I don't think DS2 comes down to precisely one neat convenient identifiable problem. There's many things that, when combined, result in the entrie experience suffering.
Unironically my favorite Dark Souls. May be because I played through the entirety of DS2 and SotFS with my two friends, but I enjoyed almost every second of the game.
I like it exacly for the build variety. DS3 by disabling poise messed alot of things up, every run is very similar. DS1 and 2 offer a better replayability for that.
@@suchar7175 yes, and the difference between that and DS1 or 2 is hughe. My preference is just the old passive poise. It also limits build variety, since you need big weapons. In DS1 my last run was giant amor + small club. Easiest run ever. I was baffeld that not more players do that. I used to play as light char with 2 handed big weapoms and nowadays I experimemt with heavy builds. How do you prefer to play?
@@caked3953 first of all, I prefer offensive play and hyperarmor rewards that, giving you active poise when attacking. And anyway I usually try to dodge as many attacks as possible, not tank them. It was always my playstyle since beginning of my adventure with Souls games, I guess that's why I like that change in DS3 and Bloodborne (BB was my first From Software game. In this game you can't rely on shield, armor, poise).
@@Kamawan0 out of these three games, DS3 is the only one where you can play offensively, because you have enough stamina to do as many attacks as you have a chance for. After beating game multiple times, no one really cares about passive poise, especially among players that try to improve their play.
imagine spending all the extra souls you get on life gems instead of armour upgrades levels, a soft second build into a little bit of magic or dual wielding or crossbow secondary, then brute forcing ervery encounter with your heals and then saying its lame and ganky
Dark Souls 2 actually feels like a sequel and not just catering fan service. 3 does not contain the nuance that made 1 so special. 2 does. It’s extremely heavy with atmosphere.
Really? I found a lot of depth in Dark Souls 3 when I played it. I thought it worked well logically extending the themes of the first game and adding its own ideas along the way. Dark Souls 1 being about the first linking of the Fire and the reasons behind it, alongside the reasons for repeating it. Dark Souls 2 brought in the idea of cyclical linkings of the Fire, which was excellent, and Miyazaki added onto it when he wrote the SotFS content. He carried those ideas into Dark Souls 3, which is focused on the probable end of that established cycle and, more importantly, why it should end. That's how I read it when I played anyway, I thought they all complemented each other very well in terms of the lore and writing. I'm oversimplifying of course. All three games have way more going on in them and they link together in many more ways, but this is the broad strokes as I see them, without getting into the details and related ideas.
"catering fan service" What does that even mean? You mean the fact Ds3 directly ties in with 1 and follows on multiple established parts of 1's lore? That's fan service? That sounds more like a sequel than a game that in its own description sounds more like a spinoff. (ds2)
@@entropy7705 Dark Souls 2 does that as well. It just does it with nuance. Finding a reference to the first game in 2 feels very special and there are references. The game makes you dig deep for them in a new land with a new story that still parallels to the first in a much more subtle way than 3 does. Catering fan service as in making callback after callback to the first game and just being completely on the nose with it.
@@Kamawan0 The Lost Sinner, The Rotten, The Duke's Dear Freya, and the Old Iron King are the four lords reincarnated in Ds2 lore so I don't understand complaining about Ds3 using four lords again (In fact it makes even less sense given the Chosen Undead canonically took all of their souls into the first flame meaning they became permanently one being as opposed to have entirely unrelated new lords) And no they didn't "rename" Lordran into Lothric, it's literally another Kingdom built on top of it the same way Drangleic is another Kingdom built ontop of other dead Kingdoms (like Lordran). It just so happens this Kingdom is nearby where Lordran used to be. (Shocking, the closing end of the narrative in this universe returns to where the source of the constant cycle started.) I fail to see why the third game that's supposed to end the series *shouldn't* return back to where the origin of this cycle is. I'd assume the first flame hasn't moved since Ds1 and it's rather evident it's no wherever Drangleic is supposed to be. It's also the fact the end goal of Ds3's narrative is that "this all feels familiar because history is literally repeating itself and it needs to end".
If you look up Dark Souls 2 Dead Zones, it explains why it feels off. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, and Bloodborne, while being locked to four cardinal compass directions if locked on, gave 360 degrees of motion while locked off. Dark Souls 2 uses the same movement system while locked on, and off, that has a very broad rigidity in the four primary compass directions, and 360 degrees of motion in a narrow band between them. Which results in feeling like you're using an Etch-A-Sketch for a controller. Enemies, for the most part, seem to also use the same movement system, hence you get derpy shit like the Falconers walk cycle, and Lucatile just randomly walking off a cliff because reasons.
@@kdtprojekt681 This is actually incorrect. A "dead zone" is the area that a controller doesn't register input, nothing more. Play Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 and sprint in a circle. You'll notice that the difference is NOT the dead zone, but the turn radius made by the player. DS1 and DS3 share a very tight and unrealistic turn radius. So much so, the character looks like it's spinning on a single foot during the spin, and the running animation doesn't even play correctly. Whereas, DS2 uses a wider turn radius, and you can actually sprint in a complete circle without the game breaking the animation.
people who say something subjective “cant be argued” because they think their opinions have transcended to facts haha. Not even 30 seconds in and the dude says that lol
Honestly imo it is. It isn't intelligent with its difficulty. A lot of gank squads as people call it (Specifically no mans warf) gameplay is actually pretty good, but its killed when half of the game is throwing endless enemies at you and expecting you to survive. Capping health is another issue, its a cool idea, but was not properly thought out. They just threw it in. Without any barriers to prevent actual unfair situations. Like for example, what if a new player entirely new to the series die multiple times and gets heavily punished because they don't know a lot about souls like, and now they're down 50 health without being able to take on a boss. This should not happen, and has likely happened before. This forces people to think in a mindset of "If i get hit its all over" constantly. This game does not respect difficulty like 3 and 1 did. Now how did DS1 and 3 respect and understand difficulty? There is no huge punishment of dying besides losing souls, barely any gank squads, each area was crafted with difficulty, yet fairness, Enemies require you to think and say "Whens the next opening?" Obviously there is BS sections in both games, its unavoidable, for example, in DS3 the swamp part to the abyss watchers. In my opinion, DS2 is the weakest because it did not understand what made DS1 Actually good. Not the difficulty, but the fairness of it. The game just took a look at difficulty, thought "Hmmm what made it popular? Oh wait! Difficulty thats overboard!" And then was thrown together and said "Now, this is a true masterpiece!" And didn't bother to test if it was fair or fun. The game is good, but there is so many elements that kill it for me. Especially the gank squads and health capping. Health capping is just overboard. Like, i already lost my 10k souls why punish me even more??
