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 Fafnir wrote:
Also, the Mask of the Father has essentially been replaced with a gimp mask. I'm okay with this.

Sounds about right.

Any equivalent to the Mask of the Child, or were they sensible enough to not include one at all?

Haven't seen anything yet.

Although it is worth noting that overall, there are more armour sets/pieces with stat bonuses. They look to be pretty small, and most of them caster based (which isn't exactly one-sided when you consider that most heavier armour now scales with strength.)

Also, if you've seen the trailers with the turtle knights (or you've had the good fortune of fighting them yourselves), you can get their armour. The stats are pretty terrible when you consider just how insanely heavy it is, so I wouldn't be surprised if that giant turtle shell taped on the back helps to prevent or mitigate backstabs. But that's all speculation (and a little bit of hoping, with stats that bad, it'd be entirely worthless if it doesn't have some hidden feature).

I'm looking forward to playing this more than anything that I can remember in recent times, but I made the mistake of pre-ordering it with Amazon. It's now 7PM on Wednesday evening and it has yet to be dispatched, if it doesn't turn up on Friday I'm gonna have to pop into town and pick up a copy.

It's not officially released in the UK until on the Friday mate.

Yeah, I know it s released on Friday, but if it is not dispatched 'til Thursday then it is not guaranteed to arrive by Friday.

Hence, if it doesn't arrive on Friday I will be buying it from a local vendor (and returning my amazon copy when it eventually arrives).

I have had problems pre-ordering games from Amazon in the past when they have not arrived on release day, which makes me a total fool for not learning from my mistake.

Released in Japan today, and i just bought it looking forward to getting killed a zillion times!

Meh, I'll wait for the PC version.

Not going to lie, Shrine of Amana is probably the greatest crime against humanity that I've ever had to endure. When you first drop in, it looks really cool (if you've done some side content in the first Dark Souls, this will be quite a treat), and it starts out decent enough.

And then you pass the first fog wall. It's like the Anor Londo archers before they patched them to be easy mode. Except there's 20 of them. And they have little friends chasing you about while you have to dodge them. And their arrows are magic, so you can't block them. They also home in on you. It's then drawn out for as long as possible to emphasize just how tedious it is after you respawn.

...and then they throw in bugs out of nowhere that break all your equipment, because why the hell not?

Thankfully, the boss of the area is a pushover. Just don't get too cocky, he'll probably one-shot you if you're not careful (but then again, pretty much everything in this game does, so that's par for the course, really).

Also, the Mirror Knight is really disappointing. That said, none of the bosses so far stand out as being really interesting. Most just feel like oversized mooks. The only real exception being the guys from Bowser's castle (if you haven't already been there, you'll know it when you get to it). But that entire area is pretty awesome.

How is the 'limited spawns' thing? Any idea how it works?

Hopefully my preorder will arrive today.

 Daba wrote:
How is the 'limited spawns' thing? Any idea how it works?

Hopefully my preorder will arrive today.

As in, enemies or players?

Right, pre-order arrive and I played a bit during my lunch. First thing I did was just walk off the edge and die.

Anyway, it took me ages to get the face right; in the end I went for Knight because the outfit looks pretty nice, and is new unlike the Swordsman one.

I didn't like the cut-scenes so far. One of the good things about the first game was the lack of these. Those witches just went on and on.

Well, if it makes you happy, there's pretty much no direction given after that.
Just a hint though, make sure that whenever you meet a new NPC, you talk to them until all their dialogue options are exhausted. None of them actually have any information that will actually point you in the right direction, but some areas aren't unlocked until you actually do that. It's kind of silly that they did it that way, honestly.

As for the limited respawns, after you kill an enemy enough times (I've read somewhere between 12-15 times), they stop respawning. You can burn an item at a bonfire in order to respawn any enemies near it, including bosses, but they become more difficult, give more souls, and drop different (typically better items).

I honestly don't mind the system. There are some areas that are just plain abusive (Shrine of Amana instantly springs to mind), and being able to get rid of some of the more annoying enemies (once again, Shrine of Amana, the equipment breaking bugs that spawn right by the bonfire) is nice.

Also, do yourself a favour, and don't worry about armour. Just pick something light that looks good to you. Poise and defense are completely worthless in this game.

