Monday, April 11, 2016

Shane's Mondays Musings - 4/11

Here we are, another Monday, and that means another installment of Shane's Mondays Musings! Should that "Monday" be plural? Who knows, and so cares?

Last week I introduced this new weekly mini-post, where I talk about video games for as long as I can in my 20 minute break at work. Well, we're back at it again (also, as you'll come to find out, little-to-no-editing). It's April 11. Tomorrow is April 12. Do you guys know what they means?

Come on. You do.

DARK SOULS 3!

I'm grabbing it at midnight tonight, because finally, unlike with Dark Souls II and Bloodborne, my local Gamestop is having a midnight release. I'm not usually huge on midnight releases, because I have too damn of a hard time staying awake, but I've gone to a few. My wife and I got Arkham City (back in 2011 I believe?) at midnight, and we also got Dead Space 2. We were actually just talking about this last night. There is done debate as to whether or not we also got Portal 2.

So I'm buying it tonight, and I'm gonna do the installs and BS day one patches, and I'm hoping that won't take too long. I work a 12 hour shift today, from 5am to 5:30pm, so I woke up at 4:20 this morning. It's gonna be tough to stay up and play any significant amount of the game, but I'm gonna try my best dammit!

I've read two more reviews, and both were positive. GameSpot gave it an 8/10, and GameRant gave it a 4/5. Both praised the level design (mostly), the enemy/boss designs, and the great combat. Both did mention as negatives some of the subpar boss battles. Still seems like there is more than enough good ones to make up for it.

At this point, there isn't a whole lot more to say. I'm gonna just let the game do the talking. I'm very, very, excited, and I am giddy at the thought of diving into a brand new Souls world. I think I'll end this here. Look for a new Solo Soulscast, all about my first few hours with Dark Souls 3, sometime Tuesday, April 12 (god willing. Maybe Wednesday is less realistic). At any rate, happy Dark Souls-ing everyone!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Monday, April 4, 2016

Shane's Mondays Musings - 4/4

This is a new weekly post I'm going to do. Simply put, during my first break at work ever Monday morning (7:30am, Eastern time), I'm gonna take 15 minutes to post a short, off-the-cuff, barely edited post about any new video game stuff going on. Whatever I can type (on my phone), and edit, in 15 minutes is what gets published. Let's get started, shall we?

Yes, we shall!

Why isn't it April 12 yet? I'm chomping at the bit for Dark Souls 3. Just read IGN's review, and they gave it a 9.5 out of 10, which is what I think they've given probably every Souls game. And for good reason. The only two problems they had were some underwhelming boss fights (don't worry, still lots of good ones) and the damn frame rate dipping. Why can't FromSoft figure that out? I'm sure it won't be a big deal, but it's getting frustrating.

I started this post at 7:51, so I only have about three minutes left. From what IGN said, the game has awesome, multi-faceted weapons, stunning visuals, great areas, interesting NPCs, lots of content (side quests, etc), and the combat is better then ever, thanks to the weapon arts abilities. Also they say dual wielding is more possible than ever.

Okay, this was super short, but that's the point. Check back next Monday for another Shane's Mondays Musings.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Solo Soulscast Episode 3 - Gabbin' 'Bout Demon's Souls

Solo Soulscast Episode 3 - Gabbin' 'Bout Demon's Souls

 

Score one for consistency! Welcome one and all to episode 3 of the Solo Soulscast, which is out a week after episode 2! How do you like that? Within, you can join me on a journey of self-discovery, intrigue, wonder, and nostalgic merriment as I talk about (with myself) Demon's Souls. No specific subject, and I did't even have any notes prepared. I was sort of experimenting with a stream of conscious kind of deal. I think it went well, and it was a lot of fun to record. But then again, tt's always fun to talk Souls. Some broad topics you can expect to hear include my history with the game, how I bought it (was it straight cash? Was a plastic card of some kind used? Tune in to find out!), and just a general discussion of what the game means to me personally, and how it paved the way for an even larger love and appreciation for RPGs. But enough text-based rambling here. Get inside and listen to word-based rambling in episode 3 of the Solo Soulscast. As always, thanks for listening!

Also, please note, as with last week's episode, I recorded some pretty rough video footage of the game to accompany the podcast. This was specifically for YouTube. These will be released as normal audio-only podcasts on my blog (one day, one day...). Soon I should be able to record gameplay in a much more professional manner. This here was just to include a video so it wasn't a static image on YouTube. The video, and its crappy quality, are not the focal points here. At any rate, I just started a new game in Demon's Souls and just played for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!


INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/




Solo Soulscast Episode 2 - Dark Souls Platinum

Solo Soulscast Episode 2 - Dark Souls Platinum

**NOTE: Original YouTube description**

Welcome one, welcome all to the newly (sort of) revitalized (kind of) Solo Soulscast! This is episode 2. Wowza. You might remember a few months ago I made episode 1, and in it I talked about some pre-Bloodborne Old Hunters DLC patch notes. I had intended at the time to continue to release an episode every week. I had recorded episode 2, which was all about that Old Hunters DLC. I never released it because I didn't like it enough. I didn't have fun with it. If it's not fun, I don't wanna do it, essentially. Time has passed, and I decided to give it another go. This actual episode 2 came out much better, and hey, it was fun! In it, I talk about my quest to achieve the most amazing thing a person can achieve in this life: a virtual trophy for completing all the meaningless tasks in a game. Yup, I'm talking about getting the Dark Souls Platinum Trophy. Enjoy, and look for episode 3 next week (with any luck!)




INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/




Thursday, March 31, 2016

Solo Soulscast Episode 1 - Bloodborne Patch

HOWDY! 

Guys! Guys! GUYS!

I'm back!

I've been on hiatus from my blog for a very long time now. I haven't updated in a quite some time. Well, I'm back.

But, what does that mean exactly?

Let me tell you.

