From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Roguey]

360 and PS3? This gen is ending soon. Sounds like this might be a quick SLAMDUNK! cash-in.

 

[felipepepe]

as well as the ridiculous amount of estus you could get which further supported attrition, even 10 estus flasks was way too much seeing as how a lot of the bonfires weren't all that far apart. Don't forget you could run out of grass completely in Demons Souls...

And when you did you probably had to went back to 1-1 to farm herbs... that's shitty design man. DaS may freely give you estus, but it's a double edged blade, as you are capped in how many of those you can carry. In my latest DeS playthrough I had almost 50 herbs with me at the end of the game...

 

[praetor]

Could be, but there wouldn't be any shortage of getting my ass handed back to me if I went back to DeS at this point. DaS, however, was streamlined to be more accessible to new players.

lol. you hear it here first folks: removing hp regen, limiting health "potions" and introducing vancian magic instead of mana-based (with plenty of mana potions)=streamlining. i replayed DeS after finishing DaS and it was laughably trivial with all the grass and regen gear (and 50% eq burden fast roll and faster run speed and faster weapon animations etc etc...). you could argue it's easier because you have more frequent "checkpoints" but with all the shortcuts in both games... the only way to play to make it somewhat challenging would be Barbarian without leveling. SL1 DeS is easy (lolRoyal class with plenty of OP magic at your disposal.. not that DaS is any different with the Pyro and elemental weapons)

 

[AngryEddy]

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...more-approachable-series-creator-steps-aside/

"We sympathise if that sort of statement concerns you, but at the same time, we can surely agree that we would all like to see Dark Souls attain as great a presence as The Elder Scrolls. How it gets there is a worthy matter for debate, but it's certainly a noble task."

 

[ShlongMaster]

as well as the ridiculous amount of estus you could get which further supported attrition, even 10 estus flasks was way too much seeing as how a lot of the bonfires weren't all that far apart. Don't forget you could run out of grass completely in Demons Souls...

And when you did you probably had to went back to 1-1 to farm herbs... that's shitty design man. DaS may freely give you estus, but it's a double edged blade, as you are capped in how many of those you can carry. In my latest DeS playthrough I had almost 50 herbs with me at the end of the game...

I definitely agree on that, I'm still inclined to believe that it is sort of a safety net, don't get me wrong I thought the system worked quite well and felt more natural and consistent in terms of gameplay & story/lore. I just felt that the amount you could get was too excessive and promoted people equipping heavy armor and trading blows with enemies while chugging on potions with very little tactics and very little knowledge of how to even play the game.

I watched some playthroughs of people that did this, people that had no understanding of the game and seemingly no ability to learn simple mechanics like blocking, and not wasting stamina by spamming attacks, leaving some so that you can block/roll away etc. yet somehow these people managed to get through the game because of the safety net that high poise and lots of estus created for them.

Overall the difficulty of the two games is probably similar , but to me it feels like Demons Souls didn't allow you to play sloppy and get away with as many mistakes as Dark Souls does.

 

[praetor]

mainly due to poise

and DeS had hyperarmour. same thing except one is tied to armour and the other to weapon animations. and DeS enemies didn't have poise so were staggered as easily as the PC. and you had to be really, really bad at the game to run out of grass...

and i think it's unfair to judge the NPC summons in DkS as a step to make it easier, i rather look at them as a step to make some MP content accessible to those that want to/have to play only offline (and perhaps entice them to switch to online) or with bad internet connections (then again, maybe i'm wrong as almost all the required bosses have npc summons as options...)

 

[Cabazone]

I'm the only one who feel the somewhat "european" visual style (for lack of better word) from the early games have been reduced in profit of a more "americanized" imagery ? I mean, the art direction seems to be a mix between LOTR movies and Skyrim.

 

[Rahdulan]

I'm the only one who feel the somewhat "european" visual style (for lack of better word) from the early games have been reduced in profit of a more "americanized" imagery ? I mean, the art direction seems to be a mix between LOTR movies and Skyrim.

Somewhat, but it could just be a marketing scheme. I personally don't care about what they put in cinematics as long as the game itself remains solid.

 

[Emily]

why is this in jrpg forum?

 

[felipepepe]

why is this in jrpg forum?

Jaesun being Jaesun.

 

[Emily]

why is this in jrpg forum?

Jaesun being Jaesun.

i am seriously starting to get pissed off by it.
Can't Crooked Bee do something about it?
This really doesn't have anything with traditional JRPG-s

 

[Crooked Bee]

Please don't start this whole discussion about what belongs where again. The current division is retarded, true, but it is what it is. "From an asian developer" -> JRPG subforum.

