Dark Souls II IGN Video, My Thoughts

The Video showed me:
Walking animation changes for equip loads.
Reason: The Knight walks with a slight limp like he is over-weighted.

Fancier Attack sets:
Reason: the AXE looked like it had a fancy attack set to me. AN AXE!

Dual Wielding improvements:
Reason: A Hollow the knight killed was dual-wielding two Swords

Torches: torches will be a major function. LoZ Puzzle Time!
Reason: The commentary says something like "Now you see him lighting a torch, lighting was a key aspect of this game."

Gestures have been improved
Reason: When he is about to get knocked off the edge by the boars, the knight does a gesture that looked pretty smooth unlike the dark souls current ones where it is rigid movement.

Cold-Weather Knight is new Elite Knight.
Reason: the VGA Trailer and the new IGN one both have this armor set as the showcase armor. DKS trailers had the Elite Knight armor as it's Showcase armor.

Always Being able to see your Quick Item Access Items.
Reasons: The Slots below the shield and weapon get filled by items in your QIA to show what you have on you.

Spell Slots Viewable at all times.
Reason: When you look at the attunement slots in the video you see what looks like other slots stacked like a deck of cards to the side of it.

Shield-less Gameplay improved:
Reason: The torch takes up the shield, Dual-wielding has been improved. Shield Substitutes MUST exist imo.

Rolling Changes???
Reason: The character never Rolls!

Mist is the new Fog
Reason: The 'Fog Wall' is now a Mist wall

Bonfires!!!
Reason: The character lights a bonfire with an amazing animation like a explosion of ashes!

release Date: Soon
Reason: Gameplay! Late 2013 is my expected date. October perhaps?

Edit: 4/10
Starting Classes:
Wanderer: Clothier looking armor.
Reason: Screenshot
Knight: Same Armor and everything
Reason: Screenshot
https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t20322-new-screenshots

He rolls in the ealier part of the video.. just after the torch lighting bit at 2 mins in.

Serious_Much wrote:He rolls in the ealier part of the video.. just after the torch lighting bit at 2 mins in.

No time right now to go watch the video again, Any changes?

RenegadeCop wrote:Your analysis seems accurate to me. I never took the time to take that much in, and note the changes by them, but it makes sense to me now.

Thank you

The combat has me hyped. It looks like a return to DeS, and the combat was one of the few things about DeS that I liked more than DkS.

Saturday-Saint wrote:The combat has me hyped. It looks like a return to DeS, and the combat was one of the few things about DeS that I liked more than DkS.

Was my first thought, and sadly I dunno if backstabbing will be limited to pierce weapons again because the targets were armored and i didnt see a backstab the entire time.

tinypantha wrote:

Serious_Much wrote:He rolls in the ealier part of the video.. just after the torch lighting bit at 2 mins in.

No time right now to go watch the video again, Any changes?

His roll speed was pretty quick, which considering he was wearing the medium armour set typical to the game could mean that roll speed of <50% is king again.. though I wouldn't bank on it, maybe character is just hench

It's quite possible they might just have more enemies that can't be backstabbed.

Also if you notice the armored Bramd wielding figures are similar to the Large Club Fat Giants from Btown.

Tolvo wrote:It's quite possible they might just have more enemies that can't be backstabbed.

Also if you notice the armored Bramd wielding figures are similar to the Large Club Fat Giants from Btown.

If i recall correctly he calls them "Tortoises"

Serious_Much wrote:

tinypantha wrote:

Serious_Much wrote:He rolls in the ealier part of the video.. just after the torch lighting bit at 2 mins in.

No time right now to go watch the video again, Any changes?

His roll speed was pretty quick, which considering he was wearing the medium armour set typical to the game could mean that roll speed of <50% is king again.. though I wouldn't bank on it, maybe character is just hench

The animation looked like a mid-roll to me, not a fast roll. I think either they changed the fast roll animation to a mid-roll and that guy's got a lot of endurance (not unlikely, he was most likely overleveled to make the tester's life easy) or they buffed up the slower roll speeds to make them more competitive with fast-rolling.

though I wouldn't bank on it, maybe character is just hench

The character was wearing a full plate of armor, with high HP, defense and stamina(?) while carrying a greatsword, a sword, a shield and a bow and was still able to Fast Roll. I call HAX

Anyways, there are some concerns I have noticed. When fighting the Turtles, he managed to block hits from their maces with the torch without taking chip damage. Either they changed blocking (doubt it, tho) or I call super hax (or blocking ring).

