From Software Dark Souls II poll

[nomask7]

I hope it is the case. It would lead finally to stopping cheasing tactics. Also not only enemies chase you "forever" but also they move and patrol like that one hollow soldier in whole game (wrf)
DeS1 was so much better compared to DS1and2. In DeS1 they had range but that range was much longer than in DS1/2

It also changes meta gameplay.

I don't see why decreasing the amount of freedom/tactics is a good thing. And enemies that chase you all the time turns the game from an exploration/adventure game into a beat 'em up. It also trivialises grinding because now you have to kill everything all the time anyway. There is no longer that satisfying feeling in choosing to grind/level up your character because you have to do that all the time anyway basically. And you can no longer choose to brave the bosses straightaway - you're always going to have to grind through the normal monsters first.

Not to mention monsters that chase you forever is unrealistic and it also homogenises them (where previously some monsters were more dangerous because they'd chase you a lot longer, now everything is the same - boring).

If you want to play beat 'em ups, there are tons of highly acclaimed ones around from the many Devil May Crys to titles like God Hand, Bayonetta, the Ninja Gaiden series, the God of War series, in a never ending supply. From Software is being retards if they want to transform their unique series into something closer to the crowded field of beat 'em ups.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

http://peterbarnard1984.tumblr.com/post/113787568485/dark-souls-2-design-works-translation-part-2

Second part of interview. This time some new info regarding locations and their early concepts.

 

[praetor]

Could you elaborate?

I hate with passion DeS bonfire system. Fuck beating 4-2 every time you died on your way to Old Hero.

git gud, casul

 

[praetor]

For one in DS2 they removed completely other types of stones. So now you only have shards large chunks and slabs of titanite. In earlier games if you wanted to have different than normal weapon you had to find a way to farm those things. In DS2 what is even mory shitty is that you can buy unlimited amout of shards chunks large and Slabs which were very very rare now are dropped by mobs. With some farming you can now get your whole arsenal to +10 in no time. So exploration was critical for your gear.

the different stones was some of the most retarded shit ever. the only thing it added is an incredibly stupid, excessive amount of tedium, nothing else. there's no complexity in "use stone X to upgrade dex weapons, stone Y for str weapons" compared to "use stone Z to upgrade weapons"

Difficulty. It is clear that DS2 is easier game than both DS1 and especially DeS.

hahaha.. you've got to be kidding me. DeS is by far the easiest of the lot, particularly when it comes to bosses

Overall Bosses were joke and black phantoms were cheating as much as maldron in DaS2 dlcs.

they were? i remember them having the rusted iron ring that wasn't attainable until the spiritual sequel, but i don't remember them having near-infinite poise, double or triple the health you can have in NG, and i honestly don't remember about animation cancelling but i'm pretty sure it was nowhere near as obnoxious as in DaS2

As of boss design yeah those two are legit hard but don't forget WTF bosses which which DeS included in game like monk where you had to basically PvP with living player or that "immortal" chick that could only be killed when you took care of her master above.

I still remember cursing and wishing everyone death as i constantly had to fight with overpowered (for me back then) players (monk fight). For replayability both are shit now as you know the answer for chick and there are like few players trying to kill you in monk fight.

WTF dude? there's nothing WTF about the Maiden fight. you go down, Garl attacks you immediately, there's nothing to figure out. while DaS2 on the other hand, went into the diametrically opposite direction and offered what is probably THE most stupid shit in the entire series with the Mytha thing

Those rings in DS1 were completely useless as you could find like handful of them and if i remember right you could buy them much much later into game where at that point souls are not really that hard to get nor humanity.

you could buy them at Oswald's for 3-5k a piece iirc, so right after the friggin gargoyles. the big difference is that DaS1 had 2 ring slots of which one was in 90% of the cases occupied by that one ring that breaks if you take it off, so you essentially had only one slot to use for the most part, and getting to Oswald was a pain. in DaS2 you have 4 ring slots and have to get to derpula anyway to level up at the obnoxious green cunt (fuck you director who decided this was a good idea), upgrade and repair shit so fixing them for 3k is nothing

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I can easily understand why people would prefer the previous Souls games to DS2, there are some good reasons to have that preference. However, these same people often make up ridiculous bullshit about the games, I assume out of butthurt that DS2 didn't measure up to their expectations. The mental gymnastics that you need to go through in order to claim that DS2 is too easy in comparison to DeS, for example, are just amazing, especially when it comes to bosses. I mean, we even have Perkel in this very thread, championing the merits of the DeS weapon upgrade system, how fucking delusional do you have to be to actually like that tedious bullshit?

