.
Bugs - In 3-2 one of the BP mindflayers jumped to his death when I was going up the stairs to fight Maneater.
I've seen this bug a lot. In fact in my current playthrough of the game that mindflayer jumps to his death everytime. It's so convenient though because those BP mindflayers are terrible.
kyleh613 on
0
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
Bugs - In 3-2 one of the BP mindflayers jumped to his death when I was going up the stairs to fight Maneater.
I've seen this bug a lot. In fact in my current playthrough of the game that mindflayer jumps to his death everytime. It's so convenient though because those BP mindflayers are terrible.
Anti-Magic Field and Dark Silver Shield make the Tower of Latria's levels trivial. The bosses are still hard (well, Maneater), but that combination completely nullifies any threat from the mindflayers. Really, they are the only trouble in the levels of that world.
In other words Tower of Latria in New Game + will be easier than in the first playthrough. At least, excluding Maneater and possible PvP'ers in 3-3.
BTW if you all have any criticisms of this LP or see some flaws that you want to point out, please, please do so. I want this LP to be bashed. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as they say.
Another thing you all can do to help the LP is give me ideas for what I should do for the next playthrough. What items should I get? What weapons should I upgrade with what materials? What online components do you want to see more of? What events do you want to see? How much of the levels do you want to see me do again (i.e. what don't you want repeated in the videos)?
Should I still do the voting-for-levels thing that I did for this playthrough? Are there any other ideas you all might have for making this a more participatory LP?
Keep the intros and overlayed text or trash em? How long do you prefer episodes (I think I won't do videos in "sets" anymore and just put videos up according to what level they take place in)?
These are questions I would love to hear answers to.
Maybe allow people to vote on class/build order as you go. I feel like the faith build is already pretty popular. It'd be interesting to see you go through some other random build.
Good job Trynant. This LP was great to watch, loved to see all the different techniques you used to get through different areas. Like I never used spells or miracles all that much, I mainly used brute force or tanking to get through most of the game.
Another thing you all can do to help the LP is give me ideas for what I should do for the next playthrough. What items should I get? What weapons should I upgrade with what materials? What online components do you want to see more of? What events do you want to see? How much of the levels do you want to see me do again (i.e. what don't you want repeated in the videos)?
Hopefully Allant doesn't bug out this time and you can show the fight with him
You showed a lot of what the game has to offer so unless you're going to try playing it completely differently, then showing the levels again won't really be needed.
Maybe use different tactics on the bosses, like the poison gas cloud (not sure the name) on old king Allant or show how you can bug out most of the bosses with the thief ring or
take out the first maneater without entering the boss room
. Don't know if showing the buggy side would be in line with what your LP is trying to show though.
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Folken Fanel, the problem I see with voting on a build for NG+ is that my character is already so far into the faith build that trying a different build right now would just screw up my character more than anything. Still, I bet there are other character progression choices that I could put to a vote.
atat23, I think bugs and exploits would be great things to show off. I'd love to see if I can pull off hyper-mode tactics and show off various grinding tricks.
I agree that, showing off all the levels again would be pointless (maybe show of the first level or something to give an idea of how hard enemies hit).
My main content would have to be online play, world tendency events I missed out on, and tricks/bugs/exploits that I did not cover first time through. Maybe add in some challenges like fighting Penetrator without Biorr or Old Hero without the Thief's Ring....
If you all can think of other things you would like to see in the second playthrough let me know.
And just to dash any false hopes, I do not plan on doing NG+ soon. I fear if I do Demon's Souls now I will get horridly burnt out and end up with an abandoned project. There will probably be a different game LP'ed first.
You didn't get to show a real battle with False King Allant or Old King Doran because they were bugged, so definitely show those in NG+. Hopefully they won't bug out again.
I just fought & beat Allant for the first time yesterday; he was harder than what I saw in the LP.
Folken Fanel, the problem I see with voting on a build for NG+ is that my character is already so far into the faith build that trying a different build right now would just screw up my character more than anything. Still, I bet there are other character progression choices that I could put to a vote.
Yeah I guess I should have been more clear. I thought you meant for a future lp started at the very beginning. Certainly don't change your build now that you're already committed to faith :P
You didn't get to show a real battle with False King Allant or Old King Doran because they were bugged, so definitely show those in NG+. Hopefully they won't bug out again.
