Let's Talk Dark Souls II

I was hoping someone would ask if there was still a gender slide bar.

Jeff is secretly Giant Bomb's own Sage Freke, secretly tempting the other staff members with the unimaginable power of the Old One and luring them into playing the Souls series.

I think there are certainly one or two things that could be improved in terms of better-surfacing information. But this shouldn't apply to everything - I think someone mentioned the Lost Soul items not telling you how many souls they give, and to me that makes complete sense. You should have to experiment and find out, that's part of the fun!

I definitely think a good explanation in-game of a few things like what the stats screen means (such as a quick note of what each stat is for and how scaling works) would be helpful to encourage new players to enjoy their first few hours. But I'm also cautious that they don't oversimplify things, because the Souls games are definitely more about discovery over time than anything else to me.

EDIT: Wait, one class starts with a monocle? Sold. Also, I wonder if that first covenant is a little like world tendency - makes stuff harder, but increases drops and such slightly?

Also a big fan of @rorie's socks. Very stylin', sir.

This Video keeps dieing on me like 15 seconds in.

Play Demon's Souls 2.

Agree with Turambar, all the information you could possibly need is there in the dark souls UI. Except how to decipher that information.

to be honest I'm surprised Patrick has beaten the game, it doesn't seem like he understands anything about it, like asking for respeccing and other casual shit.

The video wouldn't work with streaming, crapped out about 12 seconds in for me too, but progressive seems to be working.

@milkman said:

I guess the part where I point out where the UI is in fact weak is defending every aspect of the game? That while all the actual information is there, it is not as conveniently surfaced as people want, making it lack elegance and accessibility, but not basic functionality?

I feel like we have, the two of us specifically, been having this same argument over Souls games since Demon's Souls, and you always seem to fall back on accusing anyone not as hard on the game as a fanboy. It's quite tiresome.

Video craps out at 12 seconds

Don't. Play through both.

EpicNameBro mention right out of the gate! Hype level increasing!

Dude, the UI is not good. At all. It doesn't mean it's not a great game but the UI is absolutely a weak spot. You don't need to defend every aspect of the game you like.

OMG they got rid of the ragdoll? pre-order cancelled

I was never a big fan of the Soul's game weapon upgrade mechanic. It is interesting how I can beat the game with my starting weapons, which I kind of did with Demon's Souls where I spend majority of the game with my +7 long sword and applying sticky white stuff...

@likeassur: The Souls series has always been a very methodical game until you hit a boss.

@patrickklepek said:

Shops only ever sell unupgraded weapons, so it would be pointless. Your +5 Longsword is probably better than anything any shop ever sells in any souls game.

Unupgraded weapons = practically always worse than upgraded weapons. It's the nature of the game that often locks players into using only one or two weapons throughout their entire playthrough.

If you want to be criticizing anything it's all the different upgrade paths, which I had to use a wiki for (in my early souls days) to completely understand.

As someone who has been avoiding as much Dark Souls 2 information as possible, the existence of this video is providing me with an internal conflict.

@bipa: Not to mention they're comparing players based on Soul History (sounds like the total number of souls used) rather than just their Soul Level. So an SL1 with fully-upgraded gear would be matched with an SL15 with moderately-upgraded gear, sounds like.

Uhhhhhh, animations... so pretty...

Methodical, baby.

...so the world might be mended. -____-

This is going to be quite a year for games. Looking forward to it!

ever figure out what the problem was? having the same problem myself

totally disappointing. =[ the video isn't even up yet too!

Rorie and his not hearing something that was just said.

While always being at risk of invasion sounds bad, they are at least putting stat requirements on gear so anyone invading you will be at your level and in similarly powered equipment. No more being invaded at SL1 by some asshole with later game gear, or flipping around with full Havels.

Don't. Play through Demon's Souls.

Shoutout to Vinny's "ball and chain" look.

Simply put, true gamers play Dark Souls or at least appreciate it for what it does. Look forward to Dark Souls II.

This will most likely be the first Souls game I'll play

@patrickklepek: Yeah I was only half listening while playing monster hunter, my bad

Patrick was referring to how when you are in a shop menu, there is no indication whether the equipment available for purchase is better or worse than your current stuff (unless you know the exact numbers), which is true. There is a way to compare stats but only if you own the equipment wholesale, which can make buying similar weapons or armor a hassle.

Regardless, I'm excited for the game, far more so than I rightfully should be.

I meant in the shops menus. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I thought I mentioned that.

There is totally a damage/weapons stats comparison in the menu. When you go to change your equipped weapon it tell your very clearly everything you want to know. Innate and scaling damage differences, weight difference etc.

I guess you can be mad about the icons for bleeding/poison/stat scaling but it takes about all of 2 minutes to figure out. RTFM right?

Edit: err sorry to the dude I replied to, i don't know how that happened, this wasn't meant for you

Very excited of Dark Souls 2.

Wah! Too many spoilers!

This game looks......slow. The animations, the movement speed, the health regen is all......so....slow...

fucking spelunky spoilers

@freedomtown: But there are many "shit" things in Dark Souls. Even if the dev wanted it that way, it doesn't automatically make it "good" or well designed. It can suck.

God, I'd love to see two shields that are, in fact, one shield that you have to duel wield to use effectively and just plow though enemies.

Video dies for me after 16 seconds everytime I try and watch it.

Anyone else have issues with the video cutting out after 12-15 sec? Everything else on Giantbomb works, but for some reason this video keeps going to a blank screen.

There was most definitely a way to compare in shops, Scoops. Even if there wasn't, that situation would almost never happen anyway because what are you doing buying weapons from shops.

Are there any spoiler-ish things in this video concerning Dark Souls II? Curious on their thoughts but don't want to ruin any new features of Dark Souls II too much.

nah, the UI is pretty bad regardless of if it was intended or not. the fact that such a stat heavy game doesnt immediately present key information is ridiculous considering they could have looked at several games as example of it being done well. "Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier" - Use to acquire many souls. "Many" souls... yep perfectly quantifiable. I particularly hate the upgrade menu that doesnt show you how much weapons ultimately scale or when weapons cant be upgraded anymore until you've already dumped resources into it.

That's cool. I'm happy if some stuff is tied together at all. Just wonder if they'll address any of what happened in Dark Souls 1. I know the lands might be completely different and distant, but I feel like these games always take place in the ruins of some great civilization and it would have been nice to play before the fall or be the cause of it.

Care Bear Souls....I love it.

PC version delayed even more?? Aw poo

No, the UI was by no means shit, and everything Patrick made the complaint about was present in Dark Souls. The only thing was that it was not made immediately obvious on a surface level, and required 1-2 extra button presses. Honestly, it's similar to Jeff and Vinny's complaints about Persona 4's UI. Everything you want to know is there, just not all on the same screen at the same time.

Can it be streamlined further and made a bit more elegant? Sure. Is it anywhere close to 'shit'? No.

Is the video failing to load properly after the first few seconds of playing for anyone else?

To Klepick: There is a mode in the inventory where your stash items are always compared to what is equipped. No denying however, DS's menu took some getting used to.

Yeah, that's a pretty weird thing to say. What the Souls games do well is when they present you with a scenario and expect you to pay attention in order to get out of it alive. An UI that needlessly obfuscates something, and poorly explained mechanics are not among the things that make those games so good.