Skip to content

Dark Souls 2, Scholar of the first Sin

12346»

Comments

  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited March 2016
    No, I certainly understand, and it is almost manically fast compared to the first two Souls games. There is rarely a situation where you don't want to get the first hit in or go balls out and try to get a parry on their first attack (which I am batting about 70% on in this game after doing it maybe twice in either Souls game, at least on trash mobs). I think both games make you better at the other. I still think Dark Souls 3 with retain enough of it's core for you to enjoy it. In the meantime, I'd like to compliment you on one of your comments earlier in this thread (way back) when you said that the Souls games were essentially so good they would ruin other games for you and make them seem pedestrian in comparison. 100% accurate.

    I'm not entirely sure why they went the frenetic melee only route with Bloodborne, though my guess is that it was simply a better fit for the aesthetic of the game, primal, beastial fury. Dark Souls exists in a monolithic world that feels almost frozen in time until you arrive. And I can definitely see alot of Bloodborne influence on the bosses and certainly the trash mobs I've seen so far in Dark Souls 3. I just am confident the variety of ways to deal with them will make it a true successor to it's namesake.
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    Another advantage of Bloodborne is that being essentially forced to learn how to use the gun as a stagger mechanic inspired me to fire up the original Darks Souls on my laptop and see if I was any better at parrying, since I'm in the section of Anor Londo with the Silver Knights and I never had the knowledge or the courage to try it before. Surprisingly enough, the window might be even more forgiving than Bloodborne (though parrying spears is much harder than swords). It's huge risk, huge reward. If you miss, you are at least going to be in a critical situation. If you hit it and manage to pull off a riposte, the fight is all but won (plus I've been missing out on all these cool animations for all these weapons).
  • brusbrus Member Posts: 944
    edited March 2016
    I saw that Dark souls Cafe opened up in Japan. http://kotaku.com/first-look-inside-japans-dark-souls-cafe-1496101780
    Wouldn't be awesome a real Baldur's Gate Tavern Cafe ? I think I wouldn't want to go home. :smile:
    I would order all that ales.
    FinneousPJ
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited March 2016
    brus wrote: »
    I saw that Dark souls Cafe opened up in Japan. http://kotaku.com/first-look-inside-japans-dark-souls-cafe-1496101780
    Wouldn't be awesome a real Baldur's Gate Tavern Cafe ? I think I wouldn't want to go home. :smile:

    In all my gaming experience there have only been about 3 series/worlds that have totally captivated my attention and imagination. The Lucasarts graphical adventures of the early 90s, the Infinity Engine games, and far more recently, the Souls games. Funny thing is, I've never thought of myself as someone who is looking for an insane challenge, but all the games in the categories I listed have pretty high initial difficulties for what they are trying to accomplish.

    Now that I'm thinking of it, the way I plotted out how I was going to take out Father Gascoigne in Bloodborne at work mirrored something I did as a 10 year old in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade graphical adventure. There was a section in the Nazi castle in Vienna where Indy had to balance talking his way past certain guards, wearing disguises in front of others, and having to fight if push came to shove. The thing is, you had to walk through this area a few times to get no shortage of items, and if you were inconsistent with what you wore of what you said to each guard, you'd be in a fist-fight, and fights in this game were damn near unwinnable. It was even somewhat infamous for being able to completely lock yourself out of progressing without reverting to a save. I still remember sitting in church, telling my dad I was taking notes about the sermon, and actually brainstorming in my head and plotting how the hell I was going to get through this mess. I think it's still the gaming moment I'm most proud of. I'm not even sure if I ever finished that game, but I got out of that damn castle.

    Anyway, the Souls cafe certainly speaks to more than love of a videogame. These particular games are plenty fun to play, but they also define what it means to be actual art as much as any painting or classic novel I've read.
    FinneousPJbrus
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    brus wrote: »
    I saw that Dark souls Cafe opened up in Japan. http://kotaku.com/first-look-inside-japans-dark-souls-cafe-1496101780
    Wouldn't be awesome a real Baldur's Gate Tavern Cafe ? I think I wouldn't want to go home. :smile:
    I would order all that ales.

    A bonfire and estus flasks. I love it.
    brus
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    Since I picked up Scholar on PS4, I've come to realize how stupid I was avoiding the online component of these game. This may be the ultimate example of how deep From Software now has their hooks in me. As a life-long hater of any type of PvP, I now realize after just a couple sessions in both 1 and 2 online that I don't ever want to play again without it. I'm speechless....I'm sitting here after just having logged out of the Steam version of the original, and there are still loads of soapstone messages being written down in the Undead Burg even in the wee hours of the night. I doubt these games will ever lose their audience. There will be a obvious exodus when 3 hits in April, but people will always come back to these games, in much the same way they come back to Zelda (which is actually the 4th series that has affected me this way, come to think of it).
    brusFinneousPJ
  • brusbrus Member Posts: 944
    Japanese release trailer
    FinneousPJSethDavis
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    OMG it's so cool. Game of the year for sure.
    SethDavis
  • SethDavisSethDavis Member Posts: 1,812
    edited March 2016
    O_O agreed

