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New previews for Dark Souls II

Visceir

Member
What happened to the Temple Knight?

Damn, that was going to be my first starting class. I guess the armour was too OP or something. The Knight and Warrior look badass, and the Bandit omg.

The characters that were available in the beta were pre-made for testing purposes and were never going to be the starter classes, there is no "temple knight" class to start out with. The cleric's armor seems to be the same as the temple knight's though. Just need to find the helmet and you're set....or just make your way to any of the other various badass armors available to you during your playthrough.

Respeccing is not a common thing, you won't be doing it whenever you want during a playthrough

Is it something you can do more than once though on one character? It's cool if you can't answer.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
In terms of respecing, I wish From didn't include it, I wish From would have just been like "If you make a mistake with your stats, choose better stats next time" instead of including respecing.


That's all fine unless the stat system is fundamentally broken with stats that are simply bad, or with soft caps that you don't know are there until after you hit them (even though weapon requirements are higher than the caps for these stats giving you no benefit except being able to use a weapon that it turns out isn't all that good anyway).
 
Starting as Mage or Cleric, no question.

That's all fine unless the stat system is fundamentally broken with stats that are simply bad, or with soft caps that you don't know are there until after you hit them (even though weapon requirements are higher than the caps for these stats giving you no benefit except being able to use a weapon that it turns out isn't all that good anyway).
In fairness in the first Dark Souls you could see the effect the stat was going to have before you put points into it. You could tell you hit the cap on a stat when it started giving you diminishing returns.
 

Hobobloke

Member
Enthusiastic and passionate response on a forum with folks that love the genre. What is so strange?

That's understandable, I totally get the concerns over things like instant fast travel impacting on the interconnected level design and feel of the first game. But when people start to act like the whole game is going to be dramatically altered for the worse based on them including a respec mechanic it gets a bit silly.
 
Swordsman looks the best but wtf happened to the knight.

DeS:
demonsouls_01.jpg


DS:
Knight.jpg


DS2:
img6-1.png


What a disappointment.
 

Bedlam

Member
Holy shit. Builds in Souls games are nothing but self imposed sets of rules and limitations to begin with. The meaning is given by the player, not the developer. Which is why they're such great games for role playing (if that's what you're into). What you're advocating for is a job system like in Final Fantasy or something, where you can't equip certain armor, weapons, or spells because of conditions defined by the developer.
No. I'm not talking classes or anything here. What I'm advocating for are decisions that actually matter. In other words: permanent decisions. Decisions only matter when there's the possibility to make wrong and right ones (again: none of it should lead to being unable to complete the game and this isn't the case with neither the old Diablos nor the Souls games .. you can complete these games with any build and ability combination). Including the ability to respec in order to appeal to the "don't have time, show me everything!" crowd completely undermines a character progression system. All that's left are fake decisions that don't mean shit. Character progression as in Diablo 3, for example, just feels meaningless. You might as well just have one single progress bar and give the player all abilities available at a time at once. Switching that stuff out is just superfluous busywork. It's fake character creation.

I guess we're just different kinds of gamers then.

I don't know if the quicksave comparison is that great. We don't know how respeccing is exactly going to work in Dark Souls 2, but I assume it's a lot less convenient than hitting F5 on your keyboard. And more importantly, it's not as game breaking. Quicksave spam allows you to inch your way through a game because it's a more immediate mechanic.
You still have to beat an entire area after you redistributed your stats. Well, unless it really is as convenient as hitting one button, lol.
This example just demonstrated that your proposed "just don't use it" solution doesn't solve anything. Things are more complex.

A previewer at Eurogamer who's had hours with the game articulated the very same (entirely reasonable) concerns some have shared.
And it's not just him either. Other press members shared the same concerns after playing the game for a while. Matt Lees from Videogamer.com, for example.

Voicing these concerns is not this unreasonable, laughable thing that some people in this thread make it out to be.

everyone complaining about fast travel - it's not like you can travel to bonfires you haven't been to. You still have to GET there normally once. So, I don't see the difference. You get fast travel in DS1 too.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=100256252&postcount=1136
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Starting as Mage or Cleric, no question.


In fairness in the first Dark Souls you could see the effect the stat was going to have before you put points into it. You could tell you hit the cap on a stat when it started giving you diminishing returns.


