I dodge around, game for anything, but it's not too long before Vendrick catches me out and takes my health down to nearly nothing. I survive for about a minute before the hollowed-out King claims another undead. The damage I was doing though... either I'm missing an item or a weapon, or this is a half-hour boss fight that has to be executed perfectly.
Back at the bonfire, I decide to bravely run away with my new ring – because I've seen plenty of doors that will respond to it. Perhaps what I need is behind one of them. First, a stopoff in Drangleic Castle; I want to see if the Queen's still on her throne and try out a new key acquired in the Shrine of Amana. The Queen tells me to seek the giants, and an invisible wall prevents me from skewering her with arrows. The new key works for a room at the very top of the castle – and man, it's a gory old time up there. Bleurgh!
I have an idea of what to do. The 'corpses' of giants lie around one of the very first areas, and I visit them methodically. Each leads to a playable flashback where, after being squashed by giants plenty of times, I acquire several Giant's Souls. In the last I find the Lord of the Giants, and the bigger they are – and this guy is very big indeed – the harder they fall. There's something suggestive in the description of the Giant Souls: “Will the Giants' resentment of the king be pacified in death, or only emboldened?” We may have a solution to our Vendrick problem.But first I try out another door I'd spotted earlier, and it leads... to another gigantic area. Aldia's Keep feels like a mad scientist's castle and, though more linear and smaller than it first appears, has an atmosphere to it that much of Drangleic has lacked. And at the end? A dragon. Suddenly I'm pumped.
In the previous entry I said I was missing my Anor Londo moment. The next section, the Dragon Aerie, is as close as Dark Souls 2 gets to this – it is simply an incredible sight. Again I'm slightly disappointed by the environment as a layout, but as a visual spectacle it takes some beating. Great farming spot, too, because it's full of crystal lizards.
After a series of rickety rope bridges and rocky outcrops comes the Dragon Shrine, and at the end an Everlasting Dragon. The Everlasting Dragon from Dark Souls, all grown up? Maybe. Maybe. I swing at it anyway. The thing incinerates me in a flash. I spend the next few hours running back and forth to this boss, and dying instantly.
Everything I loved about the Dragon Aerie, and Dark Souls as a skill-based game, is rather ruined by this boss – who's super cheap and a one-hit wonder. But I eventually put him down with the help of summons. Psychopathic urges satisfied, I head back to the Undead Crypt. It's time to finish this.
King Vendrick awaits, and my hunch about the Giants' Souls pays off – I'd thought I might have to use them as items in the battle, but in fact just holding them means I'm doing decent damage. The Souls games do a great line in fallen kings, and Vendrick is another. He doesn't quite have the burned-out majesty of Gwyn, or the sheer menace of Allant, but there's something affecting in this once-great figure's sweeping swings of his greatsword – deadly as it is. Vendrick is a question of knowledge, and timing. Finally I have both, and he falls. But leaves no Soul? Odd.
I'm exhausted. It's 3AM, and I've got to get up in the morning. Sleep is for the weak, and I warp to Drangleic Castle. The Queen is gone. A final door opens to the King's seal, and I walk down a long and lonely path towards a throne room. Inside, two guards await – The Throne Watcher and the Throne Defender, Smough and Ornstein lite.
Or are they? In the first fight I get one down, and watch in astonishment as he's revived by his buddy to full health. You Died. All bets off for the return leg, I summon two dudes and destroy them. And then the Queen, finally, appears.
This is it. Nashandra, as she's known, is a tough fight – and embodies everything I'm uneasy about in Dark Souls 2. She's a kind of bony queen, a horror figure surrounded by an aura of curse, and throws magic and AOE attacks one after the other at you. This kind of visual design feels too generic to me, too focused on gross-out impact rather than the sinister side.
First time my remaining Summon and I go down. Second time, when I don't have to kill the Throne guards first, Nashandra dies in a hail of magic.
The ending is ambiguous – as you might expect. The game puts me back in Majula, and I can start NG+ from the bonfire. So I begin the nasty task of killing NPCs, a Souls tradition, and feel even emptier than usual when I realise so few of them drop any decent items. In the days since, I've discovered NG+ is actually Dark Souls 2's best feature – and a significant advance over Dark Souls' implementation. But that discussion will have to wait for another time.
