Kind of yeah

>>729392837
Ds2 still was sluggish and slow, but scholar was a hell! It was extremely difficult

GANK SQUADS EVERYWHERE + fragrant branches of yore to gate off your progress or even waste your time

Nope it improved the game. Made it significantly more unique and forced you to be smart. And the extra content was nice.

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Enemy and item layouts assume you have played vanilla first. It would've been better as a Master Quest-style mode over an actual restructuring of the game that most people wil play.
>Heide Knights scattered throughout the game were crammed obnoxiously into Heide's Tower which they fled from canonically
>Heide's Tower also gets an annoying as fuck mechanic that wakes up all the enemies after you kill the boss making the area 10x worse
>Dragon Aerie made optional
>area-exclusive enemies put into other areas making enemy variety feel worse than it is (most people will now encounter Flexile Sentry and Guardian Dragon as an enemy first rather than a boss)
>way more ganks
>NPCs moved to nonensical locations
>"statue blocks your way" fucking everywhere
>an entire enemy type removed from the game for some reason (pic rel)
>more upgrade materials + ember access way sooner
>weird easter egg shit that no new player will look for like those invisible guys, moonlight butterflies, and the Gotta Go Fast hollow

I love when people are like
>this minor difference happened so yeah the entire thing is ruined now

>>729392837
ds2 is the only good game because you cant just run through every fucking level unless you are lucky or skilled in avoiding combat. In every other souls game you just run through and basically boss rush. Obviously miyazaki knows this and instead of going the ds2 route of more difficult level design where you cannot run through he has went in the boss rush direction which i don't like

>>729392837
Overall it was a massive improvement. However this doesn't mean there weren't things it did worse like making early game progression a bit more linear since fags got filtered by going down to the DLC too early.

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>>729393916
>GANK SQUADS EVERYWHERE
>fragrant branches of yore to gate off your progress
The fragrent branches gate your progress harder in the original. In scholar there now in every area and you can get one within 20 minutes, meaning you can unlock Rosabeth or vendors faster. You're allowed to do any area you want without trekking through specific areas to get a branch.
>>729394103
>Heide Knights scattered throughout the game
And they still are
>Heide's Tower also gets an annoying as fuck mechanic that wakes up all the enemies after you kill the boss making the area 10x worse
It's cool that one area can now simultaneously function as early game and mid game. You can always come back later and one or two shot the heide knights when you're stronger. Why Tree Sentinel in ER is heralded as muh miyazaki genious game design for encouraging players to go out and explore the world, but the same thing done half a dozen times in DS2 is now "an annoying as fuck mechanic" where retard stubborn players bash their head against the wall instead of just doing the dozen other things you can do at any one time and come back to later, i dont know...
>area-exclusive enemies put into other areas making enemy variety feel worse than it is (most people will now encounter Flexile Sentry
that was always the case. You always you could have faought flexile sentry first in shaded woods before No Mans Wharf.
>"statue blocks your way" fucking everywhere
and you have more fragrent branches. Why the same mechanic in ER exists and no one fucking complains about it!?
>an entire enemy type removed from the game
theyr'e still in the game
>more upgrade materials + ember access way sooner
Which makes the game far less linear for players who dont wanna trek all the way to iron keep just to upgrade their fire sword
>weird easter egg shit
secrets are bad now!

>>729394103
>>an entire enemy type removed from the game for some reason (pic rel)
Where was that dude? I only ever played vanilla DS2 and I dont remember that enemy

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>>729392837
sotfs is such a better version i can only assume some /v/irgins are taking contrarianism to its extreme
i on the other hand genuinely like ds2(sotfs) so i have no problem saying the truth

>>729394759
I think it was an enemy from the beta that never made it into the final game. The rest of that post is disingenuous anyways (ie. complaining about ganksquads when SotFS actually removed most of them).

>>729392837
No not at all.

I've played every souls game and am set on ds2 being my favorite. I still have no idea what a gank squad is or why its a big deal and why people bitch about it so much. Do people just want simple 1v1 fights constantly until you get to the boss? I like ds2 because just getting to the boss is the challenge and it doesn't focus simply on Le epic boss fights with anime flips

>>729395467
People shit on Elden Ring because it doesn't let them roll spam and at least attempts to punish players for circle strafing into backstabs. Yes, these people want 1v1 fights.

