Dark Souls 2 Wishlist

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It's a fantasy game man, in which you can wear armour made out of solid carved stone and swing around a dragon's tooth the size of a small car, not a medieval combat simulator. And if it's going to be implemented it may as well be fun and interesting on a gameplay level.

OVER MY COLD, DEAD HANDS.

Just kidding

Oh you HAD me bro! Though I do agree dual wielding is a pretty silly concept in general it has become such a trope in a lot of cultures and their fiction at this point something just feels like it's missing without it, so they may as well make it cool and stylish.

Oh, also I played a bit of Dark Souls today after a long break and I have another thing to add to the wishlist:

Nerf or remove the everloving crap out of backstabs in both PvP and PvE. Granted it seems as if that's what they're doing in the form of more reactive AI and the way they're handling movement, and again the new servers will help with those tear-inducing lagstabs from across the room, but Jesus it's such a crutch. Granted it takes some skill and timing to pull off but it's horribly unbalanced. At least it's not as bad as Demon's Souls (from what I've seen) where the whole PvP meta looks based around the bloody things! What happened to real men facing down their foes with strength and wit, smashing at each other with bits of metal until one of them fell over?

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

enemies to attack invaders (not sure if this already happens, I rare invaded)

Nope, the invader is always allied with the hosts mobs.

well that then. maybe depending on covenant, it'll depend what enemies react to what invaders

 

[Qvar]

well that then. maybe depending on covenant, it'll depend what enemies react to what invaders

Hmm yeah it would be nice that for example Dark Wraiths npcs would only ally with dark wraith covenant invaders, same for the forest spirits, etc. Hollows could ally with all invaders, and man-serpents with none, maybe.
Regarding the figths between types of enemies, it would have to be done in such a way that I couldn't be exploited... Or that it was specifically designed so that you MUST exploit it in order to be able to overcome that obstacle.

 

[kommando367]

Demon's Soul's Boss variety and diminishing EXP system, start menu pausing, a full tutorial, and maybe some actual challenge instead of every fight just being won with high powered gear and the occasional back-stab.

Also, keep the covenants; especially the Chaos one.

Optional PVP. Co-op is optional so why not PVP?
I just think that making PVP optional would be better for everyone because PVM fans will keep their solitude and PVP fans wouldn't enter the worlds of PVM fans who would rather cut their system off than fight someone with PVP-focused gear

 

[Qvar]

I don't get the people who like Dark Souls being a really hard game, yet if that difficulty is built upon other players being dicks to you, then they don't like it.

I mean, if Maneater Mildred invades and kills you it's ok, but if ChaosMaker69 invades and kills you then it's a no-no? What a pile of nonsense, if you ask me.

 

[BlueKenja]

I don't get the people who like Dark Souls being a really hard game, yet if that difficulty is built upon other players being dicks to you, then they don't like it.

I mean, if Maneater Mildred invades and kills you it's ok, but if ChaosMaker69 invades and kills you then it's a no-no? What a pile of nonsense, if you ask me.

Because PvE difficulty can be "learned", once you learn the moves, tells and sound cues of bosses or mobs you can use that knowledge to beat them. When Maneater Mildred invades she always wears the same gear and has the same sort of attacking style, when another player invades there is an element of randomness which cannot be learnt. A player can easily keep a low soul level whilst obtaining higher area gear and upgrading it then two-shotting you when you haven't a hope in hell of beating them through no fault of your own (staying human near a boss area to get help is not what I would call "fault").

TLDR: AI mobs invading are tuned for the difficulty of the area, players who invade almost always possess substantially better gear than you. Let's not even get into lag-switching.

 

[Mikejames]

-No Illusory walls please. I don't want to backtrack 20 minutes because I didn't compulsively check every unmarked corner for an unnecessarily hidden bonfire.

