Greatswords feel like they have a better swing speed than in DS1.
All heavy weapons have better swing speed than they did in DS1. Which is cool because they're a lot more viable now rather than basically fucking you over any time you miss a hit. And the scarcity of twinkling titanite is really frustrating in a normal run. Everything I want to wear demands that stuff!
Yatta Dark Souls? Because I didn't link any DS2 videos and the video for DS2 I did want to link I kept forgetting. But here it is, how to find the pickaxe!
EDIT: Fenrir posted the Mockthrough.
Oh right. Look, you're both crazy people whose names start with F. You perceive my confusion, yes?
As for that video, how in the world anyone thinks to do stuff like that is beyond me. (I probably would never even have noticed Logan existed in DS1 if I hadn't been told.)
Anyway, Pugilism Souls completed:
-Castle is nothing special.
-Shrine of Amana actually wasn't too bad? You can run right up to the lizard dudes and punch them out before they're able to rise to an attack position. Priestesses are a pain in tandem with anything else but easily dodged when there's just one. Priestess + archdrake jerks was tough but manageable (one death). As for the giant mushroom dude physically blocking the tunnel to the boss cavern and spamming equip-breaking gas...well, I just walked up without weapons or rings equipped and wore it down barehanded. For all that those soldier ant mandibles it's got look pretty fearsome, it turns out that it will never, ever do anything with them.
But the lead-up to the boss room,
oh my god you guys. That is just the worst. The worst! Two priestesses immediately sniping at you, potentially a third if you go after them in melee, maneuvering towards any of the priestesses inevitably aggros lizard dudes, go out far enough and jerkass hexer invasion happens BLERRRGH. I immediately resigned myself to just running straight through to the boss, and even this took a good half a dozen tries. Fortunately, Demon of Song was a joke. Hits like a truck, but it's easy to work around attacks so clearly telegraphed. Wait 'til she flails each of her arms then run in to punch her in the face. That's it.
-Corridor leading to Velstadt is still fucking horrible. And I had to run it three times because fucking Velstadt. And on the first failed attempt he had only an invisible sliver of health left when I died! This was especially frustrating because the prime difficulty of the fight was just that the caestus can't reliably hit him unless you punch him in the leg from just the right angle as he's leaning the opposite direction.
-Guardian Dragon is just oh great another boss I can't reliably hit when I'm goddamn right under him. No-damage fight anyway. And I ran past most of the Aerie and Dragon Shrine enemies.
-Royal Rat Authority deaths = possibly as many as every other boss in the game combined. Aw god why did I even do this. Caestus can't reliably hit the little rats and toxic is basically guaranteed death (and it's here that I discover how little status resistance is really worth, Poisonbite Ring = one hit does like 75% of poison bar instead of like 85%. WOO FUCKING HOO). I actually broke down and tried bringing bombs, but most kinds I had couldn't actually OHKO the goons and I was too lazy to go and get more black firebombs (they tend to dodge bombs anyway). So lots of dodging, lots of RRA knocking his friends around and me hoping they stay down long enough for me to punch them out one by one. This was horrible. It was with great relish that I ate his soul (with some fava beans and a nice chianti).
-I pretty much immediately gave up against dynamic duo and called in a hexer to nuke them for me (this is the only time I summoned anyone this run). Caestus can't even fucking hit Throne Defender. And as is often the case, after the string of endgame dungeons I kind of just want DS2 to be over with. Everything post-Dragon Shrine is just so anticlimactic! It's more disappointing every time. Died twice vs final boss due to being impatient/not paying adequate attention to curse beacons and then that's a wrap. All told took me half as long as the caster runs (and that's supposed to easy mode!) That's just crazy! So yeah, viable unarmed fighting in a Souls game, I am happy about this (aside from occasional targeting bullshit).
If I ever run that character through NG+, I will probably take her full 180 for shits and giggles and run dual Avelyns. I guess back to sorcerer NG+ now, though. I gave Rosabeth the Moon Butterfly set and now she poisons me when I talk to her. Or tries to. The accumulation rate is so feeble and requires such close proximity that I presume the set would be totally ineffectual for actually inflicting poison on enemies. Plus you can't dodge properly anymore. Sadness, I really wanted to use it at some point.