Right, but if you wanted to use (for example) the stone greatshield, you didn't know until you got to 40 strength that you aren't getting any benefit any more, and that's only if you notice the exact damage numbers aren't changing. Without the advance knowledge that it's pointless to dump that many points into the stat, you wouldn't have any reason to suspect that you shouldn't get 50 STR. Or even for smaller numbers, you might have a high STR requirement weapon that looks good on paper but you actually have no idea, because the damage numbers you see are terrible if you don't meet the requirements to use the weapon. You also won't know until you have the required STR/DEX what the animations look like. Those are things you can't possibly prevent without the game spelling out the entire level up system (which I'd be perfectly fine with) or giving you the option to roll back points.
 

JCizzle

Member
No. I'm not talking classes or anything here. What I'm advocating for are decisions that actually matter. In other words: permanent decisions. Decisions only matter when there is the possibility to make wrong and right ones. Including the ability to respec in order to appeal to the "don't have time, show me everything!" crowd completely undermines a character progression system. All that's left are fake decisions that don't mean shit. Character progression as in Diablo 3, for example, just feels meaningless. You might as well just have one single progress bar and give the player all abilities available at a time at once. Switching that stuff out is just superfluous busywork. It's fake character creation.
It's a totally different game, but I don't get your point. In Diablo 3 you're defined by the skills you do select that make your wizard totally different from someone else with the same class. Giving them all abilities at once would totally be missing the point. The skills may all be available, but you decide what to use at any given time and that defines you. You also don't need to rage if you spend hundreds of hours building your character towards a skill that gets nerfed once you're that far in.
 

Anim

Member
Mentioned it already in one of the previous posts, but here is what the starting classes will look like. You can also see what gear they come with:

Knight
Warrior
Swordsman
Bandit
Cleric
Mage
Explorer
Deprived

Swordsman looks the best but wtf happened to the knight.

Actually Visceir swapped the Knight and the Warrior. If you look at the official page, this image

img6-4.png


is labeled as 騎士 (Knight), and this

img6-1.png


as 戦士 (Warrior).

The Knight looks like more of a nobleman this time around, which is pretty cool.
 

Vlade

Member
It's a totally different game, but I don't get your point. In Diablo 3 you're defined by the skills you do select that make your wizard totally different from someone else with the same class. Giving them all abilities at once would totally be missing the point. The skills may all be available, but you decide what to use at any given time and that defines you. You also don't need to rage if you spend hundreds of hours building your character towards a skill that gets nerfed once you're that far in.

respeccing was not fun in Diablo 3, and it's an even worse fit here.
 

Bedlam

Member
It's a totally different game, but I don't get your point. In Diablo 3 you're defined by the skills you do select that make your wizard totally different from someone else with the same class. Giving them all abilities at once would totally be missing the point. The skills may all be available, but you decide what to use at any given time and that defines you. You also don't need to rage if you spend hundreds of hours building your character towards a skill that gets nerfed once you're that far in.
It really doesn't define your character. It's just a loadout that can be changed at any time at that point. Everyone basically rolls the same character.
 

Dresden

Member
Can i complain about those incredibly bland designs or is it another minor change that i should embrace?

Making a complaint would be better than passive aggressively whining, yes.

It really doesn't define your character. It's just a loadout at that point. Everyone basically rolls the same character.

Some people really underestimate character permanence. It's not just in the immediate differences between two characters, it's about their history and how they were played leading up to that decision, and how that decision will hold. Basically everything inherent in the meaning of the word 'build.'
 
Actually Visceir swapped the Knight and the Warrior. If you look at the official page, this image

img6-4.png


is labeled as 騎士 (Knight), and this

img6-1.png


as 戦士 (Warrior).

Well neither really look like a knight tbh. You'd expect knights to have more armour.

Starting equipment got downgraded to better fit a new character, I guess. It looks nice.

Possibly. People had no idea how OP the knights armor was in DS once leveled. Shit had like 80+ physical defense, 46 poise and weighed a decent 25kg.
 

Vlade

Member
Some people really underestimate character permanence.

I'm actually a bit surprised by it, especially here in this thread where people anticipating the game would visit. It is very much one of my favorite things about the game and it seems many folks didn't even see it as a positive aspect of souls.
 
I'm happy of the "crappy" starting sets, with almost no shields etc. Some of the armors given in DS et DeS were too powerful, I prefer finding them in game, wider range of progression / satisfaction
 
What's wrong with that screenshot?

I mean where the hell is the pyromancer? That's my favorite class.

