Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HIxuGi_2TQ

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/09/16/hands-on-with-dark-souls-iiis-new-magic-system.aspx

that crowned skull looming out of the darkness at 1:24 is giving me the serious heebie-jeebies

psyched for this obv

coma until March, please

i signed up for the beta network test

same. if i get in i look forward to explaining to my gf why i have to play video games for three hours on a Friday night.

ditto

japan needs me

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-17-dark-souls-3-is-a-surprisingly-different-beast

Critical Arts are special attacks tailored to each weapon and available when you're two-handing. With a scimitar, for example, you launch into a dervish of blades, while a greatsword can be used to launch enemies comically high into the air. There's a magic meter sitting between your health and stamina bar, a throwback to Demon's Souls own approach, and performing critical arts as well as summoning spells eats into this. Restoring MP's more straightforward than the spice gathering of Demon's Souls, too - you've now got in your possession a second, blue estus flask that can be glugged to top up that bar.

Hoping this comes out for PC also.

they make too many of these games

it'll have been two years since the last dark souls came out by the time this is released, and four-and-a-half since the first one was released - it's not exactly fifa in the churning-them-out stakes

but also bloodborne! that's one every 1.5 years

three games in one series, each with their own subtly different take on the template, and one offshoot with distinct differences in its combat system and overarching theme, all packed with content - i dunno, i'm happy to play them as regularly as they come out as long as the level of quality remains this high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyd8dY8rRtA

If Bloodborne is any indication then this is going to be the best souls game yet.

http://cdn.yourepeat.com/media/gif/000/085/261/88fed98d30151cb92ae8c81165ac80f8.gif

I'm in on the beta!

nice! i didn't get in, but at least i don't have to explain why i'm cancelling all Friday night plans now.

yeah, there's a conversation i'm looking forward to.

have You Died yet?

testing is fri/sat/sun from 8pm to 11pm

should i liveblog tonight, y/n

just post I DIED every time you get killed

k

y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcAa8gHHfg4

fucks sake, this is 8pm PACIFIC
which is 11pm until 1 in the morning.

still not working...

a quick look around reddit and the internet suggests it's borked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyARBkovYCw&

i died about six times. this looks fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c2EJMd7ZN7w#t=253

http://i.imgur.com/NmX9h6f.gif

that's pretty much my dark souls experience except i'd be getting stuck in the corner and accidentally rolling off a cliff, too

if it ended with the rolling guy running out of stamina then getting one-shotted by his opponent it'd be more true to my dark souls experiences for sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI09ZVuX5XI

looks predictably fuckin' awesome.

cool that you can kinda go into Bloodborne-mode using those knife/bow weapon arts.

i dunno about you but what i really needed was a dark souls branded endless runner for my phone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LputQewHUIw

lol.

it's getting really hard to avoid knowing more about this game than i want to. truly excited.

feel like today opened the floodgates of early game DS3 footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igWjGlNlgH0

so far it looks really good. a bunch of references to Dark Souls get spoiled in the above video btw.

i have seen some people freak out (not here of course) that it isn't a totally interconnected world like Dark Souls was. except Dark Souls wasn't. Undead Asylum was cut off from the rest of the world, so was Anor Londo, so was the Painted World.

i think the areas themselves will be bigger and more intricately designed. already just from watching this footage it looks 100x better than the starting Betwixt/Forest Of The Fallen Giants areas from DS2.

cannot wait to die.

i'm not worried about it. i know there's warping from the beginning, and Although I did love the parts of Dark Souls where it felt like you really might not be able to get back (like going down into Blighttown or the Great Hollow for the first time), I'm sure they know what they're doing.

I'm also super excited for pvp in this game. I never really did it in DS1 because i missed the learning curve (everyone still playing was already way too experienced for me to even learn from my mistakes, it seemed like), and by the time i wanted to go back and try, I didn't have XBL anymore. I kinda sucked at DS2 and didn't want to keep playing it after finishing, and played Demon's Souls offline on a borrowed PS3. But Bloodborne is where I finally did enough pvp to mentally relax and not care about dying (which is really 90% of it), and learn some of the psychological tricks (switching up attacks & weapons, not repeating attacks on people who will parry you, baiting people into getting parried, etc). Feel like this is going to transfer over to DS3 pretty well.

