From Software Dark Souls 3

[Hyperion]

No, that's not what I'm complaining about. Here's what I said: Here you're pretty much forced to aggro 2 or 3 giant enemies that have tons of HP and hit very hard. There is no way to aggro one of them - I tried arrows, alluring skulls, throwing knives - their AI seems to be a network. If one of them is attacked or detects you within range, the others will come chasing. Is there a way past this encounter that isn't a) skipping it; b) fighting these annoying as fuck enemies with DkS2's shit healing system? No, there isn't. You have to bruteforce your way through the linear level design. There is no exploration involved to overcome a challenge. It's health sponges with triple your recovery time for the sake of "it's so difficult bro im very hardcore haha upvoted" gaming e-cred.
If all you get from that is "you're mad because you have to fight 2 enemies? lol git gud" I'm sorry I can't help you further.

There are multiple ways to tackle that room. You can back out of the rotunda and bottleneck them on the bridge, and don't be dumb enough to roll off to your doom. You can also rush past into either the left or right wing, past one of the shield guys, and the other 2 will leash. Each section has a big enough area for you to maneuver, dodge, block, and get behind them to retaliate. Sounds like your lack of awareness, craftiness, and creativity is the problem, not the game. At least bitch about things that make sense, like the rape horses in an area meant for multiplayer that won't always have active multiplayer. And the NPC phantoms aren't always bright enough to make it through alive, so they aren't a perfect answer to the problem either.

Shrine of Amana isn't even that bad anymore since they nerfed it. I would actually say it's downright easy, and an absolute cakewalk if you have a bow and are willing to not march right into things like a blithering idiot. If for some reason you don't have a bow, get either a Magic Magic Shield or Havel's Greatshield and just block your way through the homing arrow barrage. Even better, just roll through the fucking things and 1 or 2 shot the mages. The bullshit of Shrine of Amana has nothing to do with the number of enemies, the mages, the trudging through water, the ankle biters, or the possibility of a death trap by falling off the edge. It's the fact that the great hammer wielding knights have infinite fucking stamina and make counter attacking them a bitch and a half.

Amana is actually one of the better designed levels in the series. It's not at Sen's Fortress levels of awesome (nothing else in the series comes close), but it has lots of obstacles for you to overcome by different means which I just outlined. It also has a big tradeoff through trying to use light to navigate the safe areas of the water. Using a torch will illuminate the ground in front of you, but will also aggro the ankle biters from a long ways away, and often leave you surprised from the back, or side, and even 1 v 2. It has numerous vantage points for you to use as cover while you whittle away enemies at a distance with a bow. It's one of the few areas where the bonfire isn't too close to the next.

Most of the complaints about SoA are rage from trying to brute force your way through on a first playthrough without slowing down and thinking of other ways to get by. I know, because I felt the same way my first time. Followup playthroughs made me appreciate it a lot more, when I could plan ahead and employ different strategies. There's nothing stopping you from returning to Majula and grabbing some extra tools if at first you fail.

 

[Sentinel]

problem isn't the fact there are a lot of life gems, but with the fact you have little Estus in the beginning?

Little Estus * slows your character down moments before drinking * slow ass healing animation * slow estus healing.
I get they wanted to prevent Estus chugging for PvP purposes (like everything in DkS2), but this didn't really accomplish that goal since you could just spam Estus and it'd heal faster the more estus you used in a quick succession. They should have had slow healing animation + fast healing (same rate as Dark Souls 1) or just make Estus chugging allow for riposte attacks, sort of the way Bloodborne did it - in that game, your blood vial uses can be parried just like any other attack.

 

[Seaking4]

Well, at least it's one less kid to send hatemail in the arena.

Oh, this explains everything. You're a PvP faggot. Your kind fucking killed the franchise and invasions, and only your subhuman kind actually like Dark Souls 2. Because of you they shifted PvP focus from invasions to arenas. You're the reason they babysit people so much in DkS3 with 5 fucking phantoms and endless summons whenever an invader is present. Thankfully Bloodborne is still fun to invade in.

It's funny though that you didn't actually tackle any of my points, merely the broad statements or questions that I posed before actually explaining why you were wrong. Shows how deep in denial you are about DS2. Don't worry, I'm sure those 60€ you spent on release, and then another 60€ when the SotFS came out were perfectly justified.

They shifted PVP focus from invasions to arenas? What? You really have no idea what you are talking about. Also I love how you are bashing Dark Souls 2 because Dark Souls 3 has a worse invasion system. Good stuff.

No one tackled your points because they are stupid and because you say stupid shit like Dark Souls 2 had linear levels where you die plenty of times and your proof is the intro video. What do you want people to say in response to that?

People were pushing for PvP focused areas since Dark Souls 1 came out. From's response to this was arenas. Since people were also complaining a lot about invaders ruining their games, From figured that if people wanted to invade and do PvP, they could just do it in arenas, so they butt fucked invaders hard in Dark Souls 2, and doubled down on it in Dark Souls 3, so as to make the experience as soft as possible. It's really not hard to understand.

And that's your misrepresentation of my point, not my actual point. Try getting some reading comprehension. Unless of course, you have no actual way to counter it, in which case you just straw man it.

