Peter McCoy
Dec 8th, 2010, 09:07:16 PM
I've had my eye on this game for a while now and browsing my local GAME store on Monday, I spied the Black Phantom Edition pre-owned for £25. It's the standard game and comes with an art book and soundtrack, as well as a strategy guide. - all in a bog that can basically fit two PS3 game cases inside.
The idea is that you enter various worlds from a central hub area called the Nexus. There's a few NPC's about who can store your gear like a bank, upgrade and repair your gear, and teach you spells and miracles. There's eventually (after the first boss) a character who allows you to upgrade stats. You basically explore the worlds linked to the Nexus via arch stones, and slay the demons inhabiting those areas. When you kill a demon, you gain a number of souls (not the demons, but the souls of its victims it has harnessed). Souls are the currency as well as the XP of the game, so you have to constantly make the choice between better gear, learning spells, or improving your attributes.
The first thing you need to know about this game is how difficult it is. Well, perhaps challenging is a better word but one thing is certain - you die a lot! If you rush around trying to hack 'n' slash your way through, you'll see the You Died screen quite a bit. The combat is all about patience and waiting for the right time to strike - looking for an opening in your targets defence. Such as after they've attacked and you dodged or parried it. But when you die, you start at the beginning of the area, and all the souls you had accumulated are gone. And all enemies have respawned. But if you can fight your way back to the spot where you died and touch your bloodstain, you regain all those souls. You don't just lose the souls you acquired on that run, but all the souls you had, total! So if you enter an area with 10,000 souls, and acquire another 2000 and then die - the fight back to your bloodstain is worth a whopping 12,000 souls - or you can always forget about it!
After your first death, you're in soul form. There's only a few ways to reclaim your body - defeat a Boss Demon, or a primevil demon, or enter another players game (via the Playstation Network) as a Blue Phantom and help them kill a Boss Demon, or enter another players game as a Black Phantom and slay the player. In Body Form you have full health but do slightly less damage - being a Soul boosts damage slightly but reduces max health to 50% (75% with a special ring I recently acquired).
You can return to the Nexus with all the souls and gear you acquired and spend away. There are a few ways to return to the Nexus - touch the archstone at the beginning of the level, use a miracle, or use a ring which auses you to leave that area but you lose your souls in the process. Once your business in the Nexus is done, you can enter the area for another run, building up souls and farming items that allow you to upgrade your weapons.
The multiplayer is very unique. Co-op is possible in a limited manner. As mentioned, when in Soul Form you can enter the game of another player who is sihned into the PSN as a Blue Phantom and help them. Killing a Demon Boss like this will return you to your own world but with your Body back in your posession. But entering another players world as a Black Phantom is the PvP side of things. So if you are signed into the PSN and playing in your own world - there's a chance a player of similar Soul Level might invade your world and attack you - so beware! Also, in online mode you find various things in the world. Glowing red etchings on the ground are messages left by other players, providing hints on what to expect round the next corner or how to defeat a certain enemy, or the location of hidden items. And bloodstains allow you to witness the death of other players, possibly giving insight into how they were killed.
I'm having a ball so far, farming sharp stones and hard stones to improve my gear before checking out the next world. I started as a soldier so have decent armour and tanking stats, but even then the tougher enemies can finish me in two hits if I'm careless. I just learned how to cast Soul Arrow but I need a Catalyst (a wand basically). You can't buy them but there's one available as loot in World 3 - I checked it out and its a prison tower, very creepy with these horrifying guys walking round with tentacles a bit like Davy Jones' face, But they stunned me and then electrocuted me - one hit kill, bummer!' I need to get that Catalyst so I can cast Soul Arrow! There's a guy in World 1 - a Red Eye Knight - who is apparently very farmable with Soul Arrow and its a good way of farming Souls as well as a few good pieces of armor.
Finally - World Tendency. Depending on whether the World Tendency is Black or White affects the game. White World Tendency causes enemies to have slightly lower health, and healing items drop more frequently, but other loot is less-likely to drop. Black Tendency is the polar opposite. And depending on the World Tendency, completely different enemies may appear, or different paths may be available to explore.
If anybody has a PS3, I strongly recommend this game! It's tough, but extremely rewarding. I must have died about 20 times before I reached the first Demon Boss - but I was well chuffed once I beat him and returned to the Nexus with my Body. But I returned to take on that damned Red Eye Knight - dead in two hits and now I'm stuck in Soul Form again until I kill the next boss. LOL!
