Dark Souls 2: What it could have been (part 1?)

very, very long post warning. It entails how a fight should have went in DkS2.

Hello everyone. I'm sure you're all familiar with me. This may or may not be a multi-part series, covering different areas. I felt a particular need to discuss an area in Dark Souls 2, which came out recently, that had massive potential, yet was allowed to be, in my opinion, a disappointment.

Heide's Tower of Flame.

You exit a dark, dank sewer, to be greeted by light. Not so much that of the glorious sun, but of Heide's Tower of Flame itself, a lighthouse risen in stark defiance of the ocean that leveled the rest of Heide. Heide was unknown to be a continent or a kingdom, for that is the mystery of Drangleic- one never knows what truly happened, for all is lost to the Dark.

I am not hear to discuss lore, though I may later should I decide to cover other areas. I'm hear to talk about decisions made about this in-game area, namely concerning the Dragonrider and the Tower of Flame.

Why does the Dragonrider await challengers in the Tower? What does he guard? None will ever know, for From Software has been so clever and subtle, at-

Oh, you just can't enter the Tower of Flame.

No, I apologize. You can enter... the 1st and 2nd floors. Of what appears to be at least a 9 floor lighthouse, should every flame designate a floor. Of course, you stand before the Dragonrider. Which must have been mistranslated, for of the 3 times this enemy appears in-game, not once does he ride a dragon, he doesn't even spawn in the same area as a dragon.

Everyone who has read to this point: Thank you. I'm sure you know what's next. Warning, thar be opinions ahead (but apparently no dragons. Thanks, FromSoft)


What the Tower of Flame should have been:

100-floor boss challenge. Remember Paper Mario- The 1000 Year Door? How many of you enjoyed going through the gauntlet? It was amazing, and gave the game a bit more longevity. I've listed my ideas here.

• 100 floors, obviously.
• Defeat all enemies on the floor to progress.
• No saving or quitting while in the Tower of Flame. If disconnected, you will respawn at the fog gate. If you die in the Tower of Flame, you will not create a bloodstain. However, other players will see a bloodstain showing your death, as per usual.
• Blue phantoms are unable to invade. Unable to place White Sign Soapstones or the Red Sign Soapstone.
• Messages are DISABLED.
• Every 5 floors, you will encounter a mini-boss situation. This could be anything from a pair of Turtle Knights to a Dragon from the Dragon Aerie/Shrine.
• Every 10 floors, the game will enter a higher NG. The difficulty will start at NG1 status, no matter your bonfire intensity for the area. So by floor 100, you will be in NG10.
• The Dragonrider appears by chance as you are progressing through the Tower. You may damage him. He will circle the Tower on a DRAGON (seriously FromSoft, how hard would it have been), attacking you with lightning (like the ones in Dragon Shrine), occasionally deciding to fly into the tower and perform a flyby. Although it is by chance, he will appear once each 10 floors. No more, no less. He will disappear once you are able to leave that floor.
• Each floor is timed. The tower's flames erupt violently dealing massive damage to OHK most player characters. Start at 60 minutes per floor. Stop decreasing at 5 minutes. Estimate time left by the flames in the tower growing larger.
• No merchants inside the Tower.
• No bonfires inside the Tower.
• There will be shortcuts. These will allow you to skip certain floors. Difficult to find or trigger.
• Hidden items. As with shortcuts, difficult to find. Most likely would contain healing items or herbs to restore spells. The above are the reasons why messages would be disabled.

A 100-floor gauntlet is nothing without an epic boss battle, right?

Well, I'll detail one that will put even the Ancient Dragon's fight (chase the tail gg lol) to shame. Even Kalameet.

Enter floor.

Dragonrider is riding a dragon. It is night-time. The flames from the floors below dance along the perimeter of the roof. A number of other dragons circle the Tower in the air. A cutscene plays. Your character steps cautiously into the center of the tower. The Dragonrider flies by in front of you, roaring. You narrowly dodge the attack, and the fight begins.

