#or attack the boss instead of the respawning skeletons

[thexgrayxlady]

Yeah, Rolan absolutely gets Most Useful Non-Party Ally. He put Mage Armor on Gale when I forgot. He stayed a reasonable distance from the main melee. He thunderwaved his shitty mentor and several elementals off a balcony, killing several and softening the others up.

[katyspersonal]

Hey guess whaaaaat!

BfhgjfhhhjFDHHI MGJG AAAAAA!!!! I can finally FINALLY go back to Dark Souls 2, after all this time! God, it was hard. Do not repeat. And IF you do, please hit every dragon's tail on your first run, you are NOT ready for NG+ buff, especially with Kalameet! And also prioritize unlocking Nito's arena as soon as possible, because the endlessly respawning baby skeletons in water pool before it are the fastest method to grind level, and you need 50 Int! You just equip silver serpent ring for even more Souls, turn on podcast to listen to while you terrorize the babies, and get out with Homeward Bone when you are out of heals.

Well despite it being hard, I still had a blast? The most enjoyable things are still battles of Artorias and Manus, their fights are the biggest fun I've had in this game, but like.. this game is genuinely fun to explore and vibe in and kill Drakes in

Special CURSES to:

1) Fuckin SOLAIRE for terrorizing me TWICE! Not only he gave me a jumpscare by not appearing until I restarted the game, but also he fucked me over at Ornstein and Smough! First he kept targeting Ornstein when I needed HIS Soul and I had to restart, then he KILLED him again and I had to die to restart. And then I got sick of killing giants to not have Solaire target them and trusted him to be normal, but not only he aggroed at giants.. he ALSO got stuck at them instead of following me to the boss, but x2 healtbar thing WORKED, so I had to fight the two in THIS condition, ALONE! And somehow still won?? Summons are really double-edged sword -_-

2) The guy who designed Siegmyer's FUCKING quest!!! On my first run I failed his quest by killing all Chaos Eaters. So, on my second run, I made sure to kill all but one. But the last one I had to kill was under such an angle that I HAD to drop down! So while trying to escape back, this last bitch HAD to fall into square hole to its death. 🤦‍♂️ I didn't lose hope though, because turned out there was one MORE Chaos Eater down there, it just was on the sideline rather than right where the floor fell, but still the same pool! So what do you think? HIS QUEST STILL BROKE!!! I SHIT YOU NOT!!! WHY DOES IT MATTER WHICH CHAOS EATER EXACTLY LIVES!!!! FHJJVJFKGMHIHK

3) FUCKING Four Crings! No elaboration, I just hate them. I have to print this screenshot:

And then FUCKING BURN IT!!! FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU AND YOUR STUPID ATTACKS!!! Whose idea it was that they get two long distance attacks which are impossible to dodge, so you have to stay close to not have them, BUT IN PROXIMITY THEY HAVE OTHER TWO ATTACKS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO DODGE, AND WHILE YOU DEAL WITH THIS SHIT ANOTHER KING WILL SPAWN AND SPAM THOSE LONG DISTANCE ATTACKS!!!!

FUCK YOU!!!!!!! FUCK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

[raksha-the-demon]

Just curious what the difference between a roguelike and a soulslike actually is? - I see those descriptors a lot but it's hard to grasp as someone who doesn't play a variety of games

THANK YOU for giving me an excuse to talk about this. Also sorry for taking so long, it's just that every time I started writing this out I ended up getting way too lost in the weeds and having to backtrack so it didn’t just turn into a meandering essay of Raksha’s Opinions On Vidjagames. (Also shoutout to the spellchecker that thinks it should be “vidja games”. Perfect software, zero notes.)

So, first, a quick disclaimer that these terms, like all genre terms but particularly gaming genre terms, are fuzzy and ill-defined. Not everyone draws the line between them in exactly the same place, but the important thing is that there is a line, and some games are clearly on different sides of it. Like Hades and Elden Ring, which was the comparison that gave me psychic damage.

Roguelikes (named after the 1980s game Rogue) and soulslikes (named after Dark Souls et al) are both known for being difficult genres where you die a lot and it takes many, many, many attempts to actually win. The major design difference between them is that roguelikes use random generation that changes things up when you die, while soulslike games keep the world pretty much static. But I think a more useful distinction from a player perspective is that roguelikes emphasize strategy while soulslikes emphasize tactics. 

Strategy is about broader planning and overall intent, while tactics are about specific actions taken moment to moment. If you were cleaning a room part of your strategy might be “work top to bottom” while your tactics would be more like “clean this specific shelf first”. Both types of planning are used in each game (it's kind of impossible to have one without the other), but the emphasis changes. The randomized nature of roguelikes force the player to constantly adjust to new situations, whereas soulslike games encourage players to continually iterate on and perfect methods for dealing with very specific and known problems.

Let’s imagine two scenarios. Both start off the same way, with a player exploring a dungeon. They start in a room with three skeletons, which they kill. In the back of a room is a chest with a cool sword. It’s better than the player’s current weapon, so they equip it and continue to the next room, where the boss is waiting. The boss does a stomping attack that the player wasn’t expecting, and the player dies. They respawn back at the start of the dungeon.

In the soulslike scenario, the player still has the cool sword equipped, which they use to kill those first three skeletons even more easily than before. There’s no longer an item chest in the room because they already looted it, so the player continues to the boss fight. They know about the stomping attack now, so when the animation starts they’re able to dodge out of the way. This time they are killed when the boss throws a rock at them, so on the next iteration the player tries standing under the boss during the rock throw, so that they can’t be hit. This process continues with the player iterating on their battle tactics until they eventually win and can proceed further into the game. 

