Dark Souls II

[Bass]

Surprised that nobody has made a thread for this as it came out on consoles a month ago and will be released for the PC sometime tomorrow. I am a big fan of the first Dark Souls and have recently played through it again just to hype myself up for the sequel, but so far I have resisted the urge to read spoilers from those that already own the console version. Thankfully since my schedule has become fairly flexible lately I should have ample time to dive right in for the rest of the week.

 

[Yoshi King]

I'm about 20 hours in so far, and there's only been one location in the game that I thought matched up well in terms of setting and atmosphere. It's decent, but not as good as Dark Souls and not even close to Demon's Souls. Those are my initial impressions. There were definitely some things they've done well/right (most covenants, four rings) but things like soul memory... oh man.

 

[vonFiedler]

Sums up most of my thoughts about the game, be wary of spoilers.

Still a pretty good game with a massive amount of content though.

 

[_Tonks_]

IT really upsets me that people are dissing the game for not being as "challenging" and not having obvious connecting land marks. The game ruins you on NG+, and If the map design really bothers you then why are you playing it? Dark Souls isn't about Map design it's about Lore and Discovery.

 

[vonFiedler]

Dark Souls isn't about Map design

it's about Discovery.

This is why I'm not about to continue reading your game reviews.

Good fucking lord, if you don't like it don't play it? Dark Souls II is a marked decrease in level design in a way that cripples verisimilitude. This is a flaw that won't get fixed in Dark Souls III if it's not brought to From's attention that people care so much about it. If you cannot be critical in the interest of improving the art form, you have 0 business writing game reviews at all.

 

[_Tonks_]

This is why I'm not about to continue reading your game reviews.

Good fucking lord, if you don't like it don't play it? Dark Souls II is a marked decrease in level design in a way that cripples verisimilitude. This is a flaw that won't get fixed in Dark Souls III if it's not brought to From's attention that people care so much about it. If you cannot be critical in the interest of improving the art form, you have 0 business writing game reviews at all.

Well that's beyond rude, lol.

 

[Bass]

I just completed the game, and I agree with von that this game isn't as good as its predecessor. A lot of the problems I had actually were summarized in the video, particularly the segment on difficulty. I felt that many of the boss fights were very uninteresting, and difficulty wise were either very difficult or very easy. To be blunt, not a single one of these bosses held a candle to Ornstein and Smough or Artorias in Dark Souls 1. I also think the new repair mechanic is dumb and inconvenient as I often had to carry around (and upgrade) a backup weapon. I even had to pause my game and switch weapons in the middle of a boss fight twice early in the game because of this. It is especially bad in coop as for some reason the programmers thought it would make sense for weapons to degrade even faster.

I still enjoyed the game overall though and did appreciate the improvements made to the online play in particular. 30 minute wait times for being summoned are now a thing of the past.

 

[_Tonks_]

I just completed the game, and I agree with von that this game isn't as good as its predecessor. A lot of the problems I had actually were summarized in the video, particularly the segment on difficulty. I felt that many of the boss fights were very uninteresting, and difficulty wise were either very difficult or very easy. To be blunt, not a single one of these bosses held a candle to Ornstein and Smough or Artorias in Dark Souls 1. I also think the new repair mechanic is dumb and inconvenient as I often had to carry around (and upgrade) a backup weapon. I even had to pause my game and switch weapons in the middle of a boss fight twice early in the game because of this. It is especially bad in coop as for some reason the programmers thought it would make sense for weapons to degrade even faster.

I still enjoyed the game overall though and did appreciate the improvements made to the online play in particular. 30 minute wait times for being summoned are now a thing of the past.

>Says it's not as hard
>Complains about new feature making it hard

The game doesn't really get challenging till NG+, And even for highly skilled players it isn't that bad. I think it's just as good as First. Just my opinion though.

 

[TheValkyries]

There's a stark difference between facing something that's legitimately challenging in its own right and facing something that would otherwise be uneventful if it weren't for clunky/bad game elements heavily restricting the player.

 

[Bass]

>Says it's not as hard
>Complains about new feature making it hard

The game doesn't really get challenging till NG+, And even for highly skilled players it isn't that bad. I think it's just as good as First. Just my opinion though.

I am a bit confused here, did I say that the game was not as hard? In fact it is quite the opposite, I think this game is considerably more difficult than Dark Souls 1, but for the wrong reasons. I probably died nearly 30 times to the Royal Rat Authority boss alone as I stuck with a pure melee character, and even after depleting its health bar once, I still ended up dying do to its last minute barf attack that I didn't know about before hand, and had to do the entire boss fight all over again. In summary many of the boss fights and even regular enemy encounters were artificially made more difficult by simply forcing you to fight more enemies at a time. The Artorias fight in Dark Souls 1 was great because it was a one on one duel against a boss with an interesting moveset, so the focus was on figuring out how to dodge and hit at the right time instead of destroying a bunch of smaller enemies.

