From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Leechmonger]

I enjoyed how getting the eye of the priestess made the unseen enemies in Shaded Woods appear human. That's a nice attention to detail.

If all those invisible enemies share the same flag in the code, the devs would have to go out of their way for that to not happen.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

Started playing through this again just because. I might actually finish it this time. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently, but it seems to be going a hell of a lot more smoothly. I remember last time having trouble with those twitchy bastard heide knights, but this time I'm just smashing them up with my pokey little mace. Maybe last time my weapon was too slow and they always recovered before I did. Killing the Persuer (first fog gate version) went a lot more smoothly too, in the good old "Get naked and 2-hand a decent weapon" style that I usually end up using for most bosses that I otherwise have trouble with. Can't touch this! Haven't had to resort to summoning anyone or anything yet either, though I'm not sure how many people are still playing anyway.

 

[Mozg]

A common reason for "this is so much easier" is that you're breaking enemy poise. Understanding poise enough to switch up your weapons and attacks because you notice that a two-handed R2 on a mace (or whatever) one-hit or two-hit stuns a given enemy is when Souls combat gets a lot less mystifying. The enemies that are designed to be completely unstunnable are usually pushovers in other ways.

Although Pursuer mostly gets stunned once a fight at most so maybe you just get gooded.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

A common reason for "this is so much easier" is that you're breaking enemy poise. Understanding poise enough to switch up your weapons and attacks because you notice that a two-handed R2 on a mace (or whatever) one-hit or two-hit stuns a given enemy is when Souls combat gets a lot less mystifying. The enemies that are designed to be completely unstunnable are usually pushovers in other ways.

Although Pursuer mostly gets stunned once a fight at most so maybe you just get gooded.

Yeah, I usually like going for big, poise-breaking weapons and rings + a beefy shield and heavy armour. Maximum tankbro (or take the armour off and glasscannonbro for bosses). I think it's just having a faster weapon so I can hit them again before they recover, since I'd usually be using something larger and slower, though I've no idea where I found one last time. Maybe I was using the claymore or something.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

I didn't realise there was that DS2 reddit event thing going on. This may explain why I was invaded by 2 different people in the belfry luna before I'd even finished speaking to the NPC.

Managed to get to the iron keep with just my +3 mace and starting armour set, before I decided to go double-check all the previous places to see what I'd missed. I've got my greatsword and large club to play with now (both at +7), and finished off the Old Iron King and the Lost Sinner (who were both just as easy as I remember). I think it's on to the shaded woods now, which I remember being pretty annoying, but at least it's not the gutter. Or perhaps I should go do that first and get it out of the way. Decisions decisions.

Also, I realised last night I'd never tried the two weapon thing before. Now I'm wondering if I could do something silly like use both my large club and greatsword at the same time. Absurdly heavy, but potentially great damage I guess? I've no idea how the movesets and shit work. Time to find out.

Edit: Looks like I need 3 more dex, but should be doable. Aww yeah.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

Don't mind me, just bumping this again with another EXCITING UPDATE.

Last time I played DS2 I mostly used Havel's set and his shield and a greatsword or dragon tooth. This time I've generally stuck to the greatshield\greatsword combo, but doing it using very light armour, like the ghostly aurous set. This seems to be working out a lot better. More fragile, but I can dodge the really nasty stuff instead of just tanking it.

I've cleared most of the vanilla game now, which went fairly smoothly. The biggest issue was I consistently fail to spot ladders throughout DS2, which really doesn't help (especially during the giant memories). Managed to clear the Gutter and the Black Gulch with just 1 death each: 1 from falling down a gap I didn't notice, 1 from a poorly-timed dodge at the boss. Cleared Aida's Keep and Shrine of Amana without a single death, probably because I knew what to expect. Those long-range homing spell spamming buggers in the shrine are still annoying, but nothing a few arrows to the face can't sort out, or running up and smacking them about if they've no backup. I think I still need to go back to the keep and nab a few secrets though. In the Dragon Shrine I didn't realise the first time around that the dragon knights wouldn't be hostile unless you ran away from the bigger guys, which is pretty cool. I might have to murder them all later on of course to get their weapons, but for now we're cool. Memories cleared and Vendrick dead, so I think it's just the final boss fight left really.