Okay, enough giant spaces. What it means, at least for the immediate future, is you can find my podcast, the Solo Soulscast, right here! On THIS very blog. I've been uploading them to Youtube (link to my YouTube HERE), but I've always wanted, since day one, to have them available as audio-only actual podcasts. And now, I've gotten off my lazy ass, and I've done it! I'm hosting them on archive.org, and I'm going to have an embedded link below. So you can listen to them without having to go to YouTube. At some point, I'd like to have them as downloadable links, so they could be downloaded and be listened to anytime, but you gotta crawl before you can walk. So, enjoy the audio-only Solo Soulscast! Episode 1 below (which used to be only available on my cohort Adam's great video game blog, bluegamer.net). Please be patient, as it may take a few weeks to get the back catalouge up on my blog. Finally, I will be uploading additional content that is more than just my podcasts. Stay tuned, gals and girls!


---------




     Hey there everybody! Here is the highly-sought-after episode 1 of the Solo Soulscast. For those of you not in the know, the Solo Soulscast was the once-semi-regular-but-now-completely-regular offshot of the Soulscast, a Demon's/Dark Souls/Bloodborne podcast hosted by one Adam Blue, and myself, Shane Norton. That went on indefinite hiatus, and I decided I was not even close to done talking about the Souls series, so I decided to continue on myself. So I started the Solo Soulscast, where I talk, just by myself, about everything and anything that has to do with the Souls series (and again, that's Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, Bloodborne, (and soon to be Dark Souls III), and Souls-inspired games, like Lords of the Fallen and Salt and Sanctuary). I had been just uploading them to my personal YouTube, but now finally they are available on my resurrected blog (as of this writing, March 31, the blog is still undergoing a fine tuning).

     Episode 1 of the Solo Soulscast has me talking about a pre-Old Hunters DLC patch for Bloodborne. I realize that a podcast about something that came out in November being re-released in April is not very timely, but I don't care. Just listen and enjoy people!


INTRO (and OUTRO) MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
 Big Horns Intro 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/





Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Why I'm Going On (probably indefinite) Hiatus

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

    It's with a bit of a heavy heart that I need to make the following announcement. Eagle-eyed readers might know what's coming next:

I'm done

    I (re)started this blog a little over a year ago, and in that span I published 113 entries. That's pretty good for 13 months. But, I think it's coming to an end. Actually, I don't think it is. I know it is. Because I'm the one writing these words right now. My plan when I started this blog was to keep track of my gaming. And I did it for myself. I never thought anyone would read anything, or would give a shit what I had to say. I had no preconceptions about having a readership. And that largely remained true. Ironically enough, in the last few weeks I've had a ridiculous boom in both views and comments on some of my pages. It might have to do with a certain bloody game that's all about being born. Maybe.
    Quite simply put folks, it's not much fun anymore. Every time I sat down to play a game (with a few exceptions), I would need to do any combination of the following things:

  • take pictures/screenshots
  • Make detailed notes
  • Make boss notes (complete with my strategy, their aesthetic look, and anything else about them)
  • And if I didn't do any of that right on the spot, I'd have to do it later, and rely on my awful memory to try to write posts days (with some games, weeks and months) after having played. 

    I just finished Castelvania: Circle of the Moon, and I've been dreading writing that post. Partly because I started it mid-February, and it's just been so long since I started, and there's been so much time that it isn't fresh anymore. Doing that write-up would feel much more like homework or a chore than actual writing I enjoyed. That's the reason I never finished my Dark Souls II DLC write up of "Crown of the Ivory King". Too much time had passed, and I just wasn't into that world anymore.
    I would also like to focus more on my short fiction writing. I miss writing short stories. I would love to start getting ready to write a novel at some point as well (you may let the laughing commence). It's been great that I've been writing with this blog, but it isn't the same. I can't be very creative here, relatively speaking.
    Finally, I miss my damn free time. Almost every day on my lunch, instead of being able to play games or read (what a novel (tee hee!) concept!), I've been writing Bloodborne stuff. It's exhausting. I just wanna play games without having to worry about taking studious notes and remembering every little detail.
    If anyone is disappointed, I'm sorry. You'll get over it, don't worry. I'll let you know my immediate plans though: continue playing through, and beat, and get the platinum trophy for Bloodborne. After that, I'm either gonna go on a PS3 bender or dip back into NES/SNES. Haven't decided yet. Of course, I'll be playing handheld games on my lunch too. In fact, I'm about to start Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles on my PSP. Yup, another Castlevania game. Can't get enough!
    All right, this has already taken more time than I wanted it to. While this hiatus is indefinite, it doesn't mean permanent. I might come back at some point with a simplified version of my blog. I've been thinking of doing one about my quest to achieve platinum trophies on PS3/PS4 games. Who knows? If nothing else, I think I will still post one final "Final Impressions" post on Bloodborne. If I do, I'll let everyone know. Don't expect anything else after that one (if indeed I end up doing it).
    I'd like to thank everyone for their support and for reading all this dumb shit. If you've enjoyed it, I'm grateful. If you didn't enjoy it, fuck off. Just kidding. You can just screw off instead.

    Have a good day, a good night, a good month, and a good year. I'm sure we'll see each other around.

Instagram: kalameet
Twitter: ka1ameet



Friday, April 10, 2015

VG Resolutions: Special March dx Edition (updates and revisions)

Now: More changes!

    Since I've been playing Bloodborne basically exclusively since it released on March 24, I realized something. It's something that has been creeping into my brain, yet I didn't fully give it the space it needed to nestle there. We are officially a quarter of the way through the year 2015. There is NO GOOD GOD DAMN WAY IN HELL I'M BEATING THE 30 GAMES I SET OUT TO BEAT THIS YEAR. Absolutely not. Not even close. I haven't made any progress on any of these since February (Castlevania: Circle of the Moon notwithstanding).  I made a decision! I'm going to revise my video game resolutions I made a few months ago. I'm going to pare down the games list and make it manageable. Instead of thirty games, I'm gonna slim it to ten or fifteen. I might modify the other resolutions a bit too. So, without further adieu, here are my March updates (and the aforementioned revisions, which will appear in a beautiful RED).




