If you happen to feel upset about some of the placements here, or wonder about my reasonings or if I'm qualified to be talking about these, I made a 20 minute long comments reading primarily addressing a lot of the negative comments. Cheers! ua-cam.com/video/QtXkSy3Xa8w/v-deo.html
Completely agree with the worst area being frigid outskirts. From software may still make some bad areas even after Elden Ring but I doubt they'll ever be able to top the abysmal garbage that is frigid outskirts.
see my thing with the frigid outskirts is that it was meant to be bad. it is known as a place where the king would send exiled to be tormented forever. hence why its constantly blizzarding and having those horse things spawn with it. and if one happens to get far enough, his pets were there guarding the exit. it makes sense that its a hellhole because it is an area that only exists to torture. which is quite well indicated by the way you get there is a coffin sliding down a frozen cliff face.
@@twilightsparkle75 But tower of latria was also made for torture and imprisonment, yet that area is enjoyable to play. Lore doesn't excuse bad gameplay
@@deusvultpictures6550 I describe scholar as trying to hard to be a different experience instead of a better one. And since often times things were already relatively well thought out to begin with, changing it around for little good reason besides making it different, often means worse. It can feel a bit like a bad fan mod. It does improve a few things. But it's utterly disappointing in that so much time was spent into changing the game that could have instead been spent fixing the flaws with DS2. If you've played DS1, it's like if they haphazardly changed the monsters and treasure around in the first half of the game which basically everyone already thinks is nearly a masterpiece, all the while not actually making Lost Izalith and whatnot good. Oh, and then they put about 1000 more enemies in the archives because there was a risk of that late game area actually being good.
I got to Iron Keep today. The boss run to Smelter Demon is the biggest pain. By the time I actually make it to him my estus is at like half charges because of the abysmal boss run. I quit today because of that lol. I'll try again tomorrow
@@bubfusion Well, you only have to kill things 12 times so even if you "quit" you're still making progress. But you're making it harder on yourself. It's optional. Try it after beating the area and having access to all the bonfires- the defenses are far weaker coming in from the back side where you start from the high ground.
Some people say that consecrated snowfield is as bad or worse than frigid outskirts and that's just insane. I don't care how much you hate that place, it's a thousand time better than that hellhole. However the gutter is a pretty neat area, same goes with Farron keep and Iron keep, even though they can be frustrating. Definitely a 50/50 list for me so far, But i guess everyone has their experience and taste.
I believe the room with a dozen jailers was intended to be cleared by luring either the Mimic or the locked up Lycanthrope into killing them. Too bad it barely even works because they're too aggressive and will just rip you to shreds instead
I lost my deathless DS3 run in the jailer gangr*pe room yesterday. :( Granted, I deserved it for being lazy and greedy. But it challenges how vehemently I defend Irithyll Dungeon. It is actually one of my favorite areas in DS3.
It's also possible to skirt around them for the left side of the level, or aggro them one by one with a ranged weapon, or do both. Direct engagement is optional.
@@dunkleham When I died, I came from the Profaned Capital side of the room. I was going back to get a Symbol of Avarice after buying some Undead Hunter Charms (and ultimately getting it first try...I TRIED SO HARD AND GOT SO FAR BUT IN THE END IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER). I learned my lesson for my next run. Not gonna be lazy, cocky, and impulsive. I'll do a longer runback if I must, or I'll prepare my charms in advance. It sucks because I even killed Dancer before heading toward Yhorm, and I cleared Lothric Castle.
18:43 to be fair to doors of pharros it was fully deaigned to be a pvp area where players in a covenant could have their traps active while being invaded and while in the covenant the enemies wouldnt attack you but the invader. pretty sure same thing for grave of saints
My advice for DS2, carry a whip. Whips, even if broken and without enough stats, can be used to break statues and acid/poison pots without risking your status.
As a diehard ds2 fanboy I agree that it is home to some of the word areas in the series. But How is Aldias keep considered bad. One of the coolest aesthetics in the series, multiple npcs (including best girl) and really cool lore implications on aldias experiments and the creation of the Emerald Herald. It’s one of my favourites in the series imo
The areas aesthetics are pretty nice but my problems with it is -there’s no way to tell when enemies will come out and attack you and mostly rely on jumpscaring you with no hints on the environment. -Somehow enemies can just break cages super easily despite being trapped in it. -the start of the level wasn’t amazingly non linear but had some rooms to explore which is great, problem is the second half is just a one way trek to the end of the level.
With farron swamp, while it is definitely not a good area, they did actually have a good design aspect to get you through it if you don't want to explore. If you just follow the burning piles it leads you in a straight line between each of the 3 towers and if you do that the area isn't that much of a slog at the very least.
I feel like for the Demon Ruins, the map creators saw the word "demon", and then were really tired so they just copy pasted a bunch of already existing demons and called it a day. There are some unique enemies but still
They ran out of time to do demon ruins and lost izalith properly. Miyazaki said in an interview after ds1 came out. I always thought ds3 demons ruins (or whatever it was called) was made to show what the place was supposed to look like.
Well lore wise it is the birthplace and home of the demons so it makes sense for regular demos to be hanging out there, while the boss versions of them are just some demon champions that got a special asignment in the whole scheme of the gods.
Lost Izalith is such a bummer because you can tell the area has a lot of potential, and the actual city part of it in the center of the lava looks pretty cool and could be so much more fleshed out and interesting, but that the whole thing is so clearly unfinished and thrown together. It's fairly well-known that both it and the Demon Ruins were parts of the game they simply didn't have time to fully flesh out and finish in order to meet the release deadlines, so I think it's not too hard to forgive them to some extent. Though I do disagree that the capra demons in the Demon Ruins make the earlier capra demon boss feel less special. I think it's a really neat way of showing the player how far they've come after struggling against the capra demon (as most first time players are sure to) earlier on. Like, here's this thing that wrecked my shit 15-20 times earlier in the playthrough, and now I can take out like 6 of them one after another easy. The placement is clearly a copypaste job though. Again, they just ran out of time for development on those segments of the game.
What bums me out is that the tragic lore surrounding The Witch of Izalith, her daughters and the creation of demons is one of the most engaging parts of the series (at the least, I found it so), but everything surrounding the area itself is both copy-pasted and "empty". If it was more fleshed out, I could see it being one of the most compelling locations in the trilogy. As awfull as Bed of Chaos is (and I would go as far as to call it the worst Souls boss still) its design is really unique.
The usage of capra demons and taurus demons degrades the previous bosses because they're overused. I do agree it's super neat to have these previous bosses in a new area, particularly since it implies THIS is their source and they simply wandered to the burgh because there wasn't anyone to fend them off anymore, but the fact that there's so many of them makes their gameplay feel really overdone. It should've just been 2-3 at most of each. I imagine they initially planned on making one or two other demon enemy types but just didn't have time and thus had to place a lot more of these guys to make the area less of a cakewalk.
