before souls games were 'cool' / after souls games were 'cool'...
lol this is so true.. sadly.
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Dark Souls II - First review
- Thread starter Sn4ke_911
- Start date
lol this is so true.. sadly.
Punished_Snake
Member
New Dark Souls 2 footage in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhlY3vLwcck
The game looks beautiful, especially the hub area, can't wait.
The game looks beautiful, especially the hub area, can't wait.
Normally you pay for your mistake. Shocking i know.
ARGH
I don't want to watch it, but I want to watch it, and every new thing I see is something that won't surprise me in-game.
When Dark Souls 2 actually comes out, I'm enforcing a strict blackout.
Hmm soul arrow cast animation is buffed plenty. A reflection of a game-wide buff to sorcery?
Estus chugging animation is no longer than it has ever been. Either people saying it was is full of shit or it has been changed in recent builds.
Animations in general could still use work to at least be on parity with the quality of 1. They have come a decent way though it is good to see.
Dude had like 8 estu., I thought there was only one to "balance" that lifegem trash?
The DoF solution appears to be of higher quality than the one in the first game (DSfix modded notwithstanding of course).
It's almost worthy at this point.
The Estus animation is longer, and both the animation and healing stop if you take damage. You see this happen at 3:39. Lifegems, by contrast, have a faster animation that you can use while moving, but they restore less health, more slowly, and the healing isn't interrupted by damage.
You have only one charge when you first get the flask, but you upgrade its quality and capacity over the course of the game.
And yeah, the DoF looks really good, as does the motion blur. Apparently it also has ambient occlusion that's suspiciously similar to Durante's implementation from DSFix.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Yeah WTF is up with this shit? I thought there were meant to be rare?
Alan Smithee
Neo Member
Excited more about this than Titanfall. I'm hoping the multiplayer aspect is more integrated this time around. I wonder what it's going to be like the first time around, like when DS1 came out. T
player 1: player 2 is invading? What?
player 2: I'm invading? what?
player 1: player 2 is invading? What?
player 2: I'm invading? what?
You start with one. You get new ones by
finding "Emerald Shards" and bringing them to a specific NPC,
Sorry for the spoiler
You do start out with only 1 flask. Footage is one of the b-roll vids handed out to press, there's extra estus provided to make sure the guy doesn't die a few seconds into the vid I guess
Healing with estus is definitely slower. Speed can be upgraded with the adaptability stat
You still get your flask filled up by resting at a bonfire, but the upgrades are global now and presumably come in smaller intervals instead of going 5->10->15->20 on a per-bonfire basis.
Lifegems are there help keep the player moving and killing enemies, and also because incoming damage has increased by a decent amount.
Alan Smithee
Neo Member
Any word on how the inventory system works now?
You now have 10 slots for active items instead of five, and three slots per hand instead of two. The rest is basically the same, except the UI is now a grid instead of a list so you don't need to do nearly as much scrolling.
Alan Smithee
Neo Member
And only equipped weapons count towards carry weight yes? I never played Demon's Souls but what you had on you counted from what I've read
Yeah, no limit on the weight of items in your inventory, only equipped armor and weapons/wands/talismans/shields. Oh, and rings. You also have four ring slots now.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I'm sorry I'm not liking this at all. Unlimited life gems and lots of Estus flasks even as much as in the original Dark Souls. I fear this game is not going to be as difficult as its predecessors. Looking at gameplay I was hoping enemies would be a lot more aggressive to counter the increase in healing items but its still easy to just run away and heal.
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Will get this game, no question. Just hope that this time it doesn't go from "Holy Shit, best game ever!" to "What is this crap?" over time in terms of quality like Dark Souls.
They "delayed" it into 2014 for this exact reason, I hope.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
You know I am kind of keen to see the credits and find out just how many people from Demons and Dark are actually working on this.
Garcia
Member
Oh, really? Like in any other game out there? What's even your point, seriously. Dark Souls has a terrible chekpoint managment, especially before boss fights. Minutes wasted doing absolutely nothing over and over again. Pure tedium.
polyh3dron
Banned
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Your supposed to beat the whole level without dying and that includes the boss. Not just the boss by itself lol.
Demon's Souls gave you basically unlimited healing items and was still pretty damn hard at times. I don't want to judge Dark Souls 2's difficulty until I play it. Even tiny mechanical changes like less invincibility frames on a roll can mean a lot.
Most people who've played don't think that lifegems are a problem since they don't actually heal that much and it's very easy to waste them. Enemies are supposed to be better at catching you off guard and interrupting your animations, and running away isn't necessarily easy since there are more choke points where you're in a relatively cramped space fighting multiple enemies at once.
Gillian Seed
Banned
Now lets not sugar coat it. These games are Brutal!
There are lots of shortcuts in most Souls areas and you can kill or evade enemies quickly if you know them well. The only checkpoint I thought was placed poorly was the one before the Four Kings, since both Firelink Shrine and the Valley of Drakes are pretty far away from the fog door even with shortcuts and the Firelink bonfire might not be available.
There are other games that punish you much harder than Dark Souls, and there are plenty of games that have a checkpoint design of checkpoint->level->boss->checkpoint. If you don't like that style, at least most areas have ways to circumvent it.
