Dark Souls II

noodler

Grayditch wrote: »

The upgrades were definitely best in Demon's Souls! I still think it's my favourite.

Could not disagree more.

I hates the upgrade system in Demons.

Digital Solitude

I thought the upgrade system in Demons was horrible too, it makes more weapons viable for different builds, but it's very confusing.

I think 2 is better than 1, improved combat, more diverse areas, there are more ways to play it, and some great bosses, covenants are better too, and co-op

1 has nostalgia and a few better bosses going for it in my opinion

Both are good enough that it's going to come down to personal opinion anyways

Mickeroo

I think the weapon upgrade system in 1 was just about right. 2 is too easy and demons was ridiculously difficult the amount of grinding you would have to do. Never fully upgraded a weapon in demons.

Grayditch

I did them all for the platinum in Demon's Souls. Something I was proud of until I wrote out the words, just there...

noodler

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I thought the upgrade system in Demons was horrible too, it makes more weapons viable for different builds, but it's very confusing.

I think 2 is better than 1, improved combat, more diverse areas, there are more ways to play it, and some great bosses, covenants are better too, and co-op

1 has nostalgia and a few better bosses going for it in my opinion

Both are good enough that it's going to come down to personal opinion anyways

I agree 2 has its moments:

But 1 has better music, a better setting, better bosses and without doubt, a world with far better structure.

The day I finally left Blighttown and cautiously and cowardly walked over cliff faces up into the unknown and heard the familiar firelink shrine music, well, forget about it, never had I had such a feeling of relief (in a game!).

Mickeroo

Grayditch wrote: »

I did them all for the platinum in Demon's Souls. Something I was proud of until I wrote out the words, just there...

That must have took some serious grinding, I only played through it once and put less hours into it than the other souls games but I would have expected to have at least my main weapon fully upgraded after one play through though.

Grayditch

Pure Bladestone.

Two words I thought I'd forgotten. It took days.

F1ngers

Grayditch wrote: »

Pure Bladestone.

Two words I thought I'd forgotten. It took days.

Serious amount of souls collected trying to farm the Pure Bladestone.

Grayditch

Pretty much started to have conversations with the skeletons while farming. When it came up on screen I was too numb to even smile

krudler

noodler wrote: »

I agree 2 has its moments:

But 1 has better music, a better setting, better bosses and without doubt, a world with far better structure.

The day I finally left Blighttown and cautiously and cowardly walked over cliff faces up into the unknown and heard the familiar firelink shrine music, well, forget about it, never had I had such a feeling of relief (in a game!).

I'll never forget the day I got to the church and realised the elevator took you back to Firelink, realising where I was and hearing the music and knowing those lovely 10 estus flasks were near was like a wave of happiness. It was then I was totally hooked and saw how genius the level design was in it. Budding game developers should take it as a blueprint on how to design a game world that you never use a map for and don't need to, memory and thinking in three dimensions instead of relying on maps, waypoint cursors and hints to lead you along.

Interested Observer

Making steady progress now after a very rough start which nearly had me quit. Just had a good explore of the Lost Bastille, need a couple of those Lockstones which I don't have at the moment. Really enjoying this game, I don't think the level design is as clever as DS1 but possibly due to fast travel from the very start they didn't put as much focus on it.

noodler

krudler wrote: »

I'll never forget the day I got to the church and realised the elevator took you back to Firelink, realising where I was and hearing the music and knowing those lovely 10 estus flasks were near was like a wave of happiness. It was then I was totally hooked and saw how genius the level design was in it. Budding game developers should take it as a blueprint on how to design a game world that you never use a map for and don't need to, memory and thinking in three dimensions instead of relying on maps, waypoint cursors and hints to lead you along.

Another brilliant example of th world structure and linkage - this time from early game!

Cravez

Dark Souls 1 - Better Immersion, Better Bosses, Better Locations/Level Design, Better Lore/Story

Dark Souls 2 - Better game mechanics, Better Optimization, Better Graphics

If the next Dark Souls game had Dark Souls 2 Mechanics (with hopefully newer features) with Dark Souls 1 overall Immersion and design, it would be a fantastic game. The bosses in Dark Souls 2 were more quantity over quality, I can barely think of any boss fight worth remembering but I can definitely remember tons of great boss fights in Dark Souls 1.

I have nearly 500 hours in Dark Souls since I first bought it in 2012 and nearly 300 hours of Dark Souls 2 since April . I think I had my fill of Dark Souls 1 in regards the overall storyline and experience, however Dark Souls 2 is a vastly superior game in terms of its mechanics and going back to Dark Souls 1 now doesn't appeal as much since I'v experienced what it has offered to the fullest, but I feel I can keep going back to Dark Souls 2 for better gameplay experiences such as PvP etc.

Mickeroo

I'd like matchmaking to be brought back to being Soul Level dependant for the next game. Twinking is a small price to pay in hindsight. In terms of the actual PvP mechanics Dark Souls 2 is amazing though.

noodler

Cravez wrote: »

Dark Souls 1 - Better Immersion, Better Bosses, Better Locations/Level Design, Better Lore/Story

Dark Souls 2 - Better game mechanics, Better Optimization, Better Graphics

If the next Dark Souls game had Dark Souls 2 Mechanics (with hopefully newer features) with Dark Souls 1 overall Immersion and design, it would be a fantastic game. The bosses in Dark Souls 2 were more quantity over quality, I can barely think of any boss fight worth remembering but I can definitely remember tons of great boss fights in Dark Souls 1.