When I saw Frigid Outskirts at #102 I was shocked to say the least.. I would have added the main hubs and larger areas of Elden Ring just so it places even worse I think the worst design choice for me in smoldering lake is the fact that the whole giant field, the demon ruins leading to the top of the balista... its just all put to the right of the area entrance, while the boss is not at all connected to any of it and instead put a relatively short walk to the left of the entrance. As someone who on repeat playthroughs just wants to fight all bosses this means I cant at all be bothered to do the actual area, though as it is shit anyway I guess its not really bad just a design choice im confused about..... I wish they did this in Frigid Outskirts
Excited to see how this goes! Loved the all bosses ranking. Been here with you since you were at 100 subs and used text rather than voice and I intend to stay as long as the entertaining content keeps coming
I’m a huge completionist when it comes to games, and when I got to the frigid outskirts I nearly gave up souls period cause it’s that ass of an area. So perfect worst area, -100/10 wouldn’t wanna experience again.
I kinda like the demon ruins/ lost izalith because I find it fascinating. It’s truly incredible how a game being rushed is able to MANGLE an area in such an obvious way
@@Nameless.-._ You didn't think the fact that the place that is supposed to be the birthplace of all demons is almost exclusively populated by undead dragon butts seemingly placed randomly in a lava field that hurts to look at was strange?
Can't bring myself to hate Elden Ring's poop lake, if only because it reminds me of what I liked about, say, Nether exploration in Minecraft. It's a place that will likely kill me if I'm not careful or stay too long, so I gotta know what I'm going for, make a plan, prepare the supplies, then execute, get in and get out. If there were more places that dangerous in the game my opinion may be another story, but as it is I got no major problems with it. Still find myself agreeing on Mohgwyn Palace though. Cool ideas, meh execution. If it wasn't such a treasure trove of runes I probably wouldn't be in any hurry to get there in my runs.
@@BBQcheese Nah it really isn't that bad. Currently replaying it for the second time (since a friend essentially just coop-ed with me on my first playthrough), and I'm like, barely dying. It's obviously not flawless, it has some very shit runbacks (Executioner's Chariot and Smelter Demon, though I killed the latter on my first try thankfully) and Shrine of Amana is an area which you have to take REALLY slowly, but a lot of the areas are quite unique and don't take that long to go through. Granted, I am using a Rapier, which appears to be a really strong weapon since I'm basically melting everything that comes close to me, but I really don't feel like it's that frustrating.
@@BBQcheese I still maintain that DS2 is better than DS1. In my current playthrough (in which all I really have left are the DLCs and the final boss), the only times I can say I wasn't really having fun were when I went through Shrine of Amana and when I fought the Ancient Dragon. I didn't die on either of them, but I had to play waaay too carefully. DS2 does have 3 main issues: -Adaptability is a poorly thought out stat, specially because of how vague it is. There is a silver lining in that leveling up in this game is pretty quick, specially in the early game, and the weapons tend to have enough base damage to not force you to prioritise investing in their scalings, but still. -Durability is a bit of an annoyance, though I'd say it's not that big of a deal. The enemies and areas that actively drain your durability are a pain in the ass though, specially those exploding guys in the Dragon Aerie. -There's definitely quite a few enemy ganks, though I don't think there's THAT many in general, specially if you actually look at where the enemies are. In many cases, the enemies that gank you aren't that tanky either. My main issue with this is that it aggravates another problem, which is the lack of i-frames when you're in the middle of interacting with the environment (fog gates, chests, mechanisms), which does suck. Besides these things, the game does have a few meh or downright bad bosses, but I feel like it also has quite a few alright to good ones as well. At this point, compared to everything on Elden Ring, it kinda feels like I'm playing on slowmo, which means I'm barely struggling against any of this game's bosses. Overall, I just... like this game, I like most of its areas, I like its lore, its combat is a bit dated but not bad, and... yeah, not much else to say, I just genuinely like DS2.
gonna be honest lake of rot is one of the easiest and chill swamp levels in soulsborne. you are given the map from the start and see it's a tiny area, a handful of boluses and something like flame cleanse me basically negate the whole rot situation outside of a flask or two between procs, and most of the platforms are spaced out where you can easily get to the next and clear your rot before looking for the next platform. i just treated it like a routing puzzle, and crafting some easy to make sleep arrows lets you pretty handily deal with all the basilisks. i feel like the only struggle aspect of lake of rot is that it's going to punish unprepared, stubborn people who insist on barging through with as little material as possible when they have plenty of resources to ease the experience. *by no mean* am i saying it's a great area, it's literally just a lake of rot and some dudes by a coffin, but it's fine for what it is, tbh. im glad it's compact and out of the way and miyazaki didn't do something absolutely insane like make the entire inner liurnia mistwoods rot floor all around
That’s kind of the problem. It’s just a big empty swamp with some dudes in a coffin. If every area were like it, the games would be unfathomably boring.
I personally loved the smoldering lake. It has tons of great loot thrown about, the ballista is easy to dodge, and the worm not hard to kill or cheese. The underground portion is nothing new, but it doesn't even ever feel bullsh*t to traverse, and feels like I'm playing DS1 again. It's a great farming spot, has access to the fume knight greatsword, Black Knight weapons, and tons of pyromancies, It's semi-important to an alternate ending, and has some great lore, and can be easily missed, making it fun to explore after countless hours in the game. I get why some people dislike it, but the underground section especially, is a great place for me to just mess around and chill.
It’s such a shame. I like The looks of Lost Izalith temple so much, and the chaos demon (the weird octopus blender) is my favorite enemy, there was so much potential to it.
While I agree that the enemy placement and enemy type in Demon Ruins screams rushed and annoying, there is actually a way to skip over the Capra Demons on the bridge to Demon Firesage, you just have to jump down and have a good jump around the centipede, which would make me swap the placements of Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins
Don't forget step 6 in Shrine of Amana where they make the death pits impossible to see so when you are running from the enemies you fall into the abyss and die.
Honestly, I personally love The Gutter. I love the creepiness of the pitch black that surrounds the player with the rickety wooden platforms where you never know which might lead to a room full of enemies. I also love the torch mechanic to light the area up, as I feel so satisfied when I look around and see that I'm making good progress. The enemies are not great, sure, but honestly they never bother me, and I love the idea of the enemy being the level itself almost with how precarious it is.
Actually, maybe because I already did, like, 4-5 DS 3 runs, but Farron Keep gets much more manageable when you get to know it. Those stomping goats and giant shaman guys still lame but you can usually go point-to-point between fires and the doot
Funny story about the run up to Sir Alonne. I went through so many runs to him killing everything that I eventually permakilled EVERY enemy in the area before I finally defeated him.
A little surprised that nightmare frontier didn’t make it in. I thought that was universally agreed to be a GARBAGE area. Also, this video is showing me how many ds2 areas I have next to no memory of lmao
Yeah, I hate Nightmare Frontier. Even knowing where to go I can never find the paths and keep getting stuck on tiny rocks it looks like you should be able to run over.
I remember older FROM games had similar areas like Frigin' Outskirts - like one foggy area with invisible, shooting enemies that you have to take down with rare firearms with little ammo you find or afford
I've struggled to play DS2 for more than an hour or two, but l appreciate that you (and, most people) say it's still a good game. One of these days I'll dig my feet into the stand.
Bearbugs in Demon Souls do have a weakness and take very little time to defeat if you use magic attacks against them. The miners in this area have the same weakness and physical attacks (except piercing) do not do very much damage at all and are very weak to magic damage. It might seem like a bug (!) or a number tweak gone wrong that they take ages to kill otherwise, but you are just actually supposed to use magic against the enemies in this area.
