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mandoman

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2005
392
73
Yeah I got kidnapped and taken to that zone, and spent ages trying to kill those and it was futility.

Only problem is those bag monsters now appear in Cathedral Ward when they were not there before either. So that difficulty has ramped in that zone.

I'm not saying i've given up yet though ;) I haven't traded the game in - there is still hope that I get a fit of playing and see it through eventually.

At times I really really HATE the game. Then I make the smallest modicum of progress and somehow its just enough to get me to have 1 more go. But yeah - I'm having a rest for the moment and will try again at some stage after Witcher 3 / Splatoon & Yoshi & Batman this month too.

Yeah, those bag guys are tough. The easiest way to take them down is to run behind them when they start to charge up and backstab them. Better to just avoid. The main one to avoid is around corner from Cathedral Ward Lamp can be avoided by alternate path to Vicar Amelia once you open up the shortcuts in the Central Cathedral Ward Courtyard (big circular courtyard with Giants). You might be able to just run past him too up the stairs, but he might follow, I don't recall.

Yes, lots of great games this month! Witcher 3 with Splatoon on the side will be taking up the rest of my summer until the big fall releases. :)
 
Last edited:

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
I just set up my wii after ages of it being in the cupboard - just to play F-Zero GX :D
I go back to that once a year and cry that Nintendo haven't made a new one.

Currently playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Fantasy Life. Bit of co-oping with the girlfriend! Bit of the old ultimate fantasy.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,934
New Zealand
You might be able to just run past him too up the stairs, but he might follow, I don't recall.
You can run past; I've only had him follow me once (and of course scared the living daylights out of me when he did).

I progressed a bit further today; I've unlocked the Nightmare "world" and have made a small amount of progress there. Got invaded for the first time, and died. Second attempt went better (killed the invader) but took several minutes! I've subsequently killed the woman with the bell so I can "relax" a bit and explore the place calmly now.
 

siddhartha

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2008
149
41
Northern Virgina
Yes.... First part is basically grind and grind and then go back to hunters dream and level up yourself and your weapons. You need to fortify your weapons and redo it over and over again until your at the point where the slog becomes tolerable.

The learning curve is very high, I have got to the point in the game after killing blood starved beast and now I am stuck as the difficulty has ramped up three fold again. Keep getting killed by the kidnap bag monsters who can kill in one good hit and its incredibly frustrating always.

I'm surprised you find it harder after blood-starved beast. I had a hard time with that one, and felt the game got a bit easier after that. Maybe I understood it a bit better myself after that...

In any case, glad you're giving it some time, because I really think it's an awesome game, and well worth the investment. I'm excited to hear rumors of Dark Souls 3 (with the original producer!) because in retrospect DS2 was a bit of a let-down.
 

Taustin Powers

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2005
263
549
Taustin,

Good decision, you owe it to yourself to at least try the first boss encounter. Find the shortcut around the werewolves. Not the one down to the left of the werewolves to the sewers. It's behind some coffins before the werewolves down and through some dog kennels. This path can also take you to the sewers through a large structure (don't go this way yet). You want to go through a house through a closed door and open a shortcut to the lamp, which will allow you to totally bypass the mob section. With the shortcut open, you will be able to find the Cleric Beast back through the house up some stairs.

Once you find the cleric beast you will gain 1 insight which will allow you to level your character at hunter's dream. Level up and upgrade you weapon if you have enough blood stone shards. For new souls players, I recommend a Strength build, but it really depends on which weapon you use, since your weapon scales with stats. Level Vitality, Strength, and Endurance. Don't ignore endurance! You might need to grind a little to level up a bit or buy molotovs before tackling the boss, depends on your skill in combat.

Use the time grinding on the early levels to practice your visceral attacks:
Backstab: Sneak Up, R2 strong charged attack, R1 finishing move.
Counter: Shoot your gun on enemy downswing, R1 finishing move.
If you pull off a successful visceral move, you should hear a 'chug' sounds which indicates you can do the R1 finishing move. Learning the visceral attacks is crucial to succeeding at this game.

Good luck!


Thanks, I will try that at some point. Maybe this weekend I will have time to give it another go. Once I find the lamp, I can go there directly from Hunter's Dream, right?
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Thanks, I will try that at some point. Maybe this weekend I will have time to give it another go. Once I find the lamp, I can go there directly from Hunter's Dream, right?

