(art by me)

On my Jonpyrocleric run i got the2 shield halves from the grave dudes, is this the game telling me to do shield only in new game plus?

About half of the credit's runtime was like this, is this normal? Did skipping the DLCs on my first playthrough cause problems?

thinking about a future project idea i have and while my first DS build would be from DS1, i'd love to see what people would be excited to see in person from DS2.

gavlan or maybe the burnt ivory king would be my two picks personally. and lucatiel as well

Hey so i decided to give this game a 4th or 5th chance after installing some QoL mods and it's oddly fun. My question is what are some mid-late things I should be aware of early and when should i start the DLCs? Last time I played, I had just finished tower of flame and no man's wharf. I want to go through this game blind but I am afraid I might miss something important on the way that I can't go back to.

Yeah, I've just bought last missing miracles/pyromancies and I'm showing off.

and confidently pulled it on 1st play through. "bring a boss", i said

Seriously, do people even proc bleed a single time in a normal playthrough? Is it better in pvp or something?

“To even have a chance against Giant Lord, you must first defeat Ivory King”

Hello, I am going to start playing Seamless right now with my girlfriend and wanted to ask you guys about your scaling settings. Here is what I think will play well!

Title, I've seen people saying this is a failed dark lord, Amana, one of Vendrick's magicians, or the four kings combined into one.

So who really is this guy? And how actually powerful/important are they?

Ok I did this all out of order. Demon’s Souls remake during covid days, got hooked, then Bloodborne, Elden Ring, DS1 on Switch, Elden Ring DLC, then DS3 … and now I have arrived here. All I saw over the years was people trashing DS2 but after a couple hours I’m really into it! Graphics-wise seems closer to DS1 and makes DS3 seem light years ahead but that doesn’t matter to me. Why do people rip this game and what do I need to know going forward? 🙏 Excited …

I know its just an animation he does but the timing made me laugh

Be carful when using geek removal

His take on the newly found delayed hitboxes

I'm not against the pvp system and I happily engage with it in the arenas, but if you're a new player playing with friends in Seamless-Coop and you do not wish to be invaded (especially by those twinking with ice rapiers in cardinal tower) you can disable invasions completely in the config file (ds2sc_settings.ini) and play through the game with your friend in peace.

This really was a Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin.

But in all seriousness, an amazing experience and most definitely an overhated one. For any and all interested, I'll be writing down some thoughts I had about my first playthrough in this post. Stick along if you wish or keep moving on, the choice is yours, Young Hollow.

Since people in the Soulsborne community like to list the Souls games they've played like they're their credentials, here's mine (in order):

Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, ER: Nightreign, Dark Souls and finally Dark Souls 2.

In this game's case, I started playing it right after finishing my first playthrough of Dark Souls 1 for which I made a similar post some time ago. With DS1 still fresh in my memory, I can definitely see why the transition to DS2 must've felt weird to so many and why this ultimately led to this title being so controversial. DS2 happens to also be the first Fromsoftware game since Elden Ring that I've played blind, so I had only what I'd heard other people say about it.

My first note is that most of the time Dark Souls 2 does not feel like a Dark Souls game, to me at least. I do not know how common or rare this take is, but in case this rings someone's alarm bells, fear not. I do not mean this in a negative way. DS2 is set in a whole new land that is separate from Lordran. Instead of Astora and Catarina we have Mirrah and Faraam. Instead of Gwyn we have Vendrick. Instead of a war against dragons we have a war against giants. The story and setting are notably different even if the universe is technically the same.

Hell, even on a gameplay level this game felt like it was trying to set itself apart from DS1. Sure, the basic mechanics and fundamentals are still largely the same, but the difference is notable. DS1 and DS2 are both slow and methodical, but in very different ways. While 1 was slow mainly because the entire pacing of its combat was based around that, 2 seems to put significant emphasis on patience and restraint. Rushing in to a level is equivalent to suicide, since you'll be overwhelmed by enemies in no time. You cannot rely on comboing every enemy to death since stamina management is a far more vital skill here than in any of the other games. You have to decide when to focus on fighting and when to focus on finding the next bonfire, because equipment degradation is an issue that will keep on appearing throughout your entire playthrough. You cannot chug an estus right after getting hit, because the animation and health recovery is slow and unless the enemy is someone from the geriatric ward, you will be punished for it.

Playing through the game, I could see why so many people have developed a disliking for DS2, whether it's from a gameplay, storytelling or another aspect I haven't mentioned yet.

