hard to be a caveman (dark souls 2 first timer thread)

homeward bone is such a cute name for an item. like its something that belongs in earthbound

13 Likes

Iā€™m like 2/3rds of the way up from Majula to the ā€œbeginning areaā€, Iā€™m in a storeroom in that underground area before the final stretch and my dagger just broke. The only other weapons on me are a collection of broken straight swords. I stupidly went through a one-way hole where you drop down so I know thereā€™s probably a horrible jumpscare that I donā€™t know is there because I have little experience with Scholar if I try and run back to the last bonfire or trying to run through a section to the next bonfire that I know really well in the base game and will almost certainly murder me in Scholar.

Or I can stay in this saferoom.

9 Likes

i like fragrant branch of yore a lot

8 Likes

from what i recall does dark souls 2 sotfs on ps4 have really fragile weaponsā€¦ i love that kind of shit but ofc i do

4 Likes

it used to be bugged and then they fixed it (weapons were breaking too fast on PC because of high fps) but even afterwards the weapons are still pretty fragile.

3 Likes

Sleepy was right it was the Pursuer boss battle (the first one in the base version). Impossible to dodge boss (I did not have enough ADP apparently, good to start you on an involuntary hard mode as you try to relearn stuff), I as always cannot parry to save my life (different game but I still despise Father Gascoigne), only won the battle after dozen of attempts when I finally parried it and then hit it with a ballista and it died in a single hit. Wasnā€™t even satisfying, a true ā€œThatā€™s it? Thatā€™s what you wanted?ā€ moment. Again, base DS 2 deserves much of its reputation.

6 Likes

that sounds awesome actually I would have hollered

6 Likes

I wonder how I dealt with that boss. I beat the vanilla version and SotfS a couple times each and to the best of my memory didnā€™t parry anyone, ever, boss or regular enemy, in the whole game. Same for Demonā€™s, DS1 and DS3. I never came close to figuring out the timing; couldnā€™t even manage it in the tutorial. I must have gotten a high stability shield or pumped ADP or something

Edit: upon further reflection, since I never got the ballista to work either, donā€™t like playing co-op or even with NPC summons, and didnā€™t really understand ADP until I watched those domo videos linked in the first post (so, at least 5 years since I last played), and donā€™t wear heavy armor, Iā€™m guessing I got my hands on some kinda fancy shield

8 Likes

got the bastard

second try. spent the first try hacking and dodging (much easier to dodge if you roll at him shield-side when heā€™s attacking than away from him) but wasnā€™t doing enough damage and got impatient/dead. parrying was too high stakes so ballista cheese it was

also, first time I played DS2 was PS3 vanilla just like I am now but I did get into SotFS a bit and was poking around for the NPC summon I seemed to remember but itā€™s only in that later version apparently :upside_down_face:

8 Likes

Finallyā€¦

12 Likes

Also you know the gutter is a fucked up area but I feel like the game has lost its mind at the same point I have. The glowing green poison downhill fuck zone is ridiculous. Why did I just kill two woodland childs. Why is Lucatiel just hanging out in this shithole.

6 Likes

Dragonrider, what a chump. Heideā€™s Tower, what a placeā€¦that skybox, those background billboard cutout ruins, and again, that water shader


and the dumb dumb knights idk this whole area always stuck me as an extremely video gamey chunk of NES crude purity fed into and dreamt out of a dying super computer or something. the whole concept of making the approaching boss arena safer to fight in by flipping switches that magically appear after clearing certain areas of knights (canā€™t confirm, but itā€™s possible to not use any switches and trick Dragonrider into lunging off the edge of the default smallest possible arena!?) is the kind of boss gimmickry Iā€™m here for in a Souls game. give me the wacky (Pursuer def qualifies) over the multi-phase white knuckle duels of later games

reached the wharf. what a nice series of liminal spaces got me there. must go to bed or Iā€™ll regret it tomorrow

12 Likes

I appreciate that ds2 allowed me to develop a caveman style escalation of force. Regular club for breaking poison statues and weak enemies like hollows, large club for most work and giant club for the real business. This is a lifestyle that I embrace.

10 Likes

Game rules.

4 Likes

low poly manā€¦

8 Likes

I am obsessed with getting souls. I donā€™t care about seeing that much more of the world. I just want more souls and eventually I will need to leave Majula to get them.

Iā€™ve been poking at the spokes sticking out of Majulaā€™s hub. I went back to the starting area to see if I could farm souls from the big troll man. To my distaste, it appears he is gone forever. Imagine how happy I was to find another troll man in the forest right next to a small cavern opening that he could not enter. This is what my character, Guppy, lives for.

9 Likes

crestfallen mode:
found yourself a demonā€™s soul, have you?
iā€™m impressedā€¦ yes indeed, i am.
stay the path, and you will soon be a monster yourself!

hahaha

i do like how one theme of almost every fromsoft game is that you are just on the path to being a monster and most of your enemies are like, people ahead of you on that path. but then the games kind of mostly just tease you about this and kind of wink and say ā€œoh, you really do like being a bad little monster, donā€™t you?ā€ and you just nod and ask for more bloodshed and filth

14 Likes

Yeah, Iā€™m roleplaying as someone from this world. I mean, Iā€™m already undead. Thereā€™s no honor here.

6 Likes

i loaded up some of my characters that i made back they turned the multiplayer servers back on, belfry luna pvp has always been my favorite part (apart from rat covenant pvp, but that hardly ever happens anymore) and my pc has like 8 characters who are all at belfry luna pvp level or just above it . thereā€™s still a lot of multiplayer activity, at least on weekend mornings. 2-handing the channelerā€™s trident, walking right up next to people, and poking them with it remains a winning strategy. i farmed 5 chunks this morning between hosting and invading in bell keeper pvp, 1 more and i can fully upgrade the light crossbow in my offhand

6 Likes

this is the one game in the series where i got into PvP and had a good time. used to hang out on the Iron Keep bridge challenging people to dragon duels

4 Likes