Ya the response to this was the belfry locations and the rat king covenant. That was the response. You're conveniently leaving that out of your argument. Those were PVP focused areas and were the direct result of distinct covenants working as intended.

"Dark Souls 2 is just a fucking mess. Its only pro is equipment variety. From a design stand point, the entire game is a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of "challenge" that Miyazaki talked about in Dark Souls 1 interviews. They mistook challenge for difficulty. Miyazaki's Souls games have you explore and use the environment to get past situations. Dark Souls 2 has you bruteforce your way through the narrow linear environment to get past situations. If you actually try to deny this, all you have to do is watch the Dark Souls 2 intro - the entire thing is "lol you'll die over and over and over again!""

Give us examples of that. That's not misrepresenting your point. Or you can give us a Hiver style strawman rant. Whatever you prefer.

Sure. Whenever I reference Dark Souls 2, I'll be talking about the SotFS. I did not play the original.

So the immediate example that comes to my head about a "Miyazaki" design is Central Yharnam in Bloodborne, the area with the mob and a beast being burned in a cross. Now the player arrives and there are tons of enemies - a lot of people probably just went charging in and died overwhelmed by all the enemies, but if you bother exploring, you'll notice that at the start of that section there is this side path that lets you pretty much avoid them all. In this case, the player gets past a challenging encounter (I say challenging to a first time player) using the environment, not actually fighting a mob of enemies. The mob is merely a distraction - it's bait.

This design is also prevalent in Dark Souls 3 - the area in Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, for example, just after Pontiff Sulyvahn. You have these giant enemies and the casters firing shit at you from up above. A distracted player probably just charges in, goes up the stairs and attracks the 2 NPC Drang Knights along with all the casters, dying. But if he actually bothers exploring, he'll notice that you can sneak up behind the casters and pretty much chain backstab them, and then deal with the NPCs in an open area, with no one else bothering you. I could give you more examples, because I know there are more, but I'd have to either replay Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, or watch a playthrough of DkS3.

Now for Dark Souls 2 - the typical encounter: Heide's Tower of Flame. The circular area where you pull the 2nd lever that raises the platform inside the Dragonrider boss arena. Here you're pretty much forced to aggro 2 or 3 giant enemies that have tons of HP and hit very hard. There is no way to aggro one of them - I tried arrows, alluring skulls, throwing knives - their AI seems to be a network. If one of them is attacked or detects you within range, the others will come chasing. Is there a way past this encounter that isn't a) skipping it; b) fighting these annoying as fuck enemies with DkS2's shit healing system? No, there isn't. You have to bruteforce your way through the linear level design. There is no exploration involved to overcome a challenge. It's health sponges with triple your recovery time for the sake of "it's so difficult bro im very hardcore haha upvoted" gaming e-cred.

Another example: Shrine of Amana. Is there an alternative route to deal with the absolute retarded bullshit in this level? No, there isn't. You have to bruteforce your way through the linear design of the level - and even the deviations that the layout takes are solely to give you an item, but even these deviations are frustrating to navigate because the water slows you down and you can't really see if there's a fall in the water or not unless you have a torch out. The only situation where this isn't frustrating as hell is if you've dealt with every enemy in the area - which in itself is not a very fun experience. If you decide to skip past the annoying enemies, which was always a tactic you could use in DkS1, 3 and Bloodborne, the AI seems to just chase you forever and you cannot grab those items without it being a suicide mission.

Yet another: Drangleic Castle. That area right before the King's Gate that leads to Nashandra and the throne, that has all the Ruin Sentinel copies and the phalanx (?) guys. What exactly is the purpose of having this many enemies in this area? I think it'd be perfectly fine if each door unlocked a different enemy, but instead, each door unlocks the same dude, and before unlocking each door you have to fight a 1v2 or 1v3. It's tedium. There's like 6 doors. That's what, 20 enemies in a tiny room? Why? This problem is aggravated because the enemies seem to retain the speed that Dark Souls 1 enemies had, but the players speed is way too slow.

Example number 3: Iron Keep. This area is a straight line to the boss (Smelter Demon). You'd think "oh, that can't be too bad". However, the enemies here have, again, incredible aggro ranges, and it's a constant 1v2 with great archers supporting from the distance. You'd think - "oh, certainly they designed this level so that you can deal with this guys in a more comfortable fashion, right?". No, they fucking didn't. And the entire area is very narrow paths with lava on both sides, and lots of archers. It's not fun to navigate, and there isn't even any good loot in there unless you're a zweibro.

I'm not saying that Dark Souls 2 is all bad, or that Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 are all good (Dark Souls 3 has some very Tanimura moments, particularly in the first part of Ashes of Ariandel), but holy shit - Dark Souls 2's bad moments are something else. It wouldn't be so bad if it managed to reach Dark Souls 1 or 3's peaks, but it doesn't. Even the DLC areas suffer from poor pacing and some incredibly shit areas (Eleum Lloyce's entire optional path *wink* *wink*), despite Sunken King having brilliant level design and something I wish they had done more.