Scholar is only better if you're into PVP, stuff like making infusions accessible earlier was a great decision for that. But I much prefer the level design of vanilla. Also prefer the way it looks.
I own both but didn't even reach 70 hours on Scholar, I have 350 of vanilla and played it more recently than Scholar. It was really disappointing to me.

>>729395467
ds2 is the last fromsoft souls game where exploration in itself was often more difficult than the bosses (which of course can hugely be negated with the existence of lifegems but thats another discussion. the game is far more engaging if you never use any). ds3 and er are full-on boss rushes in comparison. i like soulsclones such as the surge and lords of the fallen because they keep exploration difficult and the main focus, with many bosses being gimmicks more than anything

>>729394759
Looks like the guy being enslaved in Aldia's Keep on those hanged cages and also that you fight in Sinner's Rise in the elevated water parts on the way to Lost Sinner.

>>729396092
I think Lords of the Fallen 2023 makes bosses a bit TOO easy, but I'll still take it over them being the sole focus, for sure. Great game. Love the levels and how connected the world is. The portable bonfire mechanic is like a constant reminder that it's a better Dark Souls 3 to my tastes than the real one.

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I like Dark Souls 2.

>>729394726
>this bad thing was repeated (if you squint really hard) in another game so it's good
You've gotta be a gpt bot

>>729396249
This mod is the main thing that makes me consider playing Scholar again. It kinda looks too dark though, like they're relying a bit too much on the revamped dynamic lighting and not placing enough artificial light sources that any dev with good sense would. Not every area should be dark. It looks great though, vanilla already has the best looking dynamic shadows in the series.

>>729396223
lotf 2023 2 is definitely my most anticipated game of next year and luckily timmy has already bought all of us a copy

>>729396315
Yeah I'm neither of the people he replied to but I thought that was weird as well. I think Elden Ring is trash, why should I care that Elden Ring also did something I dislike? At least Dark Souls 2 I still really like.

>>729392837
No, it made it even better. There's literally just 1 anon on this board who never stops complaining about SotFS while everyone else acknowledges that SotFS is a better version and it's a better version because it the developers had more time to further think about the game instead of just being rushed to finish it.

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>>729396481
>timmy has already bought all of us a copy
Won't it have Denuvo? I played the first game offline anyway so I don't mind missing out on multiplayer stuff for the sequel.
Had to play offline because Reshade triggers the anti cheat, and I wanted to use it to toggle off the bra.

>>729393916
>GANK SQUADS EVERYWHERE
I still have no idea how this meme is perpetuated, Scholar is the least ganky game in the series and yet somehow it's the only one with this reputation. Not even DS3 DLC that is almost entirely ganks like the Ringed City gets this rep.

>>729396092
Elden Ring (and more specifically SotE) are just as exploration based. DaS1 is just a few linear paths that interweave ever so often. DaS3 is a literal hallway simulator. DeS is linear, but that game is build on Megaman level design, so having the freedom to go to any level you want within minutes makes it a weird exception.

>>729396315
What is "bad" about collecting items to unlock something and explore new areas? That's adventure games 101.

>>729396618
The same director was 1 year away from shipping Dark Souls 3 when Scholar came out, you're crazy if you think it wasn't insanely rushed anyway. Niggas were busy.

>>729396657
>Won't it have Denuvo?
there is no word on it having denuvo, theres only context clues with it being funded by epic (these games never get denuvo) and the 2023 version devs explicitly promising there wont be denuvo because they dislike it. as of now only official word is ebin games drm which is basically like steamworks, pirate on day 1

>>729396092
The discussion about lifegems is a simple one. If you're playing bad enough to where you're constantly having to use lifegems you are being punished for it, even if you don't realize it. This happens in 2 ways.
1) You have to wait for the slow healing to happen, which means you're spending your real life time on recovery because you took hits and lacked confidence to go forward without topping off. The counter to this is Git Gud.
2) If you are using so many healing items that you have to buy lifegems, then you are spending your souls on that instead of cool new weapons, armors, and level ups. That is a built in punishment to over reliance on them.
Lifegems realy aren't a problem at all.

