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DrTempest
Dec 11, 2011

It's not cute. It's all very serious.
Back to the ol' grind.



What is this game?

Dark Souls 2 is an action RPG released by FromSoftware in March 2014. The game is the sequel to the original Dark Souls, which is in turn the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. You play as an undead character in a fairly open-world. Exploration is a major gameplay element, and finding new paths to old places is common, similar to the Metroid and Castlevania series. Otherwise, you pick up a weapon, beat dudes up, and take their weapon to go beat up more dudes.

The plot is pretty minimal, as least for what the game actually shows you. A long time ago, there was a shiny city. Now it's not so shiny, and we (the hero?) jump into a whirlpool. Then some ugly old lady shows her gnarly mouth and we get plopped into Things Betwixt.

Another one? Geez, hasn't this been done enough?

Shut up. Yes. But we've done this once, and now we're doing it again.

Double Blind? What is this bullshit about?

It means our results will be statistically significant! :eng101:

This time, it's not just me playing. Nietzschean is behind the controller as well, and he's as blind as I am going into this. We'll be trading control every death/bonfire rest. Most awesomely, we're not going to be agreeing on a plan for the character. As far as my style goes, I played Dark Souls with heavy armor and the biggest, baddest sword I could find. This worked well. I'm going to switch it up this time, but I have NO idea what that crazy basket-case Nietzschean is going to do.

So what's the story?

Hell if we know! We're dead. We jumped into a whirlpool (because reasons, I guess?) and now we're punching and slicing our way through the world.

Spoiler Policy
No spoilers. Laugh at us later for missing that totally obvious thing how did you not see it you baddies, but don't tell us ahead of time. If we get stuck, feel free to point us in the right direction. Hopefully with two sets of eyes, this doesn't happen too much.

Upload Schedule
We'll update two episodes at a time, twice a week. That's roughly two hours of game play, barring unforeseen circumstances. We're going to aim for Tuesdays and Saturdays.


EPISODE LIST
Episode 1: Hold On to your Souls!
Episode 2: The Left-Hand Path
Episode 3: Barrels of Fun
Episode 4: Nietzschean is Terrible
Episode 5: Talk This Way
Episode 6: This Old House
Episode 7: Ready, Steady, Go
Episode 8: It Might Be Giant
Episode 9: Whip It
Episode 10: Dead Ends
Episode 11: You Died
Episode 12: Again. You Died Again
Episode 13: F*cking Finally
Episode 14: Storming the Bastille
Episode 15: Hats for Everyone!
Episode 16: Invisibullshit
Episode 17: Curses!
Episode 18: A Sober Player is an Unhappy Player
Episode 19: Covered with Scorpions
Episode 20: The Dog That Never Ends
Episode 21: Surprise! You're Dead.
Episode 22: The Peasant Uprising
Episode 23: ...So Where's the Dragon?
Episode 24: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Badger!
Episode 25: Not the Deadmines
Episode 26: Drunk Souls 2: The Lance Edition
Episode 27: AI Abuse, You Say?
Episode 28: All Hail the Undead Pope!
Episode 29: Arachnophobia
Episode 30: Laserachnophobia
Episode 31: Starring Badger Sutherland
Episode 32: Pope Maul
Episode 33: *Lightsaber Sounds*
Episode 34: Gravity
Episode 35: Rat King Cole
Episode 36: Guess Who?
Episode 37: We're Back!
Episode 38: Kentucky Smith and the Man-Eating Box
Episode 39: Back to Square One
Episode 40: The One Where We Get Another Whip
Episode 41: The Adventures of Master Glencour
Episode 42: Harvest Valley: Friends of Majula Town
Episode 43: Sun Brodger
Episode 44: Like a Like Like
Episode 45: More Gutters! More Prizes! I Love It!
Episode 46: Toro!
Episode 47: Copse-Camping
Episode 48: Almost 33 Minutes of Bashing our Heads into a Wall and Dying Over and Over: Part 2.
Episode 49: Back in the Saddle
Episode 50: It's Time to D-D-D-D-D-Dead.
Episode 51: Mild-Mannered Pate by Day...
Episode 52: The Hard Way
Episode 53: The Stupid Way
Episode 54: The Smart Way
Episode 55: The Easy Way
Episode 56: Try Hitting It
Episode 57: Nothing to See Here, Move Along
Episode 58: Nietzschean Goes Crunk
Episode 59: Kninjas!
Episode 60: Do It Again! Do It Again!
Episode 61: We Live!
Episode 62: E-Quality Builds
Episode 63: Double Boss Rush!
Episode 64: The Pursuit of Hap-YOU DIED
Episode 65: Midget: Single.
Episode 66: Poison Bullet Hell

