From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[aris]

Has anyone understood, if I want the better graphics for PC; if I have to buy the whole game over again, or if I can upgrade it?

 

[Jaedar]

Has anyone understood, if I want the better graphics for PC; if I have to buy the whole game over again, or if I can upgrade it?

So far all that has been said is that you will have to buy the new game, but nothing has been said about possible discounts. I am expecting some sort of discount, considering how upset PC players seem to be about it.

 

[dr. one]

Some guy got a chance to play the PS3 version of Scholar at Playstation Experience and posted about it on reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/2oqivw/scholar_of_the_first_sin_now_with_sweet_sweet/

The new stuff includes:
- updated Last Giant´s soul description confirming a certain specific connection to a later part of the game
- watchdragon parma now displays item discovery icon
- invading phantoms now apparently drop human effigies
- apparently there´s a new kind of mimic in the Undead Crypt, which could mean the "old-gen" versions might get some enemy updates too
- pictures of dialogue/monologue with the new character from the trailer, like:

Spoiler

I wonder if the patch will include some additions to DLCs or updates to some of the lacking skyboxes, like the Earthen Peak one.
Looking forward to replay with the patch at any rate, seems like it could lead to a reasonably fresh experience.

 

[aris]

Has anyone understood, if I want the better graphics for PC; if I have to buy the whole game over again, or if I can upgrade it?

So far all that has been said is that you will have to buy the new game, but nothing has been said about possible discounts. I am expecting some sort of discount, considering how upset PC players seem to be about it.

Well there exist some sweetfx presets for ENB that SIGNIFICANTLY improves the lightning and the athmosphere (though FPS takes a serious hit too). So maybe the improved graphics will be redundant. I can't recall which one I am currently using, but you can take a look at this one, it looks pretty fucking sweet

Actually I'm considering to change to this one.

By the way, just looked into mods for dark souls 2, and HOLY SHIT does the game look better and more athmospheric with this mod

I tried to install a later version, and it looks even better on my computer. Even butt ugly areas like lost bastille, looked dark and foreboding with this mod. I've never seen a mod that improves the look of the game so drastically before. Unfortunately, I can't run it on my old computer. Vanilla runs just fine on 60 FPS, but with this mod, I'm tanking 23-30 FPS, which is really way too low, and really affects the gameplay.

So this is the one I'm using, I'm still kind of undecided on which one is best. DS2 becomes inappropriately dark in some areas, particularly in brightstone cove Tseldora

 

[Lyric Suite]

So a mod that makes the game darker is EXTREME GRAPHICS now? The guy in that video sounds like the dude orgasming over the trains.

 

[aris]

No, it doesn't make it merely darker.

 

[Gentle Player]

I wonder if the patch will include some additions to DLCs or updates to some of the lacking skyboxes, like the Earthen Peak one.

I would hope that, in the retail version at least, they would actually redo some of the geography so that it makes more sense. After all, wasn't Iron Keep originally supposed to be connected to that area in Forest of Giants with the salamander fuckers in, rather than appearing out of thin air after Earthen Peak? Not too much to ask seeing as they're apparently charging full price for a game that most fans already own.

Spoiler

Would also love to see them remove the rather lame "teleport to and from any bonfire" mechanic and introduce a more interesting KF2 or 4 esque transport system and try to bring back some of that pre-Lordvessel DS1 tension, but that would require a major overhaul and there isn't a chance in hell

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

 

[AngryEddy]

No, it doesn't make it merely darker.

To be fair to LS, a lot of ENB's just crank the bloom up to 11. I haven't had a lot of good experience with them in DS2.

 

[Multidirectional]

I haven't had a good experience with ENB, like, ever. Every time I tried it with various games it ended up just being a bunch of shitty effects that don't fit the game at all. As far as these injectors go I stick with SMAA injector or SweetFX for SMAA+ some sharpening.

 

[aris]

No, it doesn't make it merely darker.