Now I suspect you're gonna say "you're just mad because you died lol". not at all. I don't mind dying as long as I feel the AI is fighting fairly and I'm learning. I died some 27 times to Midir. I'm not even ashamed to admit that I died 16 times to Living Failures in Bloodborne because that boss is so fucking boring that I'd just lose focus (yes I figured out about the sweet spot on the tree on my 2nd run). But with very rare exceptions, I never felt Dark Souls 2 presented me with fair encounters.

I didn't play Bloodborne so I won't touch the first part of your post.

Heide's Tower of Flame is an introductory style level that features a branching path right in the middle. There is one part where you fight one enemy and immediately after doing so you have to fight *gasps* 2 enemies at the same time. That's what you are complaining about?

After you beat the Dragonrider, the Heide Knights start patrolling the area and you can find yourself in a scenario where you fight more but that would be the fault of the player for not picking a better time to attack.

Example 3: I somehow knew you were going to use the Iron Keep as an example which is funny because it is one of the worst possible examples you could give to support your argument. It is most certainly not a straight line to the Smelter Demon like you said. That is undeniable false. Right from the entrance there is a branching path to the right with a hidden wall that allows you to sneak up on an enemy ahead of you. Afterwards, you have the option of going to the Smelter Demon or skipping him entirely (can't have a straight path to a boss if the boss is actually optional) and going through the fire chamber and using the Belfry Sol bonfire. So that's a terrible example. Even after that, there is another branching path that gives you two more ways to progress through the area before reaching the final bonfire and the Old Iron King. The Iron Keep actually does a good job of providing the player which a variety of ways for progressing through the area. As for the loot, you also get the Ring of Blades + 1 in there.

Example 2: The room following the King's Gate bonfire has all those enemies so that you can kill them and open the soul doors/activate the golems to brighten the room. In general you are fighting two common weak enemies at the same time before unlocking a door and revealing a Ruin Sentinel. The room exists for some loot and so that you can access another bonfire right in front of the third dark chasm of the abyss. Once you realize what is happening in there, it should be a fairly easy room to clear. The 'tougher' enemy in there is 1/3 of a boss that in all likelihood you fought much earlier in the game. You're example is a massive exaggeration of what happens in that room and is an example of one room in a much larger area.

Example 1: I agree that Shrine of Amana is a disappointing area in terms of level design. It has several branching paths (one right at the entrance, one with Vendrick's armor, the cave, and walkway with the chest at the end of it) but none of them change how you proceed through the area. It's all right exploration but it does leave something to be desired. That being said, people make it out to be far worse than it actually was.

I'm happy that you ended up enjoying the Midir experience after all:

Finished the DLC. 2 shit fights (Midir and Demon Prince),

I see there I wasted my time on that post. Thanks for completely misquoting me however, got a laugh out of it. Especially because I didn't even mention Demon Prince once. Goes to show how much of it you read (or misunderstood).
Just as a note, Demon Prince is indeed fucking shit and the worst fight of the entire DLC. Sadly for you, that doesn't make Dark Souls 2 any better. Demon Prince might be shit, but at least he's still somewhat relevant to the story of Lorian.

EDIT: Actually, fuck it. I'm going to reply one last time, but I am pretty sure your ability to read might halt your full understanding of what I'm about to say, or maybe it will be your constant misquotations and over simplification of my points. But I'll try once more. It's the last time, I promise.

Heide's Tower of Flame is an introductory style level that features a branching path right in the middle. There is one part where you fight one enemy and immediately after doing so you have to fight *gasps* 2 enemies at the same time. That's what you are complaining about?

No, that's not what I'm complaining about. Here's what I said: Here you're pretty much forced to aggro 2 or 3 giant enemies that have tons of HP and hit very hard. There is no way to aggro one of them - I tried arrows, alluring skulls, throwing knives - their AI seems to be a network. If one of them is attacked or detects you within range, the others will come chasing. Is there a way past this encounter that isn't a) skipping it; b) fighting these annoying as fuck enemies with DkS2's shit healing system? No, there isn't. You have to bruteforce your way through the linear level design. There is no exploration involved to overcome a challenge. It's health sponges with triple your recovery time for the sake of "it's so difficult bro im very hardcore haha upvoted" gaming e-cred.
If all you get from that is "you're mad because you have to fight 2 enemies? lol git gud" I'm sorry I can't help you further.

To your second paragraph:

Example 3: I somehow knew you were going to use the Iron Keep as an example which is funny because it is one of the worst possible examples you could give to support your argument. It is most certainly not a straight line to the Smelter Demon like you said. That is undeniable false. Right from the entrance there is a branching path to the right with a hidden wall that allows you to sneak up on an enemy ahead of you. Afterwards, you have the option of going to the Smelter Demon or skipping him entirely (can't have a straight path to a boss if the boss is actually optional) and going through the fire chamber and using the Belfry Sol bonfire. So that's a terrible example. Even after that, there is another branching path that gives you two more ways to progress through the area before reaching the final bonfire and the Old Iron King. The Iron Keep actually does a good job of providing the player which a variety of ways for progressing through the area. As for the loot, you also get the Ring of Blades + 1 in there.

Spoiler

I'm sorry, my bad. You're right, it's not a straight line to the smelter demon, you have to turn right once. Being optional content doesn't excuse it being shit. I'm sorry but that excuse doesn't fly.

