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More DSVania rando; this time, it's Dawn of Sorrow.
I have tentatively identified the issues I had with PoR as being related to the enemy randomizer, and have thus turned it off. I've also turned off the text randomization, but all the other practical settings are as close to my PoR run's as possible.
Standard intro stuff here; Soma is in Japan, gets attacked by a cultist, kills monsters, steals souls, etc. However, due to drop randomization, they don't drop their own souls.
Skeletons, for example, drop Gergoth's soul, which gives Soma the most common power available in the Dragon Ball franchise. Yes, even more so than flying.
Armor Knights, meanwhile, give him a superpowered spit-take.
And Golems... wait, couldn't he have done this already? I mean, it's just an uppercut. I'm never equipping this again; it didn't even hit that container right in front of me. Speaking of which...
I also get a bunch of souls just for showing up at the castle. Starting with gender-bending charges (massive downgrade from Aria's Valkyrie soul)...
...I also get the powers of efficient slacking, tankiness...
...spinning an oversized baton (that makes one soul I started with that you're supposed to have at this point in vanilla)...
...a soul that does absolutely nothing thanks to me using the "always see breakable walls" option, and quick-swapping loadouts. The Doppelganger soul, for the record, is standard-issue in the randomizer; you will always get it in the first room.
And don't think I'm forgetting about that giant pile of equipment next to the soul thingies. The weapons look fun: A sword cannon (yes, really, and it's actually a projectile) and a punch-Katana.
Didn't get any actual armor in there, but that earring gives a ton of defense. That said, I'm leaning more towards using that Rare Ring (also standard-issue, FYI; you start with it in your inventory) for more drops.
And finally, starting consumables. 3 Potions is nice, but won't last too long if the defensive penalty from the sword cannon is too much of an issue; fortunately, I've got some food, too, though I'll need the Ghoul soul to use some of it properly.
And yes, that is a newspaper I picked up. I'll need a source of electricity and the right room to do anything with it.
Bats drop Biker Jackets for a sizable boost to defense.
Skeletons (such as the one that gave me Gergoth), meanwhile, drop Valman-Bhuj. That Katana's instantly obsolete (and conveniently I should be able to use this to summon Mothmen later on as well).
The Skeleton's other drop is the Eversing, which... is kind of a sidegrade to the Biker Jacket- less defense, more killing stuff.
And the Bat's soul... well, spawns these weird little things. They don't seem to do anything, and are definitely too slow for my tastes; I'll stick to my spit-takes.
The next screen's Peeping Eye gives pureed liver (convenient callback to my successful run there).
It technically doesn't drop a soul, because it drops Grand Cross instead. Been studying under Julius there, Soma?
Anyway, ironic as it may be to use this, it takes way too long to come out and costs way too much, so back to the spit-takes again.
Somebody left a loaded gun lying around out here. It's a wonder it still works, given all the snow. (There's also another Katana below it, but you've already seen that.)
Zombies give me the ability to summon zombified dogs to charge enemies (much faster than the Homunculus soul). Somewhat appropriate, and potentially useful too! I'll equip that one.
Axe Armor gives me faster levels.
And Wargs give me... I have no idea what this does. None of them have physical items to drop, for the record.
Flying Armor is... well, it's a tutorial boss. Nuff said there, I think.
It gives me a guillotine. Too much setup for my tastes, and I doubt I could aim it properly against anything that moves and/or is smaller than half the screen.
Tower Key. At a guess (it's been a long time since I played DoS, okay?!) this unlocks the Clock Tower.
...Also, I'm pretty sure in vanilla this is a bigger jump; I made it up here without issues even without the gliding soul.
Flight already?
Okay, backtracking to explore the places I couldn't reach without Bat Company. This dropped from a Skelerang. Plenty of power, but I prefer Valman-Bhuj.
Bigger potion in the top corner of that room.
This is worse than that earring I started with, and thus will never be used.
Found an Armor Knight up here, too; its drop is crap.
Didn't get a screenshot of Skelerang's other item drop since it was on top of some money at the time, but here's its stats. It's wholly appropriate for it to drop a Boomerang, I'd say. Its soul inexplicably gives lightning resistance.
Gonna head down next time. And/or fly over the castle's drawbridge, since I can do that now. I could fly up past the Skelerangs to the Guest House, but that's a bit too much of a difficulty spike for my tastes.