A. No worry about stat scaling like with faith or sorcery. Just pour all your souls into setting people on fire (ok dex but not really a big deal w/ combustion)
B. Ace pvp weaponry/dickery
C.Power within + Dragon Roar Makes for an interesting Glass Cannon combo
 

Jarsonot

Member
respeccing was not fun in Diablo 3, and it's an even worse fit here.

I really like Diablo 3s "respeccing" style. You're stuck to skills in your class, but not stuck to skills you've selected.

So a Mage can change skills, but must pick from Mage skills.

I think the correlation in DkS is what stat you're mainly buffing. If you mainly put points in STR you can then use high-strength requiring weapons. You can feel free to switch weapons, but (realistically) you will stick to high-strength weapons.

As far as respeccing in DkS2, meh. I'll just end up having multiple characters for different play styles still (STR, dex, magic, bow, faith, etc) but I appreciate being able to fine-tune each and every one of those. I don think it will ruin the game, for me.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
Voicing these concerns is not this unreasonable, laughable thing that some people in this thread make it out to be.

No, it's not. But what is ridiculous is the black-and-white "this shit is terrible no matter what" reasoning a few of you have.

The Diablo 3 comparisons are legit ridiculous though.
 

Visceir

Member
Actually Visceir swapped the Knight and the Warrior. If you look at the official page, this image

The Knight looks like more of a nobleman this time around, which is pretty cool.

Yea, I wasn't too sure about that.

Dawg and Creamium got to play the game in Paris and Dawg refered to their character as the warrior. In the Majula gameplay video people also refered to that character as the warrior. The other character also looks more like the typical knight character. But then again the official website description does have it the other way around...

Perhaps Creamium could clear this up?
 

Orayn

Member
I'm actually a bit surprised by it, especially here in this thread where people anticipating the game would visit. It is very much one of my favorite things about the game and it seems many folks didn't even see it as a positive aspect of souls.

It is a positive, but people will still work around it if they can. A *lot* of people deleveled on purpose in Demon's Souls for a variety of reasons, but I don't see it getting compared to CoD or Diablo 3 because it was still an arduous process and didn't allow you to completely remake your character at will.

Why don't we wait for details on how the Soul Vessel works before making sweeping conclusions about how it's going to ruin Dark Souls II?
 

Seance

Banned
About that, is it true that you can now even pay souls to revive any npcs that you happened to kill by mistake (or to steal their stuff)?

I remember reading about that around the time of the beta.

Between that, teleportation and respec I too feel there may have been too much of this 'fat-trimming' going on.

Consequences, what are they? Part of the reason I love Dark Souls so much is that all your decisions and all your progress and achievements feel meaningful.

I feel like that is being taken away from me in this sequel :/
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Looking forward to playing a Faith character. I've played STR, DEX and INT over the course of my time with Dark and Demon's.
 

Bedlam

Member
Some people really underestimate character permanence.
People also underestimate the effects of their calls for ever more convenience features on game design in general. There is a reason why the Souls games feel so satisfying while the Assassin's Creed games bore many players to death. There is a reason why games like DayZ or Rust are taking off. Sometimes people don't know what they should wish for because they don't really understand what makes great game design.

I'm not saying every game should be like Dark Souls. Hell, Journey belongs to my favorite games from recent years as well. I'm all for diversity. I'm just saying if you have mechanics such as character progression systems, you shouldn't put in features that directly undermine them.

I really like Diablo 3s "respeccing" style. You're stuck to skills in your class, but not stuck to skills you've selected.

So a Mage can change skills, but must pick from Mage skills.
Just because you're constrained to the skills of your class doesn't mean the actual character progression is anything less of a joke.
 

Vlade

Member
It is a positive, but people will still work around it if they can. A *lot* of people deleveled on purpose in Demon's Souls for a variety of reasons, but I don't see it getting compared to CoD or Diablo 3 because it was still an arduous process and didn't allow you to completely remake your character at will.

Why don't we wait for details on how the Soul Vessel works before making sweeping conclusions about how it's going to ruin Dark Souls II?

Saying the comparisons are ridiculous or saying we should wait and see seems unnecessarily dismissive. I thought we were discussing it as if we didn't know but cared.
 

AJLma

Member
New designs look fucking awesome to me, better than Dark Souls.

I started Dark Souls as a Bandit, I'll probably do that same with DS2.
 

Parmenide

Member
This is the sorcerer in DaS:
Sorceror.png

Elegant and simple, it instantly gives you the perception of someone who study and use his intelligence.

