Dark Souls II

Anyone else playing through this?

I'm about 26 hours in and am absolutely loving it so far.

4:01AM Sums up Dark Souls.

Yep, it's outstanding. Frustrating as hell sometimes, I'm stuck on a boss at the moment which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact it takes ages to get back to him from the last bonfire. Still haven't even completed Dark Souls 1 but in all honesty I don't think I'll go back as the combat feels so much better in this one.

I've been keeping track of some "pro" players on youtube and it's quite satisfying that I'm doing better than them

Which boss was it that gave you problems?

The only bosses that have given me any trouble so far are the Ruin Sentinels and the Belfry Gargoyles.

The chariot skeleton thing. Figured out what to do fairly quickly, but I ran out of stamina so fast whilst waiting for the chariot to wipe out the other guys and ended up getting my ass handed to me. Did it first try today, of course. Always the way.

And there's another boss that I'm nowhere near able to beat, the big thing made out of bodies in the Black Gulch. Don't think I'm meant to be there yet - although it's great for farming titanite shards and large titanite shards, and I think a rare drop of titanite slabs as well.

Ahhh right yeah, I managed to defeat the Executioner's Chariot on only my 3rd try or so, got incredibly lucky in finding the lever to knock him off his chariot and it was a piece of p!ss after that really.

Not been to Black Gulch yet, don't even know where that is in Iron Keep at the moment.

I found Black Gulch through about 3 areas after jumping down the well in Majula.

Reading the item descriptions and trying to figure out the lore for yourself is really interesting. I'm pretty convinced that Heides Keep is in fact Anor Londo and the whole place is Lordran just thousands of years in the future...that does mean however that (due to Heides Keep being flooded) almost all the areas from the first game are now underwater! If i'm right of course.

Ahh right ok, I haven't ventured down the well in Majula yet as I kept dying when I attempted it earlier on in the game…might have to buy the ring off the cat in Majula in order to get down.

I've definitely experienced some déja vu adventuring around Drangleic. Drangleic and Lordran might well be the same location just donkey's years on, as you said 'Heide's Tower of Flame' is VERY similar to Anor Londo from the original DS, even one of the bosses there is from the original DS, just with a more ambigious name 'Old Dragonslayer'.

There's also a boss in Belfry Luna which is ripped straight from DS too and fight again in DSII, in a very similar locale as well.

OK, turns out the boss in the Gulch is actually one of the easiest in the game, I was just over complicating it

Loving playing this blind, with Dark Souls one I knew a lot about it already from seeing videos/friends playing etc. Looking forward to playing around with different builds...next play through I'm definitely using the twinblade, that thing is f*cking awesome.

Finally made my way down to the Gutter yesterday, really reminds me of Blighttown in DS1 with all the scaffolding and stuff!

Got 3/4 of the Great Souls so just got to defeat The Rotten and I'll have the full set.

In the Shrine of Amana now, Drangleic Castle was a piece of p!ss.