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

[grey_space]

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.

Well you should eat your vegetables I mean why wouldn't you eat your vegetables?


What the fuck have you got against vegetables?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I'm a Demon's Souls zealot, so I'm not exactly known for my lenient stance and all-encompassing love for new things.

However, I see little to no issue with this latest revelation.

The last time I felt this peculiar tingling sensation was when I was waiting for the results for my HIV test. And I consider that to be a sign that I am really looking forward to get me some Dark Souls 2, even if I still believe the name to be ass lazy. Gimme gimme gimme.

 

[Ferisar]

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.

I probably laughed a lot harder than I needed to. That was awesome. ... ...

...

"Move, *****, get out the way"
(had to)

And yeay! I love design like this. For pros, it means they can bypass later encounters with earlier challenges, for noobs it means having the potential of bashing your head against the wall without knowing what to do, but it's Dark Souls, so that's fine.

do you love me?
Yes captcha, I sure do.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

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.

You're leaving out the bit in which you could cheese your way around some boss fights or at least lower the difficulty by exploiting mechanics (as rogues tend to do) in Demon's Souls. Or the bit in which you can either fight one particular or boss and risk certain death or just show so much utter disrespect to make her commit suicide. Or the bit involving dragons and how to best kill, pester or abuse them just to have it your way. Since I didn't take to the (excellent) forums and wikis before finishing Dark Souls my own way and in my own time, I can confirm that these 'new' bits are elements I already enjoyed - and cherish - coming from Demon's and Dark Souls.

Both Demon's and Dark Souls offered discovery and alternate, easier ways to handle and take down bosses for the more careful and inquisitive folks. I liked that, a lot. Their unforgiving nature made me re-evaluate my strategies, approaches and skills over and over again. That's pretty rare these days, and quite worth a bit of extra effort.

 

[Norithics]

To me, this seems to alleviate concerns of difficulty instead of stoking them- you get a normal and a hard mode for those bosses.

And personally, going back to Demon's, I can't even imagine fighting Armor Spider without arrow cheese.

 

[SantoUno]

As if Dark Souls and Demon's Souls weren't non-linear enough.

March 2014? God damn, and I thought the wait for Skyrim was unbearable.

 

[Baresark]

To be honest, it's not that different from Dark Souls. Most bosses were optional with only a small handful actually acting as gatekeepers. You could also go through the entire game never having leveled, so being good enough to beat a boss early is not something new or even all that uncommon. I'm not complaining, but I hate when anyone hypes up a product by lying about what is new or innovative. They literally need to change nothing about Dark Souls to make it an instahit for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear about the improvements they made, but stop acting as if you are doing something new when you talk about these things.

 

[Triality]

As long as they maintain that difficulty with a twist philosophy, give beginners a chance to find surprisingly good loot early just by skilled evasion and exploring, and designing it so that even a level 5 character could beat the game on dodging and good timing alone, it'll be a worthy sequel.

 

[Ferisar]

To be honest, it's not that different from Dark Souls. Most bosses were optional with only a small handful actually acting as gatekeepers. You could also go through the entire game never having leveled, so being good enough to beat a boss early is not something new or even all that uncommon. I'm not complaining, but I hate when anyone hypes up a product by lying about what is new or innovative. They literally need to change nothing about Dark Souls to make it an instahit for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear about the improvements they made, but stop acting as if you are doing something new when you talk about these things.

This isn't the same thing. The idea for this is a boss that might come early just to give you a hint of what's to come, but then disappears or simply kills you and vanishes. They're saying now if that happens you can actually put up a fight. Optional bosses aren't equivalent to what this details, I don't think.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

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.

yep. Not worried Dark 2 is being made too easy. Always been players who can defeat it with basic level/equipment.

Shame From don't have the right to Demons. Be nice to see the 2 worlds combined.