As someone who's beaten every souls game 10+ times, my ultimate conclusion is that DS2 is the 2nd worst game in the series, but it's still a game I love deeply. The list goes like this for me: 7. Demon's Souls - 7.5/10 6. Dark Souls 2 - 8/10 5. Dark Souls 1 - 8.8/10 4. Elden Ring - 9.4/10 3. Dark Souls 3 - 9.5/10 2. Sekiro - 9.6/10 1. Bloodborne 9.8/10
@maturegambino9476 I just don't think ds3 is as good. I can understand if someone puts ds1 above 2 but ds3 is just a slog to play through and spends too much time trying to remind the player of ds1. The only thing i can say about ds3 that it does better than ds 1 and ds2 is that there is no offensively bad bosses like ds1 and ds2 has. The bosses in ds3 are fine...ish
30 seconds in, het another youtuber bashing ds2 saying “i dont even think its arguable that ds2 is the weakest” I dont think you can argue a subjective preference as fact or the only way it should be lmfao. Hop off the hogh horse and realize people like the game they want and each game offers things they like. Im tired of close minded people saying theyre right about something subjective.
The Dark Souls 2 problem is that people on the internet do not know how to temper their emotions and use their words properly. So they use hyperbolic statements: WORST GAME! TRASH! It also suffers from internet bandwagonism. One person says something and other people join in. Words like bad outweighing the good drastically. Lol what? When this game dropped the praise was in high order and even if the that praise cooled after a few years, the hyperbole goes too far. It also suffers from easy target syndrome. UA-camrs looking to get in good do a DS2 attack video.
Great vid, when I played through the game a couple year ago I didn’t use a bow or any of the good strats… probably the most rage inducing game I’ve played
Says adp is bad and proceeds to show several clips of him rolling before the enemies attack has even started and getting hit because he doesnt time his rolls right.
@@mrerectric5999 amazing that thats what you think my point is. however if you are going to edit a video and during the section of you talking about how adp is bad and that rolling is bad then dont show yourself wiffing rolls so badly that you would get hit no matter what game you are playing.
@@entropy7705 Hard disagree, but I tend to like that DS2 feels more like an rpg and less like grab big boom stick, pump strength, grab power within, grab red tearstone. Ontop of that DS2 is the most souls rich souls game, the game drowns you in souls to level up. I just finished a playthrough of all bosses literally on monday and I ended at level 224 with only a 18 hour playthrough. Thats an insane amount of levels compared to ds1 and ds3 where you end up around 80 and 130 respectivley. ADP is only bad because you dislike that a rpg has rpg stats that dictate how good you are at something, something that goes away if you level adp to 39.
I don’t agree with you saying it’s a bad game but I do agree with the problems I do still enjoy it but it has many flaws with the core of the game where they just tried to make it harder
@@entropy7705 I wouldn’t call Halflight a bad fight if you get matched with a player it’s really fun, however the offline NPC has elden ring brainrot and only presses L2. I also wouldn’t say that Deacons of the deep, Greatwood, or Crystal sage are bad, just dull / boring. Also they all have amazing osts because it’s DS3 and Yuka Kitamura and Motoi Sakaruba went crazy on the ost for the last Dark Souls game
I think Dark Souls 2 is a decent game for Fromsoftware- which is still leagues above most developers in terms of quality and story. Most bosses are decent- not good, not bad. Velstad, Mirror Knight and the DLC bosses are quite good. I think the long boss runs are annoying, especially when there are giant gank squads in the way.
"I still get hit during my roll even when I dodge perfectly" -> shows a clip of him missing a dodge and getting directly hit by the gargoyle bident... Typical ds2 hater coping for their lack of skill and blaming adp for all of their problems.
Dark souls 2 is amazing. IT’s especially good because each game is fresh and stand out. Doesn’t feel like if you played one you played them all you know.
I’m glad seeing comments how DS3 is boring . DS3 tried too hard to be the “hard game” and that made it BOOOORING. The poison swamp is traumatizing and not made well at all
This is a very curious game of a controversial game, that I feel that is on some regard too overdefended, but too overhated as well. Well, this is my opinion of the ups and downs of the game. To not give a bad taste, im going with something bad, then something good, ok? -I do not consider AGILITY as a good idea.Too basic for a player to have and frustating to have to level it up. +I consider that has a very varied level design with a lot of secrets and tricks that the player can use. -There are some things that gives the idea of DS2 has bad hitboxes; Some attacks make invisbles earthquakes, and if you get attacked by rolling as your Iframes ran out it can get to some weird interactions +Visual wise can be the most visual stounishing FromSoft game -A lot of boss fight can be extremely undewhelming, some of them reaching the point of bloated stats while having 2 or 3 attacks. +The weaponry variety can lead to a lot of creativity regarding the player, which can be very fun to see how builds might be. -Visual wise can also be underwhelming and some rooms feels too empty. +I also like the lore this game offered, having paralelism to DS1 but being enough independ to be their own story. -The player movement can be frustating at times to work around. +This game has an insane amount of non-linearity, yet is rare to lost track on this game specifically. - I do not enjoy the idea of being able to receive damage while going on a fog gate. If I want to fight a boss, I want to fight the boss, not spend 5 minutes defeating grunts that can follow me. +The music is something I really consider underrated on this regard, there are a lot of bangers. +The amount of replaybility this game offers is insane, and you can refight bosses which is a very good addition which sadly was never readded. So this is all. At the end of the day, this is nothing more than an opinion, so feel free to disagree with.
