Dark Souls 3 will be played LIVE on my new twitch: www.twitch.tv/bindtheblind Also make sure to play War Thunder now with my links, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more on PC and consoles: wtplay.link/bind | Mobile: wtm.game/bind #ad
My stance is and always has been "it's the weakest of the series, but it is not a bad game." And I stand by that. I do think it's the weakest (the world layout does not work right compared to others in the series when you overlay things and it feels it) and the bosses are less interesting and other aspects are less interesting to me and I do not like that enemies eventually stop spawning if you kill em too much dodging being tied to a stat and more, but it's still a GOOD game. It's especially great for build variety and PVP scene when it was new. I'm not as into PVP, but yea.
Woah!!! Hold your horses there sport. If it's just about completing the dark souls trilogy, then by all means, continue. If you'd actually like to retrace the steps of the OG players, there is a game that launched after DS2 but before DS3. Interested?? It's time for Bloodborne my friend.
Unfortunately it was only added with the Scholar edition, 1 year after the initial release. Same as a funny NPC summon that you get at the start of earthen peak that guides you there.
@Bindmove It was not. There are a lot of improvements in the Scholar version of the game like this. The original can also be purchased and played on steam which lacks those changes and some people even prefer this vanilla version and are very unpleasant about it. You probably attracted a very unpleasant DS2 defender crowd which is also a reason why people don't recommend the game.
Adaptability is THE reason I think DS2 has the bad rep it does, and if there was one thing I could have told him before he started it would have been that
@ittybittyshinystarto be fair, I don’t remember agility ever affecting Iframes in DS1. There is NOTHING to indicate that ADP increases your Iframes and I actually LIKE the adp mechanic, makes you choose whether you wanna be tanky or agile.
I started with DeS then DS1 and like 2 more than 1. I fully believe that it's pure nostalgia making people think 1 was better than 2. World design was better in 1, sure(the elevator to a non-existent volcano) Apart from that, 2 is just better.
@findout-YGO The Majula Suicide Cult is one of my favorite parts of the DS2 community, I've never taken part in it because I don't get it but it's so funny I can't not laugh every time I pass it
Fun Fact about DS2 (and Earthen Peck): NPC summons can not only asist you in battle and boss fights, BUT they can also sometimes buff you, heal you, OR give you guidance. For example, While in Earthen Peck, there's a NPC summon that actually tells you about the poison windmill. While near it, that summoned NPC will actually take out a torch and gesture to the player to use it on it, which drains the poison pool in the boss arena.
Probably the best things about DS2 was the environment interaction like that. Not only were so many backgrounds able to be messed with but the Npc and even enemy interactions with the setting was crazy like the infamous boars you can lead across the map to eat a bunch of mushrooms so you can get the golden pick axe.
I hate the mentality that has been established in the souls community of going, "Nooooo, I never summon npcs, it's cheeeeating" instead of being excited about it. Literally since the very first dark souls, there have been unique rewards and questlines based around summoning npcs, but people miss them cause even if they are human and find the sign, they never use them. Beatrix is one of my favourite characters in Dark Souls one, and a lot of people who have played the game don't even know she exists.
@lefteron6804tbf though they did hide her summon under some stairs in a bush and pretty sure if you don't summon for butterfly she won't ever show up again
@shumatsuplaran7251yeah compared to other signs it's definitely a case of you have to want her. Pretty sure if you summoned her for butterfly, she can also join during the four kings which is awesome lore wise
Lots of bosses you missed unfortunately: Darklurker, Vendrick, Ancient Dragon, Lud and Zallen, The Gankers Three and most importantly the true final boss… Aldia.
But let’s be honest about lud and zallen. No human, should be subject to the suffering of horse fuck valley. Although I would be interested in seeing it installed as a capital punishment lol Imagine some bad person be sentenced to life in horse fuck valley 😂
The second key to the second lock. Not playing the shitty Scholar version that vomits badly placed enemies at you Edit: The scholar version is also responsible for like 80% of the yore statues he hates
@findout-YGOthe entire game is an arduous path 😂 hell there's plenty of dialogue within the game itself that talks about how arduous of a path the cursed one is on. The issue is to new players there is no differentiating that it literally puts you into hard mode from just the plethora of cryptic dialogue and messages in the game.
The funny thing about the Golem is that you literally had to do that exact thing in order to get into Drangleic Castle, but that area has so many enemies that people often don’t notice that a couple of them go into the golems that flank the entrance lol
I’m sure u wont read comments as ure currently playing through bloodborne blind, but in the event that u do id like to tell u that the vast majority of us watching ur live streams really enjoy the experience. Speaking for myself, and im sure a lot of the others watching feel the same way, its almost nostalgic to watch someone get to experience the games i enjoy the most for the first time the same way i got to. I felt compelled to write this comment as i felt like u got in ur head a bit during day 3 of streaming bloodborne, and id like to reassure u that those of us who tune in to the streams do so because we enjoy it, and we enjoy hearing ur thoughts throughout, and yes even the lothric incident. Keep up the good work brother, dont u dare go hollow!
The Mirror Knight summon player mechanic was such an amazing time on release. I probably hung out there for a week straight just letting the boss summon me so i could fight other players. If you wanted to be really dirty you could bring healing spells in with you and use them on yourself and the boss.
@Eviltwin1I swear I'm the only person who loves that area. I put on the armor that looked like nights watch armor from game of thrones and would summon in people's world and pretend we were north of the wall. A lot of people did the same. It was awesome.
@mordicaiknode tbf, every game in the Souls series poorly explains everything "this might open a lock on an iron door" LIKE WHERE MOFO, THERE ARE A THOUSAND IRON DOORS
@mordicaiknodeNot all but some some. Like the CoC. It warns you twice before joining. Which was a hint of a warning of what you're in for. Thank god in my first playthrough i caught it.. Another would be the Windmill. In the SOTFS. If you summon a npc. She would point to the windmill and that's sort of a hint of what you're supposed to do. But none of us summoned a NPC much. So bleh. Overall. They do badly explain it. Some for worse. Some for better. It's all a experience that i consider worth experiencing once in your life.
@mittag6326 DS2 had some of the best lore though. Aldia and Vendric are some of the best written characters in all the soulstype games fromsoft has made. They have some of the best written lines as well.
You've gotta experience them all. Even people who tell you to skip, HAVE PLAYED IT THEMSELVES. Like what?! It's cool to see the evolution of the games over time anyhow
i believe they actually don't play them themselves, those guys just heard that the game is bad, then proceeded to literally repeat this everywhere. game is flawed, sure, but it's not bad, if player is aware of certain mechanics it's actually a blast to play. i was one of those blind people that just believed that this game is bad, then after playthrough it's my favorite in the series
A ton of those who urge to skip _haven't_ actually played it themselves. The number of times I've spoken to these people and they admit they haven't even tried it is depressing. But thinking for oneself is a big ask these days I guess. I respect people who've _tried_ it and think it should be skipped (though I disagree), but the all-too-many people who haven't even tried it have no opinion of merit.
@exitistherethere is no way to know if the people that judge ds2 in general played the game or not, in my case was my first souls and i loved it until i played the rest of them and became my least favorite
Yeah he was so clearly affected by all the negative comments about the game he failed to remove that negative mindset when playing and seemed to try to find negative things about everything he encountered. This also shows through how he is mostly negative in most of the video yet still loved the game in the conclusion.
I agree with him tbh. Majula has always felt so weird. I much prefer Firelink Shrine in DS3. It's probably the music. Majula's music theme is very good, but it doesn't feel warm and doesn't feel like home, contrary to Firelink Shrine. It's a theme that sounds like reminiscing or something like that, doesn't put the mind at ease like the other ones.
The gimmick of the Doors of Pharros area was that it was a PVP area, where the more doors you open, the more the enemies behind those doors attack your opponents
The Rat cult was actually a fun concept. You get your own little dungeon with enemies and traps, and players get summoned into it. It doesn't even really impede their progress, since win or lose, they just reappear in their world wherever they left it.
Not another ADP worshiper. Currently doing a run with 3 ADP and 2 ATN, so the lowest agility you can get in the game. And guess what? I am a lightweight roll focused build, and have not had a single problem evading enemy nor boss attacks, not even smelter demon. Why is this? Because Dark Souls 2 is a game where movement, positioning, and evading an attack's hitbox is 100 times more important than i-frame dodging. People like you have a hard time because you treat it like Dark Souls 3 where the only way to evade 95% of attacks is by utilizing rolling i-frames. Most attacks in Dark Souls 2 can literally be evaded by walking. Rolling is not for i-frames, it is to evade the hitbox of an oncoming attack by moving. In other words, ACTUALLY dodging instead of becoming invincible and having attacks phase through you.
@Synkronist No worshiping, just knowing that he was going in blind and wasn't aware of that particular system. Not sure why you're taking a comment intended to be silly fun so seriously.
@godless_paladin the "anti ds2 hater" crowd is amongst some of the most fanatical groups online, i genuinely havent ever experienced so much strange spite surrounding such a seemingly meaningless topic like from this specific group lol
No Mans Wharf, Gutter, and Brightstone Cove are all made easier by using a torch to light the sconces and braziers The statue blocking the bonfire in Lost Bastille is also an npc. A very useful merchant for weapons and spells
Going back to OG DS2 made me realise how painful NMW was. There was no shortcut like in SotFS you can kick down. Meaning you had to run through basically the entire area if you lose to the boss
@NeonIridescencethat does suck. First time I played was on OG 360 version. I remembered NMW being a nightmare. But when I played Scholar, the torches and shortcut made it kind of a breeze (combined with my extra experience by that point)
@BindmoveAre you going to make another video or is that it? Because it seems like you missed some content with the pursuer, king vendrick, aldia, The ancient dragon and other ginant memories.
Absolutely agree. Which I think is one of the big reasons people dislike DS2. They want to run past all the trash and get to the boss. But in DS2, most of the difficulty and interest comes from navigating and dealing with the trash enemies. The game is much more enjoyable if you take a methodical approach and clear most of the enemies as you go through each area.
Loving the Bloodborne stream, sorry about that one goofy commenter. The point is your own personal experience; don't let it get you down, but also don't worry about the stream being low energy or nothing. Very enjoyable however you have the most fun.
