Dark Souls 2 is sadistic.

[Kopikatsu]

It took me 4 hours to figure out how to level up and I still cannot figure out how to cure the half life BS because pretty much everything can one shot me with only a half life bar. I love the new jump controls and the the scenery around Majula is just breath taking.

Just equip the human effigy and use it like a normal item. That took me a fuck of all long time to figure out. I remember reading somewhere that you had to burn them at bonfires. But no, just a regular item.

That makes no sense. It is named an effigy, and effigies are things you burn! And you have the burn option on the bonfire menu! D:

Burning them prevents invaders. It's to even out the fact that people can invade while you're hollow now.

 

[Rylot]

I've got to be honest, I'm not sure how long I'm gonna be able to stick with this game. One of the reasons that I loved the first Dark Souls was that any play style was viable. Somethings definitely worked better than others but if you worked at it you could make any weapon and play style work. Now it seems like back stab and perrying have been nerfed (not the damage itself but the hit boxes and such) not to mention dodging to point that magic looks like the best way to go. I was having a lot of success on my second character as a knight, especially after i found a 90% blocking shield. I was doing well until I ran into the Turtle knights. Just about the only strategy that works is waiting for them to slam down their mace and back stepping and getting a hit or two in. No matter how little armor I'm wearing I seem to get hit more often than not when trying to dodge under their attacks. I can't seem to get behind them very well and when I do they always seem to get hit by their back slam no matter how far away I am. I just can't seem to find a good strategy like with the first game.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So. At the beginning of the game, I joined the first Covenant that I could. I almost didn't, but then I decided 'Hell with it' and accepted.

I only just learned what the covenant does. Makes all enemies stronger and greatly reduces (if not eliminates) friendly Phantoms. So now I feel stupid. I feel doubly stupid because despite going through two areas fully (Beat Last Giant n' such), I haven't picked up a single Awestone.

 

[Rylot]

So. At the beginning of the game, I joined the first Covenant that I could. I almost didn't, but then I decided 'Hell with it' and accepted.

I only just learned what the covenant does. Makes all enemies stronger and greatly reduces (if not eliminates) friendly Phantoms. So now I feel stupid. I feel doubly stupid because despite going through two areas fully (Beat Last Giant n' such), I haven't picked up a single Awestone.

I think the Cat lets you abandon covenants, if you didn't know that already. I was a bit disappointed that the covenants still don't seem to be explained very well. Maybe I'm just missing it but I've found three of them and I only have a grasp on what one of them does.

EDIT: I just tried a swordsman and man did that go horribly. The White Knight of Depression handed me my ass. Rolling just gives enemies a free shot.

 

[White Lightning]

I'm admittedly frustrated, and not in the way I've been hoping I would be. Going straight melee is almost impossible. I'm stuck on the Pursuer Boss (A big flying Knight with a sword and shield) because I just can't do enough damage and I have no stamina or health. Enemies don't re-spawn and the ones that do don't provide enough souls or drop anything.

So. At the beginning of the game, I joined the first Covenant that I could. I almost didn't, but then I decided 'Hell with it' and accepted.

I only just learned what the covenant does. Makes all enemies stronger and greatly reduces (if not eliminates) friendly Phantoms. So now I feel stupid. I feel doubly stupid because despite going through two areas fully (Beat Last Giant n' such), I haven't picked up a single Awestone.

The Champions one? Well shit I didn't know that. If you talk to the Crestfallen guy by the statue that has the world wide deaths he eventually offers you a different Covenant. I might go join that one.

Also yeah using the human effigies as in item instead of burning them makes you human to any one who wonders about the half health thing.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Not being snarky here; just genuinely confused about why people like the Souls games. They do have good segments that are actually difficult, but there's just so much cheap bullshit that even a skilled player cannot predict.

Again, I'm not saying that people don't enjoy these games - they clearly do, but I'll never understand why.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So. At the beginning of the game, I joined the first Covenant that I could. I almost didn't, but then I decided 'Hell with it' and accepted.

