Dark Souls Review

[Gustaran]

Ok, I give up.

Scholar of the First Sin is even more difficult than DS1. What on earth did they do to weapon durabiity? For some areas, you need three weapons, because sometimes a weapon breaks after beating ~5 enemies. Some people claim it is a 60 FPS bug, why isn't this fixed?

I also don't really care for the placement of overpowered enemies in the starting areas: I was like "Let's climb up that ladder, oh, what is this hovering knight (Pursuer) doing here? Attack - I did 3% damage to him - enemy attacks - I'm dead.

[SevenSpirits]

You didn't play DS2 vanilla did you? Both of those things were in DS2 vanilla FYI.

I agree it's harder than DS1.

Weapon durability in DS2 is different in that they wanted it to matter but they also wanted bonfires to automatically repair all your stuff. So the values are tuned such that it's possible for a weapon to break from one bonfire to the next. For most of the game you can get by with just one weapon, but there are maybe 3 areas where you might need a backup weapon or a repair powder. For whatever reason, the beginning of the game is one such area. Maybe they thought it would get people to experiment with a variety of weapons? I don't know, I don't really like the durability stuff, but I don't think it's that big a deal. BTW, the red bars under your weapons show how much durability is left.

The Pursuer is a boss - arguably the 2nd or 3rd boss in the game (which is obviously a vague concept in a game that's not linear). If you fight him early on the platform, his lack of a boss HP bar sure makes his HP intimidating, but he is not paricularly overpowered for where your character should be at that time. Still I died horribly the first time I went up on the platform. I think you only get one chance to beat him there; after that the platform is safe and you have to find Pursuer's boss arena to fight him again.

For people who are new to DS2, I recommend starting as a knight (explorer and warrior and bandit are also fine choices) and going to forest of the fallen giants. And there is one mechanic I would explain: every time you die, your max HP decreases. It doesn't go below half the initial value, but this is still debilitating for a new player. You can use a Human Effigy to restore it back to full max, and there is a ring called the Ring of Binding in Heide's Tower of Flame. It's in a chest with a guy sitting in front of it, and it reduces your max HP decrease by half so it never goes below 75%. Once I figured this out I was able to enjoy the game well. Oh, and you have way fewer invulnerability frames in this game when you roll etc until you level up adaptability.

[Gustaran]

You didn't play DS2 vanilla did you? Both of those things were in DS2 vanilla FYI.

I agree it's harder than DS1.

No, I didn't play vanilla, I intended to buy the game at the Winter Sale, but since they announced SOTFS around that time I decided to wait. IIRC the vanilla tests I read talked about it being a little easier than DS1, which it certainly doesn't feel right now.

Weapon durability in DS2 is different in that they wanted it to matter but they also wanted bonfires to automatically repair all your stuff. So the values are tuned such that it's possible for a weapon to break from one bonfire to the next. For most of the game you can get by with just one weapon, but there are maybe 3 areas where you might need a backup weapon or a repair powder. For whatever reason, the beginning of the game is one such area. Maybe they thought it would get people to experiment with a variety of weapons? I don't know, I don't really like the durability stuff, but I don't think it's that big a deal. BTW, the red bars under your weapons show how much durability is left.

I started as a sorcerer, so I only had a dagger. Since this is a fast attacking weapon it broke fairly quickly and I ran out of spells as well. Fighting with a broken sword because your main weapon breaks after 5 enemies (and have the broken sword break again ) does neither feel very rewarding nor realistic. Like I said, some people complain about a bug where the durability decreases twice as much as intented, which might be part of my problem. The thing is I wonder how you deal with this in the end game when it's usually rather difficult to gather materials to upgrade several weapons.

For people who are new to DS2, I recommend starting as a knight (explorer and warrior and bandit are also fine choices) and going to forest of the fallen giants. And there is one mechanic I would explain: every time you die, your max HP decreases. It doesn't go below half the initial value, but this is still debilitating for a new player. You can use a Human Effigy to restore it back to full max, and there is a ring called the Ring of Binding in Heide's Tower of Flame. It's in a chest with a guy sitting in front of it, and it reduces your max HP decrease by half so it never goes below 75%. Once I figured this out I was able to enjoy the game well. Oh, and you have way fewer invulnerability frames in this game when you roll etc until you level up adaptability.

I think the concept is not that different from Demons' Souls - if you went hollow your max HP was decreased by 50% immediately. The only difference was that the Ring of Binding (not sure that's the name, but had same effect) could be acquired halfway through level 1-1 and the enemies were much easier up to that point.
I checked out Heide's Tower briefly during my initial exploration at level 1 and died to the first big Knight there. So I wasn't sure if this was the intended starting area (which it doesn't seem to be, most guides start with the Forest of Fallen Giants).

