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Forums - Gaming - Dark Souls II official thread of telling us your journey through Drangleic

I finally had time again to play the game. Wow this game draws you in. I'm taking it slow, don't want to miss anything. Plus I had some trouble getting around as a sorcerer at the start, down to 50% max health. Targeting is still extremely finicky, moving around while keeping your target the same from a group requires some practice. Climbing the ladder after the first valley of the giants bonfire didn't go well.

I settled on straight sword + sorcerer's staff in right hand, shield plus dagger in left hand. Hitting them with a soul arrow then following up with left handed dagger while they are stunned is very efficient. From there it started getting easier, soon I could buy another soul arrow spell giving me 60 total, upgraded the sorcerer's staff to +3, then added a great soul arrow spell to my arsenal. Some things may be tricky as a sorcerer, but when you figure out how to use the terrain and/or stay out of reach it becomes pretty easy.

Ofcourse not really easy, with half a health bar I'm still toast with a couple hits, sometimes only 1 hit is enough. Plus my curiosity keeps killing me, can I make that jump, nope can not. Can I fall down safely with this damn expensive ring I saved up for, nope. After using an effigy, still nope.

After exploring every nook I finally took on the first boss, it went down on the first attempt. There were no pits to fall in :) More playtime tomorrow I hope.

Btw, anyone know if there is any point in lighting the torches? Any other purpose than light? I have the brightness set to max, it's hard enough already to distinguish the enemies from the background in the low res blur :/



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Yes its great game not hard if you play with others but if you want a challenge go fight the bosses without help like I do ;) and for anyone who said its easy wait until you reach the huge dog boss.



Been using the Heike Sword pretty much the whole game, it's +8 atm. Will use pike or halberd when I want range, like breaking poison vase.

Game is so good. Dunno about some people issues with the effigy system, I don't find them to be scare at all, I got up to 18 at one point without purchasing any. People just need to be more patient.

Stopped at the 2nd boss in the dragleic castle, hopefully I can plow through and finish tomorrow so I can start ng+.



Soriku said:
kabamarutr said:
Soriku said:
kabamarutr said:
The game lets you start with a single Estus flask. That's off-putting, no doubt about it, but it also provides with life gems every now and then (a nice touch from Demon's). Life is cut in half, gradually, but a restoration ring is found very early in the game. Add some AI problems, early powerful weapons and a quite lower difficulty and you have the whole "difficulty picture".

What's really making the game hard is the enemy vanishing after a ten or so kills. That means there is a finite amount of souls to collect from each area. Which in turn means that if you die often (and lose souls) you will not regain them easily. Grinding and farming is very limited. In the long run that will prove really sore for the gamer.


Disagree entirely. You definitely don't need close to the number of souls from killing all (or most) enemies 10 times to get through an area. That's just overkill unless you keep losing a large number of souls and suddenly need to level up/upgrade equipment, which really shouldn't happen unless you just never go back to the bonfire and then Majula for whatever strange reason.

I'm at lvl 60, have a Falchion +6. and have only had three enemies disappear on me. I haven't been having too hard of a time.

You can also make souls back in other ways. PvP, sell at stuff at Gavlan, use the items that give you souls, use a bonfire ascetic to bring all enemies back (they're harder, but they give you more souls too). You can also get a Covetous Silver Serpent Ring which gives you 20% more souls by buying 10k souls worth of stuff from the Traveling Merchant (old lady), then talking to her.

You've obviously did not understand what I said at all. The number of souls in each area is finite. After 10 or so kills opponents disappear rendering farming impossible. There's nothing to argue about that.


Umm...did you read my post? I literally addressed what you just said about enemies disappearing after being killed 10 times in my second sentence. Yes, souls in areas can potentially be finite...and? How is that really making the game hard, when you can get through areas without killing most enemies 10 times? You have more than enough opportunities to get souls to level up or upgrade your equipment before enemies start disappearing.

