[Felix]

just got invaded on a ledge and managed to push the other person off, shit yeah

I seem to have a choice between underground skeleton forest and triple boss at this point

hmmmmmmmmmmm

joe have you gotten to the torch-intensive watery level yet? because that was when I realized with dismay that they may actually be under the impression that the lighting is on

I'm still using a combination of the scimitar+5 and old whip for my main weapon(s), they both have an attack rating in the upper 200's, I have magic weapon (which doesn't seem to do very much), all's good there. can't find an off-hand weapon I like and don't have the stats yet for the twinblade (been too busy pumping int/att/vit) but I swear I enjoyed the dual wielding I've done so far.

I'm approaching an area of the game where my relative confidence in my character is starting to feel at odds with the harshness of the unshaded environment again but seeing as I've been putting in like four hours a day for the past couple days I'm not sure I'm actually going to slow down for any reason...

anyway, day 2 impressions: the only thing wrong with it relative to DkS is still the visual / world design.

[remote]

i don't want to sit here spoiler-tagging whatever but holy balls this game is fucking great

and yes, halberd still owns (more than ever)
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Focus]

i love playing dark souls 2
_________________

[BotageL]

Got back to the beta test area. The lighting changes are not flattering and really ruined the spookiness of it. They could've at least stuck a Demon's Souls-style glowing lamp on your character's belt if they were gonna do this...
_________________

http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Ronnoc]

I don't like the halberd's moveset. Hoping for some kind of alternate version, like the black knight halberd from DS1. Hit the first boss with a sliver of health, and beat him without getting hit. I then proceeded to die co-oping him like 5-6 times in a row :3


Dropped my sign by the bonfire by accident, and decided to roll with it. I ended up discovering a whole bunch of secrets I had missed.

[remote]

so i have reached the belfry and even after having killed the lost sinner this is just totally ridiculous and it feels like the first time i discovered the forest...

i mean i'm getting invaded constantly there and 2v1 does not work out too well in this game so far

not sure what else to for now other than go co-op some bosses and level up a bit more
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[scratchmonkey]

[all monsters]

my guy has a bowl cut, cool white moustache and big eyebrows and has just been stomped several times in a row by the last giant, enjoying this a lot!

there's been a slight change to the roll, right? I think there was a little pause at the end of the roll that's been removed, it feels really silky now.

have any australian players been able to connect to the servers yet?

[Ben Reed]

I like this game so far. Doesn't seem much different from Dark Souls so far (with a few notable exceptions). Then again I play it pretty much exactly the same way I played the first Dark Souls (pure STR build, none of that magic crap...mostly naked except for a boar's head and a Demon's Greataxe), so I don't really find it significantly easier or harder with that playstyle.

Haven't had any reason to put on a shield as of yet; haven't seen any ranged attacks that scare me enough to walk and block, and haven't encountered anything like the stupid ledges in Sen's Fortress from the old Dark Souls. I DO like that the weight limit for fast roll is GREATLY expanded -- my character can actually wear CLOTHES now and still fastroll! Which is good because I LOVE the dorky new Bandit outfit (both the helm and the feathery pelt!) and have seen nothing yet that would make me want to take it off and wear something else. Maybe my opinion will change if I ever get an Ultra Greatsword or something similarly heavy.

I thought item durability was gonna be a thing early on in the game when my first Hand Axe broke, but ever since I got my Bastard Sword I haven't had to repair it once. Maybe it's a bigger deal for spellcasters? For melee it hardly seems to matter as long as your damage is high enough.

Debating whether or not I ever want to PvP. Probably not, I was raised on theme-park MMOs like WoW and I hate all that anarchic roaming crap as PvP goes. But co-op seems fun enough, even if I mostly just camp outside the doors of bosses I've beaten to mooch souls off of people. But one of the factions sounds a bit more structured than the others (or at least a bit easier to predict), so I might give that one a shot.

Most of the bosses have been reasonably easy so far (but not significantly more than in Dark Souls) except for one which I hate. You can have fun guessing which one if you're not afraid of spoilers, I guess.

