Dark Souls II

Exactly , the world feels disconnected. Theres no thematic unity, not even with bosses and enemies.

The NPCs in DS1 made you care about them, in DS2 I've only enjoyed the cat, everyone else , I wouldn't mind pushing off a cliff. In Ds1 even the Npcs themselves had connections with each other.

No solaires, no lautrecs .

I still remember the amazement from some of the ares in Ds 1,heights and depths being used to divide an area, while still showing the previous , and next one.

Ds II feels like you're always being teleported.

The multiplayer and combat is very fun, the weapons, the playability , spells , rolls feel much more refined, graphics are amazing. But it lacks a director to give it a better script and meaning.

I didn't even care for most of the boss fights . In DS1 I was always fearful , when I saw a fog gate. In DS 2 its more of a "hey , extra souls to level up my gear"
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Sankari said:
In Ds1 even the Npcs themselves had connections with each other.

No solaires, no lautrecs .

There's at least one NPC connection I know of, and it's also something that reminds me of the Lautrec thing from DS1. It involves Pate and some other unpleasant guy I encountered while human at a bonfire in the Hunter's Copse. That being said, I never was able to follow up on that storyline, so I have no idea how it ended. I also liked learning the story of Lucatiel, though similarly at some point I must have missed her, and never found out how her story ended.

I still remember the amazement from some of the ares in Ds 1,heights and depths being used to divide an area, while still showing the previous , and next one.

Being in one zone in DS1 and seeing another from afar, it's an amazing thing. The only thing close to that in DS2 is the rocky ocean waters you see around Majula, and again near the Pursuer fight. And it's pretty weak by comparison...

I didn't even care for most of the boss fights . In DS1 I was always fearful , when I saw a fog gate. In DS 2 its more of a "hey , extra souls to level up my gear"

:ganishka: Yeah it got to that point for me, too. Though I was still usually fearful until I first enountered them. I think I did most bosses in between 1-2 runs. Few took me more than 3 tries. From memory, they were
Lost Sinner, Rotten and Stupid Poison Bitch (i didn't know about the drain the poison lake thing until later...).
 
Still no company releasing DS or DS II statues/ figures ! I can't fathom why
I died a bunch of times to the gargoyles in bell tower, but man, that fight was exciting ! Only one that kept me on my toes , and felt like you actually needed skill to waltz with 3/4 gargoyles at the same time, still, not that hard once you found the pattern.
But no more manus father of the abyss, or black dragon kalameet ( where bosses actually followed you around,etc. And no climatic moments like killing sif or artorias =/
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
Griff will eventually be able to provide that perspective. He started on DS2 around the same time I did, but he's yet to play more than a few hours of DS1.

Yeah, I jumped back in last night after reading Obscure's harrowing tale. The problem is that now that I beat the last boss I had on the docket (
the two ended spider
), leading to another lovely dead end rather than somewhere else to explore, I'm kind of out of places to go at the moment. I mean, maybe it's good that I've been away so I'll see the areas with fresh eyes and catch the pathways I missed before, but I'm not exactly looking forward to retracing my steps in a dozen areas I've already been over. With a few exceptions it really is like they're all little zones unto themselves rather than one area that progresses to another revealing a larger whole.

Also, part of the reason I took a break from DS2 is I'm playing more DS1 (21 hours now). I have a couple of builds going; a Link-themed hunter where I'm basically playing it like how a modern Zelda should be, and a drake sword wielding pyromancer that's just cheap. =)
 
Walter said:
There's at least one NPC connection I know of, and it's also something that reminds me of the Lautrec thing from DS1. It involves Pate and some other unpleasant guy I encountered while human at a bonfire in the Hunter's Copse. That being said, I never was able to follow up on that storyline, so I have no idea how it ended. I also liked learning the story of Lucatiel, though similarly at some point I must have missed her, and never found out how her story ended.

Walter I am 99% sure that the place you missed Lucactiel in was
The Black Gulch
. There are 3-4 super secret things that are easy to miss there if you don't happen to get a message on the ground hinting where to look.
 
