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LTTP: Dark Souls 2 - eh, perhaps I should have played this before Bloodborne

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
You didn't even explore the environments before declaring them boring! Holy shit lol.


When you're using guides and complaining, then, yeah?


It's so full of shit though. A lot of repeated points, a lot of which are simply false. I didn't bother with it at first because this guy's on my ignore list.


No, the BB platinum doesn't require grinding, but it requires you to purchase every item in the store even if they're weapons you would never use on your build. I didn't have the Platinum for the longest time because of that, and I only got that last trophy because I wanted that free theme they were giving to Platinum owners. Otherwise I'd still be Platinum-less despite having hundreds of hours across several characters. Trophies are meaningless bullshit.


Grinding isn't what is taken into account when we talk about "different play styles", especially since you can grind in any of the game so that's irrelevant to specifically DS2. Anyway, good for the OP if they enjoy grinding, but it's still extremely bizarre to complain about a game being boring when all you do is grind without venturing even a bit further into the level.

Let me make this perfectly clear: Forest of Fallen Giants, the restricted part of The Lost Bastille and Heide's Tower of Flame all fucking suck. I was grinding through the entirety of these maps, not just on one enemy and rinsing. My opinion is valid here because I explored them in and out.

Now with that said I have progressed further and the maps after Heide's Tower of Flame, specifically No-Man's Wharf and the forest that leads you to the Chariot and skeleton bosses, have been great.

Yes I made this thread when I was early in the game but what, is my opinion of the game as it is when someone is exploring it for the first time going to change? No. Because once again the early part of this game sucks. Stop focusing on my grinding. I have fun doing it and clearly you don't. Harp on something else.

Oh, I see what you also want to say my problem is: consulting a guide. Look, kid, you can't tolerate someone not experiencing this game in the way you prefer and you should probably reconcile that. Complaining about me consulting a guide simply for the name of a boss and the next suggested area to explore, nothing more, is pedantic and not your problem.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
You get enough Echoes to buy each and every weapon at least twice from doing Chalice dungeons, I guess it's true if you're already set on one weapon you don't want to "waste" echoes on others but normally you'd think people want to try them all out.
Yeah I'd want to try them all out... on different characters, because I wouldn't even have the stats to wield them out. I know my first character, a dex-oriented build, won't have enough BT or Arcane or whatever to use all these fancy firearms, so I didn't buy them because why would I.
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Let me make this perfectly clear: Forest of Fallen Giants, the restricted part of The Lost Bastille and Heide's Tower of Flame all fucking suck. I was grinding through the entirety of these maps, not just on one enemy and rinsing. My opinion is valid here because I explored them in and out.

Now with that said I have progressed further and the maps after Heide's Tower of Flame, specifically No-Man's Wharf and the forest that leads you to the Chariot and skeleton bosses, have been great.

Yes I made this thread when I was early in the game but what, is my opinion of the game as it is when someone is exploring it for the first time going to change? No. Because once again the early part of this game sucks. Stop focusing on my grinding. I have fun doing it and clearly you don't. Harp on something else.

Oh, I see what you also want to say my problem is: consulting a guide. Look, kid, you can't tolerate someone not experiencing this game in the way you prefer and you should probably reconcile that. Complaining about me consulting a guide simply for the name of a boss and the next suggested area to explore, nothing more, is pedantic and not your problem.

Curious, what's your overall opinion of the game now? Does it do any things better than the other titles you've played?
 
OP sounds like my experience with DS2. i really hated those early areas. eventually things got better but not amazingly better and not consistently.

the enemy spawn limit is one of the game's saving graces, i don't think i could've made it through without it. not that the game is all that hard but in some areas the enemy placement and level design is incredibly annoying, it feels like you are beating your head against a wall, and when they finally stop appearing you think "thank god, i can move on." you aren't going to be missing any amazing combat, and the game has way too many areas in it for you to get stuck fighting the same 4-5 humanoid soldier guys over and over, so it's better that they just take out enemies so you can get on w seeing the rest. DS2 is designed so poorly in some places that you WANT to grind at least enough to remove the annoying stuff.
 