Off topic. Escapist, please get a mobile site

 

[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

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.[/quote]

relevant; 2mins in

 

[Baresark]

To be honest, it's not that different from Dark Souls. Most bosses were optional with only a small handful actually acting as gatekeepers. You could also go through the entire game never having leveled, so being good enough to beat a boss early is not something new or even all that uncommon. I'm not complaining, but I hate when anyone hypes up a product by lying about what is new or innovative. They literally need to change nothing about Dark Souls to make it an instahit for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear about the improvements they made, but stop acting as if you are doing something new when you talk about these things.

This isn't the same thing. The idea for this is a boss that might come early just to give you a hint of what's to come, but then disappears or simply kills you and vanishes. They're saying now if that happens you can actually put up a fight. Optional bosses aren't equivalent to what this details, I don't think.

I guess the point of my post is that you can always put up a fight in Dark Souls, with the beginning equipment never having leveled, so it's inaccurate to treat this as something new. Even in Demon's Souls, you didn't have to let that first demon in the tutorial area kill you. You could kill it in the tutorial area and then not have to fight it later. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they are not making this a totally linear experience with multiple pathways and choices where you want to go. But that is also pretty much Dark Souls. I don't think they are going to let you go strait to the final boss. I think it's honestly better if they have a shit ton of optional bosses with a few that need to beaten, which is more than likely what they are still gonna do. Or maybe they are going to make every boss necessary but you can go fight them in any order (like Megaman maybe). Dark Souls was not a very linear experience at all, there were parts you never had to touch in order to progress. If they are keeping that up, then they aren't doing anything new. So, I do personally find it annoying that they sound like the are doing what was done in the last game and they are acting like this is new.

 

[Vrach]

Only played Demons Souls, but yeah, you could defeat the first boss there when you started the game if you played well. So I wouldn't say this is neccessarily a bad thing, just gives you more options. The whole "level start>trash>boss>trash>boss" works well, but it's not the only way a game like this can work, in fact, it's likely not the best way either, though certainly the easiest design-wise.

The bosses, at least in Demons Souls, didn't require much in the way of gear/spells/stats, it was 99% about tactics, the rest just made the fight easier, faster or gave you more room for error. A lot of the bosses I killed never even landed a single hit on me once I knew how the fight worked. And the game is all about that, only punishing you if you did things wrong.

 

[Ferisar]

To be honest, it's not that different from Dark Souls. Most bosses were optional with only a small handful actually acting as gatekeepers. You could also go through the entire game never having leveled, so being good enough to beat a boss early is not something new or even all that uncommon. I'm not complaining, but I hate when anyone hypes up a product by lying about what is new or innovative. They literally need to change nothing about Dark Souls to make it an instahit for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear about the improvements they made, but stop acting as if you are doing something new when you talk about these things.

This isn't the same thing. The idea for this is a boss that might come early just to give you a hint of what's to come, but then disappears or simply kills you and vanishes. They're saying now if that happens you can actually put up a fight. Optional bosses aren't equivalent to what this details, I don't think.

I guess the point of my post is that you can always put up a fight in Dark Souls, with the beginning equipment never having leveled, so it's inaccurate to treat this as something new. Even in Demon's Souls, you didn't have to let that first demon in the tutorial area kill you. You could kill it in the tutorial area and then not have to fight it later. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they are not making this a totally linear experience with multiple pathways and choices where you want to go. But that is also pretty much Dark Souls. I don't think they are going to let you go strait to the final boss. I think it's honestly better if they have a shit ton of optional bosses with a few that need to beaten, which is more than likely what they are still gonna do. Or maybe they are going to make every boss necessary but you can go fight them in any order (like Megaman maybe). Dark Souls was not a very linear experience at all, there were parts you never had to touch in order to progress. If they are keeping that up, then they aren't doing anything new. So, I do personally find it annoying that they sound like the are doing what was done in the last game and they are acting like this is new.

