I played DS1 without having a gold account, so I was forced to solo it, so when DS2 came out I decided to do the same thing for the first playthrough. Now, on NG+, taking advantage of summoning is is keeping the game fresh. Anyone else do this?

No I spend most RPGs wishing there was co op. So I jumped at the chance to team up against some of the multiple boss fights in the game.

@the_ruiner: Totally, I actually feel like solo'ing is playing the wrong way to play, but I do enjoy the satisfaction of having done it.

I never go in for the "wrong way to play" stuff. I do feel like in this game, co op is kind of encouraged by the developers. But the great thing about these games is how open they are to multiple approaches and styles. Co op isn't for everyone. But i love it. I've loved it since Secret of Mana on the SNES. And I wish more action RPGs had it.

Nope. Seeing how good / bad some of the NPC summons are is half the fun of the game.

I did this too and it's pretty satisfying. I planned on doing a lot of summoning in my second playthrough but kept forgetting, so I ended up doing two solo runs.

all co-op, all the time. which is actually very odd for me, since i don't usually enjoy depending on or being depended on by other people, due to a bad case of schizotypal personality disorder. but the game is just that good. its kind of therapeutic actually-

@turambar shit, i guess i meant no online summoning. I did summon some of the NPC's (Manscorpion Tark is a badass)

Yeep, and it came back to bite me in the ass, as apparently a lot of the NPC storyline requires you to summon them X amount of times in battle. After having played Dark Souls 1 to such a ridiculous degree, I felt obliged to make the game as difficult for myself as possible. Little did I know I'd stumbled onto a terrific build that ended up making the game considerably easier than it ought to have been, covenant of champions and all.

Did another run with a sorcerer, and that playthrough was a different beast entirely.

Yep. First playthrough in a Souls game is always just me by myself. I only feel like I've beaten the game when I did every boss by myself. I did write messages, helped others with bosses and did some pvp though, so it's not like I ignored the online part.

On a sidenote: I think From should dramatically increase the difficulty for coop in future Souls games. Often the boss fights become ridiculously easy in coop, especially if there's a caster in the party. Most coop bossfights are over in mere seconds and they become downright unfun that way.

I did, as I wanted to see all the bosses in their purest form before using help. Actually, in DS1, I can count on one hand the number of times I ever summoned people. It just never seemed appealing to me until a point where I was so confident with the game that I didn't need the help.

Also, I played through offline my first time in order to hide those messages (as I felt they would give me too many hints about secrets and paths) so I didn't even have the option of help.

I always take my first playthrough in Souls games solo, yeah. I like the more isolating, oppressive atmosphere of taking the games on with nothing but enemies and npc's to accompany you. After that I'll occasionally summon, although I'm more into the PVP than the co-op

In the middle of my first playthrough, all soloing, save for the times I've put down my summon signs for others.

It's been rewarding, but certainly a stiff challenge.

I think it immensely cheapens the bosses if you play them in coop, some are a breeze. So much time to heal whenever you take damage because just running usually makes the boss go for someone else.

So far anyway, but I'm hitting some incredibly hard stuff now in the late game.

Yeah. I wanted to go through this alone the first time. Call it pride or whatever, but summoning people for help with bosses the first time around felt... wrong, I guess? Not sure what the right word is there. But anyway, once I finished it the first time alone (which I think was easier than DS1), I definitely summoned people for help in NG+.

100% agree with you, solo is the way to play this game. When I read about people summoning, running past enemies and using poison arrows from a distance... why are you even playing this game? I summoned for the pursuer and I still wake up at night screaming.

This game has no real story or payoff, the challenge IS the game. I think I could understand it more in the first Dark Souls, but this game is much easier.

I intend on playing solo for the rest of the game. I did use a summon sign once and spawned an NPC to help me but they instantly fell down a hole. I thought to myself I'm not going to manage your idiotic AI as well as my own character. Solo it is!

No I did for Demons and Dark Souls but not 2 I really wanted to use the summon stuff because I didn't at all in the other games and never really got invaded all that much (Maybe 4-5 in 1st play of 2) but with the boss fights even with 1 or two summons, those fights got down to the wire and never cheapened it for me so many close calls and watching the other guy/guys run in and just die before your eyes or...someone shoot you with a ballista instantly killing you only to accidentally do that to the next guy...

Nope. Played the first 30 or 40 hours offline and it was really boring. If I'm looking for a challenge I'll play a nice game of chess. Speaking for myself i havent played videogames for the "challenge" since i was 17 and I don't get any sense of achievement from beating videogames anymore so playing solo felt more like I was cheating myself and since I've loved co-op since my CONTRA days I had to kick myself for not co-oping sooner in the souls games.

Reminds me of Dragon's Dogma with real players as pawns instead of A.I.

I'm currently working my way through the Company of Champions run so I've killed every boss solo. I feel like I'm close to beating the game since I'm working my way through the King Gates.

My first playthrough I beat the bosses solo and then put my summon sign down after to play it in coop. I did that with most of the bosses, to get the solo "experience" and then the co-op one right after. I think the only boss I summoned before even attempting it myself was the Old Iron King because I missed the bonfire right before it and did not want to make that tedious run again.