I have nearly 500 hours in Dark Souls since I first bought it in 2012 and nearly 300 hours of Dark Souls 2 since April . I think I had my fill of Dark Souls 1 in regards the overall storyline and experience, however Dark Souls 2 is a vastly superior game in terms of its mechanics and going back to Dark Souls 1 now doesn't appeal as much since I'v experienced what it has offered to the fullest, but I feel I can keep going back to Dark Souls 2 for better gameplay experiences such as PvP etc.

Not sure about DS1 having better graphics!

Mickeroo

noodler wrote: »

Not sure about DS1 having better graphics!

DS1 is a much better looking game imo. The second is very poor graphically, but at least it had no frame rate problems.

Cravez

I get what you mean, there are advantages/disadvantages to it being Soul Level though.

For Dark Souls 2, since they wanted hollowed players to be invaded it probably would have become a huge mess of twinks killing new players all the time.

In one aspect however it allows SL1 players to summon any other level player for help during their playthrough. When I got to a certain point in SL1 for Dark Souls 1 where I needed help with a boss you literally couldn't get any help.

Cravez

noodler wrote: »

Not sure about DS1 having better graphics!

Did you mean Dark Souls 2? :P

Honestly, I thought 2 looks a lot better, even though they downgraded the lighting effects. My only gripe is that some of the armors look too shiny, almost plastic compared to DS1 such as Havels or the Steel armor set.

Cravez

They also didn't fix fat armors! I just got a full set of Catarina armor in Dark Souls 2 and the gloves clips through the armor all the time. It was the same for Smoughs armor in Dark Souls 1

Mickeroo

Cravez wrote: »

I get what you mean, there are advantages/disadvantages to it being Soul Level though.

For Dark Souls 2, since they wanted hollowed players to be invaded it probably would have become a huge mess of twinks killing new players all the time.

In one aspect however it allows SL1 players to summon any other level player for help during their playthrough. When I got to a certain point in SL1 for Dark Souls 1 where I needed help with a boss you literally couldn't get any help.

I think the Soul Memory stuff works fine for NG, a perfect system would be if it switched to SL once you enter NG+ I think. That way no-one get's twinked and you don't have to wade through all those over leveled builds in search of a good fight.

Another option would be make a covenant SL dependant, so if you join the dragon remnants for example the PvP would be done on soul level rather than memory. That would make for a great covenant centred around competitive PvP.

Cravez

Mickeroo wrote: »

Another option would be make a covenant SL dependant, so if you join the dragon remnants for example the PvP would be done on soul level rather than memory. That would make for a great covenant centred around competitive PvP.

I agree with you there as usually most PvP players have a SL cut off point of about 150-200. Soul Memory you are potentially being pushed out of a tier that PvP might become too scarce because you're too high with Soul Memory.

Mickeroo

Cravez wrote: »

I agree with you there as usually most PvP players have a SL cut off point of about 150-200. Soul Memory you are potentially being pushed out of a tier that PvP might become too scarce because you're too high with Soul Memory.

Yeah I haven't played in over a month now, but I stopped leveling at 150. There was still a lot of good competitive fights to be had but sometimes it would go for ages before I could find one all the time being cheesed by avelyns and the like. Mind you it was pretty satisfying when I occasionally would beat an SL500+.

Cravez

You learn something new every day about this game. You can obtain two rings at the end of the game by either not dying or not sitting at a bonfire...

• Illusory Ring of a Conqueror: Makes Left Hand Weapon Invisible - Cannot die during the game, including dying as a phantom/invader etc
• Illusory Ring of the Exalted: Makes Right Hand Weapon Invisible - Cannot sit at a bonfire during the playthrough

I would be half tempted by the no death playthrough but the no bonfire one is madness!

Digital Solitude

Cravez wrote: »

You learn something new every day about this game. You can obtain two rings at the end of the game by either not dying or not sitting at a bonfire...

• Illusory Ring of a Conqueror: Makes Left Hand Weapon Invisible - Cannot die during the game, including dying as a phantom/invader etc
• Illusory Ring of the Exalted: Makes Right Hand Weapon Invisible - Cannot sit at a bonfire during the playthrough

I would be half tempted by the no death playthrough but the no bonfire one is madness!

You can light the bonfires, so you can use them as checkpoints, so it's a lot easier than it sounds, just no warping.

Cravez

Digital Solitude wrote: »

You can light the bonfires, so you can use them as checkpoints, so it's a lot easier than it sounds, just no warping.

Just read there that you can't rest at them. You can light them and use a homeward bone back to one but you cannot rest so basically Lifegems are going to be your drug for health.

Mickeroo

Cravez wrote: »

Just read there that you can't rest at them. You can light them and use a homeward bone back to one but you cannot rest so basically Lifegems are going to be your drug for health.

Don't forget you can just do some co-op to replenish your health and humanity too. Bonfire run wouldn't be too bad at all.

jaxdasher

What if you die though? Aren't you sent back to bonfire and the enemies reset.

Mickeroo

jaxdasher wrote: »

What if you die though? Aren't you sent back to bonfire and the enemies reset.

Yeah but as long as you don't actually sit down at it you're fine.

Digital Solitude

jaxdasher wrote: »

What if you die though? Aren't you sent back to bonfire and the enemies reset.

Yeah, and you'd get a full run of Estus too, you just wouldn't be able to upgrade it. So whenever you die of go back to last lit bonfire with full Estus and weapons repaired, it'd be pretty easy I think, apart from the leveling

Cravez

jaxdasher wrote: »

What if you die though? Aren't you sent back to bonfire and the enemies reset.

You get sent back to the bonfire but you haven't necessarily rested at it. I.E if you actively sit down at the bonfire.

@Mickeroo: That's true, I would imagine some people would try do both challenges at once though so the risk of going into someone else's world and potentially because someone cocks up is a big risk.