 

[BurningMan]

There's a stark difference between facing something that's legitimately challenging in its own right and facing something that would otherwise be uneventful if it weren't for clunky/bad game elements heavily restricting the player.

How does it heavily restrict the player? All you have to do is have to look at your equip stats once in a while and maybe have a repair powder ready, honestly it fits in pretty well with the souls sentiment of being careful and remember to check your stuff instead of the typical mainstream "don't worry about anything just pay 1$ and revert your decision" game mechanics other games have. I actually feel that this game is far less annoying than the last game so far (looking at you Blighttown). I also really like the new Estus Flask mechanics although it would have been nice to start with like 3 Estus Flasks instead of just one.

I honestly don't think it is that much easier than Dark Souls 1, sure i did a lot of the Bosses on first or second try, but thats because i played the first game well over 150 hours and i know the game mechanics. I also tried the Champions covenant at the start and with it activated the game got really difficult not to mention that NG+ is also always an option so i can't understand complaints about it being too easy. On the other hand i think you guys are right when you say the Bossfights aren't as memorable compared to the first game. The two bosses in Heide Flame tower were horribly generic especially since one was a complete copy of Ornstein, the scorpion woman was a ripoff from the spider witch and the Pursuer/Last Sinner was basically a shiny/ragged Artorias. I really hope that there will be some cooler ones later in the game.

 

[aVocado]

I beat DS2 a month ago and it's great, although definitely a downgrade from it's predecessor. What I liked about the first game the most was the map/level design, exploration, and how the areas are all beautifully connected together. The overall map and world was overlapped, areas were on top of each other and that kind of stuff. DS2's map is flat, just flat. Pretty much no shortcuts or connections between areas except for 1 connection which you use to get to the area the first time. There are many more areas compared to the first DS and that's not a bad thing, but they're also not as memorable at all. Which brings us to another point, the bosses are a HUGE downgrade. You remember when you cried when you found out Sif's story, when you figured out Ornstein and Smough's relationship, and the different cutscenes you get when you kill one before the other, or when you heard The White Witch's dialogue after Quelaag? Yeah, no more of that in DS2. You just go in, kill the boss, and most of them have a very vague backstory if any, and that's it. DS1 it was comparable to SotC in the fact that you feel like you're killing the bosses because you're forced to while they really did nothing bad and were in peace, that didn't exist in DS2.

That's not to say it's a bad game though. It's pretty damn awesome and didn't do the Souls series any damage, but DS1 was simply better. Even in terms of gameplay, DS2 has some sloppy flaws when it comes to hitboxes and animations, unlike DS1's smoothness.

I'm also almost done with NG+, which was challenging so far. DEX build sucks major, major major ass btw.

 

[vonFiedler]

Guess what though? Turns out Dark Souls 2 was the B team. Beast Souls is coming.

 

[_Tonks_]

Guess what though? Turns out Dark Souls 2 was the B team. Beast Souls is coming.

Yeah, super interested in what that's going to be.

 

[aVocado]

Beast Souls might turn out to be something else though, don't trust the leaks yet

 

[Fishin]

It was a bit of a step down from DkS but I still liked it a lot. I'm also disappointed they returned to the old DeS style of teleporting and leveling up at a set location but didn't keep the little bits of lore when you chose a location from the menu, that was one of the little things that I thought was a great touch to Demon's.

regardless I'll probably play through the game again, I bought the PS3 version on release and then sold it pretty quickly after since I'd much rather have the PC version long-term so I'll probably grab it when a good sale comes and I'm in the mood again.

Beast Souls looks hype, can't wait to have an excuse to get a PS4

 

[Bass]

Since I just finished the game on NG+, I would like to add that I also disagree with Tonks about its difficulty. For me, NG+ was far easier than NG despite the addition of copious amounts of Red Phantoms. Since you are better equipped and can anticipate any ambush or trap that was in NG, I don't see how it could be more difficult for anyone.

 

[Leica]

Great game, but it's definitely noticeable that Miyazaki hasn't worked on this, the world doesn't feel nearly as coherent as in DkS1.

Also the combat is a little worse because of the tracking of certain enemies (you can literally strafe and their face would follow you like a homing missile) and some of the lazy boss design.

The amount of armor and weapons in the game is fantastic though oml I want all of it.

