From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Surf Solar]

You arent forced to Do it, but the areas arent interconnected with each other anymore like in Ds. It really feels different in that regard, the Fallout 1 to 2 comparison is Spot on

 

[aris]

What do you mean that they aren't interconnected? Loading screen going between areas?

 

[Hobo Elf]

To me Dark Souls didn't feel all that dark so I don't think there is any lost atmosphere here. It felt like a dark fantasy, sure, but not a horror / dark fantasy like DeS. Jesus Christ Latria. Nothing gets more atmospheric than that. It feels a lot more theme parky now than DaS did, but everything I've seen I've loved so far so can't complain about that much. DeS was a straight up theme park as well, what with the archstones, but that didn't take away from the atmosphere at all.

My main criticism for DaS2 is that the music is absolute garbage so far. Not a single memorable piece in any boss fight. DeS had an excellent OST. DaS was okay, not as good as DeS overall but still had its moments.
Also Sorcery is kinda garbage now to the point where I think it may be the worst build. If you want to play with magic then pick any other type of magic but Sorcery imo. Slow-ish cast for spells that don't do as good damage as they did before, which is alright I can deal with that, except that now most boss fights have you dealing with multiple targets which is shit for when you have to pick off enemies slowly one by one. It's much easier to be built like a tank and swing at all the enemies around you with a big weapon for about the same damage that I do with my Soul Arrow spells.

I mean I never got peoples' complaints saying that Sorcery was OP and ez mode. It was true for DeS where you could literally 1-2 shot bosses, but in DaS I thought it was so much easier to go pure strength and go for the heaviest shit you could find. You'd tank everyone like a boss and hit like a truck. Especially so since armor actually meant something in DaS and was pretty much useless in DeS so keeping range was your best defense.

 

[toro]

It's much easier to be built like a tank and swing at all the enemies around you with a big weapon ...

Korgoth approves.

 

[Tribal Sarah]

I went straight from Manjula, to Heide, then straight down to No Man's Wharf, which took me back to Lost Bastile. Didn't use any bonfires to warp. Seems pretty connected. Graphics, i don't give a fuck about the graphics. They seem fine to me. They're not any worse than Dark Souls. That's all I ever wanted. I know those shit munchers at neogaf are having their daily drama about them, which is no surprise. The majority of those dickrags didn't go anywhere near the game until PewDiePie played it, and suddenly they were all DS's biggest fans. Now it's all, muh graphics, muh rights. Fuck those faggots. They are nothing more than filthy, fair weather, band wagon jumping bitches.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I like the game, but the charm of DS1 isn't there. I blame it all on travel anywhere really. The game becomes pretty much a bonfire run - get to a new bonfire and warp back to buy shit/level.

Are you forced to warp between bonfires to get from one area to the other? If not, that's a pretty retarded criticism.

You are not forced and some areas are kind of connected (Lost Bastille through No-Man's or Forest Of Giants after certain boss). The problem is that it's a core gameplay mechanic. Majula is the starting point to all locations which end up being dead ends once you're done with the final baddie (kind of like getting souls for the lordvessel). Progressing pretty much feels like DS1 after getting the lordvessel (see: decline). At least DS1 didn't have a retarded hub with all of your go-to needs, so getting to a smith was a problem (at least before getting the lordvessel).

To me Dark Souls didn't feel all that dark so I don't think there is any lost atmosphere here. It felt like a dark fantasy, sure, but not a horror / dark fantasy like DeS. Jesus Christ Latria. Nothing gets more atmospheric than that. It feels a lot more theme parky now than DaS did, but everything I've seen I've loved so far so can't complain about that much. DeS was a straight up theme park as well, what with the archstones, but that didn't take away from the atmosphere at all.

My main criticism for DaS2 is that the music is absolute garbage so far. Not a single memorable piece in any boss fight. DeS had an excellent OST. DaS was okay, not as good as DeS overall but still had its moments.

Archstones felt disjointed as fuck and it didn't help that it was a console game (Mario "worlds" come to mind). Having to do other worlds bit by bit after beating the tower knight was just plain bad. I still ended up going through each world in order. Latria is good but it all gets ruined when you're going back and forth between the nexus to buy shit or get some shit in a completely different world.

Travelling from Anor Londo to Undead Parish or Catacombs to get some weapon enchants was a challenge. You actually had to think ahead and stick with your choice when going to a specific area (especially if you've got shitloads of humanity so you can't just suicide run).