Vanadium

Member
...you WANT to grind at least enough to remove the annoying stuff.

image.png
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Curious, what's your overall opinion of the game now? Does it do any things better than the other titles you've played?

Doesn't do a single thing better (haven't done PVP either but I don't care for that in any Souls game) but I do enjoy it more now. The game really opens up more after Heide's Tower of Flame. I'm at the Valley now and my ass is getting handed to me. Does the difficulty spike here?
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
How is the game clearly having clunky and unresponsive gameplay, bad animations, bad level design saying "Not exactly like DS1 = bad"?

Those points are highly subjective and endlessly debatable; for example there's nothing in DS2 thats as sloppy and half-assed as Demon Ruins but you rarely hear people damning the whole game because of that area.

And its not like DS1 can hide behind the sheer number of areas that DS2 has, especially in its SotFS edition its practically double the size of its predecessor.

As for "clunky and unresponsive" its certainly not incapable of supporting SL1 and other constraint challenge runs, in fact its the only game in the series to actively reward and facilitate high challenge playthroughs.

If you treat the game on its own terms, and not try to play it exactly the same way as DS1, its every bit as good. Just different. As usual though some people's unwillingness/inability to adapt to the systemic changes results in them blaming the game for their own shortcomings.
 

RangerX

Banned
Slightly off topic but I just picked up scholar of the first sin on ps4 but my PS+ has expired. Is it worth playing the game.offline as I won't be able to renew for a while. I've never actually played a souls game offline.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
OP sounds like my experience with DS2. i really hated those early areas. eventually things got better but not amazingly better and not consistently.

the enemy spawn limit is one of the game's saving graces, i don't think i could've made it through without it. not that the game is all that hard but in some areas the enemy placement and level design is incredibly annoying, it feels like you are beating your head against a wall, and when they finally stop appearing you think "thank god, i can move on." you aren't going to be missing any amazing combat, and the game has way too many areas in it for you to get stuck fighting the same 4-5 humanoid soldier guys over and over, so it's better that they just take out enemies so you can get on w seeing the rest. DS2 is designed so poorly in some places that you WANT to grind at least enough to remove the annoying stuff.
The despawning is actually what keeps me from trying to replay this game. I don't grind in Souls games and usually dump my excess souls into new weapons (variety over increasing my overall power level) if I'm having too easy of a time. The despawning nonsense just punishes me by making the game easier if I try an area too much. Even if the limit is high, just the thought that I'm on a "timer" bothers me. No, the ascetics aren't a good banadage fix to the fundamental problem. I'd rather just play the whole game while in the Champions covenant but then I miss out on the other covenants (not a big deal) and also miss out on NPC plotlines by being unable to summon them (big deal).
 

horkrux

Member
If you treat the game on its own terms, and not try to play it exactly the same way as DS1, its every bit as good. Just different. As usual though some people's unwillingness/inability to adapt to the systemic changes results in them blaming the game for their own shortcomings.

Oh god please don't go there. Don't blame us for playing it the wrong way.. you can play this game for dozens of hours on multiple platforms (and then at one point you must have adapated to its changes) and the game can still suck if you think that it sucks and it's not your fault.
 
Oh god please don't go there. Don't blame us for playing it the wrong way.. you can play this game for dozens of hours on multiple platforms (and then at one point you must have adapated to its changes) and the game can still suck if you think that it sucks and it's not your fault.
Plus no matter how you play the game, the worlds you run through still make no sense, the bosses and enemies are still lame, and the story of the game still ruins the entire Dark Souls universe.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Oh god please don't go there. Don't blame us for playing it the wrong way.. you can play this game for dozens of hours on multiple platforms (and then at one point you must have adapated to its changes) and the game can still suck if you think that it sucks and it's not your fault.

