After thoroughly enjoying Dark Souls and Demon's Souls this year, I decided to jump into Dark Souls 2. I expected to be somewhat disappointed given that most people think DS2 is inferior to the first two games; instead, yes I can agree that the other games are probably better, I had a great time and didn't have any major issues with it.
One thing people have said about DS2 was that the world wasn't as much fun to explore as the previous games. I'm not sure why this was the case with some people because I was totally cool with the world. Yeah, it wasn't elaborately interconnected as Dark Souls' world, but roaming the world, exploring for awesome loot, anticipating the next enemy was all invigorating. Exploring every bit of the map, every environment in the game, to discover everything about the game and its world was so fun. Environments were beautiful and each shortcut or hidden room were well placed.
The bosses were pretty fun to fight for the most part, though they seemed to a be a bit "normal," or simplistic. What I mean is that many of the bosses delved down to a big guy with a lot of health trying to hit me with a sword or something similar in a straightforward fashion (stabbing, slashing, etc.) Maybe its because I have bad memory, but this wasn't an issue with the Dark Souls bosses for the most part. Despite this, I still enjoyed analyzing the bosses' technique and successfully exploiting their weaknesses. One thing I want to say is that the Smelter Demon was kinda a pain because I could only deal around 42 damage. I finally brought in three phantoms to help me out and we took him down relatively quickly. I need to know: why couldn't I deal a lot of damage to the Smelter Demon?
I avoided using magic in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls mainly because I wanted to focus on a melee character and I actually didn't know how to start. About a quarter the way through DS2, I decided I wanted to start using magic since I felt that I was missing a huge aspect of the mechanics. And damn, magic is great! It makes bosses easier to fight because I can deal a substantial amount of damage to bosses while at a safe distance. Tbh, because of this, I feel that magic is pretty OP. There were a couple of bosses where I defeated them with only souls arrows (normal, great, heavy souls arrows) without losing a lot of health. I leveled up magic to 18 and left it there for quite some time. I can imagine that fighting bosses would be even easier had I leveled magic substantially more. Question: should I also level up miracles as well? I am doing a second playthrough and I'm not sure if I should since spreading myself out with all the stats may not be ideal.
I've started NG+ on Sunday and am enjoying the slightly added difficulty. I just have some questions about my NG+ playthrough:
1. I never upgraded any of my weapons in my initial playthrough because I didn't want to depend on only one weapon throughout the duration. I wanted to explore my options and see what DS2 has to offer in terms of weapon variety and different weapon mechanics. What I am noticing is that enemies and bosses have more health (I feel like bosses have a ton more health) and my weapons aren't exactly as great as they used to be. Right now, I am using the red iron twinblade and I am really liking it. Would it be wise just to upgrade it to the max? I'd probably stop using other weapons but hey, if upgrading the twinblade will help me a ton, who cares, right? What should I do?
2. Does anyone have any general tips for NG+? I'm seeing that there are many more health-spongy red invaders. Any tips on fighting those guys? Also, I am horrible at parrying with my shield. Any tips about that? Where should I go to practice parrying?
3. Iron Keep was pretty annoying because there would be times when 4+ knights would be attacking me all at once. And in general, there are sooooo many knights that it becomes somewhat of a grind to pass through. Any idea how I can make the Iron Keep a less annoying?
BTW, I was playing the Scholar of the First Sin version on the PC with a controller.
One thing people have said about DS2 was that the world wasn't as much fun to explore as the previous games. I'm not sure why this was the case with some people because I was totally cool with the world. Yeah, it wasn't elaborately interconnected as Dark Souls' world, but roaming the world, exploring for awesome loot, anticipating the next enemy was all invigorating. Exploring every bit of the map, every environment in the game, to discover everything about the game and its world was so fun. Environments were beautiful and each shortcut or hidden room were well placed.
The bosses were pretty fun to fight for the most part, though they seemed to a be a bit "normal," or simplistic. What I mean is that many of the bosses delved down to a big guy with a lot of health trying to hit me with a sword or something similar in a straightforward fashion (stabbing, slashing, etc.) Maybe its because I have bad memory, but this wasn't an issue with the Dark Souls bosses for the most part. Despite this, I still enjoyed analyzing the bosses' technique and successfully exploiting their weaknesses. One thing I want to say is that the Smelter Demon was kinda a pain because I could only deal around 42 damage. I finally brought in three phantoms to help me out and we took him down relatively quickly. I need to know: why couldn't I deal a lot of damage to the Smelter Demon?
I avoided using magic in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls mainly because I wanted to focus on a melee character and I actually didn't know how to start. About a quarter the way through DS2, I decided I wanted to start using magic since I felt that I was missing a huge aspect of the mechanics. And damn, magic is great! It makes bosses easier to fight because I can deal a substantial amount of damage to bosses while at a safe distance. Tbh, because of this, I feel that magic is pretty OP. There were a couple of bosses where I defeated them with only souls arrows (normal, great, heavy souls arrows) without losing a lot of health. I leveled up magic to 18 and left it there for quite some time. I can imagine that fighting bosses would be even easier had I leveled magic substantially more. Question: should I also level up miracles as well? I am doing a second playthrough and I'm not sure if I should since spreading myself out with all the stats may not be ideal.
I've started NG+ on Sunday and am enjoying the slightly added difficulty. I just have some questions about my NG+ playthrough:
1. I never upgraded any of my weapons in my initial playthrough because I didn't want to depend on only one weapon throughout the duration. I wanted to explore my options and see what DS2 has to offer in terms of weapon variety and different weapon mechanics. What I am noticing is that enemies and bosses have more health (I feel like bosses have a ton more health) and my weapons aren't exactly as great as they used to be. Right now, I am using the red iron twinblade and I am really liking it. Would it be wise just to upgrade it to the max? I'd probably stop using other weapons but hey, if upgrading the twinblade will help me a ton, who cares, right? What should I do?
2. Does anyone have any general tips for NG+? I'm seeing that there are many more health-spongy red invaders. Any tips on fighting those guys? Also, I am horrible at parrying with my shield. Any tips about that? Where should I go to practice parrying?
3. Iron Keep was pretty annoying because there would be times when 4+ knights would be attacking me all at once. And in general, there are sooooo many knights that it becomes somewhat of a grind to pass through. Any idea how I can make the Iron Keep a less annoying?
BTW, I was playing the Scholar of the First Sin version on the PC with a controller.