A lot of my post was also about enemy placement, which you conveniently ignored.

As for your paragraph about the King's Gate room, I'm not sure what to say. It was extremely annoying for me, I looked up videos just today - first guy I open says this "this is pretty much the most annoying area in the entire game". Watching ENB's playthrough, he also wasn't very satisfied with it. Maybe it was just me that thought it was shit though.

Feel free to misquote me some more, I'm not gonna bother reading the reply.

They hit hard because their swings take about 5 hours so they have to hit hard (relative to where you are in the game) otherwise they would be the most trivial enemies in any Dark Souls game. I doubt that anyone would consider that two introductory level enemies have tons of HP. You have to fight two of them at once, for one part of the entire level, and somehow you think this is a flaw with the game. And obviously there are multiple ways to tackle them. You can fight them in the arena they are in, yuo can use the bridge behind you, or you can use the path to the right to funnel them (you can't roll off the edge there). There are plenty of ways to go about that fight. I'm not at all sure how this is an issue. I like how you manage to dismiss all criticism of your posts because you think people are just telling you to "git gud". No one said anything like that. We're just pointing out that it's odd that you have singled out this one area and this one specific encounter because there is nothing particularly cheap about it. Especially considering the two enemies hang back and let you kill the guy in the center of the room before attacking. The slow estus healing was easily a change for the better. Now you can't estus through attacks like you could in DS1 and 3. And if you use multiple at a time the obvious tradeoff is that you probably healed too much and as a result are wasting flask charges.

The content being optional absolutely matters because you can use the bonfire after the Smelter Demon and then just return to him afterwards. You don't have to beat the Smelter Demon to progress through the area. Also, this is what you said and what I was complaining about:

"Dark Souls 2 has you bruteforce your way through the narrow linear environment to get past situations. If you actually try to deny this, all you have to do is watch the Dark Souls 2 intro - the entire thing is "lol you'll die over and over and over again!"."

Clearly the environment is neither narrow or linear as was explained in detail in my previous post. There are a variety of ways to progress through it. As for the enemies aggroing from far away. There are a handful of Alonne knights that aggro from the bridge and several others near the pharros lockstone. Them aggroing from far away actually makes the area easier because it allows you to fight them one at a time (assuming you kill them fast enough). You aren't fighting many of them at once and there are plenty of spots that block the arrows from the archers. The area is covered with pillars and the shelter in the middle that will allow you to focus on the people you are fighting.

It was annoying for you to kill two enemies to unlock a door to fight another enemy in hopes of getting some loot + access to another area/covenant/bonfire. All right. Who the hell is ENB? I don't know. Why don't you watch my playthrough? I liked it.

Feel free to just make more shit up. I will bother reading and replying to it.

 

[Seaking4]

So I decided to put the Sentinels claims to the test. I started a new game, chose the Bandit class, and immediately ran to this magical room where the enemies hit so hard. I made sure to heal up right before the fight was over and to let one of them hit me one last time (the 2nd swing of it's 3 attack combo) before I ended it. The first screenshot shows how much damage one hit did. I wouldn't consider that 'hard' and even if I did I certainly would not consider it hard enough that it is worthy of complaining about as one of your 3 examples as to why DS2 is bullshit.

Also, hilariously enough, while I was fighting them I moved to the left portion of the arena (from the door you come in from) and the 2nd one de-aggroed and moved away.

*For the record, I chose the life ring for both of these characters as their starting gift but I did not have it equipped*

Edit:

I did the same thing with the Swordsman class because it has 4 vigor instead. I've included a photo of the third enemy on the right being de-aggroed when I moved to the left of the arena.

 

[Orma]

He probably isn't aware of the counter-attack mechanic, being a dark souls 3 dumbfuck and all.

Thinks it's just magical when he takes extra damage

 

[Black Angel]

These are all damn good games and they WILL have people playing for years to come now, with DS2:SotFS being at the top of the chain for having the Best Multiplayer Experience™. With the exception of Dark Souls 1, both SotFS and Dark Souls 3 are available on current gen console and it's still damn easy to get invaded and the coop activity are pretty busy in Dark Souls 3 on PS4, especially the DLC areas. It's not really relevant to discuss which one is more active than another (since Dark Souls 3 is the newest, of course it's the most crowded).

This isn't Fallout though. All endings *mean* the same, but the endings are variables.

Fuck no. See, this is why I personally hate the cycle theory that Dark Souls 2 reinforced (and kinda confirmed). Going by Dark Souls 1 alone, the notion of a cycle only really come to a possibility when you tackle NG+. No one, in their right mind, would immediately thought "woah, there's a cycle of Light and Dark going on this game!" when they finish the game for the first time. Going by Dark Souls 1, and Dark Souls 1 alone, both endings are bittersweet because they ARE important for each character and each world. How you really see the game affects which ending you would prefer, and what's going on in the aftermath. You will never know if you did the right thing, and that okay.

And then you just have to accept that, for some reason, someone else would come and completely foil it? Fuck no! Fuck Miyazaki for ever bringing up that 'Solaire went to link the fire in his own world'. He went completely insane if you just let him be and not going out of your way to kill that fucking Sunlight Maggot. I'll post in Dark Souls 1 thread my own theory on how time really works in Lordran.

