First off, I want to say that my first play through of Dark Souls was one of the best experiences I’ve had with gaming in a long time. The thrill of exploring a new area, the exhilaration of FINALLY killing a boss (I’m looking at you, Fatboy and Slim) and just the amazing atmosphere the whole game holds throughout play. It was truly epic and the 100 hours it took me to play through it more than justified the money I payed.

That said, I feel kind of disappointed with NG+. I’ve always felt that games that just increase/decrease stats on harder difficulties as kind of a cop-out. Fighting the same enemies in the same area is not really appealing. The mystery and challenge is lost. The one game I can think of that got higher difficulty settings right was Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden. Playing that game on Hard compared to Normal is a very different experience. Instead of regular ninja’s in the beginning your fighting fire ninjas, and throughout the game the enemies are different and more difficult. Some enemies did’nt even appear in the first playthrough at all (those huge club wielding monsters with the skull masks). This gave my second playthrough a whole new experience.

From reading the forums I see a lot of you have played through NG+ (and some have even finished NG++...where do you find the time!?) and from what I read while some of the bosses are notably more difficult thus giving a different challenge (like...fatboy and slim!) it seems the majority of the game is easier because you know whats coming. Whats the appeal you guys are finding in your second playthrough? (And one caveat, I played much of my first playthrough as hollow so I had very little PvP experience. Thinking of starting all over again just to do that more).

MORE SOULS PER KILL!!!!!

The grind spot that I had in my first run now give around 20,000 souls per time through rather than 7,000.

Now I can go back & do some things that were blocked off because I wasn't in the right covenant. But mostly Achievements, going for the Dark Lord ending.

Right now I'm in NG+ and actually myself and three buddies are waiting for patch 1.04 and 1.05 to finally come out in the U.S and other areas besides Japan. Reason is because we want to do it the second time around by playing co op. It's what we did with Demon's Souls and that worked out well for us.

Oh and we're waiting for the patches because the multiplayer is somewhat broken right now with not being able to find your friends' soul signs.

@Tophat666 said:

MORE SOULS!!!!!

fixed

@Razmataz650: Yep, the game is notably easier except for a few bosses (Four Kings become especially hard after being arguably the easiest boss in NG). The appeal for me (besides S-ranking the game eventually) is completing all the stuff that I've missed on the first playthrough, trying out new armor, weapons, the covenants etc. I did a whole lot of pvp in NG+ which I almost ignored in NG.

I'd do for the other ending. But I agree with you, half of the difficulty is the ignorance of the environment and the enemy. Once you know the area and the enemies, getting through them gets easier. Think about how it long it took you to get through Undead Burg the first time compared to subsequent runs.