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S2 Ep43: Dark Souls II
76 Plays7 years ago
Bearer of the curse...join Dave and Jake as they investigate Drangleic in this week's episode!
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Transcript
Introduction by Dark Souls Character
00:00:10
Speaker
Are you the next monarch? Or merely a pawn of fate? Bearer of the curse, I will remain by your side till this frail hope shatters. Take this with you. May it ease your journey. Go on and see the king.
00:00:35
Speaker
He who made Drangleic what it once was. He who peered at the essence of the soul. King Vendrick. Bearer of the curse, seek misery. For misery will lead you to greater, stronger souls. You will never meet the king with a soul so frail and pallid.
Hosts' Humorous Intro
00:01:04
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going good. That's, that's good. That sounds, uh, sounds good. I wanted to use, like, the weird 70s voice, because...
00:01:19
Speaker
Literally pre-recording. We just spent 40 minutes talking about sex. Yeah, and then you helped me bread something I'm cooking I think we always do though. I think that's the precursor to every episode just yeah Just for you to turn on episode just think about Us talking about sex for 40 minutes. Yeah, that's that's basically the thing is we only repeat topics. It's been new every time No, yeah, just like what's the meta? But what are the what are the advanced strats right now? How has it developed over time?
00:01:47
Speaker
If the meta is not actually bad dragon i would be surprised Because the internet has definitely skewed my opinion on that. I don't even know what that is, but I'm just gonna smile riley at
Dark Souls 2 Overview
00:01:59
Speaker
you. All right, i'll just as we go into our topic dark souls two Two two dark souls two, which is the second entry in the dark souls series
00:02:10
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say the continuation of Dark Souls series, but that doesn't feel right. Because if you look at Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2 and where they take place, it's different. Right. But there are tie-ins to Dark Souls 1 where it's like, hey, same universe. Got some stuff going on. I would basically describe it most like it's the Dark Souls of Dark Souls for Dark Souls.
00:02:39
Speaker
I feel like the third one should have done it. In what way, I guess. Yeah, I didn't have a follow up for that. It was just the joke. Thank you for your time. So Dark Souls 1 in brief was its own kind of standalone thing. Dark Souls 2 does not necessarily continue a plot per se, but chronologically you find out in New Game Plus that things are related.
00:03:02
Speaker
But you don't go to like the same areas. You don't fight the same bosses. It's a entirely distinct experience with some new mechanics added. Yeah, it is definitely distinct. Yeah.
00:03:17
Speaker
And we'll see if we get to it, but there's a lot of differences between the games. Evaluating Dark Souls II on its own, though, I think it starts off pretty solid in things betwixt.
Jake's Initial Bias and Insights
00:03:33
Speaker
I say pretty solid, but honestly, how do you know what a start-off is, right? So full Squintia as your statement, because
00:03:41
Speaker
I want to preface with, I came into this game with a severe bias because I had played one, I had played three, and I was like, I heard bad things about two, so okay, I'll check it out, drunk at a LAN party. And I played through some of it, and it turned me off initially. So when we went back to play through for this recording, had a lot of negative
00:04:05
Speaker
Emotions going in yeah, but it did improve over time and then kind of fall off again I think as a standalone are you saying like if you had never played one or three you had just experienced This game Dark Souls 2 that came out. Yeah
00:04:20
Speaker
I think it would be a solid experience. I think for some of this, a lot of times we have the same opinion on games with a couple distinctions. I'm actually a pretty big fan of Dark Souls 2. Not necessarily hugely within the Dark Souls series, because 3 was amazing for its own reasons. One is the classic experience that drew us all in, the reason that we cared about Dark Souls 2.
00:04:44
Speaker
But two also tried a lot of really interesting things and succeeded in a lot of it. And the improvements in three all just come from two, but most of them do not all of them. Yeah, some of them come from bloodborne. I think if we're going chronologically Dark Souls one is the.
00:05:07
Speaker
your elementary school years. Like you have good parents, good home life, you're learning, you're a good kid, and you got the basics down. And then Dark Souls 2 is your teenage years, where you're like all totally sniff coke
The Evolution of Dark Souls Series
00:05:22
Speaker
off of someone's boner and that thing. Was that your teenage years, Dave?
00:05:27
Speaker
Anyway, it was wildly out there in comparison Yeah, because like you said they were trying so many new things which were based off of some criticism from Dark Souls 1 Mm-hmm, and the Dark Souls 3 is like, okay. I've learned from my life experiences I'll draw from a little bit here a little bit there. It's the maturing of the series really Yeah, which is why they they kind of capped it off there. I would agree with that They tried a lot of things that were beneficial and non beneficial in Dark Souls 2 which
00:05:57
Speaker
we can kind of get into we so we played uh not the entire game co-op but would be a lot of bosses in co-op um it's really tough to play through dark well it's not necessarily tough it's time consuming oh my god is it time consuming i looked up how many bosses we have left at the point and it was still like 24 i'm like what the fuck
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, I have a full tally and it's it's a lot there's way more bosses and dark souls too than any other dark souls But I was gonna say it's time consuming to play through and co-op fully like area by area We're just like I'll summon you in at the beginning of the area go to the next bonfire. Okay. Bye We're also
00:06:36
Speaker
At that point like you're doubling up everything. Yes. Mm-hmm. I'm sure helping the person clear and that's that's a lot of content and Dark Souls 2 so we played for clarification we played scholar the first in addition Yeah, I had never played the original version.
Dark Souls 2's Brutal Start
00:06:52
Speaker
So this is my only experience with it through both times and it's it's pretty brutal near the start it doesn't have like a soft lead-up like
00:07:01
Speaker
So one has like the full-on tutorial area gives you plenty of time to figure everything out. Two also has a tutorial area but you can skip it by just running forward like all of the fog walls and things betwixt. Yeah and that's a nice option for sure. Though it's not like the tutorials are ever super
00:07:22
Speaker
Intense. There's like if you've never played a Dark Souls game. Here's how you backstab one person. Here's how you kick somebody off an edge Yeah, here's how you jump. Here's how you block and the jump. Yeah. Yeah, they're like they're all Absolutely essential essential to know how to do and none of them matter if you've played any other Souls like yes, so Or Souls game, I guess not just Souls like but yeah
00:07:42
Speaker
So they all kind of have that Dark Souls 3 has Very low like the tutorial section where you're getting through all those basics and then here's your hard stop Here's like a boss. Here is your blocker. You cannot proceed even into co-op Unless you cleared that Dark Souls 2 doesn't do that. They've got like they let you immediately jump into really tough enemies that can tear you apart As soon as you're out of the tutorial, you can go to like hides tower of flame
00:08:12
Speaker
which is a huge fan of that and in scholar it's a very brutal area um and it's got like a bunch of stone giants it is visually very nice it's got like a bunch of water below you're on these ruinous towers yeah anytime you have
00:08:28
Speaker
I wasn't going to say ruinous towers, but that's probably the best phrase to say until you have like destroyed ancient architecture. Yeah. And it's just kind of surrounded by water. It's very scenic and peaceful and looks kind of like a faded grandiose vibe to it, which is nice. And then you have these, as you said, stone giants. But also disclaimer, I suck at Dark Souls. The way I get through is aggression and brute force time.
