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On March 26 2014 01:42 Excalibur_Z wrote: DS2 takes place in a different land within the same world. There are very few callbacks which is probably by design so as not to make new players feel left out.
Not sure how much to say on this topic for fear of spoilers, but I think it is relatively clear that the above statement is false. I will elaborate below in the spoiler tag with some pretty major lore spoilers (names, places, items, etc).
+ Show Spoiler +DS2's Drangleic *IS* Lordran but thousands and thousands of years later. There is good evidence of this throughout the game. The game actually has numerous callbacks to the original Dark Souls. Weapons (the Black Knight weapons are present), Armors (Havel's Set is in the game), Bosses (Old Dragonslayer is basically Ornstein), are all call backs. Even more is apparent in NG+ when we find the 4 Lord Souls dropping as well (Lost Sinner = Witch of Izalith, Duke's Dear Freja = Seathe, Iron King = Gwyn, Rotten = Nito). This lends pretty strong evidence to the idea that the land is the same. These souls have remained despite the flame being lit and extinguished over and over again. We have more evidence said by many NPCs who talk about past kingdoms having risen and fallen on this land. There is even nearly direct confirmation that a number of the bosses were made by Seathe the Scaleless from Manscorpion Tark (Specifically Duke's Dear Freja and Tark's sister Scorpion whose name I forget atm).
But I think they purposefully misdirect people into thinking it is a new land, for many reasons. One of which is that it helps new players.
I love talking about the lore in these games and could go on forever, but I think that's enough for now
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On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. One of the dream zones has both an ascetic and a soul vessel. If you can handle the giants at NG+7 you can respecialize indefinitely.
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On March 26 2014 03:43 Rayeth wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2014 01:42 Excalibur_Z wrote: DS2 takes place in a different land within the same world. There are very few callbacks which is probably by design so as not to make new players feel left out. Not sure how much to say on this topic for fear of spoilers, but I think it is relatively clear that the above statement is false. I will elaborate below in the spoiler tag with some pretty major lore spoilers (names, places, items, etc). + Show Spoiler +DS2's Drangleic *IS* Lordran but thousands and thousands of years later. There is good evidence of this throughout the game. The game actually has numerous callbacks to the original Dark Souls. Weapons (the Black Knight weapons are present), Armors (Havel's Set is in the game), Bosses (Old Dragonslayer is basically Ornstein), are all call backs. Even more is apparent in NG+ when we find the 4 Lord Souls dropping as well (Lost Sinner = Witch of Izalith, Duke's Dear Freja = Seathe, Iron King = Gwyn, Rotten = Nito). This lends pretty strong evidence to the idea that the land is the same. These souls have remained despite the flame being lit and extinguished over and over again. We have more evidence said by many NPCs who talk about past kingdoms having risen and fallen on this land. There is even nearly direct confirmation that a number of the bosses were made by Seathe the Scaleless from Manscorpion Tark (Specifically Duke's Dear Freja and Tark's sister Scorpion whose name I forget atm).
But I think they purposefully misdirect people into thinking it is a new land, for many reasons. One of which is that it helps new players. I love talking about the lore in these games and could go on forever, but I think that's enough for now I generally agree with your spoiler but there it requires an important assumption. + Show Spoiler + When we come to Lordran in DS1, we see that it's completely vacated by actual humans and gods (except Gwyndolin). There's just monsters, undead, demons, and the old faithful Giants still doing what they've been doing.
To assume what you say is true, it means that in the time between DS1 and DS2, proper humans cleaned out everything in Lordran and established a new kingdom. We know there is a king and queen at one point, and that the kingdom was invaded by giants. After the defeat of the giants, it would then be attacked by an army of Hollows and overrun.
The geography seems pretty different, too. It's one thing to see a more modern version of Anor Londo. It's another that pretty much everywhere else is entirely different.
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Can I get a quick rundown of the situation revolving around + Show Spoiler +The Emerald Herald / dragons? It seems like this is the next "age" after dragons and fire and giants maybe? She was saying something about ending the cycle and I haven't finished the game yet so I'm speaking from ignorance here when I say this. What is the cycle ending exactly and is there an indication of the next?