In the rougelike scenario the player no longer has the cool sword when they respawn, and the first room has a pair of wolves instead of skeletons, and no item chest. The next room doesn’t contain the boss this time, but five skeletons and a spike trap. The player does find an item chest here, this time containing a bow. They equip it, and then proceed through several more rooms of random monsters before coming to the boss room. The boss does exactly the same things it did the first time around, but this time the player is using a bow, so they decide to keep their distance and attack from range. They don’t have to dodge the stomp attack because they’re too far away for it to hit. The rock toss almost gets them, but they see it coming and are able to duck behind cover. The boss eventually kills them with an area attack, and the player goes back to the start, where they fight through a new version of the dungeon and find a new weapon, which opens up different strategies for how to tackle the boss. 

Personally I find the soulslike model frustrating, because it feels like I’m just running headfirst into a wall over and over again. Roguelikes don’t give me that same sensation despite being more punishing in a lot of ways, because each run keeps things fresh. Other people love soulslikes because they enjoy perfecting their skill, and find the randomness of roguelikes to be an impediment to that.

[tatzelwyrm]

In Defense of Dark Souls 2 – Scholar Edition

Now that I have finished all of the Dark Souls 2 DLCs, I must say, people don’t give Dark Souls 2 enough credit.

Is DS2 a perfect game? No. But think of all the nice things Dark Souls 2 gave us that later Soulsborne games (including Elden Ring) adopted:

Fast Travel between bonfires is immediately available after leaving the tutorial area.

Fast Travel is available from every bonfire to every bonfire (excepting Primal Bonfires).

To increase the number of Estus uses you upgrade your flask instead of upgrading individual bonfires.

Levelling up is tied to the Firekeeper/Finger Maiden/Doll equivalent rather than the bonfires, allowing for Majula to become something of a hub world, much more than Firelink in DS1.

As a consequence, Emerald Herald, to me, is much more fleshed out as a a character (like the Doll) than the Firekeepers in DS1 (Elden Ring chose a unique middle ground by having you level up via your friendly neighbourhood maiden, but having her appear at every bonfire equivalent rather than in a hub area – which made me not feel connected to Roundtable Hold or any of the other areas as much as I did to Majula, the Hunter's Dream or DS3's Firelink).

Weapon upgrades are far less complicated in DS2 and subsequent Soulsborne games. There’s still different weapon categories that use different upgrade materials but the different upgrade paths are easier and quicker to unlock because they aren't locked behind as many different kinds of embers.

There’s also a bunch of exciting stuff only DS2 did. The most prominent example of this is

ADJUSTABLE DIFFICULTY!

By giving us the following:

Extinction – Enemies stop respawning after you’ve killed them about 12 times.

Bonfire ascetics – Burning an ascetic at a bonfire allows you to manually force an area into a higher NG state, respawning enemies that had previously been extinct (ensuring you can keep farming souls) and even respawning bosses that you’ve already beaten.

Joining the Company of Champions covenant increases damage output and defenses of enemies and disables friendly summons (you can leave the covenant any time via the talking cat. There are no penalties for leaving covenants in this game).

The only other Soulsborne game that allows you to play around with difficulty a bit is Bloodborne by making enemies becoming stronger and giving them additional moves if you increase your Insight score enough.

Do you know how many times playing DS1 and DS3 I thought “If this was Dark Souls 2, I’d be getting rid of that one guy”?

And, finally, I simply feel like DS2 managed to capture the spirit of DS1 very well while still managing to be its own game (as evidenced by the new mechanics mentioned above) rather than simply being a rehash of its predecessor.

I don’t think the areas in DS2 are as consistently creatively unique as the areas in DS1, but the spirit is still there.

There are multiple areas that can be made easier or harder by using your torch (Brightstone Cove Tseldora (at least in Scholar which is the version of the game I played), the Gutter, Shrine of Amana. The torch can also unlock special items for you (Things Betwixt, the Gutter). The windmill in Earthen Peak can be burned (there’s even an NPC summon pointing this out to you). It's a neat way to make players consider using a 1-handed weapon without a shield for a bit.

The invisible enemies, thick fog and moaning trees make navigating Shaded Woods particularly creepy – and you can use the moaning trees to distract the enemies while you sneak around them!

Aldia’s Keep has that Dragon Skeleton that moves – once! I’ve already forgotten what the trigger for this was, so this is gonna be a guaranteed jumpscare the next time I play this game.

The Wyverns at Dragon Aerie only become hostile if you step on too many of their eggs.

If you duel the big fellas at Dragon Shrine one-on-one the other enemies won’t attack you.

There’s also the many Pharros contraptions that you can unlock to find treasure and/or traps throughout the game. (I just wish these had been more integrated into the gameplay in Doors of Pharros. Like, there's an entire area littered with these things, named after the guy who invented them, but it’s also the one area in the game in which the contraptions don’t do anything exciting. Imagine if this place had been more akin to Sen’s Fortress. They could have given you special Pharros stones to disable the traps in this area – special ones so you can’t accidentally insert them somewhere else and make the level unplayable.)

And that’s just some examples from the base game. The DLCs are each centered around unique level mechanics.

Navigating Shulva requires you to find and keep track of multiple switches to raise and lower platforms – and to disable traps and find hidden pathways inside the Dragon Sanctum. (So maybe they overdid it a bit with the switches in this one. There’s like 3 of them that I never figured out what they did because I lost patience, but it was still a nice change from the more combat-heavy areas.)

Brume Tower (probably my favourite area in the entire game) has a lot of elevators for you to navigate once you figure out how to active them while the Ashen Idols pose something of an environmental threat. Additionally, there's lots of gunpowder and fire for you to use and abuse as you wish.

Frozen Eleum is, well, frozen the first time you enter it and unfreezing parts of it allows you to access new areas and make the final boss fight a lot easier (with Burnt Ivory King making for the best spectacle fight in the entire series, IMO, if you find and bring all the Loyce Knights).

