DS2: Beaten, but there were some odds and ends to deal with first.
First off was Pilgrims of the Dark covenant quest. Fuck this bit with a spoon. You have to pay an effigy to access the second and third segments of this quest. If you die, you have to pay again. After about ten times dying to either Darklurker and his cheap as shit area of effect badness or to unskippable Havel/Ricard/Nazgul/Bizarro Cid tag-teams en route, I told Tommy Lee "Fuck y'all," and blew his brains out. Wait no I just left Grandahl sitting alone in the dark forever (he likes it there).
Optional boss I did actually kill: Spoilers But Not the Spoilers You Expected. This takes several tries because of damage extreme even by the Holy Fuck Are You Kidding Me standards of Dark Souls 2. I have 30 vitality and an HP-boosting ring on you guys and some of his attacks could still flatten me in one hit. But at last, a time when whip damage is optimal! Old Whip +5 at 40 DEX puts out something around 450 attack power. This is amazing for a whip, but the strange thing was it did more damage than the (better on paper) smashy club and gigantic samurai sword I was also packing. I guess whips hurt more when you're naked.
And of course I found out what the Crushed Eye Orb was for. Yeah I have no idea why the traitor was a traitor either. Grifter and generally shady character? Sure. Cheapskate jerkass in battle? Definitely, as it turns out. But otherwise I don't get the connection at all.
Penultimate boss was mean. At first it looks like I might get this in one shot, kill the little one first because he's faster and then it should be easy to wear down his pal--wait what what's fatass doing kneeling down by his bro's corpse and chanting and glowing and
full resurrection are you fucking shitting me. Okay. So fatass rezzes, kill him first. Wait what's tiny doing kneeling down and chanting and ARGLE BARGLE. Third try = you've almost got this, don't do anything stupid like heal right in front of an enemy and die! *Cid does something stupid like heal right in front of an enemy and die* Finally, Murakumo saves the day here! I wanted to use whip because reach but it actually broke in record time when I tried focusing on that (that must be the most fragile damn weapon in the game, try it on anything armored and it just falls to pieces). So giant fuck-off samurai sword, built it up to +10 on a whim (I always wanted to use it in DS1 but never had the stats for it) and was amply rewarded here. Almost as good as club damage, doesn't leave me vulnerable as long, hits an arc that can easily snag both the bosses (sometimes).
Final boss was just wait what is going on what are those floaty things
curse curse curse. One death because panic mode. Come back and club R1 + estus spam basically wins the day. Equipped anti-curse ring ahead of this time and it contributed in no noticeable way. Bah. (I expected curse once the Emerald Herald told me who the final boss was going to be; what I did not expect was
chained boss battles in a Souls game).
As for the ending, I obviously have no idea what Spoilers was trying to accomplish or why they were trying to stop me from doing whatever it was that I did. (Dark Souls.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQdSwFgSecBut I have fragments of a possible chain of events, I suppose. Spoiler mode engage.
-Curse of undead takes hold in Drangleic because that's basically just the Souls world's way of telling a nation it's run out the clock and somebody else's turn is up to take the stage.
-King Vendrick understandably all "This shit is totally fucked," starts looking for ways to fix curse.
-Somewhere along the line he builds SOUL-POWERED ROBOTS. This is presumably a bad thing.
-Crosses the sea to steal something from the giants that presumably should be of assistance to his project.
-Unsure of when the queen enters the picture. She's supposed to be from across the sea; was it her that Vendrick stole, or did he embark on this ill-advised adventure at her urging? Is she in fact the Yoko Ono of Drangleic?
-Giants cross the sea to steal back the precious thing and everything is fucked, man, everything is fucked.
-Giants either lose (though so narrowly that Drangleic is left a wasteland) or get what they want and go home. Either way Vendrick fails in finding any way to break the curse, goes hollow and gets shipped off to the Undead Crypt. The queen rules in his stead, which is apparently what she always wanted anyway.
-And she's not keen on letting anyone else take over, but as to how/why she was Nito mk 2 and what this was supposed to represent, I have no clue whatsoever.
