ismail-villa Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 (edited) Would it be better to play through the first one before this one? Edited August 3, 2014 by ismail-villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 (edited) The two stories have similarities but it's not like you need to play Dark Souls before DS2. It's not a direct sequel and a continuation of the story told in the first game, really. Besides, the story in the Souls games are very much left up to your own interpretation of the clues present in the world and via item descriptions in the menu. Dark Souls was very ambiguous whereas Dark Souls 2 makes it a bit easier to figure out what's happening. If you really want to know about the story and the lore of the Dark Souls worlds though, you either have to make your own connections or look on YouTube for other people's findings. Even if you did this before playing the games it wouldn't really spoil it for you, though I suppose if you went in completely blind you'd get to enjoy all the surprises. You'll definitely need to look online to understand a lot of it though. Dark Souls is probably better in terms of atmosphere and level design, but whereas DS2's land of Dranglaic doesn't quite seem as seamlessly connected as Dark Souls' world of Lordran, the game is a little more polished in some areas. I'd probably recommend playing DS2 first because I personally feel it's the easier of the two games, though neither are easy. The controls are a bit more simple and refined and you'll also find more people playing online than those playing online on Dark Souls right now. Playing online with others is recommended to get the full Souls experience. Prepare to fail a lot though. These games aren't necessarily super difficult, but they are challenging and punishing. You will die a lot but you have to be prepared to get over that and think where you went wrong last time because if you don't learn from your mistakes you will be punished over and over again. When you die in Dark Souls or DS2, you return to the last bonfire you rested at - a checkpoint system - but these aren't exactly littered about all over the place. Often when you die you will have to redo an entire section again. You have to play smart and not go racing in, because you will die that way. That being said, it's the most rewarding experience gaming has to offer in my opinion. For instance, I just did a boss called Darklurker on DS2. He's a completely optional boss and is probably the hardest in the game. In order to fight him you have to go through three small dungeons with very difficult enemies, and you have to kill them all to complete them. You also have to expend a relatively rare item every time you want to go back to this dungeon, so if you die it's even more punishing than usual as you lose all your souls you collected up to that point - souls are collected from enemies you kill and some consumable items and act as the currency in the game to buy weapons, upgrades, consumables etc. - but you have to use another one of these rare items to get back there and challenge it again. After you clear all three dungeons, you fight the boss and he can be very difficult for certain character classes, especially melee builds which, guess what? I was. He took me a good nine attempts before I killed him. Every time I died, I learned something and I changed my approach. Some tactics failed, but others were much more effective and I learned where I went wrong. That's the essence of the Souls games for me. Not every boss is going to be impossible to defeat first time, but you really have to keep your wits about you in these games at all times. Oh, and there's no pause button either Edited August 3, 2014 by Ginko 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ismail-villa Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 The two stories have similarities but it's not like you need to play Dark Souls before DS2. It's not a direct sequel and a continuation of the story told in the first game, really. Besides, the story in the Souls games are very much left up to your own interpretation of the clues present in the world and via item descriptions in the menu. Dark Souls was very ambiguous whereas Dark Souls 2 makes it a bit easier to figure out what's happening. If you really want to know about the story and the lore of the Dark Souls worlds though, you either have to make your own connections or look on YouTube for other people's findings. Even if you did this before playing the games it wouldn't really spoil it for you, though I suppose if you went in completely blind you'd get to enjoy all the surprises. You'll definitely need to look online to understand a lot of it though. Dark Souls is probably better in terms of atmosphere and level design, but whereas DS2's land of Dranglaic doesn't quite seem as seamlessly connected as Dark Souls' world of Lordran, the game is a little more polished in some areas. I'd probably recommend playing DS2 first because I personally feel it's the easier of the two games, though neither are easy. The controls are a bit more simple and refined and you'll also find more people playing online than those playing online on Dark Souls right now. Playing online with others is recommended to get the full Souls experience. Prepare to fail a lot though. These games aren't necessarily super difficult, but they are challenging and punishing. You will die a lot but you have to be prepared to get over that and think where you went wrong last time because if you don't learn from your mistakes you will be punished over and over again. When you die in Dark Souls or DS2, you return to the last bonfire you rested at - a checkpoint system - but these aren't exactly littered about all over the place. Often when you die you will have to redo an entire section again. You have to play smart and not go racing in, because you will die that way. That being said, it's the most rewarding experience gaming has to offer in my opinion. For instance, I just did a boss called Darklurker on DS2. He's a completely optional boss and is probably the hardest in the game. In order to fight him you have to go through three small dungeons with very difficult enemies, and you have to kill them all to complete them. You also have to expend a relatively rare item every time you want to go back to this dungeon, so if you die it's even more punishing than usual as you lose all your souls you collected up to that point - souls are collected from enemies you kill and some consumable items and act as the currency in the game to buy weapons, upgrades, consumables etc. - but you have to use another one of these rare items to get back there and challenge it again. After you clear all three dungeons, you fight the boss and he can be very difficult for certain character classes, especially melee builds which, guess what? I was. He took me a good nine attempts before I killed him. Every time I died, I learned something and I changed my approach. Some tactics failed, but others were much more effective and I learned where I went wrong. That's the essence of the Souls games for me. Not every boss is going to be impossible to defeat first time, but you really have to keep your wits about you in these games at all times. Oh, and there's no pause button either Huge thanks for that. Guess I'll pick it up whenever i can, though i bet the bastards at the shop won't believe I'm 18 ha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 (edited) Well as I said, I've done the one against the Havel clone and the two others a fair few times. In fact I just came off from playing it just now. When I get a job I'll get the DLC and blast through it, but I've pretty much seen most of it from streams and YouTube anyway. I don't really care about spoilers, my