To be fair to LS, a lot of ENB's just crank the bloom up to 11. I haven't had a lot of good experience with them in DS2.

Some yes, the one I'm using bring the lightning a lot closer to the one that was originally showed before the downgrade. It helps a shitload for the atmosphere, and some areas actually require a torch to navigate well.

The graphical improvement is very real, and extremely noticeable.

 

[flabbyjack]

What's the best Soul-Level for co-op?

 

[Murk]

What's the best Soul-Level for co-op?

Soul Level doesn't matter for matching; only Soul Memory -- and in that case you want to be within a few tiers of whoever you are co-opping with.

As a rule, less co-op in NG+ than in NG0.

Unless you meant for the sake of fun/challenge/balance? In which case, there's no real answer but I had fun co-opping with a max level of 50 before.

 

[Gozma]

God damn this game is fucking ugly. So much absolutely flat lighting, featureless box rooms and immense fields of obviously tiled textures.

I like the gameplay better than Demon's tho. Feels like there are a lot of HP bag enemies (particularly shit with a lot of HP that you can't parry) but it's probably just because I got used to playing Dark Souls knowing where all the weapon upgrades and shit are and how to maximize damage. Had to ram my face into the "three spindly armor golems" boss several times.

Is there anything I should know if I'm just going through with a strength character using a normal mace?

Edit - Also is pyromancy any good in this, is it worth getting some attunement slots on a deprived that hasn't raised attunement at all? I feel like I remember someone saying they made pyromancy stat-based so it isn't "free" like in Dark Souls.

 

[ghostdog]

Edit - Also is pyromancy any good in this, is it worth getting some attunement slots on a deprived that hasn't raised attunement at all? I feel like I remember someone saying they made pyromancy stat-based so it isn't "free" like in Dark Souls.

Pyromancy's power is now based both upon leveling up the flame (with fire stones) and a percentage of Int+Faith, which means that pyro is more viable as a side magic for a faith, int or dark character.

Nevertheless it can also be useful for a non magic user for a quick spell or a buff at a certain time. For such a character I wouldn't bother with leveling up attunement, there's a ring that gives you +3 attunement slots (you'll need an aesthetic to get it)

 

[toroid]

Is there anything I should know if I'm just going through with a strength character using a normal mace?

Yeah. You're gonna get bored. Change classes often or the repetition will kill you.

 

[Gozma]

I remember getting all excited to find the Painted World in DS1 after having found all the other areas, it was like hey another zone! whee

In DS2 everytime I hit another zone it's like fuck more shit to hack through. I dunno if it's just how bad the game looks or what.

The bosses are pretty good I guess. The bosses being crap is what made me not finish Demon's, but those areas were stupendously better than DS2's

 

[made]

God damn this game is fucking ugly. So much absolutely flat lighting, featureless box rooms and immense fields of obviously tiled textures.

You're not playing with one of the gfx enhancers like GeDoSaTo? It looks pretty awful without.

Apparently there's also an official enhanced edition coming up, but it won't be free like you might be used from CDP. :D

 

[Eyeball]

After buying DS2 on the Steam sale, I set aside a significant part of my Xmas hollidays to playing it. I have now completed it and gosh darn it if it wasn't one of the most enjoyable little trollgames I've played this year.

Some assorted thoughts:

- Took me about 45 hours to beat on a no magic claymore and shield heavy armour dude. Probably a few hours less than that, since I go AFK a lot and kept standing around waiting for my health to regen via the healing ring before I worked out I could buy infinite healing stones from the cackling old woman in town. I was level 145 at the end of the game, which is supposedly like 20 levels over par, but hey, I never found that I was grinding shit mindlessly for das expees.