Lastly, having beat the main game, NG+ is a bit different from previous games. Some new enemies and black phantoms spawn, and I've heard some of the bosses are a bit different. In addition, some enemies now drop new items too.
I also ended up making a new character, a mage, and I'm absolutely bewildered how easy the game is now, compared to my original character, who was a full strength (later str+faith) character with no ranged options at all. It looks to me like ranged options are what you should use to break the damn game. It now suddenly makes sense to me why everything is able to kill you in one hit. If it didn't, ranged characters would be immortal.

Fafnir, feth me you have completed the game already?!

First impressions of the game are good. The story at the start is cool, always gets me how the Demon/Dark Souls games look like a Western RPG but at the core they are kooky Japanese. It has also retained the dour atmosphere of the previous games, the sad stories, echoing voice - the sound is very well used in this game, right from the sea front and zombie moans when you first go into the game.

Perhaps because I was over-cautious at the start of the game I managed to play for almost an hour without dying, but when I did start to die (tried to take on the big hippo-cyclops thing in the first stage, then found another one was hidden behind and came out and crushed me! ) it was like the un-corking of a bottle and the deaths came thick and fast.

Very amused by the sheer quantity of blood stains in Maluja, the number of players just leaping out into the sea like lemmings (I assume still trying to learn controls) gave me a good laugh this morning when I was playing.

Anyway.. my characters beard disappeared, and he screams like a girl when he dies - not sure if they are both bugs? Kind of amusing though..

You sat in the coffin, didn't you? Turns out that coffin is filled with kinky gender magic. Just jump back in, and you'll get your stones back.

As for having beat it already... Well, I did end up writing a 15 page paper on the atmospheric merits of the first game. Let's just say that little binge of mine was... research.

My first death was in the tutorial area, on the jumping bit. I had the button set to L3 (sooooo much better than the old setup), but my good old DkS muscle memory (I hadn't even played the game in months! I'd been letting myself grow rusty for this!) kicked in, and I hit the wrong button while running straight off the cliff and to my death.

As for the blood stains around the massive pit in the middle of Majula, you actually do have to go down there later. And it's not a happy place, either.

Is there any way to interact with the guy with Solaire's hat?

The Heide Knights (the guys in white armour who sit around doing nothing but are still targetable enemies)? No. Other than killing him. There are a few of them scattered throughout the game, and on your first playthrough, they'll each drop their weapon (sword, spear, lance). Subsequent playthroughs will result in them having a chance to drop their armour.

The first one you meet, early in the Forest of Fallen Giants, drops his sword, which does lightning damage and is really useful early on. You can upgrade it to the lightning path later (even weapons that do elemental damage can be upgraded to do more elemental damage), which actually turns it into a fantastic weapon for Str/Faith builds.

On the subject of Faith, for those interested in builds utilizing, I'd strongly suggest staring out as a physically-minded build, and then expanding into miracles after you've finished the physical side. This is because you won't get to see a lot of the really good miracles that justify high faith investment until you're fairly late into the game.

Yes killed that guy, he was a bit of an arse with the sniper at the top shooting you at the same time (and always just seems to hit and stun you when the Hiede knight hit me ) - pretty funny, when I finally got to another one of those sniper guys (that had been shooting you from across the level, while you are trying to melee), someone had put a message simply saying 'revenge' on the ground next to him.

That Hiede sword was pretty good though, was using it 2-H. Replaced it with some random fire sword I found a little later on though (a longsword).

As for the blood stains around the massive pit in the middle of Majula, you actually do have to go down there later. And it's not a happy place, either.

Yes I've seen plenty of blood stains around there, but I just meant generally on the edge of the cliff tops - just so many people throwing themselves into the sea.

And thanks for the tip about the gender-changing box - did wonder what that was, and why my character had started to resemble Meat Loaf in Fight Club!

Now to get back there without being crushed by the death-hippos ..

Also note that, if you have two compatible weapons, and you exceed the stat requirements for both of them by 1.5*, you can equip one one in each hand and enter power stance by holding triangle (if they're not compatible, or you fail to meet the requirement, you'll end up just holding the left handed weapon with two hands instead).

While in power stance, your right hand functions normally, but your left attacks are replaced by power attacks which utilize both weapons, leading to some very nice damage. Just be mindful of the fact that power attacks use up quite a bit of stamina.