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I'm looking into this game, it looks really interesting and challenging. I'm typically an fps/research guy, I'm just wondering is this game kinda like the old Lord of the rings games for ps2?(two towers, return of the king). A hack and slash with Dodge mechanics ect. And also, how comeon streams everyone sseems to be a member fighter? Are their ranged classes?
Is there a good source of info on the mechanics of the game that isn't a walk through? I'd like to figure it out, but with an idea of what stats do
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On March 26 2014 07:38 Niteblade_ wrote: I'm looking into this game, it looks really interesting and challenging. I'm typically an fps/research guy, I'm just wondering is this game kinda like the old Lord of the rings games for ps2?(two towers, return of the king). A hack and slash with Dodge mechanics ect. And also, how comeon streams everyone sseems to be a member fighter? Are their ranged classes?
Is there a good source of info on the mechanics of the game that isn't a walk through? I'd like to figure it out, but with an idea of what stats do
more than half the fun of playing this game is not knowing whats going on and much about the game, thats what i did with dks1 and it was amazing playing it that way.
just buy the game and play it!
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On March 26 2014 03:50 ObviousOne wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. One of the dream zones has both an ascetic and a soul vessel. If you can handle the giants at NG+7 you can respecialize indefinitely. Ah you're right, good thinkin! If you ascetic when you're already at NG+7 does it respawn everything but it just stays NG+7?
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United States12179 Posts
On March 26 2014 03:43 Rayeth wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2014 01:42 Excalibur_Z wrote: DS2 takes place in a different land within the same world. There are very few callbacks which is probably by design so as not to make new players feel left out. Not sure how much to say on this topic for fear of spoilers, but I think it is relatively clear that the above statement is false. I will elaborate below in the spoiler tag with some pretty major lore spoilers (names, places, items, etc). + Show Spoiler +DS2's Drangleic *IS* Lordran but thousands and thousands of years later. There is good evidence of this throughout the game. The game actually has numerous callbacks to the original Dark Souls. Weapons (the Black Knight weapons are present), Armors (Havel's Set is in the game), Bosses (Old Dragonslayer is basically Ornstein), are all call backs. Even more is apparent in NG+ when we find the 4 Lord Souls dropping as well (Lost Sinner = Witch of Izalith, Duke's Dear Freja = Seathe, Iron King = Gwyn, Rotten = Nito). This lends pretty strong evidence to the idea that the land is the same. These souls have remained despite the flame being lit and extinguished over and over again. We have more evidence said by many NPCs who talk about past kingdoms having risen and fallen on this land. There is even nearly direct confirmation that a number of the bosses were made by Seathe the Scaleless from Manscorpion Tark (Specifically Duke's Dear Freja and Tark's sister Scorpion whose name I forget atm).
But I think they purposefully misdirect people into thinking it is a new land, for many reasons. One of which is that it helps new players. I love talking about the lore in these games and could go on forever, but I think that's enough for now
I trust you, and I'm not clicking that spoiler since I'm only about halfway through the game. There are probably a number of connections to be made that I haven't seen yet.
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On March 26 2014 08:15 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2014 03:50 ObviousOne wrote:On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. One of the dream zones has both an ascetic and a soul vessel. If you can handle the giants at NG+7 you can respecialize indefinitely. Ah you're right, good thinkin! If you ascetic when you're already at NG+7 does it respawn everything but it just stays NG+7? I have not personally tested it but there seemed to be multiple people in agreement that it's the case. Also makes sense, if we go by history of Des and DaS I think those were similar? In any case cheers =]
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On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I 'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future.
I really dont think you should be.
Its a framerate thing. Could you imagine being in + Show Spoiler +Black Gultch or the Gutter and having framerate stutters? Would be so rage inducing that I'd stop playing.
Its a practical thing. The levels were designed for PC, so they were scaled back after the beta test when framerate issues were reported.
