The great absurdity of the series is that you can just run past the enemies to the fog door.
LOL. I thought maybe that was the case since they seem to be sleeping. But something seemed “wrong” about doing that. Like I was leaving free souls on the pavement even though all I really wanted to do was get another crack at the boss. Heck a couple of times I went down below and killed the spear and crossbow guys again. I ended up wasting the firebombs because I couldn’t figure out the controls to add them to my hotbar. Kept selecting USE.
I love the environment and ambiance. But the combat seems slow and animations are so different from what I am used to that I will really have to force myself to adapt to them if I want to punch through the wall.
Keep in mind, souls are an unending resources - you can always earn more and there are even some areas (I have my own favorite) that you can “farm” them if you want. The thing is being like level 100 and having ALL THE STATS is nice, but it’s really more about your own skill than your equipment so don’t worry about not getting every last soul. And don’t sweat loosing a bunch of souls, for that matter. Just focus on getting better and better at controlling your avatar, is my advice.
+1 to all of this. I haven’t even played SotS since I bought it. 100%ed DS2 when it was released though.
From what I read in the Dark Souls 2 thread, I might have enjoyed that game more in its vanilla iteration. The SotS version that I played just wore me down completely. Afterward I looked at the hours I played, and I played Dark Souls + expansion for a LOT longer than I played Dark Souls 2 SotS, but it felt like the opposite. I think the difference was that I really enjoyed 90% of my time with Dark Souls, and 10% felt like a grind. Meanwhile I really enjoyed about 20% of SotS, and 80% felt like a grind. From the description of the changes, it sounds to me like Dark Souls 2 without the SotS changes sounded like much less of a grind all around.
It’s a difficult series to rank now that I’m burned out, plus all the technical annoyances in every game except Dark Souls 3 make it tough to go back.
Interesting. I do agree about the bosses. I’m not really a big PvP player, but I’d heard people give that accolade to DS3 over 2. Certainly I was playing DS2 before Christmas and the cheating was unbearable. Can’t agree on the level design though, I think it’s the worst in the series (perhaps Demons’ Souls is worse) and is the specific reason I can’t really stand the game.
Still, a bad Souls game is better than most other games.
Vic, I’ll share a secret with you if you promise not to tell the rest of these jokers. I consider myself a veteran of the Souls games at this point, played all the previous games, some of them several times. The first boss in Dark Souls 3 kicked my ass for the longest time.
It’s a bit of a dick of a boss, not hard exactly. But if you don’t have a way to cheese it, you have to master a specific set of skills which can be really challenging. My ‘strat’ on my first run was to keep my head rammed in his left armpit. YMMV
Places like reddit will quietly whisper about DS2 PvP. It’s very quiet so as not to anger anyone.
I can count the cheaters I’ve seen on one hand. I don’t know if I’m just lucky or I happen to play when everyone wants to be legit.
The level design is all about what you’re looking for. If you want realistic integrated levels like Dark Souls, then DS2 will disappoint. I just want quick excuses to get into the combat and move on so I can get to those bosses.
I can’t stand the game these days because of the DirectX 7 fullbright lighting. I got a vague thought recently to make another run. I watched one gameplay video and dropped that idea. Oof. Better to leave it to my pleasant memories.
I think all Souls fans can agree that they wish FROM would hire a few competent programmers at some point.
I’d ask where to send my money… but I know where to send it. Unfortunately they use it for pizza parties, E3 trailers, and PS4 exclusives.
I just yesterday restarted Dark Souls 3 up to Iudex Gundyr as a Wizard this time (a Wizard named Geralt). It is so a stunningly beautiful looking game… and even Dark Souls 1 was dammned good looking when it came out (and I replayed it last year, still good looking). Their art style makes up for maybe less stellar textures…
I thought I loved the look of Dark Spuds 3 right up until I reached the inside of Castle Lothric and began to look around. Then my jaw dropped. Holy crap what a splendid looking game. Most impressive texture and detail I’ve seen on my Xbox. It’s no wonder my frame rate takes a dump halfway through this map. But man is it glorious.
I stumbled into a boss fight in the swampy area with giant crabs. Oops. Was doing pretty well but wasn’t prepared for a boss so ended up losing 12k souls or so. Just happy the swamp water isn’t poisonous!
Wow, that sounds very Un-Souls-like of them. I’m currently stuck in a poisonous swamp in Bloodborne.
Yes, I suspect they have nefarious reasons for this seemingly benevolent gesture.
Well, the giant crabs aggro from a light year away once you’re in the water, so that’s sort of like poison… except bulkier, and pinchy.
They also aren’t bosses, so expect re-spawns once you finally manage to down one.
I’m just ignoring them for now, after a couple unsuccessful tilts. Was also stabbed by an instakill knight off to the right so I’ll probably venture that way again, get past His Stabbiness and see what he’s guarding. Really enjoying DS3 after taking a break after DS2 and Bloodborne.
Would love a new gen version of Demon’s Souls one of these days so I could finally finish it also!
Oh, the trailer for the second DLC and last Souls content eveeeeer is out:
Hm. Can’t say it looks that interesting.