Day 13: Another Londo?
The cat had mentioned something to me about a 'rotten' enemy - but the subtitles capitalised 'Rotten.' In Souls games this is basically a massive flashing arrow and, having already found the upper part of the Gutter, but not explored it, I use my Souls levelling up and warp there.
The next few hours are a story of falling off walkways, lighting torches, getting poisoned, and dying to giant dogs in horrible ways. The Souls games seem to enjoy having a filthy environment each time, and the Gutter certainly fulfils this description - though most of my deaths do some from simply rolling off the scaffolding like a chump. Hey, it's a tradition.
The Gutter isn't actually a huge environment, and I'm soon enough near the end. One tip here - check over the edge near the two worms that shoot out of the wall. And check again. Also: there's a bonfire incredibly near the boss fog.
The Rotten, for it is he, is a giant poison butcher thing that really doesn't like my Black Knight Halberd. The approach to him is a nightmare of being poisoned, but the fight is the easiest Great Soul yet – not that I'm complaining.I warp back to Majula, and feel like I'm missing something. Call it the Anor Londo moment – that point in your Dark Souls journey when, though the greatest trials are yet to come, you're silenced by something glorious. Something that you've earned. I've bagged the four Great Souls, and I'm off to Drangleic Castle.
From a distance Drangleic Castle looks incredible. Dark Souls 2 pulls the old Half-Life 2 trick of making it visible from many points in the world, so throughout you occasionally catch a glimpse of this structure stretching towards the sky and think – 'soon.' I make my way to the Shrine of Winter, locked until I'd acquired more powerful souls, and sure enough it opens. There's a sculpture of what looks like the Dark Souls Lordvessel inside, with three serpents coiled around it. Curiously enough the statues have been beheaded. I idly wonder if Frampt and Kaathe are still around somewhere, and push on.
The approach to Drangleic is something else – it really looks the part. Inside it's a different matter. A strange ghost in the entrance hall gives a little flavour of the castle's heyday, but this is a rather linear obstacle course – I blitz through the castle in a half hour, talk to the Queen, and destroy a dual Dragonslayers boss.
I push on, and it's not that Drangleic Castle doesn't offer a challenge – I die several times before eventually reaching the Mirror Knight. It's more that it's not quite the Anor Londo moment of awe I was looking for. Perhaps that's unfair, because there is one unforgettably grim sight right at the top. But it's also not nearly the end of the game.
After this first visit to Drangleic, I find my way down to the Shrine of Amana. This is one of the toughest areas I've known in a Souls game, until I start Summoning at least, and also has a queer beauty to it. That is, until you fall into the water. Or get stomped by a zombie frog boss.
It's hard to escape the sense that Dark Souls 2 is an increasingly rootless game, however – enormous, yes, but suffering from that size in not giving its enemies and locations enough screentime. My rate of progression now is such that I'm spending about an hour in each endgame location, snaffling items and destroying the bosses on my 2nd or 3rd attempt.
The Shrine of Amana is dealt with in this way, and so is the Undead Crypt – though here I fall for another player's naughty trap, and shine a torch in the face of a merchant who's then permanently aggroed. The merchant warns you to put out any lights on the approach, but a sign said “Liar, therefore try torch” and, fearing ambush, I fall for it. The message was a lie, the merchant attacked, and I had to put him down. Oh well, at least I could buy his kilt in Majula afterwards.It's here, after a fight against a boss that feels like the descendant of Garl Vinland, I finally find King Vendrick. The once-mighty king is now a mindless shell, and not even a hostile one – his raiments lie in a pile with his ring (yoink!), and the body of this once-great Soul paces back and forth mindlessly, dragging a sword behind him. By now it's clear the true villain of Dark Souls 2 is either the Queen or, perhaps, the Emerald Herald. But Vendrick's here. I grit my teeth, and swing.
DAY 12: THE RACE TO THE FINISH
I had my doubts at the start, and I'm still slightly dubious about the enemy design, but I've begun to massively enjoy Dark Souls II - every day I'm wondering how fast I can get my other work done in order to sit down and get it on.