Unless I missed something, there was only the one ending possibility? Fog gate kept me from leaving the room, which I absolutely would have done given option. You go ahead and rule this blasted wasteland from your dingy little kiln underground, queenie, I'm not interested in usurping your position. I've seen what happened to the last guy.
But alas, I didn't see an option to walk out of the room. Maybe I should've warped? Maybe the Herald gave me that feather for more than just convenience! Or maybe I should've walked off the cliff, who knows.
As for the Herald herself, I don't understand anything she was talking about just outside of the final fog gate and have no idea how her or the dragon ties into anything or explains anything. But I'm pretty cool with the Ancient Dragon and will probably not attempt to kill him because unlike the Queen he points me towards backstory without acting like it's a huge gigantic favor I should be grateful for and geez woman.
I guess the Herald herself is the missing link there? Vendrick went to all this trouble of getting his kingdom wrecked in pursuit of creating a person who could break the curse, gave up and went hollow when it became apparent she couldn't do this after all.Hm, I wonder, does the final boss's soul description explain anything? No, of course it doesn't.
Final character build: SL 150
VIG: 30
END: 22
VIT: 22
ATT: 13
STR: 40
DEX: 40
ADA: 26
INT: 5
FAI: 5
Right hand: Large Club +10, Ricard's Rapier +10, Old Whip +5
Left Hand: Dragonrider Greatshield +3, Dragonrider Bow +5, Pyromancy Flame +10
Armor: Desert Sorceress set (all +10 because DS2 just drops slabs on you like sky donuts)
Rings: Ring of Blades +1, Chloranthy Ring +1, Third Dragon Ring, [various]
Good game. The stuff that bugged me conceptually basically still does, but this ultimately didn't stop the game from impressing on the grounds it really needed to: presenting me with outstanding environments that it is absolutely terrifying to explore.
The severe nerf that dodgeroll took in DS2 is really perplexing to me. I always figured rolling in DS1 was your reward for properly observing enemy attack patterns--blocking is the easier, more reliable option to avoid taking hits, sure, but against hard-hitting enemies you'll lose more stamina blocking than rolling and/or take elemental damage right through your shield. DS2, though, rolling is just so expensive in terms of stamina, and even fast roll is a tad slower than it used to be. The crazy thing is, blocking chews through more stamina too unless you're using a greatshield or something.
I am happy to learn, even if belatedly, that fast roll threshold in DS2 is like 70%? Even allowing that they expect you to have more weapons equipped (and this is actually appreciated, as is the obviously necessary vast increase in swiftness of swapping weapons), this is generous. So apparently I didn't have to wear harem skirt all game just to ensure top mobility after all (but guys you know I'd do it anyway). There is a markedly smaller number of cool-looking light armors in DS2, I think (perhaps because of the above point), which is rather sad since I've tended to like them most aesthetically in the earlier games (and this is of course my priority because Dark Souls defensive stats. Also FASHION).
I will almost certainly
not be picking DS2 apart with a series of crazy builds just to see how they work out, for a multitude of reasons, but I am interested in trying the casting classes (definitely cleric, probably sorc somewhere down the line, but hexing sounds like a pain in the ass and pyromancy is just found too far in to functionally be its own build this time). To this end, I have started up a cleric because holy shit I really want that
destruction rains from the heavens! miracle I've seen people using. My general plan is to mine the Forest for souls, hit Heide's immediately post-Giant to grab all the miracles, and then kill Licia for her clothes (although recent experience suggests this may be more difficult early than anticipated).
The first thing that I notice is that I lack the requisite strength to wield my starting weapon one-handed.
Oh you guys.Two other things I notice: oh hey, you can summon Pate for the first boss (sorry I murdered you last time buddy, I totally won't do it again probably); and you can sometimes talk to Shalquoir right through the wall. While I'm doing this, she utters the following line which did not stand out quite so much the first time around: "All things must one day crumble and waste away, so that something new may be born."
I've now come to the conclusion that insofar as story is concerned, this is Dark Souls' mission statement.