I'd like to beat a majority of the handheld games I currently own (as of 1/1/2015)

   Eh, I'm going to keep this one as is. It's gonna be tough, but still maybe possibly sort of doable. As this is March's post, I haven't beaten anything new, but come April's post I will definitely have been a handheld game! I already have, but I did it in April, so it'll have to wait until next month.



I'd like to play games on every console I own I'd like to play NES/SNES more

    I could still end up playing on every console, but that isn't that important. That would mean I'd need to play the Gamecube version of Resident Evil. Which, I really wanna do, but I don't know if it's in the cards any time soon. Instead, I'd like to focus on some more retro, because I've been on PS3/PS4 kick recently. I'm not even putting any specific number on how many I wanna play. I just want them to both be loved.




I need to stop stressing over this damn blog

    I've been pumping out anywhere between two and four posts a week since Bloodborne came out. It's actually been great so far. I got a little behind last week, but I haven't really been stressing. This one has been going pretty well so far this year.




I want to BEAT these games:

  1. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
  2. Any one of the PS1/PS2 era Final Fantasy games (barring XI)
  3. Ni No Kuni (PS3)
  4. (finish) Alan Wake (360)
  5. Child of Light (PS3)
  6. Clock Tower 3 (PS2)
  7. Duck Tales (NES)
  8. Faxanadu (NES)
  9. Star Tropics (NES)
  10. Galerians (PS1)
  11. (finish) Golden Sun: Lost Age (GBA)
  12. Granstream Saga (PS1)
  13. Magic Sword (SNES)
  14. Condemned: Criminal Origins (360)
  15. Pier Solar and the Great Architects (Mega Drive, via PS3)
  16. Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
  17. (finish) Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
  18. Undead Nightmare (Red Dead Redemption DLC) (PS3)
  19. Resident Evil 4 (PS2)
  20. Secret of Evermore (SNES)
  21. At least one (but preferably all three) original Splatterhouse games (Arcade/Mega Drive, via PS3) [one was enough for now]
    1. Original arcade Splatterhouse (Jan)
  22. At least one of the following two RPGs from the Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection (Shining Force or Phantasy Star) (PS3)
  23. Ico (PS3)
  24. (finish) The Legend of Zelda (NES)
  25. Ys III (SNES)
  26. Ocarina of Time (3DS)
  27. One of the following two handheld Castlevanias (Circle of the Moon or Rondo of Blood-from Dracula X Chronicles) (GBA or PSP)
  28. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) (Jan)
  29. Final Fantasy Legend III (GB)
  30. Suikoden (PS1, via PS3)

    All of the red crossed out games are ones I'm not gonna keep on the list. Next month the list will appear with only the black-text games. I'm still not confident I can beat all those, but it's a hell of a lot less daunting. We'll see how the next few months go.


    Last month I did some "state of the blog" bullet points. What a great idea!:

  • Last month I said I was moving my Simpsons writing to a new blog. Well, I'm not. I'm just not doing the Simpsons writing currently. I would love to at some point maybe, but I just do not have enough time to watch The Simpsons and take notes, along with writing the posts, along with keeping up with all the video game stuff for this blog. I have all those Simpsons blogs still, not sure what I wanna do with them
  • I plan on (hopefully, fingers crossed...) a new, Bloodborne unrelated B-LOG SLAYING post up this week. Wouldn't that be a hoot? 
  • New (or old, unobservant or uncaring) readers! I created a page for this blog on Facebook. I'm not entirely sure how to best utilize it yet, but if enough people "like" it, I'll post content there that you couldn't find anywhere else. It's got six "likes" (one of which is mine), why don't you make it seven? Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/theEmporiumofNosferat2?ref=hl
  •  Also, I plan on, in the coming weeks, redesigning the look of this blog. My lovely wife should be helping, so you know it's gonna look good. More info as it comes
  • That's it this month. Sorry for the delay

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Bloodborne Diary, Part 4

Co-op & Lovecraft


4-3-15

    I subsequently did a lot this night, and really didn't do much at all. Firstly, I didn't continue where I thought I might last I played. I started by warping to the Hemwick Charnel Lane Lantern. I knew, from a bit of reading/discussion about the game that there were witch bosses at the end of this area. Overall this area was pretty small and only took a few minutes to get through. I believe it's considered optional, which is my guess as to why it's so small.
    At the end of the area there is a boss fight against the Hemwick Witches. It's a bit of a long battle, but it's very easy. One of the easiest so far, as a matter of fact. And for killing the Witches, you get a workshop tool that allows you to use Runes! I've had one for awhile now, not being able to use it. It only increases the BE I get but it's still cool.
    Not content to just whoop one boss, I decided I wanted to take down that fire dog boss at the bottom of the first Chalice Dungeon I created (where I teased I would start at the end of last week's post). Also, in talking with a friend from Instagram (who's just as obsessed with Bloodborne/Souls games as I am, and who may or may not make a little cameo in this week's post), he told me beating that boss would net me the Chalice to create the next Dungeon. So, Layer 3 I went.
    As with ALL the boss battles in the Chalice Dungeons so far, the run from Lantern to boss is SUPER SHORT. Thank goodness for small miracles huh? I entered his boss room, used a bolt paper (imbues weapon with lightning. Lightning is blue in this game, instead of bright yellow), and was ready to get to work.
    This boss is called the Watchdog of the Old Lords, and he's a large dog-like creature who's body is on fire. He mainly uses fire based attacks for his offense (duh)! I had tried him maybe 5-6 times before during the previous week. He seemed tough, but really doable. I beat him tonight on my first try. It was a great battle. Even though most of these boss battles in this game haven't been super hard so far, they have mostly all been enjoyable. Dashing around, barely escaping damage, only to dish out damage of your own, is exhilarating. I'm definitely liking this aggressive, offense-oriented play style. Kind of a bummer that the game kind of funnels you this way, and there doesn't seem to be many viable other builds (I'm sure people will invariably create new ones. Even if they aren't particularly good. They'll be challenging), but I don't even mind that. I wasn't a huge fan of using different builds in the other games anyway.
    After I conquered the Watchdog, it was time to figure out where to go next. After a little searching, I found a path that lead right to an area that I have heard was no fun. That area of course was the Forbidden Woods.
    This is about the time where my progress stops for the night. You see, I was texting with that same friend I mentioned earlier, Joseph, and we decided it was time to team up and do some co-op together. Since Bloodborne has a password system that let's you find people to play with, we figured it would be easy. After I leveled myself up to 42, set a password, and got the the Lantern in Forbidden Woods, we tried to hook up. But alas, it didn't work. We messed around with a few things, but in the end we didn't join up. I'm fairly certain now that I was too far off of his level. I was 42 and he was 58. I went to sleep shortly after this. 