I just fought & beat Allant for the first time yesterday; he was harder than what I saw in the LP.
It really sucked that Old King Doran had bugged like that. I went to fight him yesterday thinking I could just roll around and block and win but I got hit once and died right away. Went to check the LP to see how it was done and it was bugged.
Either way I used Poison Cloud and running out of sight so he would just run away and not own me. Took about 7 or 8 minutes but now I have my Ancient King's Armor
Stragint on
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
I need to beat the Maneater the proper way. This time I have waaaay more health and stamina than my first character does (she's got about 23 in each, maybe?)
Watched a few more sets, really enjoying it especially since I'll probably never play it. Would be neat to see something completely different from that character, maybe a female mage our a dualwielder. You relied a lot on a shield so would be neat to se how you do without one.
Smrtnik on
0
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
Things get a little bit more two-handed when I find a Meat Cleaver.
I still like my shield and spear in this playthrough yes that is true.
Posts
It sounds so simple but damnit if I wasn't so persistent I could have saved myself a lot of frustration
Damn I'm bad at this game
I want to finish this, but for now you'll have to do with a stupid video.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
So yeah. I'm going through all the editing hullabaloo right now.
The end is near.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Oh man, that was pretty stressful for me. I was carrying around 130,000 souls.
Here's to hoping my computer doesn't wreck my recordings for the last set
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
I got my YouTube account upgraded and am taking advantage of it.
Only uploading Part 1 right now. Extra stuff and the ending will come up tonight or tomorrow.
[strike]EDIT: Part 1 seems to have fucked up for some reason. It'll be reuploaded it in a bit.
EDIT EDIT: Since I'm having loads of trouble making a non-fucked up version of Part 1, I'll just keep the link for the wonky version that for some reason has the video play twice in a row (the compressor is messing things up). Hopefully this won't delay things too much :-/[/strike]
FIXED
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
The End
EDIT: Dammit, something fucked up when I uploaded this and it's very desynced. This is getting annoying
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Cons
Pros
So yeah. I see more bad that good as you can see, but I hopefully this LP was worth watching for some of you.
I would really appreciate any criticism you have, especially constructive criticism. A lot of times I really don't know if I have a real problem or am just making up issues with my videos that aren't actually there. And a lot of times I overlook issues that need to be addressed.
*Final thoughts is a relative term. I definitely want to do New Game +, but it will be after a little break from LP'ing. I want to see if I can come up with a better way to update frequently, and I may do other games before NG+.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
What's the good ending?
Really liked the intros and commentary for your LP. Look forward to the next one!
The NG+ isn't really explained as far as I know.
And glad you liked it
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Deaths - 1 in tutorial, 1 in 1-1, 2 in 5-2 (:(), 1 in 4-2, 1 in 3-2, 1 suicide to play 3-3 as a boss, 4 suicides in 2-1 to get a Primeval Demon.
11 deaths total. 6 deaths were intentional, so 5 deaths where the game actually got the better of me.
1 hour 4 minutes on average between deaths. 2 hours and 21 minutes on average between accidental deaths.
No deaths to Black Phantom invaders. No deaths to bosses (unless you count Dragon God in tutorial...).
Bugs - In 3-2 one of the BP mindflayers jumped to his death when I was going up the stairs to fight Maneater. In 1-4 Allant bugged out in his animations making the fight much easier. In 1-1 Doran was dead before I got to him. No idea why.
Online - 2 runs as a blue phantom (5-1 and 4-2). 2 runs with a blue phantom (3-2 and 1-3). 2 invasions. 1 time invaded. 2 times as the archdemon for world 3, 0 times fighting a real player as an archdemon for world 3 (:().
World Tendency Events - 2 NPC encounters (Miralda and Scirvir). 3 item encounters (dragons go away in 1-1, Istarelle, Dragon Bone Smasher). 1 Primeval demon.
Build and Final Stats - Faith build mainly. Rolled a Male Temple Knight.
Vit - 24
Int - 18
End - 14
Str - 22
Dex - 18
Mag - 13
Faith - 29
Luck - 7
Soul Level 65. Was 66 except for stupid Allant.
Weapons Used - Started with the Halberd. Got Short Spear in 1-1. Switched to Blessed Mace from 5-1, then Istarelle, then Meat Cleaver. Light Crossbow, Heavy Crossbow and Compound Long Bow also used. Silver Catalyst used for spells.
