Chosen Undead for Hire (Side Quest #2)
Game Played: Dark Souls (2011)
Recently Jade returned to her Dark Souls playthrough after a 7/8 year hiatus, beating the remaining lords – Seath, Nito and the Bed of Chaos as well as the optional bosses, ending with a well fought victory against Gwyn. Walking away from the bonfire, she chose the Dark Lord ending. However Xbox seemed to have a meltdown around this time – while the achievement popped at the time, it turns out it didn’t actually unlock? I’m really not sure what happened or how, but Jade was naturally a bit peeved. A couple hours of research and fannying on with the Xbox settings led to no results.
In comes myself. An afternoon a couple days afterwards, Jade was getting ready for a night out we were going on. I tasked myself with blasting through NG+ to try and get the achievement that was skipped over.
Now it’s been a while since I’ve played Dark Souls, especially on NG+ and I don’t know if later titles have made me soft, but I was getting my ass kicked a little. As I sit writing this, it dawns on me that this was the original Dark Souls rather than Remastered so there was no omnidirectional rolling, this might be why I struggled as much as I did.
My general goal was to complete the game as fast as I could. Jade didn’t have the DLC so that was a big chunk out of the way. As for optional bosses – Stray Demon, Crossbreed Priscilla and the Moonlight Butterfly were spared my wrath. I was fannying on with the Lower Undead Burg skip for the Female Undead Merchant so I killed the Capra Demon, but Gaping Dragon was too far out of the way. Finally Darksun Gwyndolin was on the list as I needed the trophy for her covenant and you know, when in Anor Londo.
Jade had used a Halberd for her playthrough, not a bad weapon by any means – just not one I’m used to. I levelled up a Black Knight Sword but didn’t end up using it in favour of trying to master the halberd. Most early game bosses went without a hitch, save for Capra Demon which is a rubbish boss anyways so I don’t much care about that. I think I blocked it out but I may have died to Pinwheel, which is rather embarrassing. I’d say my excuse was fighting him early for the Rite of Kindling, but this is NG+ so that doesn’t wash.
Ornstein and Smough as well as the Four Kings are usually difficult, but I did both first try – with O&S – it’s like riding a bike, you never forget. With the Four Kings, you never forget… the Havel armour. Never enter the abyss without it. The bragging stops there really, as I had a death a piece to Nito and Seath, more to Bed of Chaos. Goes to show it’s never written.
Gwyn was a surprise, really out of practice with Gwyn. It’s a very fun fight though, more than it’s given credit for – especially in comparison to later series bosses like Ludwig or Gael. Easily the boss that took the most attempts on this playthrough.
Save for just beating the game, I was also tasked with getting the remaining covenant trophies because I was already playing the game. These were Warriors of Sunlight (which we didn’t do due to the stupid requirements), Darkwraiths, Blades of the Darkmoon, Gravelord Servants and Path of the Dragon. Going for these felt like the good old days of exploring Lordran. It’s all good practice for when I play the game on PS3 for a Back for the Plat article.
I just love Dark Souls, y’know?
