I beat Maiden Astraea, Penetrator, and Old King Allant all yesterday afternoon. That is an exquisite run of bosses. Saving Maiden Astraea for what will probably be the third-to-last boss on most people’s first playthroughs is a brilliant move for the tone of the game.
Still sad I couldn’t get summoned or summon anyone else at any point. I couldn’t even summon for Old King Allant, but that ended up being a fine thing because I beat him on my second try and it was an exhilaratingly good fight. I didn’t feel like I was cheesing him. I just played the best Demon’s Souls of my life.
And here this run came to an end. This time I successfully got through it all without using or even memorizing a single spell or miracle. Demon’s is a wonderful game, and I love it as much if not more than any of its successors. I was really impressed this time out by the boss fights and how many of them are just really smart, tense, fights with opponents slightly larger than yourself.
Maybe the most difficult stretch of the entire game for me was the black phantom mindflayers on the stairs up to Old Monk. But then I got my shit together and figured out how to exploit their behavior.
If I have one big complaint about the game’s structure as a whole, it’s probably actually that the game is so bloody stingy with basic upgrade materials. I didn’t want to farm the few places where low-level materials drop with any frequency, especially since they are still relatively rare there. If farming was more reliable, I might’ve been game. As a result, the only weapons I ever really upgraded were my starting dagger and my bow. They served me well, but the lack of easy upgrade material availability discouraged me from experimenting (I did, however, collect hordes of upgrade materials for weapons I didn’t use).
(it won’t be taken from you)
