From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Shadenuat]

Added lightning greatsword to my collection. Never even equipped these sorts of weapons. Really don't like the look of it (and that with my armor I look like Gatsu cosplayer), but I heard zweihander is poor in DS2.
It's... something. I missed the whole world out there, two-shoting people and throwing them around like toys. Tons of fun.

Sucks that you have to 1-hand it to do horizontal attacks.

 

[Murk]

Have you guys noticed how only Straid has memorable lines this time around?
The cat is great but all the lines I remember are Straid's:
Very good very good indeed
Feeble cursed one
Etc
He is besides the cat my favorite npc

Straid's definitely an OG; the voice actor is top notch. MCduff has some great lines "Right now, you imbecile." when you give him the ember.

Vengarl's head's line when he mentions how his life was only fighting "how could I be so stupid...." such a nice bitter end. There's some bits, but yeah -- Straid definitley takes the cake as coolest.

 

[abija]

Are those tables accurate: http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/pvp-soul-value ?
Got to ng+ with a sinner and I made 4.2mil xp before I killed 3rd enemy in heide's tower of flame. Some of these arbiters die incredibly fast for the levels those tables indicate. Most enemies in NG arena survived better.

 

[Murk]

Added lightning greatsword to my collection. Never even equipped these sorts of weapons. Really don't the look of it (and that with my armor I look like Gatsu cosplayer), but I heard zweihander is poor in DS2.
It's... something. I missed the whole world out there, two-shoting people and throwing them around like toys. Tons of fun.

Sucks that you have to 1-hand it to do horizontal attacks.

The running attack is amazing on a few of the UGSs -- send motherfuckers FLYING.

 

[Serious_Business]

Convinced you? Of what? You don't believe that the hitboxes are fucked beyond relief, or that SM is a goddamn nightmare for PvPing? You aren't convinced that these are true?

I'm convinced that none of this hinders my enjoyement of the game. I'm sure all you say is true, but you sound hysterical to me. I guess I really don't give a shit anymore. I haven't even have finished the game. So yeah, fuck it

 

[Invictus]

Uh my got a new BenQ 27 inch monitor 2560x1440 res and boy is the game simply gorgeous with the Asmodean post processng settings...pushes my videocard pretty hard too!
I still cannot run the original DS to run at 60 FPS but it is oh so sweet

 

[Random]

I'm convinced that none of this hinders my enjoyement of the game. I'm sure all you say is true, but you sound hysterical to me. I guess I really don't give a shit anymore. I haven't even have finished the game. So yeah, fuck it

Hysterical? So dissecting everything you said and proving how wrong you are is being hysterical now? This is Codex standard.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

They're easily killed by whatever, it doesn't excuse poor JRPG design ala Cloud waving huge sword around like it's made of cardboard. I like when weapons have weight and to feel kinetic force behind them. I think people are mad at them cause those mobs break rules of the game (attack patterns)/asymmetric bs design (stamina). And rightfully so.

Ever tried using a Greatsword? Give your character some spiky hair and you got your Cloud cosplay ready to go, complete with a weapon a normal person wouldn't even be able to lift.

Afaik, enemies in Souls don't have Stamina in general, they just have AI built to fake the effects of having it. Bosses certainly don't have it. There's also enemies with infinite poise in both Dark Souls games, as well as ones with their own esoteric stagger mechanics, like Iron Golem, or Quelaag whose spider body has infinite poise, while the human part has none.

It's obviously good to have consistent mechanics in general, and I for one am rather upset about the nerf to poise in DaS2, and the subsequent introduction of arbitrary hyperarmor. But it really doesn't hurt to have the occasional enemy who forces you to play differently, which the Drakekeepers do very well. Would it be better if everything was a Silver Knight which you could leisurely strafe around and backstab to death?

If you're going to complain about shitty enemies who break the rules of the game, then look no further than the Salamanders in FoFG, with their bullshit unblockable-for-no-reason attacks and triple fireball spits.

And yeah shitty design does tend to piss me the fuck off. But what truly maddens me is that after playing through the game even on NG+ I still did not find anything which made me think "well, that is actually difficult, I need to master this". I was waiting to meet second Kalameet, so to speak, but I never did. So only fun for me comes from PvP now.

Rest of your post is just venting about stuff that pissed you off recently. There's nothing especially difficult about opening the door to Ornifex

faek edit:
These little things are when I ask myself - If I am a game designer, and I want players to pay me money and then waste their precious time playing my game instead of doing something more productive, would I do things like that? Would I place a vendor which rewards players for accomplishing my hard tasks in such a way that they'd get hit by infinite homing missiles or get trash mobs aggro on them? Would I place mobs at places where player is supposed to take a break from taking on my challenges? And so on.
A question of fair rewards for fair accomplishments is something I am thinking often as a dungeon master, and I know the answer. I would not allow little bullshit parts like that to slip into my game. Especially if players are encouraged to replay it again by it's design.