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On March 26 2014 07:38 Niteblade_ wrote: I'm looking into this game, it looks really interesting and challenging. I'm typically an fps/research guy, I'm just wondering is this game kinda like the old Lord of the rings games for ps2?(two towers, return of the king). A hack and slash with Dodge mechanics ect. And also, how comeon streams everyone sseems to be a member fighter? Are their ranged classes?
Is there a good source of info on the mechanics of the game that isn't a walk through? I'd like to figure it out, but with an idea of what stats do
I haven't played DS2 yet, because it is not yet out on Pc (grumblegrumblegrumble). But i played a lot of DS1.
If you are unsure, just get that one first. It is a lot cheaper, and a very good game.
And yes, the main focus of the game is the melee combat, with all the dodging and blocking and timing and stuff. There is ranged combat, but there are no ranged classes per se, as there are no classes in general. A lot of the mechanics make playing a pure ranged character pretty hard, but you can sprinkle in magics and/or arrows into your swordswinging.
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On March 28 2014 23:00 iCanada wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I 'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. I really dont think you should be. Its a framerate thing. Could you imagine being in + Show Spoiler +Black Gultch or the Gutter and having framerate stutters? Would be so rage inducing that I'd stop playing. Its a practical thing. The levels were designed for PC, so they were scaled back after the beta test when framerate issues were reported. Blighttown was like that lol, and I accepted it. I'd rather have one part of the game stutter and the rest look brilliant, than have everything look watered down. Personal opinion though. Probably just because I'm used to it from DkS1
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I have all 3 games in the Dark Soul series but didn't play them yet.
Question. I know they are known for the difficulty (I don`t mind at all). But do you level up all the time?
I mean with time it does because easier since you get stronger? Or do you loose experience when you die?
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On March 29 2014 00:54 b0ub0u wrote: I have all 3 games in the Dark Soul series but didn't play them yet.
Question. I know they are known for the difficulty (I don`t mind at all). But do you level up all the time?
I mean with time it does because easier since you get stronger? Or do you loose experience when you die?
Whenever you kill enemies you gain souls. You can use those souls to level up your character or buy equipment whenever you want.
Yes, certain areas do get easier when you get later into the games, enemies dont scale with your level.
If you die, you will drop all your current souls on the ground, and you will have one shot at retrieving them from that very spot.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES48987 Posts
You don't lose experience when you die and depending on what you are going for it may become easier or it would stay just as hard.The entire game can be beaten at Soul Level 1( its been done for DS1, I've yet to see a run in DS2 but its possible)
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On March 29 2014 00:38 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 28 2014 23:00 iCanada wrote:On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I 'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. I really dont think you should be. Its a framerate thing. Could you imagine being in + Show Spoiler +Black Gultch or the Gutter and having framerate stutters? Would be so rage inducing that I'd stop playing. Its a practical thing. The levels were designed for PC, so they were scaled back after the beta test when framerate issues were reported. Blighttown was like that lol, and I accepted it. I'd rather have one part of the game stutter and the rest look brilliant, than have everything look watered down. Personal opinion though. Probably just because I'm used to it from DkS1
You'd actually rather have the game stutter and not perform well and have a beautiful environment than have a mechanically smooth and solid game?
You and I disagree on a philosophical level.
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Having low fps and stutters is so frustrating, I can't believe people would trade good smooth gameplay for a bunch of pretty light effects and super high res textures...
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if only there were a way for us to choose between performance and high quality graphics. if only.