HP - At least 29760, x1.5 of the Ancient Dragon's health

• Attack patterns until 75%

-Flyby - Dive forward at the player. Dragon roars before doing this.

-Lightning : Shoots lightning at the player, like Dragon Shrine. Damages player's stamina massively and staggers. Very fast.

• Attack patterns until 50%

-Lands onto the roof. Other dragons begin attacking with lightning. Staggers and deals minor damage.

-Tail sweep : When player is behind the dragon's forelegs, will sweep his tail. Knocks down player. Med. damage.

-Breath attack : Alternates between lightning and fire randomly (yes, I know that isn't how it works. This is to increase difficulty to stop things such as Gyrm Shield or Burr abuse). When player is in front out to mid-range.

-Dragonrider Bow : Dragonrider fires arrows continously at player.

- Quake : Dragon stomps madly, causing the tower to shake. Will always knock down player. Long-range.

- Flyby : When player is out to long-range directly in front of dragon, will fly out of the tower, out of sight, and back in.

- Wings : Flaps wings. Knocks down player. If player is knocked down, will fly up and breath attack. When player is on either flank of dragon, between hind and forelegs for longer than 10 seconds or so. Aggrevation for this resets after ~45 seconds

• 50% HP attack

Dragon leaves the tower, then flies back in. Looks the same as the flyby attack. However, the dragon crashes into the roofs floor. Causes a quake condition if the player is too close. Will damage the player should they be hit. Dragon slides off the tower. Dragonrider falls off the dragon and is stunned. Player is free to attack Dragonrider in this timeframe.

• ~49% HP attack patterns (initiates after the 40-50 seconds of Dragonrider being stunned)

-The other dragons that were previously circling the tower now attack more often and more violently.
-They can cling to the edge of the tower and breath attack (does anybody want free cookies? It's taken me an hour+ to write this far.) in a column fashion. This is random, it is verry possible for all dragons to do this at once.
-Flyby
-Dragonrider has his current moveset EXCEPT attacking his shield will cause the attack to deflect and stagger the player.

• After ~3.30 minutes

Another dragon flies in between you and Dragonrider, Dragonrider remounts. Repeat attack patterns, at breakmarks of 40%, ~33%, ~25%.

• At 25%

Another dragon lands on the base of the Tower's roof. Its moveset is the same as the dragons in the Dragon Shrine. He does not require being killed for the fight to be completed, but will not disappear until the area is reloaded or is killed. This happens every ~<15% of Dragonrider's health. Maximum of 3 dragons will land.

• At 10%

Dragonrider lands and begins his mounted attack pattern. Tower begins to give and explode violently. Boulders from the ceiling fall, they leave shadows to warn you of their placement. Deal equatable dmg to the Gyrm's thrown axes, should they connect. Near the edge of the tower, the walls burst into flames, as they did on previous floors. The Tower quakes more often and without the dragon's initiative. Both the dragons currently landed and the player will be staggered. Think LoZ: OOT, escaping from Ganon's tower.

• At 0%

Congratulations!You have no life!

I hope I managed that okay.

Drops : ~480,000 souls, Soul of a Giant and Soul of the Dragonrider, Petrified Something, Petrified Dragon Bone (x2).

Afterword: I apologize for the long post. I understand if many of those did not wish to read it. There are many more possibilities for the Dragonrider fight that could have been implemented which would have been so much better than standing still for 6 seconds and watching him fall off.

Most of those involve dragons.

For those of you that did read it, I thank you. I feel as though I put a lot of effort into this post, more than usual, even disregarding the fact that it took me from 8.29 PM and I'm writing this at 10.32 PM. I took breaks only to search for information regarding certain statistics and values.

Have a song.

[video=youtube;AnmYVxFYpco]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnmYVxFYpco[/video]
An english version is available here if you so wish.

Please, have a nice day/night. I bid you all farewell until next time. I hope to see you soon.

Please comment below with your thoughts, not only on the content but the post itself. I hope to improve the legibility. I am very aware of my inability to properly format longer posts.

Is there a char. limit for blog posts?