>>729396857
That's nice. I don't actually care about using EGS that much myself, but if it ends up coming out on Steam later, the community there will be a lot more active anyway, so might as well just waiting to buy it there and playing pirated day one.

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>>729396693
Because ganks have only ever been punishing in DS2. In DS1 enemies are traffic cones and are susceptible to back stab spam. And DS3 you can just roll spam out of any situation you're in and iframe through fog walls.

I can't actually remember the original game anymore but I remember having the opinion that Scholar was like 85% just a remix intended to refresh the experience, 10% improvement, and 5% detriment (mostly that lava castle is even worse than it was because the ninja knights aggro from further away). Overall nothing worth bitching about or jerking off.

As far as high level design stuff it was good that the infusion ember was much earlier. You really shouldn't actually abuse it right away but I'd rather have it available for gimmicks.

>>729392837
I played it like 2 years ago after not touching the original since its release. I really don't get the complaints. It didn't feel particularly fucksd. The only really retarded thing was the horse wagon in the castle. What the fuck were they thinking.

Majula, Heide, Huntman’s copse lightning looks better in Ds2. Scholar is good but it really over bloomified everything and added weird torch illuminationg issues

>>729396950
>(mostly that lava castle is even worse than it was because the ninja knights aggro from further away).
They do, but they also aggro in smaller groups and from more fair positions.

>>729396869
I completely disagree with this while still agreeing at the end that they're not really a problem. I like them, they're incredibly satisfying to use, and so they're not a problem, but they are broken. The healing over time means they're the solution to anything. Smelter damage over time in proximity? Lifegem. Poison? Two lifegems. Quick to use and doesn't fully stop you so often better to pop two than use an estus, the heal over time means you can even make another mistake and they'll cover your ass. If you heal and get hit with a light hit right after that's a shame, you lost health, if you pop two lifegems and get hit by some low damaging light hit right after, you're still covered as long as you're not topped off already. It's the complete opposite of your first point. It's optimal to use and not wait until you're fully healed, it's a tool to keep pressure, while estus is exclusively defensive.
To the second point it doesn't matter because DS2 showers you in souls. You never have to go out of your way to buy lifegems, if you just buy even without needing with the excess souls after leveling up and buying whatever you want in Majula before leaving to explore again, you'll always have close to max.
They're insanely OP, so OP that even the higher tier lifegems seem redundant. But they're still fun and at the end of that day that matters the most.

>>729392837
>>729393916
>>729394103
none of this shit matters when both versions of ds2 feel like total shit to play with huge movement deadzones and weird floaty attack animations. I genuinely felt more in controll of my character playing fucking kings field 2

>>729396869
lifegems are so cheap the price stops mattering after defeating the last giant and spending around 10 secs to have practically infinite recovers while exploring levels basically doesnt even register for spending more time in the game. lifegems are a huge detriment to the enjoyment of exploration in ds2 and i can only recommend people play it without ever using any (which makes it by far the most difficult game in the trilogy but whatever, its still not that difficult)

>>729392837
They are both unplayable turds.
Need at least another year in the oven.

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>invaded
>take an estus sippy
>invader instantly rage-disconnects

>>729396758
SotFS can't be as rushed as DS2 was simply because all of the assets for DS2 had already been made. Everything done in regards to SotFS was just about refining what was already there and making it better.

ancient dragon is an alright fight. i dont understand the hate. Sure you can toe cheese it but thats boring. more fun fighting it head on, you do more dmg to the head and fight becomes less boring

>>729397201
That is true and the reason why it's the one From game I would welcome a remake of. Larger areas, good animations and controls, slightly more challenging bosses (not too much), same design gimmicks. That would be awesome.

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>>729397193
You'll never outtank enough with just lifegems slowly regen'ing your health. And two lifegems are not quick to use. Unlike estus sipping which doesn't require the full animation to chug another estus. You have to repeat the whole lifegem process for each heal. Having 20 estus+humanity, or the chugging in DS3 is far more broken than lifegems are.