[SevenSpirits]

Heide's Tower is pretty much the second-easiest area after Forest of the Fallen Giants. I would generally prefer to do it with either a weapon that has been upgraded at least once, or a blunt weapon like a club which is way more effective than a blade against giant stone guys. They made Heide's harder than it was before by adding all the sitting-down guys and one very large enemy, but you can ignore all of those to fight the boss of the area, who is the second-easiest boss in the game.

Sorcerer might have a rough start, but you played DS1 already so I think you knew what you were getting into by picking it so I won't say you should restart as a knight.

The part of durability that is arguably buggy is that your weapon loses durability for every frame during which it is inside an enemy corpse. This can be a problem for certain weapons with very low durability, and it can be more of a problem if you tend to keep attacking enemies after they die. But it's not really an issue late-game, nor is there any kind of shortage of upgrade materials late-game. They are incredibly plentiful. As a sorcerer, this is even less likely to bother you later on, since casting spells doesn't take much durability. But I can see how early game, when all you have is a dagger that does absolute crap damage, it is also a problem.

Anyone who says DS2 is easier than DS1 is wrong except in the sense that DS1 before playing a souls game might be harder than DS2 after having played DS1. In a vacuum, the game is obviously harder.

[Ichabod]

I bought the game and I'm on the process of downloading it (at 60kbps tops as my internet goes, it'll take a little more than two days). After that, I can start sharing Gustaran's pain.

I'm planning to change my style of play from DS1, where I used a Halberd with fast roll. Though slow roll seems a very annoying way to play... Perhaps try a bit more of spells... We'll see. Sometimes all it takes to change the game around is just using a weapon with a different pattern. Any suggestions of a cool weapon?

[SevenSpirits]

FYI, the equip load effect on rolling is different in DS2. You don't do the slow roll until 70% equip load. Below that there is kind of just one speed of roll, but you roll FARTHER at lower equip loads, and it's gradual.

As for what weapon to recommend... I dunno. I guess I recommend trying several, maybe have 2 of them going at any particular moment? In terms of power, Rapier and Mace are two of the strongest weapons available early (Rapier especially), but both of them have a pretty boring moveset (Rapier especially).

[sunrise089]

Seven, is DS1 still worth picking up if I have zero experience with the series? Is the game better/worse on PC vs console?

[SevenSpirits]

DS1 works a bit better on PC than on console, as PCs can do higher resolution graphics if you install the heavily-used DSFix mod, and loading times are much lower. Regardless of platform, people recommend using a controller for the game. I guess one potential reason to get it for console is that each platform has its own multiplayer and maybe you want multiplayer on a specific platform. In any case, any version of DS1 is fine.

I think DS1 is still worth picking up. I mean, if you think you might like it. The only thing to add to my original review is that now DS2 is out and it runs at 60fps, while DS1 is just 30fps. DS2 also has slightly nicer controls, I would say. I wouldn't expect that to be a big deal for you though. The one thing it might do is make it harder to play DS1 if you've already played DS2, but you haven't. In terms of gameplay and level design, many people think DS1 is on par with DS2, and in some ways I/people think it's superior. I definitely don't think DS1's gameplay is dated.

[sunrise089]

Thanks Seven! I have a third-party PS3 controller that works on my PC. I'm guessing that will work OK as a DS1 controller if I go the PC route.

[Gustaran]

I bought the game and I'm on the process of downloading it (at 60kbps tops as my internet goes, it'll take a little more than two days). After that, I can start sharing Gustaran's pain.

Stop your download while you still can - this game just causes too much suffering!
I rerolled a Knight and started at Heide's Tower to get the damn Ring of Binding. To put it midly: It's a disaster.

I am having epic battles with enemy knight #2 (I started calling him Mr. Mace, because I know him so well by now). I just love it when I'm standing "safely" behind him and he spins around on the spot and does a 180 degree sweep.

Ah well, not that these are not great fights, it's just when you have to work hard to beat trash mob #2 in the game it might be the wrong game. The only good thing is that enemies stop respawning after you have killed them 15 times so eventually I'm going to get my hands on that item: "Dark Souls 2 - Gustaran's quest for the Ring of Binding".

(Disclaimer: Do not let these reports discourage you from purchasing SOTFS. Then again, I did watch a streamer who had done 3-hour "speed" runs of Vanilla DS2 previously and he was annihilated after beating the first boss in Heide's tower when all those Heide Knight's got up and started patrolling the area...)