From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[aris]

-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.

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.

 

[Jaedar]

-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.

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.

 

[AngryEddy]

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.

anyone saying that DS2 is a failure is as a sequel is a retard.

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.

 

[aris]

So after playing more the game has opened up, though I still think the beginning is way too railroaded. I like the enemy variety too, I find myself changing weapons a lot more often depending on what I'm fighting. Though after getting used to it I REALLY like the moveset on the Dragleic/Royal Greatsword. Dumped my large shards into that. Also I think I must have missed a blacksmith or something because I'm rolling in various kinds of elemental titanite now with nowhere to use it, or the boss souls. Ah well.

Also, twinblade is WAY better than Ricard's ever was. I probably won't use it this playthrough, but that two handed animation is sick.

Currently trying to cheese stupid fire lizards to death because I don't want to deal with the black grotto, gutter, or that misty forest, which are the only other options I seem to have. Unless I want to play roulette with the lockstone in the royal tomb or whatever it's called, but fuck that, already wasted at least one of those.

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.

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 down to grave or saints, or well down to gutter.

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 (provided you have fucking gone to burg first), Crow (are you actually listing the crow nest as a place you can go to? Then why didn't you list place betwixt above?), Tomb.

4. Sister Spider to lava place (provided that you have fucking gone through the lava place first)

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.

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.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

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?

Edit: About trash mobs, fuck the purgatory guardians.

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

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.

 

[AngryEddy]

But the difference isn't immense.

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.]

 

[Hobo Elf]

. 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.

 

[AngryEddy]

. 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?

 

[Hobo Elf]

. 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.

 

[Damned Registrations]

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!

 

[praetor]

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.

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?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

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.

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

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.

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?

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...

 

[AngryEddy]

. 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.

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.

 

[Hobo Elf]

. 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.

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.

 

[AngryEddy]

. 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.

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.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

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.

 

[DragoFireheart]

SOULS
GAMES
ARE
NOT
NON-LINEAR

Pleas for the love of Solarie.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

fuck off drago you're not funny

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

People are using the wrong words. Non-linear area progression, not non-linear game. DaS1 progression reminded me of Gothic a bit whereas DeS/DaS2 are more like super mario.

 

[DragoFireheart]

fuck off drago you're not funny

Suck off you miserable cumbucket.

People are using the wrong words. Non-linear area progression, not non-linear game. DaS1 progression reminded me of Gothic a bit whereas DeS/DaS2 are more like super mario.

Area progression is non-linear but you still have to fight X bosses for Y ending. Multiple endings do not make non-linear.

New Vegas and Morrowind are non-linear (New Vegas much more so) due to quest progression paths being separate but also locking each other out.

Fighting Capera Demon before the Gargolyes doesn't change the ending nor anything meaningful story wise.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

That's what I just said with less words numbnuts.

 

[DragoFireheart]

That's what I just said with less words numbnuts.

Sometimes more is less when less isn't more.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

 

[DragoFireheart]

 

[Surf Solar]

Got me the proper pc version today and boy is that so much better. Silk smooth, beautiful, fast loading times. But since I am using a 16:10 monitor I have those black bars on screen. Any way yet to fix that?