This game has better graphics and textures than DS3 because it's on a different engine made for next gen consoles before being rushed to current gen "X360" because the publisher needed the money sooner. Personally I want a remake of DS2 in the current Dark Souls Engine making the game look like the trailer and redoing most the layouts and encounters to be on Dark Souls 1's level of quality. Also adding the matchmaking from DS1 PTDE would be great since the MP in every game after DS1 was worse thanks to soul memory or weapon scaling. Story rewrites to connect better to DS1 and DS3 would also be nice since DS3 feels like a direct sequel to DS1 instead of DS2.
I still love this game. I have more fun with this game than Dark Souls 1 and Demon Souls Wish the game got fixed if it gets a PS5 rework. But i can acknowledge the massive flaws that we all hate. 8/10 for me
Actually, in my opinion, DS2 is a much better game than DS1. However, both of them are very poor compared to DS3. The royal theme, diversity and world of DS2 appeal to me. The first and last games are similar, but DS2 is like a completely different world. While the play may be the weakest of the trilogy, the second child is always the most problematic. However, it was a great game for me, if I were to rank it, I would rank it as DS3>DS2>DS1.
I mean you can easily get another blood rock by doing the dlc or if you cant be bothered, the chalice dungeons. Also, this is purely conjecture, but maybe if you hold jump its a longer jump and if you just press it, its shorter.
I had a long, probably mean-spirited comment here I just deleted. Instead: You’d choose Vanilla over SotFS? I don’t believe you. Watch Domo’s videos comparing the two games and Vanilla has more enemies with bigger aggro ranges and harder to obtain lockstones, embers and Branches of Yore. There’s no way you complain about what you do here and prefer Vanilla.
Quantity over quality...That explains ds2 PERFECTLY!!! There are really great ideas in this game. And a lot of innovation. But, it's all meaningless since it's surrounded by so much garbage, artificial difficulty and its clunky as shit. I tried finishing the game 3 times(I'm on my fourth attempt) and I wanna quit again. Not bc it's tough...it's bc the endgame is BOOOOOring as hell
1. There is too much content which doesn't seem to be high quality 2. The experience lacks its depth. I didn't know Miyazaki was not a director of this game so after you said he was working on bloodborne at that time, it makes a lot more sense. 3. There is limited amount of items like lockstones and branches which seem to be important but there are too many statues and locks so you can't know which one actualy is. There are few extremely important ones that you don't want to miss among dozens of useless. This is just so painful and unnecessary... 4. The walkthrough feels very confusing, so after few hours of gameplay you have no idea if you're in correct location and where to go 5. Bossfights are boring as fu€k. Most of them are just so easy that you defeat the boss in 1-3 attempts. And there is smelter demon... This dogs#¡t is too much even for a souls game. First you have to go through dozen of alonne knights on your way who are 4 times faster than you and some of them even have bows with auto-tracking arrows. The actual boss is a joke, high damage, not enough time to use estus, attacks with ridiculous hitboxes which even bypass rolling timeframe. 6. Adaptibility stat is extremely important as it decreases time spent on sipping estus and making a roll also increasing your rolling immunity time. But the game doesn't tell you this. 7. Graphics are underwhelming. The game is just 2 years behind ds3 and 3 years after ds1 but is still almost on the same level as ds1. Majula may be exception. 8. Dying is much more punishing than in other games of the series.
It sounds like a lot of your problems come down to disliking the increased inconveniences the game has. But Dark Souls is literally all about inconvenience. Plus most of the changes encourage build variety. Lifegems for tanks, for example. And the best shields in the series to compensate for low ADP. Plus the rate at which you level up is adjusted since we have more stats than in DS1. Not to mention making all the magic more accessible through the Skeptic's and Simpleton's Spices.
0:17 interesting, I have always thought that ds1 is the weakest in the series. I think it's very much debatable considering how the post lord vessel ds1 was so bad.
I severely disagree with Elana, she was definitely one of the worst bosses in the DLC Nashandra Remix ft. Velstadt and the Skeleton Crew was not a fun fight
I just think it’s not a good game. The constant recycled enemies and bosses. The story is great and interesting but Aldia’s boss fight is sooo disappointing.
Who’s favorite game is DS2? I actually love DS2, but damn, don’t play it right after playing any of the other games. It’s rough if you are used to that level of quality and then play DS2z
Ds2 is flawed but still better then ds3. I don’t understand how anyone can hate Elden Ring but love Ds3 when almost all of ERs issues stem from Ds3 and if anything ER fixes a lot of them.
"Theres too many enemies" Yep, opinion ignored Ive heard that so many times, and heard it used as an excuse to say the game is somehow unfair and just wants to kill you o death 24/7 My argument? Play ds2 more like less like a souls game and more like a normal rpg The amount genuinely isnt that bad, its just people baby mad they run into multiple groups of enemies at once and get overwhelmed feom their own poor decisions ALSO side note, the durability being tied to framerate is a commom misconception because while it was a bug that came with scholars launch, it did get patched
@@dimitrisanastopoulos8957 ive played ds2 dozens of times, you can run past enemies quite easily if you know the layout, but if youre new to a souls game and you get cornered with half the level behind you thats your own fault. Dark souls 2 simply isnt meant for you,and thats okay But i like the more methodical fighting of trash mobs while going about at my leisure when i feel burnt out of the intensity of froms newer games
I think its fair to point out that while i do think it is the worse SOULS game, i still think ds2 is better than most other games out there. Like if you pressed me on it, gun to my head, i have to choose between ds2 or skyrim i would pick ds2 everytime
I disagree with a few of your opinions. Sotfs was my first souls game so i am biased, but you mentioned 0 lore in the entire video which i think plays into the souls games significantly more than other games. There are some videos that show cut content that couldve been that i recommend looking at. Also babyjumps happen because of cpu hz rates and something with frames. I feel that the shit gameplay is balanced with the cool mechanics and of course fashion souls.
