1. Yes and no. You should play through it (also Demon's Souls, my favorite one so far) because it's an awesome game, but it's in no way needed to enjoy the next entry. 2. Yes and no. Technically players who are "higher-level" can come in and kill you yes, but they have to be within a certain level range. A level 90 guy can't invade a level 5.
Yeah, also, it's perfectly legit to play offline. That means you won't be able to summon help, but it also means no human invaders will try to kill you. I'd recommend watching the "How to Play" video I posted above. It's intended for new players and does a good job of explaining how the game works.
Britney's Dance Beat would like a word with both of you. I have the dilemma of not knowing which version of DS2 I want to play. I kind of want to play the PC version, though not sure I want to wait. I'd also prefer a PS4 port, though doesn't seem like that's going to happen (for whatever reason). I've tried to avoid as much as I can about the game, until I decide what I want to do. I actually ordered the Strategy Guide, even though I haven't ordered the game. Maybe I'll read through that and just pretend to play the game. Darks Souls 2 for RC Cola's Imagination runs at 1080p 60 FPS. Lots of free DLC too.
BTW, in case you got the Black Armor edition and were considering NOT redeeming your code to weapons/shields early... you should know that there's also a free dynamic theme packaged with that code. So even if you ignore the equipment, you should redeem the code. As for criticisms showing up in reviews, here are some common themes: 1. The lighting kinda sucks on the console versions, making the whole torch system kinda unnecessary most of the time. On PC it should be much better. 2. Losing health on death is too strict, and discourages exploration. 3. The world is larger, but not nearly as interconnected... more like Majula is just the center of a spoked wheel. Feels less real and more "gamey" this way. 4. Overall the bosses aren't quite as interesting (there are even repeats from previous games), although there are still standouts. I think those were pretty much the main ones. Of course, I can't say yet whether I agree with all of them. About to start playing now to find out! Also, there were some other smaller complaints too, like the IGN reviewer who complained that warping back to town to level up was tedious and unnecessary. Comments on the difficulty are mixed - some think it's harder, some easier. But all seem to agree that the combat is not only intact, but has seen some marked improvements. That's about all I can say for now... must go play...
I played for a couple of hours and got through the first boss in the forest. I really like it so far but I have to agree with the hp reduction being too strict. I started with the dual wielding swordsman, who already has really low hp to start. After beating the first boss, I have a little more than half hp left, which kind of sucks. I wish it was like demons where you get full hp again after beating a boss. That's really the only complaint j have though. Still the same great gameplay and world.
Yeah, I agree that getting humanity back after a boss would have been nice. I actually haven't used an effigy yet, they seem pretty rare, so I've just accepted being stuck at half health. I also have to agree with the IGN reviewer that needing to return to Majula to level is annoying. And it doesn't help that the Emerald herald has four lines of dialogue to go through every time you talk to her. That gets old fast. Also, I am confused by what seem to be missing magic mechanics, things that existed in the beta but not here. There used to be strong and weak spell casts, and you could double-hand your wand for more magic damage. But now I can't get any of that to work. I also can't figure out how to manually aim spells with the first person view, another thing I could do in the beta. I wonder if they just decided to abandon that stuff?
Took down the first boss last night after an embarrassing seven attempts including as a summon in other people's world. Perhaps the more embarrassing part was me not realizing the Honest Pate guy whatever his name was that I summoned twice was actually a NPC until I checked out the Wiki of the boss before I went to bed.
Wow, so I had literally made the game harder for myself without knowing it. There are two covenants in Majula, the Way of Blue and another one I forget the name of where you pray to this big tree. Well, apparently this second covenant actually increases enemy health and damage, and as far as I know doesn't give you any additional souls for your trouble. All it does is allow enemies to drop "awestones," which you use to level up the covenant and get rewards. However, when I checked the guide, the rewards really aren't all that great. So I dropped the covenant like a bad habit. I post this in case anyone made the same mistake I did. It did say when I joined that it was for people who desired a challenge, but I didn't know at the time what exactly that meant...
Early Game Boss semi-spoiler: Spoiler I finally beat the Pursuer after about 25 tries. It didn't help that I could only survive two hits max because I only had half health . His 3 hit combos kept getting me while I was dodging and his blue curse thrust hit me every time even though i was clearly off to the side. When I finally beat him, his curse thing left me one hit from death without any estus left and with my lifestones not being in my inventory. Quite an improbable win. That's it for me for now. Will play again in a few hours.
Jajajaja!!! I love dark Souls. I didn't join any covenants. not yet at least. I got killed by those tiny little piglet things. Thought they were easily killed then saw I only dished out 12hp on the buggers. In the forest going up the castle and getting killed! Found a fire sword but I can only 2 hand it (not enough strength), still getting killed.
I think I took out 2 bosses and 2 mini bosses or 4 bosses in total. A easy way to get money is to go into hollow form and put up the white soap sign in front of a boss. After you wax em, you'll get a decent amount of change. Rinse and repeat. I noticed that I don't go back into human form after helping someone kill a boss, so I would continue and fight the same one 4-6 times. Sometimes, it triggered after I died in the boss fight or got disconnected. I'm not sure how humanity (effigy?) works in DS2. I picked the tree seed (whatever its called) as the starter item. Early game it doesn't have a description, but later on it does. It allows your npc enemies to attack anyone that invades you, making it a little difficult for them to invade. On the topic, was trying to search every nook and cranny in the areas where I finished the boss and someone invade me. I hid in a corner and when he ran by, I slashed him twice. He fell down to a lower platform and we fought using magic arrow. Hit him a couple of times and he hit me a few times. Waited for him to get into range for magic arrow and I ran off the platform, rolled and slashed him once. He backed off and I chased and got another slash and killed him. I thought we get their souls or something for winning and vice versa? I guess he didn't have any or they changed it.
Have any of you guys been following the "downgrade" talks surrounding this game? As I said before, I've kind of been ignoring just about everything about the game. I did see some talk about a "downgrade," but it just seemed like From Software scaled back the lighting effects or something. Not really that big of a deal, and I didn't really think much of it. I revisited this discussion (since it seemed to still be going on), and it actually does seem like very substantial downgrade from what they were showing in previous demos. Not just downgraded lighting, but even entirely different assets. I'll link to a NeoGAF thread with comparison images, videos, and updates: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=781625 It is just about the graphics, and they seem to look good either way (better than DS1), so whoopty-doo. I still REALLY want to play the game and all that. But I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by this. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying they tried to mislead gamers or anything, but this certainly does look pretty bad. If nothing else, development on the game must have been pretty horrible if they made such drastic changes in such a short amount of time.
Never played either game but this looks right up my alley as something I would enjoy. Okay to start with DS 2?
Downgrades on a current-gen game really don't bother me in the slightest. The Souls games were always about the gameplay, not the graphics. The graphics getting worse than they looked in previews matters not at all for me. It could look way worse than it does now, and it would not reduce the game's value to me. It would still be a preorder. Now if it were a "next-gen" game, then I'd care. Just because if they want me to spend $400 on a shiny new system, I better see a reason for it. Yes, and in a weird kind of way that might even be best. Dark Souls 1 had some usability features over Demon's Souls, and it also removed some needlessly confusing systems like world tendency. Now in this entry they've made it harder for people to "grief" new players. Seems like they will keep getting more user-friendly. So while I definitely recommend playing them all, doing so in reverse-order wouldn't take anything away from the experience I don't think. Might even make it easier.