I only just learned what the covenant does. Makes all enemies stronger and greatly reduces (if not eliminates) friendly Phantoms. So now I feel stupid. I feel doubly stupid because despite going through two areas fully (Beat Last Giant n' such), I haven't picked up a single Awestone.

I think the Cat lets you abandon covenants, if you didn't know that already. I was a bit disappointed that the covenants still don't seem to be explained very well. Maybe I'm just missing it but I've found three of them and I only have a grasp on what one of them does.

EDIT: I just tried a swordsman and man did that go horribly. The White Knight of Depression handed me my ass. Rolling just gives enemies a free shot.

I cheesed the Knight. Then learned I didn't have to.

Lure him over to the ladder, drop down, then when he gets near the top, get off the ladder and it'll stun him for a second or two. Smack him, get back on the ladder, repeat. If he hits you, go to the bottom, heal up, then get back in there.

I did that until he got down to half health, then I realized I could stagger him with two hits from the mace you can find in Majula. So I just beat his shit in.

I'm admittedly frustrated, and not in the way I've been hoping I would be. Going straight melee is almost impossible. I'm stuck on the Pursuer Boss (A big flying Knight with a sword and shield) because I just can't do enough damage and I have no stamina or health. Enemies don't re-spawn and the ones that do don't provide enough souls or drop anything.

So. At the beginning of the game, I joined the first Covenant that I could. I almost didn't, but then I decided 'Hell with it' and accepted.

I only just learned what the covenant does. Makes all enemies stronger and greatly reduces (if not eliminates) friendly Phantoms. So now I feel stupid. I feel doubly stupid because despite going through two areas fully (Beat Last Giant n' such), I haven't picked up a single Awestone.

The Champions one? Well shit I didn't know that. If you talk to the Crestfallen guy by the statue that has the world wide deaths he eventually offers you a different Covenant. I might go join that one.

Also yeah using the human effigies as in item instead of burning them makes you human to any one who wonders about the half health thing.

Yeah, the Champions one. I'm wondering if that's the reason I'm finding melee almost impossible too.

 

[Mutie]

This sounds pretty classic, to be honest... I couldn't stomach how insolent Demon's Souls was. It's a shame, too, cause I crave challenging games. It's just they're not challenging... It's boring. "Oh no, that arrow that flew to that side of you actually hit you somehow and you died. Oops, by exiting the menu your character rolled and came close enough to the whats-it to register an insta-death on contact. You know all that awesome, atmospheric and challenging gameplay you just did, well how about you do it ALLLLLLL AGAIN just so you can continue playing the game. That'll be fun right? Hey, you know the nice, distant online elements which add just enough depth to make this game feel haunted, well someone many levels above you playing a melee class just came into your world and you can't exit / use any non-offensive skills / deny challenge - oh you died, best play the whole level again." That's not fun, that's a time-sink for the depressed. And I wish not to add to my already strife depression.

And this is all coming from someone who deletes an entire Minecraft world and starts again if he dies but once as a self-imposed punishment. This is coming from the person who puts Skyrim on Master then specialises in speech and illusion, wears no armour, hires only rogue-lockpicks, never fast travels and has the TV set so dark it's impossible to play during the day... The person who INSISTS on going into every Resident Evil final boss with the starting pistol, starting knife and ink ribbon taking up 3 out of 6 inventory spaces.

It's like playing a game of hide and seek with a child who refuses to acknowledge that you've found them and then throws a tantrum if you actually hide. I'd rather just ramp up the difficulty on a fun game and place some self-imposed rules, at least then I have the freedom to decide when I want to stop playing or go to the toilet.

They are not difficult games, they just force you to play under unreasonable circumstances and repeat the same gameplay OVER AND OVER AND OVER in that same monotonous fighting system... I have no time for such "hardcore" drivel... Which I lament as I really like the imagery / worlds / concepts and am a Namco Bandai fan

 

[Ferisar]

You can jump down the well. I've watched someone do it on stream naked with that ring on, you just need to know where to land.

Sorry, I guess you're just not MLG enough.

(Obvious snark is obvious. I love you.)

I wish I could add more to this discussion, but I don't get to play this game until tomorrow, because I'm an IRL casul and my PS3 is at a friend's house.

