DARK SOULS 2

[Bananamatic]

For those thinking about the no death, no bonfire run, this is a pretty nice guide: http://redd.it/26zo64

That also looks like the best way to completely shit on the experience of doing it

[Illyrian]

Exactly as with DS1, the way you speedrun this game involves abusing whatever OP spell there is. In this case, Great Resonant Soul and Climax for speedruns.

I just don't get how speedrunning this game could be fun at all really.

That guide to No death/bonfire clearly says you light the Majula bonfire. So it's not a no bonfire run is it? Because you lit the one in Majula.

2.Run to Majula. Light Majula bonfire

Am I missing something here?

Anyway I cleared the game yesterday morning. It took like 41 hours with me stopping to sniff the roses and explore a lot. It was really good. Later on in the game none of the bosses really took more than 2-3 attempts, and a lot only took 1 go. Some of them seemed unfinished (Frog, Velstadt and Covetous Demon come to mind!) but others were pretty good and enjoyable (Fake Ornstein, Guardian Dragon, Mirror Knight and Freja come to mind, along with some others). Didn't like the recycling of the Dragonrider fight, and the Belfry Gargoyles were very poorly designed in my opinion. The worst offender was the Royal Rat Authority. What a god-awful mess that fight is.

I have to agree with the earlier point about the story. It was kinda not there really. I understand that's the point, the story really is your characters journey and the things that happen. But the queen literally goes from sitting on a throne looking normal to suddenly being the Grim Reaper with no real explanation other than "she's super evil!"

I'm going to be playing through it again though no doubt, I've just got past Fake Ornstein on my sorcerer.

I think the idea that the game is like...super hard is ridiculous. I finished it with about 20 human effigies, I'd only been to 50% health once, fighting Ornstein. The Rings of Life Protection completely remove the hollowing aspect of the game, and since you will normally earn over 3k souls just running to whatever boss you're fighting you basically can't ever get hollowed as long as you're not a total spacker.

For all the faults, I still think overall it was awesome, and a breath of fresh air in today's game market.

[nZero]

That guide to No death/bonfire clearly says you light the Majula bonfire. So it's not a no bonfire run is it? Because you lit the one in Majula.

2.Run to Majula. Light Majula bonfire

Am I missing something here?

Yes. You get that ring for never RESTING at a bonfire. You can still light them to homeward bone back to (or deathwarp if you're doing no-death and no-bonfire on separate runs.)

[iconoclast]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_24S4j-jWU

Three DLC episodes are coming out. Hopefully they're as good as Artorias of the Abyss.

[CMoon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_24S4j-jWU

Three DLC episodes are coming out. Hopefully they're as good as Artorias of the Abyss.

Man, its already a pretty damn big game; now there's gonna be more. Don't know if I'm thrilled, but will be first in line to buy it anyway.

[Acid King]

I'm kind of surprised by the DLC announcement. I seem to recall one of the devs saying there wouldn't be any for this game.

[guigui]

I'm kind of surprised by the DLC announcement. I seem to recall one of the devs saying there wouldn't be any for this game.

I read that too, not surprised by DLC nonetheless. Easy money.

[iconoclast]

I'm kind of surprised by the DLC announcement. I seem to recall one of the devs saying there wouldn't be any for this game.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/31/ ... -after-all

He basically said that there would be DLC without outright confirming it. To be honest, I had already assumed this game would get DLC from the minute it was announced solely because of how successful AotA was. Doesn't bother me at all as long as the three episodes are worth the $25.

Now I just hope that the PC version goes on sale pretty soon because I traded my 360 copy in a while ago..

[CMoon]

Another thought: if the DLC seems like it is coming out too quickly; keep in mind that we will have Project Beast getting announced soon. There may be a thought in the back of their minds that since Project Beast got leaked we should move ahead with the DLC as soon as possible--basically milk DS2 for all it is worth before people move on to the next thing.

[Zaarock]

Hopefully they don't rush it too much. Artorias of the abyss was of higher quality than most of Dark Souls 2 IMO (best bosses in the series, at least), and I'm assuming it has to do with them having a lot of time to work on it..

off topic: I'm curious as to what will happen to the Armored Core series with the changes happening to FROM software. Verdict Day was excellent and seemed to do well in japan so I wonder what we'll see on next gen consoles, maybe another AC 4/4A style game with added MMO elements.

