From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

hahaha, you accuse me of semantics and technicalities when you are the one who brought in the fucking tutorial into the whole thing? hahaha, that's rich. "faggot" doesn't even begin to describe your idiocy, even skyway would be ashamed. and you're the one who brought in the bosses count after i challenged your false claim that DaS2 is "the most non-linear Souls game". i don't care who likes more what game, as long as people don't try to pass opinions as facts or just lie like you did. so yeah, fuck off

they get adds, but i did not notice anything else "new" (other than Mirror knight summoning players rather than NPCs). it would've been infinitely better if the bosses got more moves instead of just throwing adds in. f.e. Lost Sinner would easily be top 3 Souls boss ever if instead of those lame pyromancers she got some pyromancies herself, plus a more varied and less predictable moveset in NG+

it is very, very easy to aggro them one at a time, and then backstabbing them is as easy as your average DaS1 enemy. it's always dagger time with those dudes

heeey... they're not generic, they're just reskins with more HP and damage than the ones in Heide's (and maybe an extra move)!

heide knights are the only "unpredictable" enemies. people bitch because they have much wonkier hitboxes and active frames on their attacks, and some of the tracking is even more ridiculous than Taurus demon. and stats make no difference in parrying, only shield

i did not realize there were any spellcasters in 'cause a single flame swathe wiped them all out

please do, i'd really like to read your thoughts on it 'cause you're one of the few sensible people here

judging by your interpretations and jumping to conclusions without any rhyme or reason, i'd say you're really really lucky to still have a job

 

Looking at a speedrun, it seemed old iron king (or whatever its name was) added some AoE flames to his melee attacks so they were marginally harder to dodge in NG+.

 

There you go again back pedaling into your personal space. "B-but it's only a tutorial!", no it's not you idiot. It's a proper zone with one mandatory boss fight and an optional boss fight that will score you a key item that will allow you access to a huge optional part of the game. Doesn't sound like a place that's "just a fucking tutorial" as a simian like you would put it. Saying that the Asylum is a only tutorial is the very definition of twisting semantics and technicalities for the sake of doing so just so you can get in the last word on a matter that you had lost before you even began your rampage of butthurt and irrationality. You are lashing out at anyone who attempts to challenge your precious Dark Souls and scream falsity at anything they claim and then twist the words and meanings so that it works more into your favor. Why are you acting like a woman? Is it that time of the month again?

 

It also bears mention that DaS1 has already had years of speculationcrafting among the fandom behind it, so it has a natural advantage in that regard (personally I think both games kind of "cheat" when it comes to storytelling due to how overly minimalistic they can be).

 

Man you think the game is railroaded because you have no idea about all the paths you can take. It's a good idea to a) play the whole game and b) know all the paths before you say that it's railroaded. Beginning the game, there are at least 4 zones that you can potentially go to, did you know that? As far as I can see, it's no more railroaded than DS1 was.

 

Ok, so due to ususal codex edginess, and the fact that the older game must always be better than the new game, because nostalgia fags. Let's look at what this game does worse and what it does better than DS1.

Better than DS1.
-Gameplay. There is just no discussion to be had here. Gameplay wise, DS2 is superior to DS1 by bringing in subtle but game changing modifications that improved the gameplay all over the board. Game exploits like infinite backstabs in PVE has pretty much been dealth with, infinite blocking is no longer a viability, and dodging must actually be considered, rather than spastically side rolling every fucking time. What's more, the non-boss monsters and the environmental dangers are just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better in DS2. In DS1 the game relied on killing you almost exclusively by knocking you off, or making you fall off thin ledges, that was the only way they tried to kill you pretty much. In DS2, not the case at all, there are way more traps, there are ambushes, and cleverly designed monsters that pose real danger.
-This is my personal opinion, and probably controversial, but I liked the NPCs more in DS2. In DS1, they relied to much on the NPCs being either alice-in-wonderland-ish or having that creepy laughter, or just being plain evil. Pate has been said to be just another patches, which in my opinion is bullshit. Patches was completely one dimensional, and you knew what he was doing, Pate? Not so much. In fact, playing through I have realized that you have no evidence to whether he is tricking you or not. He is much more interesting and open to interpretation than Pathces ever was, and really, the only thing you have to go on, that he's setting you into traps, is anecdotal evidence from other NPCs who claim to have known that he set them up. What's more, Pate also helps you in fighting the last Giant. And since not everything has to be grimdark, both DS1 and DS2 also had humorous characters, but again, DS2 just outwits DS1 here. Gavlan and Straid (which has the same voice actor I guess as Frampt, but much better use of the voice) are just some of the most memorable characters I've ever seen, and both made me grin wildly.
-And speaking about humor, the statues that you can throw on the ground that say "hello", "thank you", "I'm sorry" and "very good", fucking pure gold! And also very useful in conveying information you can't easily do with gestures.
-Bigger game, this can be listed as both a con and pro, I guess.
-Way better matching making, it actually works this time around, unlike DS1, where you could never make a connection.
-Better looking game, technically.
-Better, more interesting covenants.

