Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (Xbox One/PS4/PC)

I've started this today... my first-ever experience of a Souls game!*

I love the atmosphere and the environments generally look cool, even though you can kinda tell this is a remaster of a last-gen title. I'm enjoying the start of it - even though you don't really get told much about controls or how things work - and I just spent about half-hour battling through the very early stages... before dying and getting sent right back to the bonfire at the start! What the?!? Have I gotta battle through all the same baddies again?

* Although I have played the opening half-hour of Bloodborne.

Oh Jawa

Yep, if you die between bonfires you'll go back to the one you saved at. Remember to take things slow and steady.

Jawa

What a strawberry floater of a game in the series to start with too, the opening to this game is a total spilt.

Slow and steady, dodge instead of block when you can.

Floex wrote:...Yep, if you die between bonfires you'll go back to the one you saved at. Remember to take things slow and steady.

Ad7 wrote:...What a strawberry floater of a game in the series to start with too, the opening to this game is a total spilt.

Slow and steady, dodge instead of block when you can.

Thanks, guys! Oh man. I probably need to adapt my technique... I'm rushing in and just slamming L2 and R2 to wack the sword about :lol:

. I've read that Souls demands good use of the shield, but I haven't got one of them yet.

I suspect this is gonna require me to be patient and accept that I'm gonna get my arse kicked repeatedly. I'm taking a break from it now but I'll return to it tomorrow evening :toot:

.

You don't need a shield at all, it's possible to play without one. That's not me being all GIT GUD or anything, I played the entirety of dark souls and demon's souls with a shield, ands most of this until I came back to it the other day and decided to forgo the shelf and ended up doing really well. Also, is suggest using light attack over heavy not only for speed but the amount of stamina (the green bar) you use. Two light hits and enough stamina to roll away is better than one heavy one and no stamina, leaving yourself open to being battered.

Oh and click the right stock will lock on to the nearest enemy, handy for circling around.

Ad7 wrote:...Also, is suggest using light attack over heavy not only for speed but the amount of stamina (the green bar) you use. Two light hits and enough stamina to roll away is better than one heavy one and no stamina, leaving yourself open to being battered...

That's a good shout; thinking about it, I was using the heavy attack which was good in a one-on-one situation but not so hot when I had two baddies tackling me, as I got bashed between hits.

Ad7 wrote:...Oh and click the right stock will lock on to the nearest enemy, handy for circling around.

I need to get into the habit of doing that. I was flailing around a bit whilst using the right-stick to move the camera... yeah, I should be locking on.

Thanks for the tips, Ad - I'll try them out tomorrow!

The best way to describe what will happen is the game will break you. It will break you down from everything you've learnt in modern gaming. Throw all that fast pace stuff out the window. You've never experienced diffulty like this since the days of the ZX Spectrum.

Jawa, you're Uma, Dark Souls is Pai Mai

But, but, if you put the work in, learn from what it's teaching you, learn from your mistakes, you'll achieve gaming nirvana.

Pro tip, if you don't know what to do, what something does, ask. The game is begging you to swap stories, theories and techniques with other players.

Floex wrote:...You've never experienced diffulty like this since the days of the ZX Spectrum.

Jawa, you're Uma, Dark Souls is Pai Mai...

.

Floex wrote:...Pro tip, if you don't know what to do, what something does, ask. The game is begging you to swap stories, theories and techniques with other players.

Yeah, it seems that there are a lot of Souls / Bloodborne players here in GR, so hopefully I won't be short of advice :toot:

. Thanks, dude.

jawafour wrote:I've started this today... my first-ever experience of a Souls game!

Mafro wrote:
jawafour wrote:I've started this today... my first-ever experience of a Souls game!

This can't end well, surely.

I think maybe only a handful of people have completed even one souls game on here.

I don't think they have that level of notoriety here. I think quite a lot of people see them through to the end. Moreover, I reckon those that complete one Souls game go on and finish at least one other too. I have "studies and evidence", as well as alternative facts, supporting this.

I would say that jawa's picked the wrong one to dive into. SOTF is supposedly even harder than the original DS2 and makes enemy placements trickier. This is on top of mechanics that make death that little bit harder. Haven't played the game, but doesn't it reduce your overall health when you die, and you can get rid of some enemies permanently making it harder to level up.

I would say that SOTF and Demons Souls are the hardest of the series for this reason. Not to mention, DS2 is generally considered to be the worst due to effectively being the B-team's output.

It's always relatively simple to at least make some progress with the others.

For a current gen console, Dark Souls 3 is the most accessible for beginners, I've heard?

Bloodborne isn't too bad, but has a difficulty spike fairly early on that some players struggle with. There's no shield also, though I got used to that quickly as it was my first From Software game.

I think the only solution is that Jawa streams his play-through.

Oof. This is probably the weakest one and he starts with that?

Boo
Hiss
etc

Mafro wrote:(popcorn)

.

Green Gecko wrote:This can't end well, surely...

Parksey wrote:...I would say that jawa's picked the wrong one to dive into. SOTF is supposedly even harder than the original DS2 and makes enemy placements trickier... For a current gen console, Dark Souls 3 is the most accessible for beginners, I've heard?...

Monkey Man wrote:I think the only solution is that Jawa streams his play-through.

Hexx wrote:Oof. This is probably the weakest one and he starts with that?...

Boom! Reality seems to be hitting home fast!

Okay... I hear you, guys

. Would I be better off tackling the games in this order:

1) Souls III
2) Bloodborne
3) Souls II

I'm thinking Souls III would be my "introduction", Blood a slightly different twist and then Souls II my final ultimate challenge?

If you chaps back this plan, I'll aim to start my Souls III journey this evening :toot:

.

Its £11.99 on PSN - worth replaying on PS4? I completed it on PS3 a while back. On another note I bagged Dark Souls Limited Edition for £8 for CEX!

gamerforever wrote:Its £11.99 on PSN - worth replaying on PS4? I completed it on PS3 a while back. On another note I bagged Dark Souls Limited Edition for £8 for CEX!

Yeah definitely worth replaying on PS4 if it was just the vanilla version you played on PS3. There's a ton of changes that make the game better.

I was kinda thinking that, logically, I should play them in order. But, okay, it seems that I should be starting with Souls III

. I will start it up this evening :toot:

.

jawafour wrote:I was kinda thinking that, logically, I should play them in order. But, okay, it seems that I should be starting with Souls III . I will start it up this evening .

What happened to Bloodborne? I've not played Dark Souls 2, but of the games I've played (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne), I would say that Bloodborne is the easiest.

jawafour wrote:I was kinda thinking that, logically, I should play them in order. But, okay, it seems that I should be starting with Souls III . I will start it up this evening .

I would strongly suggest playing DS1 and then DS3. They're linked, and they're of similar (very high) quality. DS2 is probably the toughest, it's more of a side story, and it isn't quite as good.

Was there a reason you were avoiding starting with DS1?

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (Xbox One/PS4/PC)

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