00:08:58
Speaker
But it felt like a lot of their attacks would take all of your health. Yes. Yeah. Or most of it. And then their arcs would sweep much bigger than I would expect. And then the duration of the hitbox and like how many iframes you have for a dodge versus what I got used to with Dark Souls 3. Yeah. Which is in comparison very forgiving.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, those are those in some of the comparisons later, but the your stamina region in Dark Souls 3 is much, much higher. So you're committed and you can also buffer actions which you can't do in two. So in Dark Souls 3, it feels more like a fighting game.
00:09:36
Speaker
And Dark Souls 2, if you run out of stamina, you can't block, you can't dodge or something like that, that's a much easier situation to find yourself in. You have to like, requisition your stamina for how you plan the fight to go out. It's almost a little bit more like a RuneScape, where you kind of like go in for an attack and you're like, I'm gonna back up for a good 10 seconds.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna come back in. Yeah, because if you don't um for a lot of these enemies you do get punished Yeah, I think the giants in particular one of their their second combo attacks off of their primary swing is they'll do like a horizontal swipe that like covers uh significantly more than like 90 degrees in front of them in either side, so you get hit by that arc and it's just like and i'm dead or something like that
00:10:23
Speaker
You can't just come in from the side and wail on them. They're very punishing for early game enemies.
Early Game Challenges
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, because you haven't really invested a lot in souls too. Oh, my health is higher. Or I have more stamina to work with or something else. And it's fair that like most people will probably visit this area like second. There is some...
00:10:47
Speaker
As far as which games are open, Dark Souls 1 was the most open. Dark Souls 2 has a lot less variation in where you can go from the start, but there's several areas you can, and Dark Souls 3 is the most constrained. But this is likely to be an early area that you access. Probably not your first, that would be like Forest of the Giants. Forest of the Lost Giants, typically. Fallen Giants. That's what it is, yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker
something about Giants and forests and things it's a forest it's not particularly noteworthy there's like it's just kind of skeleton bro enemies yeah there's um it's all fairly basic it's mostly like undead force the fallen Giants you got it and
00:11:31
Speaker
There's like a couple kind of like leap of faith things. There's an early bonfire and then like a ledge. You can climb up like a section of the wall and then jump off of to try to like get an item further down. And that's your first like death bait area in Dark Souls where it's like unless you get the jump exactly right, you're like guaranteed to die right back to bonfire. As Dark Souls, Dark Souls will have those forever, right?
00:11:58
Speaker
But the area itself isn't too inherently challenging. There is like a big, it's almost like a rhinoceros without a horn on its hind legs is what it looks like to me. Or hippo. Hippo would be even closer. Yeah, kind of like a giant hippo thing.
00:12:14
Speaker
Let's also one of those things and they have another one and things betwixt yes where it's like a fucking fountain of health Mm-hmm. It's so beefy and you're like, I don't deal damage and then if you kill it you get a thousand souls Yeah, and you're like awesome. That was a good ten minutes. Yeah, they they're really rough and I Were like I said, I don't remember too much prior to scholar. I know scholar added those outside of things betwixt so The area didn't originally have that big guy
00:12:44
Speaker
But that level is the closer thing to something like Undead Burg or Undead Parish where you're mostly like dealing with undead and kind of predictable progression as you're moving from area to area. Clear the area, find out where you're getting shot from, move forward, dodge the fire bombs that exists here and in one. But there's some mixups, right?
The Pursuer's Challenge
00:13:09
Speaker
So there's, in particular, I'm talking about the pursuer.
00:13:14
Speaker
Which hits you like midway through this area, I'd say. Yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
It's kind of like, uh, Hey, you're going about learning some shit in the basic area. And then you have a giant night. You're like, I want to fuck your shit up. And you're like, please no. Yeah. And anytime the pursuers like an interesting foe, because he has his own distinct boss fight, you can challenge later, but it doesn't matter if you beat him, he'll always chase you through the rest of the game and like special areas. And anytime that it's not his boss fight, which has this cool.
00:13:46
Speaker
anime opening where he like throws his sword down lands into the ground but he throws it down while he's being carried in by like a fucking giant eagle yeah and then he jumps down lands next to it he's like oh did i drop this picks it up and his eyes glow red just like visor activated so it's a freaking awesome intro to a boss fight but
00:14:06
Speaker
All the times he'll invade you outside of the forest of the Giants. He just like teleports in from below the ground. Basically like, how would you describe that? I'm trying to think of another medium where someone arrives below the ground. They vertically.
00:14:24
Speaker
Don't the phantoms kind of like Don't kind of get risen from the seal. Oh, yes. Yeah, that's right. Are the Soapstone text. Yeah So I don't even need to go to different games in this game. Yes are examples of it, but He'll show up like in completely random areas where you have other goals and things on your mind You're just like round a corner. This is a kind of open area You know, it's kind of nice. It'll stop sip semesters and then pursue or just rises from the earth and
00:14:52
Speaker
You're like, oh, no. I only ended up seeing him. I think one other time in my play through, though, like the explicit boss fight enforced the fallen giants. There's like a very large square area. And I was like, yep. And then there's once in the other. What's the tower one? Lost Bastille. Lost Bastille. Yeah. He's below the bridge. You can. Yeah. And I went to go grab two items I saw there, which were not necessarily where it was. We'll check it out. Pursuer bait.
00:15:24
Speaker
Yeah, he he's an interesting character anytime you encounter him and it's not in the boss fight though, so like All Dark Souls games once you challenge a boss you're stuck in that fight Pursuer you can just run away from he'll just D summon. He'll descend back into the earth and then find you later It's kind of like guarding those areas. Yeah
00:15:43
Speaker
So wait, can you talk between areas like you go to the pursuer area and he's like, all right Let's go and he's like, okay. Never come back. You're like, all right. Let's go. He's like, okay Yeah, he'll you can resummon him. I think you have to reset with the bonfire I believe but You can return to that area and he'll he'll pop out again And if you beat him and you don't leave his like circle of engagement his battle arena then you just you get the sole payout for
00:16:10
Speaker
for killing him, which is cool. And you get to feel cool because you're like, I'm kicking this guy's butt. But completely optional. He's just there to punish the unwary and remind you that you're being hunted, basically.
00:16:25
Speaker
But he's cool. He's the secondary boss, kind of. You'll encounter him after the first main boss of the game, which is the last giant, which is a big giant.
Co-op and NPC Summons
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah. Not anything really to write home about because it's a typical fight where it's.
00:16:44
Speaker
Hey, this guy's like 20 stories tall. You're like cool. I'm just gonna stab in the ankles a bunch and dodge like the big sweeping attacks Yeah, but I know that I know the but yeah. Oh, you know the I know the but yeah at a point if you get his health low enough He will rip off one of his arms to use as a weapon. Yep, and he's like I'm trying to try double hits. I've tried to Kimbo arms I'm now trying the double-length arm. He starts like swinging at the ground, which is pretty cool. I
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, and this game has a lot of co-op summons, NPC summons, that you can bring in. I think there's definitely very few, or a lot fewer people playing when we did our playthrough, but there was, if I was fully human, which is the requirement to summon people in, just like Dark Souls 1, just like Dark Souls 3.