@@magicat7356 Strange, I remember doing 100+ damage to these guys in the 2009 version with just the base scimitar in 4-1, but from yours and others gameplay the numbers look alot lower. Haven't played the remake but maybe they changed the scaling or the bearbugs resistances or something..
I actually kind of like the Lake of Rot. (Here, have some stones to throw at me OOOOOO) Mostly because A) It's entirely optional, and extremely short if you do chose to run past it B) It doesn't have a confusing layout C) the poison doesn't slow you down D) You raise platforms to make traversal quicker and less deadly. E) if you roll in the rot and the status is triggered by that lingering effect, you suffer a much less potent form of scarlet rot F) You can freely warp back to the site of grace G) It's visually interesting (Yes, it's just red, but it's still more interesting than Farron Keep or Ashina Depths) All of that makes it the only poison swamp level that's actually enjoyable. It feels like you're on a timer to get as much done as you can before you die, and because of all the things I listed above, it doesn't suffer from the issues the other swamps do.
If you thought elden ring had the worst areas… try playing DS2 SOTFS dlc with frigid outskirts and the iron passage. Those areas will mentally break you
I’ve just started watching but I have a feeling DS2 will make up a lot of the lowest-ranked areas. It has a few decent ones, but they’re not as common as in other games like DS3 or Bloodborne. Edit: I probably should expected some specific non-DS2 areas as well (no spoilers)
D2 has triple the content of D1 and double the content of D3, it was bound to happen anyway. However i disliked the amount of information given for each area presented and the criteria for ranking seems weird too. I dont see how the Elden Ring areas can fit with these criterias he is judging and honestly i am not keen to find out on his other video parts.
I'm weirdly at peace with the Black Gulch. I absolutely hated it at first, but I find the place oddly therapeutic now. I actually take the time to smash the poison statues and use it as a moment to chill because the area really isn't that bad if you take your time and are methodical, plus it's super short. The worms are big and intimidating, but very easy. All you have to do to kill the darksuckers is torch the oil spots, and as a bonus they can drop titanite chunks. There's a cool little secret area, and the boss (The Rotten) isn't too terribly difficult. I can definitely see why people hate it though, especially people who feel like they must blast through it as fast as possible (what I used to do) because in that case it's an absolute nightmare!
There were several levels here where you announced them and my reaction was "really, but they're so pretty though!!" (Mogwyn Palace), then I thought about how much of a ballache they are to explore, so fair - I agree!
I actually really loved the swamp of sorrow, it’s really punishing and difficult, but the enemy encounters are fun and the actual look of the area is super creepy and interesting. I love the lore and each time I play through it I tend to like it more
Can't really disagree with anythin' here. I guess Earthen Peak and Iron Keep might be slightly higher for me (maybe Shaded Woods and Huntsman's Copse being below them as far as DS2 areas go), but that's about it. Was a lil surprised to see Heide's, tho completely agree, other than visuals it's fkin awful x.x Lookin' forward to the rest of the series :D
I like Lake of Rot because it’s the only swamp area where the point is not to get poisoned. Every other Fromsoft swamp just has you get poisoned and fight on bad footing, but Lake of Rot is all about hitting the pressure plates to raise platforms out of the more. Is it really the area’s fault that most people ignore the platforms and instead just sprint through the poison?
4:05 The capra demons are actually optional on the way to firesage, through dropping down to the giant centipede with the bonfire under him. when you walk back you gotta pass them though.
Swamp of sorrow is amazing and I'll not hear otherwise. I will never forget the terror I felt going through it the first time, and just the eerie, creepy pestilent vibe it gives. Same with blighttown, though blight was horrible for fps before it was fixed, but the design of those areas are what souls is all about.
I also love the Frigid Outskirts. The idea of having to find cover to hide from a raging snowstorm is a super unique idea, it's like a horror game. It kinda reminds me of the segments in MGSV with the Skull Units.
You know I may be the only one with this opinion but I actually kinda like the demon ruins. Is it the most well designed area in the series? Absolutely not, but I honestly find it fun to go through for a completely different reason. By this point in the game you should have a pretty good weapon and good armor. So you should be able to tear through the Capra demons like nobody’s business. Considering how much hell they put players through in first runs this is extremely satisfying to do and shows how far you’ve come since then. I understand why people don’t like this area though but I’ll happily stand up for it
Man I actually like most poison/platforming areas. The gutter is probably the first time I had fun in DS2. Though like 90% of DS2 is trash. No wander most of the “worst” places came from ds2.
The capra demon lineup in demon ruins is absolutely optional. I literally never fought them and I've played through ds1 dozens of times. Just drop down from the edge to where the bonfire with the giant worm is.
There are two universal constants in the discussion of FromSoft's oeuvre; the Bed of Chaos is the worst boss they ever made, and the Frigid Outskirts is the worst area they ever made. And even if some contrarians try to defend Bed of Chaos on the basis that it's "different" or "a spectacle", _nobody_ who isn't just a straight-up troll will ever defend Frigid Outskirts. Also I DO actually destroy the statues every time I pass through Black Gulch. Doesn't make it any less shit. Although I don't think it's as bad as you do- I hate the Tomb of the Giants a lot more than Black Gulch.
I gotta disagree with the gutter placement. The atmosphere and sense of progression with the torches, the interconnection of the level, the secrets and the fear generated from the looming darkness with its horrors and toxins to be discovered within make the gutter A tier for me.
The reason poison swamps or rot swamps exist..is to encourage people to actually use the games items or the crafting kit in elden rings case. To actually prep before you venture in an area
Some of the mentioned locations can be quite fun if you approach them creatively, changing your equipment (to resist some status effects, for instance) and playstyle. It's actually quite sad that a change of rules makes many players instantly dislike those maps, without even trying to overcome the challenge differently. Yes, some of the design choices are not ideal, but they're better than the majority of the lazy fields in the praised Elden Ring. Actually, I am not surprised ER is the best-selling game from FromSoftware. It's easier and almost never requires creative solutions to the challenges you encounter. ER is not a bad game, but raising your DPS is almost always the only viable way to survive there. It somehow reminds me of MMORPG logic...
frigid outskirts isn't just annoying and difficult to go through, it's downright boring as shit. Like there's so many cool ass areas in ds2, and this is all they could come up with; a massive frozen wasteland with nothing but a couple tiny buildings to go through. That's so fucking lame man
I actually like Tomb of the giants because I Iike to invade people and shoot them off the ledges. I like seeing the big skeletons come out of the darkness. It is really dumb how they hid 2 bonfires in this really dark area. I also think Nito can be annoying because of those skeletons.
I don't get Tomb of the Giants hate. You're literally lead to a lanturn and it just turns into an interesting and unique area with a memorable gimmick that adds extra challenge of being careful which is good in a Dark Souls game.
@@penlordnt I mean it is definitely an annoying area especially because the skeletons are obscured by the darkness. It makes the area annoying to navigate and the treacherous landscape makes it easy to fall off. If you do demon ruins/izalith you can get the sunlight maggot and it makes the area a cakewalk. Or just get the lantern.
@@Mr.Bronze I mean, I guess? But they only aggro after they're in light of the lantern and have glowing eyes so you can even spot them before. I will give it to you that the dogs are annoying, but they can be avoided.
