Dark Souls 2: "Let DLC be granted so the money might be extended..."

[Phos]

We'll see, but I'm not too hopeful.  Maybe sweetFX can restore some of it.  

 

Just for shits and giggles:

 

The Falchion is still a dex weapon for some reason, a falchion is basically a hybrid between a sword and an axe, it's not for drawing cuts and there's no particular finesse to it.  It's for trying to hurt someone through armor.  
 

For some reason the estoc is called out as being the "thrust and cut" sword when an estoc has no edge at all.  It just has a diamond profile and is made for jamming into any gap in armor.  It's also worth noting that the estoc predates the rapier by a bunch.  A rapier, by the way, does have an edge.

 

The Chaos Blade is in this game again, basically as an easter egg to be honest, I imagine it's still classified as a katana even though it reminds me a lot more of a tachi, an older kind of sword.  They were a larger, thicker sword from a less civilized time.  

[Gregzilla]

Just beat the game, figured I'd give my thoughts on it.

 

First off, the good.  The world still has the sense of mystery that the first one had, the awesome feeling that you have no idea what's gonna be beyond the next door you open.  There are some really cool monsters and locations just as I would expect.  There are also a few noticeable gameplay improvements that I really liked.  The menu system is a lot cleaner and easier to navigate, turning human is simpler and more significant, and the framerate never gets as bad as Blight Town.  On its own it's a solid game and a great adventure to go through.

 

However, it has the task of living up to Dark Souls 1, which is, in my opinion, one of the finest games ever made, if not my favorite ever.  And, unfortunately, I find Dark Souls 2 pretty inferior.

 

My main gripe is that rather than make the game harder, it seems like the developers went out of their way just to make the experience more annoying.  Losing max health each time you die is just stupid and has no reason to exist.  It punishes mistakes more than necessary.  Also, rather than leveling up at bonfires, you can only level up by talking to a specific character in one particular location.  Why?  Why the hell is that necessary?  It just adds extra tedious busywork when you want to level up.  On top of that, a lot of the enemies and bosses just seem more dickishly designed in general.  It's hard to explain, but there were a lot more times when I felt like the game was just being unfair in comparison to the first game.  Especially those mage girls in the watery area, dear fucking lord.

 

In addition, a lot of it seems like it's just trying to capitalize on its predecessor's success rather than be its own thing.  More than a few bosses and enemies are pretty blatantly rehashed from the first game, and overall it doesn't seem that creative.  I guess that's the biggest problem I have with it.  Dark Souls 1 is a beautiful, magical, amazing experience, and Dark Souls 2 just feels like.....well, the sequel.  A couple improvements here and there don't change the fact that much of the thrill of the first game is missing from this one.  The lore isn't quite as interesting, the difficulty isn't as engaging, and the buildup to the big bad guy is practically nonexistent.  Story wasn't the main focus in DS1, but here it feels way more barebones.  And the final boss

seriously just looks like Nito got a sex change.  C'mon, where the fuck did that come from?

 

Overall, it's a good game, but it's doomed to live in its predecessor's shadow, and to me, is the lesser experience.

[Teoskaven]

And the final boss

seriously just looks like Nito got a sex change.  C'mon, where the fuck did that come from?

According to the lore, she is a fragment of Manus' (the father of the Abyss of the DLC part of the first game) essence and for some reason her human form is incredibly similar to the one of a character of Demon's Souls.

[LATER BUDDY]

I haven't moved much since last post, but those 3 stupid spear robot sentinels things boss is a pain in the ass and I've been retrying it forever, >:U .

 

I've noticed this game likes to lob more enemies at once at you compared to last game, and not positive if that's why I feel like the game has been harder than the first game. It could be because I kinda tanked everything with Havel's armor + black knight sword in the first game compared to this light armor + boxing champion cestuses get up I have going this time. But regardless, I kinda liked when I could spar with something one on one instead of always doing these group fights. Not that it was always easier so to say, it just felt more fun to me. Luckily so far I haven't run into many multi boss things like the one I'm stuck on, but I really do hope there isn't many.

 

Also, what stuffs were you using Greg? Was kinda curious haha

[Chronozoah]

Just a heads up, there are a couple more multi-boss encounters later down the line, if memory serves.

[Badnik Mechanic]

So started doing this for serious now... 

 

Initial thoughts =/

 

It's nice, I liked the women at the start, had a real Shakespeare/Macbeth vibe, almost makes me want a Shakespeare/Macbeth RPG. Wasn't really feeling the initial area, the one which looks like a bunch of paths over a bottomless pit, it didn't really set it as much as demons souls or Dark Souls 1's intro did.

 

There's something... off... about it, not sure what it is, want to say the frame rate, and I want to say screen tearing, but I don't think it's either of those things, something about the way the camera moves tends to make me a feel a little dizzy.

 

Maybe I'll get used to it.

 

Visually, it looks great, though I find myself comparing it to the bullshots they promoted the game with.

[Phos]

Ok, so this post is going to be a little spoiler bits, initial trailer comparison time:

 

 

This trailer and Bamco's explanation of it threw a lot of people off, made it sound like you played as a defined character.  The next trailer almost exclusively used the generic character you get before creating your own.  BUT I'm not sure why they featured a forossan knight so heavily, no character in the game wears that set.  I guess it was supposed to be representative of a charatcer using two handed stance?  Honestly the double handed power stance is kinda not a big deal, there's still no way to block or parry while using it. 

 

I still have no god damn clue why Kalamete is in this trailer.  The dragons encountered in this game are either drakes or the ancient dragon which that obviously is not.  

 

As for the scene with her handing you the feather, I don't think they really hit what they were looking for with character animations.  Might just be a big case of From not having as much time as they really wanted.  

