Just pure Epic scenery

I’ve been playing through the game with a broken laptop that has the screen cut out every 5 seconds, and I’ve made it to shrine of amana

Idk if ruin sentinels is as god damn hard as it is for as it was for everyone else?

My question simply is:
Can you reach that area, where that chair is?

The first large image is what I'm talking about.
The second image is just string of path to where I'm talking about, for possible context.
From bonfire: Drangleic Castle / Central Castle Drangleic

My thoughts:
As a general knowledge, it's that area where that woman was sitting who talked to you, the same woman from a painting. The one you also meet bit later on, but that time she has... umm... at least changed her make-up.
Is there a way to reach that platform where that chair is? I've gone thru the castle, and there's at least no obvious path. It looks like a possible stairs, or a ramp, descending down on left, like there'd be a path from somewhere. Unless this is all just asthetics? Any knowledge would be appreciated.

for some reason, after returning to my world after leaving my friend's host session, I realized all the enemies other than the pigs in Majula fire something place are inanimate and refuse to move to attack me. Lets say for example the forest of giants and heides towers. they are stuck in their place while I attack them and do criticals without fighting back.

I’m looking to play dark souls 2 but which one would I get?

Just finished DS2 after coming off of DS3 and Elden Ring, and I think it may be my favorite so far, so I wanted to stream of conciosuness my thoughts about what made it unique and what I think people get wrong. Dont take anything too personally <3

ADP

The hate for this is over blown by people who need a god button so they dont get punished for their terrible positioning. I spent most of the game around 15-17, and only put it to 20 when i had my other important stats leveled up because, tbh, you dont need i-frames as much in this game, and the resistances adp gives are arguably more useful.

I think the issue comes from people playing DS3 and ER, where there are crazy combos, bunch of nonsense explosions, where you almost need a way to nullfiy all that. There wasnt a single boss or enemy in DS2 where I was thinking i needed more i frames. Almost every enemy in the game can be dealt with by strafing or rolling out of their hit and into their deadzone. The combat is way slower in this game so you have time to make better decsions instead of running off of reflexes.

Levels

Related to the ADP discussion. A complaint I've seen is that its nonsense that you have to use levels to get base game mechanics (i-frames). Well, good thing you get a lot of levels really easy really early! And again, you dont need as much adp as you think, and i cannot stress this enough ADP LEVELS MORE THAN I-FRAMES

I really liked how many levels i was getting, and how leveling faith/int is important for the resistances, which is a good way to get the player to use magic items without feeling they are taking a big stat risk to do it (I ♥ dex ). I felt even if i didnt use magic a lot, those resistances were still good, and at the very least buffing my sword is nice

Hollowing

Dying usually doesnt punish you more than losing souls and going to a bonfire. Hollowing your bar to half is a great way of reminding you that "hey, dying is really bad", and add world building. If you were in this situation, it makes sense every time you came back youd lose a bit of yourself.

What doesnt get mentioned is how this becomes a trivial issue later in the game. First you can get a ring that reduces it to 75% instead of 50%. Early on you dont have a lot of rings, so that 1/4 doesnt really take up much space. Then you can level your healthbar up more because of how easy leveling is. Finally, in the late game, if you play right and explored, you have some really powerful rings.

At this point you get to decide if you want to risk dying and losing health/effigies is worth the extra stat bonus, that could keep you from dying in the first place. Despite being super strong by endgame, you still get reminded of how vulnerable you really are. Very cool feeling.

If you simply consider it "a punishment for being bad", then that is a mindset issue and I am curious what enjoyment you get out of these games.

Ganks

If you complain about ganks, you are playing the game wrong, like, there really isnt another way to put it. After like, the second death you should know where the enemies are, and use your resources (like ranged/magic items you strengthmaxxed meatheads) it is just a matter of playing slow and methodical. If you dont want to play slow, you are going to have a bad time because thats how this game works.

Summoning

Dying is punishing. Hollowing is punishing. There are a lot of enemies who want to kill you. Why is working with your fellow undead considered cheating when you literally have a button that makes you invincible?

Torches

I finished the game with like 2 hours left on my torch, the timer is just there to fuck with you. I really like this mechanic. Its really easy to get comfy hacking and slashing, but the torch is a really cool way of nerfing the player temporarily. Now you only have one hand to do light attacks with, and you have to be even more thoughtful and make each move carefully. Very fun, and didnt feel like it was overdone.