-Less padding. Call it user error if you will, but I don't want heavy grinding, and I don't want checkpoints before difficult bosses to be put behind a long path with 30 weaker monsters first. I know it's meant to make us careful and conservative with supplies, but it's just a time sink in some places.

-No platforming. At least not like Blighttown. There's trying to be difficult, and then there's arbitrary level design that the mechanics simply aren't built for. And the mosquitoes? Seriously, screw that place.

My wish is that the story is a little more accessible in-game.

While I can appreciate the feeling of mystery and how the loneliness of a lot of places really does feel like you've come across the aftermath of a dead fantasy world, I'd like to see more outside of item descriptions as well.

I don't mind subtlety, but I wouldn't mind getting a little more narrative motivation than "Struggle against all these horrific monsters because it's the only way you haven't gone yet."

 

[vIRL Nightmare]

For a functionally sound PvP. I'm assuming the actual game won't be as stacked against reds as it was in the beta tests. For those who don't know the way of white and darkmoon blades have been combined. In the beta, it was default to be apart of this faction. What the new way of blue as it is called does is if the host gets invaded, he pings another member of a specific subsection, the warriors of blue I believe it is, and auto summons one to help. This made it almost nigh impossible for 1v1 match ups leaving the fight club players rather concerned. Assuming that since the devs came out and said there are more covenates to discover, and that it isn't likely you'll start with a covenant, I'm optomistic that it will be quite balanced for everyone. "fair" invasions for the reds, some level of protection for the more casual players, and hopefully a better experience overall.

For those that still preach the end times, no the game isn't going to be a stun fest. If you had tried to notice, I believe the highest poise attainable was around 24 certainly no more than 30 (as a note I just remembered I didn't play the soldier so maybe, but not likely a little more). Which by Dark Souls original formula standard longswords can stun in one hit at such a low level.

As an after thought I don't really like the name Way of Blue, but a good sounding name is probably one of those things lost in translation: Ao no Michi doesn't sound all that bad.

 

[vIRL Nightmare]

I don't get the people who like Dark Souls being a really hard game, yet if that difficulty is built upon other players being dicks to you, then they don't like it.

I mean, if Maneater Mildred invades and kills you it's ok, but if ChaosMaker69 invades and kills you then it's a no-no? What a pile of nonsense, if you ask me.

Because PvE difficulty can be "learned", once you learn the moves, tells and sound cues of bosses or mobs you can use that knowledge to beat them. When Maneater Mildred invades she always wears the same gear and has the same sort of attacking style, when another player invades there is an element of randomness which cannot be learnt. A player can easily keep a low soul level whilst obtaining higher area gear and upgrading it then two-shotting you when you haven't a hope in hell of beating them through no fault of your own (staying human near a boss area to get help is not what I would call "fault").

TLDR: AI mobs invading are tuned for the difficulty of the area, players who invade almost always possess substantially better gear than you. Let's not even get into lag-switching.

I never had all that hard a time with PvPers because I got better than them at the game. The whole PvP is ruining the game argument was never valid since you could just not play online. On xbox just open a party chat. "learning" how to play against humans was probably as easy as learning the AI(not all that easy in it's own right). Of course I just jumped on this and didn't read the whole conversation, I could just be randomly rambling.

 

[Qvar]

-No Illusory walls please. I don't want to backtrack 20 minutes because I didn't compulsively check every unmarked corner for an unnecessarily hidden bonfire.

-Less padding. Call it user error if you will, but I don't want heavy grinding, and I don't want checkpoints before difficult bosses to be put behind a long path with 30 weaker monsters first. I know it's meant to make us careful and conservative with supplies, but it's just a time sink in some places.

-No platforming. At least not like Blighttown. There's trying to be difficult, and then there's arbitrary level design that the mechanics simply aren't built for. And the mosquitoes? Seriously, screw that place.

