#ghosts and demons beginner tutorial

[gameplayandtalk]

A Beginner’s Guide to Ghosts ‘n Demons

This is Ghosts ‘n Demons, a 2015 fan made game for PC, created by BonusJZ. Being a remake of the Japanese-exclusive Wonderswan Ghosts ‘n Goblins, it follows the original game’s formula closely. It also adds many of its own new additions, including updated mechanics and a significantly steeper difficulty curve. The game as a result can be challenging for new players to adapt to, quite possibly more so than any other game in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series. A key to succeeding at this game is getting in tune with its many game mechanics. For those trying the game for the first time, or for those that need a refresher, here’s a quick guide to get you up to speed with this game.

As with prior Ghosts ‘n Goblins games, you control Arthur, who has his typical left and right movement along with ducking and jumping. While there’s no vertical attacking as with Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Arthur does retain his double jump from Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, activated by simply tapping jump a second time while in mid-air.

A ground stomp can be activated by pressing down + jump in the air. Landing next to enemies with this does a little bit of splash damage, hurting enemies on either side. Landing on top of enemies does considerable damage and bounces Arthur back into the air. Doing so successfully resets your double jump, allowing for some nice shortcuts through the game when used creatively, particularly halfway through Stage 2.

The downside to the ground stomp is that it can only be used with armor. However, even without it Arthur can hop off enemies when timed properly. This is risky, but can be used as a last resort if you make a jump in the wrong direction. It does considerable damage and you can keep hopping from enemy to enemy as long as you don’t double jump.

The backflip is a maneuver that is mapped to a third button. Arthur can use this to get to higher platforms easier or to avoid tricky projectile patterns. He can even perform the maneuver in the air to gain extra height. Smacking enemies in the face with a foot is also possible and does solid damage. This is risky but can be especially useful against the Red Arremers. On the Easy and Normal difficulty levels, the backflip also has a significant amount of invincibility frames at the start of it, allowing Arthur to pass through objects and projectiles when timed just right.

A key move for survival is pressing the jump button right as Arthur loses his armor. This makes Arthur shout aloud, giving you extra invincibility time. Normally when taking a hit you only have a second or two of invincibility frames. When performing this special trick, Arthur gets significantly more invincibility time. The easiest way to do this is to mash the jump button immediately upon taking a hit.

Much like previous games in the series, Arthur can uncover various chests in each level. These are typically activated by jumping at a certain position, sometimes by double jumping. The red chests encountered drop various types of items. Weapons are the typical fare, but a warlock or a goddess can appear as well. The warlocks can turn Arthur into various creatures like in previous games, but the effect stays significantly longer here, so be careful. The goddess will offer an invincibility power-up for a significant amount of time. Like the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins, warlocks can also appear by shooting specific objects too many times, such as tombstones, so be sure to be careful about shooting around randomly when there are no enemies on screen.

Unlike prior games in the series, the contents of the red chests are completely random. Under normal circumstances this means that there is no rhythm or rhyme to what appears. Sometimes you’ll get a weapon, sometimes you’ll get armor, sometimes you’ll get points. There is however a more advanced trick to guarantee an armor drop. This is done by uncovering four red chests and intentionally *not* opening them. Your fifth red chest will have armor in it guaranteed.

Green chests can also appear and each level has at least one or two of these. Green chests offer guaranteed armor drops. If Arthur has no armor, Silver will appear. If Arthur has Silver, then Gold will appear. If Arthur already has Gold, a 10,000 point item will appear.

Other hidden chests can appear for extra lives. These appear in most levels in the game and typically require Arthur to stand in front of a specific location for at least a few seconds. On Stage 1, it’s the tombstone at the beginning. On Stage 2, it’s the suit of armor at the bottom floor of the building. On Stage 3’s water level, it’s in front of the clam right after the mini boss. On Stage 3’s fire level, it’s at the end of the last vertical shaft. On stage 5, it’s to the right of the boss door (in front of the pile of skulls in the updated version). On the final stage, it’s right before the big drop to the boss. Stages two and four also have extra chests right out in the open, also giving extra lives. For stage 2 Arthur needs to perform a ground stomp an enemy and double jump over the last column on the top floor of the building. On Stage 4, it’s at the top left of the first major platforming section.