On my playthroughs since I have just summoned on the bosses I knew would be rough with the build I was trying, plus summoning is really fun and well implemented in DSII. The game is designed for coop but there is no wrong way to approach the game your first time through.

The Lost Sinner in NG+ seems impossible to solo. Finding that NPC summon in the Shrine of Amana when I was playing a pure mage that couldn't use a bow was a life saver. Summoning Vengarl's Head for the Throne Defenders fight in NG+ was fun because he tanks both of them and totally survived to the Nashandra fight.

No, I co-op freely on my first playthrough. I know for certain that I will go through the game another time or three, so there is plenty of opportunity to do a solo run.

No one did, they're all liars.

Absoloutely. Ruin Sentinels, Throne Defender and Watcher, Royal Rat Authority and The Ancient Dragon were some of my most satisfying video game encounters for a long while. More so than any of the bosses from Dark Souls. There has been a lot of talk about the multiple/horde bosses in DSII. Personally I reckon the direction they went for II was oone of the only ways to keep it a little fresh for vets of Demon's and Dark.

@reisz totally, i didn't FULLY agree with all the hate they got for those boss fights. yeah, theyre kinda cheap, but they make you change your shit up.

I've never summoned anyone, player or NPC, in a Souls game. Feels like cheesing it.

I summoned an NPC on occasion, but never another player.

I think I summoned a guy for the the Old Dragonslayer and the Dual Dragonriders in the castle. These were the only spots I couldn't get myself summoned to do a practice fight against the boss. I didn't like going in blind so I called help juuuust in case. Turned out the first one is the easiest fight in the game and the second isn't much tougher.

ofcourse i did all my first playthrough solo , same with NG+ , after that i started summoning in NG++ because i didn't feel like soloing anymore

i don't know why people start summoning in their first playthrough , it takes all the fun from the game ...

My first play through on all souls games is always done 100% blind and offline. Previously I would at least look up info on weapons so I had an idea about upgrading paths.... this time I didn't even do that. Bear in mind I don't consider summoning NPC phantoms as "not solo", they are rarely super useful and truthfully in most fights they actually made the fight worse. There is only three fights where I summoned I can think of that having the phantom actually was a real help.

i summoned for the odd boss first time through, never for actual levels, because i like to be meticulous and explore everywhere, now though, i'm a summoning machine, because it's a lot of fun working with good partners.

Yep, didn't summon anyone, NPC's included. I like co-op, but I only like it when I can help others; ie being summoned myself.

yep, i solo everything the first time. I feel like i cheated myself if i bring in help.

We've got a badass over here!

I actually want to finish the first game before I start the second, and I plan on doing both solo. I don't know if I'll play Demon's Souls.

Yep. I solo'd my first playthrough and teamed up for my second. Both play styles are fun.

Played DS1 all by myself, but this time the games new and fresh. I have been summoning people on the bosses that have given me a lot of problems. Mostly the ones with crappy walks to the boss or ones I just don't see myself doing anytime soon. These seems to be about ten times as many bosses so spending the next two years trying to beat the game not a good option for me.

I prefer the challenge of doing everything myself on the first playthrough and since things are different on NG+ I'll solo that too. I did start a new character to get the trophies that require summoning. I have no problem with people summoning help it's just not the way I like to play the Souls games.

I beat the "main" bosses solo but I summoned a few times just because why not. I beat all primary lords on my own and summoned for fights where I had to fight multiple opponents because fuck that, if you pit me against more than 1 enemy that destroys half my lifebar with one swing then I'm gonna bring friends.

I did probably 95% of it by myself, but every other playthrough has been all co op all the time. Its definitely not the wrong way to play, so don't listen to anyone who says that, Dark Souls is a lot of fun to play co op. I mainly did it by myself because this was the first souls game where I could jump in right at the start, don't ask me how that's relevant to playing solo lol, just felt like the thing to do this time. I played all the other ones a mix of co op and solo, probably around 50/50.

First playthrough, I soloed it. I've sort of soloed it on NG+; I had to summon for the Sinner, those pyro enemies coming in mid battle were a bitch (pre-patch). For bosses I'd already done in NG+ or higher through ascetics my first playthrough, I summoned just to Sun Bro it out.

Still can't play the damn thing since they only want to give the press the PC version like 3 weeks earlier than everyone else, but I'm planning on only summoning NPCs (like I did in the first one), but giving a hand to other people when I find the Sunbros, because that sounds like great fun.

According to online sources I only have two bosses left and i've solo'd the entire game. The two times I've summoned NPCs I found it threw me off the boss patterns I had come to learn and ended up getting me killed!

It is a lot of fun. There is one boss in particular that is unbeatable for the average player unless you find a secret in the world. It's not that hard to find, but I did a bunch of co-op there and more than half of the worlds I was summoned into didn't know about it. Using the gestures to get them to follow me so they can activate the secret was a ton of fun and really satisfying when it worked.

I played solo in DS1 but I'm loving DS2 way more because I'm working with others.

I'm cooping like crazy. At some point the player base will drop off and it will be harder to coop, so I'm getting while the getting's hot.