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

King of Posters
41

the syan knights in scholar are basically the replacement for this. theyre all over the place guarding sublime bone dust

2 Likes
42

the map of drangleic in well village mansion basement is insane and makes zero sense with what I’ve played through so far and I love it

4 Likes
43

oh true. i mostly remember those guys as “actually fun to parry” and “look cool”

parry is always autocorrected to party by my phone lol

2 Likes
44

I played like twenty minutes of this but I remember feeling like it was setting me up in situations where I had to juggle multiple opponents noticeably more frequently than 1. It made it feel like one of those Lost Levels style sequels for folks who mastered the original (not me).

5 Likes
45

learned about shields and my life is so different now

13 Likes
46

keep an eye open for out of place shadows, there are some invisible dudes you can hit for an item like piñatas :piñata:

i dunno, the pig arses though

this seems to be ossified as the SB opinion now but is it really true? one of the major areas of attention in DS2 is in balancing the PvP, as well as the introduction of arenas which make for a much more “ordinary” competitive experience than the weirdness/hostility of invasions. the bosses similarly tend to be far more 1 on 1 sword duels than anything freaky or experimental. the systems are less obtuse, nothing is as arbitrarily punishing as getting cursed in DS1 or as mysterious as vagrants

also, when i think of the annoying video essayist’s typical analysis of DS1 the term “metroidvania” floats to the front of mind, but DS3 is a step even further from nonlinear design. and Elden Ring is the one that continues the most ideas from DS2, and it’s their greatest mainstream success

5 Likes
47

this is the main reason I’m not a ds2 fan! It’s not the weird one! It’s the mlg pro gamer pvp at the lava bridge one

4 Likes
48

Well I mean these are not mutually exclusive. The disintegration of pvp from the “campaign” experience is itself a weird choice in the context of the series; it marks the game out as separate and experimental.

3 Likes
49

pig fisting is just everyday animal husbandry

5 Likes
50

where would the state of blood vial farming be without it

2 Likes
51

I think Cuba’s got it right here. The way this game ends up tuned for PVP is part of the experiment its pulling. The values of this DS2’s design are just slightly off-course from what the Miyazaki games aim for, and you can see that in its covenant system, the level design, what they did with NG+ and NG++, and a bunch of weird one-off or obscure interactions. It isn’t frequently different from the Dark Souls games, but the differences are frequently significant. I know we talked about received opinions regarding DS2 upthread, but even if this is a received opinion in some ways, thinking that this game is a unique and kind of refreshing sequel can still be justified by a rote list of mechanical differences as well as aesthetic observations.

Anyway, to say that this game is tuned for PVP isn’t really in line with my personal experience either. I know it’s got the strongest PVP community of them all. But despite never touching that shit the weapons and gear in this game ended up creating some of the most fun PVE character building I have experienced in any Souls game. So it’s not like this game is the sweaty normie-core PVP sequel either.

4 Likes
52

thinking about the late game graveyard and the rooms cluttered with breakable rocks and gravestones that block your path every direction and the constantly spawning zombies that try to beeline to bells that when hit summon evil spirits to harass you and how this is not something a normal game does but is totally normal for fromsoft before souls normalization

7 Likes
53

I won’t be doing any pvp because I’m playing a pirated copy so you don’t have to argue about that here in my first time dark souls thread

also all fromsoft games are weird so it’s a silly thing to nitpick, especially to someone who hasn’t played them before. I knew that the thread would turn into an argument of why this is or isn’t the bad one but SO SOON???

5 Likes
54

pvp - pirate versus publisher

15 Likes
55

i got to the uh, second bonfire in forest of fallen giants last night. love how the first real encounter you have there is just like, HEY WHAT IF GUYS KEEP APPEARING ALSO THERE’S AN ARCHER

it’s pretty intense compared to what I was expecting having only played DS1.

oh also i went a different way at first and a massive dude with a massive sword knocked me off a cliff. that was cool. and it does meet expectations. also lol at the dudes with the huge balls.

i haven’t used any effigies yet because i wanna see how low my HP gets lol

8 Likes
56

hello! I’m a man with an arrow shooting at you! Just like the tutorial! don’t you want to dispatch me? I’m. annoying! HAHA YOU CAME CLOSER NOW MY. FRIEND WHO WAS HIDING UNDERWATER AND MY FRIEND WHO WAS PRETENDIN TO BE DEAD AND MY THIRD FRIEND HIDING IN THAT LITTLE COVE ARE ALL HERE TO GANK YOU!! one of us has a shield too!!! HOPE YOU ENJOY IT! LOOKS LIKE MY BUDDY HACKED YOU TO PIECES WITH THAT AXE THAT REACHES FURTHER THAN THE DAGGER YOU’VE BEEN DODGING, GUESS YOU’RE JUST BITCHMADE ENJOY YOUR GREEN SKIN AGAIN

that was my first couple tries. I retried so many times that one of the first two stopped respawning. oops

9 Likes
57

i like this one bc something about the colour palette feels very grungy second-tier ps2 game. every time i remember a specific area i go “jesus, that part was bullshit” but somehow all taking place in the shadowman: 2econd coming aesthetic universe makes it kind of better than the other two for me.

12 Likes
58

my hp got to half and I was like okay I gotta fucking use this and I died immediately anyway

5 Likes
59

ive been SO CAUTIOUS with dying in this one. “looks like im gonna die, time to go back to the bonfire” like every 10 minutes

it hasn’t helped

7 Likes
60

SAME

3 Likes