Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition [PC] - My Experience Part 2: Firelink Shrine, Crestfallen Warrior, and Petrus of Thorolund

So there I was.  I've been dropped on a sunny hill side with a bonfire right in the middle.  Now what?  Well, I ran around a while and found myself with no idea where to go.  I "fought" some skeletons that murdered me with great prejudice a few times.  Then I pretty much gave up.  This is where my frustrations with a lousy controller, poor broadcasting solutions, and lack of any knowledge what-so-ever got to me. At the time I was broadcasting Starcraft 2 games primarily and the audience that would show up on a nightly basis had exactly zero interest in this game.  Even my mods were telling me "dude... what are you doing?"

So, I quit.

When I came back it was after a lot of changes to my viewership and my state of mind.  I had cleared up the broadcasting solution with a wonderful little card called the Avermedia Live Gamer HD (review incoming soon).  I wanted to see if Dark Souls would be worth trying one more time and this would be a great test of the difference between streaming using XSplit's "game source" mode and by using my Live Gamer HD.  It only took seconds for me to realize that all my "game source" problems were over.  But, now what do I do?

More after the jump

This guy right here was the only clue I was going to get.  He repeated the whole "ring the bells" stuff, but doesn't give much more than that.  Plus, he's a real mope.  You can tell he's scared and somewhat aggressive.  I don't like him and don't want to trust him, but NPCs are NPCs, right?  I mean, I know from watching other streams that I could attack him if I really wanted to, but I'll probably miss out on whatever it is his purpose here is.  This was another time I just didn't have Dark Souls level awareness.  In Dark Souls, NPCs are what you make of them.  Most of them have their own agenda.  Most of them could care less about you and some will even go further than that when it comes to their disgust of you.  This guy is known as Crestfallen Warrior and he pretty much is Debbie Downer with a touch of Jerk.  But... he's all I've got.  I'm undead, I'm not where I'm supposed to be, and I've got a quest he obviously knows something about so it's time to just keep spamming talk until I get a clue.

He gives me no further information.  I'm alone.  (NOTE: He'd pay for his lousy attitude in a later play through)

I guess it's back down to the skeletons... at least I know where they are.  So to the skeletons I went.  I took my time and was picking them off as safely as I could, but I still got my teeth kicked in enough to make this take forever.  Suddenly, help arrived.  The chat started lighting up.  "Hey, do you know what you're doing?" "T6whatever... don't go down there yet"  "Is this your first play through?"

The cavalry arrived.  I was frustrated at this point, as probably most people who are used to having their hands held through corridors full of quick time events and way points were.  This isn't that type of game.  You can do anything at any point without level requirements, expectations, anything.  Just run that way until you find something to do... and you'll find something.  Maybe you could do it better with specific gear choices or stats, but as I've learned from the awesome people who come by the stream... you can finish the entire game without EVER leveling up your character... yes... that sounds absolutely crazy after having finished the first play through near SL100, but it's being done every single day by badasses who won't take no for an answer.

This type of game play will turn some people into zealots preaching the word of Dark Souls.  They will scream from the roof tops how you simply can't get an experience like this anywhere else.  It will turn other people off so quickly they will wonder why they wasted their money.  I was leaning towards the later group until I got a little help.  As I kept playing and getting advice I started to love the game to death and it was like scales were falling off my eyes.  I started to realize how much I'd come to NEED way points, quest markers, maps, and NPCs to follow around.  I have slowly devolved from someone who knew every single tile in The Legend of Zelda well enough to draw them blind folded to someone who couldn't figure out what to do when left without a way point.  It made me angry and then sad.  What had I become?  Why is this so hard for me? Am I really to blame for how bad at adventure games I've become or is it a function of the industry moving away from making people think?

It doesn't matter now.  I'm finally free of the chains of mediocrity and working my way through a beautiful world full of nightmare inducing danger and immeasurable treasure with a quest so important that it's a driving force without even having a clear goal.  LET'S DO THIS!

So, I am walking around Firelink Shrine with a second wind.  I have the chat pushing me forward to make sure I don't get stuck and a whole world ahead of me.  Then I run into someone else in Firelink Shrine.  He looks kinda like my character.  He's using a mace and shield while wearing monk type robes.  He's got to be a cleric right?  I'm a cleric... we should be friends!

But we'll get into that later... I've got to go play some more Dark Souls!  Catch me live streaming on Twitch.tv/t6srof!