4-4-15

    Made my way through the Forbidden Woods. It's a gigantic, open, confusing area that really is not much fun to go through. As you could probably guess, it's a wooded area. It looks pretty decent, if not awfully drab and same-y (a slight problem this game has suffered from so far since beginning in the streets of Yharnam). Still, it's nice to get a new type of environment. It does contain LOTS of Runes (I went from having one to having five) and it also is host to some really Bizarre (and snake-centric) enemies, like...

The guy that has tons of snakes burst out of his neck

One of those enemies that makes you say, "...what the fuck?"


 The giant ball of writhing snakes

Pretty shocking when you first see it






...and whatever the hell this is?

Mushroom-alien man?


    [author's note: it's annoying that sometimes the "screenshot captured" image is captured by the screenshot, as seen in the above picture and the snake-head picture]
    After fighting through this area for a long time, I opened two separate shortcuts that easily connect back to the Lantern. I leveled myself up to 48 (should be in co-op range now!), upgraded my blunderbuss to +6, and optimized my blood gems for my +6 Axe (as you upgrade weapons, more slots for Blood gems become available. I currently have three). After spending close to two hours in the Woods I found the boss, a trio of black-robed figures called the Shadows of Yharnam. I died but the fight seems pretty easy. Next time I play I should be able to take them out without a problem.

Hmm, you think there's gonna be a boss here?

    Once I died I shut the game off for the day. Like I said, next time I play I'm gonna kill those guys, maybe get some co-op in, and probably mess around in some more Chalice Dungeons.


4-6-15 (morning)

    As I predicted, I started with the Shadows battle. I beat these guys, although it took me a little longer then I had anticipated. I think it took four tries. Pretty interesting battle (check their dedicated post for more details). After this I arrived in a small town called Byrgenwerth. This is another small area. It's a town with a college at the heart. It's got the aesthetics of the early parts is Yharnam (old buildings and streets), but it's also got some of that Forbidden Woods flair (lots of dirty trees and earth). There are these annoying insect-humanoid enemies that jump on you and fill up your frenzy meter. Two of these frenzy attacks will give you frenzy (does frenzy just take off a large amount of health? Are there any other effects? Also, when you get inflicted with frenzy, you'd BETTER have 95% of your health at least, because it does CRAZY damage). After exploring the Woods-area and the village-area, I went into the college. I read four or five different notes warning of a Hunter inside. Oh great.
    The college looks great. It's full of old tables, chairs, and books. Lots of books. Seath would love it. There's a large spiral staircase in the middle. I went up this, and I found that damn Hunter.
    Amazingly he (she?) doesn't have a gun. Instead he has I believe the threaded cane. Also, he uses magic! He will shoot snakes (??) out if his arm. They extend and come back. He can shoot out some white fog directly in front of him. Finally, he has a soul mass like attack, where he'll conjure up six or seven bright lights above his head. They will then come at you.
    I just ended up cheesing him at the bottom of the stairs. Wait until he comes down and he starts following you around the stairs. You can back off, hit him (I used the two-handed Axe with the combo of an R2 attack followed by an R1 attack) then run around the stairs a bit. When he follows and comes back into view, just hit him again. He doesn't try any magic like this. Just tries to melee you. It's cheap, but fuck the Hunters. They're just as cheap
    Once I killed him, I explored the small college some more. Found a key that opens a nearby door. The door leads out to an open patio-like area. There's a man in a wheelchair here (not one of those enemies). He doesn't say anything. After I explored here, I was stumped. I searched around the town again. I searched the college again. Then I figured I'd go back out on that veranda kind of thing that I unlocked with that key. Why would it be behind a locked door if it wasn't important?
    Going by both the notes on the ground and my own Souls intuition, I walked to the obvious jutted out ledge and looked over. Nothing but water. I was gonna jump. Even if I died, I figured it didn't matter. The Lamp was a five second jog back
    Turns out I DIDN'T die, and I fell through the water and landed in an absolutely stunning area called Moonside Lake. It's a white void with water as far as the eye can see (hmm, what's that large creature off in the distance?). Like the anti-Abyss from Dark Souls. Reminded me of Ash Lake, also from DS. Ash Lake was better and more shocking to first find, but damn this came really close.

My favorite area of the game so far. Is that a large moss-covered rock?

    There isn't much to do here as far as exploring. I saw tons of red specters (note on those: the first day the game came out, very few of the red specters worked. Now they work 9/10 times!) and that should have been a tip off. I ran over to the large... thing that's quietly minding it's own business a ways off. I thought it might have been a normal enemy, or maybe even an NPC (far fetched but certainly not out of the question). Nope, once you attack him, a name and health bar show up on the bottom of the screen. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Rom, the Vacuous Spider. He's one of the strangest (and toughest) bosses in the game so far.
    Once you hit him a few times, he calls down a veritable rainstorm of spiders from the sky (?). And these bastards hit HARD. One shot kills are a real possibility here. Also, both Rom and the small spiders have rock hard faces. They have to be attacked from the side or back. But I'll go over all that stuff in the boss post!
    I tried a few times, didn't beat him, and shut it off to go back to sleep (waking up early in the morning to play video games is not as easy as it was when I was in middle/high school. Every day up at 5am without a damn care in the world, so I could play video games for a few hours before school. Clearly much has changed).