The main theme in DeS was absolutely horrid (those trumpets.....). I really only liked Allant/Astraea/Nexus. Dark Souls had Ash Lake, Gwyn, Firelink, Sif, Crossbreed, Nameless... Much better quality.

 

[Invictus]

I also think that the overall mood of the game is decidedly less "dark" and hopeless that DaS and definetly less than DeS. The themepark feel is more fun because you don't know what to expect and I guess that comes out of having 2 different directors instead of Miyazaki having an unifying concept of the game; it sort of feels like they had some pretty clear ideas on what they wanted on the main areas and a rough idea of the lesser areas like No Mans Warf and their designers came up with some cool designs like the zombie vikings (which drop a pretty sweet sword for longsword fans) so the overall concept is a bit up and down.
I heartily agree that the whole wraping from the start and having to go to back to Majula removes the feeling of insolation which was so powerful in the original game...
If they allowed you to level up and the bonfires as to not have to leave, it could help on the immersion but I am enjoying the game so far, sort of feels a bit like Dragons Dogma in the whole different locale feel

 

[Hobo Elf]

Welp I got a bunch of new sorcery spells (Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass) and all I have to say is that they are pure garbage. I hear that Sorcerer's become better at the very end of the game when they finally get a new Staff that doesn't require heavy investment of Faith to use but until then you are stuck with your pea shooter. Grr shit is so boring I might start with a new character instead of waiting to get into NG+ first. Whatever you do just please don't go with Sorcery. It's kinda disappointing how they removed all the nice features they had in the beta, too, but left in the only negative one; casting spells consumes stamina.

 

[Castanova]

Thanks for the heads up. I was going to go Sorcerer for the first exploratory playthrough but now I'll go Knight or Explorer. Looks like they've got pretty nice starting stats.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Gotta love the

Spoiler

Respawning ruin sentinel surprise rape basement room

in Drangleic Castle.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Welp I got a bunch of new sorcery spells (Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass) and all I have to say is that they are pure garbage. I hear that Sorcerer's become better at the very end of the game when they finally get a new Staff that doesn't require heavy investment of Faith to use but until then you are stuck with your pea shooter. Grr shit is so boring I might start with a new character instead of waiting to get into NG+ first. Whatever you do just please don't go with Sorcery. It's kinda disappointing how they removed all the nice features they had in the beta, too, but left in the only negative one; casting spells consumes stamina.

You ARE upgrading your staff with titanite, right?

PS:

Spoiler

In the Black Gulch, you can destroy the poison dart shooting statues.

 

[Invictus]

Yeah the whole upgrading staves and holy chime was not explained at all almost anywhere ENB explained it on his channel and you can see the upgrade option for such items on the blacksmith screen; the upgrades rise the effects of your magic.
A friend of mine is going pure sorcerer and after he got a large titanite shard to upgrade to +4 he does almost half more damage he originaly did
When I get the PC version I plan to go with a Deprived starte class and go full sorcerer from there, since with the upgardes it looks like the magic only class is finaly viable

 

[Kanedias]

Sorcerers are really good in PvP as well, I was having trouble with Homing Crystal Soulmass...until I found the Rebel's Greatshield, that is. That greatshield (which requires 29 strength) is not too good at resisting physical damage (about 70%~) but it resists every other element by more than 90%. Once I got this thing, spells that would normally be hard to dodge and take most of my HP away became chip damage.

By the way, I have beat the game. All of the endgame was fantastic, but a very specific part at the very end was rather lackluster, and for those who worry about these things, the final boss was easy. I still loved the game overall, I'd say it has the same quality as Dark Souls, though they both have different vices and virtues, so I guess it all boils down to how much you care about the things Dark Souls 2 improved, and how much you care about the stuff that got worse.

Also, I believe I figured out a lot of the story/lore, but there are some very important things that I have no idea about (Vendrick, the Giants). Whoever says this game has straightforward lore is lying. I wonder if NG+ offers more clues, I was told by a reliable source that there are new things to be found in NG+, related to the story, beyond just new enemy types and black phantoms.