Totally agree with you except about the lots of monsters between the bonfire and the boss.
- Asylum demon: None
- Taurus demon: About 11-15 enemies in your way, if you really care to stop killing them all.
- Hellkite wyvern: None
- Capra demon: 11 enemies.
- Bell Gargoyles: 1 balder and a couple of hollows.
- Gaping dragon: 1 ghoul and 1 rat.
- Iron golem: 1 balder
- Gwyn: 5 black knights
- Kalameet: 3 dogs
- Artorias: one or two gardeners.
- Sif: The 4 forest guardian spirits, but I would consider this a bonus, rather than a con.
- Pinwheel: Who cares? Not that he's going to kill you.
- Priscilla: a couple of hollows and a tower knight.

Etc.

I don't mind subtlety, but I wouldn't mind getting a little more narrative motivation than "Struggle against all these horrific monsters because it's the only way you haven't gone yet."

Partially agreed, but it's such a fragile equilibrium, it needs to be done extremely well for it to work. I would rather have what Dark Souls did than another standard, cheesy narrative.

 

[Mikejames]

Totally agree with you except about the lots of monsters between the bonfire and the boss.

Yeah, I exaggerated on the actual amount of enemies between the bonfires and bosses, but just the treks themselves could really grate on me in my first playthrough. Like the long walk every time I fell down in the Bed of Chaos?

I was fine killing the swarms of hollows on the way to the Taurus demon or Gargoyles when I was patient with it, but by the fifth time I died against either of them, I was despising everything on those paths. Then I'd get ganked off a cliff. Then I'd lose twelve thousand souls and stop playing for a while.

it's such a fragile equilibrium, it needs to be done extremely well for it to work. I would rather have what Dark Souls did than another standard, cheesy narrative.

Fair enough. I'm not expecting a basic save the princess style plot or anything, I just don't mind the idea of a more legitimate character focus than "ring the bells."

Plus, it wouldn't kill them to make a few of the subquests more accessible. I don't want map markers or anything, but other than through guesswork, how was anyone supposed to know that Siegmeyer would next show up at Ash Lake? Or that the otherwise worthless Witch's Ring was what would let you talk with The Fair Lady?

 

[Qvar]

Plus, it wouldn't kill them to make a few of the subquests more accessible. I don't want map markers or anything, but other than through guesswork, how was anyone supposed to know that Siegmeyer would next show up at Ash Lake? Or that the otherwise worthless Witch's Ring was what would let you talk with The Fair Lady?

I agree about Siegmeyer. Hmm I guess this game is intended to make you play it dozens of times and keep building your speculations over and over, so maybe at your 10th playthorugh you finally get to save everybody.

I think the white witch ring is more of an easter egg than anything else, which I kind of appreciate.

Btw speaking of her: I know it's not going to happen, but I wish this game didn't make me feel like a total monster every time I play it. Except for the demons, pretty much everybody you kill did nothing wrong except being trapped by the circumstances or having outlived their usefulness.

Queelag? She was cursed by the failure of her mother and took care of her sister, to who she was the only company. I'm on NG+ now and on the verge of killing the white witch just to not see her suffer anymore, after I left her crippled and alone in the world for the second time. Hell I'm sure if somebody cared to say "oh hi I'm just passing by to ring that nice bell you have there" you wouldn't have needed to kill her.

Gwyn? He gave his soul to sustain the world, for the good of all humanity. This eventually exhausted his energy and forces you (or somebody else) to kill him, just so he can be replaced.

Sif? He was just protecting his master's tomb against your heartless looting.

Priscilla? She didn't even want to figth you, just to be left alone, yet I had to kill her so I could have another dirty dagger.

Artorias? He even sacrificed himself to protect his best friend. Killing him is freeing him from the curse, but doesn't make me stop feeling bad for him.

Smough and Ornstein? Ok Smough was a total jerk and I was happy about killing him, but killing Ornstein was just a matter of... What? Gwyndolin actually wanted somebody to reach Gwynevere. Ornstein, one of the four knights (the only one remaining, actually), was sacrificied like just another trial, while he probably thought he was defending his mistress from some danger.