Do anything to aggravate Yuria like being stupid enough to be a sorcerer and needing Orbeck, healing your Hollow status or killing her for my favourite fashion in the game (Billed Mask, Black Knight chest, Gauntlet/leggings alternating between hers and Black Knight).

Oh, okay. So.... anything wrong with that?

Aside from not being able to figure out the elevator, trapped in that well is because he was tricked by Patches and god forbid you can get imprisoned in a fucking dungeon. If anything, it was Siegmeyer who's dumb as rock for not preparing himself to deal with Blighttown, or wasting his time thinking on how to deal with the Silver Knights.

What did we learn from this?

That he is a knight of Catarina who's also an old friend of Yhorm the Giant? And he's in Lothric to fulfill his promise to him? That this time, he's actually a competent knight compared to Siegmeyer? Like I said, this time he helps you with something more substantial for every time you help him.

Shalquior dialogue somewhat referencing the Four:

Spoiler

Are you going to see the Old Ones?
Those four who have grown so incredibly ancient.
They must have sprouted quite a thick coat of moss by now.
For heaven's sake, no-one even knows their names anymore!
Imagine that! Hee hee hee hee!
Yes…Nothing like yourself.
For you…have a most pleasant scent, that grows nicer with each passing day

Once, people tried to round up the Undead and hide them away from the world.
They thought that imprisoning the Undead would solve the problem.
They created a towering bastille to contain them, but in the end, it did no good.
The Lost Sinner lives deep within the bastille.
The fool. Trying to light the First Flame…

Why do people try so hard to be beautiful?
We cats are born beautiful, of course. Hee hee…
The human ego…How many ugly iron castles has it erected?
And they don't even see the folly of their ways.
But that's what makes watching humankind so delightful.
It reminds me of someone who lived long ago.
A vainglorious liar who ended up hurling himself into the flames.
Now he's Ichorous Earth, if I'm not mistaken.

You've seen that gaping hole here?
Well, there's nasty little vermin down there.
Although who you seek is even further below.
And has been down there for a very, very long time.
He's plumb Rotten by now, I'm sure! Hee hee hee…

Men develop the most peculiar fascinations.
Sometimes their fascinations seem to take control.
Till there's very little man left. Hee hee hee…
Oh, it's like that awful traitor long ago.
He coveted what he did not have, and it drove him mad.
What a curious conundrum. Hee hee hee…
The Writhing Ruin keeps searching as we speak.
Searching for its heart's desire.

You've really got to make a HUGE stretch to relate them, except in the Sinner's case which isn't really the same thing anyway. Without acknowledging the NG+ Lord Soul drops which are rather in Easter Egg territory, the connections are the ones you want. In the other hand, DS3 tends to be quite obvious or it thinks it isn't.

And you have to be really, really fucking blind to keep denying this. No one need to make a YUGE stretch to relate them at all.

Once, people tried to round up the Undead and hide them away from the world.
They thought that imprisoning the Undead would solve the problem.
They created a towering bastille to contain them, but in the end, it did no good.
The Lost Sinner lives deep within the bastille.
The fool. Trying to light the First Flame…

This, coupled with the appearance of the Chaos Bug, confirmed that the Lost Sinner is indeed the Witch of Izalith. Yes, the Witch of Izalith wasn't exactly 'trying to light the First Flame', but you can take it as 'history becomes legend, legend becomes myth' thingy that happen to history after a long time passed.

Why do people try so hard to be beautiful?
We cats are born beautiful, of course. Hee hee…
The human ego…How many ugly iron castles has it erected?
And they don't even see the folly of their ways.
But that's what makes watching humankind so delightful.
It reminds me of someone who lived long ago.
A vainglorious liar who ended up hurling himself into the flames.
Now he's Ichorous Earth, if I'm not mistaken.

'hurling himself into the flames'.... I wonder who did that in the world of Dark Souls....
And 'vainglorious liar'. Like I said, I personally lean to the theory that the Undead Curse was actually the result of Gwyn's act of unnaturally prolonging the Age of Fire, so him telling his followers that linking the fire will stop the curse was actually just a lie to keep the Age of Fire going.

Men develop the most peculiar fascinations.
Sometimes their fascinations seem to take control.
Till there's very little man left. Hee hee hee…
Oh, it's like that awful traitor long ago.
He coveted what he did not have, and it drove him mad.
What a curious conundrum. Hee hee hee…
The Writhing Ruin keeps searching as we speak.
Searching for its heart's desire.

'Awful traitor', 'coveted what he did not have and driven mad'. Seriously, these are WAY too obvious. Piece it together with finding a dragon's corpse in some crystal cave.... How's that count as making a YUGE stretch to relate them?

You've seen that gaping hole here?
Well, there's nasty little vermin down there.
Although who you seek is even further below.
And has been down there for a very, very long time.
He's plumb Rotten by now, I'm sure! Hee hee hee…

And like I previously stated, it was only the dialogue about the Rotten that seems vague because there's nothing in there that's immediately obvious. But as opposed to being a mass of bones and skulls, the Rotten is literally a mass of flesh and corpses, enough to see that he's a reference of Nito.

