The best Demon's Souls vs. Dark Souls comparison article I've seen: http://time.com/15634/dark-souls-vs-demons-souls-one-last-review/ A good retrospective to look at on the eve of the release of Dark Souls 2.
So, there's some dude/jerkface who has already posted six YouTube videos of a Dark Souls 2 walkthrough. I was interested, but didn't want to totally spoil everything for myself, so I elected to watch just the first video -- which is about 45 minutes -- on the theory that I would've seen most of the areas already from other preview footage. Luckily, it turned out that this was pretty much the case, although there is footage of the first boss in it. And obviously it gives a much better sense of the way the world is connected in the early game. In any case, I'm embedding the video below. If you don't want to spoil anything for yourself by seeing footage of the first 45 mins or so of the game, don't watch. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6S_b0m9cbNE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> BTW, if anyone cares, I can provide some info on the starting gifts.
Oh, one other bit of awesome Dark Souls 2 news. Apparently this time around, NG+ will do more than just boost enemies' health and damage. It will actually add new enemies (including a few bosses, I hear), and new, more powerful items to find. How awesome is that? Playthrough 2 will be almost like playing a different game. This should give everyone good incentive to play through at least twice. Two things about this. First, every playthrough beyond the second one will not change enemy placement in this way. It is only the first playthrough that is different (easier) than all subsequent playthroughs. Second, players on playthrough 1 will not be able to summon, invade, or be invaded by players in NG+ and beyond. Makes sense, since the game is actually different. It'll also hopefully help to cut down the amount of griefing in playthrough 1. Theoretically the hardcore PvPers will be more interested in NG+, where the full range of items and equipment becomes available. It won't stop a few a-holes from specifically keeping an alt character on the first playthrough just to mess with n00bs, but it should help. Here's my evidence: http://i.imgur.com/LfaCCak.jpg and http://fextralife.com/back-breaking-dark-souls-ii-news/ (click the grey button to show gameplay mechanic info)
OK, starting gift info. First, four of the starting gifts aren't really mysterious, they pretty much do what they say they do: Life Ring increases your max HP, Human Effigy restores you to human, Homeward Bone returns you to the last bonfire rested at, Healing Wares gives you a bunch of healing items to start (20 Lifegems, 5 Radiant Lifegems, 1 Brilliant Lifegem). Of these, the last may actually be the most useful, since in the early game your number of Estus Flasks will be very limited (you don;t start with five flasks anymore, just one). Now on to the more mysterious gifts: Spoiler First, the Bonfire Ascetic, which "raises the strength of nearby foes." Actually, there's still disagreement over the exact effects. Some think it makes enemies harder without providing more souls, others think it makes enemies harder and does provide more souls, others say it can restore enemies who have disappeared because they've been killed too many times already. But what I can say for sure is that you can find more of these throughout the game, at least a dozen if not a lot more according to reports. So don't pick it thinking that it's one of your only chances to get this item, there are plenty more out there. Next, the Seed of a Tree of Giants. Apparently what this does is make it so your world's enemies are hostile toward invaders! Pretty cool. I'm guessing it's one-time use, although I can't confirm that. Still, not a bad way to thwart invaders to make them have to fight through the same enemies you're dealing with. And wouldn't it be great if you got the souls for the enemies they killed? Again can't confirm that, but it seems to make sense. Last, the Petrified Something. There are two competing reports on this, but both agree it can be traded to the crow for an item (crow is in the tutorial area). One report says you get a ring which provides a purely cosmetic effect, but more people seem to be saying that you get a whip weapon that requires 20 Dex to use and also increases damage against hollows. So that's all I know. Unlike the first Dark Souls, there's no clear winner here (Master Key was clearly the best choice before). I'm actually leaning toward just taking the Healing Wares, but I also might take the Petrified Something.
I need to amend some info on the Bonfire Ascetic (turns out this item is more important to the game mechanics than I thought): Spoiler So, it turns out that the Bonfire Ascetic definitely is used for respawning enemies that have disappeared due to being killed too many times, and it also brings back bosses. Here's the thing, though, and this is going to get slightly complex, so stay with me. Each time you use a Bonfire Ascetic, it will raise the playthrough level of the area. What does that mean, exactly? It means that if you're on playthrough 1 (PT1), then when you revive the boss and surrounding enemies with a Bonfire Ascetic, they will have life and deal damage that is the same as the PT2 versions. You will also earn greater numbers of souls from these encounters as befits the higher difficulty. In fact, some bosses drop different boss souls in subsequent PTs, which can then be used to forge special weapons and learn special spells. You can keep killing a boss, using a Bonfire Ascetic to resurrect him, then killing him again, leveling him up more and more. But there seems to be a major drawback: there's apparently no way to reverse this raising of an area's difficulty. And when you finish a PT, on the next PT affected areas will become yet harder. Example: say you use a Bonfire Ascetic on PT1 to make an area have PT2-scaled enemies. Well, now when you enter PT2, that affected area will still be one PT level above you, so PT3. So yeah, with Bonfire Ascetics you can potentially get equipment and spells in PT1 that you wouldn't normally be able to get otherwise, but you're also throwing the game out of balance on subsequent PTs. Also, if you're low-level enough and not really prepared for it, there's the chance that you could level up an area to such an extent that you encounter really serious difficulties finishing it. For this reason, I'm not even sure I want to get into using these things, at least not on PT1. Also, reports now seem less unified on exactly how many of these things you can acquire in any one PT of the game. I believe a dozen is still a pretty safe bet, but at this point I'm not actually sure anymore. So, make of all that what you will. Sorry if it was a bit long-winded and technical. Suffice it to say that the idea of enemies not respawning makes more sense now that the above has been revealed.
The embargo on reviews for Dark Souls isn't supposed to be lifted until 9am PST tomorrow, but already I've found five reviews up: IGN Destructoid Polygon The Escapist AusGamers All five scores so far are a 9/10 or above. Lastly, a great 40-minute fan-made video guide on how to play the game has been released. While it obviously features gameplay footage and so has minor spoilers, this is all about game mechanics and isn't about spoiling lore or boss fights or anything like that. Check it out: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/O8mkbwp1F78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://www.vg247.com/2014/03/11/dark-souls-2-reviews-all-the-scores-from-dranglaec/ We're up to 11 scored reviews. Two are below 9/10 (an 8 and an 8.5).
I have to agree. For me possibly the only game that stands almost toe to toe with the Souls series is the perfection that was Resident Evil 4. But I'm still going with Dark Souls, thanks.
Two questions from a person who knows nothing about Demon's Souls / DS / DSII: - Should I play the first Dark Souls to understand the newly released sequel? - Players who are higher level than you, can come in and kill your character? Watched a bit of a walkthrough for DSII and it seems interesting.