Compare this to Dark Souls 3. I loved DS3 when I played it (still do). It has incredible boss fights and very smooth, fast-paced gameplay and an epic soundtrack. But you can’t deny it’s is also a lot less daring than its predecessors when it comes to level design and the related mechanics. This is true for what I've played of Elden Ring as well.

DS3 (and Elden Ring) are well-made games, but there’s an unhinged charm to the some of the more unique level mechanics of DS1 and DS2 that make them such weird little games and it breaks my heart a bit to see that the newer games didn’t try to replicate any of that.

Even though a lot of these mechanics were a bit broken, Dark Souls 1 and 2 wouldn't be the same without them. I can’t help but wonder if it were all the complaints about DS2 that made the developers deliberately cut back on weird little ideas for DS3, resulting in a very enjoyable, very polished game that is still somehow less than what it could have been because the devs decided to play it safe.

[awarmbowlofhomemadesoup]

Headcanons if Benrey is a Light Entity

I know, I know. We often expect light entities to be glowing and otherworldly and Benrey’s a golem. 

But hear me out (I may have overthought this tho).

Flat Effect

Benrey has a flat affect (emotional expressions don’t show) like his monotonous voice. This maybe because his kind naturally expresses emotions through light orbs of Sweet Voice. 

When he does express emotion, it is often intense or sarcastic (the evil laugh, the dull “oh no” when attacked by the head crab). 

No-Clip

He can no-clip through walls the same way photons travel through matter and not lose energy. 

Exists Beyond Three Dimensions

Not being affected by G-man stopping time by having the ability to move through the same space beyond three dimensions. The same way there is still light wave-particles entering Gordon’s retinas even when time has stopped. 

Respawn

He regenerates the same way energy is converted into matter. This is how he is able to expand in size, respawn and duplicate skeletons -a comparably easier thing to generate than the whole human body. 

During the boss fight, Benrey had to be quick and efficient and therefore only generated skeletons instead of whole human bodies. 

Predator Ability

Whenever he “dies”, he cannot convert his matter back into energy. This is his limit and can be the reason why he needs to eat by cocooning his prey.

Therefore, His True Form...

His true form cannot be seen by the human eye because it exists like a loose cloud of low-energy photons. 

As a light entity, his energy converts into mass by interacting with other matter, including air particles. This creates a solid body in order to further interact with his surroundings. 

Since he can respawn and not die permanently, his human form may only be an extension of his true form.

Xen may have a way of powering him up as a massive form requires more energy. 

Reaction to Pain

The only time he reacted from pain is from a laser. Benrey can receive damage but cannot feel pain unless it’s a beam that is more precise in disrupting particles.

If He Grew Up in Black Mesa

Similar to how tadpoles have to live in water before being able to survive land as a frog, Benrey as a light entity may have started as a solid form in the early development stage.

Others

He doesn’t understand his abilities in the same way it’s not common knowledge for everyone about the neurochemical pathways of what makes us blush in the context of a situation. 

He has a misguided way of not standing out by dimming his light. This means dull gray skin that is pale to be passable and the trademark shadow over his eyes. 

The boss fight was supposed to look like a rainbow explosion of a lightshow (but was scrapped because it was too hard for the team to look at). If that was the case, Benrey was holding back.

[chekplaysminecraft]

Minecraft Ideas:

Ok, so, I’ve never really had a drive to defeat the main bosses of the game because they don’t have much in-game implications that they’re actually evil. Killing the ender dragon feels like breaking into its house and killing it because big dragon. 

Something that I feel might remedy this is actually making a lot of the hostile mobs turn peaceful as you defeat the bosses of the world. Defeat the ender dragon? The endermen all get green eyes again and don’t attack you. Defeat the wither? The ghasts become happy and the wither skeletons/blazes act as guards for the zombie pigmen and only attack you if you hit one of them or the pigmen first. Also, to get their drops, the pigmen open a market after the wither is defeated. Same with the endermen after the ender dragon. 

Maybe add bosses for each mob too? A spider queen that controls the spiders. A “sea emperor” that controls the Drowned and was the entity that drowned all the houses. Big Creeper Boy. 

Each “minor” boss could also give you weapons that help you defeat other bosses. Illagers can give you weapons that are good against the wither, the wither lets you unlock an enchantment that makes armor/weapons more effective against the ender dragon, etc. Also, each boss gives you a special piece of armor that doesn’t break but instead “rusts” over time and has less ability unless its cleaned. 

Also add Herobrine as a “final” boss that is an EXTREMELY rare spawn that only appears if you defeat all of the other bosses. At this point, you aren’t sure why you’re fighting him because all of the hostile mobs are either gone or friendly. You can run, you don’t even have to engage in combat. He’s just kind of there, in the fog in the distance. If you defeat him, he “respawns” and congratulates you on a job well done and thanks you for playing his game. 

[foxingpeculiar]

Demon's Souls Diary:

I did two things today. First, I was tired of dealing with The Ritual Path, so I decided to go kill me a Dragon God instead. That took a little bit of figuring out, but once I cottoned onto the fact that his eyes turn red when he's about to punch you, the whole thing started going a lot more smoothy. Run up, hide behind the pillar until he lifts his head, run over, smash some debris, then book it back to the hallway. Rinse and repeat until the path to the ballista is clear. The first section is the hardest part--as long as you move quickly through the second section, the fire attack doesn't get you and you can get the second ballista shot off. Then just hit him when he's not on fire and boom. One Archdemon down. It's an annoying puzzle boss, yes, but it's not nearly as irritating as the Bed of Chaos, and only took about five or six attempts.

Then, I took a deep, calming breath, and went back to 4-2. But after getting my ass handed to me a couple of times again, I made some quality-of-life improvements for myself. First, I realized I'd killed the first reaper enough times that I had several Moonshadestone shards and chunks, enough to upgrade my Crescent Falchion to +4. Second, I had a bunch of soul items I hadn't used and between that and collecting my souls every time those skeletons or whatever killed me, I was able to go up like seven or eight levels and get myself a shit-ton of arrows and grass. Finally, and perhaps most crucially, it occurred to me to try using the Thief Ring, which is goddamn necessary for this area, since it keeps the mantas off your back.