    huh, wasn't expecting english voiceover in a japanese trailer. does anyone know if the souls games thus far have had a japanese voice track at all?
    Post edited by SethDavis on
    FinneousPJ
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @SethDavis I believe not. I remember seeing the original DS with JPN subtitles as well.
    SethDavis
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited March 2016
    Bit of a controversy at the moment, in that Xbox One users were able to find loopholes in the region lock and now have the game as well as the English translation, so they are essentially playing the finished product 3 weeks early due to workarounds. The 3 week gap between Japan and the West is really puzzling in this case. Seems like a experience the world-wide Souls community would want to experience together. 3 weeks from now Twitch, Youtube, and Wiki will have taken alot of the magic out of what should have been a collective experience. There is a massive pent-up anticipation for this to be released. A 100,000 people are watching on Twitch in the middle of a Monday afternoon. That said, no one seems to have gotten much further than what we've seen teased for weeks and months.

    The trailer shows that the clips we've seen of the first few areas and bosses are in no way going to do justice to some of the later stuff. And I swear I saw someone who at least LOOKED like Gywn riding a dragon into a boss battle. How anyone is going to deal with THAT is anyone's guess. Looks like From has pulled out all stops here, as a love letter to say goodbye to the series thus far. And that is before a couple of promised DLCs later in the year. Color me impressed.
    Post edited by jjstraka34 on
    FinneousPJ
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    Bit of a controversy at the moment, in that Xbox One users were able to find loopholes in the region lock and now have the game as well as the English translation, so they are essentially playing the finished product 3 works early due to workarounds. The 3 week gap between Japan and the West is really puzzling in this case. Seems like a experience the world-wide Souls community would want to experience together. 3 weeks from now Twitch, Youtube, and Wiki will have taken alot of the magic out of what should have been a collective experience. There is a massive pent-up anticipation for this to be released. A 100,000 people are watching on Twitch in the middle of a Monday afternoon. That said, no one seems to have gotten much further than what we've seen teased for weeks and months.

    The trailer shows that the clips we've seen of the first few areas and bosses are in no way going to do justice to some of the later stuff. And I swear I saw someone who at least LOOKED like Gywn riding a dragon into a boss battle. How anyone is going to deal with THAT is anyone's guess. Looks like From has pulled out all stops here, as a love letter to say goodbye to the series thus far. And that is before a couple of promised DLCs later in the year. Color me impressed.

    Thanks for the tip. Have to avoid running into spoilers now.

    Re Gwyn that's what I thought as well O_O
    Makes sense thought as he would be the original lord of cinder and heir of fire.
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    Apparently the idea is that Lothric is where all ends meet, where all the other world's converge at the real end of these cycles. I've seen some things that are very clear call outs to the first game, though I don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say, even seemingly random art assets or simple item descriptions of enemy placement in these games reveal what most games use cut-scenes to explain. Moreso than other fantasy games (which are great), the lore of From Software games doesn't feel so much like your typical D&D fare so much as the great ancient myths or the mythology of the world's great religions. It's ancient, it's statuesque, and you are fighting things akin to Gods, demi-gods, protectors of gods, and creations of gods. Your typical fantasy games have lore. Darks Souls and Bloodborne have both lore and an honest to god mythology that is as fleshed out and real as any in a textbook.

    Anyway....there is definitely clues in some of these bosses that certainly insinuate that you are fighting reincarnations, or elements of things you have faced before. The names of the bosses, the small details, where they are located, what they are wearing. This game looks much more tied to 1 than 2, but that makes sense. 1 introduced this intricate and obtuse mythology. 2 explained the nature of the curse and what the cycle means. 3 is looking like the blockbuster Dark Souls-lore orgasm you would hope for.
    FinneousPJ
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    Oh boy....here's awesome news while everyone waits. Salt and Sanctuary is, quite literally, a 2D Souls game. It's not made by From, but it might as well have been. It makes no bones about cribbing every aspect of it's influence and design from Souls and Bloodborne, but it's a side-scroller. Totally worth grabbing in the meantime.
    FinneousPJSmilingSword
  • SmilingSwordSmilingSword Member Posts: 827
    So DS3 drops next Tuesday, I have taken 6 days of leave in advance, now I just need to buy supplies, so I don't have to leave the house for a full 8 days.

    Life is so good right now XD

    Or at least it will be starting next Wednesday.

    I actually jumped back into DS2 to get in some souls practice. I was so bad for a whole day, it wasn't even funny how much I sucked. Now I'm back to not being totally crap at the game. Can't wait to hunt down some potential Lords of Cinder.
  • SmilingSwordSmilingSword Member Posts: 827
    @FinneousPJ, thx very much.
Sign In or Register to comment.