Dark Souls 2 closed beta

[KLSymph]

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

After a flat sixty minutes of trying to log in, I gave up and went to bed, because the beta was being held at 1AM to 4AM local time.  About an hour later (two hours after the beta started), NamcoBandai announced on Twitter:

Attention Dark Souls II Testers! It seems that North and South American players will not be able to log into the servers for this test.
-- NAMCO BANDAI America (@namcogames)

And now Priscilla's sad.

Dark Souls!  Two!

[Sierra]

Haha. Yeah, I got up early for it too (well, I got up an hour late for it because I had my alarm set to PM instead of AM, but it hardly mattered in the end). No luck. Someone on my PSN friends list did say he eventually got in, but this was ninety minutes into the designated testing time. I did stop getting the "Failed to connect" message around then but instead just got told I was not using the most recent version of the game. Whuzzuh. Oh well, back to Arkham!

[KLSymph]

The "not using most recent version" message is actually their default message when you're trying to connect outside the beta testing time range.  I also started randomly getting them at the half-hour mark.  They seem to have nothing to do with upgrading versions.  Why Namco Bandai couldn't write a less misleading "the beta is not currently online" screen is beyond me.

All this to play a three hour beta.  Which took more than three hours for me to download and install.

Luckily, it's not a complete waste of time.  If I hadn't been reading the DS2 beta page, I would never have imagined that these things...




...are bells!

I always thought they were some sort of cloth effigy.

[KLSymph]

Okay, this time the beta was better (than the nothing from last time).  Two hours and 45 minutes of Dark Souls 2 goodness.  I wish it wasn't at 1AM again, but whatever.

I had some good PVE exploration.  And in the context of Dark Souls, that of course means blundering around in the dark for the first half hour.  It took that much time for me to figure out how to light the torch, and during that first half hour I had the luck to drop into the watery pit which was nigh-pitch black and had no obvious exits.  Not sure how I survived dropping down there, since after I lit the torch I tried to drop down there and died of fall damage every time.  Because Dark Souls.

I was a Dual Swordsman, and summoned a Hunter to help me get to the second bonfire/checkpoint.  Not sure why that guy spent the first two minutes of his summoning time limit staring into space and then aiming his bow into the ground, but he got sober(?) eventually and helped me out.  Summoning help makes things much easier, and I eventually took down the skeleton boss at the end with a different summon.  I wasn't too happy to see necromancer-reassembling skeletons in the beta, and even less to see that the necromancers respawned when resting at the bonfire unlike Dark Souls 1.  Still, they weren't that hard to deal with.

After beating the boss and marveling at the fog gate in his room that still refused to let me through afterwards, I started trying different characters.  The wizard character let me see the magic, which I didn't like too much but then I also didn't like magic in DS1 very much either.  Then I went Warrior, and unlike the high-Agility Dual Swordsman, the Warrior character was very... slow and unresponsive.  I heard about this in other reviews of the beta, but while the Dual Swordsman is also less twitch-responsive to inputs than DS1 gameplay, the Warrior is very much more so.  It wasn't impossible to play or anything, but it sometimes caused me to mess up with the heavier swords.

I was rocking the Warrior for the last 45 minutes of my play time, and started exploring the area (called Huntsman's Copse; it's forest and really dark).  I fight through four red phantom enemies, crossed a plank bridge, and reached some completely new area called Undead Purgatory, when the system informs me that they're now switching to HIGH DIFFICULTY MODE.  So naturally I curled into a ball pressed on ahead and found myself in front of a greatsword/greatshield/heavy-armor red phantom, who guard-broke through my shield and killed me in one hit.  Then I came back and he killed me in one shot twice more.  So I said, yeah, I'm not getting through this in the next 15 minutes before the beta ends.  And it's almost four in the morning; I can't take on this game's red-eye phantom/black knight equivalent at this hour.

I didn't have a chance to do PVP, but I did come across two system errors during my play time.  One was when I was being summoned by someone else, but the system game me a popup with a error code and canceled the summon.  The other was a visual bug where my torch flame came from under my character instead of from the torch I was holding, but that corrected itself a few seconds later before I could take a picture of it.

All the complaints aside, the beta was very... fun?  Well, Dark Souls-ish.  It does remind you that Dark Souls isn't a game you just pick up and have fun in.  You have to get proficient before the casual fun really comes.

Jumping in Dark Souls 1 required holding circle to run, and then while running, releasing and tapping circle again.  Jumping in Dark Souls 2 has changed to holding circle to run, and then while running, clicking L3 (the left analog stick; i.e. click the stick while angling it in the direction you're running).  I'd like to take a moment to thank From Software for their innovation in finding this even more awkward jump input, and for putting one necromancer on an island over a death pit to make sure you know about it.

>:(

[Sierra]

I looked at the control summary listed on the beta page a few weeks back and instantly knew the change in jumping input (to say nothing of roll being another button now) was going to kill me constantly.

So dual-wielding is actually like a viable thing now? It never really was in Dark Souls 1. I mean, you could do it, and I did run a character through the game attempting to focus on that, but there never seemed to be a point. So I've got this second weapon on and yeah I can do light attacks with it, but...I can't do any of the secondary/leaping attacks? Oh hey I can parry with it, but...I can also do that with a shield, which also has the added benefit of preventing me from being stabbed in the face. Why am I using a weapon in my off-hand again?

