Dark Souls 2: any good? [split topic]

[Fry]

I vaguely remember people being disappointed by this when it was released. In hindsight is it worth playing?

[Chedney Honks]

Yes, absolutely. It can feel a bit weightless depending on your weapon choice but the sprawling world is by far the most varied in all of Souls, it feels like a patchwork and has so much unique and weird stuff in there. The lore stuff is also a bit more explicit, it's all about memory loss and identity and that will come through. It's also fucking massive.

It was the first Souls game I finished so I have a certain affection on that basis but it's probably the most interesting Souls game in many ways. There are many areas and enemies and environments and NPCs that simply wouldn't fit any other Souls game.

Where DS3 reverted to fan service, DS2 pointed in a new gaiden direction that they didn't have the balls to pursue.

[Fry]

Damn alright you've sold me. I'll play it after subnautica.

[Chedney Honks]

Good stuff, Fryman. It's me The Boston Crab by the way.

Also, one stupid thing to remember is you have to level up ADP to increase your invincibility frames while rolling. It's dumb but you basically have to do that. There's loads of fun little weird mechanic stuff but that's one that's like you gotta know to do it or you will find it annoying trying to roll through stuff like in the other games.

[madhair60]

I hated DS2 to death but it's definitely worth a go. I have friends who love it simply because so many builds are not just possible, but viable.

[druss]

Worst game they've done but not bad and definitely worth playing.

[Chedney Honks]

Thing is, and I mean no disrespect, it's a lot more nuanced than 'the worst game they made'. In many ways, it's the best game they've made. It's goofy and quite weird and gaiden as fuck, the PvP was fucking outstanding. Maybe the only time they really got it right. As madhair60 said, the build variety is absolutely unreal. No FROM game before or since has come close to it.

To me, DS3 is the worst game they've made because it's so conservative and 'professional'. It's a boring retread. DS2 falls on its face plenty but when it hits, it's brilliant in unique ways.

[The Crumb]

Worst game they've done but not bad and definitely worth playing.

Nah, that's DS3, a game made of DS1 memes and leftover Bloodborne assets. The combat is smooth but lacking in heft, it's short but full of gimmick levels and bosses broken up by boring castle and church levels. Weapon arts were hilariously uninspired.

[Chedney Honks]

First poster on my Buddy List. Congrats.

[druss]

Hmm, well I have played DS2 again after completing it and the same can't be said for DS3, so maybe you have a point.

Incidentally "worst game they've done" doesn't mean I didn't love it. Agree that it's between DS2 and DS3 for that title, I'd say the bosses were better in DS3 so I marginally prefer it, but whichever title is the worst they've done is still better than most other games.

[Chedney Honks]

Reading back, I could agree with what you were saying. It is possibly the worst game they've made overall, and still the best in other ways. I did love DS3 at first when I got the JPN version (came out a month earlier or something) and I couldn't understand it. I played through at least twice in the time before the English language release and I was really intrigued by the DS1 stuff and curious about the lore and how they'd tied it all together.

And then I found they hadn't. They just clumsily tossed in various references and actually trampled on a lot of elegant links in the previous games. There's some decent enough new stuff in there but overall, they leaned on the past in a heavy handed, incoherent way and spoiled some great stuff in previous games. It's really quite odd.

Anyway, why am I banging on about this?

[Thursday]

Dark Souls 2 also had a rough development, but when they rereleased it with all the tweeks, DLC and new story elements in the Scholar of the First sin version, it just about ties together the patchwork into a coherent whole.

It's ridiculous how long it takes to finish that game, it's basically JRPG length. It's not all good, but it also never feels like padding to me. Also I like the fact that it's not Miyazaki's game, it's a game that respects Dark Souls 1's lore but builds it's own story.

Dark Souls 3 has two swamp levels and two maze levels that feel like they were generated with the same tech that made the chalice dungeons.

[The Crumb]

I wish they'd kept the torches and higher level of environmental interaction from 2. It was cool having the feeling of the environments as treacherous places to navigate rather than just pretty backdrops for combat. For a world collapsing into final ruin and darkness in 3, everything's remarkably well lit and sturdy.

[druss]

The Dark Souls 1 references in 3 were absolutely terrible, agree wholeheartedly with that.

"'member Andre? Look, it's Andre!"

"'member Anor Londo? Here's Anor Londo!"

"'member Onion knight? Onion Knight is back!"

Surprisingly lazy and not what you'd expect from From.

[Barry Admin]

The Scholar of the First Sin version is almost certainly my favourite Souls game. I've never even finished the third one yet, as my hyperactivity means I get bored about 3/4 of the way through most single player games, especially with RPGs, which tend to be massive.

Indeed, I never finished DS2 the first time round, but got the Scholar version for a fiver, and rinsed the ever-living fuck out of it. I'm sure some of it was down to just catching me at a good time, but regardless, I still really love the environments and enemies and such in DS2. I can still see a lot of it quite clearly in my head, like the location where you get the Butcher's Knife.

[The Crumb]

Feel like pure shit just want power stancing back x

[Chedney Honks]

I am now frightened I have split personality disorder x

[Jerzy Bondov]

DS3 is better because it's actually enjoyable to play. The lore is irrelevant gibberish anyway. DS2 shrinks your health bar each time you die, making you more likely to die again and have your health shrunk. What a fun game. Not. It's shit.

[Chedney Honks]

DS2 shrinks your health bar each time you die, making you more likely to die again and have your health shrunk.

Huh? Really? Haha. How strange!

I never knew that because I completed it first go.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I should add that I've completed all the Dark Souls games and I enjoyed 3 the most. Whether that's because it had just come out so the multiplayer was buzzing, or because it's the most fun one, I don't know.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I should also add that all three games are much too easy.

[Chedney Honks]

In fairness, DS3 is definitely a very decent 'best of' FROM type experience. I just think it lacks any character.

All very easy, though, I agree. Feels like NG1-7 are the tutorial.

[The Crumb]

DS3 is better because it's actually enjoyable to play. The lore is irrelevant gibberish anyway. DS2 shrinks your health bar each time you die, making you more likely to die again and have your health shrunk. What a fun game. Not. It's shit.

So does 3, and without the incremental effect. Also you have a stupid looking effect on your character when at full health.

Plus one of DS3s' five areas is full of enemies who shorten your health bar by looking at you. And another one of the five areas restricts your movement speed to a crawl across most of it.

Even the skeleton boss is less fun in 3 than 2. And when 2 shits the bed, there's often a real flair to how wildly obnoxious the enemy placements are or how incredibly perfunctory the bosses can be. Ds3 wishes it had the courage to include something as daft as the prowling magus.

[Fishfinger]

Plus one of DS3s' five areas [...] And another one of the five areas [...]

It has more than five areas. Do you mean designs, environments?

Edit: never mind, Neil's split off this off as a DS2 thread so this is fruitless.

[Barry Admin]

It has more than five areas. Do you mean designs, environments?

Edit: never mind, Neil's split off this off as a DS2 thread so this is fruitless.

It already was a Dark Souls 2 thread, I just split off the posts from 8 years ago, when the game was released.

[Fishfinger]

It already was a Dark Souls 2 thread, I just split off the posts from 8 years ago, when the game was released.

Fair enough, couldn't quite work it out.