Dark Souls II

[vonFiedler]

I played DS1 5 times in a row, and admittedly, felt pretty burned out at that point.

But with DS2 late game it's just like, ugh, "I remember this shitty part" over and over again. And the sad thing is now that I'm at Drangleic Castle every area is like that (I guess Dragon Aerie is ok, but short).

Sinner's Rise, Iron Peak, Brightstone Cove Tseldora, Drangleic Castle, Shrine of Amana (fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck), Aldia's Keep, and Dragon Shrine all just suck chunks. I think the only comparable area in DS1 is the first half of Anor Londo.

 

[Leica]

I always found Lost Izalith's lava lake to be pretty bad, but you don't have to do that in DkS.

Iron Peak and Drangleic Castle are complete ass.

 

[Fishin]

I disliked Shrine of Amana the first time, but actually liked it on my second playthrough. They apparently toned down the tracking/damage of the sniper mages in a patch at some point so it's not as irritatingly difficult as it used to be, which means the more interesting parts of it (the music and its effects on gameplay, the interesting use of torches) shine through. It's also one of my favorite looking areas. In general torch use is an area that I wish they'd expanded more on, their importance but not necessity in the Gutter was pretty neat and I'm disappointed they didn't do that more often (though I'm really glad they didn't do another lame Tomb of the Giants-style area where using a torch is an absolute must).

Drangleic Castle wasn't terrible in a vacuum or anything (though it was a lot more linear than it should have been) but the main disappointment was that I was expecting more from it; Anor Londo feels built up to in the same sense and finishes with an awesome, hard as nails boss fight, then rewards you by revealing a bunch more of the plot, giving you the ability to warp between bonfires, and opens up the rest of the game, whereas Drangleic Castle finishes off with Looking Glass Knight (who's still an alright boss, but not anything too special) and then sends you off to the next area, and it's not until the area after that where you finally get the payoff you've been waiting for and the game opens up a little again, but still not as much and Velstadt is no O&S.

 

[vonFiedler]

Except that Drangleic Castle has the single worst designed part of any souls game, the golem doors and ruin sentinels. It has chunky enemy placement throughout, other annoying parts (activating the lift), and is about 1/2 skippable using only a homeward bone.

And I dunno if Shrine of Amana has been toned down, but it's actually even worse on NG+ than it was originally.

 

[vonFiedler]

It seems that whoever on the B team was making bosses with limited predictable movesets and overcompensating with an obscene level of HP and resistances wasn't fired between Dark Souls 2 and the DLC

I really hope they have been fired by now

 

[The Grand Babido]

verisimilitude

sweet word bro

 

[The Grand Babido]

also I recently finished dark souls 1 but relied pretty heavily on some guides. I want to complete dark souls 2 on my own but I don't want to get stuck in stupid situations. anyone want to give me some clues in the same vein as "kill the dogs first" or "go up not down"?

 

[vonFiedler]

Use your torch to set fire to the windmill in Earthen Peak.
Get the Dull Ember in the first part of Iron Keep (you need it to infuse weapons with McDuff), it involves jumping over a ledge near the Smelter Demon fog gate.
It's not at all obvious what the Ashen Mist Heart is for, but you'll find places to use it way back in the first level (Forest of Giants).

 

[vonFiedler]

I mean yeah someone thought it was a good idea to combine King Vendrick and Smelter Demon, but I guess the bigger issue is that by NG+ DLC casting is no longer viable at all. I remember when I hit the top of the bell curve early in NG+ and was taking bosses out with only a few Soul Spears. Now Fume Knight only takes 93 damage from Affinity. I had to completely respec my character into a str/dark build just to have the patience to want to beat him, and after that it wasn't terribly hard.

You do gotta appreciate the evolution of bad Souls bosses though.
DS Flamelurker "Players won't be able to fully block fire damage" *uses Water Veil*
DkS1 Gwyn "Players won't be able to fully block fire AND physical damage" *parry spam*
DkS2 Fume Knight "OK WELL FUCK YOU PHYSICAL/FIRE/DARK"

 

[Fishin]

Probably the most illogical thing progresion-wise was how easily missed the Huntsman's Copse entrance is, after beating the main boss in Heide's Tower of Flame and talking to the NPC you need to go back from the Majula entrance and talk to her to open up the path.

 

[vonFiedler]

Memory of the Old Iron King is literal cancer

 

[Pyritie]

I'm still only part of the way through the giant forest or whatever and already it feels like this game has a lot more bullshit in it than DS1 did.

In DS1, the game would usually give you subtle hints that mean you need to be careful, and rewards playing cautiously.
This doesn't happen as much in DS2. So the only way to really "learn" about upcoming stuff is to die to it, and then the game fucks you over by decreasing your maximum health for it. So stupid.

 

[JantoRemix]

I could never get into Dark Souls 2 yet I beat Dark Souls 3; go figure lol.

 

[Catherine Walker]

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.