While I agree in most cases, it still doesn't help much in the more brightly lit areas. Because all of the colors are heavily muted (rather than Dark Souls 1's stupid heavy saturation), places like Harvest Valley, the Forest (that's not foggy), and the immediate entrance to Aldia's Keep just end up looking so very bland, muddy, and "samey". It's like they went for Demon's Souls without employing Demon's Souls really strong contrast to make shadows pop.
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LTTP: Dark Souls 2: SotFS (what happens when you keep your expectations in check)
- Thread starter zero shift
- Start date
While I agree in most cases, it still doesn't help much in the more brightly lit areas. Because all of the colors are heavily muted (rather than Dark Souls 1's stupid heavy saturation), places like Harvest Valley, the Forest (that's not foggy), and the immediate entrance to Aldia's Keep just end up looking so very bland, muddy, and "samey". It's like they went for Demon's Souls without employing Demon's Souls really strong contrast to make shadows pop.
OmegaTreeFish
Banned
I'm not sure how you had that issue. You can lvl up a weapon to +6 pretty early. My the half way point I had a +10 great axe and was just wrecking everything. By the end of the game I had about 5 slabs. I felt like it was just throwing upgrade materials at me the whole game.
I agree the lighting looked pretty good with the torch. My issue was there were only three points in the game I needed to use one.
windmill burning, that really dark zone and to keep spider adds away on freja
I just completed the main game on PS4 the last night. Previously completed the vanilla game on PS3. Thought all the changes they made were really good, especially with some of the new enemy positioning e.g. Dragon Shrine is sooooo much better now. I remember someone in the OT scaremongering with a screenshot of all those knights on the stairs leading to the Ancient Dragon and failing to mention they're non-hostile if you kill the big enemies.
I thought it was really cool what they did with the new NPC summons in having them use stuff like gestures to point out stuff, or using magic to light dark areas for you.
I've still got the DLC to play through so I'm looking forward to that.
I thought it was really cool what they did with the new NPC summons in having them use stuff like gestures to point out stuff, or using magic to light dark areas for you.
I've still got the DLC to play through so I'm looking forward to that.
SeeNoWeevil
Member
I have a real soft spot for DS2. It's up there in my top 5 of all time, for sure. The overall quality of the game holds up far better than DS1, which tails off quite rapidly after Anor Londo.
Star Falcon
Member
I really love Dark Souls 2, especially the enhanced version. I could fault a few things with it, sure. But it's still better than 99% of other stuff out there and I've played through it at least 5 times already.
Highlights are definitely the Fume Tower and Frozen City from the DLC, though. A shame they weren't included in the base package as they are up there with the very best of the series.
My favourite bosses from Dark Souls 2:
Executioner Chariot
Looking Glass Knight
Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
Darklurker
Fume Knight
Sir Alonne
Burnt Ivory King
Executioner Chariot isn't difficult but really unique and different kind of encounter that still gets me excited whenever I do it. I love the lore/aesthetic for the knights in the game, and the Fume Knight/Sir Alonne in particular are amazing fun mechanics wise too that I had a lot of fun learning. Darklurker nicely fits the enigmatic "secret" boss with a unique look and challenging moveset, whilst Burnt Ivory King delivered a truly climactic end to the DLC with amazing atmosphere that makes the actual final boss of the main game look tame in comparison.
Highlights are definitely the Fume Tower and Frozen City from the DLC, though. A shame they weren't included in the base package as they are up there with the very best of the series.
My favourite bosses from Dark Souls 2:
Executioner Chariot
Looking Glass Knight
Velstadt, the Royal Aegis
Darklurker
Fume Knight
Sir Alonne
Burnt Ivory King
Executioner Chariot isn't difficult but really unique and different kind of encounter that still gets me excited whenever I do it. I love the lore/aesthetic for the knights in the game, and the Fume Knight/Sir Alonne in particular are amazing fun mechanics wise too that I had a lot of fun learning. Darklurker nicely fits the enigmatic "secret" boss with a unique look and challenging moveset, whilst Burnt Ivory King delivered a truly climactic end to the DLC with amazing atmosphere that makes the actual final boss of the main game look tame in comparison.
mickcenary
Member
I don't know whether it's a fuck-up due to the 60fps, an animation glitch or whatever have you, but the way the Heide Knights animate/move/attack in SotFS is downright laughable and flies right in the face of what makes Soulsborne so good.