But that's only if you expect it to be like Dark Souls.

It's a whole new game trying new ideas while attempting to expand on the old. And while not everything in this game is done perfectly, there are serious improvements it has made and there is real effort to create a unique experience.

While DS1 has stellar level design that is difficult to top, I have to say that DS2 offers its own kind of spin in level design that I find to be on a very similar level to its predecessor. While the areas aren't interconnected in the same way that one elevator in Undead Parish brings you back to Firelink Shrine, many areas feel like mazes of their own with countless branching paths that can bring you back to a previous part of the level, a bonfire, a treasure room, a secret boss or even an entirely new area. Half the time when I found new areas I was almost convinced they were optional/secret areas, because I wasn’t even sure how I managed to find them in the first place or because I found them by going through a side path so convoluted that it was hard to believe it led to an entire unexplored level that was supposed to be mandatory. I said this about DS1's level design in another post and I'll say it about DS2 as well: this kind of level design is somewhat lost in Fromsoftware's later games and I'd love to see them go back to either one for a future project.

As far as combat goes, I think this game tries to make the player understand that they need to be aware of when to commit to an attack and when to simply focus on staying alive. While all the Souls games require a certain level of patience and calculated risk-taking, DS2 seems to take this quite far, since I don't think I've ever been so careful in my fighting style before in one of these games. The fact that quite a lot of animations require you to sit through long recoveries means that the classic Souls greed will be punished severely at every turn. My build was focused on powerstancing so that might also explain the whole stamina management and long recovery animations, but I feel like there was a lot of intention put into this. I do still want to say that much like DS1, DS2 is also affected by that little bit of jank, but I wasn’t really bothered by it at least.

The game's narrative was also very intriguing to me. I love the stories in these games (and really any other game as well, I'm a sucker for lore) and I have to say that I don't really understand why some people think DS2's lore has nothing to do with Dark Souls. The themes of the story of DS2 explore everything Dark Souls is about, even if the setting is different. This game could never thrive if it tried to do everything DS1 did without focusing on its own identity. I also want to say that I loved how little of DS1's events and legends are known/remembered in DS2. In my honest opinion, fantasy stories that do this are guilty of nothing but good worldbuilding. I mean, if you went outside and started asking bypassers questions about human history, chances are that you'd meet people with very different answers. Some might know the bold strokes of the past 100-200 years or so, some might have a lot of knowledge about specific eras, some might even spin their own stories and narratives that may be entirely false. It only makes sense that very little information of Lordran and the First Flame has survived to Drangleic. I remember how when I was listening to Licia at one point, she mentions the First Flame when discussing miracles, only to be unable to explain what the First Flame actually is. While this and most of her dialogue is meant to indicate she is untrustworthy, I also found it to be a brilliant way to demonstrate how the people of Drangleic really do not know much of the past of an entirely different kingdom that existed a long time ago. Once again, good worldbuilding.

Something that I want to criticise about DS2 is its bossfights. I also want to come clean by saying that I didn't find all the bosses. I'm pretty sure the bosses I missed were the following: Darklurker, Royal Rat Authority, Belfry Gargoyles, the gank trio and Lud & Zallen. In any case, while there were fantastic bosses like Fume Knight and Sir Alonne in this game, I fail to see what the thought process was in fights like Royal Rat Vanguard and Prowling Magus & Congregation (whoever was responsible for these bosses needs to be studied, they're clearly a threat to humanity). In cases like Ancient Dragon and Duke's Dear Freja, I could see the idea they had but the execution usually turned out as nothing short of abhorrent. Then there is Mytha, whose arena can be drained of the poison, sure, but I do not understand how a first-timer is supposed to know to burn the windmill or how that action in any way correlates to stopping Mytha from having her poison bath. It often felt like for every good boss I encountered, a bad one was waiting around the corner.

To end things on a good note, I must say that all the hype Majula receives is well deserved. I don't think I've ever seen a hub area that captures so many feelings at once and that includes Firelink Shrine from DS1, which I think is quite a statement. Furthermore, the NPCs were so fun (I mean, talking cats are already an automatic 10/10) and I'm really sad that in true Fromsoftware fashion, I fumbled basically every NPC questline. But because of this, I only have more reason to replay this game someday.

But before that day comes, I do want to replay DS3 now so I can say I've played the trilogy back to back and in chronological order and then move on to Sekiro.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. I'll gladly answer any questions about my playthrough or the like.

Bear seek seek lest.

My 35k SM character was invaded by a lvl 251 player.

H