Then it's just carefully and methodically moving through the level. Snipe the first reaper quickly enough that his room clears before the ghosts even get to you. Use arrows to get the skeletons to either kill themselves by rolling off the cliff, or to approach you one-by-one and they're manageable. In the next room, kill the first ghost then, from where he's standing, snipe the second reaper on the lower platform. Make your way down to the third reaper's area and kill the first three ghosts in quick enough succession that the third is out of the way before the second one respawns and you can get to the last reaper. I ignored the slugs for now--I'll go back and get that stuff next time--and went to take on the Old Hero.

And I gotta say, with the Thief Ring equipped, that fight is trivial. Keep a little distance, wait 'til he slams his sword, then unload a stamina bar on him and you can get out of there before he has a chance to counterattack. His only AOE is super well-telegraphed and the rest of the time he just kind of wanders around randomly attacking. Not only did I beat him on the first try, I did it without taking a single hit.

Next time on Demon's Souls: the original poison lake, because From sure fucking loves themselves a poison lake, even if no one else does.

[mettic]

hey everyone. got some big news.

first, this will be my last post. The reason for this is because I managed to successfully infiltrated From Software and get away with my prize: leaked info on the dark souls 1 remaster. Ive learned in detail that NG+ in the remake will be like souls games made after the original release of DS1, with NG+ having substantial changes to the game other than stats increasing, and I have details on how.

unfortunately, I was not quiet enough, and Miyazaki knows. He’s sent his assassins after me, and they’re all dressed up like artorias. I’m in hiding but unfortunately my computer has a loud as hell mechanical keyboard and a nvidia GPU that glows nvidia’s name through my computer, so i’m soon to be discovered.

read my leak, let my sacrifice not be in vain.

NG+ changes:

Overall:

-There will be one extra mimic chest. Which chest it is changes every playtrhough

-chests now all break when attacked, like in DS2. they break in one hit.

-there is now one mimic bonfire in the game. it is also different every playthrough.

-bonfires can be destroyed in one hit.

-enemies can now follow you through fog gates.

Undead aslyum:

-Undead Knight Oscar will not be dead, and his removed storyline has been reimplemented into the game.

-Undead Knight Oscar has been replaced with Funky Kong.

-attempting to do the plunging attack from the balcony onto the Aslyum Demon will lead to the floor breaking, making you fall into the stray demon arena. Aslyum and stray must now be fought together. The floor breaking cannot be reverted. 

-snuggly wont give you any items anymore. infact he makes fun of you if you reset for items. super rude dude really.

Undead Burg:

-Solaire is exactly the same except now he has the sunlight parasite on his head. he will not mention it.

-In the Taurus Demon fight, the  undead crossbowers have been replaced with anor londo archers

-if you attempt to shoot the dragon with arrows/magic for the drake sword it will grab you and ask you why you’re doing that in new game+.

Undead Parish:

-Fanged Boar now respawns upon death

-Bell gargoyles has been replaced with the dark souls 2 bell gargoyles fight

-there is an extra bell gargoyles in the room where you ring the bell

Lower Undead Burg:

-There are now 4 total dogs in the Capra Demon fight

-Stairway in the capra demon fight has been removed

Depths:

-Knight Kirk will now invade you two minutes after entering the depths.

-When killed, Kirk will reinvade you two minutes after his death. this continues as long as you are in the depths

-All enemies except kirk have been replaced with Basilisks.

-Giant Rat is now a Giant Basilisk.

-gaping dragon is now Kaiju basilisk.

-Kirk can invade during bossfights.

Blighttown:

-While FPS has been drastically improved and made consistent in blight town for the remaster, FPS has been dropped down to anywhere between 8-15 FPS for NG+. This cannot be reverted.

-You can now see queelag’s nipples. Pointing your camera at the nipples after one second will begin to accumulate petrify on your character.

The Great Hollow:

-When approaching items found in the great hollow, the part of the tree will break under the items and they will fall. This will continue until they land at the bottom.

-All items in the great hollow have been replaced with Rubbishes.

Sen’s Fortress:

-The snake soldier on the hallway with the swinging blades is now equipped with two great shields instead of a magic wand

-Iron Knight Tarkus cannot be summoned anymore

-Iron Giant replaced with Iron Knight Tarkus

Anor Londo:

-On the ramp that lead to the inside of Anor Londo from the outside, and third anor londo archer has been added

-The bell gargoyles in the area have been replaced with Dark Souls 2 Bell Gargoyles.

-Instead of powering up when the other dies in the Orienstein and Smough fight, when one dies O&S will now do the fusion dance, transform into Dragon Execution Orienough

-Princess Guard covenant has been changed. It is now a PVP covenant similar to Blades Of The Dark Moons and Forest Hunters. Princess Guard now exclusively invades players who leave “Amazing Chest Ahead!” messages in Anor Londo.

Painted World of Ariamis:

-All enemies except Crossbreed Priscilla replaced with skeleton wheels. this includes every individual phalanx.

-engaging crossbreed priscilla will now cause an internal flag to be raised which leads to you hearing a crowd booing at you for the rest of your game.

Darkroot Garden:

-It’s like. Real dark now.

-You can’t see more than a foot infront of you. super dark.

-Sif now has two swords.

-Moonlight butterfly now instantly dies upon engaging it to prevent you from wasting your time.

Darkroot Basin:

-Upon approaching the door that leads to the undead burg’s tower from the Basin side will lead to a muffled “can you smell what the rock is cookin” soundclip from the otherside of the door. Upon  the end of the soundclip Havel “johnson” the rock will kick down the door. Havel will now be permantely aggro’d until death

New Londo Ruins:

-All Four Kings spawn as soon as the fight starts. While the fight is going on you can also hear someone typing a multi paragraph rant about how multi boss fights in souls games are actually great and very fun and you just need to get good.