After rinsing through Heide's Tower of Flame I've unlocked an alternate route out of Majula that leads to Huntsman's Copse – the beta area. I've got such amazing gear by this point that the raggedy little enemies have no chance, and fall like skittles to my +2 Black Knight Halberd. I summon in some dudes to make things more interesting (for me) and end up blitzing through a skeleton boss, a mines section, and then a strange kind of miniature Sen's Fortress. Though the last seems like a tough area, nothing can stop me now. I don't slang or bang, I just smoke poison snake queens like it ain't no thang.I take the elevator up to the Iron Keep. This area continues the Sen's Fortress vibe, despite being lava-themed, and I'm delighted to start fighting the knight-like enemies that populate its halls. Finally I start dying, not so much to them but to the many environmental tricks Dark Souls II has started to pull. I open one door, peer inside, and get a red-hot blast of face-melting air; YOU DIED. You've got to laugh.
The boss of this section, the Smelter Demon, is a bit of a cakewalk. I get the same sense from this guy that I did from the Dragonslayer - if I'd fought him earlier in my progression, he would've been a real problem. As it is I stick him with my halberd and it seems to work quite well. I'm confused by this as it's a fire weapon, and he seems quite fiery. But no sense in complaining!
There's a bonfire straight afterwards and, I'm betting, my third Great Soul. It's bedtime but what the hell; I summon in some dudes (cannot emphasise what a difference the dedicated servers are making), and push onwards. Floor traps, lava gutters, flame-spewing switches, all are as naught next to the A-Team, and soon enough I'm at the boss bonfire and ready to go.
I'd love to end this entry on a dramatic note. Truth is that this guy, a giant fire demon that breathes the stuff and tries to whack you with his arms, goes down so easily I can barely believe it. His attacks are so telegraphed and slow, particularly compared to a battle like The Lost Sinner or the Duke's Dear Freja, I dodge everything easily and with some help from my Summons he's defeated. I instantly feel a bit bad for Summoning on the first attempt, but all I can do now is celebrate Glorious Victory! My third Great Soul - and I've got a good idea for where to find the Fourth and last too.
DAY 11: RUNNING DOWNHILL FAST
There comes a point in a Souls game where, after so long pushing the boulder uphill, you finally hit something like a downward slope. So it is for Dark Souls II. Having struggled to beat bosses that now seem like walkovers, I'm finding that large sections of the game are falling before my mighty might.
I'd discovered Heide's Tower of Flame earlier but kind of forgotten about it. Now I return, Black Knight Halberd in hand, and absolutely wreck the faces of the giants guarding it. I step into the Tower of Blue and, oh, the feels – but anyway, I run him through. The Dragonslayer boss is nothing, and goes down in less than a minute. This is a massacre.I push on to No Man's Wharf and, on a whim, put down my Summon Sign. I'm really enjoying the online side of Dark Souls II, and even though there have been laggy fights it seems vastly superior to both Demon's and Dark - in terms of PvP I'll be playing this one for a while. Having helped another player work through the location, and being frankly a little overpowered for it, I run through and acquire the Pyromancy flame I should have had long ago.
I've barely used any magic or miracles or hexes or pyromancies, because basically I'm a Real Man and insist on killing fools with a handheld weapon. But there's no harm in a few support skills. Earlier I'd un-petrified a character called Straid in the Lost Bastille, probably my favourite character so far in Dark Souls II, and toddle back to buy a few goodies from him.
What's great about Straid is that he openly calls you 'twisted' and 'feeble' and all these other things, but you sense he does it to everyone. And he's always saying 'Very good!' after random things. He sells me some incredible pyromancies, including the frankly ludicrous explosive Flame Swathe, and now we're cooking. Very good. Very good indeed.
DAY 10: THE DUKE'S DEAR FREJA
Giant spiders - dontcha just hate 'em? Clearly someone at Fromsoft has an issue with giant wall-crawlers, because their games are always crammed with the blighters and Dark Souls II is no exception.
After my rat-based escapades I've pushed back out of Pharros-zone and upwards, which leads to what seemed to be an old army encampment, and some rather clumsy boulder-based traps. Not a problem for this undead, but as I push on there's an increasing theme of insects and holes in the wall. I think I know where this is going.