P.S.: I was able to fight Emarrel, but sadly I was one-shot by Flame Swathe. It was a good fight, but that spell is so powerful. I'd have to face it more to truly say it's overpowered, but that's the impression I'm getting right now.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

I was told by a reliable source that there are new things to be found in NG+, related to the story, beyond just new enemy types and black phantoms.

quick impression after first 3 days of constant playing: its harder,better looking game with more polished game mechanic and smoother animations than ds1.
its not lordran 2.0 as some of us probably wished, but lordran was also very different to boletaria. honestly some parts of drangleic setting are much more like kings field games than lordran.

ds1 location design seems to be more coherent and tight but it was all about undead burg+anor londo and nearby tombs while in ds2 they try to show drangleic and 4 or 5 surrounding kingdoms. i am guessing thats why locations are shorter but there is more of them here we have like a last minute travel through 4(???) subordinates of drangleic kingdom?

there are some really fun but not difficult fights like

Spoiler

smelter demon

and last three bosses before final fight

Spoiler

demon song,velstadt and way to him, throne defender+watcher

are probably in my top5 fights in all three games.

ALSO THAT FEEL WHEN YOU

Spoiler

FIGHT IN DARKNESS(thanks to missing some fucking key to lanterns) WITH LAST SINNER

AND YOU GOT PARRIED LIKE A LITTLE BITCH i thought its instant death but she left me 2% of hp

also rat covenant IS BEST COVENANT

 

[Surf Solar]

I have to say, despite my initial worries I didn't get invaded or anything yet while playing Online. Playing the multiplayer of the game seems to be better now that I play the game on a console, lol. It also runs very smooth and without any lag. Finally it is actually fun to help out some people with co-op. I throw a little up in my mouth however whenever I read about that supposedly rat covenant thing. That shit's gonna be so fucking annoying.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Welp I got a bunch of new sorcery spells (Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass) and all I have to say is that they are pure garbage. I hear that Sorcerer's become better at the very end of the game when they finally get a new Staff that doesn't require heavy investment of Faith to use but until then you are stuck with your pea shooter. Grr shit is so boring I might start with a new character instead of waiting to get into NG+ first. Whatever you do just please don't go with Sorcery. It's kinda disappointing how they removed all the nice features they had in the beta, too, but left in the only negative one; casting spells consumes stamina.

You ARE upgrading your staff with titanite, right?

PS:

Spoiler

In the Black Gulch, you can destroy the poison dart shooting statues.

Of course I am. Mine is +6 but it's such a shitty Staff anyway that it doesn't really help at all. I mean of course it helps more than if I didn't upgrade it, but I still need to shoot normal mooks 2-3 times with my spells to kill them. And that's not really a good situation to be in. Compared to everyone I summon who just straight up destroys everyone in one hit with their giant Guts swords. Doesn't help that heavy 2 handed weapons were buffed in this game and swing much faster now. Like I said though, Sorcerer's are bumped back slightly into the same power category as they were in DaS, but that's only at the veeeeery end of the game when you finally get a pure Int staff and not some queer Int/Faith hybrid that requires you to invest more than 10 levels of Faith which you won't need at all unless you are a Hexer.

But I think the main problem may stem from the fact that the game was balanced for all the Sorcery changes they had, which they removed after beta. Changes like wielding your staff with two hands for more damage, free aim (only possible if you have binoculars equiped now what the hell?) and also R2ing spells would set them off with a larger damaging spell but take longer to cast. There were a bunch of items that boosted magick damage as well that have been removed. Everything you can find now will only improve your cast speed or amount of charges that you have.

 

[Surf Solar]

Fucking Pursuer, I just cant kill him

 

[Surf Solar]

Lol after writing that Post I did! :D

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

i alsmost killed him the first time you meet him with my scrawny sorcerer - 111damage points with every soul arrow and dodging like a pro...until i pressed wrong button and went for an estus when i should roll back. nice OHK and curse

anyone far into ng+? apparently

Spoiler

pursuer

is not the only boss that looks for you

Spoiler

before the Prowling Magus boss the Duke's Dear Freja comes OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE and starts attacking you

 

[Admiral jimbob]

This is a great game

As good as DS1? Can't say so far. I can definitely see where some of the criticism is coming from, but I'll reserve judgement on whether it bothers me enough to bring the game down.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I think it's the best Souls game so far. I've liked every area and boss I've encountered with nothing feeling bland or crappy. The game is ridiculously long though, even if you know where to go and what to do it'll still be a long romp. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to replay this over and over again immediately because of the length. Might suffer from too much fatigue in the end, but we'll see. I'm at least gonna do one Str or Str/Dex play after this before taking a break.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

This game has been eating all of my free time lately. Very enjoyable so far on account of excellent enemy and area design; solid blue-collar effort here. A lot of detailed locales populated by differentiated enemies that have been handplaced in ways to play into terrain hazards. There are deviously hidden loot/secrets as well. Sure, nothing is particularly brilliant, but there's a high level of quality throughout a breadth of content. Solid, consistent game so far. I like.