 

[_Tonks_]

Since I just finished the game on NG+, I would like to add that I also disagree with Tonks about its difficulty. For me, NG+ was far easier than NG despite the addition of copious amounts of Red Phantoms. Since you are better equipped and can anticipate any ambush or trap that was in NG, I don't see how it could be more difficult for anyone.

Obviously if you're prepared it's not going to be that difficult.

 

[Fishin]

2 more weeks

 

[Leica]

2 more weeks

The real Dark Souls 2 starts here

 

[Yoshi King]

Well shit there we go, they've got the cape mechanics so Beast Souls (WORKING TITLE) will be the pinnacle of the Souls series. Cannot wait.

I'd like to follow up my previous post after finishing the game. I was initially really dissatisfied with the ending (which was remedied thanks to a wonderful explanatory video from Vaati) and New Game+ has not enthralled me in any way yet. Overall, Dark Souls 2 suffers from a lack of cohesive world design and soul. (Spoilers from here, so please stop reading this paragraph because I'm too lazy to use spoiler tags) The penultimate stage of the game-- getting the Ashen Mist Heart and checking out the Giants' memories-- was just awful. I had no indication whatsoever that, "the withered" in the item description was actually referring to the giants, which pissed me off to no end. I hated having to look up where I was supposed to go and further pissed off that there's actually supposed to be an "order" to them if you're into trophies like I am. I realize that that is divorced from the game experience itself, but those kinds of things should flow naturally, in my opinion. Being unable to kill Vendrick without the Giants' souls also frustrated me-- I thought he was a regular optional boss and upon my first encounter with him, got turned into a smear on his sword. When I came back 20 levels stronger with better spells/pyromancy, he STILL destroyed me. Then, whaddya know, Giant Souls are the key. Lame.

There are a handful of tiny things I absolutely love about Dark Souls 2 (my favourites being capes. CAPES!!! and Soul Greatsword, easily the best spell in the game) but the overwhelming amount of problems that the game has frustrates me to no end. (Poise being broken when it was decent in Dark Souls, lagstabs STILL occurring instead of the superior way that Demon's Souls did it, etc.) I'll inevitably keep playing it because all of the new players are here, but I don't think I'll enjoy it as much as I did Demon's Souls or even Dark Souls.

 

[Fishin]

Bumping this since the last DLC (Ivory King) just came out yesterday. I liked all 3 parts quite a lot; Sunken King in particular had some very cool level design, Ivory King had a neat exploration-rewarding gimmick that I won't spoil as well. I'd say they were on par with the best parts of Dark Souls 2 in general, except for Sunken King which might be my favorite area in the game.

Oddly, each part basically has two regular bosses (some of which are really good and most of which are a welcome step up from the main game's bosses in difficulty, Fume Knight in particular is great and probably my pick for hardest boss in the game now) and one really lazily designed boss, each preceded by an area that seems designed to be as frustrating as possible and with really crappy rewards at the end.

Speaking of crappy rewards, From was hinting at a "surprise" for finishing all 3 parts, but I was pretty disappointed with it, if you're curious it's immunity to hollowing after death as long as you're wearing one of the crowns. You need to beat Vendrick and get his crown as well and apparently it resets on NG+, which makes it rather pointless since by the time you get it you're pretty much done with the game anyways. Some people were suggesting that it might be a fight against human Vendrick, which would've been an awesome way to finish out the game but oh well.

There were a bunch of new spells, most of which I haven't had a chance to use yet since my current character is all physical. My favorite of the new items was the whip-sword, though the fist that gives you kicking attacks and UGS that extends a light beam when used two-handed are both pretty fun.

Just watched this and it's pretty accurate (also it's nice to see that someone besides me thought the Drakekeepers were ridiculous). Probably the most telling thing was the talk about number of bonfires; the Artorias of the Abyss DLC had 4 bonfires if I'm remembering correctly, with the last one essentially just being there so you could warp out. Someone from From said in an interview that each part of the new DLC was approximately half as big as Artorias (personally I'd put it much closer to 3/4, or almost 1:1, at least counting area and not bosses), and yet each part of the new DLC has 6-7 bonfires.

 

[vonFiedler]

I'm replaying Dark Souls 2 so I can play the DLC, and it's such a god damn chore.

 

[Leica]

I'm replaying Dark Souls 2 so I can play the DLC, and it's such a god damn chore.

I actually replayed DkS1 recently, and it was enjoyable enough that I almost wanted to go in again right after beating it, and I've gone through this game a lot in the past.

2 burned me out way, way faster.

It's interesting because I felt I was just getting bored of the souls formula, but I ended up not having any issues with 1 at all.