Best Item - Thief's Ring.
Spells Used - Soul Arrow. Soul Ray. Evacuate
Total Playing Time - 18 hours and 45 minutes. My original playthrough of the game was almost twice as long.
Videos - 79 videos. 16 main sets, 3 non-set videos (7.5, 15.5 and the End). Total length of videos is 11 hours and 35 minutes. Average video length ~8 minutes 40 seconds. Average number of videos in a set was ~4.9. Average set length was 42 minutes and 49 seconds.
So yeah, I hope this is interesting to someone somewhere.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Too bad there wasn't more online stuff, all of that seemed really interesting.
Hopefully I can squeeze some more online play out of my NG+. If things haven't changed too much the general level for PvP averages around SL 120.
The biggest issue is my router. It's not a gaming router for sure. Basically it cuts outs about half the connections I have online due to whatever firewall it has. Obviously this cuts down on my online experience.
In body form I'm much less likely to find players. Thankfully, in soul form when I invade or put down a soul sign I'm likely to connect to other players since I'm on the giving end.
I would like to note I'm not going to start up New Game + immediately. I need a break from LP'ing and need to focus a little bit more on Real Life.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
I've seen this bug a lot. In fact in my current playthrough of the game that mindflayer jumps to his death everytime. It's so convenient though because those BP mindflayers are terrible.
Anti-Magic Field and Dark Silver Shield make the Tower of Latria's levels trivial. The bosses are still hard (well, Maneater), but that combination completely nullifies any threat from the mindflayers. Really, they are the only trouble in the levels of that world.
In other words Tower of Latria in New Game + will be easier than in the first playthrough. At least, excluding Maneater and possible PvP'ers in 3-3.
BTW if you all have any criticisms of this LP or see some flaws that you want to point out, please, please do so. I want this LP to be bashed. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as they say.
Another thing you all can do to help the LP is give me ideas for what I should do for the next playthrough. What items should I get? What weapons should I upgrade with what materials? What online components do you want to see more of? What events do you want to see? How much of the levels do you want to see me do again (i.e. what don't you want repeated in the videos)?
Should I still do the voting-for-levels thing that I did for this playthrough? Are there any other ideas you all might have for making this a more participatory LP?
Keep the intros and overlayed text or trash em? How long do you prefer episodes (I think I won't do videos in "sets" anymore and just put videos up according to what level they take place in)?
These are questions I would love to hear answers to.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Hopefully Allant doesn't bug out this time and you can show the fight with him
You showed a lot of what the game has to offer so unless you're going to try playing it completely differently, then showing the levels again won't really be needed.
Maybe use different tactics on the bosses, like the poison gas cloud (not sure the name) on old king Allant or show how you can bug out most of the bosses with the thief ring or
atat23, I think bugs and exploits would be great things to show off. I'd love to see if I can pull off hyper-mode tactics and show off various grinding tricks.
I agree that, showing off all the levels again would be pointless (maybe show of the first level or something to give an idea of how hard enemies hit).
My main content would have to be online play, world tendency events I missed out on, and tricks/bugs/exploits that I did not cover first time through. Maybe add in some challenges like fighting Penetrator without Biorr or Old Hero without the Thief's Ring....
If you all can think of other things you would like to see in the second playthrough let me know.
And just to dash any false hopes, I do not plan on doing NG+ soon. I fear if I do Demon's Souls now I will get horridly burnt out and end up with an abandoned project. There will probably be a different game LP'ed first.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Haha
Haaaaa
I just fought & beat Allant for the first time yesterday; he was harder than what I saw in the LP.
Yeah I guess I should have been more clear. I thought you meant for a future lp started at the very beginning. Certainly don't change your build now that you're already committed to faith :P
It really sucked that Old King Doran had bugged like that. I went to fight him yesterday thinking I could just roll around and block and win but I got hit once and died right away. Went to check the LP to see how it was done and it was bugged.
Either way I used Poison Cloud and running out of sight so he would just run away and not own me. Took about 7 or 8 minutes but now I have my Ancient King's Armor
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
Dark Souls (spiritual successor, see Demon's Souls thread) is going to be on 360 and PS3, however. Coming out this Fall!
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
Blog, Playing Rules; Let's Play Demon's Souls; My Backlog