@armored_guy Then that is their choice. However, they can't complain about how hard it is when they choose not to use the summons for a co-op area. That's like complaining about how unfair Yohum (sp?) is, you point out how you are supposed to use the sword, and they say, "nah, I rather not". Can it be done, sure. Do you get a right to complain about the length of the battle since you chose not to use the tool the devs gave you to fight him, no.
@Ironica82I mean I feel it’s well within rights to complain because the whole game can be done solo and is typically done so. Summons aren’t required and I think most people would tell you they play the game solo. This is coming from someone who did that area and boss solo. I don’t see how you can’t admit that area is a little bullshit/unfair. Idc if that’s how it’s “supposed” to be done because it’s a mechanic that you haven’t had to use to get through any other area. Summons aren’t required usually active for bosses not the entire area.
watching you brute force these fights is bringing joy to my heart. the suffering you endure brings a kind of nostalgia you only get from first time players.
@BindmoveSoTFS is considered harder than regular ds2 btw. It has more enemy and they're gankier, it has more petrified statue blocking your way. and is generally more infuriating to play than regular ds2 if you're going in blind lol. Normal ds2 enemy placement is a lot closer to ds1 than SoTFS.
man im abt to play crimson desert tomorrow and i stumbled upon your videos looking to see what a fantasy strategy based combat system was like, but ive become a full fledged fan. cant wait to see what other content you got and would love to see more dark souls gameplay
@kennethmccormick8253that does make more sense, it seems they have average resistance to elemental damage from weapons but if that special resistence extends to all ranged attacks then that's more fair, nerfing spells without nerfing bows does seem too much in favor of the bow
@grimkhorthe game can still be fun, you just gotta approach it differently. Level adaptability so your dodges actually work, don't wear armor for physical defence because it becomes useless in late game (though elemental defence is always useful when aplicable), use weapons with a high counter stat because that's how you can get some really big dps, and be familiar with your environment so you can effectively interact with and counter all the ambushes. It's a different set of skills and tools than what you'd use in all the other games, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game or a bad experience, it just means it's not what you'd expect from a dark souls game. Honestly I think the game would have done much better if it was its own series, especially with how disconnected the lore is with the original.
@thechosenflutterbox Oh I don't think it's a bad game just the worst souls game. I would always recommend someone DS2 over AAA slop but considering the community of DS2 being extremely toxic I see very little reason to actually play it more than once. I think you are completely right that it is disconnected from the rest of the series. It is fundamentally a slower more defensive style vs the usual more aggressive proactive playstyle.
ER bosses are indeed difficult, but unfortunately, ER is the worst in the series, not because it's inherently a bad game, but because it shat on everything that made the saga good to begin with. Ds2, on the contrary adopted the original formula and improved it, even better they even added alot of amazing mechanics, content and they managed to make NPCs, even fake inveders, real. You can see the love and passion this game had from the myriad of amazing little details like for example allnthe hidden bonus Lore interactions hidden in the world, bosses and characters. For example : Fume Knight going straight into phase 2 if you wear Vestaldt armor, Sir alonne performing Harakiri out of shame from dying while never being able to hit you all the torch mechanics, the Herald having a chance of relaxing on a rock kicking her feet back and forth showing her childish side ( originally she was meant to be a lkttle kid btw) and so on and so forth. Ascetics were a super fun mechanic that never returned, this game has the best selection/ variety of armors, weapons and viable builds in the entire saga. The PVP was also one of the best and the one i had the most fun on in the entire saga ( before the hackers killed it). Imho, ER is all flash and no substance, hand holding and changes that ruin the formula and game's philosophy that were made only to broaden audience and make it more mainstream, very forgettable too, i couldn't give a fucc about the story or characters or the copy pasted side dungeons. And i 100% both and all the other Dark souls games before ( even the original Demon, but i couldn't play BB, i wish they would finally port it on pc... ) and ER, so i know what I'm talking about. I used to replay the whole Ds2 game every single year after the initial release ( before hackers infested pvp) and loved every second of it, with ER i had to drag myself to the finish and 100% just to have ground to criticise it. ER looks good but it was open world slop and boring as fucc.
Fun to watch. Looking forward to you video on DS3. All of the FS games are so unique from one another in spite of their similarities, it's fun to watch others experience it. Definitely hit Bloodborne also, which came out between DS2 and DS3! 43:40 - you had to do the same thing to get into drangleic castle, AND to get out of the basement....
To this day, the worst mechanic ever implemented in a fromsoftware game There's literally no in-game explanation about how the stat affect your i-frames when rolling or the speed of estus driking
@luisfilipe2747 I’d actually say it’s a good mechanic; dark souls 2 gives you a lot more souls to level up and a much more forgiving soul economy, so it’s not that difficult to pump up ADP fairly early (you only really need to get to 20 and you’re set for the whole game). Plus, you can build your playstyle around it. Heavy tank? Don’t level it up that much if you’re barely gonna be rolling. Swift and nimble? Level it up to your heart’s content if you’re gonna be rolling a ton (I do agree that there should’ve been a better explanation for what it does, though)
People saying all the negative things about DS2 was what made me miss out on it on the first place when I got into the souls series. But after seeing my goat Ymfah playing, I had to give it a try, and lo and behold, it became my favourite souls game. Semi-open world at the start, gorgeous environments like Majula and Brume Tower, diverse builds. It does have its jank, I will admit. But something about it makes it more enjoyable than DS1 and DS3 in my opinion.
The Scholar of the first Sin edition actually changes a lot of enemy and loot locations in the game making it a lot harder/gankier and causing your annoyance wih the fragrant branches. I wish they had an option to have the original DS2 gameplay experience in the newer edition.
Yup, there are noticeable jumps in the effect when you hit specific benchmarks in the stats but a single point or two alone typically feels useless because it sort of is at least when you don’t have any point of comparison.
In time, you'll learn how these games tick, how the designers think. I bet by midway through ds3 you'll be able to tell a trap/ambush room just by looking at the doorway
@Jsron30 Probably not Bloodborne since it is not available on PC. I'd imagine he will eventually do Sekiro after he finishes Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring though.
It crazy because you see her father in Dark Souls 3, any guesses? Yes, its Ocerios, the consumed King. She said she was born of dragons and he misses his "Ocelotte" (Shanalotte)
@chichibraap1198No Ocelotte is literally in his hand, they just hid the model before the game came out he is literally holding a baby, which... Yeah so it does not end well... Hence why they made the model not visible.
@Dec@DecoyBlackMagepardon, yes, he is holding his Ocellote, but the baby is Shanalotte from Dark Souls 2. And if it’s not her, it could be one of her siblings. Also, Earthen peak is in Dark souls 3, you can see the windmill in once area.
@chichibraap1198 Spoilers DS2 and DS3: There is nothing that makes Shanalotte from DS2 the baby from DS3. I have no idea where you are getting this from, the Emerald Herald in DS2 was not born in a natural way she was created from experiments. Also ocelotte gets squished and killed by their father during the boss fight. Earthen Peak being in DS3 is due to the lands and possibly time converging in an apocalyptic scenario, DS1-3 take place ages apart.
@chichibraap1198 Emerald Herald was created by Aldia as one of his steps to counter the hollowing phenomenon. It's literally written in the game, wth are you even talking about
It's not that bad, I mean the No Death, No Bonfire runs are legit challenge runs in the game. You kind of just have to plan your route because you do get locked into paths until you beat the great ones for the primal bonfires.
@burns0100 Im not saying it cant be done, im just saying youre making your experience worse by doing it,, youre gaining nothing from it other than prolonging your own gameplay and what is already a pretty damn large game
@burns0100 a no death death run is easier in NG+, and i only say that because not only will you have knowledge of the game, you have items and things you wouldnt otherwise have. Since you cant just warp back to Majula without resting.
I made a lot of the same mistakes you did. There was a lot less petrified characters blocking you in the original dark soul 2. There was a lot of significant changes scholars of the first flame made. It was also funny how you ended up finishing the dlc in the opposite order they came out.
@grimkhor vanilla has the same shit just different enemy placement, content wise they're basically the same thing. Scholar of the first sin was a free update to the game originally.
@Lasikisal the vanilla DS2 only got Aldia and some other shit (maybe Forlorn and the ring that stops you from gaining souls, can't remember), but not the "overhaul". At least when I played SotFS on PS3 it was basically the original version with no changes like heide knights in Heide or the overwhelming amount of petrified dudes in each area. The only thing different was inclusion of Aldia and DLC keys right from the start.
When I played for the first time I was using one of the NPC summons while exploring Earthen Peak. The NPC will try as hard as it can to direct you to the windmill. I never even saw the poison in the boss arena.
I mean it still is kinda lame, i prefer playing the game and finding out stuff on my own instead of having someone else show me what to do. What comes next, let the npc fight the boss for me? May as well use sonys shadow play or whatever its called at this point. The windmill in particular is horribly designed and just so random, finding that out blind is pretty much impossible in my opinion Why tf would you have your torch out in a well lit area to begin with and how would you even guess to interact with the one part of the windmill thats just kind of sitting in the corner of this area, there is nothing intuitive about this
about the run backs. theres often some hidden bonfires near the boss if you look for them. theres one near mytha just above her chamber hidden behind a wall that opens when you press interact on it with no indication they're this games version of invis walls not including the pharos walls as they're marked by the lockstone. theres one inside the metal minotaur structure that you come out of into the lake of lava area where the old iron king is. and i think some others i can't remember. yeah its kinda trolling you that they're hidden but if you clear out an area you can more freely explore. i should mention that if you kill the enemies enough times in an area they'll stop respawning unless you use a bonfire aesetic or find the challenge covenant stone in majula that makes enemies harder but always has them respawn. bonfire asetic also increases enemy difficulty as well. clearing enemies helps when you want to explore and are having difficulty it also gets you a bunch of souls and more practice at the enemies patterns.
@luisfilipe2747Smelter Demon is the one boss that gave me PTSD. Only because of the runback. I can't think of another that bothered me, but I also haven't played it in a decade
@luisfilipe2747 is it really so hard to learn a runback? And ancient dragon runback you have to defeat the black Knights and only once the ommander. The rest is just running. Smelter demon isn't that hard either. At least for me that is.