 

By the way, those masked wearing assailants in the trailer?  They were redesigned... and are now those headless (yes, headless) mooks in earthen peak.  They have those swords and everything.  In spite of them not wearing a mask (cause of the no headedness of them) you can still find a mask described as being theirs, but it looks nothing like the one in the trailer.  Lemme put it this way, I wouldn't be able to tell you which is the lost sinner's mask and which is the manakin mask in a lineup.  

[Gregzilla]

 

Also, what stuffs were you using Greg? Was kinda curious haha

 

Mainly stuck with a Bastard Sword, which was reinforced to +10 by the end, Old Knight Armor, the Tower Shield, and a Sorcerer's Staff +5 with Great Soul Arrows and Great Heavy Soul Arrows.  

[SuperStingray]

Ok, so this post is going to be a little spoiler bits, initial trailer comparison time:

 

 

This trailer and Bamco's explanation of it threw a lot of people off, made it sound like you played as a defined character.  The next trailer almost exclusively used the generic character you get before creating your own.  BUT I'm not sure why they featured a forossan knight so heavily, no character in the game wears that set.  I guess it was supposed to be representative of a charatcer using two handed stance?  Honestly the double handed power stance is kinda not a big deal, there's still no way to block or parry while using it. 

 

I still have no god damn clue why Kalamete is in this trailer.  The dragons encountered in this game are either drakes or the ancient dragon which that obviously is not.  

 

As for the scene with her handing you the feather, I don't think they really hit what they were looking for with character animations.  Might just be a big case of From not having as much time as they really wanted.  

 

By the way, those masked wearing assailants in the trailer?  They were redesigned... and are now those headless (yes, headless) mooks in earthen peak.  They have those swords and everything.  In spite of them not wearing a mask (cause of the no headedness of them) you can still find a mask described as being theirs, but it looks nothing like the one in the trailer.  Lemme put it this way, I wouldn't be able to tell you which is the lost sinner's mask and which is the manakin mask in a lineup.  

Announcement trailers always have stuff that's cut from the final game, especially when they don't show actual gameplay in them.

[Candescence]

So, coming straight from NeoGAF, a summary of the latest GiantBombCast, which discussed some hands-on time with a preview version of the PC version:

 

GiantBombcast Info:
This is a preview build retail build will follow.
Totaly Competent PC version
Maxed out with no drops on an older PC
Better shaders, textures etc. 
The leaked option screens seem legit
Loading times on PC 2-4 secs on a standard HDD. SSD probably faster.

 

The leaked option screen, btw:

 

 

 

They pretty much said "this is the best version, hands down." Probably not gonna be the same quality as the original previews, but modding can fix most of that, hopefully.

[Phos]

Announcement trailers always have stuff that's cut from the final game, especially when they don't show actual gameplay in them.

From is a little strange with their CG trailers, I almost get the idea that they make the trailer first and then base a game off it.  They often highlight cut attributes, like the core transforming while using vanguard over boost in For Answer.  

 

What I'm curious about is how they even expected Kalameet to work in the story.  

[Phos]

Double Post!

 

Quick look for the PC version is up.

 

That ladder is still wood.

[Badnik Mechanic]

IGN PS3 Vs PC comparison.

 

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2014/04/08/dark-souls-2-ps3-vs-pc-graphics-comparison

 

The difference is... texture quality.

 

That's it, awesome lighting = gone to Blighttown.

[Remy]

I still don't really get the explosion of hate over the lightning. The torch effects are still there- as seen by areas like the gutter which is lit almost entirely by torch. Dragon's Aerie, also looks a lot like pre release footage did. Moreso than that screenshot of Aldia's Keep everyone keeps posting ad infinitum anyway.

Were people honestly expecting they completely rework the lighting engine for the PC release? Really? The level of fake technical knowledge and posturing amongst gamers is almost ruining online discussion.

 

It's still a very good looking game almost all the time, even if some areas are "flat". The art design is extremely strong and some areas are simply beautiful. Besides who plays Souls games for high tech graphics, anyway? They've always been a gameplay first, who gives a fuck about being technically impressive kind of series since birth. 

[Autosaver]

The problem really has nothing to do with the level of graphics. The problem is that the publishers misled consumers with gameplay footage of an incredibly immersive game that stood out. It was on everyone's radar thanks to how amazing it looked. As shown by the comparisons, there was a massive downgrade that removed the same sense of immersion. This is the same reason why people raged over Watch Dogs. There was this AMAZING game being shown and the final product is miles away from it.

 

The developers said that the PC version would be the main version so many thought that the PS3 version just couldn't handle it so they downgraded the game. That is reasonable but it's still shitty they misled consumers this way.

 

Now with PC footage being released, people are seeing how it's not a major improvement. The graphics settings has YES/NO features instead of actual settings which is usually an indicator that it's a poor port and not build from the ground up for it like they said it would be. Also, max settings doesn't seem to give a huge improvement compared to the PS3 version. The improvement is higher resolution and higher framerate here.

 

This problem wouldn't have ever popped up if the developers were true to their word and stopped "faking" everything related to the game. Hyping consumers up and failing to reach those expectations WILL cause flack. Yes, it's a good game gameplay wise but it's a huge disappointment everywhere else.

[Badnik Mechanic]

PC version delayed.

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=802296

 

New date appears to be May 2nd.

[Phos]

Might have to do with those sconces randomly not casting dynamic shadows.  

[Badnik Mechanic]

DLC announced.

 

3 Episodes to come, here is the trailer for Episode 1.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_24S4j-jWU

 

http://kotaku.com/dark-souls-ii-is-getting-three-dlc-episodes-1585991405?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

[Teoskaven]

Called them, but still interested: i wonder what part of the lore they will expand. I swear i've seen Seath's skelton somewhere in that trailer...