6. You Can Completely Miss Integral Items And Features
The opening of DS2 attempts to approach your outstretched hand asking for help and guidance, and thusly snap it off, devouring it between it's spear-like teeth as it eyes you up and down, wondering which direction you might proceed so it can pummel you again. Whilst chances are you can figure out what your attacks are merely by prodding each button, the tutorial section doesn't even begin to tell you the intricacies of combat, rendering the whole opening section to a glorified series of post-it notes stuck on a bulking folder of information you pray would become more easily digestible. The real problem though, is that although FromSoft open the game with a much less ominous surrounding than the old Undead Asylum and have implemented this tutorial of sorts in the form of some readable tombstones that tell you how to attack or roll, one of the most important items and characters in the game can be completely missed out. Upon emerging from the first combat area you're free to do as you please, yet little do you know - thanks to ZERO signposting whatsoever - that the character you require to level up your character and give you the trademark Estus Flask healing item, is tucked away at the end of an outcrop of land. Not only that but she's in shadow, wearing dark clothing to boot. As was proved by Videogamer.com's initial playthrough, you can completely miss this character along with the first area you're 'supposed' to go to, instead throwing you out into a collapsed castle-like area with no healing items save for a couple life gems if you follow the most obvious path through the opening village - the aforementioned life bar reduction penalty forever chipping away at your sanity. If FromSoft were going to include a tutorial, part of that should have been the inclusion of necessitating the refillable Estus Flask item, simple as. Although even in this game they've reduced it down to ONE drink (rather than the previous five limit), flying even more in the face of the previous pendulum-swing of difficulty vs. healing items present in the first game.