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>>729397429
You cant get away with this level of play in DS2. It's actually impossible and no amount of design game theory or feels is gonna change that. That's why there's not one webm in existence of anyone just spamming lifegems in DS2 to defeat even the easiest of early game bosses like Flexile Sentry because it's actually impossible. But plenty of webms do for any other souls game.

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>>729392837
I wouldn't say ruin, I just prefer most original enemy layouts like Heide's fully scattered knights and no dragon, no invisirogues outside of the actual fog, unfinished jankass falconers no longer hidden behind NG+, that one witch blasting fireballs from way offscreen at Earthen Peak's entrance
It's not all bad, the surprise claw assassins are cool.
Iron Keep is ass in either version.
Most item placements are fine. I think the original branch/statues are better designed, but it's nice to be able to unlock Rosabeth earlier when you know what you're doing. Ember not being all the way into Iron Keep is a big improvement
I like the dlc keys being hidden in the world
>>729394759
It was located in Lost Sinner's flooded basement. Scholar has a Flexile Sentry there instead. You can find him in Scholar in Aldia's ceiling cages

>>729397424
I'd rather they just make a new game at that point.

>>729397408
In vanilla any hit of his was a one hit kill for like 90% of players, so these strats were born out of necessity. Once they played Scholar, the same strats still worked just fine, and the risk was much smaller, so no reason to experiment with it.

>>729397556
nta but you misunderstand the problem with lifegems, it ruins exploration not bosses. with exploration you have infinite time to heal between encounters which saves you estus charges for encounters that can deplete your health rapidly with no downtime. with lifegems you always arrive to those situations with full estus charges even if you made a million mistakes beforehand

>>729397564
I hate that flexile sentry, point to original DS

>>729397610
If we were in 2015 I would agree but with what they've been doing with Souls games since I don't think they have it in them anymore. I don't think a new Souls game can be as good as a more polished version of DS2.

>>729392837
>>729394103
whatever version decided to have a fucking dragon standing right in front of the "old dragonslayer" boss aka ornstein nero is the bad one because that shits dumber then the bowser lava castle in the sky people always make fun of

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>>729397748
The risk of pushing on exploring is still there, even more, because ganks fuck you before you can do shit.

>>729397429
You're missing the point. Your brain is rotted by franchise fanboy wars, nobody is talking about DS3. DS3 sucks, who gives a shit? Lifegems are OP in the context of DS2.

>>729397564
I sweat that the aldia monster is still in sinner’s rise but dont show up until NG+ and there’s 3 of them

>>729393916
>GANK SQUADS EVERYWHERE
Did you attempt fighting the enemies instead of running around like a retard?

I don’t think lifegems are op

>>729397876
webm only happened because the player was impatient after dying and he should know the statues are alive. this post doesnt invalidate anything i said

>>729397942
They'd be fine if they were a replacement system for estus but they are not. They're pretty blatantly a callback to moon grass from DeS the same way blood vials in Bloodborne are

>>729397878
Dont use them if you feel that way. Souls has always been a player defined difficulty experience. If i use summons in ER and anything but a short sword i "didn't beat the game."

>>729397876
>blindly runs into a room and aggros everything
>wahh bad game

>>729397962
post a webm of tanking that gank with lifegems

>>729397564
It's funny because in theory I also much prefer the DLC keys being scattered, it's just better design than being spawned, obviously. But DS2 in particular I always felt like it's too long. About the time I reach Aldia's Keep I'm ready for it to be over, so conveniently always having the items with me no matter how much exploration I do ends up being for the better for a lot of playthroughs.

>>729398019
are you quite literally retarded?

>>729397193
Why are you using lifegems for poison instead of the actual poison curing items?
>the heal over time means you can even make another mistake and they'll cover your ass.
Except bosses still hit hard and can take you down faster than they heal the moment you drop your guard. The walking while healing is also just a cope we all tell ourselves, but it doesn't really keep us any safer. If anything, it lures us into a false sense of security and makes us think that it's safe for us to heal when it isn't.
>You never have to go out of your way to buy lifegems
This much is certainly true. The game will naturally shower you in healing items and if you actually use them all as they're needed, instead of just the basic lifegem and hoarding the higher grade ones for the "what if I need it later scenario" that never comes up, then you'll never need to buy even a single lifegem. Yet from what I've seen, most people only ever buy basic LG and ignore everything else they pickup for free.
>if you just buy even without needing with the excess souls after leveling up
That's you denying yourself more souls to the next level up, and I mentioned armor and weapons too. There's a lot to spend souls on in this game and there's no reason to ever stop leveling up if you can. I've reached the point where a level up costs over 330,000 souls. I like my souls.