Ugh... Damn it Dark Souls...

 

[The Lunatic]

Decent multiplayer would be a big one.

Don't force people to fight other players if they don't want to. All that is going to happen there is that people are just going to quit the game and restart, and that's not fun for anyone.

The weird co-op system is pretty pointless. Just make it so I can play with people if I choose to, get rid of the silly limits, the faffing around doesn't really serve much purpose.


UI is pretty awful, could do with a rework, it's completely useable at the moment, but, not very nice to do so.

 

[Mikejames]

I agree about Siegmeyer. Hmm I guess this game is intended to make you play it dozens of times and keep building your speculations over and over, so maybe at your 10th playthorugh you finally get to save everybody.

I think the white witch ring is more of an easter egg than anything else, which I kind of appreciate.

Heh, considering how long it took to finish my main playthrough, that's not going to happen. I don't want to put the time in backtracking to every corner of every area I've beaten on the off chance that someone new might show up without any hints that they'll be there. So I just end up looking up a guide to finally find him, and that's no fun.

I like that the Witch Ring is an option, I just doubt that I ever would have traded for it and equipped it without someone spoiling its use for me.

Btw speaking of her: I know it's not going to happen, but I wish this game didn't make me feel like a total monster every time I play it. Except for the demons, pretty much everybody you kill did nothing wrong except being trapped by the circumstances or having outlived their usefulness.

Ugh... Damn it Dark Souls...

I actually really appreciate that they try to give your enemies more depth than just throwing you at group of nameless bosses. In a sense, Lordran is dead, and you're on your way to becoming a monster just like everyone else. But for some, like Gwyn and The Bed of Chaos, it's probably the closest thing to mercy you can give them.

We don't always have the option, but there are few redemptive moments. Sparing Priscilla, saving Anastacia and a few people at Firelink, joining the Chaos Covenent, etc.

 

[Qvar]

snip

Don't get me wrong, I love how all the characters are built, even if not directly, through external references, theories, hints... That's exactly what leads to care about them, and sucks when you see them either go hollow or be killed by your own hand.

I was only cursing that the amount of people who actually didn't deserve it was too damn high. You can make character developement without having to kill anybody, you know. Yet it's not something I would REALLY want to change, because that's what gives Dark Souls it's despairing and soul crushing aura (that, and getting beaten by X boss or section for the 10th time ofc), and that's how we all love it.

I'm definitely going for the Dark Lord ending on my next playthrough, and will save everyone (-Who? -EVERYONE), and spare Priscilla, and make the world both a bit more undead and happy D:

 

[DementedSheep]

Plus, it wouldn't kill them to make a few of the subquests more accessible. I don't want map markers or anything, but other than through guesswork, how was anyone supposed to know that Siegmeyer would next show up at Ash Lake? Or that the otherwise worthless Witch's Ring was what would let you talk with The Fair Lady?

I agree about Siegmeyer. Hmm I guess this game is intended to make you play it dozens of times and keep building your speculations over and over, so maybe at your 10th playthorugh you finally get to save everybody.

I think the white witch ring is more of an easter egg than anything else, which I kind of appreciate.

Btw speaking of her: I know it's not going to happen, but I wish this game didn't make me feel like a total monster every time I play it. Except for the demons, pretty much everybody you kill did nothing wrong except being trapped by the circumstances or having outlived their usefulness.

Queelag? She was cursed by the failure of her mother and took care of her sister, to who she was the only company. I'm on NG+ now and on the verge of killing the white witch just to not see her suffer anymore, after I left her crippled and alone in the world for the second time. Hell I'm sure if somebody cared to say "oh hi I'm just passing by to ring that nice bell you have there" you wouldn't have needed to kill her.