The only changes I've had some difficulty coming to terms with are (a) the MUCH later window to roll cancel whiffed greatsword attacks in this game, which has made my glass-cannon melee offense a lot riskier against certain bosses, and (b) the kill limit on trash. I liked that in Dark Souls 1 I could basically space out and have fun "experimenting" doing stupid stuff with the trash and not really caring about how many souls I lost. Here in DS2 it makes me a little leery of exploration when I'm stuffed to the gills with souls I can't effectively use at the time (not enough to level up or not enough sub-resources to upgrade gear at the merchants). If I take too long farming trash to learn idiot-checks and get the lay of the land, it may not be available later when I'm getting my ass beat by a boss and might need to step back, get some souls and reassess my equipment/stat/consumable situation.

Honestly, I have a MUCH harder time with trash extinction in this game than I do with the roll nerf. Puts a lot of pressure on my shoulders to make EVERY read count, to try and get as far as possible in ONE shot (so as to conserve soul-laden enemies for later farming), rather than to just relax, treat death as a joke like in a fighting game, put a humorous spin on it, and learn from my mistakes. All of a sudden I MISS running in circles around the top of Sen's Fortress for two hours, now that I can't do it anymore.

I like that you can two-hand everything in this game, up to and including nothing. Just Cammy close fierce people to death with the double backfist of doom. But I dunno if I wanna try and beat this game bare-handed yet...
_________________

[Schwere Viper]

Two steps out of Majula and the bloody power goes out. :|

[Tulpa]

[analogos]

yes it is exactly that.

[BotageL]

I nearly broke my staff shooting off all 75 or so Soul Arrows I was packing at the time when helping out on a boss fight. Durability goes down quicker than you'd think! I think it's mostly intended to keep you looking for a bonfire -- and to make you deal with the risk/reward of exploration vs. extinction.
_________________

http://www.mdgeist.com/

[TXTSWORD]

Once I found Heide's Tower I gained some good momentum. Really good area for clerics because of the gear and the two miracle trainers. Really nice change is that heal miracles are now AoE to heal allies as well! Quite pumped about that. Oh yeah and 15x lightning bolt miracle thing is pretty anti-boss. Helped some dudes clear the two bosses there and it was kind of lame even how fast it takes bosses down without effort. Like I was just helping these guys not play the game :S

[ChairTax]

Getting summoned so fast for everything. The best.

[mauve]

the description of the old knight's stuff makes me think that if i break them something cool will happen

kinda doubt it though
_________________
twit

[TXTSWORD]

[Felix]

Yeah, another example of how the combat mechanics are better but the world is not.

I've been using Drangelic gear for a while due to the combination of weight and defense and I'm not sure what'll get me to switch...

just to check, did everyone else find the cloranthy ring? Because it seems like something you'd never ever take off, to get it so early in the game, and they've done a good job elsewhere of eliminating sine qua nons

[ChairTax]

I found the Cloranthy Ring +1 but I can't remember where I found it. No plans to remove it.

[remote]

well, i managed to deal with the gargoyles solo last night, which took a bit of patience

now i've reached a point where i'm really not sure where to go next, but there's gotta be a door i haven't checked somewhere

figured out that i can farm effigies from the dogs in the lost bostille, at least until they stop spawning...
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Felix]

[CONSUME_PRODUCTS]

[TXTSWORD]

[remote]

oh huh! i didn't because i'm all melee and ranged weaponry on this guy — no magic or miracles (unless i decide to use force later because of these items that let you reduce miracle level requirements...!) that's one thing i'll check out after work today. thanks.

so has anyone pointed out what a charmer lucatiel is? some sort of solaire stand-in, though she also reminds me of chester and mephistopheles...

fromsoft have fully delivered, as far as i'm concerned.

(gotta whine about one thing, though: her pathing kept failing and getting her stuck in no-man's wharf.)
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Felix]

yeah, the fact that you have to repeatedly choose the "talk" option with any of the merchants who eventually do so is a bit unintuitive (particularly as they apparently do more than just sell the stuff that you probably weren't interested enough in to talk to them in the first place)

[boojiboy7]

wait something is unintuitive in a souls game? no way.

though yeah, that is a pretty dumb way to hide like from what i hear is a huge chunk of the game.

[remote]

eh, it's fine. i like hearing characters say things to piece together lore and stuff — i just wasn't expecting so much to be gated by items they offer you in conversation. i found myself back at the cartographer guy and pressing him further out of curiosity last night, and he offered me a key to the mansion in majula, where i found a pharros' keystone, which enabled me to access the belfry and start making some progress again... haha
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[TXTSWORD]

Man I wasted that pharros' key on a hidden room with some chests :S Guess I need to find another to make progress! Yeah, I also quickly noticed that repeated dialogue interaction with all characters is mandatory - and I don't really like it. I like talking to people because I want to hear what they have to say, not because I know exhausting their dialogue will make them a shop or get me a "thing" :\

[scratchmonkey]

There's at least two widgets of the type that you're talking about -- there's one in the Majula mansion and there's another sold by the merchant sitting next to the first Forest bonfire.

