From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Spark Mandriller]

Ah yes, first you pay five dollars a month to allow invasions, then you pay in-game farm-able currency to prevent them.

Hey, that still makes more sense than needing to pay five dollars a month as well as farmable currency to allow them. Invasions should be a threat, not just optional. Now if you want invasion immunity you have to pay, instead of being totally safe unless you spend humanity just to enable them. I call that an improvement.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Ah yes, first you pay five dollars a month to allow invasions, then you pay in-game farm-able currency to prevent them.

Hey, that still makes more sense than needing to pay five dollars a month as well as farmable currency to allow them. Invasions should be a threat, not just optional. Now if you want invasion immunity you have to pay, instead of being totally safe unless you spend humanity just to enable them. I call that an improvement.

Fair enough, but to be honest I stopped at 5 dollars a month.
I was never invaded in Dark Souls...

 

[dunno lah]

So far in all videos, I've never seen one instance of fast rolling. Maybe in the nude?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I am afraid you bros are losing me here. Why would you need to pay 5 dollars a month to allow invasions?

 

[Murk]

Yes, I too am confused. Is this an xbox live thing or is there some (unknown to me) clause requiring a monthly subscription?

 

[LivingOne]

Well,iirc xbox live costs 60 dollars per year so that's it i think
edit@below:

so to play online on ps3 (invasions-coop-) you need to pay for ps+?

no

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

i dont get something. so to play online on ps3 (invasions-coop-) you need to pay for ps+? i know you have to pay for ps+ to play online on ps4 but without monthly subscription could you invade in dark souls/demons solus on ps3?

PC MUSTARD RACE here dont own any consoles

 

[Blackguard]

I am quite mad that this game is so delayed for PC. By the time I get to play it everything will be figured out :/

There isn't even a release date for the PC version yet. Could be delayed 2 weeks, could be delayed 2 months.

I'm pretty sure it will be closer to 2 months than 2 weeks. I mean they have had PC version in the works at least since late 2012 too. As

I forgoy about the PC delay... Damn, I was readying myself for march but who knows now.

It could be anything from few weeks to few months. Hard to believe FS couldn't finish the PC version the at the same time as the console versions, especially since apparently PC was the main development platform. Most likely the real for the delay is because Sony/MS wanted to make DS2 timed console exclusive. Anyway doesn't matter to me already got the PS3 version pre-ordered!

 

[DragoFireheart]

You know what though, I think From revels in the idea of people breaking their consoles in frustration, so maybe they will make souls nonrenewable.

I blame the people beating the game on Soul Level 1.

 

[praetor]

Ah yes, first you pay five dollars a month to allow invasions, then you pay in-game farm-able currency to prevent them.

don't blame the game that you're stupid to pay to play online for your xcocks

indeed

I would assume the reviewers are retarded. Souls are disposable; you can lose them permanently if you die often and these games are built around death. If souls are both disposable and nonrenewable some players may find themselves gimped and possibly unable to progress.

and why is that a bad thing? you fuck up, you pay for the consequences. plenty of that in other games

 

[Sòren]

The world’s more populated
The world of Dark Souls 2 feels much more lived-in and populated with NPCs. In the opening minutes of the game I encountered a brightly lit cottage within a dark cavernous space – unnervingly echoes of Hansel & Gretel. Inside were four different characters, three elderly retired Firekeepers who fixed their milky, disgusting cataracts-covered eyes on me and opined on the curse I bore, and a serving girl with multiple snippets of dialogue. I had to engage certain NPCs in dialogue three or even four times to hear all of what they had to say.

Then just outside the tutorial area, I stepped out into bright light where I found a sun-kissed coastline, lapping waves, and an honest-to-god settlement. There was a chatty merchant in one shop who told me about his journeys. There was a sorrowful adventurer sitting by an obelisk who shared his tale of woe. And there was a woman who provided me my first Estus Flask. Then I found a Scottish knight who was sitting on the ground, stumped over how to enter a nearby locked door which another poor wretch had apparently been turned to stone while trying to open. Dark Souls 2 feels less lonely. And I can a larger and chattier NPC population bringing the story elements slightly more aggressively to the fore.

i don't even think that Dark Souls would have been more fascinating if there had been more dialog.
i think that the feeling of solitude and the minimalist dialog were a big part of my fascination with Dark Souls.

 

[Murk]

It worked but it did seem awfully strange that there were only, like, 7 sane people left in the entire kingdom. And that quite often they were 3 feet from a lightning spewing demon or something.

 

[Castanova]

I'm a little bummed about some of these changes... but only because I highly value speed runs and things like that. It sounds like they want to limit the ability to get through the game in reasonable time assuming you know what you're doing.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

I am afraid you bros are losing me here. Why would you need to pay 5 dollars a month to allow invasions?

Filthy Microsoft thinks it's the supreme joo...

well I'm here to contest that assessment...

shalom mutherfuckers

You know what though, I think From revels in the idea of people breaking their consoles in frustration, so maybe they will make souls nonrenewable.

I blame the people beating the game on Soul Level 1.

With nonrenewable souls and rolling tied (as far as we know, perhaps swing speed too) to Soul Level, From Software would inadvertently turn this into a grind-fest. You'd carefully clear every enemy in the first area repeatedly until they're gone, leveling up as able, proceed to subsequent areas, lather, rinse, repeat.

You'd basically have to or you'd be seriously outclassed in PVP, especially if PVP is tied to time playing and not Soul Level. I'm overthinking a situation that's purely based on speculation; I'm an ass.

