Dark Souls 2's Bosses Can Be Beaten Early "If You're Good"

[StewShearerOld]

Dark Souls 2's Bosses Can Be Beaten Early "If You're Good"

Dark Souls 2 will restructure areas so that bosses can be met and beaten earlier.

One of the hallmarks of Dark Souls (and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/6527-Review-Demons-Souls>Demon's Souls, if that was your starting point) is its difficult bosses. They're the sort of baddies that seem to be made just to knock you down a peg. You'll have fought your way through an area and be feeling good about yourself just to get slaughtered in the first few seconds of a boss encounter. That being the case, developer Takeshi Miyazoe, speaking about Dark Souls 2, has shared that the new game will feature bosses that change things up a bit and can even be defeated early "if you're good enough."

These bosses will derive from efforts to change the way the game as a whole is structured. In previous Souls titles, bosses were often used as gatekeepers blocking off new areas. With the next game the developers want to alter that paradigm. "You won't have to start from one venue, go through to the end, beat the boss and then start from a new venue," said Miyazoe. "There will be areas where you can meet the boss halfway. If you're good enough or paying enough attention, you might be able to defeat them early." He added, "We're trying to create a more interactive gameplay flow so that we sort of break a little bit in terms of the traditional 'start point, boss and then new start point'."

As with every <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125388-Dark-Souls-II-Director-Accessible-Does-Not-Mean-Easy>mention of change in Dark Souls 2, the ability to beat or circumvent a boss early could raise concerns about the game's difficulty, an arguably key element of the Dark Souls experience. Miyazoe assures gamers however, that it will include "key enemies and bosses in the game that will challenge the players enough." Players eager to find out just how challenging the game really is can register for a chance to play the <a href=https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-gb/games/dark-souls-ii-closed-beta-registration-ticket/cid=EP0700-BLET50006_00-SE00010000000000>Dark Souls 2 beta, which will launch on October 12th with a second round slated for October 27th.

Source: VG247


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[Phrozenflame500]

So basically, if you're skilled enough, you can beat any boss no matter your character's strength.

Sounds good to me.

 

[Ishal]

To me this seems like the chariot boss we've seen in the gameplay trailers. It seems to be traveling in a circuit around the level. But I could see them doing some really cool open ended environments where the boss is patrolling around it and you can either fight him or "sneak" around.

Only way this could go bad is if they start to think environments could be used in a cool way to defeat the boss. No... no no no. That is the kind of thinking that got us gimmik fights like Dragon God and Bed of Chaos. I'm sure FROM could do it, but with two previous poor attempts, I'd rather they just focus with what they're good at.

 

[Able Seacat]

Really looking forward to this. Hopefully people who play the beta will get a chance to see some of the changes in action.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I know he meant good enough in terms of skip but now I'm picturing someone telling me that I can beat the boss early if I eat my vegetables.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Well, it wouldn't be Dark Souls if you didn't die half a dozen times before you figured out how to kill this particular boss with as little risk as possible.

 

[Zeriah]

Excellent. My favorite thing I did in Dark Souls was killing Havel the Rock extremely early in the game - the first time you go past his tower using the Master Key. Any attack would be a one-shot unless you blocked the attack with 100% stamina and I did so little damage it took about 20-30 minutes to kill him. So anything like this being possible in Dark Souls 2 is fine with me.

 

[JagermanXcell]

So basically we have chance to fight and possibly beat this monstrosity early:


...March is such a long ways away. Signing up for a "chance" to be in the beta certainly isn't helping to ease my excitement.

 

[Little Gray]

Anybody who complains about this is a moron. Dark Souls could be beat at level one with your starting broken sword if you were good enough. They have always been that way and this does not change that. Skill has always been much much more important then your gear or levels.

 

[Seydaman]

Sounds good to me. I've got no problems with being able to pick which way I deal with bosses.