A mid-boss stands guard over a chapel, an interesting mix consisting of a sorceror and a 'congregation' of lesser enemies that are designed to distract. Sadly for these holy rollers I'm wholly badass, and steamroll them at the first time of asking. Upstairs in this chapel is Dark Souls II's equivalent of Oswald, who wants an unbelievable 116,000 Souls to absolve my sins. Well I never liked the idea of goodness anyway.The rest of this environment is a kind of crumbling town that you make your way down, which suffers from being somewhat similar to Oolacile but lacking art direction that's comparably strong. At the end however is a giant room, crisscrossed with enormous long webs. I knew this was coming. I pick my way down gingerly, killing countless smaller spiders, and push through the fog to face the Duke's Dear Freja.
This boss fight has something. Many Dark Souls bosses fall apart when faced with multiple Summons, and are much easier with 2 or 3 players. But this giant spider, by simple virtue of having two giant bladed mouths and eight legs, can handle three players pretty effectively – and destroy equipment in a trice.
It takes many attempts, and many deaths to a damn annoying and cheap laser beam (?!?) attack, before it goes down. I'm finally alone in this giant spider's den that's claimed so many victims, and then I notice the centrepiece.
A giant dragon hangs suspended, head-down and swathed in webs. Long dead? It looks it, but the dragons in Dark Souls are supposed to be everlasting. The 'death' this scene implies is a true horror, with the final touch a thin strand of silk from the tip of the creature's mouth to the floor - suspending it, just so. Brr. I clutch that damn spider's soul close, and scuttle off.
DAY NINE: A PAUSE FOR PvP
Something about this diary I should have made clear much sooner – I'm not looking at the internet, or guides, or asking for anyone's advice. When I first played Dark Souls it was a fortnight or so pre-release, and there was no-one to help. My subsequent obsession with the game meant I found out everything I could over the years, but I've never forgotten those first few weeks of struggling solo – and finding magical secrets that, had I simply read about them online, would never have felt the same.
This is one of the downsides of the internet; the way any new product is near-instantaneously busted open by the anonymous horde. I think it's one of the reasons the Souls games are designed like they are, full of ambiguity and mystery, and crammed with things you might never see. But I digress. And in front of me is the Rat King.
The Rat King seems suspicious of humans, but gives you the chance to join his covenant – which rewards you with a ring that can apparently pull players from other worlds into yours. This sounds amazing, and I immediately get back to the Doors of Pharros main chamber to try it out. Within a minute I have my first victim, a 'Grey Phantom' – and this is where Dark Souls II, for me, becomes incredible.
The concept behind the Rat Covenant is simply brilliant. Not only are people getting pulled into my world, but they have to fight the enemies too; large slow-moving Mastodons, annoying rats, and Gyrm warriors. My first victim dies to a backstab while distracted by the AI – I could get into this.
But it's what they drop that matters. You get a Rat's Tail, used to pay tribute to the Rat King, but also a Pharros Lockstone. In this room there are what must be twenty or thirty locations to use Pharros Lockstones, and I suddenly realise it's a house of traps – waiting for me to activate them, and pull in a noob.
I devote an entire day to being the Rat King's servant, killing player after player after player. Yes it's completely unfair – I have the enemies on my side, and increasing number of traps, and now know this environment inside-out. But you know what? Who cares. Those who dare trespass on the Rat King's turf shall face my wrath. Dark Souls II; best rat-based game ever.
DAY EIGHT: KING OF THE RATS
We're at a fog gate, at a bonfire called 'The Last Ordeal.' I step through, and get ripped to shreds – toxined in seconds by a pack of small rats, and battered by a larger one. The Royal Rat Authority is the name of this boss, and it's like a mix of a giant rat and a hunting dog.
I spend at least an hour practicing the very first stage of this fight, because it's rare I last more than 15 seconds once the small pack and the bigger beast are aggroed. It's one hell of a combination, almost a little nod to the difficulties players had with the Capra Demon and his dogs in the original game.
Problem is that if you don't take out the little rats straight away, you get toxined by them. And if you focus overly on taking them out, the Royal Rat Authority often one-shots you from behind. I eventually give up on the halberd I was trying out, one of my favourite weapons in Dark Souls, and go back to the Fire Longsword for the time being – it's simply much easier, I find, to get the little rats down. Eventually I have the opening down pat, and each fight is me and the big beast.I die, again and again. And again, for good measure. Dark Souls II's bosses do have some irritating aspects to them, and much as I enjoy the Royal Rat Authority as a fight it has some crazy hitboxes – many times I'm under its body as it swings a limb, yet seem to be dealt a mortal blow when nothing's physically made contact with my character. It gets pretty frustrating.