00:17:31
Speaker
Um, they're all over the place for bosses. I think um in dark souls one There was a limitation on how many people you could have in your game at a time as far as phantoms were concerned Yeah, um, I think it was two co-op I believe and I think you could have like a phantom and a friend. That's right Yeah, because you'd have soul air plus whoever. Yeah, your friends. We definitely did that for gargles
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah Yeah, and this one you can have at least three for sure. I think it's up to three. Yeah Yeah, I think it's up to three So you can like grab two NPCs and then a player and be like alright NPCs go tank and then just you and your player buddy are just wailing on this guy yeah, and I like that for this playthrough because I
00:18:21
Speaker
Didn't care give a fuck about the Dark Souls 2 story if you can even call it that yeah, I mean I would but we're taking we're taking opposite opinions My thought is that the whole thing is kind of disjointed. I don't know what the fuck's going on I'd have to explicitly look for everything and read every item description to infer. Oh This or watch the body videos. Yeah bodies always like a nice nice cheat there. Mm-hmm
00:18:45
Speaker
Forgot what I was saying. Oh, but it was nice to have those summons be like, I just want to clear the boss for sake of clearing the boss. Yes. I'll go through the areas, do whatever I got to do on my own merits, but I, I don't want to sit, suffer through a thing. Yeah. I think that, uh, the, the raising difficulty that they applied to a lot of areas with scholar, especially the early game areas make those areas themselves significantly more challenging than the bosses. If you're willing to use summons.
00:19:09
Speaker
You're just like, well, I use the summon, so this boss really isn't going to be too much of a problem as long as I take the Dark Souls strategy of spend the first minute of the fight figuring out what in the world this boss does, instead of just running in and dying. And then you just punish and roll, attack, pull back, roll, attack, pull back. This game has more pulling back because of the stamina region.
00:19:35
Speaker
But it's the same strategy as like any of the traditional Dark Souls bosses don't get hit hit I Should probably implement that strategy But Yeah, it's kind of just it's a solid opening area you get access to your first shop and the old lady can't remember her name doesn't really matter and Dark Souls 2 was the first one that right out the gate you can work between any bonfire and
00:20:04
Speaker
You don't need a Lord vessel.
Bonfire Warping Mechanic
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. Which is, as we discussed before, it's nice in a way. Mm-hmm. Because, I mean, it got to be a bit of a pain in the ass to run around in Dark Souls 1. Yeah. From point A to point B. But you're like, I understand where everything is and how the world is connected. Mm-hmm. But it felt really badass when you had the Lord vessel. You're like, I'm now fucking God. Yes, yeah. Like, you're not God. You're just consensually doing him.
00:20:32
Speaker
And then here is just like i'm gonna go from point A to point B because it didn't necessarily Directly connect certain places were just different areas Yeah, you ended up warping to via some means if they didn't give you the warp the game I would have applied it as a con to the game for this one if the areas were intact because they're so far apart
00:20:53
Speaker
like it's much bigger usually general if you look at a map of dark souls one you can almost fit the entire thing inside like an egg shape sphere because all of the areas are connected vertically as well as like horizontally like that is your progression and anything beyond that is already at the point where you would have really had the lord vessel rest in peace to everybody who ended up in tomb of the giants before getting the lord vessel but
00:21:29
Speaker
Yeah, you can get stuck down there basically. Just get tagged by the Giants. This is our Dark Souls one thing, but you avoid that entirely in two by giving them the warp ability. Immediately, concession, they don't run between areas nearly as much to solidify those connections in their head. Where that would fit in a sphere, this one's more like flat. Like the areas just go out very far in multiple directions because they made that concession immediately.
00:21:48
Speaker
That's an experience in itself.
00:21:56
Speaker
Also, all of the areas feel very Distinct like high tower flame is wildly different from a forest you were in. Yeah that had like a castle Every area feels very different and looks different And doesn't seem connected in any way shape or form. Yeah You're just like you accept. Oh, i'm on this stage now. It's a different thing
00:22:18
Speaker
and they do have a we haven't talked about medulla at all that's your connecting kind of like hub world area where as you're like gathering npc's trainers whatever bringing them back shopkeepers um they all come back to medulla once you've like exhausted their dialogue or did their side quest or whatever right um and it is the closest thing that is definitely the center you branch out from but the branches go so far that they don't all really connect back to medulla
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it's just where you always have to go to cash in your souls mm-hmm to the the emerald herald which is Unlike Dark Souls one where you could level up at any bonfire and this the emerald herald is the character with the ability to like receive your souls and grant you power and She's the one that will say the line bearer of the curse many many times before you beat Dark Souls to
00:23:12
Speaker
I really miss chosen undead at that point But um, so Hmm, obviously we don't have time like hit through all the areas Yeah, I have a list here of everything and there's no way a very long list. It's a very long list What are some of the some of the like early game areas that you would kind of stood out to you like Huntsman's cops I was literally phrasing this question to you. Uh-huh, and then you just stole it stole it I just saw it so you could have the response. Thank you
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, how was Huntsman's Cows for you?
00:23:44
Speaker
It was nice. I remember the first time I experienced it ever. I think that's as far as I progressed in the game on my first playthrough. Yeah. It's very dark forest. There's like a building or two. But there's also these butterflies or moths. Yeah. Bugs. They have
Cooking Adventure Intermission
00:24:05
Speaker
wings. They hang up on the trees. And if you walk under them, they'll kind of emit a cloud of poison. In my panic, I crossed a bridge.
00:24:17
Speaker
That sound means it's time for intermission where we talk about whatever we want to talk about. So first section we got here, what you got cooking, Dave?
00:24:28
Speaker
Oh, god, the oven. Hey, average-looking, what you got cooking? Wow. Savage. So today's meal, I just happened to be cooking as we were recording. I blended up some cauliflower, added some cheese, some eggs, some breadcrumbs, some spices, made those into little balls, put that in the fridge, then rolled that in like some panko and baked it.
00:24:54
Speaker
Little cheesy cauliflower bites. Yeah, and they were surprisingly fucking awesome. They're really good. I had like five I had to but I had I had lunch a little late. So yeah, they're really solid I like the marinara also has an idea kind of like Balances out a little bit. I also like marinara. Yeah, I hate sauce Give me that dry pasta
00:25:18
Speaker
It's so saucy and it gets everywhere. I like for the intermission I moved my mic. I realized that I was like, why is that center at the table? That's all right. We'll compress it all. But no, it's really good. Anything else you've cooked recently or maybe cooking plans for next week on your hiatus between employment? Yeah, I got fired.
