Yeah I've not got a Talisman of God as far as I know. I'll have a word with Stockpile Thomas, see if he can dig one out for me 😉

I think more than anything Demon's Souls has that thing where you just categorically cannot idle your way through it. Like I said earlier, it's nearly always nerve wracking and that's because of how quick the game is to punish you if you get complacent or sloppy, ever for a moment. It demands that you pay attention all the time which is quite rare these days. Hell, there's not even a pause button and if you're online you can be invaded while you dash to the toilet (this happened to my friend).

Demon's Souls takes me back to when I was little, when all games required concentration and were alien and magical (whether that be down to my lack of experience or by design). It also helps that it's so grim and bleak and utterly committed to letting the world do the talking rather than countless jabbering NPCs.

Synonamess Botch said:

And dare I say it, Planescape: Torment.  I know, blasphemy.

BURN!! 😉 I couldn't get enough of the dialogue in Torment, I found it enthralling and wanted to talk to everyone, which is a real rarity for me.

Synonamess Botch said:

Here's my main criticism of Demon's Souls:  I get tired of the dead bodies kicking around like life-sized blow-up dolls.  Can we turn off the physics after they're dead please?

This! The reaper at the beginning of 5-2 is a particular 'favourite' of mine once he's been made dead.

Speech was my mostest sharpest sword in Torment. 

5-1 and 5-2 are over with. I got so close to the end of 5-2 and even closer to lowering that bridge before dying inexplicably. I reckon I'd taken my eye off my health while I was poisoned. My journey back was a pain in the arse though because I was up against one of the giants and for some reason when I held down circle my character kept trying to do a roll instead of running but because I was knee deep in swamp he kept doing that slow stagger and eventually I got clubbed to death. That really, really pissed me off because it was a quirk that cost me 30,000 souls.

In other news, those mosquito things; when they latch on to you and gorge themselves. Bleurgh, horrible.

After killing the Dirty Colossus (who was easy) I went back to the Shrine of Storms to farm a chunk of Bladestone and managed to get one on my first run so that has allowed me to upgrade my sharp secret dagger to +4.

Onward to 5-3!

This thread has more bravery in one confined place than there has ever been on an interwebs forum. Wow! I'm remorseful that I've been too weak to play Demon's Souls whilst you all were enjoying it. It's in that place in my pile placed snugly between 'fear' and 'waiting for rainy day where I've completed all my easy games'. Once I go through another routine pruning of console games I believe Demon's Souls will be a bit more visible in aforementioned pile. Perhaps a bit of practice leading up to then. Before the past few months where many of you have been talking about the Souls games, this was a mere fascination, and I owned it because people said it was essential. Now that I know more people from here-- people of like minds to my own tastes, very much so-- have actually delved deep into these games, it raises my interest from onlooker to quite-curious voyeur. I would like nothing more than to learn how to survive this game. Maybe learning something about myself from it?

Thank you for this labyrinthine thread, you brave people. It continues to be Good Reading.

I defeated the Maiden of Astraea before venturing back to Boletarian Palace (bleurgh, Plague Babies, who the hell thought of them?!). When I got back to 1-4 I realised I'd died that many times in body form that the world tendency was nearly black. Eek. I managed to get up to King Allant and died within 10 seconds. This of course gave me the fear, big time. After the numerous anecdotes my friend had told me of his experience I was ready for the long haul. The biggest problem was the Blue Dragon which was making my journey back to Allant a royal pain in the arse and very risky (I died a number of times making my way back) and coupled with the fat officials on the walkway I decided to gather some souls and buy as many arrows as I could carry to take down the beast. A Ring of Herculean Strength, a Clever Rat's ring, less than 30% health and 999 arrows later I was stood firing arrow after arrow into it. It took over 100 arrows to get it down to half health at which point it flew back to its position above the steps. I realised that if I died making my way up those steps I'd have to fire another 100 or so arrows into it again. Anyway I managed to get beneath it where I could finish it off. After that (and a trip back to the Nexus to level up) it was time for King Allant. Again.

In a few moments I managed to crack a solid dodging technique which allowed my to sidestep him and attack him repeatedly with my sharp secret dagger +4. The speed of my dagger prevented him from retaliating as it interrupted his attack animations so after my stamina bar got close to bottoming out I fled to recoup. Rinse and repeat, occasionally healing up. Despite it being a fairly straight forward fight my heart was in my mouth and I could hear it beating in my ears. What a rush! With that, I went below the Nexus and faced the Old One. I was quite taken by how, I dunno, 'purifying' that last bit on the beach was. It felt like the end, like a release from all the traumatic shit that came before. And the music over the end credits was really lovely.

I quickly had a run through the tutorial again because I wanted to walk through the castle grounds again and see the intro (which I scarcely remember) and now I'm pumped for some Dark Souls!

All in all: MINT!