| paleface [sys=PC; cat=Adventure; reg=NA] |
| | | Wanted this to be on sale in the Steam Winter Sale, where I got Elden Ring--but it wasn't! Was the last Souls game I didn't have and got so annoyed I'd have to wait longer to fill in that last gap--just in having, not playing, since I sorta plan to play this one last and who knows how long that'll take to get to!--that I guess I googled something or other and found through gg.deals (Steam forum goers more frequently mention isthereanydeal.com as being a site listing only legit sellers) gamebillet.com, a UK seller of Steam keys, seemingly actually legit distributed by publishers.
Well, so gamebillet.com listed SotFS (Steam key) for 50% off, which is how much it would go on sale typically in a Steam sale according to sale histories--didn't go on sale for years, but then two or three in last year-ish--and said the key would uh I forget how they put it but something about work with US region Steam, so I paid 'em w/ PayPal, waited a few minutes, punched the code they gave into Steam, and voila: "Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Asia."
Asia. Hm. Well, it installs and runs as SotFS, in English, US EULA or whatever at the start, so, hey. 'p'
I guess the main drawback with getting a key from even a "legit" seller like this, aside from little quibbles like region name, is that gamebillet for instance warns you that the deal is non-refundable the instant you reveal the Steam code to yourself; and Steam doesn't offer refunds on codes bought from outside Steam itself ( https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/: "Valve cannot provide refunds for purchases made outside of Steam (for example, CD keys or Steam wallet cards purchased from third parties)"). |
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After Demon's Souls (PS3) & Dark Souls: Remastered (Steam), just started SofFS (Steam).
7:55 - intro
12:44 - Things Betwixt
26:22 - character creation
1:19:32 - tutorial
2:15:12 - Majula
2:32:21 - pigs
3:16:16 - Forest of Fallen Giants
3:22:05 - sit
3:31:35 - balding
The game's servers were down. (Had no outages in DeS--fan server--or Ds1.)
(Servers back; down time ~19 hours. No official word on Steam(*); the game's server status URL was a 404 error.)
Offline Ds2 1st impressions:
A mashup of elements from DeS and Ds1 w/o their hallmark intricate vertical constructions and light touch; so far Ds2 = conventionally horizontal lumpy layouts, a heavy-handed approach to gatekeeping, story, & mood, w/ no new wow moments. Still, layouts aside, not entirely dissimilar to my feelings at the start of Ds1, so hope remains that even w/o Miyazaki, Ds2 will unfold wonders.
But early dedication to hiding entire areas--in contrast to DeS and Ds1 highlighting new routes--is off-putting; if not for a fan walkthrough, I would have missed the entrance to the only stage to which your newbie realistically CAN go from the main village.
Nicer lighting, except in plain castle interiors, where it's worse.
Camera & movement are smoother.
Jump no longer does double duty w/ Run/Dodge on Circle button, whew.
But Run was stuck on after getting out of character creation, so my first combat had super-springy camera/movement & stamina constantly draining.
Combat vs human-like opponents felt smooth and satisfying, better than previous games. Combat vs others, though...
- The ogres--one may be your 1st opponent--have attack hit ranges much larger than they look; the worst: an ogre tractor-beamed to me like a laggy Ds1 backstabber on my WiFi, snatching me up instantly from 20 feet away & one-shotting me w/ its long devouring animation of over 100% newbie health
- A trio of very tiny pigs terrorize the main village, so small many attacks against them whiff; more health than ogres & BREAK DOWN VILLAGE DOORS to reach you while you're trying to shop, gather info, & manage inventory in what would be the main safe zone
Felt mostly useless in combat until I got the hidden Morning Star, thanks to the fextralife wiki walkthrough--although once you know the trick of staying behind them to make them keep sitting down, cheesing the "ogres" is sorta straightforward anyway...
But I'm gonna feel down until I get a Zweihander. Or at least a Claymore. Or SOME kind of ridiculous two-handed sword--'cause Ds1 gave you multiple at the start.
Stats have multiplied & feel harder to access/read; I'll have 6 key warrior stats to raise, vs the previous 4. 50% more grind?
So far, feels reactionary rather than evolutionary.
Using 1 mod:
PS4 Controller Icons from Dark Souls Remastered
https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls2/mods/918
Replaced the default Xbox button icons, just like I did w/ Remastered. There's a mod for PS5 icons, but I find their b&w harder to read.
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(*) WAS using anti-sploiter mod "Blue Acolyte." A recent plague of invading hackers injected spam items into inventory, crashing players who tried to repair. I'm pretending the server down time fixed it. Once I get hacked, I'll put the mod back on. |
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From the first bonfire in Forest of Fallen Giants
5:08 - Forest
18:05 - zomb arena
29:22 - Shortsword
1:01:56 - Melentia
1:26:23 - Broadsword
1:30:00 - failing in turtle valley
1:47:17 - bow button hold & cheap fireball range trick 'pppp'
2:14:01 - Fire Longsword
2:18:53 - ogre grind failings
- having to hold the button down for bow zoom is triggering my achy shoulder, this sucks
- bow lock-on auto-leading targets is amazing ('cept when CPU does it to me 'pp')
- oh maybe R2 fires second bow ammo, huh (haven't confirmed)
- broadsword sucks
- fire longsword not too bad but dang I want a real 2-hander
Forgot I'd read minor enemies stop respawning eventually (12 kills?); this is kind of cool unless you specifically need to farm them for some item drop--but you can reset them I've read by burning a bonfire ascetic to kick the area around the bonfire up to a higher NG loop. Or you can join the Company of Champions covenant--at the monument in Majula--which cancels the despawning while you're in it--but makes all enemies harder and disables co-op. (You can quit the covenant w/o penalty at the cat in Majula, I've read--like I did when I accidentally joined the covenant of that depressed guy next to the monument.)