While playing DaS1 you vented a lot about how unfair and cheap it is that you move forward while attacking and fall off cliffs, and that there weren't enough bonfires, and too many "unavoidable" ambushes. Just sayin'. I get pissed off at some things as well, but something pissing me off for 2 minutes in a game doesn't make it bad design necessarily.

 

[praetor]

While playing DaS1 you vented a lot about how unfair and cheap it is that you move forward while attacking and fall off cliffs, and that there weren't enough bonfires, and too many "unavoidable" ambushes. Just sayin'. I get pissed off at some things as well, but something pissing me off for 2 minutes in a game doesn't make it bad design necessarily.

wasn't that goudaOST complaining about gravity and stuff?

 

[Shadenuat]

Ever tried using a Greatsword?

Uh, scroll up.

enemy who forces you to play differently, which the Drakekeepers do very well

How so? Rolling behind enemy and stabbing him is fairly standard for DS.

While playing DaS1 you vented a lot about how unfair and cheap it is that you move forward while attacking and fall off cliffs, and that there weren't enough bonfires, and too many "unavoidable" ambushes.

Not really. I made a few sarcastic remarks at how I always fall down and then 2 huge as fuck posts about my progress with bosses. And even if I did, so what? You want to stop me from bitching about shit I don't like, you can first try and stop the 99% of the Codex from posting.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

While playing DaS1 you vented a lot about how unfair and cheap it is that you move forward while attacking and fall off cliffs, and that there weren't enough bonfires, and too many "unavoidable" ambushes. Just sayin'. I get pissed off at some things as well, but something pissing me off for 2 minutes in a game doesn't make it bad design necessarily.

wasn't that goudaOST complaining about gravity and stuff?

I went back and checked, and you are right, my good sir. Apologies, Shadenuat. I have actually reread your posts from back then, and you complained about tons of stuff, but it would be unchivalrous of me to list it all at this point.

One amusing thing you did say, though, was that we should've had Lordvessel warping from the very beginning. A bit ironic, considering where we are now.

 

[Shadenuat]

You bloody stalker

One amusing thing you did say, though, was that we should've had Lordvessel warping from the very beginning. A bit ironic, considering where we are now.

I'm not really for or against teleporting, or quick shortcuts to bosses. But it doesn't mean I don't find placement of bonfires in DS2 unelegant or just dumb.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Makes me reflect on how tenacious Wyrmlord must have been about updating his txts before the advent of a working search function.

 

[Murk]

Got the vanquisher seal. Holy shit. This is beautiful. 1.4k backstabs with barehands at 40 str

beat the game again =( I feel like the rats have gone douche on me, I got people spamming light spear before my summon-in animation is done -- what happened man, does no one have any honnnoouurree

Kinda at a loss as to what to do anymore. Lag is so bad that pvp isn't super fun =(

 

[potatojohn]

but then you have the limited number of human effigies in the game unless you farm bonfire ascetics and use those to farm areas, which is all kinds of fucked.

You can buy the ring of life protection from the hexer merchant right after dragonrider. For the cost of 3000 souls per death, you can always be human.

 

[Murk]

but then you have the limited number of human effigies in the game unless you farm bonfire ascetics and use those to farm areas, which is all kinds of fucked.

You can buy the ring of life protection from the hexer merchant right after dragonrider. For the cost of 3000 souls per death, you can always be human.

One for free in No Man's Wharf (behind a bookcase on the top-most 'left' building -- near the guy who lobs the oil at you up the stairs).

There's another free one in the shaded woods near where the poison bloated monsters are (it's on a ledge, take the left-most path from the forked road bonfire).

Also, you can turn human just by being summoned via soapstone so... not that hard.

I usually have 60 humanity sitting around (to then burn on trying to kill Darklurker and fucking shadow Havel). On that topic, I killed Darklurker bare-fisted. Fucker split with about 70% hp left... no clue how I kept surviving but somehow I was on my a-game with doges/rolls (and got lucky once with that homing shadow orb thing).

 

[Elwro]

So, I finally finished the plot. Now for some PvP. What are the good areas before NG+ (my soul memory is 2 million since I went through the game almost without consulting the net and thus died a lot more than I would've otherwise) for that? I went to both belfries and nobody invaded me for 10 minutes.