So if they made that work somehow, that's cool.

What is the time limit on summons looking like? I kinda question the point of adding one/express skepticism that it will deter serial ganking if that was their intent.

[KLSymph]

I looked at the control summary listed on the beta page a few weeks back and instantly knew the change in jumping input (to say nothing of roll being another button now) was going to kill me constantly.

Why would they demand an input which involves tilting the stick all the way in one direction to run and then pressing toward the center, which is the opposite direction?  Where if the stick is neutral the jump doesn't happen?  And you need to change the tilt direction to dash around both a necromancer's reassembling skeletons (one of which is an archer) and his homing sorceries?

I used to think that tapping a button while holding it was an awkward command because of the ambiguity between running (holding), jumping (holding then tapping), and rolling (not holding then tapping) makes it hard to roll from a run without jumping by mistake (tip: you can't jump while running if you're raising a shield or weapon to block).  It really is impressive how FromSoft managed to find a more horrible alternative.

So dual-wielding is actually like a viable thing now?

It's hard to say.  I dual-wielded longsword with royal dirk, and it was pretty much like using a primary weapon in your off hand.  Light attack is fast, heavy attack is slow.  In Dark Souls 1, instead of attack/attack it's usually either block/attack or attack/parry, except for the Gold Tracer.  Does this change make it viable?  The attack speed is still the same.  You can go R1-L1-R1-L1, but you could do that in DS1 and anyway it didn't seem to be better than regular R1-mashing.  It's hard to say just from my experience, but stunlocking is reportedly more prevalent in DS2, so maybe.

It never really was in Dark Souls 1. I mean, you could do it, and I did run a character through the game attempting to focus on that, but there never seemed to be a point. So I've got this second weapon on and yeah I can do light attacks with it, but...I can't do any of the secondary/leaping attacks? Oh hey I can parry with it, but...I can also do that with a shield, which also has the added benefit of preventing me from being stabbed in the face. Why am I using a weapon in my off-hand again?

Dual wielding is pretty useless in PVE in Dark Souls 1.  In PVP, its major use seems to be to let you have a fast attack with your off hand when you're using a very slow weapon like an ultra-greatsword or one of the big clubs, for when your opponent tries to crowd you.  I don't favor slow weapons, and even when I used them I usually two-hand them, so I never got dual-wielding to work for me.

What is the time limit on summons looking like? I kinda question the point of adding one/express skepticism that it will deter serial ganking if that was their intent.

The time limit is at least a couple of minutes.  I don't really remember, but ten minutes wouldn't be out of the question.  It depends on the type of soapstone item you use to draw the summoning sign.  I didn't get summoned myself except for the almost-summon that caused the bug I mentioned in my previous post.  The way I hear it, the purpose of the time minute isn't to stop ganking but to stop summoned helpers from carrying a player through a level, which would make more sense.

Still can't get over that jump input.

[KLSymph]

Another thing:

I looked at the control summary listed on the beta page a few weeks back and instantly knew the change in jumping input (to say nothing of roll being another button now) was going to kill me constantly.

Are you talking about this?



Because I saw this diagram before I played the beta, and I was pretty annoyed that they were basically swapping the function of the X and Circle buttons for no apparent reason.

And... they didn't.  Circle is still run/roll/backstep.  X is still the action button for opening doors and stuff.  I don't know what's happened there.

L3 is reportedly mapped to something called "dash roll" but I have no clue what that is.  I remember rolling one time when I clicked L3 (when I was trying to jump, and actually I had to intuit the jump input, because as you can see it's not shown on this diagram; I tapped X a lot and it did absolutely nothing) but that L3 roll seemed no different from a Circle roll and the other times I clicked L3 it never caused a roll, so I may be misremembering it.

Imagine a graceful dual swordsman in his black hood and longcoat, then imagine him running in circles and rolling repeatedly in different directions like a busted robot trying to figure out how to jump.  It was like that.

Vereor nox.

[Sierra]

Yeah, that's the screen I was referring to. Strangeness!

It's hard to say just from my experience, but stunlocking is reportedly more prevalent in DS2

That is ominous news considering I never wear anything more than light armor. *hugs Wolf Ring*

[KLSymph]

The speculation is that it may look something like this.

The problem is that poise is actually not a great solution for stunlocking.  It prevents very trivial cases of it in DS1, but the Wolf Ring doesn't do much when you're being dead-angled by a zweihander.  Toggle escaping is a vital skill in those cases, but if there's no toggle escaping in DS2....

At least as long as there's poise at all, it won't be like in Demon's Souls PVP.  I hear stunlocking with light weapons was really bad.

I've had some experience getting stunlocked by daggers.  It really makes you panic as you try to mash your way out of it.  It's partially why I really enjoy the bandit's knife as part of my beginner-equipment cosplay ruse against griefers.  You sometimes get those invaders who go all-in on dark sorceries trying to one-shot you... but neglect poise, and try to always roll away from you when you get close with that tiny dagger's reach.  Then you get them in a corner....

*slash slash slash* *tries to Dark Bead NOPE* *slash BLEED slash slash*

That's one of the rare times you see a player decked out in late-game stuff like the Moonlight Set and the Tin Crystallization Catalyst running away full speed from a player sporting the bog-standard bandit's knife and target shield.