Before that though, I thought I'd try and clear the DLCs. Finished off Sunken King last night. Had to switch things up a bit since my usual strategy of Hit Things With A Big Sword Until They Die didn't work too well, since almost everything in that DLC seems to have a huge amount of poise; they don't even notice a 1-handed R2 from a greatsword with the stone ring. I ended up power-stancing my greatsword with the greatclub, and that killed the smaller guys in 1 hit, making their poise irrelevant, albeit whilst leaving me vulnerable. I also switched to the chariot lance for the drakeblood knights and the invader since they were a bit tricksy. I'm not really a big fan of the find the hidden switch nonsense, but it wasn't too bad. I kept the power-stanced combo for the bosses, which worked pretty well; took the final one down on the third try. Those bloody wings got in the way a lot though, covering the screen at many points in the fight.

Aside from a few things that seemed to be there just to be annoying rather than challenging (the statue turtles and the acid bug/plants), it was pretty decent overall. Never really got lost or confused over what the next objective should be. Scenery was a bit dull though. Onward to the Old Iron King.

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

Hey, maybe I will bought it on the next sale. Did the developers discover PC has a mouse or will have to install a mod too?

Before some peasant suggest it, I won't use a controller.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

I guess I might as well finish off these EXCITING UPDATES. I started so I'll finish and all that. Is anyone reading them? Hello.

The second DLC went by pretty quickly, once I got past a few key gank squad areas. They really seemed to like doing that in the second one. Oh you killed that guy easily? Here's three of them. Done that? Here's 5 and by the way they're being buffed. The wandering barrel guys were pretty entertaining though; trying to herd them into flames or under the lava-spewing guys. I honestly don't remember that much of that DLC, it wasn't terribly exciting really, end boss aside. He was a bit of a twitchy bugger, but fairly slow and predictable once you get him to his second stage. It was mostly his quick sweeps with the rapier in the first stage that caught me out, or some of his deceptively-slow attacks with the fume sword that I initially dodged too early. I'm glad I knew to save 4 of the wedges this time; what a cheap shot that was the first time I played.

The third one was a lot more interesting. While it still had the occasional gank squad, it was nowhere near the previous levels, and they could usually be drawn out to be dealt with piecemeal, or they were slow/weak enough to not be utterly overwhelming. The shortcut placement in this one was a bit odd, since I found I tended to unlock them long after they stopped being useful. I did quite like the levels though, a nice mixture of tight corridors and open spaces, and recognisable enough to know when you're about to drop off a ledge to something you've already been to. I was quite enjoying it up until those BLUE SPIKEY BASTARDS (not Sonic) showed up. Too bloody low to reliably hit with some attacks, spears especially, and absurd amounts of damage and knockback. Oh, and special mention to that white phantom guy. What an absolute shit. I really enjoyed killing him. One morning Gregor Samsa awoke to find he had been transformed into a giant insect. The final boss was relatively easy, but dealing with his squadron of power rangers first was intensely annoying, even with all 4 (mostly useless) bros helping out. At least he was kind enough to give you time to change gear.

After completing all 3 DLCs and getting the super fancy crown upgrade, I went on to finish off the end bosses of the vanilla game, which - after facing off against the DLC bosses - was hilariously easy. Overall, I think I generally prefer the first Dark Souls, though I did enjoy facing off against a lot of the bosses in DS2, and it was interesting to be forced into trying different tactics in some places.

I wonder if I should get DS3 now and complete the set.