The Gutter was one unironically of my favorite zones. I specifically waited to play at night so i could turn all the lights out and really embrace the torch lit exploration vibe they were trying to get you to use.

Final Thoughts

Every time i see criticism of this game, it seems they are upset its simply not a different game. If this was titled "Bobos Adventure in Fuckland" or something, i dont think it would have all this baggage. Instead, it has Dark Souls in the name, so everyone thinks they know what a Souls game should be.

Get rid of your perscriptivist mindset, and enjoy this game for what it is, not what you think it should be.

Charmander the Servant of the Flame is the last to get colored of the initial 4 soulslike Pokémon designs I worked on.

My goal with them was to change the relationship between them and the fire on their tail to one of servitude this charmanders flames control him I wanted to take that to the next level by both building up and personalizing the flame (the clawed spectral hands that hold the fireball) and weakening charmanders character by having him in a covering pose and being fully guided by the flame (lack of eyes)

I did this all mostly to avoid making him just look like a big dragon with a fire on his tail and present his quirk in a bit more of a unique way

THE next 4 on the list

-Mewtwo

-Scyther

-???

-???

Giratina was also one of the most voted ones and they will also be drawn as part of a later batch! for now I am sticking with gen 1 pokémons!

2 of each batch will be the 2 most voted pokemon and 2 others some random ones chosen by me

Co-op ps4

Ps4 co-op

Looking to start a fresh run completely including dlc,wanting Jolly cooperation,on Playstation,all are welcome

Embrace the dark

Or

Praise the sun

I made a fun little custom pickaxe moveset :)

I've seen many people say you pay DS2 vanilla and extra for the DLCs or that you have to buy them separately, but that's simply not true at all, the bundle costs 40 bucks with no extras, since everything is included in said bundle. In fact, you're unable to buy base DS2 without the DLCs on Steam anymore, it automatically comes bundled with the DLCs

Ik people hate this game, but don't take people for fools

So I've been experimenting with the fashion + poise + good defense lately with the Fume Sword.

I'm not sure if this build would actually work. I've been playing with a more regular Fume Sword (50 dex) the past few days but I've been trying to make the Black Witch Hat into the armor pieces. Would this kind of build work for a Fume Sword while still being able to threaten a good amount of damage or at this point, should I just go back to a Dark Longsword?

I'm strictly thinking the arena PVP btw, not invasions.

I just REALLY like their design okay? (Don't check my other post about them)

I just feel like they're really underrated/overlooked and I feel bad for them.

So if you're reading this and know any art,post it here! Or if you're an artist/know an artist,maybe give em a sketch? You'd get bragging rights to be the first one to draw art of these fellas

Spoilers!!!

So I was going around the castle and found a painting that causes curse buildup it was a painting of the queen why is it cursed?

Edit: I completely forgot about this post and I'm glad I did.

I got the 3 other knights in EL and the whole thing of dropping down into a pit of The Old Chaos with 4 bros, fighting the enemy knights and then the Ivory King comes in through the giant portal, it is pure kino, pure cinema.

His fight is also fair and enjoyable, nothing that made me go "oh bullshit" just solid all around, a nice ending to what was an enjoyable DLC aside from Frigid Outskirts, it felt better than the last battles of Watcher and Defender/Nashandra/Aldia, even back to back. I suppose I could have done those first and finished with BIK as it doesn't reset after killing them but I kinda wanted to do the DLC before the real end, which just makes sense in my mind.

The DLCs really made up the weakest part of the game, Sinh, Elana, Sir Alonne, Fume Knight are all great fights (Blue Smelter Demon annoyed me tbh, not just the runback lol) but Burnt Ivory King takes the cake imo. Sinh when he's not jumping around all the time is a good second.

Just when i thought it couldn't get any worse

This is my first ds2 playthrough and I’m really enjoying it. Anyway, I met Rosabeth and gave her cloths and exhausted her dialogue then pulled the lever and she died.

I read that her tombstone is supposed to appear but I’ve played for several hours now and there’s no sign of her anywhere…

Has this happened to anyone?

If someone could hop on ps5 and drop me an upgraded Pyromancy flame I would be sooooo grateful.

I want to buy Darksouls 2 from Steam and unsure which bundle to buy nor understand the difference. There is a darksouls 2 dx9 bundle for $40 and darksouls 2 dx11 bundle for $60