@luisfilipe2747 the smelter demon runback is prob one of the best runbacks in all of souls games bozo that room itself is one of the most interesting ones they ever did, and everyone cries about it because they cant ignore it
I knowww, I was watching the whole time and he KEPT REPAIRING ITTTTT. Easily my favorite weapon in all of dark souls please go back. Swing that spear with the rock on it at the wall untill it breaks and post a clip of you doing itt pleaseee
You are quickly becoming my youtube favorite go to. Your story is so familiar to mine, only I missed games for about 10 years while playing world of warcraft. But other than that been playing games (almost exclusively rpgs) since early 1990s. I love from software games, beginning with demon's souls on my ps3. Have spent thousands of hours between demon's souls to dark souls 1-3 and finally my favorite Elden ring. Ds3 and elden being my favorites. I am sincerely excited for your videos covering those two. Keep up the excellent work, great commentary, and just yah, you are such a good content maker and story teller. Oh and on topic, I love dark souls 2, it's been many years since I played the hell out of it, but watching your video, I remember it all still. Such a good game.
World of Warcraft has eaten a bunch of my gaming time over the years as well. Not that I regret it but several games have done that to me where I sincerely have missed out. so glad I decided to change it up (rpgs and "pausable" games are perfect right now with a 8 month old). Appreciate the kind words as well
@dr.evil2some847people hated on it because some of the design choices, a loud group of people. I played the hell out of it when it came out and loved it, like I do with every fromsoft game. Is 2 better than one? No, but I think 3 is way better than them all, and Elden Ring is better than most games ever, tying only with baldurs gate 3, but hey, that's just me. 2 is great, and I wouldn't recommend skipping it
@jbd332idk, 1 was fine... it started it all off and definitely set the hook in, but 2 had more game to play and more content in the game... maybe 1 was more polished and full of nostalgia, but 3 is absolutely the technically best of them, I just know that I had more fun for way longer playing and replaying DS2 than the other DS games. Then of course u get to Elden Ring and we get one of the greatest gifts to gaming ever conceived... I think the only problem with DS3 for me was I had freshly been playing DS2 so much that by the time I got to 3 it was amazing for its additions, but got stale faster than it should have... Elden Ring did so much new and better there was never really any chance for it to fail me...
1. You probably could have beaten the Burnt Ivory King solo if you found more Ivory Knights to seal the portals summoning Burnt knights. 2. Did you beat King Vendrick? I don't think you covered that. 3. You missed 1 boss in each of the DLC areas. Gank Squad, Blue Smelter Demon, and the 2 Cats. Those areas are designed for Co-Op and are miserable to do solo, but since you began summoning towards the end, could have beaten them Co-Op.
YOOO love your vids man you're awesome. Was hoping to be a mod for your twitch streams. Im from the UK so your stream times are perfect timing for my schedule too. Also just want to say keep up the good work, praying for your success.
@gloomygloomstalker3878 That's probably 90% of peoples experience who say that Dark Souls 2 is their favourite. Like myself, I had got into DS1 late, the DLC was already released and I basically just played it once and kind of moved on, Dark Souls 2 was announced and I really locked in, first time playing a Souls game at release, never looked back since. Still my favourite.
@burns0100 DS2 was my first one too besides Bloodborne which was my actual introduction I think. DS1 barely innovated at all so it's massively hyped up by fake fans and while DS2 clearly was less focused it innovated in so many ways that later titles were kind of lesser for not implementing these features. Powerstancing in DS2 is still superior to Elden Ring's discount version. Bonfire ascetic, environment clues and design that asks the player to use their brain (not standing in open area with twenty enemies but using cramped bridges, hallways etc. to deal with them one at a time), actual choice in where to go from the start unlike DS1 with locked off boss areas and I could go on. The writing for Aldia is great and philosophical as well. Much more original than the typical Hero's journey of DS1.
Hope he reads this! The main reason DS2 feels diff (my only 2 neg. on this game tbh) is that mechanically it's designed with 8-way snap dead zones, INSTEAD OF CIRCULAR even tho DS is made for controller which is wild. The rolling attack lock on is also busted in this game. Your character attacks where your character is facing during the roll not were you're locked on to. Outside of those 2 things tho i love DS2, them ppl saying skip are clowns & I can explain why even. Ppl give DS2 a hard time because of ADP but if you played monster hunter, honestly this is fine. Everything in DS2 is slow meaning enemies can easily be strafed and out positioned. This is key in monster hunter games as Iframes are low in that game. There are similar perks to ADP in MH like running 3 evade window and 1 evade extender which will allow you to roll through things, but most players don't even run that as you can out position & strafe most threats with knowledge. The key is rolling for distance, not rolling to eyeframe through an attack. The problem is, most newcomers are told to roll into the enemy.Not away for distance, this works in all the souls games but DS2, you wanna create distance, rolling through won't work early game. However, that's the beauty of DS2 is the build crafting!!! To further explain this: DS2 gives you alot more souls then other titles. Bloodborne it's very common to beat the game around LV80 but in DS2 by the half way point of beating the 4 lords, you tend to be in the 100+ LVs already! This allows alot of build crafting (which DS3 suffers from due to all the nerfs) that you can just pump ADP & DEX if you want a fast build that can use items fast and have alot of s! As for the feeling of unfairness well you gotta learn leeching and like you said be more aware n play slow. Ppl give DS2 a hard time for this but this was a good strategy in dark souls 1 as well. If you played slow you'd noticed the blood on sens fortress elevators & use a bow to snipe the Anor Londo archers with posion to leech em (this is a notorious part in dark souls 1) and gets destroyed with this strategy. Yet when dark souls 2 asks for this ppl give it a hard time. EVEN THO YOU GET MORE SOULS IN DD2 so fitting a bow or magic or just buying items and using binoculars that you get at Magula to free aim is so easy! Also about the enemy spam, DS2 made it were they despawn after killing them 12 times (BUT YOU JOINED CONV. OF CHAMPIONS AT THE START OF THE GAME, WHICH MAKES THE GAME HARDER N ENEMIES ALWAYS SPAWN) so the game feels unfair cause you turned on hard mode xD. (Playing on KNM was already hard mode as is but bro joined Cov. Of champions.) As for trapped chests just stand diagonally or block the arrows. All in all DS2 adds cool things like changes in NG+, the ability to re-fight/re-grind areas with bonfire asetic (a feature that is only shared with Sekiro btw) & power stancing! (Not the scuffed version in DS3) Alot of ppl give DS2 a hard time but ignore the build crafting aspect and approach it like a souls game instead of like a turn based mixed with monster hunter game. Once you do that its much better. You get so many souls here use em on a bow, items or some magic ppl or "just level ADP" DS2 just has a more weighty feel & focus on deliberate action!
@andr0zzsenpailol true, i feel like if you play monster hunter DS2 is nothing to ya cause your use to deliberate action heavy games with a focus on positioning & strafing instead of perfect dodging. Also i just hate how ppl give DS2 such a hard time when DS3 also has a ton of issues. (Not gonna mention them unless asked cause it be a yap fest)
I kept waiting for the part where you would inevitably look up dodging and find out that i-frames were tied to adaptability. And I kept waiting. And I kept waiting. And oh my god he finished everything without ever knowing why dodging felt off.
Also not true. Adp is tied to estus consumption speed. The difference between max and base adp is negligible at best. You can make the frames visible to see it. You people spreading this adp myth are only hurting the game. EVERY roll this clown does in this video was mistimed. He was never going to land the roll. Like the one at 18:01 was entirely his fault. If you cant dodge an attack at base adp then it’s impossible to dodge at max. The lowest I frames you start with (14) are enough for any attack.
@zzodysseuszzWell, nobody was insulting Binds ability to play, certainly not calling a first time player a clown. Please take your antisocial condescending behavior elsewhere. Preferably outside, to a place with grass. And real people who will beat the shit out of you for acting like this unprompted.
26:33 ds2 enjoyer here one of Freya's attacks is that she shoots spider webs in bundles, if she hits you directly it roots you in place, if it hits the ground and you walk on the web you get slowed down
I'm not seeing anyone mention it, and I don't know if you'll read this, but the answer to your question of "Where am I?" is that your character doesn't know, either. DS2 explores themes of forgetting and being forgotten, and the implication, to me, is that the nonsensical transitions between areas are also being forgotten. "I was on top of a windmill, nothing but open skies above it, and I... got on an elevator and... went up? to a volcano valley." "I was at a lighthouse just above sea level, went into a rock, went... down? an elevator? deep underground and came out... just above sea level? In a cave larger than the rock?" Hell, most people don't even notice that the ship you get on at No-Man's Wharf is NOT the same ship you get off at Lost Bastille. Seriously. Go look. They're not the same ship. Your character has no idea how they got there, just like you. The curse eats at your mind until there's nothing left.
That's a good explanation I haven't heard mentioned by others. Other neat ones I've heard include that the game has an overall dreamlike nature in general, flitting through time and memory (Heide's Tower of Flame as seen from Majula seems more ruined and distant, for example), and that time and space are distorted in general across all the Souls games at the end of an Age of Fire (which DS3 makes far, far more obvious). Memory is definitely a running theme with this one. I remember one of the most striking moments I had my first time through the game was that by the time I got to the end of this long journey, the answer to the question of "Why are you here" seemed obvious, "To become the next Monarch!" Except when I restarted the game, I was reminded that when I first arrived, all I was seeking is an answer to a cure to the curse, to finding my own self and memories, and I had been warned right at the start of the game, of precisely what did end up occurring: I would find my way to Drangleic and never really know why I had come. Heck, even the start of the game sets the tone for the strange, fantastical, almost dreamlike nature of the journey, when you fall down a shadowy maelstrom among some ruins, and awaken in a strange cavern.
for reference: Glass Knight can summon players that have a red soapstone sign placed anywhere inside drangleic castle you must also be within soul memory range, for drangleic castle being near 1 million is the easiest way to get summoned edit: also make sure you can cast great heal and heal the boss, it's your duty as a Mirror Squire 🫡
Just seen you finish ds3 live. The streams were so much fun i tuned in to every single one. I would love to mod for your twitch chat im basically there every stream they’re my daily routine to watch while im bored at work so it would be an honor to help out🙏
@Darktotaled The reason those statues are there are to show that it's an optional area. The only technically required statue in the entire game is Rosabeth's
@tristonvandolah5249There's 2 purchasable Fragrant Branches. One from Melentia (Life gem lady) and 1 from Magerold in iron keep. There's 1 you pick up in forest of fallen giants just beyond the Place Unbeknownst bonfire, there's 1 in a metal chest in the opposite side of No Man's Wharf, there's 2 in the gutter 1 surrounded by a few other items and the other just before you enter Black Gulch, there's quite a few others but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
Even blocking the part of the tutorial area which tells you can knock down trees. That is why I am forever buffled why this is the default version of the game now, when SotFS is for players that already beat vanilla
@toxic_icecreamThey block off that part of the tutorial so you know fighting that pursuer is optional..it literally teaches you ABOUT the statues. Besides name a single time in the entire game where knocking down a tree is important.
