A patch to prepare Dark Souls II for its upcoming Scholar of the First Sin update is coming on February 5. Although Scholar of the First Sin itself doesn’t arrive until April, Bandai Namco’s revealed a tiiiiny bit more of what’s in store for players who return to Majula in a new trailer.
There’s still plenty we don’t know, but we can begin to tease out some new details from here.
My first death in Dark Souls II came right after the starting location. Players haven’t entered Majula, and it’s possible to come across a pair of nasty cave trolls. Exploration is key to Dark Souls, though, so it’s the game’s way of punishing you for doing exactly what you were supposed to do. You know, Dark Souls being Dark Souls. In Scholar of the First Sin, enemies have been moved around. Think of it as enemy remixing. The cave trolls have a new friend: a pursuer.
Pursuers are nasty. You wouldn’t want to fight one so early on. I now feel bad for newcomers.
There appears to be a new location for the flexile sentry too.
It’s hard to tell if Dark Souls II is becoming a better looking game. We’ve been told the graphics are being tweaked for this release, at least on PC and new consoles, but it’s unclear how far they’re going — or what version we’re watching in this video. Of course, it’s still not what the developers promised ahead of the game’s release, which remains a point of controversy for fans.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Dark Souls II lighting controversy, here’s a decent comparison:
I still think Dark Souls II is a pretty good looking game, but I understand why folks were upset.
There’s probably more to be found in the trailer, but it’s been a while since I played Dark Souls II. That said, I’m excited to get back into it, and try a build without a sword and shield for once.
Comments
4 responses to “Hidden Details Buried In The Dark Souls II Expansion’s New Trailer”
Bamco are losing a lot of faith with this, and it really is quite a kick in the crotch for PC players.
This is Steam though – just wait till it goes on sale! (I understand the annoyance over having to re-buy the game, but this is the kind of thing console players have had to deal with for ages, if publishers are going to consider PC a viable platform then they need to be able to make a buck out of it!)
For my part I traded my 360 copy the second I heard this news and am eagerly anticipating the game on X1 (playing DS1 in the meantime!)
“Exploration is key to Dark Souls, though, so it’s the game’s way of punishing you for doing exactly what you were supposed to do.”
This is not exactly true, if you find Dark Souls overly punishing its because you’ve explored an area you’re not ready for.
But that isn’t exactly true of DS2 either, the part he mentions are specifically starting zone areas that there is no story line reason to return to outside of NG+ so they are punishing solely for the “welcome to dark souls” reason, not because you are intended to return here later for any other reason than to punish the enemies who punished you for exploring.
If you didn’t explore these areas at the start of the game there is little reason you’d return here short of being told by someone out side of the game.