4-6-15 (night)

     I picked up last night, logically enough, right where I left off that morning, which was at the Rom boss battle. I attempted it another three-or-four more times before calling in reinforcements. So far I haven’t summoned anyone in the game, and I’ve solo’d all the bosses. But I wanted some co-op fun, so Joseph and I met up, in our respective games, at the college right near the boss gate, and I used my Beckoning Bell, and he his Small Resonant Bell, and with the help of a password, wouldn’t you know it? We actually got connected and I summoned him into my game! It was glorious. I’ve never had a problem with past Souls games not letting you team up with friends (or at least, not letting you do it so overtly). While I don’t think it’s entirely necessary, and it’s still fairly obfuscated, it’s great fun anyway. He entered my game, I walked through the Nightmare Fog, got assaulted by one of those ridiculous bug enemies, then took that leap of faith into the gorgeous Moonside Lake. Joesph followed. We saw Rom in the distance. Well, let me put what happened next in his own words (copied verbatim from a text message):

    "Rom the Vacuous Spider lay ahead of me, thirsty for blood, but this time I had a cooperator to help even the playing fiel-   oh wait, he's dead. Murdered by literally the FIRST enemy he came into contact with"

 This made me laugh out loud when I read it on my phone. You see, my unfortunate co-op buddy got killed by those ridiculously overpowered little spiders. "Oh boy," I thought to myself then. "Time to really nut up for this boss with his buffed stats" (as in past Souls games, it appears that the bosses get stronger if you’ve summoned help). Despite this minor setback however, this was the attempt that I actually beat him! Was happy to get that boss out of the way. One of the tougher ones so far.


The unstoppable duo!

    Not content for one minute of co-op, we decided to team up again and REALLY kick some ass. Turns out, once you kill Rom, you’re treated to a strange cut scene that shows the moon turning a blood-red color. You are transported to a room in the Cathedral Ward. Remember when I had said last week there was a large staircase that had three paths? One went to Amelia, one went to the Hemwick Witches, and one ended in a room I thought might be a boss room? I don’t think I went over that room much in my earlier post, so I’ll do it now. It isn’t a boss room. It’s a large circular room with a closed door on one side. Before killing Rom, if you get too close to that door, you see this buildup of strange blue mist, and if you stand in it too long, you get transported up in the air, and then you die. I found it incredibly odd at the time. Well, turns it, there’s a reason behind that. Once you kill Rom (or even if your Insight is high enough. Not totally sure on that one yet), and you reawaken in this room, and you’ll notice a huge Lovercraftian sort of monster just chilling on the ceiling. 

A little tough to tell because of the camera angle, but this thing is HUGE

    Turns out he was invisible before, but he’s the one that kills you. Before turning him visible, if he kills you, you can sort of glimpse a transparent image of something. I can’t tell you all how unbelievable I find this. I love the Cthulu/Lovecraft inspired monsters a lot (in another life I’d love to be a writer with the imagination and surreal, monstrous properties that he possessed. You know, without the rampant racism, of course). This game is constantly changing, seemingly after every defeated boss. It’s an absolute wonder to behold, and I can’t imagine what I’ve already missed. Hopefully I’ll pick it up in subsequent playthroughs.
    At any rate, if you go through the now-open door in this room, you’ll find yourself back in the Unseen Village. However, it’s an entirely different area than the one the bag-guy brings you to if he kills you. This area is yet another large Victorian-looking city with streets, lights, and buildings. Even so, it looks and feels different then the Yharnam or Byrgenwerth areas. Of course, this is in large part to more of those huge monsters sitting and clinging to buildings. Some will try to grab you (like the one in that Cathedral Ward room) if you get to close. One in particular shoots a large laser beam (I saw someone on the Giant Bomb forums compare this guy to the various fire-breathing dragon's that protect certain bridges in all the previous Souls games. This is pretty accurate) at a large set of stairs that you have to dodge.
    Joseph and I went through this area and we were generally taking care of business. At the beginning, we were even invaded. This was my first invasion in Bloodborne. And this bastard stayed on some stairs underneath one of those giant monsters that will try to grab you if you stay near it. So that, coupled with a huge hoard of enemies (that kept coming back to life!), made this particular encounter very frustrating. I ended up getting killed by some enemies. Luckily Joseph avenged my death!
    After this dumb situation, we continued on. Turns out there are certain enemies that bring other enemies back to life. You have to find and kill them to stop the enemies from respawning.
    I'll try to wrap this up soon, as this is easily my longest diary post yet. Joseph and I went through some more of this area until we eventually reached the Lamp that you can find if you get abducted by the bag man earlier in the game. Doesn't seem like it's working now though. I didn't know where to go, and after both of us were killed again, I decided to call it a night. We did find a key that I'm not sure what to do with, so that should be my assignment for next time. Our co-oping was a lot of fun, and we'll be doing it again in the future. 

4-8-15 & 4-9-15

    Very short session both of these mornings. And I didn't do much. I purposely kept it this way. I searched for another Chalice Dungeon. This time I chose one that had a five skeleton rating. I have no idea what the rating is in reference to. Could it be loot? I spent my entire first 45 minute play session  on the eighth going through the first two Layers of it, and I found four-or-five treasure chests per Layer. The rating  certainly isn't in reference to difficulty, because this Dungeon was easy. Finally, the boss of the first Layer were the Watchers again, like in the second Layer of that first Dungeon. They were pathetically easy (lots of blunderbuss parrying and visceral attacks). I'm not doing boss posts for these guys. Second Layer boss was yet another Maneater Boar. Also stupidly easy. I shut it off after killing this boss. 