DrTempest fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Nov 13, 2016

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DrTempest
Dec 11, 2011

It's not cute. It's all very serious.
Post Reserved

Addamere
Jan 3, 2010

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Against medical advice (9 out of 10 doctors agree dying is bad and should be avoided), I am also in this thread. And in this game! I have evolved from mere drunken commentator to lackidasical player. I really want to screw around with oddball builds, so shout some at us and I'll do my best during my turns at the controls to provide.

Let's have some real fun with this! :getin:

DrTempest
Dec 11, 2011

It's not cute. It's all very serious.
Episode 1: Hold On to your Souls! and Episode 2: The Left-Hand Path now up!

Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug
Ground floor of this bitch :getin:

My requests from the other thread stand: dualwielding stuff, twinblade, or dual shields.

E: Game volume is a bit high.

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Feb 28, 2016

Scaly Haylie
Dec 25, 2004

Oh man. So, a few things. First, this might be a bit of an obvious suggestion, but since the bandit starts with rather high faith (and since healing items are scarce), you should probably consider miracles.

Second, you missed something exceedingly important in Majula. Warp back there and search extensively near the bonfire.

Third, and most important, buy the Falconer Helm. It's really the best. :allears:

Tarezax
Sep 12, 2009

MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT

Lizard Wizard posted:

Second, you missed something exceedingly important in Majula. Warp back there and search extensively near the bonfire.

Yeah, that's another thing you guys didn't really notice: You can warp between bonfires right from the start! And not only that, every single bonfire is warpable!

NGDBSS
Dec 30, 2009






If you set the skin tone sliders right you can be really pale. Like, burning-magnesium pale. (I made sure to have precisely zero visible spoilers here, don't worry.)



As for the run, I second the comments above. I'd personally suggest either a thrusting sword or a huge standard sword, and in addition I believe that you should continue your shieldless run of things. If you're ever itching for co-op in the second half of the game, this same character (with actual gear and whatnot) should be available to assist by using that Name-engraved Ring.

Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment
Those lips! :gonk: :froggonk::psypop:

Fish Noise
Jul 25, 2012

IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!

Klaus88 posted:

Those lips! :gonk: :froggonk::psypop:
During the brief pause after they rolled that, you could tell there was an unspoken, almost psychic, consensus, "the helmet stays on."

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

NGDBSS posted:

As for the run, I second the comments above. I'd personally suggest either a thrusting sword or a huge standard sword, and in addition I believe that you should continue your shieldless run of things.
Hell, feel free to try out every weapon you come upon. There are some gloriously wacky ones in this game and SotFS in particular made of the most amazing ones much more accessible.
e: Oh, and should you go the Faith route, remember - lightning spears are poo poo.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Feb 28, 2016

Damegane
May 7, 2013

anilEhilated posted:

Hell, feel free to try out every weapon you come upon. There are some gloriously wacky ones in this game and SotFS in particular made of the most amazing ones much more accessible.
e: Oh, and should you go the Faith route, remember - lightning spears are poo poo.

Spears that have lightning on them, however, are the poo poo.

tiistai
Nov 1, 2012

Solo Melodica
One bit of advice about Adaptability: it's not exactly the equivalent of Resilience. I know your Dark Souls instinct may tell you otherwise but you shouldn't be afraid of spending points in it, especially if you're going shieldless.

Deformed Church
May 12, 2012

5'5", IQ 81


For build suggestions, wear nothing except the biggest weapon you can find and a skirt.

And yeah, game volume is kind of drowning you out a bit.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

MooCowlian posted:

For build suggestions, wear nothing except the biggest weapon you can find and a skirt.
This is actually extremely viable and pretty much the only way I managed to do damage to anything in the DLC. Some utterly idiotic decisions there but we'll get to that.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
I'm not sure "switch at every bonfire" is working very well for you - you're going to be running all the way from the start of the game at every life at this rate because neither of you wants to sit at a bonfire and cede control, and you're going to burn through all your healing items pretty quickly.

