From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

yay, everybody's two favorite areas.

 

Playing as a sorcerer. I got to Lost Bastile. Alarm bells immediately started ringing. I had 26,000 souls and I knew I should go back and lvl up/buy some stuff. Nope. Decided to go have a look around. Killed the first bunch and then got to the boss area. Instant spinny death. Summoned someone to help me get back. I had 1 effigy. Fell off a stair when a fat fuck rushed me. All souls lost. Oh well, just another dark souls day

 

How are you guys so fast already I am still not finished with either Forest of Fallen Giants or that Heide Tower (the latter atleast I defeated the dragon rider boss at first try)

 

Magic mace +10, tower shield +10 and summoned NPC. That was the end of looking glass knight on first try.

Shrine of Amana is easy if you have patience to hide behind pillars with a decent bow and take those mages one by one.

I almost got to the second fog door and realized that the water becomes deep at the end much too late.

 

Criticism time:

There's a bit of that Fallout 2 to Fallout 1 feeling. DS1 feels more subtle and generally darker. DS2 is really much bigger and has more variety of the "theme park" sort. There's a bajillion areas that don't connect in any way with each other, bajillion items/weapons/armor that I never even bothered to use.

I like the game, but the charm of DS1 isn't there. I blame it all on travel anywhere really. The game becomes pretty much a bonfire run - get to a new bonfire and warp back to buy shit/level. Emerald Herald is the most retarded thing since Candle Maiden. Weapon upgrade system sucks - I had +10 weapons/armor halfway through the game. Warping to other areas when running into difficulty just ruins the flow. Regular enemies being much tougher is really the only thing keeping up the challenge. I had way too many souls and had to buy useless trinkets to avoid overlevelling.

Sound design is really sub-par this time. NPC writing/acting is a lot more generic without and more plentiful. New Solaire/Patches just don't cut it.

Graphics - I really don't care, but I preferred DS1 over this. Animations are out of whack, armor is completely covered with HAVOK(TM)-CLOTH-PHYSICS-CHECKITOUTGUYSSOCOOL!!11!

They really should've focused on something other than adding tons of "stuff". DS1 was a lot more unforgiving.

 

Already posted several pages ago.

This shit is depressing. I watched several streams and the quantity of mobs is simply rubbish.

 

Are you forced to warp between bonfires to get from one area to the other? If not, that's a pretty retarded criticism.

 

You arent forced to Do it, but the areas arent interconnected with each other anymore like in Ds. It really feels different in that regard, the Fallout 1 to 2 comparison is Spot on

 

What do you mean that they aren't interconnected? Loading screen going between areas?

 

To me Dark Souls didn't feel all that dark so I don't think there is any lost atmosphere here. It felt like a dark fantasy, sure, but not a horror / dark fantasy like DeS. Jesus Christ Latria. Nothing gets more atmospheric than that. It feels a lot more theme parky now than DaS did, but everything I've seen I've loved so far so can't complain about that much. DeS was a straight up theme park as well, what with the archstones, but that didn't take away from the atmosphere at all.

My main criticism for DaS2 is that the music is absolute garbage so far. Not a single memorable piece in any boss fight. DeS had an excellent OST. DaS was okay, not as good as DeS overall but still had its moments.
Also Sorcery is kinda garbage now to the point where I think it may be the worst build. If you want to play with magic then pick any other type of magic but Sorcery imo. Slow-ish cast for spells that don't do as good damage as they did before, which is alright I can deal with that, except that now most boss fights have you dealing with multiple targets which is shit for when you have to pick off enemies slowly one by one. It's much easier to be built like a tank and swing at all the enemies around you with a big weapon for about the same damage that I do with my Soul Arrow spells.

I mean I never got peoples' complaints saying that Sorcery was OP and ez mode. It was true for DeS where you could literally 1-2 shot bosses, but in DaS I thought it was so much easier to go pure strength and go for the heaviest shit you could find. You'd tank everyone like a boss and hit like a truck. Especially so since armor actually meant something in DaS and was pretty much useless in DeS so keeping range was your best defense.