The fact is that does require some adaptation to get the best out of the combat. If you play 2 like 1 you will have a significantly harder time because some approaches simply don't work so efficiently second time around due to the laundry-list of changes/differences in the system.

You don't have to like the changes, but just because you personally have a problem with them it doesn't make it objectively "worse". Personally I think the changes make the game better, even though I have to admit I found my initial playthrough to be a struggle because it took me awhile to "unlearn" certain habits I carried in from its predecessor.
 
If you treat the game on its own terms, and not try to play it exactly the same way as DS1, its every bit as good. Just different. As usual though some people's unwillingness/inability to adapt to the systemic changes results in them blaming the game for their own shortcomings.

I think thats very well said.

Lost Bastile as a whole i think is a really great area, just not approaching it from the Crows nest, though that is the fastest way to get to the second blacksmith.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
The fact is that does require some adaptation to get the best out of the combat. If you play 2 like 1 you will have a significantly harder time because some approaches simply don't work so efficiently second time around due to the laundry-list of changes/differences in the system.

You don't have to like the changes, but just because you personally have a problem with them it doesn't make it objectively "worse". Personally I think the changes make the game better, even though I have to admit I found my initial playthrough to be a struggle because it took me awhile to "unlearn" certain habits I carried in from its predecessor.
I'm curious about what you mean by that. Is it because mobs are far more frequent and so you can't reliably do 1v1 combat with say, a rapier? Or you can't play too defensive because of enemies with infinite stamina? Genuine question.
 
The fact is that does require some adaptation to get the best out of the combat. If you play 2 like 1 you will have a significantly harder time because some approaches simply don't work so efficiently second time around due to the laundry-list of changes/differences in the system.

You don't have to like the changes, but just because you personally have a problem with them it doesn't make it objectively "worse". Personally I think the changes make the game better, even though I have to admit I found my initial playthrough to be a struggle because it took me awhile to "unlearn" certain habits I carried in from its predecessor.

It's a damn good thing none of the other Souls games have to have you "unlearn" habits just for them to not suck.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I'm curious about what you mean by that. Is it because mobs are far more frequent and so you can't reliably do 1v1 combat with say, a rapier? Or you can't play too defensive because of enemies with infinite stamina? Genuine question.

That's part of it, because obviously when you find yourself more commonly facing multiple attackers than singles having weapons with wide-arcing damage is useful. There's also the ADP factor and how space-management becomes more of a concern when healing is relatively sluggish and i-frame avoidance is less certain.

Also, weapon degradation actually being a thing rather than a placebo, poise and enemy attack tracking being more pronounced makes slower, heavier weapons generally safer than fast-hitters.

DS2 favours greatswords the way that DS3 does for straight-swords, except that there are two distinct flavours of greatsword (Bastard vs Claymore style heavy attacks) that you switch between according to environment/situation.

Then of course there's all the systemic stuff with enemies disappearing after 10 kills unless in champions', ascetics setting difficulty on a per-zone basis, all the torch/light gimmicks, lockstones in addition to hidden walls, fragrant branch unpetrification etc.

That you have so much control over the conditions of your experience was a huge thing for me, and why 3 was such a comedown comparitively.


pretty done said:
It's a damn good thing none of the other Souls games have to have you "unlearn" habits just for them to not suck.

Why? I find the experience of "getting good" more rewarding than just "being good". If the opposite was true, why ever buy a new game, just play the old one over and over?
 
Going from the faster paced Bloodborne to the slowest of the Souls franchise game was your first mistake. Dark Souls 2 is still a fantastic game but it takes quite a while to get used to. I actually started with DS2 so to me it is my favorite but playing the other games is a treat because of it.
 

I personally love Dark 2. SotFS only refines the experience with 60fps and tweaked content, although I think OG was balanced better content wise (a slower difficulty ramp)

I mean objectively its the worst of the series with glaring faults, but its probably my personal favorite (behind Demon's, of course).
 