Most people don’t realize that’s what’s happening at the castle gate because they kill the guards regardless and are too busy fighting to notice when the door opens.
Other games maybe, but when dark souls gives you a particularly tough boss battle it is usually so you can git gud. I ended up just powering through and beating her in the poison my first run because up until that point that is what dark souls trained me to do when encountering a difficult enemy.
my absolute favorite part of darksouls 2 is how the setting makes you feel things other than telling you you're supposed to feel them. Majula starts off as a strange and empty place that feels alien. like you don't belong there at all. Over the course of the game it slowly starts feeling more and more comforting to be in. the haunting music becomes peaceful the npcs go from strangers to allies you rely on to get stronger. even to this day hearing Majula's theme i immediately feel at ease. When you meet Vendrick its nowhere near what you expecting. instead of a proud king standing strong defending his realm you find a broken husk of a man wandering aimlessly in small circles, unable to remember who he even his or how powerful he once was. When you fight him he still has that strength but he never uses it fully. instead he swings halfheartedly in simple patterns that show he is only responding to you because you threatened him, not because he wants to fight. even his will to live on is faltering, obvious in his attack patterns and movements. He is truly broken. Beating him doesn't bring a feeling of success. it brings feelings of pity, of realization that what happened to him is exactly what awaits you character. no other souls game has managed to pull this off. So yeah, dark souls 2 is flawed. but at least it speaks in its own voice. Dark souls 3 is nothing but a blatant copy of the first game. It does nothing but regurgitate areas and NPC's as if that alone was what made the first game great. Dark souls 1 i Still consider a good game. the problems it has come more from the cheating invaders and overly hostile community, but it never felt as genuine as Dark souls 2. Elden ring is a completely separate game series and shouldn't be compared to the dark souls games. The same with bloodborne and Sekiro.
33:09 there's an npc summon. my fav npc, devotee Scarlett, she points to it for you. My daughter name Scarlett and when I saw her pointing there I was so proud of my in-game daughter
Honestly the ivory king boss fight is so peak, especially if you’ve taken the time to go get the extra knights from the rest of the dlc area so that you and the homies drop in like a small army ready to fight back the chaos!
Dark Souls 3 will be played LIVE on my new twitch: www.twitch.tv/bindtheblind
Also make sure to play War Thunder now with my links, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more on PC and consoles: wtplay.link/bind | Mobile: wtm.game/bind #ad
My stance is and always has been "it's the weakest of the series, but it is not a bad game."
And I stand by that. I do think it's the weakest (the world layout does not work right compared to others in the series when you overlay things and it feels it) and the bosses are less interesting and other aspects are less interesting to me and I do not like that enemies eventually stop spawning if you kill em too much dodging being tied to a stat and more, but it's still a GOOD game.
It's especially great for build variety and PVP scene when it was new. I'm not as into PVP, but yea.
So much whining before you even started the game. Gotta follow the crowd huh? I'm out
This was posted 2 hours ago... but the video was posted 1 hour ago............
Woah!!! Hold your horses there sport.
If it's just about completing the dark souls trilogy, then by all means, continue.
If you'd actually like to retrace the steps of the OG players, there is a game that launched after DS2 but before DS3.
Interested??
It's time for Bloodborne my friend.
please , be kind to the Catarina knight on dark souls 3
Bearer, seek, seek, lest.
Bear bull bull bear
Ahh, 'tis, what.
PS 2 goated
Beer, si si, les
I know that chant well. Too well
For those wondering that try fire message in earthen peack is a dev message there even while offline
oh thats nice of them ahah. wonder if it was there on release?
saw it, missed the prompt, went to beat that area boss in a pool of ******
Unfortunately it was only added with the Scholar edition, 1 year after the initial release. Same as a funny NPC summon that you get at the start of earthen peak that guides you there.
@Bindmove It was not. There are a lot of improvements in the Scholar version of the game like this. The original can also be purchased and played on steam which lacks those changes and some people even prefer this vanilla version and are very unpleasant about it. You probably attracted a very unpleasant DS2 defender crowd which is also a reason why people don't recommend the game.
@aiocaraSame. I didn't even notice the boss healing from the poison but I did struggle for like a while.
CBell escaped the gulag
Bro i just realized this as well. Can't believe i stumbled across him with another channel after giving up rocket league.
Once a gamer always a gamer though i guess.
31:59 You did in fact miss the Poison Resistance Ring because you chose to not explore Earthern Peak.
Seeing him miss adp in real time was like watching a cannon event
I never understood why nobody levels adp unless told... Like brother you can check what each stat does, it takes 5 seconds to read what agility does😢
@ittybittyshinystar, you have to go out of your way to try to understand what it does, and even then, the description in game is very vague...
Adaptability is THE reason I think DS2 has the bad rep it does, and if there was one thing I could have told him before he started it would have been that
The bad rep is because posers who are full of skill issues banded together and kept whining incessantly for years.
@ittybittyshinystarto be fair, I don’t remember agility ever affecting Iframes in DS1. There is NOTHING to indicate that ADP increases your Iframes and I actually LIKE the adp mechanic, makes you choose whether you wanna be tanky or agile.
Started with ds2 as a kid because I found it at yard sale. Had so much fun with that game It will always be in my heart
DS2 was my first, too. Found it used for cheap. And yes, DS2 was a great game if it was your first.
I started with DeS then DS1 and like 2 more than 1. I fully believe that it's pure nostalgia making people think 1 was better than 2. World design was better in 1, sure(the elevator to a non-existent volcano) Apart from that, 2 is just better.
Same here, DS2 was my first souls game, that's why when i played DS1, that game felt like a downgrade to me, and the criticism of DS2 feel dumb.
@shumatsuplaran7251 ds1 is fucking ass.
@kevinmills7067 it’s a completely good game plural and no one I know who played it as their last game dislikes it.
never in my life have i seen someone ignore the key the last giant drops and miss the second boss
and that fact lead him to not get the amber to give to the smith lmao
im genuinely stressing like he didn't DO THE PURSUER 😭😭✌✌
@Just-A-Clown111He did eventually, just didn't put it in
@Ironica82 If it's not in the video it never happened.
I did the exact same thing in my first run lmao, I got so mad because the blacksmith wouldn't do anything
bro escaped rl just to make another goated channel, hell yeah brother
26:20 " Nothing feels worse than banging your weapon on a wall" while carrying an unbroken Sentier spear is delectable Irony.
From your profile pic I'll assume you like Forbidden Memories challenge videos.
Repairing your Santier spear is such a mood 😅
I actually laughed out loud when he said it 😭
2:44 don't worry, it's just the Majula S*icide CuIt that has been going on for 11 years
It’s the best confusion for the new players! Best cult ever 😂
it definitely confused me before Majula - like 20 bloodstains, i started preparing myself for a boss fight 🤣
@findout-YGO The Majula Suicide Cult is one of my favorite parts of the DS2 community, I've never taken part in it because I don't get it but it's so funny I can't not laugh every time I pass it
Fun Fact about DS2 (and Earthen Peck): NPC summons can not only asist you in battle and boss fights, BUT they can also sometimes buff you, heal you, OR give you guidance.
For example, While in Earthen Peck, there's a NPC summon that actually tells you about the poison windmill. While near it, that summoned NPC will actually take out a torch and gesture to the player to use it on it, which drains the poison pool in the boss arena.
Probably the best things about DS2 was the environment interaction like that. Not only were so many backgrounds able to be messed with but the Npc and even enemy interactions with the setting was crazy like the infamous boars you can lead across the map to eat a bunch of mushrooms so you can get the golden pick axe.
I hate the mentality that has been established in the souls community of going, "Nooooo, I never summon npcs, it's cheeeeating" instead of being excited about it. Literally since the very first dark souls, there have been unique rewards and questlines based around summoning npcs, but people miss them cause even if they are human and find the sign, they never use them. Beatrix is one of my favourite characters in Dark Souls one, and a lot of people who have played the game don't even know she exists.
@lefteron6804tbf though they did hide her summon under some stairs in a bush and pretty sure if you don't summon for butterfly she won't ever show up again
@VibinSealz TF? I've done ds1 like 50 times and never seen this sign. She must really be hidden.
@shumatsuplaran7251yeah compared to other signs it's definitely a case of you have to want her. Pretty sure if you summoned her for butterfly, she can also join during the four kings which is awesome lore wise
Lots of bosses you missed unfortunately: Darklurker, Vendrick, Ancient Dragon, Lud and Zallen, The Gankers Three and most importantly the true final boss… Aldia.
and the pursuer lol
Darklurker was hard. Took me 50 tries. Loud and Zallen? I cleared the area of them snow horse enemies I run it that many times.
But let’s be honest about lud and zallen. No human, should be subject to the suffering of horse fuck valley.
Although I would be interested in seeing it installed as a capital punishment lol
Imagine some bad person be sentenced to life in horse fuck valley 😂
4:03 "sins of the first scholar" 💀
2 souls dark
@black-void7124 2 Dark 2 Souls
@black-void7124 soul 2 dark
Is there anything wrong with the Sins of the First Scholar?
@EDIT-v4g well it is called scholar of the first sin if you didn't know.
The key to the second lock...is to leave the covenant of champions 🤣🤣
saw in a different reply that it increases enemy damage by 50%. what a wild hidden effect of joining a covenant in the first 20 minutes of playing
@Bindmovethe game warns you so many times... you can read the warnings. If you choose to ignore that it's on you.
@Bindmoveit's not hidden, lol. It tells you when you try to join 😂
The second key to the second lock. Not playing the shitty Scholar version that vomits badly placed enemies at you
Edit: The scholar version is also responsible for like 80% of the yore statues he hates
@findout-YGOthe entire game is an arduous path 😂 hell there's plenty of dialogue within the game itself that talks about how arduous of a path the cursed one is on. The issue is to new players there is no differentiating that it literally puts you into hard mode from just the plethora of cryptic dialogue and messages in the game.