Essentially you need to open the shortcut / gate so you can access that area quicker too, but in order to do that first time you need to 1. kill mob or run pass them 2. in the square with the water fountain and guy banging on the door - go back up the stairs you entered from and look at the coffins / boxes at the side of the area. Slash / whack these and you will reveal a shortcut down to the dogs in cages 3. kill the dogs and then go back / to the right and you will approach the house down an alley and up some stairs. 4. enter house and kill man on your left 5. leave the rest - just open the opposite door and on top of the first flight of stairs is a baddy. Kill him 6. open the gate next to the first lamp. Once that is open - you will no longer have to ever go through the mob again.


Then. go back to the house. Kill the man in the wheelchair to the right of the man you killed from the opposite side. Then proceed up stairs. There are two bad guys up here. First on the right of the stairs behind some barrels/boxes. The other on the mezzanine behind more boxes. You can kill these or skip them. There is an exit on top left of the house, exit through that and there is another bad guy on top - you can take out quickly from the back. You are now on the bridge, on the other side of the werewolves. Skip them. On your left next to a carriage you will see a big bad guy. Attract him with pebbles or throw a molotov. Dash avoid his heavy attack and take him down.
There are birds on the ground with him. kill them. If you proceed through the archway you will get the cleric beast. Make sure you have plenty of molotovs / oil. I killed mostly by throwing oil and then molotov and dodging. Recovering. Then repeating.

Only after killing cleric beast will you get the second lamp.
 

mandoman

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2005
392
73
Friday night I beat Bloodborne! Yippee!

Final three bosses, Mergo, Gerhman, and Moon Presence were all pretty epic. Gerhman was easily one of the best fights in the game. Moon Presence felt a little cheap at first with the knock you down to 1HP and make it so you can't heal thing, but once learning the moves, wasn't too bad.

Overall I really liked Bloodborne. I like original Dark Souls better, but they are both really, really good. While I've still got Demon Souls, Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne DLC, and now a rumored 2016 Dark Souls 3 to look forward too, I'm hanging up the Souls games towel for awhile. I don't want to burn out on these games, and there are just too many other great games to play.

I started Witcher 3. After 200+ hours of Dark Souls and Bloodborne over the last 7 months, it's refreshing to go to a more casual and less stressful RPG. Too early in Witcher 3 to review, but so far, so good. It looks like it will take up the rest of my summer for sure.

E3 next week, let's hope for some nice surprises!
 
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Taustin Powers

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2005
263
549
Essentially you need to open the shortcut / gate so you can access that area quicker too, but in order to do that first time you need to 1. kill mob or run pass them 2. in the square with the water fountain and guy banging on the door - go back up the stairs you entered from and look at the coffins / boxes at the side of the area. Slash / whack these and you will reveal a shortcut down to the dogs in cages 3. kill the dogs and then go back / to the right and you will approach the house down an alley and up some stairs. 4. enter house and kill man on your left 5. leave the rest - just open the opposite door and on top of the first flight of stairs is a baddy. Kill him 6. open the gate next to the first lamp. Once that is open - you will no longer have to ever go through the mob again.


Then. go back to the house. Kill the man in the wheelchair to the right of the man you killed from the opposite side. Then proceed up stairs. There are two bad guys up here. First on the right of the stairs behind some barrels/boxes. The other on the mezzanine behind more boxes. You can kill these or skip them. There is an exit on top left of the house, exit through that and there is another bad guy on top - you can take out quickly from the back. You are now on the bridge, on the other side of the werewolves. Skip them. On your left next to a carriage you will see a big bad guy. Attract him with pebbles or throw a molotov. Dash avoid his heavy attack and take him down.
There are birds on the ground with him. kill them. If you proceed through the archway you will get the cleric beast. Make sure you have plenty of molotovs / oil. I killed mostly by throwing oil and then molotov and dodging. Recovering. Then repeating.

Only after killing cleric beast will you get the second lamp.

Okay, thanks for that.

I made it to the lamp next to the gate. I used it to travel back to hunters dream to buy some goodies. Now back in Hunters Dream, I don't have the option to travel back to that lamp... Only back to the beginning of Central Yarnam, restocked with baddies.

What did I do wrong? Are the lamps not quick travel check points? :(
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Okay, thanks for that.

I made it to the lamp next to the gate. I used it to travel back to hunters dream to buy some goodies. Now back in Hunters Dream, I don't have the option to travel back to that lamp... Only back to the beginning of Central Yarnam, restocked with baddies.

What did I do wrong? Are the lamps not quick travel check points? :(

Yes. But the game always re stocks bad guys. It's all part of the grind.

Trust me I hated central yarnham for hours and hours but what you need to learn is that you must repeatedly grind and kill those baddies and go back to hunters dream and use the doll girl to level up your strength / skill / endurance. As well as level up your weapon on the desk inside near the wheelchair dude.