Parrying did seem a lot more difficult for some reason in this game. I had to block most of the time, and my friends told me that it's the one Dark Souls that has more complicated parrying for whatever reason (haven't played 3). I was mostly blocking and tried to get better at parrying the smaller enemies.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Parrying did seem a lot more difficult for some reason in this game. I had to block most of the time, and my friends told me that it's the one Dark Souls that has more complicated parrying for whatever reason (haven't played 3). I was mostly blocking and tried to get better at parrying the smaller enemies.

In Dark Souls II, the active parry frames come later in the animation (there are generally something like 10-12 "startup" frames in a parry animation before you can pull off a parry), making the act of parrying based more on prediction/anticipation rather than reaction as in Dark Souls, where active frames were near or at the beginning of the animation ... a change for the worse, I would say. All they needed to do for DS2 was tighten the parry window, which was a bit lenient in the first game, not overhaul the system and in the process ruin it.
 

Zaventem

Member
Why is it so hard to correctly aim in the direction you want with a Great Sword in this game?

Oh they removed the auto tracking from heavy weapon swings for some reason ij dark souls 2, like they have even been over powered in this series.....
 
The despawning is actually what keeps me from trying to replay this game. I don't grind in Souls games and usually dump my excess souls into new weapons (variety over increasing my overall power level) if I'm having too easy of a time. The despawning nonsense just punishes me by making the game easier if I try an area too much.

yeah a big downside for me is once they stop despawning, I end up running through completely empty areas. given DS2's confusing design, this usually means I start at the hub and pick an area to explore, then after 10-15 minutes walking through completely empty levels I end up at a dead end and decide, eff it, I'm warping home, and I've just wasted all that time with nothing to show for it, not even combat skills. yes there are bonfire ascetics but it's just a bandaid for a broken system.
 

Breads

Banned
You get enough Echoes to buy each and every weapon at least twice from doing Chalice dungeons, I guess it's true if you're already set on one weapon you don't want to "waste" echoes on others but normally you'd think people want to try them all out.
I agree trophies are meaningless bullshit, in this case it gives certain degree of viewpoint though as there's literally not a single "unnecessary" trophy in Bloodborne, most games are not like this though.
And to begin with the original argument used against Bloodborne was that it's just good if you play it only once or twice, yet there's not a single person I know on my PSN friendlist that doesn't have it platinumed, which requires 3 playthroughs, so I think it definitely holds up for 3 and more with lot of variety to offer.

Yeah some mandatory chalice dungeon rooms give 60k+ (Loran hooded wolfdude rooms)

Some optional chalice dungeon rooms can give over 200k+ (werewolf/ kin room in the bottom of Isz)

This is partially why I felt like the price/ bloodvial/ grind complaints were misguided. They clearly had you going through the Chalice dungeons in mind. The problem is that for most people it wasn't compelling enough to make it through them. I, for one, enjoy the difficulty spikes and having bloodgems/ lost weapons as my reward.

You absolutely do have to grind for ritual materials though. You can't just make a straight shot using mandatory content. You have to thoroughly explore and you may find yourself redoing the same fixed dungeons or dipping into Hintertomb/ Isz for materials and the way certain materials were spread out didn't feel right. It stank of "whelp guess I gotta stop progressing and start doing this mindless shit before I continue".

Side note - I think it's cute how eager people are to point out DS2's obvious flaws and yet are pretty silent on DS1, DS3, and DeS's shortcomings. None of these are perfect games. They're all great though. Including DS2.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
Side note - I think it's cute how eager people are to point out DS2's obvious flaws and yet are pretty silent on DS1, DS3, and DeS's shortcomings. None of these are perfect games. They're all great though. Including DS2.
Everyone agrees that Dragon Butt Valley in DS1 was clearly rushed and one of the worst zones in the series. There is no dispute that Chalice Dungeons really aren't fun. There are cool bosses and goodies stuck inside, but the majority of the levels in between suck. Most people also agree that DS3 is pretty derivative. These aren't brought up anymore because a consensus has been reached.

