When I think I know what to expect ... well I remember that comment I made about unlearning things. I can't even carry expectations from a previous section in this game to the next. Not in every way, at least.

I started out on the weekend by taking a shot at 2-2. There are a lot of crystal lizards in that level by the way; it begins by planting one right in front of me, then placing a pretty glowing ball behind that ... it wanted me to go see what it was. And as I'm stumbling toward its warm glow I remind myself of that other comment I made about staying the hell away from things that I don't know what they are. Well, I reminded myself too late. The glowing ball went BOOM. Dying at the start of a level really isn't upsetting at all; it's unusually comforting actually.

So I avoided those things next time, ran down a corridor filled with ... those weird peon level guys you find throughout Stonefang, and then I came to a series of drops. Fortunately many messages tipped me off to where the good falling spots were. I lost a good deal of HP but made it to the bottom alive. Killed half a dozen sand worm things, got some loot, and... wait... is that the end of the level? That's like... a really... big fog gate, and there's a bunch of flaming pillars in the background. I decided a trip to the wiki was necessary to confirm this: yep, I took a massive shortcut (and really, half of players must take it their first attempt... there's two paths, it's 50/50!). Alright so I guess I'll try taking on this Flamelurker fellow. He sounds flame-y, I'll put on my ring of fire resistance. Yeah... that didn't really help too much. Flamelurker angry. Flamelurker smash. Hero die. Well I thought it was worth taking the shortcut again to get my 6,000 odd souls back. I went down the shaft of falling too quickly. There go those souls, clean slate now. Well I guess I'll go down there again, I really feel like kicking a boss' ass. Made it down alive this time but, yeah... Flamelurker really is kind of a badass, and he whooped me again. After a few more deaths taking the long route through 2-2 (what the heck is with those slug things? Damn they pack a punch.) I decided that Stonefang Tunnel could wait a bit.

I decided to take my first real run at 1-2. Step one, taking out the red dragon. He torched me a few times on his bridge before I got the timing right, but once I made it up that first tower he didn't seem to attack me up there. Well, I said to myself, I'm obviously taking advantage of this! It took about 20 minutes and I had to let my Fragrant ring fully recharge my MP once, but after maybe 20-25 hits with soul ray I took the bastard down. My last shot was a conspicuously innocent blast and I thought I'd missed; I was already facing his passing direction again when I saw a bunch of souls being absorbed and was notified that I had eaten his delicious Small Flame Scale Demon's Soul. Yum. Another demon bites the dust.

I proceeded to waltz along the bridge, now giving my magic a rest and doing some old fashioned sword fighting with my Estoc+4 (great rapier it turns out). The ease (relative, of course) of this level made me feel powerful again, but I refused to let that overconfidence resurface. I have to remind myself that Boletarian Palace is like a children's playground compared to the Tower of Latria. So confidently, but not too confidently, I proceeded along the bridge. A very tense engagement at the end of it with about 5 crossbowmen (2 from up on the wall), a couple swordsmen and two Blue Eyed Knights all pounding me at once did end in my favour, but it was close. Went upstairs to check every nook and cranny, killed another crystal lizard, and it was time to head through this rather large fog gate. Yep, it's a boss fog gate! Hello, Tower Knight. Holy crap, this guy is massive, he's the size of 50 Flamelurkers, ergo... no, don't think about it. Just get up on the walls and take out all those freakin' crossbow guys. That was actually easy, I'm very much enjoying the enhanced reach of my new rapier. Now will I be able to hit Tower Knight from up here with spells? His shield is as big as he is. Well it turned out that his movements get pretty predictable pretty quickly: block, step, shoot, block, block shoot, repeat. Before every shot the jolly fool leaves himself completely open to magic attacks, and magically attack him I did. Tower Knight dead. Didn't even take a dozen blasts of Soul Arrow.

Not a bad day, after everything. Two demons in my pocket, one still laughing at me from his flame-y lair, but hey I'll take 2 wins and 1 loss in this game.

The third game (if there is one) needs to be called Dead Souls, because Ian Curtis apparently wrote the damn song about how I'm longing for this game whether he knew it or not:

Someone take these dreams away

that point me to another day;

A duel of personalities

That stretch all true realities;

That keep calling me,

They keep calling me,

Keep on calling me,

They keep calling me

I left the most interesting part of my session out! Oops! After taking down Tower Knight instead of returning to the Nexus via his archstone I wanted to run back to the start of 1-1 to see how quickly I could actually get back there (Boletarian Palace seems to have a central path theme ... I don't know if that will carry through 1-3 and 1-4 since I can't go there until defeating an Archdemon). When I got to the start I noticed that gate leading to the field on the left of the very beginning was opened. I looked it up on the wiki and this meant I had somehow achieved Pure White World Tendency. Apparently contributing to this is the killing of demons. I looked up what happens beyond here (I had about 15,000 souls in my pockets and didn't want to be caught off guard only to find the gate shut when I respawned). That didn't do me good anyway because I clumsily ran through a doorway and had this Executioner Miralda lady sneak up behind me. She probably would have had a better chance of defeating me if she had resisted the urge to announce her presence, subtitles and all. It was a close and fair fight until I got behind her and finished her off with a powerful back-stab. Her gear seems decent, but I'm still preferring my wizard's clothes.

So yes, 2 demons defeated, and Miralda taken down! I don't know if there's anything else to do in this area; I climbed down some ladder in this tower Miralda popped out of, I noticed a soul or item glowing on a beam so I foolishly climbed back up and tried to drop down on it. Lost my body form again. Decided I'd try that at a later date.

Now I have a question: when I check my tendency screen the world of Boletarian Palace has gone blank, so to speak. The other arch stones are lit to some degree, but world 1 went from very bright (which must have been indicating the Pure White tendency) to just ... neutral I guess. I didn't really notice when this occurred. Sometime between the time I fought Tower Knight and Miralda. Did I complete all tendency events and therefore tendency of that world is rendered irrelevant? That seems unlikely.

On your last comment, Steerpike, the same goes for me with Demon's Souls. (That is if I can resist buying-- and jumping into-- Dark Souls!) Since I'm going spell heavy and lightly armored this time I'd like to do a 180 and try out a heavily armored miracle fellow; probably a priest.

Oh, and that Saving Zelda article was really something. It lasted me the whole commute home, too! Very against the grain... you won't find many people, least of all Zelda fans, who don't hold Ocarina as the Holy Grail, let alone dislike it! As a complete stranger to the entire Zelda franchise (my experience involves watching friends and cousins play Ocarina in the N64's heyday, playing the first hour of Twilight Princess myself, and having Wind Waker sitting in my games drawer for a Rainy Day.) I couldn't really form my own arguments there, but he certainly writes with passion; the least you can say is that it's clearly not your average tongue-lashing for the sake of attention. Thanks for sharing it, Sir Botch-y-ness.

Steerpike said

... the game does in fact get harder the more you fail.

 

What was that about the game respecting you? haha 🙂

I think we're all kindred spirits in here because my first foray into the Zelda series was with the Wind Waker and I enjoyed it for the most part but then I just got sick and tired of changing the direction of the wind just to turn my boat around. I haven't played another Zelda properly since though and wonder what I'd make of the other entries in the series. Of them all I think Majora's Mask sounds the most interesting but would I have to play Ocarina to appreciate it? And do I have the time to risk it on something I might not enjoy when there are a bajillion other games out there that I most likely will?

It's funny xtal, you seem to be making mincemeat of most areas where as I, or perhaps more specifically, my character, had real trouble contending with almost every step. Those series of drops down to the Flamelurker's melting pot almost became a reflex action to me after the countless times he whipped my ass.