Questions and Comments

[Sage in Strides]

Hello, I've played a little bit of SiS and would like to present my first impression along with some questions.

Let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start. The tutorial is very difficult, and took me over a dozen tries to complete. The black fire persists for quite some time, and often protected the butler from being attacked when he fell to his knees. I don't think it needs to be easier, just know that it's really hard.

Diving into the game after the tutorial is confusing. It didn't take me long to get used to spike traps or figure out what battery acid does, but other than that, I was in the dark. Vitae seems useless to me, the only use I've found is that blessing, and buying the 1000 blessing didn't seem to do anything. The clock that appears when you die looks like a life counter, but I'm not sure what will happen when it reaches 0; will I lose my progress on that save file?

There's a lot to do initially, you are given no starting direction (begin by going north, for instance), a lot of NPCs are nearby the spawn location, as are enemies. But once you've gone in a few directions (and died a few dozen times), the world starts to seem empty to me. Beautiful, empty pixel art. I've yet to find any chests, any items besides consumables (batter acid, injections, bullets, stones), and overall I feel that I am not progressing. I did upgrade my sword...without noticeable effect. And I bought the 1000 vitae blessing...again without noticeable effect.

This makes it sound like i dislike the game, which isn't true, I'm having fun and the game is beautiful and haunting, I'm just a little frustrated by the actual meat of the game. Or confused, rather. Very, very confused. I understand the Souls-like atmosphere, but SiS leaves you even more out of the know than Souls, and I find myself unable to make educated choices in the game.

[Pugware]

Well so far you are experiencing what you meant to.

The game gets infinitely more easy once you figure certain things out.
Vitae has a value if you find the npc who trades Yth stones for it, he is very close.
The clock you see at death is meant to do that, I wont spoil it's effect but dont worry it's not a save wipe or anything so cruel.
The Blessing does work trust me :)
The weapon upgrade will be more noticeable once you put a few more levels into it.

While some mechanics are very Souls like, things outside combat and recovery are not. You are not given a direction because all directions are viable, since all bosses are open from the get-go, just don't start with North.

[Sage in Strides]

Thank you for replying. Its actually reassuring to hear that this was intended. And thank you for not spoiling anything for me --although that smile put me into a sweat ;)

If it takes a few levels, than Yth stones must be more common than I thought. I was under the impression they would be rare.

recovery is more like Demon Souls (which I preferred over both Dank Souls games). I do like/understand that all directions are viable, but when I was initially plopped onto the estate, it just seemed odd to give no sort of direction, even if just to set the player off to discover other things about the game.

Again, thanks so much for replying. I'm going to try to play with a controler and see if that helps me with combat.

[Pugware]

Advice don't ignore the gun, its a ranged parry, with a bit of a different timing, it can also "parry" states tat are otherwise impossible, like casting, or "hold" right before attacks.

Yth stones will only be dropped from Butlers exclusively unless you have amazing luck.

I hope you have fun. Most players who liked the game seems to say once they get over the initial bump its really fun.

[Quake806]

This is a 2017 tread but I hope this here I love the game (as I do anything souls like) but I would like more info than what the game is getting me. Vitae I know its use to buy items but is that all is there a level up mechanic like in other souls games? Basically is vitae =souls or is the only thing to focus on rally is the Yth stones? I also know understanding the punishment in death just yet is vitae no that important. I noob I know but if anyone willing to answer these for me I would really like it. :)

[Sage in Strides]

wow wasn't expecting to ever read this post again...

I'd suggest just starting a new one. I dropped this game a while ago w/o getting much farther than where I was when I made this, so I'm of no help. And I doubt anyone else is going to find this.

[Pugware]

Originally posted by Quake806:

This is a 2017 tread but I hope this here I love the game (as I do anything souls like) but I would like more info than what the game is getting me. Vitae I know its use to buy items but is that all is there a level up mechanic like in other souls games? Basically is vitae =souls or is the only thing to focus on rally is the Yth stones? I also know understanding the punishment in death just yet is vitae no that important. I noob I know but if anyone willing to answer these for me I would really like it. :)

Leveling is not tge standard system, 3 yth stones allow you to level either, health, stamina, number of heals, or no bullets you get on rebirth.

What you loose at death is sanity, but it's capped, so you won't loose sanity just by dying a lot. The watch on the death screen is your sanity meter so to speak.