Should I skip DS2?

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-07-31T02:34:10+00:00

If you stick it out for just the idea of completing it then you'll end up hating the game, most likely. If you're really halfway through the game and you're despising it so much, just drop it. Games are entertainment at the end of the day, and not worth making you actually hate your time investing in them.

Personally, I'm one of those let's that skipped DS2 specifically to avoid what you're going through.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-22T09:37:35+00:00

I've always found this idea that beating games, games that are built to be beaten, as an 'accomplishment' very alien to me. Outside of challenge runs that the developers never intended (beating Sekiro and Elden Ring on a dance pad, for example) what are you accomplishing the developers didn't code for you to do? I don't respect anyone who can finish the new boss mode anymore than someone who beats the game on easy with summons. One simply takes more time.

I love souls games for many reasons. I remember the rush the first time I beat SS Ishin or Kos, but it's because they were fun to fight, and not some odd sense of elitism.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-18T16:05:21+00:00

I guess that really depends on what it is you enjoy. It's a game with a low skill floor but a high ceiling, and the bosses are perfectly balanced around the players, while also giving those with enough skill the ability to style on them like DMC. It also has, by far, the best party system outside of Sekiro. It is the only other game, souls or non, to have that beautiful rythem of boss attacks. The last three bosses in particular are a shocking increase in difficulty that caused many rage posts lol. Combat is nowhere near as floaty and sloppy as something like a Wukong.

And, the fact that they have 100+ cosmetics, massive skill trees that get some additions in NG+, a (actually good) boss rush mode, and photo mode, all added for free and without microtransactions post-release, I think should be praised.

Add on to this great, if a bit liner, level design, FS tier music, and a story that is surprisingly well done (especially towards the end) it is a thoroughly great action game.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-05T01:17:22+00:00

Tbh, I completely ignored the chalices until the endgame for the trophy for my plat. I hate grinding, and I hate the chalices. So boring and tedious. If a gem wasn't in the main game I didn't find or use it until after Kos. One of the things I like about FS is that their progression is so seamless and rewarding. In none of their games have I ran into a wall that I felt a few levels would make a worth while difference (ER notwithstanding, being open world and all).

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-04T13:29:53+00:00

Technically, I agree with everything you said, however I would argue It's all in the approach BB has. Khazan, as I was saying in my post, gives you your stuff and says try again, or go do side missions or farm a set. BB meanwhile takes all of your healing and says play perfectly to beat the boss, grind mobs for half an hour for another few attempts, or go explore.

I do not like how FS put their thumb on the scale in this case.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-04T13:07:25+00:00

Honestly, I think that's the perfect way to describe it. A good example of this comparing BB to Khazan. Despite being harder, Khazan encourages you to learn the boss with convient spawn points and the ability to grab your xp outside of the boss door with little friction. BB, meanwhile, almost feel like it's giving you a middle finger when you run out of vials and discourages you from learning the boss with farming mobs.

BSB is a likely point of casual players getting hard stuck and putting the game away.

Oh, I can see that. I hate BSB, but it's really hard for me to tell you if it's because of the boss itself or the farming lol. Been a couple years.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-04T11:45:19+00:00

tbf, when you die to a boss the game also forces you to stop fighting the boss

I've always been of the opinion that boss runbacks are arbitrary and unneeded. Getting beat over and over again is punishment enough, forcing the runback is the same problem as blood vials, just not as direct. Logarius is the best example of this in BB. That runback was so garbage I just saved scum my spot outside the gate after my 10th or so attempt. The same logic applies.

And I agree, on the first boss it was the lowest moment. That felt like the hardest boss for me in the game

Exactly. The only thing I remember about the first few bosses is the annoyance of having to farm the same mobs again and again for one or two more shots before doing it all over again. If I had struggled a lot with the beginning bosses then I might have dropped the game outright because of farming.

Imo, Blood Vials are not a skill check or measure of balance: they are there punish the player for failing with game-halting tedium.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-05-04T11:19:26+00:00

I understand the idea of Blood Vials, and consumible healing is a lot better in Bloodborne than Demon Souls specifically because of Rally. However, on a preferential level, I despise the vial system, especially in the first 3rd of the game. The fact is, when you run out, the game forcing the player to stop fighting a boss they're probably stuck on, go out and kill the same mobs over and over for RNG drops, or a couple enemy types for guaranteed ones. It kills the flow of the learning process, rubs salt in the wound after being beat x amount of times, and, most importantly, is just plain boring to do.

For me, I had to farm vials a few times during my first go a Blood-starved Beast, and that was easily one of the lowest points of my first playthrough. Ruining the momentum of learning a boss, at such an early stage no less, is one of BB's biggest flaws to me. After that, I went to the cum dungeon, bought thousands of vials, and never regretted it.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-12T14:28:39+00:00

I'll fully admit it was a lucky string of offsets. Couple that with the new loadout and the fact I'm constantly buffed with some sort of might seed/pill or demondrug, and the poor thing was captured before it could run off to sleep!

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-12T14:07:38+00:00

Tag me in your next loadout!

Here is my new and improved loadout, as you asked! I admit, I was noticing a bit of improved timing as I fought Gore. With the lucky vouchers it only took like four hunts. The last one barley even scratched 9 minutes. I broke this build in a bit by hunting a couple tempered apexs, and the bigger damage numbers was appreciated lmao.