The Duke’s Archives:

-every book in the archives can now be read.

-one of the books in the archives will now explain in plain text the entire lore and intentions of the dark souls. we will not tell you which one.

The Crystals Caves:

-The invisible paths now change between every death

-We cant think of a way to make Seathe a shittier fight so it’s the same.

Demon Ruins:

-Upon killing Ceaseless Discharge, he will do a thumbs up on his way down. If the game console detects you groaning at this, ceaseless will flip you off and respawns

-capra demons now are also followed by 4 dogs.

-Instead of certain spawn points, the rockworms will now follow the player

-at half way through the firesage demon fight, the floor will break. When you land at the bottom you will encounter stray demon and asylum demon

-upon starting the Centipede Demon fight, your camera will lock on. Lock on cannot be disabled for this fight.

Lost Izalith:

-Upon sliding down the ramp into the Bed Of Chaos arena, Sonic Adventure 2′s “City Escape” will play.

-Bed Of Chaos’ roots respawn. Fuck you.

The Catacombs:

-Pinwheel has been replaced with a giant skeleton dog.

-Attempting to enter the catacombs before clearing the Undead Burg will result ina skeleton slapping your character at the door and telling you to get the fuck out.

-Skeletons, upon doing their spinning dive move, will sometimes yell “psycho crusher!”

-You can sometimes find two skeletons playing on street fighter two super turbo cabinets. they both play Dictator.

Tomb Of Giants:

-Pinwheels have been replaced with giant skeleton dogs

-Nito now spawns 3x as many skeletons

-Nito can now only spawn skeleton babies

Ash lake:

-Everything is the same except the Everlasting dragon now has a penis and his hand is on it.

Sanctuary Garden:

-sanctuary guardian now meows.

Royal Wood:

-Artorias’ sword is now twice in length.

-Artorias’ helmet is now twice in length.

-when convincing Hawkeye Gough to fire upon Kalameet, the cutscene will play but he will miss. Gough will shrug at you and remind you that he’s blind.

Oolacile Township:

-All of the various walkways are now 50% thinner

-A new Carving item has been introduced to the area in NG+. This one, the Runescape Carving, will play a very obnoxious soundclip that blares “Runescape is the better game” upon use. it has half the recast time of the other carvings.

-upon the player dying, all enemies in the area will use the Runescape Carving

-Silver Pendant removed. Fuck you. Fuck the lore too.

Chasm of the Abyss:

-Attempting to attack Manus by hitting him with arrows outside of his arena will cause him to crawl out of his arena. He is now aggro’d on you.

-You can summon sif for Manus, but when he is summoned he will be sleeping on a doggy bed. Out of respect Manus will leave Sif alone and try not to wake him up

Kiln of the First Flame:

-if a parry is attempted on Gwyn, he  will laugh and counter parry you. His counter parry is stabbing you.

-If you enter the Kiln of the First Flame and wait one real life week, gwyn will die of old age.

[retro-gamers-stuff]

House of like 20 corpses

First off let me jut state that the title is a little wrong since we weren't in a house, I just like my rob zombie reference. So since all of our usual characters were in araknor (trust me there is a reason the dm had us do that) we played as other characters so instead of tye winter I was trogreth lonecloud redblood (trollborn but almost fully human) ranger, instead of kylea we had ulfrick the minotaur fighter, instead of hando we had vork the half troll fighter, instead of kol we had I'll call him perryWinkle, cause I can't remember anymore of their names, the honey badger thief, we also had a monk courtesy of sir vac-u-um but he may have left our group now, we also had majora, I'm seriously just giving them random names right now til I can actually remember them cause I thought this was a one off dungeon and we'd be back in araknor, the alvani (think bald elf) mage of some sort, we also had whiskers the necromancer bunny, and John Cena the half orc thief. So our characters were all acquainted with each other and traveling over a mountain pass when suddenly the nastiest ice storm blew in, we saw a large wall that could lead to sanctuary. The iron gate was locked though so ulfrick used his kukri to slice the lock. Once inside we saw we were in the courtyard to a monastary, a very old monastary, there was also a pond with a man shaped figure inside but it was frozen solid. All of us except whiskers went inside and once inside John Cena got attacked by a thing, we didn't see it though because as he was attacked a darkness spell fell over the entire room. All we knew about the room was two doors one ahead and one on the left and a spiral staircase to our right. We tried our best to help him but I dropped my dagger, perrywinkle found and kept it but whiskers gave me his, and the only person who really hit this thing wrapped on John Cena head was John Cena who grabbed it and ripped it in half and then being covered in gore in the cold changed clothes into his silk bodysuit. He also went back outside and had a nice feud with the bunny. We continued on, seeming to split the party every five fucking minutes, discovering a door to the right that led out onto a balcony with monk statues, the door ahead just led to a hallway connecting to the room to the left which was a prayer room of sorts. On the other end was a kitchen with two sets of stairs, one going up and one going down. I went down with ulfrick and perrywinkle, while cena, whiskers, and vork went up (the other two weren't with us that session). Vork group killed a skeleton but found nothing of interest while my group found an armory where I and the honey badger got studded leather armor and some shuriken. We then made our way into a boiler room and lit the boiler waking a zombie which we killed and tossed into the boiler because we thought it was unnatural and wrong, whiskers wasn't happy. So we made camp in a supply room between the two other rooms, with whoever was on watch shoveling coal into the boiler. The zombie came back but from it's first location which was odd but we killed it again and hung it up on meat hooks so the necromancer could disect it. His disection was short lived though because a fiery eyed super saiyan looking guy bashed through the door and almost kicked our asses. He fled though and we tried to follow only he had disappeared. I suggested the spiral staircase, the only unexplored part of what we'd seen and so we went and found a new floor. We tried to get into a room and two statues attacked us, in the ensuing battle I rolled a nat 1 and my bowstring broke and then the fighters broke the statues. We fount a good condition bow and some arrows in the room though so it worked out. That next session I was gone for so I only know they found things that led them to the conclusion that some tragedy happened there 100 years ago almost to the day and once the third night hit midnight we might die, as well as the fact that any undead in this place respawned like a dark souls enemy when we left a room. My next session back after Easter was eventfull. We rigged a harness to hold the coal zombie so we could still camp, after me and vork and someone else fought the zombie with vork forcing its head to its chest and I shot it in the head and heart with an arrow prompting a "nobody will ever believe you" from vork. During ulfrick watch he killed the zombie again by himself. After all of us had rested we set back out with ulfrick, whiskers, and I going up into the kitchen to fight a couple zombies that ulfrick one shotted with a single charge. We explored the rest and found the saiyan monks room. Through our search we found clues that he might be the big boss of this place, and clues that he hated fire. So we enacted a plan where we got ready to cover him in a flammable tarp as soon as we opened the door, but he wasn't there. So we went and collected as much coal as we could in the five hours we had before midnight, we had it all on the floor that held his room, perrywinkle also poured oil from the kitchen on the coal and we waited downstairs while perry stood in wait for the big bad monk. It appeared and almost upon perry when he dropped a torch and ran catching that floor on fire and all of us waited at the bottom of those stairs for any sign of the monk. We found him after two failed perception checks and I got tossed aside like garbage as he snuck up some stairs behind me,picked me up and threw me causing paralysis with his cold touch. I tried to flee but failed a check and fell down stairs bringing me to 1 hp. Had to go to work shortly after but found out later that we killed him. The next session began after that with the place starting to fall apart, I grabbed perrywinkle and ran and the others floolowed and laughed as perrywinkle grabbed my ears for steering and swatted me on the ass with a short sword as though I was a horse. We all made it and the storm had broke. We made camp and were on lookout for primal trolls which could rip us apart. The next morning we set off down the mountain and found a road. We also found a broken wagon train with weapons and armor, none of it useful for me. Our next camp out had me and whiskers in a tree not getting good enough sleep to regain our hp. But the following one did allow us good sleep after we saw so many minotaur war wagons heading toward the closest town...araknor. we almost got to the town when we were attacked by selah. Vork went down but his troll blood is gonna have him up next session, and cena, whiskers, and myself went down with me almost dead and we only have two health potions.