Dark Souls 2 is getting three DLC episodes in July, August, and September. $10 each, or $25 for all 3.

Trailer inside:
http://kotaku.com/dark-souls-ii-is-getting-three-dlc-episodes-1585991405
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
Dark Souls 2 is getting three DLC episodes in July, August, and September. $10 each, or $25 for all 3.

Trailer inside:
http://kotaku.com/dark-souls-ii-is-getting-three-dlc-episodes-1585991405

Awesome news. One of them is titled "Crown of the Old Iron King," which is likely related to (NG+ spoilers)
the Iron Keep, whose king has some kind of connection to Gwyn (NG+ Soul).
Could be promising.

Release dates from that press release:

DLC1: July, 22, 2014
DLC2: August 26, 2014
DLC3: September 24, 2014

With a "trilogy" to be released on PC with no date set. Sounds like after all three are already out on consoles.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Oh wow, I wasn't expecting DLC to even be mentioned for a few more months. I loved the additions to DkS, so hopefully this will be good too. I hope it sheds a bit more light onto Drangleic (or rather, gives us the tools to surmise a better understanding of the world). I wonder what kind of weapons and armor (or magic?) will be introduced...
 
I have to admit that while I was playing DkS2 I was having a BLAST and it was really fun and highly addicting. But after I was done playing it, it didn't have nearly as satisfying of a feel as I did with DkS1, which I feel was the better game overall.

I am open to the possibility that this new DLC will go the extra mile and add some much needed coherency to the world of DkS2, but even if it is not that ambitious, I am hopeful that it will be just as fun, if not more, to play than DkS2's main game. And I base this off of the great job from did with the Artorias DLC in DkS1.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Delta Phi said:
Something that particularly caught my attention was the dragon skeleton. Kalameet, anyone?

Doesn't look _exactly_ like Kalameet. But maybe? I mean hell, what was
the dragon that eventually possessed the great soul near Duke's Dear Freja? It sure as hell didn't look like Seath, but that was the implication.

Anyway, I started a new strength-based character (named Guts), and am just crushing the game with very little difficulty. Mace +10 is an overpowered killing machine for most bosses. 6.5 hours in, lv 100, just finished
Drangleic Castle.
I say this not to brag, but to point out that I think this game is considerably easier than DS1. Starting from scratch in that game, even if you're a practiced player, can be difficult. No such difficulties for me in DS2.

I probably should have just started a NG+ campaign, given how that at least is more of a challenge.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
Another one of the zillions of ways that games are more like music than they are like story-based entertainment.
[quote author=Polygon]Musical performances, whether recorded to an album or organized as a concert program, try to finesse a sequence, duration, and level of variety that will thrill the audience and satisfy them without wearing them out.

There is no "perfect" way to do this.[/quote]

I dunno, I'm not sold on this comparison. Particularly with how he does it above. There are some great, long movies that don't feel long because of how masterful their pacing is. Seven Samurai is a great example, weighing in at about 210 minutes, but feels about half that.

And pacing really isn't the problem I had with Dark Souls II. I think it comes down to the fidelity of each individual experience in the game. They just didn't add up to a very memorable game.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Pretty good build. Not sure I like the hood or having to no-death-run the game, but I think the illusory ring is something I hadn't ever considered when trying to build Guts. It's a nice touch, plus its good for maintaining an advantage in pvp since they'll ever see the Avelyn or Forbidden Sun coming.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
Just found out that the first DLC came out today. Off to go buy it.

Yeah, I saw it come available on Steam last night. I'll wait to hear what others say. DS2 left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for more right now. Maybe I'll dive in once all three are out.

Would love to read your impressions on it.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
I'll try to stay vague in this post. I had a free day yesterday, so I sat around and played the DLC to completion.

I've got mixed emotions about the DLC. I feel like I'm supposed to be upset with it, but I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly.
Sinh, the Sumbering Dragon
is probably one of the best boss fights in the game at this point, at least in my opinion...
Mostly because it's Kalameet 2.0.
The other boss fights aren't really anything special, though I had fun fighting them.