 

[Jigawatt]

Since I've been binging on DS1 lately I thought I should finally play the follow up. Not too far in but wanted to post that I'm basically retarded in terms of the early game. Decided to go with sorcerer since my last DS1 char was all ultra greatswords. Everything was going ok in the beginning, seemed a little easy, and quite a bit more handholdy than DS1 but that's fine. But as I got further in something felt amiss. The game (either through chars or the UI) was at pains to explain every detail, but I still couldn't level up, nor did I have an Estus flask. No matter, I was sure it would be revealed eventually. But then I had 4 rings (including the Corianthy), Greater Soul Arrow, a Titanite Slab (!), and since I had so many souls I got my staff and monocle hat to +3 from bought shards - still no Estus or levelling. Saw the phantoms in front of a fog gate and decided to do the boss anyway, didn't take a single hit in spite of running out of casts and having to work him with a dagger. I thought it has to be something I missed in Majula so warped back...

I could swear I thoroughly covered Manjula - talked to a cat, joined two covenants, grabbed a fair amount of loot - but apparently I missed the level up lady. Or does she actually only appear after going into the Giant Forest place? Anyway, my first lvl up went from 11 -> 30.

So my first impression is it must be too easy, I barely felt challenged at all in spite of missing some pretty critical help (healing and levels). In fact the most I died was trying to clear a jump near the forest bonfire, which only turned out to net me some throwing knives - trolling or shitty design?

 

[cvv]

Lol, never thought someone could miss the Emerald Herald Meh god knows I've missed some pretty obvious things too.

As for difficulty, don't forget Sorcerer is basically easymode, both in DS1 and DS2. Plus yeah, DS2 is probably easier in general, especially the beginning.

 

[Elwro]

Well, I missed the stairs down in the Firelink Shrine.

 

[cvv]

Oh boy.

 

[Arnust]

Have fun! Y'are in for one if not the longest Souls games.

 

[AetherVagrant]

I'm about halfway through DS3, but this thread made me want to give 2 a shot again. I never got too far the first time because it was awful on the xbox, and I bought the Souls games when I was without a pc for a while.
My controller is missing the L1 button though, Ive been dealing with just being unable to parry or shield bash in DS3, so that's fun.

 

[cvv]

I'm about halfway through DS3, but this thread made me want to give 2 a shot again. I never got too far the first time because it was awful on the xbox, and I bought the Souls games when I was without a pc for a while.

Forget the vanilla, buy the Scholar of the First Sin edition. It's literally the difference between a mediocre and an excellent Souls game.

 

[Arnust]

Aye. You can always get both if you piss money or find them dirt cheap, SOTFS is like one of those very damn good "fix" community mods. If not, just SOTFS of course.

 

[AetherVagrant]

I bought DS2 on xbox and pc, but downloading scholar of the first sin right now for my next attempt.

 

[v1rus]

Be warned, some editions of SotS dont include all changes (the enemy placement changes, etc.). I know for a fact the ps3 version doesn't.

 

[Elwro]

Oh boy. I had no idea about this. Thanks!

 

[Hyperion]

The "ps3 version" isn't really Scholar of the First Sin. It's just the patch applied to the game that made changes to item stats and descriptions and what not. Scholar of the First Sin needs to be bought for ps4. You should be able to upgrade for free on the PC if you already own it.

 

[v1rus]

The "ps3 version" isn't really Scholar of the First Sin. It's just the patch applied to the game that made changes to item stats and descriptions and what not. Scholar of the First Sin needs to be bought for ps4. You should be able to upgrade for free on the PC if you already own it.

Ye, patches and dlcs. The same goes for xbox360 version, prolly.

 

[Max Stats]

My controller is missing the L1 button though, Ive been dealing with just being unable to parry or shield bash in DS3, so that's fun.

My L1 is fine, it's just my general shit play style that stops me from being able to parry, etc.

 

[MicoSelva]

Bros, should I play this, or is it better to skip to DaS3 after finishing the first one?

 

[praetor]

Bros, should I play this, or is it better to skip to DaS3 after finishing the first one?

play this. DS3 is worse

 

[Gentle Player]

Definitely play it. It's criticised rather a lot, but in my opinion it has far better combat and RPG mechanics than DaS3. There are issues with world cohesion, but the individual levels themselves are not bad in my view. They just feel rather ill thought out as a whole, rather as if they were a collection of outtakes pasted together without any thought as to the overall aesthetic cohesion. The Crowns DLC, separate from the main, is absolutely stellar and worth a play just for that.