The idea is that you enter various worlds from a central hub area called the Nexus. There's a few NPC's about who can store your gear like a bank, upgrade and repair your gear, and teach you spells and miracles. There's eventually (after the first boss) a character who allows you to upgrade stats. You basically explore the worlds linked to the Nexus via arch stones, and slay the demons inhabiting those areas. When you kill a demon, you gain a number of souls (not the demons, but the souls of its victims it has harnessed). Souls are the currency as well as the XP of the game, so you have to constantly make the choice between better gear, learning spells, or improving your attributes.
The first thing you need to know about this game is how difficult it is. Well, perhaps challenging is a better word but one thing is certain - you die a lot! If you rush around trying to hack 'n' slash your way through, you'll see the You Died screen quite a bit. The combat is all about patience and waiting for the right time to strike - looking for an opening in your targets defence. Such as after they've attacked and you dodged or parried it. But when you die, you start at the beginning of the area, and all the souls you had accumulated are gone. And all enemies have respawned. But if you can fight your way back to the spot where you died and touch your bloodstain, you regain all those souls. You don't just lose the souls you acquired on that run, but all the souls you had, total! So if you enter an area with 10,000 souls, and acquire another 2000 and then die - the fight back to your bloodstain is worth a whopping 12,000 souls - or you can always forget about it!
After your first death, you're in soul form. There's only a few ways to reclaim your body - defeat a Boss Demon, or a primevil demon, or enter another players game (via the Playstation Network) as a Blue Phantom and help them kill a Boss Demon, or enter another players game as a Black Phantom and slay the player. In Body Form you have full health but do slightly less damage - being a Soul boosts damage slightly but reduces max health to 50% (75% with a special ring I recently acquired).
You can return to the Nexus with all the souls and gear you acquired and spend away. There are a few ways to return to the Nexus - touch the archstone at the beginning of the level, use a miracle, or use a ring which auses you to leave that area but you lose your souls in the process. Once your business in the Nexus is done, you can enter the area for another run, building up souls and farming items that allow you to upgrade your weapons.
The multiplayer is very unique. Co-op is possible in a limited manner. As mentioned, when in Soul Form you can enter the game of another player who is sihned into the PSN as a Blue Phantom and help them. Killing a Demon Boss like this will return you to your own world but with your Body back in your posession. But entering another players world as a Black Phantom is the PvP side of things. So if you are signed into the PSN and playing in your own world - there's a chance a player of similar Soul Level might invade your world and attack you - so beware! Also, in online mode you find various things in the world. Glowing red etchings on the ground are messages left by other players, providing hints on what to expect round the next corner or how to defeat a certain enemy, or the location of hidden items. And bloodstains allow you to witness the death of other players, possibly giving insight into how they were killed.
I'm having a ball so far, farming sharp stones and hard stones to improve my gear before checking out the next world. I started as a soldier so have decent armour and tanking stats, but even then the tougher enemies can finish me in two hits if I'm careless. I just learned how to cast Soul Arrow but I need a Catalyst (a wand basically). You can't buy them but there's one available as loot in World 3 - I checked it out and its a prison tower, very creepy with these horrifying guys walking round with tentacles a bit like Davy Jones' face, But they stunned me and then electrocuted me - one hit kill, bummer!' I need to get that Catalyst so I can cast Soul Arrow! There's a guy in World 1 - a Red Eye Knight - who is apparently very farmable with Soul Arrow and its a good way of farming Souls as well as a few good pieces of armor.
Finally - World Tendency. Depending on whether the World Tendency is Black or White affects the game. White World Tendency causes enemies to have slightly lower health, and healing items drop more frequently, but other loot is less-likely to drop. Black Tendency is the polar opposite. And depending on the World Tendency, completely different enemies may appear, or different paths may be available to explore.
If anybody has a PS3, I strongly recommend this game! It's tough, but extremely rewarding. I must have died about 20 times before I reached the first Demon Boss - but I was well chuffed once I beat him and returned to the Nexus with my Body. But I returned to take on that damned Red Eye Knight - dead in two hits and now I'm stuck in Soul Form again until I kill the next boss. LOL!