"I don't think that can even be argued" How can you say that when the boring, unbalanced, slog of a game that is DS3 exist? Armour is basically entirely pointless The game is really boringly linear The difficulty spike about 60% of the way into the game is the most bullshit thing in any Souls-bourne game iv'e ever seen Faith builds are comically under powered and if you are doing a blind play through you can utterly fuck yourself by making a few bad choices It also fails entirely to have its own personality and instead substitutes it with "HEY! Remember X thing from DS1? isn't that cool! please feel nostalgia" The only thing DS3 has going for it is some of the best boss fights in series, but I can hardly care when getting to them is a slog. Like, DS2 is not my favorite, in fact of the Soulsborne games is second to last in front DS3. But I still replay DS2 from time to time, I have entirely given up on DS3
@@peenyyt4921 I've 100% achievement ds3 and agree with this guy on most points. Ds3 areas suck. He literally said some of the best bosses but the areas are so ass and swampy
Ds1 is definitely the weakest. Graphically it struggles, lore is very bad as it’s only items, ds2 just has better gameplay then ds1 lore is way more explained and can be pieced together easier and weapons are way better especially boss weapons. Not to mention the overhauls to boss systems. The main issue is the bosses. It’s kinda why i hate elden ring too many bosses have a health bar that don’t deserve it. Just looking at your gameplay it looks like you never learned the orstein and smough lesson. Stop locking on when heavily out numbered. Complaining about adp is kinda dumb because its like complaining about being able to level vigor. Are you telling me you start with a low level of vigor? That’s stupid. People can and have beaten the game without leveling adp. Adp is problematic as elden ring arcane not explaining it increases discovery. It’s kinda a product of its time if the internet was more popular during ds2 then everyone would know on launch what adp does. The issue is most things in ds aren’t explained in general. The second half of ds2 and the dlc are what it was meant to be. The frigid outskirts were intended as optinal Co op only areas. There’s other areas like that too.
If it was called Demon Souls 2 you'd be singing its praises because that's what the game basically is, besides the Weapon durability that was atrocious you said nothing but nitpicks. By the gameplay your issue is the roll timing and mentality to playing around the world, you're trying to play it as DS1 instead of trying to playing as its own identity of a different game. Tying the iFrames to a stat was a dumb idea but it's doable once you stop trying to play it as DS1 and learn it proper. Stop trying to make DS2 fit in the DS1 box, they're different games meant to be played similar but different, that was Aldias whole point, the endless cycles of doing and not doing the thing leaves no space for growth and change, the same way your gameplay is stuck in the style of a different game.
Calm down there, Harris. You said he was nitpicking, but you agreed with all the points you criticised. Is adp a stupid stat? Yes, full stop. You said so yourself. Dark Souls 1 has nothing to do with it. He barely said anything about dark souls 1. Not sure why you’re hung up on it like he sat around saying 1 was the best and 2 was poopy garbage, because he sure didn’t.
dark souls 2 sucks mega ass and I love it
Best Souls 2 ♥️
Bro awoke the wrath of ymfah
Happy Souls
I need to start collecting these. The sheer number of "in defense of" or "the problems with" DS2 video essays is staggering
In defense of in defense of in offense of Dark Souls 2
i think the dark souls 2 problem is that everyone thinks they know precisely what it is
I don't think DS2 comes down to precisely one neat convenient identifiable problem. There's many things that, when combined, result in the entrie experience suffering.
@@GodWarsXsays you, i love ds2 🙌🏿
@@xavierreallyplaysgames Good for you, I dislike ds2.
Well people call it Problem, should be problems
It's pretty obvious what it is: an effortless cash grab.
Unironically my favorite Dark Souls. May be because I played through the entirety of DS2 and SotFS with my two friends, but I enjoyed almost every second of the game.
I like it exacly for the build variety. DS3 by disabling poise messed alot of things up, every run is very similar. DS1 and 2 offer a better replayability for that.
Disabling poise? Do you even know what is the hyperarmor?
@@suchar7175 yes, and the difference between that and DS1 or 2 is hughe. My preference is just the old passive poise.
It also limits build variety, since you need big weapons. In DS1 my last run was giant amor + small club. Easiest run ever. I was baffeld that not more players do that.
I used to play as light char with 2 handed big weapoms and nowadays I experimemt with heavy builds.
How do you prefer to play?
@@caked3953 first of all, I prefer offensive play and hyperarmor rewards that, giving you active poise when attacking. And anyway I usually try to dodge as many attacks as possible, not tank them. It was always my playstyle since beginning of my adventure with Souls games, I guess that's why I like that change in DS3 and Bloodborne (BB was my first From Software game. In this game you can't rely on shield, armor, poise).
@@suchar7175 I used to play offensly, then I tried a "Havel run" as challange and it changed my views
@@Kamawan0 out of these three games, DS3 is the only one where you can play offensively, because you have enough stamina to do as many attacks as you have a chance for.
After beating game multiple times, no one really cares about passive poise, especially among players that try to improve their play.
imagine spending all the extra souls you get on life gems instead of armour upgrades levels, a soft second build into a little bit of magic or dual wielding or crossbow secondary, then brute forcing ervery encounter with your heals and then saying its lame and ganky
Dark Souls 2 actually feels like a sequel and not just catering fan service. 3 does not contain the nuance that made 1 so special. 2 does. It’s extremely heavy with atmosphere.