[Illyrian]

After watching videos of the DS1 DLC it seemed that they were able to design some properly difficult bosses with elaborate attacks. I never played the DLC myself though but I have seen Kalameet and the big Dark Magic monster thing before him mentioned regularly as some of the hardest bosses in the entire series.

The descriptions given of the DLC make it seem that they will all have their own feel and style, and I really hope that is the case.

I will be buying it. I wonder if they will be accessed through those locked doors with the carvings on them in Drangleic Castle?

[Khan]

If your talking about Manus yes the dude is tough as hell, i managed to solo him with 25% of his hp remaining as a lvl 115 sorcerer but he still managed to rape me i think if your light on your feet and have decent anticipation you can roll out the way of his attacks the harder part is when his health goes below 50% and he starts launching those magic attacks a right pain in the ass I gave up after about 10 deaths and decided to summon a phantom we killed him with little trouble i had maybe 70% of my hp remaining and still about 18 estus flask uses left from 20 ;p

[mastermx]

Manus was the most challenging boss in ds1. He was very fun to solo, you really have to study all of his moves to dodge successfully.

[Formless God]

My friend recently got this game so I'm playing the fuck out of it for free.
The target acquisition is weird. I'm playing Sorcerer and I remember having way better lock-on range in the first game as Pyro.
I like the roll iframes now. I don't remember the first game being that generous.
Once I hit 50% HP (fuck you Bastille door) I tried to stay there for as long as I could. Playing at 50% HP is pretty dope. Pretty much everything oneshots you so winning boss fights feels great (learning their attacks and running back to their rooms, not so much). It's hilarious how I respawned at the Sinner's Rise bonfire and one of the archers immediately oneshotted me.
Boss fights kinda lack variety. I fought 7 bosses and all of them are just block/dodge-counter in a relatively open space. The first game had Taurus Demon as the second boss, and the Gargoyle fight was a lot trickier than Ruin Sentinels.

So in conclusion it's pretty much Dark Souls with tougher, more straightforward boss fights, some really odd decisions (why so many types of healing items? Why do I have to warp back to Majula to level up?), and a really shitty programming job (the frame rate is disgusting and unstable, and there is no reason why the entire area needs to be reloaded when I died 30 steps away from a bonfire).

[LtC]

Hopefully they don't rush it too much. Artorias of the abyss was of higher quality than most of Dark Souls 2 IMO (best bosses in the series, at least), and I'm assuming it has to do with them having a lot of time to work on it..

Yeah the bosses were one of the best for sure. But the areas themselves were just 'meh'. In any of the Souls games the DLC is actually what I have the least replayed. I'm really hoping they put in some thought for the areas in the DLC for DS2.

There was also some new information on spike tv E3 stream last night. They were saying the DLC is going to be harder than the main game and there will be a harder path to the content where the players are assumed to summon help. Something is apparently going to happen once you clear all the 3DLC areas as well.

[Acid King]

Once I hit 50% HP (fuck you Bastille door) I tried to stay there for as long as I could. Playing at 50% HP is pretty dope. Pretty much everything oneshots you so winning boss fights feels great (learning their attacks and running back to their rooms, not so much). It's hilarious how I respawned at the Sinner's Rise bonfire and one of the archers immediately oneshotted me.

You can also join the Champion's covenant at the beginning of the game to give the enemies more bite. It makes the enemies tougher and blocks you from summoning help.

[CMoon]

The target acquisition is weird. I'm playing Sorcerer and I remember having way better lock-on range in the first game as Pyro.

Absolutely. I have a whole list of gripes with DS2, and this is one of them. Obviously for casters, not being able to lock on is huge, but even in melee there's a certain absurdity to it. Maybe Amana is just FUBR to begin with, but seriously there is a range from which the hippo/ogre thing can hit me, but I can't lock onto it. Of course, I'll just accept that the spell casters can fire off their spells at me even when they're outside the range of drawing distance, but I apparently can't lock on unless they're about 10' away or closer. Maybe this was meant to work the same way it works in the lost sinner fight? Regardless, it is TERRIBLY frustrating.

[Illyrian]

The target acquisition is weird. I'm playing Sorcerer and I remember having way better lock-on range in the first game as Pyro.

Absolutely. I have a whole list of gripes with DS2, and this is one of them. Obviously for casters, not being able to lock on is huge, but even in melee there's a certain absurdity to it. Maybe Amana is just FUBR to begin with, but seriously there is a range from which the hippo/ogre thing can hit me, but I can't lock onto it. Of course, I'll just accept that the spell casters can fire off their spells at me even when they're outside the range of drawing distance, but I apparently can't lock on unless they're about 10' away or closer. Maybe this was meant to work the same way it works in the lost sinner fight? Regardless, it is TERRIBLY frustrating.

