Word the port isn’t as good as that Durante dude said it was. Maybe that’s just folks on the internet being folks on the internet.
Everyone on NeoGaff agrees it’s as good as Durante said. Not only that but Durante released a new modding tool for it. Makes it look AMAZING.
There do appear to be a few issues though. For some reason it doesn’t like it when you are connecting to your monitor via HDMI. Japanese Devs. There’s a fix for it already, thank fully, but hopefully the devs fix these issues quickly.
I like how no one with a VAC ban is able to play online. Nuts to those douchebags.
Just beat it for the first time. Lots of hours spent on this. Just a knight typical melee but I don’t have Xbox live so never got invaded or ever able to summon help. Really struggled with a few of the lat areas. Beat the boss with a large club +10.
All in all great game. Guide book was awesome too.
My God I can’t get past the first area! Stupid hippo.
Hippo?
^ ^ ^ The cyclops ogre things in Things Betwixt. ^ ^ ^
You don’t need to fight him…in fact, you really aren’t supposed to right now.
I think the purpose of the hippo-ogres (yes, there’s more later in the tutorial area,) is to make people think they’re like the Asylum Demon, and initially look hard, but can be beaten quite easily. But nope!
“Oh, you thought the ol’ ‘stay behind and attack the butt’ maneuver would work? Well, this guy literally just flops onto his back to crush you.”
There’s this Hippo-like creature In the first area that is pwning me something fierce. I think I got his pattern figured out. 2 attacks, then he falls. But I’m so awkward, I usually miss hitting him when he’s down, or I get too close and he slams me down when he falls, or I don’t manage to evade his attacks.
Wait, I don’t have to attack him? But, there’s no where else to go.
There totally is. I drew a crude map:
Instead of going up and to the left to the ogre, go straight over the wooden bridge and into the house with the old women.
I mean…you don’t even have any weapons or equipment yet, right? You haven’t even made your character…in the house is when you choose your class, appearance, etc…
I did go to the old women’s house. I got some equipment and I looked around, but I didn’t see anything other than a chest on the second floor. Will look more closely tonight! Thanks!
You need to leave through the other door. I did the same thing for about fifteen incredibly frustrating minutes; the door opposite the one where you enter, behind the old ladies, will take you to the first bonfire and subsequently to the rest of the game.
Don’t fight the hippo. Definitely don’t fight the next hippo. They’re Dark Soulsing you.
So the game trolled me, basically.
Also, to clear something up (such a noob), the ghosts I keep seeing are actually other players, and not something scripted in the game, right?
Right. If you’re going without a guide, pay close attention to those ghosts (and activate the bloodstains you find, so you can see what happened to other players); they’re your best hints for where the traps or particularly tricky sections might be.
Yup.
See a lot of bloodstains in front of a chest? It’s either a mimic, or trapped.
Yes, there are trapped chests, now. But they’re unlikely to kill you, jsut hurt you.
Oh, and regarding mimics:
You know the Dark Souls I strategy of hitting every chest to check? Yeah, don’t’ do that anymore. Hitting a chest with 99% of weapons will break the chest AND THE ITEM INSIDE.
Hitting a chest with your bare fist will trigger the mimic to show and not attack you, as will certain spells. Just don’t whack it with a sword or axe.
I managed to kill the hippo in the beginning, but it took me over a dozen deaths. The key thing was noticing that it always did an uppercut with it’s right fist after falling on it’s back. So I just let it fall down, and attacked from the left side after it had fallen. After a good 3-4 hits it fell again, and I was able to finish it off. Was rewarded with a Stone Ring for my efforts. Didn’t try fighting the two hippos at the beach, though.
God, there’s bloodstains EVERYWHERE :).
Also, starting as the item peddler for that sweet hat was probably a terrible idea. But the greeeeed… 
Not sure where to go next after reaching the bonfire of Cardinal’s tower - I found a nifty fire sword but other than that the path seems to loop back to the bonfire ? So I went elsewhere. Cleared the armoured giants area and the dragonrider boss (the old dragonhunter still pushes my shit in), busy getting roflpwnd by those spidermonkeys with the huge reach in the Viking cavern at the moment.
Speaking of Cardinal’s Tower, on the way there’s this big arena with a half-dozen Hollows including an archer on an upper level, and a knight with a flat-topped helmet who looks like he’s sleeping. I can target him, which I think means he’s an enemy but I don’t know for sure and he’s not immediately hostile. What’s the deal with him ? Noob-friendly Black Knight equivalent ?
BTW, instinctive reaction when I first saw the Old Dragonhunter slowly walking towards me ? “Oh shit. Oh no. Oh no not YOU nonononono do not want !”. Now I’m just waiting for Capra Demon to show up somewhere
He is potentially the worst class. His starting stat distribution is just really bad for most builds. Too low of STR and DEX to wield any good weapons, but not enough INT, FTH, or ATT to cast any spells.
Trying to make a “Jack of All Trades” type of character in DkSII is much harder than DkSI, at least at the start. The amount of soul levels you have to invest to pump up stats so you can both use this melee weapon, AND a bow, AND cast a couple spells is too much.
If I were you, I’d do what I did after starting off as that aharacter and make a new one. Want to do melee? Warrior or Knight. Want to use fast dex-based weapons? Swordsman or Bandit. Spellcaster? Cleric or Sorcerer, depending on whether you want to do miracles or sorcery.
There’s some stairs up in Cardinal Tower that lead to a door you can smash in. There’s several good items in there, but not a way out. The way out is a ladder that goes down to the right of the bonfire against the wall. I missed it my first time there, too.
Yeah, like the Black Knights, these “Heide Knights” are a one-time only enemy. But unlike the Black Knights, they don’t attack until you attack them.
One useful (no spoilers) piece of advice everyone ought to know.
The Ring of Life Protection (the thing that keeps your humanity and souls intact when you die), is reapairable for 3000 souls.
Yup, that’s what I did after finding the merchant who sells his starting equipment. So now I’m a cleric with a pair of maces… and a swank-ass greed hat 
Found it :}. They really should have put a sconce next to it or something, it’s quite easy to miss.