 

[IronMit]

A journo that had a chance to play it has said that they may of removed the 'invisibility frames'. Either that or the timing have changed since he couldn't quite roll through wide-arching enemy swings..... If that's the case, my play through just got 10x harder.

Oh and there's a stamina regen delay so you can't drop your shield mid-boss swings to quickly get stamina back.
I can't wait for this

 

[Ishal]

A journo that had a chance to play it has said that they may of removed the 'invisibility frames'. Either that or the timing have changed since he couldn't quite roll through wide-arching enemy swings..... If that's the case, my play through just got 10x harder.

Oh and there's a stamina regen delay so you can't drop your shield mid-boss swings to quickly get stamina back.
I can't wait for this

I doubt they removed invincibility frames from the dodge. Otherwise either:

1) They are nuts. You either institute some really tight hitbox work with the dodge mechanics, or you implement some invincibility frames into the roll in order to cover that lack of hitbox work. Straight up removing those frames without the tightened up hitbox makes it more of an aesthetic (and last ditch) effort.
or
2) They, as the former brought up, tightened up the hitboxes to a point where dodging and the like can actually be used to "dodge" attacks instead of just going through them. Thus, without the crutch of invincibility, you have to really pay attention to attacks. The giant horizontal swing might swing low to the ground near the end, so you either dodge early (to get under it) or dodge away instead of waiting to the last minute when it nears the end.

I don't think they removed them. It's more likely that all of them aren't implemented for the different types of characters. Seems like the frames are influenced by the "classes" you play. The black cloaked dual wielding character was said to have more frames due to being lighter and faster. His dodges were quicker and covered more distance. But this is all still up in the air. I'm sure more changes will be made between now and March.

 

[ExtraDebit]

When this game is out, I will still run through it in easy mode with a socerer like the predecessor. Dark soul is easy if you're know how to use magic.

 

[Artemis923]

Excellent. My favorite thing I did in Dark Souls was killing Havel the Rock extremely early in the game, the first time you go past his tower using the Master Key. Any attack would be a one-shot unless you blocked the attack with 100% stamina and I did so little damage it took about 20-30 minutes to kill him. So anything like this being possible in Dark Souls 2 is fine with me.

I pussed out and shot him with Soul Arrows until he died. -_-

That's also how I cheesed my first Black Knight. Ran up a ladder in Undead Burg, Soul Arrow.

Now, I can backstab them with the starting Sorcerer dagger until they're both dead. Glad to see skill will still be of use!

 

[Ariseishirou]

Wasn't this always the case?

You can theoretically beat Demon's Souls by circumventing nearly every boss in the game and going straight to the end fight after you kill the first major boss.

Similarly, in Dark Souls you can kill Sif right after you reach the forest (which you can do before you even ring the first bell if you're really gung-ho - on my first playthrough I had no idea Sif was supposed to be a later-game boss and kept plugging away at him until I beat him right after I rang the first bell; I didn't go to Blightown until I'd cleared the whole forest).

 

[crimson sickle2]

Wasn't this always the case?

You can theoretically beat Demon's Souls by circumventing nearly every boss in the game and going straight to the end fight after you kill the first major boss.

Similarly, in Dark Souls you can kill Sif right after you reach the forest (which you can do before you even ring the first bell if you're really gung-ho - on my first playthrough I had no idea Sif was supposed to be a later-game boss and kept plugging away at him until I beat him right after I rang the first bell; I didn't go to Blightown until I'd cleared the whole forest).

It was true to an extent in Dark Souls, technically you could've rang the second bell first, circumvented all of Blighttown, achieved the rite of kindling, and battle the Four Kings, all before ringing the first bell. What the article gives me the hope of is it sounds like we won't have to go get the Lord Soul vessel. The game is incredibly open-ended, but the Catacombs (has some one-way shortcuts), Lost Izalith, and everything past Sen's fortress is entirely linear. The team has also been pushing this idea of battling the boss at different sections of each stage, an improvement since it was either you fight a boss in their room or you go around them. Now experienced players will be able to attack bosses on their own terms.