And I hope a lot of the stuff I'm seeing is DLC additions rather than updates to the base game. I've had enough trouble getting anywhere without the "dragon at every corner" type changes I've been hearing about.

Deformed Church
May 12, 2012

5'5", IQ 81


The base game hasn't changed with DLC additions, except a few extra conversations. Any nasty additional dragons are changes in Scholar of the First Sin.

Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug

Nidoking posted:

I'm not sure "switch at every bonfire" is working very well for you - you're going to be running all the way from the start of the game at every life at this rate because neither of you wants to sit at a bonfire and cede control, and you're going to burn through all your healing items pretty quickly.

And I hope a lot of the stuff I'm seeing is DLC additions rather than updates to the base game. I've had enough trouble getting anywhere without the "dragon at every corner" type changes I've been hearing about.

Agreed, I'd suggest that whoever is playing gets to rest once at any bonfire that they light. Especially because you're going to start running into weapon durability issues.

FailAtMagic
Apr 11, 2011
I would suggest just switching like every 20 minutes instead on death or bonfire.

Tarezax
Sep 12, 2009

MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT
Each episode is about half an hour, just switch each episode.

Deformed Church
May 12, 2012

5'5", IQ 81


Death switching is cool. I feel like the resting rule should be just reaching when it's a new bonfire. Switch if you've got to rest at one you've already got, switch anyway when you find one, to stop resting at new ones being a penalty.

Danakir
Feb 10, 2014
Yeah, having a perverse incentive to never rest at any bonfire sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Addamere
Jan 3, 2010

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
So, funny story: DrTempest passed out while leaving his computer and everything logged in. :unsmigghh:

Less funny story: rather than deleting system32 and signing him up for a bunch of newsletters, I posted Episode 3 - Barrels of Fun and Episode 4 - Nietzschean is Terrible to YouTube for him. I did not edit anything at all, so these might be a bit rough.

Please feel free to PM him about it!

NGDBSS
Dec 30, 2009






If you want to dual-wield, try two-handing the left-hand weapon. If something different happens then things are going correctly.

Also, uh, I think you guys may need to be more cautious. That giant armored knight who bashed you on top of a platform actually has a huge windup to his arrival before he engages the player.

Wayne
Oct 18, 2014

He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself

NGDBSS posted:

Also, uh, I think you guys may need to be more cautious.

Yeah, I'm watching the second video at this point, and they've managed to miss Emma and the first bonfire in the Forest. :sweatdrop: Dark Souls is a journey, guys, not a race!

Vis a vis the volume comments, might lower the sound effects level if you haven't already. Majula's background music and waves-crashing ambience are actually part of the sound level, not music; that's why it tends to be so overpowering. And on a general level, in Mog's and my LP, I've usually had to lower the game audio track a bit above (below?) and beyond auto-ducking, since it's pretty jarring to have something like "*banter* *chuckle* KA-CHUNK *banter*."

Tempest will be pleased to know that pumping STR and wielding giant weapons is just as powerful and satisfying as in 1. As far as stats go, unlike in DS1, respeccing does exist in this game, so don't stress too much over sabotaging each other's level-ups, heh.

NGDBSS posted:

If you set the skin tone sliders right you can be really pale. Like, burning-magnesium pale. (I made sure to have precisely zero visible spoilers here, don't worry.)

Wow, did you shoot for making Paige from the WWE there? :allears: And yeah, the skin lightness sliders are way too exaggerated, you can basically be 50 shades of white or blackened-ember red, but any skin tone a human might actually be is in a narrow band in the middle. :v:

Edit: Starting on #3, they're currently still unlisted and not on the playlist, just a heads-up.

