Sheikah

Still quite easy... I mean, you can have 6 bottles in this game. I would rather they wait a very long time before making this as it wasn't so long ago it was released on the VC and on the gamecube collectors disc. What would be even cooler is if they made another game based on the MM formula.

For bows/arrows I just got a composite or long bow and used that, not all too often to be honest. Get some heavy arrows from a tucked away merchant in the Undead Burg. A good use for bows is to shoot off the red dragon's tail from underneath the bridge when you come across it. Needs maybe like 20-30+ arrows but you get the drake sword, which at early levels is a brilliant weapon since it doesn't scale and does set damage.

To do pyromancy you need a pyromancer glove, which you get if you start as a pyromancer (or later on if you didn't, but getting this at the beginning lets you defeat the beginning boss unlike if you pick anything else, and you get rewarded with a cool weapon). Pyromancy spell damage is boosted by upgrading your glove (costs souls), ie. nothing to do with levelling your character. So it's a great way to do more damage without wasting stat points on your character. Some NPCs like the witch in Blighttown teach you new pyro spells. Some are really good like great fireball and great chaos fireball. They do tons of damage even on a low glove level and have splash damage. Great for PvP too. There's also a cool pyro spell called Iron Flesh, which makes you slow but makes you take barely any damage at all. Amazing for soloing bosses, but watch out as the only guy who teaches it you is stuck in a barrel in the depths. Don't slash the barrel, roll into it, or he'll aggro for that playthrough so you can't buy it from him at firelink shrine. Attunement is a stat that as you level, at specific levels of the stat you get an extra spell slot. You will want to get at least 4-5 slots to carry some decent pyro's/spells. Uchigatana needs dex/str of 14/14. Barely anything really. And to make lightning weapons, the giant blacksmith in Anor Londo can do this as soon as you meet him.

Here's my advice: Pick pyromancer class to begin with, they are tied best stats and also start with pyromancy. This makes the beginning of the game much easier while also being amazing later on. Choose the master key as the starting gift, without fail. Let's you get through many doors way before you should be able to. Go with lightning effect weapons (can find a couple, better yet make yourself a lightning uchigatana). Armour actually matters in this game. A great set is the elite knight armour set found in the forest area downstairs of Andre the blacksmith. And your uber power haxord weapon of the game is the crystal ring shield (oddly). Thing screws people up. Save stored humanity until you need it. Go down the catacombs as early as you can to get the rite of Kindling (improves number of potions you get at bonfires. @dwarf gourami A few more things: Humanity replaces soul and human forms. Basically you're undead, but with 1 humanity at a bonfire you can consume that 1 humanity point to become human form. Good news is soul/undead form still has 100% HP. Bad news is, undead form makes you weak to plague and stuff, and you can't summon help like in DS if in soul form. And it makes items drop less often. Humanity is risky to keep on your person (ie. having a number greater than 00 at the top left) as you drop it upon death, like souls. But it's also great to do, because it significantly increases your item discovery rate (combined with Covetous Gold Serpent Ring makes finding items a lot easier) and boosts resistances to stuff. Getting poisoned and plagued is different here. You have a tolerance threshold now, as shown by an increasing bar. When the bar fills, you get poisoned/plagued. Plague is bad, you die straight away and your HP is halved upon revival unless you cure it. Regarding some other rings, they're back, and there's some good ones. Havel's ring is great as it lets you wear better equipment without rolling like a tortoise. They have probably fixed this now, but Fog Ring was fucking hacked. It worked like the thief's ring in that enemies didn't see you from far away. However, it also made you partially invisible to real players and made it so they couldn't lock onto you. Epic lulz at how overpowered that was, but still a useful ring even if it hasn't been fixed. Cloranthy ring isn't bad either because of stamina regen boost. Stats wise, STR is useless past the requirement needed to wield an Uchigatana. Same goes for DEX. Reason is that lightning weapons do not scale, and instead do a set amount of ridiculous damage. Someone did some number crunching and showed that even at ridiculous levels lightning weapons still reign, it wouldn't be worth pumping every attack attribute to max to try get a couple more points damage anyhow. VIT and END are great to have. Raising attunement is also really useful to carry pyromancies with you and useful spells. Second chance is back, get that. But mostly you'll just want pyromancies, which rock. There are no tendencies, instead there are covenants (which are pretty damn awesome). One of the factions is run by an optional boss for instance. All well worth doing, but require multiple playthroughs.

You didn't highlight his post

Think of it this way; I'm like the opposite angel/devil (depending on perspective) on your shoulder as a counter-view to the 'do it' chants round here. :p I'll be one of those folks sustaining their sales in later months when they're worried that the system isn't selling enough a while after launch. It's all good.