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On March 29 2014 03:12 iCanada wrote:Show nested quote +On March 29 2014 00:38 Duka08 wrote:On March 28 2014 23:00 iCanada wrote:On March 26 2014 03:22 Duka08 wrote:On March 25 2014 13:23 Excalibur_Z wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This game owns. Anyone who says it's inferior to DS1 just has an overly conservative or cautious opinion (sequel syndrome!). It's very clear that From analyzed closely what worked and what didn't between Demon's Souls and DS1 because the result is something that feels calculated and polished. I do understand the complaints about the environment though, some parts of the game world feel somewhat stale, however that was true for parts of DS1 (go to hell, Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins). One really cool thing in Dark Souls was finding a shortcut that led back to an earlier zone, which showed very careful and deliberate map design. That's still in DS2 but it's not as common, I'm finding. 1. Healing is a lot harder to come by. I hated the consumable heals in Demon's Souls so I was disappointed to see they've made a return, but Estus Flasks are still in so it's okay. The reason I hated consumables in Demon's Souls is I was always very reluctant to use them since I never knew when I'd inevitably die again. Getting extra Estus charges is now something you actively want to seek out, and that in itself can require quite a bit of exploration. 2. Difficulty curve is a lot better. Early bosses are really easy, even easier than Asylum Demon, but some of the later bosses are pretty rough. 3. I slept on Adaptability thinking that it just increased Poise and Resistances, which are still pretty great. The fact that it increases item use speed and adds more invincibility frames to rolls makes me wish my Dex character invested in this stat a lot earlier. 4. Torch mechanics are really cool. You don't actually HAVE to use a torch anywhere that I've found yet, and in fact it's pretty easy to make stupid mistakes like blocking with your torch (hint: doesn't work too well!), but torches just go really well with the atmosphere of the game and even have strategic uses. 5. The humanity system is more nuanced, even down to how your character looks. Watching your character gradually become more and more Hollow with each death is pretty neat. You also have to make important judgment calls like gauging whether you should try the boss with 90%, 80% max HP or use an Effigy and summon assistance. This thought always runs through your mind: how low does my max HP have to get before I raise the white flag? 6. Shields have gone through heavy rebalancing. 100% physical resist shields are now quite rare (and possibly limited to Greatshields?). However, damage reduction now increases with upgrades. I upgraded my 90% physical resist small shield to +2 and now it's up to 90.5%, along with higher Stability. DS1 was arguably easier with plentiful 100% resist shields because you could stand right up to enemies to monitor patterns; now that comes at a small, gradual price. I much prefer it this way. 7. Tooltips explain things a lot better now, and there are many more things to look up. Stats like Poise (and Poise Damage) are finally well documented. 8. The limited respawn mechanic is something that bothered me at first, since it ostensibly makes the game easier the more you bash your head against it. Now I'm quite happy with it. On a couple of bosses, I've died so many times that I used up all the respawns for every enemy along the boss path. At that point, I was just relieved to get relatively uninterrupted attempts, or just throwing my hands in the air and using an Effigy without worry of dying to my own stupidity along the way. 9. The ability to artificially increase the difficulty through bonfire intensity and the Victor Stone covenant adds a lot of flexibility for veteran players. On March 12 2014 16:10 iCanada wrote: 2) Enemies are much more aggressive and pack minded. In Demon/Dark Souls often times you could isolate one and go hard. In Dark Souls 2 good luck with that. You get 3-4 enemy packs early and often. Not only that, but the Invincibility frames from BackStabs and Ripostes are now gone. Not only are overwhelming fights much much more common, but they also took away the best tools for dealing with them. FYI this isn't true. You do get invincibility through the entire animation, just like DS1. I did run into one situation where there was a guy behind me winding up for a strike while I was backstabbing his friend, which meant I couldn't turn around and block in time, so I ate the hit. In hindsight I might have been able to roll away, but I'm pretty sure the damage landed after the critical animation finished, and not during. Over time I've grown to appreciate many of the views you share as well. I was very put off at first by many facets of the game, but adapted (mostly subconsciously) and explored to iron things out. I will say I still LIKE the first game more, but I'll now hesitate to say it's SUPERIOR to DkS2. Strangely enough, they are almost too different to compare, despite being extremely consistent as far as sequels go. They took so many aspects of the previous game(s) and improved upon them intelligently, and the things that seem "worse" are few (albeit significant, but that's my personal preference). I 'm still slightly tweaked about the