Worse than DS1:
-Less interconnectivity, it seems to be the case. There are at least 3 points that I remember, where you can progress no further, and must warp back to majula. (Now that I think about it, DS1 actually had at least 3 points where you could continue no longer as well, and you just had to warp back, hmm, I'm not sure if this is actually true)
-Has more ugly areas, lost bastille is particularly a sore point here in my opinion. Of course the dragon shrine and the zone leading up to it, is more beautiful than anything previously seen in From games. Truly marvelous.
-Some areas, particularly the gutter and iron keep are very gamey, and doesn't have the organic feel that many areas in DS1 had. This is a consequence of the ramping up on the gameplay, and making more interesting environmental dangers by making gauntles, but it's still a pity that they couldn't do it in a better way. Most other areas do feel as organic as DS1 though.
-Less varied boss fights? I'm not sure about this. DS2 has way more boss fights, so they may seem more samey, but I think they don't have that much less variety. I have to think about it some more.
-Extreme rarity of twinkling titanite. This would be understandable, if these weapons were much better than the one requiring the normal titanite, but they aren't. It strongly discourages experimentation, and forces you to consult wikis on whether it will be good or not, which sucks. This is actually my single biggest gripe with DS2 with respect to DS1.

Anyway, obviously my list is biased, disclaimer, but anyone saying that DS2 is a failure is as a sequel is a retard. It's an extremely worthy sequel, and not what fallout 2 was to fallout 1 at all.

 

The non-linearity ends after the beginning of the game. It is a theme park on rails, and there is no real reason to try and argue against it.

Majula has:

1. Giant place

2. Forked road

3. Well

4. Fire tower place

5. Huntsman Copse



It's incredibly front-loaded and reeks of amateur hour game design.



Then Dark Souls non-linearity is:

1. Swamp to giant tree place or boss

2. Valley of Drakes to New Londo or Swamp

3. Firelink to Burg, Parish, Crow, Tomb.

4. Sister Spider to lava place or Izalith

5. Darkroot to Oolacile, 2 bosses, or Burg

6. Anor Londo to Painted World or boss

That might be it, but that's all that I can remember atm. As you can see, Dark Souls 1 not only has more branching paths, but also has them placed throughout the game and the pace is much better.

 

Protip: The statues were in DaS1 as well(technically added in the DLC, but the master race version always had them). I'm not sure I buy bigger game, considering it took me 20 hours less to complete.

 

Yeah, 30 hours you used? You must have rushed like hell. No wonder you didn't like it.

 

I dunno, I don't think I rushed that much. I did most of the optional stuff and explored. I might've started rushing a bit after donglake castle but that's because I was getting rather tired of the game.

 

1. I do like the shield breaks, they're a great addition. I gotta disagree with the better monsters though, since most of them have infinite stamina, insane tracking, or terrible damage bloat [naked sword zombies at the bottom of the poison area].

2. Gotta disagree again. As a whole, voiced NPCs are better in DS1, but the Pate/Creighton NPC's are better compared to Patches. The rest of the NPCs in Dark Souls 2 are incredibly non-responsive and boring: Oh hey i saved your daughter/Here's your dad [no further dialogue or content happens], Oh, I bought up all of your stock and you forgot everything, yet you still don't go hollow or leave the area, neat. Oh, I saved you by summoning you to 3 different boss fights, but I still fight the same character, just a different name appears when the invasion happens.

3. These were in the first game, so I gotta discredit this point.

4. Dark Souls 2 is not bigger, the levels are much smaller, it's just the scumbags at FROM or NAMCO thought they were clever by splitting an area in to 2 [Gargoyle Areas or Salt Fortress by Lost Sinner, these bonfires should not count as separate areas] or spamming bonfires to bloat the area catalog.

5. It's better, but I still run in to bad signs/dragon eyes all of the fucking time.

6. Yet you complain about the ugly textures in your con paragraph? It's not good texture wise, or aesthetically wise, most of the game is trashy.

7. I'd say Covenant quality is about the same. They just removed useless covenants like Princess Guard, Way of the White, Servants of Chaos, but ended up putting one more in: Way of the Blue. Also PvP covenants are really poorly designed and counter-intuitive, but that's a separate issue.