DkS2 gets brownie points for not making dual wielding look as stupidly over the top as almost every single other game on the planet does.

Also, you can two hand your shields. Funny enough, my Tower Shield actually hits surprisingly hard (and it's really useful for hitting low enemies like geckos, since the Mace's hitbox is really buggy and has difficulty with short enemies). Other benefits include increased shield stability.

I'll have to go back and kill him then. Been upgrading just a long-sword at the moment.

How 'farmable' are human effigies? There's the limited spawn thing. If they are really limited, my hoarding nature will probably see me not use them very much.

Is anyone else having trouble with the lock on system? It's especially problematic in the fight against the Royal Rat Vanguard.

Daba wrote:
How 'farmable' are human effigies? There's the limited spawn thing. If they are really limited, my hoarding nature will probably see me not use them very much.

You'll get a lot of them. So long as you're not constantly burning them whenever you die, you'll have plenty. Save them for when you really need the extra health, or when you want to summon someone, and you should be fine. Plenty of enemies drop them with decent regularity too, so even if one spot dries up, there will be more down the road. There's also a way to return to human form without the need for an effigy at the later part of the game, although I'm not entirely clear on it.

Also, if the reduced health on death is getting you down, you can get the Binding Ring from the Heide Tower of Flame, across the drawbridge (take the left path from the circular room with the three knights) just outside the Old Dragonslayer boss room. It cuts the maximum death penalty to 80%, rather than 50%. Considering most enemies are able to 2HKO you when you're at full health, I'd consider this a necessity.

Coolyo294 wrote:Is anyone else having trouble with the lock on system? It's especially problematic in the fight against the Royal Rat Vanguard.

Well, that fight is kind of like Sif, in that the lock-on can be more problematic than helpful. That said, I have had some issues with the lock on and hit detection. Sometimes I've been right up against an enemy with my mace, swung, and did nothing. This happens much more often than I would like, too, especially against giant knights. Heavy weapons also have no tracking on their swings at all, which makes them pretty worthless, really.

Same, Royal Rats kicking my ass right now, loving every second of it though!

The thing to keep in mind about the Royal Rat Authority is that once his entourage is down, there's not a whole lot that he can do right after a single attack, especially if you're underneath him. So if he does manage to hurt you, just keep inbetween his legs and use that chance to heal.
Really, the worst part of that fight is making sure that his minions die first. If you have ranged weaponry or spells, now is the time to use them, before the boss himself enters the fray. If you were like me on my first run, and don't have that luxury (and you're using a mace, who's awful hit detection causes you to miss against small enemies all the time), you'll have to rush them and make sure they die as soon as possible. If you can lure them with thrown items, that may help.

Also, hitting it until it dies helps a lot.

EDIT: Also, this is interesting...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693331-dark-souls-ii/68799675

Came the closest I have ever got to controller-smashing stage since the Manning-lead Colts came back from about 20pts down in the final 2 minutes in a divisional playoff in my version of Madden 2011 - that bloody tree-giant thing (I forget it's name). Smashed/stomped a couple of times before I realised I could summon an NPC from just outside (a guy who had a lot of hit-points to deplete, getting stomped on while I hacked away 2H at the giants ankle).

Anyway, still was getting my arse handed to me with me dying in 2 hits (a lot of the time not even being able to react between hits), burned through all of my effigies and a lot of the souls I've saved - I wonder if at this point the game might literally become impossible, if you're not able to go back through the game and farm some of the low level enemies?

Also - loved the way the game immediately put a dead-hard boss (floating knight guy) immediately after the tree-giant thing - I thought 'oh there must be a bonfire here now, after the big boss' but - oh no! - another boss and I immediately lose the 10k or so souls I was carrying

 Fafnir wrote:

EDIT: Also, this is interesting...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693331-dark-souls-ii/68799675

Thankyou, reading some of that has just sucked the soul out of my body, hollow-style. ..Some people really need to get out more, and I say that as a massive nerd!

Is the re-gaining humanity from jolly cooperation bugged? I helped someone kill Ornstein, and I didn't get humanity restored. It was a really laggy battle though; I think I helped lag-surf the host to victory.

