[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...
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[Ben Reed]

[Ben Reed]

Aside from worrying about managing the new soul economy, I like the game. I think I like it SLIGHTLY better than Dark Souls 1 (got about midway through that game before getting pulled away to play other games) and probably better than Demon's Souls if I ever hated myself enough to go back and finish it. (Sorry guys...I learned a LOT about smart Souls play playing Dark Souls, but I still have WAY too many bad flashbacks to the bridge in Boletaria to ever want to do Demon's Souls again. I hate the single-segment levels in that game, and I have WAY too many flashbacks to those stupid rolling assholes in 4-1 to torture myself on that game. Dark Souls felt like WAY more gain for my pain, even soloing Ornstein and Smough.)

Only area I thought wasn't all that great to look at was the one with all the poison. The rest were all right. But I'm biased because this one has a beach hub, and dammit, I love the beach. Every fantasy game should have a beach hub IMO (if not a full-on tropical zone, which sadly this game does not have). Honestly I think the only place this game's design suffers is (slightly) aesthetically. I really like how the areas connect together in this game, feels like there's even MORE back doors than there were in Dark Souls.

I think I joined the wrong damn covenant. I joined the one that the pathetic help-me faction can summon to repel invaders, but I have yet to be summoned, matchmaking for the in-faction dueling aspect seems kinda crappy, and to be honest, I don't think I really like PvP in this game in general. (I can hear the audible gasping already. Please let me explain.)

To me this game has some interesting ideas for a PvP game -- being able to make your own build Armored Core-style, micromanage your character's moveset and attributes instead of picking a preselected one like in a fighting game or a MOBA (though there's ability micromanagement there too with bought items and such). But I don't really find the actual COMBAT that fun on the whole (though I'm biased and I only ever play caveman melee...magic in this game just makes no sense to me and it doesn't really interest me, either.).

Magic vs melee is kind of an interesting dynamic (dodge bolts, get close, cave their face in), but melee vs melee I really don't like that much. It feels like playing a really unbalanced version of Divekick on one round -- IMO you will not LIVE from most of your mistakes to learn from them and determine your opponent's weakness, and some weapons are just way, way, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less risky to poke with than others (anything 1h versus anything with "great" in its class name...I wouldn't DARE bring a great hammer to PvP, not without money involved). I run regular greatsword and my damage is through the roof, but it won't matter if I die from a single whiffed slash because I SLIGHTLY misread the other guy's intention and get poked to death...or in actual example, more like getting max-range poked to death by a fencing sword because I underestimated the forward range of the R1 thrusts trying to bait a whiff.

Ironically I think I'm better off as a carebear in this game. To me this game is more of a way to relax (in a very bizarre sense) than it is to challenge myself. I hate the PvP in this game and find myself much more entertained joining random people in co-op and watching them either fail or show me neat new things I didn't anticipate. Maybe I should reroll with the Sunbros faction if there's not a big penalty for dropping my current one.

EDIT: one quick-ish remark on "lore"

As for the "lore" in this game and the way it's presented (incidentally, I HATE the way the Internet uses the term "lore", but that's a whole other rant), I don't see it as any superior or inferior to Dark Souls 1, but I respect the way they do it anyway. To me what's impressive about the game is FAR less the revelations you'll get if you talk to a million NPCs ("oh, so-and-so was actually so-and-so's long-lost brother/lover/beloved pet...I kinda don't care, but okay") than it is the fact that so much of it is OPTIONAL. If you really don't give a shit like I do, they don't waste your time forcing you to mash X through it.

These games get by a LOT on atmosphere and I really like that, because to my mind the stupid jokes/ideas I make up in my HEAD to explain the bizarre things I see in these games are far more compelling than anything an NPC could lecture me about. (Didn't really care about Sif and Artorias and their little sob story. I just thought it was cool to sword-fight a wolf, and I really respect that Dark Souls let me leave it at that.)
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[Ben Reed]

dammit i want to farm these lion people to extinction just to wear their outfits

shit is amazing

i only have the skirt and the gloves so far, i'm rocking them now

plus they're light enough to go with my brand spankin new greatsword

i was a fool to fear ultra greatsword, shit's beautiful

plus it looks like guts' sword from berserk

hai yai forces, etc
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[Ben Reed]

The Ring of Life Protection has changed my Dark Souls life. I no longer fear anything, for the ring is with me. I know it doesn't prevent everything, but IMO most of the stuff it doesn't prevent (stupid stinky gas attacks) is super-avoidable anyway. Walking around with so many souls and they no longer feel like a burden. They are fuel for my conquest. It is...precious to me. And I bought it with very little pain.

Stupid Smelter Demon was the biggest roadblock in my path for a while. Part of it was how little damage I was doing (around 3% per Greatsword R1 slash) since my Greatsword was initially only at +2. But it also didn't help that if I didn't make an ass of myself failing to dodge a slash, one of my phantoms WOULD and I'd lose a ton of damage and a precious extra aggro target. Eventually I figured out the formula for success (with fastroll, side roll the first horizontal slash late, the second one early, and then the leaping plunge or overhead slash late), but he still occasionally trolled me with his rare horizontal slash -> non-leaping vertical slash chain. (I wish Siegfried had been this good in Soul Calibur V.)