00:25:41
Speaker
Made some shredded chicken, which is just kind of like in the crock-bot nothing super fancy Nothing planned yet for next week. Yeah, but I'm sure I will subject you to something. Mm-hmm I know you have the the traditional chef hat you just like put that on you're like alright Like transform mode activate in the kitchen getting stuff done. I think that's how this works. I
00:26:02
Speaker
It's just that just that most people it's like naked with the apron for me. It's just naked in a hat You've heard you've heard the the like i'm singing in the rain and dave just dave's very it's just i'm cooking in the nude Are you saying naked in a hat i'm naked in a hat I'm naked in any hat. Yeah
00:26:24
Speaker
Well, what is something you would want to eat? Like if you give me like a range I could say like maybe I could cook something. This is really tough Honestly like asparagus I feel like I'd go for asparagus I mean usually it's kind of similar those with some Spices nothing too crazy. Yeah, how's about?
00:26:44
Speaker
next time sam do this all i was gonna say some variety of french toast yeah if you go with salmon on the french toast that would be ideal it's a nice lox bread in between my syrup uh french toast is good too though i don't know if that would go great with asparagus so if we go the french toast route i feel like do you do powder with the toast
00:27:07
Speaker
Have not so far hmm like what I did last time when I made breakfast was typical French toast stuff used a bit of
00:27:20
Speaker
honey bourbon, and then some cinnamon, and then I also sauteed some apples, and some apple cider and one nut. I'm thinking you have something like that, but you also take some toasted and crushed nuts, like almonds and walnuts, and then kind of spread that with a little bit of honey, and then you layer the apples. So then you have the sweet and crunchy, you have the earthy sweet, and then you have French toast, which is like a fucking cloud.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think I've always had like a little bit of a bit of powder like applied to it and Recently, you know more as an adult. I take the cocaine on the side, but I Mean I do have a powdered sugar and a sifter Like one that you squeeze the hand it goes. Oh, yeah, I know a lot men of powder I like it has the the metal bar kind of across the bottom. Yeah, it's been forever since I saw one of those things but Hmm baking
00:28:21
Speaker
And once I was over the bridge, I was greeted by some executioner guy and some other basic undead ad The guy with the pole axe or the pole arm, right? The dark... Nah. No? Is this somebody else?
Huntsman's Copse Experience
00:28:35
Speaker
Who's the executioner guy that doesn't have a dark weapon?
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, so I Jump off to the side to get away from these guys and I get invaded by just like a dark invader typical like NPC invasion And there's either like one or two of them. I might have also been invaded by a player as well and in my panic I was just running around trees while being poisoned and trying to like I
00:29:04
Speaker
Snap these life gems to get a heal over time. Yeah, and Like going back. I'm like, oh I could have just gone up the hill that way made sense I wouldn't have survived but I could have left the area I just panicked like circling like there's one tree like don't hit me
00:29:21
Speaker
that's a very dark souls experience i do like the area though overall it's not anything super crazy but it's least not very open and boxy yeah where some of them feel very open and boxy or very linear it does have a nice spread because you can uh go up the building again across the bridge for a boss fight or you can go off the other way kind of hug the cliff for another boss fight
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's got some diversity in comparison. They have like, I don't think there was that many areas in Dark Souls 1 where you had multiple boss fights in the same area. This one has a couple where you fight multiple bosses. And one of them is like entirely optional.
00:30:11
Speaker
the other needs to be completed but actually not sure if that's true these both might be optional I'm not certain but in either case it could be because I remember like what you get from the skeleton lords that's basically just like a mob encounter where
00:30:29
Speaker
You have to kill four big skeleton guys and three big skeleton guys. Sorry, I can't count. Take one down, ambassador. Every time you kill one, it summons a bunch of little skeletons. So if you try to rush through the fight really quickly, you'll get swamped. Eventually, some of them are the wheels, the wheel skeletons. God. Which is everyone's favorite, I think, from Dark Souls 1. So I'm glad they brought those back.
00:30:57
Speaker
but otherwise it's kind of like a tank and spank classic classic boss fight just gotta kite a lot
00:31:05
Speaker
So I'm also a mage, so I have to kite everything a lot. Yeah. Jake thankfully went mage, which balanced out my non-range play through of just being sexy, daxy, where I got a Katana and I'm like, that's me. You put your stats in sex and Dax. Yes. I seduced and then I produced damage upon my enemies. I tried to come up with a rhyme in like split second. I was like, yeah, produced checks out.
00:31:36
Speaker
But I know you were pretty big on the one chariot fight. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So which is definitely a standout boss fight mechanically compared to most things, which I'll usually categorize as giant humanoid.
Executioner's Chariot Boss Fight
00:31:51
Speaker
Yes. The giant beast like thing or dragon. Yeah. An armored guy. That's that's the other one. There's not as many necessarily armored guys, but you sound like a higher size armored guy.
00:32:04
Speaker
They're usually giant armored guys. I think most things in here are kind of giant. The exception of an old dragon slayer.
00:32:15
Speaker
Executioner's Chariot is like a circular area where the chariot goes around quickly. It has blades on its wheels and if it hits you, you'll take like a ton of damage. There's a bunch of undead. There's necromancers that keep resurrecting the undead. The goal is to make it to the end of the circuit, taking cover within nooks basically to try to kill the necromancers and not die to the chariot.
00:32:39
Speaker
and then pull a switch that will put down a gate and the chariot will run into it the undead like on the chariot itself will die and then you just fight the horses um the problem is there's a lot of things that can go wrong between the beginning of that process and the end of that process yeah
00:32:55
Speaker
But it's, it's an interesting fight and I always give from soft credit when they like introduce a secondary wind condition in the form of like cheesing it. You can think of that as like when you bring in summons, that's also kind of a secondary wind condition where you're just like, I don't want to beat this boss under, you know, dark souls, dark souls honor rules. Right. But in this one, like if you do enough damage to the chariot itself by like hitting it with spells or a bow or whatever, as it's circling around your safety nook.
00:33:25
Speaker
Uh, it'll eventually get low enough in health that it'll fail to jump a broken portion of the map and we'll fall down like into this hole and just be stuck there on the ledge, like barely gripping on you. Just walk up and be like, no, kill it. And you get to fully liking that. Yep. You get to execute. Oh, that's awesome. We should have done that had I, the patients, how about the patients? I don't know if I had the spell casts at the time. It would have taken a while, but, um,
00:33:55
Speaker
It also, this is entirely optional, but it obstructs one of Dark Souls II's, which is a lot of possessives and esses. Dark Souls II's covenants, which is probably one of the strongest things that II did, I think. There's a lot of really cool covenants.
00:34:16
Speaker
I think they usually fall under like PvP, protect an area or protect people. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's most of them. There's also, um, pilgrims of the dark, which is the one I joined with my hexer, uh, sorcery mage. Um, he's shaking his head. He's just like, I don't know enough about Dark Souls too. I just know that hexes are bad. Basically hexes are faith is used for miracles.
00:34:44
Speaker
Uh, intelligence is used for sorceries. Hexes use both and they scale off of faith and intelligence. Gotcha. They also look cool and evil, which is awesome. Life on side. Jake is an edgelord in these games and in real life. Yes, but mostly these games for the purpose of saving rep. Um, I can't even remember what I was talking about. I just started thinking about how cool hexes are.