Ah yes, first you pay five dollars a month to allow invasions, then you pay in-game farm-able currency to prevent them.

don't blame the game that you're stupid to pay to play online for your xcocks

indeed

Read more
Assume less

lest you look stoopid

 

[DragoFireheart]

With nonrenewable souls and rolling tied (as far as we know, perhaps swing speed too) to Soul Level, From Software would inadvertently turn this into a grind-fest. You'd carefully clear every enemy in the first area repeatedly until they're gone, leveling up as able, proceed to subsequent areas, lather, rinse, repeat.

You'd basically have to or you'd be seriously outclassed in PVP, especially if PVP is tied to time playing and not Soul Level. I'm overthinking a situation that's purely based on speculation; I'm an ass.

Or they can do what they've always done and just have a soft cap for stats.

The previous souls games could also be "grinded", but this did nothing if you didn't pick up any skills along the way. Honestly, the reviewers are likely full retard and are out pointing obvious shit we have already experienced.

 

[praetor]

With nonrenewable souls and rolling tied (as far as we know, perhaps swing speed too) to Soul Level, From Software would inadvertently turn this into a grind-fest. You'd carefully clear every enemy in the first area repeatedly until they're gone, leveling up as able, proceed to subsequent areas, lather, rinse, repeat.

You'd basically have to or you'd be seriously outclassed in PVP, especially if PVP is tied to time playing and not Soul Level. I'm overthinking a situation that's purely based on speculation; I'm an ass.

bolded the only intelligent thing you wrote

 

[Cowboy Moment]

and why is that a bad thing? you fuck up, you pay for the consequences. plenty of that in other games

Regardless of whether this is a good idea, I don't think From think of their games in terms of long-term consequences of failure (as opposed to say, XCOM, where one major fuckup can make the campaign unwinnable). A lot of the content in Dark Souls has built-in easy modes, allowing bad players to overcome the challenge if they persevere. It would be a major change in their design philosophy to make the game unwinnable after a certain volume of repeated failure.

 

[Borelli]

Who the fuck needs to kill the same amount of enemies fifteen times in order to progress? Most of my grinding was non-intentional i.e. i died at a boss so i killed the same enemies again on the way to him. DS is at its core an action game, so don't grind, git gud.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Who the fuck needs to kill the same amount of enemies fifteen times in order to progress? Most of my grinding was non-intentional i.e. i died at a boss so i killed the same enemies again on the way to him. DS is at its core an action game, so don't grind, git gud.

I can easily imagine new players needing to do this.

OR, old, skilled players who want to farm a Large Club/Balder Side Sword/Murakumo/crafting items/etc.

Making enemies non-respawnable en mass would make the game easier anyways. Die 15 and make them go away. Sounds full retard.

 

[aris]

I have a feeling that dark souls 2 will require a lot less of the twitchy barrel rolling around with little or no armor like a spastic maniac, to be beaten (something that they pushed even more in the expansion). So grinding will be less necessary, I'm guessing, if you like to play dark souls more like an RPG where you actually make use of your stats and manage your resources, rather than an action game, which was the best and most efficient way of playing dark souls (and the reason for why it was even possible to beat the game at SL1 with pyromancy).

I admit that I grinded the phalanx in DS a bit before taking on ornstein and smough, as relying on heavy armor and and a high stability shield, simply did not cut it, unless you were sufficiently high level against them.

 

[Heresiarch]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/da...e-is-may-31-according-to-amazon/1100-6417472/

 

[DragoFireheart]

I admit that I grinded the phalanx in DS a bit before taking on ornstein and smough, as relying on heavy armor and and a high stability shield, simply did not cut it, unless you were sufficiently high level against them.

A high stability shield and some kind of light-weight strength weapon is all you need (11lbs or lighter). As long as you maintain medium roll it's doable since not all attacks can be blocked. Can easily be done by level 40ish, which is more than reasonable for S&O.

Example: http://mmdks.com/5jd7

Fast/Flip roll is a crutch for noobs.

 

[Invictus]

Yeah the PC delay sucks big time but I bit the bullet and just preordered the PS3 version; my fanboyism is overloaded with DS2 amd I want to be there from the start. I don't belive that the PC version will be delayed till the end of May as implied here, but at least we are looking at a 6 week difference which would be too much for me. I will be ordering the PC Black Box version from the UK too so by the time we get the PC version I will be starting my second or third char on PS3 but it is ok, supporting From Software is not a problem at all for me (unlike piratable trash from EA or other POS companies) so it is all good.
Oh and the Black Knight shield, Dragon Crest shield or especialy the Balder shield are great for O&S, and even the hollow soldier shield properly upgraded has pretty good poise

 

[agentorange]

I admit that I grinded the phalanx in DS a bit before taking on ornstein and smough, as relying on heavy armor and and a high stability shield, simply did not cut it, unless you were sufficiently high level against them.

A high stability shield and some kind of light-weight strength weapon is all you need (11lbs or lighter). As long as you maintain medium roll it's doable.Can easily be done by level 40ish, which is more than reasonable for S&O.

Example: http://mmdks.com/5jd7

Fast/Flip roll is a crutch for noobs.

Are you really saying that keeping up a shield or relying on poise and armor is LESS of a crutch than being skilled at dodging as a low hp character?

 

[DragoFireheart]

Are you really saying that keeping up a shield or relying on poise and armor is LESS of a crutch than being skilled at dodging as a low hp character?

Poise is a crutch as well. Properly managing your stamina via blocking isn't.

The most derp character is some 77 poise fast rolling dumbass with a long ass spear.

EDIT: Scratch that part about the spear and change it to Dark Magic user ala Dark Bead. That is full retard.