From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[sullynathan]

How did DS1 lose its touch after Anor Londo?

 

[Invictus]

As for game design. Deamon's Souls is the best one. Simply put each and every place is amazing up until finish where DS1 losts its touch after anor londo and DS2 aside from few areas is just shit pile of corridors.

Fun Fact: Demons Souls was the only game that encouraged me to do a magic playthrough.


Also, I agree it's a shame that FROM included that boring gauntlet before Alonne. Probably the only blight, aside from the road to Blue Smelter, in that DLC gem.

I want to play Demon again.

There are rumors of it coming to PS4, such a good game an much less forgiving than Dark Souls with those huge levels

 

[Invictus]

How did DS1 lose its touch after Anor Londo?

After you get the lordvessel and get to warp around it loses some of its tension of beign stuck in the bottom of blighttown, but mostly there are some areas most notably lost izlith and demon ruins which were rushed out for completion and then there is that fucking bed of chaos...

 

[sullynathan]

Which dlc should I start first?
Lost Izalith was pretty shit. Who the hell goes back to blight town after Anor Londo?

 

[Ivan]

How did DS1 lose its touch after Anor Londo?

OH IDK THE ABSOLUTE WORST PARTS OF THE GAME?

Bed of Chaos

Invisible Ice Floor

sullynathan

If you want to save the best for last, do:

Ivory (snow)
Sunken (cave)
Old Iron (spire)

 

[sullynathan]

easiest to hardest DLC or best rewarding to least rewarding or more fun to least fun. I reached Vendrick and nothing seems to be happening but I can now enter the memories of the giants so I want to know which DLC to start.

 

[Perkel]

How did DS1 lose its touch after Anor Londo?

Mainly because levels instead of being like earlier part of game fun interconnected mazes became like DS2 levels long pretty tunnels. Crystal Cave, Lost Izalith and so on.
Only really fun place was tomb of giants due to lantern thing.

As for teleport imo it wasn't that bad. DS1 teleport is something you earned righfully.

Problem here wasn't that you had teleport but the amount of bonfnires everywhere. And they made it even worse in DS2 where bonfires are literally every few minutes.

To compare that Deamon's Souls equivalent would be like going through Depths to blightown reaching quellag, beating her and voila you have your arch stone to teleport you to hub where is DS1 you have like 3 bonfires and each is in such place that you can respawn and in seconds reach again boss.

 

[Invictus]

And if you are a pyromancer you need to go back to Quelana to level up your glove and buy higher level pyromancies

 

[praetor]

DeS is by far the worst, mechanics-wise, Soulsborne. and the "omg, the level is so long, if i die now i'll lose so much progress" loses it's charm rather quickly. plus, the level design is kind of "meh" for the most part, with only a handful of actually good levels (1-1, 1-3, 3-1, 3-2), and most bosses are gimmicky garbage that are fun to fight only the first time through. that said, it's got the best atmosphere and i'm starting to have doubts Latria can ever be topped...

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

But I'm curious to know what everyone thinks.

Half people love DS2 more, another half loves DS1 more. DS1 fans are toxic and have a loud mouth on them, they "reject" DS2 as non-canon and try to speak for the entire community all the time (see example two posts above), while DS2 fans appreciate both games, just love the second one more. That's all there is to know.

Case in point: delusional apologist who speaks for entire community.
I like both games but DS1 is superior in every aspect save for netcode and FPS cap

 

[sullynathan]

DS2 has more variety in how you want to create your character

 

[Caim]

Which dlc should I start first?

I'd say do them in order. Sunken King was pretty fun, but the first inside bit was a bit of a pain. Iron King was the best with some sweet level design. Ivory King has enemies that are a major pain in the ass, but the environment is a nice change of pace.

 

[Perkel]

DS2 has more variety in how you want to create your character

True but it is hard to give a shit about your build when you go to the top of that windmill, kill the boss, you take elevator up and voila at the top of that winmill apperently there is castle sunken in lava...

That is the issue here. Almost every area feels like it was hacked from something else and then stiched together.

That area with maneater scorpion is best case for that. You get there through shadow forest which is cool, you kill few lion warriors you go to right between two towers and then you have literally PS2 era path in mountain that looks like someone spend their lunchtime doing that.

It is obvious that that path didn't actually exist and something else was after those two towers.

Similar situation with Drangelic Castle first time you visit it. You literally are walking some shit road from PS2 era and then somehow you get to castle with bridge leading to that shitty unusable by anyone road.

DeS and DS2 use similar approach to design but you can see clearly how doing something right matters.

 

[rashiakas]

Yeah Lost Izalith was so much better.

 

[Amazing chest]

It's hard to be invested in the story, because the game doesn't tell you anything. DS1 intro cutscene had meaningful information. DS2 intro told you you're going hollow. You're told to seek souls, but you won't know anything about the great old ones. "Oh, great soul embraced? Neat." When you visit Izalith, you know you'll find the Witch, and in the Tombs, you'll face Nito. In DS2, it seems that you just keep stumbling upon important stuff, without really knowing why.

It's hard to try and gather the lore, when it seems most of the stuff don't have answers, at least not satisfying ones. As far as I know, Ornstein doesn't have a reason for being in Heide. It's disappointing when you're playing blind and hoping to find answers by yourself. It's hard to bother after that anymore. "The Dragonrider is a boss in Heide, because he just is." Meaningless, most likely.

