Introduction

Greetings everybody, welcome to my Let's Play of Dark Souls II: An Action game with RPG elements and the sequel of the critically acclaimed Dark Souls which in turn is a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. It was released on PS360 on March 11th 2014 in the US and in the following days in Japan and Europe. On April 25th the game finally got released on PC as well. It continues the tradition of putting the player in a soon-to-die world letting them explore the remnants of a variety of settings. It features great art direction, atmosphere and uh... that thing the marketing team and the collective consciousness of the internet won't shut up about which just happens to make it the one thing the series is known for: Difficulty. The game is harder than most of your modern games. But honestly, the difficulty of Souls games is wildly exaggerated. Overall I'd say Dark Souls II is easier than the first one, though, the beginning is a little harder, giving newbies a little bit of a rougher start while, interestingly enough, being a little more accessible due to some small changes to the game's mechanics and design.



We'll be playing through the game as thoroughly as possible. Much like in my LP of the first game I'll aim to show as many of the armor sets, weapons and spells as I can. Rather than grinding a lot I'll play through the game with two characters this time around. One of them in New Game++. He possesses almost everything you don't have to do stupid MMO grinding for. Over the course of the LP either or both of those characters may respec in order to show certain playstyles/builds more efficiently, depending on how I feel about doing that at the time. And since NG+ and on adds more stuff, like extra enemies, we'll essentially see two runs of the game condensed into roughly the time it would take to do one thanks to the magic of editing.

If at any point in time during the LP you think "Man, this seems like it's right up my alley, I definitely want to play it!" Then stop watching immediately and get the damn game. The Souls games are the kind of games you should go into as unaware of what's coming as possible. You can come back later to see if you missed anything important, sure, but if you have a chance and the will to play it then do that instead of watching me, or anyone for that matter, go through it.

It's not required but having played the first game is definitely not an experience you should miss and it'll make things less confusing for you when I refer to the first game, though I'll try my best to explain things from the first game when they come up but I won't go too in-depth seeing as we're actually LPing the second game, not the first. Alternatively there's a couple great LPs of the first game you might want to check out if you can't or don't want to play it for yourself.
Geop's LP: Blind, but thanks to editing and a good dynamic with his co-commentators very enjoyable
Zain's LP: I haven't seen that one in its entirety but if you prefer a more skilled playthrough then look no further
My own LP: Yes, I gotta at least plug that one.





(Pre-emptively Answered Questions, duh)

Q: So, I noticed that the date of the first few videos are from before this thread was even up, explain yourself, f(r)iend!
A: I started this LP about a month before the three moth rule expired because I started it on a forum that only has a two moth rule. I posted one of the updates I already had every few days but now since we have caught up I removed the explanation for this from above and moved it here instead in order to not make people think this thread is still lagging behind.

Q: Are you a real pro at this game? I don't want to see no casual scrub stumblin' around. Git gud!!!
A: I've extensively played this game since it came out but not as extensively as you because I actually have a job and friends. I wouldn't consider myself a "pro" I'm more of a "casual" player of this "core" game. Which is more an attitude thing than a skill thing, really. But don't worry I'm competent enough. And even if I weren't: I know how to edit. Still, I think I can consider myself a veteran, having started with Demon's Souls.

Q: Man, are you, like, gonna talk about the lore? Because I'm diggin' that stuff, man!
A: Yes, I do dig it too. I'll talk about the lore of this game and will also get into the lore of the first game where applicable. I'm also looking forward to other people's interpretations. In general, not specifically talking lore here, you can expect me to bring up both Demon's and Dark Souls as it gets relevant.

Q: This game's hard bro, you'll die a lot!!!
A: Once you get reasonably good at this game most of your deaths will be really stupid if they happen. Expect most of my deaths to be pretty stupid. Like... dodging into the punch of an ogre or into burning oil. Maybe I'll accidentally backstep into a pit, who knows. Due to the nature of this game I'll have to show a few deaths, so if I miraculously don't die until the game picks up a little all the deaths from that point on will be totally intentional, I swear.

Q: Why aren't you playing the PC version? The PC version is, like, so much better!!!!
A: It's indeed the definitive version and if you are going to pick up the game I recommend the PC version, however, since I'm uploading this to youtube we won't be able to actually appreciate the main perk of the PC version: The sweet sweet framerate of 60fps. Resolution is higher too but unfortunately my internet is only THIS fast and my hard drive THAT big. I also like to record big chunks of footage at once. Considering that I essentially record two playthroughs I'd quite simply run out way too quick. If the raw lossless footage for one episode is a bigger than 150 gigs with Lagarith you know it's not really worth it. Especially since I usually have footage for about 3 or 4 episodes lying around before I do commentary. Please! Just let me play the PS3 version!

Q: There's DLC, are you gonna do the DLC?
A: Yes.

Q: There's going to be a rerelease that changes a couple things, it's called Scholar of the First Sin or something like that. Will you do that as well?
A: Play through the entire game with different enemy placements again? No. Something else, though? Yes. By which I mean the parts of the content that are also available on PS360 and the old PC version.




If you just wanna watch on youtube click the banner. If you want to download the videos at a higher bitrate click the download button to grab the file from the internet archives. The download buttons next to the videos only feature the main videos however. If you want to also download the other videos you totally can, though, just click on the download button next to the playlist and pick the desired video. You COULD also stream the video from the archives, but keep in mind that their site is not actually made to stream video and you're better off watching on Youtube if you really don't want to download the videos.



For all of the DLCs: If you prefer a more relaxed and streamlined run through the areas look for the NG++ videos and there are also puns. These videos are marked with a ++ in the lower right corner of the banner. Or use this handy playlist.





Fashion Souls
Fashion Souls is the practice of choosing armor that looks nice rather than pieces that protect well. Since higher armor only really matters if you reach a breaking point that allows you to take one more hit you might as well look pretty. I'll try to be pretty (or scary (or at least not terrible, okay?)) for you with different outfits most episodes, I hope you appreciate that. This is a gallery of all of my totally sweet outfits. They may range from just wearing plain sets to mixing and matching because that's a thing you can do.



Below is a thing/are things that people in the thread did. I'll add more to this as people who participate in the thread do things of some variety. Or not if they don't.

FailAtMagic shows some glitches, speedrun strats some other stuff.

Video part 1 (Covers Episodes 1-6)


Other stuff:
EP 25 - Shrine of Amana - liquidypoo tells us an amusing anecdote