And NG+ drops being an 'easter egg'? After their presentation and Shalquoir's dialogue giving away what they really are? Yeah, keep denying it, man.

Who the hell is ENB?

Marcus, also known as EpicNameBro, a.k.a ENB. To make long story short,

Spoiler

he's one of the most prominent figure among Soulsborne fanbase because he's been with Fromsoft since the earliest days of Demon's Souls. He even released a Dark Souls 1 LP much, much earlier on Youtube because he knows Japanese and had access to Japanese version of the game released earlier than English version. He also participated in making the guide to Dark Souls 2 (well, the vanilla version that is). But after he experienced the linearity of Dark Souls 3, he got completely completely burnt out on Souls and was like, 'fuck it, I hate Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3'. Recently, he had enough of people keep bothering him on why people hate Dark Souls 2, so he made a video about it. However, he becomes curious of Dark Souls 2, and SotFS version, and wanted to reevaluate what he really feels about it so he made a new LP and was finished like... a week ago? He had fun with it and he liked it, especially the DLCs (he even went as far as burning ascetics to fight Raime multiple time). Currently, he's doing another Dark Souls 3 LP, because thanks to Dark Souls 2:SotFS he was cured of his Souls burnt out.

You should check his lore videos, and also especially his From the Dark LP for Dark Souls 1.

Any link to your playthrough? Or can I just youtube 'Seaking4'?

 

[agentorange]

souls lore videos are fucking retarded garbage

 

[Kutulu]

^Agreed
Worlds being convoluted, yada, story, trelele it is just convoluted bullshit combined with a few cool characters and few cool
line's of text here and there. Most of the stuff heavily inspired by berserk and other manga's, book's, tv-shows etc

 

[Arnust]

On the Old Knights of Heide thing, you can even bait them to do their incredibly obvious and predictable combo out of the bridge and down to the water. Nevermind how they actually fall pretty easily if you aren't sporting unupgraded daggers or something (and you can do pretty hefty damage with counter attacks regardless).

Amana is actually one of the better designed levels in the series.

Don't forget that it's one of the most beautiful; playing with the light of the sconces or your torch, the (sun?)light filtering through the roots on the ceiling, the lightning bugs signaling the Aberrations, bio luminiscent lights and the Milfanito singing what seems to be
the first segment of the Nameless Song. Has a good amount of side paths to secrets too; Vendrick's last stand, the altar thingy that restores Humanity and the Sunlight Blade miracle, added to the Milfanito sidequest. The boss isn't even that bad either.

Black Angel Dude. I get that you don't like it. I don't like 3's pathethic excuse for lore basically anywhere in its length except for "hey that's cool" moments. However, as closure, nuances, and simply something more than Dark fantasy tropes+Berserk, IMO DS2 stands tall noticeably.
You seem to dislike throwbacks, but rather because they aren't the ones you want. Onion dude? Hell yeah! Referencing and explaining a key pillar of this fictional universe's metaphysics? Baaaah.
Then again, we have certainty that From gives about a tenth of a fuck about their writing as long as it's not in the way of keeping aping DS1 over and over. We're squabbling for daddy's attention while he's slacking in the couch with booze and Top Gear on.

Also, I'm intrigued. What is and how do you make a Hyper Armor Build? I imagine poise around 30 and a specific weapon for HA frames or something with Perseverance for Weapon Art?

*Cracks knuckles* The character is actually my first one; I just kept on and on with it because starting a new game of DS3 with a "different" build causes me physical pain, I kid not. It was supposed to be a Paladin type, but, well... When I was at over Carthus without having casted anything, I just respecced. Then on, as I was growing more and more weary, I found her. The Fume Ultra Greatsword. There was something about it. I didn't even like the Ultra Greatsword class that much. Note that this was before I even knew that it was a DS2 comeback. It had some great kynesthetic that I couldn't find in quite literally no other weapon. The character looked like it was doing a colossal effort, and the moves shook the screen. Nevermind how, despite the Astora GS being better in almost everything, it still had good stats.
Then I also found that armor and attire variety and looks are pretty lame. So my goal would be just getting the heaviest piece of gear on me and try to make out a proper fashion out of it all. So while I had a secondary Quality build that I got over to N+ too, the most of my playtime comes from playing with the heavy dude.
I digress. Results and stats:
http://imgur.com/a/meyft
It's actually pretty simple. I'm not even sure if "Poise" has anything to do with it. You just find out which weapons have HA frames; which aren't limited to Ultra weapons, and exploit the shit out of them. I'm not sure if it's really easy or it's having played 100 hours depending on them. Preserverance is just OP IMO, only serves to make full weapon categories not shit.

Besides, the Fume had an unique ability; when doing the Stomp weapon art and during the frames of followup with an r2, you are actually blocking with a pretty decent shield. this means that; as long as you have the Stamina, you can face tank practically everything as long as you time it just right.