I never had them behave like that in the vanilla game. Super weird. Super sloppy.
I never had them behave like that in the vanilla game. Super weird. Super sloppy.
I have mixed feelings about DkS2, on one hand, i played over 120hours of pure pve between the vanilla release (on ps3) and SotF (on pc) + some pvp.
On the other hand, i cant in all honesty say its a game with higher polish and quality than its predecessors, it clearly goes the quantity>quality... Like, Fume tower is pretty damn great... then you have Iron Passage wich is pretty much a 2 lanes corridor with a slightly harder Smelter Demon just for the sake of having more stuff... meh? Thats just one example. Most base game bosses kind of suck and lack of meaningful interconnection (wich made DkS1's exploration incredibly enjoyable) is also a very negative note on its curriculum.
I mean, as a game its still very good and far better than mediocrities like Lords of the Fallen, but it just doesnt hold up against previous games in the series. I have high expectations for DkS3, but i wont set myself on fire in front of the dev's building if ends up being as "bad" as DkS2.
On the other hand, i cant in all honesty say its a game with higher polish and quality than its predecessors, it clearly goes the quantity>quality... Like, Fume tower is pretty damn great... then you have Iron Passage wich is pretty much a 2 lanes corridor with a slightly harder Smelter Demon just for the sake of having more stuff... meh? Thats just one example. Most base game bosses kind of suck and lack of meaningful interconnection (wich made DkS1's exploration incredibly enjoyable) is also a very negative note on its curriculum.
I mean, as a game its still very good and far better than mediocrities like Lords of the Fallen, but it just doesnt hold up against previous games in the series. I have high expectations for DkS3, but i wont set myself on fire in front of the dev's building if ends up being as "bad" as DkS2.
I really liked the game. It does some things better than Dark Souls 1 (e.g. the whole online component as well as being able to run at 60fps—which is just amazing—
and some things worse (transition between areas and coherency for example).
This game has been surrounded by a cloud of negativity right from the very first interview given by the game's directors. It's quite undeserved in my opinion. The game is not flawless for sure. However the way some fans talk about it is actually giving the impression that it's a bad game to people that haven't played it yet — which couldn't be further for the truth. It's a great game in its own right and like the OP said I'd recommend it to anyone that liked Dark Souls 1.
I'm pretty burnt out on the game at this point though. After getting all the achievements on two platforms and doing an SL1 run (which is probably the hardest in the series and took forever) I don't think I can replay it in the near future. I started a playthrough on the Scholar of the First Sin edition but it wasn't different enough to get past the fact I'm burnt out.
But that's all right because Dark Souls 3 is coming out next year so I'll have something else to get my Souls fix. I'm actually going to build a new PC a bit earlier than I thought I would solely because of that game. After Bloodborne's sub-optimal performance I really want to play DS3 in the best possible conditions.
and some things worse (transition between areas and coherency for example).This game has been surrounded by a cloud of negativity right from the very first interview given by the game's directors. It's quite undeserved in my opinion. The game is not flawless for sure. However the way some fans talk about it is actually giving the impression that it's a bad game to people that haven't played it yet — which couldn't be further for the truth. It's a great game in its own right and like the OP said I'd recommend it to anyone that liked Dark Souls 1.
I'm pretty burnt out on the game at this point though. After getting all the achievements on two platforms and doing an SL1 run (which is probably the hardest in the series and took forever) I don't think I can replay it in the near future. I started a playthrough on the Scholar of the First Sin edition but it wasn't different enough to get past the fact I'm burnt out.
But that's all right because Dark Souls 3 is coming out next year so I'll have something else to get my Souls fix. I'm actually going to build a new PC a bit earlier than I thought I would solely because of that game. After Bloodborne's sub-optimal performance I really want to play DS3 in the best possible conditions.
zero shift
Banned
All of these bosses were crazy easy. If you invest in your stamina you can just attack them and then run and roll away from most of their attacks.
Dark Souls 1 I was a pyromancer with a heavy a weapon and high stamina.
Dark Souls 2 I was a sorcerer with no additional weapon and high intelligence, moderate stamina, and moderate adaptability.
That's what makes Dark Souls so great, I feel that the series is best when it is tough as nails. I like Dragon Shrine for different reasons though. Mostly due to the visuals and unique design.