It's only newbie areas yet but I'm still finding the game so far depressingly mundane, and over-heavy on mechanics. (Gotta grind 12K souls for this dippy un-statufying mumbo-jumbo to clear two blocked doorways in the game's first two areas. Sheez.) Feeling the urge to try to ram through quickly, this will backfire of course (in that it will get me killed lots ; D). Not that it's bad per se but I'm missing Miyazaki or whoever's inspired weirdness and wizard level design; this still feels sorta Souls-y I GUESS but closer to an average adventure game in its presentation. So far.
No toggle for the bow zoom was really depressing me until, after recording, I finally realized I can change it back to a toggle--as it was in DeS and Ds1, I mean (from the internet, looks like Ds3 & ER require holding a button for bow zoom, too)--with Steam Input. But since you can drop out of bow aim if you hit other buttons switching your equipped weapons--left d-pad, right d-pad, triangle--if it was just a simple toggle, you'd be stuck with those other things--sword or shield, probably--toggled on, which would be momentarily awkward. So I used an Action Set layer in Steam Input:
ACTION SETS
- Default
- "Aiming bow"
- Always On Command - Left Bumper (Toggle)
Buttons
FACE BUTTONS BEHAVIOR
/\ Executes 2 Commands
- Command 1 - Y Button
- Command 2 - Remove Action Set Layer (Aiming bow)
BUMPERS
L1 Executes 2 Commands
- Command 1 - Left Bumper (Toggle)
- Command 2 - Add Action Set Layer (Aiming bow)
DPad
DIRECTIONAL PAD BEHAVIOR
Left Executes 2 Commands
- Command 1 - DPad Left
- Command 2 - Remove Action Set Layer (Aiming bow)
Right Executes 2 Commands
- Command 1 - DPad right
- Command 2 - Remove Action Set Layer (Aiming bow)
This is for a two-handed sword set-up, with sword and bow equipped in the right hand; it would get awkward if you actively used a shield for blocking/attacking, or weapons in both hands--I don't, generally, so it SHOULD work... |
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Grinding for that cheesy blood-money gating consumable, Fragrant Branch of Yore, so I could get gassed, ambushed, and gender-swapped
4:43 - soul grind
16:48 - turtle valley grind failures
30:58 - Fragrant Branch of Yore
34:10 - basilisks
38:11 - basks in a hole
55:08 - shortbow range
57:46 - pursuer ambush
1:02:02 - swaps
1:14:06 - pur-sued
1:20:12 - Company of Champions covenant
1:23:49 - wrap!
My Forest of Fallen Giants ogre got despawned; eventually I hadda join that Champions covey so I could go back to grinding him--I guess it's not so bad on that "hard mode."
Bows in Ds2 are WAY more powerful than in DeS and Ds1. This shortbow I found seems to have range roughly equivalent to a LONGbow-PLUS-Hawk-Ring--AND damage doesn't fall off with distance, so at the max range you're still doing full damage, vs like 3 points of damage--or even no damage--in Ds1. And that's free-fire; the lock-on mode also has much greater range than in Ds1, and automatically and very effectively leads moving targets, instead of just missing if the target moves like it did in Ds1. I liked bows in DeS and Ds1 but you kind of had to work out ways to cheese the simple AI to get them to be worthwhile, whereas here in Ds2 they just straight up kill.
Ahh okay I figured out why my second and third arrow shots in a volley--against the basilisks through the hole in the floor, for instance--showed higher damage numbers:
1) attacks done when your stamina bar is close to or at zero do way less damage; I've read that applies to melee attacks as well--whereas in Ds1 for instance, with even the tiniest sliver of stamina meter you could do a full damage R2 attack
2) the damage number shown is cumulative damage, like a combo--up to a point: so first arrow shows "22," second shows "44," third shows "58"--meaning the first shot (full or near full stamina) did 22 damage, the second shot (sufficient stamina for the shot) did 22 damage, and the third shot (insufficient stamina) did 14 damage; running out of stamina seems to reset the combined damage readout, for some reason (?)
The Action Set layer set-up in Steam Input that I showed in the previous episode does seem to be working fine--so I can click L1 to toggle the bow free aim zoom mode, instead of having to hold L1 down the whole time. |
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Grinding for an item that didn't exist, hard bow-cheesing, then wandering into the directionless headache of a colorless fortress
1:23 - can't melee my ogre
27:13 - cheese um wit da bow den
1:00:00 - Forest of Fallen Giants fort
1:37:38 - finally cheesin da toitle
It's too dull. Got desperate enough to skim ahead in a video playthrough (by @MKIceAndFire , what a trooper! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsYsBADkqUY ) and jeepers, the lumpy grayness never ends in this one. Nuts to that, I'm skipping ahead to *Ds3*. Miyazaki, save me! ^ _^ |
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