Yeah, the spiders in Tseldora will never attack you if you're carrying a torch. I'm glad I saw a message on the ground that said, "Try torch." I went through the entire level with a torch, including the boss fight, and none of the spiders ever attacked me. It made every encounter with them laughably simple, as they ran away and I chased them down. So I don't understand the tedium complaint. Carry a torch and the spiders of Tseldora will never attack you, allowing you to fully enjoy the complex layout of the place. Also, the place looks really nice aesthetically when you're carrying a torch. And with all of the torches dropped in this game, I have two hours' worth of torch time at the moment.
I put off Dark Souls 2 for so long because of the mixed reception. I'm about halfway through now and it has been amazing so far. Easily as good as the first. I don't know what gaf was on about.
Yeah, Dark Souls 2 is utterly fantastic so far. I have the four Great Souls and have arrived at Drangleic Castle. It's great to know that the Souls/borne series is four for four. All good games. I'm sure DS3 will bring the number to five to five.
A few points:
Did you go through Belfry Sol when you were in Iron Keep? It's not really a very important area but it looks pretty cool.
Did you figure out where the Iron Key, which you found Iron Keep, leads? The item description gives a hint.
Regarding the NPC in The Gutter, explore along the right edge as you go from the bonfire to the boss area. You will find some ledges you can drop off to.
Also, this NPC can be found from the Shaded Woods as well. You need to find him here too (as well as in a third location) if you want to be able to access the best non-DLC boss of the game.
Did you join the rat bros? Sure, it may be cheesing, but I still found doing that PVP fun. It's also the only way to get infinite Pharros Lockstones, so unless you want to run out of them before you have seen what each contraption does, you have to do some PvP here. To do it, join the covenant, put on the ring and then just wait around in either the Grave of Saints or the optional part of Doors of Pharros.
Tseldora and Shaded Woods were probably my least favourite areas of the game. The last part of Shaded Woods was alright but I hated the area with invisible enemies. While the vertical and complex design of Tseldora was sort of cool, I found it very annoying to navigate. Also, it didn't help that these two are probably the worst-looking levels of the game.
It's cool to see you beat all the bosses by going naked. I think one reason why so many people hate the movement in this game is that they read somewhere that as long as you stayed below 70 % equip load you could avoid the fat roll. But, as you have discovered, there are lots of reasons to keep equip load much lower than that. I kept mine between 30 and 40 % throughout most of the game and was satisfied with the level of mobility that gave me.
Yes, I explored Belfry Sol. Some fun CPU phantoms there, and like you said, it looks lovely.
Yes, I figured out where to use the Iron Key in the Forest of Fallen Giants. The lizards inside were incredibly difficult! I had to use poison knives on one of them. I then retrieved all of the treasure... except for whatever's in the chest being guarded by a lizard in the flame pillar room.
I haven't done much PVP yet. I assume you have to win the battles to get the prizes, right? Is there a penalty for losing?
And like I said earlier, Tseldora looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing when you're using a torch. And the spiders won't bother you when you're using a torch, so it's easier, too!
Don't expect too much locked 60 fps. Throughout the PS4 version you'll experience countless drops below 60. The Gutter is really bad performance-wise.
But still, it's a whole lot better than the PS3 version.
The Gutter, with all torches lit, seemed a rock-solid 60 fps for me on PS4.
Fantastic area. It reminds me of Blighttown (DS1) or Valley of Defilement (Demon's Souls), but without the poison or movement penalties. I always like levels designed around overlapping, half-collapsed structures.
Right now I can either do the Iron Keep or Sinner's Rise - but I think I'm gonna get Iron Keep done first so I can get to Brume Tower quicker. Neiteio, you better not miss the DLC areas!
I'm planning to do the DLC areas after beating the final boss. I hear that in DS2, you can still explore your current file after beating the boss, so it should be simple to warp to wherever the DLC areas are accessed and play through them.
After running that area a few times with bonfire ascetics I absolutely hate it. The second bonfire in one of those houses has to be the worst bonfire placement of all time. Like 15 spiders and 3 red phantom spiders. Completely fucking stupid.
Again, if you use torches, the spiders will never attack you. They even held back during the boss fight with The Duke's Dear Freja (although Freja still attacked, obviously).
I actually enjoy most of Tseldora, the design, enemies, lore, I love how you can do some jumps and drops and skip most of it, the only thing I really really hate about it is the spider room right before climbing a stair and getting to the last room before the boss fight. It's pretty bad, and it's even worse in Scholar.
It's not that hard if you take the time to fight them all, but I always love that you don't have to do this in Souls games, so the areas that go against that philosphy are generally the ones I dislike the most. They even patched Lost Izalith to make it more rush friendly in Dark Souls, right? Nerfing the dragon asses and their aggro range.
It's not that bad for your first playthrough, when you kill everything anyway (or at least I do), but for conscutive playthroughs and speedruns, it can get annoying as hell.
I'm a broken record at this point, but... Use a torch! The spiders will never attack you.