Due to the game’s difficulty, it’s recommended you start on Easy. Easy mode features slightly fewer random enemies and there are also added checkpoints. You will know you’re playing on Easy, as Arthur’s armor will be green. On Normal and King modes, checkpoints only appear at hard screen transitions. The final stage for instance, due to having no hard screen transitions, has no checkpoints. Easy also adds more continues over Normal, giving you more time to warm up to the harder parts of the game—nine continues, as opposed to Normal’s six. Money bags also increase the amount of credits you have on any given run, so in the early stages of learning the game, it’s good to grab as many as you can. For those curious, King mode offers zero continues.

Weapons have always been a huge part of the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series, and Ghosts ‘n Demons is no exception, with Arthur having a wide ranging arsenal to work with:

Lance: Arthur can fire this at a moderate pace, doing moderate damage.

Dagger: Relatively weak, but has the benefit of shooting multiple projectiles across the screen quickly.

Torch: Moderate strength with an arced attack that allows for more shot flexibility, not to mention large blasts of fire that erupt when landing on the ground.

Axe: One of the least useful weapons in the game, but it can be solid for enemies positioned higher up.

Arrows: These act much like they do in the Wonderswan and Super Nintendo games, firing in pairs of two angled upwards, offering poor damage output and being difficult to use against small enemies up close. Very efficient against Red Arremers.

Discus: Short-ranged weapon that packs a major punch when used right. It does multiple hits when colliding with enemies for long enough.

Sickle: Short range weapon that turns into a long-range one when it loops back around towards the player.

Shield: Great crutch for new players, going all the way across the screen and blocking most projectiles along the way.

Cross: Tricky to use but packs the biggest punch. Also absorbs projectiles and goes through solid objects.

Holy Flame: Randomly appears after reaching 300,000 points. This weapon goes all the way across the screen, destroys projectiles, and can even charge up two different attacks with the Gold armor. Charging makes you invincible for a second or two during and after the attack.

Weapons aside, the biggest upgrade in the game is the Gold armor. This allows Arthur to throw even more projectiles at a time. It also gives him some useful new abilities. Pressing up + attack while on the ground allows Arthur to stab enemies in front of him. Jumping and pressing down + attack allows him to downstab, doing tons of damage and pogoing off of enemies heads. Pressing up + backflip allows Arthur to perform an uppercut, a strong attack that can do multiple hits when used properly.

So with that, you should now have a good idea of the basics of Ghosts ‘n Demons. Get in there, search for hidden chests, learn the stages and bosses, and ultimately just have a good time.

For anyone curious about checking out this game, it’s a free download for PC. Simply click here to be taken to the developer’s site to download it.

I’d also like to give a shout out to Aquas who got me interested in this game, provided some extra details for my video version of this and let me use some of his stream footage. Shout out to Skipnatty as well who also helped with loads of tips on my initial stream of this game. Without this help I wouldn’t have gotten up to speed with the game so quickly. I’d also like to give a shout out to Solid Nate. He checked out the game after I initially streamed it and he has been hooked on it since. Him constantly streaming it motivated me to continue playing the game after my initial session with it.

So with that, thanks for reading! If you want to see all of these details in action, check out the video version of this write-up below.

[metalempire]

Hey so I'm gonna start Dark Souls either tomorrow or in the next couple of days, so do you have any hardcore pro gamer strats prepare to die tips on how to best get started with character creation and stuff?