- It seemed like the plot completely lost itself after a while. The initial "cursed soul heads to cursed ruin kingdom to find cure for his own undeath" thing as described in the intro was a good hook, but actually curing yourself seemed to completely take a backseat to the "kill bosses, git great souls!" that became the order of the day shortly after even entering Manjuice. And after finding the King, it became even more confusing - why was the final boss Gravelord Nito in drag and why did my character decide to make himself King of the Shit Kingdom after killing her instead of finding some way of restoring his humanity? Is this some Japanese cunt joke that white cunts don't get? Most folks seem to justify the illogical plot by writing lengthy fanfictions about their speculations, so I guess DS2 is a lot like KOTOR 2 writing-wise.

I really liked the "bossfight" with the king, though - after killing his loyal henchman, I was surprised to find that the hyped king of the land was basically an un- and braindead naked retard aimlessly dragging his 12 foot sword in circles, his mighty armour discarded in a corner with the quest item up for grabs without even a fight. Anything that happened after that was confusing. Why did I have to enter the memories of a dead giant to kill his king during their invasion ages ago? And why did doing this grant me access to the king's throne room and final bossfight?

- Way too many of the puzzles are ridiculously obscure and pretty much require spoilering. The most ridiculous example of this was the medusa bossfight - if you just enter the boss chamber when you meet her, you will never, ever win due to the fight arena being knee deep in poison which heals her and kills you. Apparently, the way to REMOVE this bullshit poison pool was to set fire to a windmill you briefly passed half an hour earlier. Nowhere was this even alleged to or mentioned by any NPC that I encountered or anything I read and it does not even make much sense logically. How people even worked this out in the first place is beyond me, but this was some serious bullshit, mang.

Another terrible offender was the miracle lady. After talking to her in the Tower of Heide, I had zero reason to check the basement in Manjuice where she had moved to, where she could open up literally 1/4th of the game. At least move her somewhere you might accidentally see her for fuckssakes!

- The "respawns are limited" thing that die-harders rage about is pretty much an utter non-issue. Literally the only place I ran through enough times to make the mobs stop spawning was the Heide Tower of Fire, and that was just because I farmed the slow knights for easy early game levels I ended up not really needing.

- The emerald lady trainer is annoying and it does break immersion when you need to teleport out of the evil dungeon of buttrape you're currently exploring to level and have a good cry on her shoulder. Would prefer to level at bonfires instead - would keep the feeling of immersion in a dark world where everything fucking hates you and wants you to die much better.

- Dark Souls is one of the better MMOs I've played recently. Seriously. Once I worked out how to summon other players to assist me in the most fuck-you-ish areas such as the knight-crowded stairs to the Ancient Dragon and the Saving Private Ryan reenactment that makes up parts of the Amana level, it became a million times easier and was fun to boot. I'd have had zero chances of beating bosses like the Pursuer or Ruin Sentinels if it hadn't been for assists from people with names usually on the lines of Pig******. The best bit about the co-op is the way there are significant rewards to helping others, both in terms of souls, smooth&silky stones/sun tokens and in regaining your lost humanity. Before entering a fog gate, I'd usually throw down a summoning sigil and assist another player in tackling whatever boss was ahead, just so I could see what to expect.

- I did get invaded like 6 times or so in my playthrough and died in all but 1 of them. Apparently, the PKs had encountered my "keep spamming claymore stabs" tactic before and it impressed them less than it did the standard AI phantoms. Didn't mind too much though, they were infrequent enough to add tension to the game without being ragequit-inducing in any way. I like co-op way better, though.

- Difficulty was a bit up and down. The fight that made me rage the most was the Pursuer in the early game, but other bosses which were supposedly difficult I managed to breeze through, most notable Freja with her ultra-telegraphed lazor blasts and the mirror knight, who was just yet another huge dude with telegraphed sword stabs and a weak summon. Other bosses were ludicruously easy for as long as I remembered to equip the correct shield. I don't think the Guardian Dragon hit me even once after I equipped the 100% fire resistance shield. The final boss was almost disappointingly simple to beat, although I did have a co-op bro to help me kill her. Hugely telegraphed attacks and a lot of just standing there looking menacing while I chopped her butt up.
It did take me a lot of time to figure out the patterns of some of the bosses, which made me die about half a dozen times to even the Last Giant on my first character. I now just beat him on a dual-wielder without getting hit once. Nice to see I've actually learned something!