Man, Black Gulch gone done dirty. Like I know I might be literally the only person who unironically likes that area, but saying that it's worse than iron passage? 💀 Hell nah 😂
15:26 can this please be a meme on its own? Like just this part right here explains what happened in Dark Souls 2 development, and when they were putting the jigsaw pieces of the areas together I'm not sure how the hell they fit Iron Keep here. Even Heide's Tower going to No-Mans Warf makes no sense
I would argue that Lake of Rot doesn't deserve to be ranked awful specifically because it's late enough in the game that you should have plenty of boluses to cure the scarlet rot, or enough points in faith to use Flame Cleanse Me. Both of these eliminate any need to use a single healing flask, especially when combined with the health regen items available.
I honestly don't mind Black Gulch, but maybe that's because I've spent so much time there farming titanite, that I've just gotten used to it. Well, that and I do actually clear out all the statues first, which thankfully don't respawn from sitting out the bonfire. Also, the whole place is green, which happens to be my favorite color. Shrine of Amana (specifically the SotFS version) and its spell snipers with the huge agro range is far more egregious to me.
Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith were a victim of rushed development, and The Gutter was a victim of troubled development. Watch Illusory Wall's video called "How The Gutter got gutted", the original Gutter was INSANE, but it was too ambitious for the PS3, so it got gutted to Hell, and now is just a shadow of what it was That said, it sucks, but it's ok-ish for an area that sucks
Has anyone else, in ds2, experienced alonne knights spawning out of nowhere inconsistently? At least on sotfs. I’ll just turn around a knight will be running after me, a knight that will be there sometimes, won’t be there other times. I know it’s not them respawning because you’ve killed them so many times.
If you mean specifically in Iron Keep, I do get how it feels like that because some of their aggro zones are so specific and odd, that you’ll activate one and not even realize until the knight is slashing into your back :( still love DS2 tho
Glad to see Smoldering Lake, Farron Keep and Irithyll Dungeon in the Black Gulch they deserve to be. Goes without saying that DS2 deserves some criticism. I think, however, that Sekiro's Mibu Village, Ashina's Depth and whatever is called the snowy area with the terrible Canyon mini boss (and his 100 Lazer allies) should be the next in line. Such trashy areas.
Shrine of Amana has to be the only area that actively pissed me off. Like actual pissy tantrum level of pissed off. I also hated Cave of the Dead, but at least you could learn how to run past all the shit, no matter how convoluted that place was. You can’t even run past the 18 fucking mages, with their long-ass range, homing ICBM soul arrows. This was the only time I actually pulled out a bow in all of Dark Souls. I know a Dark Souls 2 fanboy, and that fucker tried to tell me that it was “good design” because it “made me try other things”. Motherfucker FromSoft made bows shit so players would be forced to use melee and magic. That is straight copium he is huffing. It doesn’t help that these two areas have mediocre bosses, Semon of Dong and the FUCKING GANK SQUAD, at the end. The only reason I didn’t mention the Iron Passage is because I never did it. Fought Alonne and Fume Knight and noped the fuck out. Uninstalled the game since the Crown of the Old Iron King was the last DLC I did. Alonne’s memory is also absolute dogshit, but at least it has one of the game’s best bosses at the end. Same cannot be said for Cave of the Dead.
For sure! It's a great way to have the player keep playing. Instead of the same level design over and over, make them want to get to another area. Also accomplishing the area is satisfying.
The only spots that don’t agree with is Earthen Valley, and Black gulch. They’re both fine and give you challenges to deal with that isn’t “slaps enemy in front of you”. And the poison isn’t that bad in either area.
I really wish more people could experience pre-Patch 1.04 Shrine of Amana. It was by far the most grueling and awful area in the series. Nothing comes close to getting relentlessly gunned down and turned into a pin cushion by heat seeking hell beams from enemies who aggro’d past the draw distance.
I, Zote The Mighty, am ashamed to have witnessed such an awful placement of the Frigid Outskirts. Truly a shame you have put upon all the poor DS2 fans. Shame on you Alex. I can’t believe you don’t like all the openness and shit enemies
single best place is the landing below Firelink Shrine by New Londo Ruins, if as soon as you leave the elevator and turn to the right by the steps leading down to Rickert of Vinheim there is a Hollow laying on his side with his hand holding up his head just chilling, I kill all the Hollows for souls there except him, he's living his best life, just relaxing by the water and hanging out, how can that not be the single best place in all of the games?
If you happen to feel upset about some of the placements here, or wonder about my reasonings or if I'm qualified to be talking about these, I made a 20 minute long comments reading primarily addressing a lot of the negative comments. Cheers!
ua-cam.com/video/QtXkSy3Xa8w/v-deo.html
Completely agree with the worst area being frigid outskirts. From software may still make some bad areas even after Elden Ring but I doubt they'll ever be able to top the abysmal garbage that is frigid outskirts.
Don't challange them...
I didn't play ds2 that much but only seeing this thing is terrifying
see my thing with the frigid outskirts is that it was meant to be bad. it is known as a place where the king would send exiled to be tormented forever. hence why its constantly blizzarding and having those horse things spawn with it. and if one happens to get far enough, his pets were there guarding the exit. it makes sense that its a hellhole because it is an area that only exists to torture. which is quite well indicated by the way you get there is a coffin sliding down a frozen cliff face.
@@twilightsparkle75 But tower of latria was also made for torture and imprisonment, yet that area is enjoyable to play. Lore doesn't excuse bad gameplay
@@magicat7356 yeah thats a very fair point
Honestly, I fucking love the gutter. It's in the top half of DS2 levels for me
I actually enjoyed using the torches to navigate the area and it had some cool secrets
Being in the top half of ds2 areas isn't saying much tbh
@@magicat7356 even being the best area of DS2 isn't saying much
@@magicat7356 oh I know, I just really enjoy the gutter, there are much better levels for sure
Same here. No Man's Wharf, I really like too, despite the gankiness. Wharf nails the torch mechanic so well.
Vanilla Iron Keep is actually quite fun but scholar Iron Keep just decided to add 15 million more knights
I never played Dark Souls 2 but which is worse, scholar or vanilla
@@deusvultpictures6550 Scholar is far worse. Especially since DS2 had an update that added Aldia anyways
@@deusvultpictures6550 I describe scholar as trying to hard to be a different experience instead of a better one. And since often times things were already relatively well thought out to begin with, changing it around for little good reason besides making it different, often means worse. It can feel a bit like a bad fan mod.
It does improve a few things.
But it's utterly disappointing in that so much time was spent into changing the game that could have instead been spent fixing the flaws with DS2.
If you've played DS1, it's like if they haphazardly changed the monsters and treasure around in the first half of the game which basically everyone already thinks is nearly a masterpiece, all the while not actually making Lost Izalith and whatnot good. Oh, and then they put about 1000 more enemies in the archives because there was a risk of that late game area actually being good.
I got to Iron Keep today. The boss run to Smelter Demon is the biggest pain. By the time I actually make it to him my estus is at like half charges because of the abysmal boss run. I quit today because of that lol. I'll try again tomorrow
@@bubfusion Well, you only have to kill things 12 times so even if you "quit" you're still making progress.
