joques

Honto desu.

You know the guy in Rayman Origins at every result screen? The dude that climbs on top the tube and shouts "OODAGAY, OODAGAY" in pig latin? Yeah, that's what happens in my brain every time Futaba is on screen: "FOOTABAY, FOOTABAY!"

I got killed just twice by Jester Thomas, and instead of getting fired up like before, I just went ugh, I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm over this.

Maybe I'll come back and do them in a year's time or so, as a prelude to getting into DS3, but right now I'm all soulsed out.

@qrowdyy: Meh - I've clawed my way through Shulva and half of the Dragon Sanctum, and it is just a slog like the main game never was. Just frustrating and mean in a way that's new for me and very much a turn-off. I'm sure there are people for whom that tucked-away ghost armor room was awesome - for me it was just ultra frustrating that I could never turn those ghosts vulnerable. So when I found all those armors, I was just drained and resigned, not pumped and awestruck.

No, I get _why_. It just creates such an impossible narrative tangleknot that I don't know whether I'm coming or going.

I never asked for that ;-) #notallgamers

So I felt about done with the game. I'd ventured just a bit into Shulva, I hadn't messed around with Vendrick at all, I'd sunk 60 hours into the game and I was really ready for it to end. So I said, fuck it, let's just go do the end boss and lock myself out of any more end-game play - otherwise I know it'll gnaw at me.

So I go and kill Nashandra, sit on the throne, and watch through the credits (really quite a lot of Chinese names in there, that surprised me) - and what happens? I'm dumped back in Majula. Nothing has ended, nothing has locked me out of anything. It's all still there to gnaw at me. Goddamnit!

It's structurally really weird. The chosen undead sits on the throne and --- what? Links the fire? There hasn't been any talk of linking any fire so far in the game. We don't need no steenkin' fire! What is this link the fire of which you speak? Or not, as far as the narrator knows or says. The door just closes, and the chosen undead is severed from your control, YOU don't even, as the player, know what your erstwhile puppet will do. It's out of your hands. And THEN that same puppet (or is it) is unceremoniously put back in your control and dumped back in Majula like nothing's happened? WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE THRONE ROOM AND MAJULA! IS IT EVEN THE SAME CHARACTER; OR SOME SIMULACRUM OR DARK SHADOW?

IT IS SO WEIRD! The narrative implications are boggling my mind.

Man, I'm just past Shrine of Amana, so not really in sight of the end, and have not even touched the DLC yet, and I'm at SL 150! I admit to grinding The Pursuer and the Last Giant with 4 bonfire ascetics (also, I tend to gobble up all the boss souls rather than trading them for boss items - exception for Smelter Sword (which I don't use) and Pursuer Greatshield (which I definitely DO use)), but other than that I haven't been grinding or farming. It's just that levelling is sooo much cheaper here than in DS1.

I was just playing the game, levelling up, and around SL 50 it started to hit me that "hm, why is it still so cheap to level? At this SL in DS1 I think it was about 15.000 souls per level, and here, it's...5000?!?" So I checked out the level cost chart at the wikidot, and sure enough.

So now I'm at 40 in STR, DEX and END, I have 100 in AGL, I'm running around in Vengarl's complete set and not fatrolling ... my Drangleic Sword, longbow and Vengarl's chest armor are all maxed out --- and I feel like this is an endgame character. But still nowhere near the end. What'll I spend souls on from now? Probably just Vigor, though I prefer not to get hit in the first place.

I get that there are more stats to level in this game, so they had to tweak it - but did they maybe go a bit too far?

@capum15: Yes, "give item" and "give money" seem to be entirely useless and included more for SMT-nostalgia reasons than anything else. You should always either recruit or do an all-out attack so far as I can see.

@_brojangles_: I'm dabbling in SMT IV too, and as soon as I figured out how effective "end negotiaton" can be, I haven't had any real problems. Give them lifestone or HP 2-3 times, then end. They will come around more often than not.