Well, here I am, back in Anor Londo. The place where I hit the wall that prevented me from beating Dark Souls. Only now, instead of being at the highest peak (give or take the Duke's Archives) and bathed in sunlight (which I understand to be an illusion you can dispel later on) it's a snowy ruin in the Boreal Valley.
After fighting my way through Irithyl - an interesting take on Dark Souls' urban environments in that it was clearly abandoned in some way but not in ruins - I made it to Pontiff Sulyvahn. I was pretty convinced that this would be the first really infuriatingly difficult boss, given that I could barely hit him the first four or five attempts. But then I discovered the wonders of the Buckler - I believe that in Dark Souls III (maybe the original as well,) small shields make up for their lack of 100% physical damage reduction by giving you a wider parry window. And with Sulyvahn going crazy with his massive flurry of attacks, it wasn't hard to get a parry in there and take a massive chunk out of his health.
Also useful was getting some lighter armor so I could dodge more effectively - he clones himself at 50% and you need to be able to dodge the clone's attacks before parrying the boss. Once I even attempted the parry method I think I beat him either in one or two attempts.
We're pretty well into the mid-game here, and I've done all I need for the Usurp the Flame ending (poor Anri... or... maybe she's fine? I don't know how it works for Hollows, but that's the most fucked up "wedding" I've ever seen... well, at least among those that went as planned, so not counting the Red Wedding.) One of the cool things in Dark Souls is that good and evil are pretty ambiguous. I mean, ok, Aldritch (and Sulyvahn, who kind of orchestrated Aldritch's actions) is very definitely evil. But is the Usurp the Flame ending the "evil" one? Given the endless cycle that seems to just be getting more and more miserable as it goes, the idea of doing something new with the fire seems like not such a bad idea. Does your character become some kind of dark emperor? Well, yes, by definition, but again we're not exactly sure whether Dark and Evil are the same. (Are dark and the abyss even the same? And what is the Deep?)
Anyway, I was very happy that I helped out Siegward at the Cathedral of the Deep because he rescued Greirat in Irithyl. I'm led to understand that Patches can do this as well, but only if he has the Catarina armor still. Kind of cool to know that Patches can actually do something nice for once.
I've been thinking a lot about how to do another character. This guy was originally supposed to be Strength-based, but your options for weapons seem a lot broader with Dexterity. Still, I think the next character will probably be a caster (I'm thinking Faith-based.) I'm beginning to understand a little better why one might go for infusions that remove scaling - if your character is a caster, that means most of their weapons won't scale with their main output stat, and so having a weapon that just does a bunch of damage regardless of your stats seems powerful, especially early in the game. I could imagine focusing on survival stats in the early game even on a STR/DEX character using this method and only pumping stuff into the throughput stats (aside from what is needed to equip items) once the scaling would make it better.
While the core gameplay is very similar, I'm understanding how much simpler the stats and equipment in Bloodborne are. I wouldn't mind seeing a Bloodborne 2 (well, I could end the sentence there) that diversified things like Hunter Tools a bit more, but there's also something kind of nice about knowing that you can pour Blood Echoes into your main stats without fear.
Anyway, in the main game I think I basically have Aldritch (with the main doors to Anor Londo open, I assume that I can just run into O&S's old room) and then Irithyl Dungeon (I believe I know how to get there...) the Old Demon King and the rest of the Demon Ruins (which I've partially explored,) the Profaned Capital (which I believe is super-short, not unlike this game's Anor Londo) and then Lothric Castle and the end of the game.
However, I've also got both the DLCs. I talked to Gael when I first showed up in the Cleansing Palace at the Cathedral of the Deep, but after I got the first bonfire I left, intending to return when I was ready. I figure I'll try to get at least Dragonslayer Armor down before I do any of the DLC stuff, and then go Ariandel before Ringed City.
So I'm in no danger of running out of game anytime soon. Not to mention all the stuff I'm sure I've missed.
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