The funny thing about the Golem is that you literally had to do that exact thing in order to get into Drangleic Castle, but that area has so many enemies that people often don’t notice that a couple of them go into the golems that flank the entrance lol
yeah, I as like "but the entrance was the tutorial of the dynamic" haha
I’m sure u wont read comments as ure currently playing through bloodborne blind, but in the event that u do id like to tell u that the vast majority of us watching ur live streams really enjoy the experience. Speaking for myself, and im sure a lot of the others watching feel the same way, its almost nostalgic to watch someone get to experience the games i enjoy the most for the first time the same way i got to. I felt compelled to write this comment as i felt like u got in ur head a bit during day 3 of streaming bloodborne, and id like to reassure u that those of us who tune in to the streams do so because we enjoy it, and we enjoy hearing ur thoughts throughout, and yes even the lothric incident. Keep up the good work brother, dont u dare go hollow!
The Mirror Knight summon player mechanic was such an amazing time on release. I probably hung out there for a week straight just letting the boss summon me so i could fight other players. If you wanted to be really dirty you could bring healing spells in with you and use them on yourself and the boss.
I never tried to heal the boss. Cool that it worked like that.
I DID THIS, ALSO AT LEAST A WEEK
14:15 "Dude, dodging does nothing in this game."
*cries in 7 ADP*
Skill issue. I play every run with 3 adp. I can dodge most explosions in the game.
@zzodysseuszz"sKiLl iSsUe" you sound insufferable
@AgingLikeMilk22 they dont sound insufferable they are insufferable
i finished it without knowing what adp is doing
Nobody reads or takes the time to investigate game mechanics anymore and then blames the game..
You missed the best boss runback in fromsoft history in eleum loyce
Yeah was waiting to hear the rage of trying to get through the Frozen Outskirts
God I hate Reindeer Fuckland
We don't talk about Horsefuck Valley here
@Eviltwin1I swear I'm the only person who loves that area. I put on the armor that looked like nights watch armor from game of thrones and would summon in people's world and pretend we were north of the wall. A lot of people did the same. It was awesome.
@Jbewell1991I enjoy it as well. I just summon the NPC and see it like an epic journey across it.
Wait! How did he get into dranglaic castle without knowing that the golems need a killed enemy nearby to open doors??
@Rumo_Notna There's a metric fuckton of enemies there, probably just killed some near them without even realizing what the gimmick was
He probably was killing everything without thinking and ended up opening the door without noticing
Tbh a Zelda dungeon would clear this youtuber
16:00 thank heavens, Adaptability. I was terrified how long it into the video it would take. Oh wait, I spoke too soon...
ik he was so close
In his defense, The game does poorly explain it.
@The_Ugliest_King_51 the game poorly explains everything, we all suffer.
@mordicaiknode tbf, every game in the Souls series poorly explains everything
"this might open a lock on an iron door" LIKE WHERE MOFO, THERE ARE A THOUSAND IRON DOORS
@mordicaiknodeNot all but some some. Like the CoC.
It warns you twice before joining. Which was a hint of a warning of what you're in for. Thank god in my first playthrough i caught it..
Another would be the Windmill. In the SOTFS. If you summon a npc. She would point to the windmill and that's sort of a hint of what you're supposed to do.
But none of us summoned a NPC much. So bleh. Overall. They do badly explain it. Some for worse. Some for better. It's all a experience that i consider worth experiencing once in your life.
3:52 - I see the convenant of champions icon and start to feel bad for the poor little fella
oh no, i think he didn't even notice, this also prevented enemies from stop spawning after killing them x-times
I feel like it was on purpose in order to have his playthrough fit the narrative of the peanut gallery's opinion of "ds2 bad ds1 good"
I almost skipped on DS2 last year but I wanted to see why it was hated so much.
I still don't have an answer for that because I loved it.
It's brilliant.
It strays away thematically/lore wise (which probably objectively wasn't a great idea, but it has some upsides) , but other than that I don't know.
@mittag6326 DS2 had some of the best lore though. Aldia and Vendric are some of the best written characters in all the soulstype games fromsoft has made. They have some of the best written lines as well.
@mittag6326it doesn’t stray from the original lore at all. Genuinely, you are talking bollocks and just just finding any made up reason you can
SAME it was my first souls game and it's actually almost like a cozy game for me now
I knew he wasn't going to unlock the true santiers spear but damn was I hoping.
44:04 to be fair with the game, the front door of the castle has that same golem with the same mechanic
For real, this person cannot remember or read descriptions
@romabaninja At 35:15 he is confused by the "sudden" appearance of Alonne knights even though they just drop down from above lmao
You've gotta experience them all. Even people who tell you to skip, HAVE PLAYED IT THEMSELVES. Like what?! It's cool to see the evolution of the games over time anyhow
i believe they actually don't play them themselves, those guys just heard that the game is bad, then proceeded to literally repeat this everywhere. game is flawed, sure, but it's not bad, if player is aware of certain mechanics it's actually a blast to play. i was one of those blind people that just believed that this game is bad, then after playthrough it's my favorite in the series
A ton of those who urge to skip _haven't_ actually played it themselves. The number of times I've spoken to these people and they admit they haven't even tried it is depressing. But thinking for oneself is a big ask these days I guess. I respect people who've _tried_ it and think it should be skipped (though I disagree), but the all-too-many people who haven't even tried it have no opinion of merit.
@exitistherethere is no way to know if the people that judge ds2 in general played the game or not, in my case was my first souls and i loved it until i played the rest of them and became my least favorite
I agree 100%
A lot of people who yell to skip have in fact not played the game themselves. They just bandwaggon without thought on what everyone else said.
3:10
"Majula did not feel like home"
That is the hottest take I have heard all year.
@Ultr4l0f gave me emotional and mental damage when he said that
it would feel like home if there wasnt like one good npc there
I want my ashes to be spread In Majula when I died
Yeah he was so clearly affected by all the negative comments about the game he failed to remove that negative mindset when playing and seemed to try to find negative things about everything he encountered. This also shows through how he is mostly negative in most of the video yet still loved the game in the conclusion.
I agree with him tbh. Majula has always felt so weird. I much prefer Firelink Shrine in DS3. It's probably the music. Majula's music theme is very good, but it doesn't feel warm and doesn't feel like home, contrary to Firelink Shrine. It's a theme that sounds like reminiscing or something like that, doesn't put the mind at ease like the other ones.
coming from the cbell channel i am so extremely happy to see this channel doing well
The gimmick of the Doors of Pharros area was that it was a PVP area, where the more doors you open, the more the enemies behind those doors attack your opponents
The Rat cult was actually a fun concept. You get your own little dungeon with enemies and traps, and players get summoned into it. It doesn't even really impede their progress, since win or lose, they just reappear in their world wherever they left it.
Me, knowing how dodging works in DS2: Oh no.
Not another ADP worshiper.
Currently doing a run with 3 ADP and 2 ATN, so the lowest agility you can get in the game.
And guess what? I am a lightweight roll focused build, and have not had a single problem evading enemy nor boss attacks, not even smelter demon.
Why is this? Because Dark Souls 2 is a game where movement, positioning, and evading an attack's hitbox is 100 times more important than i-frame dodging.
People like you have a hard time because you treat it like Dark Souls 3 where the only way to evade 95% of attacks is by utilizing rolling i-frames.
Most attacks in Dark Souls 2 can literally be evaded by walking. Rolling is not for i-frames, it is to evade the hitbox of an oncoming attack by moving.
In other words, ACTUALLY dodging instead of becoming invincible and having attacks phase through you.
@Synkronist No worshiping, just knowing that he was going in blind and wasn't aware of that particular system. Not sure why you're taking a comment intended to be silly fun so seriously.
Yeah when he said, "I put stats into vigor and endurance because adp is a seemingly useless stat," I though oh no...
@godless_paladin the "anti ds2 hater" crowd is amongst some of the most fanatical groups online, i genuinely havent ever experienced so much strange spite surrounding such a seemingly meaningless topic like from this specific group lol
DS2 is LIQUID ASS ...
18:02 "i must be missing something" so close man, so close
Half of his rolls were just plain bad, would’ve hit him with max I frames
@d@duncansmith3518 max adp is no different than base. Any attack you cant dodge with base adp you also cant dodge with max.
@zzodysseuszznot true at all my agility is at 110 and the difference is 100 percent noticeable
Bro, we need more Videos from all of your playtroughs please
No Mans Wharf, Gutter, and Brightstone Cove are all made easier by using a torch to light the sconces and braziers
The statue blocking the bonfire in Lost Bastille is also an npc. A very useful merchant for weapons and spells
Going back to OG DS2 made me realise how painful NMW was. There was no shortcut like in SotFS you can kick down. Meaning you had to run through basically the entire area if you lose to the boss
@NeonIridescencethat does suck. First time I played was on OG 360 version. I remembered NMW being a nightmare. But when I played Scholar, the torches and shortcut made it kind of a breeze (combined with my extra experience by that point)
@dorianshepard2841not so bad for me because flexile sentry is pretty easy after all the time I put into the game, but it's rough for newer players
Same with the Duke's Dear Freya. Holding the torch keeps spiders at bay, just like in No Man's Wharf with Darkdwellers.
50:37 Someone didn't listen to the "Go Back" signs.
Dark Sorcerer Navlan has entered the chat!
Immediately what I thought when I saw the invasion lol
@eliasevergreen7763 why what's wrong ? I haven't played the game but I'm planning on buying it since it's the only souls I have left
Damn, using Santier's spear without figuring out it's true form.
My fav weapon from possibly the entire franchise.
You hate to see it.
I was in agony watching the entire thing go down, and damn near cried when he swapped to the katana.
what do you mean its true form
@Bindmove Once it breaks, it becomes one of the best weapons in the game (not a joke)
@Bindmove break the spear... and two hand it
@Bindmove There's a huge ass rock stuck in your spear.
happy to see you enjoying yourself with content creation again bro :)
33:16 there is an npc summon that takes you to it and gestures at the windmill
3:52 oh god, he already going hard mode.
