Questions about Dark Souls

After hearing a lot about Dark Souls, I still have some questions about it, mainly on character development. How doesn one develop their character? Is it a level up system like in old school JRPGs or is it like a skill tree sort of thing? Also, is there some kind of looting system? I've never really heard much about the gameplay aside from "you need to always be on your toes."

Look how fast Ragnar showed up. :lol:dvader654

by defeating enemies (they may be other players), you gain souls that function as currency and experience points. each level allows you to choose one stat to raise. the catch is that you quickly hit diminishing returns for the result you want the stat to give you and level requirements escalate quickly. basically, it makes it harder to grind.

you can find loot, but it's not a continuous thing like diablo or something. shopkeepers sell base gear, enemies have drop rates, and the good stuff is either a secret or a random drop from a tough enemy. on top of that you can also upgrade gear, but you need materials that are acquired in the same way loot is and souls too. you're more often looking for something that fits your build just right than you are looking for incremental gains.

One important note on loot: there is no true "best" anything in the game. Some armors offer more defense than others, but at the end of the day, every single piece of armor and every weapon and shield are viable. It all comes down to what you think works and looks best for you.

[QUOTE="dvader654"]Look how fast Ragnar showed up. :lol:rragnaar

every single piece of armor and every weapon and shield are viable.c_rake

Show me your character. I might want to duel you for money. Lots of it. Depending on your gear.-Unreal-

Don't have the means to grab a picture, but I usually use a Longsword (upgraded to +15 with strength and dexterity at 40, thing is a beast), a Silver Knight Shield, a Longbow, and Ornstein's set for armor. Served me real well for the many playthroughs I've done.

Thanks everyone. Like I said, I hadn't really heard anything about character progression, so this was pretty helpful.

I kept getting killed by the Taurus Demon so Ive been playing more Hitman: Absolution than Dark Souls, lol. Spartan_N7

Do you have the Master Key? Or the Residence Key (it can be bought from a merchant in the burg), for that matter? Either one will lead you to a chest with Gold Pine Resin in it. You can use it to take down the Taurus Demon real quick.

I just want to share, since the other questions have been answered, that, imo, the most important aspect of the gameplay is the weapon variety.

Each weapon has it's own move set, and I've had several co-op partners and fought several more hostile enemies and I can say very few ever used the same weapons or tactics. There are longswords, short swords, greatswords, claymores, rapiers, spears, claws, whips, daggers, halberds, axes, hammers, bows, crossbows, throwing knives, firebombs, and a bunch of other "not so easy to describe" weapons scattered throughout the world. Unlike other games though, where you swing a hammer in the same way as you would a sword only maybe a little slower, the weapon you're using changes your character's attack animation.

If you use a long sword, your character swings and steps into each attack. If you switch to a rapier, you make quick stabs and your character becomes a bit more nimble. If you strike with a claymore, you can follow it with a power attack that makes the character spin in a circle and hit enemies around him. Spears allow you to stab while keeping your shield up. 

Where other RPGs are built around high stats, constant boosting, and the search for better loot, Dark Souls is based around having several weapons, spells, and tactics to let the player find what works best for him and, when you do, you're not over or under powered you can just make the most of your tactics at hand and the skill you have with your favorite weapon.

It has a cool looting system, people here have failed to mention that many npc's will often carry rare items making it fun to slaughter them and loot their corpses for a nice rare piece of equipment of their nice looking armor. Also, joining certain covenants will grant you access to rare items as well as special spells. The game has tons of looting and it feels awesome when you take the soul of a boss demon and craft an amazing sword with it. The game is so awesome with so much depth, just buy it and committ to playing it in it's entirety and you won't regret it. It's hard but you have to just keep playing.

[QUOTE="Spartan_N7"]I kept getting killed by the Taurus Demon so Ive been playing more Hitman: Absolution than Dark Souls, lol. c_rake

Do you have the Master Key? Or the Residence Key (it can be bought from a merchant in the burg), for that matter? Either one will lead you to a chest with Gold Pine Resin in it. You can use it to take down the Taurus Demon real quick.

]No. I just started playing so I dont really know that much, lol. It's not that Im having too much trouble. Ive went up against him (Im a level 15 Knight) about 5 times. On the first and second fight, he killed me pretty quick. On the 3rd fight, I got him down to about half health. 4th, I thought I could go up the latter on the tower you walk out of and shoot him with a bow the whole time (Shouldve known better honestly), and I didnt expect him to jump up to me lmao. 5th fight, I climbed the ladder again but instead of shooting him, I jumped down and did the falling strike move. Took about a 5th of his health away in that 1 hit, so I did it several more times and he had just a sliver of health left and the bastard got me, lol. I was too annoyed to keep playing, so I put in Hitman: Absolution (Bought it the day afterwords) and Ive been playing that since, lol. I'll be able to kill the Taurus next time I go up against him, but I'll keep an eye out for the M/R Key and the GPR, thanks! Mind if I follow you on here just in case I have a question or 2 about DS, instead of making a thread everytime lol?Spartan_N7

Either way's fine. We've had more than our fair share of Dark Souls threads already, so a few wouldn't cause any trouble.

Either way's fine. We've had more than our fairshare of Dark Souls threads already, so a few wouldn't cause any trouble.

c_rake