In this video, SoulReborn goes back to Dark Souls II, and looks at whether it is as good as people say it is, and he analyzes it in great detail, in this Dark Souls 2 critique and video essay.
Dark Souls II is a 2014 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Games. An entry in the Dark Souls series, it was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Taking place in the kingdom of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) gameplay. Dark Souls II was released in March 2014 after some initial delays, with the Windows version being released the following month.
Dark Souls II was a critical and commercial success. A remastered version of the game, titled Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows in April 2015. It contains the original game and its downloadable content with upgraded graphics, expanded online multiplayer capacity, and various other changes. A sequel, Dark Souls III, was released in 2016.
Introduction 00:00:00
Prelude 00:01:11
Background 00:03:29
Things Betwixt 00:06:10
Majula 00:12:22
Levelling 00:16:43
Forest of Fallen Giants 00:25:40
Heide’s Tower of Flame 00:34:24
Combat and Movement 00:41:55
No Man’s Wharf 00:51:40
The Lost Bastille 00:58:40
Belfry Luna 01:06:16
Sinner’s Rise 01:10:46
Difficulty 01:14:45
Huntsman’s Copse 01:18:37
Undead Purgatory 01:23:39
Harvest Valley 01:28:07
Earthern Peak 01:29:55
Level and World Design 01:34:17
Iron Keep 01:41:06
Belfry Sol 01:48:46
The Pit 01:50:14
Grave of Saints 01:51:16
The Gutter 01:52:44
Black Gulch 01:55:18
Healing Mechanics 01:58:18
Shaded Woods 02:01:53
Doors of Pharros 02:05:41
Brightstone Cove Tseldora 02:08:19
Weapon Upgrades 02:12:51
Drangleic Castle 02:16:52
Shrine of Amana 02:24:31
Undead Crypt 02:26:06
Covenants 02:31:59
Aldia’s Keep 02:35:05
Dragon Aerie 02:38:28
Dragon Shrine 02:40:03
Memories of Giants 02:44:52
Character Quests 02:48:15
Dark Chasms of Old 02:52:05
Shulva, the Sanctum City 02:57:00
Dragon Sanctum 02:58:31
Game Length 03:03:59
Brume Tower 03:06:28
Iron Passage 03:11:26
Memory of the Old Iron King 03:14:15
Frozen Eleum Loyce 03:16:44
Frigid Outskirts 03:21:34
Throne of Want 03:25:08
Conclusion 03:29:22
#darksouls #eldenring #fromsoftware
32 Comments
For those who are here early, the video is taking a while to process in HD as it is so long – but it will be in HD soon!
You never see the pursuer again…does he know about the pursuer duo
Silent Hill 2, Turok 2, Pokemon G/S, Uncharted 2, Street FIghter 2, SSBM, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 2, Diablo 2, Halo 2, Far Cry 2, Half-Life 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, THPS 2, Team Fortress 2, DOTA 2, Titanfall 2, L4D2, Ms. Pac Man… Like, there's a whole lot of great video here, but the suggestion that sequels are rarely better than their original, I think, falls flat when it comes to video games.
Shrine of Amana…fridged outskirts….blue smelter demon boss run….gotta be careful saying any of these things cause it can and will cause trauma/PTSD induced panic attacks and or seizures
I loved DS2… scholar, though… no.
Smh, git gud.
Scholar was BS. Vanilla game was wayyy more fun!
DS2 Vanilla version was the first ever soulsgame I played and its amazing. DLC;s included.
Afterwards DS1, DS3, BB, and ER are amazing ofcourse, but DS2 has a special place in my heart
"by moving all the Heide Knights to Heide's Tower" – that's just not true.
They were never spread across the whole world to begin with. The one from Forest of Fallen Giants was moved to Heide's Tower. The one from Shrine of Winter got moved to the Gutter. The one from Lost Bastille was moved to Sinner's Rise.
For the attack after rolling it's just about timing. If you roll and press attack immediately it will queue the attack in the direction of the roll, but if you press attack towards the end of the roll it will face the correct direction.
