melmer

Dark Souls 2 (Dark Souls successor (Demon's Souls successor))

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I was seriously enjoying SotFS but I got distracted by Destiny. 

 

It's good though. It's hard to find a bad From game. The Knights of Heide wandering around are a pain in the ass though. I don't enjoy co-op (well I like to do things myself, then go back to help other people), so I refuse to do that. 

 

I'm at a point where I have 3 areas to choose from which is awesome. 

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I've been co-oping loads with a friend of mine, who frequently laments that he sucks at Dark Souls. He doesn't really, he's always getting better, but his confidence isn't there so he feels every failure hard. Anyway, I'll be a phantom and let him take the lead, maybe guiding him a bit if he's missed something important and letting him get the last hit in on enemies etc.

It's awesome. I feel like SotFS is the game DS2 was always meant to be.

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I'm trying to pimp myself out right now, but only one person bit, and I immediately ran off a cliff.

There seems to be this weird suicide squad on the ps4 version. It's so funny. Every time I touch a pool of blood about 5 phantoms just run off a cliff or into some water. The best part was getting to the lost Bastille via ship, there's a creepy stair way prison, and a lift at the end. Seeing like 5 phantoms sprint down the stairs and suicide at the lift made me think there was something terrifying at the top. But also cracked me up.

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So why don't people like this game?

 

I don't even remember why I got bored the first time, it's fantastic. Is SOTFS just that much better that I've fallen in love with it? 

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I liked it a lot. I finally started playing through again and I'm having a tough time at the moment simply because I can't repair any of my weapons yet.

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I have yet to have a weapon break - armor, yes, but that's because I went through acid stuff to get items.

 

The biggest take home for me is that Dark Souls 2 is huge. I finally got past where my first play through stopped, and it just keeps going and going. That kinda thing bugs me usually (see Witcher 3) but thanks to the combat being so great I don't want it to stop. 

 

I finally found my niche and yeah, it's with a 2 handed Ultra great sword. Specifically Zweihander because it doesn't weigh very much, which is incredibly important as you don't get increased equip burden from str in DS2.

 

I actually respec'd once to a faith str build, but I just find spells to be so boring and useless. Melee is the only play style that even makes sense to me. I could get why sorcery might work, it hits pretty hard, but faith does no fucking damage, and the healing spells are too slow to use when you need them. Chugging an estus is so much faster.

 

I killed what I thought was the last boss, the watcher and the defender, but now I have no idea what I'm meant to do. I might go and tackle the DLC and maybe I'll find where I'm supposed to go in the process. 

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I have yet to have a weapon break - armor, yes, but that's because I went through acid stuff to get items.

 

The biggest take home for me is that Dark Souls 2 is huge. I finally got past where my first play through stopped, and it just keeps going and going. That kinda thing bugs me usually (see Witcher 3) but thanks to the combat being so great I don't want it to stop. 

 

I finally found my niche and yeah, it's with a 2 handed Ultra great sword. Specifically Zweihander because it doesn't weigh very much, which is incredibly important as you don't get increased equip burden from str in DS2.

 

I actually respec'd once to a faith str build, but I just find spells to be so boring and useless. Melee is the only play style that even makes sense to me. I could get why sorcery might work, it hits pretty hard, but faith does no fucking damage, and the healing spells are too slow to use when you need them. Chugging an estus is so much faster.

 

I killed what I thought was the last boss, the watcher and the defender, but now I have no idea what I'm meant to do. I might go and tackle the DLC and maybe I'll find where I'm supposed to go in the process.

My dagger broke just trying to get through the initial are of the forest of giants before you get the blacksmith's key. That leaves me with either using the broken sword, or a weapon I don't have the stats for. Plus, the broken sword sucks in hallways since you hit the wall all the time. No matter, I'll make my way through somehow. I'm the one who made the choice to start as a deprived.

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I'm still playing through this, slowly (I'm recording it for youtube for some dumb reason), and am up to Brightstone Cove. Not too happy with my strength build - spent a bit of time with a friends Dex rapier build and it was a ton of fun, and very powerful.

Absolutely can't wait to try the DLC. The vanilla game is not offering me enough challenge atm... Hmm, should try covenant of champions

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I made my way into the dlc and have done 2/3 bosses in the crown of the sunken king and 1/? Bosses in crown of the ivory king.

I was breezing through the main game too, but this stuff is difficult. Really difficult. It's incredibly enjoyable though. I think I have one boss left in the main game, I'll save it for when I'm done with the dlcs. Kinda irritated I can't get 2 achievements though. Apparently you have to summon them three times to finish 2 NPC quest lines. I've missed that opportunity, but I guess I can do that in NG+.

Still can't settle on a weapon. Constant switching between an ultra great sword (either zwei or persuer's) and a basic mace. I don't know why I keep switching, but once one gets stale the other feels fresh and powerful, then the cycle repeats.