>>729398062
No you're the retard. They wont do it.

>>729392837
I only played SotFS and it was great, not sure what people's problem with is supposed to be.

>>729397564
Also I think SotFS exaggerated a little bit with the amount of enemies, I understand they were no longer bound by performance restrictions and could give more enemies to kill per player with the extra coop summons, but some areas really just have too many dudes for no good reason. It's not even gank squads, it's just a lot more guys to continuously 1v1 while moving forward.
>>729397762
The undead aberration was an annoying piece of shit to fight as well, not sure which one I prefer honestly
>>729397881
This is very possible, I don't remember much from my Scholar's NG+ playthroughs. It's easy to confuse Original, Original NG+, Scholar, Scholar NG+ and now I've been replaying with enemy randomizers as well

>>729398110
1) its not a gank, player ran blindly after exposing the enemies and he should have known they are there
2) not even ds3 ultra-fast estus animation & heal would have saved him there
i ask again, are you quite literally retarded?

Ds2 and sotfs having black phantom enemies in ng+ and adding EVEN MORE black phantoms in dlc if ng+9 makes it my fav souls game

>>729397556
This is what I was talking about in my post (ahead of yours) here>>729398092
He let himself think he was safe because he could walk and crack a gem, then, he's dead.

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I remember Shrine of Amana pre nerf was apparently extremely hard if you didn't use a bow to snipe the casters since they would shoot homing magic at you from a mile away. When I played through scholar later on I couldn't really tell what exactly they changed but it did seem easier to beeline through certain areas if you wanted. I also remember the pre order drama, I think a few of the weapons were extremely good for beginners in that game.

Still nostalgic for all the hate mail I got invading in the Abyss.

>>729398145
>The undead aberration was an annoying piece of shit to fight as well, not sure which one I prefer honestly
true
Whichever one is easier to delete with firebombs or other item spam is probably better

>>729398457
its such a weird complaint to make drama over because the games were all obtainable ingame

>>729398092
>Why are you using lifegems for poison instead of the actual poison curing items?
Because lifegems are dirt cheap, easily accessible in Majula, and always equipped on my quick items bar. That is exactly my point. Lifegems are so good that it makes using poison healing items more trouble than they're worth. Why WOULDN'T I use lifegems instead of the actual poison item?
>Except bosses still hit hard and can take you down faster than they heal the moment you drop your guard. The walking while healing is also just a cope we all tell ourselves, but it doesn't really keep us any safer. If anything, it lures us into a false sense of security and makes us think that it's safe for us to heal when it isn't.
Sure, it's riskier in bosses, but bosses in DS2 aren't exactly Elden Ring bosses, so it's not really an issue anyway. And that's a good thing, I don't like Elden Ring bosses, and the fact that the vast majority of DS2's challenges are in the levels is also a great thing. But it does make your example more niche than the norm. DS2 is not a boss rush game, you'll use lifegems in the world a lot more often.
>This much is certainly true. The game will naturally shower you in healing items and if you actually use them all as they're needed, instead of just the basic lifegem and hoarding the higher grade ones for the "what if I need it later scenario" that never comes up, then you'll never need to buy even a single lifegem. Yet from what I've seen, most people only ever buy basic LG and ignore everything else they pickup for free.
Again, because it's a universal problem solver. It's too good. Why bother with anything else? Why NOT buy lifegem with excess souls after leveling up when you don't really need it anymore? You're only leveling up at that point because you can, you're not trying to equip anything else, you don't need any more damage from scaling, if anything the lifegems are more useful than one extra level after a certain point.

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>>729398183
He got ganked because he ran blindly into a bad situation. That's literally what happened. What the fuck else is a gank if it isn't a gank of guys.
>not even ds3 ultra-fast estus animation
Yes it would. There's webms.

