From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Declinator]

- Dark Souls is one of the better MMOs I've played recently.

You do know that not all games that have online multiplayer are MMOs? MMO means MASSIVELY Multiplayer Online and Dark Souls is decidedly not such a game.

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

Get DSfix and it becomes quite playable.

 

[Eyeball]

Got it. Still handled really, really poorly to me. And I know that DS isn't a genuine MMO, but it really conjured up to me fond memories of running face-first into obstacles in City of Heroes until gathering up a bunch of dudes to help me with it. It just tugs at my nostalgic heartstrings, is all.

 

[Gozma]

Yeah, I never did the burn-the-windmill thing and in retrospect I bet they dropped a hint in the Japanese subtitled version about it at the ladder merchant guy (he comes close to giving a decent hint, but not quite). You actually can brute force it and beat her even wading around in poison if you hammer enough life crystals and poison moss.

The game grew on me the less I was exploring new areas (which, combined with constant herky jerk bonfire teleports, are real bad - I think the lava castle was maybe the worst area I've ever played in a Souls game) and the more I was playing with stuff like bonfire ascetics. I'll get the DLC for another playthrough after a sale when I'm over the Souls refractory period.

 

[Eyeball]

Yeah, the lava castle had a lot of dumb shit in it, mainly due to how it was the most visibly "video gamey" level in the game as someone else mentioned. The last straw for me was when you found that bonfire that was down a 5 foot hole. Which you then could not climb out of. At all. You had to use a ladder (which you also could not drop off onto any ledges despite you climbing right past them) to get to a seperate area that was crawling with not just enemies but also PKs.

I know that I might be spoilt by the free-form running mechanics of the Arkham games, but seriously, stuff like that in a game series that prides itself on its atmosphere is just ridiculous and shows very poor level design.

 

[Jaedar]

Yeah, that bonfire in the lava castle is insanely stupid. You can actually roll down onto the upper ledge from the ladder, but it requires very precise aiming and was probably not intended.

And ds1 is highly playable on PC, and I even found the mouse and keyboard controls to be better than in ds2.

 

[Gozma]

Oi I was like lemme do one last bonfire ascetic'd boss and tried NG+ level Darklurker. Jesus H. Christ that was first-time-fighting O&S bad, at least with a 6 faith/6 int non-caster. The lower HP on NG made it no big deal to faceroll it (putting a flame swathe on him when he splits almost kills him outright), but NG+ put it over some horrible tipping point. Multibosses that have a bunch of different full screen attacks (and that damn exploding wormhole projectile, gah) go2hellIfinallybeatitdeletelocalcontent

Also bosses that have a defenseless first stage it takes a minute to hack through every time you try it go2hell

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

So uhhh apparently this is one of the interactions with the new SotFS NPC... Typical Souls mumbo jumbo... Obviously spoilers etc etc

https://imgur.com/a/F4Rtl

Looks like the first room in the undead crypt or something.

 

[Gozma]

Looks like the bed of chaos thing

"Demons" never really had a philosophical place in DkS - no demon character ever says anything IIRC, they're just some video game monsters that happened because of the witch. It's a pretty good place to add some nuance and a point of view.

 

[Metro]

I enjoyed Derp Souls 1. However, everything I've read about the sequel leads me to believe I wouldn't like it so much re: cheap tactics/ambushes/etc.

 

[Gozma]

OTOH if you don't like tightrope walking via thumbstick DS2 is far less annoying in that regard. It's got a pretty large amount of annoying fiddly jumps, far more common than DS1 (immediately turn the jump mode off of using the thumbstick click button - that shit will kill you because you're using the same stick for movement and clicking it in will foul your aim) but very little where you have 6 inches of walkable terrain with a death drop on at least one side. IIRC there wasn't much of that in Demon's Souls either. It's weird I haven't ever seen anyone comment on it but they clearly made an executive decision to stop doing that.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

I enjoyed Derp Souls 1. However, everything I've read about the sequel leads me to believe I wouldn't like it so much re: cheap tactics/ambushes/etc.

cheap tactics and ambushes are bread and butter of Souls games since Kings Field DeS. There is as much encounters against +2 opponents in DS2 as was in DeS/DS1. Its called fucking nostalgia

 

[Perkel]

OTOH if you don't like tightrope walking via thumbstick DS2 is far less annoying in that regard. It's got a pretty large amount of annoying fiddly jumps, far more common than DS1 (immediately turn the jump mode off of using the thumbstick click button - that shit will kill you because you're using the same stick for movement and clicking it in will foul your aim) but very little where you have 6 inches of walkable terrain with a death drop on at least one side. IIRC there wasn't much of that in Demon's Souls either. It's weird I haven't ever seen anyone comment on it but they clearly made an executive decision to stop doing that.

You have to have ADHD to click stick when you move or concave stick but even then it is not like ooops i clicked it.

 

[Perkel]

My mind still can't figure out why DS2 is so much worse than DS1 and DeS. It's like their moved their whole A team to other game and leave game with few experienced devs and ton of new kids.

Just compare what happens if you block Taurus demon axe in DS1 and any bigger monster attack in DS2.