But you're making it harder on yourself. It's optional. Try it after beating the area and having access to all the bonfires- the defenses are far weaker coming in from the back side where you start from the high ground.
Some people say that consecrated snowfield is as bad or worse than frigid outskirts and that's just insane.
I don't care how much you hate that place, it's a thousand time better than that hellhole.
However the gutter is a pretty neat area, same goes with Farron keep and Iron keep, even though they can be frustrating.
Definitely a 50/50 list for me so far, But i guess everyone has their experience and taste.
I believe the room with a dozen jailers was intended to be cleared by luring either the Mimic or the locked up Lycanthrope into killing them. Too bad it barely even works because they're too aggressive and will just rip you to shreds instead
I lost my deathless DS3 run in the jailer gangr*pe room yesterday. :(
Granted, I deserved it for being lazy and greedy. But it challenges how vehemently I defend Irithyll Dungeon. It is actually one of my favorite areas in DS3.
It's also possible to skirt around them for the left side of the level, or aggro them one by one with a ranged weapon, or do both. Direct engagement is optional.
@@aplive58 I'm not kidding you when I tell you I always level at least 1 ranged weapon exclusively for that room
@@dunkleham When I died, I came from the Profaned Capital side of the room. I was going back to get a Symbol of Avarice after buying some Undead Hunter Charms (and ultimately getting it first try...I TRIED SO HARD AND GOT SO FAR BUT IN THE END IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER).
I learned my lesson for my next run. Not gonna be lazy, cocky, and impulsive. I'll do a longer runback if I must, or I'll prepare my charms in advance. It sucks because I even killed Dancer before heading toward Yhorm, and I cleared Lothric Castle.
I just use range to pick them off. Bows and crossbows are overlooked by way too many people. They genuinely pack a punch.
18:43 to be fair to doors of pharros it was fully deaigned to be a pvp area where players in a covenant could have their traps active while being invaded and while in the covenant the enemies wouldnt attack you but the invader. pretty sure same thing for grave of saints
My advice for DS2, carry a whip. Whips, even if broken and without enough stats, can be used to break statues and acid/poison pots without risking your status.
Me struggling to find a midnight sleepy video
The goat of from soft content
As a diehard ds2 fanboy I agree that it is home to some of the word areas in the series. But How is Aldias keep considered bad. One of the coolest aesthetics in the series, multiple npcs (including best girl) and really cool lore implications on aldias experiments and the creation of the Emerald Herald. It’s one of my favourites in the series imo
The areas aesthetics are pretty nice but my problems with it is
-there’s no way to tell when enemies will come out and attack you and mostly rely on jumpscaring you with no hints on the environment.
-Somehow enemies can just break cages super easily despite being trapped in it.
-the start of the level wasn’t amazingly non linear but had some rooms to explore which is great, problem is the second half is just a one way trek to the end of the level.
The areas themselves look cool and aren't boring, unlike Dark Souls 3. The fucking Cathedral had me sleeping the whole way through.
With farron swamp, while it is definitely not a good area, they did actually have a good design aspect to get you through it if you don't want to explore. If you just follow the burning piles it leads you in a straight line between each of the 3 towers and if you do that the area isn't that much of a slog at the very least.
love farron swamp, simple as
"This place is just never fun. Besides when I'm killing babies."
I think that one quote automatically made the entire video kinda cursed.
I feel like for the Demon Ruins, the map creators saw the word "demon", and then were really tired so they just copy pasted a bunch of already existing demons and called it a day. There are some unique enemies but still
They ran out of time to do demon ruins and lost izalith properly. Miyazaki said in an interview after ds1 came out.
I always thought ds3 demons ruins (or whatever it was called) was made to show what the place was supposed to look like.
Well lore wise it is the birthplace and home of the demons so it makes sense for regular demos to be hanging out there, while the boss versions of them are just some demon champions that got a special asignment in the whole scheme of the gods.
It is funny the snow area of Elden ring is as Bad as Demon Ruins, so many copy paste enemies
@@wngmv the ds3 demon ruins were total ass though and also seemed rushed
Lost Izalith is such a bummer because you can tell the area has a lot of potential, and the actual city part of it in the center of the lava looks pretty cool and could be so much more fleshed out and interesting, but that the whole thing is so clearly unfinished and thrown together. It's fairly well-known that both it and the Demon Ruins were parts of the game they simply didn't have time to fully flesh out and finish in order to meet the release deadlines, so I think it's not too hard to forgive them to some extent. Though I do disagree that the capra demons in the Demon Ruins make the earlier capra demon boss feel less special. I think it's a really neat way of showing the player how far they've come after struggling against the capra demon (as most first time players are sure to) earlier on. Like, here's this thing that wrecked my shit 15-20 times earlier in the playthrough, and now I can take out like 6 of them one after another easy. The placement is clearly a copypaste job though. Again, they just ran out of time for development on those segments of the game.
What bums me out is that the tragic lore surrounding The Witch of Izalith, her daughters and the creation of demons is one of the most engaging parts of the series (at the least, I found it so), but everything surrounding the area itself is both copy-pasted and "empty". If it was more fleshed out, I could see it being one of the most compelling locations in the trilogy. As awfull as Bed of Chaos is (and I would go as far as to call it the worst Souls boss still) its design is really unique.
The usage of capra demons and taurus demons degrades the previous bosses because they're overused. I do agree it's super neat to have these previous bosses in a new area, particularly since it implies THIS is their source and they simply wandered to the burgh because there wasn't anyone to fend them off anymore, but the fact that there's so many of them makes their gameplay feel really overdone. It should've just been 2-3 at most of each.
I imagine they initially planned on making one or two other demon enemy types but just didn't have time and thus had to place a lot more of these guys to make the area less of a cakewalk.
When I saw Frigid Outskirts at #102 I was shocked to say the least.. I would have added the main hubs and larger areas of Elden Ring just so it places even worse
I think the worst design choice for me in smoldering lake is the fact that the whole giant field, the demon ruins leading to the top of the balista... its just all put to the right of the area entrance, while the boss is not at all connected to any of it and instead put a relatively short walk to the left of the entrance. As someone who on repeat playthroughs just wants to fight all bosses this means I cant at all be bothered to do the actual area, though as it is shit anyway I guess its not really bad just a design choice im confused about..... I wish they did this in Frigid Outskirts
Remove Frigid Outskirts and it becomes an decent area
“10th dragonkin soldier”, my brother in Christ, there are 3 and 1 of them is wildly different to the others since it has a second phase
Excited to see how this goes! Loved the all bosses ranking. Been here with you since you were at 100 subs and used text rather than voice and I intend to stay as long as the entertaining content keeps coming
The fact that ER only has two areas on this despite being such a massive game speaks to the quality of its dungeons.
I’m a huge completionist when it comes to games, and when I got to the frigid outskirts I nearly gave up souls period cause it’s that ass of an area. So perfect worst area, -100/10 wouldn’t wanna experience again.
I kinda like the demon ruins/ lost izalith because I find it fascinating.
It’s truly incredible how a game being rushed is able to MANGLE an area in such an obvious way
loved demon ruins and lost izalith. the lore for that area is also some of the best
Strange I never really felt any parts of darksouls 1 was rushed.
@@Nameless.-._
O_O
You have the vision of a mole.
