Well, I finally had the chance to play Dark Souls 2. I missed it when it came out for the PS3 because I had moved on to the PS4 around the time. I was hoping that maybe one day I would be able to play it so I was pretty excited when I heard it would be coming to the PS4 with all of the DLC included.

My only issue then was wondering how it would hold up after playing Bloodborne. I was a bit concerned that it would be hard to go back but that is a topic worthy of its own post so in short, it holds up wonderfully.

For the first time ever in a video game I decided to make my character a female

I had no idea that a certain action within the game would transform her to this

I didn’t recognize it immediately, but when I noticed she had developed a beard I had to scratch my head and wonder.

When I first started the game I thought I would not worry about the platinum because it seemed pretty difficult and time consuming. I figured I would just play through and get whatever trophies came naturally but that idea did not last long. The more I played the more it drew me in. I began to love the game and wanted to experience as much of it as I could.

That, in my opinion is part of what made going for the trophy so fun. The developers really did a great job of tying the trophies into parts of the game that one may have missed by just playing through normally.

I found that some of the tasks required varied my experience so much that it was almost like a new game entirely. For example, there is a spell that can only be acquired by reaching the 3rd level of a certain covenant. Without the inclusion of this I most likely would have never bothered to reach level 2. However, as I was playing and working my way up the ranks trying to assist 30 people kill bosses to receive 30 “sunlight medals” I realized how much of a shame it would be to miss out on this part of the game. So much time and effort went into making the co-op system work well and you can really appreciate it when you and a group of 3 other guys come together as a team with a common goal.

I have always used the thrill of sports as an example when I try to tell people about the feelings you get from a Souls game. “Killing a boss is like scoring a touchdown”, I once told a friend when trying to convince him why he should try Demon’s Souls. Well if killing a boss alone is like scoring a touchdown, then killing a boss as a part of a group of 4 is like scoring a goal in the final seconds of a tied hockey game. The celebrations after are the icing on the cake and really give you a sense of solidarity.

Scholar Of The First Sin is a huge game. With all of the DLC included you are looking at a huge variety of areas to explore with an incredible amount of items to find. Even with around 50 helmets and 100 weapons I could not resist the urge to look in every possible area in the hopes of finding something else.

Since I was going for the platinum and leaving no stone unturned I had an abundance of boss souls which allowed me to acquire just about every weapon in the game. The amount of weapons can be overwhelming. It can be very difficult to chose which weapons to use but around one third of the way through I discovered the blacksteel katanas and I stuck with them for the rest of the game.

Occasionally I would come across a new weapon that seemed interesting and I would give it a try but I always went back to the comfort of those blades. Not too long after I found the them I heard about something called power stance. I could not believe that I was going to play through the whole game without even knowing that existed. At that point I had to find out all the details to see if it was a viable strategy. Prior to learning about this I was using the club you start the game with in both hands. That is how I beat the original Dark Souls and it seemed like it was worth trying. You can see it in this pic here –

As much as I liked rolling with the club, I was ready try something new. I leveled up 2 bsk’s to +10 and learned the power stance move set. What I discovered was the an attack from L2 would just about decimate anything it hit. Bosses included.

I decided I wanted to do everything possible for the platinum in my first playthrough, that way I could run through the entire game again on ng+ without having to think about it.

I discovered every covenant, bought all the items, did all the side-quests and came to the end of the game. The final thing for me to do was play through the 3 dlc’s to find the spells and acquire the souls I needed to get them all except for the ones only available in ng++.

I had heard that DLC’s were very good and more reminiscent of the original Dark Souls in terms of level design and was looking forward to them from day 1. As I was enjoying the original level design I kept wondering how the DLC could possibly be better. I was not disappointed when I got there but I did learn a lesson – Shulva, Sanctum City is no joke and you will get messed up over there. It may have been the hardest area in the game for me up to that point. Eventually I left there and went to the Brume Tower which wasn’t as difficult but equally as cool. Before finishing there I went to Frozen Eleum Loyce which ended up being the first one I completed out of the 3. Then I beat Burme and finally, Shulva. At this point I was pretty much ready to jump into ng+.

It is very uncommon for me to play though a game after I beat it the first time but this game is special. Upon starting the new game I found myself just as entertained as I was the first time if not more. I had a new level of respect and appreciation for the game that wasn’t there yet when I first entered Things Betwixt. I decided I would look around carefully and try to pick up anything I may have overlooked in my first playthrough.

I had heard about the option to open The Shrine Of Winter without lighting the 4 primal bonfires first and was a bit intrigued by the idea but decided to play through the game in its entirety instead. I’m glad I did. This playthrough was so enjoyable and went by much smoother. Areas that had taken me hours were now taking me minutes. I was destroying bosses like I was the greatest warrior to ever live and it was a blast. I knew throughout my playthrough that there were sun bros laying down their summon signs in certain areas just hoping to be summoned for help.

Some were doing it for the medals, some were just doing it for the love and I knew all the spots they would be waiting from my extensive time as a sun bro doing the same thing.

Finally I was ready to hop into ng++. At this point I was considering trying to open The Shrine Of Winter early but I had to decide which way would be faster. I could maybe light those 4 bonfires again in the same time it would take to acquire 3 million souls but ultimately I decided to try what I had not done before since that was in the spirit of everything I had done up to that point. So I dropped down into the gutter and worked my way to the black gultch in order to earn some souls from The Rotten. I had 20 bonfire ascetics at that point and was hoping it would be enough. My soul memory at the beginning of my game was about 7.5 million so I knew I’d be doing this till about 10.5.

It only took around 7 ascetics to get the souls I needed and then it was off to the Shrine to see if this really worked… It did!Glorious. I was so excited at this point that I knew I had to make it into the castle immediately. The thing about getting into that castle is that they do not make it easy. Running up the stairs you have those two huge elephant guys

followed by what seems like an army of soldiers all trying to keep you out. Unfortunately for them, there was no keeping me out at that point. The time had come. I had come to meet with Wellager and nothing was going to stop me. As I spoke with him, the feelings of elation began to come over me. “I did it! I finally did it”, I thought. Then, in that moment of silence and joy I heard Wellager say, “gone so soon?”. Perfect.