I thought the level design was great. While the setting doesn't really look like DkS, the atmosphere and design felt more like the first game to me. There's a lot to this new environment than what you can see when you first arrive, but even the parts you do see house several secrets.

The new items are pretty easily found if you've got a mind for the series (which I think we all do). Very few of the new items are enemy drops, which is nice since it gives you more of an opportunity to play with the new stuff without having to stress about drop rates.

All in all, I enjoyed what was offered. It was worth the price for the amount of time I put in (I'm really not sure how long, but 8+ hours at least), but I feel a bit unfulfilled since it opens the door for more lore, especially these so-called "lost crowns" Waiting two more months to be able to play all the DLC at once would probably be much more enjoyable.
 
Been LOVING the DLC, best level design in the entire game perhaps? I'm probably about 4-5 hours in. I still haven't encountered the first Boss on my own yet, but I think I've helped someone beat it as a white Phantom... Maybe that wasn't the first Boss tho, not sure. In fact I've helped people explore and go all over the place as a white phantom, yet Amazingly the area still seems so big to me that I am always finding new areas and enemies that I have yet to come across. (From reading other's impressions it seems like I am moving through it much more slowly, than what is possible). Highly recommend the purchase for anyone on the fence.

Definitely a good degree of difficulty and challenge. I'm playing it for the first time on NG++ but its a degree or two harder than any other area in the game I feel.

One of the other things that has made the DLC really interesting is that it comes on the heels of a new balance patch that has totally changed all my old character builds worked. (now they're useless). Sweeping changes for faith builds, the effectiveness of poise and many weapons have been tweaked and had scaling improved.

EDIT: Also people are saying its only a matter of time until they nerf some of the bosses since apparently they are too tough to solo... This is unfortunately what happened to DKS 2 before the pc version came out on steam, so if that is a real risk, than I suggest all you diehards our there would be safer purchasing it now rather than wait for all 3 DLC's to come out.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks for the impressions guys. Sounds like it's worthwhile!

Jaze1618 said:
EDIT: Also people are saying its only a matter of time until they nerf some of the bosses since apparently they are too tough to solo... This is unfortunately what happened to DKS 2 before the pc version came out on steam, so if that is a real risk, than I suggest all you diehards our there would be safer purchasing it now rather than wait for all 3 DLC's to come out.

This is becoming a tiring trend.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Sounds like they got the word from Blizzard that what players really want is INCONSISTENCY. Please make my builds and the time I spent mastering the game's initial difficulty worthless because I really want you to hit home just how much I'm wasting my time. It makes you appreciate the "watchmaker" creators that don't give a shit, they just make it, wind it up, and then leave it the Hell alone. Good or bad, you're on your own.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
It makes you appreciate the "watchmaker" creators that don't give a shit, they just make it, wind it up, and then leave it the Hell alone. Good or bad, you're on your own.

Which is pretty much exactly how From Software acted until (apparently) making it into the big leagues.
 
Yes, and personally I find any notion of balancing PVE around multi player and/or how many summons are available is a horrid horrid idea.

However I am sort of in favor of the nerf that they gave to faith users. I can say for sure that its made the DLC so far, that much more challenging for me, not being able to rely on an over abundance of various lightning spears that I had acquired by that point in ng++
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
However I am sort of in favor of the nerf that they gave to faith users. I can say for sure that its made the DLC so far, that much more challenging for me, not being able to rely on an over abundance of various lightning spears that I had acquired by that point in ng++

I understand the need to balance multiplayer elements as players find exploits and thus populate servers with a cheap character build. That's no fun for anyone who isn't that person. And even they likely aren't having fun using it.

But what From has done recently (nerfing the Lost Sinner and apparently preparing to do the same to DLC bosses) is just totally bogus, in my opinion. The game's meant to be challenging. I can't imagine these bosses are impossible. Lost Sinner was one of the toughest bosses in DS2, and it wasn't even very hard... I heard it was a much tougher fight when the game launched, and honestly I feel rather cheated of that experience. Throughout all of DS2, I never once felt I had to put my all into a boss fight, like I did against O&S or Artorias. And those limit-pushing experiences are a big part of what makes these games amazing.
 
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