FROM said they made the lock on a little bit derpy because it was too rigid in the previous game.

It also put an end to rolling past people in pvp to try and get backstabs by snapping on to them.

[Acid King]

What annoyed me most about the targeting was the continued absence of manually aiming your spells. The short lock on range wouldn't be as big of a problem if you could aim with the staff the same way you can with a bow.

[Zaarock]

What annoyed me most about the targeting was the continued absence of manually aiming your spells. The short lock on range wouldn't be as big of a problem if you could aim with the staff the same way you can with a bow.

You can aim spells just like a bow if you put binoculars on the other hand. Extremely useful, it makes spells great for long range.

[Acid King]

Thanks for the tip, though it still seems crazy you need a second item to aim.

[brokenhalo]

What annoyed me most about the targeting was the continued absence of manually aiming your spells. The short lock on range wouldn't be as big of a problem if you could aim with the staff the same way you can with a bow.

they had it this way in the demo version. but FROM thought it made magic too OP, so they took it out. the binoculars trick makes up for it though.

[CMoon]

FROM said they made the lock on a little bit derpy because it was too rigid in the previous game.

It also put an end to rolling past people in pvp to try and get backstabs by snapping on to them.

And this may hit right at the heart of the problems with DS2. It seems far too happy to sacrifice the PVE experience for the PVP experience. Intentionally gimping standard functions of make PVP more fair is a really stupid way to handle matters.

[Marc]

I've restarted 1, and much as I enjoyed every moment of 2, it's throwing into sharp relief just how superior 1 is. Although there are more shitty levels than I remember. If From ever put out a full game designed as well as the first third of DS1,ill die happy.

[CMoon]

If From ever put out a full game designed as well as the first third of DS1,ill die happy.

Pretty much this. There are things I really like from all three games, with this first 1/3rd (or I'd argue first 1/2) of DS being a really high water mark.

Back to the lock on-thing, I went back to Forest of Giants specifically to clear out the fire area (no real point to it as far as I can tell), and noticed I could lock-on to the fire salamanders from far above (like three stories or something), but in the cave below I had serious problems locking on to them at any range at all. I'm still questioning if lock-on is somehow a function of lighting or if it is just FUBR.

[ryu]

If From ever put out a full game designed as well as the first third of DS1,ill die happy.

Pretty much this. There are things I really like from all three games, with this first 1/3rd (or I'd argue first 1/2) of DS being a really high water mark.

Back to the lock on-thing, I went back to Forest of Giants specifically to clear out the fire area (no real point to it as far as I can tell), and noticed I could lock-on to the fire salamanders from far above (like three stories or something), but in the cave below I had serious problems locking on to them at any range at all. I'm still questioning if lock-on is somehow a function of lighting or if it is just FUBR.

lock-on range is affected by lighting, yes

[CMoon]

I'm betting the lock-on range would have made sense before the graphical downgrade. Maybe even having a torch would have increased lock-on range.

[Acid King]

I'm betting the lock-on range would have made sense before the graphical downgrade. Maybe even having a torch would have increased lock-on range.

Having a torch does improve lock on range.

[Jojomnia]

Am I the only one who was really disappointed by Dark Souls 1?
Okay the DLC was pretty fine or the "prepare to die edition" but still...
It was too empty and lost charm/ambience in comparison to Demon's Souls.
I know my friend told me NOT to match them but I have to...there are too many similarities.
Otherwise even Dark Souls II got no overwhelming Bosses except for Looking Glass Knight and the Smelter Demon (wow that was friggn hard)
it's ambience is magnificent! Unfortunately it lacks on difficulty in some cases which is really sad (It's pretty ridiculous that you can summon so much help in boss fights).
Now I'm really excited! Tell me what you are thinking of!

[Illyrian]

Smelter Demon isn't that hard. It is definitely overwhelming the first time you fight it though. If you're melee use a Gyrm Greatshield. If you're a cleric use magic barrier. If you're a sorceror use Flash Sweat. Roll in water before you fight it and use a Fire resistance ring.

The only really tough thing about it (and it is one of the harder fights) is killing it fast enough before the fire damage eventually gets too high without being greedy and getting spanked.

At least the Persuer is nice enough to drop in for coffee after the fight is over