Dark Souls 2

I don't see why you're trying to excuse a shitty mechanic. It was dumb in DS1, it's fucking retarded in DS2. The purpose of durability is economic, money sinks, keeping crafting viable, etc. It has no place in a single player game whatsoever. At least in DS1 you could mostly ignore it, but when you did have to do it, it was clunky and time consuming. Now, it auto-repairs any time you sit at a bonfire if it's not broken, yay. Oh, but it breaks every 10 minutes. Why, exactly?

Well, in the last game the 'low durability' weapons were probably a bit more powerful than they liked. I know I rocked a washing pole with a side of pyromancy and wrecked things pretty thoroughly.

I'd agree that it's a stupid mechanic really but it isn't *that* big of a deal to me.

The funny thing is that Santier's Spear, which is arguably the most powerful weapon in the game (when mundane, obviously), is completely unbreakable in its second form.

Did they completely do away with the different movesets through equip load?

joeboo_sl said:

My only gripe about the game is the weapon durability being incredibly low. I hate having to keep 2 or 3 weapons upgraded. I like to focus on and master using 1 weapon at a time :/

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Had a rapier go from full to warning in one boss fight. That's when I realized that the durability system was fundamentally flawed, and dex weapons were not worth my time.

Quineloe_sl said:

Did they completely do away with the different movesets through equip load?

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There's only two rolls now (and no ninja ring), and cut-off for fat roll was moved to 70%. You should still try to keep it at 50% or below though, because you roll considerably further with lower encumbrance. Agility (75% ADP/25% ATT) also affects the roll; definitely the number of i-frames it has, and there's still debate about whether or not it affects roll speed at all. If it does, it doesn't seem to be very noticeable.

And it seems that general movement speed is a sliding scale based on encumbrance, with no certain cutoffs that I can tell. I did some testing and I ran at different speeds at every 10% of encumbrance, and the changes may be with every single %, I just didn't have an exact enough testing method to test every 1% and time it accurately.

Someone piss off Sean? he deleted all his posts from forever.

Dandai_sl said:

They took away his mod status. He seems to have been upset by this.

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Jesus christ you guys are a bunch of whiny cunts.

After ~15 hours over the weekend, I'm loving the shit out of this game. It's everything I wanted from a Dark Souls sequel.

The port is miles ahead of DS1, even if it still isn't taxing high end PCs. I'm fine with that, Dark Souls is about mechanics, not graphics for me.

Controls are great, using a PS3 controller emulating a 360 controller. They made a questionable change with the jump button on LS, but thankfully it can be easily rebound back to B. Having all the attacks on the triggers is still genius, leaving your right thumb free to use the camera as needed mid-combat.

Map design is great, I have no idea what people are complaining about. There may be a few too many bonfires, but I'm not really complaining. Linear? Every area has tons of branching paths, secrets and interconnections leaving you free to go wherever you want. I've played 15 hours and still haven't been to areas that friends of mine visited within the first 2 hours of the game. Talking over mumble as we go, we've been doing completely different things at different stages of the game.

Lore is still the same ineligible disconnected clusterfuck it has always been, I didn't expect anything else.

Build variety seems increased from Dark Souls, from what I can see. I spent 3 hours or so PvPing in Belfry Luna and faced everything from throwing daggers and bows, through hexes, miracles and sorceries, to at least 20 different weapons (dual wield, sword+board and 2-handed). Avoidance and tanking are both viable strategies, although admittedly it has become easier to do both at once with the increased carry weight thresholds.

I'm a big fan of the durability change, actually. In Dark Souls 1 you never switched between melee weapons once you got your preferred setup. Dark Souls 2 forces you to swap due to durability, and weapon damage type also matters a whole lot more, with slashing weapons tearing up flesh and crushing weapons destroying anything armored. This incentivizes me to use multiple weapon setups, which I am all for.

In sum, I fucking love it.

Watch the vid that supertouch posted for the core problems with the game. The things complained about in this thread are mostly minor gripes and annoyances that could have been easily avoided.

The issue with the port has zero to do with graphics. If you port to pc and have the most retarded kb/m control scheme ever, it's a bad port. Not to mention all the crashing issues some people are having. Drop down menus with only shift/ctrl/alt + click as options when I have dozens of single key presses available to bind, not even counting extra mouse buttons? Retarded.

Who gives a fuck about build diversity in pvp? Most people don't even bother with it.

As for durability, making your players jump through hoops "just because" is shitty game design. We have extra weapon slots now, if I want to use more than one weapon, that's an option, but it should be my choice.

You love the game? Good for you. As a game it's "ok", as a sequel to DS1 it's a steaming pile of shit. But, that's just my opinion.

None of the changes are for the better, and most are just worse.

Not watching a video like that until I finish the game, sorry. He (and you) might have legitimate gripes that I just haven't run into yet, I'll give you that.

KB/M controls being bad is a shame, but easily bypassed by using a controller like the series is primarily designed for. Sorry for those that can't stand controllers, I personally prefer them for action games where movement is more important than aiming anyway.

You could run with pretty much anything in PvE in Dark Souls 1, I don't see why the same wouldn't be the case here. I haven't tried though.