That's fair. I'm still convinced they could do it in such a way that it'll certainly feel new, though. I agree otherwise, although not very annoyed by it. But really, what other bosses come to mind that you could "beat early" besides the Asylum Demon, which you fight about two seconds later anyway? I mean, the Scaleless just straight murders you unless you peace out, and... that's really all that comes to mind for me.

Not to say that they should make every boss have this particular option of engagement, but a couple more wouldn't hurt, depending on how many there are in the game. Either way, we'll see when the game lands.

Side-note: I'm not talking about the ability to engage a boss whose stats and damage output would suggest the usage of better gear. I know people have run Dark Souls through at level 1 with pretty much shit. I mean specifically the ability to take on a boss in an earlier stage of the game then the one they would otherwise be available in.

 

[Baresark]

To be honest, it's not that different from Dark Souls. Most bosses were optional with only a small handful actually acting as gatekeepers. You could also go through the entire game never having leveled, so being good enough to beat a boss early is not something new or even all that uncommon. I'm not complaining, but I hate when anyone hypes up a product by lying about what is new or innovative. They literally need to change nothing about Dark Souls to make it an instahit for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear about the improvements they made, but stop acting as if you are doing something new when you talk about these things.

This isn't the same thing. The idea for this is a boss that might come early just to give you a hint of what's to come, but then disappears or simply kills you and vanishes. They're saying now if that happens you can actually put up a fight. Optional bosses aren't equivalent to what this details, I don't think.

I guess the point of my post is that you can always put up a fight in Dark Souls, with the beginning equipment never having leveled, so it's inaccurate to treat this as something new. Even in Demon's Souls, you didn't have to let that first demon in the tutorial area kill you. You could kill it in the tutorial area and then not have to fight it later. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they are not making this a totally linear experience with multiple pathways and choices where you want to go. But that is also pretty much Dark Souls. I don't think they are going to let you go strait to the final boss. I think it's honestly better if they have a shit ton of optional bosses with a few that need to beaten, which is more than likely what they are still gonna do. Or maybe they are going to make every boss necessary but you can go fight them in any order (like Megaman maybe). Dark Souls was not a very linear experience at all, there were parts you never had to touch in order to progress. If they are keeping that up, then they aren't doing anything new. So, I do personally find it annoying that they sound like the are doing what was done in the last game and they are acting like this is new.

That's fair. I'm still convinced they could do it in such a way that it'll certainly feel new, though. I agree otherwise, although not very annoyed by it. But really, what other bosses come to mind that you could "beat early" besides the Asylum Demon, which you fight about two seconds later anyway? I mean, the Scaleless just straight murders you unless you peace out, and... that's really all that comes to mind for me.

Not to say that they should make every boss have this particular option of engagement, but a couple more wouldn't hurt, depending on how many there are in the game. Either way, we'll see when the game lands.

Side-note: I'm not talking about the ability to engage a boss whose stats and damage output would suggest the usage of better gear. I know people have run Dark Souls through at level 1 with pretty much shit. I mean specifically the ability to take on a boss in an earlier stage of the game then the one they would otherwise be available in.

I'm not attacking, I can't wait to see what they do in the next installment. I always said that if they simply took the incredibly good combat system to the next game and gave us lots of new equipment and builds to work on, I'm all in. I have not seen anything new to the series that has not felt extremely good to me. I'm amped up!

 

[ShrimpMania]

My only problem with this is that killing the boss early in the stage would probably mean you miss out on something like their intro cutscene when you meet them in their "boss room" or just them jumping out all cool and monster like there.

It would be great for new game+ though where your 1-3 hitting early bosses with magic like in dark souls. That way you could get things done faster or not have to fully explore an area you hate.

I'll probably like the game no matter what unless they bring back the inside-out babies from the swamp in demonses's s-soulses'sss or something similar. Some things were just too creepy for me in that game so I never re-played it. But dark souls had nothing creepy in it, so I still play it even now.

 

[RJ Dalton]

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

Sounds good to me.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Give them back, I wasn't done eating.