A few more attempts on Manus didn't seem to be getting me anywhere, so I decided it was time to get some upgrades.

I upgraded my strength enough to use a Black Iron Greatshield (and upgraded that to +9 for greater stability) and upgraded my +10 Mace to +15.

That made the fight so much more manageable, since I could reliably block many of his attacks and do decent damage to him even one-handed. He was still tough, but he fell.

And that's Dark Souls done for me I think! What an adventure.

More Manus attempts, but I got frustrated really quickly today so decided to call it for now. I don't feel like I'm progressing at all on this boss, so I'm definitely going to try to get past it, but to be honest, I can see myself calling it a day, especially if my frustration grows so much it starts to sour the rest of the game for me.

Made it through the Royal Woods and to Knight Artorias. He took a good few tries, but learning to get close when he was powering up and staggering him to stop it helped a lot, and I took him without too much trouble after I got to grips with that.

Next up came the Oolacile Township, which was a good level. Have made it to Manus, but he's kicking my ass and despite a couple efforts where I got him quite low, I seemed to be regressing. I decided to take a break as even though I wasn't consciously getting frustrated, I sensed I was probably still tilting.

Now that I'm mostly done with Arceus, it's DLC time!

Of course, being Dark Souls, even entering the DLC is convoluted. I doubt I would have found it myself without a guide.

Anyway, I passed through and beat the Sanctuary Guardian in two tries, so not that bad. Royal Wood is kinda showing up my rustiness though, so I need to git gud again as I'm falling for too many attacks from the statues. That, and just falling off the map. Some precarious footing here.

Went through Aramis, fun area. Didn't fight Priscilla though, she seemed nice.

I wanted to get Gwyn done before Pokemon Legends Arceus comes out tomorrow, so I backed up my save, and headed for him.

He took quite a few attempts, because my parrying sucks, but I found that when he combos, his first attack has little startup, making parrying that difficult, but the second swing is much easier. Figuring that out made the fight much more doable.

And so Gwyn went down. People say the parrying makes him easy and I guess it sorta does, but at the same time, it's not like it was a cakewalk for me.

Picked the Dark Lord ending, because fuck burning in fire for all eternity. Sounds like a raw deal.

I still want to do the DLC, so I restored my backed up save so I don't have to go through NG+ and do it on that difficulty.

Managed to get through Tomb of the Giants. Maybe having a sleep and time to clear my head meant I was tilting less. Nito was a close thing but I still one-shot it.

After that, back to the Demon Ruins. You can tell they ran out of resources here - another Asylum Demon boss (the game's third!), the Capra and Taurus Demons becoming normal enemies. But even if they remain fairly deadly, beating a great number of them was actually pretty satisfying.

Made my way to Lost Izalith which is also fairly bad. My issue with this and Demon Ruins is that the areas are just kinda half-finished and mediocre, but I'll still kinda take them over Tomb and Crystal Cave just because they're not totally obnoxious.

Then came Bed of Chaos. Seemed simple enough. How bad this is seemed overrated... and then I destroyed the second of the two targets, and spent the next... hour or so trying to get to the third while being swept off into the bottomless pit or missing the janky-ass jump. Yeah, everyone was right, this boss is absolute ass, holy shit.

Another one for the 'as soon as I have fun with Dark Souls it does something to make me hate life' category.

Still, I beat it. Eventually. And now I have all Lord souls, but I kinda want to do Aramis and the DLC areas before I go parry Gwyn's shit in.

Did Asylum revisit. Stray Demon seemed tough at first but Crest Shield for magic absorb and getting in close honestly neutered his offence massively, and it was straightforward from that point on.

Went through New Londo Ruins and killed the Four Kings. Surprisingly easy and only took me two tries - they hurt at range but if I charged into melee they barely tickled me. Huh. Sensing a pattern here...

After that went to the Catacombs. Got through that. Pinwheel was incredibly easy. Now I'm in the Tomb of the Giants and honestly screw this place. I have a Skull Lantern and it's still a massive pain in the ass to navigate, much less kill stuff efficiently. Another stinker of an area...

Decided to try the Duke's Archives. Decent area, interesting gimmick with being captured after the unbeatable Seath fight.

Crystal Cave is godawful though, the invisible paths testing my patience. It is mercifully short though and Seath was a pushover.

Decided to go revisit the asylum, fell straight into the fight with the Stray Demon and got wrecked. Actually pretty funny.

Beat Iron Golem with a summoned Iron Tarkus, but before moving on to Anor Lando I did other things, mostly clearing out Darkroot Garden/Basin, ending in me beating Sif (good fight, took quite a few tries though because I'm bad), and the hydra (ye gods, what a terrible fight).

Moved onto Anor Londo. Absolutely stunning place, and generally quite fun with the one exception of those snipers. Dark Souls is generally quite good at being hard without being unfair, but that section was cheap and I nearly lost my temper with it.

Forged onwards, and eventually got to Ornstein and Smough. Solo, I was really struggling, but a few attempts with Solaire and I got them down! I did have to turn off online though because otherwise I was just getting invaded by players one shotting me, and I really wasn't in the mood for that.

Went back to Firelink. Now I have to get the Lord Souls. May take a break though, as I was tilting badly by the end of my play session today, and I need to keep a lid on my temper.

Got cursed in the Depths, so... needed to get THAT sorted out. Still, after that, and some grinding souls while I was eating/listening to a podcast, I went ahead and did Gaping Dragon (took a few tries, until I learned the windows of opportunity), and went through Blighttown all the way to Quelaag, who took two tries (second with Humanity and summoning Maneater Mildred).

Then up to Sen's Fortress. Christ, this felt like hitting a brick wall. But over time, I did start conquering it, and now I think I'm at the boss. I've never gotten this far in a Dark Souls run before, so... all new to me from here.

Pretty productive day today. Bell Gargoyles took me a good while but, surprisingly, Capra Demon I took out on the first try. Usually it's a run killer for me. I hate Capra Demon.

Funny thing was, I thought I had killed the dogs but one reappeared when I'd nearly killed the Capra Demon. It must have gotten stuck on geometry or something. It very nearly threw me off but I just made it through. Not complaining.

Explored Darkroot Garden and Basin and got the Knight and Elite Knight sets. Nice. Currently in the Depths.

I've had a few abortive attempts with Dark Souls, most ending with the Capra Demon because honestly screw that boss. But I do want to beat the game, so here we go.

Running a Str/Faith Cleric. Taurus Demon took several tries but got it down eventually. Now onto Undead Parish.