[mamepwrites]

My thoughts on Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Warning, some spoilers for the game’s story are below.

Dark Souls II was the first Souls game I really decided to sit through and play. I’d touched DS1 when the craze reached my ears, and when it came on Steam as the Prepare to Die edition. I probably would have kept playing if it wasn’t running on Games for Windows Live. I didn’t really do much past the Taurus Demon. Considering that, when Dark Souls II was released, I got it instantly. I didn’t even know it was coming out. I hooked up my 360 controller and had a grand time in the tutorial. When I got to Majula, I was so lost. I found my way to Heide’s Tower of Flame and I ended up learning the basics of gameplay from the first Old Knight there. I didn’t even know about the area’s first bonfire. And then I stopped playing the game. When I learned of Bloodborne, I watched the Game Grumps playthrough of it and I wanted to feel that. I still had DS2 in my steam library, so I decided to stick with it. And I beat it! Granted, I wasn’t good at rolling, and I protected myself with a shield most of the time. But I was pretty okay by the end. I then got a PS4 and Bloodborne the summer after, and my experience in Souls helped me play through it with ease. I love hunting, even to this day. Then I got DS3 on release, and played the heck out of that. And then I decided it was time to play through DS1, and I did, defeating all of the bosses except for Priscilla, because so ~moe~. But with DS2 being my first real Souls game, I always wanted to play it again. I’ll put the cutoff here, because this’ll be a long post.

So, the Scholar of the First Sin edition was on sale on PSN a few weeks ago. I got it and I played the HECK out of it. But when Scholar of the First Sin was first announced, I believe it was advertised as being much harder than the base game, considering changes in enemy placement. But having played it, I really can’t say they did much to that end. Maybe it was just easy for me because I’m an experienced Souls player now. But let’s talk a little bit about the changes to difficulty.

The tutorial Things Betwixt has its entire third section blocked off, and for a fair reason. It seems the devs wanted players to not farm on the Ogres that were in that section. So they blocked it off with a statue that you’re able to unpetrify later in the game, and they make the Ogres non-respawning. Sheesh. However, the first real level of the game, Forest of Fallen Giants, has its first available enemy an Ogre. I thought that was unreasonable, so I skipped it entirely. Sadly, later in the level, the Heide Knight was missing, so no lightning sword. The rest of the level was fairly unchanged. I was playing it with a friend, and so we took down the Pursuer fairly easily. It would have been a little tough doing it solo, but I love playing Souls with friends in any case. Anyways, I found that the Scholar edition featured updated item descriptions, particularly in the text for the Soul of the Last Giant. It pretty much said it was formerly the Giant Lord, a boss you fight much later in the game through enjoyable time travel.

The next area, Heide’s Tower of Flame, suffered a terrible change in enemy placement in my opinion. The original DS2 featured Heide Knights as docile-until-attacked non-respawning tough enemies you would find around the world, and they would drop their weapons or armor. But in the Scholar update, practically all of them are in Heide’s Tower of Flame, and they respawn, which is fair for farming their item drops because they’re no longer guaranteed. But once you beat the area’s main boss, all of the Heide Knights are no longer docile and they actively run up and attack you. Coupled with the Old Knights that are still in the area, traversing around is tough. You don’t have to fight them, though, unless you want to fight the level’s other boss, who is optional. But it’s a fun fight, so why should I say no?