His boss Old Iron King was a chump in comparison. Easy to dodge fire attacks, swipes, and the overhead pound. Though it didn't hurt that I had a faith phantom blasting away in the back while I did the happy dance in front of his face. About the worst thing I can say about that guy is that he gave me SERIOUS Molten Core flashbacks. "TASTE THE FLAMES OF SULFURON!" I wonder if he has an add phase on NG+...

I only have 3/4 Lion Armor set (cape, skirt, arm rings), but it looks cool as hell with my Brigand Turban. Totally worth the shards I poured into maxing them out. Everyone should definitely get at least one piece of this armor because it gives you the reduced falling damage buff without needing to waste a ring slot.

I also did what was previously unthinkable (for me) and rolled a caster. Surprisingly fun to run around blasting Soul Arrows at things, although from what I can tell you have to do some annoying rushing to get to the trainers early on. I can't even remember the route I took to the pirate cove off the top of my head. My eventual aim is to go pyromancy because fire is cool. (But actually it's VERY hot.)

Now if I can just finish the sprint to the boss room in Black Gulch without getting poisoned twice, things should move forward again...
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[Ben Reed]

lol halberd

they should give that attack to ultra greatsword IMO

whirlwind that sends you flying at low poise

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Oh yeah, one quick question -- how do you NOT roll when you land from a jump? I've done it a couple times but I'm not sure how.
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[Ben Reed]

I was busy going upside that sentinel's head. Knew I had to work fast cause you were a shade. :P

But thanks for the help. Took way too many tries to learn the tells on the stupid mace guys. Drank like 5 shots of Estus on that clear. Good thing there wasn't a (required) boss at the end.

Switched to belltower faction for a bit, but I dunno if I'm gonna stay with it. PvP is a little more under control at the belltower, but I'm still not sure I like it that much. You gotta really eagle-eye your shots with Ultra Greatsword or else you'll end up like I did, get a guy to half health in one swing, he gets behind you and dagger slashes you (not even backstab, though he was for damn sure trying) and though you mash roll like a champ, you still can't escape his string from the hitstun. Was impressive to watch his shield-wearing buddy recoil AND lose like 1/3 of his health just BLOCKING my R2 round slash, though. I keep wanting to use that thing to punish rolls behind me, but it's so damn slow for that purpose.

Oh yeah, I got a question regarding the very very end of the Undead Crypt: Can you kill the king? I took a whack at him for a laugh but either I missed by a mile or he's not attackable. Can he attack ME? I didn't stick around to find out, I just grabbed the ring and got the fuck out of there.
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[Ben Reed]

yo the final boss holy shit

hate this bitch

but then again I guess it's because I'm pure melee, no choice but to go in and whack at the cursing nodes, and with my slow ultra greatsword that means I'm almost guaranteed to get cursed before the node dies

once you kill the nodes she's not so bad though, takes a ton of damage even if all her attacks instagib me...I think I'll get her soon, even if I'm gonna be Hollow when I do so...Ring of Life Protection, I have failed you...

EDIT: just got the ending (?)

sweet throne bro...I hope I get Netflix in there, though, looks kinda boring otherwise

this was what I got for approaching the man-cave at the back of the room...maybe if I tried to go out the way I came in I'd get the other ending?
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[Ben Reed]

I actually tried Cursebite Ring first time I tried her, but it didn't seem to make a huge difference. (I was further dismayed that when I equipped the ring, my advertised Curse Resistance on the select screen literally DID NOT change. Bear in mind I was using an Ultra Greatsword and I couldn't QUITE one-shot the wisps with one slash, so if I got lucky, I only got 90% cursed before I could get out.

I ended up cheeseballing the fight when I realized how free she was to summons. I just summoned the two NPCs (including my eternal bro Vengarl, who sold me my magnificent Guts sword) and they just went ham on her basically unmolested while I killed the wisps. They were even the ones who dealt the killing blow! No idea if she's more honest on NG+ or not.
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[Ben Reed]

In order to trade with the bloodthirsty dwarf and eventually buy the armor from the chariot boss off him, I joined the invasion covenant on a whim.

It went better than I expected (I got about 6 kills in 24 invasions or so) but I'm still not entirely sure I like PvP in this game. I understand a lot of the footsie elements (lots of false moves trying to provoke either a roll or a whiffed move that you can punish, try to land that guard break into massive frame advantage), but they tend to get buried under lag (you swear you rolled at a safe distance against that slash you baited and the guy teleports and backstabs you anyway...same deal with some of those spells...I remember once I did a 3-hit ultra greatsword combo on a guy, saw no hitstun, then about 2 sec later half his lifebar evaporated just as I died from a slash I thought had missed). And since I'm rocking such a big slow weapon, I HAVE to let the other guy make the first move. If I swing wildly trying to make things happen, I'm gonna die.

Debating respeccing to more of a hybrid build from pure STR but I kinda don't want to commit yet because I don't want to take those 30 points out of ADP. I won't miss it for invasions, obviously, since I can't heal while invading, but I WOULD miss that faster drinking TERRIBLY for PvE in NG+, where a lot of times that faster drink has saved my ass.
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