>>729398514
Ya but this was a time when even horse armor was still hated despite how tame it is compared to modern days.

>>729398612
prove that youve played ds2 by explaining how that room works, else ill just accept your concession as the fucking tourist you are

>you can plunge attack fire salamanders
>you can plunge attack giants in memories
>you can plunge attack mastodons in doors of pharros
>you CANT plunge attack drake in dragon aeire

>>729392837
Yes it fucked up enemy placement leading to anal rape for most new players and changed the weapon progression. I vastly prefer the non-Scholar version.

>>729398646
There's stone soldiers guarding rooms that have ruined sentinels in them.

>>729398760
how do you expose those sentinels and what happens to them after you die?

>>729398793
You open the doors with the defeated souls of stone soldiers. They stay open after you die. Now quit derailing the thread and counter argue. Tank that room with lifegems. Post the webm. Do it. You wont.

>>729398457
Scholar gave the casters less range, and their magic missiles are a lot easier to dodge. You can just walk to the side and they will miss 100% of the time, they can only hit you if the player messes up. They also moved them around a little so it's less irritating to deal with the direction the spells are coming from. It also changed the positions and aggro ranges of the close range enemies, so it's a lot less bullshit and more in the player's control when they actually fight things (which is what most of the scholar areas did too).
If you just take your time then it's an extremely well designed area that rewards careful and thought out actions. You have to balance avoiding ranged attacks, dealing with enemies, avoiding ambushes, weigh up using a shield for safety or a torch for visibility, etc while making steady progress. All the individual parts are very easy, but if you rush any one of them can also easily get you killed. Most players don't like that sort of thing though, it seems.

>>729398880
>They stay open after you die
so you've seen powerful enemies in those rooms and the first thing you see when re-entering the room after dying is how the rooms stay open. you decide to run halfway across the room disregarding the enemies and are then surprised they all aggro on you. is this a joke?

>>729395467
It's the last souls game where they gave a shit about the levels, BB and DS3 where a massive step back. I don't count sekiro's great level design because it's barely a souls game. Elden Ring, well at least its open world I guess..

>>729398983
The argument is about lifegems

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>>729392837
they nerfed dragon temple too much in SOTFS

>>729399102
It was aids in og ds2 tho

>>729399090
your argument was about the player getting ganked and being unable to sustain himself with lifegems
1) the player already knows what awaits him and going
>woe is me
after aggroing things you already know are there is fucking retarded and not an argument
2) the webm here >>729397876 the sentinels hit the player so quickly he could not recover his hp even with ds3 estus because he gets hit by high poise weapons several times in a second. what the fuck is this even? genuinely dont understand the retardation, to clarify in case you are some kind of aspergers enjoyer i think ds2 is the best game in the trilogy yet i can still recognise reality unlike you apparently
absolutely fubar

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Scholar is the actually hard one, so shitters that are bad at the game hate it

>>729399278
>your argument was about the player getting ganked and being unable to sustain himself with lifegems
Which the webm demonstrably proves so i dont know what you're arguing. The player in the webm being retarded is quite literally the point. You're not going to out lifegem bad play because it's mechanically impossible.

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>>729399459
concession accepted you fucking retard, get the fuck out you actual shitskin

>>729399505
Ok, you have nothing. You fucking lost.

>>729399386
Wrong

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>>729399524
the only thing lost are your brain cells shitskins, using purposefully bad play as an argument is only an argument that your mother shouldve swallowed

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>>729398574
>Why WOULDN'T I use lifegems instead of the actual poison item?
Because you have the poison healing items and they were FREE.
>I don't like Elden Ring bosses
Me too fren.
>Why NOT buy lifegem with excess souls after leveling up
Because leveling up is better.
>when you don't really need it anymore?
More levels is always good. Pic rel.

>>729399579
Are you being retarded on purpose?

>>729399650
shitskin learnt a new phrase eh? let the projection commence

>>729398646
>prove that youve played ds2 by explaining how that room works
>prove that youve played ds2 by explaining how that ds3 room works
What?

>>729399690
You have no argument. You've lost.

>>729399617
Surviving for longer will allow you to do much more damage than an extra level after reaching the cap.
You can get a lot more HP out of 310k souls worth of lifegems than one extra vigor at 50. It's just a better use of your souls if you're a halfway decent player.