Really? I found a lot of depth in Dark Souls 3 when I played it. I thought it worked well logically extending the themes of the first game and adding its own ideas along the way. Dark Souls 1 being about the first linking of the Fire and the reasons behind it, alongside the reasons for repeating it. Dark Souls 2 brought in the idea of cyclical linkings of the Fire, which was excellent, and Miyazaki added onto it when he wrote the SotFS content. He carried those ideas into Dark Souls 3, which is focused on the probable end of that established cycle and, more importantly, why it should end. That's how I read it when I played anyway, I thought they all complemented each other very well in terms of the lore and writing.
I'm oversimplifying of course. All three games have way more going on in them and they link together in many more ways, but this is the broad strokes as I see them, without getting into the details and related ideas.
"catering fan service"
What does that even mean?
You mean the fact Ds3 directly ties in with 1 and follows on multiple established parts of 1's lore?
That's fan service? That sounds more like a sequel than a game that in its own description sounds more like a spinoff. (ds2)
@@entropy7705 Dark Souls 2 does that as well. It just does it with nuance. Finding a reference to the first game in 2 feels very special and there are references. The game makes you dig deep for them in a new land with a new story that still parallels to the first in a much more subtle way than 3 does.
Catering fan service as in making callback after callback to the first game and just being completely on the nose with it.
Yeah, an atmosphere of sewage.
@@Kamawan0 The Lost Sinner, The Rotten, The Duke's Dear Freya, and the Old Iron King are the four lords reincarnated in Ds2 lore so I don't understand complaining about Ds3 using four lords again (In fact it makes even less sense given the Chosen Undead canonically took all of their souls into the first flame meaning they became permanently one being as opposed to have entirely unrelated new lords)
And no they didn't "rename" Lordran into Lothric, it's literally another Kingdom built on top of it the same way Drangleic is another Kingdom built ontop of other dead Kingdoms (like Lordran). It just so happens this Kingdom is nearby where Lordran used to be. (Shocking, the closing end of the narrative in this universe returns to where the source of the constant cycle started.)
I fail to see why the third game that's supposed to end the series *shouldn't* return back to where the origin of this cycle is. I'd assume the first flame hasn't moved since Ds1 and it's rather evident it's no wherever Drangleic is supposed to be. It's also the fact the end goal of Ds3's narrative is that "this all feels familiar because history is literally repeating itself and it needs to end".
Is the dark soul with the best end game and new game plus out of the other games.
Nah
true
@@AtreyusNinja nashandra?😭
@@katom7452think he means the dlcs as late game
@@lilla4010 New Game + in Dark Souls 2 changes enemy placement, adds more bosses in the game world, and more subtle things.
I think more people need to talk about this game’s issue with movement. It just feels off. Not having 360 degree movement? And for what? Why? WHY?!
dark souls 1:
If you look up Dark Souls 2 Dead Zones, it explains why it feels off. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, and Bloodborne, while being locked to four cardinal compass directions if locked on, gave 360 degrees of motion while locked off. Dark Souls 2 uses the same movement system while locked on, and off, that has a very broad rigidity in the four primary compass directions, and 360 degrees of motion in a narrow band between them. Which results in feeling like you're using an Etch-A-Sketch for a controller. Enemies, for the most part, seem to also use the same movement system, hence you get derpy shit like the Falconers walk cycle, and Lucatile just randomly walking off a cliff because reasons.
@@kdtprojekt681 this is genuinely the best explanation of why DS2 feels weird I’ve ever read
@@kdtprojekt681 This is actually incorrect. A "dead zone" is the area that a controller doesn't register input, nothing more.
Play Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 and sprint in a circle. You'll notice that the difference is NOT the dead zone, but the turn radius made by the player. DS1 and DS3 share a very tight and unrealistic turn radius. So much so, the character looks like it's spinning on a single foot during the spin, and the running animation doesn't even play correctly. Whereas, DS2 uses a wider turn radius, and you can actually sprint in a complete circle without the game breaking the animation.
Calling ds2 the weakest then saying it can't be argued is just intellectual dishonesty
people who say something subjective “cant be argued” because they think their opinions have transcended to facts haha. Not even 30 seconds in and the dude says that lol
Honestly imo it is. It isn't intelligent with its difficulty. A lot of gank squads as people call it (Specifically no mans warf) gameplay is actually pretty good, but its killed when half of the game is throwing endless enemies at you and expecting you to survive.
Capping health is another issue, its a cool idea, but was not properly thought out. They just threw it in. Without any barriers to prevent actual unfair situations.
Like for example, what if a new player entirely new to the series die multiple times and gets heavily punished because they don't know a lot about souls like, and now they're down 50 health without being able to take on a boss.
This should not happen, and has likely happened before. This forces people to think in a mindset of "If i get hit its all over" constantly. This game does not respect difficulty like 3 and 1 did.
Now how did DS1 and 3 respect and understand difficulty? There is no huge punishment of dying besides losing souls, barely any gank squads, each area was crafted with difficulty, yet fairness, Enemies require you to think and say "Whens the next opening?"
Obviously there is BS sections in both games, its unavoidable, for example, in DS3 the swamp part to the abyss watchers.
In my opinion, DS2 is the weakest because it did not understand what made DS1 Actually good. Not the difficulty, but the fairness of it. The game just took a look at difficulty, thought "Hmmm what made it popular? Oh wait! Difficulty thats overboard!" And then was thrown together and said "Now, this is a true masterpiece!" And didn't bother to test if it was fair or fun.
The game is good, but there is so many elements that kill it for me. Especially the gank squads and health capping. Health capping is just overboard. Like, i already lost my 10k souls why punish me even more??
@@Ghostman223 demons souls had arguably more "annoying health capping" and i dont see anyone bitching
The internet is rife with nonsense like this. I am going to struggle through this video.
As someone who's beaten every souls game 10+ times, my ultimate conclusion is that DS2 is the 2nd worst game in the series, but it's still a game I love deeply.
The list goes like this for me:
7. Demon's Souls - 7.5/10
6. Dark Souls 2 - 8/10
5. Dark Souls 1 - 8.8/10
4. Elden Ring - 9.4/10
3. Dark Souls 3 - 9.5/10
2. Sekiro - 9.6/10
1. Bloodborne 9.8/10
ds2 > ds1 > ds3
This is the only correct ranking.