 

[nomask7]

In Demon's Souls you don't have to decide between upgrading, say, bastard sword and broadsword. In a way that's a good thing, because you kind of need both but if they required the same shards to upgrade, upgrading just one of the weapons would probably be a better idea (up to a point).

So far I wouldn't say grinding for shards would be all that tedious if the game had the same bonfire system as Dark Souls. But having to endure those loading screens every time you want the monsters to respawn is annoying.

Also, Demon's Souls doesn't have poise. Any game that has poise, automatically has better combat system.

 

[nomask7]

Ugh...

Dark Souls 1 & 2 SPOILERS ahead:

I was just starting to progress again after beating Giant and then Pursuer - but then I travelled back to where I vanguished Pursuer to check out the small area I had left unexplored when the bird snatched me. Whadda you know. Full set of drangleic armor. So I realised I had just wasted 3 pieces of titanite shard and 1 piece of large titanite shard to reinforce my old iron clad armor and leggings for no reason - even at +4 and +2 they are significantly worse than the drangleic armor (except in terms of poise, where iron is better but not a big difference).

The drangleic armor was basically handed to me on a silver platter. It was just after a boss fight and you couldn't possibly miss finding it. The whole thing was like, here, take a better armor, you gonna need it. So not only I didn't expect to find it - wasting valuable materials - but it didn't feel like a deserved find (neither did the sword and the shield that came in the same package).

I'm also not sure it's a good idea to make such a good armor available at that point anyway. I was having fun reinforcing the armor pieces I found as loot. Finding the new armor kinda spoiled that.

In Dark Souls if you wanted cool armor early on you had to kill black knights (optional and badass and didn't respawn) and get lucky (increasing the drop rates by grinding for humanity points was a good idea). I guess they needed to change something for the new game, but this? No. Just no.

 

[Grimlorn]

That armor isn't the best. Most people miss it as it can be tough to find. You can purchase shards of titanite later on in the game, so they aren't that valuable.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Black Knights don't drop armor... Also you can get Stone Armor pretty much at the beginning - you can't even upgrade it.

 

[Murk]

Drangleic stuff isn't as good as you think, and since it uses twinkling titanites (rare; better saved for end-game stuff) it also only goes up to +5 (50% benefit) whereas conventional armor can go up to 100% at +10 using pieces that are purchasable or much easier to farm.

You'd probably be upset even if you never found the drangleic armor because... well... just keep in mind that it was the OLD ironclad armor you had going on.

Honestly tho, small and large shards are not a terribly precious commodity except for the very early game so don't worry too much about wasting resources.

 

[Makabb]

Is dark souls 2 with 3 dlcs longer than ds 1 with artorias?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Is dark souls 2 with 3 dlcs longer than ds 1 with artorias?

Almost twice as big

Spoiler

and twice as good

 

[pakoito]

Is dark souls 2 with 3 dlcs longer than ds 1 with artorias?

Almost twice as big

Spoiler

and twice as good

Reported.

DS2 without DLCs was like DS1 after finding the Lord Vessel, unstructured and rushed. Don't know if the DLCs improved on it but yuck.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I will not vote.

For me, this franchise is composed of games that complement each other. I really love Emerald herald Dark souls II, near to say that it's my favourite because it follows more the way of Demon's souls than the way of Dark souls I. And i like more Demon's souls than Dark souls. I think it main flaw is some level design, some filling bosses and the world physical coherence.

 

[nomask7]

Fair enough dudes. I feel like playing the game again.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

http://peterbarnard1984.tumblr.com/post/115027243005/dark-souls-2-design-works-translation-part-3

Third part and this time bosses and enemies.

 

[nomask7]

Unlike DS, DS2 makes at least some enemies disappear if you kill them too many times. I'm not sure of the exact mechanic, but I guess it's there to make farming more difficult.

The Scorpioness was giving me a lot of trouble but I didn't want to grind much, knowing about this mechanic. Kind of a shame you can't grind without restrictions. OTOH, I guess finally slaughtering that fucker was more satisfying this way, but still...