I always though there are certain parts that certain people find hard. For example, when playing Demon's Souls, the hardest boss for me wasn't Flamelurker, Maneater, or King Allant; the hardest boss was the Armored Spider most people breeze through. I died half a dozen times against it and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Meanwhile, I completely cheezed two of the bosses many people actually found hard.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I'm sorry but your lying. I've played the beta and MK demo and its just as easy to run away and heal. Sure you can't heal right in front of enemies but a quick dash and a heal is entirely possible.
Demons souls had a finite source of healing items which can be used as much as you like.
dark Souls had a infinite source of healing items however you could only use a set amount per bonfire rest.
DS2 now has a set of infinite healing items and a set of finite healing items. Can you not see the problem here.
Dieing and fighting your way back to a boss isn't exactly fun if the bonfire is far and the enemies numerous. It's even worse if you get there to a fog gate only too be backstabbed by an invader, who is far more equipped than you.
Grasses in Demon's Souls were infinite. You could farm enemies for souls to buy them with and purchase infinite amounts of every type except Dark Moon Grass from at least one merchant.
If there's really a problem, From Software can adjust the drop rate of lifegems in a patch.
Grass isn't really finite in Demon's Souls thanks to Patches. Sure, they cost souls, but they're cheap and World 4 gives you tons of them.
Dark Souls also had a finite source of farmable healing items with Humanity, although its drop rate is low enough that you have to actually grind for it until you reach the DLC.
I can see why you're worried, but I want to remain cautious.
It was not make in this way to make the game less "fun" for the player.. The main concept in Souls series is "watch your step / dont rush"
If you can simply run or dodge the enemy easy, the game will lose that fairness that's is one of the core mechanic in Dark souls.
I died like 4 times instantly on armor spider until I accidentally found a safe spot where it couldn't hit me at all, and I could just whittle it down from range. Those 4 deaths were more than I died on every other boss combined for the rest of the game.
But yeah I had so many healing items by the end of demon's souls that I couldn't even carry all of them...I could bring 99 of 3 different grasses that all maxed out my hp. But you could very easily get stunlocked or one shotted (black phantom giant depraved ones...) so I still had to proceed very carefully.
I personally prefer having better defenses, more limited healing and more intelligent/threatening enemies rather than the super strength + brainless mooks in demon's souls. It seems kind of strange to me that we're going back to farmable healing items, but I guess if you're having a lot of trouble in an area you can go back and stock up. Plus since Estus is apparently much more limited, having an out of combat means of regaining hp would be nice to prevent deaths by attrition in long sections.
SlickShoes
Member
If you own it, I can't think of a reason not to play it.
Finish your old save or start a new one. It's an amazing game and you deserve to complete it.
mickcenary
Member
I honestly don't understand the complaints regarding difficulty, or the fear that it won't be as "difficult" as its predecessor.
With over 250 hours logged in DS and a good 3 hours in the DSII beta, I am beyond confident that DSII will be harder to play, purely on the control and system tweaks they've made.
- Gimped rolling/movement speed
- Having to goddamn aim your strikes
- The tendency for an enemy's final strike to connect with you, regardless of how early in their animation they die
- More aggressive AI
- More ambush-focused AI
- Backstabs/ripostes having smaller windows and no longer granting invulnerability
I mean, a list containing these sorts of tweaks is probably quite extensive and the above are enough to make me quiver in my boots.
DSII feels vastly different and it will hurt you; of this, I'm sure.
With over 250 hours logged in DS and a good 3 hours in the DSII beta, I am beyond confident that DSII will be harder to play, purely on the control and system tweaks they've made.
- Gimped rolling/movement speed
- Having to goddamn aim your strikes
- The tendency for an enemy's final strike to connect with you, regardless of how early in their animation they die
- More aggressive AI
- More ambush-focused AI
- Backstabs/ripostes having smaller windows and no longer granting invulnerability
I mean, a list containing these sorts of tweaks is probably quite extensive and the above are enough to make me quiver in my boots.
DSII feels vastly different and it will hurt you; of this, I'm sure.
Fallout-NL
Member
^ Can't fucking wait.
If the PC version really turns out be held back for more than a month, I'm rebuying a PS3 just to play this game.
If the PC version really turns out be held back for more than a month, I'm rebuying a PS3 just to play this game.
eot
Banned
Out of time != lazy
No, shut up with your logic! They scored it higher than Demon's Souls, therefore it's easier!!!
sublimit
Banned
Me too.
If they put a bonfire near the boss fog, you'll not give a shit if you die because death will be meaningless.
It's the same if developer give you the possibility to save/load during a race in car game. You're less prone to make error if the disadvantage is great
It's not rocket science.
Sshhh, half of that people currently working with Miyazaki on Demon's Souls 2.
BELIEVE
You can already run past most zones easily by simply dodging enemies though. I do that all the time now to get to the bosses quickly.
Huw_Dawson
Member
Humanity is a limited healing item in DS1. I use humanity occasionally in my playthrough, it can be really handy as a pick-me-up. The concept of DS only having one healing item is bogus.
You shouldn't because the level design pre-warp in Dark Souls is really damn good and you have all kinds of shortcuts.
Also, you made a mistake, you should pay for it.
Think this one at least has been changed back to how it used to be since the beta.
Humanity is as far as I know unlimited. There is never a point in a playthrough when it stops dropping.
Zomba13
Member
Yup. And you can always farm it from rats if you want.