Nope. DS1>DS2>DS3
Hard agree with OC here
Backwards and I Love ds2. Other two are just extraordinarily good
@maturegambino9476 I just don't think ds3 is as good. I can understand if someone puts ds1 above 2 but ds3 is just a slog to play through and spends too much time trying to remind the player of ds1. The only thing i can say about ds3 that it does better than ds 1 and ds2 is that there is no offensively bad bosses like ds1 and ds2 has. The bosses in ds3 are fine...ish
As frustrating as this game is, it still has some of my favourite areas of the series
30 seconds in, het another youtuber bashing ds2 saying “i dont even think its arguable that ds2 is the weakest” I dont think you can argue a subjective preference as fact or the only way it should be lmfao. Hop off the hogh horse and realize people like the game they want and each game offers things they like. Im tired of close minded people saying theyre right about something subjective.
The Dark Souls 2 problem is that people on the internet do not know how to temper their emotions and use their words properly.
So they use hyperbolic statements: WORST GAME! TRASH!
It also suffers from internet bandwagonism. One person says something and other people join in.
Words like bad outweighing the good drastically.
Lol what?
When this game dropped the praise was in high order and even if the that praise cooled after a few years, the hyperbole goes too far.
It also suffers from easy target syndrome. UA-camrs looking to get in good do a DS2 attack video.
skill issue
Great vid, when I played through the game a couple year ago I didn’t use a bow or any of the good strats… probably the most rage inducing game I’ve played
Bro its 2024 theres been a million videos shitting on dark souls 2. Can we stop now?
Says adp is bad and proceeds to show several clips of him rolling before the enemies attack has even started and getting hit because he doesnt time his rolls right.
"unless you have never missed a dodge you can't say this garbage mechanic is bad" good lord ds2 defenders are braindead
@@mrerectric5999 amazing that thats what you think my point is. however if you are going to edit a video and during the section of you talking about how adp is bad and that rolling is bad then dont show yourself wiffing rolls so badly that you would get hit no matter what game you are playing.
@@LadyMourne ADP is bad, whether or not he dodged well enough doesn't matter, its an awful mechanic which is why it never appears again.
I mean yeah he fucked up the dodge but ADP is still a pretty stupid mechanic.
@@entropy7705 Hard disagree, but I tend to like that DS2 feels more like an rpg and less like grab big boom stick, pump strength, grab power within, grab red tearstone.
Ontop of that DS2 is the most souls rich souls game, the game drowns you in souls to level up. I just finished a playthrough of all bosses literally on monday and I ended at level 224 with only a 18 hour playthrough. Thats an insane amount of levels compared to ds1 and ds3 where you end up around 80 and 130 respectivley. ADP is only bad because you dislike that a rpg has rpg stats that dictate how good you are at something, something that goes away if you level adp to 39.
I don’t agree with you saying it’s a bad game but I do agree with the problems I do still enjoy it but it has many flaws with the core of the game where they just tried to make it harder
3 has some really fucking awful bosses idk
Curserotted Greatwood
Ancient Wyvern
Crystal Sage
Deacons Of The Deep
Halflight
I think those are the only really bad bosses tbh
@@entropy7705 I truly loathe aldrich
@@entropy7705 I wouldn’t call Halflight a bad fight if you get matched with a player it’s really fun, however the offline NPC has elden ring brainrot and only presses L2. I also wouldn’t say that Deacons of the deep, Greatwood, or Crystal sage are bad, just dull / boring. Also they all have amazing osts because it’s DS3 and Yuka Kitamura and Motoi Sakaruba went crazy on the ost for the last Dark Souls game
I think Dark Souls 2 is a decent game for Fromsoftware- which is still leagues above most developers in terms of quality and story.
Most bosses are decent- not good, not bad. Velstad, Mirror Knight and the DLC bosses are quite good.
I think the long boss runs are annoying, especially when there are giant gank squads in the way.
"I still get hit during my roll even when I dodge perfectly" -> shows a clip of him missing a dodge and getting directly hit by the gargoyle bident...
Typical ds2 hater coping for their lack of skill and blaming adp for all of their problems.
Meanwhile no hit runs exist
Dark souls 2 is amazing. IT’s especially good because each game is fresh and stand out. Doesn’t feel like if you played one you played them all you know.
You can really see who is on what side in this comment section
I’m glad seeing comments how DS3 is boring . DS3 tried too hard to be the “hard game” and that made it BOOOORING. The poison swamp is traumatizing and not made well at all
This is a very curious game of a controversial game, that I feel that is on some regard too overdefended, but too overhated as well. Well, this is my opinion of the ups and downs of the game. To not give a bad taste, im going with something bad, then something good, ok?
-I do not consider AGILITY as a good idea.Too basic for a player to have and frustating to have to level it up.
+I consider that has a very varied level design with a lot of secrets and tricks that the player can use.
-There are some things that gives the idea of DS2 has bad hitboxes; Some attacks make invisbles earthquakes, and if you get attacked
by rolling as your Iframes ran out it can get to some weird interactions
+Visual wise can be the most visual stounishing FromSoft game
-A lot of boss fight can be extremely undewhelming, some of them reaching the point of bloated stats while having 2 or 3 attacks.
+The weaponry variety can lead to a lot of creativity regarding the player, which can be very fun to see how builds might be.
-Visual wise can also be underwhelming and some rooms feels too empty.
+I also like the lore this game offered, having paralelism to DS1 but being enough independ to be their own story.
-The player movement can be frustating at times to work around.
+This game has an insane amount of non-linearity, yet is rare to lost track on this game specifically.
- I do not enjoy the idea of being able to receive damage while going on a fog gate. If I want to fight a boss,
I want to fight the boss, not spend 5 minutes defeating grunts that can follow me.
+The music is something I really consider underrated on this regard, there are a lot of bangers.