But it's also a great fight in other respects – your dodges have to be timed perfectly, and the size of the beast is truly impressive. When it eventually collapses I can't help but offer a little bow to a creature that must have killed me 15 or 20 times. Well played sir.
This triumph doesn't lead where I expected. In fact it leads to a little alcove, with a little rat. But this is no ordinary creature. It's the king of the rats and, despite my being human, asks if I wish to join his covenant. This appears to be a clever PvP setup whereby I can set up this whole arena with traps through Pharros' lockstones – some of which I've already activated by accident – and then pull in other players to kill them and acquire rat tails. Very good indeed.
I accept my new liege gladly, and get ready for some PvP. Let's do this.
DAY SEVEN: THE RING OF WHISPERS AND THE DOORS OF PHARROS
DIE SCORPIONESS! I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore! Scorpioness Najka seems like quite a simple boss, and yet she's now killed me four times, twice through that horrible pump-toxin-in-yer-chest-cavity attack.
I'm alternating between a +5 broadsword and a +5 Fire longsword, and the latter seems to be doing decent damage – but it's her goddamn spells that are the problem. When I've finally mastered dodging them, the rest of Najka's attacks aren't half as troubling. She can be locked into repetitive patterns (this can be said about quite a few bosses) and soon enough is down.
This fight makes me realise that I'd seen another half-human scorpion in the ruins – a silent type that I'd decided not to attack. Wise move, because back in Majula there's a cat that sells a ring you can use to talk to enemies. I've barely thought about this but now, rich with souls, might be the time. I warp back and pick it up, then visit this other scorpion.Turns out that the ring works, yay! And Scorpioness Najka was his Mrs. Uh-oh! But he's delighted we've killed her! Total victory in my eyes, and the nice chap even hands over a lovely item (try speaking to him over multiple visits for even more stuff). Convinced I'm the Sherlock of Dark Souls II, I head back up to Najka's empty burrow and proceed onwards.
It leads to the Doors of Pharros, by a distance the most stunning location I've yet seen in Dark Souls II. Pharros was some kind of master craftsman, and remnants of his work stud the environments – large face-like contraptions that can be activated by lockstones. In this cave the rocks are formed into giant overlapping cuboids, stretching up and far towards the light and a ceiling that never quite seems to close.
Oh and there's a giant bloody elephant with a spear – whose reach caught me once, but was soon dispatched. There's a delightful surprise around here for Dark Souls vets too, but I won't spoil that. There are two ways to go and I decide to try lower first – the entrance looks like a giant rat's mouth, so I figure that's a good sign right?
I find a huge, open-plan room with an annex, and upper level of platforms and tonnes of Pharros's contraptions. I have four lockstones. Rather unwisely, I decide to trust to lady luck – I unlock one enemy (boo!), activate one trap (boo!) and use two to get through to a new opening containing a rather unusual spear. This is a strange place, and it has a fog gate with a bonfire slap-bang in front of it.
The bonfire's been named 'The Last Ordeal.' That's not good, right? But it's the kind of challenge I was made for. We're going in.
DAY SIX: THE SCORPIONESS
I'm getting bored of my broadsword. It's a weapon I have a lot of fondness for, and have used in every Souls game, but it's beginning to feel a little like training wheels. I need something new, and start levelling up Dex with the aim of eventually using the Twin Blade – an odd, double-sword weapon that seems to be based on Darth Maul's lightsaber.
After beating the Lost Sinner I've acquired an item that can un-petrify statues – and I've got just the one in mind. I head to an area populated by a Scotsman with the Moonlight Greatsword (I'll be having that at some point) and a lever currently blocked by a statue. Turns out it's a trainee pyromancer, who seems quite chummy and needs some new clothes – she seems quite happy with hollow soldier stuff, so I'm happy too.
I pull the lever, get ambushed and die to poisoning. Let's try that again. I go back, pull the lever and bravely dispatch my foes. And there's a Basilisk! Joy! I'm so happy to see one of Dark Souls' most iconic enemies that I almost forgive it for trying to petrify me, and send him off with a few two-handed swings for old time's sake.
