Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-24721972-20140512132647/@comment-16047389-20140630192622

Bioware didn't "change" anything. They "clarified" their ending a bit more, but the updated ending didn't really change anything significant. Granted, it answered a few more questions than before, but it's not like they actually corrected any of the gaping flaws with the story.

Anyway, what FromSoftware SHOULD do is make Soul Memory and Limited Respawns optional. Limited Respawns don't really affect Multiplayer in any way, so it should be a preference issue. And Soul Memory could be handled with a sort of "opt-out" issue.

Here's my idea for a solution. Add an NPC in Majula who is some sort of loremaster of Phantoms or something. Among other possible things, he would have two options on him. The first one would opt you out of Soul Memory. What this would do, is that you would still be able to be matched with other people if you would normally fall within their Level and SM range, but you would ALSO be able to be matched with anyone else who is opt'd out of SM, and you fall within their Level range, regardless of any differences in SM. This would allow the player to still qualify for the normal SM brackets, but it would also give them the option of EXPANDING their potential match ups if they don't care for Soul Memory restrictions. The main benefit, is that this mechanic would allow those that support Soul Memory to continue on being completely unaffected, but allow those who don't support it to also have more freedom. It would take away from no one.

The other option the NPC would have would be the ability to remove limitations on respawns or not. That's pretty much it. Because let's face it, limiting respawns doesn't make the game more challenging, as it can easily be worked around with Bonfire Aesthetics. The Aesthetics should be used to increase risk and reward. Not to simply continue the ability to grind souls.