+The amount of replaybility this game offers is insane, and
you can refight bosses which is a very good addition which sadly was never readded.
So this is all. At the end of the day, this is nothing more than an opinion, so feel free to disagree with.
This game has better graphics and textures than DS3 because it's on a different engine made for next gen consoles before being rushed to current gen "X360" because the publisher needed the money sooner.
Personally I want a remake of DS2 in the current Dark Souls Engine making the game look like the trailer and redoing most the layouts and encounters to be on Dark Souls 1's level of quality.
Also adding the matchmaking from DS1 PTDE would be great since the MP in every game after DS1 was worse thanks to soul memory or weapon scaling.
Story rewrites to connect better to DS1 and DS3 would also be nice since DS3 feels like a direct sequel to DS1 instead of DS2.
I still love this game. I have more fun with this game than Dark Souls 1 and Demon Souls
Wish the game got fixed if it gets a PS5 rework. But i can acknowledge the massive flaws that we all hate.
8/10 for me
Actually, in my opinion, DS2 is a much better game than DS1. However, both of them are very poor compared to DS3. The royal theme, diversity and world of DS2 appeal to me. The first and last games are similar, but DS2 is like a completely different world. While the play may be the weakest of the trilogy, the second child is always the most problematic. However, it was a great game for me, if I were to rank it, I would rank it as DS3>DS2>DS1.
The only problem ds2 has is being the best souls game ever
I mean you can easily get another blood rock by doing the dlc or if you cant be bothered, the chalice dungeons. Also, this is purely conjecture, but maybe if you hold jump its a longer jump and if you just press it, its shorter.
I had a long, probably mean-spirited comment here I just deleted. Instead: You’d choose Vanilla over SotFS? I don’t believe you. Watch Domo’s videos comparing the two games and Vanilla has more enemies with bigger aggro ranges and harder to obtain lockstones, embers and Branches of Yore. There’s no way you complain about what you do here and prefer Vanilla.
Ds2 would have been better if it was made on the same engine as ds1. The team would have been more efficient and would have looked better imo
And plumbers shouldn’t have been hired to develop it.
Quantity over quality...That explains ds2 PERFECTLY!!! There are really great ideas in this game. And a lot of innovation.
But, it's all meaningless since it's surrounded by so much garbage, artificial difficulty and its clunky as shit.
I tried finishing the game 3 times(I'm on my fourth attempt) and I wanna quit again. Not bc it's tough...it's bc the endgame is BOOOOOring as hell
1. There is too much content which doesn't seem to be high quality
2. The experience lacks its depth. I didn't know Miyazaki was not a director of this game so after you said he was working on bloodborne at that time, it makes a lot more sense.
3. There is limited amount of items like lockstones and branches which seem to be important but there are too many statues and locks so you can't know which one actualy is. There are few extremely important ones that you don't want to miss among dozens of useless. This is just so painful and unnecessary...
4. The walkthrough feels very confusing, so after few hours of gameplay you have no idea if you're in correct location and where to go
5. Bossfights are boring as fu€k. Most of them are just so easy that you defeat the boss in 1-3 attempts. And there is smelter demon... This dogs#¡t is too much even for a souls game. First you have to go through dozen of alonne knights on your way who are 4 times faster than you and some of them even have bows with auto-tracking arrows. The actual boss is a joke, high damage, not enough time to use estus, attacks with ridiculous hitboxes which even bypass rolling timeframe.
6. Adaptibility stat is extremely important as it decreases time spent on sipping estus and making a roll also increasing your rolling immunity time. But the game doesn't tell you this.
7. Graphics are underwhelming. The game is just 2 years behind ds3 and 3 years after ds1 but is still almost on the same level as ds1. Majula may be exception.
8. Dying is much more punishing than in other games of the series.
a complete lie
@@khashygeld9776Elaborate
Yep. A letdown.
I like DS2 very much and find content fun and rather easy except for Fume Knight where i spend like 100 deaths.
It sounds like a lot of your problems come down to disliking the increased inconveniences the game has. But Dark Souls is literally all about inconvenience. Plus most of the changes encourage build variety. Lifegems for tanks, for example. And the best shields in the series to compensate for low ADP. Plus the rate at which you level up is adjusted since we have more stats than in DS1.
Not to mention making all the magic more accessible through the Skeptic's and Simpleton's Spices.
0:17 interesting, I have always thought that ds1 is the weakest in the series. I think it's very much debatable considering how the post lord vessel ds1 was so bad.
High standard? Dark Souls 1 also had a troubled development if not more troubled that 2
From Software Leadership: would you like to develop a game?
Cleaning Crew: sounds great, after we’re done with the toilets.
I hope people see, that videos like this only encourage comments like that. 👆
@@Kamawan0 You mean the total and absolute truth? Thank you kindly!
@@Kamawan0 He was being nice and deferential, genius. He’s well-aware that DS2 was an inferior product.
It's only the worse in the series because every other game is absolute s tier. It's still over almost every other souls like out there.
Skill issue oriented take
In fact do me a favor
Rate the following games out of 10
Dark Souls 2
Duke Nukem Forever
Last of Us
Demon's Souls
I love dark souls 2 it is my favorite on the series
Because you play Forspoken too much
I severely disagree with Elana, she was definitely one of the worst bosses in the DLC
Nashandra Remix ft. Velstadt and the Skeleton Crew was not a fun fight
Love the video. I enjoyed DS2, the world, level design and exploration was really good to me.
I just think it’s not a good game. The constant recycled enemies and bosses. The story is great and interesting but Aldia’s boss fight is sooo disappointing.
Who’s favorite game is DS2?
I actually love DS2, but damn, don’t play it right after playing any of the other games. It’s rough if you are used to that level of quality and then play DS2z
Dark souls 3 is the weakest of the series, it cant be argued
Ds2 is flawed but still better then ds3. I don’t understand how anyone can hate Elden Ring but love Ds3 when almost all of ERs issues stem from Ds3 and if anything ER fixes a lot of them.