 

[Falcondynamite]

I've played around 10 hours into it so far. I'll be frankly honest. The first five hours are some pretty damn tough/cheap shit. I've managed to figure mostly everything without a guide but man with a 50 death count and that was mainly in the beginning. As of bosses, while I was happy one was a shout out to Dark Souls, not a single one of these bosses have been challenging. Cool in appearance definitely, but I haven't met a teeth grinder yet. I just got passed the Pirate ship boss (the fourth boss). After you unlock the black smith though the game takes a dive in becoming significantly much easier.

Getting that Heide blade at level five and dishing out about 200 dmg per hit, with another elemental Long fire sword. I want to have multiple elements in my armory because they truly let you have fun with the amount you can toss into your character.

In regards to the fall though you may just need more health (and when I say that I think at least 1500).

Personally through my playthrough I've been having a few issues/ mainly finding npc's. There was the Drunk dood in the pirate place (you can sell stuff to him which is pretty neat), completely dissappeard and now I can't locate him. Has anyone figured any "special items" the signature crow characters like aside from the obvious silky smooth stone?

Aside from that while I think the overall difficulty fooled me for the first five hours, it gradually got easier. Then again I'm still only 10 hours in so maybe I'll eat those words. Good luck everyone!

 

[Souplex]

As someone who loved using shields in the last game, I'm very angry that I can't find any shields with 100% physical block.
I'm stuck dodging like an idiot. I shouldn't be rolling in a souls game, that's only if you're doing it wrong.

 

[Falcondynamite]

As someone who loved using shields in the last game, I'm very angry that I can't find any shields with 100% physical block.
I'm stuck dodging like an idiot. I shouldn't be rolling in a souls game, that's only if you're doing it wrong.

Depends on where you're at, you get a pretty damn good shield in the Blue Cathedral (assuming you're strong enough to hold it).

 

[Kopikatsu]

I've played around 10 hours into it so far. I'll be frankly honest. The first five hours are some pretty damn tough/cheap shit. I've managed to figure mostly everything without a guide but man with a 50 death count and that was mainly in the beginning. As of bosses, while I was happy one was a shout out to Dark Souls, not a single one of these bosses have been challenging. Cool in appearance definitely, but I haven't met a teeth grinder yet. I just got passed the Pirate ship boss (the fourth boss). After you unlock the black smith though the game takes a dive in becoming significantly much easier.

Getting that Heide blade at level five and dishing out about 200 dmg per hit, with another elemental Long fire sword. I want to have multiple elements in my armory because they truly let you have fun with the amount you can toss into your character.

In regards to the fall though you may just need more health (and when I say that I think at least 1500).

Personally through my playthrough I've been having a few issues/ mainly finding npc's. There was the Drunk dood in the pirate place (you can sell stuff to him which is pretty neat), completely dissappeard and now I can't locate him. Has anyone figured any "special items" the signature crow characters like aside from the obvious silky smooth stone?

Aside from that while I think the overall difficulty fooled me for the first five hours, it gradually got easier. Then again I'm still only 10 hours in so maybe I'll eat those words. Good luck everyone!

What was your character class? The Heide Knight Blade only does 74~ damage per hit for me. But since it's lightning, it scales with Faith...

And, I started Knight and put most of my levels into health-increasing skills...I haven't broke 1000 health yet and I'm at level 28-ish.

Most people who seem to disappear actually relocate to somewhere in Majula. Also, did you join the Champions guild?

 

[Falcondynamite]

Getting that Heide blade at level five and dishing out about 200 dmg per hit, with another elemental Long fire sword. I want to have multiple elements in my armory because they truly let you have fun with the amount you can toss into your character.

In regards to the fall though you may just need more health (and when I say that I think at least 1500).

Personally through my playthrough I've been having a few issues/ mainly finding npc's. There was the Drunk dood in the pirate place (you can sell stuff to him which is pretty neat), completely dissappeard and now I can't locate him. Has anyone figured any "special items" the signature crow characters like aside from the obvious silky smooth stone?

