Waffles13

@kkotd: The wiki states that it carries over, and I was invaded almost immediately upon starting NG+. Definitely didn't kill anyone at that point.

@zeik: Is there any way to remove sin once you have it? I went around and killed all the NPCs before going to NG+ (stupid move I guess) and now I found the guy in Brightstone who I presume absolves sins, but he says I haven't sinned. Am I fucked because I NG+'d before absolving?

Also, I don't know if it's because the game is still pretty fresh or because the soul memory thing actually works, but I've had a much better time in PVP then previously. I'm still never seeking it out (and even with my sins I've only been invaded a half dozen times in 48 hours, all Arbiters), but I think I've won more encounters than I've lost, and it's pretty awesome.

@believer258 said:

My first time through I beat the game around level 120 playing sloppy and missing a handful of optional bosses. This was before the game was released.

Second time through (new character, not NG+) I beat it around level 145 with a little bit of co-op, but I also maxed out all my equipment and bought a ton of shit I will never use. Also I never popped a boss soul.

I should point out that my first playthrough, only two small areas started despawning enemies, but that was because I was an idiot on the boss and had to try 15-20 times. Second time through I zero enemies started despawning. As long as you return to Majula every time you have 20000-40000 souls, you'll be just fine for levels and equipment. And like others have said, Bonfire Ascetics are plentiful and even if you don't like online play, co-op is super easy and can net you lots of souls in little time late game.

@shirogane: I was aware of the gods/giants distinction, I was specifically referring to Gough and the Blacksmith compared to the DS2 giants.

I did forget about the fact that they left in DS1, so that's a good thing to point out. I thought that someone was inferring that from some vague DS2 item description. Still, I find it a bit of a stretch to assume that those guys all left and basically rebuilt Anor Londo elsewhere.

@shirogane: I was aware of the gods/giants distinction, I was specifically referring to Gough and the Blacksmith compared to the DS2 giants.

I did forget about the fact that they left in DS1, so that's a good thing to point out. I thought that someone was inferring that from some vague DS2 item description. Still, I find it a bit of a stretch to assume that those guys all left and basically rebuilt Anor Londo elsewhere.

@spoonman671: I'm having a real bitch of a time find direct, head on screenshots of the cathedral from Anor Londo vs. the Cathedral of Blue, but they are shockingly similar. Yes, there are differences, but that can be chalked up to the fact that that A) it's been hundreds or thousands of years and B) it's been three years since the last game, and they wanted to freshen it up. Not a great lore reason, I know, but it's a thing that happens. The control room in Halo 3 wasn't identical to the one in Halo 1.

Also, to be clear, I'm not trying to beat my chest and say "It's definitely the same place, dammit!" I just really want to know how like 80-90% of the posts I see talk about this presumed migration of Gwynevere and friends to Drangleic with seemingly no evidence to support it. Again, when I entered Heide's I had this immediate reaction and realization of where I (thought) I was, so either I'm totally nuts, I'm missing some big piece of counter evidence, or someone came up with this other theory and everyone just jumped on board for no reason.

@karkarov: In DS1, I really didn't care at all about the lore. Even as someone who really cares about story in games, I found myself skipping dialogue and ignoring item descriptions. Part of that was that I'm not a real fantasy buff, but also I just didn't really find the world interesting in a historical sense. Going back and watching some of those Youtube lore recap videos, there certainly was some interesting connections and ideas there, but it's hard to tell how much of that was by design and how much is fans finding obscure clues and trying to make sense of it all.

I was fully prepared to do the same for DS2, but one of my favorite things across the board in games is when a developer comes up with a reason, contrived or not, to revisit a place you are super familiar with in a different context. It's a big part of why games like Dead Space 2, Halo 3 and MGS4 are some of my favorite games ever.

Regardless of whether From actually knows what they're doing with the lore, I doubt that they'd just throw an area in that looks exactly like one from the previous game with no story justification whatsoever, and I really doubt that justification is "Maybe a bunch of people from Anor Londo moved to Drangleic and rebuilt an identical city there".

As for Ornstein, I totally don't care about the whole "Was he or wasn't he an illusion in DS1" argument. It's a fantasy world, there are a million reasons he could show up in DS2 even if he was real in DS1. Maybe he went hollow and wandered around Anor Londo for eternity. Maybe he was reincarnated by someone trying to excavate Anor Londo. Maybe his armor was infected by the Abyss and became sentient on it's own. Maybe it's canon that the Chosen Undead killed Ornstein first, so Smough squished him and his soul fell out of time and reappeared a thousand years later.

I'm sure From's official stance on Ornstein in DS2 is "Man, that'd be cool", and you know what? It was pretty awesome. But in my mind the only reason they'd even consider having him in the game is if he was in Anor Londo. That's largely speculation, but just from a logical, game developer perspective it makes significantly less sense if this dude who looks like the guy from DS1 is coincidentally in a building that looks like that one from DS1 but it's not the same dude or that same building.

I've been pretty heavy into Pyromancy and have had no trouble hitting enemies at any point. The one real thing compared to DS1 is that you can throw much further but the hit boxes on the default Fireballs seem potentially a bit smaller. If you're throwing at human sized enemies from a distance it's totally possible he's just coming close but missing.

Still, if he's tested it a ton and it's literally going through enemies, that sure seems like a bug.

So looking around the internet it seems that everyone has come to this consensus that at some point after the events of DS1 a bunch of people left Lordran and emmigrated to the area that is now Drangleic. The only real in game information I've seen supporting this is the idea that the giants "came over the sea" to attack Vendrick's kingdom, and everyone seems to be assuming that the giants in DS2 are the same as the giants in DS1.

Now, I played through the game pre-release and the first time I entered Heide's Tower of Flame my first thought was "Oh shit, this is what's left of Anor Londo". This was only reinforced by the presence of Ornstein. That one area alone basically said to me that Drangleic is Lordran in the far future, after 99% of that kingdom has crumbled to ruin, and only bits and pieces of Anor Londo remain as recognizable landmarks. Nearly every NPC, when talked to enough, mentions something about how "numerous kingdoms have risen and fallen in this spot" or something to that effect, and are very ambiguous about the time before Drangleic.

Also, maybe not enough people have beaten the game or not, but the giants that attacked Drangleic are very clearly NOT the same giants from Anor Londo. Maybe you could argue that the giants changed in the centuries/millenia since DS1, but honestly if you look at the Giant Blacksmith and then at the Giant Lord, there are zero similarities other than the name and the fact that they're big.

So basically I just want to know if there's any reason that everyone has come to this apparent consensus that Drangleic =/= Lordran. I personally think it's way cooler to think that this is the same place much, much later, and all the evidence I've seen seems to support me, but I'm more interested in knowing the truth of the world then just what I want to think, and if there's any evidence that says that DS1 and 2 don't take place in the same physical place, I really want to find out about it.

I did it solo, naked with a lightning Halberd. As long as you have the stamina, it's pretty easy to run in past his ground fire breath, hit his front leg 2-3 times, then book it away from him. Half the time he'll stay on the ground and breathe fire at you again, the other half he'll fly up and do his AOE insta-kill, but at that point you can dash to the edges of the arena the instant he gets in the air and you'll pretty much always dodge it. Took like 15 minutes, but once you get in the rhythm it's actually kind of fun.

I tried with the Gwym Greatshield before that, but even with 40 Endurance and the Third Dragon's Ring I could only block the fire breath once, and it ALWAYS hits twice.