End of rhine.
---------------- <- rhine ends here

 

[Hobo Elf]

Could be, but there wouldn't be any shortage of getting my ass handed back to me if I went back to DeS at this point. DaS, however, was streamlined to be more accessible to new players.

lol. you hear it here first folks: removing hp regen, limiting health "potions" and introducing vancian magic instead of mana-based (with plenty of mana potions)=streamlining. i replayed DeS after finishing DaS and it was laughably trivial with all the grass and regen gear (and 50% eq burden fast roll and faster run speed and faster weapon animations etc etc...). you could argue it's easier because you have more frequent "checkpoints" but with all the shortcuts in both games... the only way to play to make it somewhat challenging would be Barbarian without leveling. SL1 DeS is easy (lolRoyal class with plenty of OP magic at your disposal.. not that DaS is any different with the Pyro and elemental weapons)

I only disagree with you on vancian magic. Playing as a mage with vancian magic was definitely much MUCH easier than handling mana in DeS. Bonfires everywhere and they were overly generous with the spell charges. In DeS you had to make the choice between using Dragon's Rage once or twice, or casting a bunch of Soul Arrows. DaS lets you do both without repercussion. Yeah, sure, you could eat spice to recover your mana and it was go time again, but that also means that it was a few seconds spent being vulnerable to attack. I just always felt like I was a fully loaded artillery cannon in DaS and I could just kill everyone with magic and have enough for the boss fight as well. In DeS I pretty much had to use some INT based weapons to complement myself unless I wanted to waste spices (which I'd have to farm again) or just stand and wait for my mana regen, because your mana pool alone isn't enough to carry you from beginning to end using magic only.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Yeah, that talk at EDGE made me shiver...

I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle

FUCKING PROLES HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING GOOD IN ORDER TO BE PROFITABLE

 

[Volrath]

Casual Souls confirmed. Interest in game dwindling fast.

Motherfucking

 

[AngryEddy]

Day 1 purchase motherfuckers.

Please read the article I provided. The actual guy who made the Souls franchise, has left the company, while the companies standard, is that they want to compete with Skyrim. Not a good sign.

 

[felipepepe]

Day 1 purchase motherfuckers.

Please read the article I provided. The actual guy who made the Souls franchise, has left the company, while the companies standard, is that they want to compete with Skyrim. Not a good sign.

Where? The article you say cleary states that he will still be supervising. Obviously not a good sign, but still... I WANT TO BELIEVE!

Please don't kill such a glorious series,　です。

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Everything is shit.

 

[St. Toxic]

SL1 DeS is easy (lolRoyal class with plenty of OP magic at your disposal.. not that DaS is any different with the Pyro and elemental weapons)

Guess I'll have to retry DeS with Royal (never played that class), though melee-only SL1 DaS is trivial.

lol. you hear it here first folks: removing hp regen, limiting health "potions" and introducing vancian magic instead of mana-based (with plenty of mana potions)=streamlining.

Well, no. But removing hp-penalty for dying, putting campfires within 10 mins of each-other (that regen your 'spell charges' and 'health potions') and placing a helpful NPC phantom next to essentially each boss = streamlining. There's also no shortage of full-health items; the world is just cluttered with humanities and elixirs, in case your estus runs out. And, as someone else already said, just because spells are limited between resting does not mean it gets harder. It's just a trade-off, where you're trading sustain (mana pots) for burst (vancian).

 

[LivingOne]

Sadly I kinda expected this.It's still the AAAAA++ business after all...

The article you say cleary states that he will still be supervising. Obviously not a good sign, but still... I WANT TO BELIEVE!

Please don't kill such a glorious series,　です。

Then again I guess it would take a quite big dumbing down to make DS unplayable.Not sure they'll risk to loose much of the previous audience?

Put the game into the 'I'm just moderatly intrested' folder,dammit.


Now we need a King's Field/Shadow Tower kickstarter by Miyazaki tho'.

 

[Jasede]

GOTY.

 

[felipepepe]

Then again I guess it would take a quite big dumbing down to make DS unplayable.

That's true, the gameplay is so solid that they would have to REALLY fuck it up to be a bad game. Still, I would wish for a better game at each new relese, but that seems rare this days...

 

[LivingOne]

Then again I guess it would take a quite big dumbing down to make DS unplayable.

That's true, the gameplay is so solid that they would have to REALLY fuck it up to be a bad game. Still, I would wish for a better game at each new relese, but that seems rare this days...

For now I'm expecting Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith level design and Asylum/Taurus demon bosses.Wich,I guess,is not completely bad but man,its disappointing when you think what FS can do.

 

[felipepepe]

I'm actually more worried about the atmosphere & lore than the gameplay itself... the gameplay is already done, but if they wanna make things "direct", most of the subtle details in DaS that really made the game stand out will probably dissapear...

 

[LivingOne]

^That too.