Aside from that while I think the overall difficulty fooled me for the first five hours, it gradually got easier. Then again I'm still only 10 hours in so maybe I'll eat those words. Good luck everyone!

What was your character class? The Heide Knight Blade only does 74~ damage per hit for me. But since it's lightning, it scales with Faith...

And, I started Knight and put most of my levels into health-increasing skills...I haven't broke 1000 health yet and I'm at level 28-ish.

Most people who seem to disappear actually relocate to somewhere in Majula. Also, did you join the Champions guild?

I chose Deprived, I thought that building from scratch would provide the most fluid build. I've also got a strange build. I leveled up the Heide knight blade 3 times and I've scaled it according to both my dexterity/Strength and as you said Faith. All that Combined makes it dish out some pretty beautiful damage. If you do the same for the Long Fire sword you find in the Forest of the Giants you'll get a similar result (of course it'll be slightly weaker due to how it scales).

I haven't reached 1000 health, I'm about 900 and most of my build is focused towards high endurance and keeping a nice equipment load while balancing sorcery,miracles but focusing on Strength and Dex. Strength and Dex seem to score some pretty fluid strength bonuses to most weapons and if you're weapon is tailored to say a particular element than you can just keep boosting from then on.

Yes, I'm in the champions guild and am renting the xbox 360 version of the game. The servers have been having issues apparently so I haven't tested my build on pvp or helped any people.

 

[Trollhoffer]

First impressions of 4 hours or so are that it seems a sort of half-hearted effort. Less put into the story, less focused in level design, less variety in baddies, and a more padded out pacing (it took me 2 hours to hit a boss fight). All of which combines to make a rather tedious early experience, especially if you already played Dark Souls and don't need the practice/training.

A certain amount of polish seems to be missing, I'm getting some minor headaches from texture pops on PS3, and its not like they're throwing uber-HD textures at it or anything. NPC's are lifelessly barely animated (if at all). Maybe its cause the more 'open wilderness' doesn't suit it, but it seems like there's a lot less hidden secrets and stashes about.

The story also seems totally directionless, thus far its "You are cursed, so you went to this place, cause reasons. Now you have to see the king, so go find the 4 things wherever.". Compared to the two bells in Dark Souls, which they gave you some vague direction to aim in, and a general (if vague) purpose to what you were doing. They try and put a lot of impetus on "You must do this, or become an insane starving Hollow undead", but there's nothing remotely pushing that tension ingame.

To be absolutely fair, Dark Souls 1 only has the barest bones of a directed story -- the vast majority of the narrative meat is in the player's interpretations of what they observe in-game. I suspect a proper judgement can't be made until one is well into the game, far enough to have experienced enough content that lines begin to be drawn. The lore of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was a riddle with no true answer, and the story was nonlinear owing to its interpretive nature.

Basically, the best way to answer "is the lore or story good in Dark Souls 2?" is by measuring whether it asks you to interpret your observations or whether it serves literal lore up to you. The former is in character for the series and is where much of the praise comes from. That doesn't make the lore "good" in any of the games, but given the interpretive nature, players will tend to use interpretations that fall in line with their own tastes. But again, that takes time; any player needs both to experience content to contextualise the information provided, and to have to inclination towards interpretive lore in the first place.

As someone who loved using shields in the last game, I'm very angry that I can't find any shields with 100% physical block.
I'm stuck dodging like an idiot. I shouldn't be rolling in a souls game, that's only if you're doing it wrong.

Actually, high-skill players of the previous titles tended only to use shields as a backup, and to use the lightest possible shields with 100% physical damage prevention at that. Dodging is usually the better option; as enemy power increases, the stamina penalty for blocking quickly becomes less manageable, and you can attack out of a dodge anyway. In fact, attacking out of a dodge is one of the most effective strategies for close combat, since it allows you to combine aggression, defense and traversal into one relatively small timeframe. Insofar as Dark Souls 1 was concerned, it was particularly effective with weapons like the zweihander, as it provided a quick, powerful attack with significant range of a kind that was otherwise inaccessible.