39:55 - the perfume department??? BWAAAHAHA, I was not expecting that, and an excellent use of it here! XD
crazy reference right? so glad you appreciated it
@BindmoveAre you going to make another video or is that it? Because it seems like you missed some content with the pursuer, king vendrick, aldia, The ancient dragon and other ginant memories.
Thinking that ADP is a waste was the single greatest error of this playthrough. No s equals miserable time😂
I wanted to see his reaction to the second boss of Heide's Tower of Flame.
13:30 "Playing Dark Souls is like being in a toxic relationship" oh how truer words have never been spoken 😅😂
The way i see DS2. the areas are the boss, and the bosses are the breaks in between.
Dark Souls 2 is more of a Demons Souls game, yeah.
@Ozorosochi Dark Souls 2 is more of a Souls-like than an actual Souls game.
First dark souls games I played was dark souls 2 during the pandemic.
I don't care what people say but the Ds2 is a goated game.
@abhilash9918it is awesome, i personally love it
Dark Rapier with Dark Weapon OP 🙌
Absolutely agree. Which I think is one of the big reasons people dislike DS2. They want to run past all the trash and get to the boss. But in DS2, most of the difficulty and interest comes from navigating and dealing with the trash enemies. The game is much more enjoyable if you take a methodical approach and clear most of the enemies as you go through each area.
Loving the Bloodborne stream, sorry about that one goofy commenter. The point is your own personal experience; don't let it get you down, but also don't worry about the stream being low energy or nothing. Very enjoyable however you have the most fun.
what an absolute unit, no adp and only limited lifegem spam
adp isnt needed, its there if you want to be immortal though. (99)
most people played like that
I have never dropped everything so fast to make food and get ready to watch a video than when I saw a notification of this video
Dude, this video took so long to come out that I played Dark Souls 2 for the first time myself while waiting.
god i cant wait for the DS3 video...
You are so lucky for missing the Frigit Outskirts area
The only boss(es) I've never beaten in a From game. The run back broke me.
@ashanevDid you try to solo it? If yes, then you made it 3x harder as it is a co-op area and was built to be played with two or three others
@Ironica82yeah but a lot of people don’t wanna have to summon
@armored_guy Then that is their choice. However, they can't complain about how hard it is when they choose not to use the summons for a co-op area. That's like complaining about how unfair Yohum (sp?) is, you point out how you are supposed to use the sword, and they say, "nah, I rather not". Can it be done, sure. Do you get a right to complain about the length of the battle since you chose not to use the tool the devs gave you to fight him, no.
@Ironica82I mean I feel it’s well within rights to complain because the whole game can be done solo and is typically done so. Summons aren’t required and I think most people would tell you they play the game solo. This is coming from someone who did that area and boss solo. I don’t see how you can’t admit that area is a little bullshit/unfair. Idc if that’s how it’s “supposed” to be done because it’s a mechanic that you haven’t had to use to get through any other area. Summons aren’t required usually active for bosses not the entire area.
"The first lock is Comparison. The key is Acceptance"
Actual Cinema writing moment.
Good thing your Santier's Spear didn't break mid playthrough, like the katana. ;P
watching you brute force these fights is bringing joy to my heart. the suffering you endure brings a kind of nostalgia you only get from first time players.
4:05 you saying sins of the fist scholar hurt my soul 😢
Yup, that is rough.
oh no lol. why is it so hard to remember the name of it
@BindmoveSoTFS is considered harder than regular ds2 btw. It has more enemy and they're gankier, it has more petrified statue blocking your way. and is generally more infuriating to play than regular ds2 if you're going in blind lol. Normal ds2 enemy placement is a lot closer to ds1 than SoTFS.
@Dew_Art5 not a single true argument here lol
@Dew_Art5 thought it was the other way around lol
43:53 dude this was literally the mechanic you had to do to enter the castle in the first place
He probably doesn't remember that because he actually cheated on this playthrough 45:26
Well, I also spent around an hour at some point to figure this out, because I hadn't noticed that before in the fights.
Yeah, he is not very bright
33:22 there is a hint you can summon an npc that points at wind mill
isnt it just a phantom and not an actual fighty dude?
man im abt to play crimson desert tomorrow and i stumbled upon your videos looking to see what a fantasy strategy based combat system was like, but ive become a full fledged fan. cant wait to see what other content you got and would love to see more dark souls gameplay
5:01 i’m sorry WHAT?!??
1:05:58 yeah the dlc is not the place to be trying out a mage build, all the dlc enemies are designed to be specifically resistant to spells
resistant to *projectiles*
@kennethmccormick8253that does make more sense, it seems they have average resistance to elemental damage from weapons but if that special resistence extends to all ranged attacks then that's more fair, nerfing spells without nerfing bows does seem too much in favor of the bow
Another wonderful reason to skip this garbage fire.
@grimkhorthe game can still be fun, you just gotta approach it differently. Level adaptability so your dodges actually work, don't wear armor for physical defence because it becomes useless in late game (though elemental defence is always useful when aplicable), use weapons with a high counter stat because that's how you can get some really big dps, and be familiar with your environment so you can effectively interact with and counter all the ambushes. It's a different set of skills and tools than what you'd use in all the other games, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game or a bad experience, it just means it's not what you'd expect from a dark souls game. Honestly I think the game would have done much better if it was its own series, especially with how disconnected the lore is with the original.
@thechosenflutterbox Oh I don't think it's a bad game just the worst souls game. I would always recommend someone DS2 over AAA slop but considering the community of DS2 being extremely toxic I see very little reason to actually play it more than once. I think you are completely right that it is disconnected from the rest of the series. It is fundamentally a slower more defensive style vs the usual more aggressive proactive playstyle.
"would they really make a boss this difficult?!" wait til elden ring lol
ER bosses are indeed difficult, but unfortunately, ER is the worst in the series, not because it's inherently a bad game, but because it shat on everything that made the saga good to begin with.
Ds2, on the contrary adopted the original formula and improved it, even better they even added alot of amazing mechanics, content and they managed to make NPCs, even fake inveders, real.
You can see the love and passion this game had from the myriad of amazing little details like for example allnthe hidden bonus Lore interactions hidden in the world, bosses and characters.
For example : Fume Knight going straight into phase 2 if you wear Vestaldt armor, Sir alonne performing Harakiri out of shame from dying while never being able to hit you all the torch mechanics, the Herald having a chance of relaxing on a rock kicking her feet back and forth showing her childish side ( originally she was meant to be a lkttle kid btw) and so on and so forth.
Ascetics were a super fun mechanic that never returned, this game has the best selection/ variety of armors, weapons and viable builds in the entire saga.
The PVP was also one of the best and the one i had the most fun on in the entire saga ( before the hackers killed it).
Imho, ER is all flash and no substance, hand holding and changes that ruin the formula and game's philosophy that were made only to broaden audience and make it more mainstream, very forgettable too, i couldn't give a fucc about the story or characters or the copy pasted side dungeons.
And i 100% both and all the other Dark souls games before ( even the original Demon, but i couldn't play BB, i wish they would finally port it on pc... ) and ER, so i know what I'm talking about.
I used to replay the whole Ds2 game every single year after the initial release ( before hackers infested pvp) and loved every second of it, with ER i had to drag myself to the finish and 100% just to have ground to criticise it.
ER looks good but it was open world slop and boring as fucc.
at least there are checkpoints tor every boss, so its not that bad even
Wait until DS3
What boss from elden ring is that difficult?
@SammyiCanis Malenia or Radahn easily without summons.
52:25 Omg when you closed that door 🤣
Fun to watch. Looking forward to you video on DS3. All of the FS games are so unique from one another in spite of their similarities, it's fun to watch others experience it. Definitely hit Bloodborne also, which came out between DS2 and DS3!
43:40 - you had to do the same thing to get into drangleic castle, AND to get out of the basement....
Oh boy did he play the game without adaptability? 🥴
Yep and with the covenant of champions active for the first half
To this day, the worst mechanic ever implemented in a fromsoftware game
There's literally no in-game explanation about how the stat affect your i-frames when rolling or the speed of estus driking
@luisfilipe2747 I’d actually say it’s a good mechanic; dark souls 2 gives you a lot more souls to level up and a much more forgiving soul economy, so it’s not that difficult to pump up ADP fairly early (you only really need to get to 20 and you’re set for the whole game). Plus, you can build your playstyle around it. Heavy tank? Don’t level it up that much if you’re barely gonna be rolling. Swift and nimble? Level it up to your heart’s content if you’re gonna be rolling a ton
(I do agree that there should’ve been a better explanation for what it does, though)
ADP whining is a skill issue. Not a necessary stat
We all managed to play it without knowing what ADP did back when it released and did fine. Skill issue.
People saying all the negative things about DS2 was what made me miss out on it on the first place when I got into the souls series. But after seeing my goat Ymfah playing, I had to give it a try, and lo and behold, it became my favourite souls game. Semi-open world at the start, gorgeous environments like Majula and Brume Tower, diverse builds. It does have its jank, I will admit. But something about it makes it more enjoyable than DS1 and DS3 in my opinion.
The Scholar of the first Sin edition actually changes a lot of enemy and loot locations in the game making it a lot harder/gankier and causing your annoyance wih the fragrant branches.
I wish they had an option to have the original DS2 gameplay experience in the newer edition.
16:05
I mean, putting a single point in ANY stat doesn't make much a difference at first. It's all gradual
Yup, there are noticeable jumps in the effect when you hit specific benchmarks in the stats but a single point or two alone typically feels useless because it sort of is at least when you don’t have any point of comparison.
i guess it was just so weird to think about that way when item weight was the big thing in ds1 so I didn't really expect that to make a difference
@Bindmove Are you gonna play Bloodborne and Sekiro too in the future?
In time, you'll learn how these games tick, how the designers think. I bet by midway through ds3 you'll be able to tell a trap/ambush room just by looking at the doorway
@Jsron30 Probably not Bloodborne since it is not available on PC. I'd imagine he will eventually do Sekiro after he finishes Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring though.
its not necessarily the npc summon that hit the bell. there are enemies that run to it to hit it.
Shannalot's story was mostly cut, tragically. you WERE originally going to go back to the past more and see her as a kid, but alas, twas cut.
It crazy because you see her father in Dark Souls 3, any guesses? Yes, its Ocerios, the consumed King. She said she was born of dragons and he misses his "Ocelotte" (Shanalotte)
@chichibraap1198No Ocelotte is literally in his hand, they just hid the model before the game came out he is literally holding a baby, which... Yeah so it does not end well... Hence why they made the model not visible.