Another detail is the ability to run backwards while locked on as seen in the scene with Silver Chariot (confirmed name).

The thing that intrigues me is really the changes to Dual-wielding and Bows. Bows now have the ability to move while attacking, and my guess is that it will also hold true for crossbows. This could actually make these weapons a bit "standard" since they now hold a defensive measure on top of ranged offense.

In the case of Dual Wielding, it is important that we find out more details regarding it as we only saw a Dual Attack in the demo.

Seignar wrote:Another detail is the ability to run backwards while locked on as seen in the scene with Silver Chariot (confirmed name).

I was wondering about this. I think it might just be a forced event. Like if it gets close enough to you, you lose control of your character and he runs away. Maybe not. But I can't imagine why the *** else he doesn't ROLL TO THE SIDE.

Any one else notice he was carrying 3!!! weapons he could choose from quick change ?? and that the Humanity gauge was replaced by a moon symbol ?? also ... there are head shots ;O lol axe to da face

Saturday-Saint wrote:

Seignar wrote:Another detail is the ability to run backwards while locked on as seen in the scene with Silver Chariot (confirmed name).

I was wondering about this. I think it might just be a forced event. Like if it gets close enough to you, you lose control of your character and he runs away. Maybe not. But I can't imagine why the *** else he doesn't ROLL TO THE SIDE.

If there is a walk away motion rather than a back stepping or walking backwards motion while locked on I feel that will increase back stabs

I wouldn't count on things like fog being changed to mist and stuff like that based just on this. It's likely the translation team hasn't really sat down with the game yet in any meaningful way. (Healing Drop Stone sounds a lot like something that hasn't been accurately translated yet.) Overall, I'd say things they mentioned specifically and made a big deal out of showing off (i.e. cinematic deaths, torch mechanics, improved graphics, situational enemy awareness and etc) are likely to be confirmed changes/features, but other things are possibly just remnants of the game being in a very early build state at this stage. There are no ripostes as far as I can tell in the video, but I think it's more likely that ripostes haven't been fully implemented or tested yet, rather than that they've been removed. There's also a point where the character picks up an item, but the game doesn't show what item it is like it does in DS or DeS. The build used for the trailer is probably intentionally vague, or just represents the game in a very unfinished state. That being said, the new gameplay additions, as well as some of the things they've said will remain (in particular the bonfires, which I consider to be one of the strongest gameplay elements from DS) seem to show that this game will be a very worthy follow up to the souls series. I especially like the aesthetics of the levels showcased, they seem to have more of a Demon Souls influence than a lot of Dark Souls, almost as if they're Demon Souls locales in the Dark Souls universe. (Not to say they look like specific areas from Demon Souls, but rather that they wouldn't look out of place in Demon Souls, which I like, since Demon Souls had some incredibly atmospheric levels.)

I'm sorry but this is still Lordran right?

Someone please explain to me how Gwyn, Nito, Seath, and friends thought they wiped out the Dragons.

I mean sure they might have missed our little buddy down in Ash Lake but the sky was FULL of Dragons, and he called them Dragons, not Drakes.

I've been a bit more interested in this. It seems like a form of Tendency from Demon's Souls without having to focus on the times you had died in the world, a manual way of influencing the world around you.

^ True, I want some of those to be traps so bad.

I want one that moans loudly just so players can get really confused and creeped out.

"I just put a stone in that things mouth, with that face, and it sexually moaned. Alright I'm getting the hell out of here."

Tolvo wrote:I want one that moans loudly just so players can get really confused and creeped out.

"I just put a stone in that things mouth, with that face, and it sexually moaned. Alright I'm getting the hell out of here."

Why would you run? Making friends in Dark Souls is key to survival.

Oh yeah, that thing is called the Key Mouth by the way. http://darksouls2wiki.wikispaces.com/Key+Mouth

That would actually be hilarious XD

Here's what I noticed: throughout the demo, he never used magic. It could be that I'm only just getting around to using a pure casting build, but that irks me. I love melee, and it will probably always be my favorite, but there was neither sorcery nor pyromancy in the video, which disturbed me. Also, I don't like the idea of expendable healing items that heal you so much, those drop stones look fishy to me, although they seem reminiscent of humanity in their use and effect, so perhaps that is what they are meant to be and your character is not undead.