Never actually made it to [sp]Nameless King[/sp] in my DS3 playthrough, found all the secret areas except for that boss's. Just watched a vid & they look tough...
I had help. A friend asked me if I wanted to know about a secret area, and said I'd never find it because it required a [sp]gesture[/sp]. I'd recently found both the [sp]dragon shrine and the gesture needed[/sp] though, so was able to piece it together with the hint. Two very cool bosses.
Have you played DS2 at all?
I've played through DS2 twice now. I have a lot I'd like to say about it. I'll try to keep it brief.
DS2 is by far the longest game. It has the most content (areas, bosses, weapon types, everything). However I think it could have benefited from cutting some of the fat. The world design isn't nearly as tight as the other two games, and half way through I find it starts to feel like a bit of a slog. There's a ton of bosses, but many feel uninspired.
However, DS2 absolutely excels in its mechanics. They made a lot of drastic changes from DS1, a number of which survived into DS3. They simplified weapon upgrades (which was much needed), made rolling omni-directional (DS1 is locked to four directions), and made hollowing much more significant. Dying now hollows you progressively, lowering your max health over time down to 50%. This can be limited to 75% with a ring, or temporarily restored using a consumable.
Rings are less powerful, but you can wear up to 4 of them now. They kept this change in DS3. There's more combat-oriented rings though with some straight up affecting attack damage.
You are susceptible to invasions
at all times. I'm not a huge fan of it, but invaders probably love it. The game still has an active PVP scene because it works so well. I'd argue better than DS3.
Life gems were an interesting inclusion. They're basically consumable health potions that you can buy. They heal slower than estus, so the intention is that they should be used between combat while estus is reserved for in-the-moment healing. Personally though I think this takes too much away from the Dark Souls formula and wasn't a good inclusion.
DS2 is a bit
weird. Important items like rings and spells will drop from regular enemies, thus can be farmed. A lot of armor applies effects like falling damage reduction, souls gain, preventing backstabs, and other stuff. This is the complete opposite of DS3's approach which made all armor effectively equal, to try and encourage fashion souls.
DS2 introduced a great torch mechanic and I'm really sad it didn't stay in the series. You collect torches which give you temporary light at the cost of a shield, and you can use it to light sconces around the map. Sometimes there's secrets, sometimes it's useful just for lighting the area up.
You can climb up ladders super fast in DS2. Small thing but it's a nice bonus.
Agility is an interesting design choice. It affects things like how quickly you can chug estus or how many iframes you get from rolling. It's interesting because it means you can focus first on improving survivability over damage output, which is a neat gameplay consideration. But it also means that new players perceive the game as super clunky and unresponsive, and I think that reputation has hurt DS2. If you decide to play, level up your Adaptability immediately, and that increases your secondary Agility stat.
While DS2's base maps are probably the weakest in the series, the DLC is some of the best. The level and boss designs are very good, and I think might be even better than the Ringed City. The
Sunken Crown Old Iron King DLC has two great boss fights, and Ivory King has some of the best environments.
DS2 gets a lot of shit - some of it deserved - but it's still a fantastic game that's contributed much to the series. It's very much worth playing.
Especially the DLCs.