Wayne fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Mar 2, 2016

Fish Noise
Jul 25, 2012

IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!
Okay, it's been a while, but let's see what I remember from DS2. This is mostly unchecked, so some of it might be bullshit.
Adaptability is not a trap stat, it increases Agility, which in turn increases the speed and iframes of your dodges. However, Adaptability is not the only stat that increases Agility.
Enemies that are killed enough times stop respawning. You CAN get them back by advancing the local area into NG+ and beyond.
To turn human, you use a human effigy. Burning it does something like shut down multiplayer for a duration I think?
Anything that's not completely broken is autorepaired for free when you sit at bonfires. Durability bars appear under your weapon icons on the d-pad interface. Hitting walls is bad.
Being summoned and successfully cooperating restores you to human and gives you all the beneficial effects of having used a bonfire without respawning your enemies. It also gives you bird stones to trade for fabulous prizes.
Weapon durability has a framerate bug, if you're on PC and attempt to fix it, you might get VAC banned.

Nietzschean posted:

rather than deleting system32 and signing him up for a bunch of newsletters
Should've youtubed medical videos repeatedly while waiting on the uploading. Dr Janakiram's a good one.

Tarezax
Sep 12, 2009

MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT
There's another way to stop enemies from despawning, and it's another thing you overlooked in Majula.

Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug
Oh my god, you bastards are gonna make me pop a blood vessel from laughing so hard.

In addition to the above information:
If you hold the two-hand button, you'll shift to the dual wield style if you're using compatible weapons and have the necessary stats (I think it's 1.5 or 2x strength for the individual weapon). L1 (and L2?) will then be a combo attack.
You should exhaust everyone's dialogue, especially someone in Majula.
And... something else, I think, but I can't remember after the orgy of death I just witnessed.

Also, I only played this before SotFS came out, and wow did they change some poo poo up. For example, the basilisks in the tutorial area weren't there at all.

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Mar 2, 2016

NGDBSS
Dec 30, 2009






Wayne posted:

Vis a vis the volume comments, might lower the sound effects level if you haven't already. Majula's background music and waves-crashing ambience are actually part of the sound level, not music; that's why it tends to be so overpowering. And on a general level, in Mog's and my LP, I've usually had to lower the game audio track a bit above (below?) and beyond auto-ducking, since it's pretty jarring to have something like "*banter* *chuckle* KA-CHUNK *banter*."
Hmm, really? Back when they were checking on things in the Sandcastle, I made a comment that the audio was overall a bit quiet. In particular my point of comparison is that while I was watching their test video on one monitor, I was also playing the exact same game - Dark Souls 2, Scholar of the First Sin edition - on a second monitor. Despite the fact that my in-game volume was at 2/10 and theirs was at 5/10, it was still easier to hear my own session than theirs.

quote:

Wow, did you shoot for making Paige from the WWE there? :allears: And yeah, the skin lightness sliders are way too exaggerated, you can basically be 50 shades of white or blackened-ember red, but any skin tone a human might actually be is in a narrow band in the middle. :v:

Edit: Starting on #3, they're currently still unlisted and not on the playlist, just a heads-up.
Not really - I'm mostly unfamiliar with professional wrestling beyond basic jargon and kayfabe. :v: I'm guessing you're referring in particular to the hair and eye colors, but in truth those were chosen just to introduce contrast because otherwise the character looks like a moon elemental or something. (I'm guessing from Wikipedia that Paige's makeup serves the same point.)

tiistai
Nov 1, 2012

Solo Melodica

Fish Noise posted:

Adaptability is not a trap stat, it increases Agility, which in turn increases the speed and iframes of your dodges. However, Adaptability is not the only stat that increases Agility.
I was trying to be all non-spoilery about this before but I guess the cat's out of the bag now :v:

Fish Noise posted:

Weapon durability has a framerate bug, if you're on PC and attempt to fix it, you might get VAC banned.
This has been fixed in both the original and SotFS.

Fish Noise posted:

Hitting walls is bad.
This reminds me of something important that will trip up old Dark Souls players: regular illusory walls are activated by pressing X as if it were a door, not by hitting the wall with a weapon.

Fish Noise
Jul 25, 2012

IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!

tiistai posted:

I was trying to be all non-spoilery about this before but I guess the cat's out of the bag now :v:
Yeah after DrTempest actually inspected some of the stats in episode 3 and I saw the description on Agility I figured "yeah, no, that REALLY understates what this does and you are NOT going to get more information than that through only gameplay and LP editing".