Worst parts of being into these games:

1) Looking at Reddit for info. I'd never actually looked at it before Bloodborne came out and the depressing parts definitely creep in.

2) Most people who make Souls videos are into terrible music.

3) Occasional hate mail from children when playing online.

Do these games have a story? And is there a larger, interconnected story?

they have a story but it's really up to the player to piece it together.

as for are the games connected there are many theories and i thought the world of 2 was largely completely disconnected from the world of 1 but 3 has a lot of things returning from 1 so who knows maybe we will be playing in the past or future of places we have been to before. the first game was tightly directed by creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, then he took on a more supervisory role for 2 so that he could make Bloodborne at the same time. 3 looks like it will be a return to form in many ways receiving his full attention and his intention for it to be the final game in the series. so chances are good there will be some overarching story themes concluded or fleshed out.

imo dark souls 1 starts when you are cursed/hollowed/undead. the main mechanic of the games - dying over and over - is part of the story. as a hollow you cannot die; that is your curse. this is the same with all of your non-boss enemies and many of the NPCs that populate the world. how this curse is tied into the king-queen-god-monsters whose thrones you usurp remains to be seen. the motivations for many characters, including the "helpful" ones who guide you, is unclear. the writing and voice acting is pretty great. then there are the major themes of the series: the meaning between Light and Dark, the flames, the bonfires and kindling, death and rebirth, etc.

i've beaten the two Dark Souls games multiple times and can barely grasp the story. there is a lot of symbolism and ambiguity there. if you want there are dozens of hours of lore analysis waiting for you on youtube.

i think from software's games are some of the greatest examples of environmental storytelling in gaming history tbh

what adam said, but basically the story is very vague and easy to miss/ignore (both the main one and those of the characters you meet). a lot of it has to do with reading the descriptions of the items you pick up.

i also love how it's done, partially because i like the option to completely ignore it much of the time. they provide just enough details to create atmosphere and let you fill in the gaps.

there is massive complex deep lore if you want it and it's totally not necessary to know while you play.
http://soulslore.wikidot.com/

I uploaded some of the clips I'd recorded when I had a really dramatic invasion, usually one where it seems like there was no way I was going to win, and it somehow came together. If anyone's curious why I play this game in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXLS6eMcvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbJkJQQBZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcSiFP0eCQw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUofmeS28qA

And then there's this one, where the phantom was invisible the whole time, but that's the only time I've ever experienced that glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unc_Fxbh0Cg

The first one was a squeaker, but it was fun to see the moment where you go from desperate defense to offense.

Ha that was incredibly lucky, I went in there hoping the elevator was active (it wasn't), and somehow cornered the phantom instead of getting cornered myself. No idea why the host didn't attack then.

"you can't win Anakin! I have the high ground!"

Counterintuitively I think the low ground is better in this game! Fighting on stairs is usually not a good idea, but love to swipe at someone's ankles while their sword goes over your head.

yep yep

I love that there are people still working on their *serious dueling skills* in 2020, like on the level of a craft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUa4ODhw038

(I'm not interested in 1v1 duels honor duels, but most invasions eventually end up in a 1v1 situation, so the skills are similar...not the same though, if healing is involved)

Dark Souls = Super Ghouls'n'Ghosts Remake and I claim my fiver

It's nice seeing the game so active pre-Elden Ring. I've certainly played it more than other game, ever.

COVID and "holidays" have had me gaming more than normal, and I'm pleased to say that this game is easily in my top ten ever. I'm flabbergasted, I can't believe how wonderful it is

I struggled around the Dragon Peak area but then I slabbed my main weapon and put five extra levels into my vigour and suddenly the challenge/fun balance was achieved and it was just heavenly

On a whim I summoned a stranger right at the entrance to the Grand Archive and she was an A+ tour guide, we blew through the entire level in one run, she was pointing out the ladders and elevators and making sure I knew what I was doing. I didn't even ask, she just saw what things had been activated and led the way.