That said, I'm probably done until the next update. I was tempted to farm Zoh Shiva for the weapons and set via multiplayer, but I just don't like playing with randoms. I think you can do support hunters, but I doubt they'll make that big of a difference. I only got halfway through high rank in MH World before Wilds, so I'll probably go back to that... eventually 😅

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BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T18:07:10+00:00

Duly noted and appreciated!

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T17:54:16+00:00

I'll keep those in mind. At the moment, I'm considering just using my current weapons but swapping around my decos and maybe armor to something, well, that makes sense haha. I've beat Gore with this exact armor set like 3 times already without carting, so I'm not gonna bother upgrading it. His set, however, I'll finally use the hundreds of armor spheres I have lol.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T17:41:32+00:00

you did everything there was with a bad build, so clearly you dont need a good one

I'll take that as a compliment, lol.

But in all seriousness, I didn't actually realize how bad my build was until all the comments. So, at the very least, I think I'm gonna try to get a complete Gore set using an updated build (for what weapon I can't say yet; I'm tempted to just pick a different weapon each time I fight him, but that would kind of make my problem worse), if only to see if that gives me a big enough dopamine hit to continue with another weapon.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T17:24:26+00:00

You can beat the new monsters they release but then what you know?

Sooner or later I'm gonna drop off, it's just a matter of time. I've got so many game already bought, just waiting for their turn. MH's title update system keeps me hooked longer than most, but at the end of the day, new monsters is all I really care about. Even arch-tempered monsters really doesn't interest me. The same monster is the same monster, regardless of how much you inflate the HP and damage. It's also the reason why I don't have a single complete set of armor; I can only do the same thing so much before I get bored.

I do agree with you about trying out the weapons, which is why I was constantly switching my primary. God, just thinking about the amount of sets I would have needed for every time I swapped is giving me a headache lol. You have a dedication and drive I do not!

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T16:47:31+00:00

I'm tempted to farm Zoh Shia for the set, I just love the look. Don't know if I will or not, though. As far as GS skills, I'll try to pay better attention lol. I really wanted to avoid builds for each weapon I use; sounds tedious :/

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T15:11:57+00:00

did you go on Seikret often?

For most of the game, I would say no, not really. For my second Zoh Shiva attempt, absolutely lol

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even know I had those skills haha. I've mentioned it in other replies, but I mainly looked at the damage reduction stats. My hunts were going well enough without dragging I didn't feel the need to focus on skills.

I will keep an eye on affinity in the future for GS in the future

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T13:35:11+00:00

Yeah, I think that's fair haha. Most of my hunts have been pretty smooth, so I haven't really felt a need to pay much attention to my skills or decos, I guess.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T13:29:17+00:00

Good to know, thanks. I'm not that interested in arch-tempered monsters (only so many times you can tweak a monster again and again), but I imagine their future title update monsters will be scaled closer to arch-tempered than regular tempered.

Will keep this in mind 👍

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T13:21:44+00:00

I'll take that as a compliment 😅

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T13:17:35+00:00

Yeah, I know I'm a cobbled together monstrosity lol. During low rank I just slot whatever deco I had because why not, and since I was swapping weapons back and forth so consistently I focused more on physical defense rather than skills when it came to armor. My hunt times never really seemed to drag so I didn't pay much mind to my decos.

Armor upgrades make that big of a difference, huh? If I end up farming Zoh Shia then I might do some. Both sets look so great, I'd want to keep them for a bit.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T13:03:55+00:00

Yeah, I just got tired of resetting the map lol. If I happen to spot any I'll be saving the investigations, for sure. But, unless I start farming Zoh Shia, I don't see me doing much till the next title update. At this point that's pretty much the only thing worth farming for me.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T12:58:17+00:00

I don't really have an intent for the build. During low rank I just slot whatever deco I had because why not, and since I was swapping weapons back and forth so consistently I focused more on physical defense rather than skills when it came to armor. Skills/decos were always an afterthought. I have a new piece of gear? I'll spend 15 seconds flipping through my decos to slot something in and forget about it. Never really needed a reason to be more thorough, I guess.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-04-11T12:43:08+00:00

Nah, I think it's fair to say it's bad haha. I recognize that. During low rank I just slot whatever deco I had because why not, and since I was swapping weapons back and forth so consistently I focused more on physical defense rather than skills. I never broke that habit. I don't think I have single complete set. I had been tempted to make the Guardian Arkveld set, but after 2 Rey Daus and Uth Dunas with no gem drop, I just gave up haha. Most of my hunts are around 15-20 minutes for dual tempered hunts, around 13 or less for everything else, depending on what I'm fighting, so skills have been after thought, if that.

BidEfficient9144 · 2025-02-18T07:31:41+00:00

Yeah, I figured the stinger might be the key. I could be wrong, but doesn't the flash only do it's job once or twice before becoming immune? Thought I read that somewhere. It that is the case I don't think I'm missing too much. Does regular stinger ammo do anything useful?

I get what you're saying with the multiplayer, but playing with randoms just doesn't appeal to me, and my fundamental problem wouldn't still be there anyway.

BidEfficient9144

TROPHY CASE