ghoasts

I appreciate that you changed gank squad from "universally loathed" to "generally disliked". I liked that boss solo. It's a bit tedious but also hilarious to run around the arena with them following you all lined up.

https://www.twitch.tv/idlethumbs/v/108731239

I watched that VOD today, and I was a bit confused. When I fought that boss I was able to run all the way to the fog door every time, and nothing aggroed except the large knights. The dragon warriors just stood around looking at me. I don't know why they were attacking him.

I'm really enjoying the streams, so much so I made an account to weigh in I started SOTFS along with Nick so I could watch but also experience it myself first without spoiling the game. 60 hours later I'm done and I'm a bit conflicted. I think Dark Souls 2 is one of the best-worst games I've ever played. It has some really high highs and some really, really low lows. It has some of the best bosses (practically all of the DLC bosses, especially in the Iron King DLC, are amazing) and also some of the worst - I'm looking at you, Ancient Dragon. It has some of the most beautiful and interesting areas in the souls games, and also some of the absolute worst - Black Gulch, Shrine of Amana, and the hellish wasteland that is Frigid Outskirts. I read a pretty convincing argument that Frigid Outskirts was designed as a "Fuck You" to critics of the game, since it specifically is the opposite of some of the aspects of the vanilla game people complained about the most. For example: Too many dude in armor bosses -> 2 kitties; Too many bonfires -> no bonfires; Areas are too linear and narrow -> gigantic open space; mobs are too simplistic and easy -> demonic reindeer with shrine guardian moveset; too many hordes of enemies attacking at once -> one reindeer at a time (usually). I honestly believe they made that area to demonstrate that they could take all of the suggestions people had and still make a bad dark souls game. That's the only possible explanation I can think of for how such a steaming pile of shit made it past quality control. The other areas in the DLCs that are supposedly designed for coop (something I'm completely opposed to in a dark souls game, especially designing for it) aren't nearly as offensive. The runs to Smelter Demon & to Alonne are both hilariously obnoxious but totally doable without fighting anything. I do look forward to Nick cheating hitmanning those. The 3 musketeers in the poison DLC are an interesting fight, and entirely doable solo. But the run to Lud and Zallen takes 5 minutes even without fighting any reindeer - 5 minutes with nothing to look at but bright white glare on the monitor. Overall I think DS2 is a pretty great game, superior to the other souls in some ways (amount of content, viable weapon variety, PvP, beauty of some of the areas, some of the best bosses in the series) but it has some incredibly bad areas and bosses and I think the artificial difficulty criticism is legitimate, meme-y or not. I also didn't like the balance. I've played a lot of dark souls and the vanilla bosses are all too easy and generally boring in my opinion. There are some interesting ideas in there like executioner's chariot, and throne guardians & darklurker aren't chumps, but these are exceptions. The DLC definitely improves here - the bosses are almost all interesting and some of the most difficult in the souls series. It's a good thing they didn't manage to ruin it by designing for coop and making the bosses too annoying difficult to get to, despite their apparent best efforts to do so. Speaking of Frigid Outskirts and Ancient Dragon, is the plan for Nick to do them? I personally felt obligated to because they're in the game, but I can't say I enjoyed either. Ancient Dragon is easy if tedious with the right strategy, but my experience with frigid outskirts was hours of frustration and boredom. I think skipping blue smelter demon and/or Alonne is a shame though - even though smelter is a reskin the fight is a lot more punishing so I at least had to fight him differently than in the Iron Keep, and Alonne reminds me of the final boss from demons souls. The runs to both Smelter and Alonne are also so ridiculous (but actually doable) they're worth doing for that reason alone. Similarly the 3 stooges in the Sunken King DLC are very doable solo, and I think pretty interesting and fun. My vote (not that it matters) is for an all boss run but I don't think I can in good conscience recommend bothering with Frigid Outskirts. It's just bad.