I ended up with some 140000 souls as a result and she kindly left the world right in front of the boss gate so I could de-fog the shortcut elevator. I had three Estus left so I went poking around a roof and ran into three flying fat knights who murdered me

And so I hired another stranger to help me with the knights and I got my souls back

At lower levels my PvP experiences were punishing, but by the time I got to Level 80 I was basically trading salvos with every invader until they ran out of Estus

I won, did the Nameless King too (with a stranger's assist), and just have the DLC to look forward to. My boyfriend likes calling them "titty slabs" and "titty chunks". I like cutting off the vendor's farewell dialogue so instead of her saying Ashen One Be Sure To Bring Me More Souls she just says "Ashen One BEESH"

I think Nameless King gave me the most trouble in this game. It even took me forever to even find a successful way to cheese it, which iirc involved equipping a crossbow and just firing away as I slowly backed up for a few minutes. This is after the dragon, which was the easy part.

Trying to remember the DLC, exactly. Ringed City? That DLC rules, but features an (extra-optional) boss that I just couldn't deal with. I think I skipped another boss in there, too, come to think of it, just because I was done and wanted to move on, and the arena was not that interesting. The other DLC is pretty great, too.

Haha YES fgti, so glad you're enjoying it. You've inspired me to put my white sign down and help out once in awhile instead of just invading. Let me know if you ever want a password-summoned sherpa!

DLC is great, that secret optional boss is one of my favorites. It's one of those that seems impossible at first, but really takes learning each one of their moves and ends up being rewarding a la Manus or Kalameet. Also becomes much harder if you summon help, because the moves become less predictable and the health pool is ridiculous. Or, of course you could look up cheese online and use poison or whatever.

If we're talking about the same one, it's got such a PIA path to fight it that I got so bored of even trying. Of course, DS2 is full of PIA paths to bosses, lol.

I'm talking about Midir, who is right down from the bonfire with no enemies in between?

I spent some of my excess souls on the armor I hadn’t been buying and I look fly all of a sudden, too

The Millwood knights are my nemeses. There is a cauldron in the mountains with two basics and a super knight and I’m basically gonna dung pie of couple of them before engaging the super. Later tonight tho. Vacation is over

xpost For Midir, don't you have to run down from a fire, take a long elevator ride, then fall down a long pit each time you want to reach the boss? I can't remember if there is an enemy in between, but even if there isn't, iirc it's a drag to do that again and again.

It's a nice opportunity to breathe and reflect on why you died. :)

(that said apparently Elden Ring will have save points before bosses, which will be pretty nice tbh)

Spoilers if anybody cares:

I had the most thrilling 20 minutes of gaming of my life this evening. I found The Dreg Heap challenging but doable, laughed as I was simultaneously impaled by 76 arrows from 76 phantom archers, dealt with the big summongiant after a couple of tries, made it to a bonfire and started poking my way forward.

I found the Ringed Knights very challenging, but by the tenth time I was murdered by one (no, two? no THREE?) executioners on a wide curving strada, I decided to ember up and summon some strangers for help. I hired one, and then another as we entered Execution Way.

What followed was insane. I didn't realize there were SIX executioners all told. And then we we had to deal with two Ringed Knights at once on a bridge. And then there was another summongiant in the middle of a lake. Piles of talking murder bugs. We approached a fallen church and were beset by THREE Ringed Knights and took them down. I was catching my breath and grabbing some loot and feeling very overwhelmed, and cast around to see where the summons were, and found them fighting an inexplicable giant armoured thing by a cliff. One stranger died and the other guided me up to a gate, and then to a bonfire. I had one heal left and the stranger was making some weird moves in front of a Humanity door that I didn't understand so I sent him home and used the bonfire and smoked two cigarettes.

I cannot imagine how a person could attempt all this solo, but I get it, this is some final challenge end game stuff, but it was so thrilling to cruise through it for the first time, having no idea what lay in store, seeing ordeal after ordeal that would've surely caused me to ragequit over and over, and yet we just handled it all. I am shaken at how good this game is

lol, that's great. I had totally forgotten about that level but looked it up and yeah, did solo it but it was hard.

Ah, memories. Way to do it blind! I did it solo too, but I've played way too much of these games I guess.

Have you looked up what the humanity thing by the bonfire is about? That's one of those secrets that I never would have figured out on my own.

