Okay, so here's what happened: I downloaded DSII on launch day from PSN. Been marathoning it pretty hard yesterday and today. I'm 20 hours in as a Sorcerer, Soul Level 63, beat quite a few bosses, had a blast.
The one strange thing is that I've played pretty much all of the game ignoring the torch mechanic. At the start of the game when it was introduced I lit one or two torches after the first bonfire, and then just kinda forgot about it and ignored it until 20 hours later I came to a part in the game where you need to light a torch to get an NPC to trigger to do something.
At that point I found that I couldn't use the torch feature...when you go to a bonfire, you're supposed to be able to press triangle to toggle between 'Rest at Bonfire' or 'Light Torch', but I just don't get that option. When I went to the inventory screen, my torch's timer is at all zeros, even though it's supposed to be at five minutes, which is how long you get by default. You're supposed to be able to pick up torches during the game that increase the time your torch is lit. Odd, and odder still that in my 20 hours of play I didn't come across any of these torch upgrades...
I figured it was a rather unfortunate bug, and after much hemming and hawing I said 'fuck it' and re-rolled another character. Another sorcerer, pretty much the same thing. 20 hours down the drain, but screw it, I need to use the torches! Ran through the opening a second time, then grabbed the first torch you get in the tutorial. Boom. Ran out into the first real 'game' area, lit up a bunch of the pyres (I dunno what you call them) then when my torch's timer went down to zero I ran back to the bonfire to relight it.
Here's where it gets super weird- I get to the bonfire, and AGAIN the game gives me no option to toggle between 'light torch' and 'use bonfire'. Keep in mind this is a brand new save file, new character. WTF?!? How does that even make sense? I checked my inventory, and the torch's timer is at all zeroes. To quote John McLean, how does the same shit happen to the same guy twice? Super weird.
I run through to the next bonfire in the game, and sure enough, no toggle. My copy of Dark Souls II doesn't want me to use torches. VIsiting phantoms can light torches no problem, but I can't. Just weird.
Really, what can this be? If it's a bug, I have a feeling we'd have heard some reports of it by now. Maybe it's a sorcerer specific thing? I dunno. I''ll roll a new character class tomorrow, see what happens. If the same thing happens, what am I to think? That I have a defective copy of the game? A defective digital copy of the game? Does that even make sense?
I dunno guys, it's just weird. Any advice would be helpful, just to figure out what I'm dealing with here.
TL;DR
1. Torches don't work in my copy of game
2. Even rolled a new character, new save file
3. What the fuck?
4. What can/should I do?