Contrary to most folks, I did not find the Shrine of Amana to be that bad. Equip magic resistance shield, rush up to homing missile witches and kill them, rush back into cover to heal up if you got hit a few times. I died a lot of times in the 2nd part of the level with the invading AI red phantom, but it really felt like more of a chore and test of patience than a real challenge to player skill level.

I thought the Dragon Shrine staircase was the hardest part of the game. Multiple giant knights who hit twice as hard and fast as the ones in Heide tower and me with no magic to kite them. Fuck you, Dragon Shrine, fuck you very much! I didn't even try fighting the "boss" of that area. 100 foot long bronze dragon on a platform without cover? Nah, I'll pass, thanks.

- DS2 is motherfucking huge! Checking the wiki, I saw at least 5 bosses I'd not even encountered and several NPCs I'd never met, and that's not even counting the DLC. Great to see games making a lot of genuine content and making it difficult to access high-quality areas. I was also impressed with the way they made a lot of different enemy types and then used some only a few times. The mutated turd-golems under the Sinner's Rise for instance - there were only 3 of them, but a huge amount of creativity clearly went into their design and combat movesets, which made them all the more memorable for me than if they'd been put around every corner for the rest of the game.

- Losing max HP and the ability to summon upon death is kind of bullshit, but for someone as endeared with the co-op as me, it was just kind of a "goody, more chance to co-op, yay!" feeling. I barely spent any effigies to re-humanise myself.

All in all, DS2 is a great game. I wish DS1 was not unplayable on PC or I sure would give that a go next. For as long as I could rely on other players to win most of my bossfights for me, of course.

 

[Lyric Suite]

DS1 is very playable on PC.

 

[Surf Solar]

How is ds1 unplayable on PC?

 

[Drakron]

It seemed like the plot completely lost itself after a while. The initial "cursed soul heads to cursed ruin kingdom to find cure for his own undeath" thing as described in the intro was a good hook, but actually curing yourself seemed to completely take a backseat to the "kill bosses, git great souls!" that became the order of the day shortly after even entering Manjuice. And after finding the King, it became even more confusing - why was the final boss Gravelord Nito in drag and why did my character decide to make himself King of the Shit Kingdom after killing her instead of finding some way of restoring his humanity? Is this some Japanese cunt joke that white cunts don't get? Most folks seem to justify the illogical plot by writing lengthy fanfictions about their speculations, so I guess DS2 is a lot like KOTOR 2 writing-wise.

Hardly, there are enough hints but you have to read items descriptions instead of having someone tell you.

If you want to know, its about the same as Dark Souls ... you keep the flame alive (as in Dark Souls you had the choice) as Nashandra caused the ruin of Drangleic and wants to spread the Abyss, its very clear she was the one that made Vendrick invade the Giants and take a "prize" that is was either the Throne of Want or a Great Flame, maybe both.

Also you are being cured of the curse, the curse is being made hollow and you can delay it but taking souls and to cure it ... relink the fire.

 

[trym88]

it's playable when you fix it

 

[Stonewolf]

After buying DS2 on the Steam sale, I set aside a significant part of my Xmas hollidays to playing it. I have now completed it and gosh darn it if it wasn't one of the most enjoyable little trollgames I've played this year. (...) All in all, DS2 is a great game.

Get the DLCs if you liked the vanilla game, man. They're even better.

I wish DS1 was not unplayable on PC or I sure would give that a go next.

....How is DS1 unplayable on PC? There are mods that fix everything and make it much better than console version.

 

[Eyeball]

Got the mods. Still unplayable garbage. Sorry, but "buy a controller" does not constitute a bugfix.