8. I guess i'm a retard then.

 

Fixed that a little for you. I suggest you take a good look at these two maps, and tell me again how DS1 is non-linear, and how DS2 is completely on rails. And how exactly is DS2 a theme park, while DS1 is not?



Sure there are more interconnnectivity, I've said as much. But the difference isn't immense.

 

Game certainly feels bigger, which I think works to its disadvantage. I've already seen at least two areas which could be cut to improve overall quality. Harvest Valley, in particular, is ugly, boring, and pointless. That it houses the sunbro covenant is just insult added to injury.

Also, DS1 had a "core area" of sorts, which was heavily interconnected, and very consistent aesthetically - Firelink, Undead Burg and Parish, Darkroot, Valley of Drakes, Depths, Blighttown and Sen's Fortress. All these areas have a similar colour palette, you can clearly see the same landmarks from everywhere, and so forth. When you move away from this core area, the structure becomes more like DS2, which is a bunch of mostly separate paths originating at Majula.

Curiously, DS1 goes noticably downhill once you kill O&S and start warping. Maybe having that for the whole game wasn't such a good idea?

Backstabbing in general is a lot harder in Das2, which I count as one of the major mechanical improvements. In particular, powerful attacks seem to knock you back more and result in a longer recovery animation from the block.

I don't really like backstabbing though. The reason I found the guardians difficult, is that I normally use slow weapons, and they recover really fast, both from their own combos as well as your hits. In this, I think, they're unlike any previous Souls enemy, or at least I don't recall anything similar. And I'm playing with call of champions, so getting hit once due to misjudging a guardian's recovery time would typically kill me.

 

It is immense, when all of the inter-connectivity happens at the first hub, and ceases to exist after it [except for the forked road I guess, but that's it]. Again, i'd have to disqualify a few areas out of that map, solely because they aren't separate areas, they're just catalog inflaters [Undead purgatory, Gargoyle areas, Salt Fortress/Sinners Rise, Blue cathedral etc.]

 

In this case there are some DaS1 areas that qualify for the same disqualification as well.

 

Which ones?

 

Firelink Altar, Crystal Cave, the Darkroot area, Undead Burg and Lower Undead Burg imo.

 

That map of DkS1 isn't even accurate. Valley of Drakes doesn't just connect from new londo to blight town, (which it does twice actually) but also to darkroot basin. And
Demon Ruins/Izalith isn't even on there. Wtf.

Edit:
And the well in Madula hardly counts as an option for a first area to explore, unless there's 13k souls sitting under a rock nearby I hadn't noticed. I suppose I might have missed an earlier branch of yore as well, but I kinda doubt it. These areas still require you to progress through giant's forest to get the items required to get to them, unless you're going to be autistic and farm them from enemies over and over, in which case you could do it in the tutorial area. Wow, such non railroading, I can farm enemies that drop like 20 fucking souls for 30 hours!

 

i really don't see them recovering all that fast after their combos (slightly faster than the average DaS1 enemy, sure, but nothing game-changing. there are enemies with much faster turn rates or response times and after the initial period of acclimatisation to the new mechanics and turn/track rates, i did not find backstabbing all that much harder except in crowded situations where the initial part of the animation is not invulnerable). i always had enough time to hit them at least once even with huge slow weapons like greathammers (that stagger them pretty easily and reliably. it was just bait->2HR2 pancake->2HR2 on wakeup->dead). what slow, heavy weapon are you using that you cannot stunlock them?

 

maybe better. i prefer not to remember demons ruins/lost izalith. shittiest areas/fights in all 3 games

in ng+ they are black phantoms and aggro all 4 at once with black phantom artificial undead. i really would like to see how you dodge those 4 fuckers while baiting/killing the 5th...

 

I agree completely with merging the Burg's and the Darkroot areas, Crystal Cave I could go either way on, and I don't know why Firelink Altar shouldn't count as its own area.

 

You are mistaking the Kiln of the First Flame with Firelink Altar. Firelink Altar is the tiny area where you offer the Lord souls to the Lordvessel and then the stairs down with the ghosts walking by.

 

Ahh, alright, yeah.

 

Shield breaks are a great idea but executed terribly. I don't carry around a giant slab called Havel's Greatshield that eats away most of my equip load just so you can swing your baby arm and fucking stun me into a riposte. I played the entire series with a shield but it's pretty much useless in PvP now (except for blocking long range attacks). I can still block 10+ giant knight overhead mace swings in PvE though.

 

SOULS
GAMES
ARE
NOT
NON-LINEAR

Pleas for the love of Solarie.