Beyond this is a fascinating area, branching off in three directions – two of which are currently blocked off. The third is a misty forest, seemingly empty but for the groaning of trees which, on closer inspection, turn out to have faces. Yeurgh! And it's while I'm noticing this I get backstabbed by an invisible enemy. One of those days.
Back in this forest I soon happen across the head of a great warrior, Vengarl. Despite telling me to bog off at first it turns out he's quite a chatterbox, and also sells Gold Pine Resin. I like Vengarl, and we'll come back to him later – but for now I press on, up into the Lion's Den. The forest leads to a set of ruins filled with curse-spewing pots (yes, really) and axe-wielding lion warriors – neither of which, after a little acclimatisation, are much of an issue.
I wouldn't say this makes me cocky, exactly. But I do end up wandering into a fog gate rather unprepared and charging what appears to be a woman's torso buried in the sand. Might as well get a boss in before bedtime, right? A giant scorpion explodes from the ground and, with me at half-health, I die instantly. I human-up and return, ready for the battle – this time get the timing of my dodge wrong, and am picked up by the monster's tails. In a genuinely horrific animation, I watch the two stingers pump toxin into my poor avatar's chest, pulsating as they do it, and after release he dies in an instant.
That... that was some nature for ya. Bed is calling me. But tomorrow, Quelaag's crappier sister is going down.
DAY FIVE: THE LOST SINNER
I'm beginning to get more of a sense for how Dark Souls II's level design works, and I'm not a huge fan. Right from the beginning of the game you can warp from bonfire to bonfire, a decision that struck me as odd, but the reason for this is that Dark Souls II's world design falls short of the standard set by its predecessor – without the warp, you'd be doing a tonne of backtracking. In the original the world folded in on itself in multiple layers, but here it's a set of long corridors.
Anyway: onwards down a corridor! Having roundly trounced the Gargoyles I get back to exploring the Lost Bastille, and am killed quite a few times by a rather unimpressive enemy – a bandaged and chained prisoner whose main tactic is to belly-flop and cause an explosion. The timing for dodging this is easy enough, but it has to be dodged rather than blocked, and when they gang up... urgh. They're not quite the silver knights, put it that way.
I reach a huge tower, with a bonfire and a lift going all the way down. This seems promising. At the bottom is knee-deep water and... a kind of fat scorpion thing? I'm finding the common enemies in Dark Souls II a little hit-and-miss in terms of design. I've died loads, don't get me wrong, and of course the basic hollows based on the Demon's / Dark precedents are still great – but stuff like these chained prisoners and scorpion blobs just aren't refined enough for my tastes.
This watery section is a little frustrating but mercifully short – and at the end is a long walk across the water to a fog gate. I step through, and see a bug crawl into a mask's eye in some brief horror before The Lost Sinner stands before me. Our first fight lasts seconds – a sweeping slice catches me, and the second finishes me off from full health.Clearly this is a tough one. And over the next few hours I learn everything there is to know about The Lost Sinner. I light two giant torches above the arena, the better to see her with. I learn when she's winding up her combos, I learn where her hitboxes are, I learn that she specialises in killing players trying to drink Estus. I come within an inch of beating her, twice. And then finally, after another gruelling battle, I kill her and absorb her soul – the first of four Great Souls.
After everything, that was a superb boss fight. Dark Souls II is disappointing me in some subtle ways, but there's no doubt it delivers some awesome challenge and spectacle when it comes to the big set-pieces. It's clearly superior to 99% of other videogames, but just a little unfortunate that it's the sequel to the best game ever made.
The Lost Sinner is gone. I walk through her former prison and kindle a primal bonfire, warping back to Majula. Tomorrow is another day, and another great soul.
DAY FOUR: GARGOYLES AND CHANGING GEARS
My first three days in Dark Souls II were constrained by life. I had to do other things that reduced my time per day to two or three hours, but not today baby; we're going in full-throttle and I expect big results.
The Lost Bastille turns out to be a Souls environment in everything but visual design. Despite being a rather nondescript castley-type thing, the rooms and corridors are packed with hidden enemies and secrets, and there's one pile-on battle in particular that will kill every player a few times. The Royal Swordsmen, for it is they, wield a sweet-looking wavy greatsword that cuts in slow slices – but they always seem to aggro in groups of three or four, meaning you can be staggered then instakilled from a full health bar no problem.