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>>729399736
shitskin life must be miserable when you have to make up things in your own head so you can claim you "won" something for once in your brown life. how cute

>>729396869
You absolute nigger, you have no argument.

>>729399032
I like to think of it like this. DeS, DS1 and DS2 has the levels as an enemy you fight against or use to your advantage, but the games past that only have good enemy placements within levels that simply function only as terrain (for the most part).

The real lifegem debate : What do you think they taste like?

>>729399868
apples

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>>729399738
Sunny has 162 stamina with 14 iframes. Do you? Sunny has also made it into NG++. Have you?

>>729398457
>Shrine of Amana pre nerf was apparently extremely hard
Just parry the spells with the mirror shield, that's why you fight him to get to amana

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>>729400063
I used a bow. Shrine of Amana was always easy. It's not my fault that others are either too stupid or stubborn to use all the tools available to them. I however do realize that I am more advanced than most DS2 players.

>>729397996
>Don't use them
This is the single stupidest thing I have seen. Just artificially handicap yourself and don't use the mechanic that is given to you from the get go

I have a better idea. How about don't play this piece of shit game?
Also saying that DS3 is a rollfest compared to DS2 is extremely retarded because DS2 has literally a stat for roll iframes, the single most retard thing put in Souls franchise. Roll spam is a cancer and DS2 made it worse

I really wish they would make a new King's Field game without all that bullshit

>>729400189
Amana was filled with pillars to take cover from the casters for fuck's sake, I swear most of these retards never even consider to stop and think what the best approach would be

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>>729400496
The pillars are still there. In SotFS, the spellcasters are even positioned in a way that just beautifully guides you through the level. The moment you get to 1, you're in range of the next one. So you get the one you're at, just in time to dodge the blast, and advance to the next one, only for the process to repeat. It's kind of beautiful really. Or you can still just use a bow.
Pic unrelated. Just wanted to share some of my characters. I've played the game a lot and gone really far, but, there's still 1 thing I've never managed to do, and I doubt I ever will, as I've basically moved on from the game now.

>>729399617
>lv 268

>>729398671
the ds2 plunge attack hitboxes are so hilariously shit that it's almost never worth going for them. i kept finding opportunities to plunge attack in a recent playthrough, lined it up perfectly, and missed by 1 nanometer. i really need to see a hitbox visualizer of it, it's fucking insane.

>>729398514
the complaint wasn't that there were preorder weapons, although i think that's a valid complaint on principle. the complaint was that the preorder weapons were just existing models with boogers and pustules slapped onto them, none of which added anything to the game obviously.

the demon's souls remake preorder armor is also indefensible. pre-order bonuses are generally just exploitative and outdated design, and i'm glad they've largely fallen off. yes, i know some games (monster hunter, for example) still do them.

>>729398137
what was the point of this post

>>729392837
scholar was completely unnecessary and it split the online playerbase because it was its own standalone game instead of being an update. it felt bad to be someone who bought the original game. and the changes are so trivial since they're just item and enemy placements

>>729402045
Pretty sure I have an even higher level character on my PS3 copy.

>>729399856
Yeah, and you could totally get lost in those levels, or at least it's not clear which path is the appropiate one based on your soul level. BB and DS3 are more straightforward although I think they have the best bosses overall.
Elden Ring has some good parts here and there as well.

>>729392837
Scholar is the most low effort romhack tier shitty cashgrab I have ever witnessed.
They told like 3 guys to apply an ambient occlusion shader, create 1 armor set and 2 weapons, change some enemies and items in the game for a week's worth of paycheck and fromsoft fucking made millions from it because retards ate it up.
It should not exist by merit (should have been a free nextgen update for the original game if they really thought the game needed any balancing).
It also committed the crime of cutting the PC online scene in two. I hate it with a passion and everyone who prefers it should be brutally murdered in public because the industry is dying precisely because of those faggots.

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>>729403847
>It also committed the crime of cutting the PC online scene in two.
Yeah, not really. Just a few people who have refused to upgrade.

>>729403847
It also includes all 3 dlcs you dumb retard