In DS1 you will fly doing backflip with your shield which look awesome as fuck which gives you ability to see that his attacks are no joke and have impact.
In DS2 it is just standard block. meh

In DS1 every armor had sound piece that played when you run in it. This was especially visible with those plate armors.
In DS2 only handful of armors have any sound at all. Most of the time you are soundless.

In DS1 you had almost pixel perfect hitboxes.
In DS2 broken hitboxes is a thing

In DS1 world was cohesive and interconnected. Going from Firelink Shrine to Ash Lake was a journey you had to yourself.
In DS2 world is clusterfuck. So you are saying that i was on giant windmill i get to a top of it almost i move through corridor AND SOMEHOW I AM NEAR SUNKEN CASTLE IN MOLTEN ROCK ? What. The. Fuck.

In DS1 most of enemy placement was carefully designed. Like rapier users in corridors. Or shield and spear user in very very very thin passage.
In DS2 most of enemy placement is just yolo we will put here and there and there because why the fuck not.

Also every armor/weapon is actualy better looking in DS1 thanks to their awesome metalic shader and texture resolution which was downgraded as fuck in DS2.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

about hitboxes



http://www.gfycat.com/GraveBasicKite

http://s1.webmshare.com/MAa1b.webm

thats pixel perfect hitboxes

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

but they are

 

[Makabb]

My mind still can't figure out why DS2 is so much worse than DS1 and DeS. It's like their moved their whole A team to other game and leave game with few experienced devs and ton of new kids.

Just compare what happens if you block Taurus demon axe in DS1 and any bigger monster attack in DS2.

In DS1 you will fly doing backflip with your shield which look awesome as fuck which gives you ability to see that his attacks are no joke and have impact.
In DS2 it is just standard block. meh

In DS1 every armor had sound piece that played when you run in it. This was especially visible with those plate armors.
In DS2 only handful of armors have any sound at all. Most of the time you are soundless.

In DS1 you had almost pixel perfect hitboxes.
In DS2 broken hitboxes is a thing

In DS1 world was cohesive and interconnected. Going from Firelink Shrine to Ash Lake was a journey you had to yourself.
In DS2 world is clusterfuck. So you are saying that i was on giant windmill i get to a top of it almost i move through corridor AND SOMEHOW I AM NEAR SUNKEN CASTLE IN MOLTEN ROCK ? What. The. Fuck.

In DS1 most of enemy placement was carefully designed. Like rapier users in corridors. Or shield and spear user in very very very thin passage.
In DS2 most of enemy placement is just yolo we will put here and there and there because why the fuck not.

Also every armor/weapon is actualy better looking in DS1 thanks to their awesome metalic shader and texture resolution which was downgraded as fuck in DS2.

Because it was a beta....... Sots in April is the final release.

 

[ghostdog]

My only real problem with DS2 was that the exploration aspect wasn't as brilliantly implemented as in DS1 and that indeed the interconnected areas didn't make much sense, geographically-wise. Other than that in most other cases I found DS2 to be about as good as DS1 and in some cases, better.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Level design is one of the things i liked the most about DS1. Aside for the world itself being shit, does DS2 have comparable design for the single maps at least?

 

[praetor]

Level design is one of the things i liked the most about DS1. Aside for the world itself being shit, does DS2 have comparable design for the single maps at least?

other than the DLCs which are arguably even better than the best of DS1 (or at least on par), only Lost Bastille and the Forest of Fallen Giants come to mind (and i guess the Gutter), the rest ranged from utter shit (f.e. the Chasms of the Abyss or the lava castle) to decent/ok (like the Undead Crypt which is very simple in layout but very fun to play because of enemy placement/composition... up until the end hallway which is incredibly stupid)

about hitboxes



http://www.gfycat.com/GraveBasicKite

http://s1.webmshare.com/MAa1b.webm

thats pixel perfect hitboxes

for every example of a good hitbox in DS2, you can find 10 that are utterly retarded and 10 times worse than everything in DeS+DS1 combined, like almost every single grab attack

 

[Gozma]

You have to have ADHD to click stick when you move or concave stick but even then it is not like ooops i clicked it.

No, you don't understand. I'm not talking about accidentally jumping. I'm saying you're using that stick to direct your movement, and having to push it hard enough to click the button in will fuck up where you are trying to point your character. It's manageable for when you have lined up a perfectly straight jump in the direction you have the camera pointed but if you want to do something like turn slightly before you jump to give yourself a little more room to run in tight quarters clicking in the thumbstick can fuck you.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Because it was a beta....... Sots in April is the final release.

What are they going to do to fix all those problems anyway?

 

[Stonewolf]

You people really still use a controller? Why?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Level design is one of the things i liked the most about DS1. Aside for the world itself being shit, does DS2 have comparable design for the single maps at least?

Level Design is DaS2's biggest weakness. If they revamp it considerably for SotfS, they got my money. Otherwise, you got an inferior product to DaS1.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You people really still use a controller? Why?

Because it is better for a game that was designer for controllers?

 

[Stonewolf]

But its not. DS2 doesnt have the retarded problems of DS1 and with couple of fixes playing with kb+m is infinitely better.