    My second short morning session saw the conclusion of this random Dungeon I searched for. I found some more loot (including enough materials to finally make the Central Pthumeru Dungeon. Also, I found a weapon! It's the uncanny version of the saw spear). I fought another spectacularly easy boss in the third Layer of the random one, called Beast-possessed Soul (basically a lanky werewolf with some fire magic). I'll do a write up of him, but it'll be in next week's post. This week's boss post is already super long. After I defeated the boss, I returned to Hunter's Dream, leveled up to 54, and created that Central Pthumeru Dungeon. A splitting headache made me shut the game off earlier than I wanted to.   
    When I play again, I'll probably start the Central Pthumeru Dungeon, then try to figure out where to go back in the Unseen Village. Who knows, I could get some co-op in too! Thanks for reading this bloated beast, and sorry it's kind of late. Fell behind a bit and I've had a tough time catching up.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Bloodborne Boss Rundown, Parts 3 & 4

Stuffed to the brim with bosses!



     I got kind of behind on the boss posts, so I'm going to roll up last week's with some of this week's. This is gonna be a lengthy post, so buckle in, grab some coffee (or beer), and get ready to vicariously experience thrilling boss fights through the eyes (words) of yours truly.



Maneater Boar

 

 

    Super easy. By far the easiest boss in the game. I almost think the Chalice Dungeon bosses should be in their own category. Maybe at a later date I'll split the regular bosses and the Dungeon bosses. I even hesitate to call this a true boss, but it has a health bar and a unique name, so a boss he is.
    This boss is identical to the pig enemies that are found throughout the game. Right down to their attacks and even look.


Sorry to disappoint anyone that was expecting a Demon's Souls Maneater/Dark Souls Armored Boar clash-up boss


He's really lovable


    If you are far away, he'll charge. You can dodge to the left or right to avoid this. If you go on his side, he kind of rears his head around and hits you. If you stand directly behind him, he'll kick you with his back legs. All you have to do is get on his side and slash away. Even if he hits you, it isn't going to do much damage. He will do another attack where he lands on his belly, and this gives you ample time to hack away. He doesn't have much health either, so this should be a short two minute battle. Really, if you need help with Maneater Boar (at least in this current situation), maybe you've chosen the wrong game to play


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 Vicar Amelia

 

 

    As I’ve mentioned, even though I’ve been reading a decent amount about this game online (almost all strictly online forums over at Giant Bomb. Anyone that is interested in reading/discussing this game should head over there), I’ve spoiled very little for myself. I’m 21+ hours in, and I still have no idea what’s coming, in terms of story, enemies, bosses, levels (design and aesthetics) , loot, or anything like that. During some of my browsing, I had come upon the name of a boss that seemed to be giving people a real problem. This boss was Vicar Amelia. Suffice to say, I was nervous to fight her when I finally found her. Does she live up to the reputation I had seen online previous to encountering her? Read on to find out.
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    In a word: no. At least not for me. Not counting my very first encounter when all I was doing was taking screenshots (I never counted my screenshot-taking-attempts as actual deaths) and not attacking or learning her attacks, I didn’t die to Amelia. I killed her my first try. Not that she was an easy boss necessarily, but she was one that I was fairly well adept at fighting. Sort of like the Cleric Beast.
    When you walk into the large room where you eventually fight her, you see a lady clad in white robes. She’s praying, or so it seems, at some kind of altar. She’s clutching a gold pendant. She then transforms (off screen, unfortunately) into the beast you fight for the battle. First off, I think Amelia looks great. Pretty unique for a “Souls” game. She’s a large, white, hairy deer-like monster. Her hair is long and flow-y and it might even be patchy. Like, it’s not full coverage. Her neck is also elongated. Overall, very sinister. I might have said the Undead Giant was my favorite boss design, but I think we have a new champion with Amelia. I have a feeling that’ll probably change several more times as I find more bosses.


From the cut scene, right before the battle starts


    This battle isn’t terribly different than some of the other big beast battles. Amelia will hop around the large room and swipe with her claws. She can do some damage if you get caught in one of her longer combos, but she doesn’t seem to do this as much. She can also leap across the room to attack. Finally, she’ll slam her fists onto the ground in front of her, causing a massive smoke cloud to shoot out. Most of her attacks are easy to dodge by, well, being locked on and strafing/dashing. The timing is pretty easy to get down on her, I thought.
     However, when she gets down to a certain amount of health, she will stop and heal herself pretty substantially. This is something I saw on the forums that people really had a tough time with. I didn’t, mainly because she only used this once, and I punished her for it. See, she stands still for several seconds while healing, and this is a great opportunity to whale on her. So that’s what I did, and I think it interrupted her healing. After this, I fought her normally as I had, and she didn’t try healing again.


Never stops smiling though.
    Besides the healing aspect, which seems to be the focus of the misery that a lot of people are facing, this is a pretty basic Bloodborne boss battle. I really would love to write more about it, because if I think back to my Dark Souls II boss posts, almost all those were pretty long. Not that I need to compare those posts to these ones of course. I’m a little more crunched for time to do these. It’s self-imposed, but I still feel it. Right now, as I sit on my lunch break on April 6, I have my newest Diary write-up to finish, plus last week’s Boss Rundown to start-and-finish (which you are currently reading but which is also currently not finished. Aah, the magic of the written word. Stephen King likened it to time travel once I think. That’s a perfect way to describe it) [let me but in with an AUTHOR'S NOTE: As stated above, I'm smashing the two Boss posts into this one here. I want to keep that dumb parenthetical line though], PLUS notes for the next Boss Rundown to start. Yikes. That’s a lot of shit. It’s tough trying to get essentially four posts a week about this game up. Tough, but fun, and it’s something I really enjoy doing. I hope you Bloodborne fans enjoy reading it all half as much as I enjoy writing it. Shift your eyes down ever-so-slightly to read the next boss account!


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Witch of Hemwick

 

 

    At the end of the small-ish Hemwich Charnel Lane area is this peculiar, yet easy, boss fight. The arena is small, but that isn't a problem. There's a ground floor plus some ramps that allow you to get off the ground.
     The fight starts with one enemy (called a Soot Monster. I believe they appear somewhere in that general area too. They are black, tall, lanky, and they carry a scythe) being summoned from the ground.