Cool that you got Catherine Happen. Good game but pretty hard, seems to be overlooked on this forum though.

PC emulation of PS2 games is pretty good, I would have thought they could emulate PS2 games decently on a PS Vita if they cared to try. Probably more profitable to release them as HD classics as near RRP collections though just for PS3. I've also never understood why you can't play PSP games off the store on the PS3. I mean, I know they'd look crap (maybe put a box around it?), but surely the PS3 would be capable? Especially for titles like Final Fantasy I, that could easily have been given a PS3 version or something.

Magical launch period? C'man, let's not kid ourselves. It'll be a long wait after the Vita comes out until we see great titles, all the while the device will probably be unused for a while after the initial hype dies down. I'll be happy when it has a good gaming library, but it doesn't make sense to invest in something that will only depreciate while we wait for goodness. It probably will get a price drop before long, it's not a device likely to sell strong after the first month and (like the PS3) will probably fare better after it is reduced in price.

Good on you. It takes willpower to avoid buying this on day 1 but it really is the sensible choice. There are hardly any games out / planned yet that are in any way killer titles. I'd say it probably needs at least 3-4 really good, original games to be worth a purchase price of over ?200.

I got the 'bad lover' ending from basically being a bastard (red karma) but choosing the nice options in the final 5 questions. I'm actually fairly satisfied given that I felt that best suited the wants of the main character. At least I wasn't killed.

Yeah I agree. Even if you dropped the original PSP in that I doubt very much you'd break it. Can't say I ever dropped my PSP anyway. Those Vita cases look really chunky, I don't think I'd get one of those if/when I got the Vita. Edit: Regarding Amazon, When I ordered my launch PS3 and launch Wii from them (way back when) they both arrived on release date, not before. Unlike the 3DS which I ordered from ShopTo and got a day earlier.

Wow, so completed this game today. It's really difficult, despite playing on normal mode. Some parts you really did want to scream. Although don't let that deter anyone, this game is subtly brilliant. I urge you all to pick this up, it's quite a charming game and quite different to anything out there at the moment.

Yeah as a tip, here are by far the best things to level (ie. use trainers/level them manually a lot) regardless of your style of play: Alchemy aaaa \ Enchanting aaa|---> To make uber weapons/equipment that let you slaughter anything Smithing aaaa / And personal opinion, but sneak, one-handed and light armour are great. Magic isn't as powerful but for the sake of easy levels it's useful to get the spell muffle to level illusion (hotkey it and cast it as you go about your day).

But is your souuul?

Cool, are you going to swagger through crowded streets while slowly flailing your arms past people now, Mega64 style?

I'd imagine escalation comes as no problem to a trapolinist. Hurhur.

Hell yes. That sounds hilarious actually. Honestly though, if they sell games cheap and get them to you fast, who cares?

Regarding Play, yeah they're slow as fuck. On the subject of retailers, I recently used Grainger Games online for the first time, ordering something on Sunday night for it to arrive on Tuesday (free delivery). Pretty ace. Emerald why is it you buy almost everything that is slightly amine/perverted looking? :p

You could just play a different Disgaea game and rename the characters. Just kidding. But they should really do a bit more with each game.

People would still have hacked for the XP nodes even if you got the script kiddie etc. reward for having the code. You're right in that the XP was unbalanced for certain things. Although I can understand getting greater rewards for stealth given it's generally harder/more skillfull than wiping everyone out with a gas grenade. Although at the same time somewhat unbelievable. If there were 5 guys standing next to each other in a room you probably would roll in a gas grenade. But hey, it's probably more fun to stealth it and realism can go to hell. I think it's brilliant how they add many ways to get past a room, personally. Wish more games were like this. Also it's a little odd that the stun gun essentially uses up a single ammo and does the same thing as a takedown. Yeah, takedowns should have cost less.

Yeah I always felt the PSP fell flat because it was a poor man's PS2. The DS was different to consoles with touch screen stylus play and the more 'mini game' pick up and play vibe to it. Time will tell if the Vita goes the way of the PSP.

Yeah I think you've summed up the PS Vita, and any handheld really. The vast majority or the time people play these in their house. Doesn't stop it being shiny though. :p

They're being proper bastards then. Tempting poor folk like me.

Yeah my loadout was mostly stun weapons (feels more rewarding / get more XP), only switching to something lethal once I was detected by an alarm/guard. I could get through most of the areas stealthily, which was fun, but in the occasional section it was easier to simply wipe out everyone once detected than try to formulate the perfect stealth plan.