 

Korgoth approves.

 

I went straight from Manjula, to Heide, then straight down to No Man's Wharf, which took me back to Lost Bastile. Didn't use any bonfires to warp. Seems pretty connected. Graphics, i don't give a fuck about the graphics. They seem fine to me. They're not any worse than Dark Souls. That's all I ever wanted. I know those shit munchers at neogaf are having their daily drama about them, which is no surprise. The majority of those dickrags didn't go anywhere near the game until PewDiePie played it, and suddenly they were all DS's biggest fans. Now it's all, muh graphics, muh rights. Fuck those faggots. They are nothing more than filthy, fair weather, band wagon jumping bitches.

 

You are not forced and some areas are kind of connected (Lost Bastille through No-Man's or Forest Of Giants after certain boss). The problem is that it's a core gameplay mechanic. Majula is the starting point to all locations which end up being dead ends once you're done with the final baddie (kind of like getting souls for the lordvessel). Progressing pretty much feels like DS1 after getting the lordvessel (see: decline). At least DS1 didn't have a retarded hub with all of your go-to needs, so getting to a smith was a problem (at least before getting the lordvessel).

Archstones felt disjointed as fuck and it didn't help that it was a console game (Mario "worlds" come to mind). Having to do other worlds bit by bit after beating the tower knight was just plain bad. I still ended up going through each world in order. Latria is good but it all gets ruined when you're going back and forth between the nexus to buy shit or get some shit in a completely different world.

Travelling from Anor Londo to Undead Parish or Catacombs to get some weapon enchants was a challenge. You actually had to think ahead and stick with your choice when going to a specific area (especially if you've got shitloads of humanity so you can't just suicide run).

The main theme in DeS was absolutely horrid (those trumpets.....). I really only liked Allant/Astraea/Nexus. Dark Souls had Ash Lake, Gwyn, Firelink, Sif, Crossbreed, Nameless... Much better quality.

 

I also think that the overall mood of the game is decidedly less "dark" and hopeless that DaS and definetly less than DeS. The themepark feel is more fun because you don't know what to expect and I guess that comes out of having 2 different directors instead of Miyazaki having an unifying concept of the game; it sort of feels like they had some pretty clear ideas on what they wanted on the main areas and a rough idea of the lesser areas like No Mans Warf and their designers came up with some cool designs like the zombie vikings (which drop a pretty sweet sword for longsword fans) so the overall concept is a bit up and down.
I heartily agree that the whole wraping from the start and having to go to back to Majula removes the feeling of insolation which was so powerful in the original game...
If they allowed you to level up and the bonfires as to not have to leave, it could help on the immersion but I am enjoying the game so far, sort of feels a bit like Dragons Dogma in the whole different locale feel

 

Welp I got a bunch of new sorcery spells (Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass) and all I have to say is that they are pure garbage. I hear that Sorcerer's become better at the very end of the game when they finally get a new Staff that doesn't require heavy investment of Faith to use but until then you are stuck with your pea shooter. Grr shit is so boring I might start with a new character instead of waiting to get into NG+ first. Whatever you do just please don't go with Sorcery. It's kinda disappointing how they removed all the nice features they had in the beta, too, but left in the only negative one; casting spells consumes stamina.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I was going to go Sorcerer for the first exploratory playthrough but now I'll go Knight or Explorer. Looks like they've got pretty nice starting stats.

 

Gotta love the

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Respawning ruin sentinel surprise rape basement room

in Drangleic Castle.

 

You ARE upgrading your staff with titanite, right?

PS:

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In the Black Gulch, you can destroy the poison dart shooting statues.