@@Lessembarrassingman Possibly yeah.
@@Nameless.-._ You didn't think the fact that the place that is supposed to be the birthplace of all demons is almost exclusively populated by undead dragon butts seemingly placed randomly in a lava field that hurts to look at was strange?
Putting in that hard work again
For Shrine of Amana you forgot drops at the water's edge that are hard to see without higher brightness or a torch lmao.
Can't bring myself to hate Elden Ring's poop lake, if only because it reminds me of what I liked about, say, Nether exploration in Minecraft. It's a place that will likely kill me if I'm not careful or stay too long, so I gotta know what I'm going for, make a plan, prepare the supplies, then execute, get in and get out. If there were more places that dangerous in the game my opinion may be another story, but as it is I got no major problems with it.
Still find myself agreeing on Mohgwyn Palace though. Cool ideas, meh execution. If it wasn't such a treasure trove of runes I probably wouldn't be in any hurry to get there in my runs.
Am i the only one who truly loves the swamp of sorrow? The atmosphere is top notch.
I still have to finally play ds2 and not give up halfway through at some point, so I can finally experience the frigid outskirts by myself :3
What a great motive to keep one playing the game!
@@magicat7356 it's a shame that you need to beat boring bosses like sir alonne on the way. But ill just pull through 💪💪💪
Let’s see if u don’t go hollow, I already finished the game like 8 times
@@BBQcheese Nah it really isn't that bad. Currently replaying it for the second time (since a friend essentially just coop-ed with me on my first playthrough), and I'm like, barely dying. It's obviously not flawless, it has some very shit runbacks (Executioner's Chariot and Smelter Demon, though I killed the latter on my first try thankfully) and Shrine of Amana is an area which you have to take REALLY slowly, but a lot of the areas are quite unique and don't take that long to go through. Granted, I am using a Rapier, which appears to be a really strong weapon since I'm basically melting everything that comes close to me, but I really don't feel like it's that frustrating.
@@BBQcheese I still maintain that DS2 is better than DS1. In my current playthrough (in which all I really have left are the DLCs and the final boss), the only times I can say I wasn't really having fun were when I went through Shrine of Amana and when I fought the Ancient Dragon. I didn't die on either of them, but I had to play waaay too carefully.
DS2 does have 3 main issues:
-Adaptability is a poorly thought out stat, specially because of how vague it is. There is a silver lining in that leveling up in this game is pretty quick, specially in the early game, and the weapons tend to have enough base damage to not force you to prioritise investing in their scalings, but still.
-Durability is a bit of an annoyance, though I'd say it's not that big of a deal. The enemies and areas that actively drain your durability are a pain in the ass though, specially those exploding guys in the Dragon Aerie.
-There's definitely quite a few enemy ganks, though I don't think there's THAT many in general, specially if you actually look at where the enemies are. In many cases, the enemies that gank you aren't that tanky either. My main issue with this is that it aggravates another problem, which is the lack of i-frames when you're in the middle of interacting with the environment (fog gates, chests, mechanisms), which does suck.
Besides these things, the game does have a few meh or downright bad bosses, but I feel like it also has quite a few alright to good ones as well. At this point, compared to everything on Elden Ring, it kinda feels like I'm playing on slowmo, which means I'm barely struggling against any of this game's bosses.
Overall, I just... like this game, I like most of its areas, I like its lore, its combat is a bit dated but not bad, and... yeah, not much else to say, I just genuinely like DS2.
from now on i'll watch this video everytime i consider replaying Ds2
gonna be honest lake of rot is one of the easiest and chill swamp levels in soulsborne. you are given the map from the start and see it's a tiny area, a handful of boluses and something like flame cleanse me basically negate the whole rot situation outside of a flask or two between procs, and most of the platforms are spaced out where you can easily get to the next and clear your rot before looking for the next platform. i just treated it like a routing puzzle, and crafting some easy to make sleep arrows lets you pretty handily deal with all the basilisks.
i feel like the only struggle aspect of lake of rot is that it's going to punish unprepared, stubborn people who insist on barging through with as little material as possible when they have plenty of resources to ease the experience. *by no mean* am i saying it's a great area, it's literally just a lake of rot and some dudes by a coffin, but it's fine for what it is, tbh.
im glad it's compact and out of the way and miyazaki didn't do something absolutely insane like make the entire inner liurnia mistwoods rot floor all around
That’s kind of the problem. It’s just a big empty swamp with some dudes in a coffin. If every area were like it, the games would be unfathomably boring.
I personally loved the smoldering lake. It has tons of great loot thrown about, the ballista is easy to dodge, and the worm not hard to kill or cheese. The underground portion is nothing new, but it doesn't even ever feel bullsh*t to traverse, and feels like I'm playing DS1 again. It's a great farming spot, has access to the fume knight greatsword, Black Knight weapons, and tons of pyromancies, It's semi-important to an alternate ending, and has some great lore, and can be easily missed, making it fun to explore after countless hours in the game. I get why some people dislike it, but the underground section especially, is a great place for me to just mess around and chill.
The gutter is the only area that made me play differently in the whole DS2 base game and for that I respect it and actually kinda enjoyed it!
Bro, you blew my mind showing lost izalith has a hidden bonfire
What I like about Frigid Outskirts 2.0 in Elden Ring, is that the only bicorn there is Torrent.
It’s such a shame. I like The looks of Lost Izalith temple so much, and the chaos demon (the weird octopus blender) is my favorite enemy, there was so much potential to it.
Magicat: *starts a series about all the soulsborne areas*
Also Magicat: *knows he has to start with Frigid Outskirts but fears to talk about it*
That introductory description of Black Gulch is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard
Frigid outskirts seems like if it was an elden ring area there'd be a stake of Marika at least by the boss
14:17
“You can fight the 10th dragon king soldier”
Dude there’s three in the entire continent
🤓
@@magicat7356 oh you can fuck right off with that
While I agree that the enemy placement and enemy type in Demon Ruins screams rushed and annoying, there is actually a way to skip over the Capra Demons on the bridge to Demon Firesage, you just have to jump down and have a good jump around the centipede, which would make me swap the placements of Lost Izalith and Demon Ruins
but Aldia's keep has the amogus mask 10/10 for that
Don't forget step 6 in Shrine of Amana where they make the death pits impossible to see so when you are running from the enemies you fall into the abyss and die.
I sure love hearing about the worst area ever made, then being promptly flashbanged, reminding me of why it is so hated
Great Thumbnail like always, Infi-Nerdy. Good luck surviving all this, Magicat.
Honestly, I personally love The Gutter. I love the creepiness of the pitch black that surrounds the player with the rickety wooden platforms where you never know which might lead to a room full of enemies. I also love the torch mechanic to light the area up, as I feel so satisfied when I look around and see that I'm making good progress. The enemies are not great, sure, but honestly they never bother me, and I love the idea of the enemy being the level itself almost with how precarious it is.
Actually, maybe because I already did, like, 4-5 DS 3 runs, but Farron Keep gets much more manageable when you get to know it. Those stomping goats and giant shaman guys still lame but you can usually go point-to-point between fires and the doot
Funny story about the run up to Sir Alonne. I went through so many runs to him killing everything that I eventually permakilled EVERY enemy in the area before I finally defeated him.