Gwyn? He gave his soul to sustain the world, for the good of all humanity. This eventually exhausted his energy and forces you (or somebody else) to kill him, just so he can be replaced.

Sif? He was just protecting his master's tomb against your heartless looting.

Priscilla? She didn't even want to figth you, just to be left alone, yet I had to kill her so I could have another dirty dagger.

Artorias? He even sacrificed himself to protect his best friend. Killing him is freeing him from the curse, but doesn't make me stop feeling bad for him.

Smough and Ornstein? Ok Smough was a total jerk and I was happy about killing him, but killing Ornstein was just a matter of... What? Gwyndolin actually wanted somebody to reach Gwynevere. Ornstein, one of the four knights (the only one remaining, actually), was sacrificied like just another trial, while he probably thought he was defending his mistress from some danger.

Ugh... Damn it Dark Souls...

You're forgetting the worst one. Ceaseless Discharge, the unfortunate deformed brother of the witches of Izilith who only attacks you when you attack him or LOOT HIS SISTERS CORPSE! Unfortunately you have to kill him to progress even if you don't want the robes.

Yeah the game has a way of making you feel like a dick without even saying much. I don't mind that though.

 

[Qvar]

You're forgetting the worst one. Ceaseless Discharge, the unfortunate deformed brother of the witches of Izilith who only attacks you when you attack him or LOOT HIS SISTERS CORPSE! Unfortunately you have to kill him to progress even if you don't want the robes.

Yeah the game has a way of making you feel like a dick without even saying much. I don't mind that though.

Oh thanks, I was feeling only 90% monster until you remembered me of that lol
I bet the demons are no real demons, they're just ugly sentient beings that act in self-defense against the soul-sucking armored bastard that goes strutting about their homes stealing their belongings.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Bonfires immediately before bosses. Even if there aren't any difficult enemies, I don't want to have to spend 5 minutes running to the boss every single time I need to fight them. It doesn't make the game any more difficult, it just makes it more irritating

Better speaking animations and voice acting. Not a big deal, but it was done so lazily and poorly in Dark Souls. Not to mention that I had to use subtitles since half of the time I couldn't hear what they were saying whatsoever.

Storytelling through means other than item descriptions and stray cryptic dialogue. They did this subtly with statues and stuff, but I'd like to see it done even more. They put a lot of attention into the world, I feel like they could go even further with it using engravings, murals of past events, and other things to that effect. Actually, I'd prefer it if they didn't use the item descriptions for storytelling at all instead opting for something that made more sense and was a little more tangible. Maybe leave it at inscriptions that you find on the items?

EDIT: Also, I want them to keep the dark and creepy aesthetic that they had in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Things like the Moonlight Butterfly, Artorias, Seathe, the Four Kings and Nito. Dark Souls II, at least from what I've seen so far, seems to be almost exclusively using a gorey and brutish kind of look with the enemies.

 

[Mikejames]

Don't get me wrong, I love how all the characters are built, even if not directly, through external references, theories, hints... That's exactly what leads to care about them, and sucks when you see them either go hollow or be killed by your own hand.

I'm definitely going for the Dark Lord ending on my next playthrough, and will save everyone (-Who? -EVERYONE), and spare Priscilla, and make the world both a bit more undead and happy D:

True, it's not a happy setting Lordran. Most of the consistently nice characters are goners unless you stop talking to them.("I'm sorry Laurentius, the Chaos fire is mine and mine alone!") But it's a consistent tone. Lonely and atmospheric.I do wonder if Dark Souls 2 is changing anything up though. Some of the new concept art almost looks like there could be a living village,

Though it could just end up being another Blighttown...


The heck with Dark Lord being the bad ending. My dictatorship will be a benevolent one.

 

[Qvar]

Judging by the girl looking like "and this is the village entrance, and this is the market", I would bet it's all part of the tutorial and in about 5 minutes all is reduced to ashes. Btw notice the dragon on top of the rock at the first picture.