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Dark Souls Review

After managing to kill the first 4 knights, I decided to make a run for it and the ring is mine now!

toast

Aside from more available HP the Forest mobs seem much easier now. nod

I checked some guides and found out I had missed a ton of hidden items. In a certain way DS2 is a bit snowbally: If you know where all the goodies are hidden you have better equipment early on, more mats to improve weapons, etc. In turn you die less which gives you more souls to work with.

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What hidden goodies helped you out? smile
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(April 7th, 2015, 14:45)SevenSpirits Wrote: What hidden goodies helped you out? smile

I'll hide it in case some players want to remain unspoilt:


On my first try I had missed:

1) Dropping down at the start on the cliff in Majula for a useful morning star
2) Estus Flask in Majula well (where you have to hit the well to make the corpse appear)
3) Fire Longsword down in the cave at second bonfire in the Forest
4) The guy who gave me the key to the mansion in Majula->Lots of stuff, including another Estus Flask
5) Secret wall in the room with many catapults
6) Ring of Binding you told me about

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@SevenSpirits

Do you have any recommendations for a Knight build? At the moment, I am either 2-handing the Morning Star or use Flame Sword & Shield, though I feel at this point in time a shield is not that useful given that you need to dodge the hits of the more powerful enemies anyway.

I would be especially interested in hearing your thoughts concerning a pure Strength build vs putting some stats in Magic/Faith or Pyromancy. nod

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If you like the Morning Star, I would buy a Mace, which is a similar-style weapon but better. If you like the Fire Longsword, it can last you a while straight up. You could also consider getting a bigger sword, if swords/strength/somewhat-slow-swinging strong stuff appeals to you. The Bastard Sword is a good early option.

Location:
After defeating the Last Giant, if you explore the areas behind all the doors his key unlocks, you will find it lying on the ground.

More detailed location:
From the main Forest of the Fallen Giants bonfire, slide down the ladder and make as though to walk outside into the big open area with lots of enemies, but you'll pass a locked door on the way. Go through the locked door instead, and follow the passage until you reach the outdoors again. In front of you is a separate house; the bastard sword is on its roof.

For magics... my recommendation is to first get enough strength/dex that you can wield weapons you want, and enough vigor/endurance/adaptability that you feel fairly safe in combat. (Perhaps something like 20 of each of those 3. Vigor and especially Endurance are extremely effective investments up to 20.)

For sheer damage, spells don't do as much as weapons unless you put a massive number of stat points into int and/or faith. (In this game, unlike DS1, your damage from pyromancies scales with (int+faith), so there isn't a powerful zero-stat-investment option for spells. But you can still get them for utility if you want. If you do go for some spells, I will say that miracles are pretty ineffective in this game, but the other magic types all have good stuff available at all stages.

It's unclear to me if getting spells will actually HELP you, but it might be fun. smile I got some pyromancies my first time through the game.
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(April 8th, 2015, 15:34)SevenSpirits Wrote: If you like the Morning Star, I would buy a Mace, which is a similar-style weapon but better.

Why is the Mace better? It seems to have the same moveset?

Quote:
You could also consider getting a bigger sword, if swords/strength/somewhat-slow-swinging strong stuff appeals to you. The Bastard Sword is a good early option.

I had indeed missed this whole area. But I am not a fan of the big swords.

It's interesting how much coop changes the difficulty - attacking a boss with 2 additional players makes a boss fight suddenly very easy.

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It's simply a case of the mace having higher DPS. The Morning Star might also have slower attack speed or higher stamina consumption or lower poise damage, I don't remember.
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(April 9th, 2015, 15:18)Gustaran Wrote: It's interesting how much coop changes the difficulty - attacking a boss with 2 additional players makes a boss fight suddenly very easy.

I read an in interesting article extolling the virtues of the difficulty in DS2, in that whilst it is hard there are various mechanics to help you without feeling like your on 'easy mode'. Coop bosses was one of them, so was the ring. It's definitely a game that sparks my interest.

Not that I've played it, I don't have a controller for my pc. But I'm sure I'd get ruined.
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(April 10th, 2015, 14:30)Elum Wrote: I read an in interesting article extolling the virtues of the difficulty in DS2, in that whilst it is hard there are various mechanics to help you without feeling like your on 'easy mode'.

Well, I was summoned to fight in which we were 4 people against the pursuer (no idea how that happened, I thought 3 were max) and it actually felt like easy mode. The thing is that if you get hit, you can just back up and heal and the boss will aggro some other play in the meantime. Therefore it is very difficult to die if you have enough lifegems.

I read a review for the vanilla DS 2 in which somebody who played a Souls game for the first time criticized that important game mechanics are simply not explained at all. Imagine you just start playing the game without any information - it's actually possible to miss the NPC that allows levelling.

Another example: Do you completely understand how the whole summon/invade system including covenants works? I was wondering, why I couldn't summon anybody to help in my game and only after putting my sign down, defeating a boss and regaining my humanity I noticed I was now able to invite other players.
I understand DS 2 is about figuring out stuff for yourself, but a decent optional tutorial explaining all these things wouldn't have hurt. wink

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"Dark Sauce" is a pretty funny DS1 parody (spoilers):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M9ONL6BcbU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Wd2jyXERg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqrGoTFWKP4

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