I used to dislike bosses but in these games they feel more like more powerful ordinary enemies than gimmicky bosses so they're more or less OK. That said, I'm still more fascinated by the idea of a game where the levels are larger, harder, and bosses entirely optional. Kind of hard to believe no one has tried that approach, considering how cliche and exhausted this current approach is (I've heard that DS2 even recycled some bosses).

 

[Perkel]

Unlike DS, DS2 makes at least some enemies disappear if you kill them too many times. I'm not sure of the exact mechanic, but I guess it's there to make farming more difficult.

lol no. It is change to make game easier.

When you replay level a lot and die on your 4-5-7 enemy despawning first 2-3 will give you better position at handling later enemies. And if you want XP farming PvE is useless as you can just help other people fight with bosses for better xp.

Unless you want to farm gear.

 

[pakoito]

Remember that fungi that killed all your armor and you had to kill to pass through? My full *AWESOME MELEE* character couldn't deal with him so I had to faceplant it with broken armor and run back to the bonfire until it despawned. Not very well thought through

 

[Murk]

If you join Covenant of Champions, the enemies won't disappear. I'm not sure if this causes them to respawn AFTER you have exhausted them, but join before and you'll be fine. You can kill generic mobs up to 15 times for the no longer spawning mechanic. It's a way for the game to tell you that you're a filthy scrub and should get gud until then there's easy mode el oh el

Using an ascetic can also respawn them, of course.

Remember that fungi that killed all your armor and you had to kill to pass through? My full *AWESOME MELEE* character couldn't deal with him so I had to faceplant it with broken armor and run back to the bonfire until it despawned. Not very well thought through

Ridiculous -- just use ranged attacks? Or take off your armor and run past. Not every obstacle ought to be killed. If you're talking about the one blocking an exit past a bonfire then you'd be silly to not just attune some magic via attunement ring or simply use a bow or anything else, and you even have a bonfire to let you warp to a shop to buy a bow if you need to.

----------

DS 2 recycled 2 bosses outright from DS 1, and reused a former boss again in one of the DLCs. All of the recycled bosses are optional tho. The bosses were changed in their timings and overall 'flow' however, and with the exception of the first recycled boss, the other two are more difficult for either silly reasons or for more nuanced timing reasons.

 

[nomask7]

If you join Covenant of Champions, the enemies won't disappear.

I'm thinking of doing this for my second playthrough. I've read though that joining Covenant of Champions makes the game harder by increasing monster damage and decreasing your damage.

 

[Murk]

nomask7

It does, it also makes it so you cannot summon help but can still be invaded. Tho be honest tho, simply going through new game +1 is itself more interesting as enemies not only do more damage/have more health/resistance but there are newer enemies and more surprises in store.

 

[Rolk's Drifter]

I'm not sure if this causes them to respawn AFTER you have exhausted them, but join before and you'll be fine.

I tried it after exhausting the dudes in Aldias keep and it works. So it's pretty much the farming covenant now.

Remember that fungi that killed all your armor and you had to kill to pass through? My full *AWESOME MELEE* character couldn't deal with him so I had to faceplant it with broken armor and run back to the bonfire until it despawned. Not very well thought through

As well ranged weapons, you can summon Felicia who will rofl stomp everyone up to the last boss. You can always send her home with the separation crystal if you want to solo the boss.

And if you want XP farming PvE is useless as you can just help other people fight with bosses for better xp.

That's generally true. Except maybe Iron Keep because for some reason people still seem to have trouble with Smelter. Also the last time I played, it took a long time to get summoned for bosses. Maybe it will be better now that SOTFS is out.

 

[Murk]

If you want to farm souls just kill giant lord; there's an ascetic in the memory and so it is an infinite loop (and you get divine blessings and fire seeds too, of course.)

After max intensity with farming gear it's over 500k souls per kill including the two giants dying from the rolling head.

 

[nomask7]

I tried it after exhausting the dudes in Aldias keep and it works. So it's pretty much the farming covenant now.

The best thing is you can abandon the covenant and rejoin whenever you like (same with all other covenants as well of course).

This game has another cool feature as well, the bonfire ascetic: turning an area into a newgame+ area with better items being sold, more souls per monster, and so on, and respawning all the monsters including the boss. (Only some sellers sell better items though.)

I read on a wiki that the respawning limit is 15.

Demon's Souls had the coolest feature of all though: world tendency. If you died several times in body form, the monsters in the area would become harder and drop better loot and more souls. Certain actions could reverse the change (mainly defeating black phantoms).