Eventually you will know Central yarnham like the back of your hand and can run through it slicing enemies down with aplomb simply because you have had to learn every bit of it over the course of hours & hours of grind....

For a little while it will appear then the horrible grind is over and you start to make regular progress....

Then you will get to the point where it's like being thrown back into central yarnham for the first time and you will have to replay, replay, grind, grind again....

It can be all toooo much. It's why I'm taking a break from the game for a while. Hopefully I return to it, but not for a good while as I really needed some time apart from it ...
 

Taustin Powers

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2005
263
549
What I don't understand is why I can't travel to the new lamp from Hunters Dream. I expected it to show up as one of the destinations on the travel tombstone. Did I have to do something to actually activate it as a travel destination?
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,934
New Zealand
You ran in a circle and opened a shortcut :)

As for me, I defeated "The One Reborn" today and am currently getting very frustrated in Mensis.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,934
New Zealand
Just finished Bloodborne :D

Final boss was pretty tricky; took me maybe 20 attempts (compared to 3 in Dark Souls). Now I need to look up some story analyses because I have no idea what was going on :p
 
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Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
I finished The Walking Dead season 2 (9Cs on the Cnasty scale, great game)

Gamefly just shipped The Last of Us Remastered. I played through it on the PS3 but excited to see it on the PS4 and play the DLC as well.

My backlog is so damn long that by the time some of these E3 games finally come out, there will be a new next gen console and the Wii U will be gone.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
I finished The Walking Dead season 2 (9Cs on the Cnasty scale, great game)

Gamefly just shipped The Last of Us Remastered. I played through it on the PS3 but excited to see it on the PS4 and play the DLC as well.

My backlog is so damn long that by the time some of these E3 games finally come out, there will be a new next gen console and the Wii U will be gone.
Yeah my backlog for 2015 is already starting to become a mountain and we haven't even reached peak yet. What's worse is I never got through my 2012,2013,2014 backlogs. :)


I have last of us remastered sitting in my games case since release and still haven't played it. Finished it in PS3 though, alongside Alien isolation and a myriad others.
 

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
I keep telling myself I will wait until I retire and have so many classics to play but thats not gonna happen as the PS9 will be out by then or something lol

Too many games, not enough time!
 

twietee

macrumors 603
Jan 24, 2012
5,300
1,675
Gotta take my comment re yoshi's wooly world back. love it so far!

Music is absolutely beautiful and quite diverse, graphics look great with a lot of cute details. i like the idea that collectibles in each level give you a new wooly skin each single stage, so even while you don't have any 'lives' to lose, it is a good incentive to do good. didn't test the co-op but no time limit make for a good premise imo. level design is nice, nothing too demanding so far, but if you want the collectibles it's a bit on the puzzler side. no challenge for a seasoned platformer vet but absolutely relaxing and gorgeous. if you have kids or a semi interested gf (or bf) this should be a 10/10 I guess.

glad i bought it just because
 
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MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
Gotta take my comment re yoshi's wooly world back. love it so far!

Music is absolutely beautiful and quite diverse, graphics look great with a lot of cute details. i like the idea that collectibles in each level give you a new wooly skin each single stage, so even while you don't have any 'lives' to lose, it is a good incentive to do good. didn't test the co-op but no time limit make for a good premise imo. level design is nice, nothing too demanding so far, but if you want the collectibles it's a bit on the puzzler side. no challenge for a seasoned platformer vet but absolutely relaxing and gorgeous. if you have kids or a semi interested gf (or bf) this should be a 10/10 I guess.

glad i bought it just because
I'm actually enjoying it more than batman which surprised me. Great game.
 
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twietee

macrumors 603
Jan 24, 2012
5,300
1,675
I'm actually enjoying it more than batman which surprised me. Great game.

Not keen on Batman as I tried City and Origins but somewhat lost interested really, really quickly. I guess Arkham Knight is basically the same? Except driving around a bit..

Wooly World is quite addictive, I agree. Regret that I bought it in the e-shop though.
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
Really enjoying Batman!
My only concern with games like this is they infer the player has existing knowledge. All too often you're dropped into a complex story with complex game mechanics and complex controls, the only thing I've nailed down in Batman is how to do that hookshot thing, fly and dive, and go back into the car. Combat has me completely puzzled. It's telling me to press Square to attack, but then pressing Circle and Triangle - but only occasionally! - will do something special. Browsing through the upgrades menu and I see there are loads of additional moves to unlock that require Tekken-style combos to pull off? I dunno, I'd simply that. It's the only thing turning me off the game and others of this sort.
But the visuals, wow. It's so seeped in atmosphere. I'll probably play through this one and not abandon it like most games! :)
 
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