Huntmans Copse: you can lure the 'torturers' one by one and it's easy mode. Just don't run to far ahead… Then they all spawn at the same time
For Iron Passage, Sir Alonne, Cave of the Dead and Frigid Outskirts you missed the fact that they are coop challenges. They start with the same Coop Statues you can also find in front of the DLC doors, and those outside have a developer message that tells you that summoning signs placed here are getting summoned far away. These areas allow you to summon players that don't even own the DLC and they have an increased summoning. Whenever you see those Coop Statues you are supposed to engage in Jolly Cooperation.
Like the whole Iron Passage makes a lot more sense if you play it in coop.
"enemies you can't get to" – yeah because you played a Raid Dungeon solo, you can get to them in coop. The intended way is to have one player pull the lever to allow others to go through the door and then both teams can progress both paths at the same time.
The runbacks in those areas are hard, because those areas were explicitly designed for Jolly Cooperation and advertised as coop challenges.
1:09 Team Fortress 2 too is a rare exception. But yeah, i get your point.
Beating the first Dragonrider (after manyyy attempts) was my true introduction to dark souls.
As someone whom ds2 was his first intro into the souls franchise, I do admit my opinion of it might a bit biased due to this. It is true it is by no means the best souls experience. But is it as bad as dark souls 1 fans say? By no means. I won't argue against people's complaints about it, but at the same time some of them are exaggerated just because they were unhappy with it.
First, the story. Skyen's take on the games was the best. Dark souls 1 was a tale of a made hero. You were thrown there, forced, or rather fooled, to go on a heroic tale of, what it was revealed in the end, sacrifice, with the darker undertone once you look past the illusion of heroism. Meanwhile, in the second, it's a tale of yourself. You came here on your own, out of fear. Fear of losing yourself, of losing your humanity, your identity. You're no hero, but you're not nobody. You're someone, and you're here to find a cure for not losing what makes you someone, a cure against going hollow, just like the other NPCs there. And, as someone who is against relighting the flame, thus breaking the circle, I do like the take of ds2 more. It feels more personal. Even more so with the crowns being a cure, though just for yourself.
As for bosses being so generic? I can also go back to skyen here. Yeah, most are generic dudes in armor. But, as he analyzed already, they are different dudes in different armor. And every different armor tells a different story. I quite recommend his shots in which he talks about them. And let's be serious, it's not like every dark souls 1 boss was something legendary, from a gameplay perspective. Most were quite basic. Yeah, they looked intimidating, and there were not so many "dudes in armor", but once you get over the first impression, it's nothing but paper-mache. Overall, I found their level to be around the same. Again, this is a gameplay perspective, their design was indeed amazing. But, like I said, it's the same in 2. Describing them as just "dudes in armor" is doing them a disservice.
For the interconnections in level design 1 had and 2 did not? Not gonna lie, I wish 2 also had that. Or 3, for that matter. I loved that, so there's nothing to say here. Although, from a development perspective, I could understand why they decided in not replicating that.
As for ds2 having bullshit enemy positions? Yes. Just yes. But, although not at the same lvl, the first one, coupled with some mechanical "difficulties" it had its own bullshit too. Thought by no means as much as 2. My point is, neither was the first one perfect. It's just that, nostalgia does make us to be a bit biased, and look over some flaws. And, as I said in the first paragraph, I don't deny being at fault when it comes to ds2, so people should accept being the same with the first game when comparing the two.
Anyway, haven't watched the full video yet, but I love listening to your perspective. It is a fine video and a good analysis. You got yourself a subscriber.
Ds2 is my personal favorite, superior successor for me there's a charm to it that suits my taste I think it's the music
Did you see the lothric knight and 3 pillars on the cathedral as pointed out by Channel Yoshimitsu? Mega interesting connections to DS3 beyond that too
Bruh how hard is it to pull up the wiki, champion covenant also makes you unable to see SUMMON SIGNS. For such a long video, I want legit nitty gritty!