These are the Soot Monsters. I didn't realize that they actually are made of Soot

    I wasn't sure exactly what the battle was about at this point, so I killed the monster. Another one spawned, and I killed him. A few more spawned, and it was then that I realize there was someone orchestrating the spawning: the Witch of Hemwick. It's pretty hard to see exactly what she looks like when you fight her, since she is small and turns invisible, but if you look at a wiki, you can see she's a very decrepit, hunched-over lady with eyeballs all over her body. She looks grotesque and great. So here's how the battle plays out: she appears and disappears, and she'll continue summoning the monsters for you to deal with. The monsters don't count towards the Witch's health, so your main concern should be finding the Witch and whooping her ass. You can find her easily enough by either just running near her (she becomes visible if you are close to her) or seeing her red glow when she's summoning the monsters. Once you've located her, just whale on her until she disappears. She'll re-appear somewhere else. At the beginning of the battle, I fought the monsters, but after I bit I basically ignored them, unless they really got in my way.

Peek-a-boo!

    When I killed the Witch, another one appeared! I don't know if she appears after the first one dies or if she's on a timer and I just very coincidentally killed the first at the right time. At any rate, the second one is the same as the first, except she has a ranged magic (magic!!??) attack. Kind of like the old homing soul spear spells. They are easy enough to dodge though. She will also revive the other Witch with about a quarter-or-so of her health back. Even with two of them alive, it's an easy fight. Just avoid those monsters, find the Witch(es), and take them to task. Two final notes: I don't know if there is a max number of those monsters they can summon, but I don't think I saw more than three at a time. Secondly, I don't know what the deal is with the second Witch. Is it like her sister? Is it the same Witch? Or most likely it's another witch, but they all have the names, "Witch of Hemwick".

Best picture of her eyeball coat

    The best part of this battle is after its done. You can go into a small room that has a tool that allows you to use Runes finally! I was very excited by this, because I had been wondering about it for some time. I only had one Rune to use, but it's still great to open up another well of possibilities for your character (plus there will obviously be some awesome Runes out there).


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Watchdog of the Old Lords

 

 

    This is the boss to the third Layer of the first Pthumeru Chalice Dungeon. He's a giant dog engulfed in flames, basically. He shares similarities with a dog, although I think he has some lizard qualities as well. He has an almost-Mohawk which is pretty cool too. As far as dogs go though, he's no Sif (close enough) or Royal Rat Authority, that's for sure. And also his whole body isn't flaming, only parts. It makes him look better I think. If he was totally engulfed in flames, I think he'd like like a big orange blur. And what fun is that?

Eh, make up your own caption!

    He uses a variety of attacks, as you would imagine. He will snap at you with his mouth. He can do this from either left to right, or right to left. He will shoot fire, almost like a flamethrower, out of his mouth. This has a very short range, as he only does it to his immediate front. He can also stop and throw up a large amount of lava (very reminiscent of Quelaag's lava attack). He will also generally jump and hop around the arena. Also, he can swipe with his front paws. This hurts, but it will leave some flames in its wake. He can charge ahead, leading with his head. Finally (maybe not finally. Like a dumb asshole, I didn't write any notes down for this boss, so I'm using a combination of my memory and YouTube to compile this. So maybe he has more attacks. Whatevs) he will use an area-of-effect fire explosion thing if you stand next to him for too long. He telegraphs this by stopping and shortly gathering some energy.

After a night of heavy drinking

    In the end, he took me five or six tries I believe. He was hard, but nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn't a frustrating battle either, which I was happy about. How did I beat him, you might be wondering? If you are wondering that, well you're in the right place! If you don't care, well, what the hell are you doing here? Get out!
    I did use some bolt paper throughout my several attempts, but I don't even remember if I used it when I killed him [author's note: I did]. I might have, but it isn't necessary at all. The damage increase is close to negligible. I would generally lock on to him and dodge to his side when he swung his head to bite (this seems to be his most prominent attack). On his side you can get some good hits in. I would also wait until he did the lava throw up attack, because this animation is protracted and drawn out. It's a good time to get a nice charge attack in. Be careful, because this seems to be when he loves to do that AOE explosion. I got caught in it several times.

See? Lizard features!

    That's basically all I did to achieve victory. I thought that being on his side/behind him was the best place to be, but I've watched a few videos online, and it seems there's a better (albeit more lengthy) strategy: stand in front of his face, and he'll continually try to bite with his mouth. If you are out of range, he'll snap at you, but miss. Then you have a chance to hit his face once, before he attacks again. He doesn't totally stay in this pattern, but if you're having a problem with the battle, this could help.
     For beating this boss, you get the Chalice for the next Pthumeru Dungeon.


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Shadows of Yharnam

 

 

    [Author's note: please excuse the overabundance of the term, "fireball guy" or any variations thereof]
    This is an interesting boss battle. It's at the end area of Forbidden Woods (which can be accessed very easily and quickly from the Lantern once a few elevator shortcuts are unlocked). You step into a large, mostly open outdoor area. Three black-robed figures run towards you. And they are not happy to see you, no siree.



U mad bro(s)?
 
    These are three humans (I guess? Who knows what's under those robes?) wearing what resembles the Gold Hemmed Black Set from the original Dark Souls. They look pretty cool to me, and pretty mysterious. Each one has a different weapon/attack method: one has two katanas (so nice to see these swords! Makes me yearn for katanas!); one has a katana and a candle that he blows fire from (essentially a flamethrower); finally the last one hangs back and shoots three fireballs at you. I'm not sure if this guy has a melee attack. The two with swords are pretty aggressive too.
    Too start this battle, I went after the fireball shooter. I figured he would be the biggest pain. Luckily none of these three have a huge amount of health. I just went up to fireball caster and whale on him. Be mindful of where the other two are, but in general fighting toe-to-toe with Fireball Joe here (note: may not be his actual name) is pretty easy. However, things get decidedly less easy soon.
    On my first attempt, once I got that fireball guy down to a quarter health, he sprouts some snakes (or what I can only assume are snakes) out of his chest. In fact, all three sprout these strange snakes. Also, the one that uses his candle as a flamethrower gets a flaming sword.