pick either knight or warrior, theyre the two best starting classes for beginners. the knight has a 100% physical damage blocking shield at start which is incredibly helpful, whereas the warrior has the longsword at start which is a great beginning weapon. if you want to be a mage of some kind pick sorcerer for pure intelligence building, priest for pure faith building or pyromancer which uses both stats. if going for the traditional physical setup then just pick knight or warrior and level your strength, dexterity, vigor and endurance with some vitality along the wayuntimately you can specialise more in strength or dexterity depending on if you like fast or heavy weapons more, i preferred heavy for dark souls 1, but if unsure just level both stats equally since that lets you use most weapons fairly well. the claymore and longsword are great weapons for beginners. you might hear about the drake sword, it's good for the undead burg sections but once you beat bell gargoyles it loses usefulness since it doesnt get more powerful and cant scale with stats so if you do get it dont bother with it. make sure to practice parrying as much as you can in the early game so when you run into black knights you can parry them and not get 1-shotted. you'll know a parry is successful if you deflect the attack and the enemy is a little stunned. thats your opportunity to move right into their model and press the light attack button, if dont correctly you'll do a unique attack for massive damage. dont be discouraged if you dont get it right away, it takes alot of practice. only enemy of a certain size with weapons can be parried, no bosses in dark souls 1 can be parried.the game has alot of patience play in combat, you are going to need to carefully manage stamina so dont go wild on the attack and roll buttons, try to get a feel for when to attack and when to block and when to dodge. as you level endurance you'll have more stamina. its a somewhat slow paced game but you'll get the rhythm of it, like the opposite of a dynasty warriors game.once you beat the tutorial level you'll come to firelink shrine and can go to a bunch of places from there. if you go into a graveyard, get out of there until you've beaten some more levels, the skeletons are very strong and early game players won't really be able to deal with them. there's some good weapons in their area but you need to know the graveyard layout to be able to sprint past and weave through them to get them. similarly, if you end up in new londo ruins, dont cross the wooden bridge, you dont have the transient curses yet which let you fight ghosts and you need the artorias covenant ring before unflooding the ruins ideally. wait until after anor londo to do that one, just use the edges of it as a shortcut to valley of drakes once you get that far. for now just go to undead burg and work your way through until you beat two bosses: bell gargoyles, which lets you ring one of the bells and talk to a guy for the best emote, and capra demon, which has infinite sex appeal and gives you the key to the depths. when going to the depths, a warning, basilisks are black frog/lizard monsters that shoot gas at you, avoid the gas at all costs and kill them fast, the gad curses you which kills you instantly and causes you to be cursed with a permanent status effect that cuts your health in half until you get cured of curse much later in the game when you get the items or npcs for it. if you're unsure about fighting them just run away.blighttown is mandatory and it fucking blows ass, kill the toxic dart guys and they stay dead. humanity can heal you fully if used, but be careful about using it since its used to kindle bonfires once you beat pinwheel, which lets you increase the amount of estus you can carry from 5 to 10. once you get the lordvessel it can be increased to 15 and even 20. this only applies to an individual bonfire. the firelink shrine bonfire is always kindled to 10 at the start, so use it to your advantage until you're ready for the catacombs. once you beat bell gargoyles and once you reach the bottom of blighttown with the swamp, contact me if you want to discover where to find some secret areas, both of which lead to entirely other areas, and one can lead you to two optional boss fights. lost izalith is a terrible level don't worry everyone thinks its the worst area with the worst boss ever in a souls game. you will not be alone in not enjoying it. no one likes it. no one likes the boss of it either. jumping is dont by double tapping the roll button while sprinting. platforming sucks in souls but every game has you do it a few times. how encumbered you are effects how fast you swing your weapon, move, sprint and importantly; roll. if you are over 70% you are encumbered and you heavy roll, which carries you nowhere and has the least i-frames as a dodge. at below 25% (i think) you do the opposite where you run and move and swing fast and fast-roll which is a fantastic roll. anywhere inbetween is the standard medium set of animations, decide on how mobile vs how defensive you want to be and work towards it and get to know how you work. if you get the ring of favour and protection, it's the best ring in the whole game, but it breaks if you take it off, so you have to decide if you want only 1 free ring slot for the whole game, or if you dont want the benefits of the ring. this is a surprisingly hard choice for alot of players. pick the master key as your starting gift or you'll be fumbling around looking for keys for ages. i think you can even skip capra demon as well if you're struggling with it so long as you have the master key, the other items aside from black firebombs all suck anyway. the pendant literally does nothing and is an actual social experiment as indicated in an interview with the game's director, hidetaka miyazaki "git gud" means to play the game more, get more of a feel for it, observe and note things better and spend more time getting a feel for the game. if you dont like multiplayer too much and dont want to get invaded every two seconds by giantdads, just play offline, which can be toggled in settings. covenants are an online thing anyway, and you can dabble in that when you're more experienced with npc invasions instead. if you give 30 humanity to the fair maiden, once you beat demon firesage, you can skip most of lost izalith provided you can take a titanite demon on a bridge in a fight, which is as hard as dealing with the actual level itself. if you kill all the sunlight maggots hopping around the area before a certain someone gets there, they will be saved from the red eyed one. sen's fortress really is just like that. save this post to ur drafts you'll need the references. its hard to use character creator to make anything look nice just make kermit the frog or something idk everyone just makes memes in ds character creators.