For me Inner Ward is a close contender for the best area in DeS along with end of Latria
A little surprised that nightmare frontier didn’t make it in. I thought that was universally agreed to be a GARBAGE area.
Also, this video is showing me how many ds2 areas I have next to no memory of lmao
Yeah, I hate Nightmare Frontier. Even knowing where to go I can never find the paths and keep getting stuck on tiny rocks it looks like you should be able to run over.
I remember older FROM games had similar areas like Frigin' Outskirts - like one foggy area with invisible, shooting enemies that you have to take down with rare firearms with little ammo you find or afford
I've struggled to play DS2 for more than an hour or two, but l appreciate that you (and, most people) say it's still a good game. One of these days I'll dig my feet into the stand.
Bearbugs in Demon Souls do have a weakness and take very little time to defeat if you use magic attacks against them. The miners in this area have the same weakness and physical attacks (except piercing) do not do very much damage at all and are very weak to magic damage. It might seem like a bug (!) or a number tweak gone wrong that they take ages to kill otherwise, but you are just actually supposed to use magic against the enemies in this area.
I was using the magic scimitar in the footage, and it still takes years.
@@magicat7356 Strange, I remember doing 100+ damage to these guys in the 2009 version with just the base scimitar in 4-1, but from yours and others gameplay the numbers look alot lower. Haven't played the remake but maybe they changed the scaling or the bearbugs resistances or something..
I actually kind of like the Lake of Rot. (Here, have some stones to throw at me OOOOOO)
Mostly because
A) It's entirely optional, and extremely short if you do chose to run past it
B) It doesn't have a confusing layout
C) the poison doesn't slow you down
D) You raise platforms to make traversal quicker and less deadly.
E) if you roll in the rot and the status is triggered by that lingering effect, you suffer a much less potent form of scarlet rot
F) You can freely warp back to the site of grace
G) It's visually interesting (Yes, it's just red, but it's still more interesting than Farron Keep or Ashina Depths)
All of that makes it the only poison swamp level that's actually enjoyable. It feels like you're on a timer to get as much done as you can before you die, and because of all the things I listed above, it doesn't suffer from the issues the other swamps do.
If you thought elden ring had the worst areas… try playing DS2 SOTFS dlc with frigid outskirts and the iron passage. Those areas will mentally break you
Was NOT expecting a hank the tank reference in here. That guy is an absolute legend.
I’ve just started watching but I have a feeling DS2 will make up a lot of the lowest-ranked areas. It has a few decent ones, but they’re not as common as in other games like DS3 or Bloodborne.
Edit: I probably should expected some specific non-DS2 areas as well (no spoilers)
D2 has triple the content of D1 and double the content of D3, it was bound to happen anyway.
However i disliked the amount of information given for each area presented and the criteria for ranking seems weird too. I dont see how the Elden Ring areas can fit with these criterias he is judging and honestly i am not keen to find out on his other video parts.
I'm weirdly at peace with the Black Gulch. I absolutely hated it at first, but I find the place oddly therapeutic now. I actually take the time to smash the poison statues and use it as a moment to chill because the area really isn't that bad if you take your time and are methodical, plus it's super short.
The worms are big and intimidating, but very easy. All you have to do to kill the darksuckers is torch the oil spots, and as a bonus they can drop titanite chunks. There's a cool little secret area, and the boss (The Rotten) isn't too terribly difficult.
I can definitely see why people hate it though, especially people who feel like they must blast through it as fast as possible (what I used to do) because in that case it's an absolute nightmare!
There were several levels here where you announced them and my reaction was "really, but they're so pretty though!!" (Mogwyn Palace), then I thought about how much of a ballache they are to explore, so fair - I agree!
I actually really loved the swamp of sorrow, it’s really punishing and difficult, but the enemy encounters are fun and the actual look of the area is super creepy and interesting. I love the lore and each time I play through it I tend to like it more
Can't really disagree with anythin' here. I guess Earthen Peak and Iron Keep might be slightly higher for me (maybe Shaded Woods and Huntsman's Copse being below them as far as DS2 areas go), but that's about it. Was a lil surprised to see Heide's, tho completely agree, other than visuals it's fkin awful x.x Lookin' forward to the rest of the series :D
What music is it during the Swamp of Sorrows & Farron keep? 11:45 - 13:40
I like Lake of Rot because it’s the only swamp area where the point is not to get poisoned. Every other Fromsoft swamp just has you get poisoned and fight on bad footing, but Lake of Rot is all about hitting the pressure plates to raise platforms out of the more.
Is it really the area’s fault that most people ignore the platforms and instead just sprint through the poison?
4:05 The capra demons are actually optional on the way to firesage, through dropping down to the giant centipede with the bonfire under him. when you walk back you gotta pass them though.
There's a bonfire near the backworm, so they're always skippable
Swamp of sorrow is amazing and I'll not hear otherwise. I will never forget the terror I felt going through it the first time, and just the eerie, creepy pestilent vibe it gives. Same with blighttown, though blight was horrible for fps before it was fixed, but the design of those areas are what souls is all about.
The Doors of Pharros was made for ganking anyone who would challenge you on your turf if you set it up right.
I also love the Frigid Outskirts. The idea of having to find cover to hide from a raging snowstorm is a super unique idea, it's like a horror game. It kinda reminds me of the segments in MGSV with the Skull Units.
You know I may be the only one with this opinion but I actually kinda like the demon ruins. Is it the most well designed area in the series? Absolutely not, but I honestly find it fun to go through for a completely different reason. By this point in the game you should have a pretty good weapon and good armor. So you should be able to tear through the Capra demons like nobody’s business. Considering how much hell they put players through in first runs this is extremely satisfying to do and shows how far you’ve come since then. I understand why people don’t like this area though but I’ll happily stand up for it
Meanwhile I'm just sitting here, watching this like "...Yup. Sounds about right."
The gutter is amazing change my mind, its a Fair version of blight town with a Lot more Secrets and exploration
Man I actually like most poison/platforming areas. The gutter is probably the first time I had fun in DS2. Though like 90% of DS2 is trash. No wander most of the “worst” places came from ds2.
The capra demon lineup in demon ruins is absolutely optional. I literally never fought them and I've played through ds1 dozens of times. Just drop down from the edge to where the bonfire with the giant worm is.
Plus side is despite how bad Mohgwyn is, the end of the dungeon has one of the best bosses in the entire game.
There are two universal constants in the discussion of FromSoft's oeuvre; the Bed of Chaos is the worst boss they ever made, and the Frigid Outskirts is the worst area they ever made. And even if some contrarians try to defend Bed of Chaos on the basis that it's "different" or "a spectacle", _nobody_ who isn't just a straight-up troll will ever defend Frigid Outskirts.
Also I DO actually destroy the statues every time I pass through Black Gulch. Doesn't make it any less shit. Although I don't think it's as bad as you do- I hate the Tomb of the Giants a lot more than Black Gulch.
I mean, you could kill the Old Dragonslayer first in Heide's tower.
Yup
I gotta disagree with the gutter placement. The atmosphere and sense of progression with the torches, the interconnection of the level, the secrets and the fear generated from the looming darkness with its horrors and toxins to be discovered within make the gutter A tier for me.