All of this stuff said, I'm yet to play Dark Souls 2. Doesn't come out until tomorrow over here, drat it all.

 

[tehwes]

Don't forget that if you find a weapon you like but don't have correct stats for, you can respec your levels by using a certain item. You can get one fairly early and I've found 3/4 total in about half the game.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

That's hilarious, but I am going to have to purchase that ring anyway when I get the game just in case it does have some use. ^^

I am really looking forward to the builds though. Pyromancy is apparently the realm of int/faith builds, which is a nice that was really only filled by Velka's Talisman users before, and poorly at that, and I can't wait to dual wield great hammers. I'm trying not to look too much up before exams in about 8 weeks' time but fuck is it an exercise in willpower.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

It is quite hilarious seeing dozens of blood stains around that pit in the town. Thanks for the info on the effigy, saved my ass. Another question though, I have picked up at least 4 torches but they do not show up in my inventory and I have no idea how to use them at all. I get you have to light them from the bonfire but damn. I love the tutorial in this one better then DS1, however it does not tell you how to light a torch. Oh and that bird nest got me killed by a mixture of laughter, confusion and a really deep cliff.

 

[Kopikatsu]

To be absolutely fair, Dark Souls 1 only has the barest bones of a directed story -- the vast majority of the narrative meat is in the player's interpretations of what they observe in-game. I suspect a proper judgement can't be made until one is well into the game, far enough to have experienced enough content that lines begin to be drawn. The lore of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was a riddle with no true answer, and the story was nonlinear owing to its interpretive nature.

Basically, the best way to answer "is the lore or story good in Dark Souls 2?" is by measuring whether it asks you to interpret your observations or whether it serves literal lore up to you. The former is in character for the series and is where much of the praise comes from. That doesn't make the lore "good" in any of the games, but given the interpretive nature, players will tend to use interpretations that fall in line with their own tastes. But again, that takes time; any player needs both to experience content to contextualise the information provided, and to have to inclination towards interpretive lore in the first place.

Yeaaah, but iunno how good that is. I mean, there were people arguing that the player character was the Furtive Pygmy for the longest time until the DLC came out and it turned out that the Furtive Pygmy is (probably) Manus.

When nothing is really set in stone, erryone gets something wrong.

Actually, high-skill players of the previous titles tended only to use shields as a backup, and to use the lightest possible shields with 100% physical damage prevention at that. Dodging is usually the better option; as enemy power increases, the stamina penalty for blocking quickly becomes less manageable, and you can attack out of a dodge anyway. In fact, attacking out of a dodge is one of the most effective strategies for close combat, since it allows you to combine aggression, defense and traversal into one relatively small timeframe. Insofar as Dark Souls 1 was concerned, it was particularly effective with weapons like the zweihander, as it provided a quick, powerful attack with significant range of a kind that was otherwise inaccessible.


All of this stuff said, I'm yet to play Dark Souls 2. Doesn't come out until tomorrow over here, drat it all.

Yeah, and that's something that really bugged me. As noted in the OP, I like being the tank and stacking as much defense as possible. But in Souls, it's not really a viable playstyle. Everyone 1-2 shots you regardless of armor (Although this might just be because of the Champion guild. Going to try turning it off and see how it goes). Same deal in Torchlight 2. Eventually even having max resits isn't enough to save you from dying instantly, so the only viable class really becomes ranged DPS. Which I hate. Hate hate hate hate HATE. MAGIC IS FOR WUSSES. REAL MEN USE CAESTUSES.

 

[Kopikatsu]

It is quite hilarious seeing dozens of blood stains around that pit in the town. Thanks for the info on the effigy, saved my ass. Another question though, I have picked up at least 4 torches but they do not show up in my inventory and I have no idea how to use them at all. I get you have to light them from the bonfire but damn. I love the tutorial in this one better then DS1, however it does not tell you how to light a torch. Oh and that bird nest got me killed by a mixture of laughter, confusion and a really deep cliff.

That one took me forever to figure out. Walk up to a Bonfire, press triangle (on PS3) to toggle the contextual prompt from 'Rest at Bonfire' to 'Light Torch'.