I did! and I've moved on. I forgot to mention but that run I described above net me half a million souls and I levelled up six times in the 90s bracket all at once, ha. I beat the Halflight boss first try and I quick look-ahead on the cheat sheet would indicate that I'm home stretch, just a dragon and a final boss. I think I will win it tonight, spend the next week casually ranking up every covenant, murder all the NPCs, re-spec for a strength build and then do an NG+. I'm jealous of all these people with giant weapons and huge armours and want a taste. Also I enjoyed NG+ on DS1 as a kinda high-speed closing credits recap of the game, taking four hours to accomplish what previously took 40, so I'm looking forward to the same on this game. I used summons on about half my boss fights and I'd like to do some solo attempts on easy mode

Did you get Halflight (npc version), or a player summoned as Halflight? I was reaaally hoping for the latter as it's one of the coolest features of the dlc, but not a lot of people hang around waiting to get summoned as the Spear of the Church these days so it was probably the npc. :(

What weapon are you running?

(also the dragon might take some time, it's pretty summon-resistant but worthwhile imo)

I just played over my lunch break. I did get PvP Halflight but won it first try, I lucked out, I guess. Attempted dragon a few times and failed failed failed. Brought in a couple friends and won it on the fifth try.

I'm playing a very-high dexterity build with a sharp Lothric straight sword. I play two-handed with a Grass Crest on my back and I rely on my Pharis bow maybe too often with certain beasts. I have maxed sharp Sellswords on hand too in case I come up against something very fast.

I ate my lunch while waiting for Church summons. A thrilling time fighting somebody who had brought along two friends. I couldn't Estus, which I didn't understand, but I figured was the result of a spell or a Lloyd or something. I murdered the two friends, danced around the main opponent waiting for my Estus to reset, it didn't, so waited until a Painting accomplice rushed her and then went in for the kill. Beat three people in one round with no Estus, very satisfying!

sharp Lothric straight sword

Ah, a person of taste. As much as I try I keep this on every build I make, it's just too good -- the sweeping range that nearly hits behind you, the thrust, the two-handed moveset, the guard break. My main pvp character is sl44 with this in the right hand and a Great Scythe in the off-hand for range (secondary weapons are caestus for parries + perseverance with the straight sword, and a fire dagger for quick step in swampy areas).

Nice! Yeah as a boss you don't get any estus, but you do get Dark Souls 1 level poise. A lot of people bring blessed regen items and healing miracles as the church boss.

After I got handily dispatched in PvP by one, I switched over to a sharp spiked mace and I'm so happy with it. Finished NG. I don't think I can recall a better series of final bosses than there are in this game... Midir and Gael especially feel like some kind of high-water marks

One of my favourite moments in DS1 was the first time I won NG and plowed through the first half of the game in NG+ in a couple of hours. I started doing the same in DS3 and it's just amazing how small the world is compared to how it felt the first play through... how I had to carefully strategize every section, remember every enemy's location. It doesn't feel as if the ease with which I play is a product of "higher stats, better gear" so much as it is "Man Of Pus doesn't scare me any more"

Consistently the most overpowered enemy on the second play through is the evangelist. It feels like they levelled-up their spiked mace to match my own

I read up and understand now what they mean by "meta level" and I am halting my character's development at SL 128 to hopefully enjoy some PvP. I intend to keep running my high-DEX setup but will likely switch to mage-mage if my patience permits me a NG++ run

Congrats!

I actually opted out of meta-level pvp a long time ago, the damage is so high that you can die in three hits, and everyone's got everything on their builds (hornet ring, tears of denial, chaos bed vestiges, etc).

I've got a sl44±4 character that I use in the Cathedral through central irithyll, a sl66+6 for Pontiff, and a sl77+7 for Grand Archives. I've found a lot more groups actually trying to get through the levels that way, and for me it's more fun to fight a group of players who maybe aren't pvp experts than dueling one person who is (although they can be fun too). But groups at meta level who are just trying to crush invaders, I burnt out on that.

Also lower-level pvp is fun because the damage to health ratio is more forgiving. You can take a bunch of hits, make mistakes and learn from them, and also need to apply pressure instead of playing passively and waiting for that one big parry or whatever.

I def. feel like I missed out not playing online, but I don't feel like I missed too much. It almost sounds like a different game.

It kinda is! Certainly a completely different set of skills. You don't have to worry about pressuring or roll-catching the AI, or playing parry mind games.

Yeah, I was reading something about the mirror knight in DS2, where it can summon another player, and a lot of people pointed out that it summoning an NPC is not too bad, but if it succeeds in summoning a player the player could be a lot more trouble than the boss.

Same for the spear of the church in DS3, and the Old Monk in Demon's. I guess they just skipped the 'player as boss' in DS1 and BB.