How did you get through the Undead Crypt?
It's, like 3 or 4 "sections" between bonfires that are harder/worse, and about 60 sections that are the same, equivalent, or notable improvements.
Eh, people don't hate Dark Souls 2 as much as they want you to believe. Some people just have this massive boner for Miyazaki which evolved into a massive hate boner for Dark Souls 2.
I've seen people flip their opinion of Dark Souls 3 based on whether they thought Miyazaki was actually directing or not :lol.
Edit: Regarding mob placement, peopled complained about Forest of Fallen Giants as if they had just spammed a shitload of enemies and well, they did, *sort of*. They added a bunch of enemies after the ladder, but they're all asleep and you can carefully agro them one at a time. Or agro all of them and rush down the ladder and pick them off that way.
Because some of us do not like the direction DS2 went and hopefully with Miyazaki at the helm, he will bring the true Dark Souls back. So glad he can balance both bloodborne and DS3.
OmegaTreeFish
Banned
I just went though it. I could see enough. I was warned not to light a torch by the NPC. It was only like 3 rooms you had to get through anyway and because of mobs setting of the bells just trying to get to you I ended up just going through there and unlocking the short cut as fast as possible after a few deaths.
I don't really care who is directing it. Laid all my thoughts on this in my own lttp thread the other week (http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1148364) and I came to those conclusions without caring about this fact. It's made me hold off on ds3 until I see it in action because its certainly possible that I also just really prefer bloodbornes gameplay style. The slower combat of this game was pretty easy for me after playing so much bloodborne.
Star Falcon
Member
There are 3 'portals' that take you to DLC areas:
Sunken King DLC
(After beating the Rotten)
(After beating the Old Iron King)
(Shrine of Winter on route to Drangelic Castle)
There is an item located in the main game to unlock the main door in each one also IIRC.
I don't think any Souls game is really easier or harder than another. It's mostly about your first one and learning how to play the game. If you played 1 first, the others will be easier. If you played 2 first, you would not steamroll every boss.
I personally think DS1 is "easier" because you got a lot more estus flasks that instantly healed you and had humanity which instantly healed your health to full.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
I agree DS1 is better overall, but by no means is DS2 a bad game. It's pretty fucking great and people should play it.
OmegaTreeFish
Banned
I agree with this.
Whats hard about all souls games is adapting to how the game requires you to play. Once you work out the rhythm of dodging, attacking and not getting greedy it really isn't a hard game anymore. That goes for all of them. Its just that a lot of people seem to find that step a rather big hurdle to get over.
Shulva is god damn boring. There was nothing exciting about it. If anything, it reminded me a lot about a rehashed Oolacile Township. The worst is that crappy filler boss fight, where they put 3 human NPCs in existing armor and existing weapons and call it a day. So disappointed.
The second has a neat idea, but is, at times, executed terribly. You get ambushed over and over again, and get jumped by more and more enemies. Like I said, they make it artificially more difficult by just "adding more enemies" you have to fight against simultaneously. Immortal enemies were also a fucking bad idea, and have been in all games already. Here there was no smart tactics, it was "run past them until you find that god damn thing and hope to be able to impale it before you die". It's just not in the spirit of Souls, to almost FORCE you to die. It was always a fair fighting chance.
I also hate that you have fewer rods that there are statues to impale. I found all, but couldn't impale the last one. Guess which was left? Right next to the god damn boss. Yay... you don't know how infuriating that was. Again, the game is unfair to you without you being able to do anything about it. Guess what too, tho. A REUSED Bossfight...
I admit, Alonne is one of my favorite boss fights. That was awesome, even tho the way to him is also kinda dumb.
The third was so bland and boring. I dunno, but it got really tiring and wasn't particular exciting. Again, it was a fresh idea to "collect knights", but it was utterly uneventful and the enemies were rather boring. And then, you enter the worst area of the game. That fucking fog frost storm whatever with the fucking ponies. Dumb and terrible. At least no reused bosses. I actually like this one the least, because of how bland it feels.
There was enough "sticks" for impaling all the idols. I killed all the boss idols in my first run.
The last stick is hidden after Alonne yeah, but that is for the idol that is next to his portal anyways.
Also, I really don't see how Shulva and Olaacile compare, but I'm at work so it's hard to make a big post. Overall I think the level design on the DLC was really great.