Anyways, No Man’s Wharf wasn’t as scary as I remembered, but it seems that they never really fixed the durability issue in the game. Basically, the original game ran at 30 FPS on consoles, and at 60 FPS on PC and in its Scholar edition, but a bug in the game made weapons and armor degrade twice as fast when playing the game at 60 FPS. Considering No Man’s Wharf has no bonfires except the one at the beginning, this was annoying.

Sinner’s Rise is the stage of the Lost Sinner boss. Dark Souls games tend to have a “Big Four” set of bosses relevant to the overarching plot of the game, and the Lost Sinner is often the first in DS2 that players fight. The fight is cool in the way that it’s fought in near pitch darkness, unless the player has the foresight to find a key in a side-branch earlier in the previous level. With the  key, the player can light lamps in the boss room beforehand, so they can fight it more comfortably. I did that. But the stage itself was underwhelming. In the original DS2, many enemies called ‘Enhanced Undeads’ were available to fight. They were big green masses of flesh vaguely resembling dragons, and they were beefy. But in this Scholar edition, they were all replaced by a single weakened Flexile Sentry, which was the boss of No Man’s Wharf. While it made getting to the boss a lot easier, I felt sad that they didn’t even leave even one Enhanced Undead. 

The next area, Huntsman’s Copse, is one of my dreaded areas. Mostly because of the six Torturers that lie in ambush before the bridge to Undead Purgatory. In my first DS2 playthrough, I depleted their respawns. This time I just killed them one by one and went to Undead Purgatory and bam done with the stage. The Skeleton Lords boss of Huntsman’s Copse proper was also much easier than I remembered. The next level, Harvest Valley, was also decreased and increased in difficulty. There aren’t as many Undead Steelworkers (big greed dudes with big hammers), but there is an increase in the Desert Sorceresses encountered. However, I had more trouble with the Old Iron King boss battle this time around. Fricking lava hole. 

I also hate the Gutter and Black Gulch with a fervent passion. There’s a respawning NPC invader. Some forest child or whatever. Screw him. 

I enjoyed how Dark Souls II flips Dark Souls I’s structure on its head. DS1 had you fight a bunch of bosses (while ringing two big bells) until you get to Anor Londo and retrieve the Lordvessel, at which point you go to kill four bosses to acquire their Lord Souls. The bosses are Gravelord Nito, the Bed of Chaos, Seath the Scaleless, and the Four Kings of New Londo. The former two (the Bed of Chaos being the Witch of Izalith) were holders of full Lord Souls, and the closest allies to Lord Gwyn, who also held a full Lord Soul. Seath the Scaleless and the Four Kings all have shards of a Lord Soul, though they still count towards satiating the Lordvessel. This allows access to the final area of the game, the Kiln of the First Flame, and the last boss, Gwyn, Lord of Cinders.

However acquiring ‘the souls of four’ is the player’s first objective in DS2, aside from being told that they may become the next monarch of Drangleic (a plot goal). Upon meeting the Emerald Herald, the effective Fire Keeper of Majula, she instructs the player to seek greater souls, to seek the Old Ones. Embracing these souls allow the player to reach Drangleic Castle, where they expect to encounter King Vendrick, former monarch of Drangleic. After playing the first game, the player may assume that Vendrick is the final boss as Gwyn was in the first game, but the game does a nice subversion in this. Vendrick isn’t at Drangleic Castle. Nor is he the final boss. Nor is he a mandatory boss, for that matter. Instead of Vendrick you find Nashandra, his queen, apparently ruling what remains of Drangleic in his stead. She charges you to find Vendrick. And so from Drangleic Castle we go to the Shrine of Amana (a terrible area by the way, it’s so long and open but filled with pits you can barely see because of the water agh) and from here we gain entry to the Undead Crypt. It is in the Undead Crypt that we discover Vendrick himself, having long gone hollow.

(If you’re unfamiliar with Dark Souls lore, many people are afflicted with the curse of the undead, and continually revive upon death, until they die so many times, losing sight of their goals and becoming a mindless zombo. This is a hollow.)

We don’t have to fight Vendrick at this point in time, and it’s even recommended against doing so, as he has absurdly high defenses. The only thing we need from here is the King’s Ring, a ‘symbol of the king’. This grants us access to Aldia’s Keep (note that Aldia was Vendrick’s sciencey brother), then the Dragon Aerie and Dragon Shrine. They changed up Dragon Shrine a lot. There’s two main types of enemies in Dragon Shrine, the Dragon Knights and the Drakekeepers. The Drakekeepers are practically suped up versions of the Old Knights in Heide’s Tower, so they’re easy. In the original DS2, the ultra challenging Dragon Knights only appeared in the latter half of the level, where you’re climbing a grand staircase. So color me surprised when I start Dragon Shrine and see at least two Dragon Knights standing beside the first Drakekeeper. Turns out they don’t attack you as long as you only attack the Drakekeepers, and you fight the sole Dragon Knight (colored gold instead of black) who attacks you on the stairs. This one’s like a challenge to see if you’re worthy of meeting the one awaiting you at the very end, the Ancient Dragon. So far, the ‘dragons’ you see in Dragon Aerie are all actually wyverns. Fortunately so, because in DS1′s backstory, the dragon population dwindled. However, this Ancient Dragon is a true dragon, at least in appearance. *snicker* 

It gives you the Ashen Mist Heart, which allows you to traverse memories of certain beings. 

You’re meant to use this item to access the memories of the four Giant corpses found throughout the Forest of Fallen Giants. Though, instead of perusing their memories, you’re whisked away body and all, far into the past where you find yourself fighting the very Giants that razed Drangleic in an infernal fury. As it turns out, you end up fighting and defeating the Giant Lord, who becomes the Last Giant in the present time that you fight in the beginning of the game, that itself attacks you in rage. It’s so GOOD. Anyways, the defeat of the Giant Lord awards you a non-physical item called the Giant’s Kinship, or the Resonance with Giants in the Japanese version. This item intrigues me to this very day.

