@reef_revolver @jellyman68 Its not that difficult to miss the emerald herald. Especially for someone that hasn't played the first one, they won't run to the fire immediately when they leave the betwixt area. Its something that's is extremely easy to miss unless you also searching everything in the environment. But lets say you do find the fire but you don't immediately run to it, maybe you run up the stairs first and come down, now she's not in front of you, but behind you. And depending on the way you approach her she could be lined up with the tree and blend in.
There's no reason to even go down their, or know she exists. There is nothing that demonstrates the change from leveling at bonfires to the emerald herald until you notice her standing by a tree. You don't need a arrow over her head, something as simple as the old lady telling you to seek out the emerald herald in majula could have hinted at there was someone of importance. Consider the first game where after the intro, your free to do as you please and the only NPC are there for lore and shops, there is nothing from the previous game that would lead you to believe there is a super critical character hiding on the edge of the map.
The tutorial is just a brief explanation of the controls, nothing else. For instance the shield mechanics in this game aren't explained at all. You have to discover that the shield greatly changes the stamina recovery as well as weight. Generally that discovery of the stamina mechanics gets you killed in the process.
You can't observe enemies in this game until you actually engage them. Bosses especially are true for this. For instance the gargoyles can turn into an extremely tedious fight. There’s no way of knowing there is more than one, or that there is 5... until they start spawning. So if you have a slow character they pile up quick. At least the first one had a new bar pop up so there was something observable before the second one ran up behind you. And if you don't get them down quick enough they'll basically become extremely difficult to fight, at least in a timely manner. Otherwise you’re stuck running around in circles for an hour chipping away at their health.
And it doesn't end there with groups. There are many groups in this game that are unavoidable and completely hidden until you engage a single enemy. I wouldn't mind groups that much, but the new overly aggressive AI, as well as the tracking the player during a swing up until the very last moment makes any groups a royal pain. And not in a fun way, they just turn into a pile of swinging weapons every time you get near one. For instance one area of the game you can see a small drop, so you know once your down you’re not coming back. But you can't see what’s waiting for you in the open area ahead. So you drop down, walk out into the open, and pull 4 enemies with little room to move around. And there are many groups of enemies that can't be seen until you pull one lone guy and 3 run around a corner. Or there is a another part of the game where if you drop down zombies will run to bells and ring them, and the statues will spawn a set of enemies for each ring quickly overwhelming the player if you didn't already know about this.
Pretty much all the bosses follow the “learn or die rule”. Like the ruin sentinels, the first time I fought them I died before hitting the ground. I got one shot entering the boss area, that miniscule drop was enough time for the thing to kill me on the way down. Then my second attempt Ii dropped down all the way only to discover the other two. There is no way to observe these enemies before engaging. The only option you have is to ruin someone else’s day and drop a summon stone and die in their game instead.
Or like the giants that completely ignore shields! Discovering my shield would do squat and that they could one shot me... awesome.
It’s not that anyone mechanic is cheap, it’s a combination of not knowing what enemies are capable of and almost everything in the game being able to 2/3 shot the player most of the time. Combine that with the loss of souls and being tossed back to a much earlier point of the game it directly enforces the you should have known better mentality whilst expecting the player to die while learning these mechanics.
@binderdundat That's not entirely what's happening though. Games that have teaching mechanics can still provide a good challenge but its perceived as easier because your prepared for the challenge. There are other games that let you discover the mechanics for yourself but are generally more forgiving because it understands that you don't know.
Dark souls 2 is just cheap. Your supposed to learn the mechanics and it murders you for not knowing. Its like putting a puzzle together but every time the person compares 2 pieces together you punch them in the stomach for not being the right 2 pieces.
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