Not that that ever happened to me cough. The first moment in Dark Souls II where I felt like a real veteran came in the Lost Bastille; a 'three sentinels' boss fight that I somehow aced first time, thanks to well-honed dodging and a more thoughtful approach to Estus. You really can't chug away in Dark Souls II – try to do so and almost any enemy will gut you in a second. It's all about earning those HP now, and understanding that is my first big lightbulb moment.
Beyond the limp sentinels I find a blessed bonfire and two routes. Downstairs is... a Pharros Lockstone? These new contraptions open inaccessible areas and, having picked up a stone earlier, I put it in and find a Bell Tower.Not just any Bell Tower of course. This one is staffed by a crazy dwarf at the door, piled high with dwarf corpses, and plays host to many magic dwarves as well as a dwarf invader. I make short work of the lot and, after ringing the bell, step through a fog gate.
One of Dark Souls' greatest boss fights, despite coming so early, is the Bell Gargoyles. And guess what. The re-do of this in Dark Souls II features exactly the same fantastic orchestral theme, which instantly sends shivers down my back, and even better this time there are six gargoyles – not all of whom are fighting at once, thankfully.
To call this a great fight wouldn't do it justice. It takes me hours and hours and countless failed attempts until, finally, I fell the last of the Gargoyles. This is the first moment when I feel like Dark Souls II might after all be the game it wants to be. It's just taken one of the first game's marquee moments, mixed it up a little, and the results were spectacular. I head back to the bonfire and, for the first time, really can't wait for tomorrow.
DAY THREE: IN PURSUIT OF THE PURSUER
DON'T ATTACK THE CHESTS! Well, do by all means, but be prepared to cry – at a sneaky gag from those devilish FromSoft wizards. Any Dark Souls veteran, upon seeing a treasure chest, has a reflex action – we hack at that mother, and even though only one swing is necessary to check it's not a Mimic, we hack some more. Why not, eh?
Do this in Dark Souls II and, upon your third hack, a wooden chest will fall to pieces and the contents reduced to the item 'rubbish' – about as useful as it sounds. On Day Three I've realised that I may have done this to the Dark Souls II equivalent of the Cling Ring, a tool to keep your health at 75% while in undead form. On the very first day I destroyed two chests like this before realising what I'd done (thought the first 'rubbish' was an in-joke), and I can't find the ring anywhere else.So I'm going to be playing a lot of Dark Souls II at 50% health. Truth is I did it deliberately because I am well hardcore or, as the French would say, une bad dude. To compensate I've been stringing out my human effigies and proceeding at a snail's pace – the next boss after the Last of the Giants is a massive knight called The Pursuer.
I was glad to see the Pursuer again because I'd seen him once before – he'd been dropped on my head by a giant bird (a crow? OMG Velka!?) previously in the level, and as I was admiring his natty kit sliced my head off. When I went back he was gone. Dark Souls II is very keen on tricks like this, re-arranging levels slightly and even removing a few enemies when you're dying lots in a particular section (which at least makes running back to the bosses much easier).
When I finally catch up to The Pursuer, which is kind of ironic given the guy's name, it turns out to be a great fight – and something I felt was missing in the battle against the Last of the Giants. This was a real swordfight, a test of reflexes that depended upon knowing when to block, when to dodge, and when you could get a few hits in. This is what I came for. This is Dark Souls.
After beating him, what looks like that same bird airlifts me to an area called the Lost Bastille. It's dark, foreboding... and there's a guy with what looks like a cleaver strapped to a pole staring right at me. Things are looking up.
DAY TWO: THE ENDLESS KNIGHTS
Refreshed and eager, I've barely pressed start on the title screen and already I'm feeling much better about Dark Souls II. One bad boss does not a bad game make, and now I've got an Estus flask and can level up I'm stoked to start exploring.
Majula is your kind of home base for Dark Souls II, and it's where you have to go to talk to the Oirish Emerald Herald. She's a bit of a bore, to be honest, with none of the mystery of the Maiden in Black and a wearying line in saying “more souls, bigger souls” – but she also has an exceptionally cute voice so I'm going to give her a pass.
