LogFAQs > #968180429

Hm so the best way to play DS2 would be to get a physical copy on 360 and stay offline so it doesn't patch itself?

CassandraCain posted...

edit: also I can't remember, did you leave Gwyndolin alive? Beating him yields some rewards. I'm trying to think of a reason why you would want to take out Priscilla as well but there is none.

I did leave him alive. If I do a second run (undecided yet) I'll make it a murdery one to see what I missed out on.

Well, after all that has come before, the final area is pretty easy. We've five regular knight enemies that drop upgrade materials, and then our boss. I do quite like the look of the Kiln but it's a shame there's not a true challenge or interesting final dungeon level design here to cap off the game.

There's no elaborate cutscene awaiting us when we walk through the giant fog gate. Gwyn, Lord of Cinder's health bar appears and we're immediately into our final fight. Great music, great atmosphere, I like that the boss himself is lit up by his fire and everything else is pretty dark. The fight itself is... rather easy! I die a few times trying to heal, but his patterns are not very bothersome. In essence Gwyn is a fancier knight battle. It's neat that the final boss is a standard 1v1 on equal footing rather than some giant eldritch beast, though I'm a bit disappointed there's no harder second phase (I can't believe I'm actually saying that!). Dodging his non-combo attacks and getting one heavy hit is a reliable path to victory, and before we know it the Lord is down.

Viewing this as more of a victory lap fight than a true final challenge is probably for the best, god knows I would be very frustrated if he was Artorias/OrnSmough difficult. And it is so very Dark Souls for us to finally meet the king of deities who has been mentioned a thousand times throughout the game, only to have him speak no dialogue and die pretty quickly. Always leave them wanting more, indeed. I link the fire and, uh, burn, and then the credits roll. I'll digest what happened more tomorrow, but I'm glad to have finally beaten this titan of a game!

And that is that! As I've said, I'm still not sure whether to do a second runthrough, but thank you all for following along and commenting, it's made this a fun experience for me!