I really lucked out I guess with my Halflight PvP moment. I went in solo and beat the guy solo. Since then I've "been the boss" about twenty times, each time there were 1-2 accomplices, and I've only managed to hold my ground against them.. 25% of the time?

Also you're not kidding about "meta PvP". I'm getting destroyed. Nosomuch because I can't go toe-to-toe with an invader, and more because there are clearly some tactics involved. I've had invaders suddenly backed up by one or two identically dressed helpers. Invaders making a bee-line for the most dangerous part of the area and letting a mob of enemies do the job. I've been playing Darkmoon as my covenant and I get summoned most often to late-stage DLC areas (Dregs, Ringed City) and my SL 130 character, weakened by the summon, is definitely struggling with Ringed and Haldar Knights that I would otherwise not have issues with. One Dark Spirit cleverly led us into the death from above area of Ariendel and I didn't even have time to roll away between the thunderbolts from the tower.

One particularly nasty summon found me and the Dark Spirit in the entry zone of Ringed City with the 100 phantom archers. I was able to murder the dude in a Saint Sebastian fever dream

I went back to DS3 pvp last night (Pontiff, sl65 I think) and ended up fighting the same extremely good player like 10 times. I would invade him, and if I waited a few minutes he would invade me, because literally no one else was playing this game.

I lost every time except once, and still enjoyed it more than winning in Elden Ring because the fights were long & tense, and felt more strategic than based on who had the better build with the more apocalyptic ash of war.

I seem to have a habit of giving up on Soulsborne games right at the very end:

- I got to Micolash with Bloodborne, but then Elden Ring came out
- Dark Souls 1, I completed, but I just couldn't beat Kalameet

And more recently with Dark Souls 2, I got so far but gave up on the Fume Knight. The snowfield level after him looks gruelling, so maybe I'll come back to it one day.

So I've fast-tracked to DS3, and blimey! The difference between DS2 (which I have a lot of love for) and this one is marked. You can really feel the quality jump from PS3 to PS4 - but even from Bloodborne. Amazing to think those three games came out within a two year gap from each other...

There's a real sheen to this one. Everything is silky smooth, beautifully rendered, exquisitely detailed. The inherent "jank" that made the earlier games quirkily endearing is largely gone, save for the continued insistence on keeping the NPCs as uncanny as possible.

Coming relatively late to the Soulsborne series, I'm in the unusual camp of rating DS1 the least favourably. Not that it doesn't have some incredible highlights (Sen's Fortress), but there's so much about the art and playstyle that I feel was improved in later games. I think the "coiled" interconnected world is a bit overplayed for a start: People say you can see Blighttown from Firelink Shrine, but I've never seen it?! And by the (significantly weaker) second half of the game, that whole interconnected thing gets defenestrated anyway.

There are a lot of quality of life and mechanical aspects to the game that I think got ironed-out in later games too. And that goes double for DS3, which dispenses of most of the cruel, frustrating quirks in DS1, gets rid of the ADP from DS2, introduces the FP Estus flask, has a very cool and useful hub area, and just generally makes the play experience more manageable than before.

I really like the fact there are much fewer areas than DS2's neverending buffet-style medley of shorter zones. Excpet these areas are much MUCH bigger than before. It edges the game into semi-open world territory. High Wall of Lothric has to be up there with Stormveil and Boletaria for one of my favourite level designs of all time. I can't get enough of levels like this full of branching paths, hidden rooms, hard-to-reach items, stealthy approaches that really make you think hard before you go running in - that's what I live for. And being able to stand on a tower and look around at the world, spotting areas you've visited and are yet to reach - I can't love that more!

I love that feeling of "Wait - that's clearly the critical path, but where does this tunnel lead? Will I regret going down here?" I'm currently in the Undead Settlement and this feeling is happening frequently. The slight niggle tht I need to go back and check I haven't missed something is palpable.

I'm yet to encounter any real issues with this one so far. I did hear people complaining that the story is a little convoluted and hard to follow (mind you, this is Souls - I don't think I fully understand the story of any of them).

