Dark Souls 2: YOU DIED HARDER

Yeah turned out I missed a load of hidden bonfires near boss fights. Black Gulch is worth exploring a bit more.

yeah. this one makes it even trickier by having some of the secrets accessible by a button press instead of a weapon smack.

i've been missing a lot of obvious stuff 'cause i'll see a path on some initial exploration and think 'hmm, that looks like it goes on awhile, i'll come back later' then totally forgetting about it. i'm into it though, it's nice to be able to come back to an area and have things left to discover, without worrying about making it to the boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_BzwEaHBlc

http://i.imgur.com/CjQoCpz.jpg

haha, I've seen that tag a couple of times.

lol i got eaten (and spat out) by the Covetous Demon. it was worth it.

earthen peak is pretty fun.

just started playing this, they certainly didn't dumb it down lol. framerate is pretty crappy so far, not Blighttown bad but not great either. got a good laugh from reading the inscription on the monument by the sea.

I beat the last boss earlier today... and I've only collected three of the four old souls. Hmm.

The story-ending boss, I mean - the one in Drangleic Castle.

Brightstone Cove is such a shit level. Anti-fun.

oh god just got lost down a Dark Souls k-hole

Lol @ the second half of the Iron Keep. Banner day for torturous levels.

I think I'm done for the evening.

cruising along now...2nd half of iron keep was a breeze thanks to a helpful phantom (the only time i've summoned someone outside of a boss fight, just on a whim), and the gutter/grave/gulch was surprisingly not that bad. i didn't light anything in the gutter (do you just have to use flame butterflies?) and somehow made it to the bonfire near the end...that was the most careful i've been the entire game, but the enemies aren't that bad, as long as you watch out for the drops and poison statues.

black gulch is crazy but thankfully short, managed to do the Rotten solo on the 2nd try. now i guess it's time to do the Shaded Ruins for real? i think that's the only open path i haven't gone through.

i feel like i can't quite connect with this just now... need a year or so to acclimate. should maybe just focus on finishing 1.

I'm at the gulch right now! I know most people probably sprint through it, but I want all the treasures, so I've been painstakingly knocking over every statue and drawing the Lovecraftian horrors out of their pits one by one. Hm, I wonder if something like Emit Force could break multiple statues at once.

i haven't tested this out, but supposedly the black pools are flammable.

They are, but you have to be careful as there's one chest that's sitting directly in a pool of the stuff, and will get burned up if you approach it while carrying a torch

Started NG+. Time to first YOU DIED: 30 seconds.

those 3 big gold skeleton fuckers can get tae fuck

Trivia
• If you decapitate one of her heads, You can kick it around like a soccer ball. (Confirmed.)

They're going to make the turning human from a successful summon bug into a permanent feature! Which would be cooler if I didn't use a ring of life protection to stay human all the time already.

yeah that ring is an out of character addition for the series

cool, where did you hear that? i've been doing the ring move for successive attempts on bosses where i feel ok about using co-op, but i usually let it slide when moving through new areas (too much pressure to stay human/warp back to majula to get them repaired, i like being able to die with impunity). and i love helping people with bosses.

that ring would make more sense if you couldn't repair it

btw the old sun ring is my new favorite ring.

I was not aware of this ring until now but it sounds awesome. Will have to grab.

i killed someone in the belfry wearing that and my final kill blow set it off killing me at the same time. a 2nd invader was watching and did a celebratory gesture

Wait, it hurts yourself too when it explodes?

nope, it shouldn't

i was not wearing it, the guy i killed was

where's good to leave a summon sign? Have been playing about with it with not much luck. I'm level 50-something and only 20hrs into the game...

I usually leave 'em by bonfires or by the fog gate in front of a boss, usually with reasonable success. I got more summons once I turned on the option for multi-region play - I think it's turned off by default.

yeah I tried that around Heide's Tower but with no luck. Switching that option is a good hint, thanks!

ending is sorta anticlimactic and i still don't fully get the story. i mean its a bit easier to follow than dark souls but i don't quite get how the 2 games are related. gonna try some of the covenants before heading to ng+

you can stay in new game after you finish, which is a nice change

there's a story?

i liked what they did with however much story was in demons and ds1. there was a pretty simple framework and the detail was vague, some of it that could be pieced together and some of it impenetrable. but for my tastes they struck a good balance. ds2 i have no fucking clue. there isn't any framework, just the vagueness. i couldn't ever imagine myself thinking less of one of these games because of story, but that is i think the main reason that i don't like this as much. don't get me wrong, i still like it a lot. there are other factors too for sure, e.g. it does feel like a sequel/retread far more than ds1 ever did despite how similar that was to demons. and it is easier, in terms of structure and content. it just doesn't inspire dread in anything like the same way.

am reserving judgement until I've played it more, but I see what you mean. From early signs it looks like covenants and online play generally are much better integrated in the game, e.g. the defend the belfry thing for Bell Covenant members.

If you've got some time you can read an exhaustive breakdown of the story and the links between DS and DSII here: http://jcwigriff.com/2014/03/20/dark-souls-2-takes-place-in-lordran-lore/

wow, that link. i don't care about the story that much, but even aside from the DS links (most of which pretty obvious) i still enjoy the general Soulsian vibe that all the real action happened thousands of years ago and you're just digging through the rubble.

i'm at shrine of amana btw, just caved and used a bow for the first time in the game.

these speed runs are getting pretty serious btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8sbAxHMxg

also, a friend of mine pointed out that the climax in the True Detective finale has a total Dark Souls vibe, and he is right.

o yeah, for sure; that was totally on my mind throughout much of the show

there's a story?
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 18:02

there was a war with giants, there was a king and queen that fucked things up, ur cursed

i like the belfry sol invasions, that little rooftop area has a playground aspect to it

evil girlfriends seem to be a theme in this game, hmm (see the unhappy scorpion couple).

it does feel like a sequel/retread far more than ds1 ever did despite how similar that was to demons. and it is easier, in terms of structure and content. it just doesn't inspire dread in anything like the same way.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, April 1, 2014 2:02 PM

i'm ok with it feeling like a sequel since its meant to be one. the lack of dread is somewhat a problem for me too. the devs certainly could've tried to top what came before with grosser/weirder/darker stuff. i guess they restrained themselves on purpose cuz why else would a game in the series garner a 't for teen' rating all of a sudden. kind of a bummer in that respect.

not sure about the forced perspective fight against the big spider

yo when are we getting ilx .webm embedding because wow
http://i.4cdn.org/v/src/1396823666898.webm