 

Yeah the whole upgrading staves and holy chime was not explained at all almost anywhere ENB explained it on his channel and you can see the upgrade option for such items on the blacksmith screen; the upgrades rise the effects of your magic.
A friend of mine is going pure sorcerer and after he got a large titanite shard to upgrade to +4 he does almost half more damage he originaly did
When I get the PC version I plan to go with a Deprived starte class and go full sorcerer from there, since with the upgardes it looks like the magic only class is finaly viable

 

Sorcerers are really good in PvP as well, I was having trouble with Homing Crystal Soulmass...until I found the Rebel's Greatshield, that is. That greatshield (which requires 29 strength) is not too good at resisting physical damage (about 70%~) but it resists every other element by more than 90%. Once I got this thing, spells that would normally be hard to dodge and take most of my HP away became chip damage.

By the way, I have beat the game. All of the endgame was fantastic, but a very specific part at the very end was rather lackluster, and for those who worry about these things, the final boss was easy. I still loved the game overall, I'd say it has the same quality as Dark Souls, though they both have different vices and virtues, so I guess it all boils down to how much you care about the things Dark Souls 2 improved, and how much you care about the stuff that got worse.

Also, I believe I figured out a lot of the story/lore, but there are some very important things that I have no idea about (Vendrick, the Giants). Whoever says this game has straightforward lore is lying. I wonder if NG+ offers more clues, I was told by a reliable source that there are new things to be found in NG+, related to the story, beyond just new enemy types and black phantoms.

P.S.: I was able to fight Emarrel, but sadly I was one-shot by Flame Swathe. It was a good fight, but that spell is so powerful. I'd have to face it more to truly say it's overpowered, but that's the impression I'm getting right now.

 

quick impression after first 3 days of constant playing: its harder,better looking game with more polished game mechanic and smoother animations than ds1.
its not lordran 2.0 as some of us probably wished, but lordran was also very different to boletaria. honestly some parts of drangleic setting are much more like kings field games than lordran.

ds1 location design seems to be more coherent and tight but it was all about undead burg+anor londo and nearby tombs while in ds2 they try to show drangleic and 4 or 5 surrounding kingdoms. i am guessing thats why locations are shorter but there is more of them here we have like a last minute travel through 4(???) subordinates of drangleic kingdom?

there are some really fun but not difficult fights like

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smelter demon

and last three bosses before final fight

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demon song,velstadt and way to him, throne defender+watcher

are probably in my top5 fights in all three games.

ALSO THAT FEEL WHEN YOU

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FIGHT IN DARKNESS(thanks to missing some fucking key to lanterns) WITH LAST SINNER

AND YOU GOT PARRIED LIKE A LITTLE BITCH i thought its instant death but she left me 2% of hp

also rat covenant IS BEST COVENANT

 

I have to say, despite my initial worries I didn't get invaded or anything yet while playing Online. Playing the multiplayer of the game seems to be better now that I play the game on a console, lol. It also runs very smooth and without any lag. Finally it is actually fun to help out some people with co-op. I throw a little up in my mouth however whenever I read about that supposedly rat covenant thing. That shit's gonna be so fucking annoying.

 

Of course I am. Mine is +6 but it's such a shitty Staff anyway that it doesn't really help at all. I mean of course it helps more than if I didn't upgrade it, but I still need to shoot normal mooks 2-3 times with my spells to kill them. And that's not really a good situation to be in. Compared to everyone I summon who just straight up destroys everyone in one hit with their giant Guts swords. Doesn't help that heavy 2 handed weapons were buffed in this game and swing much faster now. Like I said though, Sorcerer's are bumped back slightly into the same power category as they were in DaS, but that's only at the veeeeery end of the game when you finally get a pure Int staff and not some queer Int/Faith hybrid that requires you to invest more than 10 levels of Faith which you won't need at all unless you are a Hexer.

But I think the main problem may stem from the fact that the game was balanced for all the Sorcery changes they had, which they removed after beta. Changes like wielding your staff with two hands for more damage, free aim (only possible if you have binoculars equiped now what the hell?) and also R2ing spells would set them off with a larger damaging spell but take longer to cast. There were a bunch of items that boosted magick damage as well that have been removed. Everything you can find now will only improve your cast speed or amount of charges that you have.

 

Fucking Pursuer, I just cant kill him