whole graphic ordeal, but there are still a few sections of the game that are really great looking to distract me from those that are not. And I'm still holding out a bit of hope for the PC version. I don't consider myself someone that's overly invested in the quality of graphics, especially in a day and age where GAMEPLAY seems to be sacrificed for visuals in some franchises, which disgusts me. But this was just a somber case of "what could have been". I'm not up in arms like some fans, but rather longingly disappointed seeing the old trailers haha. That being said there are still some areas in this game that I really loved (the Aerie/Shrine are WAY cool for example, even though I spent so little time there!). Ironically, the game's length is what's currently holding me back from doing more playthroughs and trying more builds / covenants / etc. I loved the length the first time through, and the availability of a few Soul Vessels lets you do a bit of fooling around with the character(s) you've already slogged through the game with, rather than forcing you to start fresh. But I'm hesitant to start a bunch of new characters to fool around with, which was one of my favorite parts of DkS, and something I still do to this day (have played about 4-5 hours of DkS since DkS2 was released even). For this reason I'm kind of holding off on finishing my second and third characters until the PC version. If there are some changes and more... flexibility... in the graphics then I'd rather save my new characters to fully re-experience it at the end of April. If PC ends up being the same, then I'll just play the console version now and then for the foreseeable future. I really dont think you should be. Its a framerate thing. Could you imagine being in + Show Spoiler +Black Gultch or the Gutter and having framerate stutters? Would be so rage inducing that I'd stop playing. Its a practical thing. The levels were designed for PC, so they were scaled back after the beta test when framerate issues were reported. Blighttown was like that lol, and I accepted it. I'd rather have one part of the game stutter and the rest look brilliant, than have everything look watered down. Personal opinion though. Probably just because I'm used to it from DkS1 You'd actually rather have the game stutter and not perform well and have a beautiful environment than have a mechanically smooth and solid game? You and I disagree on a philosophical level. This is literally the only case where I feel that way, simply based on the precedent set by the previous games. Dark Souls ran fine for all but one section of the game, and it looked incredible compared to Dark Souls 2 (in MY opinion). It had flavor and an artistic style that enriched the world substantially. I would gladly take that over the current degradation of half the games environments in favor of attempting to cap 60 frames (which the game still fails to do in many sections). There are certainly spots that are very unique and beautiful, such as the Aerie, and during that section for example I felt the game slow somewhat, but not to a degree that it distracted me from the visuals.
Blighttown was absolutely appalling and almost unplayable when you're a beginner, but that was the exception. I think there was enough negative criticism about that SINGLE zone that they had to back off a bit in DkS2 (consoles at least, PC TBD) and a larger fraction of the zones turned out dull, or at least, dull compared to their potential.
It's a tough argument, because with almost any other franchise I would hate the idea of capping the frame rate or taking an actual performance hit for "better graphics". But if I had played DkS2 first, it would have stood out from a gameplay perspective alone, rather than both gameplay and an immersive, gritty, beautifully artistic visual style that DkS maintains imo. I have no other argument than "in my opinion it worked fine in Dark Souls so why not", which is purely personal. The community hated the slow down in Blighttown, so we traded it for zones that literally look unfinished like Brightstone Cove. Double-edged sword.
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I do agree with you Duka that Demons Souls/Dark Souls feels like the game director told the level designers/artists to do their best work and they will figure the optimizations as they go along and please give me a low fps Blighttown instead of a minimalistic version of it. I will hate Blighttown when I'm playing it but I can respect it because it's so awesome.
BlitzerSC: Played DkS2 on PS3 and it still chokes from time to time. So glad we have small corridor levels with dynamic lights and pointless torches instead of jaw dropping scenery, encounters, scale and atmosphere....
Most likely the PC version will have higher quality textures/resolution/fps but the levels/atmosphere but everything else will probably remain unchanged 8**(
Also it's funny that FROM Soft got away so easy with the shittiest PC port of all times aka Dark Souls on Steam that uses GFWL. I wish they were forced to donate 50% of sales to the DsFix guy. Oh, and how cool is it to announce the PC release date 5 days before the game launch..... I mean until this time they were "developing for the PC" right?
And as I've said before, this sequel is good game but, for me, it does not live up to the Soul's name it bears umbasa
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