Some mechanical quibbles however.

-Roll attacks don't really work while locked on. If you roll while locked on to a foe, and then attack, said attack will always be aimed to the direction you rolled in. The same goes with any dagger/urn/firebomb used after a locked-on roll. Even tilting the control stick doesn't change the direction of the attack while locked-on (it does while playing unlocked). I don't know if this is a mistake/oversight or some questionable balance change. No matter why this issue exists, I don't particurly like it. Roll attacks were an integral part of many weapon's offenses in both PvE and PvP; they made getting aggressive with some bosses a bit easier and can be incorporated into PvP to play mindgames with enemies (I miss overhead Spear slashes being good).

-I am starting to dislike the extinction of enemy spawns and absolutely detest a some of the designs it seemingly encouraged. The biggest complaint I have is that random drops are "a thing" and that plays horribly with the eventual cessation of spawns. Plenty of weapons, armor, and items are exclusive to enemy drops...and the drop rate is none too high. I've been playing with a of Item Finding and hunted some foes to extinction while missing some of their drops or, in the case of consumables, not finding a sufficient quantity. And I don't believe Bonfire Ascetics will remedy this situation given how rare they seem to be.

But it would seem that much of the game was designed around this mechanic. Treks to boss rooms tend to be littered with a lot more enemies than similar jaunts in Dark Souls numero uno, quantities that could certainly become tedious. Think along the lines of the Tomb of the Giants. Then again, this only kicks in at around 10 to 15 times, so it will take awhile. My biggest pet peeve, though, are some of the dangerous bonfires or precariously positioned vendors. Two examples of this are scarcely a minute apart from each other at both ends of the bridge connecting Sinner's Rise to the Lost Bastille. The bonfire in Sinner's Rise is adjacent to a trio of crossbowmen that immediately attack after the player rises from a resting position at the fire. And while it may be nothing but typical From trolling, placing an important NPC vendor in a room full of exploding enemies is a little obnoxious. Had to kill them all in an incredibly tedious manner so as to not get him killed.

-I'm not so certain I like some of the new stat balancing. While I have no hard, empirical data to back up this claim, playing without a decent investment in Adaptability seems like a total chore. Having a gimpy roll with maybe one or two i-frames throughout the animation is simply not fun, especially given how much more the game asks of the player when compared to the previous entries. As Invictus pointed out, 20 seems to be the required amount of ADP to have something approaching DkS1 fast roll (still fewer i-frames though). And having a total of four "quality of life" stats (Vitality, Vigor, Endurance, Adaptability) is really annoying, especially with hybrid builds. Can't imagine how miserable Hexing builds that want to actually have any melee viability will be.

-Poise shenanigans aside (which I chalk up to the prevalence of the Stone Ring), multiplayer seems pretty good aside from a few dumb matchmaking/balance choices.

*Soul Memory doesn't seem like a good idea at all, even if it doesn't have much of an effect. Good players can get bumped out of more populous PvP "brackets", even if they are in the proper Soul Level range. And "bad" players, or people who simply enjoy helping others in co-op, may be bumped into brackets they aren't ready for. Even a stat like souls spent wouldn't really prevent "twinking", as players determined to grief will be able to follow the most soul-efficient paths through the game to have better gear/items/spells than typical players would.

*The lack of infinite invasion items for the Brotherhood of Blood (Darkwraiths) and Blue Sentinels (Darkmoons) seems like a poor idea, especially in the Brotherhood, where the method of acquiring Cracked Red Eye Orbs is negative sum and diminishing over time. It's a cool idea, sparing with fellow Bloodbros in duels, where the winner receives an Orb. The problem is that each duel costs a Token of Spite, the reward for a successful invasion; so each Orb "costs" two Tokens and in the hands of a perfect PvPer will never fully recoup the costs. Like I said, negative sum. Yes, Tokens can be farmed with the use of the Red Sign Soapstone, but that doesn't enable Blue Sentinels to jump in and help nor does it seem to build Sin for Bluebros to hunt with their Orbs. Bluebros duel for Cracked Blue Eye Orbs with the cost being Tokens of Fidelity. This is a little better, given that ToFs only require "successful" co-op sessions, but still annoying, given that it forces Sentinels, a PvP-focused Covenant, to engage in tons of PvE (diminishing the niche of Sunbros).