@Dec@DecoyBlackMagepardon, yes, he is holding his Ocellote, but the baby is Shanalotte from Dark Souls 2.
And if it’s not her, it could be one of her siblings.
Also, Earthen peak is in Dark souls 3, you can see the windmill in once area.
@chichibraap1198 Spoilers DS2 and DS3:
There is nothing that makes Shanalotte from DS2 the baby from DS3. I have no idea where you are getting this from, the Emerald Herald in DS2 was not born in a natural way she was created from experiments. Also ocelotte gets squished and killed by their father during the boss fight.
Earthen Peak being in DS3 is due to the lands and possibly time converging in an apocalyptic scenario, DS1-3 take place ages apart.
@chichibraap1198 Emerald Herald was created by Aldia as one of his steps to counter the hollowing phenomenon. It's literally written in the game, wth are you even talking about
Love your editing man 👍
You gotta break the spear I was mad when you traded it out.
Ds2 without fast travel would be a killer, and thats from someone who really likes the game
It's not that bad, I mean the No Death, No Bonfire runs are legit challenge runs in the game. You kind of just have to plan your route because you do get locked into paths until you beat the great ones for the primal bonfires.
@burns0100 Im not saying it cant be done, im just saying youre making your experience worse by doing it,, youre gaining nothing from it other than prolonging your own gameplay and what is already a pretty damn large game
@burns0100 a no death death run is easier in NG+, and i only say that because not only will you have knowledge of the game, you have items and things you wouldnt otherwise have. Since you cant just warp back to Majula without resting.
You can make a no-bonfire and/or a no-death run to get rings which make your weapons invisible (forgot which ring is for which side).
I made a lot of the same mistakes you did. There was a lot less petrified characters blocking you in the original dark soul 2. There was a lot of significant changes scholars of the first flame made. It was also funny how you ended up finishing the dlc in the opposite order they came out.
Bro vanilla is just trash stop telling people to join your 300 people cult.
Scholar of the first sin*
@grimkhor vanilla has the same shit just different enemy placement, content wise they're basically the same thing. Scholar of the first sin was a free update to the game originally.
@Lasikisal the vanilla DS2 only got Aldia and some other shit (maybe Forlorn and the ring that stops you from gaining souls, can't remember), but not the "overhaul". At least when I played SotFS on PS3 it was basically the original version with no changes like heide knights in Heide or the overwhelming amount of petrified dudes in each area. The only thing different was inclusion of Aldia and DLC keys right from the start.
What an amazing video!! Congrats on beating the game without any major guides
When I played for the first time I was using one of the NPC summons while exploring Earthen Peak. The NPC will try as hard as it can to direct you to the windmill. I never even saw the poison in the boss arena.
I mean it still is kinda lame, i prefer playing the game and finding out stuff on my own instead of having someone else show me what to do.
What comes next, let the npc fight the boss for me?
May as well use sonys shadow play or whatever its called at this point.
The windmill in particular is horribly designed and just so random, finding that out blind is pretty much impossible in my opinion
Why tf would you have your torch out in a well lit area to begin with and how would you even guess to interact with the one part of the windmill thats just kind of sitting in the corner of this area, there is nothing intuitive about this
I came running. And when I mean came, I mean that I moved into my chair to click the thumnbnail.
And then you came?
@UnitSe7enI did, and enjoy the video.
about the run backs. theres often some hidden bonfires near the boss if you look for them. theres one near mytha just above her chamber hidden behind a wall that opens when you press interact on it with no indication they're this games version of invis walls not including the pharos walls as they're marked by the lockstone. theres one inside the metal minotaur structure that you come out of into the lake of lava area where the old iron king is. and i think some others i can't remember. yeah its kinda trolling you that they're hidden but if you clear out an area you can more freely explore.
i should mention that if you kill the enemies enough times in an area they'll stop respawning unless you use a bonfire aesetic or find the challenge covenant stone in majula that makes enemies harder but always has them respawn. bonfire asetic also increases enemy difficulty as well.
clearing enemies helps when you want to explore and are having difficulty it also gets you a bunch of souls and more practice at the enemies patterns.
Some don't and the runback is just ass, like both the smelter demons or the ancient dragon
@luisfilipe2747Smelter Demon is the one boss that gave me PTSD. Only because of the runback. I can't think of another that bothered me, but I also haven't played it in a decade
@luisfilipe2747 is it really so hard to learn a runback? And ancient dragon runback you have to defeat the black Knights and only once the ommander. The rest is just running. Smelter demon isn't that hard either.
At least for me that is.
@luisfilipe2747 the smelter demon runback is prob one of the best runbacks in all of souls games bozo
that room itself is one of the most interesting ones they ever did, and everyone cries about it because they cant ignore it
I can’t believe this is you CBell. Insane at rock, insane at dark souls. Keep up that amazing content brother❤
Bro he swapped to black steel katana when he MUST of been close to unlocking the true potential of santiers spear
It made me so sad that he didnt break it
I knowww, I was watching the whole time and he KEPT REPAIRING ITTTTT. Easily my favorite weapon in all of dark souls please go back. Swing that spear with the rock on it at the wall untill it breaks and post a clip of you doing itt pleaseee
You are quickly becoming my youtube favorite go to. Your story is so familiar to mine, only I missed games for about 10 years while playing world of warcraft. But other than that been playing games (almost exclusively rpgs) since early 1990s. I love from software games, beginning with demon's souls on my ps3. Have spent thousands of hours between demon's souls to dark souls 1-3 and finally my favorite Elden ring. Ds3 and elden being my favorites. I am sincerely excited for your videos covering those two. Keep up the excellent work, great commentary, and just yah, you are such a good content maker and story teller. Oh and on topic, I love dark souls 2, it's been many years since I played the hell out of it, but watching your video, I remember it all still. Such a good game.
World of Warcraft has eaten a bunch of my gaming time over the years as well. Not that I regret it but several games have done that to me where I sincerely have missed out. so glad I decided to change it up (rpgs and "pausable" games are perfect right now with a 8 month old).
Appreciate the kind words as well
Is it a popular opinion that DS2 is a bad game or something? It was easily my favorite in the dark souls trilogy, despite DS3s advantages...
@dr.evil2some847people hated on it because some of the design choices, a loud group of people. I played the hell out of it when it came out and loved it, like I do with every fromsoft game. Is 2 better than one? No, but I think 3 is way better than them all, and Elden Ring is better than most games ever, tying only with baldurs gate 3, but hey, that's just me. 2 is great, and I wouldn't recommend skipping it
@jbd332idk, 1 was fine... it started it all off and definitely set the hook in, but 2 had more game to play and more content in the game... maybe 1 was more polished and full of nostalgia, but 3 is absolutely the technically best of them, I just know that I had more fun for way longer playing and replaying DS2 than the other DS games. Then of course u get to Elden Ring and we get one of the greatest gifts to gaming ever conceived... I think the only problem with DS3 for me was I had freshly been playing DS2 so much that by the time I got to 3 it was amazing for its additions, but got stale faster than it should have... Elden Ring did so much new and better there was never really any chance for it to fail me...
@dr.evil2some847 having yet played DS3, I enjoyed DS2 way more than DS1. Truly exploring every nook and cranny rewarded the player handsomely.
1. You probably could have beaten the Burnt Ivory King solo if you found more Ivory Knights to seal the portals summoning Burnt knights.
2. Did you beat King Vendrick? I don't think you covered that.
3. You missed 1 boss in each of the DLC areas. Gank Squad, Blue Smelter Demon, and the 2 Cats. Those areas are designed for Co-Op and are miserable to do solo, but since you began summoning towards the end, could have beaten them Co-Op.
He beat blue smelter
They're extremely easy solo, the runbacks aren't bad whatsoever (aside from frigid outskirts)
YOOO love your vids man you're awesome. Was hoping to be a mod for your twitch streams. Im from the UK so your stream times are perfect timing for my schedule too. Also just want to say keep up the good work, praying for your success.
Dark Souls 2 is a Canon Event. Glad you didn't skip it. Looking forward to DS3 and Elden Ring.
What if I told you that original DS2 was my first souls game and I actually kinda like it still even after having beaten the others
@gloomygloomstalker3878 That's probably 90% of peoples experience who say that Dark Souls 2 is their favourite. Like myself, I had got into DS1 late, the DLC was already released and I basically just played it once and kind of moved on, Dark Souls 2 was announced and I really locked in, first time playing a Souls game at release, never looked back since. Still my favourite.
@burns0100 DS2 was my first one too besides Bloodborne which was my actual introduction I think.
DS1 barely innovated at all so it's massively hyped up by fake fans and while DS2 clearly was less focused it innovated in so many ways that later titles were kind of lesser for not implementing these features.
Powerstancing in DS2 is still superior to Elden Ring's discount version. Bonfire ascetic, environment clues and design that asks the player to use their brain (not standing in open area with twenty enemies but using cramped bridges, hallways etc. to deal with them one at a time), actual choice in where to go from the start unlike DS1 with locked off boss areas and I could go on.
The writing for Aldia is great and philosophical as well. Much more original than the typical Hero's journey of DS1.
@gloomygloomstalker3878 also had less branches of yor too road block you. ds2 original is soo much better and camp
he should have a blast with DS3 considering its easier and elden ring being somewhat the same being easier with the exploration
Hope he reads this! The main reason DS2 feels diff (my only 2 neg. on this game tbh) is that mechanically it's designed with 8-way snap dead zones, INSTEAD OF CIRCULAR even tho DS is made for controller which is wild. The rolling attack lock on is also busted in this game. Your character attacks where your character is facing during the roll not were you're locked on to. Outside of those 2 things tho i love DS2, them ppl saying skip are clowns & I can explain why even.
Ppl give DS2 a hard time because of ADP but if you played monster hunter, honestly this is fine. Everything in DS2 is slow meaning enemies can easily be strafed and out positioned. This is key in monster hunter games as Iframes are low in that game. There are similar perks to ADP in MH like running 3 evade window and 1 evade extender which will allow you to roll through things, but most players don't even run that as you can out position & strafe most threats with knowledge. The key is rolling for distance, not rolling to eyeframe through an attack. The problem is, most newcomers are told to roll into the enemy.Not away for distance, this works in all the souls games but DS2, you wanna create distance, rolling through won't work early game. However, that's the beauty of DS2 is the build crafting!!!
