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

drangleuc was built on the ruins of the acme factory

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oh also forgot that the actual word for ā€œsoul itemā€ is ā€œtreatā€. you gank guys to get hats and sometimes treats. the levels prank you with out of the way treats.

treats & hats

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Thinking about how this is the only souls game where the weapon movesets were all motion captured instead of hand animated

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manā€¦fuck Shrine of Amana. having to torchlight pitfalls while juggling lunging swamp freaks while dodging stupidly long range homing magic attacks while not getting on the wrong side of the big troll while wading through knee-deep water at half speedā€¦a cruel slog, for me at least. tried it slow, tried it fast, tried it super slowā€¦inching closer to the gateā€¦not even getting angry so much as very depressed last night lol. itā€™s doable but itā€™s miserable. I donā€™t have much in the way of long range attacks but maybe Iā€™ll stock up on arrows and take it super duper slow with my short bow.

it had been such smooth sailing after Lost Sinner, cutting through bosses on the first go for many. Lucatiel is even alive! or at least she was going into Smelter Demon where she was killed again idk how her quest line works maybe Iā€™ll see her againā€¦?

chomp

looking up at this statue the first time through I didnā€™t suspect there was more than meets the bullseye but after my one death to Old Iron King due to hubris, I found the ladder to the bonfire up there on my way back

did some backtracking to, among other things: find the chariot boss I remembered from years ago but didnā€™t realise Iā€™d passed on my first time through Huntsmanā€™s Copse


hunt down all the petrified peeps to use my Fragrant Branches of Yore, reviving one of the lion brutes, only to kill him and take his key, dropping back down into the acid pit cave below the forest ruins where wheelchair Gandalf was, killing the bug-eyed curse creatures and opening the door to find


: O just a lovely fantasy adventure dreamsense sequence

for all Iā€™d heard about Drangleic castle (nice place, I like the darkness + specularity on some materials cranked to white hot*) I kinda thought it might be the end game areaā€¦


but now Iā€™m in Amana. going glossy-eyed thinking about trying again tonight


*appreciate the aesthetic extreme swings/unintended rough edges like the way the anti-aliasing fights and fails against the fog here making the outline of the enemies super jaggy and swimmy and pleasant in a Quake-like way (that doesnā€™t read well in this gif but if youā€™re passing through Harvest Valley, have a look)

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Shrine of Amana is much more fair in sotfs

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You are lucky that Shrine of Amana has been fixed multiple times by the version you are now at. Forget about the SOTFS version, I played through the launch version of that region before it got nerfed a bit and it was probably the worst designed area in a From game Iā€™ve played (if you did not have ranged attack options you were screwed to an extent not even other From games reached).

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You havenā€™t played the real dark souls 2 unless you played through amana at launch so hats off to you for your suffering

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You fool!

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ok so that fog gate I worked my ass towards re: last post was not a boss gate just more of the same long range wizard bullshit and water pitfalls + a dark spirit summonedā€¦holy shit this SUCKS

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do you have a bow? itā€™s much better if you use a bow. you can kill the wizards and pull the other stuff from a safe distance

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I bumped my DEX last night for the long bow, leveled it up some and bought all the poison arrows dwarf merchant had and yeah that worked well I just got caught off guard and ganked after entering the fog gate. will have to use another type of arrow I guess cuz Iā€™m out of poison ones : /

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on my first playthrough i had been warned in advance about Amana so i got equipped with a greatbow :smiley:

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A decade or so back I got into an argument with someone on SB regarding if Shrine of Amana was fair or not and I gotta say, as awful as this is for you I am grateful for your eventual support in this matter.

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last time i played sotfs i went through amana with the caestus only and i donā€™t recommend this to anyone, tho depending on your temper it could satisfy some anger to succesfully get in on the spellcasters

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i put this game down and havent really wanted to go back to it becuase i have fun things to do in ffxiv again, but whenever theres a lull in my cheevo grinding ill give it another shot. im just not gonna force myself. i have 50ish years to finish it

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i was so happy to stop playing this game. i dont wanna shit on anyoneā€™s fun but i really didnā€™t have a great time. i think my 75% playthrough of Dark Souls is as much souls as i have in me

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beat it. did not kill vendrick this time. did not darklurker. like being a hexer best i think.

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darklurker and the double pet in the frozen dlc are the only bosses i never killed in sotfs.

the double pet is just trash if you arenā€™t summoning, so whatever. darklurkerā€™s runback is tooooooooo long, i hate it

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ok, five days later, returning with a cool head, stocked up on arrows and Rainbow Sixed around the ruins for cover and Shrine of Amana is behind me (first attempt: cleared everything up to the boss gate (last posting, I had missed the bonfire right after the first fog gate!) went back to summon Felicia the Brave, got Demon of Song down to a sliver only to get grabbed and one and doneā€™d. second attempt: beelined it to the boss gate and made quick work of that chump solo)


is it a cruel stretch of game design? yeah. unfair? idk. it forced me to change up my game and demanded patience above all else. not holding too much of a grudge against it now. and it got me to backtrack and explore some things Iā€™d missed (Royal Rat Authority!) and have the experience of unattackable enemies failing to recognise me in Door of Pharrosā€¦


(confession: Iā€™ve been reading it as ā€œPharoahā€™sā€ (lock stone, Door of) the whole time likeā€¦ā€œodd that theyā€™re referencing Egyptian shit but thatā€™s DS2 being weird for yaā€)

would much rather bang my head against some mean level design/encounters than a hyper aggressive pulveristically patterned boss in any case. some nice comedown areas

now Iā€™m in the Undead Crypt and there are more magic castersā€¦

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