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I made my way into the dlc and have done 2/3 bosses in the crown of the sunken king and 1/? Bosses in crown of the ivory king.

I was breezing through the main game too, but this stuff is difficult. Really difficult. It's incredibly enjoyable though. I think I have one boss left in the main game, I'll save it for when I'm done with the dlcs. Kinda irritated I can't get 2 achievements though. Apparently you have to summon them three times to finish 2 NPC quest lines. I've missed that opportunity, but I guess I can do that in NG+.

Still can't settle on a weapon. Constant switching between an ultra great sword (either zwei or persuer's) and a basic mace. I don't know why I keep switching, but once one gets stale the other feels fresh and powerful, then the cycle repeats.

I'm a bit rusty on this, but I think you can use a Bonfire Ascetic to reset the area you need to summon the NPC in. I'm pretty sure I did that a couple of times to finish off some story lines.

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Yeah you can do that, but it's too late for me now.

The ivory king has one of the worst bosses in dark souls. Bleh.

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I started a SotFS play through and made a dex-heavy character as a change from my usual str-heavy buff two hander guy. Trying smaller shields with larger parry windows and all that.

 

Yeah... I liked my str build better. Parrying is hard.

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Which boss?

the old chaos and the ivory king. A balls hard gauntlet followed by a pretty bland boss. I must have died like 20 times and eventually had to look up how to do the fight. I didn't know that you could gather more of the Knights to help. When I saw all the ice I decided I'd explore those areas later and just bashed my head against the gauntlet.

After looking it up and getting all the Knights, it's just kind of boring. The gauntlet is made a lot easier and the ivory king himself has like 2 moves that are incredibly easy to dodge. When I finally made it to him it was such an anticlimax. I also felt like I was cheating the whole time because it essentially broke my arbitrary "no summons" rule.

I'm not sure why everyone raved about the dlc. It's good, but not great. Two sections in and I feel like it's a bunch of recycled boss mechanics and the basic enemy design is the same, just with a palette swap and a different status effect. It's harder, that's about all it has going for it, I one shot most of the bosses in the main game and these guys are actually challenging.

I do like the level designs though. They're pretty awesome, especially for dlc.

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I started a SotFS play through and made a dex-heavy character as a change from my usual str-heavy buff two hander guy. Trying smaller shields with larger parry windows and all that.

 

Yeah... I liked my str build better. Parrying is hard.

Shields are for wimps.

Edit: By which I mean, try a dex heavy build with dodging instead of parrying? I had a lot of fun with it, using spells as an occasional backup.

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the old chaos and the ivory king. A balls hard gauntlet followed by a pretty bland boss. I must have died like 20 times and eventually had to look up how to do the fight. I didn't know that you could gather more of the Knights to help. When I saw all the ice I decided I'd explore those areas later and just bashed my head against the gauntlet.

After looking it up and getting all the Knights, it's just kind of boring. The gauntlet is made a lot easier and the ivory king himself has like 2 moves that are incredibly easy to dodge. When I finally made it to him it was such an anticlimax. I also felt like I was cheating the whole time because it essentially broke my arbitrary "no summons" rule.

I'm not sure why everyone raved about the dlc. It's good, but not great. Two sections in and I feel like it's a bunch of recycled boss mechanics and the basic enemy design is the same, just with a palette swap and a different status effect. It's harder, that's about all it has going for it, I one shot most of the bosses in the main game and these guys are actually challenging.

I do like the level designs though. They're pretty awesome, especially for dlc.

 

I actually thought that boss was neat in some ways, in a large part because you could recruit help and it feels a lot like leading a small squad into battle (especially if human help is summoned).  I agree that the real boss is on the lackluster side otherwise, but I appreciated how they attempted to make a significantly different boss fight in multiple ways.

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I just didn't like how there was no obvious sign saying I should explore the other way first. If anything you're discouraged from it because there's ice in the way right up until that boss.

Ds2 is a fantastic game though. I couldn't be more happy with SotFS.

I feel like I should have made a dex or at least quality build since the dex weapons are so varied and fun, while the strength are rather bland. Mace, big mace or big sword.

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I just didn't like how there was no obvious sign saying I should explore the other way first. If anything you're discouraged from it because there's ice in the way right up until that boss.

Ds2 is a fantastic game though. I couldn't be more happy with SotFS.

I feel like I should have made a dex or at least quality build since the dex weapons are so varied and fun, while the strength are rather bland. Mace, big mace or big sword.

???

