DS1 was difficult because of map design and enemy placement by happenstance. DS2 is difficult because someone thought people liked Dark Souls because it was brutally difficult, so they decided to make a map that is designed to punish you for exploring AND for not, put in mechanics (Bonfire Ascetics) that increases ONE AREA by a whole new game cycle forever (so in NG+ that area is now already NG+2), hid a ton of items behind said mechanic, and just generally looked at it and thought "is this brutal enough yet?"

Think its funny people dislike DS2 but think ER is the goat. ER is just open world DS2 with a mount.

To me, many follow a trend. Since DS1 players hate on DS2 for being different (which is a good thing) many joined the bandwagon. DS2 is a Diferent game to DS1 and DS3, periot. Played DS2 before DS1 and to me DS1 was worse in every way. But i do agree that they are both diferent games

idk why people keep talking about ds2, if anything people should think constructively and not just try and defend ds2 or state what's good and bad as that's done a billion times. It would be nice to see a video talking about what can be done to improve ds2 like thinking up npc ideas or mapping out how a level design could be better, or even simple improvements like how the pursuer should ACTUALLY pursue you and not just dip when you leave the room. I'm definitely going to be the person to make this type of video but im currently planning one out for ds1 and ds3 since i dont look forward to replaying ds2

Love DS2

Dark Souls 2 is a game I have tried to play again and again but I really need to force myself to explore, but I actually love the fact if you kill enemies enough (12 times??) they stop respawning unless you're apart of a specific covenant

See you next mission, Space Cowboy. Also, re: scaling - once you have 27 STR, when you 2H it's like you're 1H with 40 STR. Hence the piddly gains. The Murakumo and Server scale primarily wtih DEX, while the Gravelord Sword tells scaling to piss off.

You can make the first part of Tomb of the Giants even easier, if you like.

Good luck trying to make use of the Crescent Axe.

"Wacky pathing" is one of my favorite features of this game.

Is it too late to adjust the mic volume?

Agreed, the enemy attack timings are annoying and feel like a cheap move, always making you roll early, but it's one way to make the game more challenging.

I wanted to add all the bosses in the timestamps but there were too many already so I only added timestamps for the bosses that didn't have an area to go with them and Mesmmer since I didn't talk about him when I talked about Shadow Keep.

While watching this in VLC to get the timestamps I counted the deaths and got to 22 (with 4 or 5 deaths being within the first like 10 seconds).

This run is going to have 3 more parts and all are going to be 80 minutes or more, with the final one being my initial thoughts on every area and almost every boss.

At the time of uploading I've beaten Midra 3 times (once in co-op as a helper) and my opinion on the boss has changed a bit. I don't think they're slightly overturned anymore, this run I focused on physical defense but the 2nd and 3rd times I focused on frenzy resistance which made the boss way better and is what I think you're supposed to focus on.

I typically try to give my thoughts on each area after getting through them and I forgot here. I remembered to give my opinion on it after beating the boss in the next part but for now I'll leave you with this: the area is way smaller than most legacy dungeons but you don't really feel that until the 2nd or 3rd time going through and is still very enjoyable despite that.

Well, it wasn't as skull-numbingly stupid as the "jump the shark" moment in Leyndell. Still not sure why all the beautiful women have to get killed off, though.

28:03 - Look, the game jumping the shark!

I know that 3 of the 5 previous parts featured some sort of cave so it way seem a bit bleh to get another one but Darklight had a very interesting mechanic I've never seen before and really enjoyed. Plus the boss was great and it directly leads into a major portion of the map so still very much worth sticking around imo.

Varre f'd around and found out. I never got the whole "Maidenless" thing anyway. Unless it's all just a reference to the two Ronso doofuses who make fun of Kimahri.

This place reminds me of Archdragon Peak, despite the many dissimilarities. I don't mind longer videos. And well, it's not 2011 any more.

The Crystalian room reminded me of the Ruin Sentinels. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

My hypothesis on the build: Players haven't exploited it because other than Demon's Souls (EDIT: and Dark Souls 3, as you mentioned previously), builds like this one aren't as numerous, and players tend to stick with what works.

In this episode, Goldmask attempts to Make Contact with the Great Ones. Will he succeed? Tune in next time...when we won't find out!

Goldmask and Corhyn look like protagonists in a fish-out-of-water buddy cop movie.

20:54 It's for Science, obviously.

I would side with Sellen, for sure.

Is Millicent wearing a mask like Varre, or is she in a black metal band?

16:17 Those were definitely NOT Hoplites. Nope, not a chance.

Elden Ring, like Dark Souls before it, is a polished game.

I mentioned that Inir Ilim gave me Dark Souls 1 Anor Londo vibes and rewatching it to get the timestamps it gave me them again. Dark Souls 1 was my 4th game in the series so I'm wondering if anyone who had it as their 1st or 2nd got the same vibes, please let me know if you got them too or if I'm alone in that.

Dark Souls is a polished game. I think going into Lost Izalith borks your ability to summon Solaire for Centipede Demon. After 3000+ hours I should know for sure, but I do not.

"You can hit 'em with a nuke and they won't react" This is also an apt descriptor of fighting Sif.

Near the end I mentioned that I'm uploading less because it's been taking way longer to upload but thankfully that was a temporary issue I was having at the time of recording but it fixed itself a few days ago (still don't know if it was an issue with my end or something with KZbin but I'm just glad it's fixed).

I didn't do a good job of giving my initial thoughts on the area in a concise way in the video so I'll do it here. The Fort of Reprimand isn't groundbreaking or a masterclass of level design but it's still decent. Having two different ways to enter, a few possible looping sections, and the Omenkiller enemies with the Black Knight boss make it a fun minor dungeon. I'd place it at low to mid B tier, good if you want to experience more of the game but not a must see area for every run.

Since we did two this part and FromSoft did them differently than in the base game I'm curious to know: which minor dungeon/cave is your favourite?

In this part I mentioned Elden Ring having my favourite dragons but I know not everyone would agree with that so I'd love to know which game has your favourite dragon and what makes them stand out to you.

Decided to add chapters to this part, let me know how you feel about it!

If you've played the DLC I'd love to know where you personally had the most trouble, and whether it was from getting lost, the enemies, or a boss.

I'm very curious on if you've gotten the DLC and are watching to see if I found anything you didn't, are thinking about getting it and are watching to see if it looks appealing, or aren't going to get it and just wanna see someone play, Or another reason I didn't cover.

Not doing an area in this part, just looking at some different builds to give you some ideas.

Why did you cut the Duo fight? Didnnt make any sense

Awesome. I've recently gotten back into the game to get ready for the DLC and this has helped a lot. Turned out I never killed Mohg, was anxious for it and then basically did it on the first try 😅 I'm gonna go through your other videos too to check what I missed in Crumbling Farum Azula.

This is the final area of the game but there will be one more part coming tomorrow where I show off a few different builds I'll be going into the DLC with in case you want some ideas.

In this part we get the final Drake talisman, finish Varre's quest, and gain access to the starting point of the DLC.

Thank you for showing your build!

What do you prefer: Heavily edited videos for the sake of time, completely unedited videos for the sake of fluidity, or a mix of both?

As part of the Haligtree area we finish Millicent's questline, which has two possible endings. I chose the less followed path partially to show what it gets you and partially to see if it does anything in the DLC.

In this part we finish Gurranq's quest along with finding easy paths to both Mohgwyn Palace and Miquella's Haligtree.