And also that there are some elements thrown-in that read like unnecessary fan service. I kind of get that: The cut scene of the demon creatures that carry you to Undead Settlement as an explicit callback to DS1 is cute, and I did laugh. But it also left me wondering why? Like, in DS1 you've fought your way all the way up to the top of Sen's Fortress; there's seemingly nowhere left to go, but these demons show up and take you even further on to the magnificent lost city of Anor Londo. Here, you just beat a boss and they take you down to a grotty shanty town. It's not a big gripe, but it makes me wonder why they couldn't have just had the Undead Settlement joining straight onto the High Wall - there's no realy reason for this not to have happened beyond "Hey, it's me Miyazaki - I'm back and to prove it, here are these guys from the first game!"

But no, that's a very minor gripe. I'm really enjoying this one. One of the fun things about going through and playing all these games is to see how much DNA they share with the others. And DS3 feels like a "greatest hits" or victory lap of sorts. But it also has enough original stuff going on that would eventually influence parts of Elden Ring. Notice how the pilgrims in DS3 resemble the character Hornsent in Shadow of The Erdtree, for example.

Anyway: Wonderful game so far. I'm only on the second area, but already I'm very impressed.

Bloodborne to DS3 is an incredible 1-2 punch, peak From imo.

Love this, it's still my favorite in terms of the combat mechanics and just feel, and after playing hundreds of hours of pvp (which I still come back to, because it's that fun) I know most of the areas like the front of my hand. Not Undead Settlement though - I didn't do much low low level pvp, and some of the twists and turns there and in the poison swamp still confuse me.

Yeah, I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this as much as the others, but so far it's a standout, and a clear precursor to Elden Ring. Can't believe it took until this game to introduce battle arts. They also revive a bunch of things from Demon's Souls which I think worked very well and was surprised that they got rid of, like the FP Estus, weapon upgrades etc.

Interesting that they more-or-less flipped the whole hollowing mechanic on its head: Becoming "kindled" is now considered a buff and a bonus rather than the other way round where if you were hollowed it was considered a penalty. Personally I like DS2's gradual hollowing mechanic the best. I also liked DS2's ability to slowly wear down a difficult area to the point where enemies would stop spawning. Of the mechanics in DS2, I'd keep those, but perhaps they were only useful in that game.

An amusing moment. Bear in mind this was my first time walking down this path and encountering this enemy type

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYDUvAc-bY

Dark soulsssss!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QMS60h_ZRA

So it turns out those enemies chasing me don't respawn after you kill them?

Do you mean the monsters with crosses on their backs, or the humanoid duo that drop the Exile greatsword etc? I thought that the monsters respawn, but the player character-style ones don't (there are a few of those scattered throughout the game, and they all drop unique weapons).

I don't think Farron’s Followers respawn. They also don’t attack unless you annoy them and are pretty easy to kill if you do. They’re fast, though, so trying to run away will end badly.

Yeah the two black knight type guys. They gave me an awful amount of trouble and I was like "What is this place?" but once I beat them, they wwent all DS2 on me and didn't respawn. Is there a lore reason for that? Seems a bit arbitrary that I only need to fight them once.

oh I didn't find them especially easy to kill, no

especially while being chased by giant crabs and lycanthropes at the same time. this area is super bloodborney :-)

also the boss (who I had to fight a zillion mages to get to) is no joke - managed to one shot me

The conventional tactic is to make them fall down the the long ladder behind them. :)

I'm sure there's a lore reason behind the npcs, they're all area-appropriate. Different from npc invaders, which exist too (there's one in this area if you're embered and haven't killed the boss).

hehe, i think that's how i eventually managed to kill one of them. i didn't realise they were classed as NPCs as opposed to regular enemies - can you talk to them? Not sure whether or not I attacked them first either. They were not very nice to me

according to a podcast i listen to, there might be a bonfire i haven't discovered.

should i go to Farron's Keep first, or try to beat the boss?

No, they don't have much to say. There's a bit of a split route here, I say do Farron's Keep unless it feels like you're under leveled (though a lot of it is running while poisoned, lol) ? I think either is fine but it's been a long time.

I love the cathedral and it's my favorite invasion area by far, but I can't remember how hard it feels on a first run.

Ive felt about the right kind of leveled until now, but the boss of this area seems tough after fighting so many enemies. I reckon I still have a few bits of this area to unturn anyway.

Have to say, I'm really impressed with DS3 so far. Compared to the first two, it feels incredibly well balanced in terms of difficulty. I really like the way the levels are designed. It might not be the most original of the lot, but it does a good job of picking and choosing the best bits of all the previous games, and as such feels comfortable to play without feeling unchallenging or boring