Using more than one melee weapon in Dark Souls made you weaker through most of the game. If you're a min/maxer like I guess most of us here are, that meant using the same exact weapon throughout the whole game, maybe pulling out a divine weapon for two short sequences. In Dark Souls 2 swapping weapons is a necessity, which increases diversity. It's a clear improvement in my eyes.

The kb/m thing might be less of an issue if:

1. From hadn't specifically stated that they were developing with PC in mind this time.
2. If doing PC controls "right" wasn't one of the reasons given for the long PC release delay.
3. The controls weren't actuallyworsethen they were in DS1.

"The current plan is [to allow] players to choose whether they want to use keyboard and mouse or a controller."

Having a good option and a sucky option aren't exactly what I consider "choices".

It doesn't use GFWL <mainly due to it not existing> so it's immediately a huge upgrade from before.

From is a pretty small studio. I think they had grander PC plans then they had the manpower or tech knowledge to deliver. The community will probably come out with fixes, but personally I'm happy using a 360 Controller on my PC, and I usually hate those with any non sports/racing games.

Dark Souls Developer From Software Bought by Kadokawa - Push Square

Sidenote but relevant.

And anyone saying it's drastically worsethan DS1 hasn't finished DS2 pretty clearly. I definitely complained a bit the first lengths to myself, but it's got a much longer game, and early game suffers with a muted learning curve and lack of openness that fades in time.

And there's no real "broken" early imba items to grab this time.

I'm playing with a controller on PC. Controls feel identical to DS1, other than lack of kick (I'll admit, it's annoying) and the change to jumping (which I prefer personally).

I guess I just don't feel a lot of sympathy for those who are bound and determined to use m/kb. Bottom line, the original Demon Souls was never built with m/kb in mind and that control scheme is more or less still present in Dark Souls 2. So get over it, get a controller, or don't play the game.

The graphics are ok, if you were expecting great graphics because OMG PC PORT then I think you set yourself up for disappointment. This is still a console port from a nearly 10 year old system. The graphics are ok, that's it. They're good enough for me, but I can see they might be a put off for some. My one complaint is it just feels more... "cartoony" to me. DS1 had just a perfect overall art style and direction, this one seems a little less consistent.

Level design is certainly complex... The world is much bigger than DS1, though there are more bonfires so you seem to progress through it faster. I'm not sure it's quite as elegant as DS1, and there is certainly back tracking involved. At least one time I couldn't figure out how to progress immediately, but I eventually found my way. I can see this as a legit critique, but overall I'm happy with the huge world even if it doesn't flow quite as well as DS1.

Build variety seems fine to me. Seems like casters generally have better itemization than in DS1, especially early on. Durability change... Well, it's a toss up. I don't like having a weapon break after just a few fights, but it does force you to use more weapons. I used 4 or 5 weapons in DS1 and a couple were used only in a few specific places or fights. Generally, I used 1 weapon only starting in the mid through end game.
In DS2 I've used (out if necessity) many weapons but I still have a primary and a back up.

I'm really enjoying it. I hear a lot of complaints but no one seems to mention improved itemization, better crafting, more optional content, and more secret areas. Sure, there are some issues, but they're relatively minor. DS1 had plenty of minor issues too. I think this game was a great success and if the next one is only as good as DS2 it will still probably be my favorite series.

Dark Souls 2's world is much bigger but most areas are fairly linear and uninspiring. And many transitions make absolutely no sense. It's almost like each area was created by a different person and then they were all thrown together at the last minute. I've played a lot of games and I can't remember the last time I saw such shoddy design.

nate_sl said:

I'm playing with a controller on PC. Controls feel identical to DS1, other than lack of kick (I'll admit, it's annoying) and the change to jumping (which I prefer personally).

I guess I just don't feel a lot of sympathy for those who are bound and determined to use m/kb. Bottom line, the original Demon Souls was never built with m/kb in mind and that control scheme is more or less still present in Dark Souls 2. So get over it, get a controller, or don't play the game.

The graphics are ok, if you were expecting great graphics because OMG PC PORT then I think you set yourself up for disappointment. This is still a console port from a nearly 10 year old system. The graphics are ok, that's it. They're good enough for me, but I can see they might be a put off for some. My one complaint is it just feels more... "cartoony" to me. DS1 had just a perfect overall art style and direction, this one seems a little less consistent.

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What the fuck are you smoking? Yeah, Demon Souls wasn't built with kb/m in mind, no shit, it was for console only. DS1 was originally for console only as well, and yet the kb/m controls for thatare better than DS2which was specifically designed with pc in mind. "Get over it" is not a valid argument, it's just an asshole comment. Having a double-click option, which forces you to add a wait-delay on single-clicks (even if you remap the double-click) is pants on head retarded in a game with fast paced combat like DS2. You can spout all the bullshit opinions you want, that is fact. Period.

Again, the only only complaints I've heard about the graphics are based on the downgrade from what was shown in gameplay videos and also present in the console network beta test. Personally, I would have liked them to remain as they were, but they are fine either way. So, anyways, stop bringing up graphics as some poor attempt at a strawman argument.