Because of the Fume, it was kind of a struggle to level without dropping the armor in exchange of some dexfag rags, but I kept on pretty well. Up to 66 STR so that I had the most damage I could get without buffs (Fume is buffable too, yay). Ariandel didn't offer anything of significance to it; except the Millwood Bow. That was amazing, I know it's pretty useless out of invasion montages, but it was sure fun. Ringed City in the other hand. Ledo, Splitleaf. Amazing weapons and scaled wonderfully with STR, nevermind how the rings were all upgrades for what I currently used. I also used the Watbanner a bit for fun and PvP. I think I explained how it all went down when we discussed Midir, but... he IGNORED Hyper Armor. Fully.

WHy did I go on so long, lol. Anyway, another thing fun with HA is that in PvP I became basically unstoppable. You ALWAYS win trades and if you face casters or people runnign HA too, then you go with your Plan B like them being worse than you or resorting to an alternate weapon (thus Warbanner). I gotta give From that, they gave SOME attention to game balance and reworks for the timr of TRC. Too bad that it meant doing it over a year later, though.

 

[Jaedar]

souls lore videos are fucking retarded garbage

They used to be cool, a long time ago. But only ever for the first game.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

All the Dark souls series is a rehash of Demon's souls and Berserk, so shut the fuck up.












And Bloodborne is a rehash of a Le pacte des loups and HP Lovecraft books.

Spoiler

I'll never understand the point of criticizing a game to raise another.

 

[Jaedar]

Good movie. Didn't see any transdimensional aliens in it though.

What part of "and HP lovecraft books" did you not understand?

I guess I should add that movie to my list to watch.

 

[Urbanolo]

AFAIK it has Monica Bellucci in lingerie, so it's well worth watching. Ignore D_X.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Boner of the astral clocktower

 

[cvv]

Recently he had enough of people keep bothering him on why people hate Dark Souls 2, so he made a video about it. However, he becomes curious of Dark Souls 2, and SotFS version, and wanted to reevaluate what he really feels about it so he made a new LP and was finished like... a week ago? He had fun with it and he liked it, especially the DLCs (he even went as far as burning ascetics to fight Raime multiple time). Currently, he's doing another Dark Souls 3 LP, because thanks to Dark Souls 2:SotFS he was cured of his Souls burnt out.

Thanks for the tip, didn't have a clue. ENB was my favourite Youtuber back in the day, was so disappointed when he quit and started to play dumb anime shit on Twitch. Fantastic news he's back.

 

[Arnust]

Thanks for the tip, didn't have a clue. ENB was my favourite Youtuber back in the day, was so disappointed when he quit and started to play dumb anime shit on Twitch. Fantastic news he's back.

I saw most of the DS2 stream and he doesn't really seem to have anything to say that you can't find in average Souls discussion. To me, he looks like every other streamer now, without paying attention to chat or anything either. And I did watch his DS3 LP back when it came out.

 

[cvv]

Thanks for the tip, didn't have a clue. ENB was my favourite Youtuber back in the day, was so disappointed when he quit and started to play dumb anime shit on Twitch. Fantastic news he's back.

I saw most of the DS2 stream and he doesn't really seem to have anything to say that you can't find in average Souls discussion. To me, he looks like every other streamer now, without paying attention to chat or anything either. And I did watch his DS3 LP back when it came out.

I'm watching it now and he's already getting on my nerves bitching incessantly about DS2 being too slow and parries work differently and the graphics look bad yadda yadda. He even said the estus is so slow there's no point using it. I don't even. For a prestigious Souler he sounds like a console popamoler (he has probably turned into lately). I really hope he stops spouting retarded nonsense and start enjoying the game.

 

[sullynathan]

He also rage quit the Tower Knight fight in Demon's Souls because he was too stupid to hit the head after knocking him down. After trying and failing to damage 3 of 4 targets you can lock on, to boot. With the experience of literally every other Souls game under his belt. Oh, and he cried because he took damage when a 150 foot tall full plate clad behemoth fell on him.

This isn't actually true. I beat the Tower Knight the first try with magic, I actually complained because of how easy it was to snipe his head with early spells. I know you're trying to make a point here, but don't lie on me

Other than that DS 3 bosses were pretty good

first time I agree with Urbanolo. DS3 has the best bosses in this series.

 

[Black Angel]

I'm watching it now and he's already getting on my nerves bitching incessantly about DS2 being too slow and parries work differently and the graphics look bad yadda yadda. He even said the estus is so slow there's no point using it. I don't even. For a prestigious Souler he sounds like a console popamoler (he has probably turned into lately). I really hope he stops spouting retarded nonsense and start enjoying the game.

Did you not watch the video where he explained why 'people' (or rather, he) hate Dark Souls 2? It was posted all the way before he begin posting the Dark Souls 2:SotFS LP videos. He explained all the reasons why he hates Dark Souls 2, or at the very least why he didn't like it as much as he likes Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1. Of course he's bound to start complaining and comparing to the predecessors in the beginning of the LPs, especially since it's been years since he last touched Dark Souls 2 at all.

Having said that, all the complainings would actually turn into him just laughing it off and he does have fun in later videos. This LP is also where he first touched the DLCs ever, and he liked Raime fight so much he burnt ascetics just to fight him again and again.

 

[Hyperion]

He also rage quit the Tower Knight fight in Demon's Souls because he was too stupid to hit the head after knocking him down. After trying and failing to damage 3 of 4 targets you can lock on, to boot. With the experience of literally every other Souls game under his belt. Oh, and he cried because he took damage when a 150 foot tall full plate clad behemoth fell on him.