In the long run, this doesn't matter. Let's assume you're at the end of the game, at a high level, but still want to level up more. You kill all the enemies in an area. There are still potentially other areas you can farm at. If not, use a bonfire ascetic (which you can buy later in the game) to respawn all enemies. They're harder, but drop more souls and more rare items. Or you can do PvP, which is how I got most of my souls in Dark Souls 1 (some people would drop 700K+ souls). Or you can help people with bosses, or hell, just go to NG+. All enemies are back, and they drop more souls. You can also use the ring I mentioned to speed up the process. Plus I heard there's an easy way to get souls later in the game anyway.

In terms of leveling up or upgrading equipment, this is no issue due to the sheer number of souls you'll get just by clearing one area. And there are many areas you can go at a time. I can only see a problem with farming specific equipment, but even then, just use a bonfire ascetic.

What you say is valid, but let us focus on some key points so you can see my argument here.

All these things you say, was in the previous game as well. They are de-facto ways of acquiring souls. PvP was there, New Game+ was  there, heck, even the Covetous Serpent Ring was there. What wasn't there, is the merchant who buys junk for souls (the sacrilege, here), but there  was some complicated trading done with Kingseeker Frampt. Even the Bonfire Ascetic is some sort of reiteration of the Black World Tendency in Demon's.

What was really there never before, is the enemy respawn limit. 

Let me make an example. Suppose an area has 20 enemies worthing 30souls each. If those respawn approximately 10 times, then the maximum souls that can be acquired in that area is 30X20X10=6000.  They are not infinite as before.

Now, if someone plays carelessly and loses a couple of thousand, he can never get those back. In addition, should one want to return to that are for farming, he'll find way less profit than in any other Souls game.

It's not necessary to need to farm only at the end of a game. Let's give another example. A player cannot beat the Belfry Gargoyles, so he or she needs to raise the character's souls level. What better to do than go to that glorious farmland, named Heides Tower of Flame and beat those slow giants a million times over? That's no longer an option. Those giants will be gone. Permanently.

All in all, a key aspect to the game (farming, that is) is seriously limited. Players cannot level up by farming before progressing into new areas, leaving them somewhat underpowered to face the challenges. Let me repeat here, that all the other options you've mentioned still exist, as they did in earlier games. so the quota is we're minus one option in levelling up and gaining an edge.



This, I stole from grandpa...It's called soap.

Soriku said:
kabamarutr said:

What you say is valid, but let us focus on some key points so you can see my argument here.

All these things you say, was in the previous game as well. They are de-facto ways of acquiring souls. PvP was there, New Game+ was  there, heck, even the Covetous Serpent Ring was there. What wasn't there, is the merchant who buys junk for souls (the sacrilege, here), but there  was some complicated trading done with Kingseeker Frampt. Even the Bonfire Ascetic is some sort of reiteration of the Black World Tendency in Demon's.

What was really there never before, is the enemy respawn limit. 

Let me make an example. Suppose an area has 20 enemies worthing 30souls each. If those respawn approximately 10 times, then the maximum souls that can be acquired in that area is 30X20X10=6000.  They are not infinite as before.

Now, if someone plays carelessly and loses a couple of thousand, he can never get those back. In addition, should one want to return to that are for farming, he'll find way less profit than in any other Souls game.

It's not necessary to need to farm only at the end of a game. Let's give another example. A player cannot beat the Belfry Gargoyles, so he or she needs to raise the character's souls level. What better to do than go to that glorious farmland, named Heides Tower of Flame and beat those slow giants a million times over? That's no longer an option. Those giants will be gone. Permanently.

All in all, a key aspect to the game (farming, that is) is seriously limited. Players cannot level up by farming before progressing into new areas, leaving them somewhat underpowered to face the challenges. Let me repeat here, that all the other options you've mentioned still exist, as they did in earlier games. so the quota is we're minus one option in levelling up and gaining an edge.


If you lose a couple thousand it's not a big deal unless you lose those thousands of souls all the time. The only way I can see that happening is if you really suck and never choose to go back to Majula. I'd also have to question how you were able to beat the enemies to get that many souls to begin with if you just keep losing them...