Pyromancy also requires faith and intelligence, something new and not in dark souls 1 changing the dynamic of the game way different than DS1, where you can use pyromancy at full strength at level 1. I'm shocked you didn't mention this
This is a fantastic video! I’m only 90 or so minutes in but what an achievement. I’m a huge fan of Dark Souls II, having played it for 800+ hours. It has many flaws (Soul Memory was a mistake) but for me its strengths (bonfire ascetics, NG+ cycles, the beauty of Shrine of Amana, etc.) far outweigh them.
Thank you for your hard work. I’m going to finish the video and rewatch it over and over again. Big Ups!
This game is so bad is unbelievable
what pursier only last bastil are you sure
Dead Space 2, Blood Bowl 2, far cry 2, there's quite a few of these actually.
I've literally watched hours of DS2 analysis, and you are the first person to mention the game was massively altered halfway through development, and this explains why so many things feel rushed or patched together.
I loved your ds video and I loved this one also. I've been binging dark souls 1 lately and I was considering giving part 2 another playthrough but after watching your video, all those annoyances and lackluster levels and bosses came back to me and I though, nah, I'll just do another run of part 1 or play 3 again. Thanks for video , I could watch souls all day and I agree with pretty much all your opinions. 👍
I played sotfs as my first souls game, then tried to play ds1r and I absolutely hate it idk what it is about it
nice, another 2+ hour video on DS2. i was considering watching mauler's for the 6th time, thanks for saving me from that. jokes aside, great video. id really like to hear what you have to say about Dark Souls 3 though, since you talked a lot about how there was a lot of nostalgia bait and i gotta say, i STRONGLY disagree with that. there mightve been a couple of things that were too on the nose but nothing i can recall right now was ridiculous or felt forced or fan-service-y. like compared to literally having Ornstein reskinned as a boss (which i don't really have a problem with), finding his stuff in Archdragon Peak isnt really too big of a stretch and the story connotations of that is something he might logically do. something commonly brought up is the reuse of Anor Londo, which imo, is a great way to show the passage of time (irithyll being built, gwyndolin having fallen sick, the building in disrepair and recently with the revival of aldrich, crawling with deacons and beings of the deep) and the misdeeds of arguably the most impactful character from exclusively that game (atleast for the gods), pontiff sulyvahn. besides, Lordran, drangleic and lothric are all built on top of or around each other, so it isnt really illogical that we got to see it again. And since it was pretty much just 1 bossfight and not a full area, it didnt overstay its welcome either. it just felt like there was an effort to conclude some things from the first game (although vaguely, in classic miyazaki fashion) and imo, most of it felt alright or even pretty good to me. then again, this is just my opinion on it. loved the video, think ill check out your other stuff when i have time. take care! <3
I love ds2 currently invading on it now because of the event imo has best pvp PvE not so much it has the best spells to
Currently making a platinum run on scholar of the first sin, and after years of not having played das2, I gotta say I'm having a lot of fun. The faraam set is still drippy af, and I love the sir alonne set. Yea, still a shame the game came out the way it did and the hit boxes, the geography and level design not being up to par with with the other games, but damn it, I'm still having fun. The dlc areas really redeem it for me, especially ivory king. My only gripe is grinding the covenants to get certain spells and miracles to get those "get all spells" trophies
1:25:25 Something to note, you can fight those enemies one at a time on the way the the executioner's chariot. If you make small movements towards them you can get them to drop off the pillars one at a time and then retreat back to fight them one on one. I don't assume it's the intended method but it's what I've always done.
1:32:30 on Earthen Peak Windmill. While I also do think it's ridiculous if you look at the entire windmill, after you light it on fire the windmill stops moving. I believe the concept is the poison operation inside the facility is wind powered so by turning it off poison stops circulation in the building.
There is nothing wrong with the enemy placement in this game
The way they say you will lose all your souls misses the entire point it was about hollowing/depression giving up not about losing a currency.
Asylum is better than City.