In these kinds of DS2 threads, it's common to see handwaving of the obvious flaws. We've all seen the "Just spend 10 levels on ADP and you'll be fine" posts as an example. Having the best PvP also does not excuse everything else. I mean, even in your own post, you try to deflect by bringing up flaws in the other games. Agreed, none of them are perfect. But DS2 is probably the least perfect. Someone in this thread said that they feel DS2 has the lowest lows and the highest highs. I think that may be a good way to describe it, and that's ok. It's ok for DS2 to be that game.
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Just beat the Maiden boss and now I'm in Iron Keep. Died the first time in the fight because I walked right into a pool of poison. Didn't know I had to burn the fucking windmill to drain it. The hell?
 
- Better covenants
- Better PvP
- Viable builds
- Power stancing

Got you covered, defenders of this sad excuse for a souls game.

Now on with the reality:

- Downgraded, unresponsive gameplay
- Trash animations
- Deadzone
- ADP
- Awful hitboxes
- Garbage "bosses"
- Terrible level design
- Clown cars
- Nonsensical transitions
- Way too many (irrelevant and boring) NPCs
- Uninspired story
- Palette swap weapons
- Shrine of Amana
- The Gank Squad
- Half the stamina bar/recovery but double the enemies
- Infinite stamina enemies
- Soul memory
- Too many bonfires, useless the half of them
- Overall feeling of Gameloft knock-off

The problem is that you're trying to compare it to Bloodborne when you should be comparing it to Lords of the Fallen. This game does not belong in the same group as DS1-3, DeS and BB. It's funny the reasons some people use to defend this game –easier PvP interaction, more viable builds, more covenants, more replayability– are ultimately completely and absolutely irrelevant because the core gameplay is by far the worst. Like, Demon's Souls is half the size of Dark Souls II in regards to just about everything yet it is still better than DS2 could ever hope to be.

Absolute nonsense wtf am I reading?
 

xtianmarq

Member
Certainly lacks the polish of DS 3 but the NG+ changes/items are worth playing through it again and the DLC is awesome. I spent hundreds of hours playing this game, helping others through co-op, etc and that is unheard of for me, so I'd say I enjoyed the heck out of it. Is it perfect? No. But easily one of my favorite games.
 

DemWalls

Member
Just beat the Maiden boss and now I'm in Iron Keep. Died the first time in the fight because I walked right into a pool of poison. Didn't know I had to burn the fucking windmill to drain it. The hell?

Most people didn't, in fact that's a rather criticized point. If you're playing offline and can't see any message it's hardly possible to guess it. I certainly didn't, had to kill Mytha knee deep in the poison :lol:
I like to see this as a positive though: it made memorable a fight otherwise very, very bland.
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Royal Rat Authority is such a shitty fucking boss fight. I'm going to continue through Iron Keep before I try his ass again. Died four times already.

Is the Pharaoh map DLC?
 

magnetic

Member
I'm starting to miss the days of the endless Dark Souls circlejerk instead of these hot-headed arguments over Dark Souls 2 not being a true entry, Bloodborne versus Souls, Dark Souls 3 versus 1 and on and on.

Yes, I realize that this post is essentially a useless "why can't we all just get along?" statement, but it's still such a sharp contrast to the days of Demons/Dark Souls versus every single other game in the industry.
 

Dylan

Member
I personally love Dark 2. SotFS only refines the experience with 60fps and tweaked content, although I think OG was balanced better content wise (a slower difficulty ramp)

I mean objectively its the worst of the series with glaring faults, but its probably my personal favorite (behind Demon's, of course).

Wait, what? The DLC improves the framerate?

I just finally beat DS2 recently (even though I bought it at launch, I tend to get busy and let games sit for a few years before getting back to them
[I also finished Persona 3 FES in 2016 o_O]
)

Anyway, I eventually came to really like the Dark Souls 2 aesthetic, it's like a grimy bizarro version of Dark Souls. Somewhat like how the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 feels in comparison to SMB1.