[Faithless]

I made a female bandit. Her hair when she's hollow is different from her hair when she's alive. Like a totally different cut.
This is really weird to me.
Also, I've been looking at EVERYTHING in this game and am playing blind so I wonder if I've found things that other people haven't. Stripping naked to do jumps off of things and landing in weird places that have no features.
_________________
my website

[JUMBO]

I joined the Bell tower covenant but invasions have been so laggy I think I'm gonna abandon it. Maybe it's my connection but it was just terrible in a way co-op hasn't been. I mean, I've run into weird co-op shit, such as an entire boss dying the instant the host entered the fog and one time the game entered a kind of Benny Hill-esque hyperspeed, but for the most part it's been much smoother than DS1.

I mainly joined the covenant cuz I thought maybe it would let me peacefully explore the the Bell Tower but nope. Now I'm afraid bad stuff might happen if I kill all those little dudes! I don't wanna get excommunicated from the covenant I'm about to abandon.

I'm sad no one's rating my messages.

[remote]

best way to get ratings on your messages is to be funny

like, idk, leave "tears..." by a flowing river
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[BotageL]

I feel so stupid, it took me until just now, like a day after I got it, to realize that the item which cures petrification isn't for me.
_________________

http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Broco]

[remote]

i have to admit, if the bell tower is supposed to be the new forest it's a bit underwhelming. the forest was great because it was a huge arena full of things to engage with and make fights more spontaneous and exciting, turn the tide against gankers, etc. this is like... a tiny arena, just three floors in a building. idk. i feel like i'm gonna get tons more out of the blue sentinels, sunbros, blood bros, etc
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[shrugtheironteacup]

I keep running into convoluted sexual innuendos that have dozens of votes
_________________

[scratchmonkey]

A good one for those was a message on a hard to get-to pinnacle of rock that said "Hurrah for head."

Just found out what Smooth and Shiny Stones are good for. Duuhhhhhh.

[Ben Reed]

[Faithless]

[Felix]

so I just took a little more time off work in the middle of the day than planned in order to beat the ruin sentinels ... that was just about two hours on the couch. I have to say that I never got tired of the ten mooks that you have to lure out of the building and kite over the broken bridges before the boss -- their pathing is so hilariously bad that getting all of them out there and having them run into each other and off the walls was a great interlude between attempts at what would've been a more frustrating fight otherwise. also, about five seconds of the boss music loop sounded a lot like rilo kiley to me for some reason. that was really all terrific. don't think I'd have been able to manage if I hadn't picked up some sorcery beforehand. time to finish up work and then get back to making some actual progress tonight!

[mauve]

coalesced further thoughts as i progress more through the game:

- i didn't really feel very motivated to fight bosses last session, so i just explored everywhere i could, which leads me to... wow there is a lot of ground to cover in this game. this game has way more areas than i was expecting. there is definitely some uneven quality and they're not all up to par, but damn.
.. - still not excusing how rough some areas are, sorry.
- there really is an area so dark you need a torch, and what's beyond there was actually rough enough to get me to turn back for now.
- i love seeing a "shortcut ahead" next to a fall, and then a whole pile of blood stains nearby. sure i'll happily upvote that message!
- beta area get. i liked how i saw a "This place again?" message as soon as i got there.
.. - also it's the first time i decided i'd rather use the fire sword than the halberd, i think i'll be running both weapons for awhile due to durability.
.. - didn't even need a torch anymore, welp.
- felix, i dunno, magic weapon seems pretty good to me, it's cutting my hits-to-kill count down by one more often than not, which is enough for me right now. working my way up to great magic weapon atm.
- have accumulated a crapload of elemental rocks for weapons but no idea how to use them still
- i have found pyromancies but still no flame. dammit. it occurs to me now i'm not even sure if i need one, though?

generally liking the enemy design a lot but not so much the levels.

also i mentioned this to botagel last night but the loading screen showed me the witch hat and it has +1 attunement slots.
_________________
twit