 

[Murk]

Bridge in Iron Keep; Tower of Flame. People tend to do red-orb invasions in Huntsman's Copse too.

Or, of course, the arena. Then make the whole world your PVP spot :3

 

[Elwro]

Thanks. What arena? I must've missed something.

edit: you mean that after the chariot? Sure, heh...

 

[LivingOne]

Are there any theories around the internet about Heide's Tower and Iron Keep being initially meant to be parts of the same area and having received a paintover later?Because the architecture isn't just similar,it's exactly the same(plus they're both flooded wich likely means there aren't assetts/texture under the water/lava in both cases).Would also explain why Heide is so small,has a copy-pasted boss and another boss who has no lore-reason to be there.

 

[Random]

You can buy the ring of life protection from the hexer merchant right after dragonrider. For the cost of 3000 souls per death, you can always be human.

That's stupid, and requires trips back to the blacksmiths rather than playing as you want to.

One for free in No Man's Wharf (behind a bookcase on the top-most 'left' building -- near the guy who lobs the oil at you up the stairs).

There's another free one in the shaded woods near where the poison bloated monsters are (it's on a ledge, take the left-most path from the forked road bonfire).

Also, you can turn human just by being summoned via soapstone so... not that hard.

Except you basically don't get humanity by being summoned via soapstone, I just fucking pointed that out. I've had it happen a grand total of once over at least thirty jolly cooperations, and one little tick up on the health bar is really underwhelming for all that work.

I'm not saying that I, personally, ever was in a position where I was low on effigies. What I'm saying is that the potential to run out of them is there, which sucks huge donkey balls since they're the only thing that allows you to summon phantoms and you need to be at full humanity to do so.

 

[Silva]

LivingOne , I dont think your theory makes much sense, honestly.

Heide´s Tower looks more like a distant remnant of Anor Londo to me that got flooded, as if the same place were occupied by another people over the years, and this people let the constructions (or part of it) in place. While the Iron Keep is its own thing, probrably having existed in another entirely different era than Heide´s.

By the way, it seems the whole sea level raised significantly from DaS1 time to now. That would explain not only Heide´s/Anor Londo being flooded, but also the whole land of Drangleic being surrounded by the sea instead of being up in the mountains like Lordran was. (by the way, Drangleic and Lordran are the same place)

 

[potatojohn]

That's stupid, and requires trips back to the blacksmiths rather than playing as you want to.

No, it's great.

It actually saves time. No more "oh shit I have 20k souls, better warp back to majula to level up". You never have to worry about losing souls or humanity or having to recover your bloodstain.

Besides there are four rings, so you only need to do it once every four deaths

 

[Silva]

I dont remember ever feeling the tension I got from losing precious souls in DaS 2 as I felt in DaS 1. I think the warp feature diluted that feat of the game too much. Thus, using that ring feels almost like cheating to me.

 

[LivingOne]

LivingOne , I dont think your theory makes much sense, honestly.

Heide´s Tower looks more like a distant remnant of Anor Londo to me that got flooded, as if the same place were occupied by another people over the years, and this people let the constructions (or part of it) in place. While the Iron Keep is its own thing, probrably having existed in another entirely different era than Heide´s.

I think after the change,they tried to turn it into an AL cameo.Either your theory or someone tried to rebuild AL somewhere else or a late-minute fanservice without much thought must have been the idea.What they are right now isn't that important,though,I was more curious about what they were once.
And the only difference between Heide and IK is the colour palette and some statues wich you can change relatively quickly.The rest is downright identical.

By the way, it seems the whole sea level raised significantly from DaS1 time to now. That would explain not only Heide´s/Anor Londo being flooded, but also the whole land of Drangleic being surrounded by the sea instead of being up in the mountains like Lordran was. (by the way, Drangleic and Lordran are the same place)

I actually think/hope Heide's not AL and that Drangleic and Lordran are different.One of the rings implies the place is Vinheim and that's what I'm going to believe because I don't want Lordran awesomness to be literally flooded by Drangleic shit(and because that ring's description is far more direct than them random internet fanfics about Lordran=Drangleic.)

Also Vinheim's lore has some ties too to Drangleic,if we want to go that way.Clerics not being much regarded ties to the mistrust between clerics and those who practice soul magic,not to mention Vendrick's poor reception amongst clerics.Then there's the Dragon School.And a place of study like that is more likely to have spawned those wondrous discovery(all wich resulted in failed experiments,lol) about souls.
As for the Throne of Want being the Kiln I'm assuming that's what Vendrick stole from the giants.Or another last-minute change.