00:35:10
Speaker
We were talking about areas and some standout bosses. Yeah, so that's a cool boss for me because it lets you You can come at the approach the problem of the boss fight in different ways Maybe you use like those, you know those useless skulls you get the alluring skulls Yes, that I've been picking up since Dark Souls 1 and I've never used It's supposed to be a farming item typically, right? Yeah. Well, like you can throw it and it'll draw enemies to it.
00:35:35
Speaker
You can use that in this boss fight to like draw the skeletons out to world where they'll get run down by the chariot But I just never use that item. So I don't think about that But I like boss fights that give you that you can approach the problem. Yeah So that's why this one was a standout for me. Was there another? area or boss fight that seemed interesting to you in this playthrough I
00:36:02
Speaker
I see the names. I'm trying to remember how some of these look. Yeah. Like we skipped over Belfry Luna entirely. That was just another Gargoyle fight. That's all that's there. It's just another Gargoyle fight. It's like, Hey, remember Dark Souls 1? What if it was like six?
00:36:18
Speaker
One thing that I found interesting is kind of like a pit and gutter. Okay. Um, not fun, not enjoyable, but interesting. Interesting in a, uh, like, uh, I like things that have some verticality and things that are kind of extra dangerous. Again, here's me being edgy, but that is what we call Mr. Danger.
00:36:43
Speaker
Think it's in The gutter is when you're jumping between like all these rickety wooden platforms with the torch. Yeah, so that was kind of cool because The whole area is fairly pitch black. Yes, you're gonna have to go around with the torch But as you go you can light that's a big thing about dark shows too. Mm-hmm. You can light these sconces along the way One day I'll go back and light them all and hope I get an achievement. Yeah, that's not true. I
00:37:07
Speaker
But it's cool to kind of like see your progression then you maybe you die Yeah, and then you're like well I got this far because you see what the lights are and it kind of loosely helps guide you back to the next area and then also Black Gulch. Yeah, it's just it's a fucking dick move where you have these statues that will shoot poison at you but
00:37:32
Speaker
We're being attacked. Take cover. That's the fastest chain gun I've ever heard. If you can hit twice, you're poisoned. And poison acts very fast in this game. If you don't have way too toxic and poison in Dark Souls 1.
00:37:50
Speaker
I'd say it's much closer to toxic actually toxic also actually does exist in this game as well, but it's very rare and you almost instantly die praise be that I never found it but it's just It's not I'd say it's overly punishing because we're near black gulch There's just like lines of these statues. Yes to go through and I had a melee weapon Mm-hmm, which sucked dick. So it's an interesting use for a weapon
00:38:17
Speaker
It has, it's a multi-purpose Swiss army katana. So I had a whip that I got at some point. I'm like, oh, this scales off decks. So I leveled that up. And you saw me like Indiana Jonesing these statues. The one I was most proud of, there's like four statues on a ledge higher, which I swear to God, you can't actually walk up there. I don't think there's a way. I don't think you can.
00:38:38
Speaker
but you can actually angle your attacks a little bit. So there's something on the ground I could angle. I almost punched the microphone as I'm making this gesture. You feel the impact. You can whip the stuff on the ground and break it. Yeah. But also you can kind of angle it up to a degree. So there's four that I was trying to like line up and he like does like the step turnaround and then just throws the whip out and it hits four. I'm like, yeah, I remember he's just like,
00:39:04
Speaker
Your exaltation, your cry of exaltation, when you landed on all these statues, I wasn't even watching. I did see you, like, whip in the statues and had, like, Indiana Jones theme kind of pick up in my head. But that's the only enjoyable part of that area. Everything else is kind of just overly punishing or shitty. Boom. Sudden silence.
00:39:26
Speaker
The transitions suck. They're pretty bad, but it is a punishing area. It leads to the rotten, which is a big hunk of meat, basically. It's like a fatter, more comprised of human version of the butcher.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah, the design's interesting. Yeah, but They have fire all around the boss fight area where it's just like don't step in this you can't take a lot of damage It doesn't hurt the boss at all. Of course because the game hates you But he's actually really fast so I would like cast a bunch of spells and everything dark orb carried me through most of this game but he's fast enough that I can't just reliably kite him and cast a spell kite him cast a spell and
00:40:08
Speaker
It has to be like kai kai kai cast, kai kai kai cast, like recharging stamina to run away from him even further. He's a pain. Yeah.
00:40:19
Speaker
Is anybody who you particularly liked, whether it be just like boss design or mechanics?
Looking Glass Knight Boss
00:40:27
Speaker
That like whole game stands out, not new area, not anything. No limitations. I mean like there's the go-to, like immediate go-to looking Glass Knight, which is in King's Passage, which is right outside of Drangleic Castle.
00:40:41
Speaker
Really cool. We didn't see his mechanic in this playthrough because I don't know how many people are playing Dark Souls 2 right now. And we also obliterated him as far as damage is concerned. But he's big armored guy. So there you go template established for Dark Souls boss fight. Larger guy with sword and shield. Yeah, but it's raining in the boss fight, which is awesome. I love that. There's like lightning in the background and thunder.
00:41:07
Speaker
It's how you'd want any Highlander fight to be, pretty much. Yes. And the definitive part of the fight is his shield is a giant mirror. And you can get that, actually, with his soul. You can get the mirror shield. It has a special effect. It reflects spells. So I'm sitting here casting, and Dave will dive to the left or something out of the boss's attack.
00:41:29
Speaker
So he'll move a little bit, turn his shield just a little bit, and my spell gets reflected, flies off, and kills a bird somewhere or something, right? Does nothing against the boss. Once you get him low enough, though, that's when the fun starts. He'll slam his shield down into the ground, and an invader will break out of it, and assist him with the fight.
00:41:52
Speaker
That's badass, which is awesome. That's so cool. And I think if there's no players nearby, it'll be an NPC. But what players found out is if they put down the red science soapstone, different podcast, it will be pulled into the boss fight if they put it down in the surrounding area. And they can actually help the boss.
00:42:11
Speaker
That's so cool and there was a I remember a story of somebody who would use the pyromancy warmth which like sets an orb down Like that just floats there and heals anything nearby every three seconds for a large amount of health I think the entire spell is four thousand five hundred health if you just are there So just sets it on the boss sets it on the boss
00:42:33
Speaker
And destroys players that are like right about to beat this boss because the boss starts getting healed by the invader it pulled in. It's amazing. That's beautifully janky. That's one of the things I've always loved about Dark Souls is the series.
00:42:49
Speaker
It's because so many things, like let's say it's a fairly limited system overall, as far as how you communicate with other players, how you interact with enemies in the game. If you play it a lot, you learn some things, but when you have limited messages, you can leave people.
00:43:07
Speaker
Yeah. People leave dumb fucking messages. It's true. So throughout the entirety of Dark Souls 2, as part of scenery, you'd have skeletal remains. Yes. But a lot of them, the skeleton might be in a certain position of how that person died in the world. Right.