This isn't actually true. I beat the Tower Knight the first try with magic, I actually complained because of how easy it was to snipe his head with early spells. I know you're trying to make a point here, but don't lie on me

Then we have the tower knight. I found his strategy easy at first because I just recently beat bloodborne and the archers that surround him reminded me of the one reborn. The actual boss fight though was pretty weird and really easy to cheese. The first time I tried attacking his legs but my weapon does fuck all damage and his shield has this really large AOE attack. When I did knock him down, I didn't know where to hit that would do lots of damage so I attacked the body, eventually he got up and just spammed me and killed me while I was down. Bullshit.

I tried it again but this time I stayed at the top, again, I found this soul magic was really OP. It did 118 damage per hit on his dead and easily killed him. Now I am barred from progressing until I beat an archdemon, wonder when I'll do that.

It's another Demon's Souls thread god damnit

I'm pretty sure he was the one whining about the Tower Knight being too obscure a mechanic a few pages back.

I was probably whining because this fucker fell on me even after I dodged his attack. iirc, I killed him with magic to the head the first time because the game was too unbalanced.

It's another Demon's Souls thread god damnit

I know you're trying to make a point here, but don't lie on me

You're so full of shit you should be wiping your forehead instead of your ass, numbnuts. It's OK to fucking suck at games, but at least be honest about it.

 

[Shadenuat]

Ahah, now that I finished with prologue with undead peasants, killed soldiers in undead castle, went thru undead guys with witches in village, and finished knights in castle again, I killed the undead guys with wooden sticks, and smacked whole church of undead guys with flaming sticks, AND now as I killed those two fast artorias cosplayers, I enter
finally,
the catacombs full of undead
ninjas
doing backflips while throwing three shurikens while in the air
(these are so japanese )



well, at least Cathedral of Derp
Templle of Yawn
Church of Fuckitcheesewithbow
had some of that DS connectivity

How many pointy hat rapists can we put on a 10 m catwalk? let's just put ALL OF THEM! and and 2 halbediers and 3 knights and 2 asassins and 3 exploding monsters and 5 crossbowmen yaaaaay

Really. Check the desigh on enemy placement on catwalks under main roof of the Cathedral. There are at least 3, maybe 4 HEAVILY ARMORED PALADIN KNIGHTS! what are they doing there? who put them there? what is their purpose? how did they get there?
They are just there. They are there regardless of the fact that they are bad enemies to put there and lack pathfinding and abilities to fight there... which is why ALL OF THEM! all! every one! fell down and died as I kited them around! through little gaps or rather corners of the catwalks...
the pointy hat rapists are reasonable mob to be there. But what did these guys were there for? undead polish knights fixing roof for cheap estus?

There was also that lake, with corridors filled with same mobs as in swamp, just tunnels with tree roots and lava, where I felt like I was playing fan made diablo addon do Diablo 1.

Okay what's next, gotta follow the plot since I broke my spacebar while trying to kill Boreal Dancer in her 2d form with a my magikk claymore
Boreal Valley. I hope it's not more swamps, villages and temples full of undead.

 

[Shadenuat]

...is there at least a flying boss at the end?

Spoiler

is there at least one flying boss in this game? like Manticore or Kalameet?

 

[Arnust]

ENB wasn't bad or great. He's just an average streamer. That's all. If you like watching someone talk out of his ass to fill the commentary quota for a whole playthrough, so be it. He's not remarkable, though. Nobody has to tell you *WHY* you think DS2 is bad, not up to standards, shit, or whatever. You play it and you decide. Hell, he didn't even play through SOTFS meticulously reading and listening to the *lore* like he used to do the others. More reason to be an average streamer.

...is there at least a flying boss at the end?

Oh ho. There is later. You'll see.

 

[Elwro]

Really. Check the desigh on enemy placement on catwalks under main roof of the Cathedral. There are at least 3, maybe 4 HEAVILY ARMORED PALADIN KNIGHTS! what are they doing there? who put them there? what is their purpose? how did they get there?

It seems you're mad at them. So the best explanation of their positioning is that they knew someone would come there, most likely seeking the passage to Rosaria's place. And they decided it'd be nice to fuck with those guys who'd be expecting just the wimpy pointy hat rapists, so as a kind of practical joke they decided they'd sit their heavy butts in hiding way up. You can barely hear them holding their laughter when you're walking on the flooded floor!

But they are so full of themselves they keep forgetting to watch their steps

(More serious answer: they are guarding the first blessed gem the player can usually find.)

And as for them getting up there, well, it's just us losers who have to use the ladders. They probably have a service elevator or, simply, instructed one of the giants to stand on the other giant and lift them up.

 

[cvv]

Hell, he didn't even play through SOTFS meticulously reading and listening to the *lore* like he used to do the others. More reason to be an average streamer.

Well Twitch is a terrible place for games like DS where paying careful attention to everything around you is crusial. Especially if you're going through something for the first time. The gaychat is such a distraction. Streaming is for games like Dota, CoD or Hearthstone, not for deep, atmospheric RPGs.