Dark Souls II to feature more open-world elements than original

@eze_sl89 @TazmanianD really? id say they messed up pretty bad with resident evil 6, resident evil raccoon city, the last few silent hill games, the last few final fantasy games, metal gear rising, the last few castlevanias, and nintendo's entire hardware decision with the wii u. Those games werent necessarily BAD, but they paled in comparison to their predecessors......the asians are perfectly capable of messing up

@eze_sl89 @TazmanianD

"Asians never mess up"?

Final Fantasy 13 says hi.

But I would agree with you if you instead said "From Software never mess up." I've been a fan of theirs for about 20 years.

@eze_sl89 @SrebX Actually, I've beaten NG about 7 times, NG+ about 2~3 times, and NG++ has taken it's toll on me

First time I played, the only way I could find to progress is the cemetery. Being the stubborn dumbass that I am, I fought for hours to kill those skeletons [Including the giant] in there and keep progressing... I got pretty far down the Catacombs at the very beginning of my playthrough [Enough to get the Great Scythe and face the Black Knight in there]

@00LiteYear @eze_sl89 Yes I did. I also killed the keeper and the one at Artorias' grave and pretty much everyone else. You should have seen how they were looking at me.... you know with their eyes. I don't like that.

@00LiteYear @eze_sl89 Soul form. :]

@maitkarro or the original was so I don't see why it'd make a difference.

@maitkarro lol

@AtheistPreacher Fucking Maneaters, man.

@AtheistPreacher @CaptWaffle Umm the Hydra in Dark Souls? Super scary!

@AtheistPreacher @CaptWaffle I would add that the level design is better in Demon's Souls and the upgrade system is more flexible.

Because you could apply passive attributes and buffs to most weapons in Demon's Souls (apply poison, bleed, hp regen, increase critical rate), players were encouraged to craft a more diverse arsenal of weapons, and make better use of the upgrade stones they receive in a single playthrough. For example, a dex build in Demon's Souls can still find a use for mercury, tearing, fatal, crescent, dragon, or blessed weapons (in addition to standard reinforcement); whereas a dex build in Dark Souls uses almost entirely standard titantie (with the odd chaos weapon for fun). More diversity in weapon upgrades is always a plus.

As for the level design, it's hard to explain, but there was something more dark and oppressive about the environments in Demon's Souls. Also, the use of space was tighter and overall pretty brilliant, as you could often locate a secret room just by looking around and noticing a space that was 'unaccounted for'.

But Atheist is right, they're both great in different ways

@00LiteYear I probably should explain better. I don't mean get rid of covenant rewards, just don't make them so heavily skewed towards faith builds. Sunlight Warriors, Darkmoon Blades, Princess Guards and to a degree the Gravelord Servants all had faith based rewards (Sword Dance has no stat requirement, but still scales with Mag.Adj and takes up an equipment slot for the talisman).

Int builds have exactly zero covenant rewards, dex builds sort of get the Ring of Fog and Darkwood Grain Ring from the Cat Covenant, but those can be acquired and equipped by any other build too. Strength builds can sort of make use of Dragon Eye invasions to upgrade the (mostly heavy) dragon weapons, but again, this can work for others too.

My point is, that if you're not leveling faith, there's not much incentive to join a bunch of covenants, aside from invasion mechanics (a good reason no doubt, but it's still kind of silly that a faith build is always a better Darkmoon / Sunbro than others). They need to expand the range of multiplayer mechanics through covenants while providing rewards that can work with a variety of builds (more things like weapons, rings, armor, or dragon form).

@MajahretDiviera Yeah, luck was better imo, though humanity basically supplanted it. Also, because of renewable estus, luck would be less useful for gathering items and reducing grind (I remember being overjoyed with my high luck thief in my second playthrough of Demon's - no more farming grass!). I'm okay with the idea of resistance, I just don't get why they didn't balance it better. Also, it would be nice to see things like safer landing make a comeback.

As for presets, you should only be able to access them at bonfires. The ability to completely swap loadouts on the fly would definitely enable more exploits and cheese of bosses, I agree it's counter to the principles of the game. But at bonfires, you might as well have the option to just gear yourself out quickly the way you want.

Multiple item use is downright necessary, I don't know why they thought sacrificing 30 humanity in a row to the fair lady would be enjoyable (not to mention using humanity items if you don't have the liquid floating in your counter). The character editor is more me being hopeful, but they are using a new engine, so we might actually get something less...cringeworthy this time around

@kohle36 @telaros I remember going places in that game so out of order xD

Played hollow with no bonuses but the pendant. No magic. First play through. Running through the caves without a means to fight those things was scary lol

Fighting the Wolf Boss before even taking out the Moth or Hound Master Demon, that was crazy fun. Kept at it till I was able to leave with all my souls. Not fun being one shot by a mexican jumping bean wolf!

I did find a stone armor in a chest once I got rid of that axe guy following me. Hated those paladins in that forest. The Hydra was really intimidating. But surprisingly easy... I ended up killing some big guy behind a door with my Zwei-Hander xD still got the ring! :D

The painting world... oh man... I never saw anything so beautiful and yet scary when I got to the end. She never attacked me so I got curious.

Anywho, I never liked New Game + stuff. It was a fun game, and got scared shitless when I fell down the floor in the starting area when I went back. That guy was not easy!

I guess I should try it again, but I'm not much of a items collector.

@Doobsac @telaros says the sorry sac judging my character as a whole over actually wanting to know more about the game.

When you hear something get called Triple A games, you tend to have a little skepticism.

I bet you probably never even played the first one.

@c_rake @telaros oh thanks! I feel a lot better now!