00:43:25
Speaker
And there'll always be messages like, don't give up skeleton constantly throughout the entire fucking game. And I loved it so much. I was doing some research for this episode, which I say to make it sound like I put effort into this. And someone was like, hey, should I play Dark Souls 2? And someone gave this paragraph of differences, whatever, like advice for getting into the game. And then the last line was just don't give up skeleton. And I was like, dang it. Even here on the internet, there's no escape.
00:43:54
Speaker
Even demons know speaking of demons another boss demon of song Which is it's not particularly mechanically interesting I would say but it's it's the cool weird design. Yeah, it's I think it's a Giant frog okay. It's a giant frog frogs make noises like rivets, but sure it sings and then I
00:44:18
Speaker
It kind of like rips open its face and out comes like a face and art like the torso of some demon. Yeah, you're like neat This isn't great. I want no part of this Yeah, there's there's there's a couple designs here that are
00:44:36
Speaker
kind of innovative and other things that just feel much less interesting as far as bosses are concerned. You fought a giant dog in Dark Souls 1, you find a giant rat in Dark Souls 2. It's the same fight obviously. There's a lot of optional content in Dark Souls 2 as well. Royal Rat Authority as a boss fight, neither of us actually fought it this time I think. I did Royal Rat Authority. Did you actually? In Doors of Faros?
00:45:06
Speaker
Or you not the big one. Yeah, that's vanguard Or is it my good? I think yeah vanguard is the bunch of rats. Okay. Yeah, so I didn't do the one giant rats Yeah, that's the other one. Yeah, there's a lot of rats in Dark Souls. Yeah and spiders surprisingly. Yeah Duke's dear Freja Frasier Frasier Frasier Niles, yeah Which is an interesting fight too
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah. Like I'm willing to debate you on whether it was an interesting fight or not. That was just that experience. Throughout the whole area I had a torch in one hand because spiders don't like torches. I don't like spiders. So we kept away from each other but I chased them in a corner and killed them in case they decided to get uppity even when I had the torch and kind of bite me in the ass. Right.
00:46:00
Speaker
I saw a play through of like somebody did it with a torch and the spiders in the backfill boss fight did not aggro against him. So he's able to just do DPS. Yeah. So I had torch in one hand. I did my fire resin on the Katana and I'm just like fucking akimbo flames. And I went in there and I got some slaps and.
00:46:21
Speaker
So for me, the boss fight wasn't crazy hard. She's weak against fire, I think, right? I think it does more damage. Yeah. Yeah. But you can only hit the heads. Yes. Because everything else is just like pure steel.
00:46:36
Speaker
This is a giant boss for the unaware. It's a she-lob type spider. Yeah, or the Whatever the Legend of Zelda first tree great Deku tree fight is Ocarina of time. Nobody plays that game. It's been forever but Giant boss, you know exactly what it is. And this is like especially large so like a bit larger than what giant spiders usually are in games two heads and
00:47:01
Speaker
one on either side of the boss. So you can't just go and hit it in the ass because it's just like I see you with my other head. There's an animation actually for when it switches which head is like active which is cool.
00:47:16
Speaker
And it has a giant laser attack that sweeps side to side. You know, Dark Souls laser. Yeah, it's a spider. It has a laser attack. That makes sense. But you had the torch, so that would have kept all the small spiders off of you during the fight, which makes it a lot easier.
00:47:36
Speaker
I went in here with some summons because I had cleared this I think like before you got it because I was playing at like 1 a.m. Or 2 a.m. Or 3 a.m. and Like all of my summons died. They're just like I will violently or valiantly also violently as it turns out Fight this boss right at the face and never move as it's like crushing them repeatedly laser in them like a legs sweeping through and impaling I'm like you're gonna die man Get out of there
00:48:03
Speaker
It's like NPCs in Skyrim where you have like the one guy is like, no, I'm gonna go punch this dragon in the face. I'm like, best of luck. Yeah. He's just like a merchant or something. He's just like, this is my colony and pulls out a dagger.
00:48:18
Speaker
Oh yeah, but it's a really cool fight and immediately after that there's a giant dragon like a stone dragon suspended in that arena that you actually claim the old one soul from which you know contacts whatever plot lore nobody cares, but it's cool visually is a really cool-looking area
00:48:40
Speaker
and arachnophobic people will not enjoy it. I did not enjoy it. We talked about the rats a little bit. They have a covenant you can join, which is one of two, we mentioned, areas you can encounter the rats.
Rat King Covenant PvP
00:48:56
Speaker
um, uh, doors of pharaohs and uh grave of the saints are the two names from and um, if you join that you have this, uh There there's been pvp covenants for a while. They exist in dark souls one and this one you have specific area pvp covenants so you're just like
00:49:17
Speaker
while someone comes through grave of the saints if you're online as a rat king covenant member you can get reverse invaded where that person who's trying to just make progress through the game gets pulled into your world and then you can use these ferris lock stones kind of just key items throughout the game you kind of stick a
00:49:39
Speaker
It's really just a fucking cube in what looks like a mouth recess in the wall. You close the mouth. It's hungry. But it will trigger something. Sometimes it will activate like a hidden door. Yeah. Or do something else. But it's usually minor interactions for optional content.
00:49:56
Speaker
And it's beneficial too and these two areas When you're going through and you're activating these ferros lock stones It will open a door and there will be enemies behind it or you'll set a trap or something like that And so what rat king covenant members will do is they'll go through and they'll activate all these lock stones Making the area significantly more difficult for a human to make it through They are non-aggressive. All of the rats are non-aggressive to rat king covenant members
00:50:28
Speaker
And when someone gets pulled into your world you just like show up because you get set in a specific area just like it was an invasion yeah, and you're just like looking over the Like a ledge or something at the person at the beginning of the dungeon. You're just like oh
00:50:42
Speaker
Hands on legs. Good luck. Like I've set up everything to make this really fun for you And It's pretty great. I think the game has a limitation on how many times like You can frequently be pulled into someone else's world To keep you from getting griefed like unstoppably
00:51:02
Speaker
But in my playthrough, I got pulled into Doors of Faros by a player and immediately slain. The guy just like jumped down and murdered me and my poor mage back. And I also got pulled into Grave of the Saints and killed by a bunch of rats. So that's fun.
00:51:24
Speaker
the reward also for those covenants if they get kills by on people is more ferris lockstone pieces so they can unlock more of the traps and rat ads and things like that for their dungeon at the point it's just like a wall of rats you have to like swim through you know it's it's cool though and it gives them their own like section of the game they can play in yeah is
00:51:50
Speaker
Again drawing parallels to Dark Souls one. Yeah, where you had like the forest covenant and you could be summoned in to protect the forest It's kind of cool to have an affinity with a certain area and you're like, this is my team. Yes We defend our house
00:52:04
Speaker
That's a really good comparison. We must protect this house. I forgot about the Forest Covenant, but that's exactly what this is. It's the Forest Covenant plus you can change some stuff about the area. Yeah, which is really cool. Yeah. I also like how different covenants can get you different rings. Stark Souls 2 has, you can wear up to four rings.