Bellbros and Ratbros basically get "free" PvP. It makes no sense to restrict Bluebros and Bloodbros to Token farming in order to duel one another for Orbs.

*From's obsession with limited Effigies (humanity). It's not so much of a concern now, as the playerbase is large, but as it tapers off there may be fewer people able to summon and thus fewer potential co-op opportunities. There's a "feature" that grants players their humanity back after a certain amount of time spent in multiplayer, but rumor has it From is hellbent on patching this up as it is an affront to their xXh4RdC0r3Xx_MLG_PRO image...or whatever. Given that, here are the changes I would make to allow for more multiplayer and more interesting muliplayer:

1. Red Sign Soapstones can be laid while Hollowed. If Hollows can be invaded, I see no reason to not allow Hollow Bloodbros to offer gentlemanly "invasions".

2. Small White Sign Soapstones can be activated by Hollows, but the Shades summoned by them have additional penalties besides the short duration of their stay. This makes for more interesting choices in what sign to lay down for jolly cooperation. Go big and come in with full powers and a more favorable time limit, or go small sign and sacrifice abilities for a wider range of potential summoners. Again, if Hollows can be invaded and From intends to follow through on their idea of making humanity "scarce" it behooves them to actually allow Hollows the ability to interact more in the multiplayer aspect. As it stands, there's really no reason to use the Small Soapstone unless you feel like getting drastically fewer summons (most players seem to want Sunbros or regular Phantoms, as opposed to Shades) or feel like playing the Smooth&Silky Lottery.



So yeah, lots of wordswordswords about what I don't like...but that's about all I have against the game at this moment. The rest is really good. I don't regret the day one purchase at all.

 

[Kanedias]

Two things: the Brotherhood of Blood arena doesn't actually consume Tokens of Spite. The NPC dialogue seems to imply that they do consume them, but I have tested it and the arena is 100% free. I miss having an infinite eye orb, however.

Also, I don't think the ridiculous lack of poise has anything to do with the stone ring. I think Poise in PvP does not work, or that it just reduces the stagger time. I don't wear the ring and all my attacks stagger other players.

 

[80Maxwell08]

-I'm not so certain I like some of the new stat balancing. While I have no hard, empirical data to back up this claim, playing without a decent investment in Adaptability seems like a total chore. Having a gimpy roll with maybe one or two i-frames throughout the animation is simply not fun, especially given how much more the game asks of the player when compared to the previous entries. As Invictus pointed out, 20 seems to be the required amount of ADP to have something approaching DkS1 fast roll (still fewer i-frames though). And having a total of four "quality of life" stats (Vitality, Vigor, Endurance, Adaptability) is really annoying, especially with hybrid builds. Can't imagine how miserable Hexing builds that want to actually have any melee viability will be.

Completely agree. I have no idea how to build my character right now because there seems to be way too many stats I need.

 

[Hobo Elf]

-I'm not so certain I like some of the new stat balancing. While I have no hard, empirical data to back up this claim, playing without a decent investment in Adaptability seems like a total chore. Having a gimpy roll with maybe one or two i-frames throughout the animation is simply not fun, especially given how much more the game asks of the player when compared to the previous entries. As Invictus pointed out, 20 seems to be the required amount of ADP to have something approaching DkS1 fast roll (still fewer i-frames though). And having a total of four "quality of life" stats (Vitality, Vigor, Endurance, Adaptability) is really annoying, especially with hybrid builds. Can't imagine how miserable Hexing builds that want to actually have any melee viability will be.

Completely agree. I have no idea how to build my character right now because there seems to be way too many stats I need.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I don't know if it's because they lowered the overall souls needed for levels, or if enemies just give more souls, but I just got into Drangleic Castle and I'm SL114. Without any kind of deliberate grind at all. You get a lot more levels in this game, thus more stats to spend. Keep in mind that Drangleic Castle isn't even the last area. I guess the equivalent would be getting into Anor Londo? I still have a ways to go and a lot more levels to gain.