Fire sword and snakes


    Shortly after, I bombarded the fireball guy and killed him. So now there were two Shadows left, both with snakes sticking out of their chests. Besides their normal attacks (sword slashes and that flamethrower) they can now attack straight ahead with their snakes. The snakes strike out like their own melee weapons (kind of reminds me of Kratos's blades from God of War). These snake attacks have a CRAZY long range. You think you're out of range, but bam! You still get hit. Luckily, the attacks aren't mega powerful.



Great (fire)balls of fire(balls)!

    On my first attempt I died shortly after taking out the fireball guy. For my subsequent attempts, instead of focusing on that fireball guy, I decided to equally attack all three. So when the first "snake part" happens, the other two have half health or less. Once you kill two of the Shadows, the final one summons two HUGE snakes from the ground. They burst through the earth and try to attack you. Luckily, they only stay up for a second or two before going back down. They are easy to avoid too, because they can be run from.
    So basically, my winning plan was: focus on fireball guy while still dealing damage to the other two (two handed charge attack of the Hunter's Axe does wonders here). Once he's dead, focus on the dual-katana guy (get some hits on the other if you can). Finally, obviously take out the remaining one. All of their attacks can be easily dodged and the katana guys can be pretty easily parried.  I didn't have a huge problem with these guys, but they can be tricky. I actually really like this battle a lot too, because it's pretty unique and interesting. I'm continually impressed with the boss battles in this game so far. Most have been either easy or middling-hard, but I don't care. I was one to defend Dark Souls II and its glut of bosses, but these ones are definitely better so far, in comparison.


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Rom, the Vacuous Spider

     What a crazy boss battle this is. After I get done talking about how the Shadows above are "pretty unique and interesting", Rom comes in and blasts them off the "unique boss map", as it were. Once you get through Byrgenwerth and get through the college, you need to jump into the idyllic lake that stands near the college. Instead of dying you'll fall through the water and land in an area very reminiscent of Ash Lake from Dark Souls. It's all water. It's damn breathtaking. But off in the distance you see some thing, and it's tough to tell exactly what until you get closer.


I know I used this pic in my recent Diary post, and I hate reusing pics, but this one is too good not to

    As you can see in the picture above, this is basically the scene as soon as you land. You orient yourself and you see this big giant rock-looking thing in the distance. Since there isn't anything else to do in this area, you might as well go up to it.

Up close and personal. What the hell?


    It's completely passive to you. It doesn't acknowledge you at all. It's up to you to take the first swing. Once you hit it, its name and health bar appear. Soon after this, Rom calls down a hell storm of spiders onto you. Check it out (those with arachnophobia should perhaps not?):

Yikes.

     I usually don't like to blow my load of pictures so soon (ew, sorry), but these all serve a better purpose in the beginning of the post compared to the end. Once the spiders come down, the battle can really start. First of all, both Rom and all the spiders have stone-hard faces. They take very little damage from the front. So to kill the spiders you have to go around to their sides/back. Then, one heavy attack should kill them (did for me anyway). For Rom, you also have to go to his side. His side is quite a bit bigger so it's easier to position yourself over there.
    This battle kind of has three phases. First off, he calls down the spiders. You can either fight them or ignore them and just deal damage to Rom. In the end I decided to ignore a large number of them, but they are very dangerous. Don't let their size fool you, because they can, and will, one-shot you. I died a handful of times by a spider's attack. With full health, mind you. But you can either spend time killing all the spiders, or ignore them and attack Rom. At this point, he doesn't have any kind of attacks. He just moves around. It's pretty easy to get some good damage on him (that damn charged R2 attack of the long Axe does wonders against Rom). Once he's taken a good amount of damage (probably a third of his health is depleted), he disappears, only to re-appear further away.
    At his new spot, he'll call down more spiders to fight for him. He's not so content to just sit by anymore, so now he can actually harm you. He can shoot large blue crystals that come down from the sky. They are tough to dodge. He will also call up those same blue crystals from the water. They jut up to hit you. These are very easy to dodge because you can see where they are gonna come from before they arrive. I believe he only does this attack if you get close to him. When he starts casting these spells, the battle becomes much harder. Besides having to just dodge (or again, kill. Too time consuming though) those spiders, you have to be aware of the magic he attacks with. After dealing more damage to him, he'll disappear a final time.
    Run to his new area, but be mindful of the magic he has. He'll again call down spiders, but he also has a few new tricks up his sleeve. Firstly, he can thrash his head around to hit you if you're near it. He also has an area-of-effect spell that can hurt. These, on top of his spells and the spiders, make the final "phase" of the battle pretty tough. Luckily by this time he shouldn't have much health left, and a few of those charged attacks should do him in.
    My strategy was to largely ignore the spiders and just whale on Rom. I would kill any spiders that directly interfered, but I left them untouched. You really need to keep your head on a swivel in this battle. The spiders, besides hitting you with their legs, will also jump and land on you.
    On my successful attempt, I summoned in help from my friend Joseph. As in other Souls games, when you summon help, the boss's stats are buffed. So Rom had more health than usual. My co-op buddy was killed pretty quickly (read the account of that here. Scroll to the bottom), so I had to do the fight by myself, with the buffed stats. I considered not even bothering with this attempt, but then I thought, "I might as well just ride it out." Amazingly, I beat him this try. I was pretty pleased.
    This boss, it seems, has some bigger story implications. I honestly have no idea what these are. I have only the vaguest grasp of the story as it is. That's not something I'm gonna worry about until I beat the game at least.


    That's is folks! I know it's taken forever, and this post (along with my diary post) is super long. I got behind. Hopefully it won't happen again. I did fight another boss in this time, but he was a pathetic Chalice Dungeon boss. I'll include him first in the next Boss Rundown post. Thanks for reading and catch y'all soon. Time to get some Cool Ranch Doritos.