Majula!
"Theres too many enemies"
Yep, opinion ignored
Ive heard that so many times, and heard it used as an excuse to say the game is somehow unfair and just wants to kill you o death 24/7
My argument? Play ds2 more like less like a souls game and more like a normal rpg
The amount genuinely isnt that bad, its just people baby mad they run into multiple groups of enemies at once and get overwhelmed feom their own poor decisions
ALSO side note, the durability being tied to framerate is a commom misconception because while it was a bug that came with scholars launch, it did get patched
i hope you understamd that the way the game wants to be played is straight up annoying and tiring
@@dimitrisanastopoulos8957 ive played ds2 dozens of times, you can run past enemies quite easily if you know the layout, but if youre new to a souls game and you get cornered with half the level behind you thats your own fault. Dark souls 2 simply isnt meant for you,and thats okay
But i like the more methodical fighting of trash mobs while going about at my leisure when i feel burnt out of the intensity of froms newer games
@@ianhandy5090 i am always careful so i never get ganked but in order to do this you need to spend too much time.
I think its fair to point out that while i do think it is the worse SOULS game, i still think ds2 is better than most other games out there. Like if you pressed me on it, gun to my head, i have to choose between ds2 or skyrim i would pick ds2 everytime
Ah yes, its problem. It exists
Please rate Dark Souls 2 out of 10 😊
Just a warning to people coming in, this comment section isn't exactly full of the most calm, thoughtful or nuanced takes lol
Vanilla Ds2 was okay but scholar made it absolutely awful. To be fair though the pvp was some of the best in the series due to lack of 1 shot builds.
SOTFS is not much of a difference to vanilla DS2. what are you on about?
I disagree with a few of your opinions. Sotfs was my first souls game so i am biased, but you mentioned 0 lore in the entire video which i think plays into the souls games significantly more than other games.
There are some videos that show cut content that couldve been that i recommend looking at.
Also babyjumps happen because of cpu hz rates and something with frames.
I feel that the shit gameplay is balanced with the cool mechanics and of course fashion souls.
First dislike, i haven't even watched the video nor really liked dark souls 2, just thought it'd be funny lol.
Hurr durr bosses in DS2 are bad hurr durr game is shit.
Nice take pal.
Dark Souls 2 is worse than some non from souls likes
No
The Dark Souls 2 problem is that it's just bad. Not only compared to the other FromSoftware titles but also other souls likes.
DS2 SOTFS is the best souls game ever made.
Dark Souls II fans are the type of people who lick their fingers before turning the page of a book.
Tanimura > Miyazaki
This is spicy as hell bro. Respect 😂 please, elaborate
"I don't think that can even be argued"
How can you say that when the boring, unbalanced, slog of a game that is DS3 exist?
Armour is basically entirely pointless
The game is really boringly linear
The difficulty spike about 60% of the way into the game is the most bullshit thing in any Souls-bourne game iv'e ever seen
Faith builds are comically under powered and if you are doing a blind play through you can utterly fuck yourself by making a few bad choices
It also fails entirely to have its own personality and instead substitutes it with "HEY! Remember X thing from DS1? isn't that cool! please feel nostalgia"
The only thing DS3 has going for it is some of the best boss fights in series, but I can hardly care when getting to them is a slog.
Like, DS2 is not my favorite, in fact of the Soulsborne games is second to last in front DS3.
But I still replay DS2 from time to time, I have entirely given up on DS3
buddy couldn't beat pontiff
@@peenyyt4921 I've 100% achievement ds3 and agree with this guy on most points. Ds3 areas suck. He literally said some of the best bosses but the areas are so ass and swampy
nah you just suck
Ds1 is definitely the weakest. Graphically it struggles, lore is very bad as it’s only items, ds2 just has better gameplay then ds1 lore is way more explained and can be pieced together easier and weapons are way better especially boss weapons. Not to mention the overhauls to boss systems.
The main issue is the bosses. It’s kinda why i hate elden ring too many bosses have a health bar that don’t deserve it.
Just looking at your gameplay it looks like you never learned the orstein and smough lesson. Stop locking on when heavily out numbered.
Complaining about adp is kinda dumb because its like complaining about being able to level vigor. Are you telling me you start with a low level of vigor? That’s stupid. People can and have beaten the game without leveling adp.
Adp is problematic as elden ring arcane not explaining it increases discovery. It’s kinda a product of its time if the internet was more popular during ds2 then everyone would know on launch what adp does.
The issue is most things in ds aren’t explained in general.
The second half of ds2 and the dlc are what it was meant to be.
The frigid outskirts were intended as optinal
Co op only areas. There’s other areas like that too.
@@Kamawan0 i think that lore for elden ring and ds3 is their strong suit. It doesn’t have the I have to read thousands of items. It’s way less cryptic
If it was called Demon Souls 2 you'd be singing its praises because that's what the game basically is, besides the Weapon durability that was atrocious you said nothing but nitpicks.
By the gameplay your issue is the roll timing and mentality to playing around the world, you're trying to play it as DS1 instead of trying to playing as its own identity of a different game. Tying the iFrames to a stat was a dumb idea but it's doable once you stop trying to play it as DS1 and learn it proper.
Stop trying to make DS2 fit in the DS1 box, they're different games meant to be played similar but different, that was Aldias whole point, the endless cycles of doing and not doing the thing leaves no space for growth and change, the same way your gameplay is stuck in the style of a different game.
Cope
Calm down there, Harris.
You said he was nitpicking, but you agreed with all the points you criticised. Is adp a stupid stat? Yes, full stop. You said so yourself. Dark Souls 1 has nothing to do with it.
He barely said anything about dark souls 1. Not sure why you’re hung up on it like he sat around saying 1 was the best and 2 was poopy garbage, because he sure didn’t.
@@chillchinna4164harris😭
Amazing video!!
You’re about to blow up bro
Ds2 deniers always get defensive over a video game opinion