I don't really think of it as a direct sequel, since we all knew even before it was released that it wasn't the main development team doing this one. What we got though was pretty amazing when you think about it. (Compare DS2 to something like Dragon Age 2). I was expecting either a re-hash of Dark Souls 1 or something really short, instead we got a full game that tried many new things and re-thought the concepts from DS1. They took many risks with DS2 and some of them paid off while others didn't, but I much prefer the teams design philosophy, as opposed to just giving us Dark Souls again. Sure, some areas are graphically ugly, the controls aren't quite as tight, and soul memory is a travesty for players like myself, who really like co-op, but other than that, I had a great time with it, and I consider it one of the best games I've ever played.
 

Dylan

Member
Royal Rat Authority is such a shitty fucking boss fight. I'm going to continue through Iron Keep before I try his ass again. Died four times already.

Is the Pharaoh map DLC?

If you go in with a weapon that has a good "Sweep" strong attack (like a sword or halberd) it's much easier to fuck up those little bastards all in a group.

edit: oops, never mind, I was thinking of the boss that is just a room full of rats.

For RRA, just use a good shield.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Is being able actually aim where you hit a nerf though? I think it is pretty good change.
Nah, that is one legit bad change. You can already aim manually if you toggle off the lock-on, if you want to do that. When locked-on an enemy, the proper tracking should work. It's counter-intuitive and annoying, and why I never quickly stopped using the damn ultra greatswords in DS2.

Tbh though I didn't really like the UGS in DS1 either, they're all crap compared to the Dragon Bone Smasher. xD

Royal Rat Authority is such a shitty fucking boss fight. I'm going to continue through Iron Keep before I try his ass again. Died four times already.
Yeah once you take out the little rats he's piss easy, but you can die like, REAL fast before that because of the toxic. If you got a good bow or crossbow that OHKOs the little rats, you can take out most of them before the big one is on you, at least. If not, try a weapon with a sweeping kind of horizontal attack (like a claymore I think) to take them all (or most of them) out at once.

Is the Pharaoh map DLC?
The... what?

I'm starting to miss the days of the endless Dark Souls circlejerk instead of these hot-headed arguments over Dark Souls 2 not being a true entry, Bloodborne versus Souls, Dark Souls 3 versus 1 and on and on.

Yes, I realize that this post is essentially a useless "why can't we all just get along?" statement, but it's still such a sharp contrast to the days of Demons/Dark Souls versus every single other game in the industry.
Oh, I hear you, bro/sis.

Wait, what? The DLC improves the framerate?
? No, not the DLC itself. Like if you play the DLCs on PS360 the framerate will be like before. Scholar of the First Sin refers to the remaster of the game (it just happens to include all the DLCs -- and also new enemy/loot placement and some new items), and on PS4 and Xbox One, the framerate is a stable 60 fps, compared to the original game on PS360.

I was expecting either a re-hash of Dark Souls 1 or something really short, instead we got a full game that tried many new things and re-thought the concepts from DS1. They took many risks with DS2 and some of them paid off while others didn't, but I much prefer the teams design philosophy, as opposed to just giving us Dark Souls again. Sure, some areas are graphically ugly, the controls aren't quite as tight, and soul memory is a travesty for players like myself, who really like co-op, but other than that, I had a great time with it, and I consider it one of the best games I've ever played.
Couldn't agree more. :)
 

Dylan

Member
? No, not the DLC itself. Like if you play the DLCs on PS360 the framerate will be like before. Scholar of the First Sin refers to the remaster of the game (it just happens to include all the DLCs -- and also new enemy/loot placement and some new items), and on PS4 and Xbox One, the framerate is a stable 60 fps, compared to the original game on PS360.

Ah, I see.

Did you know that if you beat the original Dark Souls 2 on PS3, the credits still say "Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin"?

It made me wonder if anything was changed in the original game when the remaster came out.
 
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