 

The game makes a point of showing you a bunch of enticing looking items and pathways encased in ice before you get to that part, then has a character unfreeze the ice and ask you to "find the knights who have been lost".  I don't know how much more obvious they could've made it without resorting to methods that are completely uncharacteristic of a Souls game.  I mean, weren't you curious about what some of those treasure chests had in them?  Even if it weren't for those hints, wouldn't it make sense to explore the other paths after a few failed attempts purely based on the logic that you could come back with a higher level/better equipped character?

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You had to go back to see that. It unfroze a door allowing me to go forward, why would I go backwards when there's a fog gate there? The reward of Dark Souls is more bosses. Avoiding a boss doesn't make sense to me.

Sure I was curious about the chests, but there was a boss I had to kill. There was literally no reason displayed for me to go backwards and explore that area again. The chests generally contain junk anyway. I don't think I've ever been excited about opening a chest in a souls game. That's not what I play for. Give me a sword or a mace and I'm happy. Other loot is superfluous.

When it comes to "find the lost Knights" I assumed it meant the ones in the boss room. Lost often comes with "damned" and those Knights looked like they were in hell. Not a hint that shouted "go back the other way and engage in a mechanic you've never seen before in a souls game."

And no, I don't do that. I find a boss, I beat it. If I wasn't meant to win that fight, it wouldn't be placed there. Even so the idea of having NPC help in that fight left a bad taste.

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When it comes to "find the lost Knights" I assumed it meant the ones in the boss room. Lost often comes with "damned" and those Knights looked like they were in hell. Not a hint that shouted "go back the other way and engage in a mechanic you've never seen before in a souls game."

 

Each of the DLCs introduced a novel mechanic.  Riding all the pillars in the sunken king, stabbing the statues in the Iron king and finding the knights after the storm passes in Winter.   I could also point to multiple other places in DS2 where an idea or mechanic is only used in one place (like fire resistance in Iron Keep to run the lava paths or having to drain the poison in Harvest Valley).

 

 

And no, I don't do that. I find a boss, I beat it. If I wasn't meant to win that fight, it wouldn't be placed there. Even so the idea of having NPC help in that fight left a bad taste.

 

So did you beat the kitty while it was invisible (apparently this is possible, and insane).  That area already showed you that you may need to explore before a boss is beatable. 

 

I'm with Lork on this, I felt it was pretty obvious that you were intended to re-explore the area now that the storm had passed.  I had spotted at least 3 different paths that were blocked off on the way to the lady.  There were the empty chairs above the chasm with one dude already in place.  Of course Dark Souls lets you go ahead and fight the boss, but it's a choice, nothing is particularly pointing you more that direction than back towards re-exploring.

 

It's fine that you didn't like the fight, not every boss is for everyone, but it looks like you're trying to find some objective measure to justify your dislike of it, most of which can be counterpointed. 

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And no, I don't do that. I find a boss, I beat it. If I wasn't meant to win that fight, it wouldn't be placed there. Even so the idea of having NPC help in that fight left a bad taste.

That's not how it works, and never has been. Bosses that require you to figure out a "trick" outside of their arena have been a part of the series all the way back to Demon's Souls (See Fool's Idol, Seath, 4 Kings, Kalameet, and Mytha, The Windmill Queen). There's nothing in the games saying that you have to, or even should keep banging your head against a boss if you just can't beat it. They actually go to great lengths to ensure that there are as few bottlenecks as possible, always providing multiple paths for you to go down in case you get stuck on one, with the one major exception living in infamy.

Your attitude toward the boss fights is a valid one to have of course, but you have to accept that it's not shared by everyone, and I definitely don't think it's reflective of the design of the games or the way most people play them.

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Very interesting replies. I agree with parts and disagree with parts but trying to write coherently on a phone is hard.

The one thing I will say, is that the "gimmick" fights in souls have for me been much more obvious. Maybe this particular puzzle just didn't sit with me like the others which I never had trouble with.

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So one of the Bonfireside Chat guys is writing a satirical Worlds of Power style book based on Dark Souls, and naturally it's got a Kickstarter

 

I only vaguely remember the Worlds of Power books, I'm sure I read a couple of them my library had, but they didn't leave much of an impression on me.  Still, a potentially neat project.

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I finally upgraded to Scholar of the First Sin last weekend. Early impressions are that the Pursuer definitely does a lot more pursuing in this one, and that there's quite a few more enemies in the early game. They gave me a bit of trouble, if only because I'm running shieldless for the first time, experimenting with DEX weapons and powerstancing (a regular Katana plus optional Dark Weapon and enchanted Falchion at the moment).

 

I beat the Old Iron King yesterday and now have access to the first DLC area, but I'm not sure if I should actually go there yet. What's the ideal order for these, and where do they slot into the regular game progress route?

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The DLCs are, I think, pretty much meant to be able to be entered when you gain access to them.  They are tougher than many of the regular areas, so you might elect to run around and finish some stuff off in the main world before going back if they give you problems. 

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