The optional boss has a different flow to combat than any other fight in the game if you go in solo.
The way you navigate and traverse Shulva is entirely unique to the Sunken King DLC and seen literally no where else in the series. It's beautiful level design. Oolacile Township on the other hand was a boring straight path.
Crown of the Sunken King is the best damn piece of singular DLC they have put out.
Dark Souls 2 is a great game but when you have to follow up to a game that many consider to be one of the best games ever made you will surely get lot of disappointment towards it. I was initially disappointed with DaS2 and still am little bit but I was disappointed with Dark Souls 1 too so yeah. I think DaS2 is still even with its flaws a really good experience and definitely something that I would recommend to play if you are into these kind of games.
I am mad about that Shrine of Amana nerf though. It was fine when it launched but now the projectiles look weird when they stop tracking you.
I am mad about that Shrine of Amana nerf though. It was fine when it launched but now the projectiles look weird when they stop tracking you.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yeah, I agree Harvest Valley looks bad and not even torchlight can fix it. Shaded Woods looks bad too and even Scholar couldn't fix it. But most of the game looks quite good in Scholar and I really like how the torch effect works, it's superior to Bloodborne's torch effect by far.
Yeah that was confusing as fuck. I liked what they did with the Heide Knights otherwise, but their animation was just... wut?
Yep yep always agree there. I'm utterly convinced that if that interview hadn't happened, if they had pretended Miyazaki were still directing, people would not have coloured all the discussions with negativity the way they have.
Goddamn, respect. Don't think I could do that. I did in DS1, since pyromancers are actually quite powerful, but isn't a level 1 in DS2 like, 6 str and 6 dex and can only use daggers or fists? xD Nope nope nope
There is one place where it's like that, when you go down that ladder and there's a giant dude and some other mobs, and they give you tools to handle that, with the exploding barrel skeletons, and of course you could use alluring skulls (or Yearn) to distract mobs while you impale the effigy.
Not the game's fault if you fail to strategize your encounters.
LOL
That cognitive dissonance eh? Admitting that it's in all the past games, but when DS2 does it, it's "just not in the spirit of souls".
Totally no bias there guys.
Red Liquorice
Member
I liked the Gutter and Black Gulch, it was one of my favourite places to explore on the first run through. I wanted to light all the torches (still a bit bummed they didn't do anything for lighting them all!) I get that the poison spitting statues are a pain in the ass though, but you deal with it.
Looking forward to playing SOTFS actually, just bought it cheap but not too sure when I'll get around to it.
Looking forward to playing SOTFS actually, just bought it cheap but not too sure when I'll get around to it.
The Gutter is super underrated. Really cool level.
Of the DS2 DLC, I agree that Sunken was the best out of the three.
I don't even think I finished the third one. I was bored of it. I was bored with Ivory but I just did the necessary stuff - nothing optional or cool like fight Sir Alonne.
DS2's expansions felt like responses to the criticisms the main vanilla game got. Sunken King was a step in the right direction, but I felt the other two had too much going on with them with scope. MORE THINGS TO DO. HUGE AREAS. I wasn't engaged.
I think I made the mistake of getting the season pass when I should've just waited for Scholar of the First Sin and played all of them at the same time so I could've taken it all in as a complete package.
JudgmentJay
Member
You can use a mace two-handed, which is of course quite a strong weapon. Add in the fact that you can wear fairly heavy armor since the roll cutoff is 70% and you have a pretty easy SL1 run. I only tried it once and I quit halfway through because it was so easy it felt pointless. The DLC would probably be pretty tough though.
John Kowalski
Banned
Comparing unfavourably to one of the best games ever is hardly a negative or worthy of the disdain the game urges out of people.
That said that room in the castle with a ton of those wake up enemies is fuuuuuuuucked.
That said that room in the castle with a ton of those wake up enemies is fuuuuuuuucked.
Dude.
SOTFS adds more sconces to The Gutter, and a reason for lighting them!
The animation changes at 70, but the roll continues to improve below that.
You should try to do it again when you play SOTFS!
The back-half of any SL1 playthrough is the real challenge. Kinda nutty to call it there.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
It's easy enough to not aggro them all at once, y'know.
watchoutwegotabadassoverthere.gif?