This is the sorcer in DaS 2:
img8-4.png

And this is what i get by googling "Merlino".
Capture.PNG
 

AlterOdin

Member
Maybe the "respeccing" is crazy expensive? Lets say to "respec" it will take 25% of your levels, thus making it more expensive the higher level you are (both in number and level-soulvalue).

At that cost I doubt many will "respec" frequently, but a good option if you totally fuck up.
 
I'm happy of the "crappy" starting sets, with almost no shields etc. Some of the armors given in DS et DeS were too powerful, I prefer finding them in game, wider range of progression / satisfaction

Yep, love working my way up from rags to riches. Though the mage set looks like it should last you the whole game if you don't plan on getting hit often.

I mean where the hell is the pyromancer? That's my favorite class.

A. No worry about stat scaling like with faith or sorcery. Just pour all your souls into setting people on fire (ok dex but not really a big deal w/ combustion)
B. Ace pvp weaponry/dickery
C.Power within + Dragon Roar Makes for an interesting Glass Cannon combo
Sounds like the Explorer will be the "introductory class" this time around, starting with better gear and higher item drop rate. BTW, pyro scales to something now I believe, but I can't remember what.
 

Orayn

Member
Saying the comparisons are ridiculous or saying we should wait and see seems unnecessarily dismissive. I thought we were discussing it as if we didn't know but cared.

Concern is fine, I just don't like that people are assuming the absolute worst case scenario when we have a perfectly reasonable precedent for how it might actually work.
 

Dresden

Member
Maybe the "respeccing" is crazy expensive? Lets say to "respec" it will take 25% of your levels, thus making it more expensive the higher level you are (both in number and level-soulvalue).

At that cost I doubt many will "respec" frequently, but a good option if you totally fuck up.

Hope it'll be a one time thing. With incredibly heavy costs, like a complete reset in accumulated souls, levels, and progression. And all items broken.

This is the sorcer in DaS 2:

And this is what i get by googling "Merlino".

They don't look much alike, but sure!
 

Sun

Neo Member
I believe re-specing is there for mistakes and the time-rich players. I think we'll find that moving a few points from here to there is OK price wise when it comes to how many souls you need to do it, but the price of changing a tank-oriented strenght-based character into an roll-oriented dexterity-based character will be quite a bit more costly - hence, unpractical for most players.

But for those into PvP-ing / helping others, multiple playthroughs and the likes, I think it's going to be a very practical thing to have.

And in the end, it's a mechanic that helps attach the player to his character - instead of creating a new character for each different build you're interested in and going through the motions of playthrough & weapon building (time consuming), swipe the points around and you're done. As these games go, you'll probably already have all the equipment you need or want by the time you get to the point where you can do this switch easily. And because of the cost, you'll have to commit to the new build for a while.

It fits into the tone of the lore to have such an option. You can look at these games as being about adapting to & surviving a hostile environment, which means being flexible.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Isn't the point of doing multiple playthroughs with multiple builds is because you want to try a specific build on that playthrough and see how you do? In that case the respec shouldn't mean anything. If you want to roll with a specific build, the respec option should be meaningless to you, because you should know what you have in mind. At best you might use it for minor stat alterations but people who want to play with a Str/Dex build won't want to switch to an Int build.

By starting a completely new game too, you start at base level with few items and have to gather everything again. That should also be a draw compared to NG+ where you're level 100+ or whatever and have all these armor sets and weapons.
 

sublimit

Banned
As someone who always starts as a knight in Souls games i'm quite a bit disappointed by the looks of the knight starting equipment.A knight is expected to have heavy armour in order to play like a tank but that character looks more like a sissy nobleman that would go down in one hit.

As others said the starting Knight armour in Demon's and Dark was so badass but this...:(
 
This is the sorcerer in DaS:

Elegant and simple, it instantly gives you the perception of someone who study and use his intelligence.

This is the sorcer in DaS 2:

And this is what i get by googling "Merlino".
]

Love the new Mage design. I always thought the mages in Demon's and Dark Souls looked more like people who studied magic more than people who wielded it - they were too clean, compared to the very worn-down looking gear of the other starting classes. First thing I did as a magic-user in Dark Souls was find a proper set of robes, ASAP. DSII's design definitely evokes someone who uses their power to vaporize shit.

Is that a Dorohedoro avatar, by the way?
 
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