#DarkSouls2 #DarkSouls #FromSoftware
Why does Dark Souls 2 receive so much hate? For years, I’ve wondered this myself, so I finally played it. This video is a deep dive into Dark Souls 2 in both its successes and its failures, offering comparison to the changes FromSoftware made relative to Dark Souls 1. I focused on game mechanics and level design and now finally understand why it’s loved by many, but hated by more. Whether you’re a seasoned Soulsborne player or new to the series, this is everything you need to know about Dark Souls 2.
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CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:57 Video Breakdown
2:46 Good Game Mechanics
6:19 Bad Game Mechanics
19:55 Large Scale Level Design
2:36 Good Small Scale Level Design
28:36 Bad Small Scale Level Design
36:39 Outro
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37 Comments
I have some fundemental disagreements about whether or not something is "bad", but rather than writing it all let me just say every single time that dark souls moan played I giggled like a child.
I think the real question is "Why does everyone think everyone hates Dark Souls 2?"
@joegella
A few points as counter argument. This was my entry to the DS world and I had more fun with it with DS1 and felt that game's systems inferior. Note that I am not a greatsword guy, so I can not and not even want to engage with your terrible experience with that weapon. I mostly used mace, longsword and estoc and had never problem with hitting the enemy, and I also do not like SotFS and play the true DS2 which is better to me.
Forest of Fallen Giants can be seen from the monument where the crestfallen knight tells you the thing to to know direction in game, easy to spot really, btw Heide leads to the same old soul so they are 1 path and both have some off routes you can explore which is good level design, you can choose which one you gonna go through and the other paths are not even open yet. Also SotFS ruins many things with the fragrant branch usage which are not here without SotFS. Unless you use torch in uncecessary places, you will always have enough. I had 2 hours of torch on my first playthrough when arriving to No Man's Warf since I never lit it before. Human Effigy is not that rare either, at least in the base variant of the game, I remember hitting the storage limit on my second playthrough.
The name Throne of Want tells you and in-game dialogue also point to this throne as what you trying to achieve. There is a door, but you can't see it as it is not shaped as one. After the final boss is beaten with is either 2nd or 3rd in the throne room, the kinship allows to access the throne through the back of the golems. So the door is there but its invisible so you see your goal. They just did not make 2 arenas as it would look weird.
On enemies that are too much in the way, like before Mytha, you always have the option to clear them by killing them to despawn. Also the mill makes poison, you can see it by examining the interior, that is the clue, if the production stops, you only need to deal with the leftover poison then.
Yes there are many empty rooms and I mostly point to how large the game is to an explanation as why that is the case. It can be seen that there are areas better decorated, and areas simply better designed as they got more time from the development. Like how well positioned poison jars can be used to kill many annoying enemies by baiting them. The same things we might think that are there to hinder our movement forward. The famus lift I think is also probably something like that, there supposed to be a path that leads you there but there was no time and they copy pasted an elevator that is clearly out of place, it does not match EP's style at all and put it there as there was no time, but that is only what it seems to be, I do not think they were so dumb that they forgot we are at the top of a tower currently.
Estus is slow but it is because the game has lifegems. Using the two sources of healing together is the way to survive. Their sources are different as lifegem is purchased from souls and estus is recharging and also estus is a bigger heal and lifegem is smaller.
I played them in order and DS2 was my favorite
Its also a clean sharp 60 framed aa opposed to 30. ADP is great. Leveling up is fastest in DS2 anyway by far
Still watching but leaving this here. Ds2 yes adp is bad. Yes you should have those iframes like normal without it.
That being said in ds2 you can have more max poise than any other souls game.
Also DeS did have an item to restore your health it was the stone ephemeral eyes.
I am someone that liked Dark Souls 2. Its probably the game I played the most out of the three game franchise. Yep you read that right. But to me what has always stuck out as the reason for as to why DS2 was a bad game (speaking primarily design wise) was that it was half baked and unfinished. And more importantly even: Unpolished. There are countless of videos covering the stuff they could never put in. The Gutter being a shell of what it was originally meant to be is a pretty good example. "How the Gutter got Gutted" for those who wanna see more of that.
Then come the general mechanics such as Adaptability. As someone who challenged themself to not level it once on my last playthrough lemme tell ya: That is the worst thing to ever grace the Souls Franchise. If you dont level that crap, you will Suffer endless deaths and tragedies. It is a mechanic entirely revolving around i-frames and thats it. The higher you level it the more i-frames you have. Something that should be dependant on skill is in turn changed to be dependant on stats. And yes I beat all bosses. And yes I uninstalled the game, laughing maniacally because I was happy that it was finally over.
Dark Souls 2 is the perfect example of what a "Early Access" Dark Souls 1 would look like to me. Maps tiny as all get out (smaller than even Dark Souls 1 at some point). Bosses feel uninspired or disconnected. Fricking Volcano ontop of a tower. There is… ALOT that makes the game feel just generally speaking unfinished.
the parts i hate in DS2 are PVP and covenant's loot. because in game menu no options to play offline, the only way to play offline – turn off the internet or game launcher (steam), also hate the quantity of NPC and Player intruders (i basically got 2 player intruders in a row, when reached a new location) and covenant's loot, it's too grindy, because you have a medium difficulty option with PVP (but you have to win) and super grindy option with mob's low chance drop, and also there is PVP only covenant. at this point PVE grind in DS1 feels less grindy than in DS2
DeS<DS1<Ds2<BB=DS3=Elden Ring=Sekiro
DS2 pros.
