From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Russia is over. The end.]

That dragon in Schoolar, yeah... I spent an entire day trying to beat him, I almost gave up and went into the hole instead. I was playing in the champions covenant though and I was full hollow with no humanities left.

 

[Rolk's Drifter]

Hmm, as I play this game and get used to it's controls and mechanics, I can't help but feel like the level design is just flat out worse than DS1 so far. I reached that forest area and just like DS1, the forest area here is just a long corridor with nothing to it except enemies with tracking arrows and tracking attacks.

So far, I have at least gotten a 100% blocking shield and some decent weapons. I like halberds here just like DS1 but this time they don't seem to have the problem of long recovery time like DS1 but I'm not going for a dexterity character so eh. I got the ring that limits the health loss from dying.

Also, do you need to be online to summon NPC's? I was sure that I should have been able to summon an NPC for the last giant fight and no sign showed up even after I used a human effigy. Also,

Now, this retarded dragon is giving me hellkite drake vibes with how they positioned him. bullshit.

In some places there is no level design what so ever. Shame cos I love the environment/setting design. Could have been so, so cool. The DLC is pretty boss though. Love the first 2 especially. This is why I love coop because it can still be fun without level design. Coop is very important to DS2 imo.

Well there are strength halberds in the game and some people love them immensely.. not a halberd person myself but the Mastodon is very popular. Old pike is in next area, I believe that's a strength halberd. There are dex/str versions of almost every weapon.

Nah, you don't need to be online. But some will only appear if the area boss is still alive. Others, mostly shades rather than phantoms, stick around just to help out with mooks. The small soapstone (shades) is one of the big differences in DS2. Some areas are designed specifically for it imo. I.e you dip in and out of coop. If you're using poison arrows/knives its a good place to drop the shade stone. Not many people make use of it though unfortunately which leaves some areas being kinda dicky. The place with the two giants people were talking about further back in this thread is one of them. Never seen a sign or got summoned there myself though. Pity, would be a lot of fun imo.

Heh, I love that dragon. It's very easy when you figure it out. Much of DS2 is like that. Developing methods/strats is very rewarding. Makes the game a lot easier/more fun. It's also a very good position cos beyond it is a covenant that requires a token of fidelity (reward for coop) to enter. This way it encourages people to summon. In coop one person below can use bow and arrows to distract it while another charges in. Very simple, very fun. But if you're offline I guess it doesn't make much sense.

 

[ultimanecat]

It's likely because I'm a herald of decline, but I'm enjoying DS2 way more than DS1. I quit playing DS1 somewhere around Sen's Fortress because, after Blightown and the skeleton tomb area, I couldn't imagine going through another place and getting gangbanged in the dark. Yeah, it makes me a dip but I couldn't stand the environmental design. I remember reading that DS2 was supposed to be much, much darker but they had to turn off volumetric lighting pretty late in development, hence why there are torches and sconces everywhere that aren't really important, but I'm digging the overall brighter aesthetic.

I'm also dying a lot less. I'm guessing the game is just easier or has a smoother difficulty curve because I've beaten every boss in one or two tries without summoning, which definitely was not the case in DS1. Which, again if I'm honest, is probably why I'm enjoying the game a bit more.

 

[polo]

Well, blighttown and tomb of the giants are the worst parts of Ds1 to me. Sen's fortress is awesome tho, and the reward is Anor Londo, awesome place at Day... Creepy at night (wink wink).

 

[sullynathan]

Meh blight town is easy and so was tomb of giants. Getting gang banged in dark souls 2 is worse because enemies will stun lock you.

Plus it seems like there's a fuck ton of enemies around.

 

[sullynathan]

oh my god I just uncovered some deep shit.

I've been part of the company of champions for a while now and i finally read all that the faction gives. It makes the game much more difficult and also disables summoning of NPC's. My god, no wonder I've been getting 2 shotted by hollows and I couldn't summon that pete guy for the last giant.

 

[Jick Magger]

oh my god I just uncovered some deep shit.

I've been part of the company of champions for a while now and i finally read all that the faction gives. It makes the game much more difficult and also disables summoning of NPC's. My god, no wonder I've been getting 2 shotted by hollows and I couldn't summon that pete guy for the last giant.

Yeah, that's a common mistake for newcomers to make.

You can't disable it either, so there's no going back now. Might as well just chin up and bear through it.

 

[sullynathan]

I left the covenant and went back to the way of white. So much better so far.

I can safely say that the game has itself. I beat the ornstein 2.0 easily with a summon. Summons have a lot of cool powers unlike dark souls and there are a lot more to summon.