Pacific wrote:Came the closest I have ever got to controller-smashing stage since the Manning-lead Colts came back from about 20pts down in the final 2 minutes in a divisional playoff in my version of Madden 2011 - that bloody tree-giant thing (I forget it's name). Smashed/stomped a couple of times before I realised I could summon an NPC from just outside (a guy who had a lot of hit-points to deplete, getting stomped on while I hacked away 2H at the giants ankle).

Anyway, still was getting my arse handed to me with me dying in 2 hits (a lot of the time not even being able to react between hits), burned through all of my effigies and a lot of the souls I've saved - I wonder if at this point the game might literally become impossible, if you're not able to go back through the game and farm some of the low level enemies?

Also - loved the way the game immediately put a dead-hard boss (floating knight guy) immediately after the tree-giant thing - I thought 'oh there must be a bonfire here now, after the big boss' but - oh no! - another boss and I immediately lose the 10k or so souls I was carrying

If Pursuer is giving you trouble, go do the Heide Tower of Flame for now. Dragonrider is a really easy boss fight, and right after him you gain access to some decent equipment (you can find the knight armour and halberd, amoung other things shortly after him, and you also gain access to No-Man's Wharf, which has all kinds of goodies, despite its dangers. Additionally, if you take the side-route at Heide Tower, you can find the Binding Ring, which will make your situation much more bearable (although I wouldn't recommend fighting the Old Dragonslayer as you are yet. He's not a hard fight, but you'll want a little firepower for him).

If you tell me what kind of build you're going for, I can point you in the right direction for some equipment that might help you out a bit.

Also, for Pursuer himself, I've heard you can mess him up really badly by parrying his attacks, especially if you use the balistae afterwords (do note that, if you're playing with phantoms, ballistae can hit friends as well as foes).

 Fafnir wrote:

EDIT: Also, this is interesting...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693331-dark-souls-ii/68799675

Thankyou, reading some of that has just sucked the soul out of my body, hollow-style. ..Some people really need to get out more, and I say that as a massive nerd!

Don't be hatin'. Back in my Armored Core days, I ended up doing testing for weapon stability, accuracy, and fire rate relations in a similar manner. It can actually be pretty fun to figure out optimal loadouts.

Daba wrote:Is the re-gaining humanity from jolly cooperation bugged? I helped someone kill Ornstein, and I didn't get humanity restored. It was a really laggy battle though; I think I helped lag-surf the host to victory.

Apparently From says regaining humanity from cooperation is a bug.

Thanks very much for the advice on the Heide Tower of flame - managed to get that ring you mentioned, a nice knights shield and armour. Got that as well as a Halberd now which is quite cool, by far the most powerful weapon I have used so far!

Where is this No-Man's Wharf you mentioned, is that the next zone?

Both times I have done Pursuer, a helping phantom has been "accidentally" gunned down. The first time was an accident.

The second was my favourite, had two with me, myself and one jumped on the ballistae whilst the third tanked pursuer.

I like to think he realised what was about to happen and in real life started shouting "NO!" as we gunned him and the boss down.

Jolly co-operation.

 Daba wrote:
How is the 'limited spawns' thing? Any idea how it works?

Enemies stop respawning after you kill them enough times, although you miss those souls, makes exploring those levels a lot easier.
And From software? Boss next to the fog gate is not fun!

Being a battle mage is awesome, in previous DS i went for a tank built now i am a leather clad mage, evade, magic, slash, die.

The limited enemy spawning + limited effigies + health reduction all seem like mechanics that don't go together. One of their design aims was to make it easier to people to get into the game without reducing difficulty.

The health thing either makes it jump too far for people with reduced health to higher difficulty or it's balanced around the lesser health and it's too easy for someone in human form. Basically, it makes it worse for beginners (who are likely to be on reduced health a lot), while players more familiar with the game will have an easier time - so with this they seem to have achieved the opposite of their goals.

They stated they wanted more people in human form to experience multiplayer and that it wasn't intended that you would spend so much time in hollow form, but limited effigies (and the rarity of them comnpared with humanity), and not getting the 'soft' humanity randomly from monsters pre-boss works against that. Especially as they said that regaining humanity for cooperation is a bug. Note that you could fix this by letting spawns continue, so the effigies are unlimited.

It just seems badly designed (or badly directed) compared to the previous game, due to the 'synergy' of the above mechanics, and things like Shine of Amana.

The cutscene thing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after the witch thing though, thankfully.