Its description reads: "Each king has his rightful throne. And when he sits upon it, he sees what he chooses to see. Or perhaps, it is the throne, which shows the king only what he wants. The flames roar, but will soon begin to fade, and only a worthy heir might burnish their light. What is it, truly, a claimant of the throne could desire?"

The whole story of Vendrick (the backstory of the whole game, really) is something I find much more compelling than the story of Gwyn in the first game. From what I can make out (with help from VaatiVidya’s interpretation), Vendrick was once like us in that he vanquished old ones and acquired their Great Souls, and with their power he built his new kingdom of Drangleic. He became seduced by a woman named Nashandra, who convinced him that the Giants to the north were a threat, and so he crossed the sea and raided their lands. To please his now wife and queen, he stole something of great importance from the Giants, which is presumably the power to manipulate souls to power golems, which he used to build his Drangleic Castle. It appears it was built above the Kiln of the First Flame, becoming known as the Throne of Want. However, the curse of the undead appears in Drangleic, and Vendrick and his brother Aldia search for a cure to the curse. Aldia made his manor in the east, close to the Dragon Aerie. As dragons were immortal, Aldia may have assumed their properties could help in curing the curse of undeath. Yet, the dragons are long dead, so Aldia made his own, with a soul of a Giant. This is the Ancient Dragon you meet in the Dragon Shrine. And from Aldia and this false dragon, the Emerald Herald Shanalotte is made. They appear to have not found and made use of any answers in time, as the curse reached even Vendrick. He also realized that his wife Nashandra was in truth a shard of Manus, progenitor of the Abyss, the darkness in humankind, and that she lusted for power, lusted for the First Flame, the kiln of which was deep below the castle. However, the pathway to the Kiln (or, the Throne of Want, as it became known) could only be opened by Vendrick. And so he sealed himself away in the Undead Crypt, guarded by his knights, left to rot in the curse’s grip. Long after this, it is the player that finds him completely hollowed, mostly naked aside from his crown, a loincloth, and a massive sword he lugs around. The player is only able to reasonably fight the towering hollow by possessing Souls of Giants, which lower his defenses. I forget where I heard this from, but what this is meant to represent is that while Vendrick is unfathomably strong (having vanquished four Old Ones while still totally human, and therefore with the risk of a very permanent death), the Giant Souls radiate the hate that was borne for Vendrick in stealing...whatever it was he stole, even long after the Giants have died, and by their hate they can weaken Vendrick, or strengthen the player enough to be a match for this king.

SO. With the King’s Ring, the Ashen Mist Heart, and the Giant’s Kinship, the player returns to Drangleic Castle. They venture deep below to the Throne of Want, where they do battle with its last line of defense that Vendrick installed, the Throne Watcher and the Throne Defender. Then, they fight Nashandra, who has cast off her veil and revealed herself as a grotesque figure, of deep black flesh and a skeletal face. She wanted the player to get rid of the Throne’s (and the First Flame’s) defenses so she could sit it herself. 

It’s a nice plot for a Souls game, in my opinion. 

What I particularly like about DS2 in comparison to DS1 is that the player character has their own intial and personal motivations. In DS1 the player is freed from their cell in the Undead Asylum and are told by Oscar of Astora to ring the two Bells of Awakening. They do so, and find that they may be the Chosen Undead, one who would link the First Flame to their very soul, bolstering its blaze and stretching the gods’ Age of Fire once more, as Gwyn did. DS2′s protagonist simply wants to be rid of the curse, to find a cure for it, and are then told that others come to Drangleic seeking the same, and that to find it they must acquire the four Great Souls, they must become the next monarch. DS1′s character is driven by the plot, while DS2′s character’s motivation goes hand in hand with the plot. 

Another thing I like about Dark Souls II is the relation between the player character, and Vendrick and Aldia. They both sought answers to curing the undead curse. Vendrick peered into the very essence of the soul, and Aldia was a scholar of the First Sin, which is Gwyn linking the flame to his soul while he should have let it die out. While upon completion of the DLC, a still-sentient version of Vendrick (encountered in a memory-past through the Ashen Mist Heart) awards the player with a means to stave off the effects of the curse upon completion of the DLC trilogy, a power in crowns, the symbol of a monarch. While wearing one of the kings’ crowns, the player can die indefinitely with no risk of hollowing. However, this is no true cure, but a treatment for symptoms. But still, it’s something. (Helps a lot in the final boss battle against Nashandra, too.) Vendrick tells the player to seek adversities, to seek strength. He tells the player that by letting the flame die, humankind will become part of the Dark again, as is their true nature. This is clearly the choice between linking the First Flame to one’s soul and extending its time, and letting the flame die out to cast the world in an Age of Dark, an Age of Man. However, Vendrick questions whether this is our only choice, whether these are our only options. We learn that to link the fire and to let it die are effectively the same choice, as it is in a cycle. Let the flame die and eventually it will spark again. Link the flame and another Undead will eventually rise to make their choice. What of this third option Vendrick alludes to?

Aldia styles the player character ‘conqueror of adversities’, and if a certain ending is chosen, accompanies the player in their path to find a way to break the wheel, to shatter this cycle of endless linkings and snuffings of the First Flame.

I dunno I really like Dark Souls II.

Oh right this is supposed to be on my thoughts.

I think Scholar of the First Sin could have done more to fiddle with the game’s difficulty, but there’s a point to that that shouldn’t be crossed. Change too much and you don’t have Dark Souls II anymore. Some changes in the Scholar edition were good, some were bad, but I enjoyed my time. 

I may replay Dark Souls III again. I can’t wait for The Ringed City DLC to come out.