Even if you have trouble with the Gargoyles and want to farm, you have many more places you can go than just Heide's Tower. Remember this is an open world game. But really, those big knights give you a lot of souls, and killing them 10 times should be more than enough, let alone clearing every other area available to you in addition to that.

Worst case scenario, you can always co-op the boss.

You do not seem to understand that you have one option less than before and the simple math that infinite>finite. I really have nothing more to say here. Stick to your explanation if it suits you that much.

This reminded me the reason why I no longer post here. I have neither the  time nor the mental capacity to keep such stubborn arguments.



This, I stole from grandpa...It's called soap.

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http://www.dsogaming.com/news/namco-bandai-will-make-an-announcement-about-dark-souls-2s-downgrade-ation-next-week/

I'm glad I didn't get it, I knew that steady framerate had to come at a cost. Heres hoping for a PS4 version which will rectify these issues.



Just beat the pursuer making my boss count at 4. There are so many directions to chose i don't where to go. Currently have a falchion+3 and a +2 old halbred. Waiting to find some large titanite for them upgrades.



Soriku said:


Torches are just there for light. Also, yup, this game just draws you in like the other two Souls games.

Btw you can get a ring that makes it so your HP only goes down 25% from max instead of 50%. If you know where Heide's Tower of Flame is from Majula, go there. Run past the first three knights, go the circular area with three more knights, take the top left exit, run past the next two knights, then quickly kill the last knight near the drawbridge before the rest can catch up. Killing him will unlock a lever you can pull down which lowers the drawbridge. Wait till it goes down then check the treasure chest to find the Ring of Binding.

Gotta love suicide runs in these games lol.

Also I'm using a Falchion +6 atm. Very good weapon.

I just killed the first giant and got the soldier's key. Can I get to Heide's tower with that? I haven't found any large titanite yet so can't upgrade past +3, you must be quite a bit further. I'm taking my time yet already quit on my intention not to use fast travel after depleting the enemies in the first area, it's just empty ground now :/

I lit a symbol on a wall in a basement with a trapped chest (killed me instantly) and locked door. Used Pharros contraption thingie, but no clue what it does? I guess it becomes clear later?



Soriku said:
kabamarutr said:

You do not seem to understand that you have one option less than before and the simple math that infinite>finite. I really have nothing more to say here. Stick to your explanation if it suits you that much.

This reminded me the reason why I no longer post here. I have neither the  time nor the mental capacity to keep such stubborn arguments.


lol, what is your issue?

Souls aren't finite due to bonfire ascetics and infinite NG+ if you choose to go that path. Beyond that, co-op and PvP provide an infinite number of souls as well on a single playthrough. But really, how many souls can you possibly need to find this a problem?

You said in your first post that "What's really making the game hard is the enemy vanishing after a ten or so kills" and "In the long run that will prove really sore for the gamer." None of these things are true. How can you be finding the game hard when you'd be doing more grinding than the game requires you to do?

I can see his point. If you keep buying human effigies at 1500 a pop instead of just living with a diminished health bar you get behind on the difficulty curve. If you don't like to resort to co-op that's one less option to make up for it.

Plus it's nice to have familiar enemies to practice new techniques on, I ran out of respawns trying different combinations to see how I could get through the first area unscathed as a lowly sorcerer while relearning the terrible lock on targeting.

Next I didn't want to use fast travel, but now the previous areas are empty it's just boring walking back. It was always nice in DS to run back and dispatch foes with ease that used to give you so much trouble.

Lastly I notice it's encouraging me to clean up areas now there's a finite nr of spawns. I actually have too many souls, not knowing what to spend them on. I already have 4 spell slots but not enough spells, bunch of bought rings, bought all the tritanite shards at the blacksmith. It's only hard because I don't like using effigies and run around with half health, and don't want to level up too fast not knowing what I'll need later.



BasilZero said:
Waiting for the PC version!

That's probably the smarter option. It looks pretty bad imo. Sometimes it's very hard to make out enemies from the background. It really shouldn't be so hard to spot an archer! Plus the framerate is far from steady as well.
But it's just so much fun! And despite the looks, the geometry and level layout is what makes the game.
If only this game had a ps4 version...