00:52:21
Speaker
Full bling on one hand. Yeah. No thumb rings because we're not hippies. Right. But you can have a lot of variety and a lot of the ones seem cool or specifically for PvP. Yeah. Is it going to be a problem that I wore all four rings on my thumb for my character or is it bad?
00:52:40
Speaker
They were finger To the innocent listener toe rings. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, it's it's really cool. That was one of the things I liked because one of the
00:52:54
Speaker
One of my big gripes with Dark Souls, it's not a huge grip, but Dark Souls 1 was just, there's so many cool rings that do cool things. And you're like, pick two. Here's four, like, here's 10 things that you want to use that'll make your gameplay better. Pick two. I'd rather there'd be like 20 things pick four. Because then at least, you know, you can round out the cool thing you're trying to do.
00:53:15
Speaker
Yeah. Cause if you're going into something, it's like, well, that guy shits a fire damage. It'd be great if I got some elemental protection, but I also want to attack him. So maybe like an attack up. Yeah. But also I'd love a stamina regen, maybe a chloran theory ring. Oh, I'm already at two rings. Yes. And if you're playing Dark Souls two without a chloran theory ring, like, what are you doing? This game doesn't give you stamina. This is the only ring that allows you to actually regen stamina depletes. You actually have to restart. You have to turn off.
00:53:39
Speaker
and log back into the game and it's like oh there you go yeah there's your stamina speaking of that i know i told you this but for the listeners that i didn't tell there's everything is for the listeners jake this one's just for the listeners though um there's two uh hidden not like achievements they might have been achievements but accomplishments you could do one of them is beat the game without dying
Achievements and Rewards
00:54:02
Speaker
Tall order. So that's a thing. The other one is beat the game without using any bonfires, which is your ability to warp, to repair your gear, to restore your Estus, all of that. And completing either of those gives you a ring that makes either your left hand or your right hand weapon completely invisible.
00:54:21
Speaker
Which would be insanely crazy for PvP. Yeah, they're like, oh it's bugged I can't see his knife or long sword and then you're like, I gotcha Gotcha. There's actually Dark Souls 2 has some cool weapons. One of them is a blue sword, which is a really stupid name for a weapon But it's not even blue actually. It's just like silver but it's a straight sword that you can cast sorceries from and
00:54:49
Speaker
Huh. And so you're just like, uh, if you use that and you had that ring, it's like invisible weapon. You just cast sorceries from your fist, hand in the air, like lightning sphere comes out or whatever it is, right? That would be a miracle, but still, still counts.
00:55:06
Speaker
It's that it's interesting. I there's a lot of Dark Souls 2 content, whether it be optional bosses or just the core items and builds as far as PvP that I have not seen outside of like the occasional YouTube video. Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong. There is like glide wings in Dark Souls 2. There's there's like moth wings. Yeah, I can get you have to New Game Plus. Majula and eventually the shopkeeper sells them. I think it's like New Game Plus 2 or something like that.
00:55:36
Speaker
I got invaded by a guy that was in full, like, moth set. I was like, I'm dead, aren't I? I was dead. The monarch! Very similar. It's cool that they add, like, all these things. I just, I don't think I have the patience to go through and see them all. Yeah. I feel like I missed the boat. If I had gotten it in Dark Souls 2 when it came out, it was like, okay, sure. And then I go back for Scholar of the First Sin. I'm gonna keep kicking this table, apparently. That's what I've been doing.
00:56:07
Speaker
But if I'd gotten in then I think it would have definitely gone through more content Yeah, and gone back just like when we did Dark Souls 3 Play the game and then we played the DLC at the same time. Yeah, I came out. It was a big experience then it's been like Like half a decade since Dark Souls 2 came out. So like it's a long time Yeah, there's not a ton of people playing but I did find surprising number
00:56:32
Speaker
I don't know how many other people are recording podcasts on Dark Souls 2, but more than you'd think. But it recounts what's beneath sponsors. Yeah. I did see a good number of sun bros. That's true, yeah. Which is cool. And I got invaded way more than you did. Yeah, I don't know what that was. Because I was human, a good portion of the time. You don't actually have to be in Dark Souls 2. This is the only game in the series where you can be invaded while you're hollered. Let me rephrase. People like me.
00:57:02
Speaker
Dave? No, I'm not gonna invite it. I'm not gonna invite a guy named Dave. Darklight? That's a stupid name. Yeah, Darklight, that's... Again, it was very edgelord. It was Hex. I knew I was going for Hexfilt, so I was like, what is Dark? It's stupid. It's real stupid.
00:57:19
Speaker
I was going to say, do you remember my name? But I'm now remembering my name. I think it was just Dave. It was Dave. I was not creative. I didn't customize my character at all. I'm just like, this will do. The only thing that was a misrepresentative about it, because it was your name, right? That's directly you. But it was a lowercase D. And I know in real life, you have an uppercase D, obviously. Yeah, I do.
00:57:38
Speaker
But it was an easier co-op experience for sure than the Dark Souls one without any external tools, which is basically impossible with vanilla game. You need so many mods. But in this one, we have a ring. They add a named god ring, name of the gods, ring of the name. Usually they were tied to some type of covenant. Yeah. So we'd both pick the same one. So it'd be easier for us to match as far as connecting.
00:58:08
Speaker
And then we could see each other's signs and some of each other in yeah, it was convenient It was a nice little touch and they get went even further even further beyond and Dark Souls 3 where they're like you can just type a password in as a setting and other people have the same password can just Co-op with you no matter what? Which is nice. Yeah That was the that was using going back to your analogy. That's the adult Dark Souls where they're like
00:58:35
Speaker
We've been trying to like limit this and things, you know, for balance and nobody cares. They play the game twice, maybe once. We'll just let them do whatever they want. The Dark Souls 2 really like paved the way for that kind of that idea where it's just we'll let players play however they want really in three. They were kind of a lot more forgiving in some ways as far as like how you're going to equip your character. You can use whatever armor you want. A lot of the weapons are viable.
00:59:06
Speaker
and then they they balance some of that out with ideas like soul memory which people hate it's not the best but it was interesting they actually didn't have the agape ring in at launch which is the ring you can equip that makes it so you don't get souls at all
00:59:20
Speaker
Um, and then they're like, this is, we have to go back on our idea. Cause the problem was they didn't want people invading you and like undead Berg at level four, you show up and you've got like your broken shield and like a dagger. Yeah. And you have some high level person come in and gank. Yeah. Yeah. Just like flaming sword covered in demons. I don't know. Yeah. But the whole thing with soul memory is.
00:59:46
Speaker
There has to be a close enough range between your soul level and the soul level of someone who is joining your world. Yeah. But it comes to be a huge pain in the ass when you're trying to do co-op stuff, because Jake and I were playing separate games and would then join in to smack up on somebody for boss fights. Right.
01:00:06
Speaker
But let's say Jake went to go take a pee break and go eat or something. And now I have a high enough soul memory where I can't have him join my game or vice versa. It's a pretty long pee break, but the example still checks them out. He's still peeing to this day. He hasn't got a... I apologize to your carpet. That's to say you could have one of those bags.