To further explain this: DS2 gives you alot more souls then other titles. Bloodborne it's very common to beat the game around LV80 but in DS2 by the half way point of beating the 4 lords, you tend to be in the 100+ LVs already! This allows alot of build crafting (which DS3 suffers from due to all the nerfs) that you can just pump ADP & DEX if you want a fast build that can use items fast and have alot of s!
As for the feeling of unfairness well you gotta learn leeching and like you said be more aware n play slow. Ppl give DS2 a hard time for this but this was a good strategy in dark souls 1 as well. If you played slow you'd noticed the blood on sens fortress elevators & use a bow to snipe the Anor Londo archers with posion to leech em (this is a notorious part in dark souls 1) and gets destroyed with this strategy. Yet when dark souls 2 asks for this ppl give it a hard time. EVEN THO YOU GET MORE SOULS IN DD2 so fitting a bow or magic or just buying items and using binoculars that you get at Magula to free aim is so easy! Also about the enemy spam, DS2 made it were they despawn after killing them 12 times (BUT YOU JOINED CONV. OF CHAMPIONS AT THE START OF THE GAME, WHICH MAKES THE GAME HARDER N ENEMIES ALWAYS SPAWN) so the game feels unfair cause you turned on hard mode xD. (Playing on KNM was already hard mode as is but bro joined Cov. Of champions.) As for trapped chests just stand diagonally or block the arrows.
All in all DS2 adds cool things like changes in NG+, the ability to re-fight/re-grind areas with bonfire asetic (a feature that is only shared with Sekiro btw) & power stancing! (Not the scuffed version in DS3)
Alot of ppl give DS2 a hard time but ignore the build crafting aspect and approach it like a souls game instead of like a turn based mixed with monster hunter game. Once you do that its much better. You get so many souls here use em on a bow, items or some magic ppl or "just level ADP" DS2 just has a more weighty feel & focus on deliberate action!
People hate DS2 because they fail to "adapt"? ha.
@andr0zzsenpailol true, i feel like if you play monster hunter DS2 is nothing to ya cause your use to deliberate action heavy games with a focus on positioning & strafing instead of perfect dodging.
Also i just hate how ppl give DS2 such a hard time when DS3 also has a ton of issues. (Not gonna mention them unless asked cause it be a yap fest)
I kept waiting for the part where you would inevitably look up dodging and find out that i-frames were tied to adaptability. And I kept waiting. And I kept waiting. And oh my god he finished everything without ever knowing why dodging felt off.
Also not true. Adp is tied to estus consumption speed. The difference between max and base adp is negligible at best. You can make the frames visible to see it. You people spreading this adp myth are only hurting the game. EVERY roll this clown does in this video was mistimed. He was never going to land the roll. Like the one at 18:01 was entirely his fault. If you cant dodge an attack at base adp then it’s impossible to dodge at max. The lowest I frames you start with (14) are enough for any attack.
@zzodysseuszzWell, nobody was insulting Binds ability to play, certainly not calling a first time player a clown. Please take your antisocial condescending behavior elsewhere. Preferably outside, to a place with grass. And real people who will beat the shit out of you for acting like this unprompted.
@zzodysseuszz I mean doubling your invuln frames on a roll is pretty helpful and helps with timing, but
26:33 ds2 enjoyer here one of Freya's attacks is that she shoots spider webs in bundles, if she hits you directly it roots you in place, if it hits the ground and you walk on the web you get slowed down
I'm not seeing anyone mention it, and I don't know if you'll read this, but the answer to your question of "Where am I?" is that your character doesn't know, either. DS2 explores themes of forgetting and being forgotten, and the implication, to me, is that the nonsensical transitions between areas are also being forgotten. "I was on top of a windmill, nothing but open skies above it, and I... got on an elevator and... went up? to a volcano valley." "I was at a lighthouse just above sea level, went into a rock, went... down? an elevator? deep underground and came out... just above sea level? In a cave larger than the rock?"
Hell, most people don't even notice that the ship you get on at No-Man's Wharf is NOT the same ship you get off at Lost Bastille. Seriously. Go look. They're not the same ship. Your character has no idea how they got there, just like you. The curse eats at your mind until there's nothing left.
That's a good explanation I haven't heard mentioned by others. Other neat ones I've heard include that the game has an overall dreamlike nature in general, flitting through time and memory (Heide's Tower of Flame as seen from Majula seems more ruined and distant, for example), and that time and space are distorted in general across all the Souls games at the end of an Age of Fire (which DS3 makes far, far more obvious).
Memory is definitely a running theme with this one. I remember one of the most striking moments I had my first time through the game was that by the time I got to the end of this long journey, the answer to the question of "Why are you here" seemed obvious, "To become the next Monarch!" Except when I restarted the game, I was reminded that when I first arrived, all I was seeking is an answer to a cure to the curse, to finding my own self and memories, and I had been warned right at the start of the game, of precisely what did end up occurring: I would find my way to Drangleic and never really know why I had come. Heck, even the start of the game sets the tone for the strange, fantastical, almost dreamlike nature of the journey, when you fall down a shadowy maelstrom among some ruins, and awaken in a strange cavern.
Interesting, it's indeed a running theme and I had not considered it.
I'm sorry for your sanity, Lucatiel, but some paths must be walked alone 😄
Fun fact: the mirror sheild boss fight literally summon other player to aid the boss.
for reference: Glass Knight can summon players that have a red soapstone sign placed anywhere inside drangleic castle
you must also be within soul memory range, for drangleic castle being near 1 million is the easiest way to get summoned
edit: also make sure you can cast great heal and heal the boss, it's your duty as a Mirror Squire 🫡
@findout-YGO That's why I always fight that boss offline. Don't need the sweaty little tryhards ruining the fun.
Glad you found the windmill, my friend made me suffer through that poison fight and then showed me the windmill after I had beat her.
Wow, with friends like that…😂
@djbeema Who needs enemies.
Just seen you finish ds3 live. The streams were so much fun i tuned in to every single one. I would love to mod for your twitch chat im basically there every stream they’re my daily routine to watch while im bored at work so it would be an honor to help out🙏
to be fair, the scholar version put a thousand stone statues across the game for no fucking reason. Even in things betwixt which is the tutorial area
@Darktotaled The reason those statues are there are to show that it's an optional area. The only technically required statue in the entire game is Rosabeth's
@GilbertTheGilbertGuy
Can I buy branches from anyone
@tristonvandolah5249There's 2 purchasable Fragrant Branches. One from Melentia (Life gem lady) and 1 from Magerold in iron keep. There's 1 you pick up in forest of fallen giants just beyond the Place Unbeknownst bonfire, there's 1 in a metal chest in the opposite side of No Man's Wharf, there's 2 in the gutter 1 surrounded by a few other items and the other just before you enter Black Gulch, there's quite a few others but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
Even blocking the part of the tutorial area which tells you can knock down trees. That is why I am forever buffled why this is the default version of the game now, when SotFS is for players that already beat vanilla
@toxic_icecreamThey block off that part of the tutorial so you know fighting that pursuer is optional..it literally teaches you ABOUT the statues. Besides name a single time in the entire game where knocking down a tree is important.
43:00 why make this golem puzle out to be so obtuse when you had to do the exact same thing to get inside the castle.
probably did it on accident, happened to me on my first playthrough
he also criticized it because he thought it required enemies from another room when there were enemies within that room he could have used.
Most people don’t realize that’s what’s happening at the castle gate because they kill the guards regardless and are too busy fighting to notice when the door opens.
@djbeema so in other words... gitgud?
@holoceneevent4534no not really
Been waiting for this upload man !! So excited to watch it
Same
The second flexible sentry wasnt there before SOTLS edition. There was another demon enemy.
31:38 “why would they make a boss in a room of poison?”- so you can drain it or set it on fire
Other games maybe, but when dark souls gives you a particularly tough boss battle it is usually so you can git gud. I ended up just powering through and beating her in the poison my first run because up until that point that is what dark souls trained me to do when encountering a difficult enemy.
yo so like why isnt the boss already in position with a lever for the guillotine? like honestly why make me do ANYTHING.
Oh no not the company of champions......
and 8 adaptability 😂
my absolute favorite part of darksouls 2 is how the setting makes you feel things other than telling you you're supposed to feel them. Majula starts off as a strange and empty place that feels alien. like you don't belong there at all. Over the course of the game it slowly starts feeling more and more comforting to be in. the haunting music becomes peaceful the npcs go from strangers to allies you rely on to get stronger. even to this day hearing Majula's theme i immediately feel at ease.
When you meet Vendrick its nowhere near what you expecting. instead of a proud king standing strong defending his realm you find a broken husk of a man wandering aimlessly in small circles, unable to remember who he even his or how powerful he once was. When you fight him he still has that strength but he never uses it fully. instead he swings halfheartedly in simple patterns that show he is only responding to you because you threatened him, not because he wants to fight. even his will to live on is faltering, obvious in his attack patterns and movements. He is truly broken. Beating him doesn't bring a feeling of success. it brings feelings of pity, of realization that what happened to him is exactly what awaits you character.
no other souls game has managed to pull this off. So yeah, dark souls 2 is flawed. but at least it speaks in its own voice. Dark souls 3 is nothing but a blatant copy of the first game. It does nothing but regurgitate areas and NPC's as if that alone was what made the first game great. Dark souls 1 i Still consider a good game. the problems it has come more from the cheating invaders and overly hostile community, but it never felt as genuine as Dark souls 2. Elden ring is a completely separate game series and shouldn't be compared to the dark souls games. The same with bloodborne and Sekiro.
33:09 there's an npc summon. my fav npc, devotee Scarlett, she points to it for you. My daughter name Scarlett and when I saw her pointing there I was so proud of my in-game daughter
Why no repair powder?
I always just ran 2 weapons as well
didn't realize until about halfway through that they dont work on broken weapons. wasted 3 or more trying to repair my broken gear lol
Honestly the ivory king boss fight is so peak, especially if you’ve taken the time to go get the extra knights from the rest of the dlc area so that you and the homies drop in like a small army ready to fight back the chaos!
Bro I kid you not I was just watching your DS1 blind run and then you just posted this….great timing!