I genuinely like the pirate area, might be a little bit cheesy to have pirates in dark souls because it reminds me of that pirate cave in Skyrim but it was done well. I didn't die in the area and beat the boss in one go. Now in back in lost bastille.

I like this game now, pretty fun.

 

[80Maxwell08]

So I got to the boss in the frigid outskirts and now it seriously feels like a complete joke. The same boss I just fought earlier in the same DLC but two of it. Good grief. I'll probably take the npc summons to get it later since I don't have PS Plus to summon people on PS4. Though considering how it was when I used the 2 day trial in Sunken King I may have completely grinded my way past anyone who could have helped me anyway.

 

[Caim]

I beat the ornstein 2.0 easily with a summon.

Going by what we know that might very well be Ornstein himself going all Artorias.

 

[Murk]

way of white? err the blue babbies you mean?

 

[80Maxwell08]

The two pets are down. God I love those NPCs. Their souls seem to make really crappy weapons though. Well all that's left is grinding 42 more loyce souls then beating the game. Ugh. What a damn disappointment after the past 2 DLCs.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Well all that's left is grinding 42 more loyce souls then beating the game. Ugh.

I must've spent ~10 hours grinding 25 I think, with all possible helpers like coins etc. Can't recommend... You can get one of the items just from that queen btw. It pained me to do it, since she's quite nice.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well all that's left is grinding 42 more loyce souls then beating the game. Ugh.

I must've spent ~10 hours grinding 25 I think, with all possible helpers like coins etc. Can't recommend... You can get one of the items just from that queen btw. It pained me to do it, since she's quite nice.

I know. It's only for completionist sake. Speaking of which, I still need to fight the ancient dragon at some point.

 

[praetor]

The two pets are down. God I love those NPCs. Their souls seem to make really crappy weapons though. Well all that's left is grinding 42 more loyce souls then beating the game. Ugh. What a damn disappointment after the past 2 DLCs.

the sword is quite excellent. it's essentially a greatsword with a 2-handed moveset of a longsword (it's not as good as a longsword due to speed and stamina consumption, but it's probably the best greatsword in the game)

and the grinding for the loyce souls is unwholesome. one of the weakest points in the entire series (and not really worth it. and killing the ancient dragon is worth even less... it's not an interesting challenge, and the "reward" is utter shit)

 

[Invictus]

Just installed the scholar ofnthe first sin... And it looks like total shit!
After Durante's mods which added better colors, tone, saturation and post processing effects for a rich dark look this looks like someone used one of those self coloring book (the once you only had to trace over with a wet brush) and dumped it ina bucket!
The colors look washed out, the blacks look grey and the supposed post processing of ambient oclusion is nearly invisible
I sonetimes forget the man is a godsend but instlling an almost vanilla Dark Souls on my laptop (most options turned off sans AA and the resolutions) and this little trip make me appreciate him even more
Gonna donate him something now
In the meantime amwhat can I do? Should I install an enb or something since his gedosato supposedly doesnt work with this game?

 

[sullynathan]

what? SOFTS looks p. good.

 

[sullynathan]

wow, beat nu quelaag yet another DS boss fight in DS2 but somehow worse.

 

[sullynathan]

Beat nu sif. Why is the name rat society when the animal is a dog?

I ask myself, what's the point of having frequent invasions if they barely drop any souls or loot and the fights themselves aren't very exciting?
Finally able to use my trust great club from DS1.

So far the only decent to good boss was the pursuer, the two sided pirate and those three giants.

Man, leveling up is really quick compared to DS2. I'm already level 77 and only 14 hours into this character.

 

[Invictus]

Meh I turned down the brightness and applied the ambient occlusion setting from the nvidia control panel and everything looks cool now
Kudos for those that suggested Scholar; the little changes so far like the trolls in the foest of giants and different enemy placement make the game feel refreshed and it is easy to get overwhelmed, really enjoying it so far
DS2 has a bad rap and while it is definetly the lesser of the Souls games it is still a good game

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

People who change original brightness and contrast aren't right in the head.

 

[Invictus]

Normaly I would say you are just trolling but I will bite, care to explain why?

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's like wearing some weirdo red/green glasses to a museum to look at paintings like that. It's not right in the head, what else is there to say? It always looks like shit (no exceptions).

 

[Invictus]

Yeah well not all monitors are set the same way and I might like it nice and bright for playing nba 2k but darker for stalker and souls games to get in the mood

 

[sullynathan]

If theres one thing that this game does well, it's the ability to create some really creative and crazy builds. Some of the NPC summons I've met have two greatshields as weapons, dual wielding repeating crossbows or a straight up archer build with greatbows and crossbows.

I've made it to nu-blighttown, I don't know why From chose to reuse lots of things like levels and bosses from DS1 though.