-good world layouts.
-dlc bosses.
DS2 cons.
– adaptability.
– enemy spam.
– DLC bosses ( blue smelter demon and the double cat fight)
I personally will not replay DS2 any time soon, but its not a bad game at all, its just that every other fromsoft game is insanely good.
I played demon souls DS1 and 3 elden ring and sekiro and I will NEVER try DS2
i love dark souls 2 so much
'cos it's bad. That's it.
The real issue with Dark Souls 2 can be summed up in that it is an unfinished game. Much of what is being considered poor implementation of new mechanics is really, primarily, jankt hat didn't get fully ironed out because the game has a troubled development, even switching leads halfway through development. I think one place you can see this is in how the animations for your character look. They lack a lot of weight and impact, and often don't use the full body looking very stiff. These animations exacerbate problems like adaptability iframes making this game feel pretty terrible to play, which is a pretty big indictment compared to any of the other games which have fantastic animations and feel pretty great to play
I fought both bosses back to back at the end. DS2 was my first souls game so for me it’s my favorite.
Dark Souls 2 is better than most games, but it's definitely the "worst" of the Soulsborne Ring games. One of them had to be.
I love this game despite its many flaws
Cause they got no taste
I liked the game didnt know it was considered "bad" I did 3 runs and thats it. Liked how long it is, felt like the longest souls so far, and nice build variety. I hated the runs to the blue smelter demon (iron passage). The frigid outskirts?? cool hidden area but not worth it, hated every second of it. And those ice porcupine (Rampart Hedgehogs) each one can go to hell haha!
It's 2024, and we're still dunking on Dark Souls 2? Alright then.
Dark souls 2 is badass, if you play it expecting the game to suck, then its going to suck and you're just going to find shit to dislike about it and I feel bad for you.
Isn't it weird how people say this game sucks, but has such a die hard fan base? Seems like the people who go from Souls 3 and Elden Ring that go back to Souls 1 & 2 usually don't become big fans, but the people who played 1 2 then 3 and Elden ring like all the games? Hmmmm.
(show like/dislike ratio on the vid lol)
I think the best way I can summarize DS2 is, it's the best game I ever hated.
Dark souls 2, Dark souls do.
I fucking love DS2
10:55 You are NOT using the Chlorantly Ring in that fight. There are no green particle effects surrounding your character
Sick and tired of garbage opinions like this acting like they're definitive.
DS2 > DS1 for the following reasons:
Better graphics
>15 fps
More/better weapons
More/better armor sets
More spells and far better magic system
Better builds
Far better multi-player
Better/more areas
Better aesthetic
Far moren & better/harder bosses.
DS1 does have better hitboxes though.
This is the best Dark souls 2 video i've ever seen. Just finished ds2. Not a bad game, but the others are really better.
I'll say this, soul memory is easily one of the worst mechanics in not just souls 2 but fromsoft games as a whole. So many times where I was playing through the game with friends and because I decided to kill another dragonrider or use some souls to upgrade a weapon or level up a stat I progressed into the next soul memory tier and couldn't co-op with them anymore because they didn't have the means to get to my tier.
It doesn't just affect that though, because if you decide to be a good sport or lvl up a covenant and you set down your sign to co-op with randoms you can't go back to previous areas to help lower lvl players because they're soul memory is leagues lower than yours.
Do I hate the game though? No, i'd say I actually enjoy the game in spite of that and I think a lot of others feel the same with other mechanics. Still though, if ds2 ever gets the remaster treatment like souls 1 did then I'd want soul memory removed from the equation.
It’s funny to watch a video praising Dark Souls 2 for a variety of reasons, and then watch another video criticizing the game for those same reasons. It honestly just makes me more interested in the game.
Out of the original trilogy the one I've played the most is DS2. I will never understand what led to its bad reputation, I think it was just extreme DS1 fans reacting to nonexistent issues.
The game is far from perfect, but it also introduced a lot of features that were praised in the following games, but for some reason were heavily criticized when this one first came out. It's as if said features are only criticized for the fact of just existing in DS2.
In addition the details that you're going into are honestly very unfair, because you're comparing DS2 to newer improved games. Fore example DS2 isn't DS3 where spam-rolling is possible and will save you from various scenarios.
To anybody watching this I encourage you to play this game with an open mindset. This person clearly went in with all the bad comments from haters and made some very questionable conclusions in this video.
SOTFS is garbage! I much prefer the original. It's not a soft remaster. It's literally the same game with more enemies(esp mobs) and different items locations.
It's awful. Try the original first.
Here is my factual nopinion. You are welcome to disagree, but you would be wrong
DaS > BB > DeS > DaS2 > Elden Ring > DaS3
To me, it was great. I started with the scholar of the first sin edition on xbone. I remember it being my first good souls like experience, mostly due to it ran at 60 fps, while dark souls and demons souls ran at 8- 30ish fps on consoles which made it harder and damn near impossible in some stages.
dude ngl, you whiny af
Everyone? DS2 is still a great game and loved by many fans
You are a clown, delete the video
Best perspective and most comprehensive explanation of DS2 tht I’ve ever seen. Great job. Bonus points for the spaghetti and meatball metaphor
to most of the stuff you criticized had some mechanic which helps the player in said scenarios which you forgot to mention