JudgmentJay
Member
The point of my post was to say that a SL1 run is not much harder than a normal playthrough, not that I'm a skilled player. The mace is a very strong weapon. If you couldn't use it the run would be significantly harder.
That room doesn't offer much strategy apart from cheesing with a bow. It's dumb, but not really what I mean. Past that you get "ambushed" (lol) by multiple enemies, while others shoot at you from a distance. It's been done in the main game, but never to such a degree. It's just bad design here. When I went through there I thought ot myself "this is what you have to rely to to increase difficulty? Why not make enemies stronger / better?" It was really baffling how often you faced such a shit ton of enemies. There were multiple occasions where that happened. I was really dissappointed.There is one place where it's like that, when you go down that ladder and there's a giant dude and some other mobs, and they give you tools to handle that, with the exploding barrel skeletons, and of course you could use alluring skulls (or Yearn) to distract mobs while you impale the effigy.
Not the game's fault if you fail to strategize your encounters.
Maybe read the whole sentence instead of only the beginning and end? Neither game forced you to "rush past everything and (most likely) die". The DLC did that more than once. THAT is what is against the Souls spirit.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Hehe, okay, it just came across as rather dismissive. Still, you're severely gimped in stamina and HP (more than in DS1 I'd say, since DS1 has RoFaP quite early on) and you have no magic. Any range options other than knives? I guess you can two-hand a light crossbow maybe?
You could use the exploding barrel skeletons too.
The only place that really sucked and was unfair and had to be cheesed with a bow was the Iron Passage. That place legit sucks. But it's one optional passage, a tiny part of Brume Tower which is otherwise amazing.
JudgmentJay
Member
I rarely use ranged in Souls games so I don't know. The biggest annoyance to me was the lack of iframes. Most of my deaths could probably be attributed to low adaptability.
Kind of getting the itch to give it another try since people think that the second half would be harder (I'm skeptical).
My only problem with DS2 and why I quit on my 360 was
Stupid as shit swarm bosses like Ruin Sentinel and the gargoyles which infuriated me. I had to summon and I never summon for bosses on my first playthrough.
Stupid as shit tracking that defeats the point of doing a well time dodge.
Souls is souls so I will play SOTFS when its cheap, hopefully during the PSN holiday sale but damn that got me.
Does SOTFS fix that btw?
Stupid as shit swarm bosses like Ruin Sentinel and the gargoyles which infuriated me. I had to summon and I never summon for bosses on my first playthrough.
Stupid as shit tracking that defeats the point of doing a well time dodge.
Souls is souls so I will play SOTFS when its cheap, hopefully during the PSN holiday sale but damn that got me.
Does SOTFS fix that btw?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
No.
Neither does Bloodborne xD
SotFS was already discounted a few times, it was like $15-$20 during Black Friday.
There's nothing to fix on the bosses department. They're the same as vanilla. Either "git gud" or summon.
I think they somewhat nerfed the tracking of the mace golems (the ones at the Shrine). They're the only ones that I think they had bad tracking IMO.
I think it's funny that the only reason people call out enemies "tracking" is that Dark Souls 2 chose to animate it rather than the other games. It's not as intense as Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls but Bloodborne has some pretty fucking crazy tracking.
The wheel frogs on BB DLC are almost DS2 mace golem level of tracking.
I'll have to say DS1 is the one that felt the best about tracking IMO, but really, is not that big of a problem, you just need to time your dodge better.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Those white-armoured swordsmen in chalice dungeon, anyone? Charging sword swing, charging, charging, charging... okay dodge NOW *SPLAT* Well then. Thanks Obama Miyazaki!
mordecaii83
Member
Dark Souls 2 is still the first and only "Souls" title that I didn't buy and complete within the first month of it coming out. I was so excited for it, but after seeing some media on it and trying it with a friend I felt like I'd rather just play DS1 or DeS over again. I bought Bloodborne day one and had a blast with it, but couldn't get myself excited to play DS2.
I finally bought it on Black Friday, so I'll push through and hopefully enjoy it. But the combat still feels off to me, and I hate most of the enemy/boss designs and the world design as a whole. The only thing that makes me interested to play the game is the greater variety of equipment and magic.
I finally bought it on Black Friday, so I'll push through and hopefully enjoy it. But the combat still feels off to me, and I hate most of the enemy/boss designs and the world design as a whole. The only thing that makes me interested to play the game is the greater variety of equipment and magic.