If filling in some of the "wait, what the hell is going on here?" mechanics is spoiling, give the word and I'll redact my post.

tiistai posted:

This has been fixed in both the original and SotFS.
Honestly, I had only heard about it even being a thing long after I had stopped playing. When'd it get fixed?

tiistai
Nov 1, 2012

Solo Melodica

Fish Noise posted:

Honestly, I had only heard about it even being a thing long after I had stopped playing. When'd it get fixed?

In the original either shortly before or after SotFS was released, can't remember exactly. If I'm not mistaken it was still present in SotFS for a short while, like a few days at most maybe.

Wayne
Oct 18, 2014

He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself

NGDBSS posted:

Despite the fact that my in-game volume was at 2/10 and theirs was at 5/10, it was still easier to hear my own session than theirs.

Right, in absolute terms the video isn't that loud, but it's not balanced well; the sound effects are a bit overpowering, and Majula's ambience is sound level and not music (so if they wanted to make Majula less loud, that's how you'd do it). DS2 in general makes the SFX really loud, I guess they wanted to show off their acoustic work and the stock sound effects they paid for (Mog and I were amused to hear a certain curse-spewing "enemy's" tell pop up in Might & Magic X :v: ).

NGDBSS posted:

I'm guessing you're referring in particular to the hair and eye colors,

That and she's pretty infamously pale. The first time I heard of her actually was when one of my friends was joining an online Vampire Classic game, and she wanted a pic of an athletic woman who was still Appearance 5, and I joked "Well OK, pick a WWE diva and I'll Photoshop her skin," and it turns out I didn't need to!

tiistai posted:

I was trying to be all non-spoilery about this before but I guess the cat's out of the bag now :v:
...
This reminds me of something important that will trip up old Dark Souls players: regular illusory walls are activated by pressing X as if it were a door, not by hitting the wall with a weapon.

Yeah, I'm kind of torn. On one hand, Agility works really weirdly (none of the other derived stats* work the way it does), on the other hand, part of the fun of a blind run is watching the guys slowly try to puzzle out how the game actually works. I definitely agree with telling them how most of the false walls in this game work now, though, that was just mean.

* Speaking of tabletop games :v: , much like in GURPS, in DS2 only the derived stats matter for your damage and stuff like that (you know, "Lightning Bonus" and whatnot). Your base stats basically just matter for stat requirements. Agility is weird in that it only does things at certain breakpoints.

double nine
Aug 8, 2013

On the color front, I refuse to believe it is possible to create a black person (aka kenyan etc) without at least an hour of fiddling with the color sliders

Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment

double nine posted:

On the color front, I refuse to believe it is possible to create a black person (aka kenyan etc) without at least an hour of fiddling with the color sliders

Like almost every fantasy setting known to man (except Majesty one), black people do not exist in Dark Souls.

I apologize in advance for this joke, but I felt it was inevitable so I made it anyway.

DrTempest
Dec 11, 2011

It's not cute. It's all very serious.
Episode 5: Talk This Way and Episode 6: This Old House now up!

Lots of backtracking on these episodes. Also talking with cats.

So I tried at one point to find an illusory wall, hit "X" and drank an Estus. Is it "X" on the Playstation or Xbox controller?

Kloro
Oct 24, 2008

Fancy a grown man saying hujus hujus hujus as if he were proud of it it is not english and do not make SENSE.

Klaus88 posted:

Like almost every fantasy setting known to man (except Majesty one), black people do not exist in Dark Souls.

I apologize in advance for this joke, but I felt it was inevitable so I made it anyway.

Dark Souls 1 had the "Jubilant Catarina" face.



Since Siegmeyer and Sieglinde are from Catarina, that means they should be black, though removing their helmets shows they aren't.

DrTempest posted:

So I tried at one point to find an illusory wall, hit "X" and drank an Estus. Is it "X" on the Playstation or Xbox controller?

X on the Playstation, A on the XBox controller. Same button you use for talking and switches.

Fish Noise
Jul 25, 2012

IT'S ME, BURROWS!

IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, BURROWS!
I have never seen the boulder trap go off so perfectly before. That slight turn of the camera to look right at it before it hit you! :allears:

Lprsti99
Apr 7, 2011

Everything's coming up explodey!

Pillbug
You actually get something nice for joining the covenant the Crestfallen Warrior was offering. And you could immediately leave it afterward if you want to.

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anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
I propose we call them "ogrues".

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