Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin launches next week, but PC owners considering upgrading to the game’s DirectX11 version should be aware of a few things regarding save transfers, multiplayer and upgrade pricing.
Bandai Namco released an extensive FAQ to prepare everyone for Scholar of the First Sin, and it reveals a few wrinkles I’ve been wondering about for a few months now.
If you’re a little confused about how there’s a separate version of Scholar of the New Sin when it was patched into existing versions of Dark Souls II a few weeks ago, that’s ok. The new NPC, lore changes, weapon balancing, and other changes are part of every version of Dark Souls II, but Scholar of the First Sin is also a separate package for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 that comes a bunch of additional tweaks:
- New enemy placement, map shortcuts, and gameplay design.
- Graphics, sound, and performance upgrade.
- New weapons and armour for players to experiment with.
- New NPC invading player’s world.
- Max online players up from 4 to 6.
PC owners can upgrade to Scholar of the First Sin, but it will cost you a few dollars. If you already own Dark Souls II and the existing downloadable content, it’s only $US20. If you only own the base game, it’s $US30, but you’ll get all pf the changes and the three pieces of add-on content.
If you don’t own anything on PC, the DirectX9 version (which, again, has all the DLC) is $US39.99 and the DirectX11 version is $US49.99. For newcomers, that’s a really solid deal for lots of game! Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions cost $US60, and there’s no upgrade path for them.
Once you’ve paid, though, there’s more to consider.
If you decide to buy the DirectX11 version, you save file won’t come over and you can only participate in multiplayer with other DirectX11 players. Multiplayer isn’t being shut off for previous versions of Dark Souls II, but on the PC, the player base is being split up.
Here’s how Bandai Namco explains it:
“The difference in the DirectX11, Xbox One, and PS4 versions of Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin pertaining to where enemies spawn, items are located, and other environmental differences will not allow players running newer hardware versions to connect and interact with players experiencing the game on older hardware running DirectX9, Xbox 360, and PS3.”
That’s a bummer, but it suggests From Software has performed major surgery on the engine powering Dark Souls, presumably laying the groundwork for the future of the franchise, too. Though Bloodborne is getting the attention right now, I suspect Dark Souls III is coming too.
Comments
9 responses to “Important Answers About Dark Souls II’s Expansion On PC”
Well I am happy there is a discount. I am not sure if I will get it as I have pretty much burnt myself out on DS2 and recently started on DS1. But I still am happy they gave some form on discount. At the same time, I am annoyed that because of consoles and all this Next gen wowy zowyness, this is a thing.
Hurry up and break street date!!!
This is a shocking indictment on the PC as a platform and or services provider (depends on your age what you view it as these days).
Dark Souls was my first PS3 game. I went back and played Demon’s. Dark 2 was a game that I bought day 1. As far as I’m concerned, the franchise is synonymous with PlayStation and playing them on Sony machines is the best (obviously not optimal, though) way to experience them.
I love these games. Dark Souls on PC has utterly consumed me yet again, but for all the sturm und drang about ‘what that version offers’ it’s still the base game that counts, . Unfortunately that base game is as broken as an early access game you see pilloried by Youtubers. That’s now, not at release.
I’m using ‘that mod’ but the game has quietly turned into a white elephant for a while now. GfWL ending, the protracted and necessary transfer purpose, the multiplayer constantly bugged and seemingly no way to fix it (look at the Steam community forum) and now, because I have the audacity to want to play the sequel on PC, I’m forced through these bloody hoops.
Would have rather they did not bother, but hey, $$$.
I have been a closet PC gamer since the 80s, stuff like this is why. We deserve better but don’t care.
People with flamethrowers, form an orderly queue.
The sequel actually plays well on PC, no mods needed. It worked well on release, and it continues to work well. All they’re saying is that they spent months of their time upgrading the graphics for the game, and if you want the improved graphics then you need to pay them for their work. The game isn’t suddenly going to stop working just because you don’t buy it
It still doesn’t look (lighting wise) anything like what the E3 trailers look like and the texture improvements are fairly minimal. The only major change is the enemy and item placements, which I don’t think is worth $20-30.
I’m not a big fan of the game myself. I thought it just lost what made it special. But that being said, people often overreact. Features got cut, like they do from every game
There were major cuts and changes made since the E3 trailers.
Magic space elevators, and pretty much the removal of needing the torch mechanic (among a whole slew of other things) is proof of that.
Not sure I’m willing to throw another $20 at the DS2 PC version basically just for the DX11 upgrade… And I’m kind of not convinced I should have to either given some of what was advertised graphically before the initial release and what was actually given at release.
Though to be honest, playing Bloodborne lately has me wanting to go back and play Dark Souls 1 again… Not 2.
I’m sorry, but charging extra money for an API is absolutely despicable. Unfortunately this isn’t the first time Bandai Namco have screwed over consumers (and PC especially).
So what, in another few months time there’ll be a $70 DX12 version?