PvE seems to be designed for co-op, because the enemies sure ain't designed to be fought as a group. (If two Manikins attack you simultaneously, they'll both stunlock you with their 4-5 hit combos, which inflict bleed. They can also poison you with throwing knives before attacking) Also, some enemies have bullshit moves: hollows with greatswords have an attack as fast as if they were wielding a dagger, Heide Knights have an attack that does instant damage, and that Drakekeeper who wields a hammer is just awful.
PvP is better, though.

There were a couple of memorable moments, including Vendrick and the giant memories. Dragon Aerie and the Shrine of Amana were beautiful.

And if you're going to complain about geography, complain about the fact that you have to beat the 3 old ones to open the Shrine of Winter, because the main road is blocked by some rubble you could easily climb over. (To be honest, didn't realize it myself. Only after watching Matthewmatosis' DS2 critique video, which I recommend.)

 

[Jezal_k23]

I'm inclined to agree that DS1 gets a lot weaker after Anor Londo (DLC excluded). DS2 probably has the stronger endgame, but DS1 has absolutely brilliant early-midgame. As far as world building goes, DS1 obviously wins. DS2 has some dumb world building, the worst offender obviously being the transition from Earthen Peak to the Iron Keep.

I can accept their choice not to make the world interconnected in DS2 and it being 5 linear paths instead, but they should have been consistent with how each path makes sense (the area transitions should have always made sense, nothing as absurd as the transition to the Iron Keep should have happened).

 

[ultimanecat]

Man Smelter Demon stuck it in and broke it off with me. First boss I've fought in this to take more than two tries.

Otherwise I'm still having a pretty good time, though I agree that the world doesn't really make any sense spatially. Normally it'd bother me but they might as well be separate levels.

 

[Multidirectional]

DS2 has more variety in how you want to create your character

True but it is hard to give a shit about your build when you go to the top of that windmill, kill the boss, you take elevator up and voila at the top of that winmill apperently there is castle sunken in lava...

I don't see why that would make it hard to give a shit about your build. Don't see how it's in any way related to build at all.

 

[Perkel]

DS2 has more variety in how you want to create your character

True but it is hard to give a shit about your build when you go to the top of that windmill, kill the boss, you take elevator up and voila at the top of that winmill apperently there is castle sunken in lava...

I don't see why that would make it hard to give a shit about your build. Don't see how it's in any way related to build at all.

Well try to play your DS build in mario64 then.

 

[Multidirectional]

What?

 

[praetor]

What?

he's one of them irrational Muhyazaki fanboys. ignore him. DaS3 will be the bestest thing evah because Muhmuyazaki, nevermind that the mechanics are obviously the weakest after DeS and there's so much copypasting from some of the previous games of the wrong things (and probably for the wrong reasons) it could've been sold as a DLC. i hope i'm wrong, but if many years at the 'dex have taught me anything...

 

[Cromwell]

Without reading the whole 300 pages, would you give me a few small tips to start out? I wanted to build a character which uses hexes since that seems cool. I checked other guides out there and they all try to tell me how awesome the writer is and were to look for secrets in the first ten minutes while you would get these items only later n the game if at all if you play normally.

steam forums are full of idiots who tell yu that you should do x because you are not as enlightened as them so you can't do y. I only want some general tips like...

Can I go pure caster and beat the game without crying myself to sleep?

Should I skill heavily into faith and put only a little bit of points into other skills?

and so on, just some starter tips. someone got some?

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I'd say start with melee and slowly go into hexes, and see if you really enjoy it. For me, and for most people I think, the enjoyment comes out of melee mechanics that are so rich and deep. Magic system is just a cheese in the DS series. So I'd start slowly with magic, relying a lot on melee at first, and you find spells slowly too, so it makes sense in my opinion.

And then if you see that you do actually enjoy cheesy mechanics instead of solid ones, then you can go on building a hexer. No problem. You can even re-spec your character with certain items that you will find 6-7 per playthrough.

Basically build a fighter-mage and then keep leveling up whichever "class" you end up enjoying more.

 

[Murk]

Can I go pure caster and beat the game without crying myself to sleep?

Yes, but the DLC parts will be the hardest as enemies are especially resistant to magic there. If you want to go hex, start off as a sorc so you have some basic magic early on.

Should I skill heavily into faith and put only a little bit of points into other skills?

and so on, just some starter tips. someone got some?

Faith and Int are both important for hexes in terms of scaling, but specific spells require more of either one of the stats -- and the appropriate catalyst. Long story short, some hexes are more 'miracle' and some are more 'sorcery'. I personally find the sorc-esque hexes to be more fun and less OP. Otherwise, you can bumrush to the dude (Felkin?) who sells resonant soul and GRS and just roflstomp through the main game. If you want to play it more organically then I'd suggest to go more int than faith, or to keep them even (totally doable if you don't plan to raise str/dex past 12-16.)

P.S -- lightning spear used to be stupid OP, I'm not sure how the subsequent nerfs have dealt with it (in PVE, anyway, it kinda sucks in PVP).

IMO, going ONLY spells isn't terribly fun tho as you'll get quite bored of the sounds and constant spamming. I'd suggest picking up some infused weapons as well -- or be like me and smack motherfuckers with your staff.

 

[Mozg]

I tried a hexer in the latest patches and it honestly just sucked, even in base game content. Nuking never worked very interestingly in souls but it at least had the fun of being overpowered. Giving magic "balanced" DPS just exposes how little of the game's design is built for it.