curiosity is far more overwhelming than any feeling of wanting to experience it all for myself. I think I know about the enemy you're on about. You have to figure something out before you can kill them. Over the weekend I finally got the time to go through the DLC on NG+ and it was harder but easier. The enemies were much more tankier and did more damage, but I knew exactly where I was going. I had to change my build to hexes to get through it. Those new enemies were actually a piece of cake on NG+. I just parried them. Their attacks are so blatant. The other DLC comes out in 3 weeks! Someone on youtube found all the new spells and rings in From's files so I found out all the new goodies we will be getting. If you don't mind spoilers, I suggest you check it out cause one of the rings is pretty cool. Edited August 4, 2014 by Czechlad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 Cheers man, I'll look into that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Have any of you been able to connect online in the past few days? Apparently dark soul's servers have been down for days but I can't confirm this anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 Yeah I've been playing online a lot the past few days with the whole getting summoned into the DLC boss fight from the room just outside the DLC doors. It's been working fine for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 I've been soft banned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 What did you do? How long is the ban in effect for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketspuds Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 Dark Souls 2 (Scholar of the First Sin) remastered for PS4/XBOX ONE in April 2015. Yes please. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 19, 2014 Share Posted December 19, 2014 I'll definitely give it a go on PS4. It was unplayable shite on the PC, unfortunately, an absolutely terrible XBox port that needed a load of mods just to be able to play. Unacceptable when they're charging full price for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I only recently got Scholar for next gen and I am loving it. Much like a lot of people, I played Bloodborne for a while then decided to pick up Dark souls 2 for ps4. The game does feel different even for me who beat it numerous times on the 360. I really love the online interactions. Summoning is so much quicker now and hit boxes are an actual thing. No more 10ft long katana swings. Boss fights are a joke if you summon people though. I am grinding for sunlight medals and often it's a 4vboss fight. It makes the fight so quick which I like cause I get medals quickly but it's stupidly easy. I try to limit myself to one summon per boss fight cause otherwise it's silly. I killed the spider boss first time with help whereas the first time I played on 360, I remember it took me over an hour. That partially has to do with me knowing her attacks and where to attack, but it was still far too easy. NG+ should be a hard, but fun challenge. I also love how large the game is. Bloodborne just doesn't compare honestly. So many areas to explore. I've played 40+ hours and am not even half way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cudoz Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I only recently got Scholar for next gen and I am loving it. Much like a lot of people, I played Bloodborne for a while then decided to pick up Dark souls 2 for ps4. The game does feel different even for me who beat it numerous times on the 360. I really love the online interactions. Summoning is so much quicker now and hit boxes are an actual thing. No more 10ft long katana swings. Boss fights are a joke if you summon people though. I am grinding for sunlight medals and often it's a 4vboss fight. It makes the fight so quick which I like cause I get medals quickly but it's stupidly easy. I try to limit myself to one summon per boss fight cause otherwise it's silly. I killed the spider boss first time with help whereas the first time I played on 360, I remember it took me over an hour. That partially has to do with me knowing her attacks and where to attack, but it was still far too easy. NG+ should be a hard, but fun challenge. I also love how large the game is. Bloodborne just doesn't compare honestly. So many areas to explore. I've played 40+ hours and am not even half way. There were a few issues with the original release but the remaster seems to have fixed the vast majority of those issues (hitboxes / soul memory). Some of the additions are fantastic (dragon shrine!!). I've gone back to this from bloodborne purely because the multiplayer is so much better. Invasions and co-op are much easier to find and the end game feels so much longer now that all the dlc's have been included. However, that may be due to it taking 15 attempts to beat Sir Alonne... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 One thing that pissed me off though was I went to the blue bros arena as a level 45 with 250k soul memory and my opponent was level 205 with over 3 million soul memory. He one hit me. How is that fair in the slightest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cudoz Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I tend to avoid the arena's purely because of that issue. I only venture there when I need to farm red eyes. I find the Iron Bridge with a red soapstone is best for similar level dueling. Undead Crypt and Shrine of Amana for invasions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I loved invading in the crypt. I'd just run and ring all the bells so even if I died, the host was still screwed. . The bridge is no longer the go to pvp place I believe. I read that pvp has moved elsewhere but haven't found where yet. I was just as the bridge and I was invaded, but I saw very few red soap stones. I did go to the bell keep in that area and was invaded immediately. It actually made going through there a pain. I got invaded twice before I got to the ladder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobler Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 MIYAZAKI IS BACK! https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=23&v=U3B4egZ6UwI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 I'm a little worried how fast they are pumping out these souls games. Apparently Miyazaki has been working on dark souls 3 for years now though which makes me feel a bit better, but I don't want the souls series to turn into COD where each game has very minor changes. If Dark Souls 3 takes the best from bloodborne and dark souls 2, it'll be a fantastic game. I also wonder what they will do after the souls series. Demon souls, dark souls 1,2,3, and then what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobler Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 I've heard rumours that this will be the last of the 'Dark Souls' series. I think a few mistakes were made with Dark Souls II, a good game in its own right but it felt very much like 'let's give people much more of what they like' but without that genius of Miyazaki behind it. We'll definitely see more games of the same style in the future, a Demon's Souls II, a Bloodbourne sequel or completely new stories. I'd be surprised if they dragged on the Souls series, but of course it's difficult to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 This is definitely the last Dark souls game. I thought that was confirmed at E3? I don't think they'd drag it on. Hopefully a clean slate will be good for the series. Bloodborne was a nice change of pace from the souls games. I wouldn't be opposed if they took a couple years off to produce a great new title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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