01:00:28
Speaker
Oh yeah, the catheter. Doesn't have catheter's quippable item, but one of the cool things you could do is use bonfire aesthetics, which they never came back with. The idea was all of the area around a bonfire, if you use this item, which is almost always available in the late game, very limited in early game, you take that area and it immediately goes to New Game+.
01:00:51
Speaker
The enemies get stronger, they provide more souls. There's a mechanic in Dark Souls 2 where if you killed a specific enemy enough times, it would stop respawning. That didn't actually hit me this time, which I'm kind of proud of. Actually, no, it did. Take that back. But in my first playthrough, I definitely had enough problems approaching, like, a boss. Like, I struggled to kill a boss so many times that eventually the enemy stopped spawning, and I'm like... Just let him in. Let him in, yeah.
01:01:18
Speaker
It's kind of, yeah, it's exactly like that actually. But bonfire static makes it so those enemies are stronger, they have more health, they do more damage, they're worth more souls. The bosses respawn and they'll drop new items in some cases. So there's like the plus two version of chloranthi ring, you know, like one of the bosses has that.
01:01:39
Speaker
You can get them in New Game Plus. So you can kind of like stagger your playthrough like, hey, stomping this boss, I'm at a good point, but I want some of that higher level drops, but I want to commit to... Or you're at a midpoint in the game where you can't go to New Game Plus yet. Exactly, yeah. But you're like, hey, I'll take this increase in difficulty briefly for a reward. Yeah, and as soon as you make the choice to like jump to New Game Plus,
01:02:03
Speaker
That's just a plus one to every single bonfire. So if you're already at like plus five because you really like killing that boss, that becomes a plus six. And maybe you just made the game really, really hard. I took a screenshot of this and paraphrasing the quote. It's basically like what is changed cannot be undone whenever you use a bonfire aesthetic, which is cool. I like that. But so is that area then permanently new game plus?
01:02:29
Speaker
yes permanently new game plus but just for that area yes whatever is immediately around the bonfire each boss is tied to one bonfire um usually the one closest to the boss that would make sense yeah sometimes it's a bonfire after the boss though like the executioner's chariot there's a bonfire there for that covenant oh yeah that's where you have to burn the ascetic i mean that is the closest one though yeah for sure
01:02:54
Speaker
But then in order to get to the boss, you have to jump to the other side, fight your way through the enemies and get back to the chariot. So, hey, gotcha. It's a cool idea and they never came back to it. And I don't play Dark Souls in New Game Plus. Like I stop. I'm like, I beat the game, throws down controller, fucking done.
01:03:14
Speaker
I sell the console, buy a new console whenever I want to play the game. It's a good feeling when you complete Dark Souls content because it always will be challenging for me. But like it's not meant to be like a casual game. It will throw challenge at you. The challenge does get
01:03:34
Speaker
It is readable and predictable to a point like every time I walk into a room I do like a camera check for like corners. I'm like who he's gonna try and stop me Yeah, even what is really complicated when like I come over to your apartment. I'm like, all right corner check What's going on? But I mean all the times I would have stabbed you you stopped that. Yeah because you're checking so Stabber no stabbing. Yeah, oh man
01:03:59
Speaker
AK I should have you fucking committed. Um, and then the very last thing here I had was, um, and people didn't, some people didn't like this, but agility. And this is something I didn't realize till the end of the game. There's a stat called adaptability and it gives you a stack called agility. And that's the derived stat. And it's how many I frames you get when you roll.
Impact of Agility Stat
01:04:20
Speaker
And that's how's that the only thing it controls and how fast you use Estus.
01:04:24
Speaker
So, oh my god, that side tangent, that is one of my biggest complaints about Dark Souls 2. It felt like very slow, but Dark Souls 1 was very weighted and deterministic for how everything played as far as my experience in recollection.
01:04:42
Speaker
But in Dark Souls 2, things felt kind of weird. But any time I tried to use an item, like a healing gem or an Estus, it was like I fucking had to like mail it off to somebody first and get all through his prayer authorization. Then they called me back and be like, you're good to use the Estus now. And I'm like, all right, I'm going to have a quick sip of this. And by then I was already hit by an enemy attack because I thought I had more time to react.
01:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, so I think the minimum people putting this is like five, it was like 10 or 20 points for PvP. I ignored it entirely. So every time I used Estus, I was putting myself at huge risk. And I would get hit by attacks that a role would have saved me from in Dark Souls 3 by default or Dark Souls 1.
01:05:23
Speaker
flip side of that it makes pvp better because it's harder to use estus and dark souls 3 it's the most forgiving of all of these for estus as soon as you start the animation it's just like to your lips and then you start chugging the the estus i just did a weird motion in real life
01:05:41
Speaker
It didn't look like he was chugging us but You start healing immediately and once you get hit the healing stops Whereas this one's like are you do you want to heal you want to heal like you know TCP handshake basically like you said and then the healing sites and can still be interrupted so It's it's tough
01:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean I guess if you max that out is it is it as fast as like you wanna see me drink as this Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure I have never done a place I don't think I've ever put the points in that step to be honest. It's not it's not strength. So yeah, obviously I'm not
01:06:22
Speaker
they did have a pretty broad diversity as far as stat allotment yeah because i think one was specifically for equipment load one was specifically for health then you have your scaling stats like strength decks intelligence faith attunement
01:06:38
Speaker
Two a minute. Which is just for slots. Dirty slots. It's dirty slots and it's casting speed in Dark Souls 2. So that's actually amazing because in Dark Souls 1 it's just slots. Dark Souls 2 it's slots and casting speed. More and faster. And Dark Souls 3, they split it off again. Which I actually hate as a caster. And that's one of the ones that's harder to be a dedicated caster in. Because your casting speed is attached to decks.
01:07:08
Speaker
Who's gonna split points into that? Dex and Attunement, like health and endurance, Castee Boy is a weird film. I sound so surprised because I have never played a caster in a Dark Souls game. It is a stretch goal for me.
01:07:28
Speaker
but the strategies basically get like 10 strength give or take two 10 decks give or take two depending on what weapon you want never touch those again leave those alone don't put points into health until you're like level 100 plus and then max out whatever you actually care about for casting
01:07:47
Speaker
There you go, you know, now it cast me. I know so much more now. You can excel at PVE and get destroyed by absolutely everyone in PVP because every spell is readable. But yeah, that's that's the Dark Souls life.
01:08:04
Speaker
Speaking of what a life it is, what a life it is. Uh, if you would like to hear more about our adventures into video games, you can feel free to email us at soapstone podcast at gmail.com. Like us on Facebook or join the discussion there at facebook.com slash soapstone podcast. We're always happy to hear fan feedback. And until next time, we'll see you in the next one.
01:08:29
Speaker
I think the poll on Facebook should probably be what's coming next at some point. Bastion or Dark Souls 3? It could be.
01:09:18
Speaker
Bearer of the curse, I will always be at your side. Until hope has fully withered.
01:09:31
Speaker
you