☠ Souls Series Symposium ☠

[prfsnl_gmr]

Cool. I will probably use some sort of a guide for King’s Field. (My Japanese is a bit rusty, and I was never that great at reading it.).

[Exhuminator]

Cool. I will probably use some sort of a guide for King’s Field.

Looks like there's a good one on GameFAQs: https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/920081-king ... faqs/67114

I am looking forward to your opinions of King's Field 1 after you beat it.

[Gunstar Green]

Crown of the Old Iron King:

Yeah I can see why this one is a favorite. The level design is top notch, packed with secrets and interesting ways to get around. I enjoyed all three boss fights even though one was a more difficult rehash. Smelter Demon was one of my favorite fights in the base game (even though I think he's meh as a design) so it wasn't entirely unwelcome. The only part I hated was the run up to him which was just a monotonous pain but I'm assuming it's because he's the co-op boss.

Fume Knight was fantastic. He was really hard to read and his damage didn't leave much room for error, especially in his second phase. He felt very much like a Dark Souls 3 boss in a lot of ways and I think they might have taken some inspiration from him for the final phases of the Gael fight (while his first phase is part Artorias and part Lost Sinner). I wonder how much of The Ringed City that Tanimura was responsible for because it seems like I can draw a lot of comparisons between its it's challenge level and feel to that of the DS2 DLC's thus far.

I headed back up to the top of the tower after finally conquering Fume's butt since I figured what I discovered earlier would lead to a bonus boss and sure enough it was Sir Alonne who I've also heard a lot about. He was an easier but very fun and fast-paced fight and it was cool to take out the leader of those jerky samurai knights.

So yeah, all-in-all good stuff. One more DLC left to go.

[Xeogred]

Sir Alonne takes the cake. I'm surprised you're burning through this in a day though dude, I was stuck on him and Fume Knight for days. Maybe my STR/Faith/Lightning build and weapons were a crutch, I don't know. But this was the hardest part of all of DS2 for me.

Those caves to SDv2.0 definitely sucked haha. And I remember the items at the end of the upper path if you managed to get through all of it were joke rewards.

[isiolia]

Yeah, those were rough fights the first time around. Much less the path to them. Can depend on the build though - I think I was using Havel's shield for them the second time and it works quite well.


Anyway, DS1 fatroll run done. Slower than sorcery, but honestly, it largely trivialized the back half of the game and DLC (l had to try Bed of Chaos multiple times, and um, Kalameet because I was lazy and sloppy, 1/1'ed the other Lord Souls and DLC bosses). I made a point to use a super straightforward build (started as Knight, leveled VIT END and STR, didn't touch other stats). No spells, bows, item buffs, etc. So, I doubt Exhum should have any issues come January unless he like, hates shields too =P




(final stats before ending the game)

[Gunstar Green]

Sir Alonne takes the cake. I'm surprised you're burning through this in a day though dude, I was stuck on him and Fume Knight for days. Maybe my STR/Faith/Lightning build and weapons were a crutch, I don't know. But this was the hardest part of all of DS2 for me.

Those caves to SDv2.0 definitely sucked haha. And I remember the items at the end of the upper path if you managed to get through all of it were joke rewards.

I actually had a tougher time with Sinh honestly but Fume Knight was no pushover. I think it took me about 8 tries for Sinh to 6 for Fume. You just have to get used to how weirdly slow his swings are.

The plain old Guts cosplaying Greatsword is carrying me through things pretty quickly. It's a beastly weapon with immense reach and with 50 strength I do solid damage to pretty much everything and wipe out entire mobs in a few swings. I was also able to stagger Fume Knight with it which helped immensely. I'm wearing a fully upgraded Alva set too, it really seems to kick ass in this game in regards to its weight to defense ratio.

Also once you have enough agility your rolls go from utter garbage at the start of the game to "NOTHING CAN TOUCH ME!" I don't like the rolls and healing speed being tied to a stat though. It makes it less action and more RPG for my tastes.

I'm probably playing the game for way longer than I should each day as well and likely over-leveled by this point so yeah, I'm burning through the DLC pretty fast.

The last one will probably take me a while longer since I'll be busy with stuff ahead of the holiday.

[Gunstar Green]

So I managed to get through Crown of the Burnt Ivory King today after all. It was pretty short and easy compared to the others but very enjoyable. Once again I had fun exploring the well thought out areas and the (literal and figurative) Royal Rumble final boss fight was a blast even though I got it in one shot I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm glad I decided to do the DLC because it really salvaged things for me. It also made me sad as a "what could have been" if Tanimura were fully in charge of DS2 from the start. I didn't really feel like I was playing Dark Souls in the base game, I felt like I was playing someone else's interpretation of it that I didn't enjoy. The expansions however, while not solving all of my problems with the base game felt like I was playing a Dark Souls game with a consistent world and interesting background lore.

The base game is a distant third for me in regards to the trilogy but the DLC closes much of that distance.

I did skip the double kitties even though I beat the other co-op bosses. I just didn't feel like dealing with it. Maybe I'll go back to it someday. For now I'm done with Dark Souls 2 and it feels good to have finally completed the trilogy.


Hail to the king, baby.

I picked up the Black Friday week $199 PS4 so you know what that means. For now I will take a break... but soon...

[isiolia]

Ooooooooh, if you haven't played that yet, you are in for a treat. Still the only game I've platinum'ed.

[Xeogred]

Looking hella badass there Gunstar. Is that just a normal Greatsword? Did you play Demon's? It'll be interesting to see what you think of Bloodborne.

Did you at least dip your toes into the Frigid Outskirts to experience it? haha, best way I got through it was by summoning Vengarl. It's tough sometimes getting him to the boss though. The sword you can get with their soul(s) is one of the coolest though, it was worth it.
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Loyce+Greatsword

Anyways, I'm glad the DLC redeemed DS2 for you. Your criticism of it all is certainly fair. Maybe it'll grow on you in retrospect. It lacks a few elements that the rest of the series does better, but in comparison to other games it's still an easy 10/10 for me haha.

Looking good isiolia. I had to look up Havel's set and realized, I somehow accidentally missed it even though I found that hidden room. Reminds me of that stupid lever in the Painted World sewers that I always seem to miss...

Capped HP at 32? Guess you maybe didn't need it with that armor haha.

I actually think I might try to take some phone pics of all my characters across all the games. Could be fun to reference (personally). I got platinum's on Demon's, DS2 Scholar, DS3, and Bloodborne.

[Gunstar Green]

Yeah, it's just the normal Greatsword. It's a really fantastic weapon in this game.

I never had a PS3 so I didn't get to play Demon's though I really, really want to. I hope it gets a re-release someday because I'm probably not buying a PS3 just for one game. I hear you can play it through the Japanese PS Now but that's not ideal. It's technically already emulatable if you have a beastly PC so I'll get to it someday. Or maybe we'll get lucky and it will get a re-release at some point though I'm not holding my breath.

I did go through part of the Frigid Outskirts before deciding it wasn't worth it. It's DEFINITELY meant to be a co-op area like some of the other run-ups to the co-op bosses.