One second in, I like what I’m seeing ngl
Iron keep is a great level lol. The one area that I truly hate in DS2 is the shaded woods.
Bro has beef with DS2
The reason poison swamps or rot swamps exist..is to encourage people to actually use the games items or the crafting kit in elden rings case. To actually prep before you venture in an area
Nice of you putting the Medievil soundtrack ! 👍
Some of the mentioned locations can be quite fun if you approach them creatively, changing your equipment (to resist some status effects, for instance) and playstyle. It's actually quite sad that a change of rules makes many players instantly dislike those maps, without even trying to overcome the challenge differently. Yes, some of the design choices are not ideal, but they're better than the majority of the lazy fields in the praised Elden Ring. Actually, I am not surprised ER is the best-selling game from FromSoftware. It's easier and almost never requires creative solutions to the challenges you encounter. ER is not a bad game, but raising your DPS is almost always the only viable way to survive there. It somehow reminds me of MMORPG logic...
frigid outskirts isn't just annoying and difficult to go through, it's downright boring as shit. Like there's so many cool ass areas in ds2, and this is all they could come up with; a massive frozen wasteland with nothing but a couple tiny buildings to go through. That's so fucking lame man
I actually like Tomb of the giants because I Iike to invade people and shoot them off the ledges. I like seeing the big skeletons come out of the darkness. It is really dumb how they hid 2 bonfires in this really dark area. I also think Nito can be annoying because of those skeletons.
I don't get Tomb of the Giants hate. You're literally lead to a lanturn and it just turns into an interesting and unique area with a memorable gimmick that adds extra challenge of being careful which is good in a Dark Souls game.
@@penlordnt I mean it is definitely an annoying area especially because the skeletons are obscured by the darkness. It makes the area annoying to navigate and the treacherous landscape makes it easy to fall off. If you do demon ruins/izalith you can get the sunlight maggot and it makes the area a cakewalk. Or just get the lantern.
@@Mr.Bronze I mean, I guess? But they only aggro after they're in light of the lantern and have glowing eyes so you can even spot them before. I will give it to you that the dogs are annoying, but they can be avoided.
@@penlordnt Its like a horror game
@@Mr.Bronze YES and it's such good atmosphere and a neat area gimmick!
Man, Black Gulch gone done dirty. Like I know I might be literally the only person who unironically likes that area, but saying that it's worse than iron passage? 💀 Hell nah 😂
...I'm choosing not to question the validity of whether or not steampunk lemon is actually housed in a mental institution.
15:26 can this please be a meme on its own? Like just this part right here explains what happened in Dark Souls 2 development, and when they were putting the jigsaw pieces of the areas together I'm not sure how the hell they fit Iron Keep here. Even Heide's Tower going to No-Mans Warf makes no sense
I would argue that Lake of Rot doesn't deserve to be ranked awful specifically because it's late enough in the game that you should have plenty of boluses to cure the scarlet rot, or enough points in faith to use Flame Cleanse Me. Both of these eliminate any need to use a single healing flask, especially when combined with the health regen items available.
>Putting Heide's Tower of flame this low
DROPPED
I honestly don't mind Black Gulch, but maybe that's because I've spent so much time there farming titanite, that I've just gotten used to it. Well, that and I do actually clear out all the statues first, which thankfully don't respawn from sitting out the bonfire. Also, the whole place is green, which happens to be my favorite color.
Shrine of Amana (specifically the SotFS version) and its spell snipers with the huge agro range is far more egregious to me.
It's pretty hard for me to take this list seriously when Aldia's keep is so low, seriously that area is cool as hell.
Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith were a victim of rushed development, and The Gutter was a victim of troubled development. Watch Illusory Wall's video called "How The Gutter got gutted", the original Gutter was INSANE, but it was too ambitious for the PS3, so it got gutted to Hell, and now is just a shadow of what it was
That said, it sucks, but it's ok-ish for an area that sucks
Has anyone else, in ds2, experienced alonne knights spawning out of nowhere inconsistently? At least on sotfs. I’ll just turn around a knight will be running after me, a knight that will be there sometimes, won’t be there other times. I know it’s not them respawning because you’ve killed them so many times.
If you mean specifically in Iron Keep, I do get how it feels like that because some of their aggro zones are so specific and odd, that you’ll activate one and not even realize until the knight is slashing into your back :( still love DS2 tho
With bloodborne yaraghoul or the nighmare front poison hell the problem is, that they still sre perfectly desined
Undead crypt hallway right before the boss is easy if u drop below the stairs and kill the three guys who try and ring the bell
Glad to see Smoldering Lake, Farron Keep and Irithyll Dungeon in the Black Gulch they deserve to be. Goes without saying that DS2 deserves some criticism. I think, however, that Sekiro's Mibu Village, Ashina's Depth and whatever is called the snowy area with the terrible Canyon mini boss (and his 100 Lazer allies) should be the next in line. Such trashy areas.
Shrine of Amana has to be the only area that actively pissed me off. Like actual pissy tantrum level of pissed off. I also hated Cave of the Dead, but at least you could learn how to run past all the shit, no matter how convoluted that place was. You can’t even run past the 18 fucking mages, with their long-ass range, homing ICBM soul arrows.
This was the only time I actually pulled out a bow in all of Dark Souls. I know a Dark Souls 2 fanboy, and that fucker tried to tell me that it was “good design” because it “made me try other things”. Motherfucker FromSoft made bows shit so players would be forced to use melee and magic. That is straight copium he is huffing.
It doesn’t help that these two areas have mediocre bosses, Semon of Dong and the FUCKING GANK SQUAD, at the end. The only reason I didn’t mention the Iron Passage is because I never did it. Fought Alonne and Fume Knight and noped the fuck out. Uninstalled the game since the Crown of the Old Iron King was the last DLC I did. Alonne’s memory is also absolute dogshit, but at least it has one of the game’s best bosses at the end. Same cannot be said for Cave of the Dead.
I feel like you're supposed to hate some of these areas, as strange as that may sound.
For sure! It's a great way to have the player keep playing. Instead of the same level design over and over, make them want to get to another area. Also accomplishing the area is satisfying.
Heides Tower of Flame not being in S tier is a sin to humanity. I’m very disappointed
The only spots that don’t agree with is Earthen Valley, and Black gulch.
They’re both fine and give you challenges to deal with that isn’t “slaps enemy in front of you”.
And the poison isn’t that bad in either area.
I gotta go to bed but I am psyched to watch this tomorrow
I really wish more people could experience pre-Patch 1.04 Shrine of Amana. It was by far the most grueling and awful area in the series. Nothing comes close to getting relentlessly gunned down and turned into a pin cushion by heat seeking hell beams from enemies who aggro’d past the draw distance.
I, Zote The Mighty, am ashamed to have witnessed such an awful placement of the Frigid Outskirts. Truly a shame you have put upon all the poor DS2 fans. Shame on you Alex. I can’t believe you don’t like all the openness and shit enemies
7:26 hey it’s me
single best place is the landing below Firelink Shrine by New Londo Ruins, if as soon as you leave the elevator and turn to the right by the steps leading down to Rickert of Vinheim there is a Hollow laying on his side with his hand holding up his head just chilling, I kill all the Hollows for souls there except him, he's living his best life, just relaxing by the water and hanging out, how can that not be the single best place in all of the games?