More displeasing is the great flatness of Majula itself – Firelink was a miniature labyrinth with all sorts of hidden nooks and crannies, whereas this is a kind of plain with a few tents and houses. There are corners, and items to be found, and a mansion to explore (I found the key in the Forest of the Giants castle) – but I'm not quite feeling it yet. Amazing 'peaceful' music though.
The biggest difference between Majula and Firelink is that you can go where you want from the latter. Sure, heading down to New Londo Ruins right at the start might be a bad idea, but it's entirely possible – here, though, many of the alternate paths leading out of Majula are blocked off, waiting for a key or a special item. It's exactly the kind of design that the original Dark Souls trumped.
One plus note though: the Crestfallen warrior is back! Great to see you again mate, how's things? He's still a depressing old mope, offering up hints while whining about this or that, and seems to have more dialogue than in the previous games – but it's nice to see a concrete link, albeit a small one. All we need now's Patches.
My second day was spent largely preparing for the adventure ahead. I used the souls acquired from the Last of the Giants to level up, unlocked the Majula blacksmith and mansion (super-useful items downstairs!), and tried out a few weapons – having picked the dual-wielding hunter class, with high dexterity, I'm going to upgrade the scimitar for now and keep a broadsword for emergencies.
One thing I adore about Dark Souls II – the bow mechanics are so much improved over the original. At first they're a little difficult to finangle, but soon enough you're arching with the best of them – and, given my already-high dexterity, I think specialising in bows may actually be a viable PvP option this time around.
Tomorrow, it's time to hunt down the Pursuer.
DAY ONE: AN UNEASY BEGINNING...
Dark Souls is my favourite game ever. So much so that, aside from a 20 minute hands-on, I studiously avoided every possible detail about the sequel until that magical disc was in my hands. My PS3's been waiting for this moment, and so have I.
My first impressions of Dark Souls II are not good, and it's nothing to do with the mandatory install or PS3 system update. The original's epic but mysterious opening has been replaced by a gummy old lady, mouthing threats and making little sense. In the opening area, before acquiring any weapons, I discover the first threat – a kind of cyclops monster that looks straight out of the EDF playbook. Things are looking grim, and not because it just back-slammed me to death.
Thankfully things soon improve. I work through to the equivalent of Firelink Shrine, Majula, and promptly head off in a random direction – making the crucial mistake, I'll later learn, of omitting to speak to the Emerald Herald. She gives you an Estus Flask and lets you level up.
Instead I head into the Forests of the Giants and beyond, relying on a limited stock of lifegems and thinking 'ooh this is a bit tough isn't it.' It is. The attack patterns of Dark Souls II's enemies are familiar, but this time around there's a much greater emphasis on group combat – you'll often unavoidably aggro two or three enemies at the same time. The combination of this and the new hollowing mechanic, whereby your health bar reduces a little with each death, soon has me at half a life bar and close to IRL hollowing.
But I'm made of sterner stuff; after all, am I not the conqueror of Lordran? Two hours, three bottles of beer and around twenty deaths later I've reached my very first boss: the Last of the Giants.
This solidifies my feeling of uneasiness about Dark Souls II. It's not that this boss fight is bad – in fact it's super-tough, because the dude's one-shotting me and his limbs seem to do AOE damage that constantly fools me with its impact zones. I'm dying a lot. I can forgive these things. But the design... man.
There's a quote from Masanori Waragai in the Dark Souls Design Works book that did the rounds, about something Hidetaki Miyazaki said to him with regards to the design of the undead dragons in that game:
'I submitted a design draft that depicted a dragon swarming with maggots and other gross things. Miyazaki handed it back to me saying “This isn't dignified. Don't rely on the gross factor to portray an undead dragon. Can't you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?”'
The Last of the Giants, when you think about, has a similar kind of theme to the undead dragon. But this design is like a big papier-mache doll, with axes and swords stuck in its back and a giant wooden pole through its stomach. Halfway through the fight, it pulls off its own arm to attack you.
It does not feel, to me, like an elegant or refined design. As it finally falls to my blade, I feel the wrong kind of sorrow. Has Fromsoft got it wrong? I'm feeling uneasy. But I'm not giving up yet, not by a long shot. Rich Stanton is a freelance writer and Dark Souls fanatic, taking his first steps in Drangleic. Check him out on IGN or Twitter.